Paul's Race to 75 Part 15

The last thread looked at day markets in North-Eastern Malaysia - this is a typical night market (pasar malam).

Books read so far:
1 North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
2 The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff
3 The Guards by Ken Bruen
4 Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
5 Lyrics Alley by Leila Aboulela
6 Shadow by Karin Alvtegen
7 The Road Home by Rose Tremain
8 One Pair of Hands by Monica Dickens
9 Pure by Andrew Miller
10 The Appointment by Herta Muller
11 The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
12 The Battle of Pollocks Crossing by J.L. Carr
13 No Glossing Over It by Gary Edwards
14 Unknown by Mari Jungstedt
15 The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
16 Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald
17 Zoo Station by David Downing
18 The Troubled Man by Henning Mankell
19 Jack Sheppard by William Ainsworth
20 An Idiot Abroad by Karl Pilkington
21 The Fourth Man by K.O. Dahl
22 Christine Falls by Benjamin Black
23 Troubles by J.G. Farrell
24 My Life in Cricket by Dennis Lillee
25 Voyageurs by Margaret Elphinstone
26 The Affair by Lee Child
27 The Potter's Field by Andrea Camilleri
28 The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
29 The Blessing Way by Tony Hillerman
30 Praying Mantis by Andre Brink
31 Parky by Michael Parkinson
32 All Men Are Liars by Alberto Manguel
33 The Detour by Gerbrand Bakker
34 The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursual Le Guin
35 Legion of the Damned by Sven Hassel
36 Treblinka : A Survivor's Memory by Chil Rajchman
37 L'Enver de Treblinka by Vasily Grossman
38 Open Season by C.J. Box
39 Divorcing Jack by Colin Bateman
40 The Chalk-Circle Man by Fred Vargas

Currently reading
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, The Devil in the Kitchen by Marco Pierre White, Lovely Green Eyes by Arnost Lustig, Eternal by Craig Russell, The Girl of His Dreams by Donna Leon, The Song of Achilles by Margaret Millar, The Butterfly Effect by Pernille Rygg

Best Books of the Year so far:
Literary Fiction
1. The Road Home
2 Lyrics Alley
3 Wolf Hall
Thrillers
1. Zoo Station
2. The Troubled Man
3. The Potter's Field
4 Divorcing Jack

12 in 12 categories

1: Historical Fiction 3/12
2: 19th Century Fiction 3/12
3: Biography 5/12
4: In translation 5/12
5: Series Starts 6/12
6: Scandicrimesters 3/12
7: Sci-Fi 2/12
8: Noughties 1/12
9: One Word Titles 3/12
10: African Born Writers 3/12
11: Bought and Read in 2012 5/12
12: Off the Shelves 0/12 (IN RESERVE FOR THE END OF THE YEAR)

This is already my 15th thread and I am staggered at that actually as this is more than the whole of last year by a considerable margin. Thanks to everyone who visits and makes it a pleasure to open the internet and look forward to comments. Thanks to SWMBO, my children, my pets (Bambi the aeronautical feline especially), my long suffering maid, my staff and all who give me plenty to talk about. Long may it continue.

New thread - and I am early this time!
Another great market picture.

Pretty stressful day thus far.

New driver started this morning after his interesting interview of yesterday. SWMBO and I double teamed him and we were at pains to point out to him that the two of us are prone to the occasional cross word and that he is not to take any criticism by one of the other seriously! I think he was wondering what he was letting himself in for.

Started with a couple of meetings near the old airport and his directional skills were sorely pressed. Needless to say it will be some time before I am comfortable enough to get through chapters of reading whilst he's driving. His name is Amin (which means Amen in arabic) and let's hope he is an end to those particular prayers.

Had my grilling in arbitration as a so-called expert witness late morning and afternoon. Always prided myself on my command of Malay and the other sides lawyer seemed determined to show I couldn't understand some of the documents written in the local vernacular. Think I scapred through. Pretty fizzy exchanges throughout with a very attractove chinese lady lawyer representing the respondents and it was tiring but stimulating fencing with her for a couple of hours! (Don't tell the boss)

Natalie - welcome on board as first up. Will have to consider what special prize is applicable!

Hi Paul - just checking in to the new thread. Hope the new driver works out and you can go back to the uninterrupted reading.

Hi Paul- Congrats on Number 15! Quite impressive. I like the sound of Divorcing Jack. It sounds like my kind of book. Sorry your week is starting out badly. It can only going up from here, right?

No sooner do I catch up on your old thread than you skip to a new one!

Your life sounds so full of interesting experiences - or perhaps its just the way you write about it all! Being grilled and cross examined by attractive chinese lawyers one minute, and fervently hoping your new driver lives up to his name the next...

I love the photos of markets - on the last thread and this one. I always take loads of photos in markets when I'm visiting somewhere - I love to record the riot of colours and shapes and unexpected objects piled high.

Hi Paul! I just got caught up here. I'm intrigued by Divorcing Jack, although my audiobook outlets do not carry it.

I hope your family issues are resolved in the best way possible. Take care.

Congrats on thread 15, Paul!! Wishing you good fortune with your new driver. As always, I love the photo that you have posted up top.

Also wishing you good fortune with your new driver.

I'm another who had glasses from an early age. I was in first grade - 5 or 6 years old - when I got my first pair of "coke bottles." My mom wouldn't let me get contacts until I was 13 but I have been wearing them ever since. Except my eye doctor fussed at me for wearing them too much so I don't put them in until mid-morning now.

Night market - open air - nice...

Good luck with Amin... I can't believe you chose him over me! That's ok, I still love you! :)

Thanks Calm - I did manage a few pages of The Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas which is next up for Mark's murder and mayhem but I had one eye on the road at the same time. His first day so let's see.

Mark - thought about you mate both whilst enjoying Divorcing Jack and prior to posting up the brief review - just your cup of tea methinks. The dialogue zips along and the gags are thick and fast. Sharkey was arguing with his girlfriend about condoms/unprotected sex and he informs us that they agreed on the withdrawal mathod. Sharkey is a protestant irish unionist and the girlfriend a nationalist catholic. He goes on to tells us that he didn't remove in time with the conclusion "the English never withdraw from Ireland" - crude but magnificent.
btw bought Plugged yesterday by Eoin Colfer who dedicates it to your mate - Ken Bruen; whom it is apparently written in imitation of. Should be worth looking at.

Genny - Nice of you to give my storytelling the thumbs up, but little embroidering is required to be honest. Life is full here and mainly enjoyable although I did have an hour and a half nap when I got home as a lack of sleep yesterday combined with a busy day and no lunch knocked me over.

Kerri - lovely to see you here - I don't think my father will pay any attention to my missive but it is worth a try at least to see if he can be brought shamefaced to his senses.

Mamie - thanks - the pasar malam most local to us (virtually over the road) is tonight and Erni has been pitting her wits against the local stallholders bartering for their produce - fish, fruit, vegetables and dried foods such as ikan bilis which are various types of dried small fish / anchovies especially. She has returned as usual laden with goodies including my favourite kuih bakar dengan pandan (literally baked pastry with pandan) which is finished already!

Morphy - love the "coke bottles" description. Belles's at -175 both eyes are not so bad as yet but I get a buzz from how happy she seems to be to be wearing them - I remember considering mine a real stigma. I am not well organised enough for contacts but have worn them on and off since my late teens until the last decade when I've stuck to the jam jars.

Cee - You were of course my first choice - if only I could have worked out your relocation package in time. I wouldn't wish the Kuala Lumpur traffic on you if truth be known - I don't think you would particularly enjoy travel across the Klang valley during rush hour.

Wow, fifteen threads! I kept mostly on tabs of the other one, so I am proud of myself.

I'll throw some prayers and amens for your driver to do well in his duties. I love reading in the car, so I am definitely hoping that your driver will be responsible enough for you to do so.

Good luck!

Dropping in on the new thread to appreciate your night market photo and catch up. We only have day markets here, but there are outdoor farmers' markets every day of the week somewhere around here year round, and with our population, a lot of variety and produce SWMBO would undoubtedly recognize.

I didn't get glasses until 40, when I got what my eye doctor calls "the gift of maturity", but my brother had amblyopia and had them, along with eye patch, at age 3.

Wishing for the best with your new driver. Poor directionality is NOT what I would wish for, but as long as he can learn your most common routes, all may be well. Amen!

Eris - So many of my friends claim motion sickness and say they don't know how I can read in the car but for me it allows me to press the refresh button between meetings.

Roni - finally someone with decent eyesight! Back in the UK we had the county markets selling cattle and so on but they didn't have the vibrancy of the markets here which are teeming with people. All the villages (actually suburbs of the city) have their night markets on different nights if you miss one and during Ramadhan there are special markets daily for people to purchase a whole array of goodies to break their fast with.

So how long will the driver last?? I admit I don't think I could live in a household with people having spats all the time, even if it wasn't to be taken seriously. That's how I grew up, and it was serious, so I still loathe being around people sniping at each other. I mean, viscerally loathe.

I did get cross examined in a deposition once, by the brother of former Harvard honcho Larry Summers. It was a case in which a company's execs were suing their venture backers and one of the major causes of action remained that they shouldn't have spoken to me for a story I was writing. The grilling all boiled down to a quote -- "This puppy's going to run out of money soon" -- and down to the words "this puppy". The other Summers wanted me to say that when the guy I had quoted had said that, he meant to be disparging of the company and grilled me for half an hour about what I understood the phrase "puppy" to mean in this context. I knew he wanted me to say something like a "dog" or a "sick puppy", so I blandly stuck with "half-grown animal", "not yet mature". It was amusing.

Hi Paul- Now, I'll have to look into Eoin Colfer. Another Mad Irishman, huh?

Oh, I'd love to visit that night market; it seems so exciting, in the picture, at least.
I didn't get glasses until I was in college, but I was so excited to have them, not only because I could then see farther than just to the pages of the book I was reading, but because I thought (and still do) that I look better (more interesting, I guess) with glasses than without. Vain? Guilty, I suppose.

Wow, Happy Fifteenth Paul! I can't believe we became friends before you became a Superstar. I like to think it means something. Like I have an extra claim on you or something. But I guess it's always like that... everyone wants to own a piece of you when you're that popular. ;-)

I'm glad I'm still "only" on thread #8. I have a hard enough time keeping up with threads here, including my own. Last year I was obsessive about LT (I mean, MORE obsessive) and struggled to keep up, but still more or less managed to with a limited amount of threads, so it feels like I'm constantly out of the loop now that I don't spend my ENTIRE days here. *Snif*. Maybe the cause of my depression? Only kidding. I think. Right. I'd best move on then. Done enough damage here...

Big smooch.

eta: just saw your last comment on thread #14. I'm glad my review of The Elegance of the Hedgehog produced the desired effect with you. I like to tantalize. Or something. Anyway, I've been neglecting Suz's thread for too long, so off to that one next as am feeling like a masochist and wanting to be hit with a few more bullets today. For every thread I visit though, there are at least a dozen others I wish I could make time for.

Don't mind me. I'm still in a morose mood today, as is evidenced by my depressing posts!

Well, Paul, nice new thread. Great photo of the night market. I can hear the activity and smell the spices.....

I'm planning to jump on the Elizabeth Taylor bandwagon soon, too, but haven't decided with which one. I hope you enjoy The Elegance of the Hedgehog. I enjoyed it, but as Ilana and I have already discussed, I was in a very clean emotional (vacation) space when I read it.

I'm sorry to hear about the ongoing conflict in your family. NO FUN. And I hear you about the greed part --- it appears too regularly in these things. And I love your description of, um, test driving your new driver! I do hope his directional skills improve and that he can ride out the liveliness of your relationship with SWMBO.

Hi Paul, Even at night, the market is full of color. Lovely picture!

Suz - hahaha will admit to a little artistic licence here - SWMBO and I are not that bad really - the main point was that the boss and his wife sometimes have different priorities I am going to meetings and she wants the kids to be collected or the dry cleaning sorted or whatever and that he should not worry unduly over disagreements of this nature which are not criticisms of him. I actually mentioned to Hani late one day sometime last month "hey we didn't fight today yet did we?" - "yeah, bit boring isn't it?" she responded!
Have done the so-called expert witness thing a few times although I try to pick and choose cases which I believe in slightly. For example I am helping a Canadian couple who had serious quality problems with their house contractor and terminated him. I was their expert to value the works done and the other side appointed their own expert to do his valuation separately. My valuation was around RM400K (US$130K) whereas the other side was RM900K (US300K). The arbitrator decided on almost RM500K which was particularly satisfying for me under the circumstances.

Mark - the words "mad" and "irishman" are often inseparable (with my lineage I can just about admit this). Colfer and Bateman will be your type of writer based on Bruen.

Amber - The picture is very typical of the night markets throughout the country and they are a good experience IMO. Cannot say really whether I look better with or without my glasses now as I probably couldn't see anyway. I have noticed though that I still push the non-existent glasses up my nose even though I am wearing contacts so I stopped bothering.

Ilana - I think you know and it would be a poorly kept secret that you do retain a special place! You and Suz are the only ones top fifteen in both lists that I keep which makes you both far worthier of superstardom than I!
Smooch returned chastely with interest.
You may have noticed my last post on your thread was a tad downbeat for me as yesterday I was in a little bit of a funk myself but am comfortable to unburden myself over at yours.

Ellen - I wanted the photo to be suggestive and glad it did the trick with you.
I also hope that the family dispute can be resolved amicably (well without lawyers anyways) but it looks unlikely. Peter now has a cast iron defamation suit pending against the old man and some of the things he was found to have communicated by e-mail to clients and mutual friends was frankly shocking and hair-curling.

Joanne - thanks but I don't think it tops your photo this time.

Not catching up :( but checking in!

Belated congratulations on Thread 15, Paul. 15!!?!! Good grief! I get depressed or intimidated just trying to catch up. Floreas!
I hope that your driver settles in and spreads happiness all around. As to testifying, I've only ever had to do it as a welfare case worker when the welfare rights organizer supported a challenge to a compensation. I so wanted them to win, but I told the truth, and they lost. My supervisor was proud of me, and I was embarrassed and sorry that my relationship with the client was forever altered.

