Cushla's 2011 books - chapter 4

OK, before Richard throws a tomato from Long Island to Basel, here is my new thread... I will be back to put in a list of books in a bit!

Currently reading:

Germany 1945 by Richard Bessel - p 200

The Calculus Gallery by William Dunham - slooowly with pen and paper
x


Chapter 3 is ...here.

Chapter 2 is back here.

Chapter 1 is here.

____________________

I'm leaving in this list of books I made at the start of the year. I won't get through all of them this year, but they're on my radar.

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy FINISHED JUNE 2011
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel
Nixonland by Rick Perlstein
Rough Crossings by Simon Schama
Citizens by Simon Schama
This time is different by Carmen Reinhardt and Kenneth Rogoff
Life and Fate by Vassily Grossman
Testament of Experience by Vera Brittain
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The rise and fall of the 3rd Reich by William Shirer
Germany 1945 by Richard Bessel - READING NOW
Masters and Commanders by Andrew Roberts
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
The Children's Book by A S Byatt
Death by a Thousand Cuts by Michael Graetz and Ian Shapiro READ IN DECEMBER 2010

January
1. Case Histories by Kate Atkinson - 4 1/2 stars - Orange January and TIOLI first in series
2. As Always, Julia by Joan Reardon - TIOLI Christmas present - 4 stars
3. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot - TIOLI top LT books of 2010 - 4 stars
4. A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo - 1 star
5. Manhattan, When I was Young by Mary Cantwell - 3 1/2 stars
6. Dissolution by CJ Sansom - 4 1/2 stars

February
7. Dark Fire by C J Sansom - 4 1/2 stars
8. A Fork in the Road: A Memoir by Andre Brink - 4 stars
9. An Unfinished Business by Boualem Sansal - 4 1/2 stars
10. God's Philosophers by James Hannam - 3 1/2 stars

March
11. Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa - 4 1/2 stars (TIOLI Middle East challenge)
12. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson - 4 1/2 stars - TIOLI City on p 17 (Split)
13. Black Mamba Boy by Nadifa Mohamed - 3 1/2 stars - TIOLI City on p 17 (Aden)
14. February by Lisa Moore - 4 1/2 stars

April
15. Sovereign by C J Sansom - 5 stars
16. Revelation by C J Sansom - 4 stars
17. The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives - Lola Shoneyin - 3 1/2 stars - TIOLI Orange longlist
18. The Pleasure Seekers by Tishani Doshi - 4 stars - TIOLI Orange longlist
19. A Month in the Country by J L Carr - 4 stars
20. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins - 4 1/2 stars
21. The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis - 3 stars

May
22. Children of the Revolution - also known as The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears - by Denaw Mengistu - 4 stars
23. The Terracotta Dog by Andrea Camilleri - 4 stars

June
24. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy - 5 stars
25. Miss Buncle's Book by D E Stevenson - 5 stars
26. Henrietta's War by Joyce Dennys - 3 1/2 stars
27. The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman - 4 stars
28. O Pioneers! by Willa Cather - 5 stars
29. Every Light in the House Burnin' by Andrea Levy - 3 1/2 stars
30. The Globalization Paradox by Dani Rodrik - 4 1/2 stars
31. Schachnovelle (Chess Story) by Stefan Zweig - 4 1/2 stars
32. Far to Go by Alison Pick (touchstone wonky) - 3 1/2 stars

July
33. Troubles by J.G. Farrell - 4 stars
34. The Snack Thief by Andrea Camilleri - 3 1/2 stars
35. Miss Ranskill Comes Home by Barbara Euphan Todd - 3 1/2 stars
36. The Solitary Summer by Elizabeth von Armin - 3 1/2 stars
37. Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer - 4 stars
38. The Warden by Anthony Trollope - 5 stars
39. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid - 4 1/2 stars

August
40. The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst - 5 stars
41. The Return of Captain John Emmett by Elizabeth Speller - 4 stars - TIOLI unusual main character name
42. City of Thieves by David Benioff - 5 stars - TIOLI 3 words and middle one is "of"
43. O: A Presidential Novel by Anonymous - 3 1/2 stars - TIOLI "one word sounds like a letter"
44. Lords of Finance by Liaquat Ahamed - 5 stars - TIOLI 3 words, middle one is "of"
45. Cooking with Fernet-Branca by James Hamilton-Paterson - 3 stars - TIOLI Europa Editions challenge
46. The Novel in the Viola by Natasha Solomons - 4 stars - TIOLI music in the title challenge

September
47. I'm Not Complaining by Ruth Adam - 3 1/2 stars - TIOLI school challenge - also wins the prize for the most ironic title of the year
48. The Periodic Table by Primo Levi - 5 stars - TIOLI Jewish challenge
49. Man Alone by John Mulgan - 4 1/2 stars - TIOLI NZ/Australia Challenge
50. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes - 5 stars
51. Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick - 4 1/2 stars
52. The Death of Faith by Donna Leon - 3 1/2 stars - TIOLI primary colours challenge

Source of books:
1. Bought in 2010 - 5 books (1, 4, 8, 33,44)
2. Presents - 3 books (2,5, 21)
3. Bought in 2011 for book club - 1 book (3)
4. Bought in 2011 for no good reason... 25 books (6,7,9,10, 11,12,13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27,28, 30, 31,32, 34,35,37,39,40,41,43,46)
5. Bought before 2010 - 7 books (19, 20, 24, 29, 36,47,48)
6. Free e-books - 1 book (38, 49)
7. Kindle books (don't really count... ) - 3 books - (42,45, 50)

*saving this post for best books so far list*

*empty message #3...*

Full message #4 . . .

Speedy!!

Starred, I read Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty and enjoyed it, so am looking forward to your review of The Stranger's Child.

Starred - and promising to try my very best to stay caught up!

Hi Kerry and Cait - thanks for visiting!

I've had a quick look at my bookshelves for the August TIOLI Challenges and am really happy with what I've found. Stasia, I haven't been through looking for books with bee, see or you just yet but that's next.

So far this is my list:

- The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst for the Booker challenge
- The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway for the music one (have to check if it fits the criteria but I think it will)
- Lords of Finance for the 3 words and "of" challenge
- The Periodic Table by Primo Levi for the "Reading with a friend" challenge, with Kerry and dejah_thoris
- Consequences by E.M. Delafield for the 2 initials challenge
- Salonica by Mark Mazower for Darryl's city challenge, or Paris: Biography of a City by Colin Jones (both these have languished FOREVER on my bookshelves
- Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore for Genny's Victorian biography challenge.

No doubt I will get sidetracked as the month goes on, but I have great intentions...

I always get sidetracked as the month goes on, so you are not alone, Cushla!

Tomatoes are scarce this year. At least, edible ones are. I've got a nice, slimy past-it-sell-by cabbage here, though....

They pickle that over here. Throw it over and I'll see what I can do.

...Swiss kimchi...? Ew. How does one make kimchi gemutlich?

I was thinking of sauerkraut!

OOOOOoooooooooOOOh...but sauerkraut *HAS* to start with the best and freshest cabbage!!! Like coleslaw! (BTW I like lots of caraway seed in my kraut, just so you'll know for when I come knocking.)

Home-grown tomatoes are too good to waste on busy LTers -- just ask the squirrels who are sucking the innards out of my green tomatoes!

I've been sucked once again into the August TIOLI challenges, Cushla. It is so much fun perusing my shelves and fitting them into the right category. I have been making so much headway on reading my own books this year that I have plenty of room to add more at the autumn library book sale!

I see The Magic Mountain is still on your book radar. Mine too. If we don't get to it this year, 2012 will work for me. I don't think Thomas Mann cares anymore!

Going back to Janet's comment -- I'd def agree it's a great place to be a young child. (I was there from 6 until nearly 12). I learned to navigate independently, going to and from school on the bus and walking to the Victoria & Albert at least two weekends a month (hey, I was a weird child...)

And I recognized the carousel too -- and the fab shot of the Galeries Lafayette! Sniff, I'm "home"sick for places that aren't even home any more...

If you enjoy the Speller book, there's now a sequel -- hardcover, sadly, but I could be convinced to pop it in the mail to you.

I am still up for a group read of The Magic Mountain either later this year or next.

Donna and Stasia, The Magic Mountain is still on my radar but I keep finding so many books I'd rather read now. I need to try a few chapters and see how it is. And that is SO annoying about the squirrels!! I hope you have enough tomatoes to keep everyone happy.

Suz - thanks for the offer of the book, but I have far too many books sitting here and only 4 months to read them before they go into boxes for the trip home. I've started looking at the Wellington library catalogue before I buy books, and they have the Kitty Easton book on order. (I just posted on your thread - this Kindle downloading process is sooooo tempting - but I think making myself check the library might keep the credit card bill under control.)

I am knee deep in The Return of Captain John Emmett and The Stranger's Child. They fit really well together - both are linked to the WW1 poets - and both are excellent. I have 150 pages left in each and with luck will get some reading time in today.

I strongly encourage new readers of The Magic Mountain! Though group reads don't seem to go well for me, I'd say this is the *perfect* book for a season-long group read, it's so long. My book circle read it over one summer when we didn't meet.

LOL - my bookgroup met the other day and persued the 1,001 book (2006) until we found one that was 'naughty' enough. Not sure why they wanted a naughty one - this month is Les Enfants Terribles.

Looks like you have some interesting stuff lined up Cushla - not sure much of it'll be my cup of tea but I'm always interested by your reviews.

Oh and I've got a whole bag of toms my dad gave me that accidentaly got neglected for that bit too long if you still need ammo? :)

I got to the halfway point of The Magic Mountain several years ago, I was enjoying it but just never picked it up again. I'm not good at group reads, but if it was taken really slowly I'd be more inclined.
I'm going to have to read The Stranger's Child as I was a fan of Brooke's poetry in my teens. I also recognise the carousel from your photos. Travelling with children can be fun, you're forced to discover different aspects of cities. I had such trouble convincing mine to get off the lions in Trafalgar Square and come into the National Gallery with me.

Always an interesting selection in your 'in box' - will follow with interest Cushla!

Hi Cushla, I see what my next Booker read will be.....

Yes, after my foray into Mann, I'd def be up for a group read of his magnum opus. I had the same experience as Kerry -- put it down when life got overwhelming. It's good, but requires time & concentration.

sigh, i can see I'm going to have to read the Hollinghurst. *grump grump* When I've tried his books in the past, they have never clicked for me, but...

>24 Chatterbox:: I know what you mean, Suz. I despised The Line of Beauty. But how can I argue with Cushla? And Darryl?

OK, here's my quick review of The Stranger's Child. I have marked tons of quotes, but I have given the ipad (and Kindle on it) to the kids so that I can get peace to write this down. Quotes later!

