kidzdoc is cutting down the mountain of unread books in 2012: part 11

Unknown photographer, Cairo and district, Egypt. Street scene, Old Cairo. Little shops and varied types, south of el-Azhar, circa 1934










Currently reading:



Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley
Silence by Shusaku Endo
Out of Place by Edward W. Said

Completed books:

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

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

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

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

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

June:
60. Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable
61. The Patient Survival Guide: 8 Simple Solutions to Prevent Hospital- and Healthcare-Associated Infections by Dr. Maryanne McGuckin
62. Three Strong Women by Marie NDiaye
63. Scenes from Early Life by Philip Hensher (review)
64. The Loss of El Dorado: A Colonial History by V.S. Naipaul (not completed)

July:
65. God's Hotel: A Doctor, a Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine by Victoria Sweet (review)
66. Being Sam Frears: A Life Less Ordinary by Mary Mount (review)
67. Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (review)
68. The Making of Modern Medicine: Turning Points in the Treatment of Disease by Michael Bliss (review)
69. The Earth in the Attic by Fady Joudah
70. Pure by Timothy Mo (review)
71. Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast by Natasha Trethewey (review)
72. My Michael by Amos Oz
73. Popular Hits of the Showa Era by Ryu Murakami (review)
74. Subduction by Todd Shimoda
75. Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me, and Other Poems by Ghassan Zaqtan
76. Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz (review)
77. The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God and Other Stories by Etgar Keret (review)
78. Memoirs of a Porcupine by Alain Mabanckou
79. I Was an Elephant Salesman by Pap Khouma

August:
80. Palace of Desire by Naguib Mahfouz (review)
81. Head Off & Split by Nikky Finney
82. Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil
83. The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle

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

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

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

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

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

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

June:
74. Ride a Cockhorse by Raymond Kennedy (4 June; NYRB Book Club)
75. London Under: The Secret History Beneath the Streets by Peter Ackroyd (26 June; City Lights Books)
76. Divorce Islamic Style by Amara Lakhous (26 June; City Lights Books)
77. Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast by Natasha Trethewey (26 June; City Lights Books)
78. Memoirs of a Porcupine by Alain Mabanckou (26 June; City Lights Books)
79. Is Just a Movie by Earl Lovelace (26 June; City Lights Books)
80. Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me, and Other Poems by Ghassan Zaqtan (26 June; City Lights Books)
81. The Making of Modern Medicine: Turning Points in the Treatment of Disease by Michael Bliss (26 June; City Lights Books)
82. The Dream of the Celt by Mario Vargas Llosa (26 June; City Lights Books)
83. God's Hotel: A Doctor, a Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine by Victoria Sweet (26 June; City Lights Books)
84. The Earth in the Attic by Fady Joudah (26 June; City Lights Books)
85. Massacre River by René Philoctète (28 June; City Lights Books)
86. Manual of Painting and Calligraphy by José Saramago (28 June; City Lights Books)
87. I Was an Elephant Salesman by Pap Khouma (28 June; City Lights Books)
88. I Am a Japanese Writer by Dany Laferrière (28 June; City Lights Books)
89. Jim and Jap Crow: A Cultural History of 1940s Interracial America by Matthew M. Briones (28 June; City Lights Books)
90. McTeague by Frank Norris (30 June; free Kindle e-book)
91. Being Sam Frears: A Life Less Ordinary by Mary Mount (30 June; Penguin eSpecial)

July:
92. Head Off & Split by Nikky Finney (2 July; Books Inc.)
93. Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith (2 July; Books Inc.)
94. The Moon, Come to Earth: Dispatches from Lisbon by Philip Graham (2 July; University of Chicago Press free e-book)
95. Confessions of a Young Novelist by Umberto Eco (4 July; City Lights Books)
96. Missing Soluch by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi (4 July; City Lights Books)
97. Why Niebuhr Matters by Charles Lemert (4 July; City Lights Books)
98. Globalectics by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (4 July; City Lights Books)
99. Black in Latin America by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (4 July; City Lights Books)
100. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander (6 July; Kindle download)
101. Always in Trouble: An Oral History of ESP-Disk', the Most Outrageous Record Label in America by Jason Weiss (6 July; City Lights Books)
102. Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror, and Deliverance in the City of Love by David Talbot (6 July; City Lights Books)
103. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo (6 July; City Lights Books)
104. Inside by Alix Ohlin (6 July; City Lights Books)
105. The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova (8 July; Kindle download)
106. Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol (9 July; NYRB Book Club)
107. Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil (25 July; Kindle download)
108. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce (25 July; Kindle download)
109. Skios by Michael Frayn (25 July; Kindle download)
110. Religio Medici and Urne-Buriall by Sir Thomas Browne (31 July; NYRB Book Club)

August:
111. The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle (7 August; LTER book)
112. Wheel with a Single Spoke and Other Poems by Nichita Stănescu (8 August; Archipelago Books subscription)
113. Prehistoric Times by Eric Chevillard (8 August; Archipelago Books subscription)

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

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

Books purchased in 2012:

1. The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq √
2. Fragile Beginnings: Discoveries and Triumphs in the Newborn ICU by Adam Wolfberg, MD √
3. The Irish Americans: A History by Jay P. Dolan
4. The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God and Other Stories by Etgar Keret √
5. The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright √
6. Suffer the Children: Flaws, Foibles, Fallacies and the Grave Shortcomings of Pediatric Care by Peter Palmieri √
7. The King of Kahel by Tierno Monénembo
8. The Secret Piano: From Mao's Labor Camps to Bach's Goldberg Variations by Zhu Xiao-Mei
9. The Greenhouse by Audur Ava Olafsdottir
10. Thirst by Andrei Gelasimov √
11. Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick √
12. Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding √
13. Three Strong Women by Marie NDiaye √
14. Foreign Studies by Shusaku Endo
15. The Enormity of the Tragedy by Quim Monzó
16. Hitch-22 by Christopher Hitchens
17. The Coward's Tale by Vanessa Gebbie
18. Trapeze by Simon Mawer
19. HHhH by Laurent Binet
20. The Undertaker's Daughter by Toi Derricotte √
21. What Is Amazing by Heather Christle √
22. Scenes from Early Life by Philip Hensler √
23. Pure by Timothy Mo √
24. Capital by John Lanchester
25. The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro
26. Our Lady of Alice Bhatti by Mohammed Hanif
27. Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel √
28. London Under: The Secret History Beneath the Streets by Peter Ackroyd
29. Divorce Islamic Style by Amara Lakhous
30. Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast by Natasha Trethewey √
31. Memoirs of a Porcupine by Alain Mabanckou √
32. Is Just a Movie by Earl Lovelace
33. Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me, and Other Poems by Ghassan Zaqtan √
34. The Making of Modern Medicine: Turning Points in the Treatment of Disease by Michael Bliss √
35. The Dream of the Celt by Mario Vargas Llosa
36.. God's Hotel: A Doctor, a Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine by Victoria Sweet √
37. The Earth in the Attic by Fady Joudah √
38. Massacre River by René Philoctète
39. Manual of Painting and Calligraphy by José Saramago
40. I Was an Elephant Salesman by Pap Khouma √
41. I Am a Japanese Writer by Dany Laferrière
42. Jim and Jap Crow: A Cultural History of 1940s Interracial America by Matthew M. Briones
43. Being Sam Frears: A Life Less Ordinary by Mary Mount √
44. Head Off & Split by Nikky Finney
45. Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith
46. Confessions of a Young Novelist by Umberto Eco
47. Missing Soluch by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi
48. Why Niebuhr Matters by Charles Lemert
49. Globalectics by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
50. Black in Latin America by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
51. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
52. Always in Trouble: An Oral History of ESP-Disk', the Most Outrageous Record Label in America by Jason Weiss
53. Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror, and Deliverance in the City of Love by David Talbot
54. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo
55. Inside by Alix Ohlin
56. The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova
57. Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil
58. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
59. Skios by Michael Frayn
60. The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
61. The Yips by Nicola Barker
62. The Teleportation Accident by Ned Bauman
63. Swimming Home by Deborah Levy

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

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

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

May:
5. The Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedusa

July:
6. Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz

August:
7. Palace of Desire by Naguib Mahfouz

Planned reads for July:

Being Sam Frears: A Life Less Ordinary by Mary Mount - completed
Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast by Natasha Trethewey - completed
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel - completed
The Coward's Tale by Vanessa Gebbie
The Earth in the Attic by Fady Joudah - completed
God's Hotel: A Doctor, a Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine by Victoria Sweet - completed
Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me, and Other Poems by Ghassan Zaqtan - completed
The Making of Modern Medicine: Turning Points in the Treatment of Disease by Michael Bliss - completed
My Michael by Amos Oz - completed
Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz - completed
Popular Hits of the Showa Era by Ryu Murakami - completed
Pure by Timothy Mo - completed
The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer
Subduction by Todd Shimoda - completed
To the End of the Land by David Grossman
The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God and Other Stories by Etgar Keret - completed

Doves by Mahmoud Darwish

A flight of doves scatters suddenly from a break in the smoke, shining like a gleam of heavenly peace, circling between the grey and the fragments of blue above a city of rubble and reminding us that beauty still exists and that non-existence is not making complete fools of us since it promises us, or so we like to think, a revelation of how it is different from nothingness. In war none of us feels that he is dead if he feels pain. Death pre-empts pain, pain is the one blessing in war. It moves from quarter to quarter bringing a stay of execution. And if someone is befriended by luck he forgets his long-term plans and waits for the non-existent which already exists circling in a flight of doves. I see many doves in the skies of Lebanon playing with the smoke which rises from the nothingness.

- from A River Dies of Thirst: Journals, published by Archipelago Books

I chose the Cairene street scene because I'm currently reading Palace Walk, the first novel in The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz, whose main characters live on a busy street in Cairo in the early 20th century. I had hoped to finish it this weekend, but it will probably take me until mid week to do so.

Darryl, I aced the pop quiz despite the FOX News brainwashing I get in my house on a daily basis. Now I'm off to read a bit more in Palace Walk which is definitely not set in Nebraska. ;-)

Well, I'm here...so I guess that's proof that I passed the quiz, right?

>7 Donna828: Welcome, Donna! I'm not sure which is worse, brainwashing by Fox News or brainwashing by CNN.

>8 laytonwoman3rd: Welcome, Linda! The last quiz was rendered null and void thanks to the posting of answers by a certain someone. There will be a much more difficult makeup quiz as a result.

Ssssh! Don't tell Darryl I'm here!

*quietly tiptoes away...*

Eagerly awaiting the more difficult quiz so I can redeem myself after you questioned my integrity on your previous thread! No sports questions, please!

Congratulations on the new thread mate and for the stylish completion of 75 already. Sure I did ok in your end of thread quiz but I'm not telling as I would go ga-ga on chick lit otherwise.

>10 SqueakyChu: Have you started reading Fifty Shades Ms Chu?

>11 rebeccanyc: Sorry, Rebecca. There will almost certainly be at least one sports related question in the new quiz.

Speaking of sports, I was pleased to learn that the statue of Joe Paterno, the late head football coach at Penn State, was removed from the front of Beaver Stadium early this morning, as a result of his central role in protecting his former assistant coach and convicted pedophile Jerry Sandusky for nearly 14 years, per the recently released Freeh Report. Tomorrow morning the NCAA, the governing body of intercollegiate athletics in the US, will announce what punishment it will inflict on Penn State's football program. According to news reports, the NCAA won't administer the so called "death penalty" and shut down the program for one year or more, but sources indicate that the punishment will be "severe", "unprecented" and "devastating", so much so that it may be worse than the "death penalty" itself. I am heartened that the NCAA is taking this apparent stance against State, as it seems to be that its fans, students, alumni and administration, along with the Paterno family, still doesn't get it, and is more interested in protecting the legacy of Joe Paterno and the image of the football team and the university rather than accepting blame for the culture that permitted these unbelievable crimes to occur. There certainly was a "lack of institutional control" at the highest level at Penn State, and it would be criminal and immoral, IMO, if the football team, the athletic department and the university weren't punished severely and definitively.

>12 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. I'm about 15-20 books behind my pace of last year, and I'm not sure that I'll reach my goal of 150 books this year, but I should be able to reach 125 books without much difficulty.

The pop quiz was a fun early morning treat for me, I'm sure I passed so here I am enjoying your new thread. I need to start Palace Walk this week.

#9. Awww....come on. I never saw those answers. They had been deleted before I popped in. Isn't there some sort of honor system around here? Don't you have to take my word for it (and Rebecca's, while we're at it?)

Hi darryl! Missed the quiz, so off to check it out now.
Great top pic, love the framing of it. I have a whole load of contact sheets from my dads old family photos of us, they look great framed with the border showing.

eta: thank goodness I passed the quiz, I must have known I was going to otherwise I wouldnt have been able to post on the new thread would I? No chick lit boobie-prize for me!

Also, there is much talk here of NZ author Emily Perkins being up for a Booker nomination for her novel The Forrests. I'm looking forward to the list being announced to see if it comes to fruition. Exciting!

13> I agree with your Penn State comments, Darryl. Administration removed the Paterno statue solely because it had become "a point of controversy"--in other words, they want people to stop talking about the scandal. I'm sure his family feels that he was "persecuted" by the press and that it accelelerated his terminal cancer. I can't imagine what penalty would be worse than shutting them down for a year. (Probably a big fine, since money talks so loudly.) We'll see.

Love the photo at the top. I have The Cairo Trilogy in a box around here somewhere, but with only a month left to the summer, I'm not about to get that ambitious. It's one that I probably won't get to before retiring.

#15 Thank you, Linda, for sticking up for my honor in the face of Darryl's scurrilous insinuations!

Picked up my copy of Palace Walk at the library today. Holding on to it while I finish Wolf Hall (pant) and read Behind the Beautiful Forevers, the latter of which will be due soon, but happy to have it in my possession for the Middle East read.

Did you really find Rainier Cherries?

ETA: Just checked in on my own thread (duh) and noted that you DID get some Rainer cherries! I'm pleased that you're enjoying them and confirm that, yes, probably the local-ness of those I get makes them just that much better, but still ---- I'm glad to have you join in on the pleasure.

I laughed my way through that pop quiz, did not see anyone else's answers, got most of it right, and will happily stand surety for Rebecca.
*Bronx cheer*

I too managed to get all the questions right after Madeline deleted her answers. You're going to have to come up with some harder questions Darryl, I'm afraid. Excellent review of Beyond Katrina, which has somehow jumped onto my teetering tower.

I can't imagine what kind of sanctions the NCAA will come up with for Penn State but whatevenr they are, they probably won't be enough, IMO.

> 13 Have you started reading Fifty Shades Ms Chu?

Er...no. I have 400+ other TBR books to read first. :)

after you submit a 25 page report about the Fifty Shades trilogy

There's a trilogy?!?! What is it called? 150 Shades of Grey? Please say it isn't so ....

>14 avatiakh: I've about halfway through Palace Walk, and I'm enjoying it far more than I did the first time I read it, apparently in 2005. I don't remember many of the finer details of the novel, and I didn't appreciate how sublime Mahfouz's writing is.

>15 laytonwoman3rd: You're right, Linda. I'll have to adopt the honor system, and allow anyone who said that they passed the pop quiz to participate in the new thread. Madeline did answer all five questions correctly, so I'll exempt her from the 25 page book report on the Fifty Shades trilogy.

>16 LovingLit: Right, Megan. I also love the framing of that photograph, and the street scene is a perfect visual image for the setting of Palace Walk.

