labfs39: a year in the life of Lisa's reading (2012)

Welcome to the continuing saga of my reading adventures!

And so it begins...

April: 1532 p. and 10 hours 39 minutes of audio

25. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain - (3.5*) - 10 hours and 39 minutes
24. Talking to the Enemy by Avner Mandelman - (4*) - 139 p.
23. The Girl Giant by Kristen Den Hartog - (4*) - 219 p.
22. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (4.5*) - 533. p.
21. Children in Reindeer Woods by Kristín Ómarsdóttir, translated from the Icelandic by Lytton Smith (3.5*) - 198 p.
20. The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson (4*) - 443 p.

March: 1164 p.

19. River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh (3*) - 522 p.
18. In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner (4.5*) - 334 p.
17. Coventry: A Novel by Helen Humphreys (3*) - 179 p.
16. The Wedding of Zein by Tayeb Salih, translated from the Arabic by Denys Johnson-Davies (4*) - 120 p.

February: 2420 p.

15. Nemesis by Philip Roth (2.5*) - 280 p.
14. Maus II by Art Spiegelman (5*) - 136 p.
13. Maus by Art Spiegelman (5*) - 159 p.
12. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (3.5*) - 925 p.
11. No One is Here Except All of Us by Ramona Ausubel (3.5*) - 325 p.
10. Secret Letters from 0 to 10 by Susie Morgenstein, translated from the French by Gill Rosner (4*) - 137 p.
9. Skylark by Dezső Kosztolányi, translated from the Hungarian by Richard Aczel (3.5*) - 222 p.
8. Two Rings: A Story of Love and War by Millie Werber and Eve Keller (4*) - 236 p.

January: 2602 p.

7. The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America by John Demos (3*) - 252 p.
6. Tibet: Through the Red Box by Peter Sís, Caldecott Honor Book (4*) - 57 p.
The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sís (3.5*) - 46 p.
The Conference of the Birds by Peter Sís (4*) - 160 p.
Madlenka by Peter Sís (3.5*) - 46 p.
The Tree of Life: Charles Darwin by Peter Sís (3*) - 37 p.
5. Mister Blue by Jacques Poulin, translated from the French by Sheila Fischman (4.5*) - 174 p.
4. The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare, winner of the Newbery Medal (4*) - 249 p.
3. Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman, translated from the Russian by Robert Chandler (4.5*) - 880 p.
2. We All Wore Stars by Theo Coster (3.5*) - 198 p.
1. Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh (4*) - 503 p.

Saved for second quarter

A list of books by the author's ethnicity (as decided by me)

Cambodian:
In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner

Canadian:
Mister Blue by Jacques Poulin
Coventry by Helen Humphreys
The Girl Giant by Kristen Den Hartog

Czech:
The Conference of the Birds and others by Peter Sís

Dutch:
We All Wore Stars by Theo Coster

French:
Secret Letters from 0 to 10 by Susie Morgenstein

Hungarian:
Skylark by Dezső Kosztolányi

Icelandic:
Children in Reindeer Woods by Kristín Ómarsdóttir

Indian:
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh

Israeli:
Talking to the Enemy by Avner Mandelman

Japanese:
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

Polish:
Two Rings: A Story of Love and War by Millie Werber and Eve Keller

Russian:
Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman

Sudanese:
The Wedding of Zein by Tayeb Salih

TIOLI challenges:

May:

April: 4 completed

Challenge #5: Read a work in which one of the main characters described with a word ending in –ologist
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (horologist)

Challenge #7: Finish a book that you started between January 1, 2012 and March 28, 2012
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

Challenge #9: Read a book with a title that includes only the vowels in the word "April"
The Girl Giant by Kristen den Hartog

Challenge #15: Read a book with a wild mammal (no pets) in the title
Children in Reindeer Woods by Kristín Ómarsdóttir

March: 1 completed

Challenge #22: Read a book with an introduction or afterword by another writer
The Wedding of Zein by Tayeb Salih (intro by Hisham Matar)

February: 7 completed

Challenge #1: Read a book with an animal on the left hand page, a beverage on the right hand page, and the number 3 in both page numbers
No One is Here Except All of Us by Ramona Ausubel (234/crows - 235/water)

Challenge #3: Read a book with a word of at least 5 letters in the title that is an anagram
Secret Letters from 0 to 10 by Susie Morgenstern (letters/settler)

Challenge #10: Read a Book with a Title written in the first person:
Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman
Maus II : a survivor's tale : and here my troubles began by Art Spiegelman

Challenge #12: Read a book with a cover that depicts love
Two Rings: A Story of Love and War by Millie Werber

Challenge #18: Read a book originally written in a language that you do NOT speak and read
Skylark by Dezső Kosztolányi
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

January: 5 completed

Challenge #7: Read a book that was published posthumously
Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman

Challenge #8: Read a book where a word in the title can be used as a verb as well as another part of speech
Mister Blue by Jacques Poulin (blue: verb and adjective or noun)

Challenge #9: Read a book with the name of a body of water in the title
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh

Challenge #11: Read a work of narrative non-fiction
We All Wore Stars by Theo Coster
The Unredeemed Captive by John Demos

Reading Review for 2011

113 books read ( 1 book more than last year)

67.3% fiction (76)
16.8% nonfiction (19)
11.5% children's/YA books (13)
4.4% graphic novels (5)
(Of these 6 were on audio)

55% female authors (62)
45% male authors (51)

34.5% by non American/ British authors (39 books from 25 countries):
Afghani: 2
Algerian: 1
Azerbaijani: 1
Canadian: 1
Czech: 1
Dutch: 2
Ethiopian: 1
French: 4
German: 1
Hungarian: 3
Iranian: 3
Israeli: 1
Italian: 2
Japanese: 1
Korean: 1
Lebanese: 2
Mauritanian: 1
New Zealand: 2
Pakistani: 2
Palestinian: 1
Portuguese: 1
Russian: 3
Sierra Leonean: 1
Sudanese: 1
Ukrainian: 1

98 different authors
73 new-to-me authors
10 rereads

Best Reads of 2011

Top Ten Novels
Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
Regeneration by Pat Barker
Brodeck by Philippe Claudel
Kolyma Tales by Varlam Shalamov
The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad
The German Mujahid by Boualem Sansal
Doc: A Novel by Mary Doria Russell
The Line by Olga Grushin
The Waitress was New by Dominique Fabre

Top Three Nonfiction Books
Gulag: A History by Anne Appplebaum
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

Best Graphic Novel
The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Best Children's/YA Book
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

Saved

Happy New Year everyone!

Happy New Year, Lisa! You've selected a great book to start the year; I hope that you like Sea of Poppies as much as I did.

Happy New Year Lisa! I always enjoy reading along with you! I also hope you are enjoying SOP! It's such a great read. We might be doing a G.R. of River of Smoke in late Spring. Keep it in mind.

Hi, Mark! LT sure is hopping this morning. I heard through the grapevine about your group read. I'm be there--if I can wait that long to read it!

P.S. I don't think I'm going to catch up on your last 2011 thread(s). I'm going to start fresh and try and keep up.

ETA: I'm already 59 messages behind. Aaaaggghhh!

What???

I know. I hate to miss your end of the year postings (all 236 that I was behind). But, there you have it. :-)

I saw on your end of year wrap up that you enjoyed River of Doubt. Did you see that Candice Millard has a new book out? It's called Destiny of the Republic and is about James Garfield. Looks interesting and is on my list to read this year.

Hello, japaul22. Thanks for stopping by my thread. I see we have 101 books in common. Do you have a thread? I did see that Millard has a new book out. I wouldn't spontaneously read a book about James Garfield, but River of Doubt was so good, I just have to try it. I bought RoD for my sister, and she texted me yesterday that she couldn't put it down. It's viral!

Is this anyway to start the year? LOL. Like, I mentioned before, I have Destiny of the Republic waiting in the stacks. It's getting very good buzz.

15: I wouldn't spontaneously read a book about James Garfield, but River of Doubt was so good, I just have to try it.

Me too, but probably not for awhile.

Happy New Year!

Got you starred Lisa, Happy New Year again!

Your comment in #15 to japaul22 prompted me to check, and we have over a hundred books in common. I had not realized that before.

My New Year's resolutions are to spend more time in threads other than my own and to read more fiction, so I hope to stay current with you this year.

Happy New Year to you!

#16 Well, Mark, I went snowshoeing yesterday and worked on our soon to be mini-library room today, and now I'm 61 posts behind.

#17 Hi Katherine. When you do get to the Garfield book, rattle my cage, and make me read it too. :-)

#18 You too, Leonie.

#19 Your post made me smile, Suzanne. My goal for this year is to spend more time on my own thread, and less on other people's!

Update:

Still reading Sea of Poppies. I have had no time to read, but it is very good.

Our former junk room, soon to be a mini-library for me and art studio for my daughter, is coming along nicely. Took down the popcorn ceiling, textured new ceiling, ripped out carpet, two coats of paint on everything, and tonight we got most of the new flooring in!

Hi Lisa, I lurked on your thread last year and look forward to seeing what you read this year.

Interesting to read that you're creating a mini-library. We recently had an extension to our house to create room for our books (the trouble and expense a book addiction leads to...) and I'm looking forward to getting it up and running, though I imagine our progress will be far slower than yours!

Hi Lisa - I've managed to track you down so I can wish you a Happy New Year.

OOh mini library and art studio, sounds great.

Enjoy the mini-library!

1. Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh

Whatever the case, he saw now that it was a rare, difficult and improbable thing for two people from worlds apart to find themselves linked by a tie of pure sympathy, a feeling that owed nothing to the rules and expectations of others. He understood also that when such a bond comes into being, its truths and falsehoods, its obligations and privileges, exist only for the people who are linked by it, and then in such a way that only they can judge the honour and dishonour of how they conduct themselves in relation to each other.

Sea of Poppies is a novel about relationships that cross boundaries, such as those of race, caste, class, religion, or crossing the line and "going native". The figurative and literary vehicle that facilitates many of these crossings is the Ibis. People of all persuasions are drawn to journey on the Ibis, and at first they seem as unlikely shipmates as could be. But through the course of the book, the first in a trilogy, relationships develop that transcend the social boundaries, conventions, and even laws that separate them. Individuals themselves also change in ways that cross boundaries: a man thought to be Black in America, becomes a white sahib in India; another person undergoes a spiritual transformation that alters his physical body to resemble that of a woman.

The book is characterized by motion and by change. The first character we are introduced to, Deeti, profoundly alters her caste and tribe, as well as her status as a wife and mother, in her journey to the Ibis. Another, Zachary, is a master at creating relationships regardless of his or others' social and racial status. It's almost as though he doesn't see the boundaries which are so apparent to everyone else. As the characters flow together toward the Ibis and out to sea, those who are incapable of change are left behind in some manner.

All this movement and change is also reflected in the setting. India is under British rule, and their entire economy and way of life has been changed by the British desire to trade in opium. Fields of foodstuffs are forcibly converted to growing opium. Villagers starve, and the lucky ones become dependent on the British either by growing and selling opium for them or by working as near slaves in the opium processing plants. Addiction becomes rampant among the Indian workers. The British even manipulate the caste system for their own ends. Things are changing for the British as well. The demand for opium in China is falling, due to recent opium bans by the Chinese, causing a growing financial crisis for the business owners and for the British crown. Inexorably the British move toward a war with China.

I found this book fascinating on so many levels. The author thoroughly researched the hybrid languages of the time and skillfully allows them to wash over the reader without causing the reader to become bogged down. I listened to a portion of the book on audio and enjoyed hearing the accents and cadences, but preferred reading it so that I could savor and reread, which increased my reading enjoyment. I did not use the chrestomathy, purportedly created by one of the characters, at the end of the book as a glossary, although I did read most of it for its own sake. When I unexpectedly reached the end of the book (the chrestomathy takes up the last forty plus pages), I wanted to immediately begin reading River of Smoke, the second in the trilogy. I am invested in the characters, intrigued by the story, and left wanting more. Amitav Ghosh is an author whose books are now destined for my must-read list.

#21 Welcome, Rebeki. the trouble and expense a book addiction leads to... I hear you. I just keep trying to tell myself that there could be worse things.

#22-24 Thanks for stopping by, Kerry, Leonie, and Monica, despite my absence from my own thread!

And a big shout out to Bonnie (brenzi) and Darryl for enticing me with their amazing reviews to read Sea of Poppies. It's nice to start off the year with a great book.

Outstanding review of SOP!! You know, I loved the book but never did review it. I had trouble condensing into a few lines, but you nailed it perfectly. You should post the review on the G.R. Thread.
I hope to get to River of Smoke this summer, might even do another G.R.!
Enjoy your weekend.

#28 Thanks, Mark. Done!

Here is another quote that sums up a major theme of Sea of Poppies:

"Is it your implication that no good will come of this expedition?"

"Oh it will, sir; there's no denying that." Captain Chillingworth's words emerged very slowly, as if they had been pulled up from a deep well of bitterness. "I am sure it will do a great deal of good for some of us. But I doubt I'll be of that number, or that many Chinamen will. The truth is, sir, that men do what their power permits them to do. We are no different from the Pharaohs or the Mongols: the difference is only that when we kill people we feel compelled to pretend that it is for some higher cause. It is this pretense of virtue, I promise you, that will never be forgiven by history."

Great review of Sea of Poppies. I've been wanting to read this one for some time.

Great review, Lisa. Sea of Poppies is already on the wishlist, but your review just put it considerably higher. It's not the kind of book I'd go out of my way for, but sometimes I find that the books I had not really wished to read turned out to be the best. So maybe I should just adjust my reading-patterns and choose more books I think I won't like :-)

Tremendous lisa your review of Sea of Poppies. I noticed that you have spent quite a long time reading it.

#29 Thanks, Steven, Sea of Poppies is a very fun read on one level, with sea-faring adventure with a dash of romance and some bad guys, but there is so much more there. Ghosh's attempt to recreate the mish-mash of languages used by sailors, the various languages spoken in India, and the British slang interspersed with native words is very interesting to let flow over you. It was surprising how much I understood from context. But not knowing exactly what was being said at all times added to the feeling of separation between peoples. No one understood everybody. And translators were hired only by wealthy businessmen. The confusion caused by languages is part of the story. Add in the issues around British attitudes toward the Indians, the history of the opium trade, and the social change of the time, and you've got a complex, interesting novel.

#30 Hi, Monica, it's always hard to predict: sometimes our tastes are eerily similar, at other times they diverge. I was surprised at how long it took to get everyone together and on board in the book. But the interwoven stories of each character are so interesting, I found I didn't mind. Before you decide maybe you should read some other reviews that tell more of the plot. I focused on themes.

#31 Thanks, Barry. It did take me a long time to read, due to my schedule. Whole days went by when I couldn't read. It was very frustrating. I worried about losing track of where I was in the story. Granted, I do think it would have been better to read it in bigger chunks, but the book is divided into short interlocking segments, as the story moves between characters, which made it easier to read piecemeal. I hope to read the next one in the series in more timely fashion. Yesterday was my first down day in about three weeks, and I read an entire book. I feel so much more relaxed and like myself. Not reading is not me.

Edited to correct Barry's name.

Another good review for this one, another book bullet for me. ;)

Great review of Sea of Poppies! I've been meaning to read that one for awhile now. I may have to check and see if my local library has it.

Ditto to other raves about your review of Sea of Poppies. This went straight onto the wishlist.

Argh! Just lost the post I had almost finished writing. Here it is again:

#33 Just be aware, Leonie, that I may have hit you with three book bullets, not one. It's a trilogy. :-)

#34 Thanks for stopping by fuzzy_patters. As I wrote on your thread, Life and Fate is in my near future as well.

#35 Hi, Suzanne!

