Chatterbox Indulges Her Bibliomania: The Eighth Episode

This thread's poem is from W.H. Auden; entitled "The Unknown Citizen"

He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a
saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.
Except for the War till the day he retired
He worked in a factory and never got fired,
But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.
Yet he wasn't a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues,
(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)
And our Social Psychology workers found
That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.
The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day
And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.
Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,
And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured.
Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare
He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Instalment Plan
And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,
A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.
Our researchers into Public Opinion are content
That he held the proper opinions for the time of year;
When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went.
He was married and added five children to the population,
Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his
generation.
And our teachers report that he never interfered with their
education.
Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.

Without further ado -- here are the books!

I'm now on my third batch of 75 for 2011; for those curious about what I read in batches one and two, you can turn to my previous thread here and wend your way back...

Here's a running tally of the total number of books I've read so far in 2011:




Last year's tally hit 506 books; you can see the highlights on my profile page, along with the highlights of this year to date (a shorter list, sadly, at least thus far.)

And here's the number read for the third 75-book challenge of 2011; you can find them listed below and you can follow back through my threads to see comments on books I read for the two previous batches!




1. Island of Bones by Imogen Robertson, ****1/2, STARTED 6/19/11, FINISHED 6/23/11 (fiction)
2. (a) Chinese Dreams by Anand Giridharas, ****1/2, READ 6/23/11 (non-fiction)
(b) War Wounds by Jacques Leslie, ****, READ 6/23/11 (non-fiction)
(c) Pakistan and the Mumbai Terror Attacks by Sebastian Rotella, **** READ 6/23/11 (non-fiction)
3. Daphne by Justine Picardie, ****, STARTED 6/18/11, FINISHED 6/25/11 (fiction)
4. 10th Anniversary by James Patterson, ***, READ 6/27/11 (fiction)
5. French Leave by Anna Gavalda, ****, READ 6/29/11 (fiction)
6. Lie in the Dark by Dan Fesperman, ****, STARTED 6/26/11, FINISHED 6/29/11
7. (a) The Clothes They Stood Up In by Alan Bennett, *** READ 6/28/11 (fiction)
(b) The Lady in the Van by Alan Bennett, READ ***1/2, 6/29/11 (non-fiction)
8. 22 Britannia Road by Amanda Hodgkinson, ***1/2, STARTED 6/29/11, FINISHED 6/30/11 (fiction)
9. Caveat Emptor by Ruth Downie, ***1/2, STARTED 6/28/11, FINISHED 6/30/11 (fiction)
10. The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison, ***1/2, STARTED 7/1/11, FINISHED 7/2/11 (fiction)
11. A Most Dangerous Book by Christopher Krebs, ****1/2, STARTED 6/23/11, FINISHED 7/3/11 (non-fiction)
12. Bloodmoney by David Ignatius, ****1/2, STARTED 7/3/11, FINISHED 7/4/11 (fiction)
13. Stolen Lives by Jassy Mackenzie, ****1/2, STARTED 7/3/11, FINISHED 7/4/11 (fiction)
14. Unnatural Selection by Mara Hvistendahl, ****1/2, STARTED 7/4/11, FINISHED 7/7/11 (non-fiction)
15. The Murder of the Century by Paul Collins, ****, STARTED 7/5/11, FINISHED 7/8/11 (non-fiction)
16. Death and the Penguin by Andrei Kurkov, ****1/2, STARTED 7/8/11, FINISHED 7/9/11 (fiction)
17. Penguin Lost by Andrei Kurkov, ****, READ 7/9/11 (fiction)
18. Read My Hips by Kim Brittingham, ***1/2, STARTED 7/7/11, FINISHED 7/10/11 (non-fiction)
19. The Pericles Commission by Gary Corby, ****, STARTED 7/10/11, FINISHED 7/11/11 (fiction)
20. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett, ****, STARTED 7/8/11, FINISHED 7/11/11 (fiction)
21. Carte Blanche by Carlo Lucarelli, ****, READ 7/11/11 (fiction)
22. The Darcy Connection by Elizabeth Aston, ***, STARTED 7/4/11, FINISHED 7/12/11 (fiction)
23. Untold Story by Monica Ali, ***1/2, STARTED 7/11/11, FINISHED 7/13/11 (fiction)
24. Precious Objects by Alicia Oltuski, ***, STARTED 7/10/11, FINISHED 7/13/11 (non-fiction)
25. Only time Will Tell by Jeffery Archer, ***, STARTED 6/10/11, FINISHED 7/14/11 (fiction)
26. Nat Tate by William Boyd, **, READ 7/16/11 (fiction)
27. Mani by Patrick Leigh Fermor, ****, STARTED 7/2/11, FINISHED 7/16/11 (non-fiction)
28. Hunting Evil by Guy Walters, ***1/2, STARTED 7/15/11, FINISHED 7/17/11 (non-fiction)
29. Now You See Me by S.J. Bolton, ****, STARTED 7/15/11, FINISHED 7/18/11 (fiction)
30. Jerusalem Maiden by Talia Carner, ***, STARTED 7/16/11, FINISHED 7/18/11 (fiction)
32. Death in Venice & Tonio Kroger by Thomas Mann, ****1/2 and ***1/2, STARTED 7/17/11, FINISHED 7/19/11 (fiction)
33. Blue Monday by Nicci French, ***1/2, STARTED 7/19/11, FINISHED 7/21/11 (fiction)
34. The German Mujahid by Boualem Sansal, ****1/2, STARTED 7/18/11, FINISHED 7/21/11 (fiction)
35. The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton by Elizabeth Speller, ***1/2, READ 7/23/11 (fiction)
36. Clash of Civilizations over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio by Amara Lakhous, ****, STARTED 7/21/11, FINISHED 7/23/11 (fiction)
37. Killed at the Whim of a Hat by Colin Cotterill, ****, STARTED 7/24/11, FINISHED 7/25/11 (fiction)
38. Hearts and Minds by Amanda Craig, ****1/2, STARTED 7/23/11, FINISHED 7/25/11 (fiction)
39. The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt, ***1/2, STARTED 7/25/11, FINISHED 7/26/11 (fiction)
40. March by Geraldine Brooks, ****1/2, STARTED 7/25/11, FINISHED 7/26/11 (fiction)
41. The Magician King by Lev Grossman, ****1/2, STARTED 7/14/11, FINISHED 7/27/11 (fiction)
42. Far to Go by Alison Pick, ****, READ 7/27/11 (fiction)
43. The Serialist by David Gordon, ***, STARTED 7/26/11, FINISHED 7/28/11 (fiction)
44. The Sinner's Grand Tour by Tony Perrottet, ****, STARTED 7/23/11, FINISHED 7/28/11 (non-fiction)
45. The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier, ****, STARTED 7/15/11, FINISHED 7/26/11 (fiction)
46. The Ivy Tree by Mary Stewart, ****, STARTED 7/26/11, FINISHED 7/29/11 (fiction)
47. The Summer of the Bear by Bella Pollen, ****1/2, STARTED 7/18/11, FINISHED 7/30/11 (fiction)
48. Reading Turgenev by William Trevor, ****, STARTED 7/27/11, FINISHED 7/30/11 (fiction)
49. The Second Messiah by Glenn Meade, ***, STARTED 7/20/11, FINISHED 7/31/11 (fiction)
50. Between the Sheets by Lesley McDowell, ***1/2, STARTED 7/25/11, FINISHED 7/31/11 (non-fiction)
51. Limassol by Yishai Sarid, ****, STARTED 8/1/11, FINISHED 8/2/11 (fiction)
52. The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly, ****, READ 8/1/11 (fiction)

Huzzah! First - going back to read the Auden

Hope your migraine is abating, Suzanne!

Checking in, Suz! I think I missed most of the last thread. Hopefully I can keep up with this one!

Hiya kiddo. I've finally reviewed Solo, which beautiful book was a gift from Linda, over in my thread...post #224. When next I see you, I will give it to you to read. So yummy.

I think too many of these threads are un-keepupable with. I rather like that compound verb... hmmm.

Richard, thanks... will look forward to that.

Headache finally starting to abate. I'll be awake for another hour so, then pop a final painkiller and sleep some more. Hopefully will be completely gone tomorrow. The good news is the galleys are now due back Monday, as Friday the editors etc. will be moving to a different floor and the office is closed. Goody... That gives me a bit more breathing room, which I'm going to try to use constructively! (by trying to get the job finished by Friday night, so I can spend the weekend on the book proposal...)

Lurking...

keeping up

Loved the Auden poem. It kind of reminds me of the tune from the 60s... "He's a well-respected man about town doing the best things so conservatively." I know that dates me, but sometimes those old lyrics just pop into my head.

Going back to lurking and trying to keep up here.

Ha! I love that poem! Thanks for sharing it with us, Suz.

Any recommendations of collections by Auden? I'm especially interested in him after I saw the play The Habit of Art by Alan Bennett at the National Theatre in London last year, which was based on the relationship between Auden and Benjamin Britten.

I've just got the MASSIVE complete poems, which, even in paperback, could safely double as a doorstop if you ever get tired of the poetry.

Headache still lurking but more in the background today, thankfully.

Just got NetGalley approval to read The Magician King by Lev Grossman, the sequel to The Magicians. I'm psyched!

OK, off to read galleys for a little bit, then to blog about Unnatural Selection by Mara Hvistendahl, which I finished last night/this morning -- excellent, must-read book. Will post link here when I'm done with the review...

Glad the head is a bit better!

Congrats on the Grossman.....i know i read a couple of his books...before i joined LT....but, that's all i can say...

**Unnatural Selection indeed......** , she said, who never had kids...

;-}

I think too many of these threads are un-keepupable with

He hee, too true! We can but do our best :-)

A little late, but here and looking for Hvistendahl..... I like un-keepupable for the the little doggie that can stick around.

My head has been too bad for me to write much today. I'll try & have the review done by morning...

What a great start to a new thread. I love that Auden poem.

Sorry to hear your head's playing it's own version of a kodo drum recital, Suz. I hope you feel better tomorrow.

Inducement to zap the migraine: just arrived from Amazon.co.uk (along with two books, all ordered waaaay back when there was still snow on the ground) a DVD of Kate Atkinson's "Case Histories", featuring Jason Isaacs (who I happen to think is hot, even though it embarrasses a friend of mine who is his older brother when I say so!) There are three episodes on this, including one called "One Good Turn" that doesn't seem to correspond to a novel. Shall report back faithfully.

Am equipped with meds, ice packs, something to eat, iPod with relaxing wave & water sounds, functioning air conditioning. Really, all I need is a new head.

Sounds like you're at least well prepared. Sorry I can't help you with the head there, Suz.

OK, posted the review of Unnatural Selection here: http://uncommonreading.blogspot.com/2011/07/when-individual-decisions-lead-to.ht...

I've also posted a poll about Philip Roth's declaration that he no longer reads fiction. I KNOW the question is repeated twice, but by the time I had gone back to fix it, someone had already voted, meaning that I couldn't edit the poll any more. So any copy editors in the audience will just have to cope with that!!

Head still not better. Given the fate of the News of the World, I've decided to focus on reading Paul Collins's new book, Murder of the Century, a big part of which is devoted to the big tabloid wars of 1897 (Pulitzer v. Hearst)

Sorry to hear about the head, Suz. I hope by the time you read this the ache has gone away.

Suz- I did know they made a film of Case Histories. Is it British? Let me know what you think.
I have The Magicians on audio. I need to get to it.
Sorry to hear about the migraines. Bummer!

Your poll doesn't include a comment option on the poll itslef. I voted for the weird option in the poll. My answer to that question would depend on the writer's age - at Philip Roth's age, I can sort of understand it more, to narrow down and be very specific about what you read, though I have a friend of about that age who still reads lots of new crime and other fiction. (She's not a novelist and perhaps would't call herself a writer but she's a retired academic and she does write - not fiction though). I would be less inclined to excuse a writer of my age or even of 60.

Oh I love Auden, he was one of the 'grown-up' first poets I 'got' in my teens! And I still love him.

I am not going to wrestle with the Blogspot decision not to allow me to comment on your posts, so I will say here that your review of Unnatural Selection was excellent.

>23 msf59:: They made a movie of Case Histories? Does it have the same title? Okay, off to imdb.com to have a look.