>17 Cariola: Administration removed the Paterno statue solely because it had become "a point of controversy"--in other words, they want people to stop talking about the scandal. I'm sure his family feels that he was "persecuted" by the press and that it accelelerated his terminal cancer. I can't imagine what penalty would be worse than shutting them down for a year. (Probably a big fine, since money talks so loudly.) We'll see.

The president of the NCAA will announce the sanctions he will take against Penn State at 9 am EDT tomorrow. I've been following this story throughout the day, and some details have been leaked. Apparently Penn State will receive a fine of 30-60 million dollars, which will be used to fund an endowment for "children's causes", lose a substantial number of football scholarships, and will be banned from participating in postseason bowl games for several years. One source indicated that the sanctions are so severe and long lasting that a one year "death penalty", which would have shut down the football program this year, would have been preferable. The Big 10 conference is reportedly deciding whether it wants to expel Penn State, which would be extremely damaging, and the upcoming lawsuits by the victims will almost certainly cost State tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.

As an "ex"-Pennsylvania resident (I still think of myself as a Pennsylvanian, although I've resided in Georgia for the past 15 years) I continue to be appalled and emotionally upset by the scandal, and I want to see State punished as severely as possible. I had a great deal of respect for Joe Paterno and the Penn State football program, even though I didn't attend the school and didn't engage in the hero worship of the man, but the efforts of the Paterno family and the Penn State community to protect JoePa's legacy and the integrity of the university is deeply offensive to me as a person and as a pediatrician who frequently takes care of abused kids. I would feel just as strongly, and probably more so due to personal embarrassment, if this had happened at Rutgers or Pitt, my undergraduate and medical school alma maters.

>18 rebeccanyc: LOL! You are back in good standing, Rebecca!

>19 EBT1002: I'm glad that you were able to get Palace Walk today, Ellen. I look forward to your comments about it.

I went to Publix this morning with Rainier cherries in mind, as I remembered your suspicion that I might have a difficult time finding them in Atlanta. I was amused to see that they were on display near the front entrance, as they are on sale this week ($5.99/lb, buy one get one free). A couple of the people in this group probably shop at Publix, definitely Jill and possibly Ardene and several others who live in Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina.

>20 tiffin: I submit full apologies to Rebecca and Madeline for dragging their formerly good names in the mud. ;-)

>21 brenzi: You're going to have to come up with some harder questions Darryl, I'm afraid.

I could make everyone memorize the Krebs (citric acid) cycle, which I had to do in Biochemistry class and in medical school:



Better yet, I could have you guys point out the different neural tracts in the spinal cord, a particularly painful task that made me consider quitting medical school:



Oof, never mind. I'm having a panic attack from looking at that last diagram.

>22 SqueakyChu: I have 400+ other TBR books to read first. :)

I think I have 400,000 TBR books that are ahead of the Fifty Shades trilogy.

>23 avidmom: Oh yes; Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed are the three books in the trilogy, which rank first, second and third on this week's New York Times fiction best seller list. The entire trilogy ranks ninth on the list.

Wait...Nebraska is in the Middle East, not the Middle West...? And Walt Whitman is ALIVE and you're just now telling me?!

Darryl...I thought we were friends...*snivel*

#25 >23 avidmom: Oh yes; Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed are the three books in the trilogy, which rank first, second and third on this week's New York Times fiction best seller list. The entire trilogy ranks ninth on the list.

The horror. The horror.

I am going to go back and stick my head in the proverbial sand and pretend I didn't see that.
Ah, yes, I feel much better now :)

> 24

Madeline did answer all five questions correctly, so I'll exempt her from the 25 page book report on the Fifty Shades trilogy.

*suddenly revives from her faint and takes an avid interest in Darryl's new thread*

>25 kidzdoc: Ooo, Ooo, I could pass that quiz too! I have memorized the Krebs cycle AND I used to work in a spinal cord lab! I could do it! :D

Well, there'd probably be some rememorization...yick. never mind.

>24 kidzdoc: & >17 Cariola:....I'm a cynic and think the only reason they picked a Sunday morning was to get the statue down before the NCAA Monday AM announcement. Really...who does construction on Sunday AM and pays the overtime on something like that?

Heard an NPR newscast about how the local economy will be affected by sanctions to the football program....T-shirt and memorabilia, food, and of course liquor vendors. Ripple effects.

I've lived in Mi. 35 years....but am still a Pennsylvanian at heart (and still prefer Pitt to Penn State!!)

I've been off doing all kinds of stuff this weekend and haven't see LT for days. Apparently I missed quite the debacle with a quiz and cheating scandal to boot, huh?!? ;-)

OMG The Krebs Cycle! That sure brings back terrible memories of college. I can actually visualize myself in the library staring at it and trying to memorize it. Ugh!

And I'm glad you've restored my good name!

Note to self: if you ever write a trilogy, do not name it The Krebs Cycle because no one will read it.

#33 A perfectly good name spoiled!

>34 laytonwoman3rd:....wow, that goes back a long way!!

#35 Yeah, well...so do I! ;>)

>36 laytonwoman3rd: me too...how else would I have known as soon as I saw the photo....and immediately remembered that "the G. is silent."

#25 I could make everyone memorize the Krebs (citric acid) cycle. Thirty years ago I could have taken you up on that as well as I remember having to learn it in detail for a Biochemistry exam as well. Now I can't even remember what it was for.

There's a guy on Youtube who's become a popular lecturer, named Khan, and his lecture on the Kreb cycle has had more than 675,000 hits.

Why did I have to learn the Krebs cycle in high school biology if everyone else didn't do it until college??? *sulk sulk*

Just to tell you not to buy Life and Death at Bellevue Hospital as i purloined a spare ARC which I'll be sending you.

Can't you find something a little easier for us to memorize if you're passing out new quizzes, Darryl? The spinal tracts made my eyes go blurry.

THE KREBS CYCLE!!!!

{runs screaming in horror from Darryl's thread while suffering flashbacks}

The Kreb Cycle Song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-k0biO1DT8

>43 avidmom: Ha! My favorite part is the unicorn!

But I have to admit, I still like The PCR Song the best.

Uch - we did a quick once-over of both of those terrible things when I was in massage school. That was plenty. I did pass your latest quiz with flying colors (w/o cheating), and after having just finished the Fifty Shades Trilogy I can sum up the whole thing in one word - bleurgh! Fairly certain I lost a decent amount of brain cells, but am hoping to reinstate a few of them by reviewing my A&P book this week.

>44 The_Hibernator: The PCR Song is hysterical! Where'd they find all those people? LOL!

Re > 45

Er, Darryl...I now don't have to read the Fifty Shades trilogy at all...ever! LauraBrook did it for me. If you insist on a 25-page review, I'm sure she'll be happy to comply! :)

25-word review of the 50 Shades trilogy, courtesy of sweetienubbins:

Yuck ick ptui stinky bad puke barf retch hurl gag purulent (must say that one surprised me) septic cystic unclean leprous pox-ridden snottified (I don't know what that one means) suppurating unpopped pustule on the buttocks of literature.

>46 avidmom: BioRad probably hired professionals. They have the money. I LOVE the moment when that guy kisses the thermocycler and then bursts into passionate song. Makes me smile every time.

The Krebs Cycle. Never memorized it, never will. Knowing that you have done so, I now have even more respect for you, Darryl! That's exactly the sort of thing that sent me right back into Liberal Arts. Double major? Yes. But: Psychology and Sociology. Cake.

And I appreciate and agree with your comments re: Penn State and sanctions. As a Psychologist working on a college campus, I join you in the depth with which the pain resonates. I know there are some innocents getting hurt along the way (e.g., my counterpart there, who has been devastated by this), but the innocents hurt by the actions and inaction of members of that athletic department and university administration deserve severe punishment.

Only one more day of waiting........... Exciting

>26 richardderus: I've been informed that Nebraska is not a country; it's a province in Canada. And, I forgot that Walt Whitman died last month. Sorry for the misinformation.

>27 avidmom: This is why I don't pay attention to the NYT bestseller lists anymore. It's rare that more than one or two of the listed books are ones that I've read or had an interest in reading.

>28 SqueakyChu: Madeline is on academic probation, so any further episodes of impropriety will be severely punished.

>29 The_Hibernator: I had to memorize the Krebs cycle at least twice, so I think I could learn it again without much problem. I learned the spinal tracts just enough to barely pass the Neurosciences course in medical school.

>30 tangledthread: I'm a cynic and think the only reason they picked a Sunday morning was to get the statue down before the NCAA Monday AM announcement.

I think that's right, although the Penn State president did sign off on the NCAA sanctions before they were announced on Monday. The football program has been all but eviscerated, and it will be many years before it becomes a national powerhouse again, if it ever does. Penn State probably would have been better off it had received the "death penalty" for a year or two.

Oof. I can barely keep my eyes open, after a busy and long two days on service in the hospital. I'll catch up on other threads tomorrow.

The 2012 Booker Prize longlist will be announced within the next few hours! I'll probably be seeing patients when the longlist is announced, but I'll try to post it here during my lunch break.

> 52

Madeline is on academic probation, so any further episodes of impropriety will be severely punished

What?!!!!!!!

...and my punishment will be...?

*grumble*

That's what I get for answering the questions correctly and sharing my knowledge with all my dear friends here on Darryl's thread!!

#54 My teachers used to take a dim view of sharing the correct answers on a quiz with close friends, too!

Darryl, I just came across this tweet from blogger dovegreyreader:
We are all poised for long list debate over at mookseandgripes.myfreeforum.org/index.php now that the @ManBookerPrize forum has vanished

"mookesandgripes" is another blogger I recognize, who follows a lot of prizes. Anyway, since you were lamenting the demise of the forum I thought you might want to pay a visit.

*in deep despair*

I had been merely...enthusiastic. No cheating intended.

:(

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

There was an old (wo)man whose despair
Induced him her to purchase a hare:
Whereon one fine day,
(S)he rode wholly away,
Which partly assuaged his her despair.

~ Apologies to Edward Lear

Hi Darryl. Apologies for having fallen behind here - well, everywhere. Pesky life intrusions have had me out of commission, but I'm catching up!

I have been reading Like A Straw Bird It Follows Me and agree with your characterization of it as being a bit inscrutable, although I am enjoying it nonetheless. I had a somewhat similar response to my first reading of The Earth in the Attic. I think a full understanding of these poets may require a closer sense of the Palestinian experience. I am going to spend some more time with both, and maybe wait for their Writers Institute visit, before attempting my reviews. I would also like to do some more reading from the Palestinian perspective in general.

I am looking forward to your review of Subduction. It is one that I had requested through ER, but won something else instead.

#57 It is all Darryl's fault! Did he tell us not to post answers? Didn't he trust us to figure out our own answers without looking to see what anyone else had posted? Did he warn us that he and he alone would decide what "cheating" is and mete out draconian punishments? These are not trick questions. Nor are they difficult. The answer to each and every one is NO. NO! NO! NO!

Ergo, Darryl is toying with us. I won't suggest we boycott his thread because I know that would be a futile suggestion, but perhaps he ought to consider treating us, his loyal thread readers and posters, the ones who have gotten him up to his 11th thread, with more respect!

Oh boy, can't wait to see Darryl's reaction to The Longlist (not a one of which I've read).

I'm astonished that Rachel Joyce's novel is on that list -- it's pleasant enough, but very lightweight, IMO. (I don't intend to keep my copy or re-read it...)

Delighted to see Mantel, and Brink, although I haven't read that book. I do have Skios here, got it from ER, so should leap into that one.

ETA: Interesting to see that two aren't even out in the UK -- the Brink novel and Will Self's book.

Ha! I checked about an hour ago and there were only 6 books up. I thought that was a really short longlist. This is more like it...I've read Bring up the Bodies, but that's it.

Hmmm . . . Looks like I've got a lot of reading to do. I, also, have read only Bring Up the Bodies. I have requested Umbrella and The Yipps based on some of the speculation lists. I'll be busily typing on my library's website today . . .

It looks like only 4 of them are currently available in the US...

Yes, -- Mantel, Frayn, Rachel Joyce and Narcopolis. Two others are still unpublished, so the judges must have read galleys. Some can be ordered from Amazon in the US via third party sellers.

I've only read the Frayn novel Skios.

Darryl, am looking forward to hearing what you think too. I just pre-ordered the Andre Brink novel from Book Depository - it's out in 43 days. The only one I've read is BUTB.

Laura, thanks for the link to the forum - I can see myself spending a bit of time lurking there...

I've only read Narcopolis, very good but flawed and not quite Booker material, in my opinion. Have the Mantel but haven't read it yet.

If you study the judges historical fiction is likely to win out. I hope Brink of course but I think that Mantel might be a shoe in for victory. I have read a few of Will Self's work and find them incomprehensible.

I suspected the Rachel Joyce novel was something along the lines of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand but I haven't read it yet so maybe I'm mistaken. I've requested the only two available here which is the Joyce book and the Frayn book. I hope Mantel IS a shoe-in! What could be better?

Yes, agree with Paul, I tried Self's The Book of Dave and gave up after a few pages, though I have to say he did write a great intro to my edition of Riddley Walker.
Skios is a farce and I found it quite light, a bit silly even.

Wow! This year's Booker Dozen is a very surprising one, although it's an exciting and promising one IMO. Several heavy hitters were left off of this year's longlist, such as Ian McEwan (Sweet Tooth), Zadie Smith (NW), Martin Amis (Lionel Asbo), John Banville (Ancient Light), and Howard Jacobson (Zoo Time).

Here's the longlist:

Nicola Barker, The Yips
Ned Beauman, The Teleportation Accident
André Brink, Philida
Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists
Michael Frayn, Skios
Rachel Joyce, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
Deborah Levy, Swimming Home
Hilary Mantel, Bring up the Bodies
Alison Moore, The Lighthouse
Will Self, Umbrella
Jeet Thayil, Narcopolis
Sam Thompson, Communion Town

I'm glad that Bring Up the Bodies made the cut, although I would have liked to have seen Scenes from Early Life by Philip Hensher make the cut. I'm not terribly disappointed that the novels by McEwan, Zadie Smith, Amis, Banville and Jacobson didn't make the cut, as I'll buy and read all of them. I'm excited that the new novels by Barker, Eng and Brink made the cut, and several other books look very interesting.

The chair of judges, Peter Stothard, who is the editor of the Times Literary Supplement, said that "Who published a book, and indeed even the author, is of very little concern to Man Booker judges. We were considering novels not novelists, texts not reputations."

Here's an additional excerpt from the Guardian article Booker prize 2012: new guard edges out old in wide-ranging longlist

Stothard said that the key criteria for this year's judges was that "a text has to reveal more, the more often you read it". "We were looking for books that you can make a sustained critical argument about, and when you read them again, you can make a different critical argument – not for books you can just say 'wow, I enjoyed it', or 'wow, that was terrible'." he said.

"Some novels by well-known authors passed the Man Booker test as to whether or not they repay rereading – there are a few well-established names there, Frayn, Barker, Mantel. But there are also books by very fine writers who didn't pass that test, or who came up shorter than those who did."

I trust Stothard and the current group of judges to select a far more challenging and rewarding longlist than last year's lot, and I'm eager to get to work on this list. Interestingly, only 12 books were chosen for the longlist, instead of the usual 13 Booker Dozen, for the first time since 2005, when only 11 books were chosen for the longlist.

Four books are currently available in the US: Skios, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Bring Up the Bodies, and Narcopolis. I already own and have read Bring Up the Bodies, and I downloaded the other three to my Kindle today. I've also ordered The Yips, The Teleportation Accident, The Garden of Evening Mists and Swimming Home. I'll pick up the other four books when I go to London in September.