2. We All Wore Stars: Memories of Anne Frank from Her Classmates by Theo Coster, translated from the Dutch by Marjolijn de Jager

Theo Coster lives in Israel now and, along with his wife, is known for designing world renowned games. But once, he was a thirteen year old Jewish kid living in Amsterdam and going to school with Anne Frank. Sixty-five years later, Theo decides that he wants to record his story for his grandchildren. Instead of writing a memoir, Theo is inspired by the publication of the book Absent: Memories of the Jewish Lyceum in Amsterdam. He decides to find as many of his old classmates as he can and tell their stories collectively within the framework of their all having been school chums with Anne, or Annelies, as they knew her. His project grew into the documentary, The Classmates of Anne Frank, and has been shown around the world. This book is an outgrowth of his work on the film.

The book tells the story of how Theo is able to track down five of his and Anne's classmates, their recollections of Anne, and their own stories of being a child during the Holocaust. I was a bit trepidatious about the book at first glance, worried that the author was trying to make some money off his acquaintance with the Anne. Instead, I found a warm story of a microcosm of Jewish children and how they each survived the Holocaust. Although each person interviewed is asked what they remember of Anne, the main thrust is their own stories, each of which is told in a few simple pages.

What particularly strikes me at this point, even more than I had expected, is how differently each of us has experienced the war. Individual experiences of historical events can vary incredibly widely.

Theo and his family were fortunate and unusual in that they all survived the war and returned to their former house and lives. Theo's years in hiding were with a caring family in the country, and he was able to attend school and play outside. The classmates he interviews had more difficult times. Albert Gomes de Mesquita was moved ten times during the war, and although he and his sister starved at times, Albert does not remember his time in hiding as oppressive. Lenie Duyzend looked Jewish and was unable to hide in the open as Theo did. Until she was betrayed, she lived in a small room built into the ground that was only large enough for a bed and was accessed through a trapdoor in a closet. For a while she lived with an assortment of partisans, downed Allied pilots, and fellow Jews in the woods. Again, she and the others were betrayed.

In a short chapter entitled "Levels of Suffering", Albert, the one who changed hiding places so often, talks about how Jews didn't talk much about their experiences, but did compare them internally:

Compared to other children in hiding, I don't think my story amounts to much. What happened to me wasn't all that bad, was it? Three years in hiding with the family and all four of us surviving...isn't that splendid?

But that's not really how it works at all-that one form of suffering is worse than another. It's not true; it's all a matter of each individual's personal experience, and yet that's how they were handling it: the worst thing was to have been in a camp; next was that of the child from a large family who'd been in hiding and separated from them, and then came back on his or her own; and a situation such as ours, well, that wasn't terribly serious, even we ourselves agreed. And yet, I'd lost three-quarters of my family.

Running through the book is a discussion about the role of the Dutch in the Holocaust. They talk about the very high death rate of Jews in the Netherlands (80%), compared to places like Belgium and Denmark. They share stories of the Dutch who risked their own lives to shelter them. And they remark upon the utter lack of emotional or psychological help for them after they were liberated.

Less than 200 pages long, this collective memoir is interesting for its insights into Anne Frank's relationships with friends, but even more so for the conversation that Theo Cosner has with his former classmates.

Two excellent reviews, Lisa! I'm glad that you also enjoyed Sea of Poppies.

Thanks, Darryl. I did enjoy it very much. I think that if I could have read it in a shorter time frame, I might even have given 4.5* rather than 4.

I see you're actually reading Life and Fate now. I look forward to reading your review when you've finished (whenever that may be!).

Don't hold your breath! I got through the introduction last night, which was informative, but sometimes too much so and had spoilers. Grr.

Lisa, catching up here finally.
- your quote in #28 was one of my favorites from Sea of Poppies. I had a more tempered enthusiasm for the book, but really enjoyed your review.
- This review of We All Wore Stars is very moving. I'm noting the book and referencing your review. (wondering if any of the classmates interviewed were gentiles)
- psst - think you confused me with baswood in post #32 ;)

#32 Sorry Barry! Don't know what I was thinking. I have corrected it.

#42 No, Dan, none of the interviews were with gentiles because he was interviewing Anne's classmates, and by that point in the war, Jews were only allowed to attend Jewish schools. Theo speaks very fondly of the family that hid him, but he being 80+, they are deceased.

Nice start to the year, both reading and reviewing! We All Wore Stars appeals; I've grown interested that post-traumatic responses so often overwhelm the actual trauma.

Glad you are now reading Life and Fate; I wouldn't worry about the spoilers because it's such a rich (and readable) novel. As for Sea of Poppies, you make it sound very intriguing, but I was so disappointed with the Ghosh I read (The Hungry Tide) that I am leery of trying anything else by him.

#41 - I never know whether to read introductions before or after the novel itself. On the one hand, it's good to know what to look out for and to understand the context better and, on the other, I do prefer to be surprised by the plot.

Lisa, finally found your new thread.

I love both reviews --- I got a copy of We All Wore Stars from ER - but haven't read it yet (and that probably says something about how likely I am to get any further ERs!). Your review has piqued my curiosity, though.

#44 Hi MJ. I was interested in your comment that post-traumatic responses so often overwhelm the actual trauma. I'm curious to know more about what you are reading on the subject. Are doctors creating scales of traumatic events and placing people's experiences against them? What do they do with people who suffer excessively to what they think they should? My first thought was to echo Albert in the passage I quoted from We All Wore Stars: But that's not really how it works at all-that one form of suffering is worse than another. It's not true; it's all a matter of each individual's personal experience. Albert felt that he didn't fare too badly in comparison, And yet, I'd lost three-quarters of my family.

#45 Rebecca NYC: I've been trying to ignore life and LT in order to read Life and Fate. Amazing. What a well-written panorama of experience! I'm loving it. The letter Viktor's mother wrote before being taken away was incredibly touching. I read it twice and cried both times. Having a young child of my own, it struck a nerve.

#46 London Rebecca, I'm in the same boat. In this case the introduction was quite helpful, so I read it, but skimmed the parts about the plot. Thank goodness the book has an index of characters.

#47 Hi Ellen, my copy of WAWS was an ER book too. I'm glad I'm not the absolute last person to review it. ;-) And I'm sure you'll get more ERs, as long as you write the review sometime.

The new issue of Belletrista is up! My full review of the book about which I've been raving is included.


The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Eowyn Ivey's debut novel is stunning. She has created a small world within the wilds of her native Alaska and peopled it with characters that feel as real as the neighbors next door. Full of the everyday drama of the human experience, the story of Mabel and Jack is familiar, yet there is an element of magic that creates a sense of the unknown. Using the Russian folktale Snegurochka, or The Snow Maiden as a foil, Ivey creates a transforming story of the power of faith in love, even in the face of others' disbelief and one's own doubts.

Full Review

Okay, I gotta add that to the ginormous and ever-growing wish list!

One of my favorite words :-P

I agree. Just added it to my Amazon wish list, since it won't be released until Feb 1.

Oh my goodness, three wonderful reviews! I just bought a copy of Sea of Poppies -- alas, to give as a gift. I had never heard of We All Wore Stars, but it looks wonderful. As does The Snow Child.

Happy New Year to you!

#52 I'll forward to seeing what you think, Rebecca.

#53 Hi Anne, thanks for stopping by. We All Wore Stars was a recent ER book, which probably explains why you hadn't heard of it yet. Too bad about Sea of Poppies being a gift!

I've been resisting Sea of Poppies--I don't know why--but have now added it to my wishlist. Years ago I read what I think is Ghosh's first book (or at least a very early one), The Calcutta Chromosome. It was a strange and slightly mysterious scientific story. I liked it well enough to keep it (back from the days when new paperbacks cost only a few dollars), and it's one I've been thinking of rereading this year. I read a couple other of his books which I found only so-so.

Great review of The Snow Child, Lisa! I might buy that for my best friend's wife when it comes out, and read it while I'm visiting them next month.

Deborah, I have The Calcutta Chromosome, and I'll probably read it this year.

I'm getting mown down by book bullets!

I have a somewhat...odd question about The Snow Child. Is there any information about the author? Is she using a pen name? I was just wondering if her name was LOTR-related or if that is a name from a different language/older times.

Hi Lisa, it seems like you've been reading quite a lot of good books lately.

Lovely review of The Snow Child, Eowyn Ivey

#58 Per her web site, her mother named her after a character in the book.

#55 Hi Deborah, nice to hear from you. My first and only Ghosh book is Sea of Poppies, so I have nothing to compare against. I will say that if anyone is waiting for the sea voyage with all the characters, he will wait a very long time. Since this is a trilogy, the author takes time to build backstories for each of his characters. I thought this was an important part of the book, not only for the development of the characters, but also for the social commentary on life under British colonization at this time. I own The Glass Palace, but have not yet read it. Did you? Did you like it?

#56 Thanks, Darryl. The Snow Child comes out in February, hopefully in time for your visit. Nice way to read a book without breaking your book buying ban!

#57 Turn about is very play, Kerry!

#58 Great question, Mr. Bat! :-p I didn't catch that. Thank you, Rebecca, for the info. She must get that question often, because the second sentence on her web site addresses it. I looked to see if Eowyn was a name borrowed from another language, but it seems that it was made up by Tolkien. Here's what wikipedia (and several other sites) has to say:

In the Old English language (the language Tolkien used to represent Rohirric) the word eoh (or eh) means "war-horse, charger" while wyn means "delight, pleasure" (in addition, some sample text within Bosworth and Toller translates wyn as "joy, joyous"). Therefore, even though no such word appears in the lexicon of Old English, the name Éowyn can be taken to mean "delightful charger".

The first syllable of Éowyn sounds like "eh-oh," with the "oh" just barely pronounced. As in Scandinavian or Finnish, the y in the second syllable is the same sound as the German letter ü or the French u. The actors in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy consistently pronounce her name as well as the names of Éomer and Théoden in a manner inconsistent with most reconstructions of Old English pronunciation.

#59 Hi, Monica. I lucked out and started the year off with some nice books, and Life and Fate, which I'm reading now, is stellar.

#60 Thanks, Barry!

#61 Thanks for the info, Rebecca.

Hi, Lisa. I'm really just stopping by to say hello since I'm (literally) hundreds of posts behind on your threads. A new job has taken over my life for the last few months and the the attendant stress has left me reading almost nothing...staring vacuously at the boob tube is about all I can do after a long day.

Hopefully this will change as I get my feet under me.

I had never heard of Belletrista before. Thanks for the link, Lisa. Very interesting site.

Great review of The Snow Child, Lisa. Enjoyed reading it.

>41 labfs39: Don't hold your breath! I got through the introduction last night, which was informative, but sometimes too much so and had spoilers. Grr.

I've sworn off reading the introduction until after I've finished the book; I've been "spoiled" too many times.

Well it took me long enough to get here and what should I find but excellent reviews Lisa, particularly the review of Sea of Poppies (probably because I've already read it, heh). You brought out some excellent points and your review thoroughly investigated the novels themes. (Oh and thanks for the shout out:)

I read your review of The Snow Child on Belletrista and added it to my WL at that time. This is such a dangerous place to be.

>61 rebeccanyc: & 62 - thanks for the info - that's what I first thought but was also thinking I could just be name-ignorant. When I was younger, I read a fantasy book with a character named 'Angharad' and I assumed it was a fantasy name, but later I read about someone who did have that name. A friend named her cat Eowyn, so I'll have to tell her there's an author Eowyn.

Also a great review - makes the book sound very tempting.

- Ms. Bat

>48 labfs39: lisa post-traumatic responses so often overwhelm the actual trauma
PTSD intrigues me. I remember (maybe from the first Gulf War?) when a US pilot was shot down and then hid/scavenged for food until he was rescued days later. His performance was flawless and resulted in the best possible outcome, yet after the celebration he was out -- out of his unit and duties, maybe out of the military entirely. I later saw it framed in the context of PTSD -- he was no longer naïvely brave, instead potentially skittish from knowing too much. There were echoes in Sullenberger’s retirement after landing the plane on the Hudson River. In books, I've seen it recently in Maus, The Shawl and Unbroken.

Sorry to have been so out of touch, but I have been desperately trying to make time to finish Life and Fate. And today I did it. Wow. What a book. I will try to put my thoughts together for a review, and answer all your posts, soon. Now off to get some work done.

I'm looking forward to your review, Lisa. As I've said before, I have Everything Flows on my shelf and will give it a read before I invest in the hefty Life and Fate, but you (and some others) have piqued my interest in Vasily Grossman's work.

#63 Tad - It was so nice to hear from you. Congrats on the new job!? I hope the stress eases up for you: we miss you!

#64 Ellen - Belletrista is a great site for learning about international women authors and their books. I learned about it last year from someone else here on LT.

#65 Dan - Thanks. It was a book that really resonated with me.

#66 Bonnie - Introductions can be a double-edged sword. In historical fiction, the introduction can provide crucial context and in literary fiction it can provide interesting criticism. I just hate spoilers of any sort, so I try to let my eyes glide over the spoilers without letting it register. Semi-successful. Thanks, I hope you like The Snow Child.

#67 DieFledermaus - I wonder how many times Eowyn Ivey is asked how to pronounce or spell her name!

#68 MJ - Ahh, I finally understand what you are saying: that PTSD can be even worse than the trauma. I was thinking you were saying that people with PTSD were overreacting to the trauma. Sorry 'bout that! I agree with you. Karl Marlantes, the author of Matterhorn, talks and speaks a lot about PTSD. He is very open about his own struggles with it. He found that by putting his experiences in a mythical framework, he was better able to cope. Sometimes I think that everything I read has characters with PTSD. Most interestingly, I think, was the Regeneration Trilogy by Pat Barker.

#70 Ellen - Once again I'm falling behind in reviews. Calgon take me away!

More to come!

Going slightly out of order, here is a review of my most recent read:



4. Mister Blue by Jacques Poulin, translated from the French by Sheila Fischman

Jacques Poulin is a French Canadian author whose tender, thoughtful books are treasures. Vieux Chagrin, or Old Grief, oddly titled Mister Blue in the English translation, is another such gem. As always the writing is lyrical and expressive, and the action is quiet and philosophical. There is something otherworldly about Mister Blue, and yet the themes are ones with which we all must grapple.

Jim is a published author and Hemingway expert who lives alone in his childhood home on the shores of Île d'Orléans. By nature a quiet and dreamy sort, Jim calls himself the slowest writer in Quebec. Sticking to a regime, Jim tries to write a page a day, but is often distracted by the view from his window, the sound of the river, his cats. He is trying to write a love story, however, never having been in love himself, he struggles with writer's block. One day, as he and Mr. Blue the cat are walking along the beach, Jim discovers footprints leading to the cave at the end of the beach. Curious he goes in and see the remnants of a fire, a candle, a book, and a box of matches.

I went closer to look at the book: it was The Arabian Nights. I would have liked to pick it up and turn the pages, but something held me back. I had the feeling that to do so would be indiscreet. It was as if I were in some person's bedroom. I mean: in everything I could see there - the footprints, the objects, even in the air itself - there was a sense of somebody's soul. I didn't touch the book.

Jim begins to fantasize about the owner of the book, whom he calls Marika. In a beautiful note he leaves for her, Jim writes:

Now that you're there, everything seems possible, even the wildest, most secret dreams, the ones we never talk about, those that lurk beneath the surface of ourselves. I cannot help thinking that your presence is a kind of invitation to begin everything again, to start from scratch.

Things begin to change for Jim, and he opens up to a world larger than his small, introverted existence. He forms new relationships which allow him to explore being a lover, a son, and a father. He ponders his soul and its protective shelter, the idea of "two hearts" (feminine and masculine) within a single body, and the meaning of family.

What matters are the emotional ties that connect people and form a vast, invisible web without which the world would crumble. Everything else to which people devote the greater part of their time, looking very serious as they do so, is of only minor importance.

Yet overshadowing everything for the reader is the question of the boundary between reality and dream. Is everything that Jim experiences real?

Lisa, Good review of Mister Blue. I already like Jim from your description of him.

71: Once again I'm falling behind in reviews.
I've managed to keep up with reviews, at the price of falling behind on the threads, as well as other things I should be doing...
Added the Anne Frank book to the wishlist. Levels of suffering, oh my, yes.

Fabulous review of Mister Blue, Lisa! I have Mister Blue next to me, and I'll probably start reading it this afternoon.