It was a BBC TV series - 6 one hour programmes

Case Histories (parts 1 and 2)
One Good Turn (parts 3 and 4)
When Will There Be Good News (parts 5 and 6)

I'm not sure if it is available on DVD or the US.

Calm, it isn't available here yet -- hasn't even been aired, I think. I own a code-free/multi-region DVD player, so I can play any DVD from anywhere. You can get these for under $100, and when I order DVDs from Amazon in the UK, they are waaay cheaper than the US version would be, and the shipping is reasonable as well.

Migraine finally gone, so I can concentrate on the silliest irritation of all -- a splinter at the top of my middle finger. It's in the fleshy part, so I can grasp anything with my right hand. At the same time, it's so tiny that even if I could see it (I can't, even under one of those magnifier things I use for tiny print), I couldn't grasp it with my tweezers. I've now got a little bump right there, and hope that means it's working its way out of the skin. VERY irritating.

OK, off to do errands, then galleys.

Good news on the migraine!!

.....the splinter? if you have any Epsom Salts.....soak the digit in a hot/warm water Salts bath and it should work its way out toot-sweet....or maybe plain salt water...the "voice of experience" here..

and, i just score two Net Galley approvals......must "get cracking"

;-}

white glue ( elmer's)
put it on splinter area
allow to dry
pull off slowly pulling the splinter backwards

usually works

Shall try the plain salt water. A neighbor is going to help with tweezers later on... Very silly but slightly painful & irritating.

Salt water should work.....i get major/minor splinters every year when Mark & I cut firewood.....painful and irritating..not "silly"

;-}

Well, it would have been fine had I gotten it out promptly. Instead, I just figured it would work its way further out, not further IN. Exasperatin'.

The good news is that my collected coins this month added up to enuf to buy a couple of Kindle books! (Mindless ones -- it is summer, after all, and I've got plenty of intense stuff piled up here, including a NetGalley version of the new Umberto Eco opus!)

OK, finished The Murder of the Century by Paul Collins, which combines a "true crime" saga from 1897 with the wild antics of the tabloid newspapers owned by Hearst and Pulitzer who covered it -- and sometimes went just that little bit further... I'll post a full review on the blog tomorrow, I think; in the meantime other books are calling to me (loudly!) here, so I'll just say this was a 4.1 star book and a fun read for a hot summer weekend.

Nice splinter remedies, I'll have to remember those once I resume my kindling chopping duties (tummy too big to bend down at present and axe-wielding not recommended!)- I seem to get splintered every time!

Poor you on the migraine front- i can barely stand a headache and would hate to think what a migraine must feel like!

The Murder of the Century looks right up my alley, so I will have to watch out for that one.

Glad to hear the migraine has subsided and I hope the splinter finally goes away too!

My next door neighbor offered up her boyfriend's assistance when she saw me coming home with groceries precariously perched on only some fingers. He apparently is a whiz at all this -- and they are still grateful for my help moving in. So I went over this evening, and he had a whole tool kit lined up on the coffeetable. First, soaked my finger in v.v. hot water, then he used a needle to kind of open up the skin. Then we don't know quite what happen -- either the tiny splinter came out without us noticing, or it went in so deep that it will go into my bloodstream and be disposed of that way. Either way, my finger is now bandaged up but feeling a lot better!

I'm reading Andrei Kurkov's Death and the Penguin and enjoying it so much that I'm very thankful I have a NetGalley version of the next book featuring Misha the penguin. Kind of humanist absurdist, if such a thing exists?

I have heard good things about the Kurkov book. Glad to see you are enjoying it.

Great news about the splinter. One less irritant is always a good thing :)

My husband is also a splinter genius. I have the dubious honor of being a great 'piller' -- that is -- giving pills to reluctant cats. It's good to have some really really critical skills, innit?

>38 Chatterbox: Death and the Penguin sounds interesting. I've added it to my options for the Ukraine book for the Europe Endless challenge. It's not at our public library, but then neither are any of the other options at the moment.

Glad to hear that your splinter is out, Suz!

Yup, I subscribe to the hot water splinter treatment too, Suz. That usually works for me ... unless it's glass. Somehow if I get glass under my skin, the hot water treatment doesn't work, but Kath's glue treatment does. I've never tried a salt bath before .. must keep that one in mind.

Glad your finger's better anyway. How's the head?

The head seems to be behaving itself, too -- miraculous!! It was a bit iffy this morning, so took a pill and went back to sleep for a few hours. Feel great; too bad the galleys are still here, staring at me reproachfully.

Caro, I'm afraid to ask how you go about getting glass splinters in your fingers...

I'm glad to hear you're on the mend - hand and head both.

Finished the two delightfully dark novels featuring Viktor the writer and Misha the Emperor penguin, Death and the Penguin and Penguin Lost by Andrei Kurkov.

Set in the mid 1990s in Kiev (for the most part), Kurkov uses his whimsical and almost deliberately naive characters to highlight the corruption and violence that surrounds them. At the beginning of the first novel, Viktor, a wannabe novelist, lives alone with Misha, the penguin he adopted from the zoo when it was forced to give up animals to those who could feed them. Suddenly, Viktor is plunged into a new world when a newspaper editor hands him the task of building up a backlog of obituaries, or "obelisks", devoted to famous men -- and, not coincidentally, disclosing their real sins of various kinds. But then the subjects of the obits start dying, and a puzzled Viktor and his penguin are in hot demand to attend some of the funerals. We see the whole chain of events through Viktor's eyes; he occasionally tries to puzzle out the whys and wherefores, but mostly is content to just carve out a life for himself, and Misha, and his gradually increasing household, which soon extends to include Sonya, the young daughter of Misha-non-penguin, a Mafioso, and Nina, the young woman he hires to be her nanny. Perhaps only Sonya and Misha the penguin have a clear view of what is really at stake here...

In the sequel, Viktor sets out to find Misha, from whom he has been parted, an odyssey that takes him from Kiev to Moscow and to the wilds of Chechnya. Again, the narrative is filled with a host of quirky characters -- almost caricatures -- and the situations would be surreally bizarre were it not for the matter-of-fact style Kurkov has chosen to tell the tale. But once Misha is located, new obstacles present themselves, as political and media bosses once again unaccountably see a future for Viktor -- and his penguin -- as their tools, useful for unspecified purposes. Viktor resolves to find a new life for Misha, who has always had a rather depressed air, and decides it's time to become the master of his own fate, rather than being buffeted around by the political and criminal elements. But his escape plan has one last surprise in store...

I loved these novels; they are dryly witty, filled with bizarre situations, and the dark elements leap out at you as true surprises. I preferred the first novel, which felt more integrated and more "fresh"; I understand why Kurkov penned a sequel -- hey, I wanted to know what happened to Misha! -- but it requires a much larger suspension of disbelief on the reader's part. It wraps up some loose ends, and entertains, but it doesn't have the same "oomph" of the first. You will want to read both -- they are relatively thin novels, about 250 pages each -- but be prepared for the second to be at once more dramatic in terms of plot twists and turns and at the same time anti-climactic in nature. Kurkov does a better job when he's setting his plots against a familiar and narrow landscape. At any rate, I'll definitely be looking out for more by this author!

And a quick note, as I finished one more, Read My Hips by Kim Brittingham. I wanted to like this more than I did, as I know Kim, and heard a lot of her early writing (en route to what became this book) about her early life in a writing class that we both took. But instead of a memoir with a clear narrative arc, this is a memoir made up of a collection of memoirish personal essays. Some of them are great/hilariously funny, such as the way she learns to strut, or her experiences faking up a book cover "Fat is Contagious" and riding a bus with the fake cover atop whatever she happened to be reading at the time. Others just don't work, either because they are things she cares more about than the typical reader might do, or because while she is intent on making her point -- that people behave irrationally when it comes to weight issues or people they see as fat -- her own behavior isn't always rational. For instance, when a video director asks her to behave in ways that she considers demeaning, rather than stand up to him and explain calmly that that kind of behavior is supposed to be precisely what the video series is supposed to counter, she refuses, goes home upset, cries and blogs about it. Still, this kind of memoir is long overdue -- the voice of a woman who learns to accept herself for precisely who she is, without excuses. It's a shame that it probably won't make any difference in public attitudes -- especially because the author's voice is so strong and her writing is excellent. I'd love to see her tackle fiction -- given her range of experiences and that writing prowess, I can't imagine her producing anything but a thumping good read. Recommended read for those with body issues of any kind, but feel free to cherry-pick your way through it.

The Kurkovs sound very tempting indeed!!!!

Book du jour: For my 11 in 11 challenge, finished Queen by Right by Anne Easter Smith. I still like historical fiction, and the context of this book was particularly interesting (the years that led up to the Wars of the Roses, and the context for them) but... In many ways, this felt like a "color-by-numbers" novel, in which the author has the outlines of a character's life, and dutifully fills them in in more or less vivid colors, depending on his or her skill, with the requisite numbers of war scenes, conflicts, love scenes, etc. etc. For some reason, this formula, which hasn't bothered me in the last 40 years or so, is starting to get on my nerves. So even though I was reasonably interested in this novel focused on the life of Cecily Neville (the mother of Edward IV and Richard III, and an ancestress of all England's subsequent monarchs), it never really touched me to the point where I had to put everything else aside and just read it. And there were a few times when knowing too much of the history was a handicap -- the author has an unfortunate habit of foreshadowing events that she doesn't even deal with in this novel, which ends with the coronation of Edward IV in 1461, when Cecily had another thirty plus years of life left to her. (She lived to see the birth of her great-grandson, Henry VIII.) And I do wish she'd had a better copy editor: eg, I think that one is supposed to thank another for their solicitude, not their solicitation. In any event, this was a 3.4 star book for me; only recommended to die-hard historical fiction nuts.

Those Kurkovs do indeed sound very tempting. *Adds Death and the Penguin to wishlist.*

Yes, Caty -- You*Must*Read*These*Books....

Am fed up with my galleys. Thought I'd only have 10 pages to deal with in the morning, then realized that I also have to proofread the glossary, which wasn't in the hardcover edition. Which means that this needs to be proofed even more carefully, as every word is fresh. I've found way too many homonyms in the MS, which is a little unsettling -- I've noticed myself making more and more mistakes of that kind in the last year. Sigh.

OK, off to read some more of The Pericles Commission; it's an irresistible mystery set in the Athens of Pericles (d'uh) by Gary Corby, and I've just realized I will have to wait until NOVEMBER to read the sequel... BAH, HUMBUG, say I.

Wow, I literally could not locate my thread except by going through my browser history. The links didn't work, and it wasn't showing up on the list. Hoping that a new post changes that...

Finished the galleys this morning & they are now back with the publisher. Have decided it's too hot to work today, so I'm going to spend the rest of the day reading, and get back to work first thing in the morning.

Finished The Pericles Commission by Gary Corby last night -- it's a fab debut mystery, and I don't know how I'm going to wait until the next book in the series comes out in November! My review and comments are here: http://uncommonreading.blogspot.com/2011/07/mystery-monday-classical-whodunnit.h...

I'm finally getting into State of Wonder, and should finish that this afternoon, to the relief of the folks at the library, who would REALLY like me to return it...

Congratulations on freeing yourself from galley slavery! "way too many homonyms in the MS" --- I have real fellow feeling there. I find myself doing very peculiar things from time to time, but none of them seem to be on the Uh-Oh list for dementia yet. *Pericles* sounds awfully good.

Glad that you can peruse a day of reading, your reading list over on your blog looks so interesting. I purchased a copy of Death and the Penguin a few weeks ago so need to find a reading slot for it once Juvenile July is over.

#44 : Haha.. simple, Suz. I had a couple of glass splinters in my foot once when I dropped a glass jar of cookies on the floor, tried to sweep up the mess and stepped on some tiny shards with my bare feet.

Glad to hear you're finally able to relax with a day of reading. Bet it's also doing your head good not to have to read through galleys all day.

Finished State of Wonder by Ann Patchett -- found it a captivating read, if not always an agreeable one or a book that's easy to digest. Have to think through some things; will be blogging about it later. For me, 4.1 stars. Fab writing, spurts of brilliance that to me were hampered by the kinda "heart of darkness" type theme lurking around.

Have decided it's too hot to work today, so I'm going to spend the rest of the day reading, and get back to work first thing in the morning.

I think I'll try that tomorrow...