25> some of the things he was found to have communicated by e-mail to clients and mutual friends was frankly shocking and hair-curling

Rats. That is really too bad.

I don't understand meanness.

Stopping by to say hello, Paul. Hope the books are treating you well.

Not the way you want to curl your hair...

Paul, I'm glad you feel comfortable unburdening yourself at my place. Everyone needs to be able to do so somewhere, and since I don't hold back all that much, neither should you.

I didn't congratulate you on the new driver! May he develop a thick skin, a perfect sense of direction and give you many years of great service whilst you catch up on all those fabulous books you've been steadily accumulating!

Kath - nice to see you as always

Peggy - It is depressing when we lose a case that we believe in. I have had my share of those too and normally take it a little hard as I probably invest a little bit too emotinally in such cases. I have one case with a very honourable engineer who was basically set up by a very mean developer relating to the collapse of a retaining wall that someone else designed but he rather naively signed for as the local engineer (the designer was Singaporean). He wasn't allowed to supervise it as the Singaporean did that too and when it collapsed the Developer, also Singaporean took advantage to have a "rolls-royce" solution introduced which the engineer's professional indemnity wouldn't cover and he was left with a bill of $500,000 - I managed to get it down to $300,000 for him but was quite depressed that he had to pay anything at all.

Ellen - There will be an EGM of the company within the next three weeks which may prove very interesting, but probably won't solve anything.

Suz - hahaha - you can't beat tongs and curlers so I'm told as the ideal method.

Joe - thanks for stopping by mate.

Ilana - thanks for providing a welcoming platform.
Amin has made a nervous start. Yesterday just as I was settling into my Fred Vargas I was alarmed that he seemed to be avoiding the toll roads which I always use to avoid spending hours in the traffic. My mistake also as I thought he would understand the word "elevated" as in elevated highway - Now that I've told him to "ikut leburaya bertingkat" he seems to understand. His english is marginally better that Azmi's but I sure missed the miserable previous driver the last few days as training another after four years is going to be tedious.

Oh, I love the new photo. Shiny! I'm reading the Eliz. Taylor's I already own...... I think I have one coming up soon.....

Thanks Lucy - I will get to her fairly soon too I think given the weight of opinion on her behalf. It is a shame she wasn't so well regarded when she was alive to enjoy it!

Hi Paul- So you want to be FB pals? No problem, just be forewarned, I suck at FB and rarely post or browse. I save all my energy for a more important site, like...uhhhh...LT!

Me too mate! SWMBO rules the roost over there which is why it has taken me so long to get round to my friends over here!

Hello Paul! Thread 15! Jees, you're making us all feel unloved! Sorry about all your various travails of late...I am feeling much much better and back at work, alternating my time between Melbourne and the farm. (three weeks in town and one week in the country). All very weird to be back, both in the offices and in my own home....I had to put Divorcing Jack onto the WL, even though I am trying hard to save for my Cambodian holiday via KL. Night markets! Yum! Day markets! Ah the treasures of Asia...

That's it. I'm coming to KL, those night markets just look too good. Im pretty sure I can say that Lenny's first work was "nana" as in ba-nana....so his love for food is now set down in the history books. Which means, it's me and him and all the KL food stalls to hit!

>186 DorsVenabili: (from last thread)
Interesting that this group leads activity on the site by a phenomenal margin - something like six or seven times more posts than any other group.
I think it's because in this group we get to have our "own" thread and can park up and converse from there, conversations aren't headed by a topic per se. (eta: new improved and correct spelling :))

#32 Paul: Your account of the new driver's misunderstanding makes me think of Manuel and Mr. Fawlty in Fawlty Towers, for some reason... "There's too much butter on those trays..."

He's from Barcelona ...

Flying by and saying Hi!
Thinking of you settling down after a long, hard working day :)

Hooray Its Prue! Jees, you're making us all feel unloved! - Jees that will never be you my dear. Happy to see you back to form and ready take SE Asia by storm. Divorcing Jack is great fun.

Megan2 - You and the wee fellow are welcome in these parts any time. Don't know about your analysis of the posting numbers on different groups. There is a 100 and a 50 club but it doesn't have the same numbers at all.

Amber - I have not the height of a Basil Fawlty and dont often (though sometimes) lose the plot completely. SWMBO could do a good Prunella Scales though.

Laura - Amin is from Wangsa Maju - does it have quite the same ring?!

Cee - I may need you as a replacement. Amin dropped me off at the old airport terminal for a brief meeting this morning came out 30 mins later and called him to go up the road to the next more important meeting. After seventeen unsuccesful calls I managed to get the contractor to pick me up and send me to the Client meeting with two pole faced Scots 20 minutes late. Finally got hold of him and he told me he was sitting on the toilet and the phone accidentally went on silent....how many lives does a cat have? Poor fellow spent the rest of the afternoon and evening apologising. Well I'll perservere for now, but am missing Azmi as it stands. As I pointed out to a friend he fell out with my wife once in four years and ran away I fall out with her most every day and stick to her like glue.

Stopping in for a quick hello. crossing my fingers that the new driver settles in.

>43 PaulCranswick: Analysis? Not so much that as a random thought that popped itself down in writing before its author had time to consider much else.

Good luck with Amin, sounds like a rough settling in period for you (and him?) :)

Anne - nice to see you - hoping that Amin will come up to scratch but we'll see.

Megan - I mostly do the same myself; aren't we all making it up as we go?

I am liking An Ice Cream War btw Paul. It's a real story story. And it still looks great on my bedside table too, which is also important :)

I have resolved to stop buying books from now on. Ahem, I hope. Maybe Ill do as well as you are on that front. At least, as you know, I have less access to reasonably priced books.

40.

The Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas

Very Gallic, very quirky. Commissioner Adamsberg has been transferred to Paris and comes with a huge reputation and unorthodox methods. Story is in parts incomprehensible and the plotting in particular is bizarre but the twisted ending is ultimately satisfying even if I'm not sure quite how I got there.

7/10

I have at least one Fred Vargas book in my piles to-be-read. I think it is something about Vienna. Maybe I should drag it out and read it.

Hi Paul- I've only read Have Mercy on Us All, which I loved but for some damn reason I haven't returned to Commissioner Adamsberg. I have at least one more in the stacks too.
Have you read Duane Swierczynski. If you haven't, you got to try this guy. They are quirky, fast, funny and sometimes brutal.

On the toilet, huh? Are you making him nervous, Paul?

Like Megan - I have books that look great on my bedside table :)
Seems the only time I get any reading done lately is when I climb in bed - tired. So I'm not getting far :(
Time to rectify that! Starting tomorrow.
You're doing good at 40 books read with all else you have to deal with! Rock on!

Benita - It was interesting but I don't think I would put Vargas at the top of my pile for a while.

Mark - I actually followed up one of your recces and got Duane Swierczynski's Fun and Games last year so I will get to it soon.

Cee - He looks just as nervous this morning if truth be known and I don't know why as I am a pussycat!
I have far too many books on my bedside table, underneath and around it for me to try to maintain it looks particularly great. SWMBO is certainly less than impressed as is her want.

For David Downing fans: http://www.bookpage.com/the-book-case/2012/05/21/7-questions-with-david-downing/

Thanks for that Mark -intersting to see that we have at least one more "Station" series to come and a new one in the offing.

Oh yes. Fred Vargas and David Downing. In addition to the four I listed on Bonnie's thread, add these to the wishlist series that I haven't even started yet. How am I ever going to catch up?

BTW Paul, I'm curious as to what qualifies writing as very Gallic? Oh, and I looked at the first of Vargas' author pictures and said to myself, "He looks like he's about 13." Then I looked at the second picture and thought "Can this be the same author?" Then I went to the Wikipedia link and realized that he is a she! I think I need another cup of coffee...

Linda - it is dangerous to trawl the threads as we do finding out about what great books our pals are reading that we haven't yet discovered. My tags have a LT Recommended part where I list the books that hit my wishlist and who recommended them. Trouble is there are so many Linda's I don't know quite which books to thank you for!

Very Gallic? Shouldn't do this as one of my main clients is French and I am suprisingly francophile for a Brit - obtuse, avant garde, difficult to follow and/or pin down, contradictory..........

Finally David Downing and the John Russell books are getting some press. At the ALA conference this winter I told one of the editors at Soho Press that I couldn't believe that books as good at creating an atmosphere were not on the best seller lists. I told her that I had been bragging about his books on LT but it would certainly help if they would start pushing the books. I think he is as good as Alan Furst and if there is an audience for Furst there is one for Downing.

Soho Press is also starting to really push Cara Black. She is going to be one of the authors at the Booktopia event in Santa Cruz in October. This is the book reader's small conference hosted by the podcast Books on the Nightstand. I have one of her books and will get around to reading it at some point. She is another mystery writer who is gradually building an audience. I also had the pleasure of hearing her talk at a library conference. She spoke about her experiences in moving to Paris and how picky readers are about the details of a book. If she writes about a building at a certain address in Paris it had better be there. Even the businesses housed in those buildings had better be correct as somebody reading her books knows the address and knows what was there in 1965.

They also had a new mystery author at the conference - Martin Limon. He writes about a military policemen stationed in Korea in the 1970's. This author spoke about writing about cultural differences, and how American's in the army did not as a rule get off base to see the country they were protecting. The author served in the military in Korea in the 70's and fell in love with the country, so now he writes about it and weaves in his experiences. This is another author I have to get around to reading.

Good morning, Paul.

Paul, I was reading the Very Gallic comment late last night, and at first I thought you wrote Very Garlic, and I was actually trying to figure out what you meant by that - um...savory? Sadly, I have no Vargas.

Benita - Furst or Downing? No need to make a choice I'm happy to read em both. The books are thoughtful, tension filled and atmospheric rather than full of action or gore. Heavy handed thrills are the stuff of bestsellers but I prefer to get the cognitive juices flowing by degrees and without the use of sledgehammer.
Cara Black? I have read Murder in the Marais and thought it a good start. Peter Lovesey is also on SOHO and his Peter Diamond books are not half bad. Haven't read or heard of Limon but I will look him up given my own links to Korea and Koreans (I have given assistance to Hyundai, Lotte and Ssangyong for 17 years).

Ellen - same to you my dear - finished running today already?

Mamie - hahaha well I must say that at least the book wasn't un-savoury!

I have Murder in the Marais in a TBR stack. I don't know if I put that one in my "drawing" category for my 2nd 12 in 12 challenge or not, but if I did, I might get to it this year. For some reason, that's one that I keep putting off. I'm glad to hear you thought it was a good start.

Lori - Does a job for Paris that Donna Leon does for Venice. Only less about eating.

Less eating? In Paris? What's wrong with this picture?

Trying to keep up with you is a full-time job, Paul! Fifteen threads in five months. I think we should get book credit. And the plot is thickening with a new driver named Amen. Sounds ominous to me.

LOL, Paul, you never fail to entertain. Chuckled aloud at this line in your latest review: Story is in parts incomprehensible and the plotting in particular is bizarre but the twisted ending is ultimately satisfying even if I'm not sure quite how I got there.

I agree with Donna :)

Lori - It does seem something of a misnomer doesn't it? Whilst Cara Black's Aimee Leduc is certainly a quirky individual - Leon's Commissario Brunetti is a touch staid and is a family man who spend most of his time ruminating over his cases whilst stuffing his face with his wife's latest delightful creations. One feature of Camilleri's wonderful Montalbano series and Montalbon's Pepe Carvalho series' is that mastication takes priority over murder.

Three threads a month doesn't seem too bad if you say it quickly Donna. You haven't done too badly yourself either. Do I also get book credit for having to read my own nonesense! Amen/Amin made no mistakes for almost 24 hours although his driving style is less than smooth still and is affecting my reading comfort. He is apparently a muay thai expert and has offered his services dually as a bodyguard - I was about to tell him of the absence of enemies until I remembered the changeable visage of SWMBO and realised that some form of protection may one day come in handy. It may also be of course that he believes that his telling me may preclude me from having the temerity or bravery to dispense with his services.

Nancy - I do like to try to entertain; normally at my own expense I hasten to add and would also point out that I have been known to emit the occasional guffaw reading your own missives over at your place.

Kath - I always agree with Donna; who wouldn't?

Must get to those Camilleri books... Donna Leon's series lead me to spend several days in Venice in a very cold and rainy March, all the gondolas were covered and tied up. So what else could we do but eat? Back home I treated my friends to sarde in saor and similar Venetian food for weeks.
Still getting hungry when thinking of the Brunetti books, is that a Pavlovian response?

I hope the driver situation will relax soon.

Night Markets?! Wow, you certainly live in a shoppers paradise, Paulo. Congrats on thread 15!
Hit by two bb's while strolling through your thread. The Chalk Circle Man and Murder in the Marais. Thanks Lori for that one.l

#68, #69, I've become totally hooked on the Camilleri books (after your initial recommendation, Paul); the food is fun, but it's really the characters that make them for me.

Paul - I am shamelessly posting this on your thread in a bid to get some traffic back to my own! I recently received The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel from BD, and started thinking about film adaptations of books (I loved the movie of this one - therefore I want to read it) Thinking about movies and adaptations of books, anyone care to share their favourite film or tv adaptations from books - and their least favourite?

Also - though we are all clearly readers rather than watchers - I am curious to know what people's favourite TV shows are?

Come and tell me! (see, absolutely no shame at all in hustling for business!) Forgive me, Paul!

The food is even better in Camilleri Nathalie according to my normally perceptive palate. I suppose if you had something to eat everytime you read a Donna Leon chapter you would be displaying Pavlovian tendencies!

Lynda - I would have a heck of a lot more dosh if I lived somewhere else probably, plus far fewer kilos. Having said that I have always managed to spend "well" in UK, Gibraltar, Egypt, Malaysia or Singapore (all of which places I have lived for a spell) plus everywhere I have gone on holiday. Good food, good wine, strategically (or even unstrategically placed bookstore) and my wallet seems to have some strange gravitational pull on it. Would take Vargas over Cara Black myself for flavour and incomprhensibility!

Rebecca - Agree totally that Camilleri has the most splendid array of characters of any series I have read. Catarella is classic, Mimi and Fazio are old friends, Livia must bear a distinct resemblance to SWMBO, the priceless maid, the Commissioner and his wonderful assistant but most of all Montalba himself gorging and fornicating (at least mentally) his way through each case which he solves adroitly every time.

