Cushla's 2012 Challenge - Part 3

New thread! New thread! This one will probably last till September... but the next 4 weeks should see a bit more reading than the last couple of months.

Currently reading:

Sea of Poppies - 11% - on hold
Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope - 1% - on hold

This is the view from the top of Mt Kaukau over Wellington. It's one hour from the carpark up and back and is worth it for the view! One day I will take my book up there and a picnic...



Books read in 2012

January
1. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell - 5 stars
2. Tolstoy Lied by Rachel Kadish - 3 stars
3. A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle - 4 stars
4. Rondo by Kasimierz Brandys - 4 1/2 stars
5. Death at Wentwater Court by Carola Dunn - 3 1/2 stars
6. Requiem for a Mezzo by Carola Dunn - 3 stars

February
7. The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence - 4 1/2 stars
8. The Book of Fame by Lloyd Jones - 3 1/2 stars
9. Murder on the Flying Scotsman by Carola Dunn - 2 1/2 stars
10. Maus by Art Spiegelmann - 5 stars
11. Dreams in a Time of War by Ngugi wa Thiong'o - 4 stars

March
12. Coventry by Helen Humphreys - 4 stars
13. Maus II by Art Spiegelmann - 4 stars
14. Death and the Jubilee by David Dickinson - 3 stars

April
15. When God Spoke English by Adam Nicholson - 4 stars
16. Blood from a Stone by Donna Leon - 3 1/2 stars
17. The Siege by Helen Dunmore - 4 1/2 stars
18. The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway - 5 stars

May
19. The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller - 5 stars
20. Lehrter Station by David Downing - 4 stars

June
21. Bring up the Bodies - Hilary Mantel - 5 stars
22. Campaign Ruby by Jessica Rudd - 3 1/2 stars
23. The Voice of the Violin by Andrea Camilleri - 3 1/2 stars
24. The Crowded Grave by Martin Walker - 3 1/2 stars
25. A Small Town in Germany by John le Carre - 4 stars

July
26. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie - 5 stars
27. Censoring an Iranian Love Story by Shahriar Mandanipour - 3 stars
28. Purple Hibiscus by Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie - 4 stars

August
29. Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope - 4 1/2 stars
30. The Arms-Maker of Berlin by Dan Fesperman - 3 1/2 stars

September
31. Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World by Michael Lewis - 2 stars
32. The English Assassin by Daniel Silva - 3 stars

October
33. Truman by David McCullough - 4 1/2 stars

I've been slow on the book lists that have been flying around, but have just waded through my 5 star reads in my LT catalogue. I haven't done a top 10 by decade published but I have managed to whittle them down to a top 10 fiction and non-fiction.

Here's my non-fiction list:

Cushla’s top 10 non-fiction books (in the order I read them, not in order of preference… that would be too hard!)
The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes – read in 1991
An American Requiem by James Carroll – read in late 1990s
From Beirut to Jerusalem by Tom Friedman – read in 2000
Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela – read about 2002
Lenin’s Tomb by David Remnick – read around 2003
Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor – read in 2004
Ghost Wars by Steve Coll – read in 2006
Paris 1919 by Margaret Macmillan – read in 2009
Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain – read in 2010
Lords of Finance by Liaquat Ahmed – read in 2011

Fiction list is coming but it is time to cook dinner and drag my little darlings away from TV.

Books bought during this thread (to keep me honest...).

Today, to celebrate a good grade in my mammoth how-to-teach-German assignment and also surviving Exam #1 (and maybe the worst of the 3): a brand new novel by Tom Kenneally of Schindler's Ark fame - Daughters of Mars. It was a random find in Marsden Books and looks really good, and I am THE FIRST on LT to get it!! (Excited dance). Whether I am the first to read it is doubtful. It's about 2 Australian nurses who go off to World War 1. It'd better be good because it cost NZ$40. (I was celebrating, ok?)

Books acquired list:
Daughters of Mars by Tom Keneally

Happy new thread, Cushla! Congratulations on the German test and the first exam passed! I'll keep my fingers crossed for the remaining 2. What was the assignment, live teaching?
Looking forward to your review. I read Kenneally's Schindler's Ark last year and found it very well written. Is this book another non-fiction novel?

Nathalie, thanks for visiting! The German assignment wasn't live teaching - it was a sequence of German lesson plans based on the curriculum, observations on a languages class I'd observed (because on my first placement I was just teaching maths - my school didn't do German), and lots of words about why I was going to teach the lessons how I proposed etc. All up it was 26 pages long (but that included the assessment I was going to give them, a crossword, and 4 lesson plans...)

I dno't know much about the new book - I think a non-fiction novel is probably a good description. Looks like it'll have lots about Gallipoli from a nurse's perspective. Gallipoli is one of NZ and Australia's key "formative moments" in our identities as countries independent from England.

Nice new thread :-) Congrats on the assignment, and hurrah for more reading time. Love the veiw from Mt Kaukau, still haven't made it up there myself. Also slightly ashamed I have never been into Marsden Books - even though I lived in Karori for 4 years.

I saw the Keneally the other day, it does look good. I've still got The People's Train on my tbr pile from a couple of years ago, along with lots of his older novels that I picked up at a book fair sometime in the long ago.

I learned a bit about Gallipoli and ANZAC day when I was preparing my Australia trips in 2005 and 2007. I was impressed that it is still so present in the peoples' consciousness. In the German mind WWII (and the Holocaust!) completely overshadow WWI, but over the years I noticed that for some countries WWI was more traumatic and that after almost 100 years the wounds haven't healed. This is also the case in the place where I live now.

26 pages! I hope you'll get to teach some German on your next placements and share your experiences here with us.

#8 Two years ago on a holiday in Slovenia we spent a few days in Kobarid, which as Caporetto was on the Italian front in the First World War (and was where A Farewell to Arms was set). Certainly WWI seemed to be very present there as well. As it's a mountaineous area all the trenches and fortifications were carved out of the solid rock rather than dug into earth, and so have survived in huge numbers. Even when we were there in August there was a sprinkling of new snow on some of the mountain tops and we had a day of pouring rain in the valley, and the thought of anyone even attempting to fight a war over that sort of terrain in the winter (or even in the summer) was just mind-blowing. Cetainly in the U.K. there is a lot of interest in WWI but it's very much focused on the Western Front. I knew hardly anything about what was happening in that region at all.

Waving hi as I dash by!

Wonderful picture up above! Well worth the hike, I would say.

Waves ..... passing thru - should be a more regular visitor again now

Nice pic .....

Hi Cushla - just stopping by to say hello. Congratulations on surviving your first exam and the good grade in your German assignment!

Hi Cushla,
I loved From Beirut to Jerusalem when I randomly read it years ago. It taught me so much about the region. The author spoke at the Wellington(?) readers and writer festival recently....or was it Auckland?
Great NF list, Id have to think hard to come up with my top ten.

Exams over!!!!! 3 weeks of real life ahead, and I am so happy.

And I'm 10 messages behind on here. I'll be back in the morning to reply properly but right now I have a glass of wine to drink...

#15 Hooray!

Congratulations, Cushla!

Way to go Cushla! Enjoy the "down time".

15: 3 weeks of real life ahead, and I am so happy.
Yay! Enjoy!

Enjoy your freedom, Cushla. A picnic with that view would be a marvelous way to spend an afternoon. I don't think I'd get much reading done, though, as I wouldn't be able to take my eyes off that panoramic awesomeness.

Great NF list. I haven't read many of your favorites. I need to step up my non-fiction reading.

Congrats on your exams and your well earned break!

3 weeks break, cool
So that means kids, meals, washing, homework, housework.....and reading!?

Thanks everyone!

Had a lovely time from 9 am when I dropped the kids at school till 1.30 pm when school rang to say Fletch had bad asthma. Ugh, winter is awful for asthma kids. But now we're home from the doctor after a nebulizer and prednisone... (he is on preventers but sometimes they just aren't enough).

But I have got 150 pages of the latest Bruno Chief of Police read - don't think it's out in the US yet? There are only a few copies on LT. It's called Delikatessen in German and is all about foie gras. I'm enjoying it, even if I think I alerady know whodunnit.

Megan, ha ha, have yet to do the washing or housework... that was the plan for this afternoon but it didn't happen. But I do have a nice haircut and NO MORE GREY HAIR!

Grey hair? What grey hair?
Hope F comes good with his asthma. Have you had any big scares with him?

A nice haircut is definitely more important than doing the housework any day. Hope your son's feeling better today. I was quite expecting my son to develop asthma as there's a really strong history of it in my family. Although I was diagnosed with a mild version only last year (after years of doctors telling me I might have it), my sister and three of her children have it more severely, as did an aunt and my grandmother.

Megan, ha ha... the kids don't like the new haircut at all! both have told me seriously that it was better before. (They are wrong.) Fletch had asthma for years now - he's on Seretide which is a pretty grunty preventer. Till he was on it we'd have his breathing falling off a cliff a couple of times per winter, which meant quite scary trips to after hours or A&E and once a hospital stay overnight when it was pretty bad. It goes bad so fast. I'm hoping tonight will be ok but we are back to our fantastic GP in the morning to check how he is.

Rhian, I'm glad your son has missed out on it - our family is riddled with it too. Teresa (our 5 y o) has missed it so far, but I get it and so do my brother and father. And then on my husband's side of the family there are eczema and mild allergies, so our kids were stuffed before they were born!! (although T has miraculously missed all 3.)

Right I am going to read my book. Might even finish it tonight.

Winter is crappy for asthma - take care down there - have not been on the prednisone this winter myself yet ...... touch wood

I don't have gray hair. I have platinum highlights. :)

I take Advair, the US equivalent of Seretide, on an intermittent basis, a month or two at a time once or twice a year. Does Fletch take it year round?

Laura I will be seeing my platinum highlights in a couple of months!

Alex, hope you have an asthma-attack-free winter.

Darryl, yep he's on Seretide year round. Do kids get put on Advair in the US? Over here it needs special approval from Pharmac (our centralised govt drugs funding agency). NZ has terrible childhood asthma rates and it's a big medical research area. We found both his and my asthma much better in Switzerland than here, and over there we managed (with careful watching from the specialist) to cut his preventer dose down to just flixotide (mmm... orange inhaler, weaker steroid and with no reliever). Once we got home to NZ both he and I needed to up the medication again, even in summer. He's on one dose in the evenings for a fair bit of the year but we use a peak flow meter with him now a lot (he loves it!) and when he gets a cold or the temperature drops quite a bit we up that to twice a day. And I suspect we're about to be increasing things a bit more for a while. We have a fantastic GP which makes me feel much happier about it all. I would love him to grow out of it, and hope the swimming lessons we're doing intensively every holidays help his lungs to grow big and strong!!

