Carly M's 2012 challenge

Staking out my spot for 2012! My reading tailed off at the end of last year, but I'm ready to get things moving again in the new year.

1. Prelude to Independence: The Newspaper War on Britain, 1764-1776
2. Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage
3. The Emperor
4. Red Dust
5. Night Train
6. The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street
7. The Marriage Plot
8. The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law
9. The Crown Jewels
10. The Elements of Editing
11. Out of the Deep I Cry
12. The Ha-Ha
13. Crampton Hodnet
14. Plunkitt of Tammany Hall
15. The Cheese and the Worms
16. Something Fishy
17. The Greenest Island
18. Stuff Parisians Like
19. Prague: Art and History
20. The Magic Lantern

21. Death of a Cad
22. The Night Circus
23. All Mortal Flesh
24. My Freshman Year
25. Gracefully Insane
26. Disturbing the Peace
27. Confessions of a Literary Archaeologist
28. Sputnik Sweetheart
29. Cakes and Ale
30. The Paris Wife
31. The Forest for the Trees
32. Watching Baseball Smarter
33. Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend
34. Sundays with Vlad
35. A Little Commonwealth
36. Moses and Monotheism
37. The Bible Tells Me So
38. The Wild Trees
39. Faceless Killers
40. To Darkness and to Death

41. I Shall Not Want
42. The Mystic Masseur
43. Expert Legal Writing
44. The Indiscretions of Archie
45. Her Royal Spyness
46. Rocks of Ages
47. Gorgon
48. Bird by Bird
49. Our Spoons Came from Woolworths
50. Maisie Dobbs
51. Aunt Dimity and the Duke
52. The Medusa and the Snail
53. Why the Earth Quakes
54. Fire Under the Sea
55. In a Summer Season
56. Four Queens
57. Other People's Dirt
58. Funny in Farsi
59. On Rue Tatin
60. Used and Rare

61. Bonk
62. Volcanoes
63. Chasing Lava
64. Amazing Grace
65. Into the Heart of Borneo
66. In Suspect Terrain
67. Entering the Stone
68. Death of a Dreamer
69. Serve It Forth
70. The Book of Dragons

Placeholder #5

Welcome back!

Hmm, seem to be a lot of books named 'placeholder'. . . (I know, bad joke)

Glad to see you back with us again, Carly!

Yep, I read the whole Placeholder series!! :)

Nice to see you, too, Stasia!

Thanks! It is nice to be seen again.

Favorites from 2011:

Make No Law
The Blush
The Mummy Congress
Foreign Affairs
The Civil War
Vikings!

#11: I have not read a single one of your favorites from 2011, so obviously I am going to have to rectify that fact.

When are you heading to Hungary? Sounds like a wonderful vacation to me!

Some friends and I are planning to go in early June, which gives me plenty of time to get these books read first!

I hope you have a lovely time and take plenty of pictures for us armchair travelers!

Happy New Year Carly! I love P.G. Wodehouse although I don't think I've read many from the list you are planning to read this year.

#14: If last year's vacation is any indication, I will take more pictures than anyone wants to see.

#15: Thanks! I have read a lot of Wodehouse already and so am reading a few that are less well-known, I think. Some of them also have different titles in the US and UK, and that gets confusing (especially because many of the plots are pretty similar!).

1. Prelude to Independence: The Newspaper War on Britain, 1764-1776 by Arthur M. Schlesinger.

Schlesinger argues persuasively that the Whig newspapers were vitally important in fomenting and sustaining the American Revolution, explaining the papers' reactions to specific events and the shifts in public opinion that resulted. The papers' opposition to British rule started with the Sugar Act but was sustained when the Stamp Act was issued, a law that affected the papers' own business and so strongly motivated the editors and printers to try to stir up opposition. The printers generally (and heroically) ignored the threat of prosecution by the British authorities, and the colonists were surprisingly successful in shaming and intimidating the British authorities into giving up on the few prosecutions they initiated. In these early battles about the right to publish articles critical of Britain, the papers emphasized the freedom of the press, but they had very different conception of that than we do today. The editors felt free to use their papers to harass people who violated the non-importation agreements and others who publicly sided with Britain; they did not feel it necessary to print opposing views; they regularly printed articles under pseudonyms; and they freely printed propaganda. As the conflict continued, the American authorities had no problem taking steps to stop Tory newspapers from publishing. I also was surprised to find that almost none of the papers felt any need to even try to appear unbiased. One thing I found funny was the papers' frequent use of poetry, much of it terrible. I can't see that being very popular today.

The book is quite interesting overall. It does seem to be written for more of an academic audience; there are passages where Schlesinger seems to catalog the entire results of his research on a point in a way that might be helpful for someone studying this subject but that detracts from the narrative flow.

2. Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage by M.C. Beaton

#17: I will have to see if my local library has the Schlesinger book. Thanks for the review, Carly.

3. The Emperor by Ryszard Kapuscinski. This is an amazing book. Kapuscinski was able to interview a number of people who worked in the Palace of Haile Selassie and witnessed his downfall first-hand. In this book, he weaves together their stories, prefacing each section with an overview of what was going on during that period of time. The former palace workers have a strange viewpoint: on one hand, they report very honestly about what was going on (squirreling away money while people were starving, etc.), but on the other hand, they defend Selassie and do not seem to see the moral problems with his actions. It is a fascinating insider look at how a dictator operated and maintained power.

Carly: I went to Budapest and Prague last May. Let me know if you need any suggestions. We stayed in an apartment in Budapest. It was a great deal, and very comfortable. I can send you details if you want them. Just PM me.

#20: Thanks!! I sent you a PM.