Prue - now I won't be able to sleep about these questions:
Best film adaptation from a novel - How about One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? A rare example of a film being better than a book?

Favourite TV shows - Big fan of comedies TBH 'Black Adder' 'Some Mother's Do Ave Em', 'Fawlty Towers', 'Seinfeld' and 'Everybody Loves Raymond' from the US. Period dramas 'The Onedin Line', 'The Brothers' and 'Upstairs Downstairs'.

Quite happy to plug your thread....will get over there now!x

I was just going to say what Paul did, Nathalie. If you liked the food in the Brunetti series, wait until you get a look at Inspector Montalbano's meals. Always makes me wish I was there eating with him.

>74 PaulCranswick: That's a great description of the characters in the series, Paul. Makes me smile to think of them.

Thanks Joe - I have just eaten supper, Persian barberry rice with chicken patties cooked incidentally by our Iranian friend. I, replete as I am, will therefore affirm that Montalbano supplies its Gastronomy so shamelessly that it is almost pornographic.

Oh dear, Paul, I haven't run since before my San Francisco trip. But I'm making very good headway on Fieldwork, a pleasure of a read.
I will run tomorrow. (There, now I've put it in writing).

Good for you Ellen - I was only kidding, don't know anybody who does take care of themselves like you do.

>58 EBT1002: I was about to tell him of the absence of enemies until I remembered the changeable visage of SWMBO and realised that some form of protection may one day come in handy.
lol
Your life should be a reality TV show Paul, it would be super funny!

Megan - you could be right and SWMBO has a bigger bum than Kim Kardashian!

Your life should be a reality TV show Paul I have to agree with Megan there. Very funny indeed. So Amin is gradually settling in anjd able to get you from one place to another with comparative ease? Or is that simplifying things?

Bonnie - He's getting better. Very polite but his driving and understanding are works in progress. I have the weekend off from him for now.

Hi Paul- In my humble, I think The Godfather is the best film made from a book. Jaws is pretty damn good too! There are many of 'em and I like your cuckoo's Nest pick too, although the book was fantastic too!

Mark - can't argue with the choices either but I do think that Jack Nich's portrayal is one of the most enduring - Jaws 1 of course you mean - love the part where Robert Shaw and his shipmates are singing Show Me The Way to Go Home - even the plastic shark carries it off. My favourite of the Godfather movies is 2. Al Pacino is magnificent in that film.

Oh so many adaptations to agree with! Love especially Godfather 1 and 2, but haven't read the books to judge...Loved Cuckoo's Nest - book and film, but saw the movie fiorst. Jack was definitely brilliant. Also going to plug - surprise, surprise - the film versions of The Accidental Tourist and Breathing Lessons. Now I shall take you aside Paul and whisper quietly a little word of advice - never, EVER say that your partner has a big bum in public. And only in rare situations in private. Poor SWMBO - just as well you clearly adore her!

"My favourite of the Godfather movies is 2". Amen, my friend! There is only one Jaws film, if you know what I mean. What a cast, huh?

Prue- The Accidental Tourist is an excellent choice.

Paul, all caught up. And huffing and puffing strongly. Not because my big bum slows me down, mind you, but because I can barely keep my eyes open. I'll have to start going to bed earlier still soon. Now if only I could be waking up earlier in the day as I re-adjust my bedtime, might give me a chance at having more hours to do things in the day, but it doesn't seem to work that way... just need more and more sleep! Sheesh.

Funny timing on Fred Vargas. I came across her completely by accident as I was trolling on Audible.fr, the French audiobook outlet and saw a whole bunch of her novels being promoted. She's obviously huge in France and apparently has a new book out, I guess. Anyway, I looked up the library catalogue to see what they have here and seems they have plenty, including quite a few on audio, which means I get to sample her work sooner than later, so I should be getting The Chalk Circle Man sometime this week, and I swear I hadn't peeked at your thread these past two days! How funny is that?

New employees always take some time to break in, I'm sure you know that. One of the hardest parts of my job when I was art directing at the magazine was when designers went off on maternity leave and I had to replace them. The job interviews alone would have been worth filming, I swear. Also led me to the nervous breakdown from which I may never recover, but then again, were it not for said nervous breakdown, I wouldn't have had so much free time on my hands and I may never have discovered this wonderful group!

Prue - Wasn't the big bum comment intended as a compliment?! Haven't seen the Anne Tyler derived movies and must put that right by the sound of it.

Mark - Dreyfuss, Scheider and Shaw sounds like a firm a legal eagles but they put together a brilliant movie for sure. Mr. Holland's Opus is another film with Dreyfuss that I loved.

Ilana - obviously shouldn't have mentioned bums in the company of so many ladies. Adamsberg looks like the sort of detective / policeman that grows on you - completely off the wall, deductions derived from nowhere, a lascivious country boy cut loose in Paris.
I have been fairly lucky with staff so far - my selections generally have stayed with their eccentric boss for a goodly while. For example in 7 years I have had only 1 secretary - who joined me unable to speak english and who hated numbers. She now does the accounts and is the first in her family to be really fluent in english. The office does resemble a youth club after 6 and I sometimes have difficulty persuading them to go home but a more dedicated and loyal bunch I couldn't really aspire to. That is probably why those few that leave cause me such soul searching. I operate on the principle of extended family rather than hierachy and most of them respond to it.
One of the best parts of the last year on LT has been "meeting" you. Would have preferred intensely that a nervous breakdown wasn't, however indirectly, the cause of a burgeoning friendship!

So do I need to read Fred Vargas? Hard to tell from the discussion. Someone, pls advise!!

Benita, I have read Mr. Kill, Martin Limon's newest book. It's quite good, although the real strength is the setting of 1960s Korea, which is absolutely fascinating. I'll certainly look for more. I'm not a big fan of Cara Black's books, I confess -- I have a few on my Kindle, but... But they are one of the publishers whose books I basically will try regardless, just because of the label on it. I've got both of Andromeda Romano-Lax's books on Kindle. (quel nom....!)

Will let you know what Soho folks have to say after BookExpo -- I plan to drop by their booth and troll for ARCs....

Paul, 8000 books!!!!!! Tell me, are they all on shelves? I have a measly collection and have run out of space! Tell, please!

#83, etc. In my opinion, The Godfather 1 and 2 vastly surpass the book, which is basically poorly written popular fiction.

Lovely picture Paul! Great book list.

Paul, I know from experience you're a great buddy to have and have no doubt you must be a great boss too. Having difficulty sending your employees home is what many employers wish they had as a problem!

Hugs.

Suz - not sure about Vargas on completing her first book. Quirky and zero suspense but Adamsberg and his serious and more conventional sidekick have the possibility of increasing in substance as the series progresses. I guess I feel it must be worth reading as I did look in Kinokuniya yesterday to see if the second in the series was in stock - it wasn't.

Prue - to be fair there are about a thousand on the wishlist/hitlist not on the shelves or floor or anywhere yet! That said I have almost 50 boxes of books in storage that I am slowly working my way through. There is probably between 2 and 3 thousand books there from my far more prolific reading/student days. Some of my books are in the UK and some in the office. I guess I have something like 5000 books on shelves, tables, in cupboards, on floors and in drawers here at home. My organisation of the books is a constant source of irritation to SWMBO.

Rebecca - One reason I hadn't nominated Jaws or the Godfather is that the books themselves are hardly the stuff of literature.

Callia nice to see you - hope this weekend allows you more time for reading than the last.

Ilana - To be fair I don't have so many close personal friends but those I do have are extremely close and enduring. My young team at the office has its failings in terms of communication and experience but they make up for it in enthusiasm and dedication. Hani would like me to take a salaried position with one of the big Korean chaebols to reduce stress and uncertainty but I would feel less whole if I did so. Hugs back with interest. x

Hi Paul, hope you are having a great weekend. It's just a regular weekend here in Canada, having celebrated the Queen's birthday last weekend. Spent a lovely day today mostly sitting out in the garden with my books, one of which is Peter James' Dead Man's Footsteps. If I remember correctly you are also a fan of his. He certainly likes to put a lot of "thrill" into his mysteries.

I am thinking that book storage is an issue for all of us right? We've been cleaning out bedrooms today. There are a lot of books in this house. It would be interesting to count them, but I probably won't.

I shared some photos a while ago, here's a link to what our bedrooms looked like two years ago...Biblioholism. I am pleased to say that I've read many of the books that were in that pile next to my bed and now I only have a measly 23 sitting there. I might have moved some. :P My now 13 year old son's book case is crammed tight and books are now living in various other places in his room. I'm so proud.

I would make a lot more progress with my TBR piles of already owned books if it were not for you people and the library, but it would be so much more boring.

>94 PaulCranswick: and yet Jaws is such a great film. One of my favourites. I have never been tempted to buy the book though.

Offline from LT for 8 days. Have decided that getting caught up with discussions is impossible at this point so just stopping by to hope you had a good weekend and that your work week will be stress free!

Hmmmm - film about shark attack? Not an Aussie favourite!

I want to be asleep :P but wantedto say that I am an enthusiastic member of rd's catch and release club. Starting a library where I worked, contrbuting to one at the town building, and donating or just plain giving books away has helped a lot. More to go at the end of summer, to a book sale for animal shelter. I an down to just several hundred physical books.

Paul- I did manage to finish a book, an old favorite of mine.

Judy - Yeah I do like James. I compare him to Billingham and Graham Hurley and would place him third in that group but still very readable. Nice to see Brighton getting its own detective.

Jenn - like the look of the John Adams book on your table - if you ever want to clear it away completely.....! I catalogued so many more books last year than this as I seem to be having far more time gassing away on here.

Megan - Was a great film, Jaws - I'm sure that there are more examples of great film/poor book than great book/poor film.

Lori - also wishing you a great weekend. I had noticed that you had gone quiet for a few days and it is good to see you back.

Prue - Yeah I suppose the nearest equivalent is watching Babe over here in a muslim country and seeing the difficulty the locals had to find the pig loveable!

Kath - Over the last few years I have given several gross of books to the school library and to a couple of local orphanages but still have 5000+ books knocking about the place.

Callia - pray tell, what book did you finish.....shucks I'll have to go to your place and have a look.

Hi Paul- I hope you had a great weekend. I am loving 11/22/63. I also finished Hell & Gone. What a fun, completely twisted writer this guy is!

Good grief! Thatsa lotta books~

Sounds like a good weekend Mark. Will probably start Fun and Games next month.

Kath - I have to have a clear out from time to time or find new places to secrete my books.

Fairly quiet weekend. Started a few new books and shelved Kissinger and Dombey and Son for the time being.

Went to see Battleship yesterday which was entertaining but ridiculous.

Three new purchases on an abstemious end of month weekend:

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : Selected Poems
River of Shadows by Valerio Varesi
A Very English Agent by Julian Rathbone

Paul - Catching up here as I was greatly behind (um, not talking Bums here!!). My husband said the exact same thing about Battleship! Speaking of great films/poor books, I would have to add To Have and Have Not to that category. LOVE the movie, really hated the book.

I think I just caught up!! Love the night market photos and good luck sorting out the new driver's sense of direction.

Mark, thanks for the link to the 7 questions website - am gutted to see the next Station book is probably the last! The new series he's writing had better be as good...

Hi Paul! Trying to get caught up on your thread! The night market photo is lovely. 5000 books is an incredible number. I think I have around 1000 and I'm trying to pare it down. Being a MLIS student has actually made me less of a collector, for reasons I'm not very clear on, but I'm sure my husband is relieved.

I can hardly believe I'm saying this now, but before LT I would never have dreamed of buying a book when I already had unread ones on my shelf! You guys have ruined me :)
And Paul - with all the book sales I have ben to lately, I can see that 5000 is nearly an attainable number. As my sister says.....its better than buying drugs!

Paul, I seem to recall that there are no public libraries in your area. Maybe you should open yours on a limited basis and share the wealth. You could let your kids play librarian this summer. Kind of the equivalent of a lemonade stand without the mess!

I'm determined to keep my personal stash limited to around 1,000 volumes. I did a book count several years ago when I did a major reorganization. I still have books scattered on shelves on three different levels. It's great exercise - both physical and mental!

Mamie - hahaha I'll be up front and say that I would only comment of course on my own ladies 'behind'. Apart from The Old Man and the Sea I could never really get the fuss about Hemmingway.

Cushla - I too was disappointed when I noticed that it took Downing only 4 books to get through from the start to the finish of the war. I would hazard that his next series will also be a keeper.

Kerri - Still cataloguing as I have all my unopened boxes from my store to go through too. The numbers are the result of an obsessive accumulation over 30 years and if I included all the books I have given away, heaven knows how many there would be!

Megan - I don't think the magpie tendencies are necessarily healthy either - I couldn't have got so many books if buying new in CChurch as the prices there scare me and I don't have sufficient patience to wait for the sales.

>112 PaulCranswick: patience is a must when the bank balance is as ours is!
btw, not much progress made on the coffee table family history i offloaded onto you? Please don't feel worried about posting negative feedback, I understand that the book can read a little dry to those not in immediate family :) I won't be offended. Of course I had to give it 5 stars, as I am in it!

You know Megan I spent the first hour after I got back to the top ten scouring the book for pictures of and mentions of you. Found both of course. Have looked enthralled at the pictures a number of times and I will definitely read it fully soon, although as you noted the size does make it a little troublesome to read in my normal style. I wouldn't for example take it with me and read it in the car as I would be worried about it getting damaged. Few days off work and I will take a leisurely stroll through your family history.

Phew, I thought you might have read it, finished it, and refrained from posting about it. As my mum says...if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all :)

Hi Paul, this may be my last stop for the night. I slept all day, but somehow bedtime still calls... Sometimes I feel like I'm sleeping my life away, but then again, my dreaming life is quite an active one, and who's to say which of the two is more *real*?

Darn LT. I want to be everywhere, visit everyone. You seem to be everywhere at once, how do you do it?

I know the week is already started for you, and I do wish you good luck with everything as I know you have lots on your plate.

Paul, it is so hard to keep up with you and your thread! About adaptations, the TV series of Any Human Heart by William Boyd is about to start here - I haven't read it yet, so I don't know whether to watch first or not! Aarghhh. Quandary!

