kidzdoc: 75 from the shelves #13

Unknown ofrenda from the 2008 Días de los Muertos exhibition at the Oakland Museum of California




Thread #1
Thread #2
Thread #3
Thread #4
Thread #5
Thread #6
Thread #7
Thread #8
Thread #9
Thread #10
Thread #11
Thread #12

Currently reading:



The Leper Compound by Paula Nangle
The Half-Finished Heaven: The Best Poems of Tomas Tranströmer
Is That a Fish in Your Ear?: Translation and the Meaning of Everything by David Bellos

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 (review)
121. On Canaan's Side by Sebastian Barry (review)
122. The Last Hundred Days by Patrick McGuinness (review)
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 (review)
126. The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers (review)
127. Miró by Iria Candela (review)
128. Anatomy of a Disappearance by Hisham Matar (review)
129. The Submission by Amy Waldman (review)
130. Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan (review)
131. In Praise of Reading and Fiction: The Nobel Lecture by Mario Vargas Llosa
132. Who are We-and Should it Matter in the 21st Century? by Gary Younge
133. Lyrics Alley by Leila Aboulela
134. Derby Day by D.J. Taylor (review)
135. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
136. Snowdrops by A.D. Miller (review)
137. The Goldsmith's Secret by Elia Barceló (to be reviewed in a future issue of Belletrista)
138. Colour Me English by Caryl Phillips
139. River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh
140. County: Life, Death and Politics at Chicago's Public Hospital by David A. Ansell, MD, MPH

October:
141. The Artist of Disappearance by Anita Desai (review)
142. Princess Noire: The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone by Nadine Cohodas (review)
143. The War of the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa
144. We the Animals by Justin Torres
145. Cain by José Saramago
146. The Cloud Messenger by Aamer Hussein (review)
147. Good Offices by Evelio Rosero
148. Jamilia by Chinghiz Aitmatov
149. El Corazón De La Muerte/Altars and Offerings for Days of the Dead by Oakland Museum of California (review)
150. The River Between by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (review)
151. Kangaroo Notebook by Kōbō Abe (review)
152. The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht

November:
153. Scenes from Village Life by Amos Oz (review)
154. Coming Through Slaughter by Michael Ondaatje (review)
155. Soul Talk, Song Language: Conversations with Joy Harjo by Joy Harjo and Tanaya Winder
156. The Good Muslim by Tahmima Anam
157. Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
158. The Sojourn by Andrew Krivak
159. Old Filth by Jane Gardam
160. Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes

Glad to follow you to your new thread, Darryl.
*clicks on star*

Starred you too!

Love the new ofrenda photo, Darryl. Starred you ... of course!

Wait.... New thread? I'll repeat my question. Are you going to read 1Q84 now, Darryl? I NEED somebody to bounce suspended disbelief with.
And what did you think of *Tiger's Wife*? I guess I need to go back and read your old thread. Congratulations on your new one! A star from me.

Also on board Darryl but your lead photo this time is a little unnerving if I'm being honest.

>6 EBT1002:-8 Hello Ellen, Genny and Caroline!

>9 LizzieD: I'm still waiting for lilisin, the administrator of the Author Theme Reads group, to respond to my PM from the weekend or post information about the authors that we'll possibly be reading in 2012. She's quite busy with graduate school and a job hunt, though, so it may be awhile before I (or we) hear from her.

I think I'll plan to read at least 1Q84 Book 1 this month, and I'll probably start this weekend.

>10 PaulCranswick: Welcome, Paul! The ofrendas are not meant to be morbid; they, and the Días de los Muertos, are a way to honor those who have died, and are meant to be more celebratory than melancholy. They somewhat remind me of the jazz funerals in New Orleans, in which a brass band leads the cortege to the cemetery, playing funeral dirges, followed by a celebratory march from the cemetery after the burial, in honor of the life of the deceased person. This YouTube video gives a good flavor of a jazz funeral:

New Orleans funeral

I saw several of these jazz funerals when I lived in New Orleans, and it was very common for people on the street to join in the procession to and from the cemetery, whether they knew the deceased person or not.

Speaking of New Orleans, I finished Coming Through Slaughter, Michael Ondaatje's debut novel which is based on the life of the New Orleans jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden, who was institutionalized in 1907 at the age of 30 after an acute psychotic episode supposedly fueled by alcoholism, and spent the rest of his life in the Louisiana State Insane Asylum. I'll review it in the next day or two, but I'll only give it 2½ stars.

I know that they aren't meant to be morbid or creepy -- but they feel that way to me...

Anyway -- re Ondaatje, I knew he was an uneven writer. I don't know which of his books I'll try next.

Following you over here (*star*) to answer your Louise Erdrich question from a previous post, though it seems it has been more than adequately answered by others.

I read The Beet Queen first, many years ago upon the recommendation of a friend, and then went back to read Love Medicine, which might be my favorite. Most of her books that I have read feature overlapping characters and families and weave together ancester stories with contemporary North Dakota reservation life. I will be curious to see whether Plague of Doves connects to these others.

Like Rebecca, I liked Shadow Tag, Erdrich's most recent book, although many people did not. It is quite different from her other work but I found it painfully insightful and, yes, very sad.

Darryl, if you haven't read The Broken Cord (mentioned in your last thread), I think you would especially appreciate it given your medical background. It made Fetal Alcohol Syndrome very real and personal for me.

I have only read Erdrich's young adult trilogy based loosely on her grandmother's life. I thought the first book, The Birchbark House, and last, The Porcupine Year, were excellent and authentic.

Why would people who didn't know the deceased join in funeral processions to the cemetery in NO, Darryl?

Hi Darryl, came to drop my star too. I skipped over your review of Scenes from Village Life on the last thread as I'll be picking it up from the library this weekend, though I can't wait to see what you wrote.

Did I miss your review of The Tiger's Wife? I thought I saw that you'd rated it on my feed, but have been waiting for your thoughts on it for months now!

The longtime CBS writer, reporter, commentator and all around curmudgeon Andy Rooney died yesterday at the age of 92, from complications after surgery soon after his retirement. I didn't realize that he had written 15 books during his life, which include his first book A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney and his last, 60 Years of Wisdom and Wit. For those of you not in the US, he was a fixture on the Sunday evening CBS News program 60 Minutes since 1978, ending each broadcast with a bitingly funny and occasionally touching piece about his life, our society, and the world we live in. He gave me many laughs and smiles over the years, and he'll be missed by many of us.

Andy Rooney, '60 Minutes' Commentator, Dies

>12 Chatterbox: I'm admittedly baffled that the ofrendas could be viewed as morbid or creepy. To me, they are a wonderful way to remember a lost loved one, and are infused with warmth and humor.

Coming Through Slaughter was Ondaatje's debut novel, so I'm willing to grant him a mulligan for it, especially because he was trying to do something clever with this book. Others may like it more than I did, and he gets at least a B+ for effort, but I'll stick with my 2½ star rating. I'll review it shortly.

>13 AnneDC: Thanks for those recommendations, Anne. I'll probably read The Plague of Doves next week. I have a busy stretch of work days coming up this week (Mon-Sun), so I probably won't get much reading done after tomorrow.

>14 labfs39: Thanks for mentioning The Broken Cord, Lisa. I had heard about it years ago, but never got around to reading it (and I wasn't reading much at that time, anyway). I've added it to my wish list.

>15 cameling: Why would people who didn't know the deceased join in funeral processions to the cemetery in NO, Darryl?

New Orleans is well known for its jazz funerals, although they are not performed commonly. I only saw a handful during the years I lived in New Orleans, which took place in the French Quarter. I doubt that many people that didn't know the deceased accompanied the procession to the church and cemetery, but I certainly saw a lot of people who were obviously tourists join in the celebration after the procession returned.

>16 Smiler69: I haven't reviewed The Tiger's Wife yet. I'll write one later today or tomorrow.

bBook #154: Coming Through Slaughter by Michael Ondaatje



My rating:



The cornetist Buddy Bolden (1877-1931) is widely credited as being one of the creators of the music now known as jazz. He was born in New Orleans and formed a band in 1895, which was centered in the red light district known as Storyville and soon became one of the most popular ones in the city (Bolden is seen with his band, standing second from the left in this 1905 photograph). He was influenced by ragtime music, the blues and music from the church, and combined these elements into a unique form which was later termed "jazz". Bolden was a man of several trades, working as a barber and the publisher of a scandalous paper based on information he received from his customers and friends. Unfortunately he was also plagued by alcoholism and mental illness, and his health deteriorated in 1906, when his band was at the peak of its popularity. He suffered an acute mental breakdown the following year, and was admitted to the Louisiana State Insane Asylum, where he was confined for the remainder of his life.

Michael Ondaatje, a confessed lover of jazz, provides us with a fictionalized account of the life of Buddy Bolden, in the form of an improvised riff led by a childhood friend, who became a police officer outside of town and came back to investigate Bolden's increasingly bizarre behavior and downfall. Ondaatje provides the reader with foggy and staccato-like glimpses of Bolden, his wife and mistress, and several other characters who were close to him, including E.J. Bellocq, who gained fame and notoriety by photographing the prostitutes of Storyville. Although this was an interesting technique, it did not work for me, as the main character became an elusive spirit who came into and out of focus, which prevented me from understanding the man, his music or his troubled life. This was a commendable effort, but one which frustrated and will quickly be forgotten by this reader.

Darryl I think that the ofrendas are maybe more effective to those that have witnessed them in the flesh and it does not quite get across in a photo the sense of celebration that you experience first hand. Must admit your description of the New Orleans "Jazz" funeral processions struck a chord with me and I now, in knowledge of that, see the photo with less blinkered vision.

How sad about Andy Rooney. I can't say he was a fixture in my home, but I did enjoy his cranky but always astute point of view when I caught his segments throughout my life.

Have you read the review for 1Q84 in the New York Times Darryl? I almost wish I hadn't. For one thing, it repeated a lot of things in the way of what the novel is about that I've seen written many times already, for another, the reviewed didn't seem to like it all that much, which isn't the impression I want to have of it before settling into a nearly 1000-page long work. I'll avoid other reviews of it from now on until I've read it myself. For the same reason, I decided not to read their review of Scenes from Village Life, also in this week's edition, and will keep it for after I've read the book.

Was wondering what a mulligan was... (post #18 "so I'm willing to grant him a mulligan for it...") - never came across that term before, thought the meaning of a second chance was more-or-less clear from the context. Is this expression confined to the US, or has it just passed me by somehow?

Genny - it's a kind of do-over in golf, I think. Not being a golfer, I'm not certain of the specifics...

Oh, yes, I should have said, I googled it to find out the meaning so I discovered it originated in golf - but I just wondered (not being a golfer myself either, obviously) whether the expression was known/used outside the US?

>21 Smiler69: Ilana The NYTimes review of 1Q84 in the Sunday edition that I read made me feel sorry for the reviewer. I thought he missed the boat entirely and wanted others to miss it, too. His last line re "meaning" was absurd. I think there's a second one by a woman reviewer who loved it.

I'm biased, of course, as a big Murakami fan.

It's the only one I've seen that hasn't been positive, e.g.: http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/review/1q84

I'm 2/3 of the way through 1Q84 and liking it a lot.

>20 PaulCranswick: You're probably right, Paul. I was somewhat familiar with them before I saw the exhibition at the Oakland Museum last month, and the exhibition itself was not morbid in any way. On the afternoon I went there were several groups of Chicano schoolchildren there, along with several teachers and possibly members of the Chicano community, who explained the different ofrendas to the children and asked them if they had any in their homes. The kids were enthusiastic and respectful, and none seemed sad or afraid in any way.

I found out earlier today that there will be a Día de los Muertos celebration tomorrow in Atlanta, and I'll probably go to see it in the afternoon.

>21 Smiler69: My parents and I loved watching Andy Rooney, and one of us would often let the others know when his segment came on. It's a shame that he only lived for barely a month after he announced his retirement from "60 Minutes".

I haven't read the NYT review of 1Q84 yet, although I did see that it would be reviewed in tomorrow's paper (via an e-mail alert from the NYT). I'm a longtime NYT subscriber, and have read the Sunday paper daily since I was in high school, so I'll at least look at it. Lately I haven't found the NYT book reviews to be as reliable or as interesting as those in the Guardian, London Review of Books, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, or LT. It seems as if the book editors choose reviewers who have an ax to grind, or who go out of their way to tear down a book. Michiko Kakutani's reviews can be particularly eviscerating, and although I do look to see which books she is reviewing, I'll stop reading a review written by her if it is especially negative.

I'm not sure if it's because my reading tastes have changed, or because the books being reviewed in the NYT are less interesting to me, but I don't often read the daily book reviews in the paper (and it's exceedingly rare that Janet Maslin reviews a book that I'm curious about). The Sunday Book Review is much more interesting, but it still ranks well behind the Saturday Guardian Review, which has become a must read for me every week (although I haven't checked it out today). Much of the fiction that Maslin and others read, IMO, is bland Americana, based mainly in suburbia and written by authors who have little interest to me. Hmm...this maybe an overly harsh and inaccurate judgment, so I'll check to see what's been reviewed this week. Monday: Janet Maslin reviews 11/22/63 by Stephen King, and the novel is set in Maine (bland Americana); Tuesday: Michiko Kakutani reviews Blue Nights by Joan Didion, a memoir about her late daughter (Americana, though I certainly wouldn't call Didion bland); Wednesday: Dwight Garner reviews West by West, the biography of basketball great Jerry West (bland Americana); Thursday: Janet Maslin (again?) reviews And So It Goes, the biography of Kurt Vonnegut (bland Americana); Friday: Michiko Kakutani reviews a biography of Rin Tin Tin (seriously? very bland Americana). So, in five days the NYT did not review any books set outside of the US, any that were published by smaller presses, or any that had nonwhite characters or authors. Only one of the books, Blue Nights, is interesting to me (and I definitely will get it or ask for it as a Christmas gift, as I was deeply moved by her book The Year of Magical Thinking).

Hmm...The Year of Magical Thinking wasn't in my LT library (I've just added it), nor are any other books by Joan Didion, which surprises me. That book was a 5 star read for me.

>22 gennyt:-24 Interesting; I knew that mulligan was a golfing term that has gained wider usage, but I would have guessed that it originated in England or Ireland.

>25 jnwelch: Tomorrow's review of 1Q84 was written by Kathryn Schulz, a freelance journalist who writes for the Freakonomics blog in the NYT, a blog about errors and mistakes in the online magazine Slate, and who is the author of a book about errors. So why was she chosen to review 1Q84? I'll read her review, but I'm sure that it have absolutely no impact on me.

Hi Darryl

Thanks for the news regarding Andy Rooney. I returned from Beavercreek Ohio today after spending a week with my family and was out of touch with the news. Thus, I appreciate your update.

Sorry book #154 wasn't a good one for you. You have read so many gems this year.

All the best!

Hi, Darryl! I'm just skimming through to star your new thread and try to catch up.

Sorry to hear that you didn't like Coming through Slaughter. It was one that sounded promising to me, but now I'll probably give it a pass.

Also sorry to hear about Andy Rooney. My parents and I always enjoyed him, too -- I think my Mom especially loved his curmudgeonly manner. I have one of his books on my shelf somewhere. One often hears of people -- especially people very successful in their work life, like Rooney -- who die very shortly after retirement. I wonder how common that really is?

>26 kidzdoc:: interesting analysis of NYT reviews, Darryl. We get the Sunday NYT and I enjoy reading the Book Review section, but I don't get much inspiration there, either. I hadn't thought about "Americana," but you're absolutely right. You also commented that "in five days the NYT did not review any books set outside of the US, any that were published by smaller presses, or any that had nonwhite characters or authors." I would add that they also review mostly male authors.

>28 Whisper1: You're welcome, Linda. I hope that you had a good time in Ohio with your family! I'm looking forward to spending both Thanksgiving and Christmas with my parents and relatives in PA later this year.

