kidzdoc is cutting down the mountain of unread books in 2012: part 16

Boo!



Voodoo altar at the New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum










Currently reading:



The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams and the Making of China by Julia Lovell
The Cage: The Fight for Sri Lanka and the Last Days of the Tamil Tigers by Gordon Weiss

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 (review)
84. Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley
85. Swimming Home by Deborah Levy
86. Sugar Street by Naguib Mahfouz
87. The Yips by Nicola Barker
88. Silence by Shusaku Endo (review)
89. Lucretia and the Kroons by Victor LaValle (review)
90. The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng (review)
91. Friendly Fire by A.B. Yehoshua

September:
92. The Empty Family by Colm Tóibín
93. The Same Sea by Amos Oz
94. Circulation: William Harvey's Revolutionary Idea by Thomas Wright
95. The Lighthouse by Alison Moore
96. Another London by Helen Delaney
97. London's Overthrow by China Miéville
98. Philida by André Brink
99. The Guardians by Sarah Manguso (review)
100. As Though She Were Sleeping by Elias Khoury
101. Thrall by Natasha Trethewey
102. Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie

October:
103. Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima
104. Indian Nocturne by Antonio Tabucchi

Books acquired in 2012: (books in bold are ones that I have 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)
114. A Word Child by Iris Murdoch (10 August; Kindle download)
115. Swimming Home by Deborah Levy (10 August; The Book Depository)
116. The Teleportation Accident by Ned Bauman (11 August; AbeBooks)
117. The Yips by Nicola Barker (11 August; AbeBooks)
118. The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng (17 August; AbeBooks)
119. Lucretia and the Kroons by Victor LaValle (18 August; Kindle single)
120. Five Tales by John Galsworthy (19 August; free Kindle download)
121. Blooms of Darkness by Aharon Appelfeld (19 August; Kindle e-book)
122. Editorial by Arthur Graham (22 August; free Kindle download)
123. The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford (23 August; free Kindle download)

September:
124. The Hour Between Dog and Wolf by John Coates (4 Sep; Kindle e-book)
125. sic by Joshua Cody (4 Sep; Kindle e-book)
126. No Time to Lose: A Life in Pursuit of Deadly Viruses by Peter Piot (4 Sep; Kindle e-book)
127. The Believing Brain by Michael Shermer (4 Sep; Kindle e-book)
128. The Moral Molecule by Paul Zak (4 Sep; Kindle e-book)
129. The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by Tobias Smolett (5 Sep; Kindle free e-book)
130. Old Town by Lin Zhe (7 Sep; Kindle free e-book)
131. The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories by H.G. Wells (9 Sep; Kindle free e-book)
132. Merivel: A Man of His Time by Rose Tremain (9 Sep; Foyles Bookshop)
133. NW by Zadie Smith (9 Sep; Foyles Bookshop)
134. Philida by André Brink (9 Sep; Foyles Bookshop)
135. London's Overthrow by China Miéville (10 Sep; Foyles Bookshop)
136. The Lighthouse by Alison Moore (10 Sep; Foyles Bookshop)
137. Circulation: William Harvey, A Man in Motion by Thomas Wright (10 Sep; Foyles Bookshop)
138. Umbrella by Will Self (10 Sep; Foyles Bookshop)
139. Another London by Helen Delaney (13 Sep; Tate Britain Bookshop)
140. Life! Death! Prizes! by Stephen May (13 Sep; Foyles Bookshop)
141. Hawthorn and Child by Keith Ridgway (13 Sep; Foyles Bookshop)
142. Subhuman Redneck Poems by Les Murray (13 Sep; Foyles Bookshop)
143. The Tree of Man by Patrick White (13 Sep; Foyles Bookshop)
144. Voss by Patrick White (13 Sep; Foyles Bookshop)
145. The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams and the Making of China by Julia Lovell (13 Sep; Foyles Bookshop)
146. The Guardians: An Elegy by Sarah Manguso (14 Sep; London Review Bookshop)
147. Lionel Asbo: State of England by Martin Amis (14 Sep; London Review Bookshop
148. Communion Town by Sam Thompson (18 Sep; Foyles Bookshop)
149. Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie (18 Sep; London Review Bookshop)
150. The Colour of Milk by Nell Leyshon (13 Sep; Foyles Bookshop)
151. District and Circle by Seamus Heaney (13 Sep; Foyles Bookshop)
152. Restoration by Rose Tremain (13 Sep; Foyles Bookshop)
153. Mo Said She Was Quirky by James Kelman (13 Sep; Foyles Bookshop)
154. The Chip-Chip Gatherers by Shiva Naipaul (13 Sep; Foyles Bookshop)
155. Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria by Noo Saro-Wiwa (13 Sep; Foyles Bookshop)
156. Domestic Work by Natasha Trethewey (23 Sep; Barnes & Noble (Philadelphia))
157. Thrall by Natasha Trethewey (23 Sep; Barnes & Noble (Philadelphia))
158. Young Man with a Horn by Dorothy Baker (26 Sep; NYRB Book Club)

October:
159. Frommer's New Orleans (7 Oct; Kindle e-book)
160. Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis (9 Oct; NYRB Book Club)
161. Indian Nocturne by Antonio Tabucchi (9 Oct; Amazon)
162. No Place Like Home: A Black Briton's Journey through the American South by Gary Younge (9 Oct; Amazon)
163. The Cage: The Fight for Sri Lanka and the Last Days of the Tamil Tigers by Gordon Weiss (9 Oct; LTER book)
164. The Odditorium: Stories by Melissa Pritchard (9 Oct; LTER freebie!)
165. The Garlic Ballads by Mo Yan (11 Oct; Kindle e-book)
166. The Republic of Wine by Mo Yan (11 Oct; Kindle e-book)
167. Shifu, You'll Do Anything for a Laugh by Mo Yan (11 Oct; Kindle e-book)
168. Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain (11 Oct; Kindle e-book)

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
27. Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley
28. Sugar Street by Naguib Mahfouz
29. Silence by Shusaku Endo
30. Friendly Fire by A.B. Yehoshua
31. The Empty Family by Colm Tóibín
32. The Same Sea by Amos Oz