I have 40 pages to go on my Bruno Chief of Police book. It's turning into my favourite so far and is a real page-turner. It's 6.06 and Mr Full Of Prednisone was up and dressed at 5.30... am going to be encouraging a nap later on!

We do prescribe Advair for school aged children, along with a similar medication, Symbicort. Like Seretide, these two medications consist of an inhaled corticosteroid and a long acting bronchodilator. For younger kids, we're more likely to prescribe an inhaled corticosteroid alone as a preventive medication.

Your NF list makes me want to do one too Cushla, but I think it would be short because I didn't read a lot of NF until the last few years but Testament of Youth would certainly be on it. (Thanks to you and Laura) Actually most of the NF I've read has been really top notch so it would be pretty easy to come up with a list. Congratulations on your school grades and have a great break.

Oh dear, remember to move Testament of Youth closer to my reading table. If both of you rated it in your top 10 NF...

Hmm, if this is Bruno #3, it's Black Diamond, about truffles? then comes The Crowded Grave, which actually seems to be the one you are reading, since I can't even find an LT listing for it (or at least, not a touchstone!) The next one, the 5th, will be out in August in the UK -- thanks for reminding me to put in my pre-order...

#Darryl, we get Symbicort over here too but not Advair (my Dad is on Symbicort and it has done wonders for his asthma). Fletch is SO much better today - his peak flow is higher than it usually is at 150 - and we have one day of prednisone left to do.

Hi Bonnie! My NF list wasn't too hard - and I have to find the piece of paper with my fiction list, because I did it but didn't have time to type it in. If I finish NF it is usually pretty good because it's so much denser (on average) that the 3-3 1/2 star books just get abandoned by not being gripping enough.

Talking about NF, today I spent NZ$60 on a lovely hardback copy of Antony Beevor's new book called The Second World War. All willpower to stop buying books has left me. The chemist (=drug store) we go to is, purely by coincidence of course, right next door to Marsden Books, one of my favourite independent bookstores, so once I had sorted out Fletch with an Andy Griffiths and he was lying down on the bookshop floor giggling at it I had time for a really good browse.

Lisa, I think you would like Testament of Youth. Just don't read it till you're in the mood for WW1 gut-wrenching sadness. (mind you after Herta Mueller it might be relatively light!!)

Suz I am glad book 5 is coming out in the UK soon - this one was book 4. To find the LT touchstone for The Crowded Grave I had to click on the German title link, Delikatessen (go figure). I find Martin Walker's writing a bit pedestrian in places - a bit much lyrcial French countryside stuff, maybe, even though I love the French countryside too and do like how he describes it, but he does go on! - but in this one I really wanted to keep reading more than I have in the others. So I'll be looking for #5 as soon as it's around. I also find Pamela quite irritating.

I finished Delikatessen/The Crowded Grave this morning and gave it 3 1/2 stars, which is meant to mean "I really enjoyed it" - I am trying to save my 4s, 4 1/2 star and 5 star books for really memorable books. If Lehrter Station was a 4, this needs to be a notch below, but it's still a really good book. (And there are no English reviews so I might yet do one.)

Now I'm 75 pages into John le Carre's A Small Town in Germany - it is so good to be cranking through 100 pages in a day again after the last 6 months. So far it has the potential to be excellent (and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is going to be in my top 10 fiction list) but then I was very disappointed with my last le Carre, The Looking Glass War. So we'll see.

sounds like you have a great GP - swimming & sports does help, grew out it for awhile myself, but came back once I hit my 20's, crazy as it sounds exercise really is great for controlling asthma, cross my fingers your son grows out of it & it stays dormant

Congrats on getting through exams! Hope you have a great time on your weeks off!

Hi Alex and Chelle! Chelle, I am loving having time off - this week the kids are still at school too so it is very peaceful here.

I finished Book 25 - one of John le Carre's early novels, A Small Town in Germany.



I gave this 4 stars and enjoyed it a lot, but I'm not the first on LT to say that this is not a great le Carre to start with. If you already know that you like his dense writing style, then it is definitely worth a read. For me it wasn't up there with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy or Smiley's People, but it was much better than The Looking Glass War.

Le Carre wrote A Small Town in Germany in 1968 and set it a couple of years into the future. It's set almost entirely in Bonn. A low-level diplomat called Leo Harting at the British Embassy has disappeared, and Alan Turner is sent over from London to investigate. As usual, le Carre's characters are really well drawn - Turner is unlikable but complex, and we never meet Harting directly but get a picture of him that slowly builds up into something very different from what you expect at first. Why do people act as they do and what choices do they make?

The picture of West Germany on the verge of the formation of the EU's common market is fascinating. England is desperate to get in and stave off bankruptcy. Germany is scrapping with France and there is pressure for weaker ties to NATO, the US and the UK. (New Zealand gets a mention for its strong opposition to the UK joining the common market - this detail was entirely accurate!) Klaus Karsfeld is a right-wing politician on the rise and the Brits are terrified about a wave of demonstrations around the country - it looks a bit like 1930 all over. Although there is obviously plenty of fiction in the plot (eg the rise of the far right in Germany) there is loads of interesting material about political tensions and the cold war in the late 60s, and attitudes to what happened during WW2.

I bought this at the bookfair a few weeks ago and have 2 more le Carre's sitting here. Have any of you read either Absolute Friends or Our Game? Both have very mixed reviews, but I think quite a few of the reviews are from people who just don't get into le Carre's style.

Just dropping by to say I tore through Song of Achilles this weekend - I absolutely loved it, so thanks for your review :-) Sounds like your having a good break, enjoy!

Alana, I'm really happy that you loved it too!!

Had a very nice time at Karori library today ogling the shelves, and came home 40 pages into Censoring an Iranian Love Story by Shahriar Mandanipour. I went right through the fiction shelves looking for something to read for the Reading Globally Middle Eastern theme read for July-September.

Hi Cushla,
Just checking in.
I havent read any Le Carre, but sometimes see his books at book sales and wonder...should I go there? Not sure I'd go there with this book you have reviewed though.

I love libraries, especially ones with cafes in them.

Megan, if you see Tinker Tailor Solider Spy you should definitely grab it. It's fantastic. (And it'll be in Chch library for sure). The Spy who Came in from The Cold is also meant to be excellent but I haven't read it yet. Tinker Tailor is the first of a trilogy - I didn't enjoy the second much (the Honourable Schoolboy) but loved the third (Smiley's People).

Hope you're wrapped up warm! Nice day here in the end.

I think Le Carre is an acquired taste ..... Have Really enjoyed all the ones I have read over the years - some loved - got turned onto them via My Mum ......

Cushla just whizzing past to wish you a lovely weekend and I hope you are keeping warm enough over there.

I do need to read LeCarre -- I keeping meaning to do so...

Hi Alex, Paul and Suz. Thanks for visiting. Hope you are all enjoying the weekend! It's a foggy Sunday morning and in between sorting out the kids' scrapping over the Wii and the TV set (and which is on when) I'm trying to read Half of a Yellow Sun, which I'm really enjoying.

Suz I think you would really like le Carre.

Hi Cushla, congratulations to you! What a relief, and a huge accomplishment! Sending good thoughts for good health this winter:)

Good review, Cushla. I think you have to like Le Carre's dense writing in order to enjoy his books. I haven't yet read A Small Town in Germany so it's off to the obese wish list, but I have read Tinker Tailor, Smiley's People, Absolute Friends and Our Game and enjoyed them all. I did have to give Absolute Friends a go twice though because I wasn't in the right frame of mine to read it when I first started it.

Thanks Caroline, I will bear that in mind when I start Absolute Friends!

Anne, hi! My teaching diploma course is only halfway through though... we finish up on December 21. Haven't got results yet from the last 3 courses, but am crossing my fingers and should hear this week.

Excellent review Cushla. I haven't read anything by LeCarre and need to start somewhere. I wonder if I'll like his dense writing? Who would you compare him to if anyone?

Bonnie, I don't know who to compare him to - interesting question! I had a look at the recommendations on here to get some help and I suspect Graeme Greene, but I don't know because I haven't read him. There's less action and more contemplation than in my other favourite spy authors' writing (e.g. David Downing).

Am racing through Half of a Yellow Sun now, and 150 pages in it is superb and so much faster to read than I'd expected. Am hoping for a few hours of reading time today.

Hi Cushla! Are you done with classes for a little while now?
I used to read lots of Le Carre but it has been a long time since I did. I have a whole set of the Smiley books on my shelf but haven't really thought about going back to them.

I'm glad you're enjoying Half of a Yellow Sun and hope you get your reading time today.

No classes for 2 more weeks, Anne! But I have started printing out readings already. If I get inspired I will try to crank through a few of them early because the next trimester is the most intense yet. Gulp.

Top o' the day to you, Cushla! Enjoy your break.

Ha, Roni, we must have been visiting each other's threads at the same time! Still in pajamas, kids plonked in front of the TV set. (I realise I say that quite often. It's not true that they are there all the time except for meals, honest.)

Reading your thread I realized that Half a Yellow Sun wasn't on my wishlist, although I've been wanting to read it. Shoot, I might have been able to get it at the big book sale I went to a couple of weeks ago!

Half a Yellow Sun is popping up everywhere. I've seen it on SO many lists of bests and favourites. Looking forward to your thoughts on it.

Excellent review of the Le Carre. I also have to admit to having read none of his work, at least not yet.

I have some early Le Carres (a Book People set), The Constant Gardener and Absolute Friends but have only read The Constant Gardener.

Hi Nancy, Lisa and Luci.

#58 Luci, did you enjoy the Constant Gardener? I've seen pretty mixed reviews on that one.

#57 Nancy, I think the wild popularity of HOAYS is one of the things that has led me not to grab it from the shelves - sometimes so many people on here read books and then I don't like them. If I wait ages I miss the hype - but sometimes I like reading books when the hype is still there (I guess this is another way of saying my timing on reading books is all over the place.)

#56 Lisa, I am really surprised you haven't read it and bet the LT recommender would tell you that you'd love it! Have you read any other Nigerian books? I read The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives last year but am enjoying this more - that was good too though.

I got no reading done at all yesterday. The kids drove me crazy, so today has got to be better. Two vaccinations for Teresa in the afternoon didn't help - she tried to run away from the doctor's office! (Actually it was pretty funny but not when I was trying to cajole her out from under a chair.) Today will be calm... and I will read lots of my book.