>29 tymfos: I would recommend passing on Coming Through Slaughter, Terri. The only reason I bought it is that Michael Ondaatje mentioned it at the talk I attended last month.

Good question about the link between the retirement of successful people and their death soon afterward. I can't think of many people off hand who fit, although I'm sure there are plenty more than I can come with. Paul "Bear" Bryant, the legendary Alabama football coach is the first person I think of; he died a few weeks after he retired as the Crimson Tide's head coach. LBJ died not long after he left office, but he had serious heart problems and almost died when he was the Senate Majority Leader.

>30 lauralkeet: I agree, Laura; it doesn't seem to me that the NYT reviews many books written by women. Last week's reviews are what I would have expected of a mainstream middle America publication like USA Today or Time magazine (which has reviewed three of these five books so far). I don't mean to sound elitist or snobby, but I would expect more from the NYT book editors, since the paper's readers would arguably be more interested in world literature, women's literature, literature from independent and university presses and literary fiction than the readers of the other publications I mentioned, e.g. I Hotel by Karen Tei Yamashita (finalist for last year's National Book Award) or Tinkers by Paul Harding (last year's Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner), neither of which was reviewed by the NYT. I'll start paying closer attention to the books that are reviewed in the paper, and possibly make note of them here.

Oddly enough, today's NYT hasn't arrived yet.

I'm also a lifelong New York Times reader and I too have noticed that I am reading fewer reviews both in the daily paper and in the Sunday Book Review. I hadn't really thought about whether it was because the books were less interesting (which they are, and I appreciate your analysis, Darryl) or because I am reading less of the Times in general because I have less time to do so. Maybe I've switched some of my Times-reading time to LT-reading time!

As for The Year of Magical Thinking, I've had that on the TBR for several years, but I haven't been able to read it because I don't feel ready to explore someone else's grief and bereavement.

I do think you may be too harsh about "bland Americana," although possibly you're right about the books you mention. I've read several, if not many, contemporary books set in the US that are far from bland and are indeed quite insightful, perceptive, and thought-provoking, for example, The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, Amy Bloom's stories in Where the God of Love Hangs Out and A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You, Bonnie Jo Campbell's American Salvage and Once Upon a River, In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O'Brien, Train Dreams by Denis Johnson, The Condition by Jennifer Haigh, Sweet Land Stories by E.L. Doctorow, Jaimy Gordon's Lord of Misrule and She Drove Without Stopping, Just Kids by Patti Smith and, among older works, The Mountain Lion by Jean Stafford, Desperate Characters by Paula Fox, Light Years and The Hunters by James Salter, and Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen. I'm not sticking up for the NY Times, but certainly several of these were reviewed in it.

I'm still waiting for the Sunday NYT to hit my doorstep (it usually comes at 4-5 am), but I've glanced at the online version of today's paper, and there are several books in the Sunday Book Review that I've read, plan to read, or ones that will probably be added to my wish list:

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (owned, to be read starting this month)
Blue Nights by Joan Didion (already added to my wish list)
When the Garden Was Eden: Clyde, the Captain, Dollar Bill, and the Glory Days of the New York Knicks by Harvey Araton (definitely one for the wish list, as my father took me to several Knicks games during their glory days in the 1960s and 1970s)
Scenes from Village Life by Amos Oz (owned and read)
The Barbarian Nurseries by Héctor Tobar (novel about multicultural LA, whose positive review makes it one for the wish list)

(Ahh, there's the paper!)

This is what I expect from the Sunday Book Review: reviews of books that I haven't heard of (namely the Araton and the Tobar) but want to run out and buy soon.

Rebecca, you're probably right that I was being overly harsh. I admittedly have little or no interest in reading about characters based in small town or suburban America, which is one of my many prejudices. I'd much rather read about immigrants, residents of large cities or those who live along the East or West Coast. Of the books you mentioned the only ones I own are Lord of Misrule and Shadow Country, and I should make it a priority to read both next year (although the Matthiessen is a door stopper). American Salvage and Desperate Characters are the other ones on your list that interest me the most; I enjoyed Paula Fox's memoir Borrowed Finery, which I read well before I joined LibraryThing (it's hidden somewhere among the boxes of older books that I haven't entered into my LT library yet).

It's funny, Darryl, because just after posting #30 I started the coffee, went out to get the paper, and sat down with hubby for our Sunday morning coffee-and-NYT ritual. This week's book review section was, as you said, more of what we expect from it.

I certainly have my own prejudices, Darryl, so far be it from me to quibble with yours. I think you will probably really like Shadow Country and possibly Desperate Characters, not sure about the others. Borrowed Finery is one of my favorite memoirs, along with Two Lives by Vikram Seth, Them: A Memoir of Parents by Francine du Plessix Gray, and Just Kids by Patti Smith.

I do need to put Vikram Seth's memoirs on my to-read list...

Re Amos Oz, I think the surrealism was the reason I passed on the ARC when I spotted it in the Amazon Vine selection. I wasn't in the mood to have to tease out strands of meaning from elliptical but beautiful writing, and I'm not in any rush to read it. That said, I'm now reading Arriving in Avignon by Daniel Robberechts, which, if not surreal, requires a lot of thought -- it's in the same vein as W.G. Sebald's work. (I loved Austerlitz when I read it last year.)

I suspect the reason the Rin-Tin-Tin bio was reviewed is the author; Susan Orlean has written some very good narrative non-fiction, notably The Orchid Thief, which I loved. Her other stuff hasn't been as good, and I've little interest in reading a book about a movie dog, so I'll be skipping it, but I suspect it will at least be well written.

To clarify my thoughts about the ofrendas: I don't think they make me feel "sad or afraid" in any way at all. They just don't resonate with me on any level; they are very much associated with the Latino/Chicano celebrations of the Day of the Dead, which isn't part of my cultural heritage, that I have no connection to, and while I can situate them in the context of funerary art, Catholic traditions, etc. etc., ultimately they interest me far less than a lot of other stuff to which I have no connection. I like a lot of "folk art", which is what these have become (cultural artifacts increasingly divorced from their original context), but these objects don't appeal to me much at all. I understand the thinking behind the grinning and capering skeletons, but they don't resonate with me at all, and aren't something I'd choose to live with. Not that art has to be "beautiful", or have a personal meaning to be valid, just that this particular manifestation doesn't interest me much.

Thinking about folk art, though, what does interest me are quilts, which can tell incredible stories. There are quilts that tell stories of the times that people lived through -- made by slaves, the inhabitants of the offshore islands in the Carolinas, by women re-using odd and unusual fabrics in the depression. They tell stories of womens' lives over two centuries or more, can be marvels of design and are fascinating to me as objects to look at; I love to imagine the lives that lie behind the stitches, the fabrics and the designs. Perhaps folk art "speaks" to people based on their particular backgrounds or other interests?

Similarly, for me, reading about characters in small town or suburban America is of little interest -- but the stories that are written about them can often be works of great beauty, or speak to the human condition in some way just as effectively as anything that is set outside the borders of the United States. Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes could very easily have been written about a man in suburban America -- would you have liked it less had that been the case; if that were the only difference?

I found The Year of Magical Thinking good, but not good enough to read a second book by the same author about the same essential theme of deep/intense grief.

>35 lauralkeet: Yes, today's issue is much better than most of the previous ones have been. I loved Claire Messud's review of Scenes from Village Life, which made me want to go back and read it again. It also convinced me that it is worthy of that extra ½ star to make it a 5 star read.

>36 rebeccanyc: Have you read Amoz Oz's memoir A Tale of Love and Darkness, Rebecca? It's amongst my favorite memoirs, along with My Own Country by Abraham Verghese, You Must Set Forth at Dawn by Wole Soyinka and Once Upon a Country by Sari Nusseibeh. I'll keep the ones you recommended in mind.

>37 Chatterbox: I think that I'll glean more from Scenes from Village Life with repeated readings, but I didn't find it to be one that I had to spend a lot of time on the first time around. I suspect that it won't be a book for everyone, but it was right up my alley, needless to say.

I didn't know much about el Día de los Muertos or Chicano culture before I moved to Atlanta for residency and simultaneously began to visit San Francisco, beginning at the end of my intern year, as the Latinos I grew up with were mainly from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic and not Mexico. The ofrendas also remind me of the offerings to God that some Latino parents have placed at the head of the crib or bed of a very sick child that I've taken care of. There is usually a portrait of Our Lady of Guadelupe, the Blessed Virgin Mary, placed upright at the head of the crib, along with a Bible opened to a favorite chapter, a cross, and prayer beads. The child also frequently wears one or more necklaces, either a cross or ones derived from the Santería religion, I suspect, filled with herbs or medicines, and occasionally a bracelet is also worn on the wrists or ankles. I admire and support the families' beliefs, and often acknowledge that God is the ultimate healer to them, which they seem to appreciate.

I do like folk art, although I haven't seen much of it, including the famous Gee's Bend quilts (I missed the exhibitions in Atlanta and Philadelphia) and the AIDS quilts. I do want to see more exhibitions of follk art here and elsewhere.

I would have liked The Sense of an Ending just as much if it occurred in Des Moines, Iowa rather than small or university towns in England. However, I almost certainly wouldn't have been as eager to read it without a good reason, such as one or more glowing reviews or its nomination as a finalist or winner for a book award that I was interested in.

I'll definitely read Blue Nights, and it wouldn't take much at all for me to re-read The Year of Magical Thinking, particularly if it helps me to appreciate Didion's newest memoir that much more.

I read the NY Times online, though generally just the book section, and not totally faithfully. I like the Globe and Mail's book section better. Both feature way more non-fiction than I would like, and both are lacking in international authors, but the Globe's page is friendlier, if that makes sense. I always feel as though the NYT reviewers are trying to show off just how smart they are, and I find it a bit alienating. That's not to say that I want reviews that are dumbed-down, but I think a reviewer can write an intelligent article without making me feel like I am intellectually inferior, or that, if I enjoy a book he/she bashed, or vice-versa, that there must be something wrong with me. The Globe reviewers tend to be fairer, to acknowledge the good and the bad without making it seem as if their word is law. They also generally reveal their own biases, so that I feel like I understand the personality of each reviewer, and why he or she might not enjoy the same book I do.

Just my two cents - I'll still read both papers, and wish I had the money to buy five new books every week! In fact, I think I am going to treat myself to a trip to the bookstore today...

Enjoying very much the in-depth discussion here Darryl on the state of literary criticism in the USA in the broadsheet (quality) papers and the state of american literature. To be fair it would not be my specialist topic but I do sense that there is a tendency to over intellectualise modern writing rather than enjoying it for itself. (I subscribed to the New Yorker for a couple of years and regularly read the Times (New York and London) on line for the book reviews).
From what I can see there is no superiority of literature in the USA neither is there any crisis - there are excellent writers there just as there are in Canada, South Africa, UK, Africa, India and Australasia just as there are writers from all of these places for which we would cross to the other side of the road to avoid.
You are right it is not Julian Barnes' nationality that makes him readable, though he draws from his experiences and background of course, it is his ability to create.

Thanks, Cait. I've just added an app to my Yahoo! Toolbar for Firefox for the Globe and Mail's book section, next to the app for the Guardian Books page, and I'll start reading it regularly.

A goal of mine for the remainder of the year is to not buy another book for myself until 2012, at the earliest. (Stop laughing.) There are several books that I want to buy now, including the three I mentioned from today's NYT Book Review, along with Professor Andersens natt (Professor Andersen's Night) by Dag Solstad and Erasure by Percival Everett, amongst others. Now that my local Borders stores have closed this will be an easier goal, as long as I avoid clicking that enticing yellow button on Amazon.com.

Haha, you are far stronger than I am, Darryl! I'm sure to come back with a few new books today - Eugenides' The Marriage Plot maybe, Partitions by Amit Majmudar if I can find it, and whatever else I discover. I think 2012 is going to be all about the TBR though; I have over 100 books sitting on my shelves that I have yet to read. I know that pales in comparison to others', but my apartment can only hold so many books!

#41 A goal of mine for the remainder of the year is to not buy another book for myself until 2012, at the earliest. (Stop laughing.)

Didn't you plan to do this last year too, Darryl? I seem to remember that didn't go quite as planned . . .

#42 I'm with you, Cait. I have so many books in the house that I haven't read thanks to all the recommendations from LT. I told my husband last night that I needed to have more time to read or at least learn to read faster. I also told him we desparately needed more bookshelves. He laughed, then took me around the house and asked exactly where I would put more bookshelves. *sigh* I'm starting to feel like the man in Hrabal's Too Loud a Solitude: books piled on the floors until only paths remain. He even created a big loft-like shelf over his bed so that he could use all that mid-air space. Hmmm, now that might be an idea, although I'm not sure hubby would like squeezing into bed at night and lie wondering if he built the loft strong enough!

Addicted book-buyers, I strongly advize you to read The House of Paper by Carlos María Domínguez before it's too late :-)

Darryl - I just came across www.full-stop.net, I haven't had a chance to explore the site, it was recommended in goodreading magazine.
"Founded in January of 2011, Full Stop is committed to an earnest, expansive, and rigorous discussion of literature and literary culture.....aims to focus on young writers, works in translation, and books we feel are being neglected by other outlets"

>41 kidzdoc:: (Stop laughing.) No, sorry, I can't.
>43 rebeccanyc:: I have a similar recollection.

* wanders off cackling *

Sorry Darryl.... I was going to comment on the NYTimes Book Review section, but I haven't yet stopped laughing at your pronouncement not to buy any books until 2012. Still trying ..... nope .... *wanders off to dry tears of laughter*

* hands Caroline a hanky *

14, 18: Ah, my presentation was lacking.
17: A person who retires at age 90+ is surely not expecting 20 years of golf and cruises.
34: I admittedly have little or no interest in reading about characters based in small town or suburban America, which is one of my many prejudices. I'd much rather read about immigrants, residents of large cities or those who live along the East or West Coast. I share this inclination, but I've found doing genealogical research that the folks in small town Illinois were an interesting bunch, adventurously forging westward while others settled comfortably. Also, a bit from a New Yorker magazine article: "I like to play chess. I moved to a small town, and nobody played chess there, but one guy challenged me to checkers. I always thought it was kind of a simple game, but I accepted. And he beat me nine or ten games in a row. That's sort of like living in a small town. It's a simpler game, but it's played to a higher level."

We'll all be watching with interest, Darryl, to see how long your no-book resolve lasts! I had a similar thought myself, then happened to drop into my local Oxfam shop which always has an excellent selection of used books - and came away with another 6!

Darryl, allow me to join your other friends in the gentle ribbing you've exposed yourself to when you announced you're not buying any books until 2012. Pfffft! LMAO! Well, what can I say... you as a doctor should know all about the dangers of dieting, right? You put your body in starvation mode, it's just going to seek it's revenge and have you licking grease off the pavement. In other words, I predict you're in for a major book-buying binge if you don't allow yourself at least a couple of 'cheats' in the next two months...

Right, so I'm off to select the five books I MUST buy this month for my Thingaversary... should keep me satisfied until 2012! ;-)

>40 PaulCranswick: From what I can see there is no superiority of literature in the USA neither is there any crisis

I would have to agree (although I'm on somewhat shaky ground, since I've read so few American novels in the past few years). I'll probably create a list of my 10 or 20 favorite American novels since 2000, and compare it with my favorite 10-20 non-American novels, to see if there is a signficant difference between the two lists.

>42 Cait86: I think 2012 is going to be all about the TBR though; I have over 100 books sitting on my shelves that I have yet to read.

Same here. I have failed miserably in the past several years to buy fewer books, and to read more books from my shelves compared to ones that I've purchased in the current year. I would be very happy if I only had 100 unread books on my shelves! I'm sure that I easily have 500 TBR books, and the number is probably closer to 1000. Looking at my shelves can sometimes be depressing and/or overwhelming, as I'll routinely see a few dozen books that I'm eager to read simultaneously.