4. Red Dust: A Path Through China by Ma Jian. Jian's memoir begins in 1983, when he is living in Beijing. He works as a propaganda journalist but is a dissident poet, and as he is about to be arrested by the Public Security Bureau, he takes off on a journey through China. He leaves not only to avoid arrest but also because he feels he is looking for something. A blurb on the back cover of my edition refers to him as part of "China's Beat Generation," and this really is a lot like On the Road, with a longer and more dangerous journey. Jian travels by train, hitchhiking, bus, whatever, but in many cases walks for days at a time as he criss-crosses huge chunks of China. He meets all sorts of people along the way--other poets and artists but also many of the native peoples of China. He nearly dies at least three times.

His travel adventures are a sufficient story, but added on to that is a story of what it was like to live in China in the 1980s. I have only read a couple of books about China, but in every one, I have been struck by how incredibly dirty it seems. Jian talks about terrible pollution--not as a tree-hugger, but as someone who has to wear a face mask at times to be able to keep walking. Jian, as a dissident, also experiences the illogical but terrifically harsh wrath of the Communist Party. One of the reasons he comes under suspicion in Beijing is that he used too much yellow in designing a newspaper piece, which his boss says makes them look like a "pornographic trade union," because he thinks yellow equates with pornography. I have read a fair amount about communist rule in Eastern Europe, but the extent to which the Chinese government interfered in people's personal lives--things like whether they went dancing and how long their hair was--surprised me. In addition to all this, most everyone Jian encounters seems to live in terrible poverty. Even city dwellers with what appear to be respectable jobs live (in the 1980s!) in tiny apartments or houses that lack indoor plumbing.

What I cannot understand is how the Chinese government managed to keep the millions and millions of people living in these conditions under control for so long. Why didn't the Chinese rise up against the terrible poverty, pollution, and totalitarianism? Having just read Prelude to Independence, in which the author describes how American journalists kept colonial sentiment against the British stirred up because of things like a tax on documents, it is difficult to understand why a group of people would submit to such awful conditions.

My daughter and I did a day trip to Budapest when we did two weeks in Austria and Germany in the spring. Not sure I can add a lot, but I'm happy to help if I can. Even though it was one day, we had a blast and it was one of my highlights of our trip

#22: I welcome all suggestions and advice about Budapest and Prague! We are currently trying to decide whether we really want to try to do both in a week or to just see one or the other plus some day trips. The train schedule between the two cities is manageable but far from ideal, and we want plenty of time to lounge around and soak up the atmosphere rather than being rushed. Budapest-Vienna would be a better combo time-wise, but one of my fellow travellers spent a summer in Austria and so has pretty much seen what there is to see in Vienna.

Hi, Carly. I lived near Budapest for five years, and also lived in Vienna. I've been to Prague, too. I'd be happy to help with suggestions and information.

Yay! I am especially interested in what to do in Budapest and surrounding areas. I have a great Prague guidebook but don't yet have a city-specific one for Budapest. We all really want to see Budapest but don't want to plan a week there and then feel bored, but we all definitely enjoy things like sitting in cafes eating cake, etc. and not just rushing through the tourist checklist (although we want to do those things, too). Last year this group went to Spain--Madrid, one day in Granada to see the Alhambra, and Barcelona. We had a fabulous time but felt a little rushed and would have liked more time in Madrid especially to eat tapas, drink sangria, and people-watch.

#19: I have had The Emperor in the BlackHole for a while now. I am glad to see you enjoyed it.

Thus far, I have only had the opportunity to read a couple of Kaupscinski's books, but I have liked them both.

#26: This is only my second Kapuscinski book, but I have a couple more on the shelf. So far I am very much enjoying his work.

5. Night Train by Martin Amis. This has been on my shelf for a while, and the TIOLI challenge to read a book that mentioned a form of transportation in the title spurred me to read it. It's basically a police procedural mystery novel--a female detective named Mike gets a call to investigate what appears to be the suicide of the daughter of her boss (and friend). Is it a suicide or not? If it is, why did this woman with a seemingly-perfect life want to end it? Those are interesting topics to consider, but Amis does not do anything to elevate typical genre fiction to literature, and I think there are mystery/police writers who do a better job writing this type of book. The Mike character is pretty flat; I think Amis had a hard time writing from a woman's perspective and tried to do it using a masculine woman, but she just sounds like a man. Anyway, not terrible, but definitely going in the Bookmooch pile.

Your religion list looks fascinating--I read The Cheese and the Worms years ago for a history class, and Magnificent Corpses looks like the kind of thing I'd enjoy.

#28: Thanks! I read another Ginzburg book for a college class and liked it, but The Cheese and the Worms has been sitting around for a while. And I'm utterly fascinated by relics.

6. The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff. I'm not sure this is quite as much fun as 84, Charing Cross Road, but it's charming nonetheless, and it made me want to revisit London.

7. The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides. I'm not going to try to summarize the plot--this book has gotten enough press and enough reviews here on LT that you can find plenty of plot summaries--so I'm just going to try to explain why I liked it so much. First, it reminds me a lot of Anna Karenina, in a good way. It's not just a modernized version of Anna Karenina; it has its own characters and plots but deals with similar themes and somewhat similar situations. And it does all this without the confusing Russian names. Second, it is intellectual and smart without being pretentious. Third, Eugenides has managed to deal with some serious and somewhat tragic issues without making the book heavy and depressing. The mood of the book somehow remains light and hopeful and left me with the feeling that the characters would be OK, in one way or another, in the future.

I would definitely read this book again.