53: If I get inspired I will try to crank through a few of them early because the next trimester is the most intense yet. Gulp.
A vicarious gulp from me.

The only Nigerian book I've read is Things Fall Apart and that was in college. I should read both the books you suggest. I remember reading the reviews of Baba Segi when it was an ER book. Did you write one? I couldn't find it.

Cushla, I'm with you on sometimes choosing deliberately to read around the hype of a book. I'll let something pass that is wildly popular and choose to read it later. On the other hand, sometimes the hype is fun. You said it best: I guess this is another way of saying my timing on reading books is all over the place. Mine, too!

#62 hi Nancy! Good to know that I'm not the only one who's all over the place on what to read when. And the more I try to plan, the more my brain rebels. This year I said I was going to read lots of Russian books and it's July already - not a single one has been opened...

#60 Katherine, vicarious gulping welcome especially from friends who have taught!! As well as the placement and 3 new courses (trimester runs from July 16 till October, with 7 weeks in a school in the middle of that) it's job market application time - most of the secondary teaching jobs come up in September. So I'm starting to look hard at which schools I like the look of, although just getting a job is my first aim!

Lisa, I didn't post a review of Baba Segi but here's what I wrote on my thread last April.
_____
3 1/2 stars, nearly 4.

Book 17 was The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives by Lola Shoneyin. I read this because it was on the Orange long list and I'm glad I did, but I also am not surprised it didn't make the shortlist. It's a fast read, which was just what the doctor ordered after the 2 C J Sansom books I'd just finished. It's also surprisingly funny in places and the plot twist, although really obvious, makes you want to keep reading.

Baba Segi is a Nigerian businessman and from the very first chapter his attitude to women will make you want to throw the book across the room. He has four wives and 7 kids. His fourth wife, Bolanle, is trying to get pregnant. She's an outcast in the family - the first wife and the third wife hate her because... well, I 'm trying to think why - they are threatened by her university education, her attempts to teach their kids to read, and her general lack of caring what they think of her. And now they're reduced to having their plonker of a husband have sex with them 1.75 nights a week instead of 2.33, but considering Baba Segi's prowess I can't see why this would be bad!

Baba Segi and Bolanle go to see a doctor about their fertility problems. Meanwhile, the other wives get nastier and nastier. The chapters have different narrators, and I really liked this and didn't find it confusing at all. Slowly you come to see why some of them are how they are, although I didn't think the author did a very good job at explaining why Bolanle really did want to marry Baba Segi to start with.

I liked this enough to look for more books by Shoneyin, and it's the first novel that I've read set in Nigeria.

__________________________

I have to admit that a year later I can barely remember what happened in the book, and I don't think that'll be the case with Half of a Yellow Sun. I might get it finished today if we have a cruisy day at home after swimming... 170 pages to go. Things fall Apart is on my TBR list - the library's got it.

Cushla, Things Fall Apart is good, it was one I read earlier this year.

The image of Teresa hiding under a chair to escape the dreaded doctor is hilarious!

I used to be a terror when it came to vaccinations. I think I may have actually bitten a doctor at one stage. At any rate, I do recall being sent home sans vaccination, and my mother being instructed to find another doctor.

Alana, yes it was pretty funny. For at least the first five minutes. Anyway, we got there!

Suz, I am glad I didn't know that story *before* Monday! That's so funny. I know it is good that I have a stroppy daughter, and I know that it is partly because of me that she is stubborn, but there are times when she drives me mad!

Forgot to say that last week I ended up at Vic Books, the excellent university book store ( and I was SO GOOD - I bought nothing for me at all) and came home with a thick Usborne book of Greek myths. This was partly inspired by hearing Madeline Miller talking about Song of Achilles on a podcast and sounding really nice. Teresa has now heard the story of the Minotaur at least 20 times and loves it, and we read the (kids' version of) the Trojan war and the Odyssey yesterday. Today she asked for the story about the teenager who was trying to go home but she couldn't remember his name! Tonight I found both kids looking very scared about Circe turning Odysseus' sailors into pigs and had to take a photo:



(Fletch isn't bored, he's scared but wouldn't stop listening! Oh and I have now outed my husband Tim on LT - I think this is his first appearance.)

Hi Tim- that's it, we know you now.
Mean daddy scaring his kiddos with scary stories :)
Great pic Cushla, T looks engrossed.

Great picture Cushla, thanks for sharing it!

Great pic, Cusha! Precious!

So sweet! Love the pic. It's amazing the things they love that you never expect - Cassie's current is her Dorling Kingsley encyclopedia which she gets a page form a nigjt. The other night she picked the pages on South East Asia!

#66 Aw, so cute! I adored Usborne books growing up - glad to hear they're still going strong.

I'm going to try and read Half of a Yellow Sun this month too so I'm pleased that you are enjoying it so much. I read Purple Hibiscus a couple of years ago and thought it was superb.

Great picture! It's so nice to see a parent curled up in bed with the kiddies reading!

Thanks - long may it last! Bekka, that's so cute about Cassie.

I am 30 pages from the end of Half of a Yellow Sun. I even managed to read it while I was playing hide and seek. I am finishing it before dinner!

LOL re Tim being "outed"!

My upstairs neighbors' 4-year-old likes to go the library with me, so that he can push the returned books into the slot and use the card in the electronic check-out machine. But he also goes to look for books -- no Trojan wars here, but he's v. funny in his thinking about what he wants. Last time he announced he wanted a book about cats that were yellow with orange spots. We couldn't quite manage that, but did find one about cats with brown spots -- leopards! He'll just grab something that appeals and head off to check it out -- almost completely indiscriminate!

Hi Cushla,
your two men und your princess look lovely together on the bed reading. ***grin***
??? But what was he reading to them, that your Fletch looked so scared and your daughter so serious ????

HAVE you finished your last 30 pages of Half of the Yellow Sun? I can't wait until everyone is finished, so that we can start talking about it. This was one of the best books I read this year. :)

I just finished the readathon. Managed to read 2 Books.
The Cry of the Dove - Fadia Faquir (Review done already)
When She Woke - Hillary Jordan

Both were very good books in different ways.

And now I am off to read with my son. We are still reading The Hunger Games (in German). I hoped I would get him to write a bit more in his thread, but he did not even answer his posts yet.

# Chatterbox - I love your story about your neighbour and your library visits, that sounds like so much fun. I remember "Eons" ago, when my one (13 this month) was little, I always had a hard time to get him out of the library and he always enjoyed giving the books back to the librarian - especially when they were chatty and asked him about his thoughts about particular books.

Book 26 – Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie – 5 stars


*** no spoilers****

Growing up, I was told to eat everything on my plate because of the starving children in Ethiopia. But at some stage, maybe when we visited my grandparents, Ethiopia got changed to Biafra. I am embarrassed that till I heard of Half of a Yellow Sun several years ago, I thought that Biafra was somewhere close to Ethiopia and the famines were one and the same. It’s in southeast Nigeria, and most of the people living there – and the main characters in Half of a Yellow Sun - are from the Igbo nation. In 1967 Biafra seceded from Nigeria. 3 years of civil war followed, during which 1 million people died – many from starvation. The Biafran girl in the picture below has kwashiorkor, a form of severe malnutrition that was common in the refugee camps.


(Source: American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Half of a Yellow Sun begins in 1961. Ugwu is a village boy whose auntie is a cleaner at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka. She gets him a job as a houseboy for Odenigbo, a maths lecturer. Odenigbo’s girlfriend Olanna has just come back from university in London, and moves down to Nsukka and lectures in sociology there. Olanna’s family is wealthy – her twin sister Kainene runs her Dad’s businesses and the two girls are quite different. Kainene gets together with a recent arrival from England, Richard Churchill, who tries hard to fit in and not act like many of the other expats. These five characters are at the heart of the book, which moves between 1961 and the late 1960s.

The book jumps between 1961 and the late 1960s to start with, then remains in the late 1960s in the civil war. With every chapter life gets worse for Olanna and Kainene’s families. Adichie has done an amazing job at telling the story of the Biafran War with characters who you really want to survive. There are funny bits too – like when Ugwu is horrified to see Harrison, Richard’s pompous Anglophile servant making marmalade and boiling orange peel, and when Richard is desperately trying to pretend that his quest for “special herbs for men” are for research purposes only. But by the end of the book, these have dried up.

Highly recommended – this one is worth the hype!

OK, I know I need to read it...

I remember the Biafran war. I think I knew it was around Nigeria, although I don't think I could have placed it on a map (tho I was just 7 or 8...) Then the Biafran war became the East/West Pakistan war, another one that people today tend to forget about, the one that Tahmima Anam did such a good job with, fictionally, in A Good Muslim. (I still have to read A Golden Age.)

Is it tomorrow morning there, Cushla?

Phew, finished HOAYS and have spent the last hour reading all about it on the web, and happily wading through the 117 reviews here on LT.

Suz, it's cool that you take your friends' kid to the library. Mine love the self-check machines too. If I think of a cat book that fits Theo's request I will let you know at once!

Drachenbraut, Tim was reading them one of the scary bits in the Odyssey - the bit where Odysseus's soldiers get turned into pigs. They don't usually look like that! Well done on getting 2 good books finished during the readathon - you are on a roll!

And now I need to find something light to read to counter Half of a Yellow Sun - so that means not going straight back to Censoring an Iranian Love Story.

Suzanne I missed your post - and yes it is 9 am on Friday here! And hey, look at that, another book hits my wishlist before I have finished breakfast. There are 4 copies in the library network, so I'll keep an eye out for it (am not doing reserves because they always come up when I don't have time).

Hi Cushla,
I have Half of Yellow Sun on my shelf, a recent bargain purchase. Dare I start it when have just started 2 others, and havent finished Midnights Children (started a month ago) OR The Greatest Show on Earth which I started at Christmas time?

Is The Greatest Show on Earth the one by Richard Dawkins? (touchstone goes elsewhere). If it is, I have read half of it but put it aside some time in 2009!! Perhaps I should find it... I was enjoying it, but it was slow because my science background is useless.

HOAYS will take you under a week I reckon, even allowing for how busy you are with the kids. And you know you want one more book on the go!

Great review Cushla! And I'm so glad to see that you gave it 5 stars! I plan on reading it this month sometime

Great review of Half of a Yellow Sun, Cushla. I loved that one when I read it too. Your review reminds me that I need to read Purple Hibiscus sometime.