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
64. A Word Child by Iris Murdoch
65. Swimming Home by Deborah Levy
66. The Teleportation Accident by Ned Bauman
67. The Yips by Nicola Barker
68. The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
69. Lucretia and the Kroons by Victor LaValle
70. Blooms of Darkness by Aharon Appelfeld
71. The Hour Between Dog and Wolf by John Coates
72. sic by Joshua Cody
73. No Time to Lose: A Life in Pursuit of Deadly Viruses by Peter Piot
74. The Believing Brain by Michael Shermer
75. The Moral Molecule by Paul Zak
76. Merivel: A Man of His Time by Rose Tremain
77. NW by Zadie Smith
78. Philida by André Brink
79. London's Overthrow by China Miéville
80. The Lighthouse by Alison Moore
81. Circulation: William Harvey, A Man in Motion by Thomas Wright
82. Umbrella by Will Self
83. Another London by Helen Delaney
84. Life! Death! Prizes! by Stephen May
85. Hawthorn and Child by Keith Ridgway
86. Subhuman Redneck Poems by Les Murray
87. The Tree of Man by Patrick White
88. Voss by Patrick White
89. The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams and the Making of China by Julia Lovell
90. The Guardians: An Elegy by Sarah Manguso
91. Lionel Asbo: State of England by Martin Amis
92. Communion Town by Sam Thompson
93. Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie
94. The Colour of Milk by Nell Leyshon
95. District and Circle by Seamus Heaney
96. Restoration by Rose Tremain
97. Mo Said She Was Quirky by James Kelman
98. The Chip-Chip Gatherers by Shiva Naipaul
99. Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria by Noo Saro-Wiwa
100. Domestic Work by Natasha Trethewey
101. Thrall by Natasha Trethewey
102. Frommer's New Orleans by Diana K. Schwam
103. Indian Nocturne by Antonio Tabucchi
104. No Place Like Home: A Black Briton's Journey through the American South by Gary Younge
105. The Garlic Ballads by Mo Yan
106. The Republic of Wine by Mo Yan
107. Shifu, You'll Do Anything for a Laugh by Mo Yan
108. Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain

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
8. Sugar Street by Naguib Mahfouz
9. Silence by Shusaku Endo

Planned reads for October:

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie (Banned Books Week) - reading
*The Teleportation Accident by Ned Beauman (Booker Prize longlist)
*Communion Town by Sam Thompson (Booker Prize longlist)
*Skios by Michael Frayn (Booker Prize longlist)
*The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce (Booker Prize longlist)
The Vivisector by Patrick White (October group read for the Patrick White 100th Anniversary Challenge group)
To the End of the Land by David Grossman (third quarter Reading Globally theme)
Beijing Coma by Ma Jian (fourth quarter Reading Globally theme)
Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan (fourth quarter Reading Globally theme)
The Opium War by Julia Lovell (fourth quarter Reading Globally theme)
The Lost and Forgotten Languages of Shanghai by Ruiyan Yi (fourth quarter Reading Globally theme; LT Early Reviewer book)
Foreign Studies by Shusaku Endo (Author Theme Reads group)
When I Whistle by Shusaku Endo (Author Theme Reads group)
Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima (Author Theme Reads group) - completed
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima (Author Theme Reads group)

* I may defer one or more of the Booker longlisted books until November, as I'll finish the shortlist after I read Umbrella.

Planned reads in November:

Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin (group read)
The Samurai by Shusaku Endo (Author Theme Reads)
Scandal by Shusaku Endo (Author Theme Reads)
Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima (Author Theme Reads)
Runaway Horses by Yukio Mishima (Author Theme Reads)
The Tree of Man by Patrick White (Patrick White 100th Anniversary Challenge)
Mao's Great Famine by Frank Dikötter (Reading Globally)
Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong (Reading Globally)
Dream of Ding Village by Yan Lianke (Reading Globally)
The Boat to Redemption by Su Tong (Reading Globally)

Planned reads in December:

Deep River by Shusaku Endo (Author Theme Reads)
The Final Martyrs by Shusaku Endo (Author Theme Reads)
The Temple of Dawn by Yukio Mishima (Author Theme Reads)
The Decay of the Angel by Yukio Mishima (Author Theme Reads)
Voss by Patrick White (Patrick White 100th Anniversary Challenge)
The Woman Who Could Not Forget: Iris Chang Before and Beyond the Rape of Nanking- A Memoir by Ying-Ying Chang (Reading Globally)
Brothers by Yu Hua (Reading Globally)
Three Sisters by Bei Feiyu (Reading Globally)
Nanjing Requiem by Ha Jin (Reading Globally)

So many reserves! Looking forward to seeing the lists pile up.
I didnt realise you were running on LT time Darryl, I find it hard to picture everyone's time zones, virtually impossible for me to keep on top of that along with everything else.
Happy new thread, and wow, your years reading is enviable. If I ever need to feign good taste in reading, Ill steal your years books!

Hi Darryl. Congrats on a nice new thread with New Orleans flavor.

>6 LovingLit: Hi Megan! You're #1 on the new thread, so you win an oyster po' boy from Mother's Restaurant:



There isn't anything new about the first five messages, except for the image in message #1. New Orleans is well known for its voodoo culture, being a city that has been strongly influenced by Caribbean culture. Since it's nearly Halloween, I thought that would be an appropriate photo to lead the new thread.

LT is based in Portland, Maine, which is in the Eastern Time Zone of the US, as are Atlanta and all of the East Coast cities. Atlanta is considerably further west than Portland, NYC, Philadelphia, etc., as we are roughly an hour from the Alabama state line. Alabama and Louisiana are in the Central Time Zone, along with Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Louis and other midwestern cities, which is one hour behind Eastern Time. It's easy for me to keep track of the time zones of the places I've visited, including three of the four time zones in the US (I've never been within the Mountain Time Zone, which is two hours behind Eastern Time), and Greenwich Mean Time or British Summer Time, which is 5 hours ahead of Eastern Time (US). Most of Western Europe is in Central European Time, 1 hour ahead of GMT, and in my mind places like Kuala Lumpur, Australia and Zealand are roughly 12 hours ahead of Eastern Time (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).

Thanks for the lovely compliment about my library and newly acquired books! I'm now behind on one of my goals for the year, which was to read more books than I buy. Unless I snap out of this book funk soon I probably won't meet my goal, as I'll certainly buy more books when I revisit San Francisco at the beginning of next month.

>7 EBT1002: Thanks, Ellen! Among other things, I plan to post one or two YouTube videos of New Orleans musicians and songs, to introduce (or refamiliarize) y'all with the music of the Crescent City and Louisiana. First off, a classic song by The Meters, an early funk band that influenced subsequent ones in the 1970s and 1980s:

The Meters - Cissy Strut

Next, another classic by Professor ("Fess") Longhair, who regularly performed at the Tulane Quad when I was a student there in the late 1970s. At that time he was struggling and forgotten, and if I have the story right he was working as a campus janitor until he was recognized and asked to perform. He had a brief resurgence in the early 1980s, but died soon afterward.

Professor Longhair - Go to the Mardi Gras

Grat new thread, Darryl! I am glad you put those long lists between the pics of the Voodoo altar and that very appetizing huge sandwich thing (what is an oyster po' boy?).

To come back to the Booker - this was the first time I read any of the shortlisted books before the winner was announced. I finished the last one, Umbrella, just in time yesterday evening, and I ended up liking it a lot, though still hating it at times. It sure needs time and patience. And also a reread, but not too soon.

I found all the shortlisted candidates quite strong and saw 3-4 of them as potential winners. It was a great experience and I hope I can repeat it next year.