Book 40. The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst - 5 stars



*spoiler free as much as possible*

This beautifully written novel is a family saga, but so much more. It starts in 1913 with 16 year old Daphne Sawle lying in a hammock excitedly waiting for her brother George and his friend Cecil to come home for a long weekend. Home is "Two Acres" near London, where Daphne lives with her widowed mother Freda, her older brother Hubert, and George (when he's not at Cambridge). The book spans almost a century and we get to track the family members and their relations to one another in detail. There is also lots in here about how attitudes to World War 1 have changed, the Bloomsbury group and the war poets, how family myths get built up, and most of all, and not surprisingly because it's Alan Hollinghurst, how being gay in England has changed.

The Sawles are comfortably off, but not rich. They're acutely aware that Cecil comes from a much posher family, the Valances, and spend a fair bit of the weekend worrying about diong things right. For example, Jonah, one of their general house servants, is assigned to be Cecil's valet for the weekend, and has no clue what to do but pretends he does. George is infatuated with Cecil, whose strong personality comes through the whole novel. George worries about his mother and sister letting slip just how much detail he's told them about Cecil and his family. Lots happens during the weekend. (I said spoiler free!!) It felt like a rewritten version of Brideshead Revisited near the start, only backwards - the rich boy comes into the poorer family home.

There are 5 or 6 parts to the book, and 15-20 years between parts. Figuring out what was going on at the start of every new part was great fun. I don't think it's giving much away to say that by the end of the book Cecil, George, Daphne, Hubert and the rest of the family have all died, and we're left with the myths surrounding their lives and the impact they have had on several generation.

I loved this book and really hope it wins the Booker this year. Comparing it to other Booker winners that I've read, it's much better than The Finkler Question, not as good as Wolf Hall or The Remains of the Day but I am still happy giving it 5 stars. This is only half a review because I don't want to spoil it in case you go on to read it. I am dying to tell somebody how irritating I found one particular character but I will wait a few weeks!

OK, Laura and Suz, here I was thinking that The Line of Beauty would be the first book out of the boxes when we get home. I am off to look at your reviews if they are on here!! A RL friend also did not like it much at all.

Nice review of The Stranger's Child, Cushla! I have a little over 100 pages to go, so I'll finish it within the next 3-4 hours. I'm curious about the "irritating character" you mentioned; I'd be happy to talk with you about him or her later today (feel free to send me a PM; I won't look at it until I'm finished).

Oh, dear, I SO want to like Hollinghurst's books, and this one is getting such good reviews from people whose opinions I respect. But.... I, too, disliked The Line of Beauty, and I am not interested in WWI poets or the Bloomsbury group, or upper class people whose lives were changed by WWI. I mean, I don't want to read any more books about these subjects. So, what to do........

>26 cushlareads: Cushla, should we discuss the book in detail on its thread in the Booker Prizes group?

>29 JanetinLondon: Hmm...I haven't read The Line of Beauty, so I can't comment about that book. Given your comments, I'd be inclined to steer you away from The Stranger's Child. On the other hand, I wouldn't have been interested in these topics (WWI poets, British upper middle class) either, and I wouldn't have sought out this book had it not been touted as a favorite for the Booker Prize.

Great review of The Stranger's Child, looks like another must-read for me I think. Also have to chime in and say I think London would be an amazing place to bring up kids, incredible city.

I quite liked The Line of Beauty, which I read a couple of years ago -
I pulled some comments from my old thread:
I must admit that as I was reading it I felt there was a lot not to like with the emphasis on the gay lifestyle, drugs and politics, but the last 200 pages started to pull all the strings together and the last few chapters were especially good, so overall it did measure up to being a good read. The writing was excellent all the way through.

*spoiler free as much as possible*
lol

#25 Janet, I don't know if you'll like it. It's not just about upper class people though - but it does have lots about class in the UK and how it's changed. It also has lots about books, and the process of writing them, and what gets in and what gets left out.

#26 Darryl, good idea - I wonder if anyone else is reading it? I think over there it'd be ok to have spoilers too.

Leonie, I hope you like it when you get to it. Kerry I'm glad someone liked The Line of Beauty!

Megan, the reviews I've just read of The Stranger's Child give away so much! But it's kind of hard not to.

I have just had a horrible hour of trying to find Fletcher's passport. Ugh. It was in the apartment the whole time, under a pile of washing!! We have just booked another holiday, all 4 of us this time, and the prospect of having to sort out a replacement in the next 10 days was awful, plus I am trying to go over to France to the supermarket this afternoon... We are going to Munich, Salzburg and St Gallen before school goes back.

Will be back later with some comments on The Reluctant Fundamentalist and The Return of Captain John Emmett, which I finished this morning and really liked - the second half really got going.

Ooh, Salzburg, lucky you. I have never been, but my daughter went there on a music tour last month and absolutely loved it, and would like us to go back for a family holiday. Well, if/when I am well enough to do that, we will.....

Now how often do you get to say 'I'll just pop over to France for a supermarket shop'? Nice.

#26: I really wish my local library had that one!

34 Popping across to France to the supermarket made me laugh too! How wonderful!

Oh the joys of living on the continent! When we first went to Brussels, we needed some household appliances, but it was a bank holiday in Belgium (they are more civilized there, or were then, and things close for holidays), so we just drove over to Germany, where it wasn't one!

Yep, it is really cool being able to drive over to France. St Louis is about 20 minutes from here and its main attractions are two big supermarkets. EVery time I go I swear I will do it every week, and the franc is so strong now that it is ridiculous to be shopping in the Swiss supermarkets, which were exorbitant even before the franc started to take off. And the Bakery section is even better than the Swiss ones.

As an extra bonus, my daughter found the golden syrup yesterday - I have been hunting for it since we arrived. Swiss people don't use it.

back later, kids whinging for the iPad... 3 weeks left of holidays!

Catching up on this thread and your old one. Some great pictures of London and Paris - glad you and the kids had a good time. And a great review of The Stranger's Child.

#40 Mmm, golden syrup.

#40 golden syrup YUM
That reminds me, I need to take the ginger loaf out of the freezer for book club tonight. It's got 1/3 cup of golden syrup in it :-)
I'm thinking with a cup of tea and lashings of butter. Mmmm.

Golden Syrup on porridge on cold winter mornings - one of my favourite childhood memories. Mmmm...

French hypermarkets are awesome - they have such interesting things. Though I do remember trying to buy the ingredients to make a trifle when in Brittany as a kid. Not easy - the French have no idea what jelly is.

They've reduced the price of The Stranger's Child to £6.74 on Kindle, and since the hardback sounds like a hefty one I thought that would be nice to read that way. I got a bit carried away and bought 5 books on the shortlist, including Far to Go which I've read from the library but I will have to give it back next week. I've now read 3 (another from the library) so the shortlist will contain at least one I've bought though perhaps none I've read!

>44 elkiedee:: I made a similar decision yesterday! I pre-ordered The Stranger's Child on Kindle -- it's not released here in the US until Oct 11, and then only in hardback. It was much cheaper as an eBook and, as you say, it's a hefty book and will be far less hefty on my cute little Kindle!

Cushla can now take credit for two of my Kindle purchases (the other being The God Delusion, still being read in bits & pieces but quite thought-provoking).

I read The Stranger's Child on my kindle and it was great - not clunky to cart around. I'm enjoying the kindle (well, the iPad version) so much more than I expected. I've switched from Amazon US to the Germany store, and the selection seems bigger but it might just be more titles that are published in the UK.

Laura I think I 'm still in credit with you because of many many books you've helped me to buy!

Ooh..what a good tip, Cushla ... I need to check out Amazon Germany for more titles? *runs for my Kindle*

Caroline can you do that? we already have an account there, because there is no Switzerland shop. I don't know if it can work it out or not but I think if you have enough email addresses it might work.

Cushla, I was just going to say that Sebastian Barry's Annie Dunne is on special offer for 99p/$1.61 at Amazon UK/US - it's a bit more at amazon.de though. Of course, that might not even be in English, it might be a German translation.

The Stranger's Child is looking very good, this has been on my wish list for a little while, may just weaken soon.

Will be very interested to hear what you thought The Reluctant fundamentalist ......

>27 cushlareads:: I didn't get very far in The Line of Beauty before I gave it up, but I don't hold it against the author. I'm looking forward to reading The Stranger's Child. I hope I can get my hands on it before the Booker winner is announced. I have three other nominees waiting for me at the library. I seems to be Bonkers about Booker this year. ;-)

I'm glad I don't have to share my new iPad with anyone. My husband isn't a bit interested in it. My selfish side is delighted!

Hi Cushla, sorry I am late, but I want to say I am glad you had such a wonderful time in London and Paris with the kids. Love the pictures - and the 'Paddington' one is extra cute!

Great review of A Stranger's Child, I wishlisted it and got the Kindle sample. Unfortuately the low price seems not to be valid for Europeans, it's 13,70 USD, so I won't buy it now.
I wish I could access amazon.de or UK with the Kindle. I guess they can check the IP address of your computer or something like that and then decide to let you into their shop - or not.

OK, time for some catching up on books...

Book 39- The Relucant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid - 4 1/2 stars



Acquired: July 26 2011
Why I read it now: Bought it at WH Smith in St Pancras Station to read on the last leg of our holiday.

This was a very tense, fast read and kept me hanging till the end. We see one side of a conversation between Changez, a Pakistani man sitting in a cafe in Lahore, and an American. The American's part of the conversation can be picked up by Changez's remarks in response to him. Changez tells the story of his life and how he ended up believing what he does now. He grew up in a Pakistani family that is well-off but losing its money and social standing. He was accepted into Princeton, where he did well, and got a job in finance, and fell in love with another Princeton graduate. He was in New York on September 11, 2001.

I don't want to give any more away here except to say that if you haven't read this yet, it won't take you long and it's really really good. It was a bit funny for me too - the more I read the more we had in common. I went to Yale, not Princeton, and my job in investment banking before I had kids involved very similar work to his - valuing companies. I found myself smiling at lots of his comments about the company he worked for, and life at Princeton (although I was a grad student, so it was a bit different.) And I was in New York for 9/11, working up town at 19th St and Madison and watching it out the window, and my husband was 3 blocks away inside the New York Fed. Changez wasn't in New York on the day, but his reactions were really interesting. I certainly didn't share his reaction to the attacks, but some of the things he said rang true. The extreme patriotism a few months after when the US invaded Afghanistan left me cold. The flags were everywhere and I found them quite oppressive. I came to work one day to find that one of the group's secretaries had made colour copies of a picture of the eagle, the flag and the burning towers and stuck them on everyone's cubicle. I hated that picture - I had my own ways of getting over what had happened and this was not one of them - but as a foreigner I did not feel that I could take it down. The day the US invaded Afghanistan, we were out visiting my husband's boss on Long Island. They found the flag waving a bit much and were the only ones in their street not to have a big American flag out on the lawn. Anyway, the overlap between my life and Changez's definitely added to my enjoyment of the novel.

Going backwards...

Luci, I haven't seen many great specials at Amazon.de but the franc is so strong at the moment that 7 Euros a book is not bad compared to what I'd pay here.

Overall though I find the Kindle prices high enough to put me off unless I am having a weak moment. I'll be trying to stick to the library and secondhand bookshops once we are home.