I'm sure that I'll continue to buy books from the longlists of literary prizes that I'm most interested in (Booker, Orange, Pulitzer, National Book Award, Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, Impac Dublin Literary Prize (whose 2012 longlist was announced today; more in a bit), Wellcome Trust Book Prize, and Royal Society Prize for Science Books, to name a few). I may be a bit more selective in 2012, and not try to read the entire Booker longlist (although the newly announced judge is a very promising one, which I'll mention later), for example). I'd like to limit my 2012 book purchases to no more than 100-150, although I still want to support my favorite indie bookstores (London Review Bookshop and City Lights, in particular).

*prescribes sedatives to the naysayers who are laughing hysterically*

>43 rebeccanyc: Didn't you plan to do this last year too, Darryl? I seem to remember that didn't go quite as planned . . .

Sigh. Sisters can be so mean.

>44 labfs39: I'm with your husband; I don't think I could sleep well, worrying about a mid-air loft that possibly isn't strong enough.

>45 Trifolia: I read The House of Paper several years ago, but unfortunately I don't remember much about it.

>46 avatiakh: Thanks for mentioning Full Stop, Kerry. I just signed up to its Facebook page, and I'll check it out later this week.

>47 lauralkeet: Mean. So mean.

>48 cameling:, 49 I have something that will help Caroline stop laughing:



Go Big Blue! (I'm a diehard Eagles fan, but my loyalty to the Giants isn't far behind, considering that I've been following them since Fran Tarkenton quarterbacked Big Blue in the late 1960s.)

>50 qebo: I like that quote from The New Yorker.

>51 gennyt: It will be much easier for me to stick to this goal, as there aren't any good bookstores close to me now that Borders has ceased operations, which means I'll have to go out of my way to go to a bookstore in Atlanta. I promise to be honest, and to admit if I break my book fast.

>52 Smiler69: Ilana?!? I thought you were a true friend! *sniff*

Fine. This gives me that much more resolve to prove to all of you that I can go for 2½ months without buying a book. This doesn't count books I'll receive from my 2011 Archipelago Books subscription, which is already paid for (and I did receive In the Presence of Absence by Mahmoud Darwish in the mail on Saturday), LT Early Reviewer books, free downloads (e.g., the monthly free book from University of Chicago Press), or gift books. I think the only thing that may trip me up is if I decide to renew my Archipelago Books subscription for 2012, but I'm leaning towards cancelling my subscription, as I've been disappointed by the books I've received so far this year.

>50 qebo: As a small-to-midsize town dweller now transplanted to a (relatively) large city, I love the quote from the New York Magazine.

Darryl, I have this wonderful image of you in line at your local booksellers on January 1 (okay, maybe January 2 since everything's closed on New Year's Day), credit card in hand, and a very big basket full of dozens upon dozens of books that you wanted to buy in November and December but put off out of pure determination to show all your LT buddies what a will of iron you have. And, not to quibble, but if you're not buying any books until 2012, you only have to go about 1 1/2 months (not 2 1/2, as you suggested) without any such purchase. Nice try. :-)

Ilana?!? I thought you were a true friend! *sniff*

LMAO!

What's this? Book-buying police, Daryl? Sounds like you are taking wise precautions to avoid being arrested, hehe!

#53
Darryl if only I could get my unread shelves down to a hundred books - I'll have to engage Suzanne (Chatterbox) in order to make serious inroads into my pile. Nowhere near finished cataloguing and the unread list on the shelves is apporaching 1,100! Thinking of calling in the services of a structural engineer to make sure that the sheer volume of books is not a danger to the building stability!

A comparative list as you suggest would be interesting but mine would probably be british fiction versus the rest given the obvious bias in my reading.

#54
Lol the image of you in a state of obvious disrepair having slept out on New Years eve to be first through the doors on January 1st to feed your habit. Don't think I could manage two months without buying any books Darryl but you will gain my utmost admiration if you can do so.

>54 EBT1002: Actually, Book Culture (112th St, NYC) has a New Year's Day sale that I've gone to in the past, where most books are 20% off of list price. NYC is a relatively short trip from where my parents live, but I'll be up there for Christmas this year instead of New Year's Day. I'll be off from work on Jan 1, but I'm all but certain that no bookstores will be open in Atlanta.

I was counting the time from my last book purchase to the end of the year. I left San Francisco on Oct 23, and probably bought my last book there 1-3 days before then. That's not quite 2½ months, but I would get there if I don't buy any books in the first week or two of January.

I do have the will of a bowl of Cream of Wheat iron.

>55 Smiler69: *pouts at Ilana's response*



>56 lit_chick: What's this? Book-buying police, Darryl?

This is my punishment for making bold and irrational pre-New Year's Day promises about limiting my book purchases for the coming year, which I've failed at spectacularly in '09, '10 and '11. 2012 will be different, I promise!

>57 PaulCranswick: I'm certain that my living room is no longer level, due to the weight of the 1000+ books on the shelves away from my patio.

What I love about this whole thing is how effectively we're all turning the spotlight on you, Darryl. Far be it from me to say I'm going cold turkey (even for 1.5 or 2.5 months) on book purchasing. You'll notice none of us stepping up to join you in solidarity.

*checks wallet to be sure debit card is on hand for this afternoon's possible trip to the University Bookstore*

Darryl, that picture has me in fits of laughter. Just remember, only true friends would allow themselves to tease you mercilessly the way we do. ;-)

You'll notice none of us stepping up to join you in solidarity.

As you say Ellen, as you say.

What a wonderful pout!

Deja vu all over again. As I recall, we both got around book buying bans last year by buying each other books at Strand, no??? Positively Machiavellian.

But I'll join the book ban; I've been fasting all year and might as well make it a six/seven week ban. Of course, I've got hundreds here TBR, including dozens from the library, so it's hardly punitive. I've got a December Kindle pre-order, one Amazon UK pre-order, and will get at least 4 free books between now and year end from Amazon Vine. Plus the books I can borrow from my neighbor...

Actually, I'm going to turn this into a no new books to be bought between now and my birthday (Feb 1).

Darryl my kids can still do the lip thing and I'm a sucker every time.

What? No sympathy or tearful words of regret after my heart-wrenching pout??? Don't make me post another photo of Sarah Palin pouting!

I thought we weren't allowed to mention SP on your thread, but maybe there's an exception for you since it's your thread!

Don't make me post another photo of Sarah Palin pouting!

I'm really into horror, Darryl, but that would even be too much for me!

>65 rebeccanyc:: he makes exceptions for his own rules all the time, doesn't he? Like that book-buying ban last year. Bwahahahaha !!

Oh, no!! Not another book-buying ban!!!

You do realize that the collective lack of support for my laudable effort has given me that much more inspiration to stick to my goal. When the going gets tough, the tough stop buying books.

The news about Penn State's child abuse scandal and coverup by university officials is sickening and infuriating. (I assume that everyone has heard about this by now; if not, this article in today's Guardian provides a brief summary about this tragedy.) Joe Paterno's decision to retire at the end of the season is absolutely unacceptable; he should be fired immediately, along with the university's president (reports indicate that he will step down or be fired today). The alleged abuser, if found guilty, should be imprisoned for the rest of his life, and anyone involved in the coverup should also receive stiff jail sentences, IMO.

>70 kidzdoc: - Amen, Darryl.

#70 And amen from here, also.

#69 Darryl as a medical practitioner I am treading on thin ice, but surely our collective negativity is reverse psychology! Looks like it is working too.

The Board of Trustees at Penn State made the difficult, but morally correct, decision to fire Coach Paterno last night. Unfortunately, this precipitated a riot by thousands of PSU students, who were protesting the board's decision. The university president was also removed by the board, for not reporting the witnessed act of sexual abuse to law enforcement officials.

Paterno Is Finished at Penn State, and President Is Out

Thousands of Students Riot After Paterno Is Ousted

As a medical professional who cares for children, I am obligated by law to report any and all cases of suspected child abuse that I see to the state's family and child protection service, which is in turn responsible for notifying law enforcement officials depending on the case. Otherwise I would be subject to arrest, imprisonment, and the loss of my medical license. I'll never forget seeing the videotape on a local news channel of a well respected pediatrician in Georgia who was arrested while seeing patients in her office and carted off to jail.

While I'm on my soapbox, I'll also express my disgust at Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, who has been accused of having inappropriate sexual contact with four women. He should withdraw immediately.

For those who didn't watch the Repubican presidential debate last night, this week's issue of The New Yorker has provided a useful summary:

I was completely surprised by Paterno's intent to retire, announced early Wednesday. I thought to myself, I hope this is just a first step and the university takes stronger action. I'm glad they did -- and Darryl, I heard from you first, on Facebook! I even woke my husband up to tell him about it because neither of us thought retirement was appropriate. It is sad that someone with such a long and stellar career should go out this way, leaving his entire reputation in question. I'm also saddened by the student rioting that occurred after the announcement.

Herman Cain is completely disgusting.

You're right, Darryl .. I stopped laughing when you posted that picture. I just bought a new pair of shoes today ... they have very pointy heels ....... just sayin'
I'm not sure if I can watch them play the Jets this weekend if they're going to bring their non-game onto the field again.

I love the cartoon strip. Caught highlights of the presidential debate because I had to watch it on CNN. I do sometimes wonder if the guy is smoking something before he comes onto the podium.

I'm so glad the university fired both Paterno and Spanier. My heart goes out to the victims of Sandusky's apparent predation and abuse, as well as to members of the Penn State community (I have colleagues and friends who work there) whose professionalism and integrity are tainted by this case of deep corruption. Ugh.

And I love the cartoon strip.

eta: I guess it's a frame rather than a strip, eh?

Too bad Paterno couldn't live up to the high ethical standards (remarkably high ones in fact) that he created for his institution. Student athletes there don't graduate as illiterates just because they can get a ball from point A to point B...

I'm not sure I agree with you on the Herman Cain issue, however. Not because I believe him or don't believe his accusers: the way he has handled this shows what I've heard described as a "consciousness of guilt." BUT -- these are accusations. The world we live in today is one where people try to find ways to undermine people who they dislike or whose ideas they dislike -- and one in which people with invalid claims are paid sums that to them are sizeable to go away, because the cost of fighting a fraudulent claim like this is going to be even greater. True, there appears to be a pattern, but given that at least one of the women has been shopping her story around to the highest bidder, there's a vest interest in exaggerating the truth. This is a very tricky area, one where a lot of downright inaccurate allegations are made for venal reasons, and I'd want to know a lot more about the specifics of what happened and what the group who paid off Cain's accuser learned in an investigation when the outcome wasn't as politically-charged. Should Clinton have stepped down when Paula Jones made her allegations? Admittedly, that was a more obvious case, as Jones waited until he was running for president to make her claims, whereas these women didn't. But I think the principle is the same. An allegation is not a fact; I want to see and weigh the evidence.

To me, the Paterno case is far more clear-cut. Both men are in positions that put them in charge of children and young adults, and that can't be allowed to continue if there's any risk that they will be violating that trust. If they worked as, say, graphic designers at an advertising firm, I wouldn't feel that they had to resign.

Paterno had to go, no question about it. But I have the biggest problem with the assistant coach who actually saw the assault of a TEN YEAR OLD in a locker room shower while it was taking place and did nothing! How does he live with himself.

377 unread books on my shelves and counting but I will not make any foolish statements like, oh IDK maybe, "I won't buy any books for the rest of this year." I think people might laugh hysterically at me;-)

Bonnie, isn't that criminal behavior, on some level? Don't people have an obligation to report clear-cut abuses? Or am I deluding myself??

ETA: I know that the medical reporting being mandatory can end up with parents and others dealing with weird issues. For instance, a friend's child has a peanut allergy. When he had to go to the ER twice in two months with a reaction (once from a party, where one of the items had come from a bakery that didn't segregate things from stuff containing peanuts; the other time after eating something another child brought to school), the ER doc reported the parents to child welfare as possibly endangering his health. Thankfully, the child welfare folks were very reasonable people, but honestly...

>81 brenzi: - Too true, Bonnie. That little fact seems to have gotten lost in all of this...

>80 Chatterbox: - I kind of agree with Suzanne on this one, and wonder where all the outrage from the same quarters was when Paula Jones, Kathleen Whatsit, and I think there was at least one more accused Clinton of inappropriate behavior. And I'm no Monica Lewinsky apologist, but if the parties were reversed, I can see people expressing outrage for a man in power taking advantage of a misquided, star-struck young woman.

All of which is to say both sides are equally hypocritical :) I think there are plenty of reasons not to like Herman Cain beyond accusations that have not (yet) been proven.

Whee! My seven day work week is over (Monday to Friday days, Saturday night call which ended at 8 am this morning), and it ended with a very slow call night (only three admissions, but numerous cross cover calls from the floor nurses kept me from getting any sleep). I'm off until Wednesday night, so I'll catch up on reading, after I catch up on sleep.

The only thing I've read since Sunday was the first half of Salvage the Bones by Jessmyn Ward, which is one of the finalists for this year's National Book Award for Fiction (and it's an American novel!!!). I'm enjoying it so far, and I should finish it later today (I'll probably crash shortly, and wake up sometime this afternoon).

>77 lauralkeet: I was completely surprised by Paterno's intent to retire, announced early Wednesday. {N}either of us thought retirement was appropriate. It is sad that someone with such a long and stellar career should go out this way, leaving his entire reputation in question. I'm also saddened by the student rioting that occurred after the announcement.

Can I assume you mean that Paterno should have resigned, voluntarily or under pressure, or been fired before yesterday's game against Nebraska, and not allowed to complete the season as he wanted to do? If so, I completely agree with you. It seems as though he put himself, Penn State's football team, and the team's coaches, including Sandusky, above the university and his moral obligation to the minors that Sandusky assaulted. He should have talked man to man with Sandusky, barred him from campus, and then contacted the police, alongside the assistant coach that witnessed the shower room rape, to report the assault. McQueary, the assistant coach, who is a large and strong man, should have immediately intervened to stop the rape, and tried his best to detain Sandusky while someone else called the police department, instead of fleeing from the locker room and running to tell his father what he saw. He should never be allowed to coach another game at Penn State, as well; I can't fathom how he could live with himself, knowing that Sandusky hadn't been punished and was still given free rein on campus and around young children.

This was quite a hot button topic at work, as several of my partners and colleagues are from Pennsylvania or attended a Big 10 college. Nearly everyone felt that JoePa's firing was the appropriate action for the Board of Trustees to take.

Oof. I'm ready to crash. Back later...

>82 Chatterbox: Bonnie, isn't that criminal behavior, on some level? Don't people have an obligation to report clear-cut abuses? Or am I deluding myself??

Well apparently in Pennsylvania they don't have a mandated Reporter's Law like they do in NYS. Here if you are in one of several professions including doctors, teachers, COACHES, scout leaders, school administrators, clergy (I know!) you MUST report any kind of child abuse or neglect immediately to the Child protective Services Hotline. My experience has been that they will investigate immediately or within the hour if the child is in a safe place (like school). And your name is never revealed to the child's parents, although they can often guess your identity. Unfortunately, I had to use the service many times in my career in education. Pennsylvania needs to adopt such a law. Apparently as long as they report it to their supervisor they have fulfilled the requirement.

I'll pick up an old thread about what Erdrich to read..... First recognize that her stories are more character driven than plot driven. She won her earliest acclaim with Love Medicine but I liked The Beet Queen better. Also liked The Master Butcher's Singing Club and most recently Shadow Tag.

Shadow Tag is not typical Erdrich .....the story reminds me of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and it does suggest that it may be informed by her marriage to Michael Dorris, who's A Yellow Raft in Blue Water is worth a read. He became more famous for The Broken Cord and issues of fetal alcohol syndrome, esp. among Native Americans....but I'm sure you get enough of that through your work.