Thanks for the music links, Darryl. The first would not work from my mobile, but Professor Longhair was a lively number to wake up to this morning!

I'm now behind on one of my goals for the year, which was to read more books than I buy.

No comment, because I'm in a good mood today.

Of course you can use the phrase " pleasantly bleak", Darryl. Enjoy! :)

>9 Deern: Nathalie, a po' boy, short for poor boy, is the other sandwich that New Orleans is known for (besides the muffuletta, which I mentioned on my previous thread). It consists of seafood or meat stuffed into a long loaf of French bread; typical po' boys are oyster, shrimp, roast beef and ham. The roast beef is cooked for hours in a rich sauce, and a debris po' boy consists of roast beef along with the drippings that are left in the sauce. It's incredibly messy but very tasty:



Well done on finishing the shortlist ahead of time! I did so last year, and possibly in 2010 (I read all six shortlisted books, but I can't remember if I got to all of them in time). I do want to go back and finish Umbrella, probably during my last vacation in early November, and I will definitely continue to read the shortlist and most of the Booker Dozen for the foreseeable future. I may be repeating myself, but this was the most enjoyable and rewarding year for the Booker since I began to follow the prize in 2007, although there were many outstanding books on the 2009 shortlist, including Wolf Hall, The Glass Room and The Children's Book.

>10 gennyt: You're welcome, Genny. I've noticed that some YouTube videos won't play on my iPad and BlackBerry, which is quite annoying. I'll bring those devices with me to New Orleans, but not my laptop, so you should be able to see any videos I post over the next week.

>11 rebeccanyc: Be nice, Rebecca! ;-)

>12 vancouverdeb: Thanks, Deb!

I love Professor Longhair, and loved hearing his fine tunes this morning, early, early, early. Mari Gras seems a long ways off from this little living room, in the wet, chilly northwest, with the pellet stove whistling its own tune this morning. We are off to explore a pumpkin patch today with the preschoolers. Should be fun. Hope we don't get too much in the way of rain or showers.

Thanks for reminding me of NOLA!

ETA: Love the VooDoo alter! Boo back to you.....whaahhhahahahah

Darryl, I recently finished We Shall Not Be Moved Rebuilding Home in the Wake of Katrina by Tom Wooten. This is a book dedicated to the spirit of the people of New Orleans.

What a great image to open your new thread!

It turns out that "Cissy Strut" is perfect music by which to brush one's teeth. Who knew?

Just stopping by to congratulate you on the new thread, Darryl. That's an appropriately scary opening pic up top!

Darryl, your voodoo picture is very much in the spirit of Halloween. I loved my one trip to New Orleans back in 1984. We took the kids down to see our first and only World's Fair. It's not my favorite city for a family vacation but this was a wonderful experience for all of us. And, yes, the food is wonderful. Thanks for those mouth-watering pictures.

Professor Longhair is a fave! He gets regular play in my office. Dr John too.

Here's a late WOOHOO for Hilary Mantel's Booker win. She is such a wonderful writer--the quintessence of what a historical novelist should be.

Darryl, I envy you your trip to NOLA. I've wanted to get there for a long time, but it has just never seemed to work out. I've been teaching Zeitoun and showing clips from 'When the Levees Broke' in two calsses, so it's good to see that the city is coming back strong.

One reason I've been slacking here is that I found an abandoned kitten in my yard on Sunday. I left her where I found he, hoping the mama would return, but she was still there four hours later, cold, hungry, and crying. She's tiny--not weaned yet, so the feeding takes quite a bit of time.

Hmmm, thought I posted, but I don't see the message. I'll probably end up with a double post, but here goes.

I'm thrilled with Hilary Mantel's Booker win. She's such a wonderful writer--the quintessence of what a historical novelist should be.

I've been off the boards for several days because I rescued an abandoned kitten on Sunday. She isn't weaned yet, so the feedings are taking a lot of time. I didn't need the hassle, but what is one to do? Couldn't leave her out in the cold and dark, hungry and crying. I waited four hours for the mama to return before bringing her in.

Cariola, you are a sweetheart to take in the kitty. I hope she'll (he'll) thrive.

Darryl - congrats on your new thread. As to the responses due from your last thread:
SWMBO actually would agree with RD on the unsuitability of the tropics and she loves the seasons at least as much as I and RD does. I won't mention a ticket to NYC as she might decide on a long weekend!
I think Tan's ethnicity does make a difference. Had he been Malay I do feel that he would have been spotlighted more.
Cheers go to Cariola for the animal rescue service - good luck to her and the kitty.

I made it to New Orleans several hours ago, after a very short flight from Atlanta (about 1 hr 15 min total, with a wheels up to wheels down time of 45-50 min). I spent more time in the Atlanta airport today than I spent traveling from there to New Orleans! For some strange reason I didn't realize how close these cities were, and I'll have to start coming here much more frequently, especially for long weekends that are too short to go to Philadelphia, San Francisco or elsewhere.

I'll take a quick nap, and then head to Mother's for an oyster po' boy. I'll meet my old college roommate for lunch tomorrow, and do some sightseeing afterward.

I'll catch up on messages this evening or sometime tomorrow.

Have a wonderful time Darryl. I love your travel reports. :)

Laissez les bonnes temps rollez (I clearly do not know how to spell the French, but you get the meaning!)

Aww ... kitten rescue! Off to your thread to see if there are any updates.

Debris po'boy OMGOMGOMG ZOMG

Sososo want one NOW!

Thanks for my Po'Boy, I think it looks just tasty!
You sure get treated well for being first around here (Ill be back next thread bright and early!)

27> Kitty photo and update are on my thread.

Hi Darryl,
great new thread - Luv the photo of the Voodoo altar. I hope you enjoy your time in New Orleans and I am looking forward to your running commentary :)

Interesting food items on your last and this thread, even so that I eat manly vegetarian - they do look very appetizing. :)

I did go to Mother's Restaurant for an oyster po' boy yesterday. It was very good, but I suspect that there are other places in town that make better ones, such as Domilise's in Uptown New Orleans. I'll probably go back to Mother's to try a debris po' boy, the one the restaurant is best known for, and hit Domilise's at some point this coming week.

After I landed at the New Orleans airport (Louis Armstrong International Airport, formerly known as Moisant Field until 2001), I had over an hour to kill, as I couldn't check into the hotel until 4 pm. After a quick refamiliarization with a map from the car rental company I drove to downtown (known as the CBD, or Central Business District) via local roads, past Tulane's campus, Uptown and the Garden District. I was surprised by how little change there was compared to when I lived here over 30 years ago, although the CBD has many more skyscrapers and new buildings than I remember, including the Harrah's casino that is visible from my hotel room.