Nathalie, I don't think the .de price for The Stranger's Child is much less than the US price - US$13.70 is about 8 Euros now. So does your Kindle take you to the US store? Or a special European one? Weird. Glad you liked the photos!

Alex and Donna I hope you like The Stranger's Child and can find it soon. One of the things about the Kindle is that I can't mail my books to friends any more - aagh! But overall, I am liking reading on it much more than I'd expected. Donna, what are the other 3 you have on hold?

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is on my tbr, and after your review, I am going to check for it at the local library. Thanks!

Jeanne I have been meaning to say hi on your thread for AGES - where are you in NZ? Up north, right?

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is going on my wishlist, it sounds interesting.

Cushla, I went to the library and picked up four Booker longlist books: The Sisters Brothers, A Cupboard Full of Coats, Snowdrops, and Pigeon English. I've listed them in the order that I may read them, depending on the mood I'm in when I'm ready for a new book. Unfortunately, The Stranger's Child is not available to me yet.

I've read so many great reviews of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, yours included, that I wonder why I haven't read it yet. I think it's that "so little time" end of our "so many books" mantra that is the problem.

I guess I am the only person in LT-land who did not care overmuch for The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Ah, well.

Stasia, it would be much less fun here if we all liked the same books!

Donna, I'm thinking about buying Snowdrops and The Sisters Brothers (and a couple of the others) so will be keen to see what you think.

I also liked The reluctant Fundamentalist when I read it earlier this year. I thought it was an interesting approach to tackling some big issues.

Hi Cushla, great review of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, it's already on the wishlist but your review does make me want to get to it sooner. Your recall of events in your life at the time was also very interesting and I can see that this would enhance the reading of the book even more.

56> Yes, we moved from the North Shore to Doubtless Bay in December. Almost a year, and still adjusting to the rural lifestyle.

Hi Cushla, terrific review of The Reluctant Fundamentalist a book I read and loved earlier this year. I was really interested in your reaction to the patriotism after 9/11. I think we Americans are more patriotic than most other citizens of other countries. I don't know why that is.

Powerful review Cushla, and I liked your observations on 9/11 too.

I loved The Reluctant Fundamentalist; it was one of my fave books last year. I am interested in the Bloomsberries (sorry, cldn't resist...) and in the WWI poets and the aftermath of WWI, but Hollinghurst... Sigh. I may just have to get over it and read it, I suppose. But I think it will be a library book for me, whenever it makes it to this side of "pond".

I did get one of the Booker nominees from the UK today, have Pigeon English waiting for me on Kindle and library holds on two more...

#60: it would be much less fun here if we all liked the same books!

Very true! It still amazes me what a wide range of interests are represented here in this group.

Hi Cushla, I very interested in reading The Reluctant Fundamentalist and although meant to pick it up from the library something else always took precedence. But your comment "fast read" got me, so perhaps next time I'm there.....

How serendipitous! I started The Reluctant Fundamentalist this weekend.

Hi Lisa, Suz, Lynda, Bonnie, Megan, Leonie, Alana and Katie!

Lisa, how cool that you are reading it at the moment. It was one of those books that begged for more discussion and would make a great book group read.

Bonnie I think that Americans show their patriotism more than New Zealanders and I hope my comments on the flags didn't upset you or anyone else. We have a deep sense of pride in our country too but we can be pretty bad at expressing it, unless it concerns rugby, in which case the whole country must celebrate. (NZers I am kidding but only just.) In general you also are more open with displaying emotion, which is probably a good thing.

#65 Jeanne, I have just had a look on the map - I am embarrassed that we have done ONE trip to the far north and stayed in Kerikeri, but we drove up to Cape Reinga. It was gorgeous and once we get home we are keen to show the kids New Zealand. We will get north again one year soon! (We're in Wellington.)

Lynda - it really is fast. I think I got half of it read on the train from London to Paris (2 hours) with the kids scrapping over who had the ipad. My copy is 209 pages with double spaced lines.

A book update - am still in the middle of Lords of Finance and it is excellent. I feel like my book ratings have grade inflation - it's 7 books since I had less than a 4 star read. And the Kindle is turning into a problem. I need a kiddie lock on it - last night I read Suzanne's review of Cooking with Fernet Branca and had started it within 2 minutes! It's really funny so I am not regretting the 7 euros.

We have had such a good time exploring our new home. We spent two weeks in the northern half of the South Island a few summers ago and have made several trips to Wellington, the Bay of Plenty, the Coromandel, and camping in Te Urewera. But we kept being drawn back to the Far North and decided we would rather live here than visit a few weeks a year. Nine months in and still loving it.

Well if you get back to Wellington we will have to do a meet-up! Sounds like you have done tons of exploring. I haven't done the Bay of Plenty or Te Urewera and I've lived in NZ for 40 years on and off... but in my defence I grew up in Dunedin so I know the South Island pretty well.

Another book review...

Book 41: The Return of Captain John Emmett by Elizabeth Speller - 4 stars
Acquired: July 26 2011 (oh dear, so much for reducing the TBR pile)
Why: I was at WH Smith in St Pancras waiting to get the train to Paris, and needed to rab a couple of books. This was in their Top 10 display, had a nice cover and vaguely rang a bell from here. It turns out Suzanne read it and really liked it earlier this year. The power of LT!!



I seem to be reading a lot of very English books this year, most of them really good. This is the first of a mystery series set just after World War 1, looking back at the war. Captain Laurence Bartram has been home from the war for 3 years. His wife and baby son died while he was at the front, he has no family in England, and he is trying to focus on writing a book about church architecture in London. A letter arrives from Mary Emmett, whose brother John was at school with Laurence. John came back from France with shell shock and ended up in an institution for returned soldiers with mental illness. He committed suicide, and Mary wants to find out what the last few years of his life were like - they weren't very close. Laurence had met Mary while he'd been at Cambridge and liked her, and sets about investigating. He's pretty clueless at first but his friend Charles (a jolly-good-old-chap friend, who could have been irritating but whom I really liked as the story went on) knows everyone and even has a car.

This book went into lots of detail about aspects of World War One - discipline in the army, class distinctions, the treatment of mental illness, and tons more. The characters were realy well developed and all had interesting (and usually very sad) stories. If you liked Testament of Youth, All Quiet on the Western Front or Regeneration you will probably enjoy this novel. It was a bit longer than it needed to be in the middle but then it got really really good again in the last 150 pages. I'll be looking for the next one in the library when I get home. (Note: I will NOT be buying any more books on the Kindle, I will not, I will not. And I have too many other series that I've started.)

Cool, Lords of Finance has been added to my wishlist. Sounds like another "I can't believe they allowed this to happen" book. Also added, The Return of Captain John Emmett. If you and Suz like it, I've GOT to read it.

You've been reading some really good books! I thought The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and your review of The Return of Captain John Emmett has made me push it a bit further up my list.

Hi Cushla

I've added The Stranger's Child to the tbr pile.

Your review is excellent.

I enjoyed The Return of Captain John Emmett too - I've been wanting to read it since it came out last year and the Bookbag reviewer loved it - I have a hardback copy which I found in one of my favourite secondhand bookshops a few days before its official publication (they have a shelf which is obviously review copies being resold). I have the second book out of the library and hope to read it quite soon, as I don't know if I'll be able to keep renewing it.

Lucia I hope you can read it before it's due back.

Linda, hi! I hope you like the Stranger's Child too.

Janet, yep, I love it when you get a run of great books and time to get through them before you forget the first half. The kids have watched more TV these holidays than they should have...and I've eased way off on the German study.

Lynda you will like Lords of Finance. If it stays this good I might have to email the author to say how good it is. and yes, there are "how did this happen?" moments all over it. The funniest but one of the worst stories so far is about one of the many fights over payment of war debts. The British Prime Minister at the time, Andrew Bonar Law, didn't like the settlement proposal that was taken to cabinet by Stanley Baldwin. The proposal passed though and he didn't speak out against it (collective responsibility of cabinet doctrine, very strong in English and commonwealth constitutional law). But he wrote an anonymous letter to the editor of the Times instead attacking his own government's decision!! There are heaps of anecdotes like that one.

And now I have to go back to Cooking with Fernet Branca while I am cooking our dinner...

#70 The Reluctant Fundamentalist would be interesting to discuss. So what do you think happened at the end? And I love the play on the word fundamentalist, which he refers to throughout the book in terms of his work, but not in the sense we usually think of, i.e. religious fundamentalist. But clearly just reading the title sets the reader up to think of fundamentalist extremism, not, focusing on the fundamentals.

#72 Added The Return of Captain John Emmett to my list. After reading The Return of the Soldier, I've been thinking about WWI and the treatment of mental illnesses like shell shock.

Have fun on your trip! Maybe our trains will pass each other, and we can wave out the windows!

Lisa I'll PM you so that nobody who hasn't read it gets cross!

>78 labfs39:: I've been thinking about WWI and the treatment of mental illnesses like shell shock.
Have you read Pat Barker's Regeneration trilogy?

#79 can you copy me? I've read it, and would love to see what you thought. or maybe it needs a thread that people can just ignore? i'll bet lots of people would like to discuss that aspect of it, and others, too.

Wah! This is worse than visiting Stasia's thread - I'm getting hit by book bullets all over the place.

The Return of Captain John Emmett and Lords of Finance have gone on the wishlist although I'm going to try and get them from the library. The Reluctant Fundamentalist has gone on the maybe list.

Janet a thread is a good idea. I'll start one later tonight. I'll label it with spoiler and post a link here.

Lisa, if you haven't read Regeneration you would love it I think.

Heather I'm sorry!!

Sorry, Cushla, didn't mean to create extra work for you! (But it would be great to discuss RF).

I do have Regeneration and the third book in the trilogy, The Ghost Road, but not the second, Eye in the Door. I was going to wait until I had all three, but maybe I'll just jump in. Thanks for the recommendation, Laura.

Lisa it's no trouble, just need to get five minutes of peace! I liked the first one much more than the next two.

whooo hooo, caught up! Good reviews, Cush. Definitely putting The Stranger's Child on the list.

I really enjoyed Snowdrops more for its moral dilemma - Freefall & corrupt society & the choices we humans will make....

Its the only one on the Booker list I have read......

PS You are right being compulsory to watch/listen to every All Blacks game - will be even worse once the World cup starts down her win a few weeks ...... but showing emotion, no that is not done! ... lol Kiwis area funny breed.

Hi Tui and Alex. Alex, I will probably try Snowdrops soon-ish because I've seen quite a few interesting comments on here. But my backlog of "want to read soon" books seems even bigger than usual right now. And on the RWC, I am so happy we won't be home. I did get very excited for the final last time but not all the rest.

I started a thread for discussing the Reluctant Fundamentalist but I haven't said anything much yet! I need to get my copy of the book. I marked quite a few bits.

I enjoyed your review of and comments about The Reluctant Fundamentalist; I found it to be compelling and powerful. It's been nearly four years since I read it, so I won't remember fine details about it, but I'll look at your thread and comment if I can.

I already have The Return of Captain John Emmett in the BlackHole or I would add it again. Now if my local library would just cooperate by acquiring a copy!

