kidzdoc: 75 from the shelves #10

Billie Holiday, NYC, 1949, Herman Leonard




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Currently reading:



Anatomy of a Disappearance by Hisham Matar
Colour Me English by Caryl Phillips
The Submission by Amy Waldman

Completed books:

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

February:
12. Match Day: One Day and One Dramatic Year in the Lives of Three New Doctors by Brian Eule (review)
13. Monument Eternal: The Music of Alice Coltrane by Franya J. Berkman (review)
14. Egypt on the Brink: From Nasser to Mubarak by Tarek Osman
15. Métaphysique des tubes (The Character of Rain) by Amélie Nothomb (review)
16. The Seine Was Red: Paris, October 1961 by Leïla Sebbar (review)
17. The Secret History of Costaguana by Juan Gabriel Vasquéz (review)
18. Staying On by Paul Scott (review)
19. Hygiène de l'assassin (Hygiene and the Assassin) by Amélie Nothomb
20. Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure by Paul A. Offit, M.D.
21. Jonah's Gourd Vine by Zora Neale Hurston (review)
22. The Latino Challenge to Black America by Earl Ofari Hutchinson (review)
23. Fear and Trembling by Amélie Nothomb (review)

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

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

May:
49. The Collaborator by Mirza Waheed (review)
50. The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna (review)
51. The Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise by Georges Perec (review)
52. Amigoland by Oscar Casares (review)
53. The Three Christs of Ypsilanti by Milton Rokeach (review)
54. The Chalupa Rules: A Latino Guide to Gringolandia by Mario Bosquez (review)
55. Death to the Dictator! by Afsaneh Moqadam
56. Curfewed Night by Basharat Peer (review)
57. Soldiers of Salamis by Javier Cercas
58. The Instigators (Kindle Single) by David Wolman (review)
59. The Shadow of What We Were by Luis Sepúlveda (review)
60. I Love a Broad Margin to My Life by Maxine Hong Kingston (review)
61. Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck
62. To Siberia by Per Petterson (review)
63. White Egrets by Derek Walcott (review)
64. The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta by Mario Vargas Llosa (review)
65. Hospital Sketches by Louisa May Alcott (review)
66. Americus, Book I by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
67. The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan by Yasmin Khan
68. All My Friends Are Dead by Avery Monsen & Jory John
69. Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera
70. The Boy in the Moon: A Father's Search for His Disabled Son by Ian Brown
71. Emerging Arab Voices: Nadwa I, edited by Peter Clark (review)
72. Red April by Santiago Roncagliolo (review)
73. The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson (review)

June:
74. The Bill From My Father: A Memoir by Bernard Cooper
75. Elegguas by Kamau Brathwaite
76. Partitions by Amit Majmudar (review)
77. A Season in the Congo by Aimé Césaire
78. Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
79. Go the F**k to Sleep by Adam Mansbach
80. Above All, Don't Look Back by Maïssa Bey (review)
81. Fair Play by Tove Jansson
82. Naked (Asian Poetry in Translation) by Shuntarō Tanikawa
83. Open City by Teju Cole
84. A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz

July:
85. the immigrant suite: hey xenophobe! who you calling a foreigner? by Hattie Gossett (review)
86. Seeing Patients: Unconscious Bias in Health Care by Augustus A. White III, M.D. (review)
87. The Outcast by Sadie Jones (review)
88. The Sea and Poison by Shusaku Endo (review)
89. The Passport in America: The History of a Document by Craig Robertson (review)
90. The Prospector by J.M.G. Le Clézio (review)
91. The Swimmer by Roma Tearne (review)
92. Hearts and Minds by Amanda Craig (review)
93. The London Train by Tessa Hadley (review)
94. Daisy Miller by Henry James (review)
95. Des éclairs (Lightning) by Jean Echenoz (review)
96. Fatale by Jean-Patrick Manchette (review)
97. Dump This Book While You Still Can! by Marcel Bénabou (review)
98. A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes (review)
99. Underdog: Poems by Katrina Roberts
100. Snow Plain by Duo Duo
101. Mañana Forever?: Mexico and the Mexicans by Jorge Castañeda
102. 12 Angry Men: True Stories of Being a Black Man in America Today
103. On Beauty by Zadie Smith
104. Granta 113: The Best of Young Spanish Novelists
105. Ghostwritten by David Mitchell
106. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
107. The Anatomist: A True Story of Gray's Anatomy by Bill Hayes

August:
108. The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst (review)
109. Pao by Kerry Young (review)
110. The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad (review)
111. Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman (review)
112. London: The Biography by Peter Ackroyd (review)
113. A Cupboard Full of Coats by Yvvette Edwards (review)
114. The Broken Word by Adam Foulds (review)
115. Real Bloomsbury by Nicholas Murray (review)
116. From the Observatory by Julio Cortázar (review)
117. Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch (review)
118. The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje (review)

September:
119. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
120. The Last Gift by Abdulrazak Gurnah
121. On Canaan's Side by Sebastian Barry
122. The Last Hundred Days by Patrick McGuinness
123. Down the Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villalobos (review)
124. Weep Not, Child by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (review)
125. Chinaman by Shehan Karunatilaka
126. The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers
127. Miró by Iria Candela

Herman Leonard (1923-2010) was the most famous American photographer of jazz artists from the 1940s through the 1960s, capturing legendary artists such as Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie and Duke Ellington in atmospheric smoky ballrooms and clubs in New York City and Europe. He also served as Marlon Brando's personal photographer, the European correspondent for Playboy Magazine, and freelance photographer for a variety of other publications. Despite losing over 8000 prints when his home was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina in 2005 his negatives were saved, and his work has been archived at the Smithsonian Museum.

Wonderful photo, and of course I love Billie Holiday.

Fab fab pic -- what is that behind her? set detail or smoke?

I love B&W photography...

Great photo of a great lady!

Hi Darryl- Love the new Jazzy Thread! Great photo too!

Checking in, Darryl. What a terrific photo at the top!

Lovely photo of Billie!

I know it's been said already, but that photo is fabulous!

I glad all of you like the photo of Billie Holiday. There are at least a few dozen photos by Herman Leonard that are just as superb, including the following one, taken at the Royal Roost in NYC in 1948. For 20 points, name the three legendary jazz artists that appear in this photo:

Book #115: Real Bloomsbury by Nicholas Murray



My rating:

I'm not sure if I've ever read two five star books back to back, but Real Bloomsbury, which I finished at the end of my night call just before 8 am today, is one of the best books about a neighborhood or city that I've ever read. I'll write a proper review of it later this week, probably on Monday after I recover from my Friday and Saturday night calls. In short, it was written by the author Nicholas Murray, who has lived in Bloomsbury for the past dozen years, and it is at once a walking tour, a history of the neighborhood and its people, a short but vivid description of the main members of the Bloomsbury Group, and a personal account of the author's life as a Bloomsbury resident, including the day of the London bombings on 7/7, as he passed by Tavistock Square and Russell Square, the sites of the two of the bombings. I felt as if I was walking alongside him as he described what he saw and what he loved about the streets and buildings, and my repeated travels through the neighborhood in the past few years allowed me to appreciate the book that much more. I'm sure that I visibly beamed when he lovingly described the London Review Bookshop, my favorite London bookstore, and I know that I had a smile on my face at the end of the book. There aren't many books that gave me as much delight as this one, and I look forward to reading it again next week as I walk along the streets of Bloomsbury.

I hadn't intended to write a review of Real Bloomsbury this morning, as I didn't sleep well during the day yesterday and only slept for a few minutes on my overnight shift, but I modified it into a brief review for now. I'll edit it later this week, and post the new version here and on the book's home page on LT.

I'm off to bed; back later today...

Darryl

Can I claim five points? Is one of the artists Cab Calloway?

>16 Whisper1: BZZZZT! Wrong answer.

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. To lick my wounds, I'm heading to the library.

LOL! Just don't go to Google for the correct answers. Cheaters will be disqualified and publicly humiliated:

Is one of them Duke Ellington?

Ella Fitzgerald? (And hi Darryl - nice new thread!)

Oooh, a trivia question! Let's see - I'll say Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Richard Rodgers of (Rodgers and Hart fame)? And is that Benny Goodman back there? I think I'm seeing things, I might need a cup of coffee and come back...

Great review for Real Bloomsbury, Darryl! Added to my TBR list. Happy Saturday to you!

We have a winner! Laura correctly identified the three jazz artists: Ella Fitzgerald behind the mic, Duke Ellington (gazing with admiration at Ella at the table closest to the stage), and Benny Goodman (sitting at the table behind Ellington, looking at Ella over Duke's left shoulder). Is that Richard Rodgers sitting immediately to the left of Goodman? And who is sitting at the table with Duke? He looks familiar, but I can't place him. So Laura gets 20 points, and additional 10 bonus points for picking out Richard Rodgers in the back.

Off to work...

congratulations to Laura.

Darryl, what is the next quiz? Perhaps I can try again.

Today's quiz (and Herman Leonard photo): For 10 points, name this famous jazz and pop music singer:

I'm finished with my two night calls, and I'm off until Tuesday morning. I'm still too brain dead to read anything, as I didn't sleep either night, but hopefully I'll be up for reading something later today or tomorrow.

Boy, that looks like Andy Williams snuzzling that microphone. Can't be, though, can it?

>27 EBT1002: Nope.

Tony Bennett?! Darryl, I just finished and loved Zadie Smith's White Teeth -- that hot girl can write!~

>29 GCPLreader: Jenny gets 10 points for correctly identifying Tony Bennett. For a 5 point bonus, name the song that he is most famous for.

I loved White Teeth!

Ha! Should have known. "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" is the song that comes most readily to my mind (now that I know it's Tony).

>31 EBT1002: Correct!

Just catching up. I love your new, jazzy thread, and have it starred!

Hi Darryl, I am jazz illiterate. So can't participate in the quizzes. Give me rock any day.

THAT's Tony Bennett?! Wow, I'd not have guessed that in a million years.

Wonderful thread! I recognized the Duke, but not the other two in the first photo. keep 'em coming!

Okay, here's a tougher one. For 25 points, name the legendary saxophonist in this 1948 photo, who became an actor late in his career, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor:

Hey, I'm missing all the fun! That one is Dexter Gordon.

In the 1st photo, I recognized Ella & Duke, but not Benny. Tony would have been easy.

>38 msf59: Correct, sir! For an additional 10 points, name the movie that won him the Academy Award nomination.

Oh that one's easy, Darryl ... Round Midnight. It's a great movie about a sax player.

Caro beat me to it! Great film and great performance!

Whoohooo... 10 points!

>40 cameling: That's right!

Okay, you guys are too good. I've have to make tomorrow's quiz tougher, although the one with the correct answer will get more points.

Today's quiz: For 30 points, name this famous jazz and pop singer, whose band regularly sold out music halls in the 1940s and 1950s:



This may be the last quiz for a few days, as I'll be leaving for London tonight.

No clue.
Bon voyage, Darryl!

Safe travels, Darryl. We will still here from you occasionally over the next few weeks, won't we!?!?!

Have a great flight Darryl!

My guess would be Nat King Cole, but that doesn't quite look like him to me.

Have a great trip!

Have a wonderful time -- glad you're getting out ahead of the weather nastiness!
Happy bookshopping...

I'm guessing here...Billy Eckstine? I haven't seen to many photos of him. Have a great trip!

Crap...literally.

I'm now back at home, after driving back from the Atlanta airport. Just before I left to drive to the airport at ~7 pm I developed some queasiness and abdominal discomfort, which improved after I took a dose of Pepto-Bismol. I felt better, though not 100%, until I passed through security and made it to the departure gate. The queasiness returned, which was followed by two sudden bouts of vomiting; I couldn't make it to the men's room, so I threw up in one of the garbage receptacles at the gate. I didn't know what was going on, as I felt fine all day, and hadn't eaten anything since noon (I was about to get something to eat, but I wasn't particularly hungry). I sipped some water, but I became nauseous again, and had two episodes of diarrhea shortly afterward. So, I seem to have acquired acute viral gastroenteritis, very likely from one of the 3-4 patients I saw on Tuesday or Wednesday who were hospitalized with it. I decided that it wouldn't be wise to board a plane for an 8-9 hour flight in that condition, and I was able to be switched to the same flight tomorrow night; hopefully I'll be better by then. Good news: today's flight was overbooked, and the agent at the gate treated my situation as if I had voluntarily relinquished my seat for the passenger who needed one, so I wasn't charged any rebooking fee. Bad news: I won't arrive in London until early Saturday afternoon, so I won't be able to see that day's matinee performance of the musical "FELA!" with Fliss (again, crap).

I'm certain that I've made more last minute flight changes and cancellations this year than the last 4-5 years combined.

I do feel much better now, and I picked up a chicken salad from Wendy's on the way home. I'll see how well it stays down.

Mark gets 30 points for correctly identifying Billy Eckstine! Strong work, sir!

Rats! I hope you feel well enough to board that plane tomorrow, Darryl!

Thanks, Ellen. So far, so good; the food has stayed down, but the frequent diarrhea persists, so I think I made the right decision to postpone my trip. Hopefully Hurricane Irene won't affect tomorrow's flight.

Fingers/toes crossed on all counts...

Feel better! I do think you made the right call...

Oh no!! I hope you're much better by tomorrow night, and that the patient you got it from was a cutie-pie with lovely parents...

Catching up, Darryl. Love the jazz greats quizzes!

Sorry to hear you are feeling unwell. I hope that the flight tomorrow is a smooth one.

Darryl, that really is a shame. I hope you're feeling better now, and glad you were able to re-book.

Darryl, I hope you're feeling even better this morning! So glad you were able to re-book your flight.

Oh no! Hope you're feeling better now!

Thanks for the good wishes, everyone. I'm feeling much better today, as my AGE (acute gastroenteritis) symptoms have completely resolved, except for slightly overactive bowel sounds. I ate a bagel with peanut butter and drank some green tea with no difficulty.

Hurricane Irene will not affect the weather in the Atlanta area, so tonight's flight shouldn't be affected by it.

I hope you're much better by tomorrow night, and that the patient you got it from was a cutie-pie with lovely parents...

I think that's exactly what happened. There was one adorable redheaded toddler I sent home on Wednesday with AGE, who I'm pretty sure held onto my stethoscope while I was playing with examining her. Her hands or clothes were probably contaminated with virus, which is why we'll wear gowns and gloves when we take care of patients with infectious gastroenteritis, and usually use disposable stethoscopes (she didn't have one in her room). I probably forgot to clean my stethoscope with an alcohol wipe after I left the room, touched it, and then unknowingly touched my contaminated hands to my eyes, nose or mouth.

Other than looking for my lost Oyster card (to use on public transit in London) I don't have much to do today, so I'll start reading Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch.

Sorry to hear you were sick, glad to hear you are feeling better and were able to rebook. Hope your parents aren't too much in Irene's path and that they'll be OK too.

Glad to hear you're doing better.

Your Braves are looking good these days (or else my Cubs look exceptionally pathetic, which is also true).

Hope your flight out goes as planned this time. Glad you're feeling better!

>61 rebeccanyc: I think my parents will be okay. They are in a relatively low lying area, but they aren't near any significant rivers or creeks. My mother's younger sister, however, lives in Jersey City near the Hackensack River, and her condo is on the first floor. I'll have to ask my mother, but I suspect that she may have to evacuate. Her older sister, who is currently living with her, has a house in the Heights of Jersey City, and they could relocate there until Irene passes over.

>62 lindapanzo: Actually I'm a Phillies fan. I don't dislike the Braves, and they are playing well, but they are division rivals, so I would only root for them if the Phillies were out of contention for any postseason honors. Have there been any Big Z sightings lately?

>63 markon: Thanks, Ardene. The flight is still scheduled to leave on time (10:50 pm), and I'm essentially back to normal.

How long are you over for this time? I'm only at work for two days this week on Wednesday and Thursday, as Monday is a public holiday and our childminders are taking some time off so we're sharing out childcare duties. Where are you staying?

Hope your rebooked flight goes ok.

#64 Oops, forgot about that.

The Brewers are so hot now but will undoubtedly cool off come playoff time. Come late Sept/Oct, the Phillies will be the NL team to beat.