8. The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law by Mark Herrmann. I picked this up in my firm's library while looking for something else. It is really directed at new lawyers, and the author over-emphasizes strict rules over developing judgment, but he has some good advice.

9. The Crown Jewels by Oliver Warner. This is a short book with lots of pictures (nice plates of the Crown Jewels and regalia), but nonetheless chock full of interesting history and trivia about the Crown Jewels.

Carly, I definately think you can find four or five full days for stuff to do in Budapest and then do short trips to Vienna, Bratislava or maybe the countryside.

Hey Carly! Nice review of The Marriage Plot. I finally ordered it from my library. - I hope that the current reader will bring it back soon.

Budapest must be really a nice city - I haven't been there, but hopefully I can do a short weekend trip in the next years. The same for Prague. But I wouldn't recommend Vienna for only a daily trip, because it's just too much. Save two or three days for it, then you can get a quite good impression of the city. Then you'll also have the time to visit the one or another museum - and they are really worth a visit. :)

#33: Yay! I have been distracted by other things and haven't gotten around to getting a Budapest-specific guide yet, but one of the other women going on the trip has one. How is Bratislava? I think it might be fun to go by boat from Budapest to Bratislava.

#34: Hi, and thanks for stopping by! I think we probably won't go to Vienna on this trip because one of the women spent a summer in Austria and so has seen Vienna. I would like to go to Austria sometime and see Vienna and Salzburg.

If any of you have recommendations about things you really liked or didn't like in Prague or Budapest, I'd love to hear them!

My dental hygienist is from Hungary. Do u want me to give her your email?

#36: Actually I think we have just decided that we are going to spend the week in Prague and not try to see both Prague and Budapest. We all want to see Budapest, too, but the train situation is not ideal, and we don't want to be rushed in Prague. Maybe next year.

10. The Elements of Editing by Arthur Plotnik. This book is directed mainly at editors of periodicals, but I found most of it interesting and useful even though I'm not an editor. Plotnik talks about the business of editing and publishing, something that is probably interesting for most readers. He also talks about the proper perspective for an editor on writing and deals a little bit with the process of editing a text. I'm the author and the editor for the writing I do at work, so this section was useful to me. I did skim over the last chapters on the specifics of graphics and photography.

11. Out of the Deep I Cry by Julia Spencer-Fleming. This is the third book in the Clare Fergusson-Russ Van Alstyne mysteries. I thought it was better than #2, which was a little bit of a letdown. In this book, the story switches back and forth between a mystery in the 1920s relating to Prohibition and a modern-day mystery, and of course the two tie together. Sometimes flashback stories get confusing, but this worked, and I liked the way the two stories were slowly revealed side-by-side.

I just went to an antique store moving sale and an estate sale liquidation, and I came back with a great haul.

For $2 each:
The Escoffier Cookbook (a 1960 hardback)
English Country Houses by Vita Sackville-West (modern hardback)
Gilead by Marilynne Robison (modern hardback)
Candide in the Cameo Classics edition, which has an actual cameo in the front cover, with slipcase

The Mitford Girls, modern hardback
The Benefactress by Elizabeth Von Armin (1901 hardback)
The Macmillan Handbook of English (1955 hardback)
Summer Moonshine by P.G. Wodehouse (1937 hardback, not in perfect condition but a first edition)
Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford (1954 hardback, a little dirty, but with a pretty dustjacket)
Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey (1959 hardback)
A kid's book called Kings and Queens (given to Nancy on her 8th birthday in 1940) with color cartoons of various royalty with somewhat comic poems (examples to follow)

And:
Roosevelt and World War II
A Shropshire Lad Cameo Classics edition, for a friend who also loves the book & movie of A Room with a View
The Brandons by Angela Thirkell (first edition)
The Esquire Cookbook (1955), for the "pioneering male with a taste for fine food, and for the woman who wants to be the perfect hostess"
The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Berenbaum

Just what I needed--more books!

From Kings and Queens, on Edward I:

Edward the First was strong and tall,
He had the longest legs of all,
But when from one who wished him harm
A poisoned dagger pierced his arm,
Edward was weak as other men,
His long legs could not help him then.

So Eleanor his gentle wife
Sucked out his wound and saved his life,
And when in time this lady died,
All through England far and wide
He built stone crosses to be seen
In memory of Longshanks' Queen.

#39: Carly, congratulations on your haul! I just love these sales because you can find some very good books there. Before Christmas I was at a sale of a library and I got 19 books for very little money e.g. an unread edition of Murakami and other famous names!

#40: I like that poem. :)

>38 carlym:: Carly, I've just begun with the Julia Spencer-Fleming series. I tend to read the first one or two in a series and then get sidetracked. I may have to make a list and post it to keep me on track!

>39 carlym:: Oooh, I love old books (if they're not too yellowed and musty). I always wonder about who else has read them and under what circumstances, etc.

Donna, luckily the Julia Spencer-Fleming books can be read far apart. They feature the same characters, but there are not many plot elements that carry over.

I could have gone even crazier with the old books but had to restrain myself. At the estate sale, there were shelves and shelves that looked like they were from the same family--a family with great taste in books. Persephone, I don't know about you, but I like to think I'm rescuing the books and giving them a good home :)

#42: Me too! I even like the yellowed ones - but for me their smell is important! I don't like the smell when e.g. the books got wet.

#43: Your attitude towards second-hand/antique books is much more "social" than mine. :) I see it as a "treasure hunt". But I don't concentrate on famous names. I 'm also looking for books and authors which don't get so much attention, e.g. from African or Asian authors.

