kidzdoc is cutting down the mountain of unread books in 2012: part 9

Currently reading:



Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
The Loss of El Dorado: A Colonial History by V.S. Naipaul

Completed books:

January:
1. Volcano by Shusaku Endo (review)
2. False Friends: Book Two by Ellie Malet Spradbery (review)
3. A Disease Apart: Leprosy in the Modern World by Tony Gould (review)
4. Best Mets: Fifty Years of Highs and Lows from New York's Most Agonizingly Amazin' Team by Matthew Silverman (review)
5. Walkabout by James Vance Marshall (review)
6. Swamplandia! by Karen Russell (review)
7. Letter from the Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr.
8. Mister Blue by Jacques Poulin (review)
9. Stained Glass Elegies by Shusaku Endo (review)
10. Botchan (Master Darling) by Natsume Soseki (review)
11. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
12. Guadalajara by Quim Monzó (review)

February:
13. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
14. Erasure by Percival Everett
15. Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness?: What It Means to Be Black Now by Touré
16. Memed, My Hawk by Yashar Kemal
17. India Becoming: A Portrait of Life in Modern India by Akash Kapur (review)
18. The Three-Cornered World by Natsume Soseki
19. Angel by Elizabeth Taylor
20. Kokoro by Natsume Soseki
21. The Golden Country by Shusaku Endo
22. The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi

March:
23. Professor Andersen's Night by Dag Solstad
24. Amsterdam Stories by Nescio
25. Your New Baby: A Guide to Newborn Care by Roy Benaroch, MD (review)
26. Fragile Beginnings: Discoveries and Triumphs in the Newborn ICU by Adam Wolfberg, MD (review)
27. There but for the by Ali Smith
28. The Deportees and Other Stories by Roddy Doyle
29. When the Garden Was Eden: Clyde, the Captain, Dollar Bill, and the Glory Days of the New York Knicks by Harvey Araton (review)
30. Walk on Water: Inside an Elite Pediatric Surgical Unit by Michael Rudman (review)
31. Suffer the Children: Flaws, Foibles, Fallacies and the Grave Shortcomings of Pediatric Care by Peter Palmieri (review)
32. Tonight No Poetry Will Serve by Adrienne Rich

April:
33. Little Misunderstandings of No Importance by Antonio Tabucchi
34. One with Others by C.D. Wright (review)
35. The Missing Head of Damasceno Monteiro by Antonio Tabucchi (review)
36. Boundaries by Elizabeth Nunez (review)
37. Panther Baby by Jamal Joseph (review)
38. The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq
39. Waifs and Strays by Micah Ballard (review)
40. Gillespie and I by Jane Harris (review)
41. Natural Birth by Toi Derricotte (review)
42. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (review)
43. Thirst by Andrei Gelasimov (review)
44. When I Was a Poet by David Meltzer (review)
45. Book of My Mother by Albert Cohen (review)
46. The Lepers of Molokai by Charles Warren Stoddard

May:
47. Colonoscopy for Dummies ~ Special Edition by Kathleen A. Doble
48. Map of the Invisible World by Tash Aw
49. A Planet of Viruses by Carl Zimmer
50. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
51. The Leopard by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa (review)
52. The Line by Olga Grushin
53. What Is Amazing by Heather Christle
54. Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding
55. The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright
56. The Treasures of Destiny by Laurie Harman Wilson
57. Confusion by Stefan Zweig
58. Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick
59. The Undertaker's Daughter by Toi Derricotte

June:
60. Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable
61. The Patient Survival Guide: 8 Simple Solutions to Prevent Hospital- and Healthcare-Associated Infections by Dr. Maryanne McGuckin
62. Three Strong Women by Marie NDiaye
63. Scenes from Early Life by Philip Hensher (review)

Books acquired in 2012: (books in bold are ones that I purchased this year)

January:
1. Best Mets: Fifty Years of Highs and Lows from New York's Most Agonizingly Amazin' Team by Matthew Silverman (2 Jan; LT Early Reviewer book) √
2. The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq (3 Jan; Kindle purchase) √
3. The Lepers of Molokai by Charles Warren Stoddard (7 Jan; free Kindle download) √
4. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt (8 Jan; gift book)
5. Walkabout by James Vance Marshall (8 Jan; NYRB Book Club) √
6. There but for the by Ali Smith (9 Jan; ordered from Alibris 30 Jan) √
7. I Am a Cat by Natsume Soseki (9 Jan; ordered from Alibris 30 Jan)
8. The Samurai by Shusaku Endo (9 Jan; ordered from Alibris 30 Jan)
9. Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima ((9 Jan; ordered from Alibris 30 Jan)
10. Coin Locker Babies by Ryu Murakami (9 Jan; ordered from Alibris 30 Jan)
11. Black Talk, Blue Thoughts, and Walking the Color Line: Dispatches from a Black Journalista by Erin Aubry Kaplan (10 Jan; LT Early Reviewer book)
12. Up in the Old Hotel by Joseph Mitchell (11 Jan; ordered from Strand Book Store on 27 Dec)
13. Runaway Horses by Yukio Mishima (11 Jan; ordered from Strand Book Store on 27 Dec)
14. The Temple of Dawn by Yukio Mishima (11 Jan; ordered from Strand Book Store on 27 Dec)
15. The Golden Country by Shusaku Endo (11 Jan; ordered from Strand Book Store on 27 Dec) √
16. Deep River by Shusaku Endo (11 Jan; ordered from Strand Book Store on 27 Dec)
17. Letter from the Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr. (15 Jan; free download) √

February:
18. Panther Baby by Jamal Joseph (2 Feb; free ARC) √
19. Angel by Elizabeth Taylor (4 Feb; NYRB Book Club) √
20. Class War?: What Americans Really Think about Economic Inequality by Benjamin I. Page (10 Feb; free e-book from U of Chicago Press)
21. India Becoming: A Portrait of Life in Modern India by Akash Kapur (15 Feb; LT Early Reviewer book) √
22. Amsterdam Stories by Nescio (29 Feb; NYRB Book Club) √

March:
23. Your new baby: A guide to newborn care by Roy Benaroch (6 Mar; free Kindle download) √
24. Fragile Beginnings: Discoveries and Triumphs in the Newborn ICU by Adam Wolfberg, MD (11 Mar; Kindle purchase) √
25. The Irish Americans: A History by Jay P. Dolan (17 Mar; Kindle purchase)
26. The Bus Driver Who Wanted To Be God & Other Stories by Etgar Keret (17 Mar; partial book purchase from Barnes & Noble gift order)
27. The Grief of Others by Leah Hager Cohen (17 Mar; Barnes & Noble gift order)
28. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (17 Mar; Barnes & Noble gift order) √
29. Londoners: The Days and Nights of London Now--As Told by Those Who Love It, Hate It, Live It, Left It, and Long for It by Craig Taylor (17 Mar; Barnes & Noble gift order)
30. The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright (17 Mar; iBooks order)
31. When the Garden Was Eden: Clyde, the Captain, Dollar Bill, and the Glory Days of the New York Knicks by Harvey Araton (20 Mar; Kindle gift book) √
32. Assumption by Percival Everett (20 Mar; Kindle gift book)
33. The Barbarian Nurseries by Héctor Tobar (20 Mar; Kindle gift book)
34. A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters by Julian Barnes (22 Mar; Kindle gift book)
35. The Man Within My Head by Pico Iyer (25 Mar; Kindle gift book)
36. Walk on Water: Inside an Elite Pediatric Surgical Unit by Michael Rudman (25 Mar; borrowed book) √
37. Knickerbocker's History of New York, Complete by Washington Irving (26 Mar; free Kindle download)
38. Suffer the Children: Flaws, Foibles, Fallacies and the Grave Shortcomings of Pediatric Care by Peter Palmieri (26 Mar; Kindle purchase) √

April:
39. Store of the Worlds: The Stories of Robert Sheckley (3 Apr; NYRB Book Club)
40. The King of Kahel by Tierno Monénembo (15 Apr; Kindle e-book)
41. The Secret Piano: From Mao's Labor Camps to Bach's Goldberg Variations by Zhu Xiao-Mei (15 Apr; Kindle e-book)
42. The Greenhouse by Audur Ava Olafsdottir (15 Apr; Kindle e-book)
43. Thirst by Andrei Gelasimov (15 Apr; Kindle e-book) √
44. Book of My Mother by Albert Cohen (16 Apr; Archipelago Books 2011 subscription) √
45. My Struggle: Book One by Karl Ove Knausgaard (16 Apr; Archipelago Books 2011 subscription)
46. As Though She Were Sleeping by Elias Khoury (16 Apr; Archipelago Books 2011 subscription)
47. Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick (17 Apr; Kindle e-book)
48. Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding (17 Apr; Kindle e-book)
49. Bleak House by Charles Dickens (22 Apr; free Kindle e-book)
50. Three Strong Women by Marie NDiaye (28 Apr; Amazon UK order)

May:
51. A Planet of Viruses by Carl Zimmer (3 May; free e-book from the University of Chicago Press) √
52. Colonoscopy for Dummies ~ Special Edition by Kathleen A. Doble (3 May; free e-book) √
53. Foreign Studies by Shusaku Endo (6 May; Strand Book Store)
54. The Enormity of the Tragedy by Quim Monzó (6 May; Strand Book Store)
55. Hitch-22 by Christopher Hitchens (6 May; Strand Book Store)
56. The Coward's Tale by Vanessa Gebbie (6 May; Strand Book Store)
57. Trapeze by Simon Mawer (6 May; Strand Book Store)
58. HHhH by Laurent Binet (6 May; Strand Book Store)
59. The Undertaker's Daughter by Toi Derricotte (6 May; Strand Book Store)
60. What Is Amazing by Heather Christle (6 May; Strand Book Store)
61. Confusion by Stefan Zweig (8 May; NYRB Book Club) √
62. Scenes from Early Life by Philip Hensler (8 May; The Book Depository)
63. Pure by Timothy Mo (8 May; The Book Depository)
64. Capital by John Lanchester (19 May; The Book Depository)
65. A Mind of Winter by Shira Nayman (19 May; LibraryThing Early Reviewer book)
66. The Treasures of Destiny by Laurie Harman Wilson (20 May; ARC e-book) √
67. The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro (21 May; History Book Club)
68. The Complete 2012 User's Guide to the Amazing Amazon Kindle by Stephen Windwalker and Bruce Grubbs (29 May; free Kindle e-book)
69. Our Lady of Alice Bhatti by Mohammed Hanif (30 May; Kindle e-book)
70. Last Orders by Graham Swift (30 May; gift book (J.N.))
71. The Patient Survival Guide: 8 Simple Solutions to Prevent Hospital- and Healthcare-Associated Infections by Dr. Maryanne McGuckin (31 May; LT Early Reviewer book)
72. Subduction by Todd Shimoda (31 May; LT Early Reviewer book)
73. Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (31 May; Amazon UK)

June:
74. Ride a Cockhorse by Raymond Kennedy (4 June; NYRB Book Club)
75. London Under: The Secret History Beneath the Streets by Peter Ackroyd (26 June; City Lights Books)
76. Divorce Islamic Style by Amara Lakhous (26 June; City Lights Books)
77. Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast by Natasha Trethewey (26 June; City Lights Books)
78. Memoirs of a Porcupine by Alain Mabanckou (26 June; City Lights Books)
79. Is Just a Movie by Earl Lovelace (26 June; City Lights Books)
80. Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me, and Other Poems by Ghassan Zaqtan (26 June; City Lights Books)
81. The Making of Modern Medicine: Turning Points in the Treatment of Disease by Michael Bliss (26 June; City Lights Books)
82. The Dream of the Celt by Mario Vargas Llosa (26 June; City Lights Books)
83. God's Hotel: A Doctor, a Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine by Victoria Sweet (26 June; City Lights Books)
84. The Earth in the Attic by Fady Joudah (26 June; City Lights Books)

TBR books read in 2012 (books on my shelf for ≥6 months):

1. A Disease Apart: Leprosy in the Modern World by Tony Gould
2. Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
3. Botchan (Master Darling) by Natsume Soseki
4. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
5. Guadalajara by Quim Monzó
6. Memed, My Hawk by Yashar Kemal
7. The Three-Cornered World by Natsume Soseki
8. Kokoro by Natsume Soseki
9. The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi
10. The Deportees and Other Stories by Roddy Doyle
11. Little Misunderstandings of No Importance by Antonio Tabucchi
12. One with Others by C.D. Wright
13. The Missing Head of Damasceno Monteiro by Antonio Tabucchi
14. Waifs and Strays by Micah Ballard
15. Gillespie and I by Jane Harris
16. When I Was a Poet by David Meltzer
17. Map of the Invisible World by Tash Aw
18. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
19. The Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedusa
20. The Line by Olga Grushin
21. Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable

Books purchased in 2012:

1. The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq ($13.99) √
2. Fragile Beginnings: Discoveries and Triumphs in the Newborn ICU by Adam Wolfberg, MD ($9.99) √
3. The Irish Americans: A History by Jay P. Dolan ($0.99)
4. The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God and Other Stories by Etgar Keret ($8.70 (partial purchase))
5. The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright ($12.99) √
6. Suffer the Children: Flaws, Foibles, Fallacies and the Grave Shortcomings of Pediatric Care by Peter Palmieri ($3.99) √
7. The King of Kahel by Tierno Monénembo ($0.99)
8. The Secret Piano: From Mao's Labor Camps to Bach's Goldberg Variations by Zhu Xiao-Mei ($0.99)
9. The Greenhouse by Audur Ava Olafsdottir ($0.99)
10. Thirst by Andrei Gelasimov ($0.99) √
11. Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick ($9.99)
12. Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding ($9.99) √
13. Three Strong Women by Marie NDiaye (£19.27)
14. Foreign Studies by Shusaku Endo ($6.95)
15. The Enormity of the Tragedy by Quim Monzó ($5.95)
16. Hitch-22 by Christopher Hitchens ($13.49)
17. The Coward's Tale by Vanessa Gebbie ($8.00)
18. Trapeze by Simon Mawer ($14.35)
19. HHhH by Laurent Binet ($23.40)
20. The Undertaker's Daughter by Toi Derricotte ($7.95)
21. What Is Amazing by Heather Christle ($11.45) √
22. Scenes from Early Life by Philip Hensler (£15.62)
23. Pure by Timothy Mo ($20.61)
24. Capital by John Lanchester (£13.31)
25. The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro ($24.99)
26. Our Lady of Alice Bhatti by Mohammed Hanif ($12.99)
27. Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (£18.58)
28. London Under: The Secret History Beneath the Streets by Peter Ackroyd ($25.00)
29. Divorce Islamic Style by Amara Lakhous ($15.00)
30. Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast by Natasha Trethewey ($17.95)
31. Memoirs of a Porcupine by Alain Mabanckou ($15.95)
32. Is Just a Movie by Earl Lovelace ($14.95)
33. Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me, and Other Poems by Ghassan Zaqtan ($26.00)
34. The Making of Modern Medicine: Turning Points in the Treatment of Disease by Michael Bliss ($18.00)
35. The Dream of the Celt by Mario Vargas Llosa ($27.00)
36.. God's Hotel: A Doctor, a Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine by Victoria Sweet ($27.95)
37. The Earth in the Attic by Fady Joudah ($16.00)

Completed books from JanetinLondon's library and list of planned reads for 2012:

January:
1. Volcano by Shusaku Endo
2. Botchan by Natsume Soseki

February:
3. The Three-Cornered World by Natsume Soseki
4. Kokoro by Natsume Soseki

March:
(none)

April:
(none)

May:
5. The Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedusa

My planned reads for June (as always, subject to change):

The Ark Sakura by Kobo Abe
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel - reading
The Coward's Tale by Vanessa Gebbie
Foreign Studies by Shusaku Endo
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
The Loss of El Dorado: A Colonial History by V.S. Naipaul - reading
Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable - completed
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
A Mind of Winter by Shira Nayman
One Drop: My Father's Hidden Life by Bliss Broyard
Our Lady of Alice Bhatti by Mohammed Hanif
The Patient Survival Guide: 8 Simple Solutions to Prevent Hospital- and Healthcare-Associated Infections by Dr. Maryanne McGuckin - completed
Pure by Timothy Mo
Subduction by Todd Shimoda
Scenes from Early Life by Philip Hensher - completed
Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
Three Strong Women by Marie NDiaye - completed
The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe

This coming Sunday, June 10 is National Children's Day in the US, a day in which we celebrate children, but also acknowledge that many thousands of children live in poverty and fear, and suffer from poor health due to inadequate health care and obesity and poor futures due to our shameful educational system in inner cities and rural communities. I'll have more to say about this in the coming days, but for now I'll post this poem about child poverty in the UK, which was written by a mother of two children:

Poem About Poverty by Polly C.

A world of peeling paint and mildew,
Where things stop working like clapped out minds.
Looking across desolate concrete,
I wonder why hope is so hard to find,
I wonder where dreams go,
When the dreamer gives up and looks the other way
And graffittis anger on a wall
While little children play.

Striking at a broken down goal -
A crazy parody of this life.
Our ill-fitting shoes on the ripped-up felt,
Cut aspiration back down with a knife.
Bottles smashed on stairwells
And worse - self imposed curfews by night,
Nobodies just trying to be someone,
No one turned on the light.

Ambition like a rusty bike,
The pedals seized; tyres coroded.
The wrong clothes; the coins for hot water.
Just like a gun, emotion is loaded
Then contained and held in -
Though it only fizzles away; a silent bomb
Set to burst when the suffocating mould
Reminds us where we're from.

Kick at my heels; life moves nowhere.
Sighs; fraught words; kids crammed in one room,
Squashed, like canned beans - can't focus on school.
Don't want to grow up, not anytime soon.
Can't see the horizon,
Just a world of budget food and endless TV
Nothing else to do. Nothing to be.
Do you wish you were me?

http://pollyc.hubpages.com/hub/poem-about-poverty

Well, as you know, The Master and Margarita is one of my all-time most favourite books. And I'm almost finished Bringing Up the Bodies, which is another stunner from La Mantel. So you've got some good stuff on the go. You're on your own with the Patient Survival Guide, however. ;)

>6 tiffin: First place prize goes to Tui!

The Patient Survival Guide is a LT Early Reviewer book I received within the past week, which was written by an infectious disease expert whose main goal is to make patients and their advocates and families more knowledgeable about the risks of acquiring serious and potentially fatal infections as a result from being in the hospital. I'm roughly halfway through the book, and so far this is one of the most informative, well-written and accurate books about personal health that I've ever read. Unless it goes way off the track in its latter half, this will be an easy 5 star read, as I've learned quite a bit from Dr. McGuckin, which I'll apply as a physician who takes care of hospitalized patients, a teacher of residents and medical students, and a private citizen who will almost certainly be hospitalized again at some point in the future. I'll also plan to buy this for my parents, brother and aunts in the very near future. I'll finish it in the next day or two, and write a review of it, and the nearly equally good Malcolm X biography, which I also gave 5 stars.

Placeholder until I can think of something witty to say.

Could be a long wait.

>8 richardderus: I doubt it will take you long to come up with a good comment. However, it's nearly 12:30 am, so it's time for me to go to sleep.

Darryl - Kapka Kassabova is a Bulgarian-born writer who came to NZ as a teenager learnt English and then wowed the lit world with her first novel published when she was only 19. Since then she's written a few more and now lives in Scotland. I've only read her memoir, Twelve minutes of love, about her ten year passion for tango dancing, it was a fascinating study of music, dance, travel and love. I'm hoping to read a couple more of her books this year as she has a really good way with words.

Lovely and cute picture at the top of your new thread, Darryl.
I just perused the ongoing discussion on your last thread -- very interesting and lively, both about books and about relationships (and about hot authors, let it be said).
I read There but for the this weekend and thought it was terrific. I seem to recall that you liked it?

Darryl - nice bunch of Kids for the Kidzdoc. Congrats on your 9th thread. Have a great week.

>10 avatiakh: Thanks for the information about Kapka Kassabova, Kerry; I love learning about new writers. I look forward to your reviews of her books.

>11 EBT1002: Thanks, Ellen. I did like There but for the, but I think I read it during a busy stretch at work, and didn't give it as much attention as I should have. I'll reread it at some point, and finally get to her earlier novel, The Accidental.

>12 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. I hope that you have a good week as well.

Hello there! Sorry I haven't piped up in a while, but I'm here. : ) Great pic up top and the book lists aren't bad either.

I finished Bring Up the Bodies last night. Another excellent book, but I'm giving the edge to Wolf Hall.

I'm adding two more Hot Authors from my gallery: Anthony Bourdain and Sam Shepard.

Ugh. Long 14 hour day at work to start the week (8 am to 10 pm). Tomorrow should be a shorter day, as I'll have to finish in time to attend a hospital committee meeting at 6 pm. Otherwise I'll have to drive back to the hospital to finish up (double ugh).

>14 mckait: *waves overhead as Kath flies by*

>15 Berly: Hi, Kim! It's good to see you here. I hope that all is well with you.

>16 Cariola: I'm glad that you also enjoyed Bring Up the Bodies, Deborah. Depending on my work week, I may not get to read much of it until this coming weekend.

>17 Cariola: Excellent! I'll have to compile a list of hot authors when I create the TIOLI thread at the end of this month.

>7 kidzdoc: and you would know! That is a great endorsement for the book.
That pic up top looks like it could be from one of those Benetton ads from the early '90's :)
Boo on 14 hour days :(

>8 richardderus: RD, that is funny....I see you havent edited to add anything yet....*holding my breath*

>19 LovingLit: You're right, Megan; that does look like a Benetton ad. I found it when I did a Google Images search for "National Children's Day".

Mondays are usually longer days at work, as we have to become familiar with new patients, unless we worked the previous weekend. It helped that I knew half of these kids, but several of them were complicated and required an hour or more apiece. Today should be much easier.

Here's hoping today is a good one for you, and the kids.

Hope you enjoy Bring up the Bodies. I plan on getting to Wolf Hall later this week or early next

All 93 novels that have won the Pullet Surprise for Fiction, in first editions, are being sold at auction. Expected to bring $50K-plus. Figured you'd want to be on the phone bidding.

Ooh ooh... can I sit along the sidelines and watch what Darryl's winning bids are?

>23 richardderus: This would be the year to sell them and fetch a pretty good price.

>21 mckait: Two more busy days at work, although I only worked 12 hours yesterday and today. The worst of the week should be over, and hopefully Thursday and Friday will be shorter ones. Most of my patients are doing well, except for the teen with acute HIV infection, who isn't doing well at all. I'm still hopeful that he'll eventually turn the corner.

>22 ChelleBearss: I'm all but completely certain that I'll love Bring Up the Bodies, as Wolf Hall is one of my 10 most favorite novels I've read since 2000, regardless of the year of publication. Hopefully I can start reading it tomorrow.

I woke up unusually early this morning, couldn't get back to sleep, and managed to finish one of the LT Early Reviewer books I received last week, The Patient Survival Guide: 8 Simple Solutions to Prevent Hospital- and Healthcare-Associated Infections by Dr. Maryanne McGuckin, an outstanding and essential book that everyone who is a hospital inpatient or has a loved one that is facing a hospitalization needs to own and read, IMO. I'll review it later this week.

>23 richardderus:-25 Thanks, but no thanks. I can think of many other things I'd rather spend $50K on than a collection of musty old books that I probably won't read.

Hi, Darryl! I actually got to your thread only 26 posts in.

Nice picture in the lead off spot.

Hi, Terri! However, your use of the term lead off spot reminds me of the Phillies' current woes.

I've decided to spend my two week break that begins at the end of this month in San Francisco instead of London; I'll visit my parents for a week before I leave for the West Coast.

Long hours ..... sending healing energy to your young person with acute infection.

<Hotlanta gal named US Poet Laureate!!

Film at 11.

>29 mckait: Another long day (8 am to 9:30 pm). This has been a maddening and frustrating work week, for reasons that I can't discuss in detail publicly, but it will be over after tomorrow.

>30 richardderus: I did see this last night, but I was too tired to post anything about it. Natasha Trethewey, a professor at Emory (my last alma mater, which is ~5 miles from where I live), was selected as the next Poet Laureate of the United States:

Emory's Trethewey named U.S. Poet Laureate

I own two of her books, Native Guard, which won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, and Bellocq's Ophelia; both were excellent. More comments later.

Off to bed...

I just received an e-mail from the NYT about the death of Barry Unsworth, whose novel Sacred Hunger won the Booker Prize in 1992:

Barry Unsworth, Writer of Historical Fiction, Dies at 81

I don't own and haven't read any of his books, including Sacred Hunger. Has anyone else read him?

Yes! I am sorry to hear of Barry Unsworth's passing. I loved Morality Play and I read Sacred Hunger, The Ruby in Her Navel( excellent) and Land of Marvels. I didn't like the ending of Losing Nelson but the book was interesting. I haven't read his latest book but I heard that it was a continuation of the story of Sacred Hunger. He is an author whose work is worth reading.

I've read several of his books, but the one that stands out in my mind is Sacred Hunger, historical fiction about the slave trade, and a colony some shipwrecked slaves established in Florida (memory of details a little vague here). If his latest is a continuation of Sacred Hunger, I'll probably reread that first. (I think Sacred Hunger was a Booker winner, or at least short-listed, wasn't it?)

I don't know Barry Unsworth but seems worth investigating..... Sacred Hunger gets many nods of approval.

I've read Morality Play and Land of Marvels and have Stone Virgin down to read sometime this year. I've enjoyed what I've read and fully intend to read all his work. I've also tracked down a copy of The Songs of Kings for my son to read as he loved The Ruby in her Navel.

Will be interested to hear what you think of Last Orders Darryl - I am definitely a fan (not least because I once worked with his long-time partner, Candice, and dined with them several times.....he was a lovely, if quite shy, man.

I really liked Sacred Hunger ...

I'm sorry to hear about Barry Unsworth. My favourites are Morality Play and After Hannibal.

I loved Sacred Hunger Darryl and I have Morality Play on my shelf.

The Ruby in Her Navel was a very, very good book. 81 isn't young, but one still wishes he'd been able to make a few more memories.

*doing the Not Working Today happy dance*

Chinaman by Shehan Karunatilaka, which was published as The Legend of Pradeep Mathew in the US, is the winner of this year's Commonwealth Book Prize:

Shehan Karunatilaka wins 2012 Commonwealth book prize

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, which I read last summer. It's about a former Sri Lankan cricket star who has mysteriously disappeared, the dying sportswriter who seeks to write a biography about him and discover his whereabouts, and the history of that troubled country.