Hi Stasia and Darryl!

Stasia, want me to post it over to you when I get it back from the friend I lent it to? I don't mind at all. It'll be a few weeks till she's read it but I know you won't run out of books.

We are packing for our Great Train Journey - Munich, Salzburg and Innsbruck for a week. And this time, I'm not just taking Kindle books because I know the kids will want to be playing Angry Birds on the ipad and that's when I will get peace to read. I'm negotiating with my husband about luggage space... for once I am NOT the problem. He is halfway through The origins of political order by Francis Fukuyama and it must weigh 2 kg. I'm hunting for skinny books... I was going to match him but we have decided against taking The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich to Germany with the enormous swastika on its cover!

Yes, I always feel very put off books with swastikas on the cover generally.

Hi Cushla! drive-by hug

Ooh, that sounds like a fun trip! I look forward to your reports, pictures, and what books you bring with you and pick up along the way.

A Eurorail trip has always been a dream of mine. No kids, just me and the hubby getting on and getting off for a month or so and shipping our dirty laundry home.

#92 We've started packing too; we leave Tuesday. I'm trying to pick small paperbacks (Cellist of Sarajevo, All Quiet on the Western Front, Tinkers, and Austerlitz), but I'm sure the lineup will change. It's my daughter's book weight I'm worried about: book dad is reading her Black Stallion Returns, book mom is reading her Boston Jane: The Claim and backup Island of the Aunts, and the books she wants to read. We'll resemble a small bookmobile!

Yoicks! I'd leave the swastika cover at home too. Good plan, Cush.

#96 yea, that sounds pretty good to me too! And the Trans Siberian, and the one that goes across Australia, and the Trans Scenic NZ one that goes up the coast to Kaikoura (that one I might manage soon)
All that reading time, gazing out at the scenery...have fun Cushla!

Hi Lucia, Richard, Darryl, Jeanne, Lisa and Tui.

#96 Jeanne, I already know what I'll be doing next Monday... Unless we find a laundromat on the way. Train trips here are great and at this time of year (and all year really) the traffic on the motorway is awful. Understandably the Germans are obsessed with Stau and we've had a couple of trips where we just didn't move for half an hour.

#97 Lisa, I nearly packed The Cellist of Sarajevo too but it didn't make the final pile: A morbid taste for Bones by Ellis Peters, the Brontes went to Woolworths, the Siege of Krishnapur and Germany 1945. Wouldn't want to run out of something to read...have whittled the kids down to one Captain Underpants, two Bionicles books for Fletcher to read himself, 3 in 1 Pearlie the Park fairy books, and a couple of Mr Men. I think you are doing better on the rationing...and I think reading AQOTWF and Austerlitz while you're over here will make you remember them more. Haven't read Austerlitz so looking forward to seeing what you think.

Hi Megan! I haven't done the Tranz scenic and had forgotten about it. bet it's stunning scenery. We did the Ghan from Adelaide to Ayres Rock in 1999 though and it was spectacular going through the desert. The train hit a cow though in the middle of the night.

The train hit a cow though in the middle of the night
Oh no, that cant have been good. I bet they have problems with kangaroos too?

They must but not that night. It took 24 hours and I was ready to get off in Alice Springs (forgot...it didn't go to Uluru, we drove there once we got off the train. And there were lots of road sig s warning about kangaroos.). Uluru was amazing, especially watching the sun set on it.

Sounds like you've got a wonderful trip planned Cushla. I vaguely remember doing the TransAlpine from Christchurch when I was maybe 7 with mum and brother. Dad took the car across and we drove back up through nelson/marlborough and down the coast through Kaikoura. Scenery was beautiful, and no animal incidents!

Tranzalpine from Christchurch to Greymouth is still my favourite NZ train trip ...... absolutely stunning.

I am trying to catch up on your thread and just read about your trip. I am passing Innsbruck whenever I go north, but never stopped there, except once for IKEA (I know it's a shame!). I hope you'll have a great time, and you'll sure be able to 'collect' some strange German dialects.

And you did the Ghan - this has always been one of my dream train trips! Maybe one day...

Haven't done the Ghan, but I have done the Indian Pacific, which is the one that goes from Sydney to Perth. A very LONG journey. :)

And I did trains around Europe when I was much younger, but mostly at night to save on hostel costs. So I didn't actually get to see much of the countryside. I'd do it differently now I'm older and need to sleep in a proper bed.

Love the reading lists! Always one of my favourite parts of travel, choosing the books to take. I've got my iPad which is great in terms of taking LOTS of books, but, yeah, it's often used to distract the kids so I can read a non-digital book in peace.

I've always wanted to take the train across Canada. One day!

Hi Cushla! Don't know how I managed it, but I still had your previous thread starred and was wondering where you'd gotten to - duh! Anyway, I've found you once more : ).

Fabulous reviews of The Stranger's Child, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and Captain John Emmett. Thanks for those! Some of your review of The Stranger's Child made me think of Atonement. Anyway, it's a definite one-up for my wishlist.

I did the TransCanada - or at least, Vancouver to Toronto. Back when I was 18, in 1980, when it was still a train and not just a tourist attraction. I was doing it solo, had a "roomette", and had a fabulous time. A perfect vacation -- great scenery, peace and quiet to read.

#107 Indian Pacific WOW Id love to do that. I looked into it when I moved back to NZ from Perth but of course flying was much cheaper....maybe I should have splurged as I ended up missing my flight and having to pay big $$$ for another one! (only flight Ive ever missed, silly girl)

Eek, have not been able to post for 6 days but am still lurking. In Innsbruck now and it is lovely - did not love Salzburg at all... Way too touristy for me. The old town was beautiful though and the fortress on the hill, but Innsbruck feels much more relaxed. Munich was fantastic and we foud an enormous beer garden one night. ill put some pics up on Sunday when we're back.

If the iPad is on it is mostly for the kids... Teresa has just been stung by a wasp so I am about to placate her with YouTube episodes of Peppa Pig.

am nearly halfway through Germany 1945, but think I am going to abandon The Brontes went to Woolworths at page 27 unless one of you convinces me it gets better!!

will be back soon with some proper replies to your messages.

waving from South Tirol to North Tirol (Innsbruck) direction
:-)

Sorry to hear Salzburg wasn't a hit. My daughter loved it, but then again she's 16 and probably still loves all that touristy kind of stuff. Doing the Sound of Music tour with 100 fellow student musicians is probably guaranteed to be fun for a teenager and hell for most grownups, for example!

Hi Cushla, I've been catching up on your last thread and this in stages, there is too much good stuff here to want to skim through.

Firstly, sympathy to Teresa for the wasp sting. I got one the other night too, on my head - which was a first. I hope Teresa has recovered from hers by now. And I'm sorry Salzburg wasn't too great but glad Innsbruck is better.

Next, re long train journeys, I love them. Have done fewer long trips across Europe in recent years than I used to - my 26th birthday was spent on a train as I was taking the opportunity to go Interrailing again before I passed the upper age limit. I have vague plans to do the trans Canada route, so was interested to see Suz mention that in #110 - I want to do it for the same reasons she mentions, the scenery, and lots of reading time. Also I have a god-mother in Halifax, a good friend in Toronto (which is the only bit of Canada I've visited before) and another friend in Vancouver, so I'd love to fit in a visit to all of these, connected by train. I just need to work out timings and costs...

I'm sure there was something else I was going to comment on, but I can't remember what so I'll stop now!

I've also taken a couple of wonderful train journeys across Canada: Ottawa-Halifax and Ottawa-Calgary. Enjoyed a roomette on the trip to east coast, which was wonderful. Calgary, I'm afraid, was only a seat - but I was young and with a close first cousin, and we had a blast regardless!

*itchy feet*
*itchy feet*

*waving at Cushla* - and sharing Megan's itchy foot syndrome :)

Am desperate to get home now, giggling at all your itchy feet comments!!

Genny I have been loving your holiday updates. sounds like total bliss. will be catching up on threads on Monday...we head homw tomorrow.

I had a much needed break from the kids this afternoon and instead of seeing the sights of Innsbruck (really lovely but I am over it all) I headed str aight for Tyrolia, a really nice bookshop with a good English section. I left with O: A Presidential Novel by Anonymous, which is like a long West Wing episode so far and I am loving it - perfect holiday reading - and the novel in the viola which I am sure someone here just liked...

edited to add that it was Luci - thanks!

'A long West Wing episode' - sounds fun!

#119-120 I'm another fan of West Wing!

Hi Cushla, I'm really enjoying hearing about your travels and I loved The West Wing.

*waving* at Cushla - kudos for you on heading straight to the bookshop :)

Sometimes some personal time in a bookshop is just what the doctor ordered, isn't it. Good on yer.

#119 the book shop is the sights!!

We are home - yay!!! I am already forgetting how much work it was wrangling the kids - Fletcher really would rather have been at home playing with his bionicles - and remembering the great things we saw. Innsbruck was much quieter than Salzburg, which was stunning but the crowds in the old town in the day time were awful - Innsbruck felt more like a normal town where people lived.

It's going to be stinking hot here today - 97 (35 C) predicted for 5 pm - so I am hiding inside the apartment. No aircon here, but not too hot yet.

Book 43: O: A Presidential Novel by Anonymous - 3 1/2 stars



I finished my holiday book and enjoyed it. It was published in January this year, and the author might be Mark Salter, who was a senior adviser to John McCain. The whole thing read like a script for West Wing, so if you loved that show or you can't cope without reading Politico Playbook every day you will probably like this book. I started off loving it but as it went on, it had not quite enough satire for me and was a bit too much like reading another campaign account (which I will always be happy to do). The O in the book is Obama, and it's set in the near future - from January 2011 to November 2012. The Republican nominee, Tom Morrison, reads like Mitt Romney with some John McCain thrown in - both candidates have integrity galore. There's lots about journalists, big donors with ulterior motives, the news cycle, competition between old and new media, but a lot of it didn't feel very fresh by the end and it could have been 100 pages shorter. I enjoyed Primary Colors much more, but I was 25 back then and it was more exciting!

Been lurking for a while, Cushla, but I had to come out of my lurk-rock to say... welcome home!

Caroline I am about to come out from under my lurking rock on your thread too!

We'll just de-lurk together. :-)

Lots of lurking going on around here. I must admit to doing my fair share of it. I keep mentioning train journeys to my husband, but he gives me the "are you kidding?" look. Hmmm... traveling solo with my iPad loaded with books. Sounds like a plan!

#126 The wrangling bit tends to fade really quickly doesn't it! When, after some days, it is all you can remember you know its been a particularly bad one!

Appreciate your review of O: A Presidential Novel, Cushla. I don't think it's for me, but it sounds like it's written some integrity - There's lots about journalists, big donors with ulterior motives, the news cycle, competition between old and new media.

#119: Tyrolia, a really nice bookshop with a good English section
Thanks for the recommendation for my next stop at Innsbruck! :-)

Hi Nancy! I think O was better at describing the election cycle than at any real insight into Obama. Fun if you're into political books, otherwise definitely one to skip.