The hotel I'm staying at (Staybridge Suites French Quarter) consists of extended stay suites for business travelers, and my suite includes a fully equipped kitchen with a coffee maker,refrigerator, stove, microwave, and dishwasher, along with a comfortable couch and work desk. It's considerably larger and much better equipped than a typical hotel room, but I'm only paying $130/day, roughly half the price of most of the hotels in this centrally located area.

So, after dinner last night I wanted to drive to a nearby supermarket, to pick up supplies for the week. I drove for nearly an hour without finding any, including the ones I used to go to when I lived here. I stopped at a nearby Walgreens pharmacy for essential items (ground coffee, granola breakfast bars, snacks), then drove back. I did find several supermarkets in Uptown via a Google search, but none are anywhere close to downtown). Bottom line: if you come to New Orleans you will need a car.

I'll meet my former college roommate from Tulane for lunch today; I haven't seen him since 1981, so we're both excited to have the opportunity to catch up. We'll go to Port of Call at the far edge of the French Quarter, which is known for its superb hamburgers. I'll stay at the hotel until then, and go sightseeing after we part.

>14 maggie1944: I'm always surprised that anyone has heard of Professor Longhair ("Fess"); I'm glad that you like his music, Karen. He was relatively unknown for most of his career, even here.

>15 Whisper1: Thanks for mentioning We Shall Not Be Moved, Linda. I'll probably go to a bookstore tomorrow, and i'll look for it when I'm there.

>16 EBT1002: Ha ha! I thought about your comment when I brushed my teeth last night and this morning. I can't listen to that YouTube video of Cissy Strut on my iPad, but I remember it well enough to hear it in my head.

>17 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe.

>18 Donna828: How was the 1984 World's Fair, Donna? I was thinking of going to it back then, but I was working full time and going to college at night, so I decided not to go. Unfortunately that event was a financial disaster for the city, as it was plagued by poor attendance and corruption by local government officials and business men. My ex-girlfriend at the time got a job working at the Fair, and I remember her telling me that she didn't get paid for several of the weeks she worked there, as the Fair declared bankruptcy during the event. The city and state lost millions of dollars in reimbursing the Fair for its losses, and the city's economy suffered for several years afterward, due to this and the decline of the oil industry in Louisiana.

>19 drneutron: Unfortunately I don't listen to much Louisiana music anymore (not sure why), and the music I'm most familiar with is from the 1960s to 1980s. I'll have to check janepriceestrada's thread for recommendations; she occasionally posts music and concert reviews, and links to YouTube music videos of contemporary Louisiana artists. I'll also ask my ex-roommate who he listens to here.

>20 Cariola:, 21 Yes, Hilary Mantel gets a cheer from me for her historic Booker win; she's the first British citizen to win the award twice, and the first to win for a sequel of a book that also won the Booker. She must feel elated and justified by the praise and recognition she's received since Wolf Hall won the Booker in 2009.

Well done on rescuing that poor kitten! I look forward to seeing photos of the little one on your new thread. Jenny (lunacat) also rescued a kitten last year, which was shamefully discarded by the occupants of a car that was just ahead of hers.

>22 maggie1944: I agree!

>23 PaulCranswick: Darn; I was looking forward to a Hani vs. Richard battle royale. I know who I'd put my money on (sorry, RD).

I can't remember if it was you that previously commented about Tan Twan Eng's ethnicity and his lack of recognition in Malaysia, or if I had read it elsewhere. It's a shame that such a talented author doesn't receive attention in his home country. I wonder if he'll decide to settle in South Africa, the UK or elsewhere.

Do let me know if you & Hani decide to stop in New Orleans during your whirlwind US tour. It's not far from Atlanta, so I could potentially meet you both there.

>25 phebj: Thanks, Pat!

>26 maggie1944: That's close enough to count, Karen. It's "laissez les bon temps rouler", the local Cajun phrase for "let the good times roll". There are numerous phrases that are only spoken in New Orleans or Lousiana; the driver of the van that took me and others from the airport terminal to the rental center reminded me of one of them yesterday. He said that the rental agents would "tighten you up" once we arrived there; I hadn't heard that phrase in years, and I smiled once he said it. New Orleanians frequently greet each other with the phrase "Where y'at?", with y'at being an abbreviation for you at, and they are sometimes referred to as "yats", a term that is often not an endearing one. If you order a sandwich here, especially a po' boy or a burger, the waitress or person at the counter will often ask you if want that sandwich "dressed" or not; a dressed sandwich has lettuce or cold cabbage, tomato, and either mayonnaise or mustard on it.

>27 lauralkeet: I'll also check Deborah's thread after I'm done here.

>28 richardderus: You want than po' boy dressed or not? With Cajun or regular mustard?

>29 LovingLit: You're welcome, Megan! The po' boy I had last night looked similar to that one, although the bread wasn't as good and there weren't nearly as many oysters (although the one I had was still full of them).

After I went to Mother's last night I realized that it wasn't the place where I usually got them from. I suspect that we usually went to Domilise's in Uptown, which is on the other end of Tchoupitoulas Street from my hotel (which is on the corner of Poydras & Tchoupitoulas Streets). It's close to a supermarket, so I'll probably go there later tonight or tomorrow afternoon.

>30 Cariola: Oh, good! I'll visit your thread shortly, Deborah.

>31 drachenbraut23: Thanks, Bianca! There will be more updates to come, especially after I see my ex-roomie today and meet up with friends. Hopefully at least some of them will come to town tomorrow, so that we can get together for dinner.

Here's some zydeco music, first by Clifton Chenier:

Clifton Chenier - Bon Ton Roulet (sp?)

Next, Buckwheat Zydeco performs live at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, one of the best music festivals in the country:

Buckwheat Zydeco at the 2007 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival

The longlist for the 2013 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature was announced in New Delhi on October 16th:

Jamil Ahmad: The Wandering Falcon (Hamish Hamilton/Penguin India)

Alice Albinia: Leela’s Book (Harvill Secker, London)

Tahmima Anam: The Good Muslim (Penguin Books)

Rahul Bhattacharya: The Sly Company of People Who Care (Picador, London / Farrar Strauss and Giroux, New York)

Roopa Farooki: The Flying Man (Headline Review/ Hachette, London

Musharraf Ali Farooqi: Between Clay and Dust (Aleph Book Company, India)

Amitav Ghosh: River of Smoke (Hamish Hamilton/Penguin India)

Niven Govinden: Black Bread White Beer (Fourth Estate/ Harper Collins India)

Sunetra Gupta: So Good in Black (Clockroot Books, Massachusetts)

Mohammed Hanif, Our Lady of Alice Bhatti (Random House India)

Jerry Pinto: Em and the Big Hoom (Aleph Book Company, India)

Uday Prakash: The Walls of Delhi (Translated by Jason Grunebaum; UWA Publishing, W. Australia)

Anuradha Roy: The Folded Earth (Hachette India)

Saswati Sengupta: The Song Seekers (Zubaan, India; will be published by the University of Chicago Press in March)

Geetanjali Shree: The Empty Space (Translated by Nivedita Menon; Harper Perennial/ Harper Collins India)

Jeet Thayil: Narcopolis (Faber and Faber, London)

The shortlist will be announced in mid November, and the winner will be awarded the prize in January. More information about each book can be found here:

http://dscprize.com/global/updates/dsc-prize-longlist-for-2013/

I've read The Wandering Falcon, The Good Muslim, River of Smoke and Narcopolis, and I own Our Lady of Alice Bhatti. All four books I've read were very good, but The Good Muslim was outstanding.