>65 elkiedee: I'm there until Sep 18, so a bit longer than last year. I still haven't made reservations, but I'll probably go to Paris from Sep 11-15. I'm staying at the Kingsway Hall Hotel on Great Queen Street, close to the Holborn tube station. Most of my weekdays are still free, although Fliss, Rachael, Jenny & I will spend the day together in Cambridge on Aug 30. Let me know if you want to meet up for lunch.

>66 lindapanzo: No problem! I've lived in Atlanta since 1997, but I'm still a diehard Philadelphia sports fan. The Brewers scare me more than anyone else in the National League, and I'm looking forward to the series between the two teams next month.

Ooh, I wish I'd known about the Cambridge meet up sooner, Cambridge is quite easy to get to from home, but I'll be with the sprogs that day. As you're around for so long, perhaps the week after next.

The Kingsway Hall Hotel looks lovely! Enjoy, Darryl.

Grrr. I was wondering how come I hadn't seen updates to your thread for a while Darryl, and just now realized you'd become unstarred somehow. That seems to happen a lot since they've made changes.

I'll come back to catch up, but I wanted to ask you about the Empire Trilogy. I'd like to purchase the books for The BookDepository, but am hesiating between the Phoenix edition and the one by New York Review of Books. I'd like to go for quality, you know, better grade paper stock, maybe even deckled edges. I prefer the cooler covers on the Phoenix editions, but if they're printed on more or less the equivalent of newsprint, I'll pass. Would you know about that? I know for a fact you didn't go with a Kindle edition, since that doesn't exist. :-)

I hope you are over the pond by now. Have a wonderful trip, Darryl! Take tons of pictures!

#70. I'm a fan of the NYRB editions -- and the trilogy itself -- but am unfamiliar with the Phoenix edition.

I'm now at my hotel in London, after a pleasant flight across the pond. I did sleep, although (unlike Caroline) I never fall into a deep sleep. The hotel charges £14.99 for 24 hours of dial up access, so I'll probably check in here less frequently. It's after 3:30 pm here, so I'll take a shower, head out for lunch and a visit to the London Review Bookshop before it closes,, and post replies to the above messages a bit later.

Have a great time!!

OOh, I hadn't kept abreast of the latest messages here so just now found out you are in London. Enjoy every bit of your trip Darryl!

Darryl, you should be able to find plenty of places with free wireless hotspots. That charge is just ridiculous. If worse comes to worst, I am pretty sure McDonalds gives you free wifi for the price of a coffee....

I'm back, after a quick trip to the London Review Bookshop and the obligatory first day dinner of fish and chips at one of my favorite shops.

I bought three books from the Booker Prize longlist:

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (signed copy)
On Canaan's Side by Sebastian Barry (signed copy)
The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers

And I purchased three other books that were high on my wish list:

The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje (I want to finish this in time for his talk on Wednesday at the British Museum)
Colour Me English by Caryl Phillips
The Last Gift by Abdulrazak Gurnah

>68 elkiedee: I'm sorry that we didn't account for you in our Cambridge plans, Luci. We've been communicating on Facebook, and we're still finalizing our plans ("we" are Rachael, Jenny, Fliss and myself). At present, Rachael, her sprogs, Jenny and I will spend the afternoon together, and Fliss will join us after work for dinner. I'm planning to take the train to Cambridge late Tuesday morning, probably the Cambridge Express from King's Cross. It sounds as though Tuesday won't work for you, but do let me know if your plans change.

>69 lit_chick: Thanks, Nancy! I like the hotel so far, and it got very good ratings (4.3/5.0) on Hotels.com.

>70 Smiler69: Ilana, it looks as though the Phoenix editions of the novels of The Empire Trilogy are on sale at Foyles. I'm planning to go there in the next day or two, and I'll let you know how these editions compare to the NYRB ones (which I already own).

>71 alcottacre: Will do, Stasia. I did bring my digital camera with me, and I'll post photos here and on Facebook.

>72 rebeccanyc: I don't think that the Phoenix editions are sold in the US, Rebecca.

>74 lindapanzo:, 75 Thanks, Linda and Ilana!

>76 JanetinLondon: I did purchase 24 hours' worth of Internet access starting today, but I'll probably use free or lower cost services from now on. My favorite free WiFi site in London is the cafe at Foyles Bookshop on Charing Cross Road, and I'll go there either tomorrow or Monday (Bank Holiday).

I read about 1/4 of Jamrach's Menagerie last night and early this morning on the flight. It's an interesting book, although it isn't knocking my socks off yet.

Glad to hear you are safely arrived and already buying books. Hope you sleep well tonight (or, rather, now) and I look forward to hearing about your UK Adventures!

I've never been to Foyles, but I wish I could go there with you Darryl! Thanks in advance for thinking of my question when you're there.

Darryl, I'm glad you made it to London in good shape. I felt so bad for your unforeseen illness that caused a delay. You've still got plenty of time left to see the sites. It sounds like you've made good use of your first few hours there. Looking forward to those pictures!

#78: I look forward to your pictures, Darryl. I am glad you have made it safely to London.

Thanks Laura, Ilana, Donna and Stasia. I did sleep well, and for far longer than I thought. I awoke to the sound of a nearby door closing, looked at my cell phone, and thought it was 2 am BST (British Summer Time). However, it was 2 am EST, or 7 am BST (the window drapes block out all sunlight, so I couldn't tell what time it was). It still feels as if it's the middle of the night, so I'll probably go back to sleep soon, and venture out around noon.

If it is any consolation, it is the middle of the night here :)

I'm glad you're completed recovered now, Darryl... and the passengers on your original flight, I'm sure, would have thanked you if they knew of your ailment, for not boarding the flight and potentially contaminating everyone else. As a frequent flyer, I've seen a number of less conscientious individuals who fly, sick as dogs. This is why I bring Purile with me and wet wipes with me in my carry-on. I'm considering a mask too, but that might just be going overboard?

I'm looking forward to not just your review of The Cat's Table but to your comments following Ondaatje's talk.

Enjoy your vacation!

>85 cameling: Thanks, Caroline. I hate it (but can understand it) when people who are obviously ill board public transportation, especially a cramped airplane. Fortunately I wasn't in a situation where I had to take that flight, and Delta offers three nonstop flights to London every week day, so it wasn't hard to rebook.

I started reading The Cat's Table this afternoon, while I had lunch at the Cafe at Foyles Bookshop on Charing Cross Road, and I'm enjoying it so far. I'll definitely post a review along with an account of Michael Ondaatje's talk, probably on Thursday.

I bought four more books from Foyles this afternoon:

The Last Hundred Days by Patrick McGuinness (2011 Booker Prize longlist)
Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan (2011 Booker Prize longlist)
Anatomy of a Disappearance by Hisham Matar
Chinaman by Shehan Karunatilaka (recommended by Rachael/FlossieT)

I now have all but one of the Booker Prize longlisted books, except for Derby Day, which I'll pick up later this week.

Ilana, I did look at the Phoenix edition of Troubles by J.G. Farrell at Foyles today; I like the NYRB edition better, as the only significant difference between the two books is the cover image:



The paper stock of the two editions is identical, and the Phoenix edition doesn't have deckled edges. And, IMO, the NYRB cover is far superior to the Phoenix edition cover.

Ahh.. thanks for the nudge, Darryl. I've just finished The Chalk Circle Man and need to start on another book. I've got Troubles in my TBR Tower that I'd been meaning to get to, so this is as good a time as any. Foyles was my favorite hang out when I lived in London ... say hello to the old dear for me, please.

Thanks Darryl for thinking of me once at Foyles (where I'm sure there were plenty of distractions), and for your recommendation. I spent some time comparing the covers again on BD and looks like I'll have to go to the bookstore myself to decide. I just like the bright colours and am a fan of illustration as you know but will have to see them full size, then again, I always love great photography and am a fan of deckled edges too. It might come down to choosing my favourite font or something. I can be ridiculous about details like that, as evidenced right here, but then, I did make a career out of making decisions about such things.

Took me a while to get back to you because I spent the day obsessing over TIOLI. I know... get a life, right? :-)

Hope you're having lots of fun, though you must still be sleeping right now. Have another lovely day.

I'm pea green with envy. Pea green, I tell you. *heaves giant sigh*

Have a lovely time.

I'm with Suzanne on the 'pea green' envy. Would love to have a magic door here that opened onto Tottenham Court Road or some back alley in Covent Garden.

I spent a very happy hour at the cafe in Foyles in May - it's lovely! Sounds like you're having lots of fun.

I finished Jamrach's Menagerie early this morning, as I'm still adjusting to the 5 hour time difference (I think I'm now adjusted to somewhere between Newfoundland and Greenland). This was my fourth novel from the 2011 Booker Prize longlist I've read this month, which was my goal for August, and it's also my Orange book for August, as it was also selected for this year's Orange Prize longlist. It was my least favorite of the Booker Prize longlisted novels I've read so far, and I'll be disappointed if it makes the shortlist. I'll review it later today or tomorrow.

I'll finish The Cat's Table, possibly as early as today, and then start The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, another Booker Prize longlisted book, which has received several glowing reviews on LT.

>87 cameling: Foyles sends her love to you, Caroline, and she wants to know when you'll pay her a visit, as she's getting up in years.

>88 Smiler69: You're welcome, Ilana. I only glanced at the Phoenix edition of Troubles for a few seconds, so I can't tell you much about the font and font size or other finer details about it in comparison to the NYRB edition. This is one of the very few times that I preferred the US edition of a book to the UK edition, although to me the differences were very minimal.

>89 Chatterbox: Hopefully you can make it to London soon, Suz! Is there anyone you can stay with here?

>90 avatiakh: I love that magic door idea! I'll vote for the back alley in Covent Garden (or Bloomsbury), as there is a major construction project at Tottenham Court Road station, and the street is blocked to pedestrian and vehicle traffic at its intersection with Oxford Street. As a result, I had to make a significant detour to reach Foyles yesterday, as I walked on High Holborn Street to New Oxford Street to reach that intersection.

I love that cafe, even if I don't buy books or if there aren't any live music performances. I'll have to check later this week, but I couldn't log on to the cafe's (formerly?) free WiFi network.

Darryl, I looked to see if Chapters Indigo (our local book chain) had both books, and they only have the Phoenix edition in store, but they do have both editions online, so I've ordered the two and will compare at leisure once I receive them. I don't know why I'm making such a big deal out of purchasing this book. Maybe because I've had The Siege of Krishnapur on my wish list for so very long and really look forward to reading the trilogy, which they don't carry at the library.

>93 Smiler69: I'll be interested to read about your comparison of the two editions of Troubles, Ilana. Are you planning to get all three books of The Empire Trilogy?

I've finished 2/3 of The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje, and it's been enjoyable so far. I'll finish it tonight, and then start The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes later tonight or tomorrow.

Are you planning to get all three books of The Empire Trilogy?

Yes I am Darryl. I was originally going to go with The Siege of Krishnapur directly until I saw your recommendation for Troubles. The fact that I'll end up getting all three books in either one edition or the other is probably why I'm being so fussy about which one I want to go with.

I'll look forward to review on Jamrach's Menagerie. Of all the book descriptions I read from the Booker Prize longlist, that was one of the most appealing to me, so I'll be curious to know why you were so underwhelmed by it.

kidzdoc - Since you've mentioned the The Empire Trilogy a few times in the threads I've read, and I think we may have somewhat similar tastes in literature (from what I can tell), I'm definitely going to check it out as well. Thanks for the indirect recommendation!

Sadly, no longer have anyone I can just descend on in London. It's the first time in nearly 20 years that that is the case! Or at least, certainly since the mid-90s. A close friend was there for several years, but moved back to Toronto two years ago. I do know some people there, but no one who would automatically say "come and stay with me!"

Give Foyles my love. Give Hatchards my love. Give Hyde Park and Green Park my love. Give Kew Gardens my love. etc etc. etc.

I can only assume that the Booker Prize judges must have overlooked The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje when they were selecting this year's longlist. I finished it about an hour ago, and it's a beautifully written novel about a young boy who travels by ship from Colombo, the capital of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in the mid 1950s to England, where he will be reunited with his mother. Although the boy travels alone, he is accompanied by two boys he has met before, his older and feisty cousin Emily, and a wealthy aunt, and the journey is filled with interesting characters and fascinating adventures that will have an impact on his life throughout the remainder of his childhood and beyond. As I mentioned earlier, I'll review it after I attend Mr Ondaatje's talk at the British Museum on Wednesday night, but I'll give it 4-1/2 stars for now.

If The Cat's Table had been selected for the longlist I would currently rank it just behind The Stranger's Child, and ahead of Pigeon English, A Cupboard Full of Coats, and Jamrach's Menagerie.

I've found myself wanting to create a tioli challenge along the lines of "read something to which kidzdoc has given at least 4.5 stars" because that's a list of books I very much want to read..... but I thought it might be a bit specific (and, for you, a bit creepy!).
I've put The Cat's Table on hold at the library. It will be interesting to see how you find his talk right after you've read this novel that you appreciate so much!

>99 EBT1002: LOL, Ellen! My biggest fear with that TIOLI challenge would be that several readers would give much lower ratings to these books, and wonder what the heck I was thinking when I gave such high ratings to those books.

Regarding The Cat's Table and Michael Ondaatje's talk: I did something similar to this several years ago, when I attended a talk that Caryl Phillips gave at Foyles about his book Foreigners, which I had read just before the talk. It was a small audience (40-50 people, at most), and I was able to ask Mr Phillips a couple of specific questions about the book, which added to my understanding of it, and, I think, enhanced the conversation between him and the audience. I'd love to be able to do something similar on Wednesday.

My copy of The Cat's Table shipped to me today!! Hooray! I should get it by the end of the week. I'm glad you enjoyed it so much Darryl; is it your first Ondaatje? If it is, I highly recommend In the Skin of a Lion, then The English Patient and Anil's Ghost.

Maybe we should have a TIOLI challenge for: this should have been on the Booker longlist? ;)

Good news, Cait! I look forward to your thoughts on The Cat's Table. It was my second Ondaatje, after The English Patient, which I was lukewarm about. One of the gastroenterologists at work lent me Anil's Ghost, so I'll read that in the near future, and I have In the Skin of a Lion in my library, somewhere...

I had nearly the same thought as you did, although I thought of creating a thread in the Booker Prize group for books that "should have" made the longlist, especially in this particularly unorthodox year for the award. I've already bought several other books that will likely fit this category, namely River of Smoke, Chinaman, Anatomy of a Disappearance, and The Last Gift, and I'm sure that I'll buy several others in the next couple of weeks.

Hmm, The Last Gift looks good... and I am trying to go on a book-buying ban :(

What does a gastroenterologist do? That's some job title!

A gastroenterologist (also known as a GI doctor) is a physician who specializes in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract (from mouth to anus). One of the GI docs is a big fan of Ondaatje, and he introduced me to him and Italo Calvino 8-10 years ago, when I was just learning about less well known international authors.

Fun job ;)

Glad you're enjoying your trip - keep us updated on the rest of your days.

Thoroughly enjoyed your review of The Cat's Table and have put it on the ever-burgeoning list : ). I haven't read Anil's Ghost but was also lukewarm on The English Patient.

No, not a fun job! Pediatric GI docs have to take care of a sizable minority of kids with chronic GI disorders, such as chronic abdominal pain and eating disorders (anorexia nervosa, bulimia, etc.), which have a significant psychiatric overlay and can be very difficult to treat.

I'll definitely keep all of you posted on my plans and mini-LT meet ups. Rachael (FlossieT), Fliss (flissp), Jenny (lunacat) and I are meeting in Cambridge tomorrow (actually later today, in about 12 hours; it's nearly 2 am here). I'll take photos and post them on this thread later in the week.

I have both The English Patient and In the Skin of a Lion on my shelves, but I've yet to read them. Haven't read Calvino yet, but he's been on my radar for some time. Not that I'm in any way knowledgeable about international writers. I get a good education when I come on this thread. :-)

I've got Anil's Ghost in my TBR Tower and have been meaning to get to it. I think I'll raise it up a couple of rungs .. maybe bring it with me on my next trip in September.

*waiting impatiently for Wednesday .... on Darryl's behalf of course*

I'm glad you laughed at my idea, Darryl. I do kind of like the variation you've considered - either in tioli or in the Booker group. I've read a few Booker prize winners and nominees over the years but never with such purpose as I'm learning about here. I am really enjoying the intentional exploration of a group of prize nominees (and the Orange prize was fun to explore more deeply in July) -- and those we think maybe should have been listed.