As for Herman Cain....Here's what I have to say about that: http://fiberewetopia.blogspot.com/2011/11/off-topic.html

Book #137: The Goldsmith's Secret by Elia Barceló



My rating:

Imagine that you are a successful but lonely middle aged man, whose heart was broken years ago by the only woman you've ever loved. You are provided one opportunity to meet her again, without knowing if she still lives in the town where you last kissed her, or if she will welcome or reject you. Should you take that chance? If you were given the chance to reinvent your past, would you do it?

The story begins on a snowy December morning in New York, as a goldsmith attempts to write about his memories of youth in 1970s Spain, his past relationship with Celia, and his recent trip to his home town in Spain to attend the funeral of his beloved uncle. As he travels by train to Oneira to pay his last respects, memories of Villasanta, the village that he grew up in and where he met Celia, flood his mind and enliven his heart. He decides to disembark there in order to look for her and to revisit the past.

You can read the rest of my review in the latest issue of Belletrista, which is now online:

http://www.belletrista.com/2011/Issue14/reviews_14.php

Great review, Darryl. If I run across this novella, I'll definitely give it a go.

Fantastic review, Darry, and the book sounds great. I'll have to keep an eye out for it.

Thanks, Ellen and Pat. I bought my copy in London this summer, and it's now available in the US.

Breaking News: For those of us who have been (im)patiently awaiting the sequel of Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel's Booker Prize winning masterpiece: 4th Estate will publish Bring Up the Bodies in May. More information will be forthcoming from the publisher tomorrow.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hilary-Mantel/192208230860601?sk=wall

ETA: Here's the press release from 4th Estate:

Title of the sequel to ‘Wolf Hall’ is announced – ‘Bring Up The Bodies’

According to the publishing director of 4th Estate: ‘We are thrilled to be able to announce that Hilary Mantel has delivered a new novel. In Bring up the Bodies, she has turned her attention to the downfall of Anne Boleyn, a story at the heart of Tudor history, and in Mantel’s hands, every bit as illuminating, terrifying and utterly compelling as one might expect. Like its predecessor, Wolf Hall, it is hard to think of anything in contemporary fiction quite like it, and it will certainly delight her many fans all over the world.’

In a recent online article in The Financial Times, six well known authors, including Gary Shteyngart and Junot Díaz, describe their libraries and book buying habits, and list their 10 favorite books. Photos of the authors' libraries are also included (do any of these look like yours?).

Unpacking my library

Great review of The Goldsmith's Secret, Darryl. Sounds like one I would enjoy.

I own but have not yet read Wolf Hall -- now I have incentive to push it up higher in the stack by the bed. :-)

eta: The photos of the authors' libraries are fun!

#91 - Thanks for posting that article, Darryl. I love Junot Diaz. If only he would write another novel...

Ooh, eagerly awaiting the Wolf Hall sequel and possibly still more eagerly awaiting the sequel to A Suitable Boy, " A Suitable Girl," which won't be published until 2013.

Interesting news Darryl both on writers book choices and the upcoming Mantel.
Rebecca if Vikram Seth's sequel is half the length of the original it is not surprising that it has taken so long to appear.

Nice succinct review of The Goldsmith's Secret Darryl btw. This is a quandary I think many of us chaps of a certain age feel about our first loves (not necessarily the only love as in the novella). I know my first serious relationship was ended by the young lady three days prior to my final examinations and we went from three years of sharing our innermost thoughts and feelings to estranged virtually overnight. After a tearful attempt at reconciliation failed in the early summer I spent the next few years not liking the female species greatly - until I got my appetite back well and truly especially after my move here. I have never seen E since the day I cycled away from her place in tears and I have often wondered what life would have been like were we to have met at a different and later time and the flames of love rekindled. Definitely one for my TBR forest Darryl!

Seth just started writing it a few years ago, Paul. He's written some other excellent books in between. I plan to reread A Suitable Boy, one of my favorite books of all time, towards the end of next year to prepare for A Suitable Girl (which is said to take place in contemporary India).

Oh, I'm excited to hear that A Suitable Girl is moving along, even if it is still a couple of years away. I loved A Suitable Boy.

>91 kidzdoc:: Thanks, Darryl, for the link to authors and their libraries. Wow! I wish my library looked like Claire Messud's and James Woods' collection. I loved all the comments and the top ten lists. It would be fun to have a similar thread for LTers.... a picture of how our books are stored along with a top ten favorite list. My problem is that my books are all over the house!

I'm another one excited about the Hilary Mantel book. I'm also putting A Suitable Boy back on the used bookstore wishlist. When I finally came across it, I was overwhelmed by the size and didn't purchase it. I guess I just needed to hear some accolades for it from Rebecca and Janet. Thanks, guys!

ETA: Dang, I knew Claire's name didn't look right!

Donna, it's true that A Suitable Boy is mammoth, but it is SO readable. I actually slowed down as I neared the end because I didn't want to leave the characters.

I've got A Suitable Boy sitting on my shelf. I was waiting for a time when I would have the time to devote to it and guess what?? That time is here now that I'm retired. Yay.

Oh, i am not one of The Flock

But..i did acquire a copy of Princess Noire...finally

Regarding Coming Through Slaughter.....i agree, the book was a stutter-stop...and nowhere near a Jazz TRUTH...but, this book led me, in my ignorance, to pursue Jazz, as it it is...therefore, it was, and will be, a success

;-}

>92 lit_chick: Thanks, Nancy; The Goldsmith's Secret was enjoyably clever.

>93 EBT1002: I loved Wolf Hall, although I had a hard time getting into it on my first attempt. The list of characters in the front of the book is invaluable, particularly for readers like me who aren't familiar with Tudor history.

>94 DorsVenabili: Right, Kerri; I'm also hoping that Junot Díaz is working on another novel. It's been over 4 years since Oscar Wao was published, and to my knowledge he's only written one other book, a very good collection of short stories entitled Drown.

>95 rebeccanyc:, 97, 98, 100, 101 I haven't read A Suitable Boy yet, and I don't think I own it. I'll buy and read it sometime next year. (BTW, the book buying ban is still in effect, and I'm determined to not buy a single book for the remainder of the year.)

>96 PaulCranswick: I hear you, Paul. My first serious love was my girlfriend in college, and I devoted far too much time to her and not enough to my studies. As a result, I had to drop out, work a full time job and take evening classes before I eventually attained my bachelor's degree. It (the relationship and its aftermath) was a painful experience, but it toughened and matured me.

>99 Donna828: I have books all over the place, with most on shelves and many stacked up on the floors in various rooms, so I don't have a central library. I'd have to think long and hard about a list of my top 10 favorite books, but Wolf Hall would be a strong contender, along with A House for Mr Biswas (Naipaul), The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (McCullers), Giovanni's Room (Baldwin), Go Tell It On the Mountain (Baldwin), Invisible Man (Ellison), Troubles (J.G. Farrell), The Youngest Science: Notes of a Medicine-Watcher (Lewis Thomas), The Plague (Camus), Midnight's Children (Rushdie), The War of the End of the World (Vargas Llosa), The Feast of the Goat (Vargas Llosa), Don Quixote, My Own Country (Verghese), The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Murakami) and at least 15-20 other ones.

>102 jdthloue: I look forward to your thoughts about Princess Noire, Jude. However, I'd be more interested to find out which albums and recordings of hers you like the most. Nina Simone Sings the Blues. Let's see...yes, it's on YouTube:

Do I Move You

Nice comment about Coming Through Slaughter. Although I didn't love the book, it has made me more curious about Buddy Bolden, and it may well have piqued my interest in jazz if I wasn't already an old jazzhead. My father played 1950s and 1960s jazz when I was little, and my aunt & uncle, who lived in the next apartment complex from ours and frequently babysat me, were even bigger jazzheads than Dad. I drifted away from jazz in the late 1960s and throughout most of the 1970s, but regained my love for it when I went to college in New Orleans in the late 70s.

In anticipation of this evening's National Book Award ceremony, I finished two of the five books that were selected as finalists for the Fiction award this week, Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward on Monday, and The Sojourn by Andrew Krivak earlier this morning. I read The Tiger's Wife at the end of last month, and I don't yet have the other two books, The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka and
Binocular Vision by Edith Pearlman. All three books were good, none were great, and The Tiger's Wife is the one I liked best.

The power to my building is supposed to be shut off for six hours starting at 10 am, 5 minutes from now. If for some reason it isn't, then I'll write reviews of these books. Otherwise, I'll review them on Thursday (after tonight's night call) or on Friday.

Thanks for the news about the Wolf Hall sequel. I've 'liked' Mantel on her Facebook page and will eagerly await the book's appearance.

And I loved the feature on writers' libraries and top 10 books. My own bookshelves look most like Philip Pullman's, and I loved his comment "Every time I go into town I accidentally buy two or three books" with which I can most definitely relate!

#103 Nice list Darryl - Biswas, Ellison, Camus and the Rushdie are all in my 100 books (1 per author) inmy library (Need to update it to take account of some of this years stellar reads)

I will be interested in what you think of The Sojourn, Darryl; as you know, I had mixed feelings about it.

Book #157: Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward



My rating:

Esch Batiste is a 14 year old girl who lives in a rural town on the Mississippi Gulf Coast along with her father Claude and her three brothers, Randall, Skeetah and Junior, who was named for his father after his mother died soon after giving birth to him. The kids are mainly left to fend for themselves, subsisting on Ramen noodles, bologna and the hidden chicken eggs they gather, as their father often drunk, hostile and emotionally distant from them. Each of them has a main focus, which serves as an escape from poverty and hopelessness: Randall seeks a college scholarship to play basketball; Skeetah owns a mother pit bull named China, whose puppies he plans to raise and sell for dogfighting; Esch is obsessed with Manny, a boy who desires her sexually but does not love her; and Junior, the youngest, tirelessly seeks the attention of his siblings, mainly by annoying the heck out of them.

It is the summer of 2005, the middle of the Atlantic hurricane season, and a storm named Katrina slowly gathers strength in the Gulf of Mexico. Claude obsessively follows news reports the path of the hurricane, but his pleas to his children to make preparations for this storm mainly fall on deaf ears, as they are distracted by their own hopes and desires, and doubt that this storm will be any different than any of the other ones they and previous generations of Batistes have lived through. Claude decides that they should ride out the storm, despite the mandatory evacuation warning, a decision they will all regret once Katrina makes landfall.

Esch, the precocious and sensitive narrator of this story, identifies herself with Medea, the wife of the Greek mythic hero Medea, and with Skeetah's dog China, who is tender toward her owner and her pups, but fights ferociously and relentlessly against anyone who opposes her.

Salvage the Bones is an unblinking and unforgettable coming of age novel about the despair of the lives of an impoverished rural family in the Deep South, whose disparate members are often at odds with each other, yet their fierce devotion to each other binds them together in moments of crisis. This novel may not be appropriate for some readers, due to its vivid description of dogfighting, but I would highly recommend it to everyone else.

ETA: Salvage the Bones was announced as the winner of this year's National Book Award for Fiction on November 16th.

Good news: the scheduled power outage (to replace electrical power lines on my busy midtown street) has been postponed. Bad news: the reason it's been postponed is because we are now under a tornado watch, so we could lose power for another reason.

>105 gennyt: I think Phillip Pulman's library most closely resembles mine, and I can definitely sympathize with the quote you mentioned (although I seem to come away with far more books than he does).

>106 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. Those are books that came from the top of my head, and some of them would certainly be on my top 10 list, but I doubt that all of them would make it.

>107 rebeccanyc: I also had mixed feelings about The Sojourn, Rebecca. I gave it 3½ stars, and would only marginally recommend it. The sky is getting dark and there is thunder in the distance, so I'll postpone my review of it, and The Tiger's Wife until later this week.

I'm rooting for Binocular Vision; liked it much more than either The Tiger's Wife or The Buddha in the Attic.

We're still under a tornado watch until 7 pm, until the cold front passes through. Fortunately it doesn't seem as though any twisters touched down in metro Atlanta, although there has been one fatality due to the storm.

>110 Chatterbox: RidgewayGirl on Club Read liked Binocular Vision as well. (I think it was her). I wish I could say that I read it, but I'll root for it based on your and RidgewayGirl's high opinion of it. Like Rebecca, I have mixed feelings about The Sojourn, Salvage the Bones was memorable but not prize worthy IMO, and the The Tiger's Wife has already won the Orange Prize, so it would be nice if one of the other books comes out on top.

Tonight's ceremony will be webcast live on the award's web site, http://www.nationalbook.org/, beginning at 8 pm. Hopefully it will be quiet at work, so that I can watch it.

May the tornado pass lightly into the atmosphere. I hope you have a paper book with you, just in case you lose power and wifi.

Well, it was Salvage the Bones that came out on top tonight! I was rooting very hard for The Swerve, so at least I went away half-happy...

Darryl, thanks for the great review of Salvage the Bones --- I really want to read it and I know I can't handle vivid descriptions of dogfighting. I really appreciate that heads up! I'm still haunted by the first chapter of a book I started years ago, in which a group of boys throw a stick into a pond until the retriever drowns. I stopped reading the book, can't remember who wrote it or what it was called, and still carry that terrible scene in my consciousness. I want my reading to challenge me, but I know my limits.

As Suz mentioned, Salvage the Bones won this year's National Book Award for Fiction last night. The other NBA winners are:

Nonfiction: Stephen Greenblatt, The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
Poetry: Nikky Finney, Head Off & Split
Young People's Literature: Thanhha Lai, Inside Out & Back Again

I wasn't able to find out the winners until after 3 am, as I had a call night that fell somewhere between hideous and catastrophic. My 12 hour shift ended at 8 am, but I didn't leave until nearly noon, which has never happened before. Needless to say I didn't sleep at all. Fortunately that was my last call night of the year (woo!), and I only have to work from Sat-Mon before I fly to Philadelphia for a six day Thanksgiving break from Tue-Sun.

Ack. You know you've had a bad call night when you attempt to use a cork opener to open a bottle of wine, and it takes you 15 seconds to realize that it's not working because the bottle has a screw cap.

>112 labfs39: Fortunately it appears that none of the tornadoes touched down in metro Atlanta, although I understand that there were scattered tornadoes throughout most of the Deep South states yesterday, particularly in Louisiana and Mississippi. It's about 20 degrees colder now than it was at this time yesterday, but it's a beautiful crisp and sunny day (low 50s), my kind of weather.

>113 Chatterbox: Of the three books I read from the NBA Fiction finalist list, I would have preferred to see Salvage the Bones come out on top, even though I liked The Tiger's Wife just a little better. From the tweets I read Nikky Finney, the winner of the NBA Poetry award, gave an outstanding acceptance speech, which won her a standing ovation. I'll have to look at the webcast to see it for myself.

>114 EBT1002: I wanted to give fair warning to anyone thinking about reading Salvage the Bones, although it will probably mean that some won't read it as a result.

Oof. I can barely keep my eyes open...will check back later.

Hi Darryl, sorry to hear you had such a difficult day at work, though I'm happy to hear the tornado hasn't hit you. Hope you're getting the rest you need at this point.

I loved your review of The Goldsmith's Secret and have already looked it up at the library where they happily have the French translation which is titled Le secret de l'orfèvre.

This is just as well because French is much closer to Spanish and certain details, such as the use of ustedes (vous) and tu disappear in English translation and make a big difference in my opinion. For this reason, I realized early on that it was a mistake to read Amos Oz's Scenes from Village Life in French. There is no formal 'you' in Hebrew and so the French reads all wrong. Some would consider it a minor detail but it isn't to me.

I appreciate your warning about Salvage the Bones. I'm probably one of the people who will steer clear, because while I was reading your review I was already alarmed at the casual mention of dog fighting. Another one of those cases where I'll only know if I can tolerate it when I read it, but sometimes I'd just rather skip it altogether. Such is the case here. But then goodness knows there's no lack of great books to read, so I'm not too broken up about it.