And I love the pic of your family reading! Did the kids sleep after the Odysseus story? I have a feeling that mine would have snuck into my bed after a story like that!

Oh, Cushla, that is a fabulous review of Half a Yellow Sun. You've sold me on the hype! Thanks for that.

I loved Half of a Yellow Sun and went on to read Purple Hibiscus which was nearly as good Cushla. Your kids are just so darn cute. Their Dad isn't bad either.

You're right, Half of a Yellow Sun cannot be ignored.

Yes The Greatest Show on Earth is the Dawkins one, not sure how that happened.....good, but dry and more sciency and evidence-based than I was expecting.

Chelle, Nancy and Megan, you are in for a treat!

Bonnie, I have started Purple Hibiscus already - just the first chapter but it too is hard to put down. I passed on your assessment to Tim - he is aging well!

Amy, the kids did sleep after Circe and the pigs - and Teresa often ends up in our bed, but apparently scary Greek myths are ok.

Uh huh *nods sagely* .. I knew you'd like Half of a Yellow Sun, Cushla.

what a cute picture of Tim and your adorable kids. I love photos of kids in pjs. No matter how beastly kids have been during the day, whenever they get all showered up and thrown into pajamas, they turn into adorable looking angels.

Hi Cushla,

I just saw in your library that you own Schlafes Bruder - Robert Schneider . Have you read it already, because it is not rated? That is one of the best books ever. The pace is quite slow, but the prose and the story are beautiful. That is one of the books I read again and again............
They also made a stunning movie from this book. I still remember it clearly we went to the cinema with 4 friends. 2 of us - that's me and my friend Bernd - were glued to the Cinema Screen. My friend Claudia started snorring next to me and my friend Bernd's friend got his book and a little reading light out and read Macbeth.

Oscar and Lucinda is a reread for me, I read that ? "Eons" ago. I can't remember everything, but I do remember that I liked it a lot.

Yes, and I will update you on my day trips with Alex. He made already plans to go for a couple of days to Augsburg - to see the "Augsburger Puppenkiste" and the Museum. :)

Great review of Half of a Yellow Sun, Cushla, and lovely photo!

#88 and #90 Hi, and yes the kids do look lovely when they are ready for bed!

#89 DB, Schlafes Bruder is on my wishlist so I haven't read it yet - I had a look and it's a recommendation from another member here, justjoey (whose thread I have lost this year... she was here last year). I am much better at buying and thinking about reading German books than actually reading them!

Book 27: Censoring an Iranian Love Story by Shahriar Mandanipour



I found Censoring an Iranian Love Story in Karori library a couple of weeks ago and picked it for the Reading Globally Middle Eastern theme read - for once I have read something on time. I am much better at voting in the annual polls in the group for choosing topics than reading books at the right time!

Mandanipour is one of Iran’s leading writers, but this is his first novel to be translated into English. The novel’s narrator is an Iranian author. He's trying to write a love story that will get through the Iranian censor and invents two characters called Sara and Dara. The draft love story’s written in bold text, with strike-throughs for things he realises he can’t get away with saying (which of course is nearly everything). Then in normal text he explains what he’s trying to do.

The comments on the draft are bitingly funny and gives Mandanipour scope to give tons of bitter detail about the Iranian regime. I really enjoyed the style, and the story he tells about every day life in Iran. But in the last half of the book especially there is a fair bit of magical realism (a turquoise whale blocking the motorway offramp?) and that’s where I just wanted him to wrap it up. I felt like the last 100 or so pages dragged and got too weird for me. It didn't help that I interrupted it to read Half of a Yellow Sun, which was superb and a straightforward, gripping read with characters I really cared about. I think some readers will love it (Lisa, I am looking at you!) but you have to like your books messy.

I gave this 3 stars – it was heading for 4 or even 4 ½ for the first 200 pages though.

Mandanipour has himself been heavily censored and wasn’t allowed to publish any fiction between 1992 and 1997. He’s been living in the US since 2006 and is a professor at Brown.

Very good review Cushla,
I have got this on my TBR pile, so I just leave it there for now. :)

66: I like how the kids are huddling up to the one who's scaring them... Sweet photo

Nice review of Censoring an Iranian Love Story, Cushla. It's a shame it wasn't a better book, as the premise sounds very interesting.

Nice cover anyway.....even if I misread the title as Censoring a TARTAN Love Story! lol

Excellent review of Half of a Yellow Sun Cushla. You make me feel as if I just read it yesterday. I have not read Purple Hibiscus yet although I do have it sitting on a shelf somewhere.

And I love the photo of your family reading--so cute!

Okay! I can't wait any longer. I just put Half of a Yellow Sun on hold at the library. And I'm glad you outed Tim. It's fun to see LTers and their families, especially little 'uns reading Odysseus! You've tempted me to add some photos to my thread too. :-)

I'm here but I'm on dial up! It is awful... (talk about a developed world problem. With luck broadband will return tonight.

Darryl, the book has quite a few 5 star reviews and you might like it a lot more than I did - I just ran out of patience near the end.

Megan, censoring a tartan love story would be a good alternative title for Outlander - that was the last tartan love story I read!

Blanca, yep move it down the TBR pile a bit, till you want an Iranian book.

Katherine, I am long overdue a trip to your thread to say hi. I lurked in the other day and I saw the snail book and might investigate it for Tim.

Hi Anne and Lisa. Glad you like the pic. Obviously the kids took in about one tenth of the odyssey, because they didn't click that the sirens in Ice Age 4 were a rip-off of the sirens in the Odyssey! Anne, PH is very good so far - I'm 100 pages in. I didn't know it was going to be a book about domestic violence or I probably wouldn't have read it, but her writing is really good and it's interesting seeing her describe Nigeria later on than in HOAYS. I haven't worked out exactly when it's set yet.

Book 28: Purple Hibiscus by Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie – 4 stars



Purple Hibiscus is Adichie’s first novel and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize in 2004 . I’m glad that the winning book that year, Andrea Levy’s Small Island, is so good, because I thought Purple Hibiscus was excellent.

Kambili is 15 and growing up with her family in Nigeria in the 1990s. The book begins with her older brother, Jaja, refusing to go to Communion on Palm Sunday. Within pages it’s obvious that the father, Eugene, is abusive and has been beating Beatrice, Kambili and Jaja’s mother and his wife, for years. If I hadn’t just loved Half of a Yellow Sun so much I probably would have put Purple Hibiscus back on the shelf for a few more months but I kept reading.

Eugene is obsessively Catholic, wealthy, the publisher of the only newspaper that will stand up to the Nigerian government, and highly regarded in the community. The children’s and Beatrice’s lives are full of schedules and rules – beatings happen for the smallest things – and Kambili grows up too scared to laugh or speak. Eugene’s father has not converted to Catholicism, so Jaja and Kambili are allowed only 15 minutes with him on their infrequent visits to him (any longer and they get dobbed in by Eugene’s driver, Kevin, who is Eugene’s extra set of eyes). If it weren’t for Eugene’s sister, Aunt Ifeoma, and her kids, this book would have been awfully grim. She manages to get Kambili and Eugene to her house in Nsukka for a holiday.

Highly recommended especially if you liked Half of a Yellow Sun!

Cushla, FAB review of Purple Hibiscus. Both this one and Half of a Yellow Sun are now on my WL. Interesting that you mentioned Small Island in your review ... that's the Orange I'm reading right now : ).

I really liked Purple Hibiscus too. Like you, I read it after reading Half of a Yellow Sun and while it's not quite as good, it's still really good! I have Adichie's short stories, The Thing Around your Neck, on my TBR. I wonder if she has another novel in the works? It's been a while.

Hi Cushla, finally got round to your thread. Well, I was reminded of you today, I was at the premiere of the Basel Tattoo 2012 and there we were attacked by some kiwis. Didn't understand what he was shouting, but the show was impressive. The tattoo was a success again, despite the rain

Here a greeting from Basel

Hi Cushla,

lovely review on Purple Hibiscus. My copy arrived yesterday :). It's on top of my TBR Pile.

Great review of Purple Hibiscus, Cushla -- on to the wish list it goes :)

Paul it is really nice to see you here and thanks for the Basel tattoo photo. No idea why there were NZers doing a haka but glad you enjoyed it! I was missing Basel yesterday when our bus was 15 minutes late then didn't stop at our stop after I rang the bell with loads of time to spare... not the same as the number 11 tram!

Anne, Blanca and Nancy, I hope you enjoy Purple Hibiscus too. Nancy - how are you liking Small Island? (Hmmm I should come over to your thread and see!). I also enjoyed another one of Levy's novels last year, Every Light in the House Burnin', but not as much as Small Island.

Laura, yes she does have another novel on the way - Americanah. I think I saw that in the FT, or maybe on Darryl's thread. I'll be buying it straight away after her last 2.

It has been raining hard and horizontally all day and I've had a nice day doing lots of maths (conic sections for anyone who cares!). Uni is back tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it - 3 weeks till the next placement and not too many assignments between now and then. I'm reading three chunksters ... I'm 12% through Barchester Towers, 10% through Sea of Poppies, and just starting the very well-known here and so far excellent Treaty of Waitangi by Claudia Orange. I expect to finish a book some time in August!

I was going to ask if you had to do a Treaty of Waitangi paper, I did one as part of my education degree a few years back.

I've only read The thing around your neck and keep meaning to read her earlier books.

I may have said this before but think Claudia's book on the Treaty is one of the best out there .... ( read it myself in the 90's when doing social policy/sociology degree)

I am only 108 messages behind, but thought I had better check in before it gets to be 216 messages behind! :)

>106 cushlareads:: Thanks Cushla! I'll definitely keep my eyes open for Americanah.

Cushla - Half of a Yellow Sun was my favourite read last year and I'm glad you found it equally riveting. Impressed that you followed it up so quickly with Purple Hibiscus which I should have done too. Sure her next one will also be good. Your weekend is pretty much done over there so I'll wish you a great week ahead instead.

I just checked amazon and Americanah won't be available in the US until next May!!!!

Hi Cushla! Enjoying Small Island very much! I've only read The Long Song by Levy other than this one, but so far I think I'm enjoying Small Island even more : ).

Awesome that you're reading Barchester Towers. I listened to the Barchester Chronicles, with Simon Vance reading. He is fabulous!

Oh my memories of Small Island are filtering through my brain...**sigh** Anyway Cushla, lovely review of Purple Hibiscus and I agree that it was very very good but not quite as good as Half of a Yellow Sun; looking forward to her next one but why in the world does it take so long to get to the U.S.?