Your trip is sounding wonderful so far. Keep enjoying.

*waiting patiently for the photos of the Cambridge meet up*

I downloaded The Cat's Table to my Kindle last night - it was only £1.91 which seemed like a bit of a bargain. I also bought Divisadero earlier in the month. Ummm, I haven't actually read any of his books properly.

I downloaded the Cambridge photos I took yesterday to my Facebook account well after midnight, which some of you have seen. I'll post some of the photos here; feel free to send me a friend request on Facebook if you'd like to see the rest of them.

I took the Cambridge Express train from London King's Cross Station early yesterday afternoon (a very fast 46 minute trip, with no stops in between), and met Jenny at Cambridge Station. We met Rachael and her three adorable and very entertaining children in the center of town, and walked onto the campus of Cambridge University.

Our first stop was the Wren Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, the alma mater of Rachael and her husband:



The library was completed in 1695, and it hosts manuscripts and collections of numerous printed books that date from medieval times to 1820, including early copies of Shakespeare's works, along with more recent documents, such as a first edition copy of Winnie the Pooh along with A.A. Milne's handwritten manuscript of the book.

After that, it was time to punt! Not this punting:



Instead, we did this punting:



Rachael, being the best punter of the group by virtue of a near complete lack of experience amongst the others, skillfully successfully guided the terrified group along the River Cam, with her inimitable, and possibly illegal, technique of zigzagging along the river, which involved innumerable collisions with other punts and with the Cam's concrete banks, in an aquatic version of bumper cars. Her children, tempered by the folly of youth and displaying a worrisome amount of confidence in their mother's punting abilities, provided levity and much laughter to me and Jenny, which fortunately prevented us from shrieking hysterically throughout the trip (although I forgot to pay her eldest the tenner he rightfully earned by keeping us entertained, and distracted).





The trip along the river was a great way to see the college's stunning buildings and bridges:

After our river adventure, Rachael took us on a walking tour of the university's campus, with a particular focus on Trinity College and King's College, including the famous King's College Chapel, seen in the next to last photo in the previous message. It was started in 1446 by King Henry VI, but was not completed for over a century. We toured the chapel, as Rachael and her sons served as personal tour guides to the impressive building, which included the stunning campus organ:



We walked and chatted on an overcast and cool but very pleasant and fortunately rain free day:

After the campus tour we proceeded to the center of town, and Rachael's sons showed me the location of their schools, where they lived, and other sites on a sculpture:



After a stop for cake and tea, we visited a local bookshop, Heffers of Cambridge. Jenny & I said goodbye to Rachael and her children, and the two of us walked to the Fitzwilliam Museum, which unfortuanately was closed.



We then headed to the Kingston Arms, a freehouse closer to the center of town where we met Fliss for drinks. Rachael joined us for dinner, and we spent several enjoyable hours in conversation.



Fliss, Jenny and Rachael walked me back to Cambridge Station, at the end of an unforgettable and very enjoyable day:





Thanks to Fliss, Jenny and especially Rachael and her children for a wonderful day, one that I won't ever forget.

>108 Smiler69: Ilana, I would recommend If On A Winter's Night a Traveler and The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino, in particular.

>109 cameling: Caroline, I'll probably read Anil's Ghost in the very near future as well.

>110 EBT1002: Ellen, I'm glad that you're enjoying the Booker Prize longlist discussion we've been having, even though this hasn't been a typical year for the award. I'm enjoying it as well, and I'll be mainly reading longlisted books, and ones which "should" have been longlisted for this year's prize.

>111 cameling: Done! I would have done this earlier, but I was too tired earlier this morning after I posted the photos on Facebook to figure out how to transfer them here. There are >20 cameling: more photos in my album, which can be seen on my Facebook page, and I included the two photos that Fliss posted on Facebook, as well.

>112 elkiedee: Thanks for the info about The Cat's Table, Luci. I mentioned this to Rachael, Fliss and Jenny, and I think that Rachael may have downloaded a copy to her smartphone last night.

I bought five books at Heffers yesterday:

Derby Day by D.J. Taylor: This was the last of the 13 books I needed for this year's Booker Prize longlist.

Waterline by Ross Raisin: I enjoyed his debut novel God's Own Country, and this new novel was on my wish list.

Cain by José Saramago: This is Saramago's last novel, which was also on my wish list.

The Shadow of a Smile by Kachi A. Ozumba: I saw this book on a half price table. I hadn't heard of it before, but it's a debut novel about a young Nigerian man who is imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit, amidst a modern democratic Nigeria rife with corruption.

Cambridge: The Hidden History by Alison Taylor: I wanted to learn more about the city, and this book was the one that interested me the most.

I should finish The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes today, before Michael Ondaatje's talk this evening.

Darryl, your photos bring back so many pleasant memories, and it looks like you had a wonderful time. These meetups are one of the best things about LT -- they really enrich our experience, even when we can't participate in the meetup itself!

Looks like a fantastic day! I loved your photos, especially the one of the Kings College chapel. I had a tour of Cambridge from a friend who's at Clare College back in May, and it's a beautiful university and town.

I'm loving being a not so "Accidental Tourist" - thanks for the photos.

Agree with all of the above, thanks SO much for posting your lovely photos, both of the scenery and LT'ers!

>116 kidzdoc:-120 I'm glad that you enjoyed the photos!

All kidding aside, Rachael was an excellent punter and tour guide, and I was impressed by how smart and knowledgeable her sons were about the city and its history. The littlest one was shy, but very sweet, and I loved the affection that the three kids shared for each other, and their mother.

What a great photo-tour of Cambridge and your day. Thanks for posting!

Thank you for wonderful photos, Darryl. What an adventure! Enjoy the remainder of your vacation.

What a wonderful meetup you had. I'm glad you got to see Cambridge through some very cute children's eyes. I'd love to book them as tour guides if I ever make it back to England. Thank you for sharing with us stay-behinds, Darryl.

Love all the photos Darryl, thanks for sharing them. Sounds like you're having a blast, and I'm envious of your meetups, I would love nothing better than to go punting in Cambridge with some LT friends. I'm happy for you.

I received the two editions of Troubles today and since you said you were interested in my comparison of the two editions, here goes...


Phoenix edition:

I prefer the fun cover illustration, coloration and overall design
Larger font, very legible
Lower grade, rougher & greyer paper stock
No deckled edge



NYRB edition:

Not so fond of overall design, colour choices and photo quality (though I do love b&w photography)
Smaller, more interesting font & typographic treatment with nice legibility
Higher grade paper stock, much smoother texture & soft white
No deckled edge (not on this particular print run, anyway)

Conclusion:

Though I do love a graphically interesting cover and usually choose one edition over another mostly based on cover design when purchasing online, I'll keep the NYRB edition, mostly because of the paper quality and texture and a more pleasing (though less standard) type treatment. Of course, I'll be the other books in the series from the same publishers. It's quite possible that the two editions you saw at Foyles were different as far as paper stock than the ones I have, simply because publishers often change paper stock from one print run (and one country) to another, since paper prices are constantly fluctuating.

I should point out that I'm not at all surprised that we have opposing opinions on what cover designs please us most, since I'd say the NYRB edition is much more 'masculine', whereas one could almost say that the Phoenix edition was geared toward a feminine, or perhaps more youthful market.

I find it quite amusing that I'm being so extremely anal about the purchase of this specific book. One would think I was designing it myself! Thanks for playing along Darryl. :-)

Hi Darryl, I'm really enjoying your adventure in London. You've got me interested in Cat's Table. I've read The English Patient which I liked and Anil's Ghost which I didn't and I have In the Skin of the Lion on my shelf.

>122 EBT1002:-124 Thanks Ellen, Nancy and Donna!

>125 Smiler69: Thanks, Ilana. I enjoyed your comments about the two editions of Troubles. Although I don't hate the UK cover, I didn't like the green color used for the grass, and the tranquil setting seems far removed from events that occurred within and outside of the Majestic Hotel. I like the photo that was chosen for the NYRB edition, although the centered title obscures it. I didn't look closely at the font size and type in the UK edition, but they were a bit disappointing in comparison to other UK paperbacks I own, and the paper wasn't as weighty (which is one of several things I prefer about UK books in comparison to ones from the US).

>126 brenzi: I'll write a review of The Cat's Table soon, probably later today or tomorrow.

Yesterday was a nearly complete wash out, as I did very little reading or anything else, after staying awake until 3:30 am. I did manage to catch up on some sleep, and my internal clock is now finally set on British Summer Time. I had planned to finish The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes yesterday, as it's only 150 pages in length; however, it's a very contemplative book, one that is making me think of my own life as a young adult, my first serious love, and the joys, successes, and regrets I've had, and continue to hold. I'll definitely finish it today, as I have less than 50 pages to go, and it will likely challenge The Stranger's Child for first place in my Booker Prize longlist ranking order.

I think tomorrow will be the day to go to the Borough Market near London Bridge Station, to try a bacon butty sandwich as recommended by Caroline, after I see the Joan Miró exhibit at the nearby Tate Modern. Today feels like a reading day, so I'll probably head to one of the parks in Bloomsbury after breakfast.

My planned reads for September (as always, subject to change, and posted here mainly for my own benefit):

Chinaman by Shehan Karunatilaka - completed
On Canaan's Side by Sebastian Barry - completed
Cambridge: The Hidden History by Alison Taylor
The Last Hundred Days by Patrick McGuinness - completed
The Shadow of a Smile by Kachi A. Ozumba
Waterline by Ross Raisin
Colour Me English by Caryl Phillips - reading
Derby Day by D.J. Taylor
Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan - reading
Life A User's Manual by Georges Perec
River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
The Submission by Amy Waldman - e-reading
The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht
The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers - completed
Anatomy of a Disappearance by Hisham Matar
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes - completed
In Praise of Reading and Fiction: The Nobel Lecture by Mario Vargas Llosa
The Last Gift by Abdulrazak Gurnah - completed

Glad you're enjoying your trip, Darryl, and thanks for all the interesting trip notes. Impressed as always, by your being able to plan your reading!

Looks like you all had a great time in Cambridge. Love the photos. :)

>128 rebeccanyc: Thanks, Rebecca. I've had a wonderful time so far, and I'll be here until Sep 18, so I still have a lot of time remaining.

It was a bit easier to plan my reads this month, as all of these books, except for River of Smoke, are ones that I bought in London over the past week, or ones that are on my Kindle.

I did finish The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes this afternoon, and it's definitely my favorite from this year's Booker Prize longlist. I'll give it 5 stars for now, and I'll probably re-read it next week, as it's only 150 pages long, take notes about it, and submit a proper review of it then. Unless my view of it changes significantly on a second read, it will likely be my favorite book from the longlist, and it would have topped any of the longlisted books I read last year. More comments soon.

I've started The Last Gift by Abdulrazak Gurnah, a book that was touted as a strong candidate for the longlist by several members of the discussion group on the Booker Prize's web site, which is quite good so far.

That's an impressive reading list, as always. I'll look forward to your comments about The Tiger's Wife. Am also reading The Sisters Brothers this month though gave up on Life a User's Manual some time ago. It was very interesting, but my mind wasn't focused enough to be taking in quite so much information. I do intend to read it some other time however.

>131 Smiler69: Thanks, Ilana. I'll probably read The Tiger's Wife the week after next. I may put off The Sisters Brothers until October if it isn't selected for the Booker Prize shortlist on Tuesday. I'll read the six shortlisted books first, and then try to finish as many of the longlisted books as I can by Oct 16, when the winner will be announced. I'll probably read On Canaan's Side this weekend, after I finish The Last Gift. I have completely neglected my own challenge read of Life A User's Manual, due to the Booker Prize longlist announcement, but I would like to read it this month (although I left my copy at home, so I'll have to get another one later today or tomorrow).

I was just reading today's Guardian, and on page 9 is an article which announces the longlist for this year's Guardian first book award (geocroc had posted the longlist yesterday in the Prizes group, as well). The 10 finalists are:

Non-Fiction:
The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them by Elif Batuman
Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class by Owen Jones
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddharta Mukherjee

Fiction:
Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman
The Submission by Amy Waldman
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
The Book of Lies by Mary Horlock
The Collaborator by Mirza Waheed
Down the Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villalobos

Poetry:
Sidereal by Rachel Boast

I've read three of the longlisted books, The Emperor of All Maladies (excellent), The Collaborator (very good), and Pigeon English, and I'll read The Submission later this month.

The article mentions that "A series of regional reading groups, run in partnership with Waterstone's bookshops, will now assist in the judging panel with choosing a shortlist."

More info:

Guardian First Book Award: the longlist 2011 (gallery of all 10 longlisted books, with links to extracts and reviews of each book)

Fiction takes lead in longlist for Guardian first book award (article in today's paper)

Checking in after a few days absence, Darryl. I love the pictures you posted and glad to see that you all had a good time.

I loved Arthur and George by Julian Barnes when I read it a couple of years ago. I definitely have The Sense of an Ending on my TBR list. Even the title is emotionally evocative. And I know titles are sometimes "influenced" by publishers' marketing departments, but this one nonetheless catches my attention.

>134 alcottacre: Hi, Stasia! I missed seeing you here, but I knew you were having problems with your back. I hope that today is a better day for you (*gentle hug*).

>135 EBT1002: You read my mind, Ellen; I had meant to ask others for recommendations of books by Julian Barnes. I'll pick up Arthur and George while I'm here, and probably Flaubert's Parrot or England, England; all three books were shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

#136: The back problems are ongoing, Darryl, but I have to sit at the desk at my office, so I am catching up a bit while here.

>136 kidzdoc: - I read England, England earlier this year, Darryl. I wasn't crazy about it at the time, but it's the kind of book that I know I would like given the right time, so I've kept it around for a re-read in the future. It is quite funny in parts...

Catching up... Thanks for the meetup photos!

It was lovely to see the photos of your trip to Cambridge and the meet-up there. Triggered lots of memories of my own time in that city - including punting on the Cam, which I did not try until my very last night there. I hope you enjoy the rest of your stay - and find a cheaper/free location for wifi!

I finished The Last Gift, the new novel by Abdulrazak Gurnah this evening, which was a solid if not spectacular read (4 stars). It was one of the books mentioned as a possible candidate for the Booker Prize longlist; I would rank it above two of the longlisted novels I've read so far, but I wouldn't say that it definitely deserved to be amongst the Booker Dozen.

Next up: On Canaan's Side by Sebastian Barry, which will be my sixth longlisted book. I'd like to read it and one more by the time the shortlist is announced on Tuesday, probably either The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt or The Last Hundred Days by Patrick McGuinness.

One member of the discussion group on the Booker Prize web site is compiling a ranked list from other members. At the moment, The Sense of an Ending (my favorite so far) and On Canaan's Side are tied for first, followed by The Stranger's Child, The Sisters Brothers, The Last Hundred Days and Far to Go. I won't vote until I've read On Canaan's Side, at least.

>137 alcottacre: A special thanks to you for visiting my thread given your continued back pain, Stasia. Can you take some time off to allow your back to heal itself?

>138 katiekrug: Thanks for your input about England, England, Katie. His earlier novels are available as Kindle e-books in the US, so I probably won't buy the print editions here.

>139 qebo: You're welcome, qebo!

>140 gennyt: Thanks, Genny! I've finally caught up with sleep and have adjusted to British Summer Time, so I'll start getting out a bit more than I have in the past few days.

I also loved your photos of the day out in Cambridge. I read Flaubert's Parrot last year and really liked it. I had also read Madame Bovary and Alain de Botton's The Art of Travel which reference's Flaubert's travels to Egypt and I admit that helped with my enjoyment of the Barnes book. I read Arthur and George a few years ago and really liked it too. I've also laughed my way through The Pedant in the Kitchen which is a collection of short essays about cooking, recipes and just being in the kitchen.

You should read Flaubert's Parrot; that is the book that really made Barnes's name, and it's great.

If you're going to make a Flaubert detour, The Perpetual Orgy by Mario Vargas Llosa -- about Flaubert and Mme Bovary -- is VERY worthwhile.

ETA: I'm hoping I can afford to get the Barnes from the UK, but that may not be poss. I can easily wait to read Sebastian Barry's novel, as I wasn't crazy about his last. I'm not sure I'll get the library copy of Sisters Brothers this month, but I did finally lay hands on a copy of The Last Hundred Days. A timely book, given that I've just finished reading about the collapse of the soviet union!