It is definitely a treasure hunt! There are a couple of thrift stores near me, and I stop by occasionally to check out the books, and there it is kind of a game to spot something other than romance novels. Sometimes there are some gems (not necessarily old) amongst the trash.

12. The Ha-Ha by Dave King. Howard Kapostash got drafted during the Vietnam War and got blown up after only 16 days in the jungle. He survives, but he can no longer speak words--he can make some noises--and he can only read and write with extraordinary effort. After a long period of drug use and general misbehavior resulting from his frustration with his condition, he settles down into a remarkably normal and decent life. The story starts there. One day he gets a call from his high-school girlfriend, who says that she is going into rehab, and she asks him to care for her 9-year-old son, Ryan, for a few weeks. The few weeks turns into months, and Howard and Ryan, along with Howard's roommates, form a strange but caring family. Sylvia, Ryan's mother, pops back up occasionally and always causes trouble. The premise of the book is interesting--how would someone with this disability manage? How frustrating must it be to understand what is going on and what others are saying and not be able to say anything in response? The author does a good job of exploring the situation and Howard's response to it. Overall, I thought the book was pretty good, but the plot line kind of plods along. The premise is set up, then there is a long period of stasis, and then a crisis at the end--not much forward motion.

#45: Yeah, if you arrive in time, you sometimes have to chance to get some great books. At my university there is/was a flea market for books twice a week - but with really good stuff: classics as well as "almost current" bestsellers. I am so missing this!

The story of The Ha-Ha sounds really interesting, but "the long period of stasis, etc." makes me cautious... If my library owns that I might give it a try!

13. Crampton Hodnet by Barbara Pym. This is one of Pym's first novels but was not published until after her death. Like all her books, this one is full of spinsters and vicars. It has much the same wit as her later work, but it is a little softer.

14. Plunkitt of Tammany Hall by William L. Riordan. This is the down-and-dirty on how Tammany kept its grip on New York politics, from one of Tammany's own--George Washington Plunkitt. Plunkitt talked to reporter William Riordan who edited Plunkitt's monologues into these highly entertaining and honest essays.

I had really been looking forward to Magnificent Corpses by Anneli Rufus. It's about religious relics in Europe and looked like a sort of travelogue to various places with famous relics. I'm Christian but not Catholic, so I don't really attach any religious significance to relics, but I think they're absolutely fascinating. Unfortunately, the author of the book treats the relics, the places they're stored (like the Dom in Cologne), and the people visiting those places (regular tourists, not religious pilgrims) with derision rather than interest and curiosity. This baffled me. I mean, most modern authors who write about Stonehenge don't think it has any value in their own religious beliefs, but they don't act like the people who built it were crazy or dumb, or that the people who visit are moronic tourists. Anyway, I read a few chapters but could not get past her snide comments and so stopped reading it.

That's too bad about Magnificent Corpses - the subject matter is fascinating, but it's unfortunate that the attitude of the author is so poor! I hope you have better luck with your next book!

#49: Hi Carly! It's really a pity that the author writes so arrogantly about the tourists. Ok, there are touristical sights I am also very sceptical about. Was the book just in general derogatary, or did the author level the criticism with arguments? There are e.g. people who are not religious at all, but who play the "big believer" when they enter the Notre-Dame in Paris. (But even then - why should you judge them?) Was it some kind of curious onlooking the author criticized?

But I am with Dejah-Thoris: I hope you'll better enjoy your next book!

Kathy, the author was judgmental about general tourists--people who weren't exhibiting any signs (or at least any signs that she mentioned) of being in these places because they believed the relics held any special powers or religious significance. Some of these tourists were in the main part of the churches/cathedrals, not necessarily even looking at the relics. She just had a general attitude of being superior to everyone she came across (even though she was really just a tourist herself!!).

I'm reading The Cheese and the Worms now, and it's really good--it's about a 16th century miller near Venice who was tried for heresy.

Carly, thanks for the explanation. I can imagine that it's not fun to read such a derogatary and conceited book. Great to hear that The CHeese and the Worms is an improvement!

15. The Cheese and the Worms by Carlo Ginzburg. This book is about Menocchio, a sixteenth-century miller who lived in a village near Venice. Menocchio could read and write, although his education was limited. He managed to read an assortment of religious books, including the Bible and Sir John Mandeville's Travels, which dealt with other cultures in far-off places. From his reading, the teachings of the Catholic Church, bits he had heard about Reformation theology, and the oral history of the peasantry, he cobbled together an odd but fairly sophisticated cosmology and theology. Like the Lutherans, he disliked the power and wealth of the Catholic Church, but he also believed that Christ was not divine and that all religions were equally valid (that God came to different people in different ways). He believed that before the world existed, there was chaos; God and the universe were made out of that chaos much as cheese is made of milk. Then, like worms are formed from cheese (i.e., the spontaneous generation theory), angels were formed from the "cheese" of the universe. Menocchio told his fellow villagers of his beliefs and was eventually denounced as a heretic. He was tried, and his inquisitors dragged on the trial for months while they questioned him about the details of his beliefs.

Ginzburg's interest is in the different streams of culture that merged together in Menocchio's mind--both high and low culture, written and oral. In many ways, Menocchio's story is about the power of reading: the books Menocchio read added to his own ideas and ideas gleaned from an oral culture, and they gave him the words to be able to explain those ideas. Unsurprisingly, the story does not end well for Menocchio.

16. Something Fishy by P.G. Wodehouse. "The dinner given by J.J. Bunyan at his New York residence on the night of September the tenth, 1929, was attended by eleven guests, most of them fat and all, except Mortimer Bayless, millionaires." The fat millionaires are out of ideas for how to spend their money, and Bayless convinces them to start a pool of money that will go to whichever of their sons gets married last. Fast forward some years, and all but two of the sons are married. That provides the conflict for a typical but very good Wodehouse plot, full of young people getting engaged and breaking things off, a "vintage butler of obviously very good year," and schemes that don't go according to plan. This is the best Wodehouse I have read in a while.