This is the third year for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. Home Boy by HM Navqi won the 2011 prize, and Chinaman by Shehan Karunatilaka won last year's award. The latter novel was published as The Legend of Pradeep Mathew in the US earlier this year.

Thanks for putting up the list. I am learning so much, and broadening my reading choices, too. I'm very happy.

Oh, man....I'm enjoying New Orleans long distance with you, Darryl. We lived there from 1972 to 1975, when we were first married. I'm sure I couldn't find my way around now, after growth and hurricanes and re-building. But I'd sure love some of that French Market coffee and a plate of beignets. And yummy fried oysters---but since I never cared for them in a sandwich, I'll just take a huge plateful, with plenty of hot sauce. You can put all that in a box and ship it right to me, can't you, cher? With a few pralines for lagniappe?

...loving the holiday postings Darryl, maybe you could be a travel blogger as well as a kidzdoc and tsundoku-ist ;)

Oh dressed please, with Cajun mustard...and I'm bettin' on Hani, too, no apologies needed.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is, unless something changes quickly, heading for the Festering Heap of ~Meh~.

I met my old roommate from college for lunch at Port of Call, located on Esplanade Avenue at the far end of the French Quarter. It is a classic hole-in-the-wall New Orleans neighborhood restaurant, one which you would tend to pass by at a first glance:



My roomie said that their burgers were fabulous, and he was spot on. I had a dressed mushroom cheddar cheese hamburger, which supposedly contained 1/2 lb of meat but looked to be considerably larger; it was definitely one of the best burgers I've ever had. Interestingly, Port of Call doesn't serve French fries, so you have to choose between a salad (which Hank had) and a baked potato (my choice).



Steven (steven03tx) from Club Read recommended Turbodog Beer, a dark ale by Abita Brewing Company, and I had my first one there; it was superb!



It was great to see my ex-roomie after more than 30 years, and hopefully we'll be able to meet up again on Monday. If not we'll certainly see each other the next time I come to New Orleans, or when he & his wife come to Atlanta for a long weekend.

I drove to the Garden District after we parted, particularly on Magazine Street, the heart of the district, which has lots of cool shops and restaurants. I didn't stop in any of them, as I was on my way to get a hair cut in the Carrollton neighborhood. I may go back there tomorrow night if none of my friends are in town yet.

>37 maggie1944: What a sweet compliment! Thanks, Karen.

>38 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks, Linda. I might argue that you would be able to get around New Orleans quite easily, though. I've only been here once since 1981 and it hasn't taken me long to feel comfortable driving around the city without a GPS and only an occasional glance at a map.

I drove past Café du Monde last night, but it was very crowded and I couldn't find parking on Decatur Street. I'm sure that I'll go there with my friends one night after the conference, though.

Here's the plate of fried oysters with hot sauce that you requested:



And some pralines from Aunt Sally's; I hope these are enough for you.



Since Aunt Sally's is across the street from Central Grocery Company I can throw in a muffuletta or two for lagniappe, if you'd like.

>39 LovingLit: Thanks, Megan. That sounds like a great alternate career choice, once I hang up my stethoscope.

>40 richardderus: And one dressed debris po' boy for RD, with Cajun mustard. Actually, the photo I posted in message #13 is a Ferdi po' boy from Mother's, with ham, roast beef and debris. After the burger from Port of Call I probably won't want dinner, but I'll stop by there for a Ferdi po' boy before I leave town on Wednesday.

The general opinion seems to be that The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is a pleasant read, but not an outstanding one. I downloaded the e-book to my Kindle once it was selected for this year's Booker Dozen, and I'll eventually read it, although it may not be until next year.

>41 kidzdoc: OH, that looks so good! Yours truly spent the day out of town on jury duty & ended up with lunch at the Golden Arches (hey, desperate times call for desperate measures). And now I am craving a REAL hamburger .....

Thanks for the music links; I don't know why the Cissy Strut sounds so familiar to me but it does. Learned of Professor Longhair through Lightning in a Bottle when the Nevelle Brothers covered "Big Chief" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtuaC6GsLho

I am so glad I've just had supper or I'd be trying to teleport to nawlins through the monitor. All these po'boys and Buckwheat Zydeco. Wow!

>43 avidmom: If you're hungry enough, even a McDonald's hamburger can hit the spot.

I wouldn't be surprised if you've heard Cissy Strut before. That song and other early ones by the Meters preceded most of the classic funk albums from the mid 1970s, and it's possible that one of those bands may have performed that song or built upon it.

Big Chief was Professor Longhair's other big hit. I liked that version by the Neville Brothers, although I wish the horn section was more robust, similar to Fess's instrumental version, which was recorded in 1964:

Professor Longhair - Big Chief Part 1 & Part 2

>44 tiffin: Right, Tui. I'd do the same if I wasn't already here.

If you're hungry enough, even a McDonald's hamburger can hit the spot.
It certainly did. Finding those Golden Arches so close to the courthouse was a bright spot in an otherwise very trying (pun intended) day! *snort*

>45 kidzdoc: and 46

The key really is being "hungry enough," though.

That hamburger looks superb! (is cheese always that yellow in the US?)
I love that fries arent the standard, as that baked spud also looks superb. Just goes to show that holes in the wall can come up with the goods sometimes.

Oh mei, I think I have to *flee* this thread, there are too many meat dishes on the menu. Don't you have anything Vegetarian on offer Darryl?

>49 drachenbraut23:: Bianca, being veg as well I had a similar reaction! I don't think New Orleans would be the best place for vegetarians to visit. Unless you're the sort of vegetarian who eats fish.

Darryl - I would not want to come all the way to the States and not meet you somewhere over there - New Orleans sounds good.
The South Asian writers prize looks a good one - there are some well-recognised titles on there already.

That burger looks and sounds wonderful, Darryl. One of my favorite nephews graduated from Tulane a couple of years ago and he loved his time in New Orleans (he's now settled in Austin with his gf); I'll have to ask him if he knew of Port of Call. I hope your time reconnecting with your old roommate provided for good conversation.
And thanks for posting the long list for the DSC Prize. No way can I really keep up, but I've read a few of those. The Good Muslim has been on my TBR pile for a while; I will bump it up now.

Great to hear of your good times in New Orleans, Darryl, and jeez, that food looks good. And now I want a Turbodog dark ale!