I should re-start the Barchester series sometime -- think I bogged down around Doctor Thorne.

Cushla, can you translate "dobbed in", please??

Interesting comments above re: Claudia Orange's Treaty of Waitangi, I have it on my wishlist but haven't given it much thought lately. Suddenly it's back on my radar and I'll look forward to your reveiw Cushla.

Hi Kerry, Stasia, Alex, Laura, Catarina, Paul, Alana, Nancy and Bonnie! Uni is back and my reading and LT time is vanishing before my eyes - have had a really good week reading but almost all of it has been the readings for my course. But I am getting Barchester Towers read, in 10 minute bursts, and am a whole 27% of the way through and thoroughly enjoying it. We find out tomorrow which school we're getting for our next placement and then it's 2 very busy weeks till we're in there for the next 7 weeks.

Kerry, I am still only 3 chapters into Claudia Orange's book but might try to read some more today. The course is all about Maori learners (and good so far) but the only Treaty material so far has been very light. As part of my (unfinished) law degree I had a fantastic set of lectures on the Treaty in my constitutional law paper 20 years ago, but I have forgotten a fair bit of it - but it was much more thorough than this looks like it'll be.

Suz - "dobbed in" means "to tell on someone" e.g. "Fletcher caught Teresa in the pantry with the open biscuit packet and dobbed her in to me." I forget my NZ English sometimes.

Hope you're all having a good weekend!

Happily I was easily able to translate "biscuit packet"! Yes, that is a phrase that has to be pure NZ; I've never even heard it used before!!

See - I did it again! My American flatmates at Yale got really good at NZish after nearly 2 years of it. But I know you know that one, Suz. Tr. for Americans: cookie... ummmmm... cookie... what's wrong with packet? It's not a box or a jar!

I knew what it was thanks a childhood in Britain spent scarfing down biscuits from packets. I think here it would be a package, or maybe a bag, since many cookies come backed in rows in a bag.

Hi Cushla, hope school is going well for you!

(119: I would say cookie bag ... but I like the way you say it better!)

Cushla, I too loved Yellow Sun and Purple Hibiscus. I'm disappointed her new book doesn't have a color in the title but I am eagerly anticipating the arrival in the U. S. of Americanah. Huh...seems to me it should be released here first because of that title!

Oh, I loved the picture of Tim reading to the children. Fletch's body language is priceless.

I liked Purple Hibiscus even more than One Half and also recommend highly Adichie's short story collection The Thing Around Your Neck and am now impatiently awaiting her next novel.

Your daughter looks a bit like my niece (and also like my sister when she was young - Rachel and Matthew's mum is Chinese, we have the same dad, I also have a brother and sister with the same mum).

Hi Luci, Donna,Suz and Chelle! Yes, Donna, the late publication date in the US for Americanah is funny.

Luci I will look out for the thing around your neck.

Teresa does look cute in that pic (they both do) but I am looking forward to her doing what she's asked in the mornings without repeating myself at least five times per instruction...

My reading consists of small percentages of Barchester Towers - am up to 37% and it is very funny. I've just read a diatribe from one of the main characters about the evils of round tables and table cloths.

I gave up on Barchester Towers a while back, but I think I need to try again. It's the type of book I *should* enjoy and I'm not sure why it didn't work for me. Every time I see someone on LT praising it -- especially someone like you, Cushla, who tends to like the same books as me -- I feel this little twinge.

Hello! I'm sorry to be out of touch.

#125 Laura, I listened to all of the Barchester series on audio, read by Simon Vance. Superb!

>127 lit_chick: I think that's what I need to do, Nancy. I listened to The Warden on audio and loved it. I've seen Barchester Towers on audio at the library but have never checked it out because I have the book sitting unread in a pile somewhere. Maybe I'll go get it this fall when I'm driving more.

Well ... I took a peek at the Kindle store and they were offering Amazon Prime members the complete Chronicles of Barsetshire for $0.99. The description noted, "This edition has a linked 'Table of Contents' and has been beautifully formatted (searchable and interlinked) to work on your Amazon e-book reader and your ipod e-book reader."

How could I refuse? Now I have them all! When the heck will I read them?! Thanks Cushla ... I think!

I loved your review of Purple Hibuscus Cushla. I've had Barchester Towers in my TBR Tower for quite a while now, and forgot about it until your nice nudge ... I have to move this up a couple of rungs.

Hello everyone! Linda it is really nice to see you. I have vanished almost on here and haven't caught up on your thread since you were in New Orleans!! I will get over there now!

Laura, I have a couple of copies of Barchester Towers bought at secondhand book fairs, but till I got it on the Kindle I didn't ever get as far as trying it properly. It just looKed solid and too much like hard work, but it's perfect for picking up and putting down because the characters are so well described that I remember them. I really like the online Kindle dictionary - I use it much more than I would a real dictionary if I were reading it in a book. Have just got up to 40% (and several pages describing Tudor architecture). The whole thing reminds me strongly of Yes Minister. I am sure I'm missing lots of jokes about church politics, but I'm getting enough of them for it to be good. Your e-reader version sounds really good - I'm looking forward to you reading it!! Have you read The Warden already? That was my tester to see if I liked his style.

I was about to suggest reading The Warden first. It's not quite as good, but it's shorter, introduces you to the setting, characters and Trollope's style.

>131 cushlareads:, 132: I will definitely read The Warden first. Thanks for the suggestion. I can't recall exactly why I tried Barchester Towers before, but I know at the time I thought it was the first in the series. Now I can't bear the thought of reading it out of order!

>133 lauralkeet: Since you are thinking about The Warden Madeline just sent me this link to a tutored read that will start shortly right here.

Bonnie, I was just about to go and post a message on that thread saying how happy I am to see it! I'll be lurking there a lot.

chuckle chuckle, love the NZ English needing translation!
Packet of biscuits.....pottle of yoghurt....being dobbed in....bunking school (or is that one generally understood?)...bach at the beach....hmm, anything else Cushla?

Thanks Bonnie! I'm going to be lurking there, too.

Megan, bunking school sounds American to me!! Wagging... which I am going to do tomorrow. And Dunedin people say cribs not baches - funny how many regional NZ variations there are. Belgium was luncheon sausage to me growing up because Mum was from Waikanae, but in Dunedin it was belgium. (Bet the Americans are wondering what that is.)

In very exciting news, I seem to be wading through the mountain of work and have just got one assignment left for maths before Friday, and it's nearly done. So I might get some reading time in before my placement starts! I hit 50% of Barchester Towers last night, woo hoo. If I'd known it was so funny I'd have read it years ago.

I suspect wagging/bunking is also a regionalism ....... have heard both used in my travels around the country (the joys of being a teachers kid!).

>138 cushlareads::
bunking school sounds American to me!! we never bunked, we skipped. Well, *I* never did, you understand, but I know some people who did ...
(Bet the Americans are wondering what that is.) - yep.

Cribs and belgium are very much a Southland and Otago thing, I think, although crib might also sneak into Canterbury too. There's also luxing and vacuuming :-) I had some fun when I first moved to Wellington!

*momentary de-lurking wave*

luxing ?

Funny, I always thought 'dobbed in' was English in origin - perhaps we just adopted it from all those Neighbours/Home and Away episodes we used to watch after school!

Congratulations on only having one assignment left and having reached the halfway point of Barchester Towers! I'm enjoying The Warden so much more this time around and with Liz's help I think I'm even starting to understand the church politics :-)

Where I came from in south Wales, missing school was mitching off. I though dobbed in was English as well.

Cushla, you are making Barchester Towers sound irresistible with your comments on it. You know, I have never read any Trollope...for no good reason except that I usually don't find "funny" books particularly funny. I blame my melancholic Scandinavian genes for that. ;-)

Alex - luxing is vacuuming! (not washing the carpet with Lux soap).

I just had a look and the origin of dobbed in is Australian but unknown - first recorded use 1956 according to the OED.

Donna, I don't often read "funny" books either. I'll try and put in a couple of the bits I've highlighted later on. And it's very good for my vocab - anyone else know what a toxophilite is? (I had to look it up.) Am 70% through now and it's still really good.

Heather I will be back to read your tutored reads thread properly when I've finished BT and have a bit of time. I might have a break before I start Dr Thorne.

I start my new placement today and am up early to get ready - 7 weeks, eek!! This time I'm teaching all girls.

Have fun at your new placement!

I'll look forward to hearing how the all-girl placement compares to the all-boy. Do you think teaching math to all-girl classes is a good idea? A way to keep girls engaged in math?

Hi Cushla,
*delurking* to stop by and just to say hello *wink at cushla*

have fun at your new placement. :)

Hmmm studies show that girls excel at Math in classes w/o boys. Distraction I assume. I can't wait to see what your observations are Cushla.

>151 brenzi:: Distraction I assume.
Actually Bonnie, what I've read (and I can't recall exactly where, sorry), is that boys tend to dominate classroom discussion and intimidate girls, especially in the early teen years. It turns a lot of girls off math & science at an early age. I imagine it could be quite liberating to be in an all-girl classroom.

I always saw 'wagging' as Australian, as they said it on Home and Away ;)
Belgium rings some bells, but we always called it luncheon meat or luncheon sausage, or just luncheon. Now I call it Mystery Meat, or factory floor scrapings! haha

>144 souloftherose: I love the saying 'to dob someone in' or dobbing. I call Wilbur a dobber when he comes to tell me that his cousin isnt sharing. (in that whining voice we all know and love)

Just coming up for air - first week is going really well but I am flat out!! Hopefully I'll get time for LT at the weekend. Right now I am meant to be making school lunches and getting out the door.

I'm glad your week is going well. Hang in there for the weekend!

I understand about coming up for air, Cushla!

Weekend here, Barchester Towers at 90%, both kids sick with croup and ear infections, so having a VERY quiet day!!

Thanks Lisa and Stasia for the messages. This coming week i start teaching for real, just for a couple of hours, then it ramps up over the next few weeks till I'm at a full teacher load. The girls are lovely and so are the other teachers but being observed for every lesson is quite stressful - no bad days allowed!

Single sex schools are probably more common in NZ than the US - I can't think of any American RL friends who went to an all girls or boys high school. Over here, in some areas you get a choice depending on where you live. I haven't taught in a co-ed school but went to a single sex one. I've seen research on both sides (not recently) and I think it depends on the student a lot, and I don't know how big a factor it is compared to other ones like how good the teachers are, what access to technology the kids have got at home, how much encouragement they're getting at home etc. But the girls I'm teaching at the moment are focussed and on the whole confident, and there are no boys to dominate the conversation. On the other hand in NZ lately girls' achievement has tended to be better across all subjects than boys - am not sure how the individual rates in maths and science compare.