The Cheese and the Worms sounds interesting. I've added it to my Wishlist.

17. The Greenest Island by Paul Theroux. This is really a short story but is separately bound as part of th Penguin 60s series. It's about a young unmarked couple who flee to Puerto Rico when they find out that the woman is pregnant.

18. Stuff Parisians Like by Olivier Magny. Just something silly!

19. Prague: Art and History by Tim Porter. This is clearly meant for tourists but has more information about architecture and history than a guidebook. It also has lots of beautiful pictures.

Hi Carly! I thought I'd visit your thread - lots of good reading going on here. That was a great book haul! I may read a Vita Sackville-West this year. I was thinking Family History. Have you read that one? I have a Virago Modern Classics category in my 12 in 12 challenge.

ETA - spelling correction!

Thanks for stopping by! I haven't read any Sackville-West books yet, but The Edwardians is also on my shelf.

20. The Magic Lantern by Timothy Garton Ash. Ash was more than an observer but not quite a participant in the 1989 revolutions in Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. In this book, written in 1990, he tells the inside, eyewitness story of how these revolutions occurred. He has an interesting perspective and a nice journalistic style.

21. Death of a Cad by M.C. Beaton. This is a Hamish MacBeth mystery, and it's probably the best one that series that I have read so far.

22. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I enjoyed reading this. Morgenstern does a great job of creating the magical circus world, and her prose flows smoothly. This made for an easy and delightful read. Because this book has received a fair amount of press and been nominated for awards, I did expect more depth. I thought the plot was a little neglected in favor of place description--there needed to be more tension building up to the climax.

23. All Mortal Flesh by Julia Spencer-Fleming. I realized partway through that I skipped fom number three in this series to number five. Oops--kind of a spoiler on the overall plot arc for the series. Oh well. I enjoyed it nonetheless.

24. My Freshman Year by Rebekah Nathan. Nathan is an anthropology professor who enrolled as a freshman at her own university to study student culture. She was in her 50s when she did this, so she didn't exactly blend in with the majority of students, but she lived in the dorm, registered for and attended classes as a student, and generally participated in student life. The first few chapters are filled with statistics and somewhat awkward observations relating to community and diversity, two areas that often catch the attention of university administration. I thought she did not really grasp student interactions; she admitted to being uncertain about slang and other norms, and she seemed hampered by being quite a bit older than the rest of the students. The book then turned to students' academic habits and the difference between student and professor impressions of how things work and what is important. This section was far more interesting, and Nathan seemed to really want to use her observations to create a better and more valuable learning experience for her students.

I just put My Freshman Year on hold at my library. I'm a sucker for the type of memoir where a person plunges into a subculture not their own. My favorite is The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University, by Kevin Roose, a Brown student who spends a semester at Liberty University.

I remember hearing good things about that--thanks for the reminder. I read a similar book a few years ago--In the Land of Believers by Gina Welch. She joins Jerry Falwell's church in Lynchburg, VA. She goes to some events at Liberty University but doesn't enroll as a student. It was pretty interesting.

25. Gracefully Insane: The Rise and Fall of America's Premier Mental Hospital by Alex Beam. This book is about McLean mental hospital in Massachusetts, which was founded in the 1800s. It is an interesting subject, but unfortunately, the book is poorly organized and generally not very well written. I think the author could not decide between a chronological account and thematic chapters, so he used a mix, which was just confusing and choppy.

26. Disturbing the Peace by Vaclav Havel. I read this in anticipation of my trip to Prague and am very glad I did. Not only did it give me a better sense of the recent history and spirit of the Czech people, I gave me a lot to think about generally: the intersection of culture and politics, the role of intellectuals in society, and the ways in which a people can change their government without external assistance. I'm glad I read The Magic Lantern first; it reminded me of the main players and events in the Velvet Revolution, something I had read about extensively in college but not since that time. Havel assumes familiarity with the key events in Czechoslovakia after World War II, so you need a little background to avoid being a little lost in some sections.

*waving*

All sorts of things have been keeping me busy and off LT lately. For a while I wasn't reading much, but I'm back to normal reading again, with too many books going. Here are ones I finished since my last visit:

27. Confessions of a Literary Archaeologist by Carlton Lake.
28. Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami.
29. Cakes and Ale by Somerset Maugham.
30. The Paris Wife by Paula McLain.

I didn't intend this to be the case, but all of these books have something to do with writers and the writing process.

31. The Forest for the Trees: An Editor's Advice to Writers by Betsy Lerner. Let me save you the trouble of reading this: Writers are weird. Getting published is really hard. Editors are overworked and underappreciated. That's it! If you'd like to have that repeated over 277 pages, read this book.

32. Watching Baseball Smarter by Zack Hample. This is sort of a baseball-watching textbook. It's well done, but I think it has a narrow appeal. As a regular baseball-watcher, I already knew most of what he was talking about, but it might go over the head of someone who didn't know anything about the game.

Hi Carly - Good to see you're back! I have Cakes and Ale, but haven't read it yet. I loved Of Human Bondage. I tend to read writing guides here and there, but I think I'll skip The Forest for the Trees.

I should look into the baseball book. I've become a serious baseball fan over the past decade or so, but I still miss some nuances compared to, say, my husband and some of the Mariners fan bloggers we occasionally hang out with.