My initial impression is a big thumbs up to this year's crop of judges, for not playing it safe by selecting novels by the big name authors, and instead choosing books by lesser known authors and critically acclaimed ones that they felt were more rewarding.

>31 TinaV95: Tina, I think it's fair to label this as the Great LibraryThing Cheating Scandal. Madeline and Rebecca have been summoned to appear before our Great Leader, Tim Spalding, to account for their activity.

>32 rebeccanyc: Umm...I think I've just sullied your good name, Rebecca. Tim will be the ultimate judge of your purity, though.

I spent many hours drawing dozens and dozens of Krebs cycle pathways for my undergraduate Biochemistry class, until I could practically do it in my sleep. That made it much easier to remember it during medical school, and I would bet it wouldn't be that hard for me to memorize it again (thanks to my presumably still intact neural pathways). The spinal tracts are another matter altogether...

>33 tiffin: Note to self: if you ever write a trilogy, do not name it The Krebs Cycle because no one will read it.

Rachel might read it, and so might I. ;-)

>34 laytonwoman3rd:-37 Well done, Linda! I recognized that photo of Bob Denver, of Gilligan's Island fame, as the beatnik from the early 1960s TV program The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, which I saw in reruns on TV Land a couple of times. I didn't know that the name of his character was Maynard G. Krebs, but I do seem to remember his comment that "the G is silent".

>38 SandDune: I'm surprised by the number of people who studied biochemistry in college. I expected that Rachel would have, but I didn't expect that anyone else did.

>39 jnwelch: There's a guy on Youtube who's become a popular lecturer, named Khan, and his lecture on the Kreb cycle has had more than 675,000 hits.

Thanks, Joe. I'll definitely look at that video this weekend! Here's the link to that video:

Krebs / Citric Acid Cycle

I'm amazed that this video has nearly 700,000 hits!

Now that this video is available I think the next pop quiz should include questions about the Krebs cycle.

>40 Chatterbox: That's impressive, Suz. I took AP Biology in high school, and I'm certain that we didn't have to learn the Krebs cycle.

TYIA for Life and Death at Bellevue Hospital! I worked at NYU Medical Center before I went to medical school, and I passed by "Old Bellevue" practically every day going to and from work, on the corner of 1st Ave & 30th St.

> 73

I think it's fair to label this as the Great LibraryThing Cheating Scandal. Madeline and Rebecca have been summoned to appear before our Great Leader, Tim Spalding, to account for their activity.

Oh, no! If I don't behave, Tim might take away my wiki privileges...and there go the TIOLI challenges! :(

I like the idea of this being a list of works, rather than a list of authors. Still, I'm a bit bemused by Rachel Joyce's inclusion. Oddly Bonnie, I compared the book directly to Major Pettigrew on my blog last Friday!!

I've got a hold on Narcopolis from the library; there are one or two others that I might read, but I really don't have a large book budget right now. I'm most inclined to seek out the Andre Brink novel, and the Eng book.

I also like Stothard's comment about believing these will be books that people will want to bring BACK from the beach.

I'm amazed that this video has nearly 700,000 hits!
More KhanAcademy! I know it so well. It was assigned by my kids' math teachers over and over throughout the last school year. It was a great help to me on our "home study" days twice a week when I got to be teacher :)

>74 SqueakyChu: Aren't those involved in the Great LibraryThing Cheating Scandal entitled to some type of legal representation? I mean I wouldn't want to stand before our Great Leader undefended.

>41 cameling: Can't you find something a little easier for us to memorize if you're passing out new quizzes, Darryl? The spinal tracts made my eyes go blurry.

This is all Bonnie's fault ("You're going to have to come up with some harder questions Darryl, I'm afraid."). What if we studied the cranial nerves instead? That's a piece of cake compared to the spinal tracts:



I'm convinced that a significant portion of my brain melted when I tried to learn the spinal tracts.

>42 lyzard: runs screaming in horror from Darryl's thread while suffering flashbacks

Sorry, Liz!

>43 avidmom: Ha! Why couldn't the Krebs Cycle song have been available when I was an undergrad?

>44 The_Hibernator: LOL! I love the PCR Song!!! "When you want to know who's your daddy" - ROTFL! Absolutely amazing!

>45 LauraBrook: Thanks for that one word review of the Fifty Shades trilogy, Laura. It's fair to say that you took one for the team by reading all three books. You'd have to pay me awfully well to read one of those books, nonetheless the entire trilogy.

Here's an article from the Guardian about the inexplicable Fifty Shades phenomenon:
Why women love Fifty Shades of Grey

>46 avidmom: The PCR Song is hysterical! Where'd they find all those people? LOL!

Agreed!

>47 SqueakyChu: Madeline, the main reason I took you off of the hook for writing a 25 page book report about the Fifty Shades trilogy is that I didn't want to read more than a one word summary of the series. Laura's "review" was sufficient for me.

>48 richardderus: Thanks for that thoughtful review, Richard. ;-)

>49 The_Hibernator: I LOVE the moment when that guy kisses the thermocycler and then bursts into passionate song. Makes me smile every time.

Definitely!

BTW, for those of you who are wondering what the &$%! we're talking about, PCR is shorthand for polymerase chain reaction, a technique which amplifies DNA or RNA, the genetic material within cells, including viruses and bacteria, so that they can be detected from samples such as blood, urine or cerebrospinal fluid rapidly and accurately. It's become a standard and valued technique in hospitals, to quickly diagnose illnesses such as pertussis (or whooping cough), enterovirus meningitis (the most common cause of viral meningitis, and the most common cause of infectious meningitis), respiratory viruses such as influenza and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), herpes simplex virus (HSV) and others. My partners and I use these tests routinely, as they have become invaluable to the management of many of our patients.

Yep, I think there is plenty of material here for an end of thread quiz: Krebs cycle, PCR, spinal tracts, cranial nerves, and the Booker Prize longlist.

>50 EBT1002: Double major? Yes. But: Psychology and Sociology. Cake.

I majored in Microbiology, and took an minor in Philosophy as an undergraduate. I had a far easier time with courses in my major than those in my minor.

> 76

Aren't those involved in the Great LibraryThing Cheating Scandal entitled to some type of legal representation?

My daughter's in law school. I'd better check with her before I do anything drastic*!

*such as meeting up with the Great and Powerful Oz Tim again...

ETA: I refuse to be tested on the Kreb's Cycle or on the Cranial Nerves. As a matter fo fact, I don't want to be tested on ICD-9 or ICD-10 coding, either!

As a matter fo fact, I don't want to be tested on ICD-9 or ICD-10 coding, either!

That's the only part of the quiz I could pass :(

>77 kidzdoc: I'm convinced that a significant portion of my brain melted when I tried to learn the spinal tracts I'm convinced that a significant portion of my brain melted just from looking at that diagram.

I refuse to take responsibility for that monstrosity Darryl.

If we're testing on spinal nerves, I could totally pass that. Well, assuming I had a few minutes to refresh my brain, that is.

Thanks for the Guardian article link - it made me laugh out loud! I still have to fake excitement over the books with one of my best friends - I don't care WHAT she reads as long as she's reading. And hopefully she'll keep at it until she can graduate to other books in other genres. I'm not holding my breath for this to happen, but it would be a nice change from hearing about how awesome the latest episode of Hollywood Exes was. *sigh*

> 79

As a matter fo fact, I don't want to be tested on ICD-9 or ICD-10 coding, either!

That's the only part of the quiz I could pass :(

Well, I did pass the test this year, but that doesn't mean I want to take it again! :)

>82 SqueakyChu: Well, I did pass the test this year, but that doesn't mean I want to take it again!

I HEAR THAT!!!!

By the way, congrats! :)

As difficult as it is for me to keep up with the reading I want to do anyway, I have to admit that this years Booker Dozen is especially intriguing. I'm tempted to establish a challenge for myself to read all of them by, say, the end of the calendar year....

I love that you minored in Philosophy, by the way. I took only a couple of Philosophy courses at my small liberal arts college. They were among the most challenging and most satisfying of all the courses I took. The department had only one professor at the time, but he was a good one.

Hi Darryl - I'm ready to get started on my Booker reading! I ordered a couple from Amazon UK last night and reserved three from my library. I'll probably hold off on Bring Up the Bodies as I haven't read Wolf Hall yet...unless I somehow read Wolf Hall this year. We'll see, I suppose.

You seem enthusiastic about the Nicola Barker. At first glance, the subject matter doesn't intrigue me and I was going to leave that one out, but I may read some reviews to see if I've made a bad decision.

I love Stothard's criteria for the Booker as novels that repay rereading. I have not read anything on the long-list yet, but it will be interesting to see how these titles hold up under that standard. There are many great books that I have read that I have no desire to read again, while others seem to just stick with you until you do.

I think it's fair to label this as the Great LibraryThing Cheating Scandal. Madeline and Rebecca have been summoned to appear before our Great Leader, Tim Spalding, to account for their activity.

Oh, there is so much I could say here, on so many interesting topics, but as long as my honor is being impugned, I will be silent on your thread, Darryl.

I am a big proponent of rereading books. I just wish I had the time to do more of it. I loved Bring Up the Bodies and suspect that I have already read this year's Booker winner! I have the other three books available in the U. S. on reserve at the library. Darryl, your trip to England is coming at the right time to snag some more Booker longlist books. Maybe you planned it that way?

Hi Daryl.....way back on the last thread you asked about Victoria Sweet's book on Hildegard of Bingen book Rooted in the Earth, Rooted in the Sky. While reading it, I kept thinking that it sounded like a defense for an academic thesis on medieval medicine. Lo and behold...that is what it is: http://www.victoriasweet.com/other-work/hildegard-of-bingen-and-the-greening-of-...

She begins the book/thesis by noting that western medicine virtually wiped out the culture of traditional medicine at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Yet in Asia and India, there are still practitioners of traditional medicine of those cultures practicing alongside modern medicine. She uses Hildegard of Bingen as an anthropological study of traditional western medicine citing surviving manuscripts on medicine by Hildegard and evidence that she practiced medicine in the monastery infirmary.

The result is that it's not really narrative story telling, but interesting nonetheless. God's Hotel is on my TBR stack....I'm hoping that it is closer to narrative nonfiction than doctoral thesis.

Darryl, I'm already 90 posts behind, but wanted to at least grab a spot, say hi, and have a quick look at the longlist. I'll look forward to reading your comments as you work your way through that list. I put The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry on my wishlist just yesterday (before knowing it was on the list, that is), so I might just go ahead and get it. I'll be reading Bring up the Bodies relatively soon as well, but can't say I've heard of any of the others books there. Maybe I don't spend enough time on your thread? I'll come back soon to catch up on all I've missed so far here.

eta: I received the NYRB edition of Dead Souls too just recently. Another book I can't wait to read!

I bought Harold Fry when Heather mentioned it was on special offer recently for Kindle - just as well, because it's not any more. I'd like to read Mantel but need to read Wolf Hall first, and I've been meaning to read Nicola Barker for a while - I have 4 of her books in paperback and one in Kindle according to my LT records (I know where 2 paperbacks and the Kindle book are!) - have just bought a new from third party sellers copy of Burley Cross Postbox Theft because it's set near my mum's town and I've wanted to read it for ages - the Kindle price is rather high for a book published several years ago and it's nearly twice the proper paperback price, more than 4 time what I've paid. I like the sound of the Andre Brink (used to read his books years and years ago) and The Garden of Evening Mists - might buy that last one - Brink isn't due out here until 6 September.

Looks an interesting Booker longlist. I've bought The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and Skios on audible as they looked the most amenable to audio book format. Of the remainder I think Communion Town looks most interesting. I struggle with Will Self though.

Oof. The work week has come to a end, after a particularly unpleasant and grueling week with a scheduled 8 hour day today that ended up being a 14-1/2 hour day (8 am to 10:30 pm). Fortunately it ended on an upbeat note, as the last patient I saw at 9:30 pm was a very cute Latino toddler who unfortunately has pulmonary tuberculosis, along with at least two members of his household.

I haven't read a single page since Monday, but I should finish several books this coming weekend.

First off, I owe an apology to Rebecca and Madeline for my unintentionally tasteless comments about their honor. I won't do that again to either of my good friends.

First off, I owe an apology to Rebecca and Madeline for my unintentionally tasteless comments about their honor. I won't do that again to either of my good friends.

See? Threaten a lawsuit (even if we have to wait two more years until my daughter graduates), and see what happens? ;)

*settles back to listen to more discussion about the Booker Dozen and to study the Krebs Cycle (...just don't test me on it!)*

Now, to catch up on as many old messages as I can before I fall asleep.

>51 lilianboerboom: Only one more day of waiting........... Exciting

I'd say it was worth the wait, although I didn't find out which books were selected for the Booker longlist until several hours after the announcement, as I was seeing patients until the late afternoon. As I think I had mentioned above, I'm excited by the opportunity to read novels by authors who are new to me, ones that I expect that I'll enjoy far more than the ones that were selected last year. I'll still buy and read the new novels by Zadie Smith, Martin Amis, Ian McEwan and Howard Jacobson, though.

>54 SqueakyChu:, 55, 57, 59, 74, 78, 88 (and any other related messages I may have missed) No more cheating scandal jokes from me.

>56 lauralkeet: Thanks, Laura. I saw a link to that blog on the Booker Prize's Facebook page, which I hadn't heard of before. I'll sign up and pay attention to it, starting tomorrow.

>58 Linda92007: Hi, Linda! I certainly understand the intrusion of RL responsibilities into LT time, as I'm way behind my thread and everyone else's at the moment.

I have been reading Like A Straw Bird It Follows Me and agree with your characterization of it as being a bit inscrutable, although I am enjoying it nonetheless. I had a somewhat similar response to my first reading of The Earth in the Attic. I think a full understanding of these poets may require a closer sense of the Palestinian experience. I am going to spend some more time with both, and maybe wait for their Writers Institute visit, before attempting my reviews. I would also like to do some more reading from the Palestinian perspective in general.

I couldn't agree more with your comments. However, I've found Mahmoud Darwish's work to be far more approachable and understandable, and I plan to read at least one of the books I own by him in August and September, in particular In the Presence of Absence and/or Journal of an Ordinary Grief.

I had meant to review Subduction last weekend, but I failed to get to it. I'll certainly write a review of it in the next day or two, as it's still fresh on my mind.

>60 richardderus: Oh boy, can't wait to see Darryl's reaction to The Longlist (not a one of which I've read).

I think this longlist has the potential to be the best one since I began to follow the award in 2007, the first year I visited London. I've only read one of the books, Bring Up the Bodies, but I'd like to read at least one longlisted book per week, starting next week.

Thats huge collection

Darryl, for pete's sake I hope you can rest up for at least a day before you feel compelled to get "all caught up" on LT. It sounds like it was a brutal week at work for you.

I'm more excited about this longlist than any before. I can't say exactly what that's about, but it's fun.

First off, I owe an apology to Rebecca and Madeline for my unintentionally tasteless comments about their honor. I won't do that again to either of my good friends.

Thank you, Darryl. Madeline thinks it was because she threatened a law suit, but I think it was because I threatened not to comment on your thread! Whatever it was, I'll now resume my enthusiastic participation.

Back to the Krebs cycle, I was briefly a biochemistry major in college, and then switched to biology, but I certainly didn't escape the Krebs cycle. In fact, I think I had it in both intro bio and in biochemistry. Double trouble. Anyway, if you have it and the cranial and spinal nerves on the next quiz, I'll definitely fail, so you won't have to worry about any future cheating scandals!