I wonder, is it helpful to have actually read any Gustave Flaubert before reading Flaubert's Parrot? I haven't gotten around to him yet, though I fully intend to. I enjoyed Arthur and George well enough, but feel sure I'd have appreciated it much more had I read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's work beforehand.

#141: Can you take some time off to allow your back to heal itself?

Unfortunately, no. If I do not work, I do not get paid. Thankfully the back is doing a bit better today.

Ilana, it would make reading the Barnes novel a richer experience, although I suspect that if you know the basic plot & themes, you'd still relish it. I went back to Barnes after reading Flaubert's letters, the Vargas Llosa book, a Flaubert bio and re-reading Mme Bovary, and it was def difft. But I wouldn't avoid it until then!

#144 Ilana, I read Flaubert's Parrot without reading any Flaubert (though I'm familiar with Madame Bovary from TV adaptations etc.), and quite liked it. It's definitely readable without having read him, although no doubt it is better if you have.

*waves hello to Darryl in passing*

The first week of a new semester has kept me very busy and drat that I didn't have time earlier to visit and see your wonderful, lovely, incredibly beautiful photos.

Looking at the photos of the buildings and you with the great LT friends, gave me wonderful goosebumps of joy!

I'm ever so glad you are having a marvelous time!

Darryl, I love being an armchair traveler on your thread. The pictures were great and I'm indebted to you for explaining and illustrating punting on the River Cam. Can't wait to hear more about your travels.

Thanks Suz and Caty for the feedback. I'll probably get to before Flaubert's Parrot, after reading Madame Bovary if only because the former is on my wish list only, whereas the latter has been sitting on my shelves seemingly forever, and after my experience with Arthur and George, where I knew I was missing out because of not having read Conan Doyle, I wouldn't want to underappreciate Flaubert's Parrot because of any omission on my part. I also would really like to read A Sentimental Education for it's own sake, as have been meaning to for decades now. There are many modern books that I haven't reached out for yet because haven't read the classics they are inspired from, so I have my work cut out for me. Now if only I could figure out how to read a book-a-day like you Suz...

I've just finished On Canaan's Side by Sebastian Barry, the sixth book I've read from the current Booker Prize longlist, which is narrated by an 89 year old woman who fled Ireland during the Troubles, and reflects back on her life after the death of her grandson. It was beautifully written and hauntingly sad, but a bit of a disappointment as I thought it would have knocked my socks off, which it didn't. I'll give it 4 stars for now, and review it soon (I'll catch up on reviews over the next day or two). I suspect that it will make the shortlist, but I wouldn't be disappointed if it didn't.

My current Booker longlist ranking:

1. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
2. The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst
3. On Canaan's Side by Sebastian Barry
4. A Cupboard Full of Coats by Yvvette Edwards
5. Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman
6. Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch

Next up will probably be Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan, although I won't start it until tomorrow, as it's nearly 11 pm here.

>142 avatiakh: Thanks, Kerry; I'm glad that you liked the photos.

I went to the London Review Bookshop this morning soon after it opened, and bought Flaubert's Parrot, as it was a small sized paperback. I picked up another copy of Life A User's Manual by Georges Perec, since I accidentally left my copy in Atlanta, and bought three other books:

Scenes From Village Life by Amos Oz: This newly published work consists of seven connected stories, which present a surreal and unsettling portrait" of a village in Israel.

Pure by Andrew Miller: A novel set on the eve of the French Revolution, which was selected by the Guardian and members of the Booker Prize discussion group as a strong candidate for the longlist before its announcement.

Whatever It Is, I Don't Like It by Howard Jacobson: This selection of Jacobson's columns from the Independent will be released on Monday, but the bookshop had a copy on one of its tables of new nonfiction. I hadn't heard of this book, or Scenes From Village Life, so I'm glad I stopped there while the store was still empty.

BTW, I also downloaded Madame Bovary onto my Kindle, and I'll move The Art of Travel, which I bought last year, higher up my TBR list.

>143 Chatterbox: Thanks for the recommendation of The Perpetual Orgy, Suz; I've downloaded a sample to my Kindle, and I'll buy either the Kindle or the print edition of it later this week.

I'll definitely bring The Sense of an Ending and On Canaan's Side back to Atlanta, as both are signed copies from the London Review Bookshop. I'll probably read The Last Hundred Days later this week, unless it fails to make the shortlist.

>144 Smiler69: The Vintage UK edition of Flaubert's Parrot is only 190 pages, so I think I'll read it before I read Madame Bovary and The Perpetual Orgy, and consider reading it again afterward. I'll probably read it after I return to Atlanta, though. The bookshop had most, if not all, of Barnes' other books, but I'll buy those in the US.

>145 alcottacre: I'm very glad to hear that your back is better today, Stasia!

>146 Chatterbox:, 147 Thanks for the input about Flaubert's Parrot, Suz & Caty (*waves back to Caty*)

>148 Whisper1: Hi, Linda! I'm glad that you enjoyed the photos.

>149 phebj: Thanks, Pat. I definitely need to take more photos, although this would expose me as a tourist instead of a native Londoner. I continue to be regularly approached by people on the streets, for directions or donations to various causes. On Thursday two very pleasant volunteers for the British Red Cross on two separate occasions went out of their way to talk with me; both were surprised to hear my decidedly non-British accent, and to learn that I didn't live in the city, which pleased me immensely. I definitely fit in better and feel more comfortable in London than I do in Atlanta and most other places in the US.

>150 Smiler69: I haven't read anything by Flaubert. I'll start out with Madame Bovary; does anyone have any strong recommendations of other Flaubert books?

That's great that people take you for a Londoner Darryl, I completely understand how pleasing it must be. That happens to me a lot when I go to France, and to Paris of course. I always feel like I fit in better wherever it is I go in Europe than here. But I have to wonder if it's not "grass always greener" syndrome or is it really a question of people fitting better in certain places? When I went to Australia for example, I felt the people and mentality were so RIGHT and familiar that I was convinced I needed to move there.

As for Flaubert, I'd say A Sentimental Education is probably one of his more important novels. I'm no specialist, but it's been on my wish list forever and I'm convinced that when I read it I'll wonder why I didn't get to it sooner. Maybe.

I've only read Flaubert's Madame Bovary, but I very much enjoyed. Hope you will too, Darryl.

It's because you don't wear sneakers, Darryl -- that's the giveaway of an American abroad. Well, that and the camera!

I remember how proud I was when I was first able to stump a London cabbie. It happened in 1996, and the street that I stumped him with was "Glebe Place" (in Chelsea). *grin*

When I first visited London, my best friend who had already traveled extensively throughout Europe, insisted on certain wardrobe rules - no sneakers, of course, topped the list. It's fairly easy to blend in in the UK and throughout most of Europe. I've started to kind of relish the feeling of "otherness" when I travel to Asia or other parts of the world where I tend to stick out more; it's almost a hyper-awareness of myself and my movements and of the space I inhabit - very different perspective... and kind of humbling.

no sneakers? Oh, my, what type of shoes did you wear that were comfortable enough for long periods of walking?

Argh, when I lived in Japan I'd get home at the end of the day and be startled to see that I wasn't Asian. Even though I was always hyper-aware of that fact when I was out and about...

I think the dead giveaway for Americans is WHITE, bulky sneakers that stick out like mad in a crowd. I can recognize an American tourist here in Montreal a block away because of those.

Darryl, I'm going to put The Sense of an Ending on hold at the library as soon as they come back from a week of closure (and when they close for a week due to budget cuts, they really close -- no putting of books on hold, even!). I swear I would happily pay a higher annual car tab to support the library.... but I seem to be in the minority on that.

In any case, I really appreciate your "ordering" of your favorite Booker longlisteds. I picked up a paperback copy of A Cupboard Full of Coats at the U Bookstore, but the others have been more elusive.

My father and I used to play a game when I was a teenager -- we'd see people walking toward us and try to guess their nationality from clothing, body language, appearance, etc. It was great fun; we'd then try and establish which of us was right by waiting for them to talk (usually using language/accent to get it.) The memorable one was walking up the looong hill that leads from Monaco's harbor to the Monte Carlo casino. Walking toward us was a teenager -- late teens, perhaps? -- over whom we bickered fiercely, my father insisting she was Italian and me holding out for American. He forgot the sneakers clue (and the jeans were also distinctive at the time, in the late 70s.) When our paths crossed, she was talking to a friend in perfect Brooklyn/New Yawkese -- so perhaps we were both right and she was Italian American?! Works best in Europe where there are lots of nationalities or cities that have lots of tourists. Is that blonde person walking toward you Swedish or from Minnesota??

Damn! Does this mean that I can't wear the Union Jack baseball cap I bought yesterday with my "USA Olympics" sweatshirt, capris and white sneakers? And I can't talk loudly, stand in the center of the sidewalk with a map the size of a blueprint, and complain about the traffic proceeding in the wrong direction? Sigh. Next you'll tell me that I should eat at a local restaurant instead of Burger King, McDonald's or Pizza Hut, and that I shouldn't put ketchup on everything I eat.

Most Americans do stand out here like sore thumbs, such as this couple (I didn't take this photo):



However, some of the tourists from other countries, and even some of the British tourists, are also painfully obvious, such as the two middle aged British women in the Underground train I was in yesterday, who repeatedly cackled and made loud and publicly inappropriate comments whenever the announcement "This is a Piccadilly Line service to Cockfosters" was made.

Well, the opening of Belgium's first McDonalds in early 1978 was a big event, even for locals. For about three months...

LOL re Cockfosters. I'd love to know the origin of that place (I lived on the Piccadilly line for years, so have heard that countless times). Suspect it has something to do with cock-baiting and nothing to do with Fosters lager.

Darryl, if I thought you were doing anything in that list, I would call the men in their white coats. Not because you'd be lynched by locals, but because it would confirm your body has been occupied by an alien being.

Now, go out and enjoy a fry-up for breakfast! :-)

I was extremely proud when someone I immediately recognized as an American asked me directions in French in Paris; of course, I would have been even more proud if a Parisian did!

New York City is also filled with tourists, especially in midtown. They too are immediately obvious. In fact, when I get out of the subway in Times Square, which I often have to do, I play a game of identifying people as New Yorkers or tourists. At certain times of day, they vastly outnumber the New Yorkers. Probably most are from other parts of the US, although we get a lot of people from around the world, and especially a lot of French Canadians. Aside from the way the tourists dress, they are most easily spotted by the way they move (more slowly, looking up at what's around them, clustering in groups or spreading out across the sidewalk). When I get annoyed because I can't walk as fast as I usually do, I always remind myself that they are supporting our economy! Then there was the man on the subway who said to his son, "We're going to Houston Street" and pronounced it like the city; we pronounce it House-ton. And many's the time I've helped them with Metrocard machines in subways.

I've always tried to make a point of blending in with the locals wherever I've gone to, but then I also wonder sometimes what the point of doing that is exactly, if it also means I'm going to deprive myself of doing things that I want to do when I'm visiting a place that's new, or at least no often visited, like taking my time to look around and maybe even stop and stare and take pictures... especially since I tend to take my best pictures when I'm travelling. And then I think, if I can walk around in my own city with a camera strapped around my neck, why couldn't I do that when I'm visiting somewhere?

I used to travel a lot all through childhood up till my late 30s. But now that a few years have gone by and I'm 'middle aged', I wonder if my priorities will have changed and I too will wear sweatpants and sneakers and a baseball cap (none of which I never wear unless I'm actually doing sports) and fearlessly take out a map that spans the width of a sidewalk... right outside on a busy intersection, and point my camera at everything and everyone, and chew a huge wad of gum with my mouth open, and wear a money belt on the outside of my clothes for everyone to see...

That picture is great Darryl. Why do I feel like I've seen those people? :-)

>153 Smiler69: But I have to wonder if it's not "grass always greener" syndrome or is it really a question of people fitting better in certain places?

I can't speak for others, but I'm most comfortable and fit in best in the most diverse and cosmopolitan communities or cities. I'm sure it wouldn't take long for me to find sections of London that I would be uncomfortable in, but I'm quite at ease in central London, although I'd rather avoid the areas that are most frequented by tourists, here and elsewhere. I'm sure that no one will be surprised to hear that NYC and San Francisco are the US cities that I fit in the best, though I'm also very comfortable in suburban Philadelphia and central and northern New Jersey.

>154 lit_chick: Thanks, Nancy. I suspect that I'll read Madame Bovary sometime next month. BTW, the 3G WiFi service of the Kindle 3 (US) is free here in London (no additional charge for downloading books, magazines, etc. directly from Amazon), and it has a very strong signal.

>155 Chatterbox: I rarely wear sneakers for anything other than exercise, and I strongly prefer black ones to white. I think my biggest giveaway for being a tourist is staring at the maps on or in Undeground trains or stations, particularly on weekends when some of the lines (Circle, District, Hammersmith & City) are shut down or severely curtailed, and I have to take a different route to reach my destination. I always carry a Transport for London visitor's guide, for bus and Tube services, but I avoid pulling it out if at all possible.

I was able to give directions via the Underground to a German(?) couple this afternoon, and I helped another European woman top up her Oyster card while I did the same.

>156 katiekrug: Yep, no sneakers, fanny packs or grotesque backpacks, shorts (unless you're running or are younger than a teenager), apparel that tells everyone where you're from (leave the USA gear at home, please!), short sleeved tropical shirts that should not be worn outside of Hawai'i or the Caribbean, or silly hats:



Having said this, I'll probably buy a hat like this and an equally horrid sweatshirt, so that I can dress up as an American tourist the next time I have to work on Halloween (I had previously discussed this with my partner who visited London last month for the first time).

>157 Whisper1: In lieu of sneakers or dress shoes, I normally wear a pair of work oxfords, such as this one I bought from the Skechers outlet store in San Francisco several years ago:



I have a pair of moderately dressy black shoes for evening wear, and a pair of slip on casual shoes as an alternative, but no sneakers!

>158 Chatterbox: Although I've never been there, I can't imagine being in a major Asian city and not being acutely conscious of being non-Asian.

>159 Smiler69: Death to white sneakers!

>160 EBT1002: Books! Right, back on topic; thanks, Ellen. The Sense of an Ending isn't scheduled to be released in the US until late January, but hopefully the publication date will be moved up a bit, especially if it wins the Booker Prize this year (*fingers crossed*).

>161 Chatterbox: It rained for a solid two hours this afternoon, which I spent in a Caffè Nero next to the hotel. I'm certainly not good enough to distinguish Europeans from other Britons, but I did see a handful of passers by who were almost certainly American tourists.

Hmm, if I keep this up, I might not be permitted to re-enter the country...

>163 Chatterbox: According to Wikipedia, 'The name {Cockfosters} has been recorded as far back as 1524, and is thought to be either the name of a family, or that of a house which stood on Enfield Chase. One suggestion is that it was "the residence of the cock forester (or chief forester)"'.

>164 rebeccanyc: When I worked in NYC I often had to suppress the urge to scream or remove and stomp on the Statue of Liberty crowns that tourists wore with alarming frequency:



>165 Smiler69: No, Ilana! You must fight the urge to become a typical tourist!

You probably have seen these people; they are everywhere, especially at Tea Party rallies and county fairs.

Book #116: From the Observatory by Julio Cortázar



My rating:

This prose poem was written by Cortázar in 1973, after his 1968 visit to the Jantar Mantar, a collection of 14 geometrical instruments built in the 18th century by Maharaja Jaipur Singh in Jaipur, the capital of the Indian state of Rajasthan. During his visit, Cortázar took approximately 300 photos of these instruments, some of which are included in the book.

Cortázar employs imagery from these instruments in a poem about the cosmos, man's place in it, and the brutal and unforgiving lives of eels.

This poem went completely over my head, as I didn't understand what Cortázar was getting at, and I felt as confused as if I was reading it in a completely foreign language. Even worse, I read a recent review of the book, and I didn't understand it, either! As Caroline said in her review, I didn't like or dislike it, so I'll give it 3 stars because I have no idea how to rate the book.

Book #117: Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch



My rating:

This novel takes place in the middle of the 19th century, and is narrated by Jaffy Brown, who is born to a struggling single mother in the Bermondsey section of London. He experiences a second birth eight years later, as he is rescued from the jaws of a tiger he has decided to pet on the nose by its owner, Charles Jamrach, a big hearted exotic animal collector and breeder. He employs Jaffy, and introduces him to Tim Linver, an older boy who also works for Jamrach, who befriends, and torments, the young lad.