Hi Carly. Thanks for the tip on Watching Baseball Smarter. I followed your lead and found it enjoyable even for a seasoned fan of the Blue Jays. Now if I could only get my father-in-law to read it...

Kerri, after reading Cakes and Ale, I definitely want to read more Maugham.

More baseball:
33. Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend by James Hirsch (audiobook). I picked up this audiobook at Half-Price Books and listened to most of it on a car trip for work. I generally enjoyed it. As an authorized biography, it was very pro-Mays, but that was fine. I don't listen to many audiobooks so I'm not familiar with how they are generally read, but I did think it was a little weird that the reader would do different voices for Mays and others when they were quoted. When he voiced Mays and other southern black players, it sounded a little racist, although I don't think that's how it was meant.

Susanna, I hope you enjoy the baseball book. Randy, does your father-in-law bug you with baseball questions?

34. Sundays with Vlad by Paul Bibeau. This is a book about all things vampire--Dracula, Vlad the Impaler, role-players, people who think they are vampires, Dracula amusement parks, and vampire costumes. Bibeau investigates all of them and writes about them in an entertaining way. The book got off to a slow start for me, but it was enjoyable overall.

Hi Carly - it's more a case of attempting to shift his allegiance from the beautiful game, especially the Bundesliga. I have my work cut out ;-)

Carly, your review of The Forest for the Trees had me laughing out loud. The dog came running in from the next room because he must have thought I had company! I also chuckled about reading ahead in the Julia Spencer-Fleming series. I must get back to her.

I haven't read anything by Somerset Maugham, but I've always been intrigued by the title Cakes and Ale. I think I can skip the books about America's favorite pastime and vampires, though. It's good to get caught up with you. I'm glad you are back on the reading track again.

Hi Donna! Cakes and Ale is a great title. I definitely want to read more Maugham novels after reading this one.

35. A Little Commonwealth: Family Life in Plymouth Colony by John Demos. Demos looks at what the archaeological and historical evidence can tell us about the daily activities and family relationships of the Plymouth colonists. His writing style is a little dry, but the subject matter is interesting enough to compensate. His descriptions of the role of women (partly expected and partly unexpected) and the way in which older colonists continued to be active in farming/trade and government rather than retiring were particularly interesting to me.

I thought A Little Commonwealth was on my wish list already, but I discovered it wasn't. Adding it.

#63: I bought The Night Circus last week and I plan to read it soon! Nice review.
#78: Sundays with Vlad looks very interesting!

Thanks for stopping by, Kathy and Thornton!

36. Moses and Monotheism by Sigmund Freud. This is a laugher. Freud argues that Moses was an Egyptian, not a Jew, and he ties this into his psychological theory of how monotheistic religions developed. His arguments are based on things like "Moses" being an Egyptian name (ignoring the fact that an Egyptian adopting a Jewish baby is pretty likely to give the baby an Egyptian name) and the sort-of congruence between Freud's version of the story with a particular myth framework. He fits facts to his theory, and where there are no facts, he just says that research would undoubtedly prove him correct. His psychological theory depends on all of humankind having experienced a primeval conflict with a father figure and having passed this down through the generations genetically (not through oral history). The book is interesting from a historical standpoint because of Freud's fame and influence, but if you're looking for a scientific/historical analysis of religion as a social phenomenon, this isn't a good choice. I read this for the Dewey Decimal Challenge.

37. The Bible Tells Me So: The Uses and Abuses of Holy Scripture by Jim Hill and Rand Cheadle. This book looks at hot-button issues of the past and present, like the role of women, abortion, war, etc., and summarizes the way in which various Christian groups have used Scripture to support their positions (for or against) on these issues. I thought this was an interesting concept, but the book didn't quite live up to its potential; the analyses are generally superficial. The book is also somewhat repetitive--certain issues are reviewed multiple times from slightly different angles and would have worked better as a single, full discussion than broken up throughout the book.

#85: The part about how various Christian groups have used Scripture to support their positions (for or against) on these issues sounds very intriguing. It's a pity that the book is too superficial - but maybe I will still take a look at it.

It's not terrible, it's just not great. (It is also a quick read, so you don't have to invest much time in it.)

38. The Wild Trees by Richard Preston. Preston follows the careers and lives of several professional tree climbers and botanists who research very tall redwoods and a few other species. The botanists' personal stories are tied closely to the trees and help explain their interest in and dedication to the trees, so this added to the book rather than being a distraction. The canopies in these forests are amazing: not only do they consist of the tops almost unimaginably tall trees, they include all sorts of animal and plant life living in the treetops (even other sizeable trees that grow in dirt that has collected in the larger trees). Not many forests of really tall trees remain due to past logging, but even the small pockets that remain are relatively unexplored, even though they are within easy distances of major metropolitan areas. Preston at one point comparies the canopies to the oceans, in terms of the unknown and unexplored biodiversity. The book is fascinating and well-written.

39. Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell. This is a new mystery series for me, and I liked it. It was (I'm glad to say) much less gory than I expected, given the title.

Ooh, I loved The Wild Trees. Since I live in the Pacific Northwest, I've had the opportunity to see some tall trees up close, albeit from the ground, in the Hoh Rain Forest on the Olympic Peninsula.

#89 - I think I'll get to Faceless Killers this month as well. Glad to see that you enjoyed it.

Susanna, I really want to see some of those trees (also from the ground!!) after reading this book. They sound so amazing.

Dors, I saw you had Faceless Killers on one of the TIOLI challenges for this month. I had it listed on a different one but switched to yours.