Donna, I love reading on the ipad on the trams and trains - often just the FT or other newspapers offline. I can understand why your husband isn't too keen on trains at the moment though - my back is a bit sore from Saturday's trip (and lugging a sleeping 4 year old up 3 flights of stairs did not help).

Bekka the kids are scrapping right now. It is so hot still. 2 days of school holidays left!

Nathalie, Tyrolia is easy to get to from the train station - just get a bus that takes you to Maria Theresien Strasse, which is one of the main pedestrianised streets (with a nice column of Anna - the Annasaule). It's halfway down. I am still amazed when I find bookshops in Europe with really carefully chosen English book sections. You could see that they had tons of Orange books, Booker shortlisted ones over the years, and a really good range. If you get time on your next trip back to Germany from Italy, Innsbruck was very nice for wandering round.

I might manage to finish Lords of Finance today if I keep reading... 170 pages to go.

Only one day left...

Hi Cushla, trying to catch up but there is so much good stuff here to read. Are the kids back in school yet?

It's 6.02 and I am up to make the school lunches five minutes before the alarm goes off!! (And a bit excited. The prospect of a few hours to myself is quite appealing...). Just as excited that today is going to be a bit cooler and we might get thunder and rain. It was 36 on Monday, 34 yesterday and icky sticky.

And in response to heavy LT cheerleading, I have bought the first Three Pines mystery for a whole 2 euros on my Kindle, because I don't have enough series on the go all ready...

Enjoy the first day of school!

because I don't have enough series on the go all ready... :) Enjoy it!

Woo hoo -- first day of school! Best of luck to the kids and enjoy your day, Cushla.

Enjoy your Cushla-time! Laughed with you over your line because I don't have enough series on the go all ready ... ah, yes!

Darn it - I keep getting tempted (and blaming Richard)... no no I will resist!

So the kids go back to school and I vanish from my own thread!! It is SO nice to have time to myself again, and I've been spending a fair bit of it reading (and doing start-of-the-year jobs like buying extra pairs of shoes and stationery beyond your imagination).

I haven't started Still Life yet but will try to read it for the TÏOLI 9 letter title challenge this month, I think. I am 4 reviews behind on here and am trying to catch up! Here's the first one:



Book 44: Lords of Finance by Liaquat Ahamed - 5 stars and probably going to be my top non-fiction book for 2011

I bought this last year while I was reading several books about the financial crisis. It had lots of good reviews and won several prizes, including the Pulitzer Prize for history in 2010 and the FT/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year for 2009. It's Liaquat Ahamed's first book, and he was interviewed on the Guardian Books podcast and sounded like a genuinely nice guy, which always makes me more likely to read something. It's 500 pages, so it sat there for ages till I was in the mood for a solid non-fiction read again. I will be forcing it on my real life friends who like economics, history, or politics, work for central banks, or are interested in the causes of WW2. You don't need to have an economics background to read it, but it will definitely make it an easier read.

Ahamed starts his book at the end of World War 1 and tells the story of how the western world ended up in a series of financial disasters that lasted through the 1920s and well into the 1930s. He does this by focusing on four central bankers: Montagu Norman, Governor of the Bank of England, Hjalmar Schacht, at the Reichsbank, Emile Moreau at the Banque de France, and Benjamin Strong, Governor at the New York Fed. All four were interesting guys with plenty of eccentricities to liven up the book. Norman and Strong became very good friends. Their decisions, and indecision at critical times, contributed to an imbalanced global economy tipping over into chaos again and again. It has huge parallels to what's going on today in the US and in the Eurozone.

The book has a great blend of economics and anecdote - I have dogeared so many pages. Some other reviewers have found the anecdotes offputting, but I loved them.

The story goes something like this (and without Ahamed's eloquence): Before World War 1, most world economies operated fixed exchange rates under a system called the gold standard. Money was backed by gold - you could rock up to the central bank, present your francs or dollar notes, and ask for a gold ingot. This worked well enough, and was treated as the holy grail of macroeconomics by central bankers and politicians. Trying to stick to the gold standard after World War 1 made already serious economic problems insurmountable.

The Allies were enormously in debt to the US, which had entered the war much later, and Germany was even more enormously in debt to the Allies because of the level of reparations payments assigned at Versailles. The US already had much more gold than it needed, and it kept getting more. Ahamed covers the endless negotiations about Germany's reparations really well, and goes through everything that followed - Germany's hyperinflation, France's surprising economic bounce-back until the 1930s by fixing their exchange rate lower than sustainable (making its exports recover quickly), the UK getting back onto the gold standard at too high a rate, Germany's financial crisis in 1929, the US stock market crash, then a series of banking crises from 1931-33.

In the end, but too late to avoid the massive hardship of the depression, the US abandoned the gold standard and let the value of the US dollar fall. The central bankers come out of the book looking fairly useless (albeit when faced with extremely difficult problems - hindsight is a wonderful thing), and so do most of the politicians. FDR and Keynes look pretty good overall, and I have already bought Freedom from Fear as a follow-up read based on rebeccanyc's review of it, to read more about Roosevelt.

Heather, I think when I reviewed the Globalisation Paradox a few months ago you asked for some recommendations for the background economics. I think for Lords of Finance the best preparation would be the introductory chapters from a first year economics textbook like the one by Greg Mankiw on exchange rates and how they work, with graphs showing the differences between fixed and floating. Then a few chapters from Paul Krugman and Maurice Obstfeld's excellent book called International Economics: Theory and Policy would give more background on fixed and floating rates, and a good historical overview.

I will be back with comments on the other 3 books tomorrow. I'm not expecting tons of visits from y'all saying "I have GOT to add that one to my wishlist" but it really was good!

Wishlisted, with grumbling and highly aspersive subvocalization.

why-eeeeeeee?

...like I *need* another book that I really, really, really want to read!! Horrible temptress of the innocent and guiltless.

BTW, your review doesn't appear to be posted on the book page yet. Quick sticks, now!

Jawohl!!

Too much Deutschening in the New Zealand dough, obviously.

Yes - sorry. " Jawohl" slips out sometimes but usually to my husband and not in public - too many memories of Hogan's Heroes. I hope you like the book when you get a chance to read it - I think you will.

Cushla, what a fascinating review of Lords of Finance. Thank you : ).

143: I'm not expecting tons of visits from y'all saying "I have GOT to add that one to my wishlist" but it really was good!

Lords of Finance is already physically in my possession, and your review pushed it onto the TBR soonish pile. Which tends to be volatile, but the book has a fair chance since I don't yet have a lineup for September.

That sounds like an interesting read.

>143 cushlareads: I already have this book--I bought it for my husband a while back and, although I often give him books, I have to say he reads them only about half the time. This one he read, and really liked. I've been meaning to read it myself (naturally I give him books that I'm interested in), put off only by the fact that as you mention it is quite long. But thank you for the nudge!

chuckling away as I pass on by.....

".....Horrible temptress of the innocent and guiltless."

I agree another book wishlisted .... looks a fascinating read

Fabulous review of Lords of Finance, Cushla; I'll add it to my wish list.

Lords of Finance is definitely wishlisted Cushla. I'm very good at wanting to read non-fiction books and very slow at actually reading them...

I'll look out for the other authors on economics you mentioned, the local library system has a couple of their books.

ETA: And your review has been deservedly thumbed.

I think I won't add Lords of Finance to my wishlist, Cushla, as I struggle enough to get round to reading non-fiction that is much more in my area. But I enjoyed your review!

and it's taken me over an hour to find where to even post in your thread!! Mind you I did have to stop to read a review or 2! My wish list will be never ending now and I will have a very dirty and untidy house, you are a very bad influence! ;p

Oh yes Cushla, excellent review but I'm afraid my economics-feeble brain will not be able to get a lot out of this one so I'll pass for now.

Lords of Finance sounds fascinating, but more something I'd buy for my Mum or Dad, they're both more into economics/history than me. Then they can summarise it, and let me know what it's all about. ;)

Thanks for all your nice comments. Qebo and Anne, I hope you enjoy it too. Qebo, I have forgotten to post my review over in mny non-fiction thread but will go and do that now.

#157 Heather - I am terrible at buying non-fiction too (as you know from my London LT trip... ). It takes so much longer to read a page! I'm back to trying to have one non-fiction book on the go with some fiction though and it seems to be working.

#159 Georgia, do not tell everyone how messy my apartment is!! (I am about to clean up. After I have another coffee.)

In case any of you are short of threads to follow, Georgia's is over here in the very very very quiet 25 Book Challenge group. I think I've convinced her to move into the 75BC group next year but a bit more encouragement would not hurt!

http://www.librarything.com/topic/106277

I'm catching up on reviews - here are two more.

Book 45: Cooking with Fernet-Branca by James Hamilton-Paterson - 3 stars



I bought this for my ipad Kindle a few weeks ago after reading Caroline's and Suzanne's reviews of it. It's like a farcical version of To the Manor Born (I am really showing my age here...did anybody else watch that TV show? ) and Under the Tuscan Sun, and to start with it was exactly what I felt like reading. Gerald Samper is a Brit who has just bought a house in Italy to escape from the rat-race. He's been told that the place next door is empty except for a month a year. Wrong. It turns out that his next door neighbour, Marta, comes from Voynovia, and doesn't speak much English, so he writes her off as a peasant from Eastern Europe who's trying to seduce him. Marta is actually a gifted composer who's working on the score for a movie by one of Gerald's famous directors. Gerald writes celebrity biographies and cooks bizarre food. All of their encounters involve Fernet-Branca, a potent liqueur. To start with it was hilarious, but it was about 150 pages too long for me, and by the end I just wasn't finding it very funny any more, so I won't be reading the next one in the series.

Book 46: The Novel in the Viola by Natasha Solomons - 4 stars



This is the second book that I found in the Innsbruck bookshop, and I really liked it. Natasha Solomons also wrote Mr Rosenblum's list, and I'm adding that to my wishlist now. It's set in Vienna and a fictional village in Dorset, on the Southwest coast of England, from 1938 to 1941. Elise Landau is the daughter of a wealthy Jewish family. Her mother's a famous opera singer, and her father's a novelist whose books have been banned. She has an older sister, Margot, who's married to a physicist, and they moev to California. Anna and Julian plan to get out of Austria and move to New York, but it's taking a while for the visas to come through. Meanwhile Elise puts an ad in the Times in her stilted English - "I will cook your goose" - ,gets herself a job as a parlour maid in a big house in Tyneford, and leaves Vienna with gold chains and pearls hidden in her clothes, Mrs Beeton's Guide to Household Management, and her sister's viola. It's really hard for her to fit in - she is used to being one of the family, waited on by the butler and the maids, but now she is told to make herself invisible when she's cleaning the windows. And I'm not going to tell you any more - you'll have to read it!

Great reviews, Cushla. The Novel in the Viola looks very good. I will pass on Cooking with Fernet-Branca; it sounds humourous, but one of my biggest book-turnoffs is books that go for far longer than necessary.