Best film adaptation from a book--the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth!

Following Ilana's lead and making this thread my last stop for the night. It's now after midnight and sleep calls.

And I will add my vote to Roni's. I own and adore that production of Pride and Prejudice. It's wonderful.

Megan - I'm sure I will savour the book just as I have goggled at its photographic splendour.

Ilana - Appearances on my ability to keep up are often deceiving. A little like the facade of some of the buildings we try to erect over here the reality behind the well cladded exterior is often one of chaos anda schedule gone distinctly awry.

Prue - Come on my dear you have only had a few days back - give yourself a little more time to acclimatise to things again! I quiet like the wry humour and subtlety of William Boyd. Btw the book I bought for Megan during our meet up was one of his. Think his books would adapt well to film.

Roni - High costume and low drama! Enjoy those period pieces myself too - if we are talking about the small screen I would have to speak up for the Forsyte Saga which ran on the TV in the UK when I was a boy.

Ellen - I should say to both dear Ilana and sweet sporty spice - pleasant dreams!

Hi Paul. Just dropping by to say hello this Monday lunchtime (although it must be nearly evening where you are). I think I saw you post somewhere else that you weren't looking forward to this week - will be thinking of you.

Waving hello as I eagerly await the upcoming episodes of the newbie driver and SWMBO, et al.

What Morphy said :)

Heather - yep it is evening here and am back and replete with goujons of chicken sauteed in oyster sauce with leeks. A SWMBO special and delicious too. Today hectic but not as disasterous as expected. Nice to know that there is a support sructure on line rooting for me and my fledgling team of professionals.

Morphy - SWMBO has taken pity on the poor fellow. Sent him back to the condo early in favour of going with my staff Nizam to one of my project sites at the old airport. It is salary week and his first pay check will be issued tomorrow. Hani seemed to think that he was fasting today due to a lack of ready cash and so she sent him off to one of the local warongs (stalls) to get himself a proper lunch. Have booked the car in with Volvo for a proper service on Wednesday as the service he did last week has left the car feeling sluggish (like him really).

Kath - hi. please see above!

Here's to hoping he lasts past his first paycheck!

I have a huge collection of books in my small apartment. I have no rules about buying books and adding to the piles. However, I do have one rule. Once I read a book it has to leave. I give them away. Recorded books included. Unless it is a book that has really been of significant impact on me, they all go out to new homes. I don't sell them. I give them away. I buy some library editions of recorded books at conferences and these all go to my hometown library as donations - after I listen to them. I also read lots of library books so have never really owned those books.

For these reasons, even though my Librarything account says I have 1, 600 some odd books in my collection I really don't. i don't know what I would do if I didn't have a library. I can't imagine buying all those books.

I actually own and love that Jennifer Ehle/Colin Firth Pride and Prejudice, Paul. My daughter and I sat down on a Saturday last winter and watched the whole thing straight through again. So good.

P.S. Hemingway has some really good short stories. Try The Snows of Kilmanjaro and Other Stories if you haven't before: http://www.amazon.com/Snows-Kilimanjaro-Stories-Scribner-Classics/dp/0684862212/...

I'd love to send you the John Adams book, but I wrote all over it. :) I tend to write in my non-fiction/history, thinking of them more as textbooks in a way. I make connections to other things I've read, note questions, further reading, etc.
I do highly recommend the book though.

#118 : I concur, Roni ... that's my favorite BBC adaptation of P&P too.. mainly because of Colin Firth.

Paul, finally caught up on your thread ... hope your new driver manages to kick start his energy level with a few steady meals.

Hi Paul, I think the Willam Boyd book you got for me might kickstart a foray into "boys books", it makes great reading and a change from the heavy emotional/heavily descriptive stuff I usually go for. He reminds me of Wilbur Smith, or is that just because he's the only other "boys book" writer I can think of? :)

Morphy - he'll make it - I'm a softie and what he lacks in smooth driving skills he makes up for by being studiously polite.

Benita - that is a great approach to have to your books and very practical too. I have given away lots of books too but I have a habit of convincing myself that my kids and SWMBO will one day want to read from the selection of books I can't bear to part with.

Joe - P&P would be a great fit for Colin Firth. I don't think I have seen it but the BBC always do those sorts of productions magnificently. Jennifer Ehle is also one of my favourite TV actresses. Hemmingway had style I will admit it is just that his major novels especially A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls left me cold.

Jenn - Hahaha, I was kidding about begging the book off you - I would spend as much time reading your marginal notes than I would the book!

Megan - I didn't really think of Boyd as a Macho writer but I suppose the subject matter of the tensions between the British and Germans in Africa at the outbreak of the Great War is akin to Wilbur Smith territory. From memory his treatment of the subject - where he takes the story - diverges from where Wilbur (where have I heard that name before?) would have taken it. Hope you enjoy it anyways.

Wilbur Smith- wise, I have only ever read River God and I hear that is the least Wibur Smithy book he wrote. So my perspective might be skewed from the start. (is he worth reading more of?)

I am enjoying An Ice Cream War a lot. Weirdly, I am finding it refreshing to read passages where some intense and full on thing happens and the discourse is limited to a sentence. But it doenst feel shallow in spite of this. It is like it leaves the reader the space to apply their own judgement to the situation.

Oooh Megan, I am quite a fan of William Boyd - loved A Good Man in Africa and Stars and Bars. I'm with Paul, though - never thought of him as particularly 'blokey' - afterall, he's English! (waits for response from Paul)......

Paul, just stopping in to stay current. I also love the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Just saying! Not a big Hemingway fan, but I did really enjoy A Moveable Feast. (In addition to The Old Man and the Sea) - love the audio book of this read by Donald Sutherland!)

I didn't see the Ehle/Firth adaptation of P&P, but an earlier one that I loved. Unfortunately, I can't remember the names of the actors, but I thought the family was brilliantly cast.

Megan - I have read quite a few of his and he reminds me of Alistair MacLean or Hammond Innes but set in an African context. I haven't read his Egypt based books which obviously wouldn't fit in with the comments just made.

Prue - hahaha I wouldn't claim to be the most macho of Englishmen around to be fair though I think it is a better form of masculinity to be comfortable in the presence of ladies!

Mamie - I have been told that Hemmingway's short stories are good and I also liked The Old Man and the Sea which showed more sensitivity than some of his other work. Bullfighting is not my glass of sangria to be honest and though there is merit in his novels of war but I find them overly dry and hard work.

Amen.

Judy - the BBC did one in 1980 with Elizabeth Garvie and David Rintoul in the main roles. There was also a well received movie in 2005 with Keira Knightley and Matthew McFadyen as Elizabeth and Darcy. Seen the film and its ok - the 1980 drama I also remember and it lacked a bit of star quality.

Mamie - is that Amen or Amin?!

Aha! Yes, it was the one with Elizabeth Garvie. I thought she was terrific, and did have 'fine eyes'.

Surprising really Judy that she never got the exposure subsequently that she deserved - maybe in some ways too english for a transatlantic audience less discerning than you.

Haha! Amen!

Just a few statistics on the posting league for those interested. Peggy just became the 20th to make 1000 posts on her threads - those 20 to date are:

Paul 3739 posts
Richard 3503
Kath 3236
Joe 3136
Mark 2887
Ilana 2167
Stephen 2132
Claudia 2033
Darryl 1852
Donna 1545
Caro 1498
Amber 1390
Chelle 1387
Lucy 1337
Suzanne 1335
Megan 1323
Bonnie 1265
Ellen 1159
Stasia 1098
Peggy 1008

To see the movers and shakers. Most 2nd quarter posts
Paul 1296
Kath 1221
Richard 1194
Mark 1075
Joe 1025
Darryl 859
Claudia 764
Ilana 680
Mamie 601
Stephen 564

Mamie - I think of the 4 icons of american literature of the 1920's to 1950's Fitzgerald, Hemmingway, Steinbeck and Faulkner - I find Faulkner difficult, Fitzgerald's work as a whole insufficient to compare with the other three, Hemmingway too male-oriented and dry. Steinbeck would be head and shoulders the premier figure for me.

I would have to concur, Paul!

Me, too.

Whew! Just got thru about 90 messages!
I want book credit!


glitter-graphics.com

Always fun reading your thread - will try to do better keeping up. Life has been crazy busy. Stop the merry-go-round. I wanna get off!

Have a great day!

Mamie / Joe - I remember that there are some staunch advocates amongst our group of William Faulkner and I think my not following my usual method of starting at the beginning (chronologically) of the author's canon in his case has caused problems for me. I started with The Sound and the Fury and found it extremely difficult. I think next year I may go back to the beginning with him and reappraise his work. After all I have so much of it sitting on shelves and shunned because of one bad experience. Many of my friends would list The Great Gatsby in their top ten lists but I couldn't see what the fuss was about. Doesn't make the connection with the reader that Steinbeck does.

Cee - always nice to see you dog tired or not and by the look of your beautiful home you should be pooped a bit - I am also busy catching up and struggling to do so with a fairly hectic schedule at the moment.

Hooray for all of us!!!
I think that Faulkner is worth the trouble. Hemingway leaves me cold. Steinbeck is wonderful but doesn't really touch me. Fitzgerald is good but not in the class with Wm. or John.
I love the BBC's earlier Pride and Prejudice with Elizabeth Garvie and the very handsome, tall, stiff man whose name I can't remember. Faye Weldon wrote the screenplay, and it's head and shoulders above any other. I love Granada's *Raj Quartet* and *I, Claudius*. *The Poldark Saga* is really good, but it's a different experience completely from the books - and I'd say that about a favorite movie, Enchanted April.

Well you certainly started with the most difficult Faulkner, Paul. I remember reading that in college or actually, trying to read it. Easily the most difficult book I've ever read. Unless you include William Styron's Lie Down in Darkness. Either one was impossible to understand. But I'm giving Faulkner another chance. I picked up Light in August and I hope to read it this year.

"I started with The Sound and the Fury and found it extremely difficult."

So did I, Paul. If Bonnie is right, and that was the most difficult Faulkner, then thank goodness it's behind me. I've read a few others and will admit they were much better - but still not a fav author of mine.
I found Light in August to be much, much better. And I really liked As I Lay Dying a lot!
So I wonder what one should I read next by him. He scares and tempts me! No hurry to pick one - just wondering.

Paul, if you like Jennifer Ehle, I highly recommend the 6-hour production of P&P with her and Colin Firth. I have it practically memorized (Joe, I'm thrilled to hear that you are a fellow owner-and-lover of this production!) and it's great for any evening when that's what you need. (I know, that was a somewhat unspecific recommendation). Just get it and watch it. Mr. Collins is unforgettable.

I am one of those who somehow made it to adulthood without yet reading anything by Faulkner --- and I want to read something by him. I smell a GR coming on (but perhaps not a 2013 Faulkner-a-thon). :-|

Hey y'all - I remember reading As I Lay Dying as a teenager - so it can't have been too trying! I've actually got myself another copy in the Shelves of Shame - time for a re-read.

Paul - could not agree more about Steinbeck towering heads and shoulders above the rest. Loved The Old Man and the sea but bleh to For whom the bell tolls. And not someone who thinks greatly of Fitzferald. However, got to add another to the Pantheon - George Orwell is a writer who, IMHO, has had a profouond impact on our world =- and language. Not just 1984 and Animal Farm but I adored Keep the Aspidistra Flying and Down and out in Paris and London. There - that's my two cents worth!

Peggy - I'll definitely take your word for it with Faulkner. As I Lay Dying is apparently the forerunner of Swift's Last Orders which I enjoyed so I will read that later this year. The Poldark Saga was great wasn't it? The Irish RM was also good fun.

Bonnie - relieved to see that it was not only I that found it incomprehensible, May join you on Light in August when you are ready as we may have more chance understanding it together.

Cee - The easy ones are the ones to drag us in - I remember that one of our number but I cannot remember which one is a Faulkner buff and I do recall her giving very good advice as to the best order to read them in. Now if I could only recall back to last year who gave the sound advice?!

Ellen - Colin Firth is a great actor and I love his contributions to such different things as Bridget Jones and Mamma Mia as well as slightly more serious productions. I have been compared to him also as apparently we appear to be a similar height when both of us are sitting down!

Prue - One of the two should get dusted down this year anyway. Glad you agree on Steinbeck and the four I listed were meant to be 4 icons of "american" literature. Mr. Eric Blair as his mother called him was very British indeed but I would say that he was at least as important as the american writers listed.

Paul- Somehow I fell behind over here. What happened? I like your classic American author discussion. I'm with you about Steinbeck. Head and shoulders.
Hope your week goes well.

Mark - thanks mate - the rate your own thread is going I am not surprised you have less time to flit around the threads of others.

I got about half a chapter into The Sound and the Fury before tossing it aside with great force.

I really liked The Old Man and the Sea but snored through The Sun Also Rises.

The Great Gatsby left me cold.

The Grapes of Wrath and Travels with Charley were average for me.

Wow - Morphy you and I seem to be coalescing! Agree with all your comments with the possible exception of The Grapes of Wrath. Have you read Of Mice and Men?

I will jump in on three of your discussions.

1. I agree with you about Steinbeck. The best Mid-centuryAmerican writer. No doubt. He makes a real connection with his reader that I find lacking in the others. Faulkner, I just plain don't get. I finished As I Lay Dying but it was not an enjoyable experience. Horrible writing. I think that there are much better southern writers out there. Hemmingway is just plain boring to me. I tried to read For Whom the Bell Tolls and just couldn't make it go. On-the-other-hand, East of Eden and Grapes of Wrath were wonderful.

2. I read one Wilber Smith book and said never again. It was total rubbish as far as I was concerned. It was way too macho for me. All that testosterone just oozed off the page. However, I read all three of the Bartle Bull White Rhino Hotel books and loved them. When I try to figure out why I think it has to do with the fact that in the Bull books there is at least one female character who has brains, stamina, and guts. I think it has to do with an underlying attitude about women that comes through in the writing that puts me off. (I can make the same comparison and contrast with David Downing and Alan Furst. Downing's women are great on their own. Furst's aren't.) While in the Bull books the women were largely just window dressing, somehow it was different. I think that difference was in the adjectives. All kinds of adjectives. Including the ones that weren't there.