40. To Darkness and to Death by Julia Spencer-Fleming
41. I Shall Not Want by Julia Spencer-Fleming
Two more in the Russ Van Alstyne/Clare Fergusson series (I accidentally read All Mortal Flesh out of order). To Darkness and to Death was not that great, but I Shall Not Want was better and made me want to see what happens to the characters in the next installment.

42. The Mystic Masseur by V.S. Naipaul. This is my book group's selection for this month. It looked good but was just OK. It is set in Trinidad, and I felt like I should have had more background on the culture and politics of Trinidad to be able to fully understand the characters. The main character, Ganesh, is a somewhat educated but aimless man. After lots of doing nothing, he becomes a masseur--a Trinidadian healer--but of the psyche, not the body. This leads him to other opportunities. I think the book is supposed to be satiric, but in some ways it is too obvious and in others too obscure. The novel just fell flat for me.

43. Expert Legal Writing by Terri LeClercq. "Basic legal writing" would be a more accurate description. Once the reader gets past several chapters of throat-clearing, there are some good tips and explanations of structure and grammar. This book is appropriate for a law student, new lawyer, or someone who is having trouble with grammar.

44. The Indiscretions of Archie by P.G. Wodehouse. This was fine but not my favorite Wodehouse novel by far.

45. Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen. This is a new mystery author/series for me. The book started off a little rocky for me--I didn't think the writing was that great--but I wound up liking it.

46. Rocks of Ages by Stephen Jay Gould. Gould, an agnostic, argues that there is no need for a war between science and religion: each should stay in its own sphere, or "magisterium." Science describes the natural world but should not draw any moral conclusions from it (i.e., the mechanisms of physical evolution should not be used to justify intentional "survival of the fittest" behavior), and science has no business looking for the meaning of life or the universe. Religion deals with morality and meaning and has no business trying to explain the observable world and natural processes. I generally agree with him (although I think, for example, that belief in Jesus' resurrection, something that cannot be explained by natural laws, is a necessary part of being a Christian). The really interesting part of the book for me was Gould's explanation of the conflict between Galileo and the Catholic Church and also the Scopes trial. In both cases, the real story is more nuanced than the commonly-known account and involves less actual conflict between science and religion.

Carly, I must get back to Julia Spencer-Fleming. I consider her books as escapist reading from some of the heavier books. Sometimes I can even forget how hot it is outside!

Irrational TIOLI Guilt: I feel totally guilty that I won't get to Faceless Killers this month. Darn!

It looks like you'll have a second chance with the Scandicrime category this month!

47. Gorgon by Peter Ward. This book is supposed to be about the weird mammal-like reptiles that lived at the end of the Permian and how they became extinct at the Permian-Triassic boundary. It's more of a memoir of Ward's time in South Africa. While his stories, which mainly concern the hardships of being a paleontologist in the field, are interesting (if a bit whiny), I was looking for a science book, so this was disappointing.

48. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. This a wonderful book about writing and what it's like to be a writer.

#97 - Yes! I'm listening to it right now. I just ran out of time in July. Oh well.

49. Our Spoons Came from Woolworths by Barbara Comyns. This was a disappointment. Sophia, the narrator, imprudently marries Charles when they are both very young and poor. Sophia works while Charles paints (not very well). They have lots of making-ends-meet problems, but none of these really create any plot or character development. There is a happy ending for Sophia (not a spoiler because the blurbs on the book tell you this), but it doesn't come about by anything Sophia does--it just happens to her, much like her marriage to Charles. Sophia's unfailing naivete grated on my nerves. She seemed to learn very little from the bad things that happened to her.

50. Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear. Wow, I cried a lot reading this book! Maisie's background story is so sad (and war stories always make me cry). I liked the book, though, and liked that it had more substance than most mystery novels.

Sorry to hear Our Spoons Came from Woolworths was disappointing. I know it's on my TBR list although my library doesn't have it so I won't be getting to it anytime soon.

Lori, I'm sure you can find better books to read off your TBR list!

51. Aunt Dimity and the Duke by Nancy Atherton. I have read a couple of other Aunt Dimity books, not in order, and in those, Aunt Dimity was already dead. In this book it wasn't really clear if she was dead or not, which was kind of confusing, and her presence is minimal and contrived. The main story, while not exactly realistic, is fun and twisty.

#100: I am re-reading the Maisie Dobbs books right now. I really enjoy the series. I am glad you liked the first book, Carly.

#102: I enjoy the Dimity books as nice, light reads. Nothing earth-shattering, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Stasia! Nice to see you here again. I agree, the Dimity books are good light reads.

#104: It is nice to be seen for a change! :)

52. The Medusa and the Snail by Lewis Thomas. At first this book disappointed me a bit because I thought it was going to be more science, and it turned out to be essays on all manner of topics, from the perspective of a doctor/professor. Then I really started enjoying it. Thomas is a fantastic writer, but I what I most enjoyed is that, in some of the essays, he just lets loose with whatever odd (and often funny) thoughts he has about a subject. This book was published in the 1970s--I'm not sure whether all the essays were written for the book or collected from earlier publications--but despite covering political and technological topics, it is not at all dated.

#98: Once again I've picked up on one of your recent reads. You were right--Bird by Bird is excellent!

Randy, I'm glad you liked it. I also learned about it on LT.

53. Why the Earth Quakes
54. Fire Under the Sea

Work (and some other stuff) has put me off my reading pace, and I think my iPad is the cause of my less-frequent LT visits. Reading posts is easy on the iPad, but typing in new posts and touchstones especially is a lot more difficult.