Your thread is always an education for me - introducing new books and authors. Thanks for that : ).

I quite enjoyed Cooking with Fernet-Branca and didn't find it too long but I sure wouldn't read its sequel (it begs the question why a sequel). For me it was the madcap recipes, getting sillier and zanier as the book progressed. Being somewhat of a cook, I found that aspect delightful...that and how he fit the Fernet Branca into everything.

*waving* at Cushla. . .Glad you made it back home safely!

Nancy, I hope you like The Novel in the Viola. I'm glad you like my books - I really like your picks too!

Tui I loved the first few recipes in the book and I love to cook - but they drove me crazy by the end!! Especially Alien Pie. And the one where he skinned cats. I did like how the Fernet Branca turned up everywhere though, and I loved how Marta was so muh more than he'd written her off as. But he was just too pompous and xenophobic for me by the end!! There are 2 sequels and Suz has just read the 3rd, Rancid Pansies, and said it was really good.

Hi Stasia - thanks for visiting! I hope your back's a bit better.

I finished my next book.

Book 47 - I'm Not Complaining by Ruth Adam - 3 1/2 stars



A big thank you to countrylife for dreaming up the School TIOLI Challenge. I've had this since 2009 so am at last reading something I haven't just bought! It's one of my Virago Modern Classics collection and it's ages since I read one.

I'm Not Complaining is set in the north of England in the Great Depression so it fitted in well with Lords of Finance. The narrator, Madge Brigson, is one of five teachers in a primary school. Over a year, she writes about the other teachers, the kids and the community. She's single and in her mid-30s. Don't expect sappiness about the wonders of teaching (which I'd have been happy with, since I am hopefully 6 months away from Teachers' College!). Madge might win my 2011 Prize for Bitchy Narrator. Yowser - she's really cynical and just plain nasty to her friends and colleagues. To Jenny Lambert, who's younger, prettier and quite keen on men, she's rude - and Jenny is the closest thing to a best friend. About Miss Jones, who's older and falling in love with somebody, she thinks

"I began to hope fervently that the poor old thing was not going to make a complete fool of herself, as only a middle-aged old maid with dyed black hair and frumpy clothes can, when accident throws a prepossessing male across her path."

One of the book's themes is the plight of independent single working women in England - and the deadening effect of marriage. Even the 5 teachers think it's only right and proper that once they're married, they stop working. How could they possibly do justice to a teaching job when they had a husband and kids of their own? Boy am I glad I'm alive 80 years later. The other main theme is how terrible living conditions were for the working class. Adam's writing is really good and the characters were really vividly written, but Madge's cynicism meant I was glad to finish this one.

I think I'd worry with a 'best friend' like that, what on earth she was saying behind my back... Sounds like an interesting book, but I'll read some of my other VMCs first.

Genny I thought of you because of where it's set - I think it is in the north. It reads like it - factories, very poor, and very very nasty winters, and no mention much of London. And there's a clergyman who's one of the main male characters... he does scripture inspections in the school! Can't imagine it being in your job description today... But I think there are more fun VMCs to read first. Ruth Adam has written a Persephone that I bought in May called A Woman's Place: 1910-1975 - looks really good.

A woman's place does look interesting. I haven't heard of Ruth Adam before. I've just been telling my god-daughter about Persephone books, and promised to give her one for a Christmas present. She is 19 and about to head off to University College London to study English, so she'll be living in Bloomsbury, lucky thing!

And no, I don't get called upon to do 'scripture inspections' in school very often! I do do the occasional assembly...

The setting of A Woman's Place sounds like the identical setting of Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South. Gaskell is writing about industry, however, not about schools. Interesting read, Cushla. Loved your Madge might win my 2011 Prize for Bitchy Narrator, hehe. Genny, I must agree that I'd be watching my back with a "best friend" such as that.

Madge is a real bitch but I liked I'm Not Complaining more than you did. I believe it's set in the Midlands rather than the north.

Hi Cushla - Just trying to catch up. I appreciate the variety of your reading. I have several VMCs on the shelves but have only read a few. I buy them whenever I spot them at used bookstores which is not very often, unfortunately.

>166 cushlareads:: yep, the cats were a bit much. What's that device when the reader knows something but the protaganist doesn't...*blank*...anyway, we knew he was a Twit Supremo and he never did figure that out.

I already have I'm Not Complaining in the BlackHole so I can dodge that particular BB :)

Lords of Finance is on my list for a time when I feel like something very time consuming or meaty...

Whoops, Jasper-cat is trying to perambulate across my lap so apologies for any strange typos. Sorry you didn't love Fernet Branca as much as I did; the second one tips a little too far into the lampoon/absurdity end of the spectrum, but I really enjoyed book # 3, in which Gerry gets to write an opera libretto...

Hmm, I had assumed that The Novel in the Viola was more chick-lit-like than it sounds. I'll look to see if it's coming out here; can't really afford to ship it...

#170 and #171 Oops, English geography is not my strong point! Nancy, I read Cranford last year and liked it, and added North and South to my wishlist - but for when I have the energy for what looks like a very big book. Did you like it? (Hmmm. Off to check Amazon and it's a whopping 92 cents. No, no.)

#172 Katie, I collect VMCs but haven't added any since we were home in New Zealand. I started after I found the VMC group on here and got really obssessed and my husband knows to look for them for me too. Most good secondhand bookshops would have one or two, then with a couple of good charity bookfairs every year I could find more. I have around 100 now and love it when I find a new one! I get the feeling from the VMC group that they are much harder to come by in the US though.

Tui, Twit Supremo is an excellent description for Gerald!

Stasia I hope you enjoy I'm not Complaining when you get a chance to read it. Georgia has finished reading The Return of Captain John Emmett so I will post it this week.

Suzanne, do you want me to mail you The Novel in the Viola? I don't mind at all. And I'm going to the post office already! (That's if I remember the hours. Most of them here shut between 12 and 1.30!!) It started off pretty chick-litty (mum and the two daughters drinking champagne and having baths full of rose petals, with writing to match) but got much better.

I have started too many books at once so it might be a while till I've finished another one. At the moment I'm reading On Canaan's Side, The Periodic Table, The Blackwater Lightship and Germany 1945, and finally doing some more of The Calculus Gallery when I have a quiet half hour and am in the right mood. A great line up of light reading! And I also want to read Man Alone for Kerry's New Zealand challenge, and have downloaded the first Three Pines mystery.

I picked up The Return of Captain John Emmett at the library the other day. Suz liked it a lot, so I am looking forward to reading that one.

North and South is excellent. I hope you enjoy the book (the 92 cents would be well spent, I must say!) when you get to it.

Cushla, I'd be forever getting through so many books at once! I've tried reading more than one at a time, and somehow it doesn't work for me. I keep one audiobook and one print on the go - enough for this little brain to keep track of.

I have not yet read North and South, but it's on my list. I watched the BBC mini-series which I borrowed from my library - it is so well done! Highly recommended. Stasia, thanks for the note on the novel, too. I'm looking forward to it. And Cushla, with so many in the hold - what's another one, particularly for 92c, hehe!

Actually North and South is not really very long. Not that I've read it but I do have that one and Cranford on my shelves and hope to get to them someday. I'm Not Complaining sounds very good to me so I've added it to my teetering tower.

Welcome back, Cushla! Would have been here sooner, but I'm suffering from 9 hours of jet lag and a 14 hour flight. I can't imagine how you make it to NZ from Basel! It's interesting: we too found Salzburg our least favorite part of the trip. Our favorites were two obscure guesthouses, one in the Black Forest and one in the Tirol. The first was next to a deer park where Katie could feed deer and goats; the other was on a farm and had pony rides. Also ironic about the wasp sting. Katie got stung twice inside a souvenir shop at Hohenschwangau Castle, and I got a wasp up my skirt in Salzburg that got me three times before I could get him out without being arrested for indecent exposure!

I had the same reaction as you to Cooking with Fernet Branca, funny at first, then insufferable. I've added The Novel in the Viola to the list. Fantastic review of Lords of Finance. I would love to learn more about this exact subject, but I'm not sure I'm up for the length and financial detail of this one. Thanks for the great summary though!

Back up to post #143, I'm going to buy Lords of Finance for my partner. He heavily invests in the US stock market and each and every day I hear him say "Oh, it gonna be bad...real, real bad!"

Hi Cushla, I'm actually going to show the review for Lords of Finance to my husband as this is something he is very interested about and I think he will really enjoy. I'm quite tempted myself actually, a great review.

I'm here, I've just been lurking (usually happens when I'm on the ipad not on the laptop). Bonnie, Nancy and Stasia, I did download North and South, and also The Sense of an Ending. North and South comes with a history of the British Isles that's at least as long as the book, and unauthored... 2 books for 92 cents!

Leonie and Linda, I hope both your husbands enjoy Lords of Finance. Linda, I bet he was mopy yesterday - a bright red day on my yahoo screen again. The book might not cheer him up!

Lisa it sounds like you had a great time, apart from your wasp stings for you and Katie (although I was giggling at visions of you running around trying to hold onto your skirt and get rid of the wasp. Ow ow. Yes, the flights to New Zealand are really long! When we go home in November we're breaking the trip with a night in HK, just to get out of the plane and lie down and hopefully sleep. All up the flights take about 28 hours although it's a bit faster if you fly through the US, but we'd rather have a couple of extra hours to avoid LAX. HK and Singapore airports are so nice.
Glad it wasn't just me with Cooking with Fernet Branca.

I finished The Periodic Table by Primo Levi and loved it (5 stars again!!).



I'd had it since the 2008 bookfair and it had always looked kind of hard work, but it really isn't. It's also on the 1001 list so I must go and find the spreadsheet and tick another one off. It's hard to describe - it is sort of autobiography, but he mostly leaves out his time in Auschwitz and the year or two after, because this is covered in If this is a man/survival in Auschwitz. Even so, the Holocaust is all through the book, in the lead-up to the war, the anti-semitism at school, and events afterwards. A few of the chapters are short stories. Every chapter is related to one of the elements of the periodic table, some obviously and others not. There is quite a lot of chemistry and writing about why he loves it so much, and he makes it fascinating even to a non-scientist.

I'm in the middle of Man Alone by John Mulgan, a New Zealand classic set between the two wars. It's fantastic too and as usual I'm wondering how I missed reading it till now. Both my last two reads are because of Kerry - this one's for her Australia/NZ TIOLI challenge.

I've started getting Fletcher to review books after he reads them. He's suddenly loving reading (up at 6.30 this morning to read a Bionicle comic) but writing is still extremely hard work. He loves the idea of putting a copy of his review on the internet, so here's his first one, for Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein.



this book is interupting cikn. it is funny becose the litel chikin is interuping every story. then they runout of storys becuse the cikin intrupts. then the cikin reads his papa a story. then papa interups by faling asleep. I like this book becuse it is relee funny.

I'm keeping his own spelling so he can see how he improves over time (ha, that is my theory!!)

(Normal thread posters, don't feel obliged to say you'll add these to your WL! But anything to encourage him is worth trying...)

Oh that's adorable.