Foodie update: After a haircut this morning I drove to Domilise's Po-Boy and Bar for lunch; this is the po' boy place I remember from my college days, located in Uptown on Annunciation & Bellecastle; Annunciation runs parallel to and is one block away from Tchoupitoulas. It's another tiny and nondescript longstanding neighborhood restaurant that New Orleans is known for, with a hand painted sign at its entrance:



I had another oyster po' boy, mainly to compare it with the one I had at Mother's on Wednesday night. Domilise's version was definitely the superior of the two. This restaurant is on a side street quite a distance away from the downtown area. You could take the Tchoupitoulas bus to get there (as I did as an undergraduate student), but it would be much easier to drive there.

Music! Here's some music from a couple of the best known Mardi Gras Indian bands. First, the Wild Magnolias:

The Wild Magnolias - All On A Mardi Gras Day

And here's a video of the Wild Tchoupitoulas performing with the Neville Brothers:

Wild Tchoupitoulas - Meet De Boys on the Battlefront

The Mardi Gras Indians are groups of local African-Americans who honor and celebrate their Indian heritage by dressing up in costume during Carnival season, and at other festivals during the year. They engage in friendly competition with each other, to determine which group has the best costumes. The Wild Magnolias' best known song, "New Suit", is about the creation of these costumes and the competition between the different Mardi Gras Indian groups. The original song doesn't seem to be available on the YouTube version for mobile platforms, but I did find this version, performed by the band Fat Tuesday:

"New Suit" by Wild Magnolias - Fat Tuesday

>46 avidmom: Ha ha! I hope that you're done with your jury duty responsibility, avidmom.

>47 The_Hibernator: Very true, Rachel.

>48 LovingLit: The mushroom cheeseburger I had at Port of Call yesterday was superb, and it looked bigger and better than the one in that photo. No, cheese usually isn't quite that yellow here, and the cheddar in the burger I had didn't seem that fluorescent. Jane (janepriceestrada) mentioned that "Their burgers are the best!", so that makes two of us who would recommend Port of Call as the best burger joint in New Orleans. I'll ask her what her favorite New Orleans po' boy restaurant is shortly.

I've been a big fan of hole-in-the-wall neighborhood restaurants for years, particularly after I moved to New Orleans. You probably know that Philadelphia is best known for its cheesesteaks; two places close to each other, Pat's and Geno's, are typically mentioned as the places to get cheesesteaks in the city. I've had them, and they are okay, but I'd much rather go to a neighborhood place in the city than those two, which are mainly frequented by tourists.

>49 drachenbraut23:, 50 Unless seafood counts as vegetarian for you, then no, I can't think of anyplace offhand that I would recommend for lunch or dinner in New Orleans, Bianca.

>51 PaulCranswick: That sounds good, Paul. I could meet you in NYC, Philadelphia or San Francisco, although I'd need a fair amount of advance notice. It's easier for me to get to New Orleans from Atlanta, since it's considerably closer than those other cities.

The DSC Prize is an interesting one, and I'll start following it more closely from now on.

>52 EBT1002: I wouldn't be surprised if your nephew had been to Port of Call, Ellen. I can all but guarantee that he went to Camellia Grill on Carrollton Street numerous times; it's also known for its burgers, and it's a short walk from Tulane's campus.

It was great to see my ex-roommate yesterday, and we definitely will spend more time together in the future, either here or in Atlanta. We had a lot in common back then, and we could have talked for many more hours yesterday, but he had to go back to work.

>53 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe. I'd give a slight nod to New Orleans over SF and NYC as the best city for foodies in the US, although I liked the places I ate at in Chicago on my three previous visits to the city. Oh...I won't be coming there next month, as I decided to go to San Francisco instead. My friends from Madison couldn't make it there, and it wasn't a good time for a visit from me. I'll try to come next year, though, as I haven't seen my classmate from residency who lives in Chicago in several years.

Darryl - when we get the trip sorted out this group will be the first to hear of it! Have a great weekend.

>57 PaulCranswick: I look forward to hearing about your US itinerary, Paul. Enjoy your weekend!

Sorry we won't be seeing you in Chi-town, Darryl. That'll fun when it happens. I had something going on in Atlanta, but now it looks like it won't need a trip. Too bad.

My wife and I got to Charlie Trotter's before he hung up his restaurant shingle. Pricey, but whoa, what great food.

Hi Darryl, sounds like you're having a fabulous time in New Orleans. Thinking of ingesting both a burger and a baked potato in one meal suddenly made me feel 10 lbs heavier!

I wanted to thank you for dropping by my thread and making a selection I very much look forward to reading.

Here's a good photo of a fully dressed large oyster po' boy from Domilise's, identical to the one I had for lunch:



I checked with Jane, who grew up in nearby Houma, Louisiana. She's never been to Domilise's, but her impression is that it is the best po' boy restaurant in New Orleans. It's tiny though, as it's perhaps 1-1/2 times as large as the suite I'm staying in.

Only one of my friends that will attend the conference is in town, and most of them won't get here until pretty late. We're sending text messages back and forth, but almost everyone plans to go to bed pretty early, as the conference starts at 7:00 tomorrow morning. We've made plans for dinner tomorrow night after the conference, and we'll probably go out for drinks and live music in the French Quarter afterward. So, I'll probably get seafood gumbo or crawfish étouffée from Mother's tonight, and get an early start to the day tomorrow.

>59 jnwelch: I used to spend a long weekend with Bilkis, my friend from residency, every year or two until fairly recently. She lived in Highland Park for several years, as she worked in Gurnee, and moved to the city sometime last year after she joined a new private practice in the city.

I had heard of Charlie Trotter's, but Bilkis & I never ate there. She's Indian, so we most often went to Indian or Pakistani restaurants on Devon Avenue, followed by a place that sold savory Indian sweets. We'd also often go to a Swedish restaurant (name?) for breakfast, in a neighborhood that was originally Swedish but now has a large LGBT population. I think the restaurant has one or two other locations in nearby neighborhoods.

>60 Smiler69: Right, Ilana; you have to ignore your diet plans when you come to New Orleans. ;-)

I look forward to reading The Sea, the Sea with you next year. Let me know what month you decide to read it, and I'll plan to read it then.

I'd like to tackle it pretty early in the year I guess, since I'm really keen on reading it. I also wanted to say that if you do decide to read Skippy Dies, I'll gladly read along with you, or it might take me quite a while to get to it!

These Po'Boys are looking more and more interesting. The chances of me finding a facsimile of one here is close to zero!

Many years since I was in New Orleans but remember really enjoying my few short days there. We stayed in the French Quarter, just don't remember trying any of these Po'boy thingees. Mention of NO always reminded of that jazz funeral march from the James Bond movie 'Live and Let Die'.

Darryl- Hope you are having a great time in the Crescent City! Jealous as hell. I'm a fan of Wild Magnolias, although I haven't heard them in several year. Love those Neville Brothers though!