#57 - I'm very interested in reading State of Wonder as I enjoyed Patchett's other works.

good luck with that, Darryl! It's actually too hot to read now, 82 F in my office. I can't figure out a way to fix up the A/C hose in my home office so that Tigger can't get it out and bolt for "freedom". So now A/C downstairs, and I feel -- well, let's just say it's unpleasant. Also, think the household poltergeist has struck again. Was sure I'd accidentally left my fave new top at home when I went to San Francisco, but couldn't find it in the "overflow bag" (stuff I decided not to pack at the last minute) and can't find it anywhere else. Admittedly, the place is in a bit of a state, but after all, I'm not looking for a book, aka a needle in a haystack... I'm peeved, as it's one of two items of clothing I spent money on this spring.

I'm dithering about Patchett. I found her writing beautiful, and her imagination is certainly there. I just don't find her characters terribly three-dimensional in this, at least. It's actually the first of her novels I've read, although I adored Truth and Beauty.

OK, managed to finish a book for my Europa Challenge -- Carte Blanche by Carlo Lucarelli.

My review is up on my blog: http://uncommonreading.blogspot.com/2011/07/europa-challenge-im-policeman.html

Bottom line: it's a good book, if a bit too skimpy on the character development for my taste. Great for noir afficionados, though!

I am so totally with you about Ann Patchett -- Similar 'level' writers, like Julia Glass and Jennifer Egan and several others leave me more 'full' when I finish their books.... and it's really hard to pinpoint what is missing with the Patchett. But I don't connect so deeply to the characters..... they don't seem all that flat while reading, but I guess they aren't quite round.....

My review of The Murder of the Century by Paul Collins is up on "the blog"! Eventually will repost it here on LT, after I do the overdue one for Caveat Emptor, which was an ER book...

http://uncommonreading.blogspot.com/2011/07/tabloid-wars-and-tale-of-murder.html

OK, a quite reading update. Finished The Darcy Connection by Elizabeth Aston, one of a series of six Austen sequels by the author who also writes as Elizabeth Edmondson and Elizabeth Pewsey. This was the first I've read (I have two others from the library) and while it's one of the better Austen sequels I've read, it's not changing my mind about the general merits of sequels. It was reasonably true to the spirit of the Austen books, although with multiple points of view that gives the reader a v. different perspective. It's likely to appeal to Georgette Heyer fans, although it doesn't have all the freshness of her best books. I chose this one to read first, as it features the two daughters of the Reverend Collins and Charlotte Lucas, Charlotte and Eliza. Unlike the Miss Bennets, these sisters aren't close, and Eliza's misreading of her sister and her motives is one of the drives of the plot (but also frustrating, as the reader doesn't understand her any more than Eliza.) Still, I found these more appealing than the books by Rebecca Anne Collins, and they are well-written, within the confines of the Austen sequel genre. I'd give this 3.2 stars, but I'll read the other two before opining whether or not to recommend 'em. In the meantime, I'm anxiously awaiting the publication of the remaining Mountjoy novels by the author under her Elizabeth Pewsey moniker onto Kindle.

Have started reading Untold Story by Monica Ali, which is amusing when I don't worry that I'm participating in some kind of Princess Diana exploitation fest. Need to start reading Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna because the library wants it back, but my brain doesn't feel adept enough right now...

I have not mustered the courage to read an Austen sequel, afraid I would be heartbroken.

I do wonder if Austen would have blessed the Collinses with children? See, already I am debating with myself if SHE would have gone this way or that....I have a feeling it would not be a good experience for me, at least for now.

I do appreciate your thoughts on The Darcy Connection as they stopped me from reconsidering my no sequel decision.

I'll be interested in your take on the Princess Diana book Suzanne. It certainly sounds like exploitation to me. And you have to wonder what's going on with Monica Ali. After a smashing debut (IMO) with Brick Lane she followed up with the absolutely dreadful In the Kitchen and then another totally forgettable book whose title escapes me (I said it was forgettable). I heard an interview on NPR where she bristled when asked if Untold Story wasn't exploitation.

Alentejo Blue is the one you're thinking of, Bonnie; it was a collection of short stories or pieces, if I recall correctly. Ironically, Brick Lane is the only one of hers that I haven't read! I didn't think In the Kitchen was dire, but I was actually thinking along the same lines earlier today. Not that I expect a similarity of themes or anything, but to go so quickly from acclaimed to Jodi Picoult-style novels (which is kinda how I would peg this) is quite a slide! I'm not sure it's really exploitation, but I do find myself wishing she had taken the approach that John Burnham Schwartz did in The Commoner, creating a fictional Crown Princess of Japan and giving her characteristics of both the current Crown Princess and the current Empress. Reading that could have felt exploitative, but didn't. (There were other flaws, but...)

Reading another flawed book -- this time in galleys: Precious Objects by Alicia Oltuski. I keep saying to myself, this woman has an MFA? From Columbia???

At least you are sparing me from reading these books. I've seen the movie Brick Lane and will continue to steer clear of Ali's books.
I've only read Marsha Altman's Austen sequel and liked how it focused on Darcy & Bingley, it was quite fun.

Just consider me a public service... *grin*

Oh, a gentle reminder to all my friends here and who are following my blog: If you want to be entered to win one of these books, you MUST e-mail me at uncommonreading@gmail.com. Deadline is midnight on Eastern Thursday night (the end of Bastille Day.) I'll be drawing winner(s) shortly afterwards.

OK, finished Untold Story by Monica Ali. It did turn into a pageturner, obviously, as I ripped through the rest of it this evening, but although the plot twists and possibilities were suitably resolved, I just kept wondering, couldn't a talented novelist have come up with something less fantastical than this? I'll give it 3.4 stars, but that's more for the writing & structure than the plot or characters. Thinking about combining a review with the Ann Patchett novel -- what happens when a novelist's imagination takes them to uncharted territory.

I'm just curious if you ever read The Diana Chronicles. I saw it reviewed and was mildly interested in reading it at the time. I better take another visit to your blog.

Nope, haven't read it. I tend to steer clear of celeb stuff, including royalty stuff. I'm interested in the institution, but only mildly in the people.

The comparative review probably won't get done until tomorrow afternoon. I'm off to bed now, to finish the final few chapters of Precious Objects. It's saving grace is that its a brisk read.

(edited to fix grammar...)

Reminder to self: need to read State of Wonder!

Finished Precious Objects by Alicia Oltuski. On the positive side, it's a fascinating look inside the diamond trade, especially the "district" on 47th Street in NYC. On the downside, I'm amazed the author got an MFA at Columbia. She has no conception of a narrative arc, the writing is stilted at best and sometimes quite dire (malapropsims, repeated use of the phrase "Belle Epoch" instead of Belle Epoque, which I'm sure will be caught by a proofreader (I read this in galleys). The typos and other such goofs will be caught, but she can't "show" the reader the scene, and has no idea of when it's appropriate to replace banal dialog by descriptive prose. If the subject weren't so fascinating, I wouldn't have persevered. 3 stars, because while not actively bad, the writing got on my last nerve.

#75: It sounds like the writing would get on my last nerve too (and I do not have an MFA from anywhere!) I think I will give that one a pass.

Stasia, I was slightly kinder in my blog post about memoirs. http://uncommonreading.blogspot.com/2011/07/delicate-art-of-memoir.html (just went up now)

Now I suppose I should get my rear end in gear and go work on the book proposal...

Although after reading only the first chapter of The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna I'm captivated by it. Hoping it holds up well.

the book du jour was a bit of fluff; what I think of as cotton candy reading. I've been stressed and a bit headachey much of the day, so this was my treat:
Summer of Love is by Katie Fforde, an English chick lit author whose books I've been reading for a number of years. Her last two weren't that good, so I was pleased to find this was an entertaining if predictable addition to the list. Fforde's heroines are always creative and crafty -- artists, decorators, designers or something along those lines -- and this time around, Sian's passion is for turning ancient clunky boring furniture into works of art with painted designs. But there's less attention than usual to the crafty subplot like this, and more emphasis than ever on the lurve stories -- the more amusing one was that of Fiona, the older woman, who falls for an antiquarian bookseller. Sian's dilemma as a single mother is mildly fun to follow -- should she settle for the man who adores her and is stable, even though he bores her, or take a chance that the man she is drawn to more than anyone might share her feelings and prove more stable than he seems? Well, if you read these books, you know the answer. A 3.3 star book for me; good book therapy. Off to find dinner, ice packs, meds and bed. Wish the thunderstorm that is threatening would just happen and get it over with! We had a few bits of rain an hour or two ago, but nothing significant. ETA: this is for my 11 in 11 challenge.

#78: I have enjoyed a couple of Fforde's books in the past, so I will probably give that one a go when I am in the mood for something light.

I hope the ice packs and meds help, Suz! I am fighting the headache today too.

I think it's this hot/muggy and stormy but never quite storming enough weather, Stasia. At any rate, it's receding now, so I'm hopeful it will be gone in the a.m. Had trouble sleeping more than a few hours at a time, so managed to finish another fluff read, Time Will Tell by Jeffery Archer that I started more than a month ago. It's an ARC, so no financial harm done by this book, and it's the kind of book that requires no brain to read, so it didn't hurt physically. I do enjoy some of Archer's books, like his recent novel about Mallory, the Everest explorer/mountaineer, but this one was a bit of a potboiler -- two young boys, different sides of the track, meet at posh school, mysterious bond between them that derails their lives, etc. etc. Mildly entertaining and massively predictable and you'd need to suspend a lot of disbelief to read it. Ends with a massive cliffhanger, so I suppose it's part of a series, and I suppose I'll read the sequel, but I can wait. 2.9 stars; luckily for Mr. Archer, he doesn't need my favorable opinion! I'll be going back to Mani by Patrick Leigh Fermor and the horribly overdue library copy of The Memory of Love as soon as the headache leaves town completely.

I'm glad to see Memory of Love grabbed you ... it did for me. I thought it was fabulous.

You read like most people breathe, Suz...

Oooh, just got a copy of the galleys for Ruth Rendell's new Inspector Wexford novel from Simon & Schuster's Galley Grab! Not much else there this month, so v.v. pleased about that...

#83: Congrats! I hope the book lives up to your expectations!

Wow, a whole 24 hours without any messages!!

The book du jour was The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna, and all I can say is that the Orange Prize judges may well have been temporarily deranged not to honor this accomplished novel. It's that rare phenomenon, an "issues" novel that doesn't hammer the reader over the head and tell them "here's how to think about this!", doesn't short change either characters or plot in the author's pursuit of the message, and has a wonderful and evocative style. Yes, I'm sure it could do with a bit of pruning, both in language and content, but overall, I thought this story of individuals struggling to cope not with the violence of actual conflict but the more subtle kind of "violence" that is the aftermath/legacy of a war, both gripping and fascinating. To most of those he encounters in Sierra Leone, Adrian is just a "tourist" -- a do-gooder who will vanish after his year-long posting as a psychologist is over. Adrian is determined to leave some kind of positive legacy in a country whose citizens have not only visible but invisible scars left from the wars -- those he treats or attempts to treat include the victims of the most recent and most violent conflict, but of a crackdown on dissidents or potential troublemakers as far back as the late 1960s. Just as Adrian finds himself (unknowingly) in an odd triangular relationship with a surgeon at his hospital, Kai, and a young woman, Mamakay, so one of the hospital's patients, Elias Cole, who treats him as a kind of confidant, tells him the story of an earlier triangle, involving Elias, a fellow professor named Julius, and Julius's wife, Saffia. But Elias may not be a reliable narrator... I found the portrait of Kai, including his memories of childhood, his relationship with his young cousin Abass, his sleep disorders and his difficulty in deciding whether to follow so many of his peers and take the easy option of leaving his homeland to practice in the United States, to be the most affecting of the stories told here. I'll probably blog more about this over the weekend, when I've had a chance to digest it. But the bottom line is that while this novel isn't flawless (there are one or two "coincidences"; one or two ends that are tucked up altogether too neatly), it's certainly one of the best novels I've read this year. 4.7 stars.

ETA: This was for my 11 in 11 challenge.

I'm delighted to read your affirmation of Memory of Love. The more I think about it, the more I value it.
I've inherited some Fforde, so I'll keep them around for when I need something light. That's not the case right now as I somehow have two fantasies going. That's one too many, but I can't quite stop either. *sigh*
I look forward to hearing you say one day that you're feeling 100% good!

Oh horrors, I'm whining and griping too much...