Jaffy and Tim become young men, and both are lured away by the call of the sea, as opportunities for each of them on land are quite limited. They join the crew of a whaling ship, whose wealthy owner charges them with an even greater task: to bring back a live dragon from an island in the South Pacific, which has been described by several travelers but never captured. However, a great tragedy befalls the crew, and the journey becomes a long and tortuous struggle against starvation, hopelessness, destiny and death, which is described in detail throughout the latter half of the book.

Jamrach's Menagerie was apparently based upon a true story. It was an interesting story, but only moderately so. The supporting characters were thinly portrayed, as were the description of life aboard a whaling ship. The narration during and after the shipwreck was the strongest part of the novel, but it was often gruesome and went on far too long. This book is a curious selection for this year's Booker Prize longlist, and I would be very surprised, and disappointed, if it makes the shortlist.

Really too bad about Jamrach's Menagerie, the plot sounds so interesting, so I guess it didn't deliver on execution? I think I still might read it eventually, but I'm pushing it a bit further down on my list of 'must read soons'

I have to admit that most poetry goes over my head, which would probably not be the case if I gave it half a chance and actually read more of it. I'm almost certain that it'll appeal to me more as I get older.

That photo of those idiots (sorry) wearing that crown thingy makes me shiver in disgust. Sorry to call them idiots, but that's what those things make people look like. You wouldn't catch me dead in one of those since I have an abhorrence and fear of looking ridiculous, which is too bad because it prevents me from being a bit more creative and participating in events such as Halloween for example.

eta: I didn't realize The Sense of an Ending hasn't been released in the US yet, because I saw the other day that the library system has a couple of copies here, and two more locations are in the process of acquiring it. I didn't realize books can be released in little ol' Canada before the US. Kinda neat!

Only thing is, I saw that 'suicide' was one of the main tags on the LT page for that book. I try to stay away from material that touches on that topic since I tend to have a morbid disposition that must not be encouraged. Could you enlighten me a little bit on that Darryl?

>170 Smiler69: Right, Ilana. I think the author tried to do too many things and cover too much territory with this book, which ultimately diluted its overall effect and made for a less than satisfying book. It was, at once, a coming of age story, a sea adventure, a search for a mythical creature (which was probably a Komodo dragon), a story of survival against all odds, and a love story. I'd encourage you to read the other reviews of it, as I suspect that I liked it less than most others did.

The best poetry can speak as deeply to me as any other form of art can. However, most poems, in my humble and somewhat ignorant opinion, seem to be an overly clever play on words, or are partially or completely inscrutable to me.

You could get me to wear one of those things as a gag, or on a holiday like Halloween. But you'd have to pay me well to get me to wear that for more than two seconds in public, particularly in NYC.

I'm a little over 1/3 of the way through The Last Hundred Days by Patrick McGuinness, another of this year's Booker Prize longlisted books, which is narrated by a young Briton who is lured to Bucharest, Romania at the end of the Ceaușescu regime. It's good so far, but I seriously doubt that it will challenge The Sense of an Ending, The Stranger's Child or On Canaan's Side for the prize, although it might be good enough to make the shortlist this year.

Ilana, I'll send you a PM to answer your question about The Sense of an Ending, rather than posting it here.

Enjoyed your review of Jamrach's Menagerie, Darryl. That's one I will pass on. In the interim, I am so appreciative of all of your Booker LL reading and reviews. Well done!

I haven't been reading any of the Booker Prize longlist books, but have been enjoying them vicariously through you and others on LT, so I can't wait to see the shortlist. Just a couple more days! Been tremendously enjoying The Sisters Brothers since I started on it yesterday. Am halfway through and it's just so good that I would love for it to make it on that list.

hmm. I did not read every post.. just scanned. I can't figure out why it is bad to look like a tourist if one is a tourist . Nor can I figure out why it is bad to be a not beautiful tourist no matter how one might be dressed. I am not widely traveled, but were I to visit another country.. why should I try to look like something I am not?

Guess that is what comes of being a small town person ...

White sneakers are my favorite, especially white keds.

Clearly, I need one of those guidebooks just for this thread!

Hahahahaha oh that is funny Kath :)

Kath, sometimes it's better to blend in. In London, tourists were marks for pickpockets, for instance. I'm pretty sure it's the same here in NYC; as some here have noted, their ambling and distracted behavior makes them targets. The one place in Europe where I was mugged was in the station in Seville, when I was trying to find the left luggage at the station. I didn't speak Spanish; someone overheard me, followed me, and pushed me down 1/2 a flight of stairs and ran off with my handbag -- with wallet, passport, camera, medications, etc. Cops told me it was a big problem in the station there and in Madrid; always tourists attacked.

Other places, the more you blend in and seem to know where you are going, the less you'll get hit up by local touts or harassed by merchants, etc. That's more of a problem in Turkey/the Middle East, but can be true in parts of Italy. The French definitely treat you better if you're not immediately identified as a tourist. In some cases, you can negotiate better prices for bed & breakfast accommodation; taxi drivers will take you straight to your destination without creative detours. There are lots of reasons not to look like a tourist, especially these days, when kids are Eurailing all over the place and not always behaving well and some American tourists still believe that speaking more loudly in English will ensure that the person they are speaking to will suddenly understand the language. And frankly, in some countries and at some times, you don't want to be identifiable as an American. I knew lots of Americans who'd sew Canadian flags on their backpacks. Met a few when I was living in a youth hostel in the N. of France for two summers while working; I'd ask them where they were from and it was always Florida or NYC or California! Never Toronto or Winnipeg... I don't let it stop me from doing what I want to do -- checking maps, taking pics. But there are some places where I don't take pics any more, as they don't feel like places where I'm a tourist, if that makes sense.

>177 Chatterbox: - Suz, that reminds me of when I was in Egypt a few years ago, and our waiter asked where we were from. When we said the US, he got very animated and asked us what we thought of President Bush and did we support him, etc. For the rest of that trip, we were all Canadian when asked - though that seemed to be only marginally better.

On its own, I don't really have a problem with what people choose to wear; it's just that I tend to associate a lot of it with the behavior that I find embarrassing in fellow tourists. If you want things to be just like they are at home, then stay home! Like Ilana, I won't NOT take photos because I don't want to be pegged as a tourist. I feel that as long as I am respectful as a visitor, I have nothing to be ashamed of.

On its own, I don't really have a problem with what people choose to wear; it's just that I tend to associate a lot of it with the behavior that I find embarrassing in fellow tourists. If you want things to be just like they are at home, then stay home!

Couldn't agree with you more Katie.

Thanks Suz... I appreciate the good info...my guidebook for this thread!

I may judge books by their cover now and then.. not people though. I loathe those Walmart photo
emails people send. I don't find them amusing at all.

Nor does the behavior of others embarrass me if it is not plain rude or nasty.
I feel that as long as I am respectful as a visitor, I have nothing to be ashamed of.

exactly.. so why judge? But that's just my opinion, and I am the one wearing white keds and looking like a tourist. I guess I have reached the age where I just accept who and what I am, and mostly feel the same about others. What someone might find silly behavior, I might find interesting.. some of my favorite people might be described as "characters".

To each his own eh?

eta

sorry Darryl.. leaving now.

>173 lit_chick: Thanks, Nancy. If I haven't said so already, I would encourage you to read other LT reviews of Jamrach's Menagerie, as I suspect that I liked it less than most other people.

>174 Smiler69: I've heard good things about The Sisters Brothers, which I have on my Kindle. It seems to have a good shot at making tomorrow's shortlist, and if it does, I'll probably read it next.

>175 mckait: I can't figure out why it is bad to look like a tourist if one is a tourist.

I think subsequent posters have commented on this adequately, but the main reason I can think of is to avoid being a victim of a robbery, scam, or assault. Pickpockets and scam artists choose to prey on the most vulnerable, and I'm certain the couple riding the Underground in the photo I posted in message #162 would be far more likely to fall victim to a crime than other, less obvious, passengers. In particular, the London guide book in plain view marks them as tourists, along with the man's "California Athletic Dept" T-shirt and shorts. And, I don't think it's a good idea for travelers who are probably unfamiliar with public transportation to be sleeping on a subway carriage!

Although the vast majority of Londoners are wonderful people, there are certainly some residents or visitors here and elsewhere who are opposed to or jealous of people from the United States and other Western countries, and I don't need to mention that U.S. citizens traveling abroad are occasionally targeted for political attacks and kidnappings. So, the less obvious it is that you are an American or Western tourist traveling abroad, the safer you will probably be.

Nor can I figure out why it is bad to be a not beautiful tourist no matter how one might be dressed. I am not widely traveled, but were I to visit another country, why should I try to look like something I am not?

Who said you weren't beautiful? Not me! :-)

I don't think that tourists need to be dressed beautifully or elegantly, just a bit more appropriately for where they are going or what they are planning to do. For example, the outfit I'm wearing today (a casual but still a bit dressy button down shirt and slacks from Joseph A. Bank) is fine for shopping and going out later tonight, but I wouldn't wear this tomorrow, when I'll probably go to Brixton, a working class neighborhood, to get a haircut, as it would probably make me stand out as being different from most neighborhood residents and put me at greater risk of being robbed (although that risk is still quite low). Instead I'll wear a mock turtleneck and jeans or less dressy pants.

White sneakers are my favorite, especially white keds.

Nope, nothing at all wrong with white sneakers. I just wouldn't wear them in a major city (too easily scuffed or dirtied), or abroad.

Clearly, I need one of those guidebooks just for this thread!

LOL!

>177 Chatterbox: Suz raises several excellent points here. Yesterday afternoon I was approached by a young eastern European woman at Liverpool Street station, who came up to me suddenly and asked me for 80p. I stopped and gave her a £1 coin, and proceeded without incident. However, this was the second time in three days that I've been approached in the exact same manner, and, although I wasn't robbed, I suspect that this woman was a decoy for a pickpocket. As a result, I did not stop to talk with three people who approached me on the street today, although I did acknowledge and greet them with a smile as I kept walking at a brisk pace.

>178 katiekrug: On its own, I don't really have a problem with what people choose to wear; it's just that I tend to associate a lot of it with the behavior that I find embarrassing in fellow tourists.

Exactly!

>180 mckait: I hate those Walmart photos; a family friend sends them to me, and I think they are staged shots.

164 (rebeccanyc): When I get annoyed because I can't walk as fast as I usually do Aaaaaagh! In the 1990s I lived in Boston, and walked to/from work past the Cheers bar...

I have to admit I don't know what those Walmart photos might be, but I suppose that I'm not missing much.

Kath, re your comment that "I guess I have reached the age where I just accept who and what I am" -- that's fair enough, and that's great. But when you travel abroad, you are venturing into someone else's social sphere. Accepting yourself and being happy with yourself isn't always the issue. Beyond the question of personal safety (not sending a message of "I'm an easy target" to people looking for those), there's a question of what's appropriate. I don't imagine white keds would ever be an issue, but anyone choosing to ramble around parts of the Middle East or Turkey in sleeveless shirts, shorts, short skirts, sundresses, etc. is actually being provocative to the locals. It doesn't matter how good you might feel about yourself; how comfortable you are with how you dress of whether you care about being identified as a stranger or not. The reality is that you're probably causing offense to someone else in their own country, a country that -- unlike ours -- is one where body language/how you dress/which hand you eat with etc. is v. important. An equivalent to that kind of behavior here would be someone deciding to come to NYC with their bodyguards, each of whom uses a whip to keep people away from the person they are protecting. In our society, that's deeply unacceptable behavior. We don't allow the kind of slavery that is a social norm in some African communities, and would find it unacceptable if an African visitor brought their household slave here to toil for them. (We've arrested people for that.) Those are extreme examples, but...

I know that when I travel on my own as a woman, I'm already violating an incredible number of social norms. To deal with them, I wear a wedding ring and pretend to be a widow; in countries like Morocco, it makes a BIG difference in whether you are treated with respect. I can't demand respect simply because I accept who I am -- I can't demand that they share that, and it's not reasonable of me to assume that they'll put all their social and religious beliefs on hold. In Turkey, years ago, I tried to reason with someone who was harassing me (it was early March; very damp and chilly and I was muffled up and very respectable). "How would you like it if your sister went to London and was treated like this?" He looked at me in utter disbelief. "My sister would never travel to London on her own and unprotected." In his eyes, my presence as a woman unescorted meant that I was fair game. I was staying with a friend in Istanbul, a journalist who speaks Turkish (and about six other languages) and when we went out together, people simply assumed I was his wife. Even in the streets, my experience was FAR different. Again, simply accepting who I was might mean I don't brood over the gropes, pinches, insults, etc., but it's not going to prevent them. As I see it, my job is to adjust as best I can to the local norms wherever I go, both to protect myself and in order to respect the local culture. I don't need to shove my views down their throat. Obviously, London is FAR different in this regard, just as white keds are -- but it's the first step along that continuum.

We may like to think we have the most advanced society in the world, but we need to face the fact that folks in other countries disagree with us on that. Sure, we've got tolerance (ostensibly) and democracy and a lot of relative prosperity. But people in poorer countries are very aware of our flaws -- the big wealth gap that exists here; the fact that we pay much less attention to our families and especially extended families -- they don't believe that we don't live multigenerationally and see that as a problem; that the principles we support in theory we often undercut in practice (talk to an Egyptian about the longstanding US support for Mubarak...) We don't have to agree with those criticisms, but there's a very fine line between being accepting who we are and being complacent about who we are. I'm not suggesting that's the case with anyone here; just that I've seen how easy it can be to slip across that line.

You have your way, I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist. - Friedrich Nietzsche

That was eloquent and well said Suzanne. I'll know to pretend I'm a widow if ever I travel to a country were single women aren't respected, though I've never been much tempted to go to those places on my own somehow, just not thick-skinned enough to 'deal'. Unlike my mother who's backpacked through Europe and parts of the Middle East and slept on park benches and what have you (NOT in the Middle East!). Different strokes for different folks, is my mantra today apparently.

Ilana, that was just a solution I adopted after getting very VERY fed up trying to counter the harassment other ways. It works if you're traveling relatively rapidly, or if you just wear a ring and let people draw assumptions. It's not a good idea if you're planning to stay for long periods anywhere, or want to get to know some of the locals -- I certainly couldn't craft a life of lies to share with people! But in terms of answering the inevitable question from people you're riding long distances in share taxis with (almost always men); dealing with the curiosity of hotel owners or coping with harassing people, it's a tactic that I found worked. After years of developing a thick hide, I basically got fed up! I'm sure at some point I'll be old enough that it will be moot, and I'll just be a crazy old lady.

Just catching up on your thread. Wonderful photos--it looks like a great time was had by all--and what good-looking people you all are.

Back to the Julian Barnes discussion, my very, very favorite book of his, which is very funny indeed, is A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters.

I was wondering where everyone is on the Life A Users Manual. I hope you start it soon. I'm not sure whether it will be the type of book you'll like, but I think you will know fairly early on.

Re the whole tourist discussion--I've tried several brands of comfortable shoes, and I absolutely hate the look of sneakers, esp. since I wear mostly skirts and dresses, but I think my poor old bunions, corns and plantar fasciaitis will hate me if I don't wear sneakers.

Now that we've been on the topic Suz, I just remembered that my mum did wear a band sometimes when we were living in Israel. She was a civilian working for the U.S. Air Force, LOTS of testosterone flying around and guys on the prowl, so just as you say, she never actually supplied a story, just let people assume what they will. And now I think of it... I wear a band I made on my right ring finger and sometimes when I feel a bit uncomfortable, I switch it over... but somehow never really used that ploy consciously.

I too had to switch a ring from my right hand to my left when I was in Barbados by myself shortly after breaking up with a boyfriend. I couldn't walk along the street without guys coming up to me and asking me to go out with them. They had the nerve to suggest that I didn't want to to go out with them because they were black, as if this would guilt-trip me into changing my mind, and of course saying I didn't want to go out with them because I don't go out with guys who try to pick me up on the street didn't work. By the next to last day I figured out the trick with the ring and saying my husband was back in the hotel.

Another odd experience was in Merida in Mexico. Everyone was completely polite to me, but I was the only woman walking by herself: every other woman was with husband (or brother), children, or other women.