It seems like your good times are rollin' just fine, Mr. Keep it up. Life is short, and you should squeeze all the joy you can out of NOLA!

#61 - Hi Darryl! I think you're talking about Anne Sathers in Andersonville. I used to live around there and would go to an amazing breakfast place called Svea (I think?). I believe it's still there. Too bad you won't make it to Chicago.

It's fun reading about your trip. For the person who asked about being a vegetarian in New Orleans (I can't find it now), I think it's doable, but I went there as a vegan a couple years ago and it was hell on earth food-wise. I was there for a conference, so couldn't venture out much anyway, but I think I just ended up eating hummus and bananas the whole time. Oh well.

New Orleans is such a great city for food. My mouth is just watering thinking of all the places I've eaten there in the past. I have one more of Emeril's three New Orleans restaurants to go on my "bucket list." However, I love Central Grocery and all the other smaller places as well. Cafe du Monde is a must for me each time I visit.

>67 DorsVenabili:: hummus and bananas the whole time -- egad (I'm one of the vegetarians, Bianca was the other ... upthread in #s 49-50).

Darryl, your thread is a dangerous place with all the pictures of yummy food. I hope Linda will share Aunt Sally's pralines with me. Just one would probably satisfy my sweet tooth.

I don't remember the financial woes that the World's Fair caused the city. I was more focused on providing a fun and educational vacation for the kids. With ages from 7 up to 15, there was something appealing for everyone, including Mom and Dad.

Dominique's for seafood...coquilles St-Jacques from which to DIE!

The first full day of the conference (National Conference & Exhibition of the American Academy of Pediatrics) is now underway. I went to two morning sessions, and I've just finished having lunch with three friends at Cafe Maspero in the French Quarter. We shared seafood jambalaya, red beans & rice, fried oysters, a roast beef with debris po' boy and a catfish po' boy (and I had another Turbodog beer). The French Quarter is nearly a mile from the convention center, but the Riverfront streetcar provides a quick and convenient connection between the two areas.

I'll attend two more afternoon sessions from 3-5:30 pm, and then go to the Mardi Gras party here, which runs from 7-10 pm. I ran into one of my longtime former partners at work, who joined us for lunch, and I've seen two other people who I know well. We'll be busy going to conference lectures, section meetings, and lunch and dinner meet ups from now through Tuesday, the last day of the conference. So far, so good!

...and I just saw another pediatrician I know well. Atlanta is well represented here!

Sounds good, Ilana. Let me know when you want to read The Sea, the Sea. I'll probably want to read Skippy Dies sometime in late spring or early summer, before the Booker Prize longlist is announced.

>63 LovingLit: Megan, you'd be hard pressed to get an authentic po' boy sandwich outside of Louisiana, nonetheless outside of the country. You'll just have to come to New Orleans to experience it for yourself (and I'd be happy to play tour guide, as I did for my friends today).

>64 avatiakh: Fabulous video, Kerry! I don't remember that scene from "Live and Let Die", but it looks as though it was shot in the French Quarter. Po' boys are commonly sold in restaurants that specialize in Creole or Cajun cuisine here, along with jambalaya, gumbo, étouffée, etc., so I'll bet that you went to a restaurant that served it even if you didn't have it.

>65 msf59: Thanks, Mark. It's been a blast so far, and I'll definitely come back to New Orleans at least once or twice a year for long weekends from now on.

Darryl your posts are making me miss NOLA. I haven't been since 2009. I live in Houston so I really have no excuse.

Here's a photo of me with three of my pediatrician friends, which was taken roughly half an hour ago:



>66 maggie1944: Will do, Karen! It's nearly impossible for me not to have fun in New Orleans, especially when I know so many people who are also attending the conference.

>67 DorsVenabili: You're right, Kerri; Anne Sathers in Andersonville is the Swedish restaurant that my friend took me to several times for breakfast, which included authentic Swedish meatballs.

I imagine that you could get good vegetarian food in New Orleans, but I don't think there are many good Cajun or Creole ones, unless you include seafood.

>68 thornton37814: Right, Lori; I can't think of a better US city for food than New Orleans, although NYC and San Francisco are also outstanding and unique. My former partner and I had wanted to go to Cafe du Monde before lunch, but the line in get in was prohibitively lengthy. We'll probably go there tomorrow or Monday morning for an early breakfast, and grab a muffuletta at Central Grocery and pralines from Aunt Sally's for lunch on one of those afternoons.

>69 lauralkeet: I'd have to put my vegetarian diet on hold if I was in New Orleans and was limited to bananas and hummus.

>70 Donna828: Donna, the only reason I knew about the problems of the 1984 World's Fair was because my ex-GF worked for the fair that summer, and wrote me to tell me about her unpleasant experience, and the impact that the fair had on the already financially strapped city and state.

>71 richardderus: Ooh, good call, bro! The menu at Dominique's looks delightful. I've heard of it but never been there, and it isn't that far from the convention center by car. I think we'll have to stop there for dinner, maybe tomorrow or Tuesday night.

>73 luvamystery65: I hear you, Roberta. I'd feel the same way if someone else was reporting on the Crescent City, and I would want to return here ASAP.

The first afternoon seminar I'll attend will start shortly. I'll report back tonight or sometime tomorrow.

Glad you're having a good time in NOLA. I am drooling over all the "food porn." Wonder if they have Turbodog beer at Mellow Mushroom where I'm meeting my friend Judy tonight?

Nice photo of you and your friends Darryl. But they are all smiling whereas you seem to be almost serious. Heck, if i was surrounded by pretty ladies like you I'd be all smiles.

Great photo of the 4 of you Darryl. You are the odd one out though....apart from being male, you arent showing off the pearly whites like the ladies are!
Do you find that pediatrics is a more female dominated area of medicine? Your photo just made me wonder if you are in the minority there.

Id be happy to let you play tour guide if/when I ever hit the States. Its a long term goal, so put it on the back burner for now. I have actually been three times before, but the first time I was 7 (LA, Las Vegas and Yosemite), the last time I just went to NYC, and the middle time was a 6 hour stopover in Chicago!

Looks like you're having a wonderful time in N'awlins, Darryl ... I know your thread is making me hungry. I need to make a trip out to NO next year, I think. I haven't been there in years ... time to reacquaint myself with the gracious lady, I think.

Thanks for posting up the long list of DSC nominees, Darryl. I've come to rely on you for all the long and short lists since you do such a fabulous job of keeping up with these announcements. The only book I've read on that list is The Wandering Falcon which I really enjoyed. I have River of Smoke still unread in my TBR Tower. I'm going to make that one of my November reads.

Sounds like you're having a great time food wise in New Orleans - not somewhere I've ever been (or ever likely to go I suppose). I'm not sure I could cope with the po' boys (they look huge) but the jambalaya and gumbo sound great!