I really must get to The Memory of Love soon!

Great review of The Memory of Love. And I wonder about the temporary derangement of the judges, too! The book has "winner" written all over it.

Suz- Great review of The Memory of Love. This one has been getting some serious LT love. Will have to keep it in mind.

Nice review of The Memory of Love, Suz! I'm glad that you also liked it.

I agree with Laura; I haven't read The Tiger's Wife yet, but, based on comments about it from LTers, it's hard for me to believe that it's a better book than The Memory of Love.

Good stuff -- I've never tried an Austen sequel, but I have had tried Katie Ff and I'm glad she's written a better one -- she seems like a good enough writer to write books that have just a little more to them all around, so I've often felt frustrated reading them.

Oooof. Very long day. Got up at 5 to go queue for tickets to Shakespeare in Central Park. They are free (two per person), but it took 2 hours to get there on the subway, and then 6 hours of waiting on line. Luckily, I was #229 (!!!) and so got tix for myself and a friend who came down from Westchester for the play. They don't allow you to have one person replace another in the line -- i.e., even tho it was just me and my friend, she wasn't allowed to take over from me midway. Whoever shows up has to be the one who collects the tickets. And nobody is allowed to wait with you, in case when the line starts moving, they ask for tickets to. Someone got thrown off the line -- at 9 a.m. -- when a friend brought him coffee and stopped to chat... Just a little bit, umm, absurd??

Anyway, the play was good if not great -- Measure for Measure is, I think, one of the tougher plays to stage today, because modern audiences (many of them) would find the premise tough to accept. Also, it's neither truly comic nor truly tragic. So the director brought in a lot of stagecraft -- interludes between the scenes, some truly admirable demons lurking and leaping, and lots of contemporary music -- to liven things up. Which worked, but also enabled the audience to kind of tune out some of what Shakespeare was trying to say.

So, I'm exhausted. Finished some books, but I'll have to report back on them tomorrow.

Luci -- I think Katie Fforde was just doing a reasonably strong version of her formula, not trying to go beyond the formula. I, too, wish she would -- but why would she let her fans down??

Yes, The Memory of Love will def. stick with me. I'd like a buy a copy when it's out in paperback, if poss. Or maybe I'll stick it on my Xmas wish list!

Sounds like you had a long day, Suz! I hope you are able to get some rest tonight.

The most annoying part were the two young med students/residents right ahead of me in line, who kept nattering to each other, relatively loudly and absolutely NON STOP for 6 hours. I learned all about their vacation plans, their career aspirations, their adventures in high school, their favorite music, their girlfriends (one keeps trying to break up with his), their research projects, their holiday plans (one is off to Russia soon). When a flute player came and played loudly and badly right opposite us, I admit I was tempted to grab the flute, snap it in half, and ram half down each guy's throat. Wow, does that make me a cranky New Yorker??? Anyway, didn't get as much reading done as I had hoped as it was impossible to concentrate, even with the Bose headphones. But it was nice being out in the park -- next time I bring pillows to soften the hard ground!

#95: From the sounds of it, the med students would have driven me bonkers!

Stasia, had you been here, we could have drowned them out chattering about books. Add Richard to the mix, and the three of us could have commanded an INTERESTED audience, and a voluntary one, to boot. Just sayin'.

True! lol

At least Memory of Love won the Commonwealth Writers Prize back in May. I have yet to read it but did get to hear Forna talk about it at our local book festival back then.

I admit that I'm kinda hoping it's in the running for the Booker prize...

an "issues" novel that doesn't hammer the reader over the head and tell them "here's how to think about this!", doesn't short change either characters or plot in the author's pursuit of the message, and has a wonderful and evocative style

I think you sum up The Memory of Love perfectly here. Great review!

Sadly The Memory of Love was published in the period for the 2010 Booker - April 2010 in the UK - it seems wrong that it was overlooked even for the longlist.

It wasn't me who asked about Katie Fforde.

Suz -- I know that -- that she is writing a sort of formula -- hmmm ---- Katie, are you listening? -- try writing some as, i don't know, Katherine Fforde, that are just a wee bit more..... convoluted, challenging, something??? People who wanted cosy cosy could do Katie and the rest of us might go for Katherine????

Some writers I don't get the feeling they are holding back at all -- they love the form just the way it is, but Katie leaves you feeling she could really do more.

>102 elkiedee: Right. I remember that it was one of the favorites of the Booker Prize discussion group on the prize's web site to be longlisted for last year's award, and that's why I bought it last year. Now having read it, I am also surprised that it wasn't selected for the longlist. (BTW, this year's longlist comes out next week.)

>97 Chatterbox: then you would all have been tossed off line.

I am impressed, there are few things that I would stand in line for for hours...
they would all involve saving the life of family, including furkids. An at that..
I would have had to invest in depends.

Terrific review of The Memory of Love Suzanne. I've just got a few more pages to read but am in complete agreement with you on the satisfaction of this novel. And I've also read The Tiger's Wife and seriously wonder what the Orange judges were thinking and also how she was overlooked for the Booker. These prizes really make you wonder.

Sorry about the Luci/Lucy confusion, both of you. It was late at night & my brain function was apparently not up to speed...

Took me 90 mins after I woke up to get out of bed today!

OK, a very quick book update here:

Nat Tate by William Boyd may have been designed as a bit of a leg-pull, designed to fool the artistic community (it's the 'biography' of an artist who never existed) but I can't help feeling it's also a bit of an effort to stick one to the literary community as well -- anyone who hasn't read Boyd's earlier work likely wouldn't realize that one of his fictional characters appears here as a real individual, a clue to the idea that the book is a hoax. (It actually fooled people...) But ultimately -- sadly -- it's a bit of a publishing stunt with the bookbuyer as the victim. I can't help feeling that anyone who forks out real money for this (I got my copy via the ER folks) will feel a bit ripped off. Only those with a real interest in the 1950s art world, and a knowledge of the intricacies of the artists of the time, will be able to pick up on Boyd's ironic treatment of them and the New York circles of the era. But even then, this is ridiculously brief -- 66 pages, and perhaps only 30 pages of real text. It's a stunt that will find a rather small truly appreciative audience being marketed to a wider crowd based on Boyd's reputation, which I find a bit obnoxious. As such, I'm giving it only 2.3 stars. If you want to pull a stunt like this, make it more worth the reader's time, energy and dollars, Mr. Boyd.

Mani by Patrick Leigh Fermor is one of two books by the late, great author (and extremely hot, in both intellect and physical presence, in his youth!), Patrick Leigh Fermor, written about his adopted home of Greece. It's ostensibly about the southern Peloponnese peninsula of the Mani region, but the author makes frequent digressions. Some of these are stronger and more welcome than others (I got bogged down in the discussion of centaurs and again in his chapter on icons and iconography) but overall it's a wonderfully rich look at a remote region of Greece, one that as recently as the late 50s when Fermor made his visit, had no roads, few radios and remained largely untouched by the modern world. That has likely now vanished, making this more fascinating as a snapshot of a vanished era, in the same way that his even better sagas of his 1930s trip by foot from Holland to Constantinople (beginning with A Time of Gifts now appears. Still, wondrous prose and I'm v. glad I read it. I'll have to move on to Roumeli, the other volume in what he planned as a series of books about Greece's remoter and less touristy regions. 4.1 stars.

Finally, Hunting Evil by Guy Walters is a too-encyclopedic account of various attempts to track down the Nazis who fled Europe in 1945. Walters can't seem to decide whether he is trying to debunk the myth of Simon Wiesenthal as being the arch-Nazi hunter (he does a very effective job) while trying to draw attention to other and sometimes more effective people (I found his look at Serge and Beate Klarsfeld very interesting); whether he's simply there to tell yet again the Eichmann story or to look at the more ignored and thus more interesting stories of figures like the Latvian prewar stunt pilot and national hero who turned butcher during the war, Herberts Cukurs. I found the latter stories to be more interesting, along with the details of the ways in which the Americans and British closed their eyes and ears to the backgrounds of those who they believed could be useful in their new, cold, war. I kept wishing Walters had stuck to one theme for his book, rather than jumping all over the place, so it's only a 3.3 star book for me.

I have been meaning to read Mani and Roumeli ever since I bought them right after reading A Time of Gifts and From the Woods to the Water. Thanks for reminding me.

#108: Too bad about Hunting Evil. It looks like a book I would have liked. I may still give it a try some time (assuming I can even get my hands on a copy), but not any time soon.

Stasia, it's not bad, it's just not great. There are elements in it that are intriguing and it would make a great introductory book to the subject.

I just took a look at the winter catalog of Soho Press, which publishes oodles of great mysteries. As well as a whole bunch of new Scandi-crime offerings, on the horizon are new novels by David Downing (in his fab "station" series, set in wartime and now I presume postwar Berlin, starting with Zoo Station) and Jassy Mackenzie and also a reprint of a novel that I read a few weeks back and thought was v. good, Lie in the Dark by Dan Fesperman. The latter is due out next February in paperback.

Hi Suz. We keep having these great discussions over on Darryl's thread and I always end up feeling guilty that I don't spend more time over here. I just get intimidated by your thread, maybe because it moves so fast?

I've been intrigued by Zoo Station and that whole series for quite some time now, but they don't have any of them at the library, so it might be some time before I get to it, but I'm glad to see you recommend it.

LOL, Ilana, yes, we should stop threadjacking!

I finally got around to reading Now You See Me by S.J. Bolton, which was an early reviewer book I won a few months ago. It's quite good, a suspenseful police procedural with a cryptic and puzzling first-person narrator in the shape of a fledgling detective who discovers the first body in a Ripper-like series of crimes, but who has an entirely different connection to the crime that unfolds over the course of the book... My full review is here: http://uncommonreading.blogspot.com/2011/07/mystery-monday-jack-ripper-strikes.h...

... and one more, to end the day with, as it has to go back to the library (already overdue...)
Jerusalem Maiden by Talia Carner was an interesting novel, a work of historical fiction that is based on the life of a young woman from the ultra-Orthodox community of Jerusalem, Esther, who is told throughout her life that her mission and purpose is simply to become the mother of children (preferably boys) until the Messiah shows up. And yet Esther is also driven to become an artist. It's that struggle as Esther tries to abide by the religion that surrounds her, and her innermost passion to create (forbidden to her) that is most interesting. The relationships with her family, her husband and others are flat and unconvincing; there for background color, but when a specific character is no longer required, they are simply written out of the story and disposed of in a sentence or two. So, only three stars. Probably of most interest to observant Jews, who will be able to decode a lot of the Yiddish or Hebrew words used (there's no glossary). I live in NY, I know what kosher is, what a mikveh (her spelling) is, but I found myself having to go online repeatedly to check the meaning of words I'd never heard of before and that she uses without enough explanation or context for me to get more than vague sense. Deeply annoying. Not unhappy to send it back to the library.

Oh no, I have Nat Tate sitting right here. Gahhhhh!!

#114 too bad, because the premise sure sounded interesting.

Bonnie, I really hope you like it better than I did... Actually, I didn't loathe it, I just felt annoyed.

Ilana, I didn't have high hopes for the book, but while it was well-written, the plotline was pretty banal. The setting was unique and intriguing, but about halfway through that kinda fell apart. It was as if the author lost patience and started playing around with game pieces on a game board too much. Still, I'm sure I'm being a bit too harsh and that many people will enjoy it more than I did, if only for the romance element.

Romance. Yech.

#114: Unfortunate about that one.

Ilana, I don't mind romance -- LOL! It just needs to be convincing and not feel as if it was just written in because the author knew that her main character needed a romantic interest.

I've posted my full review of The Memory of Love over on my blog, so here's the link:
http://uncommonreading.blogspot.com/2011/07/reason-i-keep-eye-on-literary-prizes...

OK, adding as the book du jour the two novellas (long short stories?) by Thomas Mann that I read for my RL book circle. I'll refrain from commenting ahead of tomorrow evening's gathering but will just say I really enjoyed picking out the parallels and common themes between Death in Venice and Tonio Kroger, and will zoom back to comment at greater length later in the week. I really must get around to reading The Magic Mountain; have stopped and started that so many times over the last, oh, 30 years or so...