Wonderful review, Lisa. I've written down this author's name.

Great review of Mister Blue, which I have on my TBR. I did read his Translation Is a Love Affair a few years ago, and this sounds somewhat similar in writing style and theme.

#73 Dan- I like Poulin's protagonists as well. They tend to be eccentric authors who live isolated lives and think a lot. The way Jim describes the holes left in his bookcase when his wife leaves him is such a vivid and tragic image. Imagine her taken all but one volume of a set. It sounds foolish, but I could feel his pain.

#74 Qebo- We All Wore Stars is much more about the classmates the author interviews than about Anne, but the glimpses of Anne that we do get are rather different than the picture I had built up in my mind. P.S. Do you prefer Qebo or Katherine?

#75 Darryl- I'll look forward to your comments. *skulks off to check Darryl's page*

#76 Ellen- I think Poulin's great. I hope you have a chance to squeeze him in at some point.

#77 Rebecca- Yes, Mister Blue shares many similarities with Translation is a Love Affair, but either I had read the first long ago enough or this was just different enough, that I was impressed all over again.

Peter Sís was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia, in 1949. As a child he accepted what he was told from the Soviet-backed government, but after the Prague Spring he went underground with his art and participation in a rock band. His first professional success was as a filmmaker, and he won recognition, beginning with an animated short at the Berlin Film Festival. In 1982, the government sent him to Los Angeles to produce a film about the upcoming Olympics. When the project was cancelled (the Eastern Bloc boycotted the games), Sís was ordered home. Instead, he stayed and was granted asylum. Sís garnered his first acclaim in the US for his art when a book he had illustrated, The Whipping Boy, won the Newbery Medal. Since then he has won The New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Book of the Year award six times and has contributed over a thousand drawings to The New York Times Book Review. In 2003, he was named a MacArthur Fellow. With more than twenty books to his name, and innumerable famous posters, set designs, murals, etc., Sís is a significant artistic talent. Thanks to Leonie's wonderful posts of his books and artwork, I finally decided to see what I was missing. Wow.

I began with his most recent book, The Conference of Birds, (2011).



Of the five books I read this week by Sís, this was my favorite. It is a retelling of the 12th century Persian poem by Farid ud-Din Attar. The first thing I noticed when picking up the book was the paper. It's a textured, linen (?) paper that adds to both the tactile and visual experience. Most of the pages are designed to look as though they are old parchment, perhaps with coffee stains. Sís begins by morphing the poet into his protagonist, the hoopoe bird and then launching into the story. Every page is stunning, with incredible detail, I've been through the book probably three times now, and every time I discover something new. Combine the artwork with the simple retelling of the story, and the result is a beautiful book that begs to be owned. My eight-year-old daughter loved the artwork too, although the story was beyond her.

There is an article in the Atlantic that includes images of several beautiful pages.

I've never heard of Peter Sis, and now I'm fascinated...I just requested several if his books from my library (several are juvenile-fiction)

The next Sís book I read was Tibet: Through the Red Box.



When Sís was a boy in the 1950s, his father was drafted into the army film unit and sent to China for a two month long expedition. Instead he was gone 14 months, and the family never received world of where he was or if and when he would return. His father learned that he was actually recruited to film the Chinese army building a road into Tibet in preparation for an invasion. This book is the story of his father's experience as seen from both the eyes of the father and son.

Once again the artwork is exquisite, and the story captures the confused emotions of the boy, as well as the adventures of the father. This book is a Caldecott Honor Book, which indicates that the intended audience is children. In my opinion, children would be hard pressed to enjoy all the nuances of the artwork or the relationship that underlies the story.

Next off the pile was The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain.



As the title suggests, this is a memoir of Sís's childhood growing up in Prague. His path is fairly typical for the time. He is indoctrinated at school and joins the Pioneers. As he begins to question the regime, he joins the underground movement, which is reflected in his art and music (he joins a rock band). Everyone jubilantly embraces the Prague Spring and then succumbing to malaise and dreaming about freedom. Although Sís doesn't go into details in this book about his defection to the West, his visualizations of freedom thwarted and finally gained are poignant.

I liked this book because I enjoy reading memoirs of life in Eastern Europe. Once again, although it is listed as a juvenile book, I can't see many children of picture book age getting much from it. It tries to straddle the divide between being a children's book and an adult book by having simple sentences run across the bottom of the pages and smaller print with more detail on the sides of the illustrations, but I'm not sure how effective it is.

My next Sís read was an actual picture book. I am sure this time!



Madlenka is the story of a little girl who is about to loose a tooth. She walks around the block visiting her very diverse neighbors and telling them the news. By the time she reaches home, her tooth is gone.

This is a nice picture book with a gentle message about the diversity in her small world. Being a resident of New York now, Sís captures the neighborhood feeling that exists even in the midst of a large city. The most interesting aspect of the book, however, is the perspective. Drawn from a child's height, the apartment buildings loom around Madlenka in a way that reminds me of a bird's eye perspective reversed, or like looking through the wrong end of a telescope. Otherwise, there is little to hold an adult's attention.

The last of my five book Sís marathon was The Tree of Life: Charles Darwin, or The tree of life : a book depicting the life of Charles Darwin, naturalist, geologist & thinker.



This was my least favorite of the adult-ish Sís books I read. The material for the book is drawn from Darwin's letters, his autobiography, and the first edition of On the Origin of Species, so the research is sound. It is the presentation that I had trouble with, ironically enough. Although the topic was interesting and the drawings had potential, Sís tried to pack so much into 37 pages that the type and the illustrations are very small. One spread is comprised of 32 rectangular squares, each one designed as a page. To be honest, I thought this one disappointing after reading some of his other books.

After exploring the art and stories of Peter Sís, I am left pondering the divisions between children's picture books, adult picture books (which is what the publisher calls Tibet: Through the Red Box), and graphic novels. Where do we draw the lines between these genres? Do you buy into the idea of an adult picture book? How is Tibet different from Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout, which was the first “visual book” to be named a finalist for the National Book Award?

Beautiful illustrations! I am always looking for new Czech authors so I will try to see if the libraries have some of the Sís books.

> 87. Do you have a special connection to the Czech Republic? I studied Czech for several years, but it's gone now. My favorite Czech author is Arnost Lustig, and my favorite Czech book is Too Loud a Solitude.

No language/history connections, but I had a Czech project last year where I tried to acquire and read many book from Czech authors (though there's the whole German/Austrian confusion). It was a bit disappointing to see how many gaps there were in translations to English - not a lot of older works, genre fiction or works by women.

I do have some books by Lustig (Lovely Green Eyes and Porgess and The Abyss) but I don't know where they are right now. Hoping they'll turn up. I did love the Hrabals that I read also. Which Lustigs have you read?

81,82,84: Tibet and Prague go onto the wishlist. Darwin goes immediately into the cart.

78: Re qebo/Katherine, last year I tried to stick with qebo, but the real name seeped in when I met real people. So now, whatever, doesn't take much google-fu to find me. The down side is that RL names on these threads can be confusing, because we don't all follow the same peoeple. (qebo, btw, is uncreatively the initials of the names of the cats when, several years before LT, I needed a screen name, so no letter should be more capitallized than another.)

Just peeking in to see what you are reading. I think I have a copy of Peter Sis's Tibet somewhere here. I picked it up when it came out some years back. Beautiful work.

Lisa- Wow, I fell behind over here. That normally doesn't happen. I love your thoughts on Peter Sis. I saw "the Wall", I believe, on Faith's thread. I'll have to check this guy out. I LOVE that bird illustration in msg #79.

I'm sure I've seen a zillion Peter Sis illustrations since you note he's had over a thousand (OK, maybe not a zillion) illustrations in The New York Times Book Review but I never knew I was looking at them. Now I will look for them.

Wow you've been very busy Lisa and reading some very interesting books. I really liked Translation is a Love Affair when I read it last year so I'll add Mister Blue. The Sis bird illustration is absolutely lovely and has piqued my interest. I'm not totally sold on graphic novels so I don't know how far I'll investigate but illustrated books for adults are different. I was interested to learn that Sis illustrated The Whipping Boy a book I love and taught to my students for years.

#85: Lisa, your ponderings about the distinctions between children's picture books, adult picture books, and graphic novels are quite interesting. It's only in the past year (thanks to LT) that I've exlored any of these three "genres" and I have been glad for the expanded experience of reading, especially of the experience of following a story, noticing nuance, allowing/forcing myself to pause and be with the illustrations rather than scurrying ahead to "read" the story.....

As a slightly goofy aside, your musings also made me think about the (real) "Bugs Bunny" cartoons, which I enjoyed as a child, but which I also find to have nuances and meanings well beyond most children's understanding.

eta: I'll be seeing if my library carries the works of Peter Sis).

#88 DieFledermaus: Once I went to your thread, I realized the answer to my question. Was it a reading challenge you set for yourself? You are amazing to be doing so much reading while in school as well!

I love Too Loud a Solitude, liked Closely Watched Trains, and didn't enjoy I Served the King of England as much. The humor reminded me a bit of The Good Soldier Svejk, which I also had a so-so reaction to.

As for Lustig, I've read Children of the Holocaust, The Unloved: From the Diary of Perla S., Night and Hope, and Lovely Green Eyes. I just received (at long last!) a copy of Dita Saxova as a gift for the holidays. My favorite is Children of the Holocaust because it so closely mirrors Lustig's own experience. It fascinates me that he chooses to write only fiction, but bases the stories on very personal memories. I always find myself asking which parts are autobiographical. Oh no, I just read that Mr. Lustig died ten months ago. The NYT obituary is here.

#89 Qebo: You might also be interested in Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei, if you like the Darwin. I haven't read it, but imagine it to be similar. It is a Caldecott Honor book.

#91 Lois: If you liked Tibet: Through the Red Box, I think you might appreciate Sis's latest book The Conference of Birds. It is his newest, and the artwork is amazing.

I'm still in shock about Lustig's death. I just wrote a short biography for the common knowledge section of his author page in LT.

#92 Mark: Yes, many people on LT have been talking about Sís, which is how I discovered him. Gotta love LT. I would love to hear your thoughts about "adult picture books" vs "graphic novels".

#93 Rebecca: It's funny the things we take for granted or pass by without really seeing, isn't it? If you find some good ones, please share.

#94 Bonnie: I think you'll like Mister Blue too. It's such a beautiful little book. I believe you would appreciate Conference of the Birds as well. It's definitely not a graphic novel (is The Wall or Tibet?).

#95 Ellen: I have had the same experience of being introduced to new genres, authors, and titles on LT as well. I still fall back on my favorite genres/themes, but the exploration is mind-expanding. There is another distinction that I don't understand very well: what is the difference between cartoons and animated shorts? When does one become the other?

There is a line from Mister Blue that I wanted to share:

Books contain nothing or almost nothing that's important: everything is in the mind of the person reading them.

It's a dilemma I come back to often: how much of what we see in a book is intended by the author and how much do we see with the hindsight of history or from our own interpretations? Personally I think we too often ascribe certain symbols or nuances to an author, when it's really we, as readers, who are creating those connections and seeing certain themes as part of an artistic movement which is only articulated later. I'm not sure that authors are as self-conscious of their cleverness as we often believe. I don't mean to say that authors aren't incredibly creative, but simply that sometimes they are the product of their times or environment and add things subconsciously that comp lit majors later spend hours upon hours deciphering as a hidden theme the author intended only the literati to find. I listened to an interview with David Mitchell on World Books, where an audience member asks him about the much-discussed birthmark and its importance in Cloud Atlas. Rather sheepishly (I thought), he says that he has a birthmark on his knee and didn't mean that much by it. What do you think?

ETA: changed italicized line when I realized it sounded snarky. It was not intended.

Every fourth word I write reveals I have thought about these layers extensively, or perhaps like you I have an affinity for an onion.

Okay that was silly, and 10 minutes I'll never get back, but to answer your question, I think it's both. I've thought about it from time to time--especially when I've enthusiastically tried to explain imagery or themes in a book to someone unaccustomed to caring about that "literati" stuff. As you mention, they typically think I'm reading something into it and that it's just too cutesy to be true. After all, "If I didn't catch that, I suspect most people wouldn't catch that, and therefore it's a strange and wasted effort that adds nothing to the story." But I can't get away from the fact that just as it's common for an author (or song writer) to say, "I intended no such thing," it's equally common to hear (certain kinds of) authors expound on the threads they deliberately wove into the story. I just started Nabokov's Bend Sinister the other night and my copy has an introduction by the author where he does just that - clueing the reader into the subtly repeated images and wordplay. I love that stuff, even though I'm sure I'm often too dull to catch it without such assistance.

I love the story of Mitchell's comment about the birthmark. I know reading is an active endeavor and that each of us gets something different from any written work. I try to ask myself, actively, what the author may have been trying to say, etc., but clearly we sometime read (!) more into it than the author intended..... Reading is interactive. I know I can fall into a passive stance and start letting the story "flow over me." When I do that, the overall experience is less satisfying.

Lisa, I am also reading Moby-Dick at the moment and my edition contains over 300 pages of notes on the text. I am convinced that Melville knew what he was doing with all his biblical and Shakespearean references. What I am not so sure about are all the other myriad references that have been picked up.

If a writer is as widely read as Melville was then he will have themes and ideas coursing around in his head that he might not be conscious of as well as bits of prose or poetry that find some expression in what he actually writes down on the page. Even when he re-reads what he has written some of the links or paraphrases might not be obvious to him. Subsequently when his published work is read by readers and scholars they may well spot these unconscious references in the text along with ideas and references in their own minds. I think it is true to say that as readers we bring an awful lot to the table. The more we read the more we bring.

Increasingly I am not so worried about how clever or creative an author may be. It is what the text says to me that is important.

Of course I can't think of an example right now, but I often read and enjoy a book knowing that there are layers of allusion or references that I am not getting and that I would have a different appreciation of the book if I did. I agree with Barry that notes can help, and here I can think of an example. There were extremely helpful notes in the Pevear-Volokhonsky translation of Doctor Zhivago that I read last year that enabled me to get a grasp on Pasternak's frequent allusions to the Orthodox liturgy. They would have completely gone by me otherwise, and they definitely added a layer of meaning that I would have missed without the notes. On the other hand, it all depends on how it is done (and maybe what mood I'm in), because sometimes authorial cleverness drives me crazy.

Hi Lisa--I'm just catching up on your thread. I love the thoughtful comments, musings and questions you frequently raise.

I think that a fair amount of what ends up in a contemporary novel is largely unconscious-- ideas and things that have been absorbed by the author from his/her society, culture and familiarity with history and literature. On the other hand, when a novel is based on the literature of the past Matterhorn and the Parsifal myth, Ulysses and The Odyssey, and many, many other books, I'm sure that a lot of what the author does is conscious.

I picked up Spring Tides by Poulin when you reviewed it (last year?), but haven't read it yet. I'll try to get to it soon.

Your reviews of the Sis books are the first I've read that have finally convinced me to check out "picture" books. I'm going to check KCLS to see if they're available.

Hey--let's get together soon.

I see you're reading The Unredeemed Captive. I've owned that book for many years, so I'll be interested in what you think about it. Maybe I'll have to move it up on the TBR.

off on a side note. When I read a classic, even a modern classic, there are experts of various kinds out there that analyze these books in incredible depth and add a great deal of richness to the reading. But, when I read a modern work, usually that kind of analysis doesn't exist within my reach and I miss a great deal.

In MD, we read knowing ahead of time that there is richness to be found, that we should read it patiently and inquire into it to the fullest we can. And, we do find a wealth of things to think about. But, if we had read MD in 1852 and not been as well read as Melville, and saw the book as just another publication out there...if we had read it maybe just for an adventure story, we might be annoyed and bored by all these discursive details (and, for the time, uncomfortable topics). When it didn't sell, we would have understood.

That's to say readers get out of it what they put into it.

>96 labfs39: - Yes, my Czech read was a reading challenge that I decided to do for the year. I've found that having country challenges for a year is pretty fun - all the researching and planning and excitement when I find books. I think I was listening to a lot of Czech operas at the time and decided to do Czech literature as well.