The Periodic Table is one I haven't heard of, but your review is intriguing, Cushla.

Fletcher, your review is wonderful! Interrupting Chicken sounds very funny. I'm so glad you enjoyed : ).

Great review of Interrupting Chicken, Fletcher! I've given you a thumbs up; keep up the good work!

Love Fletcher's review - and it's prob one Cassie would love, so now I'll be stopping at your thread for ideas for her too!

Fletcher, I would like to get the Interrupting Chicken for my husband because he always interrupts. Thank you for your review.

Cush, I just got Periodic Tales, The curious Lives of the Elements by Hugh Aldersey-Williams for one of my lad's best friends for Christmas. Synchronous!

Thumbs up for Fletcher's review. It would be relee terrific if he got a Hot Review! I love enouraging budding readers and writers. How old is Fletcher? One is never too young to start a book journal.

LOL, at you, Cushla, for lurking on your own thread. I've been doing lots of that lately.

Awww bless. Maybe not my own wishlist, but that sounds like one Danny and Conor might enjoy, though the next picture book we're getting, I think, will be The Highway Rat - do yours like Julia Donaldson? We have a review copy of the new Eric Carle and a new Babar book too.

184: Excellent review: a plot summary and a personal reaction.

You guys rock!! He loved reading the comments and I love that he has a hot review!

Fletcher, I know writing reviews is hard work, I'm stuck on one now. But I'm glad you wrote one, because now I know whether my daughter will like it. I think she will! Thank you

#183, I just went shopping at the Book Depository for The Periodic Table after seeing it on Kerry's thread! I am getting a little addicted to that feeling of anticipation of one of my books arriving in the mail :-/
(I suppose there's no one on this website that will not understand that!!)

I've read Interrupting Chicken and I agree with Fletcher. It's a funny book! Fletcher, I hope you'll keep writing reviews about the books you read. We have a children's section in our library and we're always looking for recommendations for books to add.

I've also read Interrupting Chicken and agree that it's a great book. Great first review by Fletcher, keep them coming.

Cushla - great that you are loving Man alone and managed to finish The Periodic Table. I'm so pleased to have read another Levi book, I have more on my tbr which I'll need to look into. The Search for Roots: a personal anthology which he edited looks an interesting read.

Interrupting Chicken sounds like fun! Thanks for the review, Fletcher, I'll keep my eyes open for it for my kids.

for Fletcher's excellent review!!

I gave a thumb for Fletcher's review too. I sympathise with him finding writing difficult, for me reading is the best bit and writing reviews is always a struggle. But see what encouragement you get when you do manage to write a review!

I have a lovely copy of If this is a man which I have not read yet - that is my only Primo Levi, but when I've read that, I shall be looking out for The Periodic Table.

Thank you everyone - he is surprisingly pleased and read all your comments. I have to figure out how to add books to Lt, because he also reviewed one of the Kiwi Bites series (a good New Zealand series of beginning chapter books) about a dog poo scooper. And tonight's book is The Bugalugs Bum Thief (by Tim Winton - an Aussie Bites book).

#191 Luci, yes we LOVE Julia Donaldson and I will look for it when it comes into the school library.

#200 Genny, I think it's good that you're going to read If this is a man first. The Periodic Table is more interesting if you know what he went through, even though for me it was ages since I read the other one and I couldn't remember all the details.

Another thumb up for Interrupting Chicken and congratulations on the hot review! I would love to hear about some more of your favourite books, Fletcher.

I'd love to hear more, too, Fletcher : ).

I hope I live long enough to read Fletcher's take on War and Peace.

Hahaha!!

Never too late to add a well-done for an excellent review to Fletcher. Keep 'em coming!

Loving Fletcher's book review. Theo, the three year old upstairs, went with his father & I to the library for the first time today. He loves books, but has waaay too much energy to focus on shelves upon shelves of them. But came home with three books, including one about trains. I'll look out for the saga of the interrupting chicken... :-)

Tks so much for the offer of The Novel in the Viola! I did order a copy from someone in the US, and it has allegedly been dispatched, so I think I'll be OK. After so many positive/glowing reports, I couldn't not be willing to splurge, and since it was available with $4 postage rather than $11 postage from the UK, I could rationalize it!

That said, I do have a UK package coming soonish, including the new Julian Barnes book. I just couldn't add another book to it or combine orders without losing the discount price (6 pounds!) on the Barnes tome, which is now back up north of 7 pounds.

#204 Tui, I hope I live that long too! Ha.

I have never had 20 thumbs on a review. I think I might spell my next one all wrong too. I finished Man Alone this afternoon but can't write the review just yet because I have to run back to the ipad- I am 40 pages into The Sense of an Ending and don't want to stop reading till I'm finished. Suz, I got it on the Kindle and think for me it was 9 Euros (I bought it right after the shortlist was announced, dooooh). It is wonderful so far but bringing back many slightly cringe-inducing memories of university days.

Cushla, you've inspired me to grab on to The Sense of an Ending - mine's in the iPad too, and ready to go. I just have to sit down and read it!

It's an extremely fast read. I'm 85 pages in now, and only started it at 1.30 and now it's 6 pm and I've picked up the kids, cooked dinner and done laundry. It makes up for War and Peace!

It makes up for War and Peace! Make me laugh! Indeed!

Ah! Cushla, I've got to get my hands on The Sense of an Ending. I've read nearly every other shortlisted Booker - but that one I don't have. I can't wait to see what you've got to say about The Sense of an Ending. I'm 3rd in the library queue for it, but can I wait that long...

Hi Cushla! Great review from Fletcher! Such a darling name he has too!

This is such a tempting thread! I keep meaning to read The Reluctant Fundamentalist but I've yet to read it- it's at the library!

I am so interested in what character annoyed you in A Stranger's Child which I own, but have yet to read... sigh!

At least I'm reading my first Margaret Atwood, that being A Handmaid's Tale. I"ve avoided reading her, but I'm finding it to be an intriguing read.

Still waiting on The Sense of an Ending- sigh!

Deb, I don't want to tell you who the annoying character was till you read it.

I finished The Sense of an Ending last night and will write up a review tomorrow when the kids are at school (I am trying to get them OFF the ipad, the Wii and the laptop so I am hiding while i type this!). I loved it and have transferred my hope for the Booker to this book now that The Stranger's Child has been left off the shortlist. I haven't ranted on this thread but I am pretty gutted that they didn't put it on the shortlist. I will read some of the other ones, but probably not before the prize is annnounced, and I think this year's judges just lowered the Booker's reputation with their comments about looking for readability. I'm all for readability but there are tons of other prizes that aim for that, and anyway if it's about readability I'd rather hear that from the public, not 3 randoms (e.g. how the IMPAC Prize is done, with librarians nominating books). (Sorry, rant over now!!)

Hope you enjoy The Handmaid's Tale - I haven't read it yet, but I really loved The Blind Assassin.

...my next Awood will be Surfacing, although I'm a bit reluctant as I didn't really "get" the Blind Assassin. But was glad to have read it anyway.

Cushla, if you loved The Blind Assassin you really need to get your hands on The Handmaid's Tale. I think that's her best.

I loved The Handmaid's Tale, which I first read years ago, and I hated Oryx and Crake, which I thought preachy and pointless. So I'm not sure what to think!

Hello Cushla - just a quick 'hi' to say I'm hanging out in the threads again...as always your wide-ranging eclecticism is inspiring! Not to mention those wonderful travels...will put my few cents in regarding Ms Atwood and I have read a few now - Handmaid's Tale. Blind Assassin. and The Robber Bride. I always enjoy her books, but never quite know why and usually think I didn't quite understand them.

Cushla, interesting point about readability. I wonder if this is part a reaction to C, which is one of the least readable novels I've stumbled across in years? And to the fact that complexity/opacity may make a novel look extremely clever when it really isn't as much so as it seems. It's like someone who uses 4-syllable words without really understanding them. Not to say that some books aren't exceptionally well-written; it's simply that beneath that writing, the amount of substance doesn't measure up to the writing. I always feel like I'm being laughed at when I stumble across a book like that. But you're right that going too far in the opposite direction does no one much good. I admit that ever since I read The Swimming Pool Library and loathed it, and I've not been a Hollinghurst fan, and have largely given up even trying his novels. Initially, I thought this year's list was an interesting mix of new books by well known authors like Barnes & unknowns; but even a book like Pigeon English was really, deeply underwhelming to me; I felt as if I was being beaten over the head with a blunt instrument saying "see what I mean? see what message I'm trying to convey? Get it -- the point of the dog being named Abso?" I thought it was creative and insightful while I read it, but never really utterly convincing.

This Booker issue does kinda beg the question of the purpose of a literary prize, not so much its stated purpose but how we 'ordinary readers' view it. I think I'm less disappointed than many others by this year's nominees because I expected less in the first place. If a piece of dreck won, I'd be horrified, but I don't expect the Booker judges to mirror my taste or even to have the same criteria I might when it comes to determining quality. I'm glad when the nominees introduce me to new books that I might not have read, even when those disappoint, but I don't expect them to be consistent/infallible in their judgments, and I don't really feel disappointed by them as a result. Sometimes unpredictability is a good thing -- reminds us that reading is an incredibly subjective pastime.

I've been thinking about this ever since I read the latest Giller Prize winner, The Sentimentalists, which I thought was one of the most disappointing novels I've read this year because it has been "anointed" by the judges and because the elevated style/themes masked the real inability of the author to convey authentic characters & emotions. As a reader, I can't be angry or irritated by the judges' "failure". And it's not my business, frankly, to be angry on behalf of other authors who may have missed out. I know, for instance, that people are peeved that Amitav Ghosh's new book wasn't among the Booker nominees. But he's a reasonably well-known author who is going to command readership for his novel anyway, who will continue to do well both in the general and the critical sense, and who will undoubtedly be nominated and win in other years. I don't feel he has been robbed. Ditto with Hisham Matar, who in many ways seems to be pulling off a similar kind of novel with #2 to his first.

Anyway, enough of this screed! I think my broader point is that perhaps the whole hullabaloo over this year's Booker list will make us think more about how prizes almost canonize some writers and works, vs. how many of those are really enduring? Do we look back today at Holiday by Stanley Middleton and say, what a classic? I happen to love Utz by Bruce Chatwin, but how many people think of that, much less Fay Weldon's Praxis, as seminal books of the last few decades? Or An Insular Possession by Timothy Mo? Not to mention that, like the Oscars, some authors are recognized for their body of work even while ostensibly winning for a specific novel that is far from their best? What I value most about the Bookers is that they consistently introduce me to new writers (or, new to me), whether these win or not. Marina Warner, Kazuo Ishiguro, Justin Carter, Barry Unsworth. So I like the effort that judges make to bring new faces into the crowd rather than nominating the new novels by the same group year after year -- the new Atwood, the new MacEwan, the new Graham Swift, etc. etc. If the price of that diversity is the occasional underwhelming year, well, so be it. :-)

That's a very helpful 'screed', Suzanne! And I agree, especially when you said: I'm glad when the nominees introduce me to new books that I might not have read, even when those disappoint, but I don't expect them to be consistent/infallible in their judgments, and I don't really feel disappointed by them as a result. Sometimes unpredictability is a good thing -- reminds us that reading is an incredibly subjective pastime.