I have been meaning to read Death in Venice for forever. I will probably get around to it about the same time you get around to The Magic Mountain :)

#121, Suzanne, I started trying to read The Magic Mountain in my late teens, tried again in my 20s and 30s, skipped my 40s, but read it in my 50s after reading Buddenbrooks and loved it! And started reading other works by Thomas Mann, although I haven't read the novellas yet. My circa 1970 copy of The Magic Mountain was falling apart, so I had to buy a new edition and found that Mann's works have been/are being newly translated by someone named John Woods, who I think is terrific. His introduction to Joseph and His Brothers, which explained some of his thoughts about translation, was fascinating.

I confess to being something of a Mann fan in that I've read *Mountain* a couple of times and a few others, but not Joseph and His Brothers, which I should put on my "soon" list.

I read Death in Venice maybe 25 years ago in my late teens and really loved it. It's on my shelves waiting for a re-read, but I've found (as I just commented on Nathalie's thread) that revisiting books and movies we're loved is always a tricky proposition. You just can never tell which way it's going to go.

The Magic Mountain has been on my wishlist forever, but I admit I'm quite intimidated by that one.

Romance is fine... as long as it's not the main topic of the book. And if it is... then it's got to be wrapped up into a really good story with engaging characters. I did have a (short-lived, thank God) phase in my teens during which I must have read a dozen Harlequin romances or so. I remember loving them at the time, though I would never list them here on LT—for one thing, who can remember the titles? Wouldn't be caught dead reading one now. Though if I was on a desert island and it was the only readable material available... I might change my mind about that.

Ilana, I went through a period in my teens when I read Mills & Boon novels (the UK equivalent of Harlequins). They were just as formulaic as they are now, but much milder; not teetering on the brink of being bodice rippers (which I have always found boring, as the story has to meet even lower standards!)

I can't imagine being disappointed by Death in Venice; on the other hand, I'm finding The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier a tougher re-read than I had expected. The prose is too ponderous, I think.

I may re-read something by Catherine Gaskin -- her novels are romances, really, but most of them are rather complex stories that involve a lot more. Again, though, I haven't read many of hers for several decades, though they were faves in my teens and early 20s.

There is a big Amazon sale on thru to July 27: the link is below
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&tag=lendingclub-20&linkCod...
I picked up Galore by Michael Crummey and a bunch of others.

I posted my review of Death in Venice ahead of time...post #238.

Passing by to agree with the take on romance. Blech!

You just reminded me that I picked up Galore a couple months ago and still haven't read it. Unless this retirement starts enabling me to read as many books as you do Suzanne, (highly unlikely) I'm afraid I will continue to see titles mentioned that I own but can't seem to get to. **sigh**

Buddenbrooks was my 'breakthrough' Mann also, and then Magic Mountain and then Death in Venice but I haven't read any others.... must correct this?????

Of Daphne du Maurier's books I have read only Rebecca. I loved the richness of the description of what grew at Manderley, but I have been afraid to read anything else by her just because of the threat that the language could become "ponderous." I wonder whether I should try to put aside that fear or whether I should, given all the other books there are to read, let your reaction make my decision for me.

Robert

I did so well at the Amazon Kindle e-book sale. I only bought two things and both were already on my wish list!

Thank you again, Suzanne. Somehow I miss the Kindle sales if you don't alert us. I picked up The Glass Room and books 4-6 in *A Dance to the Music of Time*. YAY!!!

Well. That was awful. I *just*now* got home.

Ha -- if you wanna hear about awful, call TDM.....

Too (multiple expletives deleted) hot. I will be AWOL for the next day or two. But back over the weekend at some point. Unless I sizzle up, that is.

Keep cool Suz! It's 115 degrees here today. I may have to teach Coco to do his business indoors.

Finished two books today, but won't report back on them until tomorrow -- Blue Monday by Nicci French (no touchstone) and another Europa Editions book, The German Mujahid by Boualem Sansal. Both good in their different ways.

>139 Chatterbox: - I just bought The German Mujahid last weekend! Look forward to your comments...

Blue Monday by Nicci French. There's something peculiar going on.

Robert

What is peculiar is that it's too hot to read. Well, that and the heat-induced migraine. I have convinced the temp in my office to fall to 80F, but the poor upstairs AC (living room & bedroom) is struggling. BR temp hovering around 87. Temp outside the house hit 106 today; tomorrow 100.

So no book updates until both I and the weather are in a better mood. Except to say The German Mujahid is highly recommended, Katie.

I've put The German Mujahid on my to-read list after reading Tad's review last year. Hope you can stay cool, Suzanne, it's winter here, though we only get rain, no snow...longing for some sun.

Duly noted, Suz. Thanks. And take care of yourself!

I've had a migraine for the past 3 days and it's definitely due to the heat. Also, I have fans going all the time and that doesn't help my head, but it's that on no breeze, so yeah. Thankfully, the migraine is bearable, not one of those red alert ones that make even reading or listening impossible.

Did I mention temps here hit 115 yesterday with the humidity factor? Today felt cool at 100 in comparison and now it's positively freezing at 91!

Hah, Ilana, we're getting your weather with a day's lag, then! The humidity factor hit 115 or so today; it's midnight and still 95 degrees. Tomorrow back to 100 and then allegedly it breaks below 90. The head is a bit better, but only bec. I'm drugged. Have been watching over a friend who took a bad tumble and whacked his head on Weds; now it's my turn to gripe and grumble. Only in my case, it's to an audience of cats! Now I'm mostly worried about the poss. of a blackout -- and the electricity bill. I have two A/Cs running full tilt, plus a fan. Someone will need to remind of this when I start griping about the cold in January!!

No blue skies here either, Kerry; it's too muggy, all we really have is haze. Yes, there's sunshine, but...

Making the rounds: a recipe for baking cookies on the dashboard of your car. Apparently all it takes is three hours.

#146: Making the rounds: a recipe for baking cookies on the dashboard of your car. Apparently all it takes is three hours.

Since my oven is broken, that might come in handy!

Oh, I've been doing great car-less for quite some time, but really hankering for an apple crisp. Maybe if I just leave it out on the balcony for a day or so?

your weather sounds horrendous Suzanne. Ugh. I thought A German Mujahid (in the UK and Europe it's called an Unfinished Business was very good too and am looking forward to reading your review, whenever the temperature drops 30 degrees...

Hi Suz...working on a copyediting thing...hot and horrible, of course, since I'm 10mi away...trapped in my bedroom, but my a/c is on "South Pole Winter" setting and so far Stella and I haven't melted.

Retraining her about begging is going fairly well. I've got cooperation from all the housies. (So far.)

Cushla...temps dropping 30 degrees Celsius sounds *excellent*! I could do with a few days of 7-9C. Like, say, 360 of them.

Can we please compromise on 17 to 19 C? That's pleasant...
I'm about to have to go out again. No food in house. But it's only 95 F, and even the humidex is below 100. Isolated thunderstorms predicted; tomorrow a mere 91!

I've been having weirdly vivid dreams for several nights now. Last night, I was in Ireland or somewhere, and after a small accident, the local village hospital told me I needed unrelated surgery. They wouldn't let me get a second opinion or call family or friends and tried to keep me there by force, and force me to take sedatives. Weird, no?

OMG It's Ireland run by the GOP!

I had vivid dreams a few nights in a row and drugs were always involved somehow. There were pills to track terrorist activity, some kind of crazy pot hybrid from BC, and someone was sniffing "PC Components". How's that for weird? LOL.

Then when I woke up I realized I'd forgotten to take my meds a few days in a row and the vivid dreams were a side effect of withdrawal symptoms. Hmph.

I've had three straight nights of vivid dreams and can't really attribute them to anything! They are mildly amusing, if also somewhat disconcerting.

OK, finally time for a book update:

Blue Monday is the latest book by 'Nicci French', a husband/wife writing team. They specialize in what I think of as "women in peril thrillers", a narrative that is driven by a woman who finds herself, Hitchcock style, in a situation she never expected to be in and that she can't get out of -- normal life becomes twisted. The books have lots of stalkers, kidnappers, etc. etc. This is slightly different, the first in what seems to be a series featuring a shrink as the main character; she hears one of her clients fantasize about having a son of his own, a little boy with red hair -- just before a little red-haired boy is kidnapped. Is there a connection? This being a novel, of course there is! The plot twists and turns require a lot of suspension of disbelief, but that's relatively OK. This is a decent/adequate suspense novel, although at times I found myself rolling my eyes and going "really?", while at other moments -- especially the big twist at the end -- I couldn't believe the characters were oblivious. It was an entertaining way to pass a few hours on a too-hot day as it didn't demand much attention but kept me from brooding about the heat! 3.3 stars.

The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton is the follow up book to one I enjoyed earlier this year, Elizabeth Speller's debut novel, The Return of Captain John Emmett. This was a bit too rambling and disjointed to be really good, but it's intriguing enough: Laurence is summoned by his friends the Bolithos to join them in Wiltshire, where William is designing a maze in memory of the village men: of those who joined the same company and served in WW1, only two returned alive. But there are real-life mazes and puzzles, chief among them what happened to the five-year-old daughter of the manor's owner, who vanished before the war. A young woman disappears, and a body is found, and... Speller throws in everything, including the kitchen sink, into this novel, making it far too cluttered with events and people to have a real focus. Still, it was a good enough read, and if an editor or friend can persuade the author to curb her instinct to not treat her next book as if it were her last and thus rein in her need to dump every theme, issue, plotline, etc. into the mix, she could turn out a series of thumping good reads. The settings and core ideas are compelling and fresh enough. 3.4 stars.

Finished two Europa Editions books, both by Algerian authors, both dealing with the immigrant experience in Europe, but from very different perspectives.

Clash of Civilizations over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio by Amara Lakhous veers wildly between comedy and tragedy. The death of an obnoxious young Italian man known as "The Gladiator" -- his body found dumped in the elevator of the title -- is no great loss. The narrative is broken up into "statements" by those whose lives are tied to the elevator and the building in question -- a kind of literary "neorealism" that Johan, the young Dutch cinema afficionado who is one of the characters, would deeply appreciate. It's clear that the questioning that produces these statements or testimonies revolves around the person of Amedeo, a resident in the building. The characters have vast differences in outlooks and preoccupations but all fiercely defend Amedeo. All come from somewhere else, and their mutual misunderstandings and the related conflicts seem to revolve around the elevator that they must share. The testimonies are interspersed with "wails" in a diary format from Amedeo himself, that reveal his contacts with each of the characters and reveal the truth of not only his relationship with them but of their situations. Only gradually, however, does the truth about Amedeo himself become clear, something so dark that even the murder of the Gladiator would be anticlimactic. I really enjoyed this novel, although some of the symbolism and language utterly escaped me, even after grasping what I needed to know about Amedeo; not sure if it was me, the translation, or the author. In any event, it's recommended! 4.1 stars.

The German Mujahid by Boualem Sansal is an altogether darker book, discarding any comedic gloss over very weighty subjects indeed. The focus is the diaries of two brothers, Rachel (Raschid Helmut) and his much younger brother Malrich. On Rachel's death, Malrich discovers his German father and Algerian mother are also dead -- victims of a massacre in Algeria's bloody civil war between the military and the fundamentalist Islamists. Reading Rachel's diary, he unearths uncomfortable truths about his father's youth in the SS -- truths that Rachel found unbearable. But while Rachel found himself trapped in the history, Malrich's own efforts to understand and make sense of his past focus on his present life in one of the housing projects in the banlieues of Paris that are "home" to large numbers of Tunisians, Moroccans and Algerians and others trying to carve out lives for themselves in a largely unwelcoming country. Malrich is already aghast at the success the radical Islamists are having in radicalizing his community, and sees uncanny parallels between the Nazis and the fundamentalists. Sansal's strength is his ability to deliver two parallel tales in utterly different and utterly convincing voices -- that of a mature man whose world collapses, and that of an adolescent who must decide on a path for himself that escapes the paradigm of victim and oppressor. Malrich's tone is that of a young guy chatting to his friends; Rachel's the more sober and analytical; both are utterly convincing. Who is guilty? And what does it mean to resist? These are weighty topics; Sansal does an excellent job of dealing with them to the extent that any author can. 4.3 stars, definitely recommended.

Ooof. Now I can go back to reading...

#154: I just received a copy of the Lakhous book from PBS the other day. Glad to see you enjoyed it, Suz.

I already have The German Mujahid in the BlackHole. One of these days I will get my hands on a copy.

Catching up...

Hope it cools down over there soon.