For the Hrabals - I Served the King of England was my favorite. I did enjoy the humor so maybe I will like The Good Soldier Schweik. I really loved the prose and quirkiness in all three though. There are a number of other translated Hrabal works so I'm hoping to pick up some when the pile goes down. (I might be wrong about this, but I think he wrote a whole book that was one very long sentence.)

I remember reading the obituary for Lustig and tried to find Lovely Green Eyes and Porgess and the Abyss, which I had purchased previously, but couldn't. There really is no excuse for me not finding the books because I haven't moved recently and my place is pretty small. There are some other cataloged book missing so I'm assuming there's a pile or box somewhere that I haven't looked.

I'll be looking forward to your review of Dita Saxova.

Note: I realized my comment in post 96 sounded snarky, so I changed one line. I apologize to anyone who may have been put off by my comment. For full disclosure, I began a degree in comparative literature, but dropped it and stuck with my studies of East European history and literature. The CL program that I was in was very, hmm, "competitive": students excising pages from books on reserve that we all needed to use or hiding books so no one else could find them, professors of opposite camps fighting in the corridors. Students would invite you to "salons" if you had made a particularly esoteric comment the previous day, and drop you if you were too pragmatic. It was ridiculous and left a very bad taste in my mouth.

#98 Deskdude: Welcome! Thank you for stopping by. I love onions (although not to eat). Thank you for summarizing things so well. Indeed there are authors who are brilliant at creating complex, intricate, beautifully written books. I too get really excited reading them, or else get completely confused (like with the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle)! Mitchell did a fabulous job at structuring his novel and at creating linguistic, cultural, and epistemologic conundrums. I felt that it was a very self-conscious book. By that I mean that the author was extremely aware of his methods and planted symbolism. I was left wondering if he was trying a little too hard to be clever.

#99 Ellen: Reading is interactive. How true! Not only do different people see different things in a text based on their own experience, but also one person can interact differently with a text at different times and see and feel completely different things. I think that's why I've written and seen things on LT like "I may have liked the book more if I had been in a different mood." Or at a different point in my life.

#100 Baswood: You've hit the nail on the head. That was exactly what I was trying to say (both here and elsewhere) and failed miserably. Thank you for making it clear. Much is intended and some is unconscious.

#101 Rebecca: Notes can indeed be an enormous help (although sometimes I get annoyed if they include too many spoilers). I always read the notes and often look up online criticism, especially if it is an author or context with which I am unfamiliar. For instance, I needed a lot of help with The Sound and the Fury, as I am completely unfamiliar with the genre of Southern US literature. I would never have gotten many of the intended meanings because I lack the contextual knowledge needed.

sometimes authorial cleverness drives me crazy Me too! I much prefer the natural over the forced.

106: professors of opposite camps fighting in the corridors
Oh, this brings back memories... I was briefly in a grad program that I'd chosen because it seemed to balance of social and technical perspectives, didn't realize until I got there that the two factions were literally not on speaking terms, and each thought that I belonged in the other camp.

#102 Deborah- Hi! Thanks for bringing up Matterhorn. That's a perfect example of a complex, highly symbolic novel that feels completely unforced. It got me started on the whole Percival project. I love when books connect to other books or lead me in new directions.

Hmm, please don't judge Jacques Poulin solely by Spring Tides, it was good, but my least favorite of the three I've read so far. I returned a whole stack of Sis books to KCLS on Thursday, so maybe they can just send you the lot! As for getting together again, I would love to! Any fun bookstores up your way so you don't have to travel so far?

#103 Rebecca- I wouldn't be in a rush to move The Unredeemed Captive up the pile. Although the topic is fascinating and I'm learning a lot, the writing is a frustration (to me). Demos includes so many snippets of quotes in each paragraph, that it feels disjointed. Here is an example:

All this must have seemed entirely plausible and familiar - even comforting - to John Williams's many "auditors." What followed was also plausible, also familiar, but perhaps not so comforting. God's "presence", God's favor "in the battel," cannot be taken for granted even by a "Covenant people." On the contrary: if they are "sinful," not to say "degenerate," they must expect "heavy, distressing Calamities of War." And now the preacher's main point, one he will repeat with steadily sharpening effect throughout the second half of the sermon: "The Sins of a People at Home do oftimes more against the Souldiery abroad, than the Sword of the Adversary." Thus does the focus shift: from the "People of God" versus their "Enemies," to the "People at Home" versus their "Souldiery."

#104 Dan- Interesting point about modern works not having having the literary criticism necessary to explore a book to the fullest. Perhaps LT is helping to fill that gap? Certainly I learn a lot from the comments and background information provided by fellow readers.

readers get out of it what they put into it So true! As long as there is something there to get. :-)

#105 DieFledermaus: I had not heard of Fire on Water. I really do need to explore more the series "Writings from an Unbound Europe". Well, I just looked it up on the

#107 qebo: and each thought that I belonged in the other camp So fun, huh? I take it you changed programs?

Hi Lisa,
I don't usually let myself get behind on your thread but this time I did - 40 messages and numerous wish listed books later I am caught up! (Not to mention all the book ideas from everyone else on your thread...)

I've seen the Peter Sis books on Kerry's 75er thread but hadn't investigated them too closely - but Wellington library has quite a few. I'll look for The Wall and the Conference of Birds. Did your daughter like the Wall or was it too adult-ish? I can see Fletcher (nearly 8) starting to get curious about the world and need to find us some good books - every time I answer a question (eg about dictators or democracies) he has a gazillion more.

My Econ grad program had elements of competitiveness like your comp lit one but much milder - I could never handle the {insert rude word here} who would go to seminars and ask patsy questions to get noticed without reading more than the intro to whatever working paper was being presented. Ugh. LT has changed how I read fiction but I often think I miss many of the references and themes unless they are spelled out for me. I tend to read notes after I read the book, because I can't stand spoilers.

Delurking to say hi, Lisa. Too bad about the comparative literature. It's sad to experience that expectations are different from reality. I actually wanted to study medieval history but found out the program, professors and future colleagues were not as interesting and challenging as I'd hoped they'd be. I studied 19th century history instead, but I still feel part of my heart's in the middle ages. I wonder if you'd take up comparative literature again (given the chance and opportunity) if you knew that things would be different now?
@ Cushla, but I often think I miss many of the references and themes unless they are spelled out for me
I feel the same way, but I tremendously enjoyed reading:
- How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines by Thomas C. Foster;
- How to Read Novels Like a Professor: A Jaunty Exploration of the World's Favorite Literary Form by Thomas C. Foster.
I thought it was a lot of fun and quite handy too.

#110 Cushla: I'm amazed that you made it here, given all you have on your plate right now. Good luck! As regards The Wall, Katie wasn't interested in that one. She was fascinated by Conference of Birds and also read the Darwin one and Madlenka, which she noted was a "little kids' book".

...and ask patsy questions to get noticed without reading more than the intro... Ugh. That is so annoying. I hope your education program is much nicer - given that the students are studying to be teachers, I certainly hope so!

#112 Monica: Hi! Too bad you got derailed from medieval history. I bet there is an LT group devoted to the topic, if you wanted to do a little self study. No, I don't think I would go back to comp lit. If I were to go back to school now, I think I would take interdisciplinary religion classes. Religion has such a profound impact not only on our world today, but on the world's histories and literature. I took a religious fundamentalism class once that focused on Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The roots of fundamentalism are fascinating, but how it plays out in the real world is often horrifying.

>98 Deskdude: - Every fourth word I write reveals I have thought about these layers extensively, or perhaps like you I have an affinity for an onion.

There is a pungent thought!

>100 baswood: - Well said, Barry.

Lisa, I am quite intrigued with your comments about Peter Sis and his output. As you mentioned above, if it were not for LT, I would never have known . . .

Fascinating thread, Lisa!

I'm really enjoying reading through the discussion on authorial intent, etc.

For me, Maeve Brennan says it best: “...writing is writing, and it is for the reader. For the reader always comes first.”

I guess I subscribe to the idea that what the author intended and didn't intend doesn't matter - what matters is what the reader gets out of it. So, if I see a symbolic meaning that the author never meant to include, oh well. I'm not sitting next to Orhan Pamuk as I read My Name is Red, and so who do I have to explain to me what the book is about? Just my own brain. Yes, sometimes an author's biographical information can add to a text, but I always teach my students to avoid assuming things about a writer. We can never know the thought process behind a book, and I don't think we should necessarily try. So, I don't ask myself what the author is trying to say; I ask what the text is trying to say.

Of course, I probably hold this attitude because this was the general belief held by the profs in the English department at the university I attended. Much of my English degree was focused on the reader, not the writer. I've passed this on to my own students (high school), and often find myself saying that in the writer-reader relationship, the reader holds the power. The writer loses control the moment that book hits the shelves - it has been released into the world, for readers to make of it what they will.

Again, great discussion!!

Hi Lisa- Always a good discussion or 2 going on over here.. Being such a simple man, I don't have much to add. I did request "The Wall" by Peter Sis. See, I did contribute!
Hope you are having a great weekend.

#113 Hi Suzanne, thank you for stopping by. Your latest review is a stunner.

#114 Cait: what the author intended and didn't intend doesn't matter - what matters is what the reader gets out of it Now that puts a whole new spin on the conversation! You make a good point that once a book is "out there", authors no longer have any influence on how their book is perceived. I can see a few wringing their hands and saying "But that's not what I meant!" On the other hand, coming at it from a socio-historical point of view, I find it hard to divorce a book and it's potential meaning from it's context. Just as Jack London could never have written Gone with the Wind or Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, an author's viewpoint is of necessity part of the book. I find knowing something about that viewpoint enhances my reading. As Dan said earlier readers get out of it what they put into it. That said, part of what a reader brings to the book is their own understanding, experience, and interpretation.

So, I guess, I land smack dab in the middle: I do believe that what an author is trying to convey is important, as is the biographical and historical context. I also agree that readers bring to the reading experience different things at different times in their lives.

How's that for waffling?

#115 Mark: Being such a simple man *snort* A simple man that reads from more different genres and formats than anyone I know and offers interesting perspective on them all! Btw, o SM, where do you think the line is between adult picture books and graphic novels?

I rarely watch TV, so watching a tv episode and a movie in the same week deserves comment. Last night, I watched the first episode of Downton Abbey. People have been talking about it for ages, so I have little to add except that I will be getting more episodes!



The movie I watched on the Sundance Channel had been sitting on TIVO forever, and Friday, while preparing a mailing for the Friends of the Library, I finally watched it. Donkey in Lahore is a documentary filmed over the span of five years by Faramarz K. Rahber. It follows the courtship of Brian, a Goth puppeteer from Brisbane, and Amber, a young Pakistani girl living with her traditional, tightly knit family in Lahore, Pakistan. The two meet at a puppet festival there and, over the course of Brian's two week stay, they fall in love. In order to try and win the approval of Amber's parents, Brian converts to Islam and works to earn enough money so that he can support them both. Communicating via the internet and occasional phone call, they try to sustain their relationship and make plans to get married. They are faced with innumerable obstacles: language, culture, parental disapproval, mental health, and Australian bureaucracy.

My attention was kept throughout, mainly because of the very odd characters. I think that if the main character had been more mainstream, the social commentary would have become more central, but the plot might have been a bit trite. It was unusual and interesting, deserving of 3 or 3.5 stars. If you search for "Donkey in Lahore" on Google, one of the first hits is for a white supremacy website whose members were quite inspired to comment on this attempt to portray cross-cultural understanding.

Hi Lisa- "Btw, o SM". LMAO! "where do you think the line is between adult picture books and graphic novels?". Seriously I'm not sure I'm experienced enough to answer that. I don't think I've read enough adult picture books. Can you give me a few examples?
"Donkey in Lahore" sounds terrific. I love me the docs. I need to do a search on my cable.

>116 labfs39: - Thank you, Lisa!

There are still three days left to register as a giver for World Book Night.

Do you love a book so much you want everyone to read it?

World Book Night launched in the UK in 2011 and saw passionate readers across that beautiful country, give 1 million books to light or non readers to spread the joy and love of reading. Reading changes lives and at the heart of World Book Night lies the simplest of ideas and acts - that of putting a book into another person’s hand and saying ‘this one’s amazing, you have to read it’.

Now, it's our time to join the cause.

World Book Night 2012 will be held on April 23 - in the US and the UK - and we’re looking for 50,000 volunteer book givers to hand out 20 copies each - for a total of 1 million free special World Book Night paperbacks!

There are twenty books to choose from, and they are all stellar: Bel Canto, The Things They Carried, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Ender's Game, Kindred, and some which I haven't read yet, such as The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. It's easy to find one you can enthuse over. And what's cool is that in order to help make it possible for the books to be free, the authors gave up their royalties for this run of books.

My request was to be a giver at Tent City 4, a local homeless community which is allowed to camp on the property of religious organizations, but only for three months, and then they have to move again. Most of the residents have a job and are trying to save enough for a more stable living situation. I thought they would love to get some new books.

Anyway, I think it's a great program, and it's not to late for you to join in!

#117 - Like you I rarely watch TV or movies, but my wife talked me into watching Downton Abbey with her this month, and I'm hooked. Later I read that what is aired here in the US is a shortened version of what they see in the UK. The scenes they removed were deemed to involve character interactions that were too complex for American tastes. Grrr!

I've also read British commentators who are taken aback by the show's popularity in the US and say "please don't think this is the real England."

#118 Sorry to put you on the spot, Mark. I first learned of the term "adult picture book" when reading the Peter Sis books I mention beginning in post 79. I thought you might be able to shed some light. I'll need to do some research.

#119 Hi Suzanne!

#121 Steven: I'm afraid I missed the original airing of Downton Abbey on TV, so I have purchased the UK version of Season 1 from Amazon's instant video. I'm able to run the episodes through my computer and view them on the TV. My husband and I just finished watching episode 2 tonight. It is very addicting. It is unfortunate but unsurprising to hear that the US version was shortened; I'm so glad I purchased the UK version! The American attention span seems to be in serious decline. I wonder which bits the producers felt were too complex. We should compare scene lists...

I was thinking of posting this on the article thread but here seems like a good place - a list of books to read if you like Downton Abbey

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/12/business/media/mad-for-downton-publishers-have...

(Haven't actually seen the show but everyone seems to be talking about it)

Lisa- You did not put me on the spot at all. Just sorry I couldn't help you.

World Book Night looks like a terrific event/cause/action.

Hi Lisa, just catching up, enjoyed your thoughts on the Peter Sis books, I too was surprised that Tibet (I think my favourite so far but I haven't read Conference of Birds yet), is classed as a kids book. Also glad to see another Downtown Abbey convert.

Glad you are enjoying Downton. It's a beautifully acted period soap opera, complete with great (and classic) melodramatic scenes. And everything just works out swell in it. My husband and I were comparing Downton and Mad Men, our current obsession. Both equally addicting, they are more or less opposites. Ah, but the costumes in both are wonderful!

#123 Thank you for sharing the article here, DieFledermaus. I found it both amusing and helpful.

For publishers, the craze over “Downton” serves as a kind of mood ring revealing the cultural tastes of viewers who are also likely to be book buyers, in the way that “Mad Men” inspired the revival of skinny ties and patterned sheath dresses (though no one seems to be suggesting that “Downton Abbey” will rekindle a longing for the corset).

#124 No worries, Mark. We're still friends. ;-)

#125 I agree Ellen, World Book Night is a great idea, although I do wonder about long-term sustainability.

#126 Hi Leonie, This whole idea of adult picture books fascinates me. I've done a couple of quick searches online to try and learn more, but end up with porn or children's picture books written/bought by adults. As for Downton Abbey, I love to loathe some of the characters! It's funny too. Sometimes my husband and I will just burst out laughing. Do you know how many seasons there are supposed to be?