As for the Booker, I did comment above (#68), but other than Narcopolis and Bring up the Bodies, I haven't even heard of most of the books on the long list. I'm not going to attempt to read them all, but I'll be very interested in your thoughts as you do so I can concentrate on the ones that seem most interesting.

I'll be, ahem, interested in yr thoughts on The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce; I suspect it may possibly fall into your category of "WTF were the judges thinking?" I found it a sweet enough read, but didn't think there was nearly enough meat on its bones for it to be a Booker candidate. It was more intriguing and better written chick lit, or at least that's what it would be called where the main character doing exactly the same stuff was a woman. Just a word before you read it, so you're not expecting anything uber-literary and know that you may emerge gnashing your teeth.

Crud. I seem to have picked up a cold from one of my patients. Hopefully it will be a mild one, and pass quickly.

>61 Chatterbox: I'm astonished that Rachel Joyce's novel is on that list -- it's pleasant enough, but very lightweight, IMO.

That would be The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, of course. I was surprised to see it make the longlist, but I'm glad that it did. It may end up being the next longlisted book that I'll read.

I'm glad that Bring Up the Bodies was chosen, and I was planning to read Brink's new novel regardless. I downloaded Skios, so I may read that soon, depending on when I receive the books I ordered from AbeBooks.

Interesting to see that two aren't even out in the UK -- the Brink novel and Will Self's book.

I'm pretty sure that this has happened in every year that I've followed the Booker Prize closely. The eligible books must be published between October 1 of the previous year and September 30 of the current year. I also think that the publication date of several longlisted books that weren't yet released was moved up, in order to take advantage of their selection for the longlist. So, I wouldn't be surprised if these books were released sooner than planned.

Here's the UK and US availability for the longlisted books, according to Amazon UK and Amazon US:

Nicola Barker, The Yips: currently available in the UK, no publication date in the US
Ned Beauman, The Teleportation Accident: currently available in the UK, March 5 in the US
André Brink, Philida: August 2 in the UK, October 23 in the US
Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists: currently available in the UK, September 4 in the US
Michael Frayn, Skios: currently available in the UK and US
Rachel Joyce, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry: currently available in the UK and US
Deborah Levy, Swimming Home: Kindle version is currently available in the UK, although the paperback is temporarily out of stock on Amazon; no publication date in the US
Hilary Mantel, Bring up the Bodies: currently available in the UK and US
Alison Moore, The Lighthouse: it's apparently out of stock in both the UK and US, and it will be re-released in both countries on August 15
Will Self, Umbrella: August 30th in the UK, January 8 in the US
Jeet Thayil, Narcopolis: currently available in the UK and US
Sam Thompson, Communion Town: currently available in the UK, no publication date in the US

>62 The_Hibernator: Same here, Rachel. I've only read Bring Up the Bodies so far as well. The shortlist will be announced on September 11, and the winner on October 16. I definitely want to read the entire longlist this year, and I'd like to finish at least six books by the time of the shortlist announcement, and all 12 by the award date.

I'll post threads for each book in the Booker Prize group later this morning.

>63 brenpike: I'm very eager to read The Yips, since I haven't read anything by Nicola Barker yet. I keep meaning to read Darkmans, but I'm not sure when I'll get to it.

>64 The_Hibernator:, 65 As Rachel and Suz said, four of the longlisted books are currently available in the US, and only two books, Philida and Umbrella, have yet to be published in the UK. I have all four, and I'll receive The Yips, The Teleportation Accident, The Garden of Evening Mists and The Lighthouse from AbeBooks by mid-August. I'll pick up the remaining four books when I travel to London in early September.

>66 avatiakh: I visited your thread and read your comments about Skios, Kerry. Most other LTers who reviewed the book were lukewarm about it. So, I'll put it at the bottom my longlist reading order, unless it's selected for the shortlist.

>67 cushlareads: I'll wait to buy Philida until September, although it's one of the books I'm most eager to read. I look forward to your comments about it, Cushla.

>68 rebeccanyc: Thanks for the comment about Narcopolis, Rebecca. I may wait to read that until September, then. I hope that you get to read Bring Up the Bodies soon; if you liked Wolf Hall you'll definitely enjoy the sequel, IMO.

>69 PaulCranswick: If you study the judges historical fiction is likely to win out. I hope Brink of course but I think that Mantel might be a shoe in for victory. I have read a few of Will Self's work and find them incomprehensible.

Interesting comments, Paul. I suspect that you may be right, but I'm also encouraged by Peter Stothard's comments about the key criteria that were used to select the longlisted books. From what I've read, Will Self's new book is considerably different from and arguably better than his previous novels. I haven't read anything by him, so I'm eager to read his new novel.

>70 brenzi: Hmm. I think that Bring Up the Bodies as it stands is certainly worthy of being awarded the Booker Prize. I'm still very eager to read nearly all of these other longlisted books, and, as I've mentioned previously, the best thing about these prizes is the list of finalists and not the actual winner, although it's fun to discuss which book is the best one.

>71 avatiakh: Skios is a farce and I found it quite light, a bit silly even.

That seems to be the general impression of this book. I'd still like to read it, although it will likely be one of the last ones I do read.

>75 Chatterbox: I'm most inclined to seek out the Andre Brink novel, and the Eng book.

Those are two of the books I'm looking forward to the most. I enjoyed Eng's debut novel The Gift of Rain, which was longlisted for the 2007 Booker Prize, and I liked the only book I've read by Brink, Other Lives. Those two along with The Yips and Umbrella are the ones I'm most eager to read.

I'll probably read the four books I ordered from AbeBooks in August, and save the ones I've downloaded to my Kindle for later.

>76 avidmom: More KhanAcademy! I know it so well.

I hadn't heard of Khan Academy before. It looks very impressive, and I'll have to take a closer look at it in the near future.

>78 SqueakyChu:, 79 Oof. After this past week I don't want to think about medicine or ICD-9 or ICD-10 coding for at least a day or two...

>80 brenzi: ...and I'm damned sure I don't want to think about the spinal tracts!

Both Amazon and Barnes and Noble say that Garden of the Evening Mists is available on September 4th. Am I missing something?

>81 LauraBrook: You're welcome, Laura; I assume that you're referring to the Fifty Shades article.

>82 SqueakyChu:, 83 *sticks fingers in ears to avoid listening to comments about ICD-9 or ICD-10*

>84 EBT1002: I have to admit that this years Booker Dozen is especially intriguing. I'm tempted to establish a challenge for myself to read all of them by, say, the end of the calendar year...

I love that idea, Ellen! That would be a good challenge for the Booker Prize group. I'll certainly match that, as I hope to finish the entire longlist by October 16th, the date of the prize announcement. Last year I read 12 of the 13 longlisted novels and all six shortlisted novels in advance of the award ceremony, although I still haven't read the remaining one, Far to Go by Alison Pick. I'll eventually read it, if only so that I can claim to have read the entire 2011 longlist.

>85 EBT1002: I took only a couple of Philosophy courses at my small liberal arts college. They were among the most challenging and most satisfying of all the courses I took.

Agreed. Rutgers has one of the best Philosophy departments in the country; it's currently ranked second, just behind NYU and ahead of Princeton, Michigan, Harvard and Pitt, according to the Philosophical Gourmet Report. I struggled with those courses, because my classmates were exceptionally bright, the demanding course load, and especially because it exercised a part of my brain that was very flabby compared to my scientific brain. I definitely benefited by taking those courses, and I do want to get back to reading philosophical works in the near future. One of my closest friends in medical school was an engineering major at Princeton, but she was also deeply religious and philosophical and read books such as I and Thou by Martin Buber and works by Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Niebuhr before and during our clinical years. I'd definitely like to read books by Niebuhr and books about (if not by) Kierkegaard soon.

>86 DorsVenabili: I'm enthusiastic about The Yips, slightly more so because of Nicola Barker than the subject of the book itself. I suspect that I'll either love this book or intensely dislike it, but I'm more eager to read it than any other longlisted book.

>87 Linda92007: I love Stothard's criteria for the Booker as novels that repay rereading. I have not read anything on the long-list yet, but it will be interesting to see how these titles hold up under that standard.There are many great books that I have read that I have no desire to read again, while others seem to just stick with you until you do.

His comment makes me that much more eager to dive into the longlist.

There are many great books that I have read that I have no desire to read again, while others seem to just stick with you until you do.

Absolutely!

I almost forgot. Back to message #75: Suz said, "I also like Stothard's comment about believing these will be books that people will want to bring BACK from the beach." I couldn't agree more!

>89 Donna828: I am a big proponent of rereading books. I just wish I had the time to do more of it.

I agree. There are very few books I've re-read lately, with my current reading of Palace Walk being one notable exception. I should try to incorporate this into a formal goal, e.g. re-read one favorite novel every quarter.

Darryl, your trip to England is coming at the right time to snag some more Booker longlist books. Maybe you planned it that way?

Good observation, Donna. That's certainly part of the reason, although I normally like to take vacation in late summer and early fall, after the traditional vacation season and once the weather starts to cool off. I did visit London in July one year (2009?) and stayed in a B&B whose rooms lacked air conditioning. Even though it wasn't hot compared to Atlanta it was muggy and unpleasant, and the city was even more crowded than usual with tourists.

>90 tangledthread: Very interesting comments about Victoria Sweet's book about Hildegard of Bingen. You're absolutely right, it was based entirely on her defense of her PhD thesis, as she mentioned in God's Hotel. I'll probably read it at some point.

God's Hotel is definitely narrative nonfiction, and is very readable and not a dry academic book at all.

>91 Smiler69: Hi, Ilana! Most of the books on this year's Booker longlist were completely unfamiliar to me as well. The novels by Beauman, Frayn, Levy, Moore, Thayil and Thompson weren't mentioned by anyone as potential candidates for the longlist, as I recall.

>92 elkiedee: I've been meaning to read Nicola Barker for a while - I have 4 of her books in paperback and one in Kindle according to my LT records

The Yips will be the fourth novel by Barker than I own; I already have Darkmans, Behindlings and Burley Cross Postbox Theft.

I noticed that Brink's novel won't be published until September 6. That's probably the day I'll arrive in London; I'm off from Sept 6-26, and I'll probably spend the first two weeks of my vacation in the capital, followed by a week's visit to see my parents in the Philadelphia area.

>93 SandDune: Communion Town does look interesting, and I'm nearly as eager to get to it as any of the other books. I get the sense that Will Self's newest book is very different from his preceding ones, although comments about it have been minimal, of course.

>95 SqueakyChu: Booker Prize discussion, yes. Krebs cycle discussion, not so much.

>98 EBT1002: Darryl, for pete's sake I hope you can rest up for at least a day before you feel compelled to get "all caught up" on LT. It sounds like it was a brutal week at work for you.

It was a maddening and frustrating week, on top of being a busy one. I don't mind working hard and putting in long hours, but there were several annoying people (staff, not parents or patients) and absurd situations that made me intensely angry (although I generally keep my opinions about these people to myself).

I'm more excited about this longlist than any before. I can't say exactly what that's about, but it's fun.

Same here! It wasn't the longlist that most people expected, one dominated by big name authors, so that makes it even more exciting. As I mentioned, I'll still purchase the books that I hoped and expected would make the longlist, particularly NW by Zadie Smith, Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan and Lionel Asbo by Martin Amis, amongst others. I think that those novels will be widely read, so their authors won't be hurt significantly by not making it onto this year's Booker longlist.

>99 rebeccanyc: Thank you, Darryl. Madeline thinks it was because she threatened a law suit, but I think it was because I threatened not to comment on your thread!

I wasn't worried about the lawsuit, as I would have sought legal representation from one of the lawyers I know who works for Children's. You're right; the threat of your silence on my thread was the deciding factor. :-)

>100 Chatterbox: Thanks for your comments about Harold Fry, Suz. I came close to buying it earlier this month, based on previous comments on LT about it, so I'm looking forward to reading it and I expect that I'll like it. I'm not a fan of 'über-literary' novels, at least in the way I think of that term. C by Tom McCarthy is the one novel in that category that comes to mind right away, and I intensely disliked that book.

>103 The_Hibernator: Both Amazon and Barnes and Noble say that Garden of the Evening Mists is available on September 4th. Am I missing something?

No, Rachel. I'm the one who missed that! Thanks for pointing it out; I'll correct my previous post accordingly.

Woo! All caught up (with my thread, anyway)! Time for a nap...

Crud. I seem to have picked up a cold from one of my patients. Hopefully it will be a mild one, and pass quickly.
Yuck. Summer colds are the worst! Hope you feel better soon.

>107 avidmom: Thanks, avidmom. As I had hoped, it must have been a virus that I had already had at least partial protection against, as my runny nose, sore throat and headache have completely gone away.

A preliminary list of planned reads for August (as always, subject to change):

Nicola Barker, The Yips
Ned Beauman, The Teleportation Accident
Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists
Deborah Levy, Swimming Home
Naguib Mahfouz, Palace of Desire
Naguib Mahfouz, Sugar Street
Elias Khoury, As Though She Were Sleeping
David Grossman, To the End of the Land
Edward W. Said, Out of Place
Adonis, Mihyar of Damascus: His Songs
Mahmoud Darwish, In the Presence of Absence
Shusaku Endo, Silence
Ryu Murakami, Coin Locker Babies
Alix Ohlin, Inside
Vladimir Nabokov, Speak, Memory

Darryl - I'll be joining you on Palace of Desire and I'll slowly make my way through the Bookers as usual. Have a great weekend mate.

Thanks, Paul, and the same to you. I look forward to re-reading Palace of Desire and your comments about it.

The opening ceremony of the Olympic Games is spectacular so far!

Darryl - I'm surprised Martin Amis didn't make the Longlist. I thought even if he didn't win it, he'd at least be in the final list. It's an interesting list if only because I am unfamiliar with so many of them, so I'll have to check them out over time.

Had to laugh a little ... as part of the opening ceremony for the London Olympics, there's a dance segment celebrating the NHS because the British are proud of their national health service... and I couldn't help considering if we'd ever celebrate our healthcare system here. The HMOs would be pelted by the audience.

I thought that Lionel Asbo would make the longlist, too. I'll definitely read it, though.

I applaud this year's judges for not playing it safe by choosing the big names in British literature after last year's debacle.

LOL at Mr. Bean performing the theme to "Chariots of Fire" with the LSO!

I loved the GOSH/NHS segment, and its combination with the great tradition of British children's literature. I also loved the segment that showed the Thames from its tiny origin to its passage through central London, and the James Bond/Queen Elizabeth piece.

I couldn't help considering if we'd ever celebrate our healthcare system here. The HMOs would be pelted by the audience.

LOL!

thanks for posting the Booker Longlist Darryl, sad to see NZs own Emily Perkins didnt feature :( I will still eventually read her novel The Forrests though, as Ive heard its a good'un.

You're welcome, Megan. I look forward to your comments about The Forrests.

Good grief... 76 unread.. sorry..
*leaves behind 3 pounds of bacon*

>116 mckait: Thanks, Kath! I'll only need another 5 pounds to make a decent bacon butty.

bacon butty? *pulling up a chair at the kitchen table*

Here you go, Caroline.



Or would you rather have this one?

yum

yup, I pick the second please, Darryl. Good job I just had a scrumptious brekkie of bacon, eggs, baked beans on toast or that would have had me drooling like a rabid dog.