Suzanne

I'm way behind on the threads. I'm sure you can relate to the fact that nasty, wicked migraines tend to slow me down. The last few days have been brutal.

I hope all is well with you!

Clash of Civilizations over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio sounds interesting! And, like so many others, I need to add Memory of Love to my to-read list!

I've had Clash of Civilizations on the TBR for years, and The German Mujahid for a month or so -- will have to get to both of them.

Hi Linda -- yes, I'm battling a migraine here. We've had thunderstorm systems swirling around on the fringes for a while, and whenever they get close, my head acts up. A pain both literally and rhetorically, as today is supposed to be a writing day for me -- I have two articles due tomorrow. I guess I'll be writing then, instead!

I did want to try to finish some Amazon Vine books today but I doubt that will be happening either. My most ambitious goal has become writing a blog post about the Lakhous and Sansal novels.

Sorry about your migraine, Suzanne, but I wish those thunderstorms would come over here to the upper west side and clear the air a bit!

Really great reviews. Thanks for those.

I've been battling a migraine myself for the past 2 days. Here's hoping we both feel better soon.

Sorry about the migraine Suz. I'm your sister in pain today, but fortunately for me, no deadlines pending. Best of luck with that.

Excellent reviews, as usual Suzanne. The German Mujahid just climbed up the pile :)

Wow, that's at least four of us battling the demon headache! Linda, Ilana and Jeanne -- and I think Stasia too, no?

Mine is ebbing slightly, I think, I hope. Would be nice if it happens.

Mine is accompanied by a serious bout of blues. Migraines rarely make for great mood mind you, but the recent deaths of Amy Winehouse and Lucian Freud, and the horrors in Norway... I just want to burry my head in the sand, but then I think the blood rushing to my head probably wouldn't be advisable either. *sigh*

Suzanne.
Add Amy (Porchreader) to the list of migraine sufferers this week.

It is highly unusual for me to need two - three fiorcet pills, but that is what seems to help marginally.

I hope you feel better soon!

I've taken four Fioricets since dawn; they finally seem to be working. Alas, since I haven't been eating, the meds are making me woozy. So am trying to get my blood sugar back in balance so tomorrow isn't a repeat.

Book du jour Finding Emilie by Laurel Corona was more interesting than I had hoped, given that it's really no more than a historical romance set in 18th century France. But the setting was intriguing and most interesting of all was Corona's idea: to have the main character be the youngest daughter of Emilie du Chatelet, possibly one of the most brilliant minds of the Enlightenment, a lover of Voltaire, who died in childbirth in her early 40s. I'd read about Emilie in Passionate Minds by David Bodanis, one of my "best books" of 2010, a part-biography, part-history chronicling Emilie's life and contributions to math and science. It's presumed that her youngest child died along with Emilie, or shortly after, but Corona chooses to create a life for Stanislas-Adelaide in the latter decades of Louis XV's reign; she encounters Diderot and Rousseau, becomes just as independent and curious as was her mother, and embarks on a quest to control her own life amid the rigid and hierarchical world of the French aristocracy. "Lili's" story is interspersed with brief glimpses of Emilie's life that really don't serve much purpose except to tell us what the long-dead mother bequeathed to her daughter in character and intellect, but for a reader who likes historical fiction, this would be a fascinating introduction to a particularly compelling time and place: an absolute monarchy that nonetheless was simmering and bubbling with new ideas, from philosophy and literature to natural science and engineering. OK, so the plot itself relapses into the standard historical romance trope, with a rather risible "happily ever after" epilogue, but the focus on something beyond the standard context and the glimpse into the salons of Enlightenment France make this a 3.8 star book for me, well beyond what it might have been. Recommended to historical fiction fans.

OK, back to The Magician King by Lev Grossman and Hearts and Minds by Amanda Craig, both of which are very good.

So glad the temps are relenting so you feel better. To hot for Suzanne to read is hard to wrap the mind around.

So glad you like Grossman too.

Temps are down to normal levels for a summer's day. The issue? It's the middle of the night. So we're still a wee bit off normal. Did get some sleep , but it was accompanied by a nasty nightmare. So I woke up and decided to read Colin Cotterill's Killed at the Whim of a Hat. Sure, it's a mystery -- but it's the antithesis of dark, more likely to make me laugh than return to my serial killer nightmare. Pshaw.

I read Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio a couple of years ago and was quite pleased to hear that Europa is putting out another Lakhous, Divorzio all'islamica a viale Marconi (I believe the English title will be Divorce Islamic Style, but no touchstone, yet).

We might have talked about The German Mujahid last year but, if not, I thought it was a very good book.

I've been reading Killed at the Whim of a Hat between other books, and I've enjoyed it so far (I'm feeling a bit book ADD lately, which is why I keep setting it aside - nothing to do with the book itself). I hope it helped chase away the demons!

Nice reviews of the Europa Editions titles, Suz. I loved Clash of Civilizations over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio, and The German Mujahid is high on my wish TBR list.

Well, I've been waiting for a phone call most of the day from someone who has a data point that I have to include in my Barron's story. But then, the story itself now seems likely to be held. And I finally heard back from someone to whom I pitched another story seven weeks ago -- it was a "no". So I'm feeling a bit glum. (I don't get paid by Barron's until the story runs...)

Still, at least the worst of the heat has ended, and I've been able to turn off my A/C units to save some $$! And I finished not only Killed at the Whim of a Hat but also Hearts and Minds by Amanda Craig.

I've blogged about the Colin Cotterill mystery here:
http://uncommonreading.blogspot.com/2011/07/mystery-monday-quirky-crime-in-thail...

I'll probably blog about the Amanda Craig novel as well, so for now I'll just say I thought it was an excellent and compelling yarn. The author does a wonderful job of weaving various lives together -- a South African teacher, a Zimbabwean mini-cab driver, a Ukrainian teenager who's been trafficked to a brothel, an American in her 20s working for a pretentious British magazine, a Jewish British woman working as a human rights lawyer, whose Russian au pair has vanished. It's about the ties that all bind is, even if these are often invisible, or because we don't care to look or see them, as well as the lives that those invisible immigrants from elsewhere have in London (but it could be any city.) I found it compulsive reading, but also bleak. Despite its excellence and underlying tone of hope, I'm finding that it's actually making me depressed, so I'm going to have to find a frivolous antidote. Still, a 4.4 star book.

How is your headache today? Gone..I hope!

*smooch*

Tks for the smooch & good wishes! Headache still lurking, incredibly stressed out due to lack of cash flow. That leads to bad/no sleep, which then produces migraines... Vicious circle. Doesn't look as if I'm going to be able to afford to refill my migraine meds, either, so I have to use them when I think they'll make a real difference. Sigh.

Hope you can find a frivolous antidote asap! Sorry cant help with the $, Migraines or sleep tho :-(
I hope things turn around for you soon.

Finished Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt, a long-overdue Amazon Vine review. The bottom line: I found the prose wonderful, but once you strip away all the incredibly ornate and elegant digressions, the story is really the most banal one of all: a 55 year old woman, a poet, returns to her childhood home and finds herself spending a summer without women -- her estranged husband has shacked up with "the Pause" (a French colleague), she is hanging out with her next door neighbor (a woman); a group of elderly women (including her own mother) who are residents at the local senior's home and a group of 'tween girls, who (no surprise) are less demure and sweet than they first appear. It's worth reading for Hustvedt's writing, but beyond that? Well, it was a bit "meh". 3.5 stars.

I'm reading March by Geraldine Brooks -- hardly frivolous, alas, but brilliant writing so far.

Suz- Sorry to hear about the headaches! Seems to be an epidemic over here. Maybe, it's all the small print?
Enjoy March. It was my 1st by Brooks and I loved it.

Really, I want August to be better than July has been. That's all. Wouldn't take much, really.

Finished reading March, by Geraldine Brooks, which was wonderful. A literary hommage that is neither slavish nor untrue to the original -- in this book, Marmee's veil of perfection drops off and we see her as a human being; we also see Captain March as a fallible dreamer forced to confront his own limitations and imperfect nature as he struggles to minister and teach in the midst of war. At times I admit I sympathized with those March notices giving him "a look of the kind that I had become all too familiar with in the course of my life, a look that combined pity and exasperation." Brooks's March is a utopian idealist, a vegetarian, someone who struggles to live out his dreams and fails to realize the impact of his dreams on those around him. I think it blends perfectly with Little Women, although it's the kind of book that could only have been written today. Nonetheless, I think it captures the ambivalence of those like March who believe absolutely in emancipation and yet have little idea of how to remake the world in a way that will be as welcoming to black as to white. 4.5 stars, onto my list of top books of the year.

Interestingly, Brooks's husband, Tony Horwitz, is about to publish a new book about John Brown & the attack on Harper's Ferry that helped lead the way to war. I spotted it on other peoples' lists of Amazon Vine offerings, and am hoping it's left over to nab on Thursday.

I'm glad you enjoyed March as much as I did.

I enjoyed March as well. Thanks for the heads up about the new Tony Horwitz book. I will have to keep my eyes peeled for that one as he is one of my favorite nonfiction authors.

#181 Nice review of March, I have picked it up several times, but never did start it in the end. I am not sure why I hesitate, but your review is encouraging me to move it up on my list. I am glad you enjoyed it!

March has been in my viewfinder for awhile. Glad to hear that a new Horwitz is also on the horizon -- I've loved all of his books.

Nice review of March, Suz; I'll add it to my wish list.

*snork*smack*skritch* Oh. Here I am. Hi.

Something "bugging" you, Richard? *grin*

Another goodie here! finished The Magician King, which comes out August 9. Fabulous page turner, but you do need to have read The Magicians first to appreciate it.

My review is up on "the blog" --
http://uncommonreading.blogspot.com/2011/07/run-dont-walk-to-pre-order-magician....

ETA: So, I tweeted the review; Lev Grossman retweeted and I promptly got something like 100 blog page hits in 30 minutes. Oh, to have influence...

As I noted on your blog, I had not intended to read the sequel as I felt the best thing about The Magicians was its ending. Too much adolescent angst and substance abuse for my tastes. But after your review, I will definitely have to reconsider.

Well, Roni, the characters are older, so there's less adolescent angst and more adult angst! Less substance abuse, but it's still def. not a YA crossover book. I thought the story of Julia's acquisition of magical skills was dark but fascinating. Anyway, the book was a great read.

So, too, was the first of the Man Booker Prize nominees that I read. Far to Go by Alison Pick is a story of a family swept up in World War II -- at least in that context, it was similar to two other books I've read this summer, 22 Britannia Road and The Very Thought of You. In fact, it turned out to be much better than either -- a more complex tale than the somewhat confusing first third of the book would indicate. It's also very well written. I'm not sure that it will make it onto the list of Booker finalists, but it's a 4.2 star book for me, and a "thumping good read". Recommended, as it really accomplishes what the other two books only try to do -- deliver a domestic tale set against the backdrop of a global tragedy.

I already have Far to Go in the BlackHole. Happy to see you enjoyed it so much, Suz.

Well, I finished The Serialist, by David Gordon. If I hadn't promised to read something for the TIOLI Edgar challenge, in honor of Edgar the cat, I probably would have given up by halfway through. I can see why it won a shortlist nod - it's kind of got an ironic edge, the narrator giving lots of knowing winks to the reader in the first-person, direct to camera kinda way that some critics like. I think that's fine, if there's meat underpinning it. And there really isn't. The story is really a old rehashed plot -- when someone else starts killing in the same way as an incarcerated serial killer, will he get off death row? Leaving aside the fact that when the author wrote this, the death penalty was in abeyance in NY, this is well-trodden ground. Which leaves the reader with the narrator, Harry Bloch, who writes "serial" fiction (get it???) involving vampires, African-American private eyes in the urban ghetto, or intergalactic starship warriors, all with lots of sex and violence. The serial killer contacts Harry, and wants him to "ghost" his bio -- on certain conditions. Now, I'm not a prude when it comes to sex; I can deal with violence in the context of a plot (after all, I like Val McDermid's thrillers) and I don't need to "like" a narrator to enjoy a book. But this combination left me feeling rather seedy. Of course the woman that Harry gets involved with has to be a stripper/poledancer; of course the 'real' writers he meets have to be pretentious literary snobs; of course we get to read excerpts from his serial fiction. I ended up not caring whether he was just being coy or whether it was really wryly witty. Ironically, I ended up kinda feeling as annoyed with Harry Bloch and his creator as the serial killer did when he harangued Harry, "No wonder you're just a hack. For fuck's sake, learn to describe a little bit what life is like already. You want to be a real writer? I am reality. Describe me. You want to write literature? I am literature." 2.9 stars, not recommended. But at least it's off my TBR shelf and can go off to paperbackswap!