55. In a Summer Season by Elizabeth Taylor. I liked this novel, although I'm not sure it has much to say. It is a quiet book about a woman in an unsatisfying but not disastrous second marriage, and the disintegration of that marriage. Her teenage daughter was the character that had the most depth--her unrequited (or only semi-requited) love, the tension in her changing relationship with her mother, and her awkward coming-of-age in the local community all seemed entirely realistic and exactly on point.

56. Four Queens by Nancy Goldstone. My mom read this and lent it to me a while ago, and I finally got around to reading it. It is about the four daughters of Raymond Berenger V and Beatrice of Savoy, the rulers of Provence. The daughters all became queens (of varying prominence), and their daughters' ambitions and family connections were the dominant political force in Western Europe for a generation. The book doesn't have the novel-like quality of some histories (like Antonia Fraser's), but it is nonetheless well-written and engaging.

57. Other People's Dirt: A Housecleaner's Curious Adventures by Louise Rafkin. This book promises to be about Rafkin's experiences as a housecleaner, but it is only partly about that. A good chunk of this relatively short book is taken up with stories Rafkin seeks out from other housecleaners. Rafkin is a genuine housecleaner, not a writer who has taken up a job on a temporary basis solely to provide material for a book, but, as someone who went to graduate school in English, she was obviously on the lookout for good anecdotes to use in future writing. This gives her an unusual perspective, and I wished she had told more about her own experiences rather than the experiences of those she interviewed. The book was entertaining and a quick read, but a little thin on material.

58. Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas. This is one of the best books I have read this year, and definitely one that left me wanting more (it's too short!). Dumas writes about her experiences in coming to California from Iran as a kid. Her stories are funny, but they also illuminate the immigrant experience. The love she and her family members have for each other permeates the book. As I was reading I kept thinking how much I wanted to meet Dumas and her family and hang out with them--they seem like so much fun.

59. On Rue Tatin by Susan Herrmann Loomis. There are lots of these books about moving to France or Italy and renovating some old house, so maybe this isn't terribly original, but it's a pleasant read. The book includes recipes with every chapter, something I don't find particularly useful--I'm not going to keep this kind of book in the kitchen.

60. Used and Rare by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone. This is a charming book about how the Goldstones became book collectors.

61. Bonk by Mary Roach. Roach studies the people who study sex--scientists, psychologists, etc. There are some laugh-out-loud funny parts, but the book did drag for me a the end.

Hi, Carly!

Thanks for stopping by my "75 in 2012" thread. I thought I'd return the favor ...

... even though I haven't a lot to say for myself. Have a couple of sick, aging cats keeping me fretting, and an astronomy course which is, frankly, keeping me going and alive and excited and all that.

/Glenn

Hi Glenn, thanks for coming by. Sorry about your kitties--that is a tough situation.

62. Volcanoes by Peter Francis. This is an excellent piece of science writing. Francis is a real volcanologist, not just a writer who has learned about volcanoes for a book, but he is also an excellent writer. He struck just the right tone and level of information for me. I liked his food metaphors--beer, brittle, chicken pie. Here is the chicken pie passage: "Think about what happens to a frozen chicken pie when it is cooked. Usually, the pastry wells up splendidly initially, and then, perhaps because the gravy inside overboils, a fissure opens, and rich brown ignimbrite spreads itself over the floor of the oven. When the pie comes out of the oven, it still looks splendid, but as soon as it begins to cool, the pastry collapses, leaving a sad-looking relic. This kind of process can either produce calderas, if it is centered at one point, or long linear features known grandly as "volcano-tectonic depressions.""

63. Chasing Lava by Wendell Duffield. Duffield is a geologist who was stationed at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory for several years, and this is his memoir of that time. It is always interesting to me to see how scientists work, so I enjoyed learning a bit about the HVO, but there isn't much substance to the book. I give Duffield an A for effort on the writing; unfortunately, the result is often cheesy rather than funny.

64. Amazing Grace by Jonathan Kozol. Kozol examines the lives of children in the poorest parts of the Bronx. The book was written in the mid-1990s, and I'm not sure whether anything has changed there or not. What he sees is truly awful: drug dealers all over the place, filthy living conditions, filthy and rundown schools with few certified teachers, hospitals where people have to wait days to see a doctor in the ER, rampant AIDS, and, or course, unchecked crime. He talks to a few children who are managing, pretty much on their own, despite the conditions, but even these children have little hope of escaping this neighborhood. Regardless of whether their parents made bad choices that led to living this way, these children were not to blame for their situation, and it was truly disturbing to think about growing up that way and how tremendously hard it would be to come from that situation and try to make a different life.

65. Into the Heart of Borneo by Redmond O'Hanlon. O'Hanlon and his friend, British poet James Fenton, decide to venture into a particularly remote part of Borneo, theoretically in search of the Borneo rhinoceros, but really just for the adventure. Three strong, courageous, and hilarious men from the Iban tribe guide them to their destination. This book was written in the 1980s, but it seems like something from an earlier time. O'Hanlon and Fenton are plagued by all sorts of insects, heat, and other jungle inconveniences, but they muddle through. Their meetings with other people along the way are inevitably funny; the two white men are expected to sing and dance to entertain large crowds. Felton's efforts are met with respect and interest, while O'Hanlon's usually result in hysterical laughter. This is an excellent read.

Amazing Grace sounds like it would be a very difficult book to read.

It wasn't maudlin or anything like that--just blunt.

66. In Suspect Terrain by John McPhee. Not my favorite McPhee.

67. Entering the Stone by Barbara Hurd. Ok, although I was looking for more caves and less pop philosophy.

68. Death of a Dreamer by M.C. Beaton.

69. Serve It Forth by M.F.K. Fisher
70. The Book of Dragons by E. Nesbit