I was really touched by both you and Paul sharing details about your first loves. It takes courage to open up about such things, and all the more so for a man, I'm sure. Even I, who am so transparent about so many aspects of my life don't think I'm ready to reveal any details about my love life, other than to say that I'm very relieved that medication has taken away my libido and made the whole thing a moot point.

eta: so much for lurking on the threads as I had promised myself to do today. Lol :-)

Thanks, Ilana. Bad call nights like this one make me appreciate the good ones that much more.

Interesting comments about translation from Hebrew to French. I've been in a bit of a book rut after I finished Scenes from Village Life, but hopefully Old Filth, which I just started yesterday, will get me back on track.

I thought of you and Kath in particular when I commented about the dogfighting in Salvage the Bones. I would also want to be warned about certain books that I would want to stay away from, especially those involving rape or other violent acts against women and children. I was badly traumatized by the rape and murder scene at the end of the movie Looking for Mr. Goodbar, as I had horrible nightmares for weeks afterward about the same thing happening to women I knew and cared about (girlfriend, family members, and close friends), and I frequently become nauseous whenever I see a movie or TV show where a woman (or child) is physically or sexually assaulted. I'm not as sensitive to reading about these attacks, but I'll skim over these accounts to minimize their impact on me. And, I've taken care of too many kids in the hospital that were severely injured from vicious assaults, usually by a parent or step-parent, so I have a hard time reading books that involve child abuse.

Curiously, my first love from freshman year in college is the same woman who wrote several inappropriate and somewhat disturbing letters to me last year and the year before, after her husband died of cancer. I haven't heard from her in just over a year (touch wood), after I did not reply to any of her earlier letters, which were sent to my home and work.

The hospital system I worked for has produced a short video, which shows several patients, nurses and ancillary staff at Children's, along with Casper the Wonder Dog (I know the girl at the very end, and the girl who appears just before the one minute mark). The Verizon Foundation will donate $1 for every view of the video to Children's. It's beautiful and deeply moving, and it will likely bring tears to your eyes if you decide to watch it.

Share the Hope with Children's Healthcare of Atlanta

(I don't think this violates LT's commercial solicitation policy, as there is no obligation or expectation to donate to Children's or go to its web site. Let me know if you think otherwise.)

Good news for Wolf Hall fans:

HBO And BBC Developing Miniseries Based On Wolf Hall

Darryl - thanks for the info on the National Book Awards as usual thought provoking and comprehensive.
Love the image of you straining unsuccessfully for your liquid refreshment. It's a good job you are a Pediatrician rather than a Maitre-D!
Very touching video - what a stressful but rewarding life you lead my thoughts and best wishes go out to those brave little fellows demonstrating so poignantly the joy of life in such trying circumstances.
Wolf Hall mini-series - I better hurry up and read it first!

I have mixed feelings about a TV adaptation of Wolf Hall - the book is so much inside Cromwell's head and through his eyes - how will that translate into a visual medium? Well, I guess the 'through his eyes' bit is ok, but unless there is to be a lot of voice-over, which has its own issues, I wonder how that interiority will be conveyed? As the article in #119 suggests, it will likely be a very different approach to the story from that taken by 'The Tudors'...

Beautiful video, Darryl, thanks for posting. Sad, yes, but also so hopeful and so victorious!

>120 PaulCranswick: I don't know which move was more stupid, trying to open a screw cap with a bottle opener, or wanting a glass of wine when I was half asleep.

Stressful but rewarding is a perfect descriptor to describe the staff that provides patient care in children's hospitals (doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, etc.). We grow attached to the kids, especially some of the "frequent flyers" who are admitted several times a year, such as the girl at the end of the video, who has cystic fibrosis. Unfortunately, the kids with CF who we get to know best are the ones who are the sickest, and the ones who are most likely to die in childhood; one of my favorite CF patients, who I've known since I started working for Children's in 2000, died earlier this year at an outside hospital. My group never takes care of the CF patients, but they often stay in the hospital for 1-2 weeks at a time, so we get to know them, and vice versa. I haven't seen M_____ or her sister, who also has CF, in the hospital as often this year as I did last year, so I'm hopeful that they are doing better (and she looks good in the video).

However, whatever stresses we face pale in comparison to those that the kids with chronic illnesses and their families experience.

>121 gennyt: Hmm. Good point, Genny. I will be very interested to see how faithful it is to the book, and to the voice of Thomas Cromwell.

>122 lit_chick: I completely agree, Nancy. Several of these kids have very tragic stories, but they remain kids, full of joie de vivre even when they are in the hospital or not feeling well. Our spirits are continually lifted by these kids, so it's rare that any of us stays depressed for long.

I worry because they did such an appalling job with The Other Boleyn Girl, completely massacring the history that Gregory did get right in her book. Hopefully Mantel will be a consultant, and they'll have someone fab in Cromwell's role...

118: It's beautiful and deeply moving, and it will likely bring tears to your eyes if you decide to watch it.
Yup. Thanks.

How touching. I teared up almost immediately. The girl playing golf with her IV in, the boy reading an eBook in bed, the mailbox for Lindsey--wow. You must feel a lot of job satisfaction working for SCOA. It looks like an amazing place. I must say that the girl who had been burned just broke my heart.

Thanks for the warning regarding the strong chance of tears with that video. I honestly don't think anyone will raise any objections about you posting the link to that video on your own thread Darryl. If you were to post it all over LT, then that might another story, though there again, anyone watching the video would have the sense to see it's all to the benefit of children who really need the health care provided there.

I know you minimize the stress of working with these children vs those who live with difficult chronic conditions, but you'll forgive me for saying that's like comparing an apple with a shoe. Different realities altogether. I had a cousin who had CF. He was living in Israel and regularly had to travel to Switzerland and other places around the world (the US too) for specialized treatments, lung implant, you name it. I didn't see him in his later years, and they truly did everything they could for him, thanks to the help of many donations as his parents were by no means wealthy. He lived till the ripe *old* age of eighteen, which, as you probably know is quite a long life span, considering the odds.

I would be excited about the HBO version of Wolf Hall, and hopefully will be once I've made what I hope will be a successful second attempt at reading it. The first time 'round, I was completely discouraged after 150 pages that more or less read like Chinese to me. I knew not the first thing about the Tudors or any of the characters and didn't catch on to the device wherein "he" was the one and same person throughout. I'm very happy that some brilliant fellow LTers have decided to organize tutored reads as this is one book I might get lots of enjoyment from with a little bit (or a lot) of help. Both Suz and Genny came forward saying they'd be interested to help along with it and that would be just great.

Darryl, that sounds like a very strange story you're alluding to regarding your ex-girlfriend and inappropriate communications on her part. Goodness knows I've had my share of weird and wooly adventures with exes. Yikes! Stalkers live and breathe among us, is all I'll say. :-|

>126 labfs39: Right; that girl was the one who touched me the most, as well. I imagine that she was in our CIRU (Comprehensive Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit), learning to overcome her injuries. The hospitals (three of them, including the one I work for) have a variety of activity centers for the kids, including miniature golf and basketball courts in the Zone, which sometimes makes it difficult for the medical staff to find our patients. However, most of us are happy to see the kids playing and enjoying themselves instead of being confined to their rooms.

>127 Smiler69: I've only posted a link to the CHOA video here, and I doubt that I'll post it anywhere else on LT (and the only place I would consider posting it would be on my Club Read thread).

Actually, patients with CF are now living much longer, particularly if they are cared for in a dedicated CF center and by multidisciplinary teams that only care for these patients. According to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the median lifespan of a person who has CF in the US is the mid-30s, so many of them are attending college, pursuing careers and even raising families. As long as their spouses aren't carriers of the CF gene, they can have children without fear of them acquiring the disease.

I knew nothing about the Tudors when I read Wolf Hall (and I hardly watch television, so I didn't see the mini-series). I gave up reading the book on my first attempt after ~50 pages, but I was much more successful the second time around, and absolutely loved it. Mantel is a brilliant writer, and I'll be eagerly awaiting her two sequels to Wolf Hall. I keep putting off reading A Place of Greater Safety, but I'm very eager to read it, which I will do later this year or early in 2012.

I didn't post much details about the stalking ex-girlfriend, as I posted several messages about her in my 2010 threads, and I wasn't eager to talk about her anymore. I still have two unopened letters from her which she sent last fall, which I haven't read because the earlier letters were rather disturbing (I showed them to my parents, who had met her when we were dating >30 lauralkeet: years ago, and my mother was quite upset when she read them). Her husband had died of cancer early last year (or was it in 2009?), and she began writing me shortly afterward. I would have been willing to reestablish a noncommittal friendship with her, especially as she was recovering from such a harsh blow, but her comments in the letter and her over-the-top efforts to find out details about my personal life were creepy and inappropriate.

Darryl, I completely understand why you're not so keen on talking about your stalking experience. I think the less said about these people the better. One of my stalkers (yes, there was more than one) actually tries to contact me via email sometimes shortly after I mention him in passing to someone, as if he felt an energy wave from me or something at that moment. Creepy indeed. I just wonder why you'd keep her letters... it's none of my business of course, but I think it's best not to hold on to these things. They're just sources of bad energy as far as I'm concerned.

One thing I learned from my experiences is that these people need help, and often latch on to people like you or me, as they recognize that we want to help them in some way, but that desire to be supportive has to be switched off somehow when the wrong person latches on to that. I'm fairly sure you know what I mean.

When we were children, doctors didn't give my cousin much past the age of fifteen as a likely lifespan. It's amazing to think that people with CF can live well into adulthood nowadays.

eta: added a sentence or two after first paragraph.

Just don't watch the TV miniseries of the Tudors -- it's a rather grotesque distortion!

It must be odd to grow up knowing that you could live to have children, but aren't likely to live to see them grow up, and to have a "children's disease" in your 20s. I admire all the researchers who work on that disease, but the docs that treat the "kids" even more -- knowing that there is a limit to what is possible. At least with Alzheimer's or ALS, the disease onset is using in mid-life or later, even if those diseases are just as inexorably cruel.

It must be odd to grow up knowing that you could live to have children, but aren't likely to live to see them grow up

I had the same thought. Knowing you'll be leaving your children partially orphaned... I don't know. I have some ethical issues with that.

Darryl

If you are coming to PA for an extended time in December, I'd love to try to meet up with you. A trip to the Art Museum in Philadelphia might be a great meeting place.

>129 Smiler69: Ilana, I'll reply to your question as a PM, as this is a bit TMI for a general thread. (ETA: I'll do this later today or tonight, as I have to get dressed for work soon.)

>130 Chatterbox: Thanks for the warning about "The Tudors", Suz. I was tempted to buy DVDs of the mini-series, but I won't now.

>131 Smiler69: Knowing you'll be leaving your children partially orphaned... I don't know. I have some ethical issues with that.

It's a tough ethical issue. Great advances are being made in the treatment of CF, and it isn't at all inconceivable that a cure may be achieved in our lifetimes. And, needlessly to say, a full lifespan isn't guaranteed to any of us. As long as the partner of the person with CF isn't a carrier, then there is no risk of bearing a child with CF, barring a de novo gene mutation, i.e., a normal CFTR gene in the sperm or egg spontaneously mutating into an abnormal one, which would be exceedingly rare. A person with CF has two bad CFTR genes, one inherited from each parent. A carrier has one good and one bad CFTR gene, and is healthy. So, if a person with CF and a person who isn't a carrier has children, all of the children will be carriers (one bad gene, one good gene), which is very common in the US; 1 out of every 29 Caucasian Americans are carriers, but other ethnic groups have high carrier rates, including 1 in 46 Hispanic Americans, 1 in 65 African Americans and 1 in 90 Asian Americans (this data comes from the Genetic Carrier Testing page on the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's web site). And, again, the carriers are healthy.

If you are troubled by people with CF having children, are you also troubled by them being accepted to university, graduate or professional school, or gaining employment ahead of someone without CF, because the person with CF might have a shorter life span? How about someone with sickle cell disease, congenital heart disease, survivors of childhood cancer, or any other chronic medical condition that is associated with an increased risk of early death? And how about obese people, asthmatics, or those with treatable mental illness, who might also have shorter life spans that people without these conditions? Obviously I'm setting up a slippery slope argument against undue limitations on people with these conditions.

It does become a bit more difficult with other conditions, though. If an adult is diagnosed with Huntington's disease, a universally fatal neurodegenerative disorder that often doesn't manifest itself until a person reaches their 30s or 40s and requires only one bad gene to produce the disease, should he or she be allowed to have children, knowing that there is a 50% chance that any offspring will also be affected? If so, should the couple be allowed to abort any affected fetuses? Should a couple who both have mild to moderate mental retardation be allowed to have children? What about couples who both have Down syndrome?

>132 Whisper1: Hmm...I'll fly to Philadelphia on December 20th, and leave on the 27th. Those two days are out, and Christmas Day, of course (and probably Christmas Eve as well). Maybe we could meet up on one of the other days, between December 21-23? Maybe we could have a mini-LT get together then, although I'd guess that the turnout wouldn't be high. Is anyone else interested?

Treading very carefully into an ethical minefield... I think there's a bit of a difference between knowing that you will leave your child without one parent, possibly at an age where losing their parent will be one of those events that marks them for life. Most other diseases that strike at childbearing/parenting years have far more uncertain outcomes (i.e. a greater possibility of long-term survival). Someone with CF in their mid/late 20s isn't going to live to an age to see that child become an independent adult. It just isn't the same, knowing that for a fact, vs. someone developing an illness later on in life, or having one recur, or, for that matter, just being killed in a car accident. That's the normal rolling of the dice that we all do. Having a child when you're, say, 25, and have CF is knowing that by the time that child is into their teenage years that child will have to go through the painful experience of losing a parent. Perhaps my opinion is informed by the fact that one of my closest friends in high school's father died when she was ten and her younger brother and sister 7 and 3. That was a brain tumor, but knowing all three of them, I saw a range of responses that have affected all their life choices, and even now they're in their 40s and early 50s the negatives still linger. And that's the result of one of those wild card events -- that can't be known or planned.

Lots of people MAY have shorter lifespans -- but that's not analogous to someone KNOWING that by the time they have a child that lifespan may be very short indeed. (For instance, a friend of mine with a congenital heart condition, who wasn't expected to live past 18 when he was born, is now in his 60s. But that was an expectation -- not a certainty, and it's proven flawed.) CF treatments extend lifespans, but until that is to the point where someone can live into their late 40s or even later, I probably wouldn't change this opinion -- and it's just a personal opinion, one I wouldn't dream of imposing on anyone else Incidentally, I feel the same about people who have young children and who opt to kill themselves. Or even -- and this, I realize, is very challenging indeed -- women who opt to carry a pregnancy to term after they've been diagnosed with a stage 4 cancer. That's NOT referring to women who are in remission, or even women who might have to postpone chemo, etc. for six weeks in order to deliver, but someone who is in the early stages of a pregnancy or who even goes out and gets pregnant, knowing that their chance of living 5 years is about 10%. Again, I can understand why people make these decisions -- they want to leave a bit of themselves behind; they want a full range of human experience, including being parents; their partners want a child with this person, etc. But the single common element among 99.99% of parents is that the experience transforms them from doing what "they" want to focusing on their child, first and foremost. They filter all their choices through what is in the best interests of their child. But that transformation occurs after that child is born.