3. I am not vain enough to think that my taste in books is the be-all-and-end-all. I also think that precious few of what I read today will be the classics of the future. I think that many books are great in the time for which they are written but don't wear well. That is why when I am done with them out they go. They need to fly in their time.

Great post as usual Benita.

I am a little surprised at how much agreement on the Steinbeck (great), Hemmingway (macho, boring) and Faulkner (unfathomable and unreadable) there seems to be.

I know what you mean on Wilbur Smith. Patronising and chauvinistic views of womankind is certainly not a selling point with me either. Grew up with the aid of a strong and passionate and incredibly warm and humorous lady in my Gran and got married to the strongest person emotionally that I have ever met - my muse, soul mate and nemesis! SWMBO as I usually call her.

I am also less than the oracle when it comes to judging on the relative merit of books other than knowing instinctively my own likes and dislikes. On the contrary however I am often afraid of letting go a classic for the kids to read just because my views upon it were proven to be sloppy.

my muse, soul mate and nemesis
I bet that phrase came out in the wedding vows??! ;)

Wilbur Smith seems to be as I had imagined, despite me only having read one which didnt seem that bad. I am a very new Steinbeck convert and aim to read all his works, eventually.

Megan - my wedding vows were executed in Bahasa Melayu and even now I would struggle to translate it!
Wilbur Smith is a high jinks machismo type of writer -good fun normally, a little cringworthy occasionally but certainly readable.

Hi Paul! I'll always find time to flit over here! Hope your day went well.

Thanks mate - like the idea of your top ten books from the last ten years over at your place - this has set me thinking and I'm not sure how much work I'll do thinking of this!

Given your penchant for statistics, I suspect you'll have no problem putting together your top ten from the last ten years, Paul. *waiting in anticipation*

Still thinking Caro - today's production minimal thus far.

Paul, was the Faulkner guru laytonwoman, Linda? If not, she'd be thrilled to advise you, I think.
Now I have to go back and think about my top ten for ten!

Haven't read Faulkner yet, though I have The Sound and the Fury and Light in August standing by. I have the former on audio and read somewhere that Faulkner might be easier to take in in that format. Based on the comments here, I'm not exactly tempted to jump in at the moment, but I feel my reading life won't be complete if I don't at least read those two. Or try to. I'm a huge fan of The Great Gatsby, but haven't read anything else by Fitzgerald that's caught my fancy the same way. I have some of his short story collections waiting in the wings. At this point, I consider myself a fan of Hemingway, if only because my first reading of A Moveable Feast was a really memorable experience, and think The Old Man and the Sea is one of the best books ever written (looking forward to listening to Donald Sutherland read it on the audio version I got from the library), but have yet to pick up For Whom the Bells Toll, A Farewell to Arms, To Have and Have Not which are all waiting in my library and may yet change my mind about him (or not).

I've only read one novel by William Boyd so far; Brazzaville Beach, though I loved that one so much I fully intend to get my hands on whatever else I can by him. The Ice Cream War and Restless are high up on the wishlist, but then, so are Any Human Heart and A Good Man in Africa.

Went to see The Most Exotic Marigold Hotel tonight and thought it was brilliant. What an ensemble cast!

Peggy - thanks - I think it was Linda....I will go and check out some advice from her shortly.

Ilana - Steinbeck you don't mention but then again the answer is well known already. The Old Man and the Sea is a side of Hemmingway he rarely showed and you certainly would feel in For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Must see The Most Exotic Marigold Hotel as soon as possible but I fear it may pass us by here in Malaysia. Hope not.

Good morning, Paul. Not much to add to the Steinbeck-Hemingway-Faulkner-Fitzgerald discussion. I'm kind of landing smack in the middle of the curve on all counts. Huh, usually I like to be in one or the other tail of the bell curve......
I'm SO glad we've done our Steinbeckathon this year because I feel like I'm really getting to know an amazing mid-20th century American novelist.

Yes Ellen I think that the Steinbeckathon has been a great success (he says half way through his only Steinbeck of the year) judging by the threads.
Maybe for the brave an attempt at a Faulknerathon next year may pay dividends?!

Saw on Mark's thread earlier a list of the ten best books of the last ten years. Since we are into 2012 I thought maybe it would be ok to look at the best novels of the millenium so far.

Made me realise how many of the much vaunted fiction I haven't read from this century yet, despite having so many of them on my shelves - I'm sure Darryl, Suz, Luci, Rebecca, Anne and several others have a more complete reading for the 2000's so far, but based on books read these are my 12 selections so far in no particular order and only allowing 1 book per author:

Lyrics Alley by Leila Aboulela
The Road Home by Rose Tremain
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Dirt Music by Tim Winton
Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernieres
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Brick Lane by Monica Ali
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Heliopolis by James Scudamore

Chiming in: no Faulkner yet, but The Sound and the Fury is waiting on my shelf, and after reading the comments it will have to wait a little longer.

Found nothing remarkable about The Great Gatsby and much preferred his Tender is the Night.

Without the Steinbeck-a-thon I'd probably never have touched another Steinbeck book after Of Mice and Men and still haven't made up my mind whether I should reread it in June. OMaM remains his only book so far I didn't like, although I still rated it with 3stars, which means I acknowledge its value, but it just didn't appeal to me.

The only Hemingway I really liked so far, even loved, was A Moveable Feast.

Never heard of Wilbur Smith.

I think a Faulknerathon might kill me. Just saying.

I also never heard of Wilbur Smith, although I am familiar with Wilbur the pig from Charlotte's Web and Wilbur Wright of aircraft fame.

Paul, I have not read a single book from your 12 above! I guess I need to get cracking. Now you've got me thinking about what 12 I would pick from the last twelve years - must think about this.

I haven't read Of Mice and Men though it's on my TBR One Day list.

I have read and loved Faulkner, Steinbeck and Styron, although a good number of years ago. I have been thinking lately about revisiting each of them and including a few that I have not yet read. I wonder if my perspective on them will be different as a more mature reader. It feels important to honor the American classics, as I think they sometimes get short shrift in comparison to the Russians and Brits.

I find all four of these writers magnificent and revealing of different aspects of the (ahem) MALE american psyche, hangups, etc.
-Try Faulkner's first novel Sartoris and it might change your view. I love that book. The Reivers also. Small town life, stability of a sort.
- Fitzgerald is locked into a nasty part of the American psyche: shallowness, greed, envy -- and naivete, a potent and scary mix. The celebrity fixation too - he's all over it. Can't get away from him, though, because he still has his finger right on that pulse.
-Hemingway - yeah - the macho thing, and in many ways he is my least favorite, he's such an asshole - I can't think of a politer way to say it -- but he describes something real, real men, real people, whether you like 'em or not.
- Steinbeck - he definitely is the most readable and his themes maybe have continued to resonate the most clearly for many people, making him feel the most accessible. Survival without losing your decency?

As for THE WOMEN writers from that same era.
Christina Stead, Willa Cather, Eudora Welty, hm, and maybe Mary McCarthy??? Flannery O'Connor was an amazing writer, and certainly she got the violence side of things better than anybody, even Hemingway. Something darker.

Just to keep things even.

Hi Paul- Sorry you didn't get any work done today. LOL. Wow, I've only read 2 off your list, White Teeth & the Zafon. It looks like I have some work to do.
I've never read Ali, Mistry, Tremain or Winton, although I own the latter book. Also, I've had A Fine Balance on my shelf FOREVER!

Mamie, I'm with you. I think a Faulknerathon might kill me.
Maybe we could do a 5K instead of a -thon.
Something like one Faulkner per quarter...... or one Faulkner in the first half of the year and one in the second.
:-D

Ellen - that would be so much more acceptable. So good to hear the voice of reason!

Nathalie -loved the summations of the various writers and Wilbur Smith's literary contribution dealt with beautifully in your final comments.

Mamie - health warnings to be posted for a Faulkner marathon?! I'm sure I won't have read many books on most other people's lists either - that's part of the fun of the group isn't it?

Morphy - Unlike Nathalie I rate Of Mice and Men very highly and the fact that it can be read easily in a couple of hours tops is an added bonues of course.

Linda - agree that american writers deserve just as much to be honoured as British, French, German, Russian etc.... Read Sophie's Choice a number of years ago and Styron's generation of writers including Pynchon, Doctorow, Heller and Roth etc have certainly left their mark.

Lucy - The ladies do need their spokesperson too! Willa Cather, Pearl Buck and Carson McCullers are three I have read who have made a big impression on me. I always thought that I preferred male writers and listed my top twelve of the century only to find that 7 of them were written by the female of the species.

Mark - I think A Fine Balance would beat out Family Matters comfortably. Since you reduced office productivity for me today - how about your top ten reads from the 1990's?

Ellen - we could split the difference and half a Faulkner-half-a-thon with a book every second month. You would have an unfair advantage with the 5k as you run 3 miles almost daily!

Mamie - we crossed posts - would certainly concede the ground to your opinions.

Well, not really "almost daily"......

Pearl Buck, good choice although not so much about 'the american experience' but McCullers, definitely, and she gets forgotten about.

Several summers ago (pre-LT), I had my own little Faulkner-a-thon and survived intact (I think?). He's one of my favorites, actually.

Paul - I wonder if you might like The Unvanquished? It's screaming "Paul" to me, for some reason. Otherwise, it's definitely good to start with Light in August, as I'm sure others have mentioned. NOT The Sound and the Fury or Absalom, Absalom!, although they are my favorites.

Also, from several posts ago (#112), did you previously own a book store? I think I missed that story.

I liked Of Mice and Men a good deal, too, Paul. I do think I might well have continued to neglect Steinbeck if not for LT, which sent me to The Log from the Sea of Cortez, which in turn led me to the Steinbeckathon and other books of his I've liked very much. Right now I'm reading The Moon is Down. It's an intriguing read, particularly with its propaganda origins.

Finally catching up here.

Interesting comments about the four "icons" of 1920s-1950s American literature. I've only read one novel by Faulkner, As I Lay Dying, which was good but not earth shattering. I own all five volumes of the Library of America's complete collection of his novels, and I do intend to get to them...someday. I failed at an attempt to read his novels for some group on LT in 2009 or 2010, but I'd be up for a mini-Faulknerathon (5K, not a marathon) next year. I think I have a complete selection of Hemingway's works from the Book-of-the-Month Club, but I've only read The Old Man and the Sea and A Moveable Feast so far; both were superb. I haven't read anything by Steinbeck or Fitzgerald in years, probably not since high school 35+ years ago, but I did enjoy Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath.

Count me as a huge fan of Carson McCullers and Flannery O'Connor. They would arguably be my next favorite American writers after my #1 guy, James Baldwin. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is the best debut novel of all time, IMO, and O'Connor's short stories are brilliant and devastating. It wouldn't take much for me to read Eudora Welty and Willa Cather, although I don't think I own any of their works.

Although both writers fall toward the end of your time span, I think that Richard Wright and Saul Bellow must be mentioned amongst the greatest mid-20th century American writers. And Sinclair Lewis certainly deserves strong consideration. I'm sure that there are others I'm forgetting who are worthy of inclusion.

Hmm...the best novels of the millenium? From your list of 12, I've read seven of them: Lyrics Alley, Half of a Yellow Sun, White Teeth, The Shadow of the Wind, Brick Lane, Wolf Hall and Heliopolis; I own The Road Home and Family Matters, but I haven't read them yet. I definitely agree with Wolf Hall and White Teeth, and possibly The Shadow of the Wind. The others were very well done, but I'm not sure any of them would make my top 10. My initial top 10 list would consist of these books:

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
The Glass Room by Simon Mawer
Wizard of the Crow by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna
A Distant Shore by Caryl Phillips
Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury
Travelling with Djinns by Jamal Mahjoub
Gillespie and I by Jane Harris

Some others that would fall just below my top 10 list:

The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
By the Sea by Abdulrazak Gurnah
Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie
Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín (sorry, but I loved this book!)
Children of the Revolution/The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
The White Family by Maggie Gee
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (more apologies)
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Man Gone Down by Michael Thomas (winner of the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award; maddening but brilliant)

I'm sure that I'm missing some books that I've read which deserve to be in one of these two lists, and there are more millenium books I own but haven't read which will likely replace one or more of these books.

I was surprised that in all the discussion about American mid-century authors there was very little said about women writers. Surely there is at least one who is the equal of Steinbeck, Faulkner, and Fitzgerald? I immediately thought of Carson McCullers and Willa Cather. I think that Cather's books are so much better than anything written by Hemingway, Faulkner, or Fitzgerald, but she has stiff competition from Steinbeck. I think that Cather gets short changed because she wasn't a man, and because she wasn't Southern. Somehow this country is stuck on a literary tradition in the South that is somehow more of everything than writers from anywhere else. Sorry, but I'm not buying it. Cather is twice the writer that Faulkner was.

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is the best debut novel of all time, IMO

What Darryl said.

I love Willa Cather's books. I don't think of her as a contemporary of the others, but maybe there's more overlap than I think.

If I had to pick my favorite books written in this millennium, which I guess I would distinguish from the best, my top favorites would be (not in order):

Ice Trilogy by Vladimir Sorokin
Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi wa Thiong'o
Great House by Nicole Krauss
Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon
Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson
GB84 by David Peace

The runners up would be:

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
Lush Life by Richard Price
Netherland by Joseph O'Neill
Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra

And the runners up to the runners up would be:

The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano
The Last Brother by Nathacha Appanah
American Salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell
The Moldavian Pimp by Edgardo Cozarinsky
The Condition by Jennifer Haigh
The Boys in the Trees by Mary Swan
The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant
The View from Castle Rock by Alice Munro
Where the God of Love Hangs Out by Amy Bloom
Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel

Like Darryl, I'm sure I'm missing some -- this list came from a quick scan of my "Favorites of Recent Years" collection, but I may not have been consistent about adding books to this collection.