#127 I've never watched Mad Men, Lois. The setting of DA is more appealing to me than the advertising business, although I hear it is very good too. DA reminds me of a less restrained Pride and Prejudice. It's satisfying my mood superbly at the moment. :-)

7. The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America by John Demos

When forming the narrative of this book, historian John Demos, decided to focus on a single community and a single family to tell a story about the relationships between the New French and the New Englanders, the relationship between each of these groups with the local Native Americans, and how larger international conflicts effected the lives of everyone from Quebec and Montreal to Boston. The community the author chooses is the small frontier town of Deerfield, Massachusetts , and the family is that of Reverend John Williams.

In the early morning of February 29, 1704, a mixed force of nearly 50 French soldiers and officers and 200 "domiciled" Indians from the Abenaki, Huron, and Mohawk Iroquois tribes attacked Deerfield. The political aim was to capture someone valuable to trade for a prisoner the British were holding. In the resulting battle, 48 townspeople slain, 120 captives taken, and 140 survivors remained. In addition, not all of the captives survive the journey to Montreal, where most are "redeemed" and made prisoners of the French, or to assorted Indian villages north of Albany. Mr. Williams and three of his sons are redeemed immediately, one son and a daughter are taken to live in different tribal villages.

All of this occurs in the first chapter, the rest of the book focuses on broader themes, such as the meaning of redemption from the Indians to the descendents of the Puritans on the brink of the Great Awakening. Much of the New Englanders concern for their kin was not their physical safety, but the safety of their souls. The Jesuits had converted thousands of Indians to Catholicism, and the settlers were deathly afraid that the captured would be converted to evil popish ways and their souls lost forever. I had never realized that the majority of the Indian attackers were practicing Christians, that the majority of the captives never stayed in Indian villages, and that the British offered bounties for enemy scalps. My childhood history books seem to have gotten a few things wrong.

The book is an interesting introduction to the New England experience of the time and made me want to read the original source material. Especially since the author had the annoying habit of quoting words and phrases, so that each paragraph was a patchwork of tiny quotes (often single words) and his own words. I found it much harder to follow than if he had quoted larger sections of source material and then provided interpretation. The book is well-researched, however, and I learned a great deal. I did feel misled by the jacket flap, for the book is not the story of Eunice Williams, about whom very little is actually known, but the story of a much larger phenomena.

Enjoyed your review. I touched lightly on a related topic once before and am very interested in the book (I might fit in my reading sched in 2025 or so.)

LOL! I know the feeling, Dan. The only reason I read it now was because my daughter just read Indian Captive and felt I should read something too.

well, its now on my wishlist... :) It's fascinating era, when the Native Americans captives were, on many occasions, treated quite well and became more attached to the Native American communities than the European colonies they had been kidnapped from. Also, I noticed on the book page that it won a National Book Award.

The Unredeemed Captive sounds truly interesting. Like Dan, my reading is prescheduled up the wazoo, but I've made a note of it . . . LOL!

129: Onto the wishlist. Seem to be lots of things I don't know either.

Very interesting review, Lisa! And I'll be interested to hear what you think of Skylark -- I've seen that on the shelves and wondered about it..... I love the look and feel of the NYRB editions, but they don't always live up to expectations.

Lisa, the picture books for adults is a relatively new genre for me as well and one I want to read more of. Im not sure how many seasons they're planning for Downtown Abbey but I think they are filming Series 3 now and have so far finished, series 1 and 2 and a two part christmas special.

You brought up lots of college memories for me with your review of Unredeemed Captive. I had forgotten that I'd read it for an American History class. I would like to revisit it sometime since I've forgotten many of the details but remember it being very interesting. Thanks for the review!

Lovely Belletrista review of The Snow Child; you've really made me want to read it. (Way up at the top of your thread, I know, but I've only just got here!)

Likewise We all Wore Stars. Whilst I don't read much non-fiction, I'm fascinated by the stories of ordinary people who've lived through huge events. I'll look out for this one.

#132 Dan: ...became more attached to the Native American communities than the European colonies they had been kidnapped from... Exactly, and it wasn't just their children that they feared for, but their spouses and neighbors as well. Demos thinks that women were often reluctant to return to a society where their role was so circumscribed. By contrast, most of the tribes were matriarchal. The children led much less structured lives with the tribes, and little ones would often forget their native language within a year or two.

Thanks for bringing to my attention that Unredeemed Captive was a National Book Award finalist in 1994.

#133 I know the feeling, Suzanne. My TBR list grows much faster than my list of books read for the year. It's actually a nice problem to have.

#134 Hi qebo, the book is full of interesting tidbits; my quibble is that I found it distracting to read because of the author's writing style.

#135 I finished Skylark this morning, Ellen, and liked it quite a bit. Hopefully, I'll get the review out this weekend, but I've acquired an exquisitely painful sore throat and feel pretty blah at the moment. I agree that NYRB books are cool and slippery to hold, quite pleasant, but my favorites are the books by Archipelago. Something about the size and texture make them so enjoyable to fondle.

#136 Leonie, I was lucky enough to download the UK version of Downton Abbey before I even heard that the US version was cut. Now I think I'll continue downloading, if the rest of the seasons on PBS are going to be American versions as well. How ironic that even PBS viewers are seen as being too simple minded for the UK version.

Downton downsized... by two hours because American TV executives fear its intricate plot will baffle U.S. viewers

#137 Welcome, japaul22. I too was reminded of a college course I took on colonial history. I enrolled in the class simply because it was taught by Professor Jere Daniell. He is a great teacher. Unredeemed Captive had not yet been written at that point.

#138 Thank you for stopping by, Rachel. I enjoyed Snow Child very much. Now that it is out in bookstores, I'll be interested to see what others think. I just read another wonderful memoir: Two Rings: A Story of Love and War. With simple honestly, Millie Werber tells the story of her first love in the midst of the Holocaust. It's short, very moving, and well-written. I'll try to write the review this weekend. It's due out March 27th.

Edited to correct broken link.

Regarding post #120 about World Book Night: the deadline has been extended to Monday, Feb. 6 at midnight. Please consider joining this worthy cause and donate new free books to non-readers.

8. Two Rings: A Story of Love and War by Millie Werber and Eve Keller

Sometimes I fear that after having read so much about the Holocaust, I will begin to become numb to the personal tragedy as I try to grasp the enormity of the horror. Two Rings, however, is a personal narrative that cannot be read impersonally. Millie Werber is in her eighties, her husband has been gone for several years, and she has decided to share her story at last, for her children's sake and in the memory of her first love.

The story begins in Radom, a small city in Poland, where Millie lives a sheltered life with her parents and brother. In 1941, when the Germans create a ghetto for Jews, her family is forced to move into a small apartment, with her aunt, uncle, and two cousins. Millie is only fourteen and scared of everything: the hunger that won't go away, people in the streets being tortured at the whim of bored soldiers, and, most of all, the danger of being taken away by the Germans and never seen again. When her uncle finds her a potentially life-saving job at the Steyr-Daimler-Puch factory just outside of town, she is terrified. She has never slept apart from her mother or traveled. But her family forces her to go, and she begins a new chapter in her life, as a slave laborer in a Nazi ammunitions factory.

Barely fifteen, Millie is put to work at a huge machine for twelve hours a day, with only a fifteen minute break at noon. She cannot sit, rest, or make a mistake. As awful as it is, her job does save her, for in August 1942, the ghetto is liquidized. Fearing for her family and feeling terribly alone, Millie becomes friends with a young Jewish policeman who works in the factory. Heniek Greenspan is charming, slightly older, and solicitous of the women workers in his care. Millie and Heniek's relationship is a heart-warming, heart-breaking story of first love. Although their time together is brief, Millie never stops loving Heniek, not through her deportation to Auschwitz, and not through her wonderful marriage to Jack, with whom she spends 60 happy years.

To create this book, Millie told her story to Eve Keller, a professor and writer, whom she came to trust over a number of years. With patience and love, Keller worked to capture the story in Millie's own voice, and I think she does a wonderful job. The writing is simple and straightforward, conveying not only the mundane and the tragic, but also the fierce judgments that Millie does not try to hide. She tells her story as she remembers it, with strict, self-imposed honesty, and Keller gives the story to us with simple language and carefully verified details. The result is a beautiful story of a young girl, told with the thoughtfulness of age. I applaud Millie Gerber for her willingness to share such a personal memoir with us and Eve Keller for writing with such devotion. This is truly a remarkable book.

These kinds of stories are hard to take in. Maybe that's why I stopped reading them after Keneally's Shindler's List, Wiesels Night, and, finally, Maus.

141: Merely reading your review I want to know what happened. And probably I never will.

I have trouble reading about the Holocaust mostly because when I was much younger I heard directly from the mouths and through the tears of survivors the horrors and terrors they experienced. It was gut-wrenching to hear about this stuff from people I knew and liked, and I still get a knot in my stomach over it.

>142 dchaikin: I hear you, Dan. The Holocaust books that you did read are classics. Maus was the first graphic novel I ever read. I would like to purchase a copy of Meta-Maus, which is the new book in which Spiegelman describes the process and artistic context for the original.

>143 qebo: If you would like, qebo, I could PM you with the scoop.

>144 Poquette: Oh, Poquette, that sounds so emotionally difficult. I can't imagine.

An interesting debate has been happening on one of our local public radio stations (KUOW). It started when a woman and her two daughters were at a branch of the Seattle Public Library, and the woman saw a man watching porn on one of the computers. The woman went to the librarian and reported it. The librarian explained about SPL's internet use policy, which allows adults to view any constitutional protected information without filtering (the children's computers are filtered). While the woman was talking to the librarian, her daughter wandered out of the children's area and stood behind the man (all the computers had privacy screens) and saw the end of the porn clip. The daughter was obviously upset by the graphic content. Now the woman has taken her story to the press, in hopes of getting SPL to change it's policy. City officials and the police chief have confirmed that what happened was not illegal, and the ALA spokeswoman said SPL is doing exactly what it should. Other members of the community, however, are claiming that they are now afraid to take their children to the library.

Link to the news story

Hi Lisa- catching up quickly. I already put your latest read on my wishlist after Cyrel's review, and now it's on there twice.

I would be grumpy if my kids saw the guy's computer, but really, they're my kids and it's my job to know vaguely where they are in the library. I would be pretty unhappy if they were staring at someone's computer. Gross though, but enough to stop me taking them to the library - no!! (But then I am the mum who was de-lighted when Fletch was happy to sit in a corner reading a Lego book, at last, at the age of 4. I took off to look for books for me. My American friends were horrified at what I'd done!)

Susan, there's a author publicity part of this website but this is not it. I won't be going to look at your links if you spam people's threads with them.

Hi Lisa - just catching up on your thread. Great to see all the love for Peter Sis, his work is exceptional. The term used for these sorts of books is 'sophisticated picturebook'. There's a bit of an explanationhere.
And thank you for introducing me to Jacques Poulin, I thought Translation is a Love Affair was a wonderful read.

I can't believe the news story in #146.....another example of the world just going wrong.

#146 An interesting story. It would appear that the man was doing nothing wrong watching porn on the library computer. The little girl just happened to be in the wrong place. Maybe she was more upset because of the fuss created by her mother. Children are naturally curious aren't they? A very avoidable situation and the mother has got to take some of the blame. Has anyone thought of the man's feelings having his viewing compromised by a little girl looking over his shoulder.

>129 labfs39: Even reading a Little House book (Laura Ingalls Wilder) reminded me recently how much I want to fill in my gaps in Native American history. But with this --

the author had the annoying habit of quoting words and phrases, so that each paragraph was a patchwork of tiny quotes (often single words) and his own words

-- I don't think Unredeemed Captive is for me. That's exactly how I felt about Erik Larson's In the Garden of Beasts and it was tedious.

Just catching up with everything I missed while I was away. Can't contribute anything to the college/graduate school tales, but glad to read your review of The Unredeemed Captive which, as you know, I've had on my TBR for years. I would like to get to it sometime; there's just a lot of other books I'll probably want to read first.

Lisa, I've added Two Rings: A Story of Love and War to the list.... sigh. It was your use of the word "remarkable" that got me.

I haven't heard about that kerfuffle at the SPL! I will be tuning in to get more info. I listen to KUOW when I drive to and from work, but I haven't caught that story. In general, I'm a strong advocate for free access to information, and I agree with Cushla and baswood regarding the parents' responsibility to monitor and care for their children while in the library (and to teach them to give others some privacy). Yet, I can imagine some content being over the line for public viewing..... but who gets to decide exactly where that line is?

ETA: As I think about it, the content to which I would object would be illegal in the first place (e.g., porn involving violence or children).

Yes I remember the same kerfuffle here when the library first got computers with internet access and the topic became public knowledge. Many people were in an uproar but the library stuck to their guns.

You do manage to continually add to my teetering tower Lisa. Two Rings: A Story of Love and War is added.

Hi, Lisa. Mostly just stopping by to say hello; I haven't had a lot of time for reading in the last few months due to a new job. And, what I've read has mostly been quick fluff to fit in the 15 minute increments.

However, on the topic of Poulin (since Kerry brought it up), one exception to the last statement was I read his Wild Cat. I know you've been having trouble finding his books but, if you get to that one, I'd be very interested in talking about it with you. Same wonderful writing style and warm characters, but there was a relationship in the book that didn't make sense to me. Since it was one of the major ones, it rather affected my views of the story. Still recommended but it made it my least favorite of the four of his I've read so far (Translation is a Love Affair and Autumn Rounds remain tied for favorite). If you read Wild Cat, I would definitely love someone to explain Jack/Kim to me. :-D

ETA: By the way, I just noticed that a new Poulin translation has become available from Archipelago and Amazon: Mister Blue.

>148 cushlareads: Cushla - Gross though, but enough to stop me taking them to the library - no!! I agree. See my email to the radio station below.

>149 avatiakh: Kerry - Thanks so much for the link; it was very helpful. I wish more libraries labelled and shelved "sophisticated picture books" as suggested. Otherwise they are hard to find. I never would have found the Peter Sis books, if it weren't for my LT friends like you. My daughter's school library finally started labeling graphic novels, but then shelved them with comic strips!

I'm glad you liked Translation. Since you did, I bet you'll like Mister Blue a lot too.

>150 baswood: Barry - Maybe she was more upset because of the fuss created by her mother. My thought too. And the man at the computer did tell the woman that he only had 56 seconds to go when she asked him to move. America still has a Puritan mindset when it comes to other people's business. Also in the news now are the religious referendums and lawsuits to prevent gay marriage. The state of Washington just passed a bill allowing gay marriage. Certain religious (and very politicized) organizations are raring to go.

>151 detailmuse: MJ - Larson’s pattern is to open a paragraph in his own words, then splice in a supporting quote. At first it seemed riveting; by page 100 it seemed gossipy; thereafter it grew unbearably tiresome, like thousands of research notes on index cards that were taped together and smoothed into a narrative.

I'll cross In the Garden of Beasts off my list then. I found that style quite annoying. Good review by the way.

As for Secret Letters from 0 to 10, Katie and I are almost done. She's had a lot of homework lately, so we haven't been reading aloud together much. It is fantastic though! We are both really enjoying it.

>152 rebeccanyc: Rebecca - Welcome back! I did learn a lot from the Unredeemed Captive, but I wouldn't recommend it for the top of the TBR pile.

>153 EBT1002: Ellen - Never a dull moment: someone somewhere is always wanting to regulate someone else's private life. The story I followed was on KUOW Weekday. It comes on at 9am, so you probably miss it on your commute. It's an all local call-in show. Here is the email I contributed to add support to the small minority who opposed filtering (I don't know if it was read on air or not, I stopped listening):

I have been a public librarian, an academic librarian, and a lifelong library user. I am also a parent of an eight year old daughter. Personally, I have never seen pornography being viewed at a library, although I also don't stand directly behind every patron to see through the privacy screen and discover what she or he is watching. I am a firm believer that libraries should provide access to constitutionally protected materials, and I applaud the Seattle Public Library for it's position. Suggesting we begin selectively banning websites, smacks a lot of banning books. Who makes the decisions as to which websites get banned? Should we ban websites that portray violence (including all the major news stations) in order to protect children from seeing bloodshed? Should we ban websites that show abused animals, because some (such as my daughter) find the thought terribly upsetting? Should we ban sites teaching sex education? Should we ban any sites that even a single member of our community finds offensive? Denying access to information is a slippery slope. Who decides, and where does it end? Keep our libraries free, and talk to your children about what to do if they see something disturbing.