Right I am going to get ready for a fun-filled trip to the after hours medical centre with F for his ear... la la laaaaa...can hear him coming up the stairs yelling OOOOOWWWWW.

I hope the kids feel better soon. Good luck with a new semester!

Single sex schools are not uncommon in the UK as well - we had a choice between mixed or single-sex for our son at secondary. My husband was hugely keen for him to go to a mixed school - he'd gone to a single sex grammar school himself which hadn't really suited him and is very much not a fan of single sex education for boys.

It'll be interesting to hear your thoughts on your new placement Cushla. I've always attended co-ed schools but have to admit I'm a bit prejudiced against all girls schools, just because girls can be so horrible to each other sometimes. I think boys tend to balance that a bit.

Hope F and T are feeling better soon!

I hope the kids are doing better very soon, Cushla. You have plenty on your plate already!

I did girls only up until about age 12, and wish I had either stayed in that, or been consistently in mixed schools. Switching at that age was very difficult -- esp since I switched countries and school systems as well.

bunking off I think of as English English, vs. skipping, which sounds North American to me. Not saying that's all it is, but that's what we called it...

News flash (comments on girls later!! perhaps after 7 weeks of them... ) I have finished Barchester Towers!! One whole book finished in August.

Have downloaded the next one, Doctor Thorne. Think Trollope is my new comfort reading.

Thank you all for saying hi - it is really nice to come on here and see your comments even though I am far far behind on all your threads. But Stasia I did see that you are off for a month - have a fab time doing no schoolwork!!

Thanks, Cushla, I shall indeed enjoy my month off!

I am glad you are enjoying Trollope so much. I really need to finish off the last book of the Barchester series.

Fascinating that you are now in placement at an all-girls school - must admit hockey-sticks and St. Trinian's style japes spring immediately to mind - would you say it is easier to teach all girls than a mixed class?
Have a great weekend taking stock of your first week Cushla.

#157 Poor you - hope the kids are feeling better.

when I was going thru school accept theory was that co-ed schools are good for boys but single sex schools are good for girls ....

either way teaching girls vs boys will be an experience .....

Congratulations on finishing Barchester Towers! I'm slowly reading Middlemarch (and have been for quite some time), but was thinking when I finish it I may dip into Trollope, beginning with The Warden. The tutored read thread is tempting me.

#163 Well done on finishing Barchester Towers! My tutored read of The Warden has enthused me so much that I'm already looking forward to starting that one despite not having finished The Warden yet!

Cushla, delighted you are enjoying Trollope ... new comfort reading!

Congratulations on finishing up the Trollope Cushla. I have The Warden slated for next week and am looking forward to it.

I adored St. Trinian's. But then, I also adored the Chalet School. *shrug* Who wants to be consistent?

Finished another week and am really happy. Taught my first 2 year 10 lessons and was happy with the second (and I am quite hard on myself so I think it was ok).

Paul I don't know if it's easier to teach all girls than a mixed class - I haven't taught mixed. I think all the options have different challenges. My Year 9s (Grade 8) are really into Justin Bieber and One Direction, so i will be writing some fractions and percentages problems about them... There is so much sport and extra-curricular stuff in the school and it's not hockey-sticks-y at all (except of course for the hockey teams!). I'm surprised how much I'm enjoying it.

Suz I found boxes of my Chalet School books last week in my parents' garage and now they are here on the bookshelves. Made me remember how much I loved them.

Have read about 1% of Dr Thorne this week - have been falling asleep within seconds of getting into bed. Teresa moved on from croup and cough to an ear infection on Thursday night so we are all a bit tired but on the mend (thank you antiobiotics!!).

Off to read some threads now. Have a good weekend everyone!

Lovely to see you enjoying your young ladies Cushla. Two and a half ties the ability of Justin Bieber added to 3 times the talent of New Direction still doesn't add up to a great eal at all!

Cushla, delighted you are enjoying your teaching assignments! Sounds like you are doing a fabulous job!

Glad the kids are feeling better and teaching is going well. Happiness all around. :-)

Paul I am planning some One Direction questions for my Year 9s along those lines...

Hi Lisa and Nancy! Yes, happiness. Have had a good weekend here and even read a whole book - and not 500 pages of Trollope. I had to download The Arms Maker of Berlin by Dan Fesperman after Suz talked about an ARC of his that sounded really good, so there it was on my Kindle by 7.30 yesterday morning.



I gave it a solid 3 1/2 stars and really enjoyed it. It wasn't up there with the Zoo Station series, but it was a really good thriller set in Germany and Switzerland during WW2 and 60 years later. Nat Turnbull is a history prof who specialises in Germany during WW2. His mentor, Gordon Wolfe, is 84 now and retired, and they've had a big falling out - but in the middle of the night Nat gets called by his wife to say the police have arrested him for possessing stolen documents.

The writing is much more Dan Brown than John le Carre, but the plot was gripping and it was just what I felt like. The scenes set in Berlin were in the areas I'd visited last year - there is a fair bit of action in Wannsee, where I went to the museum in the house where they decided on the full-scale extermination of the Jews, and more in Grunewald, where I visited the train station that the victims left from. There was even a chapter set in Basel, and tons in Bern, and all that probably added up to a good half star extra from me. I might be buying one of Fesperman's books a weekend for the next 5 until my placement's finished!

I'm glad you found something fun and satisfying for your weekend read.

I only just browsed through your thread after a long absence. Real teaching - how wonderful! I am so glad that you're enjoying it and that it has been the right choice of profession for you!

And I notice you are also on the Barchester chronicles. I'll now just wait till you all have finished book #3 and then I can join in. I am looking forward to your thoughts re. Doctor Thorne. So far everyone but me seems to prefer Barchester Towers whch I liked but found a bit of a drag (maybe because Trollope spoils the whole romantic development so early in the novel).

#173 Glad this placement is going so well Cushla!

"My Year 9s (Grade 8) are really into Justin Bieber and One Direction, so i will be writing some fractions and percentages problems about them... " I am so sorry...

Glad to hear Theresa is on the mend - croup was the only serious childhood illness I had. I had to go into hospital over my fourth birthday and remember being very cross about having to cancel my party.

#177 "The writing is much more Dan Brown than John le Carre" Argh - not for me I think.

Hi guys - am buried in work (still happy, but getting a bit tired). Am just taking deep breaths and doing one thing at a time and am chipping away at the mountain of stuff to get done. We also had the kids' school production 2 nights this week, and it was fantastic - all about New Zealand, with all the kids in the school in it. But hopefully this week I'll be home every night.

I've read maybe 5 pages of Dr Thorne since last week, so Nathalie be patient with me!! But it'd be good to read the next one together.

Heather - Dan Fesperman def not for you I don't think! It was good though.

Lisa - hi! Hope all's well up there on the West Coast.

I took Fletch to Marsden Books yesterday to get Harry Potter #3. The 9th Captain Underpants book was out - it was the first series he got into and he still re-reads them, so he was very happy. And it meant I got him into a shoe shop with very little fuss because he read on the way into the mall, in the shop, on the way back to the car and home.

I also snaffled Boomerang: Travels in the New third World by Michael Lewis for me but have read 2 pages so far. I didn't like The Big Short that much, but that's because I read lots of better books on the subprime crisis. This one looks like a good funny fast read on Greece and the sovereign debt crisis. And I also bought Tim Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain. I suspect he's going to be reading bits of it out to me... HOW TO MAKE YOUR INTROVERT HAPPY kind of bits!

Right I am off to the vege market before the crowds. Hope you all have a great week.

And I also bought Tim Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain. I suspect he's going to be reading bits of it out to me... HOW TO MAKE YOUR INTROVERT HAPPY kind of bits!

*chuckle* When I read it, my husband heard a few of those bits too!

Edited to fix italics

You liked it, right? I remember positive comments on here but it seems like one of those books that tons of my friends on LT have read, and all of you blur into one when I'm standing in the bookshop...

I'm so impressed you're still reading and Lt-ing! Last year when I was teaching I just couldn't manage it all. It sounds like you are really enjoying yourself, although working very hard. Good luck to you!

Anne, I am trying to stay un-stressed and even a little bit of reading really helps. Am about to take Michael Lewis to the local pool (ok, just his book) and hopefully will get a chapter read. I am totally behind on threads though and feel like I have no clue what anyone is up to (except for Chelle, who must be about to walk down the aisle...) I have my first university lecturer observation tomorrow and will be happy when that's over - stressful even if you think you have planned everything ok...

Just stopping by to catch up. I'm glad your new teaching assignment is going well and I look forward to catching up with you on Trollope. (I finished The Warden and am hoping to get hold of the Barchester Towers audiobook soon) I'm not sure what's taken me so long to discover Trollope.

>186 AnneDC: I find myself in total agreement with Anne and could have been the one to write "I finished The Warden and am hoping to get hold of The Barchester Towers...soon. I'm not sure what's taken me so long to discover Trollope

Good to see you settling in to your new placement Cushla.

Me three - his books have sat on the shelves here for years!

Barchester Towers was one of my favorite books last year. I haven't managed to squeeze in Doctor Thorne yet. I need to work on that!

I listened to the audio version of The Arms Maker of Berlin a few weeks ago and liked it, although I thought the historical sections of the book sometimes dragged. I might have skimmed over some of it if I had been reading a print version.

Carrie, sorry for not replying. So many of us are Trollope fans! I liked the historical sections more I think but I'd been to several of the places recently so that made it more exciting. (I did spot one mistake... he called Freiburg Freiberg, which annoyed me, but hey.)

Three weeks left of working to the bone - have read a whole 50 pages of Michael Lewis' Boomerang since last weekend. It's very funny - he's just visited Iceland and now is in Greece. His portrayal of much of the Greek economy is likely to rile any German (or Finn or Dane or other European) who is already anti-Greek-bailout, so be warned!

ok, back to lesson planning...everyone have a great week.

Hi Cushla, Im exhausted just seeing the things you've been up to. But the age old adage does say: if you dont do shit, shit dont get done. So keep at it!

I am adding The Arms Maker of Berlin to the BlackHole. Thanks for the recommendation, Cushla!

Darling picture of kids reading with our hubby–loved those times! I'm super impressed with all you're managing to fit in a week, Cushla. I think my extra-curricular reading when I was working toward my teaching degree was reading Calvin and Hobbes–and I only had one child at home at the time. I bet your students love you. You have such a great sense of humor! I bet they love your stories about your children too.