Thanks to everyone for the recommendation to read Sacred Hunger and other novels by Barry Unsworth. I'll definitely get to him soon.

Prue, I'd like to read Last Orders this fall, so I'll let you know what I think about it then.

I think I'll set Bring Up the Bodies aside, since I haven't started it and because I need to read and review at least one book for the upcoming issue of Belletrista, namely Three Strong Women by Marie NDiaye. It won the Prix Goncourt in 2009, and NDiaye was the first woman of African descent to win France's most prestigious literary award.

Darryl, I have read all but Unsworth's last couple of novels which are waiting for me on the shelves. Given the impression made by The Song of Achilles I would have thought a good place to start with him would be The Songs of the Kings which discourses on another aspect of the Trojan war. His Morality Play is my own favourite. Will have to get Chinaman as soon as possible as I love cricket almost as much as books. "Chinaman" for those who don't know is a type of delivery (pitch for you baseballers) where the ball spins and pitches and goes off in the opposite direction, normally bowled "from the back of the hand" so the batsman can't see it coming.

>31 kidzdoc: Thanks for the link on Natasha Tretheway's selection as U.S. Poet Laureate, Darryl. I am happy to see that Native Guard is actually available in a Kindle edition. I'm looking forward to this introduction to a poet that is new to me.

>44 PaulCranswick: Thanks for those suggestions, Paul. I'll probably start with Sacred Hunger; I'll look for it later this month.

Despite my near complete ignorance of cricket I enjoyed Chinaman, so I would definitely recommend it to a fan of the sport.

>45 Linda92007: You're welcome, Linda. I think I'll look for Native Guard at City Lights when I go to San Francisco at the end of the month. If I can't find it there, or at the Barnes & Noble just off Emory's campus, then I'll purchase the Kindle version.

Despite 7 hours of sleep and a 3 hour late morning/early afternoon nap I'm still brain dead, and unable to concentrate on any of the books I was intending to read today. I did create a list of my 10 favorite novels published in the 1990s, though:

Death in the Andes, Mario Vargas Llosa
Disgrace, J.M. Coetzee
Blindness, Jose Saramago
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami
Pereira Declares, Antonio Tabucchi
Waiting, Ha Jin
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, José Saramago
South of the Border, West of the Sun, Haruki Murakami
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, Roddy Doyle
The Blackwater Lightship, Colm Tóibín

I read hardly any books for pleasure in the 1990s, which was taken up with work, graduate school, medical school and residency, and I doubt that I read more than 1-2 novels in any of those years. I read all of these books in 2000 or later, and there are other books from that decade that I'd like to read in the future. So, this list is very likely to change in a year or two.

Hi Darryl, I just bought The Blackwater Lightship, it is one of the 20 or so that are fighting to be read next. :|

>47 LovingLit: Bssed on his appearance, I think that Colm Tóibín could stand toe to toe with any other author in a literary bar fight. So, I expect that The Blackwater Lightship will come out on top.

It looks like the LT population and I agree on Colm Tóibín. I wanted to like him more than I did...

>49 mckait: Which books by Tóibín did you read? What didn't you like about them? I've only read Brooklyn and The Blackwater Lightship, which were both superb, and I have yet to get to The Master, The Heather Blazing, Empty Family and The South.

I'm now feeling good after another two hours of sleep, so I'll get back to Three Strong Women.

50> Oh, The Master is wonderful. I've also read Brooklyn, which was just OK, and two collections of Toibin's short stories, The Empty Family (awesome) and Mothers and Sons (not quite so good).

Loved The Master and liked The Blackwater Lightship. Only two I've read.

I loved both Brooklyn and The Heather Blazing (and have The Blackwater Lightship here, and The Sign of the Cross, a non-fiction one he wrote about Catholicism in Europe in the 1990s.)

>51 Cariola:-53 Tóibín lovers of the world, unite! I knew that I wasn't alone.

Darryl - I think The Heather Blazing is my favourite of the three Toibins I've read so far. The others are The Blackwater Lightship (also very good) and The Story of the Night (much less good).
By the way for fans of his better work - I would recommend the books of John McGahern - Toibin is considered something of a successor to McGahern in Ireland by all accounts.

I've read Heather Blazing and loved it, he's got such a good voice. I have The South in my TBR Tower which I have yet to get to.

>45 Linda92007: & 46....For those who missed it, Terry Gross had a very interesting interview with Natasha Trethewey on Friday. You can catch it at
http://www.npr.org/2012/06/08/154566358/natasha-trethewey-poetrys-always-a-kind-...

Didn't like Toibin's Brooklyn so much. Perhaps I need to take a look at Blackwater Lightship...sometime, not right now.

57> Brooklyn was a step out of Toibin's usual mode--a misstep, in my opinion. You definitely shouldn't judge him by that work alone.

Here are my favorite novels from the 1980s:

The War of the End of the World, Mario Vargas Llosa
Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro
The Stone Raft, José Saramago
Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami
The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta, Mario Vargas Llosa
Matigari, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Sent for You Yesterday, John Edgar Wideman
Life & Times of Michael K, J.M. Coetzee
The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, José Saramago
A Wild Sheep Chase, Haruki Murakami
The Prospector, J. M. G. Le Clézio

I suspect that there are novels I've read from the 1980s and 1990s that should make this list in place of the ones I've listed. There are others I own but haven't yet read that will probably appear on this list once I get to them, such as The Bone People and The Satanic Verses. However, the first four books are all but guaranteed to appear on any future list.

>55 PaulCranswick: I'm completely unfamiliar with John McGahern, Paul. Which books of his would you recommend?

>56 cameling: I agree, Caroline; Tóibín has a very good voice. I'll have to get to his books that are on my TBR pile later this year or in 2013.

>57 tangledthread: Thanks for that link to the Fresh Air interview, tangledthread! I'll listen to it later today.

BTW, Tretheway was also briefly interviewed on NPR's Weekend Edition this morning; the link includes her reading two of her poems:

'Speaking The Unspeakable' To The New Poet Laureate

She and another well recognized Emory poet, Kevin Young, give public talks and readings on a semi-regular basis on campus, which is about 10-15 minutes from where I live. I'll have to pay closer attention to any upcoming events, which I assume will be far more heavily attended now.

>57 tangledthread:,58 Interesting comments; I enjoyed Brooklyn!

The Remains of the Day and The Stone Raft are two of my favourites as well.

Probably start with his first Darryl - The Barracks although his most celebrated is Amongst Women.

>61 SandDune: The Remains of the Day is simply perfect, and is one of my top 10 all time favorite novels. Although The Stone Raft didn't have the complexity of Blindess, it was a whimsical and delightful novel, which was a sheer pleasure to read.

>62 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. I'll add The Barracks to my wish list.

oooh, good. I just got Toibin's The Master, and in large print too as a little treat for my eyes :)
As an antidote to all those piddly words crammed onto pages in Midnights Children that Im reading now (one off your list Darryl, I see)

#63 it was a whimsical and delightful novel, which was a sheer delight to read.

I think that is why I preferred The Stone Raft - I found Blindness altogether too dark.

Great lists, Darryl. Remains of the Day is amazing, I agree.

Great lists Darryl and to be expected of course. I'd forgotten about The Remains of the Day which I'd like to reread sometime in the not too distant future. I read Toibin's Brooklyn and liked it but wasn't blown away by it. I also own The Master which I will read right after I read Portrait of a Lady as I understand Toibin's book is about Henry James. I'm looking forward to both of those books but I'm not sure how soon I'll be able to get to them.

I just picked up The War of the End of the World the other day but I'm planning to read The Feast of the Goat first.

Darryl... I just want to repeat what I said in Caro's thread.
Dandelion Wine... I know you think it is fluff..but it isn't.. it is magic.
And the way that you feel about family, I think you would really like this book.
I urge you to consider reading it. it is a short quick read... and I think you would
smile for days.

#60- I read my first John McGahern last November and became an instant fan, so I recommend the dark. It's semiautobiographical. I learned about it from a list of commonly banned books. Nothing like a good book ban to get me to buy a book and support the author.

Among others here, I also loved the master.

>64 LovingLit: I'm curious to get your take on The Master, Megan.

>65 SandDune: Blindness is one of the five or ten books that have had the greatest impact on me over the past dozen years. The Stone Raft was a quite enjoyable and very different book, but I seem to remember that it dragged in spots and seemed to be too clever at times.

>66 jnwelch: None of Ishiguro's other novels come anywhere close to The Remains of the Day, unfortunately.

>67 brenzi: I'd like to read The Master soon, but there are too many other books ahead of it. Hopefully I can get to it in the next year or two.

The Feast of the Goat is a powerful and disturbing novel, which had nearly as much of an emotional impact on me as Blindness did.

>68 mckait: Au contraire, madame! I never said that I thought that Dandelion Wine was fluff. I plan to look for it later this month, based on Caroline's enticing review of it.

>69 Nickelini: Why was The Dark banned, Joyce?

This weekend was a bust in terms of my reading plans, as I only read ~80 pages of Three Strong Women. Hopefully I'll get some reading done during the week, and especially over the upcoming three weeks that follow it.

#70 Why was The Dark banned, Joyce?

Here is the first paragraph of my from last fall:

"Nothing makes me want to read a book more than hearing it was banned. I'm just perverse that way. Although I knew of the esteemed John McGahern, I had never heard of The Dark until I saw it on a banned book list last year. Not only was the novel banned in Ireland as "indecent and obscene", McGahern was fired from his job as a school teacher when it was published. And now I learn that the novel was highly autobiographical. In other words, McGahern was banned and fired for speaking up about his abusive childhood. Interesting."

Excellent book. It's short and I recommend it highly.

well, huh! I await your thoughts.

Once again, it's time for Darryl's tips for parents and grandparents of hospitalized children:

Tip #1: Despite what you may think, feeding your grandson Cheetos will not improve his anemia, as it contains zero grams of iron. However, it may delay the CT scan that was ordered that morning (as he was supposed to have nothing to eat for six hours beforehand), and cause the surgery he needs to be delayed by one day. And, you may want to consider cutting back his excessive juice consumption, which is a more likely cause for his anemia than acute Cheetos deficiency.

Tip #2: For divorced fathers of kids who are lobbying for increased visitation rights from the medical staff, it's generally not advised to engage in a shouting and screaming match with your ex-wife in the patient care area that makes your young son cry and causes a doctor to call Security to keep you from hitting her, or vice versa.

Tip #3: Grandmothers who confront one physician for putting their granddaughters on a medication that was recommended by a specialist then later praise the specialist for choosing that medication will generally be viewed as unstable lunatics by the medical staff.

More helpful hints soon...

A helpful hint for doctors who work in hospitals: Red wine does contain a small amount of iron, so drinking large quantities of this will help replace the blood lost when you slice your wrist after a less than enjoyable day on the job.

Oh dear, some people are mental-cases......to use the medically correct term.

How frustrating to deal with #1 lot! I bet you despair sometimes.

eta: I see you just posted your next hint.....looks like you despaired a lot today.....sleep well, maybe tomorrow will be better?

>76 LovingLit: Checking...nope, it isn't a full moon, as I suspected from the amount of drama and lunacy that occurred today. So, it may get worse.

The grandmother in tip #1 is (supposedly) a nurse, as she proclaims repeatedly. She isn't working as a nurse (and she's a young grandmother, probably in her 40s), so I suspect that she took one course or read one book about nursing.

The parents in tip #2 are upper-middle class, suburban and well-educated folks that could be your next door neighbors, which made their behavior even more disturbing than if they were "trailer trash".

The grandmother in tip #3 is a living example of the phrase, "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing." Emphasis on little.

Tomorrow will be one day closer to the end of the work week, which will automatically make it a better day.

Darryl, since we often commiserate over the NYT Book Review, I thought of you when I read this article in The Guardian: Books reviewed in New York Times are 'predominantly by white authors'

I'm glad you have some hols coming up, Darryl. It sounds like you really need a break from this lunacy. I feel so sorry for the little chap in Tip 2.

>74 kidzdoc: Now, kidzdoc, I have scanned my ICD-9-CM book for the acute Cheetos deficiency diagnosis code. None exists. This surprises me, as my teenage sons have claimed to suffer from this malady.

Seriously though, it is very saddening when adults act more like children than the children they are supposed to be lovingly taking care of!

Frustrating and sad . . . Hope tomorrow is a better day!

Darryl -- what a lousy day! I'm sure there are times when I'm sure you wish the parents and guardians would just wait in the car.

#78 Laura - thanks for the article. I've never heard of Noughts and Crosses, but it sounded interesting so I ordered it for my 15 yr old anglophile daughter. I will eventually read it too.

#82: Joyce, that is a great series to read.

Darryl - hope tomorrow is a better day

>78 lauralkeet: Thanks for sharing that article with us, Laura. I'm not surprised, as I have been a daily NYT subscriber since 2000 and have read the paper regularly since the mid-1970s.

>79 tiffin:-83 All of the above incidents mentioned in the tips happened yesterday. I had to meet with the squabbling parents and try to mediate an agreement, as my initial idea to cut the boy in half, a la Solomon, was not well received.

Hope today is better, Daryl....for you and for the kids who are ultimately affected by the irresponsible behavior of the adults who are "in charge".