I don't think the analogy to getting an education, career etc. holds up. Those are parts of every adult's normal experience. There's no vulnerable child, to whom you are one of the two most important people in the world, whose life you are shaping consciously and knowingly. Even if you set off to become a lawyer or physician, which require spending most of your 20s studying and training, and fields that you don't start to become really proficient until you're into your 30s, well your student loan provider might be pissed off; people who might have had your slot at a med school or law school might be pissed off, but that's a completely different order of magnitude. Indeed, I'd be a bit worried if I thought someone with CF was short-changing themselves on these fronts -- but again, this involves THEM, they are making decisions for themselves and their interactions with other adults, as third parties. Even getting married -- it's a partnership with another adult, someone who with adult reasoning abilities, who can make an informed decision, who will be able, if widowed, to go on and form a new relationship. Second marriages by widows and widowers aren't uncommon; a child may have a step-parent, but however close or successful that tie, it doesn't replace that biological one. And no, I'm NOT saying that adoptive children (a close analogy here) aren't viewed by their parents as the same as a natural child. But there's a common experience -- the second those children know that they aren't natural children, there is a hunger to know and understand their biological parents, one that psychologists have studied and given fancy names to (I'd have to go and look it up and I don't have time to do that now.)

Re Huntingdon's disease -- I don't know. I think what I would struggle with there in terms of the decision to have children is that someone who themselves hasn't been tested for the rogue gene, decides to have children. You're not making an informed decision about the wellbeing of your child on two fronts: your ability to be there for your child (vs being someone that child in turn needs to care for from a young age) AND that child's own future and prospects. Personally, I don't think I could bear to bring a child into the world knowing that I would be requiring him or her to live under this shadow. And no, I'm not saying that people with Huntingdon's can't live fabulous lives, or that the same limited lifespan isn't the reality for a lot of people for reasons we can't foresee, just that in this case, we KNOW, and Huntingdon's is one of those ugly diseases, one I put in the same category as Alzheimer's or ALS, except that we know whether people will get it from the second we look at their genes, in utero.

These are all tricky moral decisions, revolving around the right to have children. But I sometimes question the word/phrase, "right" to have children. Is it a right or a privilege? I'm sure I don't need to tell you, of all people, what people can do to their children... it's enough to make you despair of human nature. And yes, a caring, loving parent with CF will be far better for a child than a disengaged or abusive one who is going to live longer, or an alcoholic or drug addict. But knowing that you will vanish from the scene and leave that child more vulnerable at a critical point in their life, emotionally and perhaps even materially? I don't think I could do that. And I do wish a lot of people thought more about their decision to have a child (or to go off and have child #10, for instance.) But they -- and their children -- will be the ones living with their decisions.

I had to contend with a week in Hell, and what happens when I emerge from the dark abyss? I'm hit with 2 tantalizing reviews on your thread and sucked into adding The Goldsmith's Daughter and Salvage the Bones onto my obese wish list. *sigh* ... I should only visit your thread after 2 mugs of strong tea and a thick bacon sandwich.

Hi Darryl love the video and the reviews. Lots of books added to the TBR list.

Someone with CF in their mid/late 20s isn't going to live to an age to see that child become an independent adult.

I see two problems with this statement. First, a sizable percentage of people with CF are currently living into their 40s or 50s (the median life expectancy in the US is currently in the mid-30s), so it isn't true that someone with the disease who fathers or bears a child in their 20s can't live to see the child reach adulthood. Second, significant advancements in the management of CF in adult patients are ongoing, and I expect that a 21 year old person with well managed CF in 2011 will likely survive into their 50s or even beyond. And, although gene therapy hasn't yet proven to be a successful therapeutic technique, it holds promise for being a cure for CF in our lifetimes. So, I think it's reasonable to expect that, in the future, CF will be viewed as a chronic disease, similar to HIV/AIDS and sickle cell anemia, that can be managed into at least middle age in advanced countries, if not cured, in 20-25 years.

I don't think the analogy to getting an education, career etc. holds up.

This wasn't meant to be an analogy. It's a slippery slope argument, and was meant to highlight the problem of placing formal or societal restrictions on people with chronic medical conditions. If I remember correctly, several years ago there was a young woman with CF who was admitted to a medical school, and some people in the school felt that she should not have been allowed to pursue a medical career, given her expected shortened life expectancy. Ultimately the medical school stuck with its decision to admit her, and she completed her degree successfully. I can't find any information about this student online, though. However, I did find information about a somewhat similar situation, a blind medical student who was admitted to and graduated from the University of Wisconsin's medical school:

Blind medical student earns M.D.

I thought I had carefully constructed an argument where the average person would be increasingly opposed by any restrictions placed on the person with a chronic medical condition. Some people would be opposed to a blind medical student or one with CF, hardly any to a student with sickle cell disease, and (hopefully) none to someone who has asthma or is obese.

>136 cameling: Welcome back, Caroline! I would have said welcome back "home", but I'm not sure where "home" is for you. I like the idea of visiting my thread with tea and a bacon butty nearby, as long as I can get a taste of each.

I saw your mention on Suz's thread of a get together in NYC on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Unfortunately I won't be able to make it, as I'm flying back to Atlanta from Philadelphia that afternoon.

>137 mausergem: Thanks, Gautam. I'm still way behind on reviews, so I might try to do several quick synopses of most of these books before the year is out. Some books, though, require more detailed reviews, particularly The Sense of an Ending.

I had another hideous call yesterday, with lots of sick and complicated kids. Fortunately we discharged a lot of patients between Friday and Sunday, so I didn't have to go to work today as the backup doctor. So, unless the night doctor calls out sick, I'm off until next Monday (woo!). I'll fly to Philadelphia tomorrow morning, for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving Holiday! Sounds like work has been busy for you lately so you deserve it! :)

Thanks, Chelle! Although I'm not eager to wake up early tomorrow morning and join the tens of thousands of people who will be flying in and out of the world's busiest airport, I'm looking forward to spending a relaxing week with my parents, family and friends. The last three weeks, save for an easy call night last Saturday, have been brutal, so I need a break to recharge my battery before the next stretch of work between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The New York Times annual list of 100 Notable Books is now available online:

100 Notable Books of 2011

From this list I've read the following books:

The Cat's Table
The London Train
Open City
Scenes from Village Life
The Sense of an Ending
The Stranger's Child
The Submission
The Tiger's Wife
The Boy in the Moon
Harlem Is Nowhere
The Memory Chalet

The Sense of an Ending is my favorite novel, and The Memory Chalet is my favorite work of nonfiction. Which ones have you read, and which are your favorites?

I've read:

Mr. Fox (just finished yesterday)
Open City
Train Dreams

I have, but haven't read:

Thinking, Fast and Slow
Is That a Fish in Your Ear?

Of the books I've read this year that were published this year, I consider the following as notable as the above:

Fiction:
Once upon a River

Nonfiction:
Sacred Trash: The Lost and Found World of the Cairo Geniza
What It Is Like to Go to War

I own but haven't yet read these books from the list:

1Q84
Swamplandia!
1861: The Civil War Awakening
1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created
Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the Meaning of Everything
Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention
Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness? What It Means to Be Black Now

I also loved Scenes from Village Life, The Cat's Table and The Boy in the Moon.

My reads from this list:

The Buddha in the Attic
The Cat’s Table
The Leftovers
The Sense of an Ending
The Submission
Swamplandia
The Tiger’s Wife
In the Garden of Beasts
The memory Chalet
Midnight Rising
To a Mountain in Tibet
To End All Wars
A Train in Winter

I'm currently reading The Swerve; will probably finish it tomorrow.

Favorites? Hands down, The Cat's Table. Nonfiction is tougher: perhaps The Swerve, or Adam Hochschild's book, or The Memory Chalet.

Books that i have and will read by year-end:

The Free World by David Bezmogis (started it today)
Catherine the Great by Robert Massie
Jerusalem by Simon Sebag Montefiore
The Net Delusion by Evgeny Morozov

Darryl - one of the things I enjoy about your thread apart from the invigorating debate is the links to interesting lists. As a listaholic I love this. American releases are slower to reach our shores here so that last years list will normally be this years purchases!

My list is most humble. I've read:

Scenes from Village Life
The Sense of an Ending
The Tigers's Wife

And I own The Cat's Table

thanks for the post, Darryl. I've read 8 of the novels:

The Art of Fielding- loved

The Last Werewolf- loved

The Leftovers

Stone Arabia-loved

The Submission

Swamplandia!

The Tiger’s Wife

Train Dreams-loved


and I found some good titles to request from the library!-- much appreciated :o)

My list is also very teeny

Own but haven't read:
11/22/63 by Stephen King (it's next up)
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

I've Read:
The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan

Want to purchase:
Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
Swamplandia by Karen Russell

I love lists, too! Daryl, not sure whether you saw it, but Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman is reviewed today in the NY Times. Was just reading Bonnie's wonderful review, a five * read for her : ).

I'll be interested to hear what folks think of The Marriage Plot; I'm going to put in a library hold on it.

I've only read :
The Tiger's Wife,
The Art of Fielding,
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
The Privileges
Room
The Last Boy
The Wave

I own but have not yet read
I Curse the River of Time
The Invisible Bridge
The Long Song
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

And now I've added about 23 more to my obese wish list. Grrr

I'm bummed that I won't get to see you over the Tgiving weekend, Darryl. :-(

Hmmm. I tend not to read books as soon as they come out, being conservative by nature (reading nature I mean) and preferring to wait until I see some recommendations. But I do have some on my list for next year....

I've read:
Cat's Table (currently reading)
The Last Werewolf
The Sense of an Ending
Swamplandia (stalled)
The Tiger's Wife
The Boy in the Moon
Inside Scientology
The Memory Chalet

I have but haven't read:
The Leftovers
Scenes from Village Life

Wishlisted:
11/22/63
The Grief of Others
House of Holes
The Marriage Plot
1Q84
Stone Arabia
The Stranger's Child
The Submission
Ten Thousand Saints
This Beautiful Life
Arguably
In the Garden of Beasts

Hi, Darryl.

I'm way behind but I caught the comments about Paterno above. May I offer some rarely-voiced perspective as one who was trained to follow the Pennsylvania mandatory reporting law? (The news stations always have out-of-state lawyers doing the talking.) We had mandatory reporter training at our library, with materials provided by the State of Pennsylvania. The law is different for certain professionals, such as doctors and social workers, but I think college instructors and coaches fall under the same category we do.

As I remember it (rather clearly), the state-issued materials said that employees of institutions are to promptly report to our supervisor any suspected child abuse, and the person in charge is to promptly make the contact with the authorities. (Exception: crime in progress -- as in the assistant coach's case, where he actually witnessed a crime -- where a call direct to 911 is the appropriate course!) I wasn't even aware we had the option to go to authorities ourselves except in cases of imminent danger (again, like the assistant who saw the crime, though you can argue what other cases fall into that category). If the report to Paterno from his assistant was as vague as Paterno has claimed, it sounds to me like Paterno followed the protocol of what should be done -- as we're instructed, anyway, flawed as those instructions may be. Doesn't surprise me all that much, seems like a by-the-book kind of guy and response.

Needless to say, having had that training, I have a little more sympathy with Paterno for doing as we are taught to do -- which hardly seems like the "minimum" action, as some have worded it, but exactly what we're told we're supposed to do. It's inexcusable that his superiors did not immediately go to the authorities, though, regardless of how vaguely worded the report may have been. Rather than faulting Paterno, I think the lion's share of fault lies in the state's law and/or the way it is communicated to workers, and certainly upon Paterno's superiors (who have rightly been legally indicted for their failures). The law would appear to be faulty because it assumes that those superiors will do their duty, which obviously you can't depend upon the people in power to do. What a tragic mess it has wrought here for so many people!

I know a lot of you won't like that I've said this, but I think that it's relevant to the discussion, and nobody anywhere seems to be talking about this aspect, and that upsets me.

I do believe in my heart that if Paterno had witnessed the incident, or had a clearer idea of what had actually happened, he would have followed up regardless of what "procedure" said to do. Maybe that's naive of me, but that's what I think, at least until more facts come out to convince me otherwise.

I also always get nervous when people make snap judgments to condemn before all the facts are in -- and I suspect that we've not gotten half the facts yet, for better or for worse.

Terri, interesting points. It does seem that the recommended policy isn't adequate to address a situation like suspected child abuse (or sexual abuse, generally), where I'm sure most of us would rather people erred on the side of being hyper-vigilant than risk having vulnerable people exploited. I can certainly see how a report might have been cagily communicated to Paterno -- after all, who wants to tell their boss that the most prized employee is doing this? what if the boss shoots the messenger? (It's human nature to second guess ourselves, to question what we saw, and to worry about whether we'll be believed.) Paterno probably didn't want to believe it, any more than his bosses did. So it's as if there was a massive failure of the will to believe something unpleasant might be true. Which is of course exactly the attitude that led to the big sex abuse scandals in the Catholic church, among others. However it happened, the result was inexcusable, and it would be great if it caused all kinds of organizations to review their policies on the matter.

However it happened, the result was inexcusable, and it would be great if it caused all kinds of organizations to review their policies on the matter.

Amen!

I made it to cold and very rainy Philadelphia in one piece earlier this afternoon. The flight from Atlanta was delayed by over an hour, due to the bad weather here, but once we were airborne it was a smooth ride until the last 10-15 minutes. Fortunately the airport here is served by commuter rail service (SEPTA Regional Rail), so I was able to take the train to the local suburban station a mile away from my parents' house, and my father didn't have to drive 25+ miles each way in the rain to pick me up at the airport.

The weather here will be pretty lousy today and tomorrow, so I won't do much, other than sleep, read, eat, and help with preparations for Thanksgiving dinner.

I was in a good frame of mind to read, after I took a short nap on the first part of the flight, and I read the first half of Old Filth by Jane Gardam, which is very good so far. I also read about 30-40 pages of Is That a Fish in Your Ear?: Translation and the Meaning of Everything by David Bellos.

ETA: I'm still way behind on sleep, so I'll take a nice long nap and come back here later tonight or tomorrow morning.

Glad you made it safe and sound and without hassle Darryl. Have a good rest and enjoy your reading!

Glad you're home and dry with your 'rents in Philly, Darryl. Are you staying in Philly through the long weekend?

My nice long nap was considerably longer than I expected. I went to sleep at 6 pm, figuring that I would sleep for 3-4 hours, but I woke up at 2 am, just a bit too late for dinner.

Nice lists everyone! I'm eager to read the Guardian's best books list, as well.

>146 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. Needless to say I'm also a listaholic, and I'm sure we're far from alone. BTW, are there any books published in KL this year that you would highly recommend?

>150 lit_chick: I missed the review of Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman in the NYT, as I didn't read the paper over the weekend or on Monday. I'll look for it later today.

>152 cameling: Same here, Caroline; I regret that I won't be able to meet up with you guys on Saturday. Last year was a bit of a fluke, as I normally don't like to fly back to Atlanta on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, along with half of the free world, as I did last year. Will you be in NYC around Christmas?

Getting sleepy again; back later...

Welcome to the very wet Philly area, Darryl. It's supposed to be a bit warmer today and then sunny through the weekend, thank goodness. Yesterday was awful and I'm sorry you had to travel in such nastiness.

Good morning, Darryl! I hope you enjoy your time in Philadelphia, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Thanks, Laura. You're right, the weather from Thursday through Saturday looks great, so I'm thankful for that. Yesterday's trip wasn't bad, overall; the only annoying thing was that we boarded the plane, and got settled, and then had to deplane (and bring everything we brought on board with us) about 15 minutes later once we learned that the flight wouldn't leave for an hour, only to reboard a half hour later (why couldn't they have let us stay on the plane?).

Once we were airborne the trip was very enjoyable. The train ride on SEPTA was a slow, peaceful and relaxing ride, and a direct one, as the Airport Line continued as a West Trenton local after it left the Market East station. We live in Langhorne, between Neshaminy Mall and Oxford Mall close to Reedman's, so I didn't have to change trains in Center City as I thought I would.

Back after breakfast...

Darryl local publishing in english of local writers of fiction is a bit thin on the ground in English unfortunately but I would recommend Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's memoirs which hit the shops here this year. I was lucky enough to read some of the drafts last year and feel as if I have read most of it even though I haven't read it from cover to cover yet. Tun was Prime Minister of Malaysia since 1981 until 2002 or so and presided over enormous changes here. He is an inspiring but controversial man much understood overseas. His Memoirs A Doctor in the House are a long but fascinating read.