My mum never got this about me because she's always been such a hung-ho feminist and of an independent streak besides, but there are a lot of things that even if I want to do on my own, and HAVE done on my own, ended up not being half as pleasant as they should have been just because of how weird it felt to be the only woman around to be doing... you name it. It's doubly strange because I'm generally quite happy being by myself and don't think there's anything strange about it until I go outside my door anywhere that people tend to congregate where I end up feeling like a freak. No wonder I don't get out much there days.

eta: Rebecca, I've been to Cuba and other places on my own and got the "so you won't date me because I'm (fill in the blank) huh?" shpiel and whenever I've tried saying something along the lines of ... won't date a guy I met on the street... always got as a reply "yes but honey, I'm different, I'm not like other men". Why is it that only men who go around picking up strange women in the street always say they're not like other guys who do exactly the same thing? Like I said, no wonder I don't get out much there days.

end of rant.

Wow, take a couple of days to do chores and the TL posts explode! I'm truly just checking in... and seeing what you think about the ongoing list of Booker longlist books.... I've not read even one because (a) they are still only available in hardback at my bookstore and (b) the library has been both closed and a bit behind in getting copies of these books available. I hope to read a good selection by the end of 2011.

Very interesting (and, for me, quite educational) comments about the dangers of women traveling abroad, particularly in non-Western countries.

>188 arubabookwoman: Thanks for recommending A History of the World in 10-1/2 Chapters, Deborah. I'll probably get it, and several other books by Julian Barnes, after I return to the US.

I did pick up another copy of Life A User's Manual on Saturday, as I had left my copy at home. I had barely started it before I left, and I haven't read any of it since then. In retrospect I made a bad decision to start it at the same time that the Booker Prize longlist came out and I started the Booker Prize group. I'll probably start reading it today, though, as it's supposed to be rainy and windy for most of the day in London and southeastern England.

>192 EBT1002: Ellen, I finished my seventh book from this year's Booker Prize longlist last night, The Last Hundred Days by Patrick McGuinness, which was good, but not spectacular. The shortlist should be announced later this morning (it's just after 6 am here), and I'm eager to see which books make the cut. This is my ranking of the books I've read so far:

1. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
2. The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst
3. On Canaan's Side by Sebastian Barry
4. The Last Hundred Days by Patrick McGuinness
5. A Cupboard Full of Coats by Yvvette Edwards
6. Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman
7. Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch

I think that the overall quality of this year's Booker Dozen is the worst of the five years that I've been following the prize. The only books I would strongly recommend would be the Barnes, which is now the bookies' favorite to win and easily the top vote getter of the readers who have ranked the longlist in the group on the Man Booker Prize discussion group here, and the Hollinghurst. I'll review the Barnes, the Barry and the McGuinness soon, but I want to re-read the Barnes before I review it, and I won't do that until I've read the entire shortlist.

Wow, you have quite a system going there, Darryl, when it comes to tackling these long/shortlists!

I do have to agree with you on the caliber of the books, though. Last year at this point, at least two books had jumped out at me. This year, while I liked Snowdrops, it didn't blow me away. I haven't read the Barnes as it's not out here yet and I simply can't afford to order it (heck, I can't afford to buy peanut butter!) and I'm just not a Hollinghurst fan (though I could see him as a contender). So I'll putter away through the remaining books, but without worrying too much about ranking them. Next up will be either Jamrach's Menagerie, which has to go back to the library soon, or Derby Day, I think.

My ranking would be Snowdrops, Pigeon English, The Testament of Jessie Lamb and Far to Go. But not much separates the last three on that list -- all are either well written or have compelling ideas, but also major flaws. So I'm not wedded to ranking them -- at least, not until I've found at least one book to fall in love with. Sigh.

The shortlist for this year's Booker Prize has just been announced. The six finalists are:

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan
Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman
Snowdrops by A.D. Miller

The prize will be awarded in London on October 18.

Given your comments about it, I'm glad The Sense of an Ending made the shortlist. What do you think about the Hollinghurst not making it?

Wow, no Hollinghurst! (I can't weep about the lack of Sebastian Barry's book; I didn't very much enjoy his previous big "hit") Pleased that Snowdrops made it! I'm way down on the library's list to get The Sisters Brothers, and doubt if I'll manage to get hold of Barnes pre-D Day (Decision Day!) but I'll definitely read the other two soon, as well as The Last Hundred Days (It's an interesting story) and Derby Day.

It's been a pretty miserable day in London, with off and on rain and a lot of wind since the morning. However, I was able to finish two short novels, Down the Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villalobos, one of the finalists for this year's Guardian First Book Award, and Weep Not, Child by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o.

England is playing Wales at Wembley Stadium on ITV1, in a qualifying match for the Euro 2012 football championship. So, I'll write up some of my outstanding reviews while I watch the match (hopefully they will be legible).

I'm rooting for Wales...

At least the miserable weather boosts your reading time! We're having the same thing here -- temps have plunged into the 60s today (which is kinda nice as a contrast) and it's pouring rain (less nice...)

Book #118: The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje



My rating:

Michael is a precocious yet naïve 11 year old boy living with relatives in Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka, in the mid 1950s. His mother, who divorced from her husband years before and moved to England, has sent for her son. He is placed aboard a spacious ocean liner for the three week journey, supposedly under the watchful eye of a wealthy friend of the family, but he is essentially left to fend for himself when he is not dining at "the cat's table", so named because it is situated far away from the tables of the captain and the most important passengers.

Michael quickly makes the acquaintance of two other preadolescent boys; Cassius, a troublesome betel-chewing older boy, who was expelled from school but has been selected to attend school in England; and Ramadhin, an introspective and mournful lad. The three unsupervised boys wreak mild to moderate havoc throughout the journey, occasionally accompanied by Michael's alluring and wild teenage cousin Emily, yet they remain just out of reach of harm's way.

The boys encounter and are befriended by a variety of intriguing adult passengers, including an alluring older woman who maintains a stock of birds and wears a coat with pockets for them to be displayed; a musician with two names and even more secrets; and a wealthy man who is dying from a curse placed upon him by a religious man and desperately seeks a cure in Europe. The most mysterious passenger is kept in shackles for a particularly heinous crime, and is only allowed on deck late at night, where the boys observe him with fascination, fear and respect.

The journey marks a transition from the innocence of childhood to the tragedies and disappointments of adulthood for the three boys, although they emerge physically unscathed. The second half of the book describes their intertwined lives, which continue to be influenced by the events of the voyage.

The Cat's Table is a compelling drama, filled with comedy, irreverence and intrigue, with well portrayed characters. Ondaatje does a masterful job in describing the voyage aboard the ocean liner, the mindset of Michael and his young companions, and the sense of ever present menace that held this reader's attention throughout the book. I can't understand why this wasn't selected for this year's Booker Prize longlist, as it compares well with the best of the lot, but it should be a strong contender for this year's Giller Prize.

The match is nearly over, and England leads 1-0 in the 92nd minute, after a goal by Ashley Young in the 35th minute; actually, it just ended. England dominated the second 15 minutes in the first half, but Wales was the better squad in the second half. The only reason England won is that one of the Welsh strikers whiffed on a wide open net midway through the second half. England is currently ranked 4th in the world, and Wales is 117th, between Grenada and Haiti (those two countries actually have football teams???), but you wouldn't have known it from watching this match.

I would like to see a Premier League match while I'm here, as long as I don't have to pay a month's salary for a ticket.

#200 Excellent review of The Cat's Table, Darryl. Definitely one for the list.

Book #123: Down the Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villalobos



My rating:

This novella, which was longlisted for this year's Guardian First Book Award, is narrated by Tochtli, an 8 year old boy whose father Yolcaut is a ruthless Mexican drug lord who resides in a heavily guarded mountain hideout. The boy is similarly isolated, as he does not know his mother and has only met a dozen or so people, nearly all of whom work for or with his father. Other than his father, his closest companions are his teacher, Mazatzin, who provides an alternative view of manhood and morality to his paranoid and ruthless father, and the books that keep him occupied and supplement his advanced vocabulary.

The hideout is filled with exotic animals, but Tochtli wants a pygmy hippopotamus from Liberia more than anything else in the world. Yolcaut eventually gives in to his son's demands, and he takes Tochtli to Monrovia, along with his teacher, where they assume false identities and employ a local guide to hunt down the elusive and rare animal.

Down the Rabbit Hole was a mildly interesting read, which held my interest for its 70 pages, but would have been overly tiresome and repetitive had it been much longer, primarily due to Tochtli's repeated use of vocabulary words such as sordid, disastrous and pathetic. This book isn't worth anything close to the £10 I spent on it, so I'd recommend borrowing it if you want to read it.

Oh boy ....I second Ellen's comments about taking a few days off and having LT explode on you, especially on your thread, Darryl.

Still, it's been fun catching up ... or trying to. I think I'm now in need of a rest. Would have liked to comment on the topic of women traveling alone to both Western and non-Western countries, or maybe even developed, industrialized and lesser-developed countries ... but I'm not sure I could say what I want without potentially offending someone. I was just told today that my bluntness isn't always endearing. haha

Book #124: Weep Not, Child by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o



My rating:

Ngũgĩ's powerful debut novel about colonial Kenya was released in 1964 while he was a student at the University of Leeds, and was the first book published in English by an East African. The story is centered around Njoroge, a young Kenyan boy within a loving but impoverished household who is overjoyed when his father Ngotho is able to pay for him to attend school, an opportunity that was not made available to his older brothers. Ngotho is barely able to provide for his family as he works for Mr Howlands, a white landowner who views the Africans who work for him as savages who are barely more useful or worthy of his attention than his farm animals. The property that Ngotho and his family lives on is owned by Jacobo, a wealthier black Kenyan who is supportive of the Mr Howlands and other colonialists and oppresses and torments Ngotho and other landless natives.

Ngotho is challenged by an older son to take a stand against his employer and participate in the nationwide strike against white rule, subsistence wages, and laws designed by the colonialists to restrict most black Kenyans from advancement. The strike is brutally repressed, and Ngotho and his family suffer as a result. The failure of the strike leads to the Mau Mau uprising, in which nationalists commit acts of violence against colonialists, and black Kenyans who do not agree with their oath of loyalty. Njoroge is caught in the middle of the struggle, as he does not take the oath of loyalty but is opposed to colonialists and the natives that benefit from their rule. His older brothers join the freedom fighters, as the conflict
threatens the lives Njoroge and the other members of his family, and he is forced to decide whether to continue with his education or take a stand with or against his brothers and his father.

Weep Not, Child is a superb first novel, as Ngũgĩ convincingly places the reader amidst the difficult decisions and violence that many ordinary Kenyans faced during the early days of the independence movement. I would have enjoyed this novel more if some of the key supporting characters had been better developed, but this is a minor criticism of this highly recommended book.

I should have mentioned that I bought Down the Rabbit Hole and Weep Not, Child at Foyles Bookshop yesterday, along with Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's second novel, The River Between.

Excellent review of The Cat's Table Darryl and onto the teetering tower it goes. I'm curious about how it feels to be in London when the Booker shortlist is released. Does the average Londoner Londonite person living in London even know about it? Probably not any more than an American knows about the National Book Award or the Pulitzer.

Foyles is going to miss you when you leave London, Darryl. How many times have you been in there so far during this trip? Smashing review though. I was just thinking I need to read a fresh voice and here you come to the rescue! My hero ..... you can stop soon though, because you've been crushing my obese wish list of late with new additions from this holiday alone.

>202 lit_chick: Thanks, Nancy. As usual, there will be a delay before it becomes available to US customers; it will be published there on October 4.

>204 cameling: Hi, Caroline! Feel free to post your comments about traveling in non-Western countries; I'll take the blame if you offend anyone.

>207 brenzi: I'm not sure there is such a thing as an average Londoner, Bonnie; this is easily the most diverse city I've ever been to, far more so than even NYC. It seems to me that more Londoners are avid readers than the most literate Americans, and I would think that the Booker Prize garners more interest here than the Pulitzer Prize or the National Book Award receive in the US. I understand that BBC One television covers the Booker Prize award announcement live; I doubt that CNN or any other major television station in the US, except for the NewsHour on PBS, ever mentions the National Book Award or the Pulitzer Prize on its broadcasts.

>208 cameling: Yep, I've made two trips to Foyles and two trips to the London Review Bookshop, plus a stop at a bookstore in Cambridge. I have enough books to last me for the next 12 days, but I'm sure that I'm not done buying books, so your obese wish list may need to loosen his belt a notch or two.

BTW, did I mention that I tried my first bacon butty last week at Borough Market? The cute cashier at the take away (Roast to Go) encouraged me to get a bacon, sausage and egg butty, so I ordered one of those instead, with brown sauce. It looked identical to this photo from Roast's web site, except that the sausage is missing:



As Tui said on Facebook, it's a heart attack on bread.

a heart attack on bread Tickled my funny bone! Why do all heart attacks taste so darn good?!

Darryl- Excellent review of The Cat's Table. This one has landed firmly on the WL, plus I need to read more of Ondaatje's work.
BTW- Those work oxfords look exactly like mine, although I switch to the high-tops when the weather gets cooler.

Hi Darryl just stopping by and couldn't resist complementing you and the fantastic and expressive photography on your thread. Makes me reasonably nostalgic for my homeland. Will be back in Yorkshire actually on 17 September but more work than play I'm afraid. As usual you give plenty of food for thought with your eclectic reading matter (though not perhaps of the bacon butty variety in #209) and oodles of useful tips for my own further reading. Enjoy the rest of your stay in England and try to get further North if you can to God's country (would recommend the Yorkshire Dales a la James Herriott and the Brontes as a good place to visit - the beer is better too!)

>210 lit_chick: Right, Nancy! I did enjoy that bacon, sausage and egg butty, but I'm still more fond of fish and chips (which I haven't had in several days...).

>211 msf59: Thanks, Mark. I agree with you, I need to read more of Ondaatje's work, starting with Anil's Ghost.

I bought those work oxfords from the Skechers outlet store in San Francisco years ago for $40, so I've gotten my money's worth out of them, as I wear them several times every week.

>212 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. I've thought about taking a long train ride to the north of England or Edinburgh during this trip, but I haven't done it yet. I might do this sometime next week, though.

Just de-lurking to say hi, Darryl. Interesting conversations here.

Your thread is moving pretty fast, Darryl! Good review of Cat's Table, I shall be looking out for that one. I love bacon butties, but am trying to avoid eating them...

And re the question of why one would try not to look like a tourist, what an interesting discussion! The saying "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" came to mind - according to a quick wiki search, that saying dates back to St Ambrose, so it is not a new concern. Apart from all the things mentioned above about safety etc, fundamentally I suppose this is about the appropriate way to behave as a guest. A considerate guest when staying in someone else's home doesn't stop being themselves but tries to fit in with the host's customs, eg not wearing shoes inside the house if that is the norm. Staying in someone else's city or country is just a larger version of staying in someone else's home, in a way, and I think there is both less risk of causing offence and more chance of getting value out of the visit if we try to understand local expectations about behaviour, dress or other customs.

On the other hand, there is a deep-rooted and rather delusional desire in many of us to somehow escape the label of tourist altogether; we (I know I do this myself, I can't speak for anyone else I guess) like to think we are different from other visitors - they are the tourists, noisy, obvious, insensitive - we are the serious, cultured visitors, taking pride in being able to blend in, at being mistaken for a local... Why some of us feel this need so strongly, I'm not sure - there's perhaps an element of snobbery in it (again, I'm not accusing anyone else, just wondering about my own attitude) but perhaps its also about those deep-rooted questions of identity and belonging too.

209 I do have to stand up for NYC as an extremely diverse city. The borough of Queens is considered the most diverse county in the US, with some 138 languages spoken. On the streets of Manhattan, this may be less apparent, and different ethnic groups do tend to cluster in different areas.

I would agree with Rebecca (having lived in both). NYC is more diverse, and I think more generally accepting of diversity across a wide spectrum of society. But a lot of that diversity isn't really visible unless/until you leave Manhattan.

Darryl, I just picked up Jamrach's Menagerie. I've only read two chapters of it, but absolutely love the writing. (too soon to really think about plot/characterization). You didn't mention that in yr review -- was that disappointing to you, as well?

Yep, I'm adding The Cat's Table to my list, as well.

All kidding aside, Darryl, I am thinking about developing a modest 12-in-12 challenge for myself and am truly thinking about having one of the categories be something like "books rated at least 4.5 stars by kidzdoc." Would you be bothered in any way by something like that? In just the few weeks I've been following your thread (and going back to check out some of your older reviews), I feel like I've made some delightful reading discoveries. So, just checking.