Darryl -
Your helpful tips for parents were hysterical, but sad. I do pre-op testing here in Baltimore, and I see the same thing here, almost daily. Too sad.

That was a very interesting article from the Guardian. That is why, though I too subscribe to the NYT daily, I get most of my book suggestions from here on LT, often from your thread.

re: #74 yeah... sorry. It must be infuriating.

>74 kidzdoc: Yeah, it kind of makes you wonder what some people are thinking. It’s very frustrating.

But then again, having a dangerously sick child is one of the most horrible and stressful situations that I can imagine being in...I suppose my brain wouldn't be functioning at 100% if I were in that situation.

Loved the helpful hints, Darryl, although it is pathetic that this happens and must, as Kath says, be infuriating. I'm constantly intrigued by your perspective on these kinds of events, a perspective we so rarely get to see (and maybe we should be glad!) Anyway, we're all pulling for you. It's actually heartening that a thinking, feeling human being like you is in the role you are.

>75 kidzdoc: LOL!!!!!

Darryl, I have just spent the past 5 days dealing with my 77-year-old father's hospitalization and working with my brother to move he and mom into a care facility ASAP. Loved your helpful hints. I have a few for the hospital staff on Dad's ward, starting with don't accuse a patient's daughter of enabling the near-escape of another patient. I wish his ward had been full of Darryls.

Catching up...

>78 lauralkeet: Thanks for that Guardian article about the marked disparity in the books reviewed in the NYT, Laura. However, as I mentioned on my Facebook page, this doesn't surprise me one bit, as I've been a daily reader of the paper for a dozen years, and I've read the Sunday NYT, particularly the Book Review, since the late 1970s. I used to find at least two or three books to add to my wish list from every issue of the Sunday Book Review, and I read twice as many reviews, but not any more.

>79 tiffin: Same here, Tui. I feel sorry for the little guy who had to watch his parents fight like preteens, particularly his father, who instigated this scene. He's a thoroughly lovable kid, and I hope that he isn't emotionally scarred by his parents' inability to act civilly toward each other.

>80 avidmom: I had to check on the iron content of Cheetos, in case I had to advice the grandmother to lay off this nutritionally empty snack. Fortunately, I haven't seen her or the child's mother all week.

>81 brenpike: Yes, the last two days have definitely been better, as we've had less patients on our service overall. However, the hospital is still in overflow status, as we have more patients than regular floor beds, which is very unusual (and painful) for this late in the spring. One more day to go!

>82 Nickelini: Yes, lately I have had more obnoxious and dislikable parents than usual, which makes the work days less enjoyable, especially if I have to spend extra time with these families.

>83 avatiakh: Thanks, Kerry!

>84 kidzdoc: Oh...that's my message. Moving on...

>85 tangledthread: The boy with the quarrelsome parents went home yesterday. Hopefully his parents can reach an amiable agreement, or at least a truce, now that he's better. I don't think I've ever been as embarrassed or uncomfortable in my career as a physician during my conversation with them after the argument. I think they both sensed my discomfort, and the father behaved himself after initially blowing up at me.

>86 catarina1: Thanks, catarina. I did intend that post to be humorous, as I'd rather laugh about these absurd situations than get angry or perseverate about them.

>87 mckait: Kath, I wasn't infuriated about any of the three scenarios I mentioned. Frustrated and annoyed, yes.

>88 The_Hibernator: having a dangerously sick child is one of the most horrible and stressful situations that I can imagine being in...I suppose my brain wouldn't be functioning at 100% if I were in that situation.

Absolutely. Parents get very emotional and don't always think straight in this situations; that's entirely normal, and I'm quite comfortable relating to families that are anxious and very worried about their sick kids. However, the second scenario occurred when the kid was clearly out of the woods from a life threatening illness and a complete recovery was all but certain, when the stress level should have been a fraction of what it was at that time last week.

People who are unnecessarily hostile and irrational toward me and my partners, like the grandmother in the third scenario, get the absolute minimal care and attention from us; I would assume that other physicians treat their most difficult patients in a similar fashion. Normally I'm happy to spend as much time with the parents as they need, even when it's a very long conversation filled with medical questions that have nothing to do with the child's illness. However, I probably spent less than five minutes on each visit to that room the past two days, and I think the grandmother realized that I was no longer interested in talking with her. Fortunately I won't have to deal with her tomorrow.

>89 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe. Fortunately, the vast majority of parents and grandparents I meet are very nice and a joy to work with, and their kids are almost always polite and lovable.

>90 1morechapter: I'm glad you liked my red wine hint! This will apply to anyone who works in stressful jobs, I think.

>91 lauralkeet: I'm sorry to hear about your parents, Laura. My father turned 77 last December, and my mother reached 76 in October. They are both in relatively good mental and physical health, but I expect that my brother and I will have to make a similar decision within the next 10-15 years. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

Darryl - I've just been back to the music thread you started in 2010 and picked out a few more tracks to listen to.
My niece has a son, almost 4 yrs old, who was born with Charge syndrome, which I'd never heard of till then. It's been a hard slog for them, do you come across many children with this?

>94 avatiakh: Kerry, where is that music thread?

I haven't taken care of a kid with CHARGE syndrome in the hospital in many years. Those kids have a lot of surgical problems (eyes (Coloboma), Heart, Anorectal, Renal, Genitourinary and Ears). If I remember correctly, they don't have seizures, feeding difficulty or a propensity for urinary tract infections, problems that would land them on our service.

Music thread here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/81567

He has a tracheostomy and had several heart operations and developmentally quite behind, his younger sister is overtaking him in many ways now. The parents still don't get a lot of sleep most nights but get a lot of support from family and friends.

Going back to John McGahern, I heard about him last year, maybe Claire Keegan mentioned him. Anyway I intend to read something of his too.

I'm sorry to hear about the problems of your friends' son, Kerry. I don't think I've seen any kids with CHARGE syndrome who have needed a tracheostomy tube; however, those kids are managed by the pulmonologists instead of us, particularly when they have respiratory compromise, and are generally admitted to the TICU (Technology-Dependent ICU).

>93 kidzdoc: Oh Darryl! I didn’t mean to imply that you’re not sensitive to the stressed-out parents. I meant my comment more as a reminder to myself that I don’t know what it feels like. Actually, I admire pediatricians more than any other sort of physician because clearly you must love kids to choose that specialty, and to deal with sick children and their stressed out parents daily requires great strength of character. I’ve met many medical students who shudder at the very idea of pediatrics. So I really appreciate that there are people out there who are willing to go through the hardships to reap the rewards of being a pediatrician. :)

>98 The_Hibernator: No offense taken, Rachel! As you said, pediatrics is different from other fields of medicine, as the anxiety and stress levels are considerably higher among the patients, siblings, parents and extended family members. Often times the young siblings of hospitalized patients are the most severely affected, and if I see a stressed out sib, I make it a point to talk with them and assure them (when it's appropriate) that their brother or sister will do well and be able to go home soon. Even if the sibs are not stressed out I make it a point to greet them on each visit and give them high fives.

Today was a good day, with far fewer patients than normal. However, when I left the hospital, I (and other employees and visitors) were shocked to see local police officers and hospital security officers just outside the front entrance, next to an automobile that was surrounded with crime scene tape. I was waiting for the hospital shuttle to take me to the nearby train station, and the shuttle driver told me that a woman had been shot in the car, roughly 75 feet in front of the main entrance of the hospital. I'm at home and watching the local news, but there haven't been any stories about the alleged shooting. If true, this is quite amazing and disturbing, as the hospital is in one of the wealthiest cities in the southeastern US (so much so that my partners and I often say that we can't afford to live here!). Even more disturbing is that this would be the second shooting in the area in less than two weeks; a young man was shot to death next to his car at the women's hospital that is just across the street from the hospital I work at.

I hate to think about that sort of thing happening anywhere near me.
Im still grossed out by a stabbing that occurred at an intersection that I drive by often. Every time I go through it I think about it. Yuck.

>100 LovingLit: Hmm...there has been no news whatsoever about the alleged shooting outside the hospital I work at, even though it supposedly occurred nearly six hours ago. It's hard for me to believe that a shooting incident on Children's campus wouldn't be the top news story in town; the media was all over the shooting on the women's hospital campus earlier this month. I'm starting to think that this was a staged drill by Children's security and the Sandy Springs police department, in response to the earlier shooting. I don't know why the shuttle driver would have told me that a woman was shot in the car that had the crime scene tape around it, though.

Rumors spread quickly and easily. It's nice that there wasn't a shooting though. Nationwide Children's Hospital here in Columbus is in a bad part of town. They recommend that employees don’t walk around at night alone. That's really a shame.

Speaking of hospital trauma Darryl, a couple of days ago a woman employee at a local hospital was shot 5 times and killed in the stairway of the hospital............by a trauma surgeon. It turned out to be a domestic dispute and today they found his body, as he had committed suicide. You always think of a hospital as a safe place where healing takes place and to realize that someone was shot dead there is disconcerting, to say the least.

Wow, such mayhem here. I think I'll return to my morning coffee ...

#103, You know, I just can't understand these people (usually men) who kill other people and then kill themselves. Why don't they just kill themselves and leave the others alone?

105> It's the classic abuse situation: they want to own the woman, and " if I can't have her, nobody can." Generally I think they kill themselves afterwards because 1) they don't want to face jail; 2) they want to make it really painful for those left behind; 3) they think the two of them will be together in the afterlife. I suppose in a few cases, it's an "OMG, what have I done?" reaction--but the killings are generally well planned.

The ones I find hardest to understand are the women who kill their own kids but NOT themselves.

I'm with Rebecca on this one. If people with guns feel a compelling need to kill someone, I wish they'd just kill themselves and leave other people alone.

I hope that was indeed just a staged situation to test emergency response teams or something, Darryl.

I'm at my parents' house just north of Philadelphia, after an uneventful flight from Atlanta this morning, and I'll be here until this coming Friday.

>102 The_Hibernator: Right, Rachel. I don't know if the shuttle driver, who is in frequent communication with Children's Security department, was given incorrect information, or was told to pass on the information to anyone who asked him. I still can't find any stories in the local media about the "shooting", so I have to conclude that it was a staged operation; whew!

Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, the organization I work for, has three hospitals (and over a dozen outpatient facilities). My hospital and the one on Emory University's campus are in two of the nicest and safest areas in metro Atlanta; Emory is located in the Druid Hills section of Atlanta, which was where the movie "Driving Miss Daisy" was filmed (and I've driven past the house that Miss Daisy lived in hundreds of times). The third hospital is in downtown Atlanta, next to Grady Memorial Hospital, the city's main public hospital, which is in a somewhat dangerous area, particularly at night. Shootings have taken place there, although far fewer in number than I would have expected.

Nationwide is affiliated with Ohio State's medical school, right?

I think that the most dangerous hospital campus in the US probably belongs to Johns Hopkins, in Bawlamer Baltimore.

Nationwide is affiliated with Ohio State's medical school, right?

Yes it is. :)

>103 brenzi: Oddly enough I first heard about the tragedy in Buffalo from the Children's shuttle bus driver yesterday. He made it seem as if it happened here, though. That surgeon trained at Grady Memorial Hospital, one of the leading trauma centers in the US, but he isn't from Atlanta.

You always think of a hospital as a safe place where healing takes place and to realize that someone was shot dead there is disconcerting, to say the least.

Hospital shootings, in the US and elsewhere, are far from rare. As you said, they are centers of healing, but big city hospitals are also places of intense activity and stress, particularly in the ERs and ICUs. Several times per year I unfortunately see a parent crying uncontrollably in our ER, almost certainly because a child of theirs has just died unexpectedly. We frequently have to take custody of an abused child from her parents, and sometimes one or both parents are arrested by the police in the hospital. Several times I have feared walking to my car in the physicians' parking area after a father has been escorted out of the hospital due to one of these situations.

>104 lauralkeet: Howdy, neighbor! Are you back in SE PA yet?

>105 rebeccanyc: You know, I just can't understand these people (usually men) who kill other people and then kill themselves. Why don't they just kill themselves and leave the others alone?

Right. I don't understand this, either. Have any of you read about or studied this?

>106 Cariola: The ones I find hardest to understand are the women who kill their own kids but NOT themselves.

Absolutely. Fortunately this is a far less common crime.

>107 cameling: Yes, it does seem as if it was a staged exercise, Caroline.

I've read almost nothing these past two weeks. I did start Scenes from Early Life by Philip Hensher on the flight from Atlanta to Philadelphia this morning, and I need to read Three Strong Women by Marie NDiaye soon, as I'll review it for the upcoming issue of Belletrista.

Reading drought? Not good news from such a prolific reader as you Darryl!
Phew on the staged exercise vs real shooting outcome. Strange, but good.

The good news is that I'm off from work for all but two days over the next three weeks, so I'll get back on track soon.

Huge sigh of relief Id say, after your latest work stories! Have a great break.

Thanks, Megan!

>110 kidzdoc:: Howdy, neighbor! Are you back in SE PA yet? yes I am, since Friday. Enjoy the time with your parents!

>116 lauralkeet: Thanks, Laura. My brother came to visit my parents yesterday, and we spent a relaxing and low key Father's Day together at home, which my dad enjoyed more than going out to see a movie, play, etc.