And what they see may be on the city street, on a bus, or anywhere else.

#154 Bonnie - I was annoyed that the radio station was egging people on. The second day, they had to retract some of what they had said the day before about the legality of the issue.

>155 TadAD: Tad - Hello! It's nice to hear from you. I hope your job allows you to get a bit of rest and relaxation soon. You've been going great guns for a while now. Autumn Rounds, which you reviewed so beautifully, is at the top of my list, but I will keep an eye out for Wild Cat too. Although I'm not sure how much help I will be with the relationship issue!

I did get the Archipelago copy of Mister Blue and liked it as much as Translation, so you have another treat ahead of you. :-)

edited to fix link

>156 labfs39:: So you did! Now that I read your entire thread, I see your review. *blush*

Hi Lisa- I wanted to mention to you, that I have "The Wall" by Peter Sis. It looks like a very quick read, so I should get to it very soon.
Loved your review of Two Rings: A Story of Love and War. Sounds heart-wrenching.

Lisa - loved your email!

156: Keep our libraries free, and talk to your children about what to do if they see something disturbing.
Yes!
The state of Washington just passed a bill allowing gay marriage. Certain religious (and very politicized) organizations are raring to go.
Pennsylvania hasn't progressed this far, and I bet it'll be quite awhile, so consider yourself fortunate.

I'm currently reading 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, and it's a tome at over 900 pages. Originally published in Japan in three volumes, the American version has all three volumes under one cover. Since this is such a long, intricate book, I thought I would write comments after finishing each book so I don't forget what my thoughts were along the way. I finished Book 1 last night, so here are some of my current thoughts, organized around the epigraph.

It's a Barnum and Bailey world,
just as phony as it can be,
But it wouldn't be make believe
if you believed in me.
-"It's Only a Paper Moon" by Billy Rose and E.Y. "Yip" Harburg

1Q84's epigraph is an introduction to several themes in the first book. The first two lines of the epigraph deal with the notion of phony worlds. The books begins with Aomame, a young woman in a business suit, stuck in a tremendous traffic jam listening to Janacek's Sinfonietta. The cabbie advises her to take the emergency ladder down from the elevated expressway, but he warns, please remember: things are not what they seem... Things may look different to you than they did before. But don't let appearances fool you. There's always only one reality. Thus the notion of an alternate world is set up in the first few pages, and Aomame finds herself in that phony world by the time she reaches the bottom of the ladder.

The line in the epigraph "if you believed in me" suggests another of the novel's central themes: trust. Trust in others, trust in ourselves, trust in our perceptions of reality, and trust in love. Aomame finds herself unable to trust her own knowledge of the world. She is also very careful in deciding whom to trust with secrets of her past and present. She's not sure she can even trust her own body, either when doing her work or in the bedroom. Tengo seeks trust and to prove himself trustworthy in his storyline. He must decide whether to enter into a shady business deal with his editor, whom he knows does not tell him the whole story, and persuade a young girl and her protector to trust him, both emotionally and physically. I could write an entire paper about trust just in the first book!

An important symbol mentioned in the epigraph is the moon. It is used as a design motif throughout the book and plays a role in alerting Aomame to the change in her reality. The moon also figures in the life of the second protagonist, Tengo, whose story is told in alternating chapters with Aomame's. Tengo is a math genius but teaches at a cram school in order to have time to work on his novel. At one point while lying in bed, Tengo's older, married girlfriend, tells him about the origins of the English word lunatic. Luna means moon, she says, and Britain actually had laws that gave criminals a more lenient sentence, if it was believed that he had been acting under the influence of the moon. I wonder what would happen in a world with two moons? she ponders. Would people be twice as crazy?

Finally, the epigraph itself is a symbol of the importance of music in the novel. As with many of his other novels, Murakami infuses the book with music and references to all sorts of other pop culture icons as well, but music is the lynchpin.

Well, more next time. For now, it's to bed with my tea and the book.

Hi! Just wanted to weigh in on the library computers issue. Let me first say that I completely agree with your statement that you sent in to the radio station. I do agree that it's not possible to draw a line on what would or wouldn't be allowed and that as for many people a library is their only place to access information, it should all be available. That being said (and this is not a direct comment on the story you linked to since it wasn't an issue there), I live in a city and our city library has problems with this because of the lack of security. I have several times witnessed men in our library watching porn on the computers and, ahem, pleasuring themselves. This is absolutely not ok and it puts the librarians in a terrible situation since they should not be responsible for this sort of security issue, but the library does not have security guards or police on hand. We have a very small library and everything is all in one small room with the computers in the middle. I very rarely take my son to our library because of this and I don't like that.

So I say free access to all information, but also provide security to insure proper behavior to make the library comfortable to all.

>162 japaul22: this brings to mind The Incident Report by Martha Baillie, a novella-in-vignettes that has glimpses of how open and exposed a public library is.

Lisa, happy about Secret Letters from 0 to 10. I discovered it by following one of the rabbit-hole links you posted last year when you gathered sources for translated fiction.

161> I love your email to the news show. Thanks for sharing.

I also appreciate your thoughtful comments about IQ84, Lisa. I have a couple of books by Murakami sitting on my bedside shelf, but have not yet read his work. I think I'll get to this one, but only after giving Kafka on the Shore and perhaps a couple of others a try. This is heady work and your comments give me a sense of what to expect and how to meaningfully approach it.

All caught up, Lisa! I more than enjoy your thread, but have my usual problem: When I really care about a subject, my thoughts and feelings feel too complicated to try to parse into a few paragraphs. So much is left out (body language, tone of voice, immediate feedback) and it feels like the possibilities for misunderstandings are just too great to even get started. Maybe I don't do any better in person, but I just don't have the patience (or the ability?) to carry on the conversations I would like to when I have to put them in writing. Such a good place to try, too, since most LTers are invariably polite even when they disagree.

Caught up Lisa and an interesting issue there about the library computers. Given that the library is traditionally a family place to enjoy, porn doesn't really seem to fit in this context. I can understand a bit more if there is a separate section with privacy screens for the adults but if a kid can wander in and look, well, the library might need to separate it a bit better.

Our library has computers in the middle of the room, no screens, no children and adult sections, and I suspect the machines have filters to stop a few websites being accessed. There are no issues with this setup because it is a known family place and there are plenty of local internet cafes if people want unlimited internet access. Different countries though.

Anyway, back to books.. I enjoyed your review of the Millie Werber story.

Hi Lisa - just popping in to say I'm in the middle of Maus too and finding it very affecting. Will be keen to read your review.

I haven't been on LT much lately; thank you all for continuing to visit. I was getting overwhelmed in RL and needed to step away from the computer for a bit. Good news is that I have been doing some reading; bad news is that I haven't been writing reviews.

>162 japaul22: Thanks for visiting, japaul22. I wish I had the luxury to read. *sigh* Did you know we share 123 books? The situation at your library sounds gross. Fortunately the Seattle Public Librarians are instructed to call the police if they see such things.

>163 detailmuse: It's nice to hear that the list of sources for the world literature in English translation thread was useful, MJ. I too have used it recently to find a couple of books by women authors. I wonder if there is a way to move it to Club Read 2012 and thus keep it with us.

>164 EBT1002: Hi, Ellen. Since your post, I have finished 1Q84 and enjoyed it much more than the only other book I've read by Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. I gave 1Q84 four stars. I hope someday I feel like catching up on my reviews, because it was a very interesting book.

>165 bonniebooks: I agree wholeheartedly, Bonnie. Communication is hard enough without trying to do it online. I think this issue strikes a chord, because everyone wants to protect children, and most want to protect free speech too. I would like to think we can find a way to do both.

>166 KiwiNyx: Hi Leonie. It's interesting how different countries address such issues. Even within our area we have differing policies. Seattle Public Library has about 26 branches and was the one addressed in the news. In addition, we have the King County Library System that exists all around the SPL branches. KCLS uses filtering software on all computers, as well as privacy screens. So there are choices in the same community.

>167 cushlareads: Cushla, I was so glad to see that you were reading Maus parts I and II. It is one of my favorite books. I first read it shortly after it came out and also had the chance to hear the author speak. Last year MetaMaus came out, which is a book answering questions like Why the Holocaust? and Why mice? It also contains hundreds of sketches and photos, as well as transcripts of the author's interviews with his father. There is also a DVD with the book, but I haven't broached that yet. I've found it hard to read MetaMaus straight through, which is why I've read several other books since starting it. I think I should skip around more, since different parts are interrelated. It has everything you ever wanted to know about Maus and then some!

Nice to see you back, Lisa, and I completely understand the RL pull. Hope things are OK.

Glad you've surfaced. Hope it's RL in a good way.

Lisa- Glad to see you check in. We missed you. I'm glad you enjoyed 1Q84. I HOPE I can get to it, sometime this year. I'm also happy you loved the Maus books. They are amazing.

Thank you, Rebecca, qebo, and Mark. I hope I can continue to ease my way back into LT.

17. Coventry: A Novel by Helen Humphreys

I confess that my knowledge of the bombing of Coventry has been shaped in large part by Connie Willis' books, Fire Watch, Blackout, and All Clear. This novel by Canadian author Helen Humphreys is quite different in that it is less historical (and lacking time travel), however, her ability to create a sense of time and place and her relationship mirroring are well-done.

The book begins on the eve of the Great War with the separation of newlyweds Owen and Harriet. Owen has enlisted and is proudly off to France, and Ypres. They are both very young, and their sweet relationship becomes a sticking point in Harriet's perspective of life. When the novel jumps forward to WWII, Harriet still seems to be emotionally stuck in 1914.

Harriet agrees to fill in for her injured neighbor as a fire warden on the roof of Coventry Cathedral, expecting the usual distant bombing and tense boredom. It is November 14, 1940, the day the Germans firebomb Coventry. When the cathedral catches fire, she escapes with her fellow fire warden, Jeremy, and over the next day or two they form a close bond. Jeremy's youth and innocent bravery remind her of Owen.

In another parallel relationship, Harriet meets a women in 1914 and, although the two never exchange names, the two spend a glorious, carefree afternoon riding on the top of one of the new double-decker buses. During the bombing of Coventry twenty-five years later, the two meet one another once more. As these relationships spiral into increasing tension, the book moves toward its denouement.

A short novel at less than 200 pages, the plot moves quickly, but in that short amount of time, the author is able to recreate the look and feel of the place, and the terror and resignation, fear and bravery of the city's occupants.

"Do you think the bombing will last all night?" asks Harriet.
"How should I know?" says the woman.
The war has not improved people's tempers. All this talk of how it brings out the best in people is simply rubbish, thinks Harriet. Miserable people are made more miserable by the war's deprivations and dangers. Happy people can still return to being relatively cheerful. But everyone, regardless of temperament, is weary of the fighting, and nervous that they are losing the war...

A solid read, I was inspired enough to pick up another book by Humphreys, also set in WWII, called The Lost Garden.

We're in parallel reading universes. I've been off LT too, and just finished Coventry! I liked it a lot, but didn't like the coincidences. But I'll be looking for more of her books. And I haven't read the Connie Willis books but will look for them in the library.

How funny, first Maus, now Coventry! I'll have to scoot over and see what you are reading now.

ETA: I'm back and added your current read, The Great World, to my TBR list!

Humphreys sounds worthwhile, Lisa. I'll see if I can get Coventry from the library.

Hi Ellen! Coventry is a quick read and in some way, satisfying despite being sad, or warm fuzzy despite the topic. I don't know how to describe the positive emotion I came away with despite everything that happened in the book.

Quick update:

I'm loving In the Shadow of the Banyan and about to give up on Quiet: The Power of Introverts as too pop psychology-ish for me. The premise was good, but I'm finding the writing very anecdotal and unsubstantiated. I have to check out her bibliography (I'm listening on audio).

ETA: I stuck with Quiet a bit longer and am finding the current part heavy on brain research studies, which I like.

Hi Lisa. I see you read The Wedding of Zein and assume that 4 stars means you liked it. I read it last year (after hearing Leila Aboulela recommend it as one of her favorite books by a Sudanese author...actually, favorite books period) and really just loved it. I'll be interested in your comments when you get to them.

I see the gardening book in progress. I've got one going too, it's that time of year. Also curious to see your comments on the introvert book.

Reading your review of Coventry...it sounds interesting. The same set of Willis' books that you mention got me interested in the event, also.

Caught up! (now I need a nap).

Hi Lisa. I enjoyed The lost garden last year when I read it. I'll have to give Coventry a try.

Sorry I've been away from my thread for so long. RL has been requiring all my time and energy right now, although I have tried to keep up with a few threads on my phone. I'm about 8 or 10 books behind in reviewing, so I may have to resort to mini-reviews, which is hard for me. I feel as though I owe the book a fair shake at a review.

#178 Tad: The Wedding of Zein was very good, and I would like to read more by Salih. I was talking to another parent at my daughter's school, and he was saying how he heard Salih speak. When asked about the significance of the tree, Salih said it was just a tree. I wish I had heard the talk, because now I am doubly curious as to his thoughts about symbols in the book.

#179 qebo: Tis the season for the gardening books. My hands and arms are completely scratched, torn, and splintery from my bouts of mad pruning. I still haven't finished listening to Quiet, and I am still vacillating between being glad that someone is finally addressing the problems with the American extrovert ideal and being frustrated that many of the author's resources are secondary sources, such as news magazines.

#180 Tad: Have you read any other books about the bombing of Coventry that you would recommend?

#181 Lois: Naps are good. I had one for the first time in ages, and it was drool-on-the-pillow worthy!

#182 Ardene: Funny, I read Coventry and just picked up The Lost Garden. Did you enjoy it?

Hi Lisa- We missed you! Your thread was always a must read for me, since your book choices were so spot-on!
Glad to see you liked Orphan Master's. Can't wait to see more thoughts.

Missed you too, and sorry RL is so busy (and hoping it's busy in a good way).

Great seeing your thread humming again - real life is so annoying sometimes. Mini-reviews are better than no reviews, and I'm sure will have just as much effect on my WL.

20. The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson (4*) - 443 p.

It must be as difficult for a western author to write a novel set in North Korea, as it is for an ocean-dwelling creature to describe life above water. The differences between the two environments are so different, and, like the distortion created by the surface tension of water, the perspective is uncertain and misleading. Few authors attempt the feat, and those that do are hard pressed to avoid the stereotypes. Between research and guided tours to North Korea, Adam Johnson did due diligence in trying to write authentically, while at the same time creating a story that is compelling and a protagonist whose nature transcends the specifics of environment.

Pak Jun Do is named after a martyr to the revolution, all orphans are, and yet he doesn't consider himself an orphan. His father was the director of the orphanage and his mother was a singer who must be in Pyongyang even now, though he has never heard from her. Raised in brutal conditions, Jun Do spends his youth as many in his country do, as a faithful believer in the Dear Leader and the glorious purpose to which every life is dedicated. As a soldier, Jun Do learns to fight in preparation for the next American sneak attack, and when chosen for other violent work, he does so without question. But at several points in his life, Jun Do meets someone who represents an alternative mindset. A sea captain who cares for his young sailors more than for the state, or even himself. An old woman who remains true to her ideals and her teaching profession under the most inhumane of circumstances. People who allow him to see a different path for himself.

At first, I found myself constantly searching for the line between North Korean reality and the fictional plot. Do these things actually happen, or is it a plot device? But I remained engaged in the plot throughout, especially with the added complexity when, in the second half, the book shifts from straightforward narration to other perspectives on the plot: the first person narrative of an interrogator and a serialized story broadcast to the nation over loudspeakers. The book ends with a claustrophobic narrowing that intensifies both the inevitable ending and its attendant philosophical questions about heroism, loyalty, and love. For me, however, the story's real power lies with the protagonist and his gradual awakening to the nature of freedom. Although the setting is attention-getting, it became less import to me as a reader as I became more invested in the characters as they confront life's larger questions.