Darryl / Caro - visiting here is not so conducive to my fasting! If I can imagine swapping your real McCoy for beef or turkey bacon I'd be transported to a far far better place....6 1/2 hours to go to breaking fast....oh dear

Wasn't that a fab opening ceremonies? I think what I liked most about it was the wit -- the kind of "yes, we know we're sometimes eccentric" humor that rippled throughout it. Let's face it, for pure spectacle, it would have been hard to top Beijing, but this felt more human and more fun. I was "watching" with a friend in Atlanta (yes, I have another one) and we were e-mailing back and forth about our favorite bits all evening long.

Darryl, I thought of you when they did their tribute to the National Health Service. Who says the Brits hate their health care system? And I thought Rowan Atkinson was a crack-up (as he usually is). It was a fun opening ceremony despite the US commentators' (imo) banal narrative.

>119 kidzdoc: Ok then, Ill take the top one seeing as caro has the second. Dinner for me tonight consisted of 3 ginger oat cakes, with blue cheese, and a glass of ginger ale. Yum, but not the best nutritionally ;)

>120 mckait: Indeed!

>121 cameling: Despite the decreased density of bacon, I prefer the first bacon butty, with herbs, cheese and a touch of brown sauce.

The bacon buttys I've had in London, at Roast to Go, the popular takeaway stall next to Roast in Borough Market, were even better: bacon, sausage, fried egg and a small dab of brown sauce. I don't want to think about its cholesterol or calorie counts, though.

Roast to Go also makes a delightful pork belly and crackling with Bramley apple sauce sandwich:



Yum. Who said that British food is unpalatable?

>122 PaulCranswick: Oops. Sorry, Paul. Do not click on the two Roast hyperlinks until your fast is over!

>123 Chatterbox: I agree, Suz. The opening ceremony felt very British, and true to form. Several of my (American) friends posted comments on Facebook about how boring the ceremony was, but I mentioned that I enjoyed nearly all of it. I'll have to see what my Anglophilic mother, and her even more Anglophilic older sister, thought of it when I talk to them later today.

>124 EBT1002: The NBC commentators were almost completely useless, and I would strongly preferred a British counterpart to Matt Lauer than the woman that sat next to him (I should remember her name, but her blandness made her entirely forgettable).

I'll make my reservations for my September trip to London later today. I'll probably arrive on the 6th, and I hope that I can get tickets to at least one or two Paralympic events before those games close on September 9th.

I finished two books last night, Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz, the first book in The Cairo Trilogy, which was substantially better on a re-read (just shy of a 5 star read), and The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God and Other Stories by Etgar Keret, a very quirky collection of short stories which started out brilliantly but became tiresome in its second half.

Back to bed...

No reason to be sorry - I'm the one missingout on the delicious looking sarnies!

>125 LovingLit: Since Megan took my bacon butty I'll have to settle for this Roast to Go sandwich instead:



My dinner (roughly 7 hours ago) was vegetable lasagna, fresh raspberries and passion fruit Greek yogurt.

>127 PaulCranswick: Uh oh. No more sandwich photos!

#124 who says the Brits hate their health care system .

Speaking as a Brit I would say that thinking that the NHS is a good thing is a fundamental British trait. We might complain about the details or want certain things done better but I think I can safely say that I've never met anyone in my entire life who has wanted to get rid of it. It's something that everyone uses - even if you have private health care insurance you will be treated by the NHS if you have an accident or a long-term condition. It's why we find much of the debate over US health care completely baffling.

i would like to think that it was included, not just as a tribute to their own system of caring for their people, but as a sort of "in your face you dummies" to the Americans. They are a much older nation, and wier, it is clear. I noticed that certain anti-health care politicians high tailed it out of there speedily. hummmph.

>129 SandDune: Speaking as a Brit I would say that thinking that the NHS is a good thing is a fundamental British trait. We might complain about the details or want certain things done better but I think I can safely say that I've never met anyone in my entire life who has wanted to get rid of it.

Do you think that the Tories would seek to privatize health care in Britain if they could get away with it?

>130 mckait: The NHS, as Rhian said, does seem to reflect a British spirit of fairness for all of its citizens (Margaret Thatcher notwithstanding), something that our country hasn't seen fit to adopt as an essential value.

>131 kidzdoc: agree with your statements about the NHS reflecting a British fairness and the lack, thereof, here. . . How sad is that!

My favorite part of the ceremonies was the torch. I love the idea that it includes the copper leaves from each nation participating, how the leaves were carried in with the delegations, lit and then lifted into position. The camera installed at the base, showing the flame from underneath was shear genius. I'm looking forward to seeing that camera shot many times in the next few weeks.

I was traveling when your thread changed. I went back to the previous thread and took the quiz. Also I once memorized the Krebs cycle for a biology test. Now that I am properly credentialed... a quick hello, and I'm returning to lurking.

#131 Do you think that the Tories would seek to privatize health care in Britain if they could get away with it?

They would like to privatise round the edges and bring more competition into the provision of health care, certainly. But I can't see that any political party who said that they were going to do a full-scale privatisation of the NHS would ever have a chance of winning an election in Britain. And to be fair to the current government, David Cameron has been a major user of NHS services as his own son (who died very young) had suffered from cerebral palsy and epilepsy and had been in and out of hospital all his life, and he has said in the past how grateful he was for the NHS care which his son had received.

I think pretty much everyone can think of situations that they or their family or friends have been in, which would have costs thousands if not provided by the NHS, or would have stopped being paid for with health insurance. I've had both private and NHS care and to be honest, I've been very happy with the NHS care. My son was quite ill a couple of years ago with a difficult to diagnose problem (eventually they decided it was post-viral fatigue) and was in hospital for a week. He had to have MRI scans, ultrasounds, specialist blood tests and they were talking about sending him to Great Ormond Street. I'm sure if we'd have been paying for all that it would have been expensive and it would have been just another thing to worry about when we were worried sick already.

I didn't see the opening ceremonies, but I heard about the NHS bit - how lovely! I agree, could you ever imagine the U.S. celebrating our sorry excuse for a healthcare system? Ha!

On another note, I thought of your photos of dreadful parents yesterday, when I was driving down my street and saw a man on a bike with a child in front of him, a child in back, and all this while also WALKING A DOG ON A LEASH. No Photoshop. This was real stuff on the street. Unbelievable.

#128 : That Roast to Go butty looks like it has some slices of black pudding in it too ... Darryl, you're playing havoc with my will power here. I've just only had a mango and a glass of milk, holding out for brunch with a couple of friends at a Taiwanese cafe later for some steamed dumplings, Taiwanese spicy noodles, and a host of other delicious dishes.

Have you read On the Mend : Revolutionizing Healthcare to Save Lives and Transform the Industry by John Toussaint? I thought I remember a post from you about this book, but I don't see it in your list of books read.

Book #76: Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz



My rating:

The first novel in The Cairo Trilogy is set in a Cairene neighborhood in October 1917, just after the death of Husayn Kamal, the Sultan of Egypt. Kamal was chosen three years earlier as the figurehead of the land that was a part the Ottoman Empire but had been ruled by Great Britain since 1882. The previous leader, Abbas II, was deposed by the British at the onset of World War I, once the Ottoman Empire sided with the Central Powers and against Great Britain. Egypt was declared a British protectorate, which ended its semi-independent status and fueled the nationalist movement to expel the unwanted colonizers.

Palace Walk is centered upon al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad, a successful neighborhood shop owner in Cairo. He is a merciless tyrant at home, imposing his unbending will and strict Muslim beliefs on his family, but a beloved and devoted friend to many and a fervent lover of wine, women and song outside of it. The al-Jawad family includes Amina, al-Sayyid's pious and tirelessly devoted second wife, his two daughters, the beautiful and vain Aisha, and the homely but quick witted and razor tongued Khadija, and his three sons, Yasin, a government servant whose prodigious appetite for debauchery exceeds his father's; Fahmy, an idealistic law student and freedom fighter; and Kamal, the youngest of the clan, an irreverent young dreamer who has a nose for getting into trouble but loves everyone in his family passionately and unconditionally.

The al-Jawads and those closest to them each struggle with parallel internal conflicts, in keeping with the struggle of the Egyptian people torn between the protection from the ravages of war by British occupation and the burning desire for independence, between older religious traditions and emerging secular freedoms, and especially between the traditional and modern roles and rights of women in early 20th century Egyptian society. In addition, the three sons of al-Jawad each seem to serve as metaphors for different periods of modern Egyptian history, with Yasin representative of traditional Cairo, Khady of the troubled land during the British protectorate, and Kamal of the bright but uncertain future independent country.

Mahfouz does a masterful job in fully portraying each character, the bustling neighborhood that surrounds Palace Walk, and the deep tension and stifling oppression within the al-Jawad household. Palace Walk is a monumental work, one which is essential to an understanding of the history of modern Egypt, and an outstanding family saga that rivals any other in literature.

Once again, Darryl, you write yet another enticing review. I'm so tempted to just add the entire trilogy to my obese wish list, but I think I'll wait for you to finish reading the other 2 before I do, just to see if the other 2 volumes are as good as this first book.

I was your second thumbs-up for Mahfouz. What a wonderful, wonderful book.

We are in complete agreement on Palace Walk Darryl and your excellent review captures the essence of the novel beautifully. I'm not going to be able to hold off much longer on Palace of Desire and will probably start it in a week or so.

I think I would feel better about the Portable Care Act if the Congress and the POTUS hadn't exempted themselves from it and forced taxpayers to pay for their Cadillac plans for the rest of their lives. I think health care is a right not a privilege but all Americans should be treated equally. I'm not a fan of any politician, BTW.

Book #77: The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God and Other Stories by Etgar Keret



My rating:

The first collection of short stories by Israeli writer Etgar Keret published in English starts out brilliantly, with several surreal and fantastic tales that seem to be a witches' brew of the best of Jorge Luis Borges, mixed with a splash of Julio Cortázar and José Donoso. In the title story, a principled but misunderstood bus driver invokes a higher calling to serve one of his passengers, though with an unexpected result. In "Uterus", a young man despairs when his mother's organ, preserved for prosperity in a local museum, is sold and then hijacked by eco-terrorists. And, in "A Souvenir of Hell", a young Uzbek woman works at a convenience store which primarily serves the residents of Hell, who emerge from its mouth for one day of freedom every 100 years. However, the stories in the latter half of the book, particularly the lengthy Kneller's Happy Campers, were very disappointing to this reader. Despite this, I was sufficiently impressed and enthralled with many of Keret's stories, and despite my mediocre rating of The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God I will eagerly search for more of his books soon.

Good review. Think I'll pass on the book, though.

Daryl, wonderful review of Palace Walk. Thanks for that.

>132 brenpike: I missed the torch ceremony entirely. I'll have to go back and check it out soon.

>133 qebo: *waves at Katherine*

>134 SandDune: Thanks for those interesting comments about the NHS, Rhian. Surprisingly, I haven't visited or passed by Great Ormond Street Hospital yet, even though I've stayed in hotels that were within a few blocks of it the past two years (in Bloomsbury and Holborn). I also haven't visited the Foundling Museum, which is also close by. I'll make it my business to do this in September.

>135 DorsVenabili: I would be surprised, but not completely shocked, if there was a ceremony honoring the advancements made by the US scientists and clinicians, but I'd bet a year's salary that there will never be one that lauds the US healthcare system, with hospital administrators and insurance company executives singing and dancing alongside each other.

>136 cameling: I thought that was black pudding in that sandwich. I'll have to ask for that one on my next visit to Roast to Go.

Thanks for mentioning On the Mend; I hadn't heard of it before, so I've added it to my wish list.

>138 cameling: Thanks (again), Caroline! You won't have to wait long for me to finish The Cairo Trilogy, as I plan to do that next month. Needless to say, I don't want to bring my 1300+ page Everyman's edition of The Cairo Trilogy with me to London.

>139 richardderus: Thanks, Richard. Clearly I didn't read Palace Walk closely when I first read it in 2004 or 2005, as I remembered very little of the details of the book this time. I'm glad that I decided to re-read it, as it's a marvelous book.

>140 brenzi: Thanks, Bonnie. I'm with you; I'll probably start Palace of Desire next week.

I agree about the decision of Congress and the POTUS to exempt themselves from the Affordable Care Act. It's bad policy, and it sends the wrong message to the American people.

There are few politicians I have a deep respect for. One is former New Jersey senator Bill Bradley, the other is my current U.S. congressman, John Lewis, who was one of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s closest confidants during the height of the civil rights movement. He's been my congressman for the 15 years I've lived in Atlanta (and for 10 years before that), and to my knowledge he has been completely free of any scandals or unsavory controversies during that time (which may make him the only Atlanta politician who can say that).

>142 richardderus: Thanks, Richard. I'm glad I read The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God, despite its disappointing ending. I'll pick up his latest collection of short stories, Suddenly, A Knock on the Door, later this year.

>143 lit_chick: You're welcome, Nancy! I hope that you decided to read it, and the entire Cairo Trilogy.

I agree with you that some of the stories in The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God were MUCH better than others. I generally amused by all of his stories, but some of them still stick with me years later for some reason--and I guess that's a sign of a good story.

Really glad you enjoyed Palace Walk so much on second reading Darryl. Agreed the trilogy is an amazing family saga. I was quite blown away with it too when I read it in 2008 I think. I no longer have the books as sent them to my mum in France, but I'll have to get my hands on them again some time in future for a re-read. I remember thinking when I finished the trilogy I'd appreciate them even more the second time around.

>146 The_Hibernator: I'm glad that you had the same impression of the stories in The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God, Rachel. I'm impressed that he could write unforgettable stories that were less than five pages long, which is why I'm still eager to read more of his work. Have you read anything else by him?

>147 Smiler69: Thanks, Ilana. If I didn't know any better, I'd question whether I had actually read Palace Walk! I'll be eager to see if I remember more of Palace of Desire than I did of Palace Walk.

I've made my hotel and flight reservations for my September trip to London. I'll arrive there on September 6th, fly from there to JFK on the 20th, and then travel by train to the Trenton, NJ station, which is about 15 minutes from my parents' house across the Delaware River in suburban Philadelphia. I'll fly from PHL to ATL on the 26th, God willing.

No, I haven't read any more of his books. I have been intending on reading The Nimrod Flipout for a while now, but I never get around to it.

I simply cannot think about health care issues. Our system is vile and heartless and
has been created to put cash into the pockets of Pharmaceutical companies and so called
Insurance companies. It is a travesty. One of the young women injured by the shooter in Colorado...
she is recovering... her mother has cancer and is working 60 hour weeks, to pay her own medical
bills. Now this. Some hospitals talk of forgiving some or all of the bills, and that is good.. but it isn't
enough. Some tragedies are not as public as that one. My Aunt worked until she couldn't work another minuter. The cancer spread to her brain. It just isn't right.

bah.

I think a group of us here from LT could do a much better job of things than the government has over
the last 200 ish years.

The floor, I mean, thread is open for nominations!

Hi Darryl- It's interesting I've heard Etgar Keret's name bandied about, these past couple of months and I had added a few of his collections to my WL. Sounds like a very interesting writer.
Everyone seems to be raving about Palace Walk so I already have that one on the List.

I noticed that Linda reviewed and loved The Round and Other Cold Hard Facts and now you did too! See what happens when I stop over here?

In "Uterus", a young man despairs when his mother's organ, preserved for prosperity in a local museum, is sold and then hijacked by eco-terrorists.

Anybody that can even come up with that scenario has my attention! I'm wondering what kinds of things people on a vacation from hell would buy from a convenience store .....

>149 The_Hibernator: The description of The Nimrod Flipout is appealing. I'll consider getting it as well.

>150 mckait: I think a group of us here from LT could do a much better job of things than the government has over the last 200 ish years.

Without question!

>151 brenpike: The floor, I mean, thread is open for nominations!