>192 Chatterbox: uccchhh

I wish to hell you'd stop reading so many good books.....i'm afraid to visit, here...my LIST is going to stroke out soon...from "obesity"

Just kidding...love your thread and your blog...I'm just going through a period.....i haven't read anything in four days..the thought of picking up a book makes me feel queasy.....but, this too shall pass....I have a Net Galley to read & review, soon

Oh, I found you on PaperbackSwap....bookmarked that page...might be able to help you unload some of those babies! Well, myself and a couple girlfriends...

Glad the head is better
;-}

Thank you for the guidance toward Far to Go and away from *22* and *Very Thought* (not being Suzanne nor Stasia, I can't read it all) and definitely from *Serialist*. I'll see about *Magicians*, but I'm about to be fantasied out here.
And I loved March too. Read it at the same time as The March, which wasn't bad, but just not as good.
AND I hope you're feeling better even though the summer from hell is back.

Peggy, I'm really not a fantasy fan, at all -- but this is the kind of fantasy that I think anyone can enjoy, in the same way that many dystopian books are the kind that non-science fiction nuts can get into. It's like Harry Potter for grownups -- Grossman has created a fantastic other world that runs parallel to ours and that his characters cross into. I admit I'd love to see inside his brain; I enjoyed just marveling at the creativity/imagination in those two books.

Jude, help unloading those books would be welcome...

I THINK a check has finally arrived. At any rate, some mail is at my mailbox place a few blocks away. So I'm off to check that out... Fingers & toes crossed.

I'll cross everything...except my eyes!

;-}

Hah! It was a check -- not a big one, but I don't care. It's the one I had expected two weeks ago, and means that I have at least earned something this month...

And I scored some good books from Vine; the Tony Horwitz book about John Brown and the Harper's Ferry raid, and after dithering between Louise Perry and the new Colson Whitehead novel (which looks v. intriguing), opted for the former. Now having Viner remorse, though! I've only got one book requested for this month's ER, which I REALLY hope I get -- Sharon Penman's long-awaited conclusion to her Angevin historical fiction saga.

I've been hearing Buzz about the Tony Horwitz...about John Brown/Harper's Ferry...but i still think Cloudsplitter rules, on that subject

oh...my cousin David lives, not far from Harper's Ferry...at least, that's his mailing address...he lives way up on top of some mountain...thereabouts...

I just finished Far to Go as well, Suz, and I agree that it was a good book. I really liked that the characters weren't major players in the global events going on - they were just normal people. I was disappointed in the end though. I thought it was rushed, and the revelation near the end about the first person narrator was annoying.

I won a copy of State of Wonder through the Orange July group and Jill's blog so I'm glad to see you liked it Suzanne. Definitely adding The Pericles Commission and Death and the Penguin to my teetering tower.

I was actually a bit ambivalent about State of Wonder, Bonnie, but suspect it's just me being overly picky rather than any major flaw in the book. It was just so good in terms of the writing that I kept wondering why it wasn't better. I'll look forward to hearing your thoughts, though.

Cait, I actually found the revelations re what the narrator is doing to be fascinating, raising whole new sets of questions about what can/can't be deciphered through memory and archives alone -- which, after all, were the narrator's areas of expertise. It was annoying, but in a productive kind of way?

OK, all of you who lurve free books, I will be giving away a copy of this next one on my blog -- will launch the giveaway when I post the review tomorrow. Copy is courtesy of the publishers (who are my publishers) at Crown.

And the book is: The Sinner's Grand Tour: A Journey Through the Historical Underbelly of Europe by Tony Perrottet. Let's just say that Perrotet is really only interested in one "sin", that his own tour consists of trying to talk his way into the dungeons of the marquis de Sade and a pornographic bathroom designed by Raphael in the Pope's quarters in the Vatican, and that his area of focus is not really the underbelly, technically speaking. It's amusing, in a "wink, wink; nudge, nudge" kind of way; I'm giving it 3.8 stars.

I loved March and a couple of her other books but will only read ones where the plot appeals and her latest doesn't attract me at all. I picked up a used copy of The Magicians a couple of weeks ago, your review finally swayed me to try it for myself as I've seen so many argue for and against this one.
I've just finished The Tiger's Wife and really liked it, love how she writes and though I did get very slightly peeved with each character being introduced along with their back story, that was part of the spell she was weaving so I just went with it. Now I really need to read The Memory of Love.

Adding The Serialist to my 'Do No Read' list. The book sounds terrible.

Stasia, I thought it was well written but just disasteful, in a way.

Here's the promised link to the review of The Sinner's Grand Tour and to the blog giveaway:
http://uncommonreading.blogspot.com/2011/07/sinners-grand-tour-review-and-giveaw...

The books du jour:

Finished two re-reads of old faves, with a common theme: both are novels involving the idea that somewhere out there we have a doppelganger. In the first, The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier, John the Englishman comes face to face with his, Jean, a Frenchman. John feels as if he belongs nowhere; Jean is desperately trying to shrug off all the emotional demands on him by his wife, his mistress, his young daughter, his mother, etc. John wakes up from a night of drinking to find he has been left with the clothes and belongs of the French count who is his double, and knowing little or nothing of the dynamics of the family and its family business, must step right into place. In the other book, The Ivy Tree, people are fooled by the first-person narrator throughout the book -- is she, or isn't she, Annabel Winslow, returned after eight years without a word to the northern English farm owned by her aging and unwell grandfather. The reader knows that she and her cousin Con have formed a pact based on the fact that she has convinced him she isn't Annabel; one that will see Con inherit the property on her grandfather's death. But what if Con's judgment is wrong, or another threat emerges? It's a kind of typical Mary Stewart novel of romantic suspense, which has lasted the decades well but probably won't be around in another 50 years. The Scapegoat may be the better novel, but it's not as enjoyable to re-read. I'd rate both around 3.5 stars as re-reads; 4 stars or so if you're reading them for the first time.

Thanks! I've always loved this poem; a timeless critique.

#206: I have already read The Ivy Tree and The Scapegoat is already in the BlackHole so I can dodge those book bullets. Whew!

Stasia dodged them and I dove right in front of both :) Two more for the WL....

Oooh, The Ivy Tree! Wunderbar!

Been away for too long ..... exhausting catching up with your prolific but oh so interesting thread, Suz. I have to add The Scapegoat to my obese wish list. It sounds like a different version of The Prince and the Pauper?

I've got to mosey over and catch up on yours, too, Caro -- but it moves so FAST! The Scapegoat is similar in that it's kind of a forced exchange of identities, and the "pauper" doesn't know what he is getting into, but beyond that, not really. It's basically about bluff and double-bluffing by the main character, as he tries to fumble his way into his new character, and his attempt to repair the damaged family relationships when he doesn't know/understand why they were damaged in the process. I think a big part of it is really about him understanding viscerally what it means to be so entwined in the lives of others. He feels the lack of that in his life, and comes to realize that having those ties can be overwhelming, too. The interesting question, as he becomes quickly involved in these lives, is what will happen if Jean comes back?

The latest book was The Summer of the Bear by Bella Pollen, which is FABULOUS! (I got it from NetGalley.)

While I'm not sure I'd call it Literature with a capital "L", it's certainly a thumping good read. It's the summer of 1980, and Letty has just lost her husband, Nicky, leaving her three children -- Georgiana, Alba and Jamie -- without a father. They have had to leave the embassy in Bonn amidst a certain suspicion about Nicky -- what had he been up to that had MI-6 agents interrogating Georgie about a recent trip she'd gone on with her father to East Berlin? Letty fears he's killed himself (and that his death wasn't an accident.) Alba is just angry at everyone in her world. And Jamie, who suffers from learning disabilities, is struggling to process the fact that his father's death is a fact, that he isn't just "lost" somewhere as a spy, and that Heaven isn't a real place that can be looked up in the Yellow Pages. All the family head north, to their summer home in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, and the novel really begins there, as all three children struggle to re-orient their lives, left to themselves by their increasingly distracted and unfocused mother. Most poignant of all -- he's a heartbreaking character -- is Jamie, who somehow decides that his father's spirit has come to rest in a bear that got loose from his owner (a wrestler) on the island, but who hasn't been seen since. I'm not a sentimental soul, really, but I have to admit crying at points in this book. Worse still -- I cried in public... It's utterly emotionally convincing, and Pollen does an excellent job of solving the 'mystery' of Nicky's death and Jamie's fascination with the bear in one fell swoop. (The bear part is based on a real life event in the same summer.) I thought this was impressive and beautifully written, with very convincing characters. Highly recommended: 4.6 stars.

It's like some weird Vulcan mind meld... I picked up The Summer of the Bear at B&N just last week. I was initially attracted by the cover but the description on the jacket sounded excellent, so the book came home with me.

Katie, that's hilarious! I do hope you enjoy it as much as I did...

On to two short books that do qualify as literature, and which were nearly as captivating, in very different ways.

First, Under the Frangipani by Mia Couto. Set in post-colonial Mozambique, this intriguing and literally magical tale is told by a dead man, in danger of having his corpse dug up and hailed as a hero of the revolutionary struggle. Instead, he flies up to occupy a tiny corner of the body of a police inspector come to probe the murder of Vastsome Excellency, the guardian in charge of the seafront fort where the narrator is buried and that is home to a bunch of elderly residents, each of whom seems eager to confess to the crime and each of whom confesses to using a different method. The process of telling these tales reveals the gap between traditional and "new" Mozambique -- "they're all telling you things of great importance," the nurse tells him. "You just don't speak their language." The police inspector protests he speaks Portuguese -- but the residents belong to a different world, and speak its variant of Portuguese. And the real crime, the nurse tells him, is that the past is being killed off, including the roots that the residents have to magic, to the earth, to traditions -- yes, even the one white Portuguese resident who loves the frangipani tree of the title, the tree that plays a crucial role in all the various tales in this novella, including that of the narrator. A fascinating glimpse into a different form of magical realism, a new novelist and his world. 4 stars.

I also finished Reading Turgenev by William Trevor, an author whose ability to mine the apparently deadly dull world of small Irish communities and extract powerful human stories never ceases to amaze me -- any more than his ability to craft those tales out of simple words and phrases. This novel focuses on the mismatch between a young woman from a farm and an older man who owns the town draper's store in the 1950s. It's a marriage of convenience that the young Mary Louise comes to regret. "She had married out of impatience and boredom, and had been handed both back with interest added." She begins to take comfort by sharing afternoons with her ailing cousin, Robert, who shares with her his passion for Turgenev... The story is told in two stages; the first dealing with the present, in which Mary Louise faces returning home from a home for the mentally unstable where she's been living for decades to again live with her husband; the longer segments deal with the past, and Mary Louise's efforts to craft an alternate world to which she can retreat with her vivid impressions of Turgenev's world, as an antidote to that of her husband and his two rather vicious sisters. It's a fascinating tale dealing with all Trevor's trademark themes -- the stultifying impact of small town Ireland; escapes from same; Catholics and Protestants who share more than separates them; the vivid descriptions of the country itself. 4.2 stars.

Now off to finish reading A Grave in Gaza by Matt Beynon Rees. Am also hoping to finish Between the Sheets by Lesley McDowell, an analysis of the relationships that literary women had with their literary partners. It's interesting, although I think her analysis may owe more to her own conviction that there are common threads than to the reality that there are common threads. I'm coming to the conclusion that I'd rather read biographies of some of these people -- Rebecca West, Jean Rhys, Martha Gelhorn, etc. -- than these capsule overviews of part of their life stories.

Adding The Summer of the Bear, Reading Turgenev, and Under the Frangipani to the BlackHole. You are making me suffer for dodging yesterday's BBs, aren't you?

Who, MOI?

Never. Wouldn't cross my mind. Not in a million years.

(*cue evil chortle of delight*)

Uh huh. I believe you. Honestly I do. . .not!

Hi there, Suzanne, Just wanted to stop in and thank you for introducing me to Europa for your TIOLI Challenge. So many of there books look fascinating plus if they are anything like Hedgehog they will be intelligent and witty.