Hi Darryl,

All the discussion made me curious so I actually went ahead and read The Gathering by Anne Enright last week and I have to say, to be quite honest it isn't that bad. I actually quite enjoyed it. Yes the book has a few flaws and annoying bits, but still it's worthy of trying I think. Unlike The Sea by John Banville, which I think you already read on the Booker page. The latter couldn't charm me at all. Not really sure why, but I'm with everybody who thinks this book should never have won the Booker. I also read The god of small things by Arundhati Roy which I loved. The language is overwelmingly beautiful, the story well told and it keeps you fascinated untill the end. Did I mention the language already? Beautiful, charming, enchanting............ I think you get my point. Next up will probably be The famished road by Ben Okri, but first things first... the groupread of River of smoke by Amitav Gosh.

>117 kidzdoc: I'm glad that you enjoyed The Gathering, Lilian. The segment of my inner completist that wants to read all of the Booker Prize winners may prod me to eventually read it, but it will likely be one of the last ones I pick up. I own The Sea, but I haven't read it yet; it's another Booker winner that's very low on my TBR list.

Hello Darryl - good on you for keeping your sense of humour about parents horribilus! About Coim Toibin, I saw him interviewed on a book program and he was thoroughly engaging a and delightful. I really enjoyed Brooklyn and have Blackwater Lightship lurking on a shelf somewhere (along with The gathering and John McGahern Amongst Women.) I rather like the idea of reading 'all the Pulitzers' or something by every Nobel laureate, or all of the Bookers. It's just a darn shame that some prize-winners are just so undeserving and awful!

Hi Prue,

It's great fun to read in a project like this. Of course there are a few books which are less worthy of our precious reading time, but if you choose the right category it shouldn't be too many of those. That's why I would never try to read all the Pulitzer winner's, because the Booker books have a much bigger appeal to me. I like a lot of the latter, while the first, for me, is always a wait and see. The added bonus for me of this project, is that because I'm quite young and still have a lot of great writers to discover, reading all the Booker prize winners gives me the chance to do this in an easy structured way. And of course there is the excitement every year which book is added to the TBR pile.

>120 PrueGallagher: Hi, Prue! Right, I'd much rather laugh at an absurd situation than get angry about it. I'll also remind myself that the antagonist isn't my wife, BIL, MIL, etc., which make it easier to deal with my limited interaction with him or her.

I would love to attend a lecture that included Colm Tóibín, so
I'm glad to hear that he was an engaging speaker.

>120 PrueGallagher:, 121 There is a good chance that I'll soon read the majority of the Booker winners and decide to read all of them. By my count I've read 17 winners, own 14 novels that I haven't read, and don't own 15 other titles. If I read one book every quarter starting this year I'd be done by 2019, which is a very doable goal. Hmm...I think I'll pose that as a challenge in the Booker Prize group.

Reading all of the Orange Prize winners would also be doable, although possibly less desirable for me. I've read six of the 17 winners, own three others, and don't own the first eight books.

I'd never consider reading all of the Pulitzer or National Book Award winners; that would be a major task, and might set me off from reading altogether!

Has anyone here read all of the Booker or Orange winners?

I finally finished a book yesterday after a two week dry spell, namely Three Strong Women by Marie NDiaye, which I'll review for the upcoming issue of Belletrista. It won the Prix Goncourt in 2009, marking the first time that this 100+ year old French award was given to a woman of African descent (Ms NDiaye was born in France, and her father originally came from Senegal). It consists of stories about three unrelated Senegalese women in France and/or Senegal, each of whom faces a profound moral dilemma that forces them to make a difficult decision. I enjoyed it (4 stars), and I'll post a link to the review next month.

Part of me wishes that I'd read Three Strong Women next month, for my proposed 'hot author' challenge:

>122 kidzdoc:: Has anyone here read all of the Booker or Orange winners? Yes, I have. Both prizes. Woo!

Awesome, Laura! I thought that you (and Jill?) had read all of the Orange winners, but I had forgotten that you've also read all of the Booker winners.

Darryl, you have inspired me to undertake my own personal reading challenge. I will attempt to read at least one book by every winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, assuming the availability of translations. It may take awhile, as there are 108 winners (some of whom I have already read) and I will not be reading these exclusive of other works. I will set up a list on my own thread soon.

>126 Linda92007:: Linda, I started a Nobel winners project along with a Pulitzer project, but I lost steam on both. I find Nobel winners interesting but challenging -- their work requires a lot more "thinking" than typical literary prize winners. Usually worth the effort, though. Good luck!

>126 Linda92007: That's a laudable goal, Linda. I'll follow your progress with great interest. I'm much more eager to read works by the post-WWII laureates, so I think I'll try to read at least one book by one or two previous awardees who are new to me every year. I had already planned to read The Vivisector and The Tree of Man for the Patrick White 100th Anniversary Challenge group, and I'm hoping to find one or more novels or short story collections by S.Y. Agnon for the Reading Globally Middle Eastern literature challenge next quarter.

>127 lauralkeet: The list of Pulitzer Prize winning novels, especially the most recent ones, makes my eyes glaze over. Looking at those books reminds me of a high school English reading list.

I'm so glad that Philadelphia is celebrating the first day of summer with a heat wave! It's supposed to reach 97 degrees today, and top out at 100 degrees tomorrow. I suppose that the rest of the Northeast is honoring summer in a similar fashion.

I've been trying to read all the Nobel laureates for over a decade, but I tend to lose steam for a few years, then pick up again. I doubt I'll ever get all the way through. Especially since I'm not really interested in reading poetry that's been translated into English. I think poetry is too language-specific for that to really work well.

Wow Laura to have read all the bookers and orange winners - awesome! I have books by 59 of the Nobel laureates - 51 to go - mainly the obscure poets.

My mother found the infamous photo of me dressed as a Black Panther youth leader, which was probably taken in 1967 or 1968, when I would have been six or seven years old:



This photo is so wrong on several different levels. First, the Panthers advocated black separatism, so the leadership wouldn't have looked kindly on my white deputies. Second, several of my Facebook friends have commented that I looked cute; Panthers are supposed to be fearsome, not cute! At least I wasn't wearing the "Guns Not Toys" "Toys Not Guns" button in this photo that my mother insisted that I wear outside. Sigh...my future with the Black Panthers was derailed before it began.

Haha, that is a REALLY cute photo. :) You all look very cheerful and friendly.

That is priceless, Darryl!

awwwwwwwwwww widdle pweshus toughguy *smoochiesmooch*

Oh wait...that's not the reaction sought...oh well.

#131 - Classic. Love it! I think I might detect a small amount of defiance in your facial expression. Maybe.

You definitely look cute. So much for your militant side, Darryl. :)

Whoops...the button that my mother made me wear was "Toys Not Guns", and not the other way around, as I had originally indicated. She wasn't that radical!

>132 The_Hibernator: Arrgghhh! Black Panthers are not supposed to be cheerful and friendly!

>133 Cariola: Thanks, Deborah. I was thrilled to finally be able to see this photo, which my mother had mentioned for years.

>134 richardderus: Sigh. I'm told that I had a good pout, but my scowl was pretty pathetic.

>135 DorsVenabili: Defiance was my middle name, Kerri. I could be quite fierce when I was told to stop reading and turn out the light at bedtime.

>136 lauralkeet: I was a militant reader, Laura. Other than that, I was a quiet kid who largely stayed out of trouble. :-)

Here's another cute Panther youth photo, taken with our upstairs neighbor, a first generation German immigrant with a killer beehive:

Fabulous photos!

Whooeee! She musta kept the whole neighborhood in honey with that beehive!

>131 kidzdoc: & 139 Great pictures!! Love the look on your face in both pictures. And the beret.....priceless? Do you still sport a beret on occassion?

I love these pictures Darryl. You were just adorable but not very Panther-like I'm afraid.

I'm sorry, but these photos are just too cute and not ferocious at all.

Seeing the talk here on the Booker and Orange Prize reading made me wonder how many of the Neustadt Laureates you had read, they look like a worthy bunch and there is a shortlist each year.

I love the cute Black Panther look myself :)

Great photos!

>140 Nickelini: Thanks Joyce!

>141 richardderus: The mid 1960s was the height of the beehive fad, I think, so Marika should have had plenty of company.

>142 tangledthread: No, I haven't worn a beret in years. I should look for one, though.

>143 brenzi: I don't think I was good Black Panther or Black Muslim material, unfortunately.

>144 avatiakh: By my count, I've read books by five Neustadt winners: Gabriel García Márquez, Tomas Tranströmer, Kamau Brathwaite, Álvaro Mutis, and Duo Duo, and I own books by Octavio Paz, Assia Djebar, Nuruddin Farah, David Malouf and Patricia Grace. I like your idea, and I'll make that a future goal as well.

>145 TinaV95:, 146 Thanks Tina and Rebecca!

You also got me checking lists against my library. I've read 17 of the Booker winners and have three others on my shelves. Not terribly impressive, but I often find the other short listed books of more interest. Of those, I've read 43 and have 14 more on my shelves. Interesting that the number of long and short listed books I've read seems to increase around 1985, which is when I started grad school. Before that, I was reading a lot of classics plus Stephen King and Anne Rice . . . .

I did an Orange Prize count as well. I have read 21 winners and/or books from the short list, and I have 17 more around here somewhere. The Orange list tends to be more hit and miss for me, as many of the books are a little too 'girly' for my taste.

BTW, I finished The Sense of an Ending last night. Put me on the list of those who thought it was extraordinary.

I'll have to make a count of the Booker and Orange non-winning shortlisted books that I've read, but I doubt that I've read as many as you have. I didn't follow either award closely until my first trip to London in 2007, so any shortlisted books I read before then would have been ones that I happened to stumble upon. I'll bet that 80-90% or more of the adult novels I've read have been completed in the past 12 years, after I finished residency, so I'm far behind most of the, ahem, middle aged readers in this group.

Several of the earlier Orange winners and finalists seem 'girly' to me as well, which is the main reason why I'm not as eager to read them. However, only one of the books from this year's shortlist felt that way to me, The Forgotten Waltz.

I commented on your outstanding review of The Sense of an Ending on your threads. I'd encourage everyone to read it, as it captures my feeling about the book better than any review I've read so far.

>131 kidzdoc: but you are cute in that photo! And that's without the closed-mouth grin that your friends are not quite pulling off. I agree with your mum on the Toys not Guns badge though. There's something a little disturbing about the gun....

Darryl, I'm eighty-one posts behind on your thread but I'm getting caught up now.
I'm sure there is much literary criticism and philosophical wisdom written in the posts above to be relished, but ----
131 is too darn cute!!!
I think I see just a wee bit of fierce hidden among the cute, though. Maybe you could have been a Black Panther......
Oh, now that I see 139, I think not. Clearly you were a coalition-builder at a very young age.....

Oh my. Thank you for those two pictures.

"Guns Not Toys" makes more sense to me. Just not the right wingnuts.

Can anyone tell me exactly how to get your hair into that gravity defying beehive up there? It looks a lot of work....

Those pictures are so cute Darryl - and I LOVE the beehive. Bet she went through a bit of hairspray.

Kerry, I'd never heard of the Neustadt prize till now but if I ever get back to reading more internationally I'm going to look at this list. And I didn't know Patricia Grace had won it.

>150 LovingLit: Thanks, Megan. My mother likes the photo, which she thinks my father or uncle took, but she is ambivalent about the gun in the photo. That, along with the black beret and the leather jacket, does make me look like a junior Black Panther, which makes the photo particularly memorable. However, she was strongly opposed to guns, and she wouldn't let my brother and I play with them in the house or outside.

>151 EBT1002: Right, Ellen. As you can see, I had friends and neighbors of different races from early childhood, and the Lutheran church and associated elementary school I attended had roughly equal numbers of blacks and whites. My best friends in childhood were mainly German, Irish, black and Puerto Rican, in keeping with the melting pot that was (and still is) Jersey City, which is located just across the Hudson River from lower Manhattan (NYC). So, black separatism wouldn't have worked for me. :-)

>152 richardderus: Wing nuts on the left or right should not be allowed to have guns, IMO.

>153 LovingLit: Hairspray. Lots of hairspray.

>154 cushlareads: LOL! I didn't see your hairspray comment before I typed mine, Cushla!

I love Kerry's idea of reading books by the Neustadt laureates. BTW, Rohinton Mistry was announced as the 2012 winner, and he's another author who is new to me, although I do own A Fine Balance and Such a Long Journey.

153> Back combing--and anyone remember Aqua Net (aka hair glue)?

Darryl, somehow the rolled cuffs don't seem very Black Pantherish!

I've never heard of the Neustadt either--nor, sadly, of half of the winners mentioned.

>156 Cariola: Was Aqua Net used in the late 1980s to create those hideous big hair styles?

Right, Deborah. True Panthers don't wear cuffed pants.

I wonder if there would be enough interest to start a thread dedicated to winners of and candidates for the Neustadt Prize?

I read A Fine Balance a few years ago and thought it was excellent! I haven't yet read anything else by him but this seems like a fine opportunity to do so.

Aqua Net was the superglue of hairsprays! I actually found an old can of it in the back of my sister's old bathroom cabinet last year. Haha.

Back in college, we used to spray Aqua Net on the concrete walls and light it up.

Darryl, I have had A Fine Balance and Family Matters on my shelf for years. Not sure why I haven't yet read either.