Wow! Just found this thread. How interesting. Chiming in on a few of the topics touched on here:

Best movie adaptation of a book: I'd have to agree with the Godfather. Cuckoo's Nest is a great movie, too, although I still like the book better. Others that have bubbled to the top of my fevered brain are "The Thin Red Line," "From Here to Eternity," and the Cronenberg adaptation of "Naked Lunch." "2001: A Space Odyssey," "A Clockwork Orange," and "Bridge over the River Kwai" also make my favorites list, as does the movie version of "Catch 22," which I believe, upon recent viewing of both, is a much better movie than "MASH." Then again, I am firmly within the "Anything with Alan Arkin" camp.

Hemingway I like better than some other folks here, but I can understand the distaste. I personally think "The Sun Also Rises" is a very, very strong book.

Faulkner: I have finally, at the age of 57, read my first Faulkner novel this year, The Hamlet, which is the first of Faulkner's Snopes Trilogy. I loved it and plan to read the rest of the trilogy within the year. It was pretty accessible, and so might make a good entry to Faulkner for others, as well.

Put me down on the list of huge admirers of both McCullers and, especially, O'Conner. (Speaking of whom, John Huston's film adaptation of Wise Blood is pretty darn good.)

And speaking of Catch 22, that book is at the top of my "Best Debut Novel" list.

Cheers, all!

Hi Paul,
I will have to take some time to compile a list of the millennium's best.....I dont think I have read any off our list, can this be true? Dirt Music I have looked at a number if times, as I loved Cloudstreet.....heck, Im stumped on this one.
*puts thinking cap on*
Ill be back.

Interesting top ten list, Paul.

I notice right away that 7 of them are Orange prize nominees. I've only read Half of a Yellow Sun, White Teeth, and Wolf Hall from your list but thought very highly of them all. Waiting for me on the towering stack are Lyrics Alley, The Road Home, Family Matters, Fingersmith, The Shadow of the Wind, and Brick Lane. Well, if they're the best of the millennium I'd best get to them!

I will have to give some thought to which books I'd put on my personal top ten list. Be back soon.

Ellen - a little tongue in cheek perhaps but also a dollop of awe and desperation at my own office-boundness thrown into the mix.

Lucy - See your point about Pearl Buck but she conveys a story so directly, simply and effectively that I think she deserves a mention when discussing the leading pre-war and immediate post-war American writers.

Kerri - Thanks for the tips on Faulkner. As I Lay Dying, The Unvanquished and Light in August will probably be the first three up for me.
Bookstore? Heaven help me if I did! I have dreams of retiring to own a small bookstore selling second hand books and run for pleasure not for profit as I could probably not bear to part with any of the books. Suz and I have corresponded only half in jest on the possibility of secreting ourselves away in Fowey in Cornwall with a half share each in the bookshop there!

Joe - stick to my guns that Steinbeck is my favourite and the best of his contempories in striking a chord with his readership - surely that is the main goal of the writer and not to perplex and irritate.

Darryl - Must admit thinking over my own list yesterday I had hoped you would respond with your own as your reading is so much more up to date than mine and would be more "complete" in that sense. Not surprised of course that Wizard of the Crow and something by Caryl Phillips is there as I have followed your advocacy of both and bought their work in part as a response to that. A little surprised that Feast of the Goat was not on the first list as I remember your enthusiasm of it. The Forna, Phillips, Khoury and Majoub books are not on my shelves yet (I will correct this shortly!) and the Mawer, Thiong'o, Harris and Verghese are there and wondering when I will get round to them.

Benita - from what I have read by the two - Cather and Faulkner I agree with you. Strange that being or not being Southern should be seen as making a difference to the critical reception of an author. I certainly have no such bias and maybe that is why I agree with you!

Ellen - Best ever debut novel? Well you put up a good candidate for sure and certainly my own favourite authors such as Greene made stumbling starts. Invisible Man, Go Tell it on the Mountain, To Kill a Mocking Bird and The Catcher in the Rye would surely have their advocates as the debut American novel of the last Century. My vote would go to Harper Lee although we are still waiting for the second.

Joe - I loved O' Pioneers! which is an excellent shortish novel.

Rebecca - Another list I was really hoping to see - to give my library ideas for expansion! Was sure that I would see Matterhorn on there and am not disappointed - maybe July I will get round to it on holiday.
Expected to get a few recces and sure enough Vladimir Sorokin and Jaimy Gordon are new to me and I'll look them up. Love that you have a runner's up to the runner's-up list as it demonstrates plenty of good reading and the difficulty of choosing which caused me to expand Mark's list of ten to twelve.

After all the wonderful examples here, I tried, I really tried and yet I can't come to a final best 10 for fiction. Every time I thought I'd a final list, I'd have to remove and replace .. it became an exercise in futility and great frustration. It was an even more difficult exercise when I thought to mix fiction and non-fiction. Almost drove me to drink!

The only books so far in my list that is common to some of the ones here are
Shadow of the Wind
Wolf Hall
The Glass House
Half of a Yellow Sun.

The other constants I had in my list were
Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder
Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
Beneath the Lion's Gaze by Maaza Mengiste

and then the other 3 just kept changing. *sigh*

But I did like reading all of your lists.

And Paul, I am in your corner for Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird as one of the best debut novels.

Jerry - lovely to see you here and I am lucky actually as you pop by on one of the rare occasions that we are actually discussing books!
Good call with the adaptations of the James Jones monsters both of which I personally felt were more effective and digestible on the screen and the Pierre Boulle which was not a great book but an excellent movie.
Don't hate Hemmingway's work at all and some of it especially The Old Man and the Sea is wonderful, but I think his novels of men and war are a little cold and one-dimensional. His portrayal of the female roles in For Whom the Bells Toll is not believable.
Faulkner is missing a little from my repertoire and The Hamlet is another one that I need to get off the shelves to be honest. I think that his works will feature prominently in my reading next year.
I haven't read any Flannery O'Connor who I manage to muddle up always with Flann O'Brien! Will put this one right also soon and will look at the best place to start.
Catch 22 would be another obvious contender for debut novel - another good pick!

Do you have your own thread Jerry?

Megan - thought you might note the inclusion of an Antipodean writer or two in there - Peter Carey and The True History of the Kelly Gang would have been in my runner's up list. Look forward to your list too with bated breath (what does that mean by the way?)

Anne - Must admit that the list started at 10 but morphed into 12! My faves are probably nowhere near the best of and I look forward to your list which I'm sure will put mine to shame.

Caro - sharing three in the list is not too shabby at all. Best 7 is also some list although David Letterman would be disappointed you couldn't make another three! Not intending to drive you to drink my dear or food but then again neither of us need to much encouragement in that respect!

198 It was fun going through my list of favorites to find the ones published in the past 12 years. I read a lot of older books, so I was actually pleased I've read so many contemporary ones. As I discovered a few years ago, most of my favorite contemporary books by US/UK authors are by women; with a few exceptions I find their work more to my taste than contemporary male authors writing in the US/UK, although I have a lot of favorite books from earlier years by men and from other countries by men.

The idea for three categories came from what I did with my list of favorites last year: I had "best of the best," "best of the rest," and "runners up."

I enjoyed The Feast of the Goat too, but it is one of my least favorites by Vargas Llosa so I didn't list it. I just checked and I see his Death in the Andes was originally published in 2001, so I would add that to my list.

#178 - Agree totally with adding Cather to the list - though wouldn't put her at mid-20th century. Christina Stead, by the way, who wrote The man who loved children is Australian (we have so few well known writers, I just had to correct! Certainly with you Darryl on James Baldwin.

You have stirred up some lively discussion here, Paul!!

It's just the choices I have to make, I feel bad for the other really good books that all fight for the last 3 places in my list.

No drink, but I've now been driven to eating Flavor Blasted Xplosive Pizza Goldfish.

#200> Thanks for the welcome, Paul. I have my own thread in the 50-Book Challenge group: http://www.librarything.com/topic/130053

We're not quite as chatty over there; mostly the talk is about the books we're reading, although not always. That's better for me as running my used bookstore takes up lots of time, leaving me not much for hobnobbing online. I do jump over to see what you 75ers are up to now and then, however.

btw, it would take me a while to pick out favorite books from this millenium, since a large percentage of my reading is still from the last one. However, right now I am 60 pages into Sepharad by Antonio Munoz Molina, published in 2001, which I am loving.

Finally, another one for the "best debut novel" list which I don't recall seeing here is The Naked and the Dead.

Rebecca - I was also a little surprised that I tended to favour the female writers too. The Orange Prize has perhaps been a filliip for ladies to get an audience for their work where they may have been overlooked before.

Prue - I did have Tim Winton in there! Not read anything by Christina Stead - what would you recommend?

Caro - Is that a pizza-hut side dish we're talking about?!

Jerry - Well if I make it to California I promise to stop by Village Books and push sales along a bit! I also thought of Mailer's debut (now there's a writer who divides opinion nicely).
Take your time preparing your list and you are welcome over here with our "chatty" lot anytime.

Hi Paul--so here is a quick list of my 21st century favorites--hardly a best of, since this exercise reinforces the imbalance between books I want to read and books I've actually read, even in this short time span. A dozen, and then a dozen more honorable mentions.

Atonement - Ian McEwan
Small Island - Andrea Levy
The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid
Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon
Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Memory of Love - Aminatta Forna
White Teeth - Zadie Smith
The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears - Dinaw Mengestu
Cutting for Stone - Abraham Verghese
Burnt Shadows - Khamila Shamsie
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz

Special Topics in Calamity Physics - Marisha Pessl
The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes
Let the Great World Spin - Colum McCann
The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Muriel Barbery
The Tiger's Wife - Tea Obreht
A Visit from the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan
The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver
Visitation - Jenny Erpenbeck
Sea of Poppies - Amitav Ghosh
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet - David Mitchell
Paradise - Toni Morrison
The Plague of Doves - Louise Erdrich

Back to those 20th century American male writers,

I think I like Fitzgerald more than many of you do. To me he captures something quintessential to American society that unfortunately never seems to go away. I've only read The Great Gatsby and This Side of Paradise but I've read them both several times. Probably more than I've read anything by Steinbeck or Hemingway.

I appreciate Hemingway's writing--particularly in his short stories and The Old Man and the Sea, I enjoyed A Moveable Feast, and I don't feel I have to admire the man to appreciate his art, but some of those novels are tedious.

I clearly started in the wrong place with Faulkner--The Sound and the Fury-- and never went back. I think a Faulknerathon would kill me too--I might require a tutored read.

I'm using the Steinbeckathon to get more acquainted with his work, since I previously had only read Of Mice and Men--excellent, but hardly enough to assess a whole body of work. I'm still not ready to elevate him head and shoulders above his peers.

Flannery O'Connor is tremendous and Carson McCullers also.

Hi Paul, what a feast of good books are on offer over here on your thread. Like Caro I would have a very difficult time narrowing my choices, but for sure Matterhorn and Fingersmith and, perhaps, The Invisible Bridge would be included on my list. So many of these books I have yet to get to so need to keep my options open!

#206 I did notice that Tim Winton was in your list! (I read Cloudstreet but just could not relate to it at all!). The only book by Christina Stead I have ever heard of is The Man who Loved Children - which is on my SoS. But I believe it is highly regarded - if not a little controversial!

Curse these tantalising lists! I have added several tomes to the Wishlist!

Hi Paul- Wow, this sparked a nice little discussion and lists of some fantastic books! Drawing up favorite lists is a lot of work. And finding my favorites from the 90s is quite a challenge. I'll have to really think about it.

Anne - great list.....Mengestu, Shamsie and Diaz I don't have and will add them to my hitlist.
Fitzgerald left me fairly cold with The Great Gatsby but Tender is the Night is calling to me soon to give me a second view of him.
We started in the same place with Faulkner and seems we were both wrong to do so. Will try and read some of his more apparently accessible works soon.

Judy - Matterhorn is coming soon, the font on my version of The Invisible Bridge is putting me off somewhat and Fingersmith I loved. I also liked The Night Watch but only named one book per author.

Prue - The Man Who Loved Children it is! I got more than I bargained for by putting up my list. At least I have added a good number of sure-fire winners to my hitlist.

Mark - you are "to blame" for the lists mate as I took it up from your posting of ten from the last ten. You really ought to put your own list soon!

Well, Paul, since I've been known to say that To Kill a Mockingbird is my favorite novel of all time, I suppose I'd have to give it the best-debut award, too, would I not? I think I tend not to think of it because there was no second. I love lists like those flying around on your thread but I almost never try to create my own list because my enthusiasm makes it hard for me to decisively narrow it down. But, of course, I'm making that other kind of list (the one of books I still need to read!).

I probably wouldn't have that much trouble getting together a list as each year I tell the reader's of my Christmas letter what books were the best of the year. However, I didn't start doing that until the late 90's so getting a list from the 90's would be difficult.

One book that I read in the 90's but might have been published before that would be on my list Tenants of Time by Thomas Flanagan. This is a novelization of the Charles Parnell years in Ireland. It seems to me that nothing happened in that novel, and yet everything did, and as a result I think about it often. That book is actually the second in a trilogy about different rebellions in Ireland. The first was Year of the French about the uprising in 1798. The second was Tenants of Time, and the third was End of the Hunt about 1916 through 1925. All were good, but somehow even after twenty years Tenants stands out to me.

I also liked Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet but think that Cloud Atlas is the better book by Mitchell.

Looks like I need to move Fingersmith and Glass Room up on my list. These have been mentioned by several people.

Although I need to find time to think of others I might add, Kafka on the Shore and 1Q84 would be on my faves of the millenium list.

For the millenium list, I shall add Gilead (2004), as I am loving it so much.....

Just checking in to keep an eye on things. Have to agree with you and Ellen about To Kill a Mockingbird - it's one of my all time favorites. I REALLY wish she had written another book.

Ellen - a list of unread books and books I want to purchase was one of the reasons I joined LT until I realised it was about so much more, but preparing those lists is as daunting as it is fun.

Benita - The Thomas Flanagan books have been on my radar for a while. Not available in the shops here I guess Book Depository will have to help me as usual. I love Mitchell's Ghostwritten which has a great first three quarters - if it had ended as well as it started I would have had it as my best book of the 1990's. Today I will try to do my 1990's top ten.

Joe - I have only read Norwegian Wood to date but I only chose one book per author.

Prue - another one for the hitlist! By the way my favourite part of May? Prue's return.

Mamie - thanks for your vigilance! One of the most frustrating things in 20th century literature must be Harper Lee's decision not to write anything else of substance.