I've read:
The Cat's Table
The Memory Chalet

I have on hold at the Public Library:
Scenes from Village Life
Sense of an Ending
The Stranger's Child

I own but have not yet read:
Swamplandia!
The Tiger's Wife

Mahathir's memoirs? That would certainly be interesting reading! I remember starting to follow him back in the early 80s, via Far East Economic Review (the late, much-lamented magazine...) He was such a force in the region. I also remember some rather harsh comments about Soros & the events of '98 -- didn't he call him an economic criminal or something of that kind?

Darryl, I will most certainly be back down in NY again for Christmas. Will you be in the city too? At least this time, we'll have more time to plan a better LT meet up. :-)

#165 : My brother sent me a copy of Dr Mahathir's A Doctor in the House and I'm only halfway through it and there are aspects of his life I'm finding very interesting, but at times I find the tone a little pompous.

It may be a plan to keep this for sometime over Xmas, Caro. Saturday is looking increasingly unlikely for me, I'm afraid.

Caroline, I'll fly to Philadelphia on December 20, and leave from there on December 27. We'll almost certainly go to Jersey City on Christmas Day, but I can easily get to NYC from my parents' house on a New Jersey Transit or Amtrak train from Trenton NJ, which is less than 10 miles from where they live. Linda (Whisper1) and I had talked about getting together in Philadelphia sometime during that visit, but I could (and would like to) also make a trip to NYC and see you, Suz and any other LTers that can make it.

Back to message #155: Terri, that was a very useful and balanced discussion about the responsibilities of some of the main actors involved in the Penn State tragedy. I agree with you that many private citizens and media outlets have cast judgment about the case without knowing the full facts about it (and I'll readily admit being guilty of this, based in part on my outrage over Sandusky's purported actions). On the other hand, if Paterno had evidence that Sandusky had inappropriate relations with juveniles, whether it was rape, inappropriate touching or "horseplay" in a shower, I think he and the athletic director should have immediately banned him from campus. I think that he was no longer employed by Penn State at the time the alleged rape took place, so the university would have been limited in what actions it could take against him, other than report him to law enforcement. If Paterno or the university had any knowledge of any previous acts of sex crimes against juveniles while Sandusky was employed by Penn State and failed to act, then they should be liable for prosecution.

Planned reads for December (again, this is a "note" to help me remember what I intend to read next month):

Great House by Nicole Krauss (Orange December)
Devil On the Cross by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (Author Theme Reads)
Captain Pantoja and the Special Service by Mario Vargas Llosa (Author Theme Reads)
The Emigrants by George Lamming (Reading Globally)

NYT list - I've read 7 novels (and reviewed 2) and no non fiction, but then a lot of it isn't yet available here and my non fiction choices may be less likely to turn up on these lists.

I've read

The Cat's Table
Swamplandia! - Bookbag review
The Sense of an Ending
The Stranger's Child
The Free World - Curious Book Fans review
The London Train
The Tiger's Wife

bland Americana - Kurt Vonnegut's most famous novel (admittedly the only one I've read) is about the bombing of Dresden, and bland Americana isn't the image I have of his other work. I would imagine that that biography is one lots of people would want to read and/or know the critical opinion of, and it would be an odd omission.

I tend to read a lot of very urban books but I rather like crime novels which take a lot of references and style from US big city fiction and then put their protagonist in rather small towns and cities - Aberystwyth (Malcolm Pryce), Worcester (renamed Mangel - Charlie Williams), a made up decaying south coast seaside resort (Liz Evans). I know you don't like crime fiction but maybe we need to find a few things to challenge your literary prejudices...

I also remember hearing Sara Paretsky speak and saying publishers had more issues with her series being set in Chicago than the female PI thing when she started out.

No way I can catch up. I am hopelessly behind.. but I agree with post #171..
Chilly here and a perfect day to cook and eat turkey! I hope that you and your family
have a wonderful day !

Hi Darryl- Hope you are doing well and have a great Thanksgiving!

> 69

"When the going gets tough, the tough stop buying books."

*wonders if she's hearing an echo from a previous year*

>69 kidzdoc: and >176 SqueakyChu:, that can't be right! "When the going gets tough", you need some "book looking therapy"! Are you trying to starve us poor impoverished author's?! :)

Alan/TT

Have a great Thanksgiving with your family, Darryl!

>173 elkiedee: Nice list, Luci. How did you like The Free World? I'll look to see if I can find your review of it.

My "bland Americana" comment was overly harsh, as was my criticism of 11/22/63, which I may want to read. I need to be a bit more open minded when it comes to American fiction and other genres I don't read often.

>174 mckait: Thanks, Kath. Yes, the five of us did have a very nice Thanksgiving dinner, most of which was prepared by my brother and his fiancee. We didn't have turkey, but we shared a large (but tender and tasty) chicken, stuffing, macaroni & cheese, Brussels sprouts (my favorite vegetable), mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes...I think that was it. So we had a far lesser variety of food than usual, but it was excellent, and my parents appreciated not having to work as hard as they have had to in years past.

>175 msf59: Thanks, Mark! I hope that you and your family had a lovely Thanksgiving, as well.

>176 SqueakyChu: *wonders if she's hearing an echo from a previous year*

Hmph. The book buying ban is just over a month in length, as the last books I purchased came from City Lights on October 21st. I haven't entered a bookshop since then, and I don't intend to until Christmas week at the earliest. I may succumb to temptation when I come back to PA next month, as I'm sure I'll go to NYC and visit one or more bookstores while I'm there. My urge to support local independent bookstores, such as Strand, Book Culture and St. Mark's Bookshop, my favorites in NYC, would outweigh breaking the book fast (and the derision and ridicule that would result from it). And, given that St. Mark's Bookshop barely escaped from closure, I'm very eager to buy at least a couple of books there, to do my part.

>177 TheTortoise: Are you trying to starve us poor impoverished author's?!

Definitely not! I'll have to check, but I'm sure that I've purchased or acquired well over 300 books again this year, roughly twice as many books as I can read in a year. I need to cut back to maybe 100 books per year, so that I can make a dent in my TBR mountain.

>178 phebj: Thanks, Pat! I hope that you and your family had a nice Thanksgiving as well.

So glad you were able to spend Thanksgiving with family, Darryl. Thank you for posting the link to the 100 Notables. I've been concentrating on whittling away at my TBR books and have neglected many of the new offerings. I'll be playing catch-up in 2012!

A nurse at my hospital with whom I'm friends on Facebook just posted this photo of the window at the entrance to a patient's room:

I would hate to not have turkey for thanksgiving.. lol
I am always looking for reasons to make one.. and even though Dan is not a fan
he will accept it on holidays :)
I love roasted brussel sprouts, too

Hope the rest of your visit is nice too :)

given that St. Mark's Bookshop barely escaped from closure

Glad to hear this -- Real Life has been so busy I hadn't kept up with the news about St. Marks. Will have to go down there and shop!

>183 rebeccanyc: Yes; a deal with Cooper Union was announced earlier this month:

St. Mark's Bookshop Reaches Deal With Cooper Union, Will Stay Open

#169/170 : Suz and Darryl .... ok, let's plan for a meet up in NYC around Christmas time. I'll be in Florida until Christmas Eve and then down on Long Island on Christmas day itself. So .... Dec 26? Is that good for you? If yes, I can start a new thread just for the NYC meet up and other LTers who will be around can chime in.

Darryl, I love the pic outside the patient's room. I hope she did get some boy visitors armed with requisite flowers or gifts.

December 26 works for me!

>182 mckait: Kath, turkey is not an absolute necessity for me, although I'm certain that this is the first Thanksgiving I've had at home without it. As Jenny (GCPLReader) said on her Club Read thread, I look forward to stuffing (and gravy) more than anything else. Dessert is also optional, IMO.

>180 Donna828: Thanks, Donna! I am far more motivated to make a change to my book buying habits from this point on, mainly because it makes no sense for me to buy books that I'm slightly or moderately interested in, when I have hundreds of books at home that I'm very eager to read.

>179 kidzdoc:: My urge to support local independent bookstores...
Oh, I see. So it's almost like donating to charity. Nice defense, Darryl.

ETA re: 187: Dessert optional?! Heresy!

Ok. Let me check with Suz and if she's ok with Dec 26, I'll post a new thread ... ooh... i can think of a theme for the meet too. :-)

December 26th meet up sounds possible for me.

I'e added Salvage the Bones to the TBR pile. Your review is excellent Darryl

Yaaay Linda!

>188 lauralkeet: I tried using that argument last year, and it was equally unsuccessful, even though I thought it was legitimate.

Heresy, indeed. I've never had much of a sweet tooth, and there are very few desserts, pastries etc. that I am very fond of. My favorites are strawberry rhubarb pie, cheesecake from Junior's Restaurant in Brooklyn (which is widely considered the best cheesecake in NYC, and probably the best in the world), white chocolate (but not milk or dark chocolate), particularly the white chocolate truffles from Leonidas Chocolates, a Belgian manufacturer that has shops in NYC and San Francisco, and hot Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

ETA: And crepes!

>189 cameling: i can think of a theme for the meet too. :-)

I hope that it isn't the "Kick Darryl's @$$ Club Get Together".

>190 Whisper1: That's great, Linda! I hope that you can make it. We'll have to find another place to eat, since Cafe Charbon is no longer there.

To avoid buying books at your meetup, you can always be on the lookout for an Occupy Wall Street People's Library mobile book cart! ;)

Tell them you're supporting a book buying ban! :)

188, 192 > I'm sitting here laughing out loud about the notion that buying books at an indie bookshop is almost like donating to charity. It's one of the finest rationalizations I have yet heard constructed and I completely buy it! It's a rationalization that I believe I use regularly, and it's now been exposed. Still, I don't expect consciousness to alter behavior next time I'm in one of my favorite indie shops. :-D

>195 EBT1002: EBT, Wife to me, when she sees me come in with yet another book in my hand: "Not buying more books!"

Me to wife: "No, I made a donation to this book charity and they gave me this book as a thank you."

Do you think I could get away with that? :)

Alan/TT

>196 TheTortoise: I LIKE IT! I'll try it at my house, you try it at yours. We can report back.
It frankly seems more honest than sneaking the books in under cover of briefcase, taking them out after P has gone to bed, and hoping she won't notice the increased overcrowding on the shelves.....
~Ellen

197. been there . ( hangs head in shame)

#181 That picture is so cute! I'll have to try that if I am ever in the hospital!

#196 Alan I should try that and see if my fiance Nate buys it. I would imagine I'll get a smirk and a headshake at best ;)

>194 SqueakyChu: To avoid buying books at your meetup, you can always be on the lookout for an Occupy Wall Street People's Library mobile book cart! ;)

If the Occupy Wall Street lot are anywhere near as fragrant as the Occupy Oaklanders that I had the misfortune to encounter last month, then I'll stay far away from them.

>195 EBT1002: It's one of the finest rationalizations I have yet heard constructed and I completely buy it!
;-)
Thanks for the support, Ellen!

>196 TheTortoise: Do you think I could get away with that? :)

Uh...no. ;-)

>197 EBT1002: It frankly seems more honest than sneaking the books in under cover of briefcase, taking them out after P has gone to bed, and hoping she won't notice the increased overcrowding on the shelves.....

Honest, yes. But I doubt that you'll get away with this more than once.

>198 mckait: One benefit to being single is that I don't have to justify my book purchases to anyone (other than you guys).

>199 ChelleBearss: I'll look to see if that poster is still there when I return to work on Monday.

Alan, I love that! I'd try it except that my husband buys almost as many books as I do, just of different genres and rarely ones I'm interested in. Grrr.... Otherwise, think if how much money could be saving if we read the same things and could share?

Darryl ... now THAT's a theme I hadn't thought of. :-) *ponders the feasibility of a variation of pin the tail on the donkey at the meet up*

>201 cameling: *ponders the feasibility of a variation of pin the tail on the donkey at the meet up*

Oh...did you say December 26th? I think that's the day of my colonoscopy. Sorry about that.

The Guardian has published its annual Books of the year article. It's one of my favorite "best of" collections, as it consists of the favorite books of a wide variety of highly regarded authors, such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Tariq Ali, Julian Barnes, A.S. Byatt, Hilary Mantel and Kamila Shamsie. The books which received multiple votes include There but for the by Ali Smith, The Sense of an Ending, The Stranger's Child and At Last by Edward St Aubyn.

oh dear...

Hmm, is it your fave "best of" list because it includes books you already have read and think belong there? Or because you like it anyway because of its approach?? :-)

I don't know if I have such a thing as a fave best of list (other than the one by the Washington Post last year that included my own book, of course!!) I look at those to see if there are intriguing-looking books that I've missed spotting or things that might sound more interesting in the brief writeups than they had previously appeared. I don't think any of them are consistently good enough in that respect -- steering me toward fab new discoveries -- to be a favorite list.

Hmm, is it your fave "best of" list because it includes books you already have read and think belong there? Or because you like it anyway because of its approach?? :-)

Mainly the latter reason. I used to look at the NYT's Top 10/100 list, to see how many books I had read from it. Now, though, I'd rather learn about books that fell under my radar screen, and I'm always interested to find out which books are best liked by writers I favor. So, the Guardian's "best of" list is my favorite, as I'm not aware of any other one that is comprised of authors' choices.

oh dear...

Do you mean me, Caroline, or both of us? ;-)

She means YOU, Darryl .... clearly! ;-)

Maaaa! Caroline's teasing me again!!!

*waits for Kath to send each of us to our respective rooms*

Darryl I think we all love these best of lists and surely the first thing we do is to check them off to see what we have in stock and what we have read already. It is great fun isn't it. The Guardian/Observer used to be my read of choice in the UK so I am a little biased towards their lists but I would do the same with any such list. For instance I checked recently (yesterday actually) the numbers of books read and owned against the first 1001 books list fom the well-thumbed version I keep in my reading room. 203 read and 326 owned. Shows I have a lot of reading and buying still to do and how to do that as I am tryng to copy your good example next year and read more than I buy!

*hiding 10 books in MY room in the event I get sent there while Darryl gets sent to the dusty and attic with a broom*

Reading > Purchasing would be a good 2012 Challenge to start on LT ...

May be a good challenge Caro but there probably wouldn't be that many members. Suz would probably make it as she has to be a hell of a lot of books to keep up with her reading whilst us mere mortals need to read a hell of a lot of books to keep up with our buying!

That's true, but I'm wondering if I might decide to take up that challenge in 2012 as part of my resolution to use my town's public library and bookmooch more. Hmm.... the challenge didn't say I couldn't buy any books ... I'd just have to make sure I keep an excel spreadsheet of how many I purchase against the number I read from my own shelves, or borrow from the library or mooch from others .... hmmmm......this might be a doable challenge. YOU on the other hand, Paul, if your recent gleeful hauls are anything to go by, might have a tough time with this challenge. *snerk!*

Guilty as charged. Hi btw to my partner in purchasing crime Dr. Darryl.

>209 PaulCranswick: I think we all love these best of lists and surely the first thing we do is to check them off to see what we have in stock and what we have read already. It is great fun isn't it.

That's it exactly Paul, especially for us listaholics (and there are plenty of those in this group).

>210 cameling: I have my Kindle, which has a gazillion books on it, not just 10. So there.

*searches for albuterol inhaler to bring to the dusty attic*

Reading > Purchasing would be a good 2012 Challenge to start on LT ...

That is a fabulous idea, Caroline! Let's do it!

>211 PaulCranswick: May be a good challenge Caro but there probably wouldn't be that many members.

I don't know...I think a good number of LTers would be interested in this challenge, based on previous comments by others and the size of this group and others.