I just checked out the Neustadt website. It seems rather odd to me that on the front page they post "convergences" to prove their own worth--i.e., not a list of winners and winning books, but a list of "Neustadt Laureates" who have also won the Nobel Prize, and basking in the fact that the Neustadt chose them first in all but one case.

I looked into the Neustadt a few years ago when I reviewed a book by one of the winners, Claribel Alegria, for Belletrista. I seem to remember that it was a lifetime achievement award, and not awarded for any one work. You can count me out of a group read for that lot!

Deborah -- you probably haven't found time for the Rohiton Mistry books yet because you've heard how depressing they are! Both of those are excellent, but I've never read a writer who puts such a bleak spin on things. If another writer tackled the story of Family Matters it could actually be funny in a black humour sort of way, but he chooses to devastate the reader instead. That said, they are both excellent must reads.

A Fine Balance is superb. Plus it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1996, so it's a two-fer!

161> You're right, the Neustadt isn't given to works but to writers, making no distinction between novelists, playwrights, and poets. But rather than "lifetime achievement," they seem to pride themselves on picking authors who will go on to become lifetime achievers (hence the "convergence" with Nobel Prizes).

>155 kidzdoc: (and others) I loved Mistry's A Fine Balance, a must read in my opinion.

Also, if you've never seen it, it's worth going to the site: http://www.whatisstephenharperreading.ca/

It was a project by Rohinton Mistry to send Stephen Harper a book every two weeks with an introduction to the book by Mistry. IMO a genius piece of political activism to a prime minister who cut funding for the arts down to the bone. I used to look forward to seeing what he would send next...and it made a great reading list to work from.

>160 Cariola: Back in college, we used to spray Aqua Net on the concrete walls and light it up.
Whaaat?
Did the roof survive? Did you get expelled? Sounds like a fairly dodgy practice, but super fun no doubt :)

>139 kidzdoc: My former boss grew up in that era in a bad part of L.A. She said she and her sister would hide switchblades in their super-high beehives. Now that's a "killer beehive." ;)

>164 tangledthread:: I thought it was Yann Martel who sent the books to Harper.

I became aware of the Neustadt Laureate when an intern contacted the children's literature organisation I was working for to ask if we were aware of their newish NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature. Patricia Grace had just been announced as the Laureate so I've always kept an eye on it since then.
The 2012 Children's Prize will be announced today and here's the shortlist:

Joan Lingard
Naomi Shihab Nye
Demi
Lois Lowry
Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Laurence Yep
Tamora Pierce
Walter Dean Myers

Oh dear - I've just finished a course in children's literature and I only recognise one of these authors.

I spent most of yesterday compiling a list of recommended authors and selected books for the Middle Eastern literature challenge. Once I receive avaland's list I'll create an introductory thread this evening, and post a link to it here. I have a sizable number of books that I'd like to read, including The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz (I've read two of the three books, but I'd like to read all three books in order, one per month), To the End of the Land by David Grossman, My Michael by Amos Oz, Friendly Fire by A.B. Yehoshua, As Though She Were Sleeping by Elias Khoury, The Colonel by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany, and The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer. Anyone who is interested and isn't a Reading Globally member is welcome to join us!

>158 EBT1002: I do want to read A Fine Balance, Ellen. I doubt that I'll have time to get to it before the fourth quarter of this year, though.

>159 The_Hibernator: Did you try your sister's Aqua Net, Rachel?

>160 Cariola: Nice. What other college pranks did you pull, Deborah? ;-)

We could do a group read of A Fine Balance, if enough people are interested. The next three months won't be good for me, as I'll be co-hosting the Reading Globally third quarter theme on Middle Eastern literature and will host the discussion in the Booker Prize group before and after the announcement of this year's longlist on July 25th.

Good point about the Neustadt Prize. It does seem to toot its own horn by proclaiming that it recognized the worth of the authors that subsequently won the Nobel Prize. Unfortunately the award doesn't receive much attention within or outside of the US, although the winners and candidates for the award (which is given every other year) are an impressive group of authors.

>161 Nickelini: You're right, Joyce; the Neustadt Prize is a lifetime achievement award, similar to the Miguel de Cervantes Prize and the Man Booker International Prize.

Interesting comments about Mistry. I hadn't heard that his books were that depressing. I'm still eager to read him, though.

>162 lauralkeet: I had noticed that A Fine Balance was selected for the Booker shortlist in the past when I first purchased it. It would also count toward my goal of reading 75 books from my TBR pile. I'm behind on that count, but I'll make some headway next month, thanks to the Middle Eastern literature theme.

>168 avatiakh: I don't recognize 2 of them...

>170 kidzdoc: I like my hair, Darryl...I'd rather not kill it. ;)

>163 Cariola: One unique aspect of the Neustadt Prize is that the jurors are comprised of acclaimed authors from the US and abroad. In 2010 the jurors included Sefi Atta, Horacio Castellanos Moya, Aleksandar Hemon, Etgar Keret and Claire Messud.

>164 tangledthread: I remember reading about that list of proposed books for the Canadian PM, but, as Tui pointed out, I remembered that it was Yann Martel that created the list.

>165 LovingLit: I agree, Megan; setting fire to college buildings definitely seems dodgy. ;-)

>166 avidmom: LOL about the "killer" beehive! I don't think you could hide a switchblade in the monster Afros of the late 1960s, though.

>167 tiffin: You're right, Tui. It was Yann Martel that sent those recommendations to Stephen Harper.

>168 avatiakh:, 169 As Rhian mentioned, I've only heard of one of those authors, namely Naomi Shihab Nye, who is also an acclaimed poet. I posted her poem "Cinco de Mayo" on one of my earlier threads last month.

>167 tiffin: & 173...you're both right, it was Yann Martel. (blushing)

Not sure why I mixed them up except that I read their books within a few weeks of one another.

There are certainly no similarities between The Life of Pi and A Fine Balance.

Darryl, I'm looking forward to the Middle Eastern literature challenge list and am hoping that I can find some time to participate. I own books by several authors that you mention, including The Yacoubian Building and something by Naguib Mahfouz that I apparently have not entered into my LT library, but I know is around here somewhere. I'm anxious to expand my reading from that part of the world and can't think of better leaders to have than you and avaland!

I also like the idea of reading complete lists of winners. I'm at 11 of 17 Orange winners and 13 of 44 Booker winners, so a long way to go on completion for those two.

Oh, and I think you definitely need to invest in a beret Darryl. A classic look and probably no danger you'd be confused with a panther these days. Looove the pictures . . .

I loved reading through all the letters Yann Martel sent to Harper, I thought it was a brilliant action.

>170 kidzdoc: Can non-fiction count as Middle Eastern literature? Or is the challenge to read off of a specific list?

Hi Darryl,

I'm definitely in for a groupread of A Fine Balance and I would love to know more about Reading Globally.

Ditto #179.

The Reading Globally group is here. All are welcome.

I'm back in Atlanta, after a short and uneventful flight from Philadelphia. I'll work this weekend, and then fly to San Francisco on Monday for a two week vacation.

As promised, I created a thread for the third quarter Reading Globally theme on Middle Eastern Literature, which will run from July 1 to September 30, and beyond. I have listed some recommended books and authors for the theme, listed by country, and I've also posted the list of books that I would like to read for the theme, namely:

The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt)
The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany (Egypt)
The Colonel by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi (Iran)
The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer (Iran)
To the End of the Land by David Grossman (Israel)
The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God and Other Stories by Etgar Keret (Israel)
My Michael by Amos Oz (Israel)
Friendly Fire by A.B. Yehoshua (Israel)
As Though She Were Sleeping by Elias Khoury (Palestinian Territories)
In the Presence of Absence by Mahmoud Darwish (Palestinian Territories)

I intend to reread The Cairo Trilogy in its entirety next quarter, even though I've read the first two books, Palace Walk and Palace of Desire. I'll read one book each month, and I'm waiting to see if enough people are interested to consider a group read of it. I'll read Septembers of Shiraz for Orange July, and I'll probably read My Michael and As Though She Were Sleeping in July, as well.

ETA: The list of recommended reads for this theme will likely change significantly over the next few days. I haven't received Lois' list of books yet, and I'm sure that other members of the group will list books that they would recommend or intend to read next quarter.

80-some posts behind--Very cute photos!

I too would love to participate in a group read of A Fine Balance. It's been sitting on my shelf for much too long and I keep being told it's a must read.

Ooh--the next Reading Globally theme. Is it really almost July already? I've been slacking on the Quarter 2 theme--partly because I seem to still be immersed in the Balkans. I am contemplating a reread of the Cairo Trilogy. I have The Septembers of Shiraz on my list for September (unrelated challenge).

>174 tangledthread: Yann Martel and Rohinton Mistry are both Canadian, but I doubt that they have much in common other than that.

>175 Linda92007: I hope that you can join us in the Middle Eastern literature challenge, Linda. I'm also planning to read The Yacoubian Building, which I've had for several years. I'm curious to see which book by Naguib Mahfouz you have; I own several of his books other than The Cairo Trilogy.

>176 brenpike: I think I'll look for a beret when I'm in San Francisco next week. It should be cool enough for a hat while I'm there, with low temps in the low 50s and highs mainly in the mid to upper 60s.

>177 LovingLit: I need to look at Yann Martel's letters. I glanced through a couple of them last year, when someone here first posted a link to them, but I haven't looked at them since then.

>178 The_Hibernator: Can non-fiction count as Middle Eastern literature? Or is the challenge to read off of a specific list?

The Reading Globally group strongly prefers fiction over nonfiction. However, I don't mind if you read nonfiction books for this challenge, and I might read a couple of memoirs set in the Middle East, particularly Out of Place by Edward Said and The Yellow Wind by David Grossman.

>179 lilianboerboom:, 180 I doubt that I'd be up for a group read of A Fine Balance until October, but I'd probably join in if someone started a thread for it before then.

>183 AnneDC: Thanks, Anne! It seems as though there is plenty of interest in a group read of A Fine Balance. I'll be stretched pretty thin next quarter, between the Reading Globally and Booker Prize groups, so I'd prefer it if someone else led the way.

It certainly has felt like July outside these past few days!

I haven't read anything yet for the second quarter Reading Globally challenge, partly because I seem to have only one book that counts toward it. I didn't do very well for the first quarter challenge either, although there are several books by Turkish authors that I'd still like to read by the end of the year.

I've wanted to read A Fine Balance for quite a while now.

I read The Bus Driver who Wanted to Be God years ago and thought it was hilarious--though a bit weird!

I was mostly thinking along the lines of memoirs when I asked about non-fiction.

The final 6 authors for the Children's Prize are very familiar, but I've never heard of the first three.

You look like you were taking yourself very seriously in those photos, Daryll--which is part of what makes them so cute!

First of all, glad to hear you will be shopping for your beret soon!

I am planning to read The Septembers of Shiraz in September. That will work for Orange and Reading Globally.

I'm up for A Fine Balance whenever - I'll just squeeze it in . . .

Darryl - great photos - the beehive looks scarier than your Panther posturing for sure.
I will try to squeeze in a couple of books to join you in the middle eastern challenge - I like israeli writers especially and Grossman, Oz and Wiesel have books looking often askance in my direction from my shelves. The Cairo Trilogy is fantastic too and I need to get the the second installment too very soo.
Leila Aboulela is Egyptian if I'm not mistaken - if you haven't read her Lyrics Alley I can heartily recommend it.

...aware of their newish NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature. Patricia Grace had just been announced as the Laureate so I've always kept an eye on it since then.
The 2012 Children's Prize will be announced today and here's the shortlist:

Joan Lingard
Naomi Shihab Nye
Demi
Lois Lowry
Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Laurence Yep
Tamora Pierce
Walter Dean Myers

I studied childLit about 10 years ago, so some of these are familiar . . . Lois Lowry wrote the must-read dystopian book, The Giver, and also the completely different Number the Stars (about Danish people hiding Jews in WWII), and also the the Willoughbys and the Anastasia Krupnik series. She's lovely.

Laurence Yep is a big name in ChildLit circles, and has a couple of Newbery Honor books under his belt. Tamora Pierce also has a huge fan-base, but I haven't read her yet--her stuff might be too fantasy for my current interests, but apparently she does fantasy really well.

I got to experience Walter Dean Myers last winter when my niece was assigned one of his short stories and asked for my help with it. He is a terrifically powerful writer.

But the others are new to me!

Breaking News: The jury in the Penn State sex abuse scandal involving former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky has reached a verdict. The New York Times has just announced that he has been found guilty of 45 of the 48 counts against him.

Darryl.....I'm just catching up and staggering under the weight of all the books I put on my list after reading the last 87 posts! I'll never lack for reading ideas even if I read not one other thread.

Saw the Sandusky verdict announced and also the Anderson cooper interview with that nit-wit Sandusky hired as a defense lawyer. I can't believe the Sandusky family couldn't have found someone more professional than that!

Wow. Thanks for the breaking news, Darryl.

I may have to do a reread of The Septembers of Shiraz with you all in September. I was not overwhelmed my first time through (3*), but received a lot of feedback from folks who thought I was off my rocker not to like it more.

Thanks for co-hosting the Middle Eastern theme read. I've starred the thread.

I've starred your Middle Eastern theme read thread as well. In the library this morning I happened to come across the The Yacoubian Building so I've picked that up - I need to have a look to see what else appeals.