BTW, the bacon butty looks delicious and like it might require several miles of walking around the streets of London to unclog the arteries.....

I haven't had much time on LT these past couple of days, though went lurking on a couple of thread including this one. I knew I could count on you Darryl to post the Booker Prize shortlist as soon as it was out, so thanks for that. I wasn't home in the morning, but checked on my iPhone as I couldn't wait to find out. This is completely ludicrous, considering I've only read one book out of the six so far, but I must say I'm quite pleased about the lis. Pleased because Hollinghurst, whom I decided some years back that I would bar from my reading life forever didn't get on it (I know, so petty, it's awful). Really glad that The Sisters Brothers was chosen as I just finished it and LOVED it. Also glad because even though I haven't read Jamrach's Menagerie yet, I decided I would love it way back in May when I saw Deborah's (Cariola) glowing review about it. I was almost swayed in my impression, by Darryl's more recent review, but no. Furthermore, even though I read several unflattering reviews about Snowdrops, I decided based on Suzanne's glowing writeup that I would like it too. Also, based on what Darryl said about The Sense of an Ending, I feel like it deserves a spot there too. As is evidenced in this paragraph, my 'system' for deciding which books deserve the most acclaim is baroque at best. The other two books aren't sending me any special vibes ones way or another.

I just posted on my thread about all the books I purchased within 24 hours, so won't do it all over again here, but wanted you to know Darryl that I went ahead and ordered The Cat's Table IMMEDIATELY after I read your excellent review (thumbed). It's safe to say I've rarely done that, if ever. Also got the aforementioned Jamrach's Menagerie, among others, for the reasons I've stated above.

Darryl, I'm a bad bad bad person. Didn't reply to you, shame on me. I have wait for the PM muse to alight on my shoulder, and she's very unpredictable. :-)

#218 Ellen, I think that's a great idea for a 12/12 category! I also think you should go right ahead and make it a TIOLI challenge as well sometime, regardless of what Darryl has to say about it. ;-)

Ilana, maybe I should ask you this on your thread (rather than Darryl's) but I'm interested to hear what led you to "ban" Hollinghurst from your reading repertoire. I've not read anything by him but I did buy The Line of Beauty last week..... As for the kidzdoc TIOLI challenge, I'll have to save it for January or later if it's also to be a category in my 12-in-12 challenge! :-)

>214 tymfos: Hi, Terri!

>215 gennyt: I love your comparison of a tourist to being a guest in someone's home, Genny; I couldn't agree with you more. I certainly show respect my hosts whenever I go somewhere, whether it's a visit to my parents, someone I'm less familiar with, or a hotel with other guests, and I think that tourists should respect local residents and their customs.

On the other hand, there is a deep-rooted and rather delusional desire in many of us to somehow escape the label of tourist altogether

I sense that we are using the term "tourist" to describe the stereotypical and well described Ugly American (or British) Tourist, and that is what we are trying to avoid being compared to. I'm proud to say that I'm a visitor from the United States (which I did twice yesterday; see below), although I can do that without a garish display of "USA" gear or anything else that overtly marks me as a tourist.

Yesterday was a typical day for me in multicultural London. I had breakfast at a local cafe, where I was served by a European barista whose accent I couldn't place. Afterwards I went to the London Borough of Hackney to get a hair cut, as it has a sizable Black Caribbean and African population, and got my hair cut by a friendly Caribbean barber, who spoke in a patois to his other customers that I could barely understand. I hopped on a London Overground train from Dalston Junction station afterward, and sat in a carriage where several conversations were taking place, none of which were in English. Later in the day I went to one of my favorite fish and chips bars near Paddington station, where I greeted the African man who works there and remembers me from visits in previous years. I ate alongside two older men who seemed to be speaking in Welsh (I covertly listened to their conversation, and understood approximately every 10th word). I was reading The Guardian as I ate, and one of them gazed at the sports page. I offered it to him, as I suspected they were from Wales and that he might want to look at the story about the England-Wales football match that took place on Tuesday. When I started to chat with them I received a very typical response: friendly gaze, followed by a brief look of surprise upon hearing my American accent, and then a broad smile. He asked where I was from, and I mentioned that I was living in Atlanta, but was born in the NYC area (I never say that I'm from NYC, as many New Yorkers view people from New Jersey as unwashed heathen). As it turns out, the two men (who were Welsh, which made me pleased as punch that I got the accent right) were about to take the Heathrow Express from Paddington (after lunch and an ale or three) to fly to JFK, where they had tickets to see this Sunday's NFL game between the New York Jets and the Dallas Cowboys; one of them was a diehard Jets fan, and the other had been rooting for the Cowboys for years. We had a very pleasant chat about NYC and football (American and non-American) before they left.

The only "unusual" segment of the day occurred when I went to a small men's shop on Southampton Row in Bloomsbury that was having a sale. I bought an autumn coat for £69 from a young man who worked there, and had a brief but pleasant conversation with the older couple who apparently owned the shop (the woman also recognized my American accent, and asked where I was visiting from). So what was "unusual"? They were all white Britons. ;-)

I'm adding my two cents to say I agree totally with Kath. I understand that perhaps you need to blend in, but truly, unless the attire is egregiously horrid, why scoff?

I'm 58 (soon to be 59) I like who I am and how I dress. If countries want my tourist dollars, than they might also need to accept my American style of dress.

I don't tell Japanese people NOT to walk around with a camera when they visit the US. I don't tell the Australian co-worker to get rid of his accent.

Just an opinion....

I'm finding these conversations about travel very interesting and agree with Suzanne & Darryl that it's security first and foremost that makes you not want to stick out as a tourist. I always use a large handbag/carryall rather than a backpack or camera bag when I'm visiting a busy city. I usually choose nonbranded clothing that blends in and makes me look average. With blonde hair you are going to stick out in some cities, but I just try to look like an unlikely candidate to steal from. I never wear my handbag across my body but I often remove my credit cards and put them in the pocket of my jeans. I turn rings towards the inside of my fingers if I wear them at all especially after hearing how they get rings off your fingers quickly in Lima!
We've had our share of shaky moments, a backpack snatched from a pushchair in Spain, luckily it just held a change of nappies and wetwipes and my husband has fought off pickpockets at the train station in Madrid. And just a couple of months ago a couple I was walking beside in Buenos Aires had a bag snatched right in front of me, though the wife was unaware and I had to tell her that her husband was off chasing the thieves (two young thugs) when she was looking around for him. We were from the same hotel and walking to a nearby supermarket along the 9 de Julio (main thoroughfare of BA).

Darryl - sounds like a great day in London for you.

>216 rebeccanyc: Rebecca, there is no question that NYC, as a whole, is the most diverse place in the US and surely one of the most diverse cities in the world, but you don't see that diversity in Manhattan as much as you do in central London, where it seems that the majority of the people one encounters were born elsewhere (which I love, BTW). Jersey City, where I was born, also has a very diverse population, although it is also more apparent as you move from the central and downtown portions of the city to the neighborhoods.

>217 Chatterbox: Darryl, I just picked up Jamrach's Menagerie. I've only read two chapters of it, but absolutely love the writing. (too soon to really think about plot/characterization). You didn't mention that in yr review -- was that disappointing to you, as well?

I loved the first portion of Jamrach's Menagerie that describes his fateful encounter with the tiger, his life in Bermondsey, his introduction to and employment by Charles Jamrach, and his friendship with Tim Linver and his sister, Lisbeth(?). If I were to rank that section of the book I would give it 4½ stars. The subsequent sections, however, didn't enthrall me nearly as much.

>218 EBT1002: I don't mind that challenge at all, Ellen! I just hope that those books live up to your expectations. :-)

That bacon (and sausage and egg) butty was delicious, and the Borough Market, which is very close to the London Bridge tube station, is foodie heaven. I'll head back there today, as I plan to see the Joan Miró exhibit at the nearby Tate Modern later this morning. I'm curious to learn more about the history of the market and the area, which seem to date back to medieval times.



This isn't my photo, but I'll take some of the market and surrounding streets before I leave.

>219 Smiler69: Shame on you for not posting on my thread promptly, Ilana! ;-) Just kidding; you post on my thread far more often than I post on yours.

I'm also curious to learn more about your opposition to Hollinghurst. The Stranger's Child is the first book I've read by him, and the only thing I could have told you about him before reading that book was that he won the Booker Prize for The Line of Beauty. Reading other critical reviews and comments about The Stranger's Child made me realize that there were aspects about the book that I didn't like; I would still give it 4½ stars and rank it second on my overall list, but there is now clear separation between it and my favorite, The Sense of an Ending.

I'm eager to read The Sisters Brothers, but I may save it for the flight back to Atlanta the weekend after next, as I have it on my Kindle, and I'd rather read as many of the print books I've purchased here so far as possible, to minimize the number of them I bring back with me.

The difference of opinion between me and Deborah (Cariola), whose opinions and reviews I greatly respect, is a great example of the problem with predicting that one will like a particular book based on a glowing review of it. I'm currently reading Chinaman by Shehan Karunatilaka, which I bought based on positive reviews from Kamila Shamsie, author of Burnt Shadows, Rachael (FlossieT), and the Guardian books editors, who speculated that it would make the Booker Prize longlist in late July. I'm nearly halfway through it, and I'm not enjoying it nearly as much as they did, although I'll finish it later today or tomorrow and reserve my final judgment on it until then.

Back to Jamrach's Menagerie: there has been a wide variety of opinions about this book, both on LT and in the Booker Prize discussion group (the book editors of the Guardian loved it, BTW). I don't think that anyone overtly disliked it (including myself and Karen (kiwidoc)), and some readers absolutely loved it. I'll be curious to see what you, Suz and others think about it.

I'll head over to your thread once I'm finished here, to see which books you purchased, Ilana.

>220 EBT1002: I'm curious to get your take on The Line of Beauty, Ellen. Reading The Sense of an Ending and comments about Barnes' earlier books has made me want to read him closely, but I can't say the same about Hollinghurst yet.

#224 Interesting Darryl you are close by Southwark Cathedral (a short walk from London Bridge tube) which I used to pass on my way to work while I was closing accounts for an M&E contracting firm in London at the beginning of the 1990's. For 'Bookies' there is some value there. Shakespeare's brother (Edmond, if I'm not mistaken) is buried there and it was his regular place of worship and the haunt of Elizabethan playwrights at the time (Bankside and the Globe abut the area). A 'colleague' of Wills was the local innkeeper a Mr. Robert Harvard whose son John had a little bit to do with education in Cambridge, Mass.

Enjoyed your anecdotes about your encounters during your travels and am glad that british hospitality is still up to scratch!

Morning, Darryl, thoroughly enjoying your London adventures! Thanks for posting. Enjoy!

One of my fave walks goes from Borough Market along the south side of the river, all the way past Tower Bridge. Well, I'd probably start at around The Anchor Bankside, then walk past the Golden Hinde (I don't care that it's a replica; I still marvel that Drake did anything so marvelous in such a tiny ship), have coffee in the Hays Galleria, wave to the HMS Belfast, go under Tower Bridge to Butler's wharf and then follow the tiny path at the end of that stretch that leads to Bermondsey Wall W. (The path leads to a scene right out of Dickens!) After goggling at the narrowboats and houseboats moored there, walk back and then duck through to Shad Thames via one of the passageways on the left, and see what has become of all the amazing old warehouses. I love the historical memory that must be there; this is where all the spices and tea that came off clipper ships was stored. Speaking of London as a global village...

In Brooklyn today, so far I have heard 7 different languages without leaving my home, just from people who have stopped to chat on their phones or with others outside, that I can overhear. Russian, Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Spanish, French, Italian and (I think) Greek. Plus the Irish contractor working on the house next door. And another Chinese dialect, though I don't know if it was Cantonese or Fujianese. And the woman from somewhere in the Caribbean talking on her cellphone outside right now.

I love the Welsh accent! I have a couple of Welsh friends, and when they are relaxed, they have this fab sing-songy lilt. Very distinctive. The language needs several more vowels per word. I would have told my Welsh great-grandfather, Llewellyn Thomas, the same thing, had we met!

I do love the buzz of the big city with so many languages and nationalities present. I've mainly experienced that in London, and when I was living in a very small market town in England (Boston, the original) I loved the occasional day trip to London just to revel in the diversity of sounds and sights and cultures.

English people are (sadly) very rude about the Welsh accent often, I don't know why. I love it myself - and not just because I have a Welsh great granny!

Darryl, I love your comments about "the problem with predicting that one will like a particular book based on a glowing review of it." With respect to that (and my planned challenge to read a handful of your 4.5+ rated books), I think it's what makes reading and reading about reading so incredibly rich. Even when we find someone whose taste tends to be similar to our own, and whose reviews we therefore trust, so many things influence one's reading of a book: not only our personality and personal history, familial and cultural context, etc., but our capricious moods, too. I'm struck by how often an LTer will comment that s/he tried a particular book and didn't take to it --- only to try again a few months (or years) later and find him/herself completely engrossed. The joy of literature!

So, I've learned to temper my expectations of anything I read based on someone else's recommendation. I still pay a lot of attention to recommendations from readers and reviewers I trust, but I figure my own experience is ultimately just between me and the author.

Enjoy your return trip to the Borough Market!

Bacon and egg butty! Bacon and egg butty! I'm salivating now, Darryl ..and it's all your fault.

Is it me? But I find the Welsh accent sounds like a very soft Indian accent - no offense to any Welsh or Indian LTers.

#230 People trying to imitate an Indian accent often end up sounding Welsh, and vice versa - something about the lilting nature, perhaps?

Good news: Knopf announced on Thursday that it will move up the US publication date of The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, the favorite to win this year's Booker Prize, to October 11:

THE SENSE OF AN ENDING by Julian Barnes to be published by Knopf on October 11

My copy is coming from the UK -- I waited until Amazon had it for 6 pounds, and then added a bunch of other stuff I wanted that was relatively inexpensive, making the per book shipping marginally affordable. I see the Amazon price is now up to 7.29 pounds again... Didn't remove it from the order, as I think it may be a wash compared to the US price.

Still debating on getting The Sisters Brothers on Kindle. Thoughts, Darryl? The library hold list hasn't moved in a month; two copies gone AWOL or not returned.

I haven't read The Sisters Brothers yet, Suz. However, it's received several very positive reviews on LT and elsewhere, so it's probably worth getting.

I'll reply to earlier posts later today; it's after 3:30 am here, so I'll go back to sleep soon.

#233 Suz, I say get The Sisters Brothers. It's such a great story, I'd be highly surprised if you didn't at the very least like it. I just finished reading the library copy two days ago, and considering buying a copy to keep. Will write the review eventually soon I trust.

OK, I buckled and bought it for my Kindle, along with the Miklos Banffy trilogy (less than $20 for the three volumes on Kindle; each one is $20 or more in trade paperback!!!)

232> Yay!!! The Sense of an Ending is the one I most want to read.

Suz, if you end up not liking it, your next Kindle book is on me. It's a great read and I'm willing to back it up 100%.

#232 & 237 I've got The Sense of an Ending on hold at the library since a couple of days. It'll be interesting to see who gets it first, even though it's already available here in Canada. I'd buy it if I weren't so unsure about the more depressing elements of the story. If I could read the first couple of pages, I'd know right away by the tone whether I should keep reading or not, so maybe I should order it from ChaptersIndigo online, where I can just return the book to one of their stores if I find it's not suitable... what's one more books at this point, since I've already spent at least a couple of hundred dollars on books this week alone... oy.

>232 kidzdoc: I may just have to rush out and get the Barnes book in light of the new publication date.

I love Borough Market--your reports from your trip make me miss London.

I just heard a sample of the audio version of The Sense of an Ending on Audible (only available in Canada and wherever else the books is available already), and must say I'm hooked. The audio has a great narrator, Richard Morant, who is new to me, but very good. I see he's a British actor, so might be known to some of you. I also see he's also narrated Flaubert's Parrot. Now I'm hesitating between the audio and the hardcover. The audio is several dollars cheaper, though that's not a real consideration... now I'm the one who's being indecisive.

eta: just went on Amazon where one can read a few random pages from the book. But the audiobook narrator was really good, better than the no-voice in my head... now I'm dithering more than ever.