P.S. I'm glad I read Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy first.

I'm glad I read Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy first. Me too!

I felt myself constantly questioning whether Johnson had crossed a line between fact and fiction, mostly because of Demick's book Lisa. And although I ended up liking the book but I was still left with feelings of exaggeration and hyperbole. But I can't say whether or not I was right. I guess if that was his purpose, he succeeded magnificently.

Great review BTW.

19. River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh (3*) - 522 p.

When I finished the first book of the Ibis trilogy, Sea of Poppies, I was excited and desperate to immediately start the second. The wonderful characters were caught in a violent storm and amid mayhem several were attempting to escape in a dinghy. Unfortunately, I was number 200+ on the waiting list at the library and had to wait a couple of months before resuming the tale. At last it was my turn, and I eagerly began reading. The story did not pick up where the first left off, but decades later with a flash-forward that, in my opinion, contained spoilers. From there the plot line jumped several months post-Ibis, with glimpses of two familiar characters, but the focus was on new characters in a new situation. Imagine my disappointment!

Perhaps this was the start of a new and equally enthralling tale, I told myself gamely. But no. It was a struggle to read the first half of the book, and although the plot in the second half was more interesting, the characters never intrigued me the way Deeti and Kalua, Jodu, Ah Fatt, and Zachary did. River of Smoke is the story of Bahram, the prosperous opium dealer with whom Neel finds employment, and Robin Chinnery, the gay naif living in Canton, who communicates his adventures in letters to Pauline. Although present in the story, Neel plays only a peripheral role, and Pauline is talked to and about but never given voice.

For me, the book's saving grace was the history of Canton and the inhabitants whose actions instigated the Opium Wars. As the second half gained speed, I found myself reengaged with the story. Perhaps if I had not had certain expectations of continuity, River of Smoke would have stood on its own as a decent historical novel. The hypocrisy and belligerence of the British Empire seems shockingly at odds with the calm, logical Chinese. I enjoyed the descriptions of life in Canton, and I would like to read some nonfiction, if anyone has any suggestions!

Thanks, Mark, Rebecca, and Cushla. Hopefully I'll be able to spend more time with my friends here.

#188 Hi, Bonnie. I went back and reread your review, which I had already starred, and found myself nodding along. It's a hard book to rate for authenticity, when I know so little of the country. If you haven't already read it, you may find Barbara Demick's review in the Guardian of interest. She gives a thumbs up to the accuracy of the first half, but is less convinced of the second. Also of interest was a discussion on BOTNS of Christopher Beha's review in the NYT Sunday Book Review. In his review, Beha thinks that Johnson goes too far in lampooning Kim Jong-Il. More dispiriting still was seeing Kim Jong-il appear not just as a loony but as a kind of merry prankster. After reading the book, I think that although Dear Leader is portrayed as loony, Johnson does so in a serious way that implicates absolute power for egomania unleashed. What do you think?

190: It's a hard book to rate for authenticity, when I know so little of the country.
You might be interested in this discussion about The Orphan Master's Son: http://www.librarything.com/topic/129926#3241588 (posts 49-65).

An excellent review of The Orphan Master's Son, Lisa. I especially enjoyed your thoughts on the reality versus fiction issue which certainly prompted some interesting discussion on my thread. But I think you are exactly right that the story is ultimately about life's larger questions and its real power lies with the protagonist and his gradual awakening to the nature of freedom.

Interesting discussion of The Orphan Master's Son, especially in light of the Demick book, which I found very impressive.

As for the Ghosh, I was so disappointed in the one book of his I read, The Hungry Tide, that I never read Sea of Poppies even though so many people loved it.

ETA #190 Hope so too!

Nice to see you back reviewing again Lisa.

HOw did you like the Maus books? I have used them before in my class on the Holocaust.

>190 labfs39:. Well Lisa, the lampooning of Kim Jong Il was another aspect of the book that I gave some thought to, but never really bought into. I wasn't quite sure why Johnson resorted to it as it didn't appear to add anything relevant to the story. And when you lay this caricature next to some of the atrocities that his regime carries out (according to the author) it's very hard to figure out what he is trying to convey but your idea of absolute power for egomania unleashed is certainly a good one that never occurred to me. So I think you're saying that this caricature personifies his craziness and he used it as a device to address concerns he had that w/o it he couldn't convey how disturbed the man is?? Is that how you saw it? Interesting. I'm not sure about that but w/o being able to justify any other reason for It I could be persuaded.

Thank you so much for the link to the Demick review. I actually e mailed her after I read the book to get her take on it but never got any response. It seems like one of her lackeys could have responded with that link because it certainly answers my question.

As for River of Smoke, I liked it more than you did but I certainly liked Sea of Poppies better. Actually, when I met Ghosh back in March, I told him that I was disappointed that Deeti's role didn't continue in the second part of the trilogy. She was such a complex character; but then I got caught up in the Canton story and was able to enjoy the book.

Hi Lisa. Thanks for the review of The Orphan Master's Son. Your postscript was helpful - Nothing to Envy is high on my TBR pile and now I'll be sure to read it before I read TOMS.

eta: I have River of Smoke from the library, it's almost due, and I've been disinclined to pick it up from the pile. Can't say why, but your review isn't pushing me toward it. I do want to read it, but I'm not excited about it. Weird.

Hi Lisa, I see RL has interfered with your reading as well. I'm sorry to see you didn't care for Nemesis very much. Maybe, it's a" love-it-or-hate-it-book"?
Anuway, I hope to catch up with you soon. I'm planning to get some serious reading done :-)

#191 Thank you, qebo, for directing me to Linda's thread. Not only did I find the discussion very interesting, but I have now starred Linda's thread.

#192 I couldn't stop reading on your thread, Linda. You write thoughtfully and beautifully. I will try to keep up, or at least drop in for long visits. Not to rehash the old, but in regards to one of the comments made by a visitor to your thread, I think my life would be very narrow if I only read in the languages and cultures of which I was already well versed. Reading is, for me, a chance to explore beyond my own experience and perspective. Should I never read about the stars because I am not an astronomer? Should I never read Dante because I can't read it in the original? But, I'm sure others read for different purposes.

Last year I read and reviewed The Things They Carried, and an interesting discussion about the various merits and pitfalls of historical fiction, nonfiction, and fiction ensued, which you may wish to peek at beginning here. Or even early with post #15 of that thread.

#193 Hi, Rebecca. I have a couple of Ghosh's books, but Sea of Poppies was the first that I read. I may still try The Glass Palace and give him another chance, as I did like Sea of Poppies. I looked for your review of The Hungry Tide and didn't see it on the work page. What did you dislike about the book and/or his writing?

#194 Thanks, Barry!

#195 I love the Maus books, Tess. I've read them several times over the years, and I reread them this time in order to get more out of MetaMaus, which I got distracted from through no fault of the book. In additional to the impact of his father's story, I am amazed at how well he is able to do the story within the story and write so openly about his troubled relationship with his father. I would love to see your reading list for your Holocaust class. How do your students react to Maus?

#196 I envy your easy camaraderie with authors, Bonnie. What did Ghosh say in response to your comment?

As for your comments about how Kim Jong Il is portrayed in The Orphan Master's Son, I think what I was trying to say was that I don't think Johnson's depiction was intended simply as ridicule. Rather I read it as a comment on how absolute power has the power to corrupt absolutely. If you can do anything to anyone at any time, what sorts of megalomanic and ridiculous things might you stoop to? In this sense the absurdity reflects the power as much as it does the eccentricities. I found it rather chilling rather than funny.

#197 What did you think of Sea of Poppies, Ellen? I hope you do get to Nothing to Envy, it isn't a book to enjoy per se, but it was fascinating.

#198 Nice to see you, Monica. We both came out of our RL craziness at the same time, I think. My problem with Nemesis had a lot to do with my dislike of the antihero in general. Bucky seems heroic at first, and then devolves into a weak and frustrating character (at least for me). His O Woe is Me attitude grated, especially at the end.

26 Fairmount Avenue by Tomie DePaola (Newbery Honor book)

My daughter and I read this aloud and enjoyed it despite it being a rather short early reader. It is the first in a series of books that the wonderful children's author/illustrator wrote about his childhood. In this book, Tomie and his family are anxiously waiting to move into their new house, but are delayed by various problems. I love DePaola's descriptions of his grandparents and other family members. And the best part was Tomie's first day of kindergarten.

"When do we learn how to read?" I asked.

"Oh, we don't learn to read in kindergarten. We learn to read next year, in first grade."

"Fine," I said. "I'll be back next year." And I walked right out of the school and all the way home.

Friends of Strega Nona and Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs will love these stories.

>200 labfs39:. Well it was more or less me running off at the mouth and him pretending to listen LOL, Lisa. He just grinned and signed my book and hoped I'd go away I guess and not make suggestions about his writing.

I see what you're saying about Johnson's approach. I can't say I found it funny at all but not chilling either. I' ll have to give it more thought.

ETA love Tomie De Paola!

10. Secret Letters from 0 to 10 by Susie Morgenstein, translated from the French by Gill Rosner (4*)

Thanks to MJ for this one!

Ernest lives a constrained, boring life. His mother died when he was born, and his father disappeared shortly after, so Ernest is being raised by his grandmother, a woman so wrapped in the past that she has forgotten how to live. Every day Ernest walks the same way to school, eats the same foods, and studies diligently alone in his room. The ten years of his life had passed so far at a turtle's pace, as if it had been slowed down by the premature onset of old age. Then one day, a new girl appears in his class who changes everything with her forthright manner and large, boisterous family. Victoria introduces color and vivacity into the lives of Ernest and his grandmother.

He repeated {to his grandmother} something Victoria had said: "Energy is like eating. Once you try a little, you get an appetite."

With newly found confidence and togetherness, Ernest and his grandmother are able to confront the family's ghosts and move on.

My daughter and I read this aloud, and we both enjoyed it a great deal. My daughter relished the relationship between Ernest and Victoria and their escapades. I appreciated the relationship of a child and family member who are trying to overcome emotional inertia to reconnect and find a new way forward together. The language is smart and the story is touching without being sappy. Nicely done.

#199, Lisa, I probably read The Hungry Tide before I started posting reviews. It's been a few years, but I remember I was very impressed by the sense of place Ghosh created in the watery land of the Bangladesh delta area, but the story itself seemed a little obvious and the treatment of the environmental issues a little heavy-handed and self-righteous.

21. Children in Reindeer Woods by Kristín Ómarsdóttir, translated from the Icelandic by Lytton Smith

Look for my full review in an upcoming issue of Belletrista.

Eleven year old Billie is unusual. Her father is a puppet controlled by people on another planet, she lives on some sort of farm for children, and she survives the day the soldiers come. Published by Open Letter, this astounding novel is the author's first to be translated into English.

I'll look for your upcoming review - I'm very interested in books published by Open Letter.

Although I was put off by the idea of Billie's father being a puppet controlled by people on another planet, I love the title of this book and am impressed by your calling it "astounding." As I have a subscription to Open Letter, perhaps this will come in the mail!

Thanks Lisa! You made my day with your kind comments. I'm easy to keep up with compared to many others here and I'll look forward to your visits. Your review of The Things They Carried was wonderful. O'Brien's "story-truth" is such a great phrase. I have you starred and am looking forward to following your reviews.

#202 Ha, ha, Bonnie! When I had Doc signed, all I could do was stammer incoherently and gush!

#204 Your comment, Rebecca, the story itself seemed a little obvious and the treatment of the environmental issues a little heavy-handed and self-righteous could apply to River of Smoke as well, except it was historical, rather than environmental. Although the British seem to have been amazing hypocritical during the period leading to the Opium Wars, Ghosh paints such a one-sided picture that one has to wonder. I just don't know enough of the history to be informed on the issue.

#206 Hello, DieFledermaus. I too am interested in Open Letter publications and feel lucky to have gotten a sneak peek at one of their books.

#207 Hi Rebecca, before I excite your expectations, I meant surprising/astonishing, not astounding. The book is very unusual and has different layers of meaning. The puppets are actually (I think) a metaphor for her father's alcoholism. I'm still putting my thoughts together, so stay tuned. I hope you get the book soon, because I would love to get your take on it too!

#208 Thanks, Linda. Have you read The Things They Carried?

Hi Lisa. I liked Sea of Poppies quite a bit, once I got into it. I will give River of Smoke a try, but I think I'll put it back on hold until June when there is a G.R. for it.

You know, I was looking at The Things They Carried at Powell's this weekend and trying to remember if I've read it. I think that I have not, but that it has been on my mental TBR list for years. You piqued my curiosity and I just went over to your Club Read thread from 2011 and skimmed through the discussion of historical fiction, the nature and substance of "truth," the reasons for reading historical fiction, etc. Very interesting conversation; thanks for posting the link to it.

I haven't read The Things They Carried yet, Lisa, although I have long felt that I should and your review has convinced me.

#209, Interesting about River of Smoke. I think the British have been "amazingly hypocritical" about their colonial activities in general, at least from what I've read in African fiction.

#210, Although I would be the first to say I don't remember everything I've read, I think you'd remember if you'd read The Things They Carried!

"Energy is like eating. Once you try a little, you get an appetite."
Ha, something I need to remember when I get behind on my reviews.

Lisa you're back in a tour de force, what a great week of reviews and reactions!

#210-211 I purchased The Things They Carried thinking it was a novel. I'm not a huge short story reader, and probably wouldn't have bought it otherwise. In some ways, I ended up as thinking of it as essays, both on the war and on writing. I enjoyed the conversation that ensued on LT very much.

#212 I wouldn't judge those of us with horrible memories too harshly. I find myself retaining less and less from even those books I love. It used to be that I could remember everything about a book, down to the look of the pages. I thought it would be forever. Now I can barely remember what I've read, if I liked it, and the major themes. Names, dates, details are lost. I worry about it frankly. Perhaps it's like eyes. When you've had exceptional vision and then need bifocals, the difference can seem enormous. Whereas if you start out with normal vision, the gap seems less (or so he says). Does anyone else suffer from memory loss anxiety?

#213 Thanks, MJ. I seem so far behind that I will need a voracious appetite to catch up!

>214 labfs39:: Does anyone else suffer from memory loss anxiety?

Absolutely! Like you, books...especially those I enjoyed...seemed permanently etched in my memory. So much so that my wife continually talks about how I remember everything I read. It's not true any longer. Not by a long shot.

Is it just the storage is full? Is it just an older brain less susceptible to imprinting? Is it dementia? I do worry.

I've watched two movies in the last week, a rare thing for me, and both of them are based on books I've read in the last year or so. Talk about extremes: one was excellent, and the other horrid.



Directors: Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi
Writers: Marjane Satrapi (comic), Vincent Paronnaud (scenario)
Stars: Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve and Gena Rowlands

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is an incredible memoir and, along with Maus convinced me that graphic novels could be as powerful as word novels. I was dubious though if I would like the movie. First was my usual fear that the movie would never be as good as the book. Then I was unsure if I would like the still artwork animated. If you too feel either of these concerns, please don't let them stop you from watching the film. It was amazing. It is very true to the book, perhaps because Satrapi co-directed it with Vincent Paronnaud. And the animation added a dreamy, floating quality to a part of the book that brought home the effects of some antidepressants and of depression in general. The use of color was a visual reminder of the vivacity of freedom. Altogether I thought it was as well done as the book, if not more so, and I tried to talk my husband into watching it, just so I would have an excuse to start it over again.



Director: Steven Soderbergh
Writers: Paul Attanasio (screenplay), Joseph Kanon (novel)
Stars: George Clooney, Cate Blanchett and Jack Thompson

The Good German by Jospeph Kanon is a thought-provoking thriller about revenge versus justice and the moral decision of when to stop prosecuting a nation for it's war crimes. It also includes a murder mystery centered around black marketeering and the American and Russian competition to buy or coerce Nazi scientists into working for them. The movie opens with actual post-war footage of Berlin and is filmed in black and white to try and create a certain mood. George Clooney plays Jake, who ends up looking and acting like Bogart in Casablanca. The writer of the screenplay conflated the two lead female characters into one; the result being an ineffectual femme fatale that was a travesty to the tradegies suffered by the women in the book. I found it an affront to the book, and my husband, who has not read the book, said so little background was given that even following the murder mystery action was difficult. Need I say, I wouldn't recommend this one?