It's probably just me, as I know the book is much adored, but I couldn't get through The Yacoubian Building.

I loved The Yacoubian Building but, after I read al Aswany's stilted and stereotyped Chicago, I wondered if TYB was just as stereotyped and I just couldn't tell.

Starring the Middle Eastern Read thread and hoping to join in on at least a couple of the books. Maybe The Septembers of Shiraz in September?

Woo! My work weekend is over, and I'm off to San Francisco in the morning. I'll be there until the Saturday after next, so this will be my first true vacation of the year. I'll exchange short sleeve shirts and polos for mock turtlenecks and sweaters, as it will mainly be in the 50s and 60s for the next week or more.

Catching up...

>186 The_Hibernator: So, maybe we can have a fall group read of A Fine Balance, then. I'm glad to hear that The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God and Other Stories was a good read. I'm compiling a list of books to take with me to SF tomorrow, and that book might make the cut.

>187 ronincats: Roni, I usually don't smile broadly when I take photos, so it was interesting for me to see that I didn't smile in these photos.

>188 brenpike: I'll read The Septembers in Shiraz next month, for Orange July (apologies if I'm repeating myself). I'll have to check to see if any other Orange authors are from the Middle East (other than Leila Aboulela).

>189 PaulCranswick: I love beehive hairdos, partly because they remind me of my young childhood in the mid-1960s. Dusty Springfield, among others, also had a killer 'hive:



I'm glad that you'll join us in the Middle Eastern literature theme starting next month, Paul. I've wanted to read To the End of the Land by David Grossman for awhile, so that will be one of my early reads. My Michael by Amos Oz is on my Kindle, so I'll almost certainly read it early next month.

Actually, Leila Aboulela is from Sudan, so she wouldn't qualify for the Middle Eastern challenge (we're using the traditional definition of the Middle East, which eliminates most North African countries except Egypt). I did read Lyrics Alley, last year I think, and it was good.

>190 Nickelini: Hmm, the winner of the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature was supposed to be announced on June 22, but I haven't found out who won yet.

>192 tututhefirst: Sandusky's lawyer wasn't exactly the cream of the crop. However, I'm not sure that even the best lawyer money could buy would have made a difference in the jury's verdict.

>193 labfs39: I had planned to read The Septembers in Shiraz for Orange July, although I could postpone reading it until September.

>194 SandDune: I'm glad that you'll be joining us, Rhian. Let me know when you decide to read The Yacoubian Building; I probably won't read it before August.

>195 Cariola: Uh oh. What didn't you like about The Yacoubian Building, Deborah? I haven't read anything by Alaa Al Aswany, although I do own that book and Chicago.

>196 rebeccanyc: I've read numerous negative comments about Chicago, so I'm not in any hurry to read it.

>197 EBT1002: Maybe I will read The Septembers in Shiraz in September then.

>175 Linda92007:, 184 I found one book by Mahfouz, Arabian Nights and Days, which I have started to read. But I am certain that at some point, I also owned Midaq Alley / The Thief and the Dogs / Miramar. Hopefully it is packed away with books still in the attic and not amongst those I donated in an effort to control the burgeoning numbers.

Re: those beehives. Did you ever see one actually being created? It makes me cringe just to think about it.

Darryl, I don't remember The Yacoubian Building as being awful; it just didn't keep my attention. I had heard wonderful things about it, and I tried several times to read it but just couldn't stick with it and finally gave it away.

Linda92007: they used to hold a section of hair straight up and backcomb the bejammers out of it, repeating until the whole top of the head stood straight up. Then they would gently brush the top hair to mould over the tightly frizzed backcombed stuff, shaping it into a "hive", often holding the ends into place with concealed pins. The whole shebang would be hairsprayed within an inch of its life so that it looked like a helmet. Architectural wonders, they were, spawning urban myths about the wildlife concealed inside them (poisonous spider nests, rats, mice...).

I made it safely and quickly to San Francisco, as the flight was smooth and landed 25 minutes ahead of schedule. I'm having coffee and a muffin at SFO, waiting for the restaurants to open up for lunch. My stomach is ready for it, but it's not quite 11 am here.

>200 Linda92007: I liked the The Thief and the Dogs (and I wrote a review of it on LT). I own Midaq Alley, but I haven't read it yet. In addition to those books and The Cairo Trilogy (I own the Everyman's Library edition), I also have The Day the Leader Was Killed, Rhadopis of Nubia, Karnak, The Dreams, and Morning and Evening Talk by Mahfouz.

I haven't seen a beehive being made. I'll bet a dollar that YouTube has a "how to" video, though.

>201 Cariola: Thanks for your comments about The Yacoubian Building, Deborah. I'll give it a try, then.

>202 tiffin: That sounds lovely, Tui. I think I'd rather undergo electroshock therapy.

>202 tiffin:, 203 Since I have basically no hair on top of my head, the image that calls forth is hair-raising (horrible pun entirely intended).

>204 richardderus: I think that you have more hair than I do, sir. Admittedly I keep my 'do high and tight.

>203 kidzdoc: I haven't seen a beehive being made. I'll bet a dollar that YouTube has a "how to" video, though.

More than one. But this is my favorite because I like the music - especially the first song. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9x3pFRVUvyQ&feature=related

I had to look; couldn't resist. LOL!

Wow...that video was....interesting.

>205 kidzdoc: That's because you can't see the top of my head!

>206 avidmom: HA!!

Darryl - At a stretch Aboulela qualifies she was actually born in Cairo and now resides in Qatar. You will also note that at the time she writes Sudan was part of greater Egypt. Technically a Sudanese national but by birth she could certainly be included in a middle eastern list.

>206 avidmom: Yikes. That looks harder than placing a central venous line or an endotracheal tube. I'm very grateful for my short, low maintenance hair style.

>207 The_Hibernator: Interesting is one word; I can think of other ones. How long does that last? Do you have to redo it every day? If someone bumps into you and destroys the beehive, is that grounds for homicide?

>208 richardderus: Good point.

>209 PaulCranswick: I won't quibble too much with anyone who chooses to read a book by Laila Aboulela. However, due to the large number of countries that comprise the Greater Middle East, Lois and I decided to focus on literature from the Traditional Middle East, as defined by Wikipedia. That would eliminate all of North Africa except Egypt for the upcoming Reading Globally theme, but it does open the possibility of having a North African theme for the group in 2013, which I would be strongly in favor of.

Book #63: Scenes from Early Life by Philip Hensher



Scenes from Early Life has been touted as a possible candidate for this year's Booker Prize longlist. It's an autobiographical novel about the author's husband, Zaved Mahmood, who was born in East Pakistan in 1970, a year before the war of independence that led to the creation of Bangladesh. The young Saadi is the book's narrator, and he lovingly details his family of middle class Bengalis, focusing mainly on his father and maternal grandfather, both successful lawyers in separate practices who are dedicated but stubbornly independent, his mother and her sisters, and his maternal uncle, a ne'er do well who brings shame and causes rifts in the otherwise close knit extended family, who live together in the large home of his maternal grandparents in Dacca (now Dhaka), the major city of East Pakistan.

Saadi also describes the effects of the liberation war on his relatives and their neighbors. The conflict that led to the war began when the politically dominant West Pakistanis forcefully imposed their language and religious beliefs upon their eastern neighbors in the 1960s. A state of crisis was reached in early 1971, when the party of Bengali leader Shiekh Mujibur Rahman, referred to as Shiekh Mujib in the book, won a majority of the vote in Pakistan's first general election. The standing president of the country refused to permit Shiekh Mujib's party to form a government, and the Pakistani Army detained him and brutally suppressed his supporters in their homes and in the streets.

Despite the violence that surrounds them, Saadi's family remains largely intact, though strained by the disagreement between his father and his uncle. The novel shines brightest in its descriptions of Saadi's daily life and the relationships of the members of his family and those who come into their lives, particularly the musicians Amit and Altaf.

Scenes from Early Life, written with the help of Zaved Mahmood and his family, is a beautifully written and interesting glimpse into the life of a young child in an ordinary family touched but not destroyed by war. Hensher's ability to capture the language and feel of Bengali culture is very impressive, and indicative of the amount of work he put in to get the story right. I'll give it 4-1/2 stars, and I think it deserves a place on this year's Booker longlist.

Nice review of Scenes from Early Life, Darryl. When does the longlist come out?

How long does that last? Well, my ex-MIL wore a huge black-dyed full beehive for years. She had an elaborate system of wrapping it with toilet paper and silk scaarves before going to bed each night, and it lasted until the folllowing week's salon appointment. It makes my scalp itch just thinking about it! When we got married, we had to discourage her from roping strands of pearls around it; she settled for a few strategically placed gold butterflies.

Darryl, I am interested in reading along with the global group on the Cairo Trilogy. As a bonus, the two Palace books were read and highly rated by Janet Katz. I'll also be reading Septembers of Shiraz in September to continue my personal "month"ly challenge.

202: We didn't call back combing "ratting" for nothing. My baby fine hair didn't adapt very well to those helmet hair looks but I will admit to ironing my hair in true Mary Travers adoration.

>212 Cariola: Thanks, Deborah. The Booker longlist will be announced on July 25th, so it's less than a month away. I brought three other books that have been touted as strong longlist candidates with me to San Francisco: Bring Up the Bodies, which I'll start today; Pure by Timothy Mo; and The Coward's Tale by Vanessa Gebbie.

I guess if a woman wears a beehive for years it is much easier to maintain. That still seems like a lot of work (and a lot of hairspray).

>213 Donna828: Thanks, Donna. It seems as though there is a nice handful of people who are thinking about reading The Cairo Trilogy. And a double thanks for reminding me that Janet also recommended them!

It's amazing what people will do to their hair. It was common for African Americans in the 1940s and 1950s to "conk" their hair, using a lye-based hair straightener, and to wear Jheri curls in the 1980s, such as the one worn by Samuel L. Jackson in the movie Pulp Fiction.

I'm happy if I can keep my hair out of my eyes. My mil had a beehive kind of affair too, Deborah, when I first met her, and she too wrapped it with an elaborate scarf system at night (it always listed to starboard by morning so was visually a bit like Marge Simpson). She had pure white hair which she had dyed with a kind of silver blue rinse which veered dangerously close to purple at times. I know exactly what you mean about making your scalp itch to think about it: the hairspray alone!

Darryl, only your thread could get threadjacked by a prolonged discussion of beehive hairdos. I had never heard the term conking before and now I have to google Jheri curls.
ETA: whoa, they had to sleep with gobs of moisturizer and plastic bags on their heads to prevent their hair from drying out after getting the Jheri treatment. Sounds awful.

216> Jheri curls: I always think of the scene in 'Coming to America' when the men get up off the couch and there is a pool of grease on the back of it where each head was.

I dashed off to add Scenes from Early Life to my wishlist and was vastly disappointed to realize it won't be out in the US until Jan. 8, 2013. :-(

>215 tiffin: Other than chick lit, Miracle Whip and menopause I don't think there are many topics that are forbidden on this thread.

>216 Cariola: A lot of famous African American and Latino athletes and entertainers wore Jheri curls in the 1980s and early 1990s, including Michael Jackson, Lionel Ritchie, pitcher Pedro Martinez and numerous others. Not me, though; I thought they were greasy and ugly.

>217 labfs39: Hopefully the US publication date of Scenes from Early Life will be moved up if it is selected for this year's Booker longlist.

I just bought my first bag of books from City Lights, marking the beginning of my two week cessation of my book diet. I'll post the books I purchased later today.

#218 I thought a certain person whose initials are SP was also banned from your thread, Darryl!

my two week cessation of my book diet Ah, how principle yields to temptation . . . . And what self-justification too!

>219 rebeccanyc: Oh yes; any discussion of that person is strictly off limits.

Ah, how principle yields to temptation...And what self-justification too!

I'm taking after Joyce's rationalization of her book haul in ?Toronto earlier this year. Any book purchases in this two week span can be easily justified:

1. I've only purchased 27 books this year, so I'm way behind last year's acquisition rate (although I'll probably buy 27 or more books by the end of next week).

2. My Thingaversary occurred earlier this month, so I'm allowed to purchase six books guilt free

3. I'm doing my part to support independent bookstores, by purchasing bagfuls of books at City Lights, Green Apple Books and elsewhere. So, this is a noble and selfless undertaking.

4. By purchasing, reading and reviewing books that other LTers haven't heard of, I'm contributing to the well being of the rest of you and the authors of these books.

No need to thank me. Someone has to do it.

And you can add to that list that it puts a smile on my face to see you fall off the wagon and rejoin the society of happy book-buying addicts!

>220 kidzdoc:. #3, 4

Noble, Darryl. Appreciate your taking the hit for all of us!

>221 rebeccanyc:: that's my reason, too. Ha!

City Lights book haul #1 (10 books, 9 of which came from my wish list):

Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast by Natasha Trethewey: The author was recently selected as the new Poet Laureate for the United States, and this is one of the two books by her that I hadn't gotten yet. This collection concerns the effect of Hurricane Katrina on the region she grew up in, whose local culture and traditions have been replaced by the casino industry and tourism, to the detriment of its poorer residents.