So, do you think Boomerang is a fair book? Lewis's books are so interesting and informative, but I'm worrying in advance about the possible stereotyping in this book. What do you think?

190: Three weeks left of working to the bone
I'm impressed that you're managing to check in to LT at all!

I'm so "off" Michael Lewis. I keep bumping into him at financial journalism events and he has never once struck me as even pleasant, and I didn't like the fact that his subprime book borrowed heavily from that written by a friend of mine (and published before Lewis submitted his manuscript). Not plagiarism, but perhaps some heavy borrowing? That book, moreover, had no footnotes or bibliography, which I don't appreciate in a complex work of non-fiction. I'm mildly interested in Boomerang, but not enough to contribute to Lewis's royalties!!

Fesperman and Dan Brown? Well, maybe on that continuum. But I find Dan Brown to be unreadable, and Fesperman's novels (those I have read) are quite readable. Def. tilting toward brain candy vs. serious content, but there's a time and place for all that, right?

HI Cushla! Hope school is still going well! Don't work too hard ;)

Eek. 2 weeks since I posted on my own thread!! Thanks for visiting Mrs Chelle, Katherine, Suz, Bonnie, Stasia and Megan - my placement has been very very full-on the last couple of weeks and I am coming up for air now. It is going well and I had my second lecturer visit last week, and she liked what she saw. I had been looking forward to a much more relaxed final week, just teaching 8 hours, 5 of which are to my Year 13/Grade 12 calculus students, which requires much less planning than my junior classes. But I got an email yesterday after school (just as I was starting to relax for the weekend!) asking if I would mind being filmed teaching next week for next year's trainees to show what they are looking for for one of our graduating teacher standards. I am thrilled to be asked but am wide awake at 3 am thinking about that lesson! Anyway, in a week I will have a whole week off school and uni and might get caught up properly on here.

I finished Boomerang and gave it 3 stars. Suz, very interesting what you said about him and I found The Big Short quite an arrogannt book. Bonnie, you are onto something - yes, Boomerang was very interesting and funny, but the stereotyping is too much. The book is a trip around countries affected by the sovereign debt crisis, so he starts in Iceland, then goes to Ireland, Greece, Germany and then of course there has to be some American stuff (about California mainly - oh boy, there is one state whose finances i would not want to have to sort out). Anyway, the Germany chapter had me really mad. Nathalie and Bianca, I recommend that you do not read this book. Lewis spouts his theory that Germans are "clean on the outside, dirty on the inside" - and in the middle of a book about sovereign debt we get to read about Germans inspecting their poo. I am not kidding. Instead of some really good analysis of Germany, the Euro, the bailout, political differences within Germany, I got to read half-baked rubbish and my husband had to listen to me reading bits out and telling him how stupid it was. But the chapters on Ireland and Iceland I thoroughly enjoyed, despite stereotyping in there too - why the Irish guaranteed the banks' debts is still a mystery to me.

OK I am re-rating Boomerang at 2 stars and giving up on Michael Lewis until his next book comes out and I change my mind!

I'm reading my first Daniel Silva novel at the moment - the 2nd in his Gabriel Allon series - and quite enjoying it.

Hello cushla,
great to hear that are things going so well for you, and how lovely that they choose you to film as an example for other students. *Yipieh*

Okay the Boomerang book sounds awful at least in regards to us Germans. I wonder where he got his ideas from?

Looking forward to hear further updates about your school life, once you are off next week. *wave*

Congratulations! That's quite a compliment. Of course, we all knew you would be stellar. ;-)

Sorry Boomerang (is this the right touchstone? Yours went to a comic book by Hermann) was such a drag. I would have dumped it when I hit the Germany chapter, I think. Hope your next read is more fun.

197: Wow, what a compliment! Though I can see why it would intrude on your relaxing weekend.

*lurking*

Too bad about the relaxing, but isn't that a great compliment!

Congratulations on the filming Cushla!

Will look forward to seeing your film if it is made available. Everybody is right of course - you were always going to be great.
Trust your weekend has gone great and that Gabriel Allon is continuing to thrill.

Hi Cushla. Sending best wishes for your film session this week. I'm sure it must be nerve-wracking but what a compliment!

Congratulations re. the filming! This is so great!

This is a bit off topic now, but I have to comment on the and in the middle of a book about sovereign debt we get to read about Germans inspecting their poo This was part of the first book written by an English or American author (don't remember) on Germany I ever read and I have since seen it in several other books. The result has always been something like: 'and therefore the Germans are anal'.

I guess the simple reason is a special form of toilet that used to be standard in Germany (and Austria I guess) decades ago and which clearly irritated at least the Americans. If foreigners understood this form of toilet as an invitation to look at 'things' closely - well, we didn't. Why should we?? :-)

I guess every country has its standards - I myself found the US toilets unusual when I visited for the first time, not to speak of the 'holes in the floor' you might still find in small restaurants in Italy and France and the 'two taps' at the washbasins in England - but I'd never get the idea that some bathroom standard indicates a national characteristic.

*also lurking*

Also at least you are waking at 3 am for womethign worth while. I wake at, well, generally 1 am thinking about things for my job and it is most definitely NOT worth while. Good luck with it all.

#206 Iff - now remembering some public toilets we stopped at whilst driving to holiday locations in France when I was a kid... *shudder*... but yes defining a nation by this? That's seriously odd...

Award for best toilets has to go to Japan - but seriously high tech - worryingly so when you don't understand Japanese so don't know what all the buttons do. I have to admit to finding US toilets worrying for a different reason - the standard seems to be to have such very large gaps in the cubicle framework that I felt far too exposed when using them.

Hi Cushla! Good luck with your lesson -- what an honor for you, but I imagine I would be losing sleep as well! Hope you reach your much-deserved break without feeling too ragged.

Take care!

Congratulations, Cushla!

Congrats Cushla! You're going to be a star!

*waving* at Cushla - before she gets to be a star :)

Thanks, Cushla, for the comments on Boomerang. We have it in English and German in the library, but I will not touch it, even when one of the lecturers here seems to be very positive about it.

Congratulation for becoming a star (is that similar to 'getting starred'?)

Thanks guys for all your lovely comments. Cross your fingers that tomorrow goes ok. I have a fun lesson planned but it is last period and sometimes the girls can be less than keen on work at that time... I am hoping I'll forget the camera as soon as I've got started but it is still a bit weird.

and Paul C - I sincerely hope that only next year's teacher trainees and their supervising teachers see it but if it is public I will tell you! (but that would be too embarrassing.)

Paul S and Nathalie - definitely skip Boomerang. Nathalie, he goes on and on about that toilet. So annoying. Also stuff about the red light district in Hamburg which is kind of random as well.

Rhian, the Japanese toilets sound funny - Tim has had a couple of work trips there and had a very fancy toilet in one hotel that had lots of buttons and I think talked to him (but I might be making that bit up - I will check!).

I finished The English Assassin and am ready for a meatier book now. I gave it 3 stars and enjoyed it enough that I wanted to keep reading, but to call it a spy novel is to make it sound like it's in the same league as John le Carre and for me it just wasn't. But hey, I will probably still try to read the series (but at times when fluff is needed - likely to be most of the next couple of years!!).

i have great intentions for my next book to be either Sea of Poppies or Truman but I am all of 1% through Truman and Truman himself is about 40 years away from being born. I take it to karate every Wednesday with me, read about 2 screens of text, and then re-read one the following week.

Hi Cushla,

fingers crossed for tomorrow - and I am sure you will shine like a star. And which student can resist a fun lesson?

you might be being filmed right now?! (actually its probably lunch time) I hope it went swimmingly and no student tries to upstage you.

It went really well - it was yesterday. And now I am FINISHED!!!!! Just got home -a week off before I get back into uni assignments and exams. Was sad to say goodbye to the maths department and especially the girls, but also a huge relief that it went so well.

Got a whole 1% of Truman read last night, and can feel one of those long sessions of "What should I read now that I am relaxed again?" coming on.

Glad to hear that you have a week off.

Thumbs up - happy to hear that everything went so well - and I hope you enjoy your one week off - before going back into your assignments :)

Hi Kerry and Blanca. I've had a LOVELY week off! Have wasted hours playing Plants vs Zombies on the ipad and now am starting to do my assignments.

I've also managed 2 library trips and a visit to Marsden Books - bought Peter Ackroyd's first volume of his history of England series. I suspect it will take a while for me to get to it! Also bought Fletch the 4th Harry Potter, which is 600+ pages and he is reading it steadily - till recently long books really put him off.

I got a few library books out but am chugging through Truman still - am up to 16%... it is good but going to take ages yet. I'm up to 1933. Am also reading Scenes from early life by Philip Hensher, and it is excellent so far - about a boy growing up in Bangladesh. (And Darryl gave it 4 stars so you know you all want to go and read it!) Truman keeps sucking up time though and the Kindle is so handy for when I'm out somewhere. At the moment Scenes from Early Life is my hairdrying book!

Hi Cushla :) Actually it is Bianca and not B(l)anca :) Meaning is the same - just the writing.

So you enjoy Plants vs Zombies? Great - I quite like that one as well.

Have a lovely weekend with your family

Bianca, I'm so sorry!! I could have sworn I looked hard at an earlier post because at first I thought it was Bianca and then read Blanca. I think I've been calling you Blanca everywhere!

I love PvZ but have finished Adventure mode twice now and that is probably a good thing. Endless Survival mode just isn't the same.

Happy School Holidays Cushla, I take it you are free for the duration?
How many books do you think you can read in the 2 weeks?

No Megan I'm off this week but then back to uni the second week (and the 3 big assignments)... I will be trying to get Truman finished this week but might be pushing it!

oh, bummer.
I am on a tight reading schedule now that I just got 4 books from the library this morning. Silly me, but I just couldnt resist them! (Shipwrecks, Room, Just My Type and Dandelion Wine.)

Good luck with Truman, I am very nearly finished A Tale of Two Cities and will feel very chuffed when I do.

Just dropping in to say 'hi' Cushla, that week off sounds good!

Drive by de-lurk - hope you have a great week off. I love that luxurious what shall I read now feeling...I may get to feel it again if I ever finish all the books I have ongoing!

So glad to read it all went well. Enjoy your week off!