Heya Cushla, drive-by hug

Hi Cushla, although I was planning not to add any BBs for a while, I feel tempted by Levi's The Periodic Table, I might even find it in my library.

I have to say that while I liked reading Anatomy of a Disappearance, it wasn't as good as his first novel In the Country of Men. Also, in a lot of ways the subject matter of the book was actually narrower and more inward looking. For that reason it doesn' t surprise me that Country made the Booker shortlist and Anatomy didn't even reach the longlist.

I agree with you, Cushla. The Booker judges this year have damaged the reputation of the award by their decision to aim for readability over quality, and I would hope that the committee that selects the judges for 2012 will take this into consideration and choose judges that are interested in and capable of selecting outstanding works of literary fiction over genre literature and breezy, mindless reads. The Costa Awards are designed for middlebrow books, and I'll be interested to see if this year's Costa longlist is more literary than the Booker longlist.

Your rant pales to my recently completed diatribe about The Testament of Jessie Lamb!

I just reviewed Anatomy of a Disappearance, and I completely agree with Luci.

Yes, Cush! Yes, Suz! Yes, Darryl!

I know I'm a little late, but I loved Fletcher's review as well. :)

Back in the old pre-LT days, I relied on the Booker, and the Pulitzer and the NBA lists to provide me with titles that I was pretty sure would be something I'd be interested in reading. But after being burned by the Bookers a couple of times (The Gathering lears its ugly head) I've got a better option now---the recommendations of other LTers with similar tastes to mine.

>227 brenzi: me too! It was almost to me a guaranteed good read if you grabbed one off the nominations list.

>224 kidzdoc: I agree with you there Darryl

Sorry for vanishing on my own thread again (and the whole of LT - I have hardly even been lurking!) and helloooo everyone... I will try to come and visit all your threads soon annd catch up.

Suz I loved reading your Booker screed. I have no time for incomprehensible books and didn't read C last year - if the Guardian Books podcast is talking about a book being challenging and not telling me that there's a great plot or characters, I tend to avoid it. C fell into that category and I think last year I didn't read much on the shortlist and just read The Finkler Question. So this is the first year I've really tried to read more of the books. I do like books somewhere between really easy to read and ones where I take fifteen minutes to read a page, but I sort of know it when I see it - and as you said I've found the lists good for getting ideas and finally making me read well-known-to-others authors (eg Hilary Mantel, Howard Jacobson last year, Sebastian Barry and Julian Barnes and Alan Hollinghurst this year). Interesting about the Giller Prize winner too. If a book has any of the Orange, Giller or Booker stickers on it it'll make me look at it harder than if it doesn't - or it did till this year!

#227 Bonnie I agree about LT being a great recommendation guide. My average enjoyment of books has gone up so much since I found the forums on here. I bought The Gathering secondhand a few years ago but expect it'll sit unread for years yet - I have heard very few good things about that book and it sounds miserable!

Thanks for the Margaret Atwood recs - I have The robber Bride in a box somewhere. I'll look for The Handmaid's Tale in the library too - there will be zillions of copies of it I think.

I've had a busy week and can feel my general level of antsiness about the move home starting to increase - and the jobs to get done starting too. It's 2 months till the movers turn up and even though it's much easier logistically to go home than move away, there are tons of silly little things to do. Plus, I have a trip to Paris coming up and hopefully one to Hannover, and my husband is going to Berlin and Weimar, so there's not much do-nothing time left.

I am going to stop doing reviews and just blather about what I've finished.

The last two were both great and very different.



Man Alone was Book 49, read for Kerry's NZ and Australia TIOLI challenge and I loved it. It's a classic for NZers but I of course had never touched it... Johnson, the main character, is English but emigrates to NZ after World War 1. The novel follows him till the late1930s, when he ends up fighting in the Spanish Civil War (but almost all of the book takes place in NZ). Kerry has written a fantastic review that's posted on the book page. Both Johnson's character and the descriptions of different parts of New Zealand are beautifully written and it made me feel like I was home again while I was reading the parts set around Mount Ruapehu. It's a very exciting book too, which I wasn't expecting. NZ in the 1930s was a very depressing place to be. I gave it 4 1/2 stars (probably 5 if you know the geography, and 4 if you don't is more accurate).



The next book was Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending, and I am transferring my Booker hopes to this novel now - and might have even if The Stranger's Child had made the shortlist. 5 stars, and unputdownable, and I am exactly the right age for this book. Tony is retired now but remembering back to his school days, with 3 close friends, then to his time at university, when he starting going out with a girl called Veronica. The novel is all about what you remember and how you construct an identity and stories about your life - which sounds a bit heavy, but it isn't at all and it will make you think about your own life a lot. It will probably make you really cringe too if you recognise bits of yourself in the characters and/or what they did. Go and read it. (And I don't usually say that on here because I know everyone is different!)

Right I need to go and rescue dinner.

Delighted you enjoyed The Sense of an Ending, Cushla : ). Your next few months sound way busy!

Hi there Cushla! My you've done some big reads!!! The Sense of an Ending is on my list. I've read quite a few of the shortlisted Bookers- but I think I'm going to wait on the library for The Sense of an Ending for economy's sake.

The Sense of an Ending sounds intriguing!

Hi Deb, Laura and Nancy!

I got up early to finish Nothing To Envy in peace at 630 but have two kids jumping around on the Wii and wanting breakfast...Kim Jong-Il would not approve.

Hi Cushla, thanks for the review of Man Alone this has been on my list all year, now it looks like it's going on next years list. Sigh. I'll get to it eventually. Hope you enjoyed Nothing To Envy, I read that late last year and found it really interesting.
Also hope the next two months go smoothly, and the stress levels don't get too high.

Ok, I finished Book 51: Nothing to Envy and am all out of words to describe how horrible life in North Korea is. {Edited to add that it would appear I am not out of words after all!}.



I know I'm late on the bandwagon for this book but if you like non-fiction at all, this is a superb book. I gave it 4 1/2 stars, but it was nearly 5 - the only thing I'd have liked more of near the end is about the role of the aid agencies, South Korea, and Western countries, and whether there's anything anyone can do.

Barbara Demick was the LA Times reporter based in Seoul from 2001 for a few years, and her book tells the stories of 6 North Koreans who defected. I found the first 60 pages of this quite slow, because it was so depressing that I wanted to put it down, but then it got so grim that I couldn't stop till I got to the part where her subjects start to escape - and I read the last 240 pages in one day.

Mentioning that they all escape isn't a spoiler - there is no way she could have spoken to them if they hadn't managed to leave. Anyone who gets a permit to visit Pyongyang has two minders and sees a version of North Korea that bears no resemblance to reality (but even the pretty-pretty version is awful enough). Even for those who get out, the endings aren't overwhelmingly happy - defectors often have trouble fitting in to South Korea and have to deal with guilt and shame for the rest of their lives, because anyone they leave behind in North Korea gets sent to a labour camp for the rest of their life.

Her six subjects really came alive during the book and the things they had to do to survive were ghastly, especially during the famine in the 1990s. One of the stories I'll remember next time I'm a bit sick of folding laundry is Oak-hee's. The paddocks were and still are fertilised with human excrement, and when she was a teenager every family in her apartment block had to produce a bucket of it a week and deliver it to a barn where they would receive a shit chit for their food rations. Oak Khee figured out that nobody was watching the full buckets of poo and would steal one and pass it off as her family's.

The stories about eating grass and weeds and corn husks (which seems to be the staple of most families) were terrible - every page had a new atrocity till they started to escape. *spoiler for those who've read it* And poor Mrs Song, the good-Communist-housewife of the book, whose will to return to Chongjin doesn't waver till she is fascinated by the electronic rice cooker in the house she's being hidden in over the border - I will have to tell my mother-in-law the story in December because she has a fancy rice cooker too! *end of spoiler*

235: I read Nothing to Envy earlier this year, and was struck by how non-political, how almost accidental, some of the defections were.

Yes - most were about hunger more than freedom. Have you read anything else about North Korea since? I'm going to look at the recs on here soon.

I read Pyongyang, and The Koreans (which was recommended in Nothing to Envy, and is more about South Korea but includes history). I want to read others, but it turns out that there are more regions of the world than I have time for.

Catching up after a long absence. Glad you enjoyed The Periodic Table and Man Alone. I'm halfway through Man Alone and enjoying it a lot. I also loved Fletcher's review :-)

Wow, wonderful review of Nothing to Envy Cushla. Thanks for that.

Oh oh I loved Nothing to Envy when I read it last year. Recently I read where Kim Jong Il was meeting with Russian officials to ask for food because his people are starving and I thought, "Wow, they were starving in the 90s when he did absolutely nothing to help them so I can't imagine how bad it must be now." Terrible regime.

#238 Katherine, I am adding both those to my wishlist, thanks.

#239 Heather, I'm glad you're really enjoying Man Alone. I'm curious how you find all the descriptive bits - will look forward to your comments.

#240 Thanks Nancy!

#241 Bonnie I know - horrible. I loved your review of it BTW - I read it this afternoon.

I have another Fletcher review... you don't all need to thumb it though! I just want to record it so that I can see what he reads and says - I think it'll be fun over time.

The Bugalugs Bum Thief by Tim Winton - 5 stars



There is a bum thief! It's bad because you need a bum to sit down. the main cariters are Seeta and the bum thief. the bums are for bate. a bum is a yusefull thing. Seeta cachis the bum thief. Seeta nows because the bum thief has a bum. I recomend this book.

#242 Fletcher, thank you for another wonderful review! I love your line, a bum is a yusefull thing. I think that's true, and it's a great line!!

I think "a bum is a yusefull thing" is a very important point. I'd never thought about it before! Great review, Fletcher!

I just read The Sense of an Ending over the weekend, and I agree, it was an *excellent* book. Still digesting it all.

#242 Fletcher, I agree, bums are very useful. I wouldn't be sitting comfortably right now without one! Thanks for sharing your review again.

Enjoying all the Pirate silliness on here this morning too.

oooh ohh ohhh The Sense of an Ending looks great, plus as usual I love the cover, I know I'm so fickle Ill just go with the covers!

What a fascinating review for Nothing to Envy. I"ve heard of the book, but not actually read much about it. It's going straight on my TBR list.

Cushla you wrote two excellent reviews of NZ books further up your thread, I really enjoyed them.

And Fletcher, you have a way with words and describing books that just make me want to go and get the book myself.

Hi everyone - new thread coming! I have hardly been on here all week but I've just finished a book.

Fletcher says thanks for liking his book review.

Megan, one of the few things I don't like about the e-books so far is that I don't associate a book with a cover now. Even if there's a cover in the e-book it's not like it goes on the shelf or next to the bed.

Deb, I hope you get a chance to read Nothing to Envy soon.

Edited to say that the new thread is over here:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/124058