Memoirs of a Porcupine by Alain Mabanckou: A short novel based on an African legend, about a young Congolese boy who undergoes an initiation ritual that results in him acquiring a double, a murderous porcupine that fulfills his evil compulsions. This book was recommended by avaland, and I've read Mabanckou's earlier novels African Psycho and Broken Glass.

Divorce Islamic Style by Amara Lakhous: I enjoyed his earlier novel Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio, and TadAD claimed that this novel was better than this one, which made it an easy choice for my wish list. It's also set in a multicultural neighborhood in Rome, and is about a Sicilian translator fluent in Arabic, who infiltrates a group of Muslim immigrants that the Italian secret service has determined is about to carry out a terrorist attack.

Is Just a Movie by Earl Lovelace: This novel, which was selected as the winner of this year's OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, is set in Trinidad in 1970 at the end of the Black Power rebellion, and concerns a wannabe revolutionary and a dated singer, who join up and experience a series of adventures within their newly liberated but troubled community.

The Earth in the Attic by Fady Joudah, and Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me, and Other Poems by Ghassan Zaqtan: Linda92007 mentioned these two poetry collections by Palestinian authors in the upcoming Middle Eastern Literature thread in the Reading Globally group, and fortunately City Lights had both books in the upstairs Poetry Room.

The Dream of the Celt by Mario Vargas Llosa: MVL's latest novel to be translated into English, which is a fictionalized account of the life of Irish natonalist Roger Casement, who dedicated his life to the world's oppressed people before he was hung by the British government for treason. Mentioned (but not recommended) by rebeccanyc, the other charter member of LT's Mario Vargas Llosa Fan Club.

God's Hotel: A Doctor, a Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine by Victoria Sweet: A newly published book about San Francisco's Laguna Honda Hospital, the last almshouse in the United States, written by a physician who worked there for more than twenty years, which received a glowing review in the New York Times last month. I'll almost certainly read this next week, and visit the grounds of the hospital before I leave the city.

London Under: The Secret History Beneath the Streets by Peter Ackroyd: I wasn't terribly fond of Acroyd's earlier book London: The Biography, but I did want to give this much smaller book a chance.

The Making of Modern Medicine: Turning Points in the Treatment of Disease by Michael Bliss: The only book which wasn't on my wishlist, which focuses on three events that occurred in the late 19th century and early 20th century that helped lead to a paradigm shift in the view of Western medicine: a smallpox outbreak in Montreal in 1885, the founding of Johns Hopkins Hospital and Medical School, the site of many groundbreaking discoveries and medical and surgical techniques, and the discovery of insulin.

There are still a bunch of books that are high on my wish list that I'm eager to acquire while I'm in San Francisco, so I'll make trips to other Bay Area bookstores along with at least a couple of more visits to City Lights in the coming days.

>221 rebeccanyc: As I'm sure I've mentioned in the past, it is all but impossible for me to go to City Lights and not come up with an armful of books. The store displays new books of interest in its windows, and three or four of them jumped onto my wish list. I go there with a handwritten list of books I want to buy, and I only found five books from that list today. I'll probably go to Green Apple Books, my second favorite SF bookshop, in the next day or two, to look for the books that I didn't find today, and return to City Lights at the end of this week or early next week. I'll probably go to Berkeley on Saturday or Sunday, and check out the used bookstores on Telegraph Avenue while I'm there.

>222 brenpike: My pleasure, Brenda!

>223 lauralkeet: As you can probably tell, very few things make me happier than my trips to San Francisco, and my first visits to City Lights. I saw my friend Scott, who works there on weekdays, and we chatted for a while about books, jazz, the hideous weather forecast in Atlanta this week, etc. It will be 30-40 degrees cooler in SF (low to mid 60s) than it will be in Atlanta (mid 90s to low 100s), so I think I picked a good time to come here!

Sad news: Essayist and screenwriter Nora Ephron died today, at the age of 71.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/27/movies/nora-ephron-essayist-screenwriter-and-d...

#226 - I am very sad about this! I LOVE Nora Ephron. For the past few months I've been working my way through Nora Ephron Collected. And When Harry Met Sally is one of my all-time favourite movies.

I am yet again, late to the party ...but better late than never, and over here on your thread, Darryl, the party never stops, so at least I know I'm never coming into an empty room with just the detritus to clean up.

I love love love love the photos. You looked sooooo cute back then, and I can still see the cute kid in the photos in you today. So you've certainly not lost your cute factor ... I don't know about the fierce factor though. I don't think you'd be fierce enough for the Panthers.... Cougars maybe ... ;-)

So sad to hear about Nora Ephron on the news tonight. I remember the first book of hers I read being I Feel Bad About My Neck ... it was the start of me buying up everything else she had written.

RIP Ms Nora ..and wishing you a happy journey.

>227 Nickelini: I'm ashamed to say that I haven't seen any of Nora Ephron's movies, nor read any of her essays or books. I had no idea that she was in her 70s; she looked much younger in her recent photos.

>228 cameling: Awww! Thanks, dearest Caroline! You're the first person on LT or FB that still thinks I'm cute. For that I promise to be nice to you for the entire summer, at least until the baseball playoffs and football season start. I can't promise anything after that.

ETA: My high school mascot was the cougar, so that fits perfectly.

There will always be a seat (and a fresh bacon butty) for you in this thread.

Nice haul, Darryl. God's Hotel sounds very interesting. I'll look forward to your review, as well as hearing about your tour of the hospital.

As I said on your Club Read thread, great start of a haul! Just to clarify, I am a big MVL fan but I was disappointed with The Dream of the Celt.

>230 labfs39: Thanks, Lisa. God's Hotel will be one of the first books I'll read in July.

>231 rebeccanyc: Right, Rebecca. I had meant to say that you had read it but weren't fond of it, so I've corrected my post accordingly.

I've just created a thread for the upcoming group read of The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz, for the third quarter Middle Eastern Literature theme in Reading Globally. It will run from July 1 to September 30, and I plan to read one book each month. The trilogy consists of Palace Walk, Palace of Desire and Sugar Street. Everyone is welcome to join the group, including those who have read some or all of the trilogy.

Group Read: The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz

Ooh, I'm so envious of your trip to San Francisco and the lovely bookshops there. I love your justifications for your book buying too!

>224 kidzdoc:....Hmm...of your list, I'm most interested in God's Hotel and The Making of Modern Medicine, I've read at least one other of Michael Bliss' books and enjoyed his writing style.

Really?...you've never seen a Nora Ephron movie?!

Am looking into the Cairo Trilogy before deciding to jump in on the Group Read.

Hi, Darryl. I've got your last 8 threads to catch up on, but thought I'd jump in to say hello. It might be interesting to read the Mafouz with a group - I read Palace Walk but it was a bit of a struggle, mainly with women's issues, I think.

btw, that picture of Dusty Springfield is wildly funny. But then, it's always embarrassing to look back at what we thought was so stylish in our youth, isn't it?

>233 elkiedee: Thanks, Luci! I know that you've been to SF several times, and I hope that you can come back in the near future. Unfortunately, several of the legendary Bay Area bookstores have closed in recent years, most notably A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books and Stacey's in San Francisco, Cody's and Black Oak Books in Berkeley, and Printer's Ink in Palo Alto.

Wow. I didn't realize that most of the country will be in the mid 90s to low 100s this coming weekend. Stay safe and cool, everyone.

>234 tangledthread: I'll read God's Hotel and The Making of Modern Medicine while I'm here, probably next week. I haven't read anything by Michael Bliss, but three of his books that are mentioned on the book cover of his latest work look especially interesting, namely The Discovery of Insulin, William Osler: A Life in Medicine, and Harvey Cushing: A Life in Surgery. Which books of his have you read?

I checked Nora Ephron's filmography on her Wikipedia page, and I was right in saying that I haven't seen any of her movies. I rarely watch movies in the theatre or at home, and the last movie I saw in a theatre was Fahrenheit 9/11 in the summer of 2004. I'll have to see what's playing at the SF theatres these next two weeks, to see if I can break this streak.

You have plenty of time to decide if you want to join The Cairo Trilogy group read. Although we'll get started next week, anyone can join at any time this coming quarter. The themes in that group aren't time limited, and members will occasionally post comments and reviews about themes from earlier this year or in past years.

>235 ffortsa: Good to see you here, Judy! I read Palace Walk and Palace of Desire several years ago, pre-LT, but I don't remember anything about either one. So, I'll start from the beginning, and I'm sure that I'll get more out of the trilogy in a group setting.

I still like beehives, and I'd love to see them make a mini-comeback. Jheri curls, not so much.

I think you have left the italics on, Darryl.

>237 tiffin: Thanks, Tui.

I rarely watch movies in the theatre or at home, and the last movie I saw in a theatre was Fahrenheit 9/11 in the summer of 2004.

Ah, that explains how you can read so many books. Personally, I need both books and films. They're both wonderful. So then, my TBR keeps growing and growing . . .

>234 tangledthread: The one I read was William Osler: A Life in Medicine...a very interesting character in medical history.

Not watching TV or movies clears up a LOT of time for reading. I don't own a TV, and I watch a movie maybe once a month or so--mostly because my friends want to watch one together. :)

I've never read Sugar Street. But I really do so poorly with group reads...and goodness knows it's hard enough to keep up with just the 75ers without adding *another* thread or two or three...

"'I used to tell my clients: "I don't care what your husband does from the neck down, but I don't want him to touch you from the neck up"' LOL!!! Here's the buzz on where the beehive came from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1343664/Oh-beehive-Meet-woman-created-... No more talk about hair; I promise to bee-hive from now on :)

San Francisco has a magic all its own; it's one of my favorite places in my adopted home-state.

The Making of Modern Medicine sounds like a very interesting read as does every other med. book mentioned; but it goes on top of the wish list as I just finished The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks & it would be nice to get a history of Johns Hopkins.

I was 98 posts behind here.... finally caught up.

#206 - I love that video!! :)

>239 Nickelini: Almost everyone I know likes movies and television more than I do, and my colleagues at work and my family know that talking about either to me is pointless, except for broadcasts of major sporting events. When anyone asks me how I can read so many books in a year, I almost always say "I don't watch television".

>240 tangledthread: William Osler: A Life in Medicine would be right up my alley, as I would definitely like to read well written biographies of the legendary physicians who worked or trained at Johns Hopkins, particularly Osler, Harvey Cushing, and William Halsted.

>241 The_Hibernator: There are some movies that I'm sure I'd enjoy, but not the rubbish that seeps out of Hollywood. Foreign films, small budget movies and documentaries are far more preferable to me. I should watch the films shown on PBS' Independent Lens, but I keep forgetting to find out when they are broadcast locally.

>242 richardderus: I haven't read Sugar Street, either. I read Palace Walk and Palace of Desire at least seven or eight years ago, but I don't remember much about either book. So, I'll read The Cairo Trilogy in its entirety starting next month.

I split my time between multiple groups, although most of my LT time is typically spent in this group. That will change starting next month, as I'll be far more active in Reading Globally from July to September and in the Booker Prize group from late July to mid October. I'll continue to follow the same threads in this group, although I'll skim the threads to pick out reviews of books that I'm most interested in.

>243 avidmom: Thanks for posting that article about the originator of the beehive, avidmom! I agree, it's a classic look and I'm glad to see that's becoming increasingly popular.

I agree with you; I'd love to read a "biography" of Johns Hopkins Hospital and Medical School, one which focuses on its early years in the late 19th century and early 20th century, when it helped to transform American medicine from a trade profession to one that focused on scientific research of disease. Speaking of transformation, one book I would highly recommend is The Social Transformation of American Medicine by Paul Starr, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984. Johns Hopkins is discussed in detail in this book, along with the Flexner Report, the detailed analysis of American medical schools in the early 20th century that held Hopkins as the gold standard for medical education and simultaneously led to the closure of hundreds of poorly run schools.

>244 TinaV95: Hi, Tina! I'm glad that you've caught up with this unruly thread.

>245 kidzdoc:: I'm not a tv or movie person either, Darryl, except for the Tour de France and World Series finals. And Six Nations Rugby if we can get it. Oh, and things like Downton Abbey. I find most tv really boring.

>245 kidzdoc: Thanks so much for the book recommendation, kidzdoc. The Social Transformation of American Medicine sounds like a great comprehensive history of medicine so on it goes to my ever increasing wish list. As a new CPC, my interest in all aspects of medicine grows every day. ( I recently purchased The Illustrated Surgery Guide but haven't had the guts to read it yet. ;)

Do you know about this book yet? http://www.amazon.com/Leading-Way-History-Hopkins-Medicine/dp/1421406578/ref=sr_...

>246 tiffin: I agree, Tui. Most television programs in the US are exceedingly boring and trite, and I find myself internally cringing when my otherwise intelligent partners at work talk about the shows they watch routinely. I do like watching some of the programs on PBS, and I can waste hours watching American football (professional and college), college basketball and, increasingly, football matches from the English Premier League and from South American teams on Telemundo and Univision, the major Spanish language networks in the US. I've been following Euro 2012 closely, although I missed today's semifinal match between Spain and Portugal (won by Spain on penalty kicks).

>247 avidmom: You're welcome, avidmom. I've read The Social Transformation of American Medicine twice, in the mid-1980s when I had my first serious thoughts about going to medical school, and in 1993, just before I went to Pitt.

I did see that book about Johns Hopkins, but its price tag (even with the Amazon discount) and focus on its recent history, instead of its origins.