The Hamburg red-light district... I've never been there, but I am sure it's all about Herbertstrasse, that famous street women cannot enter (unless they are prostitutes). If he brought that up additionally to the toilets, he really took a very close look at our country's dirty corners. Sounds like he's the one with the strange obsessions. :-)

Hi Cushla. I always knew you were a star! I hope you are enjoying Truman. It meant a lot to me -- living in Missouri and learning about a favorite son. Do you want to visit the Truman Library with the Missouri Readers next June? I'm giving you plenty of notice!

Enjoy your short school break. I so admire what you're doing.

Hi Alana, Megan, Nathalie, Bekka and Donna! My week off was really nice, and this week has been pretty good too - the kids are home but the assignments are getting done slowly. The next 10 days will be busy getting it all finished off.

Nathalie, yes that was probably the red light district Lewis talked about. Non-existent research. Not buying anything by him again. (Oh yeah, I already said that!)

Donna, thanks for your encouragement about teaching and yes I am loving Truman - at the moment he is at the Potsdam conference and they are about to drop the bomb on Hiroshima. Earlier in the book I really felt like I got a feel for Missouri in the early 1900s. A map on the Kindle version would have been good though, and so would some footnotes. Did your copy have good notes? Anyway I am a whole 38% through but going quickly now and with luck I will hit half-way today. Where's his library - Independence or Kansas City?

Hi Cushla, I've not visited for so long. Since catching up is always so difficult I just want to say I think of dropping in often but my time on LT is so short that I usually just visit my starred people who are floating at the top of the page. Yikes, not a good thing but when I signed in this evening, there you were :0) Hope all's well down under.

Hi Lynda, great to talk to you!! And I know exactly what you mean - once my course is finished I will be trying to keep up more.

Dropping by to wave hello.

Hi Cushla-- I am trying to catch up. I have been following your progress in Truman with interest as I have that one sitting around here somewhere. I don't think I will get to it this year but I have an idea of reading books about US Presidents as a category for next year and getting to some of my biographical TBRs.

>231 Carmenere: Also guilty of only paying attention to the threads that are at the very tip top of my screen. I wish I had a better system!

Anne, you know there's a whole US Presidential Challenge group, right? I am a lazy member there - as usualy I joined, got keen, read 1 book then got (happily) sidetracked.

I'm cranking through Truman today - up to 40% and 450 pages now. It's not a 5 star read for me so far but it is a solid 4 to 4 1/2 stars.

Am excited because a few maths job ads are starting to appear for schools I would really like to teach in. (one just appeared 10 minutes ago.) Everyone cross your fingers for me please... it's going to be a very busy few weeks getting 2 applications in as well as the assignments.

Kerry, I missed your wave - sorry and I'm waving back!

Generally, math teachers are in relatively strong demand even in today's market, so I am very optimistic for you.

Id say, Maths teachers are probably pretty thin on the ground these days, its not exactly the easiest subject to teach. Go you Cushla. All you have to watch out for now is Hekia Parata!

Good luck with your applications Cushla!

It's interesting to watch Hekia Parata (and Anne Tolley), they seem to alienate large numbers of teachers so very easily.

Hi Cushla,
just passing by and trying to catch up on all the threads. Again, I am glad that everything went so well for you.
The mini-meet up I had with Nathalie was really lovely, and she was exactly the way I thought she might would be. :)

Good luck with the job search Cushla! I'm glad openings are appearing that you can apply for.

Good luck with the applications ........

Fingers crossed, Cushla! Keep us posted on the job search!

There's a huge demand for both math and science teachers here but any other subject is dicey. Maybe it's the same there in NZ? I'll bet you land a job Cushla. Good luck!

Crossing fingers for your job search now, Cushla! I am sure you'll soon find a great one. Viel Erfolg!!

Thanks for the good luck wishes everyone - actually maths jobs are somewhat thin on the ground too... but it's early days still. (Actually there are maths jobs - it's just that I need to stay in Wellington so I will have fewer choices). But as Bonnie said about the Us market, other fields are worse - I am SO glad I'm not training to be a PE teacher right now!

Am loving reading Truman and am up to page 600. As usual, the first bit of a biography was the slowest. Now McCullough is up to 1947 and the start of the Marshall Plan. As I read it I can't help feel in awe at what the US achieved back then and how different its role is today. (Sorry, soapbox going back under the table before it comes out). And I'm really looking forward to following this up with Postwar soon.

Bianca and Nathalie, I have a German teaching assignment due this week and I'm doing a unit plan on German history since 1945. (I'm not actually teaching it but I am desgning the unit that I would teach.) Well, I will be once I finish the first assignment for another course. I'm pitching it at Year 13 (Grade 12) so the level of German is pretty good. I'm having fun finding lots of original source bits and pieces - Deutsche Welle and the Goethe Institut have got some fantastic resources.

...up to page 600....how many to go then?

Megan - 392!!!! My kindle says it is 992 pages long - but then there are tons of notes pages, so it's saying I am only 51% when I am 600 pages through.

One thing I'm not liking is having the notes buried at the end and not linked to the Kindle text. I'm a footnotes reader usually.

Woah, that is one long book. Imagine how intelligent you will be when you finish it though? :)

I personally, like that the actual novel/books length is defined by what the author has written in the main body. Notes can be taken or left, which is exactly what I do with them!

Just re read your post....so the footnotes arent accessible when youre reading the page that pertains to them? I hate that in book books too, who can be bothered going to the end and finding corresponding numbers! I prefer them at the foot of the page, where they are meant to be. :)

I really like that the pages are the pages in the text - but the percentage is running off the number of book locations, so i tihnk when I finish the book I will be at 86% or so. (Geez I really sound uptight writing this!!!). And the footnotes are accessible but only throught that clunky Kindle thing "go to.... then table of contents, then notes, then page through" - not appealing. I much prefer them at the end of a hard copy of the book or on the same page. I do love the Kindle, and it is so handy reading humongous non-fiction books on it, but the notes thing is a pain. Am thinking of downloading the Robert Caro series on LBJ to it (and getting over my notes complaint) - then I would NEVER be stuck for something to read!

Sending best wishes for the job applications Cushla!

The endnotes is why I tend to avoid reading non-fiction on my kindle (that and the fact that I don't feel like reading non-fiction on my way to and from work) - some books do have proper links to the end notes so you can just click and jump to them but I find it difficult to tell whether or not they'll have this before buying the book.

Hi Cushla,
I hope your German teaching assignment worked out well. Which topics after 1945 did you focus on? Curious me *big smile* . I also wish you good luck with your job applications.

Hi Heather andn Bianca. I am so sick of this week!! I got rid of my Maori education assignment, and German is due tomorrow but I hope to shove that one into the assignment box this morning - I am sick of it!!

Bianca, my unit plan is "greatest hits of German history since 1945" with a focus on the DDR and reunification. Over 4 weeks we would look at the devastation after WW2, the build up to 1949, the airlift and the DDR/BRD, then everyday life in the DDR & the building of the Wall (and the internal border - I think quite a few people probably forget that Berlin was an island!), then the late 80s, the wall coming down and reunification, and a little bit about East-West attitudes now (Ostalgie, proportion of people who haven't been to the "other" side etc). I've stuck in das Leben der Anderen (that takes up 2 lessons right there!) - I haven't actually watched it but will do now that I've read aaaaaaallllll about it. There is some AMAZING material on the Goethe Institut and Deutsche Welle websites and by Year 13 the students' German is getting good enough to understand it. I found the news broadcasts on Youtube from November 9 and 10 1989 and they are moving but unintentionally funny - on the 10th the very serious guy from the 9th couldn't wipe the grin off his face.

Anyway I am going back to my desk to write a listening comprehension exercise and all before 7 am...

I have less than 100 pages to go on Truman - have just finished a few less than scintillating pages about White House renovations - but overall it has been a great read and I have learnt heaps.

New thread coming soon but probably after maths is handed in on Monday.

Hi Cushla, just wanted to say hello.

Shame, I can't go to Frankfurt for the book fair - New Zealand is the guest country there.

Hi Paul! Great to see you on here - and yes it is very cool that NZ is the guest country at Frankfurt. If we'd still been there I would have gone up for it.

I just saw photos on my FB feed of Herbstmesse coming up and felt Basel-sick. We are so happy to be back home but I do miss it often at funny moments. (Including whenever I need to get the bus!!) But tonight we had our first barbeque of summer - it's a stunning calm Wellington day and a gloriously hot 18 degrees...

My German assignment is in, I have 88 pages of Truman to go, and I'm having a night off assignments!

No bookfair for me either...
You might find some interesting information on ww.faz.net in their 'Feuilleton' section. I love the fact that they are still calling it 'Feuilleton' in a time when all the other papers renamed it to 'Kultur'.

Your unit plan is sooooo impressive. I'd like to be one of your students!

Hi cushla,
have a nice evening off assignments. And I find your unit plan very interesting as well and think I would love to be one of your students.
I was in my late teens when the wall came down and remember that it was a very exciting time for all of us in Germany.
Only 88 more pages on Truman? Looking forward to your thoughts on him.

Hi Cushla, I've caught up at last, sorry I got so behind. I'm glad your filmed lesson went well, and that you've managed to get one of your assignments done too - enjoy your night off from all that. I hope the right job comes up for you soon - good luck with the applications that you need to do.

It must be strange remembering your life in Switzerland and being suddenly overtaken with nostalgia, even though you are glad to be home. I do find myself missing Holland occasionally still, although it is 30 years since I stopped living there! It's some of those seasonal celebrations that catch me out especially: I have to have a trip to Aldi or Lidl before Christmas because they have a range of continental seasonal biscuits and celebration foods which (although German rather than Dutch) are nearer to what I grew up with than the stuff in the English supermarkets.

Well done on nearly finishing the Truman biog. That's a McCullough one, isn't it? I fancy reading his John Adams some day - I hadn't come across McCullough until (I think it was) Peggy and Lucy were talking about and reading that biography a couple of years back; then I got hold of the TV adaptation which was very interesting (I knew very little about that period of American history), so I do hope to read the book it was based on one day.

Nathalie and Bianca, if you were here I would have you both in my lesson plans visiting the class! It was exciting even over here and I can't imagine what it was like in Germany.

Genny, the seasonal things are what make me sigh too - I will really miss the Christmas markets and Herbstmesse (the autumn fair) and Fasnacht. Teresa's wall has got lots of pictures of the Fasnacht costumes and she wants us to do it here (perhaps on the front lawn with flutes and drums... hmmm I must not forget that or she will be mad.)

I finished Truman 2 days ago and to celebrate I've started a new thread. It's over here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/143429

I haven't written a review yet but will try to write something before I forget the details. I'm in a reading funk now that it's finally finished!