>212 cameling: That's true, but I'm wondering if I might decide to take up that challenge in 2012 as part of my resolution to use my town's public library and bookmooch more.

I forgot who it was, but I did notice that someone in the 75 Books or Club Read group (maybe Genny?) posts a list of purchased books beneath her list of completed books. An Excel sheet sounds like a good idea, too. I would only count books that I spent money on, not LT Early Reviewer books, free e-books, gifts, etc., although others may want to include those books. Hmm...maybe I do want to count those books...I'll have to think about it some more.

Kindles are not allowed in the attic .... the albuterol inhaler is ... wouldn't want you to asphyxiate after all, Darryl... we'd miss you too much.

The more I think about it, the more I think this is a Challenge I'd like to participate in. I'd like to take it one step further though ... for books that I'd have liked to have purchased but did not, I could put that sum aside, and at the end of the year, the total could go to a charitable organization.

I would only count books I spent money on as well under the 'Purchase' column. Books that I didn't pay any money for wouldn't count (hey, I relish a challenge but I'm not insane!) because the challenge is about reading more books than the number of books actually purchased. And since purchase something usually indicates a monetary value, if no money leaves my wallet for it, then it shouldn't be counted as a purchase.

>215 cameling: This is getting complicated. And, all merciless teasing of Darryl aside and as embarrassed as I am to admit it, I don't think I could succeed at that challenge. Still, I will stand on the sidelines and cheer for you as you tackle! :-)

Daryl - I'm also trying to cut down on book-buying, although my purchases don't come near yours or Paul's! I just set some rules for myself and just blabbed about them on my thread, but here they are:

**Buy fewer books, in general
**Slowly weed my collection, getting rid of books I didn't particularly like and/or I'll probably never read, and getting rid of books in poor condition.
**Make better use of the library
**If I do buy books, try to buy mostly high-quality hardcovers (although, not the gigantic ones that are impossible to carry in my bag), rather than a lot of paperbacks. High quality paperbacks are ok, but I want to avoid purchasing mass-market paperbacks. Instead, I'll check them out of the library.

I am so far behind..i'm losing my shadow!

NY Times 100 List:

I own a few..but probably won't read them until next year! I don't like the "hype" that surrounds new books, and, considering the fact that most of my reading, lately, has been Net Galley titles..i'm one jump ahead (as long as I don't break an ankle!)...so, No Comment on that there topic.

I don't want to intrude on your comments with people who've been here way longer than myself..but...I, too, own a Kindle...and a NOOK..and an iPad......Heck, I'm entitled to my Techy Toys, right? There are more books than furniture in my house.....so...I guess I'm a tad obsessive

Of course my post has nothing to do with anything...just my way of giving a Shout Out

;-}

I'm back in Atlanta, after a pleasant, short and uneventful flight from Philadelphia. I read roughly 100 pages of Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes, which I'll finish tomorrow.

>215 cameling: Kindles are not allowed in the attic

Are too! Are too! Dad said I could have it!

The more I think about it, the more I think this is a Challenge I'd like to participate in.

(Back to adult mode) I completely agree, Caroline; I am very interested in your challenge. I could easily not purchase any books in 2012, and probably 2013, and not get to all of the books that I own and am very eager to read, e.g. The Satanic Verses, Lolita, The Singapore Grip, etc.

I'd like to take it one step further though ... for books that I'd have liked to have purchased but did not, I could put that sum aside, and at the end of the year, the total could go to a charitable organization.

Hmm...interesting thought. I would be willing to do that as well, although I'm not sure how accurate my tally would be.

I would only count books I spent money on as well under the 'Purchase' column.

That's reasonable, and it makes more sense than counting all of the books you acquire next year, purchased books and free ones, IMO.

>216 EBT1002: I don't think I could succeed at that challenge. Still, I will stand on the sidelines and cheer for you as you tackle!

Participants and cheerleaders are welcome, if my younger sister Caroline is in agreement.

>217 DorsVenabili: I share all of your goals, Kerri. And, I'm glad that you mentioned the weeding of your collection, as I plan to do the same thing. I'll plan to get rid of the books I definitely won't read again, and ones that I have little or no interest in reading. I'll have to figure out a way to account for these books, and at the end of the year my overall goal will be to have less books in my library than I had at the beginning of the year.

>218 jdthloue: I don't like the "hype" that surrounds new books

Hmm...on one hand, I love to read a wonderful book before most other people do, highly recommend it, and find out that others also love it, such as Wolf Hall, The Cat's Table and The Sense of an Ending. However, I dislike reading books that have been proclaimed as the best book of the year/decade/millenium and been utter disappointments, e.g. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen.

I, too, own a Kindle...and a NOOK..and an iPad......Heck, I'm entitled to my Techy Toys, right?

Absolutely! I don't have a Nook, but I'm seriously thinking about getting the new iPad when it comes out next year. I'll probably give up my BlackBerry soon, and exchange it for the new Samsung Gallery smartphone, after seeing my brother's fiancee's older model on Thanksgiving.

There are more books than furniture in my house.....so...I guess I'm a tad obsessive

I think this is completely normal behavior for the folks in this group.

Of course my post has nothing to do with anything...just my way of giving a Shout Out

Shout outs are always welcome! Shout ats, not so much...

Short, uneventful flights are the way to go. And pleasant? Really? Because there is such a thing anymore?

Wait... you were in business class weren't you?!

Glad you made it home safe & sound Darryl.

Darryl, of course.... but instead of sending you to your room, I will just sit quietly and watch to see what happens next.

>220 Smiler69: Short, uneventful flights are the way to go. And pleasant? Really? Because there is such a thing anymore?

Delta has frequent flights between Atlanta and Philadelphia, 10-12 each way on weekdays and 6-8 on weekends, and the total flying time is just over 2 hours (75-90 minutes wheels up to wheels down). So, once I get on the plane it feels as if I'm on a commuter train, such as the one I took from Trenton NJ to NYC when I worked in the city (which also lasted 75-90 minutes). I always fly coach class, but I'll occasionally get upgraded to first class because I'm on the lowest level of Delta's frequent flier program, due to the number of miles I fly annually on Delta. However, being a Silver Medallion member permits me to choose seats that are not available to nonmembers or occasional fliers, particularly the exit row seats that have considerably more leg room than standard coach seats. I always grab one of those seats whenever I fly, and I try to select flights where the plane has only two seats on one side, so that I can avoid the person in the middle seat, who is seemingly always the size of an American football player.



What I don't like are the preboarding runs through the cattle shutes, and the mad rush of people toward the gate entrance once the initial boarding announcement is made. Delta boards by zone numbers, and I usually board in Zone 1, which follows first class boarding. However, the people in Zones 3 and 4 often crowd and block the entrance, so those of us who board in first class and Zones 1 and 2 have to maneuver between them to reach the entrance, which is very annoying. Once I reach my seat I can relax and lose myself in a book or newspaper.

>221 mckait: Darryl, of course.... but instead of sending you to your room, I will just sit quietly and watch to see what happens next.

I suppose I should set a good example for Caroline, since I'm her older brother, even though she (and my other younger sister Laura) torment me endlessly. *sigh*

I braved PHL this morning to drop my daughter off for a flight to Columbus (CMH). Terminal F, thankfully, so it was not very crowded. Plus it was only 7:30am. I'm sure it will get worse as the day goes on, but that's why we booked the first flight out. The plane departed on time and to my way of thinking once she's out of PHL the worst is over (not like you having to land at -- ugh -- Hartsfield).

You have a sister named Laura? Nice name :)

I like to avoid flying on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving or the Sunday after Thanksgiving whenever possible. Or, like your daughter did, I would fly out first thing in the morning. PHL wasn't very crowded yesterday afternoon, but ATL was busier than usual. It will be a madhouse today.

You have a sister named Laura? Nice name :)

LOL! I can't come up with a good comeback remark at the moment.

Hi Darryl , love both the list . I've just read Swamplandia! from the NYT list but look forward to read more. I enjoy the camaraderie you share with others here.

>224 kidzdoc:: I can now report her trip was flawless! On-time flight departure and arrival, luggage arrived on the same flight, and she made the shuttle from airport to school (avoiding a 3-hr wait for the next one). Now she can do her Latin homework :)

I can't come up with a good comeback remark at the moment. OMG, I'm writing this down. A day that will live in infamy.

>225 mausergem: Thanks, Gautam. Some may call it camaraderie, others may have different names for it...

>226 lauralkeet: Excellent, Laura! I'm glad that your daughter made it back to campus without incident, especially since it's the Sunday after Thanksgiving and the weather in the middle of the country is not good. We'll have moderate to heavy rain within the next couple of hours, which will last until at least this evening.

Even though I (almost) never worry about flying myself, I do hold my breath whenever any family members, friends or colleagues do.

Good move on your daughter's part to study Latin. I took one or two semesters at Rutgers, and it helped with my vocabulary and knowledge of medical terms. Has she chosen a major?

OMG, I'm writing this down. A day that will live in infamy.

Yes, I admit defeat...for now.

#218 : Jude, apart from basics, why would anyone need lots of furniture unless it's to put books on or in? Besides, if you run out of chairs, all you need is to pile a few towers of books on the floor and voila .. instant seat.

#219 : Darryl, there's an easy way to keep tally of the cost of books we didn't purchase.... Excel spreadsheet. You could have a column for Books Purchased, Books Not Purchased Read, and Books Not Purchased ($). Then at the end of the year, just tally up the amount in the last column and that's the amount that goes to your charity of choice.

I'm definitely doing this challenge in 2012... so come one and come all .... and there won't be any penalties for anyone who attempts but doesn't complete the challenge. And yes, all participants and cheerleaders are welcome. In fact, cheerleaders are necessary if the participants are not to succumb to temptation.

Oh in addition to what I said about the challenge, participants to this challenge are not required to add the 3rd column to tally what they would have spent on books they valiantly didn't purchased and donate the amount to a charitable organization. The main objective of the challenge is to read more than we buy.

Okay, I may have to reconsider the challenge. My name is Ellen and I have a book-buying problem. Yesterday, I went to one of my favorite Indie booksellers, Elliott Bay Books here in Seattle, and I bought a stack of new books. I was very excited about my haul: a couple by Saramago and a couple by Vargas Llosa and The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst --- only to get home and discover that the latter book is already on my shelf! How embarrassing (and I wouldn't mind having that $15 back).

Caroline, I will also do this challenge with you next year; it's a great idea. Are you planning to do it on your thread, or on a separate thread within (or outside of) the 75 Books group? The charitable donation idea is also a good one; I might choose to donate to more than one organization, but I'd certainly want to give to ProLiteracy, the international nonprofit organization that champions adult literacy programs.

Ellen, I'm sure you're not the only one in this group with this problem. So join us in the challenge ... I suspect you'll see familiar faces in the 'room'. ;-)

>230 EBT1002: Same here, Ellen. I own two identical hardback copies of A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz, as I bought them a few months apart several years ago.

I have this book-buying "problem" too but I don't consider it a problem! And no, no interventions, please! I do occasionally feel bad about all the books I own but haven't read, but I would feel worse if I had read everything on my shelves.

And I also have the problem of buying books I already have; if anyone would like a copy of The Dream Life of Sukhanov by Olga Grushin, please send me a PM with your address and I'll mail it to you. I absent-mindedly ordered one copy from Amazon and one from the Book Depository a few months ago.

>234 rebeccanyc: Oh, good idea, Rebecca! If anyone wants my spare copy of A Tale of Love and Darkness it's yours.

>234 rebeccanyc:, 235 Great idea. I'm happy to send someone The Line of Beauty since I only need one copy...... (and Darryl, I'll happily send you a PM for A Tale of Love and Darkness if no one else has yet claimed it).

My name is Ellen and I have a book-buying problem. I think the problem is that we all have the same problem and, of course, the addict has to want to quit. Which none of us do. I'll join your challenge next year Darryl or Caro, whoever is getting it organized. I need some kind of incentive to stop buying. (Note to self: buy big between now and Dec 31.)

>236 EBT1002: I'd take you up on The Line of Beauty, but I downloaded it to my Kindle in September, when I saw that it was on sale for $2.51. (BTW, I just checked, and Amazon is still selling it for that price.)

My extra copy of A Tale of Love and Darkness is yours.

>237 brenzi: Caroline gets full credit, as it was her idea. I'd be more than happy to help her, though.

LOL .. Bonnie ... buy big between now and Dec 31. that's my plan too!

>227 kidzdoc:: Darryl, my daughter has wanted to be a writer since she was 6, so she's majoring in English. Grad school is inevitable :)

OK Darryl and Caro, Bonnie and Ellen (not sure from Rebecca's post whether she is in or not?!) I'm also in on the challenge with the charity twist. I will keep a record of all books read (as usual) all books bought (and the cost thereof). Averaging the last three years I have spent approximately $6,000 per year on books. Therefore I will pay the saving amount to charity (so if I spend $1,000 as now planned the balance of $5,0000 will go to charity) - since there are four of you "signed up" so to speak - you get to nominate one charity each for a one-fifth share of the saving to charity. In addition I have decided to read two buy one so for any books bought in excess of that ratio I will pay an additional $10 per book to charity. Motivation to read and motivation to place my money in better places as well as a chance to reduce my four figure TBR pile.

>240 cameling: I still intend to maintain my book buying ban through the end of the year, but I might crack after Christmas, depending on what themes and authors are chosen for two of the groups I'm a member of, the Author Theme Reads group (which will focus on Japanese literature in 2012), and the Reading Globally group. If Shusaku Endo is chosen as the major author for the Author Theme Reads group then I'll need to buy several of his books, as I've read the only one I own, The Sea and Poison.

>241 lauralkeet: That's great! I sometimes wonder how my life would have been different if I continued the love of reading I had as a child in my high school years, and chosen to major in English (maybe a dual major, as I loved math and the sciences as well). I'm happy with my career choice, but I wonder if I would have been happier as an English professor, writer, etc.

I finished Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes, which was an interesting look at the life of Gustave Flaubert through the eyes of a physician narrator who has a deep love and appreciation for the author. It was beautifully written, with interesting tidbits about the personal life of the author. However, I found it to be a bit disjointed, difficult to follow, and ultimately disappointing. I'll give it 3-1/2 stars for now.

Guys for me I am going to look at charities focusing on literacy especially (this is Darryl's thread after all) applied to children. This blog gives some such charities http://wellreadchild.blogspot.com/2007/11/charities-that-promote-literacy.html and I will also look at the UK one http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/

Dang! Came in too late for a copy of A Tale of Love and Darkness. Them's the breaks. But if it's going to Ellen then I'm fine with it.

I might join the challenge, as sure as I figure out how it works. However, my "charity" will be my own fund for a trip to France to visit my mum whom I haven't seen in maybe 8 years.

245> Ilana, I can send it to you after I finish reading it. :-)

>242 PaulCranswick:, 244 That's fabulous, Paul! I'm glad to see that you'll be joining us, and are planning to donate so generously. I love your idea about donating to charities that address children's literacy, and I'll probably do the same thing. I'll look at local programs, and consider donating to the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System.

>245 Smiler69: Sorry about that, Ilana. However, I have other duplicate books at home, at least two I can think of off hand, along with dozens of books that I plan to give away. So, there will be more giveaways on this thread in the near future.

>246 EBT1002: That's the spirit!

I love your idea of donating money saved from buying books to charity. That is so very special!

>248 SqueakyChu: This was Caroline's idea, so she gets full credit (and blame) for it.

New thread here!

#246 Thanks Ellen, you are ever so sweet. xx

Oh my - a whole thread behind (actually many threads behind, but not continuously). Well, I'll save the catching up treat for later. Now, I'm here to wish you a very Merry Christmas, and all good things in the new year.

Merry Christmas, Judy! I look forward to seeing you and Jim on Monday.

Thread #14 is approaching 250 posts, but I probably won't create another one this close to the New Year.