I did it, my friend, I DID IT! I drew up the list. Should I post it here too? I don't want to be one those ThreadHogs!

We need you to get to more Murakami. Keep in mind G. R. of 1Q84 in October. Be there or be square.

Mark - feel free mate but there is no need really as I'm going over to your place this minute!
Want to read IQ84 but need to buy it first!

Wow... this has been a trip catching up on your thread! Fascinating to read all these favorites. I'm drowning in a deep BLUE sea of titles :)

I'm a bit surprised at how many I have read and agree with the comments.
Even more than that, I'm surprised how many I have not yet read - or even heard about! Must rectify soon.

Of the books mentioned above -
LOVED:
The Memory of Love - Aminatta Forna
Cutting for Stone - Abraham Verghese
The Tiger's Wife - Tea Obreht
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
Fingersmith - Sarah Waters

NEED to get to:
Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
Matterhorn - Karl Marlantes

Be back soon - but will probably be 80 messages behind :P
Have a good day!

>200 PaulCranswick: dont bate your breath for too long (clearly I have no idea of the meaning of tat saying), Paul, no list forthcoming as cant figure out when my books were published. Looks like I'm too lazy to get them all off the shelf or figure it out. Surely there's an LT search function for original publication date?

Antipodean writers-wise, I only spotted Tim Winton...cant say I'm up with the play on that front :) Never mind my brain has got the dumb: I think my brain has lost all capacity for information retention since having kids. Or maybe its just today......*clock crawls towards kids bedtime*

Hi Paul...

222 messages since I last checked your thread. Have I told you what a joy it is that you are a part of the 75 challenge group? Obviously, I am not alone in this feeling.

All the best to you!

#218 I'm blushing (and more than a little pleased!)

Cee - I actually surprised how many of other people's favourites remain unread by myself.

Megan - I am a bit of an anorak when it comes to remembering when things were published or released. The publication date function is not so reliable on LT as it generally refers to the date of release of the particular edition. Fantastic Fiction is the best site for publication dates IMO. Hahaha - Wilbur and Lenny will soon be old enough to send off to bed early but you'll probably go and spoil things and get yourself a third!

Linda - always lovely to receive a post from you. I would describe LT's influence on my life as enriching.

Prue - I think you know that you are one of my first and dearest buddies on LT; without any need for blushing I'm sure.

All this talk of books and lists and favourites has gone and damaged my bank account again. Last night had a look through the shelves and couldn't find one or two I thought should be there and SWMBO told me that some of the pile I was going through had been given by Yasmyne to the school library!!! Hence todays visit whilst the pious are at pray Paul goes to play and pay:

Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada
Light in August by William Faulkner
A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
Happy Families by Carlos Fuentes
Felicia's Journey by William Trevor
The Great Fire by Shirley Hazard
The Accidental by Ali Smith
I Capture the Castle by Dodi Smith
The House of Treason by Robert Hutchinson
Fallen Angel: The Passion of Fausto Coppi by William Fotheringham
Running with Fire by Mark Ryan

Wow,that's a hefty list sir, with some mighty fine titles. The Fallada is outstanding. LT is going to bankrupt us all!! Have mercy!

I'm in the same situation with regard to The Accidental Tourist. I really liked that book - why did I ever think that giving it to Oxfam was a good idea. I can't even blame my husband as it's always me that sorts out that sort of thing.

I've been meaning to try something by William Fotheringham. Professional cycling is the one sport that I ever feel inclined to read a book about and he seems to be a key writer in that field from what I have seen. I was thinking of reading his new one about Eddie Merckx - have you come across that?

Hi Paul!

I hope you are keeping well, I haven't been around much lately. I have been too busy gawking at icebergs off the coast of Newfoundland.

Love the list in #228. The Great Fire is one of my all time top ten can't-live-without favourites. A Good Man is Hard to Find is a masterpiece, I love Flannery O Connor. Felicia's Journey and I Capture the Castle are stand-out reads as well! What a nice haul. I must say I hated The Accidental with the fire of a thousand suns. As for the others, I own a copy of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and Light in August but they never seem to get first pick when I head to the bookshelves, poor guys.

Mark - I have given up the expectation, but perhaps not quite the hope of ever being rich as books and music will always take a large slice of whatever disposable income I have and the bread snappers will get the rest (SWMBO and the three magpies).

Rhian - I lost my Carlos Fuentes The Old Gringo which I had planned to read next month and they didn't have it in the book shop unfortunately, as well as a few Faulkners and the McCullers some of which was replaced. Yasmyne's largesse knows no bounds although it is noticeable that her own shelves remain fully stocked. Still at least the school got some good books as I can't well ask for them back.
No-one believe it looking at me now but 35 kilos ago I was a semi-professional bike rider so I also gravitate to books on cycling (I also like books on cricket - I am a Yorkshireman after all, books about the bane of my life, Leeds United and good sports writing generally). Lots of choice today actually I was torn between Laurent Fignon's autobiography and the one on Coppi which I bought. I have read Fotheringham's books on Tom Simpson and Britons in Le Tour and both were a good read. I haven't seen the book on the Cannibal (Merckx) yet and now I'll definitely have to go and find it!

Orlaith - What a nice surprise, been missing your company if truth be told. Went to your thread on a few occasions and noticed I've put more posts there than you! (only kidding). Sounds exciting to be off the coast of Newfoundland, icebergs notwithstanding and I trust you stayed reasonably warm and have some photos to show.

Quite pleased with my haul too if truth be known - I am expecting a small bonus early next week and have apportioned 5% of it for books so today was supposed to be about reconnaisance - Custer's 7th must have had characters like me leading the charge! Bought The Accidental because of the hype surrounding her more recent book with the silly title and ugly cover design and size - hope that for once our book view is divergent.

Wait a minute! I'm very weary from three days with students at a conference in New Orleans, LA...Am I reading your post correctly? Did your wife give away some of your books??

Will would not want to be around me for a long, long time if he did that....

But, if this afforded you the non guilty pleasure of new acquisitions then what a blessing!

#230 I can sympathise with Leeds United, my husband also being a supporter - it seems to bring him nothing but angst! He didn't manage to pass this love on to my son who supports Portsmouth for no very good reason that I can see, and that brings him lots of angst as well.

As a family we are completely addicted to watching The Tour de France every summer. I think my husband and I started watching it in the mid to late 90's, but then the program in the UK moved to a digital channel which we didn't have and we stopped for a few years. We probably started again around 2005 when my son was small, and he really liked it as well. When he was younger we spent many exhausting hours recreating mountain stages by climbing up hills pretending to be Contador or Evans or Armstrong or whoever the contenders that year happened to be. (Not on a bike I hasten to add - I couldn't climb a hill on a bike if my life depended on it).

Thanks Paul, and you're right - I have been (especially) useless this month! I too hope our views diverge and you enjoy The Accidental, though to be honest it's fun to hate books sometimes. Most of the books I read I like to some extent, and many of course I LOVE, so to have one that you scowl at when you when you so much as pass it on a bookshelf is great! I think it lets me feel more discerning than I really am.

Funnily enough, it was a beautiful weekend watching icebergs, about 25 degrees. Iceberg watching in shorts and tshirt - it's a strange world. I have some photos, but in no way have I the wherewithal to post them anywhere! I think I need a personal assistant - one who will work for free...

I like your allocations of funds from the bonus to the bookshop, you know how to live the good life! If any (future) child of mine have some of my books away, I would be looking into adoption agencies. Just kidding (ahem)! :)

Paul, it occurs to me that you could buy back your books if you got to the sale first. I'd try to do that!
I'm loving the lists of best or favorites of the millennium and am amazed that nobody has listed any Atwood yet. (Or did I miss her?) My head is flooding with favorites, so I don't know whether I'll ever get it down to ten or twenty......off to try.
(And you did get some super good books on your last foray. I need to read McCullers, O'Connor, Trevor, and Hazard. I will too!

I only ever heard of wives secretly giving away old suits and other clothes husband would never fit into again or which were all out of fashion but husband insisted to keep for sentimental reason.

I agree, the Fallada is outstanding. He has been undervalued too long in his own country, but there was a bit of a revival last year with a new edition of Every Man Dies Alone.

Aaarghhh sacrilege! A hater of The Accidental Tourist? Nooooooooooooo! It's a lovely movie and a very funny book - more amusing than many of hers are.

Great haul of books, Paul - especially A Hard Man is Good to Find - or did I get that the wrong way around? (gotta love Mae West!). Will probably add Every Man Dies Alone to my own wishlist. I think I have Lonely Hunter somewhere...I know I have Ballad of the Sad Cafe....

A Hard Man is Good to Find - i just spit my coffee all over my computer screen!

#226 - Great batch of books, Paul! I remember loving the film version of The Accidental Tourist, especially the Gena Davis performance, for some reason. Then I read a bunch of Anne Tyler novels after that (early 1990s?) and liked them, but never stayed caught up with her stuff.

Nice haul there, Paul! I really want to read the Fallada and the McCullers books.

That is one superb list of books, Paul. Gearing up for a Faulkner read?

Great haul, annoying when someone else decides to cull your book collection, though at least they're going to a good home. Averting my eyes to the best of lists, I own too many good books I still haven't read. I love these threads but in the 4 years I've been here my tbr stacks have exploded.

Rhian - you are obviously a good judge of character to pick out such a football-sensible husband - would say that the typical Leeds fan is passionate, a little mad perhaps and will stick with you through thick and thin albeit with plenty of grumbles about the authorities along the way! Cycling is very much in my blood although the bike I now have grumbles (or is that strains) on the rare ocassions she (my bike is very much a female) is put through her paces. Fell in love with cycling watching Robert Millar who was my size and I realised the small guys could power past the big guys in the hills. I have actually cycled most of the Pyrenean cols including the Aubisque, Tourmalet, Aspin, Marie-Blanque, Jau, Superbagneres, Luz Arididen etc but would certainly be happier watching the riders struggle up on TV these days.

Orlaith - it is always nice to read that someone hates a particular book as it would be immensely boring for us to read one glowing review after another.
Seems strange to think of being able see icebergs close up and enjoy warm weather at the same time.
I don't think that Yasmyne is brave enough to let go of my books without nefarious encouragement from SWMBO - Hani also knows that Yasmyne will get away with it with her Dad and anyway no-one in their right minds wouldl adopt SWMBO.

Peggy - I wish I could but she donated them to the school library and I would look even more stingy than usual if I was going to go and ask for them back. Will be tempted actually as SWMBO told me that the school is considering increasing fees by 40%. This would equate to an additional $8000 a year and my books budget would obviously come under the microscope. Look forward to your list - Atwood is divisive isn't she. Hate her dystopian stuff but other work like Alias Grace is very good.

Nathalie - I think I have managed to covey that SWMBO is anything but a typical wife! Yesterday evening she decided it was date night and I was press-ganged into a meal and a midnight movie - a simply dreadful movie called What to Expect When You're Expecting. There were three young arab guys on the row next to us who also realised that the film was crud and thought they would talk throughout it. Despite the body-builder appearance of all three and dubious physical back-up from yours truly she proceeded to silence them by a tirade I hear regularly but they obviously never before. At the close of the movie as they very politely asked to be excused as they passed our seats I couldn't help but smile at my dear lady.

Prue - I actually thought of making the same inversion of the Flannery O'Connor title but was insufficiently brave to do so - glad you did! You got me onto Tyler last year and the two I read were delicious.

Kerri - She tells a story nicely with a good mix of humour, wisdom and seriousness.

Mamie - Thanks for taking time from selling that gorgeous looking home of yours. The Fallada has two titles over here depending on which bookshop you patronise (and I patronise pretty much all of em) - the one I bought and Alone in Berlin - a few years ago I would have been perplexed having bought both titles only to realise that they are the same book. Sites like this and Fantastic Fiction ensure that I don't make cock-ups of this type any more.

Linda - thanks - I may try to read a Faulkner a month next year - doesn't sound like I'll get too many takers to join me though!

Kerry - partly my fault to be fair as I had put aside a small pile to give the school and she added some to it that I had not replaced on the shelves properly.
Given your breadth of reading I'm sure your list would be a joy to behold!

>226 PaulCranswick: I've read most of the books in your book haul and can I just say, you have some great reads ahead of you Paul. I finally did put a list together for favorites of the 2000s and I couldn't leave it at ten but I did leave it at only one per author except in the case of Hilary Mantel because I just couldn't do it:

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
The Siege by Helen Dunmore
**Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes
American Salvage by Bonnie Jo Campbell
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville
Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich
Small Island by Andrea Levy
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

**Also my nominee for Best Debut Novel.

Bonnie- That's a hellava List! I also loved:
American Salvage
Let the Great World Spin
The Cellist of Sarajevo
Small Island
Cutting for Stone
The Siege
plus the 2 I had on my List.
Some incredible reads there!

Paul - I would read a Faulkner with you next year as long as it is NOT As I Lay Dying. Love your theater story!!

Bonnie - Nice list. Again, many I have yet to read, but I do actually own some of them. I, too, loved Sea of Poppies and Cutting for Stone. Have you read anything else by Verghese?

Paul, I'm guessing that a donation (less generous than the cost of the books) to the library might get them back for you, especially if you gently explain that you were not consulted about the donation. AND.....having thought about it for a long time, I just bought a copy of Alone in Berlin at AMP - a little less costly than their used Every Man Dies Alone although I think I prefer that title.
Prue, you are a woman after my own heart! I'm on my way over to check your profile and thread!
I'm still working on My LIST!

Bonnie - 17 is great editing! Amazing isn't it Zadie Smith, Mantel and Waters are in almost all the lists.

Mark - you certainly started something with the list you posted over at Chez Mark.

Mamie - Let's make that a date then as I have a feeling that it would receive the wholesale embrace that Steinbeck did!
Verghese and Ghosh are both on my list to do this year but I am already hopelessly behind.

Peggy - I probably could get them back without a donation as I have given them so many books already but I won't as it would take away the good that SWMBO genuinely intended. What I will do however is get Yasmyne to borrow from the school library my own version of The Old Gringo and I'll probably get fined for returning it late!

Ack! about your books being donated, but I am happy you took the opportunity to go shopping for replacements.