#214, 214 Does anyone else suffer from memory loss anxiety?

All the time, so at least I remember that I worry about it! Seriously though, I recommend The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain: The Surprising Talents of the Middle-Aged Mind, a book which I read after hearing the author interviewed on NPR. Basically, if you can't remember where you put the keys, no problem; if you can't remember what keys are for, problem.

And thanks, for the movie report. I read The Good German (somebody gave it to me) and it thoroughly irritated me (although I now longer remember why), but I'm glad you liked the movie; maybe it was better than the book.

#215 Thanks, Tad, the memory deprived love company! Now who are you again? ;-) I absolutely hate not being able to remember things. My memory was something I associated with who I was. Now I feel like part of me is gone.

#217 if you can't remember where you put the keys, no problem; if you can't remember what keys are for, problem. Well that's good, but it still doesn't make me happy, if you know what I mean.

And I think you got the movie reviews mixed up, Rebecca. I hated the movie version of the Good German. It was Persepolis I liked. :-)

217: I recommend The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain: The Surprising Talents of the Middle-Aged Mind
Oh? I could use reassurance. :-)

214: I find myself retaining less and less from even those books I love.
My retention from books has never been great, but now it's horrible. I tend to remember _that_ I read about something, and _where_ I read about it, but have trouble recalling or articulating details. This is the major reason reviews are so difficult to write. I'll begin to compose a sentence, and realize I have only a vague impression.

215: Is it just the storage is full? Is it just an older brain less susceptible to imprinting? Is it dementia? I do worry.
Been there done that? The brain has already got itself organized and doesn't want to reorganize for some bit of trivia?

Memory-loss due to stress?
http://www.memorylossonline.com/spring2002/stress.htm
Or maybe just too many books in too little time? When I was little I read appr. 1 book per week, digested it, read it over once or twice over the next few years. Now, we're just rushing from one book to another and probably have more hectic lives than during childhood... So where do we find the time to take it all in, in order to remember it?

220 Now, we're just rushing from one book to another

Good point about the rushing. Maybe we should read fewer books but more intently?

I find writing about the books I read slows me down and helps me remember what I have read. I get so enthused by the writing that I am just as likely to go back and read the book again.

Knowing that I will write a review on a book definitely makes me think more about the book as I read it. On the other hand, all the "group reads" here on LT, the "themed reads," and the enthusiasm generated by everyone's wonderful recommendations puts a lot of pressure on me to read more and read faster. I feel guilty when I'm not reading, and I suppose that's stress that isn't good for me.

#218, Oops, I did mix that up, Lisa. But I still didn't like the book, although it seems you did.

#222, 223 I agree that writing about a book makes me think about it more and also helps me remember it better. Of course, it also helps me because I can go back to the review to refresh my memory!

I'm in agreement with you, Lisa, the movie version of The Good German was not great at all. I enjoyed the book as it illuminated a period after the war that I hadn't read much about before.

>The brain {...} doesn't want to reorganize
"They say" now that reorganization is the key to maintaining/improving mental function -- rather than puzzles/etc that reinforce existing pathways, it's the difficult, even uncomfortable, stuff (like learning a new language or computer system) that creates new pathways and provides neural redundancy.

>203 labfs39: – . . . the enthusiasm generated by everyone's wonderful recommendations puts a lot of pressure on me to read more and read faster. I feel guilty when I'm not reading, and I suppose that's stress that isn't good for me.

Such a sad comment. Rather than feeling pressure and guilt, think instead how frustrating it is when life impinges upon precious reading time.

#217 For those who are interested, the NPR interview with the author of The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain: The Surprising Talents of the Middle-Aged Mind is available online. The interview and book were recommended by Rebecca (and Lois).

#219 I know what you mean about writing reviews when stressed, qebo. I have to go back and look up the main character's name!

#220 Thanks for sharing the article, Monica. Stress is probably a big factor. I am one of those people with a very quick-to-trigger fight or flight response. I wish I could find the right activity or combination of things that would allow me to be a calmer, in-the-moment kind of person. I so admire people who can relax!

#221 Hello, Sassy. I seem to have the inverse situation. The more relaxed I am, the more I read, the more I retain, and the better I write. It's when I can't read, or read very slowly, that I know I'm stressed.

#222 I don't know if it helps me remember things longer, but writing does help me clarify my thinking. I'm sorry I haven't been reading more of your writing lately, Barry. Limiting email and screen time seems to help when I'm overwhelmed.

#223 I share your plight, Steven. LT brings me much pleasure, but also some pressure. There are so many wonderful people to follow and interesting things going on that it can be hard to keep up. Which is why I found it helpful to take a little hiatus. But then I felt compelled to try and catch up again, so I don't know where the balance point ended up.

#224 I too find my reviews a good memory refresher, Rebecca. My husband read a book the other day, and I couldn't remember if I had read it. I checked LT, and I had given it 3*, but no review. Now I don't know if I did read it, and it didn't make a lasting impression, or if I accidentally starred it when looking at books in the column mode.

#225 Exactly why I liked The Good German too, Kerry.

#226 Hmm, makes sense, MJ. I heard that even taking a different route to work can stimulate a complacent brain. I do love my crossword puzzles, but perhaps I should think about challenging myself with something new. It's just so stressful to think of adding something more to my agenda!

#227 Ah, if only real life and reading could be one and the same for me. It reminds me of a comic that Darryl once shared. Something about a reader's ideal life being spent either in prison or in a monastery, places where you have lots of time. One sounds more pleasant than the other though. ;-)

I picked up my books for World Book Night tonight. I received 20 copies of Ender's Game, and I'm taking them to Tent City (a semi-permanent homeless center) next week to give away. My local indie bookstore received the books and gave each giver a gift card to the store and another to the cafe. How nice is that? So, I immediately had to browse. Although I saved my gift card for a rainy day, I ended up purchasing five books. My daughter said I deserved it, and who was I to argue? I did get them all from the discount shelves though.

The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna, translated from the Finnish by Herbert Lomas (Penguin Originals)

A man hits a rabbit with his car one night, and it changes his life. He decides to give up his job and family to roam the woods for a year with a rabbit for a companion.

Nature Stories by Jules Renard, translated from the French by Douglas Parmee (NYRB)

Beautiful short pieces about different types of animals.

A Country Doctor's Notebook by Mikhail Bulgakov, translated from the Russian by Michael Glenny (Harvill Press)

Bulgakov's account of his first year as a rural Russian doctor in 1916-17

Talking to the Enemy: Stories by Avner Mandelman, Israeli, Best American Short Stories, Pushcart Prize XX (Seven Stories Press)

Although not a huge short story fan, several of these sounded particularly interesting, and it was only $2 :-)

The Stalin Epigram by Robert Littell (Simon & Schuster)

A fictionalized account of Osip Mandelstam, a dissident poet who ran afoul of Stalin. Not completely sure about this one. I may find that I would prefer a biography. But again, for $2, I thought I would try it.

Surprisingly, all the authors of the books I purchased are male.

I've nearly bought The Stalin Epigram several times, so I'm looking forward to you reading it, whenever you get time.

Nice haul, Lisa! I enjoyed A Country Doctor's Notebook, BTW.

Nature Stories
The Year of the Hare
A Country Doctor's Notebook

Interesting! Nature Stories is one I've meant to pursue after not snagging it through Early Reviewers.

I agree. Nice haul. I enjoyed A Country Doctor's Notebook too, even though I'm not, like Darryl, a doctor. Love your description of The Year of the Hare!

I loved The Year of the Hare when I read it last year. It wasn't what I expected from the description on the cover, but I found it quite interesting, with layers.

#230 I think it was the cover that sold me on the Stalin Epigram. It's an illustrated hardcover with a peekaboo dust cover.



You can't really tell, but the star is cut out to show the face on the hardcover. Interestingly, it's Osip's face on the books, but Stalin's face on the audiobook covers.

#231 Hi Darryl, I'm looking forward to A Country Doctor's Notebook. It's nice to know it passes a doctor's muster.

#232 Was Nature Stories an ER book recently, MJ? I must have missed it. I'm looking forward to dipping into it with Katie. It's definitely a book that can be enjoyed in tiny bits. Have you read the other books you listed?

#233 Well if both you and Darryl enjoyed it, Rebecca, I'm sure to be in for a treat!

#234 Ellen, your comment that The Year of the Hare has layers immediately brought to mind:

Shrek: For your information, there's a lot more to ogres than people think.
Donkey: Example?
Shrek: Example... uh... ogres are like onions!
{holds up an onion, which Donkey sniffs
Donkey: They stink?
Shrek: Yes... No!
Donkey: Oh, they make you cry?
Shrek: No!
Donkey: Oh, you leave 'em out in the sun, they get all brown, start sproutin' little white hairs...
Shrek: peels an onion} NO! Layers. Onions have layers. Ogres have layers. Onions have layers. You get it? We both have layers.
walks off}
Donkey: Oh, you both have LAYERS. Oh. You know, not everybody like onions. What about cake? Everybody loves cake!

23. The Girl Giant by Kristen Den Hartog

Review to appear in the next issue of Belletrista.

Excerpt: Ruth Brennan is a wonderful character. She is a giant, a girl who grows to enormous height, and her family struggles to cope by pretending all is normal, until medical issues finally bring her condition into the open. Much more than a coming-of-age story, Ruth relates her childhood, her relationships with her parents, and their relationship with each other with gentleness, compassion, and insight.

24. Talking to the Enemy by Avner Mandelman

Although I don't usually read short stories (I used to say if it was less than 500 pages, it wasn't a book), I picked up this small collection primarily because of the cover, the prizes it has been awarded, and the price. Not very nuanced, I know. But instead of ending up on a shelf to get dusty, I was intrigued enough to crack open the book the next day.

The first story, Pity, follows the thoughts and actions of a Sayeret operative, an Israeli special forces commando, on an operation to capture and transport to Israel an elderly Nazi living in Paris. The operative has done abductions before, but never a Nazi, and after ten days of surveillance, he and his partner are on edge, ready to ignore orders and just take him out. When the order finally comes that the mission is a go, they are joined by an inexperienced female embassy katsa (intelligence officer) who throws their plans awry. The operation begins and nothing goes as planned.

Several other stories in the collection, notably Terror and Test follow the life of this same man. Each story is incredibly blunt in its depiction of the language and prejudices of a career soldier trained to hate anyone who threatens his people, especially Arabs. Yet he is also a sympathetic character. It's as though the author sets the reader up to dislike his protagonist, and then turns the lens back on the reader. I was impressed with the precision of Mandelman's language and the depth of emotion he can convey in a very unemotional way.

Two of the stories, Mish-Mash and Curse, are different from the others. They are very funny, and both include the character, Getzl, a yeshiva student who never manages to become a rabbi, will only speak Yiddish, and thinks he knows all. He could have fallen from the pages of a Sholem Aleichem tale. Mish-Mash, in particular, was laugh out loud funny.

The ninth and final story in the collection is Og, a dark tale of the Amarite king who was slain by Moses. He features in both the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an, as well as in folktales throughout the region. In this version, Og is raised from the dead by two Sanhedrin Elders who need his services once again. Og knows that he has been repeatedly called up to fight in defense of the city of Bashan, and he knows that the only way to win is to break the rules of war. After every battle, he has been tried and executed for breaking the rules, despite its being the only way to save the people. Once again, Og is facing his Catch-22. The story's relevance is obvious, yet poignant.

Note: Avner Mandelman was born in Israel and served in the Israeli Air Force during the Six-Day War. For the past four decades he has bounced between Paris, California, and Canada, where he has also published a short story collection called Cuckoo (not in LT).

Good review of Talking to the enemy Lisa. You have done a service to the book by being the first to place a review.

Excellent review of Talking to the Enemy, Lisa. I am interested in reading fiction and poetry that enlightens the viewpoint of those from both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, so on to the wishlist it goes.

Great review of Talking to the Enemy, which I have now added to my ever growing list. You're right about the cover, too!

Do you know if the story Pity was used as the basis for the movie The Debt? That had a location of East Berlin, but otherwise the plot sounds similar.

Great review, and I'll certainly look for it.

Hi Lisa- Great review of Talking to the Enemy. As you know, I love short stories, so this would fit in perfectly.

>241 SassyLassy: That's exactly what I was thinking! I can see Helen Mirren now.

Of course an excellent review Lisa and now Talking to the Enemy sits firmly atop the teetering tower.

>236 labfs39: Lisa, they're on my wishlist, Nature Stories from being an ER a couple years ago. But I'm trying to get to the nature offerings in my TBRs first, most notably an annotated Walden!

#239 Hi Barry, it's rare to be the only one to have posted a review. We tend to be a rather prolific group of readers.

#240 It was an interesting viewpoint, Linda. I've read a fair number of books by Palestinian authors and lots about the Holocaust, but very little from a modern Israeli perspective. That said, Mandelman has not lived in Israel for 40 years, but his portrayal of the Israeli operative feels very real, perhaps because of his own time in the IDF.

#241 Hmm, I read the synopsis of The Debt on IMDB, Sassy and other than Israeli agents attempting to abduct a Nazi, I don't know that the plots are very similar. They may touch on similar themes though, I don't know. I'll have to see if I can find the movie. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

#242 Thanks, I would be interested to see what you think, Rebecca.

#243 I seem to have missed the section in your thread when you had a discussion about short stories. Do you remember when it was, Mark?

#244 Talking to the Enemy may not be for everyone, Bonnie, but I found there to be substance below the occasional cuss word and flip biases. I definitely have to find The Debt. I wonder how I missed it?

#245 Hi, MJ. My daughter and I are a couple of chapters into My Family and Other Animals and alternating hysterical laughter with awe at his descriptions. I think we will tackle Nature Stories next. It's hard for me to hold back to her pace--they are both so good!

Hi Lisa- I had to find it too! LOL. Thread 5, starts on post #164. You can find the link on my Profile page. It was a nice discussion and I added several collections to the WL and to my TBR pile. I am currently reading You are Not a Stranger Here and it's been excellent.
There is also a Short Story Challenge going too. I'll come back with the link. Here it is:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/135063#t
I'm seriously considering doing my own Short Story Challenge for the rest of the year, similar to my NF one.

>236 labfs39: Lisa, you cracked me up! I have to admit that I love Shrek. It was work by Eddie Murphy finally worth enjoying.

I'm going to investigate the Short Story Challenge; your review of Talking to the Enemy is excellent.

#247 Thanks for sharing the thread and link, Mark. I missed the April SS Challenge, but got lots of ideas. You Are Not a Stranger Here sounds like the type of book you need to be in the right mood for. I'll keep a look out on your thread for your SS story year plan.

#248 I'm glad somebody besides me found it funny, Ellen! :-)

Summary for April:
5 books, 1 audiobook
1532 pages and 10 hours 39 minutes of audio
3 women authors, 3 men
includes authors from Iceland, Canada, Israel

TIOLI challenges for April:
Completed 4

Challenge #5: Read a work in which one of the main characters described with a word ending in –ologist
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (horologist)

Challenge #7: Finish a book that you started between January 1, 2012 and March 28, 2012
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

Challenge #9: Read a book with a title that includes only the vowels in the word "April"
The Girl Giant by Kristen den Hartog

Challenge #15: Read a book with a wild mammal (no pets) in the title
Children in Reindeer Woods by Kristín Ómarsdóttir

Hi Lisa, just catching up. I hope your World Book Night giveaway went well. I listened to a radio programme recently about last year's UK giveaway and it made me realise the impact it can have.

Also looking forward to seeing what you think of A Country Doctor's Notebook!

Hi Rebeki, thanks for stopping by. Conversation to be continued on my next thread.