Count me out. I'd rather keep my current day job, and not be a policy wonk.

>152 msf59: Good to see you here, Mark! Keret is an interesting writer, and I look forward to reading more of his work. Several of the 75ers are also members of the Reading Globally group, and I'm hosting the third quarter theme on Middle Eastern Literature, which is why I decided to read Keret's first short story collection now. As a part of this them I'm also hosting a group read of The Cairo Trilogy from now through the end of September, which is why so many people have read Palace Walk this month. Many of us will start Palace of Desire, the second book in the trilogy, next month.

I read The Round and Other Cold Hard Facts several years ago, I think just after Le Clézio was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. I didn't review it on LT, but Linda's review prompted me to give it the rating I did. I gave her a thumbs up for her excellent review of it, but I don't think I've congratulated her yet.

I don't think I ever responded to your question about my next trip to Chicago. I'll possibly go there in early November, as one of my best friends will be going there for a wedding during the second weekend of the month. However, I was also thinking of going to San Francisco then, so I'll have to figure out how to make both of these plans work, along with a trip to New Orleans in late October for the national conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

>153 avidmom: I'm wondering what kinds of things people on a vacation from hell would buy from a convenience store .....

Oh, the usual:

Anna had worked in her grandfather's grocery store for as long as she could remember. Apart from the villagers, there weren't that many customers, but once every few hours someone would come in smelling of sulfur and ask for a pack of cigarettes, or chocolate, or whatever. Some of them asked for things that they'd probably never actually seen and had only heard about from some other sinner. So every once in a while she'd see them struggle to open a can of Coke or try to eat cheese with the plastic wrapper still on it. Things like that.

>155 kidzdoc: I was thinking that if I were in that situation I would buy every kind of chocolate available, endless cups of coffee, and a big bottle of Kahlua. Mm hmm... Because, IMHO, the lack of those things is the very definition of hell. ;)

Thanks for the quote. Sounds like a fun read.

>156 avidmom: I think I'd want something cold: ice cream, iced coffee, frozen yogurt, etc.

Darryl - I recently watched the movie based on Kneller's Happy Campers, it had been a long time since I'd read the story so wasn't sure what it was that I was watching, very bizarre movie, titled 'Wristcutters'.
Keret has also directed a few movies. His wife, Shira Geffen, is an actress, director and writer and their most well known collaboration is Jellyfish which was awarded the Caméra d'Or at Cannes in 2007.
I'll plug one more time for Gaza Blues, his collaboration with Samir el-Youssef.

Thanks for reminding me about Gaza Blues, Kerry. I'll look for it as well. I read Samir el-Youssef's novella The Illusion of Return several years ago, and it was very good.

Enjoyed catching up here Darryl on your usual vigorous assortment of issues.
Rhian is right no party who considered the dismemberment of the National Health Service would have a chance to get elected in the UK - and rightly so. We don't do every thing Great anymore but Britain despite its occasional creaks still has a system of healthcare that provided a model of compassion and fairness for all its people.
So pleased you get plenty out of re-reading Palace Walk - I am looking forward to chipping in with Palace of Desire this coming month.

Uterus ?
wow.

Jelly Fish is a very surreal and interesting movie. I hosted a viewing for senior adults and they were very touched by the stories and really liked the absurd epsiodes.

Boy, my modem bonks out and I'm behind 40+ messages! I think we Canucks feel the same way about our health care as the Brits. My whole family has had some pretty serious health concerns not only looked after but looked after extremely well. I can't imagine trying to struggle with major illnesses AND trying to find the money to pay for them. It seems inhuman...or at best a "me" culture rather than a "we" one.

Darryl- Kerri mentioned you might be coming to the Chicago area, that's why I asked. I would probably go to San Francisco too! LOL.
Did you see that we set up a Short Story Challenge (not really a challenge!) over on the 75. It great having a spot to talk about story collections, like the Keret:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/136708

>160 PaulCranswick: I agree with you about the benefits of universal health care, Paul. Maybe in another 50 years or so the majority of the American people will think likewise.

I'm eager to start Palace of Desire; i might get started as early as tomorrow.

>161 mckait: Uterus indeed, Kath. Etgar Keret has quite a fertile imagination!

>162 torontoc: Surreal and absurd sounds good to me. I'll have to look for that movie.

>163 tiffin: I think you nailed it, Tui: "me", rather than "we", is a defining theme in modern American culture, particularly amongst the conservatives: hooray for me, and those who look and think like me; the rest of you can burn in hell.

>164 msf59: I'd ideally like to combine the trips, i.e. go to San Francisco, fly from there to Chicago to see my friend who is flying into town for a wedding, and my other friend who lives there, and travel to Madison to visit my closest friends (the first and third friends are medical school classmates, the second friend is one of my mates from residency and therefore doesn't know the other two). I still have two weeks of vacation to use this year, so I'll probably use them during the first half of November.

Thanks for reminding me about the Short Story Challenge; I'll check it out and post reviews there.

>161 mckait: Uterus indeed, Kath. Etgar Keret has quite a fertile imagination!
LOL!!!

> 162

Another vote for the movie Jellyfish. I was able to borrow it from my library and view it on my computer. I liked it enough to see it a second time with my friend.

trailer for Jellyfish

By the way, my son and his new bride are now honeymooning in the middle east! Today they were in Jerusalem. :)

hooray for me, and those who look and think like me; the rest of you can burn in hell

LOL! That is a great line.

>168 labfs39: . . . I thought so too!

Hi Darryl, it took me some time to catch up but I'm finally here. Looking forward to all the booker discussion and reviews.

>166 avidmom: I actually did not intend that play on words (uterus/fertile)!

>167 SqueakyChu: Thanks for the second vote for Jellyfish, Madeline. Congratulations to your son and his new bride! What happened to the old one? (ba dum bum)

>168 labfs39:, 169 That seems to be the conservative mantra, IMO. Today is Chik-fil-A Appreciation Day, which is basically a celebration of anti-gay prejudice, in response to the CEO's public statement against gay marriage. The restaurant chain was founded in a nearby suburb of Atlanta, which also happens to have one of the largest LGBT populations in the South, so today and Friday's planned "Kiss In" protest by gay activists should be interesting.

>170 mausergem: Good to see you, Gautam! I'm waiting for the four books I ordered from the Booker longlist to arrive. I'll probably start my first book this weekend or early next week.

160: I wish I was as optimistic - most Tories don't come out and advocate the dismemberment of the NHS but it's really not safe in their hands. If my mum had been diagnosed with cancer in August 2010 instead of February 2010, ie the other side of the general election, she wouldn't be here now, as the coalition government scrapped the strict deadlines for testing and treatment, and she really, really didn't have the time to lose. Luckily she's now in a system for very regular scans. And then there was the Conservative politician who came over to tell you all how dreadful the NHS is.

One Tory MP, Aidan Burley, previously best known for going to a party in Nazi "fancy dress", has complained about the opening ceremony.

That said, I agree that the furore over health care in the US is baffling to most people this side of the Atlantic. But then I suspect a lot of sane Americans find it baffling as well as deeply scary.

Hi Darryl, I just remembered that you did not like One Hundred Years of Solitude. I read it recently and gave it 5 stars. I like quirky books and this is as quirky as it gets. I also get a feeling that Marquez was trying to say that you live and die alone and in the end everything turns to shit. So don't thing about life and try to analyse it, just live it. And he has a absolute crazy way of saying it.

>172 elkiedee: most Tories don't come out and advocate the dismemberment of the NHS but it's really not safe in their hands.

That's what I suspected.

One Tory MP, Aidan Burley, previously best known for going to a party in Nazi "fancy dress", has complained about the opening ceremony.

I read an article in the Guardian about Burley's tweet that referred to the opening ceremony as "multicultural crap". I suppose he was disappointed that it wasn't a display of Anglo-Saxon supremacy, similar to the opening ceremony of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Here's a link to the article:

Olympics opening ceremony was 'multicultural crap', Tory MP tweets

I agree that the furore over health care in the US is baffling to most people this side of the Atlantic. But then I suspect a lot of sane Americans find it baffling as well as deeply scary.

I think that most sane Americans are baffled by the health care debate, the persistently high percentage of conservatives who believe that Barack Obama is Muslim and/or a foreign citizen, and the appeal of politicians such as Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann and other Tea Party twits.

>173 mausergem: I've never read One Hundred Years of Solitude, so I don't have an opinion about it. I'm not a fan of Gabriel García Márquez, so I've been reluctant to read it. I'm glad you liked the book so much, and your comments will make me more eager to get to it.

I have a friend who says that One Hundred Years of Solitude is the ONLY Marquez book she liked. She said the others were just confusing. :) OHYoS is the only one of his books that I've read, and I liked it well enough...though I felt that I was missing out on some deeper symbolism somewhere.

>175 The_Hibernator: I've read several of GGM's books, including Love in the Time of Cholera, The Autumn of the Patriarch (probably my favorite novel, but it's only a 4 star book at best), Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Memoirs of My Melancholy Whores, Living to Tell the Tale, and The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor. All of them were pleasant but not memorable reads, and none of them came close to the majority of the novels I've read by Mario Vargas Llosa. He reminds me a bit of Roberto Bolaño, another very popular Latin American author who mostly leaves me cold.

I read a lot of Garcia Marquez decades ago, and some more recently. I definitely like Love in the Time of Cholera and Chronicle of a Death Foretold best for the fiction (haven't read The Autumn of the Patriarch, and really enjoyed Living to Tell the Tale (so sorry GGM is no longer capable of continuing his autobiography). After I read LTTTT, I reread One Hundred Years of Solitude, because LTTTT gave insight into that novel, but I was lukewarm about it. Actively disliked Memoirs of My Melancholy Whores, but at least it was short.

But tsk, tsk, Darryl. I thought the SP woman wasn't supposed to be mentioned on your thread.

I think that most sane Americans are baffled by the health care debate, the persistently high percentage of conservatives who believe that Barack Obama is Muslim and/or a foreign citizen, and the appeal of politicians such as Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann and other Tea Party twits.

Hear, hear! Universal healthcare, finally - most of us are thrilled, although its phase-in is complicated. (How many politicians tried and failed before Obama got it through and upheld?) The high cost of healthcare and its fundamental importance means it'll be debated forever, I imagine.

Our open society means a lot of Looney Tunes who like to Tea Party get heard, just like fascist Burley does across the pond. Our job is to make sure the sane Americans outnumber and outvote them.

You know, Darryl, I'll recommend One Hundred Years of Solitude to you, too. It wowed me when I was a young guy. Your lukewarm reaction after reading so many others of his gives me pause, but One Hundred Years remains his best, in my view. It would be like reading lots of Murakami but not Kafka on the Shore or The Windup Bird Chronicle.

I read One Hundred Years of Solitude a couple of times and found his use of color and scents fascinating. I also remember very clearly the character who ate dirt (due to a nutritional deficiency) and her family's reactions. My one suggestion is to keep a list of characters handy. Time shifts back and forth in the book, and many of the characters are named after family members, so it gets a bit confusing at times. I then read Love in the Time of Cholera, Autumn of the Patriarch, and The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor, his only nonfiction that I've read, and found only the last one interesting. This was all ages ago, however, so who knows what I would think now!

>171 kidzdoc: It's been a very depressing week for me, Darryl with all the CFA hoopla here (I'm also in Atlanta). Amazing and sad.

Luci - You are probably correct - I am overly optimistic perhaps, if not complacent, and now my Mum looks like she is going to need the very best of our healthcare system I hope my optimism is justified a little.
My point is more that in its public persona the Conservatives are unlikely to advocate in proclamation what they may try to achieve in degrees by stealth. I now live in a society which provides a safety net for its citizens only of a standard of such paucity that if the disease you contract gets cured the stay in hospital would probably do for you. Private health care is a way of life here and I have seen the private hospitals (stats and numbers driven to an extent that leaves me far behind) calculate likely survival before granting admission as deaths are bad for business so they send em elsewhere!

Interestingly, the talk of One Hundred Years of Solitude is making me less willing to pick it up. Im not good with fantastical stuff, illusionary styles (is that even a word?). If I stumble across one like i did in Like Water for Chocolate, it can grab me, but I feel my own prejudices probably taint my experiences!

Megan, One Hundred Years of Solitude is the queen of magical realism, so your inclination might be right for you.

I've not read any Garcia Marquez and always feel terrible about it. It does sound like One Hundred Years of Solitude is the way to go. I think I have it on my shelf, along with a few others.

Anyway, have a lovely weekend! I hope you're not working too hard.

Woo! I'm glad to see Saturday finally come, after another unusually busy work week.

>177 rebeccanyc: I can't say that I disliked the books by GGM that I've read. Most of them have been pleasant enough, but none of them made any impression on me, and I can't remember any details about any of them, unlike almost all of the novels I've read by Mario Vargas Llosa.

It's okay to criticize and belittle Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann on this thread, but any positive comments about either will not be tolerated.

>178 jnwelch: The high cost of healthcare and its fundamental importance means it'll be debated forever, I imagine.

Absolutely. I don't expect that the US will adopt universal health care in my lifetime, and I think the best we can hope for is incremental change in the system for the better.

>179 labfs39: I read Love in the Time of Cholera 20-25 years ago, sometime after GGM won the Nobel Prize for Literature, and most of its magical realism went over my head. I've probably owned my copy of One Hundred Years of Solitude for at least that long, but after reading Love in the Time of Cholera I haven't been eager to read it. I have no idea why I've purchased and read as many books of his as I have, since none of them have made a strong impression upon me. I can't remember if I've read The Autumn of the Patriarch, but the topic of former dictator Rafael Trujillo is a very interesting one, especially after Mario Vargas Llosa's searing novel The Feast of the Goat (which caused me to practically hyperventilate at several points while reading it), so I'd be far more eager to read it than One Hundred Years of Solitude.

>180 TinaV95: I haven't read much about Wednesday's Appreciation Day or Friday's Kiss-In Day (the protest against Chick-fil-A and Appreciation Day) yet, except for the news that the chain apparently set a one day record for sales on Appreciation Day. I usually watch WSB as I'm preparing for work in the morning, but that's often the only time I'll watch television all day. I've heard more about Andrea Sneiderman's arrest on Thursday than anything else the past couple of days, so I'll have to read the Sunday AJC to catch up. I admittedly like(d) Chick-fil-A's chicken sandwiches, and would get once every couple of weeks, but I think I've eaten my last one. The cafeteria at Children's features Chick-fil-A once or twice a week for lunch, and I'll be interested to see if Children's continues to allow it to come there. I think that Chick-fil-A donates a significant amount of money to Children's, so I would suspect that there won't be any changes made (since money talks).

Are you planning to go to the AJC Decatur Book Festival? I have friends who will be visiting town to attend the (gasp) Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game on 8/31, the first day of the book festival, so I'm not sure if or how many events I'll be able to attend.

>181 PaulCranswick: My point is more that in its public persona the Conservatives are unlikely to advocate in proclamation what they may try to achieve in degrees by stealth.

Conservatives are a sneaky lot, both here and, I suspect, in the UK.

>182 LovingLit: Adj. 1. illusionary - marked by or producing illusion; "illusionary stage effects"

GGM is the best known author of magical realism, although Uruguayan author Felisberto Hernández is arguably considered the father of the literary genre, but IMO Julio Cortázar, Italo Calvino, Mario Vargas Llosa and Salman Rushdie are far superior to GGM. And, The Obscene Bird of Night by José Donoso is probably my favorite novel of magical realism.

>183 labfs39: I may have to read One Hundred Years of Solitude sooner, just to see how it stacks up against the other novels of magical realism that I've read.