That's a good bargain for the Banffy books on Kindle, Suz! I've got the first volume, given to me by a friend who highly recommended it, but I've not yet read it, and the other volumes look expensive to get hold of.

Darryl, I'm enjoying yours and others' comments on all the Booker nominees, and waiting to see which one(s) I shall look out for. I've never tried any Barnes, but from interviews or items on the radio, he's always struck me as rather too self-consciously clever for my taste, but I may be doing him an injustice and will be interested to see what you think of The Sense of an Ending.

Catching up...

I did see the Joan Miró exhibition at the Tate Modern yesterday, just before it closes on Sunday. The curators did an excellent job in designing the exhibition, particularly in demonstrating how his work changed with time, was influenced by others, especially other surrealists and, later in his career, abstract expressionists, and was affected by the dark days preceding and during the Franco dictatorship. The audio and video tour seemed to be a bit pricy at £4, but it was absolutely essential for me to understand and appreciate the exhibition, and was well worth the cost.



I didn't realize that the first person to appreciate Miró was Ernest Hemingway. One of Miró's earliest paintings was The Farm (see above), a detailed study based on his family's farm in Mont-roig, which was rejected by multiple curators and buyers; one even suggested that he divide the work into eight pieces, and sell each separately! Hemingway bought the painting in Paris, where Miró was living and working, and displayed and praised it in his home, which enhanced Miró's reputation there.

BTW, I just found out that this exhibition will be coming to the National Gallery in Washington from May 6 to August 12, 2012, after it travels to Barcelona.

I bought a small book about the exhibit, Miró by Iria Candela, for £6.99. It includes a couple of dozen of his major works, but doesn't include much history about the artist, so I'll order the full exhibition book, Joan Miró: The Ladder of Escape, and have it shipped to me.

After the Miró exhibition I returned to the nearby Borough Market, and to Roast to Go, where I bought an artery clogging bacon, sausage and egg butty last week. I bought a pork belly with apple sauce sandwich instead, which was also extremely good. I'll go back there several more times before I leave, as there were plenty of other places that had enticing items on their lunch menus.

I walked around quite a bit yesterday, and ended the day at Foyles Bookshop. Oddly enough, I struggled to find any books that I really wanted, but I couldn't leave there without buying something, so I purchased A Dry White Season by André Brink, before having a sandwich and coffee for supper at the Café at Foyles.

Darryl, I loved A Dry White Season. Hope you do too. Funny you found that about Foyles - so did I during my trip in May. I had a lovely time at the cafe, really liked the shop, but didn't buy much (mind you I had already ODd on buying on the day of our LT meetup...)

That pork and apple sandwich sounds fantastic, as does the Miro exhibition (and I always do the audio guides if they're available, or I miss a lot of stuff.) Am loving reading about your trip.

>225 PaulCranswick: Thanks for the info about Southwark Cathedral, Paul. I'll definitely go there sometime next week, as I want to visit the Tate Modern at least once more to see other exhibitions there, along with the nearby Old Operating Theatre Museum near London Bridge.

I continue to be very impressed with the hospitality and friendliness I've received during my visits to London. It's certainly one of the main reasons that I enjoy coming here, and will continue to do so, God willing, once or twice a year for the foreseeable future.

>226 lit_chick: Thanks, Nancy! I still have another nine full days here, before I fly back to Atlanta on the Sunday after next, and I'll probably do more in the coming week than I have been doing for the past week.

>227 Chatterbox: Thanks for that suggested walk, Suz! I'll definitely take that journey one day next week.

I'm not that familiar with the Welsh accent, and it was admittedly a lucky guess on my part; it didn't sound Scottish or Irish to me, and there were words that I could not understand, so I guessed that the two men were from Wales. I had to pay close attention to them once we started talking, but once they switched to English I didn't have a problem understanding them.

I continue to struggle with some English accents, from those who live well outside of London. One young woman at the Café at Foyles became a bit frustrated with me on Monday, after she had to repeat, twice, a question that I couldn't understand.

>228 gennyt: I do love the buzz of the big city with so many languages and nationalities present.

I couldn't agree more, Genny. As I mentioned earlier, I was born and grew up in a large and very diverse city (>250 Cait86:,000 inhabitants) that is just across the Hudson River from Manhattan, and I've always loved experiencing different cultures, habits, and especially cuisines.

That's interesting, but disturbing, that the English have such a negative view of the Welsh accent. Does that apply to the people of Wales, as well? I noticed that the crowd at Wembley whistled and booed during the playing of the Welsh national anthem prior to Tuesday's England-Wales football match, and I vaguely remember that BBC One mentioned this in the context of English prejudice against the Welsh during the following morning's sports segment. What's up with this?

>229 EBT1002: Very good points, Ellen. There are so many factors that play into my enjoyment of a particular book, and I sometimes don't trust my own judgment, or ability to analyze, criticize and rate good literature. My current book, Chinaman by Shehan Karunatilaka, is a good example. Initially I didn't like it, as it's mainly about cricket, and my attention was diverted by trying to understand basic cricket terms and descriptions of the game. Now that I've learned a bit more about the sport, and because I've decided to read around the specifics of cricket, I'm enjoying it much more, and I'm now able to see why Rachael recommended it, and why the Guardian felt that it was worthy of inclusion on the Booker Prize longlist. I should finish it today, and I suspect that it will rate favorably with the actual longlisted novels I've read so far.

>230 cameling: Bacon and egg butty! Bacon and egg butty! I'm salivating now, Darryl ..and it's all your fault.

On the contrary, madam. This is all your fault. You were the one that told me about the Borough Market and the delightful bacon butty. I probably wouldn't have gone there or tried this sandwich had it not been for you. *SMOOCH*

>230 cameling:, 231 Interesting comments about Welsh and Indian accents. I didn't pick up on that, but hopefully I'll hear someone speaking Welsh again before I leave.

>237 EBT1002: I'll claim credit for predicting Knopf's decision to release The Sense of an Ending ahead of time (see message #167). From now on I'd like to be known as Carnac the Magnificent (this reference is probably lost to younger and non-American visitors to this thread).



>238 Smiler69: Suz, if you end up not liking it, your next Kindle book is on me. It's a great read and I'm willing to back it up 100%.

Ooh, can I get in on this deal if I don't like The Sisters Brothers?

I found The Sense of an Ending to be introspective and somewhat mournful without being depressing or maudlin, and it provided me with a lot to think about, as I look back on my life. It's easily the richest and most rewarding short book I've ever read, and (as I think I've said before) it's the only novel published in 2011 that I've given 5 stars to (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong about this; The Memory of Love was published in 2010, so that doesn't count).

>239 AnneDC: I would recommend buying The Sense of an Ending ASAP, Anne. Anyone participating in the group Bookerfest has enough time to read it before the prize winner is announced on October 18th.

>240 Smiler69: Ilana, I think that the hardcover UK edition of The Sense of an Ending is absolutely gorgeous, so I would personally recommend getting the print edition. My edition will certainly make the trip back to Atlanta with me (and if I could only choose one book, it would be this one), and although this probably sounds selfish and petty, I'm not sure that I want to lend this to anyone, as I would be very upset if it was lost or significantly damaged.

>241 gennyt: Genny, I had originally planned to read the entire shortlist before going back to The Sense of an Ending. However, what I think I'll do is read it again early next week, and write a review of it then. I'll probably wait until Monday, since I want to read The Submission by Amy Waldman on Sunday 9/11.

>243 cushlareads: That was very unusual about my trip to Foyles, Cushla. There certainly were books that interested me, but not enough to make me want to get them then, and others that I definitely plan to read, such as some of Julian Barnes' novels that we've mentioned, but I had planned to buy those books in the US. I did look at my Amazon wish list, and there are books there that I did want to get here, but I couldn't think of any of them or their authors when I was at Foyles. I'll write down the names of these books, and at least look at them when I go back there or to the London Review Bookshop, probably on Sunday.

I am so jealous of all your time in London, Darryl. I've been twice, both times for a week, and both trips were jam-packed with sights and museums and shows and shopping, but not a ton of relaxing, wandering time. I think now that I've seen all the major sights (some twice), the next time I visit I can slow down a bit and just walk around. I can only imagine how wonderful a full month there would be. The Tate Modern is fantastic, isn't it?! I could just stare at their Salvador Dali paintings all day.

Sad that you missed the Ondaatje talk; I actually saw him speak on Wednesday. I had no idea he was coming to my city until Monday, and I rushed out to buy a ticket. He read from five or six different parts of The Cat's Table, and then did a question and answer period. An interesting set of questions was on his pattern for writing a book. He said he starts with one big, main idea, and just starts writing. He isn't the type of author who plans everything out; in fact, he said characters often appear, and then he needs to decide what to do with them. He never writes with an ending in mind. He also talked about the importance of editing, and rewriting. Someone asked about the autobiographical nature of The Cat's Table, and he said that yes, he did take a solo journey at the age of eleven from Sri Lanka to England, but that he remembers very little of it, and the story itself, and the characters, are complete fiction. Ondaatje then signed our books - my copy of both The Cat's Table and In the Skin of a Lion - and chatted a bit in the process. He was very nice, and unassuming, and rather funny (I don't really think of him as a funny author, generally). This was the first author reading I've ever been to, so I can't compare it to anything, but it was a brilliant night for me, since I am such a huge fan of Ondaatje's work. Next month I'm going to see Patrick deWitt, Steven Kelman, and Anita Rau Badami, who are all coming as part of Toronto's International Festival of Authors.

Darryl, your time in London is sounding so wonderful. Thanks for sharing your adventures with us. I love the idea of a month in such a rich, diverse city!

>246 Cait86: My decision on taking fewer vacations for longer periods, preferably at least two weeks, was influenced by the former head of the group I currently work for. He told me that he preferred to take 2-3 week vacations, as it wasn't until the beginning of the second week that he truly felt as if he was on vacation. I completely agree with him, as I'm usually beat at the beginning of a vacation, since I've often had to work a concentrated schedule just before I leave. So, I'd like nothing more than to be able to sleep late and often for those first few days, but on a one week trip I feel as if I'm wasting time, so I force myself to get up and go out. Toward the end of that week, just as I'm starting to relax, I start to think about going back to work, which for me affects how relaxed I am during those last 1-2 days. When I return to work I often don't feel particularly rested or relaxed, and I sometimes wonder if the week was worth it at all (although a week long visit to my parents' home is worth it, since I'll spend most of the week relaxing and chatting with them and my brother).

Thanks for the summary of the Ondaatje talk! I regret missing his talk, but hopefully I can catch him somewhere in the US (I'll spend two weeks in San Francisco in mid October, and with any luck he'll come there). The Toronto International Festival of Authors sounds wonderful, and I would love to hear details about the events you attend.

>247 EBT1002: You're welcome, Ellen. I'll probably take a 3-4 week vacation next year as well, as I was also influenced by conversations with Europeans here and in SF who take one month vacations. It will be even easier now that I've earned an extra week of vacation after working for my employer for >10 alcottacre: years.

I had a good reading day yesterday, and managed to complete three books (more detailed reviews to come):

Chinaman by Shehan Karunatilaka, a novel about cricket and Sri Lanka that the Guardian Books team felt should be included on the Booker Prize longlist. I agree with them. It was difficult to get into at first, since there is a lot of terminology about cricket that required me to divert my attention to learn at least the basics about the sport (for example, "chinaman" is the term used to describe the left-arm unorthodox spin technique of bowling). Once I had that knowledge I found it enjoyable, and I would give it 4 stars. Was it better than some of the books that made the actual longlist? Definitely. Would it have made my personal longlist? Doubtful.

The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers, a book that was selected for the Booker Prize longlist, which is unquestionably the worst Booker Dozen book I've ever completed (I absolutely hated Me Cheeta by James Lever, but I didn't finish it, and I strongly disliked C by Tom McCarthy, but it was well written). It's a dysfunctional dystopic novel supposedly set a few months in the future, in which millions of women are dying from Maternal Death Syndrome, a mysterious infection that turns women's brains to cottage cheese after they become pregnant. The narrator is a 16 year old girl who is appalled by what is taking place, and the relative indifference of the adults toward the plight of the women. She becomes active in several futile youth movements whose goals were unclear to me (or to them, I suspect), and then makes a brave (or incredibly foolish) personal decision, in order to make a statement in support of her beliefs. The characters were wooden, the dialogue sunk to the level of poorly written YA lit, and the story as a whole was implausible and thoroughly unenjoyable. This book gets a well earned 1-1/2 stars from me; however, other LT reviewers liked it far better than I did, so take my review with a grain of salt.

Miró by Iria Candela: This was a small book written by an assistant curator of the Tate Modern for the Joan Miró exhibit that I attended on Thursday, which did a nice job in summarizing his life and career and includes at least two dozen of his more notable works. I'll give this 4 stars for being a well written short summary about the exhibit, but I've ordered the formal museum catalog along with it (this book will be a gift to my mother).

interesting, but disturbing, that the English have such a negative view of the Welsh accent. Does that apply to the people of Wales, as well? Sadly, yes, for some people. It's all part of the odd relationship between the different nationalities within the UK, with all the hundreds of years of history (and fighting, and conquest, and oppression) feeding into that. But it seems to me that while it has become less acceptable these days for people in England to make 'jokes' about the Irish or Scots (though some still do), more people seem to regard the Welsh as fair game. A game show host made some very rude comments a few years back about the Welsh on national TV; mind you, she was severely criticised for doing so.

>248 kidzdoc: - I agree about long vacations, especially when they involve taking an overnight flight. I've been to Europe three times - once as a teacher on a school trip, for 10 days, once for 5 weeks, and once for 3 weeks. For me, the longer the trip the better, and I'm lucky to have two months off in the summer. However, even these long trips are tiring, because I move around so much (both weeks in London were on trips that also involved several other places). I think I travel slower than most backpackers my age - I always try to spend at least three nights in each place I visit, and big cities often get a week. But, once I travel a few more times, I'd like to start revisiting places, and then I'll spend a longer period of time in cities like London, or in the Florence/Tuscany area of Italy. Next summer my best friend and I are going to France for 3 weeks - I think we are going to go to Nice, the Provence area, the Dordogne, Normandy, and finally Paris, and this will be my third trip to Paris. It's nice to mix in new places with places I have been to before.

Too bad about The Testament of Jessie Lamb, though not surprising, maybe - I didn't really think of it as your kind of book.

Have you ever seen a play at Shakespeare's Globe in London? If not, I'd highly recommend it, if you enjoy Shakespeare. The seats are wooden and very uncomfortable, so rent one of the cushions, or get a standing ticket (though standing for three hours isn't exactly comfortable! If you go early, you can get the best standing room, right in front of the stage, which you can lean on). All of the productions I've seen there have been phenomenal.

Ooooh, love that deal, Ilana -- thank you! (And I promise to be honest about it...)

Darryl, I do hope you are on your way RIGHT NOW to Hyde Park for the last night of the Proms concert. Since you are in London, it would be a crime to miss it.

>249 gennyt: Thanks for the info about England vs Wales, Genny. I read the review of Simon Jenkins' new book A Short History of England by Jeremy Paxman, which took a couple of cheap (and completely unnecessary, IMO) shots at the Scots and the Welsh.

>250 Cait86: even these long trips are tiring, because I move around so much

I don't mind venturing out of town for relatively short trips whenever I'm on vacation. but I generally like to establish a home base to which I can return at the end of the day. This does mean that I don't often go far beyond the city I visit (e.g., I still haven't been to Napa Valley, despite >20 cameling: trips to San Francisco). but I do like "living" in a city for an extended period of time, as I'm doing now.

Your 2012 vacation plan sounds wonderful! I'll eagerly await your travelogue when you go.

>251 Chatterbox: I did not go to the Last Night of the Proms; instead, Fliss & I went to the National Theatre and saw tonight's performance of The Kitchen, which we enjoyed but didn't completely love. Going to see a good play trumps an outdoor music concert (even Last Night) IMO, so I'm glad that we went to the NT instead of Hyde Park (and it was a muggy and warm evening outside, which was better spent indoors).

I'm nearly halfway through Anatomy of a Disappearance by Hisham Matar, another novel that was touted for this year's Booker Prize longlist which was more deserving of a spot than several of the novels that comprised the Booker Dozen. I'll finish it tomorrow, and then resume reading The Submission by Amy Waldman, in honor of 9/11.

Dear Thread Police: it's after 11 pm BST, so I would like to request a one day extension to start my new thread. TYIA.

New thread here!