Hi suz- I love your review of The Summer of the Bear. Sounds great. I'll have to add that one to the List!

Summer of the Bear looks wonderful - added to the to read list:)

Hi Suzanne

I'm stopping by to wish you a head ache free day.

I've added Under the Frangipani to my wish list. The Trevor sounds interesting, but I have at least a couple of his books already, including Selected Stories and The Story of Lucy Gault.

Two more for THE LIST: The Summer of the Bear and Under the Frangipani.......no complaints...they both look to be loverly..

Thanks, Suze!

Glad to see that you enjoyed Reading Turgenev. I didn't expect to like it nearly as much as I did.

Between the Sheets sounds quite interesting, maybe as a teaser to get me interested in the more in depth biographies that might be around.
*off to check the library catalogue*
(....nope, not available in my town)

Loved your review of Under the Frangipani, Suz, and I'm adding that to my obese wish list. Hope you're managing to keep cool.

Caro, thankfully it's not too bad outside today, and I'm indoors, in my office. Kept it cool overnight with the A/C, and it's still under 80, which is a good thing. If I were on the computer full-time I'd still want the A/C, but not needed right now -- hallelujah.

#226 -- Is your library one that takes requests for books to be purchased? Inter-library loan? Or maybe a loan from an academic library? Just thoughts...

Jeanne, I completely agree with you. That said, I have had the same reaction to nearly every William Trevor book I've read, so I may just have to throw up my hands and stop expecting that the latest one I pick up will somehow be the one to disappoint me. I think it's partly because of the themes he pursues, which are so anti-dramatic. And yet he manages to find the real drama that exists in everyone's life. That said, if I was living Mary Louise's life, I probably would have slit my wrists. Or run away to Dublin.

Darryl, I can pretty much guarantee you will adore Under the Frangipani. And it's skinny, thus easy to take on yr travels. Yes, I'd focus on the William Trevor that you have to hand -- I think "Lucy Gault" is great.

Very slightly headachey today; am taking it easy so that I can get up early tomorrow and get a jump on the weak. Which is what I've resolved for the last several Sundays...

I am intrigued by Under the Frangipani; I read another book by Mia Couto, Sleepwalking Land, and found it haunting but so full of magical realism that I felt I missed a lot of the symbolism.

Rebecca, I'm sure there were elements that I missed completely, too; on the other hand, there was enough that was evident to make this a very rich narrative.

Finished two books that aren't nearly as intriguing, by a long shot.

The Second Messiah was a very kind of banal, formulaic thriller by Glenn Meade, that would appeal to Steve Berry fans but not really to anyone else. I've really enjoyed several earlier books by this author that were more complex and better written; this felt as if it was crafted to appeal to Dan Brown fans, with its emphasis on finding mysterious scrolls and unknown Biblical messages. That said, it was better than it could have been (I've never managed to read Dan Brown's opus, for instance) and bits of it were genuinely interesting. I'm going off in search of books about underground Rome -- entire city streets apparently exist under the city -- and the Dead Sea scrolls. And it's interesting to speculate what would happen if the Roman Catholic Church ever did what Meade proposes in this book. That said, a plain vanilla 3 star book. Beach read, at best.

Between the Sheets by Lesley McDowell was one that was tantalizing for what it could have been. But the reality is that there's so little the women profiled in this book have in common beyond the fact that they were 20th century writers who were involved in romantic/life partnerships with men of letters, that any attempt to bring them together was probably doomed at the outset. The nature of the relationships was different; the length was different; the way they evolved was different. Even the impact on their work is something that can't be reliably gauged. McDowell resorts to weasel words like "think", "believe", "surmise" a lot of the time. So the hypothesis is interesting, but the book itself is more valuable as a brief window onto the lives of some women writers who are overlooked these days -- Katherine Mansfield, Rebecca West, Jean Rhys, Martha Gelhorn, to name a few. Others are better known -- Sylvia Plath, whose story is oddly juxtaposed with those of Martha Gelhorn and Rebecca West -- how does she fit in to a narrative with Anais Nin and Simone de Beauvoir?? Sigh. Questions like that will drive the reader crazy if they don't ignore them. 3.4 stars; interesting, but not compelling.

I'll finish A Grave in Gaza in another hour or two, but may not report back on it until tomorrow.

Just speaking, and thinking that fall will be the time for me to pull a William Trevor at last. Last year I had Lucy Gault in one hand and Crossing to Safety in the other, and *CtS* won.
Between the Sheets sounds a little like Uncommon Arrangements that I enjoyed earlier this year. She's writing about the accommodations that several literary couples made in order to maintain a marriage on their own terms. The stories weren't really paired, and I enjoyed being a voyeur.

As usual this thread is responsible for my teetering tower falling over (again). Adding the Trevor book (I've read Lucy Gault and Love and Summer and a couple others and really love his writing), The Summer of the Bear and Under the Frangipani.

I have biographies of Martha Gellhorn and Jean Rhys: I heard The Blue Hour: A Life of Jean Rhys serialised on the radio a couple of years ago and found it fascinating.

Finished A Grave in Gaza by Matt Beynon Rees earlier in the evening; a very worthy second book in this series set in Palestine/Occupied Territories/whatever one is supposed to call these places "correctly". (I have a friend who recently refused to buy a map that had "Palestinian territories" marking off the West Bank and Gaza, so I dunno any more, and I have no dog in this fight.) Anyway, it's a good mystery, but I'll be blogging about it tomorrow, so will save my detailed comments for then.

My head has been bad all evening, but it has finally rained, so hopefully that will help things.

Suz - it is really bad having a Kindle now. I am sitting here hovering over the first Matt Beynon Rees book (I added it to my WL then forgot about it) AND lots of William Trevor books, which are cheap...

Reading, with interest, about your reading. I have mixed feelings about Trevor although I always end up reading everything he writes sooner or later. You put it well -- how he mines this stultifying enclosed world of the little village -- Yet -- I know a fair number of Irish folk from music, and things have changed (while, of course, staying somewhat the same).... I'm not convinced that Trevor's Ireland captures what is happening there now. I'm looking forward, therefore, to reading the Enright I got for my b-day.

>230 Chatterbox: appeal to Steve Berry fans but not really to anyone else.

A. HEM.

I shall have you to know, madam, that *I* am a Steve Berry fan. To imply that Berry's thrillers are formulaic and banal, well banal anyway, is to imply that thrillerdom is without merit. This is prima facie evidence of Taliban sympathies and Al-Qaeda membership, so expect the INS to call on you for a ride in their blank-sided white van for some extraordinary rendition.

(Hey, the Cyanide-Laced-Tea Party and the GOPigs can torture logic in service of *their* twisted, evil agenda, so can I.)

>237 richardderus:: A.MEN

Oh, I enjoy Steve Berry -- with the exception of the really bad one that ENDED with a cliffhanger and involved submarines and ancient runes. There has to be some link to reality. I loved his "amber room" thriller and several of his others. I know Cotton Malone has become a moneyspinner, but I'd rather he dropped that and tried another stand-alone. And I love Glenn Meade's other books. Try Brandenburg, or Resurrection Day, Snow Wolf or The Sands of Sakkara, and you've got a real "thumping good read". This one was formulaic, with the same kind of implausible leaps that Berry offers up when he's not on his top game. And just because A thriller writer or A thriller is banal and formulaic (and can't transcend that) doesn't mean that ALL are in the same camp. I shall have you to know, sir, that my shelves are stuffed full of these things! :-)

239> That's the only one I've read, so maybe I'll give him another chance.

Do try Berry's earliest books, Jeanne; some are quite good, especially if you like thrillers.

OK, my blog review of the Beynon Rees novel is up (along with comments on the first in the series.) You can see it here:
http://uncommonreading.blogspot.com/2011/08/mystery-monday-gaza-has-special.html

Hey Suz, have added Under the Frangipani to the wish list. They don't have it at the library, but I'll still keep my eye out for it.

Sorry about the mixup today. Of course I know you're you. I responded on my thread but will say here that when I have too much on my mind, my brain just breaks down under the pressure. I guess it's just not made to think much. :-\

Oh, hurrah, just won Lionheart by Sharon Kay Penman from the ER July batch! It was the only book I requested, as I really wanted it and didn't want to gamble that the black box that is the ER algorithm might give me something else...

Finished some books, but I'll come back later to report on those. Have to go run some errands now...

Congratulations Suzanne. I'll look forward to your thoughts on that one.

My favorite Penman was her Sunne in Splendor about Richard III.

It was nice to find a book somewhere in between Tey's The Daughter of time's uncritical Richard worship and Shakespeare's hatchet job.

Got tired of her The Queen's Man Detective series pretty quickly, sorry to say

I'm really glad to hear you got the book you want. I had my first no book message from ER recently. I'm just hoping Canongate and Faber, the most regular UK participants, haven't dropped out entirely.

Congrats Char... I mean Suz. I think there's been a short circuit in my brain this week from emotional overload and the first three letter of you screen name plus the two Ts are throwing me off all of the sudden.

But hey, at least I'm managing to keep up with your thread. Or trying to.

#247 You sound about as together as I feel right now
*where am I? whose thread is this again?*
lol

My head is niggling at me again, which is unfortunate, as I'm going to meet the editor of an online publication tomorrow to talk about writing/editing work. I need a few more gigs like this, so keep your fingers & toes crossed, please!! Also have a morning interview for a story.

Book update:

Finished Pereira Declares by Antonio Tabucchi, which was the wonderful story of a middle-aged apolitical and apathetic man, Dr. Pereira, whose acquaintance with a young man in the Lisbon of the late 1930s forces him to reconsider his lifestyle, which has consisted of blocking out the news, eating omelettes and drinking sugary lemonade, and talking to the photo of his dead wife. I loved the delicately-written and perfectly-paced narrative, and the way the author sets it up as a kind of testimony, with "Pereira declares" every few sentences making it clear that Dr. Pereira is telling someone, somewhere this tale. But who and why? The ending hints at it, but I'm not going to hint at the ending... 4.5 stars. This was for my 11 in 11 challenge.

Also read Limassol by Yishai Sarid, an intriguing tale of an Israeli secret policeman on an undercover assignment. He's more accustomed to interrogating suspects and trying to stop suicide bombers, but that work is taking its toll on his psyche, not to mention his relationship with his wife and "the child" (never given a name.) Yanked out of the interrogation job, he's told to cultivate Daphna, a writer, and her Palestinian writer friend, Hani, who is dying slowly and painfully. The real goal -- which the narrator has known all along -- becomes clear to the reader only slowly and over time, and ultimately the narrator has to reconsider all the fundamentals of his life. It's a compelling novel, although sometimes the short and almost staccato prose became downright annoying -- eg: "I stood in the doorway of the living room. A Strip of plaster was peeling from the ceiling. Downstairs in the street, a crazy driver was honking." 3.9 stars; it lost points for that style, which grated on me intensely by the time I finished. Still recommended...

And finally, dashed through The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly, which is definitely a "thumping good read"!! I literally wasn't able to put it down last night until I had finished this novel of a good young woman who meets a much more exotic brother and sister, Rex and Biba, and embarks on a summer of love, alcohol and drugs. But the siblings have been damaged by their family past, particularly Biba, and the summer builds to an explosive ending. The story is told in flashbacks, from the point of view of Karen, who -- it is revealed at the outset -- is returning from picking up Rex at prison, where he has just been released after serving 10 years on murder/manslaughter charges. Who dies, how and why are only gradually revealed -- as well as the tremendous secret that Karen herself is keeping and that she is willing to commit her own crimes to protect. Fabulous psychological suspense -- read it, absolutely, if you're into this kind of novel. As I said, a great page-turner (and it doesn't matter, I think, if you don't approve of drugs, etc.) 4.2 stars.

OK, off to bed with an ice pack. Will create a new thread tomorrow, o thread police people...

#248 Yes, I pretty much go through life 24/7 in that state nowadays. It's a wonder I manage to function at all and not set fire to the house or walk down the street with my nightgown on... wait... I DO walk around with a nightgown (only I swear it looks like a perfectly good T-shirt dress!)

#249 Fingers and toes and hair crossed (it's always messy anyway).

Okey dokey, I'm movin' on. Don't want the old quarters to get too cluttered...

You can find me in the squeaky-clean, brand new home over here.

Suz- Good luck with your interview! All things crossed. Enjoy your cooler weather. I'm envious.