>184 DorsVenabili: Thanks, Kerri! I'm off this weekend, and I won't have to go back to work until Friday night, although I will have some administrative duties and committee meetings to attend during the week. I'm planning to read several books this week, starting with Palace of Desire, the second novel in The Cairo Trilogy, which I hope to finish tomorrow or Monday.

Just a note to say that my Israeli aunt Emma, who'd been an avid reader of books in English, Hebrew, and German, listed One HUndred years of Solitude as her all-time favorite book.

>186 SqueakyChu: I shall read it for Aunt Emma then!

Auntie Em....!

>186 SqueakyChu:, 188 XD

I may have to opt out, Auntie Ems proclamation notwithstanding. lol

>188 mckait:-190 I won't get to One Hundred Years of Solitude before next year, as I have way too many books at home I'd rather read first.

Happy Sunday Darryl.

Regarding your comments about Penn State and the removal of the statue of Joe Paterno, I couldn't agree more.

Walking out on a ledge, I'll state that in my mind there was a cult like adoration of Joe. I'm not a sports fan and don't follow sports, but a few years ago Will wanted tickets for the home game of Penn State vs Wisconsin and I obtained them for his birthday.

As I sat in the stadium and listened to the adoring fans, I literally shook my head in wonderment regarding what was going on! There were women my age dressed in cheer leading outfits loudly screaming cheers and swearing when they thought Penn State was penalized for foul play.

It felt very strange and bizarre. Fast forward to the atrocity that occurred and the cover up at the expense of innocent young boys and I don't think Penn State can be punished enough!

>192 Whisper1: Interesting comments, Linda. Thousands of Pennsylvanians adored "Pope Joe" Paterno and regularly attended Saturday services at Beaver Stadium, the largest secular house of worship in the state. The unflagging support of Paterno, his legacy, and Penn State football will hopefully diminish over the years, although it will be a slow process. The NCAA sanctions against State will all but ensure that the football team will be a shadow of itself, and it will be interesting to see if the congregants of Beaver Stadium continue to support the "church" as much as they have in the past.

I'm at least an average sports fan, but I find the rabid devotion and self identification of millions of fans for a sports team to be rather disturbing. There is more of that here in the Deep South, where the lives of otherwise rational people are completely consumed with a college football team such as Georgia, Florida, Alabama or Auburn. Seemingly the most diehard fans are those who did not graduate from the university, which I suppose makes them more likely to view the school as the host of their favored team, rather than an institution of higher learning. I'm definitely a fan of the sports teams of my alma maters that participation in Division I sports, Pitt and Rutgers, but I don't donate to their athletic programs (as I do the academic programs and alumni associations) and I don't wear any clothes with the universities' or teams' logos. I routinely see families in the hospital who are all decked out in UGA (University of Georgia) gear, with hats, shirts and sometimes pants with the "G" logo, the school mascot (bulldog), or some other identifiable feature. I never see any of these folks wearing any gear that is indicative of a department at the school, such as a "University of Georgia School of Law" shirt, and I doubt that the vast majority of them has ever been inside an academic building on campus.

I hope that other universities with big time sports programs will take heed of what happened at Penn State, and learn what can happen to their schools if the athletic teams are poorly governed and overly empowered.

I lived in State College for a year, and I found the football fans a bit unsettling, too. It's sort of like that here in Columbus, as well, but since Columbus is so big it's much easier to life a normal life on a football day. :)

I think the penalties were justified and necessary to show that hiding something like this is much worse than blowing the whistle. But I DO feel sorry for the kids on the football team. I imagine they will get less exposure for the professional football scouts because of the sanctions, don't you think?

But I DO feel sorry for the kids on the football team. I imagine they will get less exposure for the professional football scouts because of the sanctions, don't you think?

I don't feel particularly sorry for the current members of the football team. As far as I know, all of their scholarships will be honored if they decide to stay at Penn State. Those who have aspirations toward a professional career and believe that they would be better served on a more competitive team than State will field in the next four years can transfer to another school without sitting out a season. Some will be hurt, particularly those skill position players such as quarterbacks, running backs or wide receivers who depend on their teammates, such as offensive linemen or blocking backs, to make big plays. On the other hand, other players who may not have had an opportunity to start at Penn State may be able to take advantage of the departure of members of the current team and future recruits who would have otherwise gone there. I also don't feel sorry for fans of Penn State football, including students, alumni, faculty, employees or those with no formal connection to the university. None of the games have been cancelled, so no one will lose any money previous spent on tickets, hotel rooms, etc.

The only people who I would potentially feel sorry for are small business owners in and around State College, if fans don't support the team and these owners lose money as a result. However, I suspect that this won't happen, at least in the short term, and Beaver Stadium will continue to host over 100,000 fans for each Penn State home game.

My daughter has a friend who attends Penn State Altoona. She was a freshman last year as the whole scandal unfolded, and still was completely caught up in the idolization of Joe Paterno. To the extent that her friends, including my daughter, have asked her to cease and desist and told her she's making a fool of herself. I've always considered this young woman a bit impressionable and naive, but it's interesting to me how someone can so quickly and easily get caught up in the cult.

Darryl, I have never been to the Decatur Book Festival, but it is on my calendar for this year!! My gf doesn't read (at all, lol) but has agreed to go with me & carry all the books I know I will buy!! :)

That your friends are headed to the CFA game that weekend stinks. I imagine you are a veteran of the festival??

>196 lauralkeet: It's one thing for an impressionable college freshman to get caught up in hero worship, and another thing altogether for middle aged adults to do the same thing. Hopefully your daughter's friend will change her opinion about JoePa as she matures a bit more.

Are all of the Penn State branch campuses two year colleges? There are so many of them (10? 15? 20? more?) that it's hard to imagine that all of the graduates who want to go to State College to complete a four year degree can be accepted there. Hmm...to answer my own question, Altoona, Abington (formerly Ogontz, the one closest to where my parents live) and seemingly most of the other 19 Penn State commonwealth colleges offer two year and four year degrees, although students can transfer to the main campus to complete their degrees (depending on their GPAs and if space is available, I would assume).

>197 TinaV95: Amazingly, I've never been to the Decatur Book Festival eiter, despite living in Atlanta since 1997; I'm almost always out of town or working during Labor Day Weekend. Since I'm off on Friday 8/31, my friends and I have decided to spend the morning and afternoon together, until it's time for them to go to the Tennessee-NC State game at the Georgia Dome that evening. We probably won't go to the festival during the day, but I'm still planning to attend Natasha Trethewey's keynote address at Emory that evening (and pick up her newest poetry collection, which will be published on 8/28). I'm working the weekend, and we had planned to go out for dinner on Saturday, so it looks as though I won't make it to the festival this year, either.

I did finish two excellent books yesterday: Palace of Desire by Naguib Mahfouz, the second book in The Cairo Trilogy, which was nearly as good as Palace Walk, and Head Off & Split by Nikky Finney, which won the National Book Award for Poetry last year. I'm very eager to find out what happens to the characters in The Cairo Trilogy, so I may read Sugar Street, the last novel, as early as this week.

A member of the New York Review Books group on LT started a thread for favorite NYRB Classics. Here's my top 10 list, in order of preference:

Troubles by J.G. Farrell
The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell
Chess Story by Stefan Zweig
The Winners by Julio Cortázar
An African in Greenland by Tété-Michel Kpomassie
The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian by Nirad C. Chaudhuri
A Journey Round My Skull by Frigyes Karinthy
The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll by Álvaro Mutis
A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 by Alistair Horne
The Three Christs of Ypsilanti by Milton Rokeach

Morning Darryl- I've heard of the 1st 3 on the list and then that's it. Looks like I need to do some homework. I finally landed a copy of Troubles, (it only took me 3 plus years) and hope to bookhorn it in, in the fall.
Hope you had a good weekend.

Book #80: Palace of Desire by Naguib Mahfouz



My rating:

The second novel in The Cairo Trilogy begins in 1926, seven years from where Palace Walk left off. Egypt is no longer a British protectorate, after the passage of the Unilateral Declaration of Egyptian Independence in 1922, but it has not yet won complete freedom from British rule. As a result, the country is in a state of relative calm in comparison to the 1919 revolution, but leaders of different factions, most notably Sa'ad Zaghlul of the Wafd Party, continued to press for independence. Egypt is ruled by its new King, Fuad I, the former Sultan of Egypt during the protectorate period. He and his wealthy supporters are more closely aligned with the British than with the populist Wafd Party, which adds to the nationalists' ever increasing calls for a government led by the people.

Palace of Desire continues the saga of the family of al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad, the Cairene merchant owner. He remains an iron fisted tyrant at home, demanding complete loyalty and strict adherence to the Qur'an by his wife and children, while he continues to enjoy the company of his friends, wine and women outside of it. The main character in this second novel is Kamal, al-Sayyid Ahmad's youngest son, who has matured from a wildly passionate and irreverent youth to become an intense but naïve student who loves philosophy and literature and is a fervent supporter of the Wafd Party. His greatest love, however, is for Aïda, the sister of one of his classmates and his closest confidant, who comes from a wealthy family that is aligned with the King rather than the Wafd Party, spends its summers in Paris, and has turned away from the strict teachings of Islam. Kamal's friends reflect the different middle and upper class segments of Egyptian society, and their political and philosophical discussions portray the different viewpoints held by them.

Meanwhile, Kamal's father and stepbrother Yasin provide comic relief, as the two continue to wallow ever more deeply in the mud of hedonism. Kamal's mother, his sisters and their families occupy a more peripheral role than they did in the first novel. There is also less tension and drama outside of the Abd al-Jawad family, due to the absence of British soldiers and street protests that ended four years earlier.

Palace of Desire isn't nearly as compelling as its predecessor, Palace Walk, but it is still a superb portrait of an ordinary middle class Cairene family and Egyptian society in the mid-1920s, and is highly recommended.

>200 msf59: Mark, Troubles and The Siege of Krishnapur are two of the best novels that I've read recently, so you should be in for a treat this fall.

#201: I have not yet read Palace of Desire, although I loved Palace Walk. One of these days I will manage to read the entire trilogy!

>203 alcottacre: I hope that you do read The Cairo Trilogy in its entirety, Stasia. I "read" the first two novels years ago, but I seem to have forgotten nearly everything about them. I'm glad that I started from the beginning, and it's been a very enjoyable summer project so far.

#204: I would need to re-read the first book too, I am sure. Even if I did not feel the need to read it again, I would anyway just because I have to! lol

Excellent review of Palace of Desire, Darryl. (Touchstones not working for me this morning.)

Palace of Desire isn't nearly as compelling as its predecessor, Palace Walk. Still, 4 1/2 stars is not too shabby!

>205 alcottacre: Paul is planning to read Palace of Desire this month, I believe. I'll be interested to read his comments, and see if he feels a need to re-read or skim through Palace Walk to get a fuller appreciation of its sequel.

>206 Linda92007: Thanks, Linda. You're right; Palace of Desire is still an excellent book. I read all but 60-70 of its 446 pages yesterday, and couldn't put it down. I'm very tempted to dive right into Sugar Street, the final novel of the trilogy, as I'm eager to know what happens next. I'll probably read it this week.

Good Morning Darryl

I'm enjoying the conversations re. Penn State. Your thread seems to generate wonderful topics for sharing ideas!

>208 Whisper1: Thanks, Linda!

I disliked Palace of Desire in comparison to Palace Walk, but am pleased to report Sugar Street was unputdownable for me.

Happy Monday!

>210 richardderus: Sugar Street was unputdownable for me

That's good to know. I may start reading Sugar Street as early as Wednesday.

Today I'll read Narcopolis, my second book from this year's Booker Prize longlist.

I'll finish up Palace of Desire tonight Darryl and agree that it isn't as compelling as Palace Walk. I probably won't read Sugar Street until September. (Excellent review BTW)

>212 brenzi: I'll read Sugar Street this month, as I want to find out how the story ends, and particularly because I don't want to bring the Everyman's Library edition of The Cairo Trilogy with me to London. I work September 1-5, and I'll take an overnight flight from Atlanta to London on the 5th.

BTW I've dropped my rating of Palace of Desire from 4-1/2 to 4 stars.

Darryl, I'm about halfway through Palace Walk and I'm just loving it. I checked out your review over on the Middle Eastern Global thread (okay, that's not the thread's exact title, but you know what I mean) and it was very helpful --- thanks for that. I honestly think I was both trying to read too much into the novel and read too little ---
Now I'm taking it more at face value in terms of the family relationships and insight into Egyptian culture and everyday life, but I'm also thinking more about it as a metaphor for Egyptian history. Both are adding to my enjoyment immensely.

I'm glad you're enjoying Palace Walk, Ellen. I look forward to your thoughts about it, along with the rest of The Cairo Trilogy. I'm glad to see so many people reading and enjoying it!

I'm still slogging my way through Narcopolis, but I'll finish it this morning. I didn't do much reading yesterday, as I had to give a presentation and defend a special privilege that my group at work was requesting at a hospital committee meeting last night (which we were granted, yay!). I'll have some minor work tasks the next couple of days, but I'll be able to get some reading done between now and Friday night, which is my next work shift.

still slogging my way through Narcopolis

Guess you're not enjoying it as much as I did!

I think I would have liked Narcopolis more if I hadn't decided to read it so soon after I read Pure by Timothy Mo, which is somewhat similar to it, as both feature transgendered characters, meaningless and violent sex, and plenty of drug use. I'll have to choose a less depraved novel for my next read.

Hmm, I'm not sure I would have called Narcopolis depraved. I actually thought it was very poetic and it made me think about a lot of interpersonal issues as well as drug use. But I did think the second part where Thayil tries to contrast old and new Bombay doesn't work as well.

Now, if you were talking about Almost Transparent Blue, I would agree with you about "depraved," as well as "meaningless and violent sex, and plenty of drug use."

Narcopolis definitely has literary merit, and its descriptions of an opium den, the differences between opium addiction and heroin addiction, and the disastrous effect of the influx of heroin on an individual and community basis are eye-opening. Thayil writes beautifully, and this will be a book I won't soon forget. Despite that, it has been a slow read, compared to the page turning novels of The Cairo Trilogy.

You're probably right; the term depraved is probably best applied to Ryu Murakami's novels! I'll read Coin Locker Babies sometime this month, and In the Miso Soup in September.

Daryl, you commented on my thread about Andrea Gillies' The White Lie...here's the review from The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/03/white-lie-andrea-gillies-review

I find that there's not much I can add that would improve upon this review.

>220 tangledthread: Thanks for posting that review of The White Lie; I'll look for it when I go to London next month.

I finished Narcopolis, my second book from this year's Booker Prize longlist, and I'll give it 3½ stars for now. It falls a distant second, far behind Bring Up the Bodies, and I suspect that it will continue to fall as I read more of the longlisted books.

I received my LT Early Reviewer copy of The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle yesterday, which I've been looking forward to. I'll start reading it now.

Try "Harold Fry" next; anything but depraved. Warm and "uplifting".

Going back to the healthcare discussion: A friend of mine (also in Atlanta) lost both his parents in the same Florida hospital in very short order. His mother went in to have a chemo port installed; they bungled it and she died. His father went in for another routine procedure, caught one of those infections that sweep through hospitals; was nonetheless discharged, got sicker and home, was readmitted and died. Just noting this re Paul's comments that the hospitals will do for you...

>222 Chatterbox: I should have read Harold Fry ahead of Narcopolis. I'll probably wait until next month to read it, as I have it on my Kindle, and I'd rather read the four longlisted books I ordered by mail two weeks ago from AbeBooks—which still haven't come yet. I had to reorder The Garden of Evening Mists from Amazon UK/The Book Depository, as the seller I had originally purchased it from no longer had it in stock. Hopefully the other three books will arrive this week, so that I can get started on them this weekend.