Way behind, but loving the discussion here - British period films and American Lit. Haha. I'm going to add my $2.50.

I have to agree with Morphidae - The Great Gatsby left me cold too.

The Jennifer Ehle/Colin Firth P&P was wonderful, the Keira Knightly version also may have left me cold. She kind of leaves me cold...

I also liked Colin Firth in Love Actually.

Why oh why didn't Harper Lee write another book? I would have bought it. Probably three times, judging by the number of copies of To Kill a Mockingbird I own... (shh. I need them all).

I love Steinbeck and I'm 50/50 on Hemingway. My favorite American writer is Pearl Buck, but oddly enough, not her books set in America.

OK. Books I've read that were published in the last 12 years that stand out:

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from my Kitchen Table by Molly Wizenberg (not exactly literature, but it's got food in it)
A World Undone: the Story of the Great War by G.J. Meyer

I am sure there are more, but I think I read more elderly books.

Jenn - Nice to see you and your contributions as always are right on point. Haven't read many of your list and of the unread only own the Barbery so I have some catching up to do, especially as I largely agree with your comments elsewhere on the American icons. Have a lovely weekend.

Ooh. I hope you like the Barbery. The film was quite good too. I will be having a lovely LONG 22 hour drive to Oregon this weekend. I only hope my three children don't kill each other on the way. I am seriously considering a steady dose of Nyquil. I do have a cold. Really. I hope your weekend is even better than mine.

For those interested here is the list of those with 100 posts - apologies should anyone inadvertently be missed out.

1 PAUL 3849
2 RICHARD DERUS 3572
3 KATHLEEN 3366
4 JOE 3202
5 MARK 2970
6 ILANA 2227
7 STEPHEN APE 2186
8 CLAUDIA 2116
9 DARRYL 1967
10 DONNA 1578
11 CARO 1524
12 Lucy (Sibyx) 1421
13 CHELLE 1420
14 AMBER 1397
15 Megan 1391
16 SUZ 1353
17 Bonnie 1292
18 Ellen 1192
19 STASIA 1100
20 Peggy 1043
21 Roni 991
22 LINDA (Whisper) 982
23 Terri (tymfos) 956
24 Deb 938
25 JUDE 929
26 Mamie 921
27 Judy(DQueen) 913
28 Sara(saraslibrary) 845
29 Lynda 832
30 Joanne 823
31 MICKY 816
32 Calm 730
33 LUXX 727
34 Heather 699
35 Katie 673
36 Nora 625
37 Nathalie 615
38 Linda(lindapanzo) 606
39 Pat (phebj) 590
40 Dee 571
41 Gail 565
42 Morphy 565
43 Kara 526
44 Genny 523
45 Faith 520
46 Kerry 502
47 Laura 483
48 Cushla 481
49 Nancy 477
50 Kerri 476
51 Jim (drneutron) 473
52 Anne (AnneDC) 471
53 Madeline 471
54 Kim (Berly) 449
55 Lori (Thornton) 449
56 Anita 447
57 Anne (AMQS) 442
58 Leah 433
59 Liz (Lyzard) 429
60 Brit 425
61 Ellie 420
62 Katherine (qebo) 399
63 Dejah 398
64 Tina 389
65 Beth 383
66 Zoe 371
67 Eris 360
68 Tui 358
69 Amy 355
70 Sarah (beserene) 335
71 Karenmarie 329
72 Jenn (Nittnut) 328
73 Kathy(archerygirl) 327
74 Becky (labwriter) 321
75 Leonie 313
76 Rachel 305
77 Carsten 302
78 Rhian 292
79 Marie(mbellerose) 291
80 Mary (bell7) 276
81 Mary (storeettlr) 276
82 Carrie (cbl_tn) 272
83 Judy (ffortsa) 270
84 Foggidawn 266
85 Brenda (brenpike) 262
86 Cheli (cyderry) 259
87 Terri (tloeffler) 244
88 Linda (Layton) 243
89 Rebecca 240
90 Ellen (kittenfish) 233
91 sandykaypax 229
92 Unrulysun 227
93 LauraBrook 226
94 Blue 222
95 Carrie (cal8769) 212
96 Karen(maggie1944) 212
97 Cindy (Countrylife) 206
98 Janet (Streamsong) 201
99 Becca (seasonoflove) 200
100 Cynara 195
101 Lori (Ikernagh) 190
102 Rosalita 190
103 Susan J 188
104 Fuzzi 181
105 Angela (bookangel) 180
106 Linda (Linda92007) 180
107 Jenny (Lunacat) 173
108 Katelism 171
109 Alex (roundballnz) 170
110 Kriti 168
111 Ren (jadebird) 167
112 Laura (lycomayflower) 165
113 Cyrel (torontoc) 163
114 Stephen (TomKitten) 161
115 swynn 161
116 Piyush 159
117 Valerie 155
118 Karen O. 152
119 Tammy (tjblue) 149
120 Sandy (sjmccreary) 147
121 kkunker 146
122 Bekka 145
123 Mike (mldavis) 145
124 Monica (justjoey) 142
125 Samantha 135
126 Tad 133
127 Steve (sclvad) 132
128 Kathy (persephone) 131
129 Jeremy (JBD1) 130
130 Kim (lilkim) 129
131 Porua 129
132 Emilie (alsvidur) 125
133 Paul (paulstalder) 123
134 Luci (Elkidee) 122
135 Melis (kassilim) 120
136 Carol(sugarcreekranch) 119
137 Tom (ty1997) 119
138 Brenda (Beeg) 117
139 kathy (kmartin) 117
140 Susan (suslyn) 117
141 Hannah (HanGerg) 116
142 Susie (susiesharp) 116
143 Randy 114
144 Monica (mskeens) 113
145 Marcia 111
146 BJ 107
147 Charlotte (fourpawz2) 106
148 ursula 106
149 Jenny (gcpl) 102
150 Prue 102
151 Michelle (mks) 101

Is 22 hours one way Jenn? That is one heck of a road trip. Are you driving - if not can you read in the car - if like myself I love reading in the car but long distance with the family I always have to drive as SWMBO cannot stay awake.

Love the SWMBO story at the chick flic.....go her taking on the heavies! There's no excuse for talking no matter how bad the film :)
Nice stats Paul, Im exhausted just looking at them!

Btw, way back when you alluded to me and a third child.....just for the record, no way is that ever happening :) Not ever :)

Hi Paul. It looks like I'm still comfortably in 5th place and will probably remain there for the rest of the year. It's actually the perfect spot for me. I don't think I could manage more than that. Hope you are enjoying your weekend.

I am impressed that you can keep up with all those post numbers! I was reading nittnut's list of books from the last few years that stood out to her. I've read several, but there is one on there that I might get to this month because of the group read on the 12 in 12 challenge (Wolf Hall), and there is one on there that has been on my list for awhile that I really need to get around to reading soon (Tallgrass).

I would happily join you on some Faulkner reads/re-reads, Paul. Although maybe not quite as much as one a month.

Megan - SWMBO is not her nickname for nothing.
Hahaha on the prospect of a brother for Lenny and Wilbur - let's see when Lenny is six or seven and you've forgotten how tired you are now!

Mark - Mr. Consistency should be your moniker mate - you have been in the top five all year. Second quarter of the year you are actually 4th. Also wish you a lovely weekend.

Lori - piece of cake to keep up with the figures now. Takes me about 40 minutes a day. Jenn's list was a good one in my humble opinion - Tallgrass is one I will look for for sure.

Linda - thanks; one a month may be optimistic!

Happy weekend greeings, Paulo. See I did it again. My ring finger just insists on going for the o!
I've just started The Old Gringo and my first impression is that I love the quiet mood and sense of place. So far, nothing tricky.

Ah - the stats -- of course I received this extraordinary boost at the end of May!!

I think Anne Tyler's best work is the early stuff.

Let me see, in my little rant, I was mainly thinking about the great writers in a very small time frame, say 1920-1950? Richard Wright would definitely go in there with Native Son. I was also closely focused on books that reveal something about the american experience.

If you decide to try some more Murakami, Paul, you've got some great reading ahead of you. I like them all, but Kafka on the Shore, A Windup Bird Chronicle, 1Q84 or some short stories like After the Quake would all be good next stops on the train ride.

Paul, your thread was chosen for my first water break in today's yard work. This is our last big push before summer's heat and humidity settle in for the duration.

I'm definitely in for next year's Faulkner 5K. I'll step up my training by getting back into The Portable Faulkner, although at 724 pages, it's not that portable! My bookmark has been at Pg. 109 far too long. Faulkner has created a wonderful world in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County of Mississippi. The Portable Faulkner is a collection of excerpts and shorter works in chronological order that will give me the basis for more enjoyment of his accomplishment. Light in August was in my personal Top Ten for 2010.

I'm loving these lists of favorite books from the 21st Century. I'm working on my own list.

I never claimed to be a "mover and shaker" so I'm not surprised to not be a part of that crowd. I'm proud to be a member of The Book Plodders!

Back to work...

My explosive pizza flavored goldfish is not a Pizza Hut side dish but cute goldfish shaped crackers.

Nice book haul, Paul ... and to add to the comments above, I hope you get to the Barbery soon. It's one of my favorite books. I've read her other Gourmet Rhapsody but wasn't as wowed.

I've The Accidental and I Capture the Castle in my TBR Tower.... and I keep meaning to get to them, but others leap out at me when I peruse the TBRs for my next read. And now I'm on LT while the Food Network is on, I'm feeling hungry watching Anthony Bourdain traipse around some of the old haunts in NYC.

Paul,
How I envy your book acquisitions..I'm trying ever so hard not to head to the sale at bookcloseouts.com. I want to read those I have, but alas I hear the sound of fresh pages calling me.

Please tell me what the monikor for your wife represents...

Hi Paul, caught my attention, too, with Faulkner for next year. Something to think about ...

I've been following your thread via smartphone for a while, as it's the most convenient way to catch up, but I don't like posting from there because the typing is so annoying. So my comments might be a little late in the sequence.

Regarding the best American writers, I heartily agree that we must include the ladies. They have a different and fascinating perspective. And after all, I'm a lady, so they resonate with me. I can't agree that Steinbeck is the best of the bunch, however. He's extremely accessible, and GofW is a marvelous book, but as for the entire body of work, I think he doesn't rate as high as Faulkner, who I admit takes work to read. Faulkner was much more experimental than any of the other three, our native version of Virginia Woolf, trying to capture the inner life of his characters, I think. And the density of his stories, set in one place and among one set of people, is remarkable.

I haven't read Hemingway in a long time, but his short stories, especially the Nick Adams stories, are gems. Fitzgerald's talent was not enough to sustain him, but The Great Gatsby is a marvel, every word, in my opinion.

On the subject of 'Southern writers', it's not enough that they were born and raised in the South part of the US. Many were, but don't write about the South in any particular way. But Faulkner, Welty, O'Conner and several others write about the South. To us Northerners, there's an exoticism that accrues to the literature that is quite compelling.

I don't have any list of favorites, and I haven't read nearly as many new books (after 2000) as the other posters here have. Sometimes something catches me, but mostly, I've been reading what's on my shelves, which is not that new, or mysteries, which appear like dandelions on suburban lawns, it seems! The lists here will provide me with many titles to look forward to, so thanks to all.

And incidentally, I'll be happy to read some Faulkner next year as well - I have many titles to go in that body of work.

I love all the lists! Some I've read (The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is a great purchase, Paul). I also loved Let the Great World Spin, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, and Cutting for Stone. I will read Matterhorn and Cloud Atlas this summer because they both keep showing up on people's best-of lists!

Lynda - hahaha I hope I'll get my book out of the library and catch you up a little next week.

Lucy - impressive quick spurt up the charts. America's century as the twentieth definitely was produced some great writers and Wright & Baldwin carried the torch for the African Americans superbly.

Joe - I have had Kafka on the Shore pencilled in a few times to read and haven't made it yet. Will surely put that right soon.

Donna - your thread was chosen for my first water break in today's yard work. ?? Not sure what that means but I have a feeling that I should be flattered. Look forward to your list.

Caro - There have been some interesting books suggested in the last few days and the most interesting thing for me is that female writers seem in the ascendancy.

Linda - SWMBO means She Who Must Be Obeyed and never has a name been more apropos.

Nancy - Nice to see you and it would be great if we could all be non-plussed by WF together next year at least a few times.

Judy - nice post and I enjoyed your balanced appraisal of the icons of American writing. Methinks that any list you came up with would be similarly considered. Hope you relent and put one up.

Ellen - Matterhorn will be up for me soon for sure.

So shocked to see my name on one of your famous lists, Paul!

Have to agree that keeping your yap shut is just plain good manners at the movies and those young men doubtless deserved a good dressing-down. But - oh, the horror! - having to sit through that movie. Ouch! Not that I've seen it (and do not intend to), but all that I've seen and heard makes it sound like a major piece of tripe.

I guess I am about the only person who thought that The Cellist of Sarajevo was not all that good. Perhaps I made a mistake pre-ordering it a long, long time before publication and so by the time I got around to reading it it didn't measure up to my expectations.

I've been trying hard to make a list of my personal best or favorites (some one, some the other) of the new century so far. Here they are in no particular order, but I reserve the right to fiddle with it.

The Road Home by Rose Tremain
Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (mostly because my favorite, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is too early)

Not an Atwood in the bunch, I see.

Honorable Mentions

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
2666 by Roberto Bolaño

Hi Paul, I am terribly behind, but I wanted to swing by and say hello. What great discussions here -- I need to go back through your thread more slowly and take notes. Hope you're having a great weekend.

gah, I just arrive to check in with you and I see it's almost time for thread #16!! I will try and keep up with you but man your thread most quick!

Charlotte - lovely to see you. Yeah the most interesting thing about that awful film was the fact that SWMBO managed to enliven the arab boys discussion to the extent of striking them dumb! I haven't read The Cellist of Sarajevo but it has had more positive reviews than negative ones and I will get to it eventually.

Peggy - The Road Home is the only one that I have read on your list and it is my favourite read of the year so far.

Anne - you are so well organised - I cannot imagine making notes from any of the threads and forget my own after a day or two!

Chelle - you are right I am about to go to a new thread. You were just in time!