That's a terrible story about your friend's parents. That reminds me; I need to review The Patient Survival Guide. I'll do that later today or tomorrow.

> kidzdoc - *grin* curious me - Are you going to London just for fun, or profession related?

If you do have enough time to go on a "Food Binge" you may want to try this Restaurant. I don't know why it has only a 3 star rating, because the food, the service and the ambiente are superb. This is the restaurant I mentioned before :)

Indian Mischief

and if you should enjoy art - there is an exhibition from the artist "Edvard Munch" at the Tate Modern. Unfortunately, I did not manage to go this time, but I am hoping to go in October. The exhibition is still until the 14.10.2012
I am back in London on the 26th of September, so I still have time to see his paintings. He is one of those artists whose paintings are just amazing.

Still a little bit time until you go in September, but I hope you are going to have a great time, and I noticed you are quite familiar with London anyway. *wink*

>224 drachenbraut23: The trip to London will be my second summer vacation. It's become one of my favorite destinations, as this will be my fifth trip in the past six years. I've gotten to know two LTers pretty well, Fliss (flissp) and Rachael (FlossieT), and I've also met Luci (elkiedee) and Jenny (lunacat) on past trips. (I've posted photos on my profile page of the Cambridge meet up last August, when Fliss, Rachel, Jenny & I spent the day there.) I hope to see all of them again on this trip, along with the husband of the late Janet Katz (JanetinLondon), who succumbed to complications from leukemia in January. We've kept in touch by e-mail, and have made tentative plans to meet up on my next trip to the capital.

Thanks for the restaurant recommendation; it looks to be close to the East Dulwich rail station, but it looks as though would be easier to take a Transport for London bus there, particularly the 176 bus, which runs from Tottenham Court Road to Lordship Lane in East Dulwich. I'm staying at the Hotel Russell on Russell Square in Bloomsbury, and can walk to the Tottenham Court Road Underground station from there.

The Munch exhibition is on my "to do" list already. I love going to the Tate Modern, as I saw the Joan Miró and the Diane Arbus exhibitions there last summer (and it's a short distance away from the culinary delights at Borough Market!). The Damien Hirst exhibition closes on September 9, so I'll probably make my first trip there that day, as I've already purchased day passes for the Paralympic Games at the ExCel Centre for September 7 & 8. There are plenty of things I'd like to do for the two weeks that I'll be there, including frequent trips to the London Review Bookshop, Foyles and Daunt Books, so I'm eagerly looking forward to my departure date (September 5).

225> I've been trying for several years to get to the Dulwich Picture Gallery. Every time, the rails have been closed down due to heavy rains or snowstorms. Bad timing, I guess.

Hi Darryl- It sounds like you have a nice London trip planned. Sweet. I've also been hearing good things about Harold Fry. I've added it to my WL.

>226 Cariola: It looks as though at least two TfL buses pass in front of the Dulwich Picture Gallery, particularly the P4 from the Brixton Underground station, where the Victoria line terminates.

>227 msf59: Thanks, Mark. I'll spend two weeks in London, fly from Heathrow to JFK, and spend the better part of a week visiting my parents in Philadelphia before I fly back to Atlanta on September 26.

>221 kidzdoc: I won The Devil in Silver also! Looking forward to reading it and seeing what you think ;o)

>229 TinaV95: I'm nearly halfway through The Devil in Silver, and I love it so far!

Hi Darryl! Sorry you didn't enjoy Narcopolis quite as much as I did. While reading it, I had moments where I questioned some of the more extreme violent scenes, but in the end I think it all made sense and wasn't gratuitous in any way. Beautiful writing too. I'll have to get my review together at some point.

>231 DorsVenabili: I'll have to think about Narcopolis a bit more before I write my review of it, and possibly re-read excerpts from it, and comments by others about it, including those made by its author. I just listened to a superb audio interview of Jeet Thayil on NPR's Weekend Edition; it was short (just under 7 minutes), but it was extremely valuable in helping me understand Thayil's viewpoints about addiction and the "freedom" that accompanies it, and his intentions in writing this book:

'Narcopolis': Inside India's Dark Underbelly

Thayil's comments in this interview opened my eyes a bit, and allowed me to look beyond my prejudiced attitudes about addiction in its various forms, to drugs, sex and religion; as he said, "Every character in this book is an addict of some sort." It also helped me understand the statement made by one of the characters in the novel, "in addiction lies freedom", which I'm still wrapping my head around.

I feel as if a veil is being lifted in front of my eyes, and I'm started to understand Narcopolis and Thayil much more than I did when I finished the book. As a result, my rating of it will surely go up, and I may ultimately give it 4-1/2 stars as you did. If I have time I'll read it again, especially if it is selected for the Booker shortlist next month.

Thinking about this book reminds me of the comments that Peter Stothard, the chair of judges, made about this year's longlist in an article in last month's Guardian:

Stothard said that the key criteria for this year's judges was that "a text has to reveal more, the more often you read it". "We were looking for books that you can make a sustained critical argument about, and when you read them again, you can make a different critical argument – not for books you can just say 'wow, I enjoyed it', or 'wow, that was terrible'." he said.

These comments certainly hold true for Narcopolis. I'll change my rating of it now, to 4-1/2 stars.

I was hoping to get to Narcopolis sometime before the shortlist is announced, but you've turned me off of it. I feel a little queasy when I read violent sex scenes and try to avoid them unless I'm told they are very tactfully done and make an important point...

>233 The_Hibernator: Rachel, my opinion about Narcopolis is starting to change, after I gave it some thought and listened to that NPR interview of its author. I agree with you, I'm very uncomfortable reading about violent or disturbing sex scenes, and, for the moment, that would remain as my one significant criticism of the book. I want to think about this a bit more, though.

>232 kidzdoc: Thanks for sharing those very enlightening comments, Darryl. I will read Narcopolis from a very different perspective, having this information. I always find it so helpful and interesting to know something of the author and what they intended in writing a book. It does sound as if this book does meet the Booker judges' criteria.

198: I plan on going to the Decatur book festival, and your post reminded me it's time to start figuring out which events I want to attend. I definitely want to go to the keynote this year - maybe as the date gets closer we could figure out a way to meet up & say hello?

OH I wish I could! I have never been to a book festival... sigh.

>225 kidzdoc: looks like you have a great trip to the UK planned Darryl. I love the Tate Modern too, I still remember seeing an Andy Warhol print there and being so shocked and delighted to be so close to the real thing. It was only mildly less exciting than seeing Picasso's Demoiselles D'Avignon at MoMa, I cried when I came face to face with that!

#232 - Thanks for providing the link Darryl. I will definitely listen to this.

addiction as freedom? Yes, I can see that in a way -- the freedom that you feel when you succumb to instincts that you know are self destructive. I see it as the kind of freedom that an alcoholic might feel in taking that first drink after fighting to stay on the wagon. Of course, it's the freedom to destroy yourself -- and maybe that is the ultimate freedom?

OK, after that burst of philosophy must return to trying to make my modem work and getting my phone line working once more...

>235 Linda92007: You're welcome, Linda. I'll look for other audio and text interviews by Jeet Thayil. I'm also interested to read some of his poetry and nonfiction, so I'll look for these, and post anything of interest that I find.

>236 markon: Ardene, that sounds like a great idea. Several people in the Atlanta Bibliophiles group are planning to go to the festival as well. I'll check to see if there is a thread for the Decatur Book Festival, to see how many others are planning to attend Natasha Trethewey's keynote address at Emory. BTW, tickets for the address are currently available, at the Schwartz Center and three local bookstores, as well as online from the Emory Arts web site:

AJC Decatur Book Festival keynote tickets now available

An old friend of mine is coming to town that weekend for the Tennessee-North Carolina State football game on August 31st, and we'll spend the morning and afternoon together. There's a slim chance that we'll go to the Square in downtown Decatur for lunch, hopefully at the Iberian Pig, and attend the festival for a short while. The football game is that evening, so I'll have time to drive to campus and attend Ms Trethewey's talk. I'm working that weekend, and if I get off early enough on Saturday I'll either go to the festival or meet my friend for dinner. I'm working all day Sunday (10 am to 10 pm), so I definitely won't be able to go that day.

>237 mckait: Unfortunately I'll miss most of this book festival. I have attended others, and enjoyed all of them. I wish I had decided to go to London in April, as the lineup for this year's London Literature Festival was very enticing. I need to pay more attention to the literary events that take place at Emory and the Carter Center, former President Jimmy Carter's presidential library and center for human rights, which is a 10 minute drive from where I live. The last event I saw at the Carter Center was Salman Rushdie's talk about his book The Enchantress of Florence (Rushdie was an honorary professor at Emory from 2006-2011 and stayed in Atlanta for 2-3 months every year), so it's been awhile since I've been there.

>238 LovingLit: Thanks, Megan. I saw many of Warhol's works up close at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, when I attended medical school at the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt). Warhol was born and grew up in Pittsburgh, along with a surprising number of famous artists and entertainers, and this museum is the largest one in the US that is dedicated to a single artist. It's definitely worth a trip for anyone who visits the city.

I was enthralled by the Picasso exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2010. The one painting that made me pause the most was Three Musicians:



I've already purchased tickets for three plays at the National Theatre, two day passes for the Paralympic Games, and a lecture at the London Review Bookshop. There are several other plays at the NT and elsewhere that I'd like to see, along with exhibitions at the Tate Modern, the Tate Britain, the V&A, the British Museum and the Wellcome Collection. Sigh...I wish I could hit the MegaMillions lottery, so that I could retire and spend my days traveling back and forth between London and San Francisco.

>239 DorsVenabili: You're welcome, Kerri. And thank you for the discussion about Narcopolis; your positive opinion about the book was essential in getting me to think about it more deeply than I originally did.

>240 Chatterbox: addiction as freedom? Yes, I can see that in a way -- the freedom that you feel when you succumb to instincts that you know are self destructive. I see it as the kind of freedom that an alcoholic might feel in taking that first drink after fighting to stay on the wagon. Of course, it's the freedom to destroy yourself -- and maybe that is the ultimate freedom?

Interesting comments, Suz. I can see this, and Thayil's comments, from an existentialist standpoint: I choose the freedom of addiction. On one hand, the life of an addict is one of slavery to the drug(s) of choice, as the person is dependent on the drug to be able to function as a reasonably sentient being and must regularly do whatever it takes (beg, borrow, steal) to feed the addiction. On the other hand, as Thayil said in the NPR interview, the addict is free to do and think whatever he wants to, and is free from boredom and existential anxiety. It's a fascinating concept and, as the interviewer points out, one that is antithetical to the prevailing view of addiction.

As Linda said in message #235, Narcopolis IMO does meet the criteria that Peter Stothard laid out in the judges' determination of which books were worthy of inclusion in the Booker Prize longlist.

I'd highly recommend the NPR interview of Thayil to everyone, including those who have no interest in reading Narcopolis. It's only 6 min 40 sec in length, but it's one of the best NPR stories I've listened to recently.

Back to The Devil in Silver...I didn't finish it this afternoon, but I should be done before midnight. I have to work tomorrow night, so I spent the afternoon sleeping in preparation, and I'll stay awake for as long as I can, hopefully until at least sunrise.

I'm probably going to give Narcopolis a miss this month, mainly due to having listened to Keith Richards' Life recently which covers addiction fairly thoroughly and I'm not ready to go there again so soon.

>241 kidzdoc: You are fast, Darryl! I just got "Devil" and haven't even started! Putting me to shame....heehee

I'll read a bit before bed so I will have at least started.

>242 avatiakh: Good idea, Kerry. I was originally put off by Narcopolis, since I had read Pure by Timothy Mo so recently. It's certainly a worthwhile and valuable novel, though.

>243 TinaV95: I didn't receive The Devil in Silver until Tuesday, but it has me hooked!

BTW, if anyone is interested, I posted photos from last summer's informal LT Cambridge (UK) meet up on my profile page, with photos of the Cambridge campus, LTers FlossieT (Rachael) and her adorable sprogs, flissp (Fliss) and lunacat (Jenny), and action photos of our death defying punting expedition on the River Cam, which amazingly ended with no casualties, except for transient cases of PTSD in Jenny and yours truly.

Lovely photos - we go punting in Cambridge quite a lot although we haven't been this year because the weather has been so bad. My husband went to Oxford so he's had lots of practice and I have to confess that when it comes to punting all my feminist principles go out the window, and I feel my role is to sit back and trail my hand in the water gracefully. I have the excuse that I have a very bad sense of balance and I'm sure I would fall in.

What are you going to see at the NT? I wanted to take my son to see A History of the Dog in Night Time which has had a really good write-up, but couldn't get tickets on suitable days.

Great pix, Darryl!

You are an Art-Meister, my friend! Nice Picasso. Enjoy your weekend.

Gah! Picasso give me the headache. I'm glad to hear that your trip to Londonis coming together so well.
Love the photos from last year, thanks for posting them :)

>245 SandDune: Thanks, Rhian. Rachael, who graduated from Cambridge and still lives there, was our punter by default, since neither Jenny nor I had ever tried it. We spent most of the trip slowly meandering from side to side, bumping into other boats and the concrete edges of the river, while ducks and other punters scurried out of our way. Fortunately the boat was quite sturdy, and we were never in any danger of toppling out.

I'll see London Road at the NT on Sep 6, the day I arrive, The Doctor's Dilemma on Sep 9, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time on Sep 11 and One Man, Two Guvnors at the Royal Haymarket on Sep 12. And, we're also planning to see The Last of the Haussmans on Sep 17. I nabbed the last ticket for London Road on the last day of its return engagement, (it was sold out when I tried to see it last summer). I had planned to see One Man, Two Guvnors this spring on Broadway, after I couldn't get a ticket for it in London last year, but balked at the $90-100+ ticket prices. The ticket I bought for the Royal Haymarket performance was £15, roughly $23.40 US, in comparison.

BTW, I just bought my ticket for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time this morning; there were no tickets available for any performances yesterday.

Needless to say I love live theater, and I'm a huge fan of the National Theatre! I usually see 3-4 performances every time I go to London, and I'm continually impressed by the outstanding plays and musicals I've seen there, along with the low ticket prices compared to similar performances in the US.

>246 lauralkeet: Thanks, Laura. I'll take plenty of pictures next month as well.

>247 msf59: Thanks, Mark. I have to work tonight and Monday night, but those are the only two days I'll work between now and the Monday after next. Have a great fishing trip!

>248 mckait: Thanks, Kath. Some of Picasso's work leaves me cold, but I like the majority of it, and I love Three Musicians. I think I used it as one of my opening images on one of last year's thread, otherwise I would have used it for the upcoming one.

Kindle alert: Today's Kindle Daily Deal in the US is A Word Child by Iris Murdoch, which is on sale for today only for $1.99. Here's a description of the book:

A brilliant but deeply flawed man struggles to earn absolution

Hilary Burde was a rising star in academia until a tragic accident plunged him and his mentor and rival, Gunnar Jopling, into two decades of depression and guilt. Hilary, unable to overcome his pain, abandoned his promising career for an unfulfilling job as a civil servant. But at age forty-one, Hilary crosses paths again with Gunnar—initiating a series of events that will change their lives forever.

Set against a richly drawn backdrop of post-war London, A Word Child is a gripping story of passion and the redemptive power of love.

I rarely find any of the Kindle Daily Deals interesting, but I did buy this book.

New thread here!