Interesting what you said about food in NYC - we had friends who went last year and had a great time but said they were quite disappointed in the food. But they do have a reputation of people who invariably choose the first restaurant they come to, no matter how promising or otherwise it looks, so it might well have been their choices that were at fault!

>74 kidzdoc: Nice pic, kidzdoc. Glad you're having such a good time. A catfish po' boy!! Where I grew up fried catfish was a staple but haven't had any in years! Was that catfish grilled or fried? (I'd assume grilled.) Never had it grilled; always fried with a side of hushpuppies ..... and now I've made myself hungry.

Darryl, I'm having such great fun visiting New Orleans with you! The hotel where I stay is on conference row, within a block of the convention center. I usually take students to Mulates and a few brave souls try the fried alligator.
http://www.neworleansrestaurants.com/mulates_cajun_restaurant/

There truly is no place like NO!!!

The students and I usually have lunch along the River walk and watch the barges on the Mississippi.

It sounds like you are having such a lovely time!

We shared seafood jambalaya, red beans & rice, fried oysters, a roast beef with debris po' boy and a catfish po' boy (and I had another Turbodog beer).
YUM.

The photo of you and your three colleagues/friends is great, Darryl. I'm also at a professional conference and it's so great to reconnect with folks who do and know the work that we do. We're eating lobster bisque and shrimp rolls; not quite the complexity of New Orleans cuisine but I'm enjoying myself nonetheless.

When you and Ilana read Skippy Dies, I'd like to join you. I own it but have not yet cracked its cover.

>76 markon: I think that Turbodogs and other beer from Abita Brewing Company is sold in the Atlanta area. I've never been to Mellow Mushroom so I don't know how extensive its beer selection is. Turbodog does seem to be widely available here, though.

>77 xieouyang: I don't display a toothy smile in staged photographs, but I've been thoroughly enjoying my friends' company. Those three lovely ladies are only a few of the people I know who I've met and hung out with here. There must be at least 15-20 people I've seen so far, and I'll head to the Georgia AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) mixer shortly, where I'm sure I'll see several more people. I'll go out for dinner with several friends from residency, who I'll see at the mixer.

>78 LovingLit: Pediatrics is one of the two fields of medicine with the highest percentage of women physicians, along with OB-GYN. Peds is more family friendly than OB-GYN, so it's particularly attractive to women who have or are about to start young families. Two of my partners are in the third trimester of their first pregnancies, and one other woman gave birth to her third child on Wednesday.

My residency class at Emory started with 16 women and two men, although it was 15/3 by our third and last year. That is excessive, but nearly all of the residency programs have a majority of women in each class. African American males are very uncommon in this specialty, compared to other races and genders, so I am a bit of a rarity.

You'll definitely have to let me and us know when you come to the US next! I could definitely serve as a tour guide for New Orleans, San Francisco, NYC, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

>79 cameling: I'd definitely recommend a trip to New Orleans soon, Caroline. The weather this week has been wonderful, with no hint of rain and high temperatures in the high 70s to low 80s. Summers here are brutal, as you can imagine, but the early spring and most of the fall seasons are very nice.

>80 SandDune: The po' boys are always split in half, so you can easily share a sandwich with someone or save half for later. Jambalaya, red beans & rice (which normally contains Andouille sausage or some other meat) and crawfish étouffée are three of the most common dishes here, and all are good when they are prepared well. A friend & I ate at the food court within the Convention Center for lunch today, and I reluctantly ordered the crawfish étouffée, as I expected it to be mediocre. It was surprisingly good, although it was overpriced.

Any big city (New Orleans, NYC, SF, etc.) in the US will generally have mediocre and overpriced restaurants close to hotels and areas that contain a lot of culinarily challenged tourists, whose palates are more accustomed to Kraft macaroni & cheese and Wonder bread. There are literally thousands of outstanding places to eat in NYC, so I would respectfully blame your friends for choosing poorly.

>81 avidmom: That was a fried catfish po' boy, avidmom. Except for the roast beef and ham versions, po' boys typically contain fried seafood, such as oysters, shrimp and fish.

>82 Whisper1: Fried alligator is fabulous, Linda! I'm hoping to have some tomorrow, assuming that we are able to go to Cochon Restaurant tomorrow. I walk by Mulate's every day, but I haven't tried it yet. I know several restaurants in the French Quarter and Uptown that the locals favor, from my Tulane days, so I've been mainly going to those.

>83 EBT1002: Right, Ellen. I spent today in an all day meeting of the Section of Hospital Medicine, which consisted of 100-150 attendants, the vast majority of whom were pediatric hospitalists or pediatric hospitalist fellows, including the one from Emory who joined me. We had a spirited and very interesting discussion about several topics that were relevant to our practices, and Joanne & I talked about incorporating some quality measures into my group's practice for next year.

Lobster bisque; yum!

>84 EBT1002: I'll definitely let you know if and when Ilana & I decide to read Skippy Dies next year, Ellen.

I'm loving your New Orleans trip report, Darryl! We had a weekend there in 2000 and really enjoyed it (Tim is a huge jazz and blues fan). I have an Emeril book that makes my arteries clog up just from reading the recipes...

Your continuing tour of the foods and restaurants delights me every day. Thank you, so much. And I'm tryin' to cook a litte better for myself, too. You and Lynn Rossetto Kasper (public radio) - The Splendid Table - are reminding me that food is one of the greatest pleasures in life, and should not be neglected. Good food is necessity.

Tonight was the best night of my stay in New Orleans so far. I saw five other friends from residency at the mixer for the Georgia chapter of the AAP, and all but one of us walked from the Hilton Riverside Hotel to the French Quarter, where Marcy made dinner reservations at R'evolution, a new upscale Cajun/Creole restaurant that she had read about in Food & Wine Magazine. The food was mind blowing, and the service and restaurant decor were outstanding. I had Creole snapping turtle soup with quail eggs, brick oven roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon, sea scallops with foie gras, white chocolate bread pudding crème brûlée, and a perfect single shot espresso. The five of us shared our food with each other, so I had a taste of Death by Gumbo (which contained roasted quail, oysters, Andouille sausage and filé rice in a smoky and rich broth), oysters on the half shell, Cajun striped bass, etc. We ate and chated for over two hours, and the experience was amazing and unforgettable.

My first talk tomorrow starts at 7 am, just over 7 hours from now, so I'll go to sleep soon.

Sounds amazing! What a great way to spend the evening.

Mouth watering! and Spirit Lifting!

Hope yur meetings can match that!

I have to second the recommendation for Mulate's. It's a great restaurant with a fun atmosphere.

Sounds like a wonderful evening, Darryl, and I'm impressed the good times just get better on your trip. I love nights like that. We had a good one with friends Saturday night at a local restaurant that sounds similar - lots of good food and talk. One of life's great gifts.

>89 kidzdoc: *faints from food envy*

#85 so I would respectfully blame your friends for choosing poorly. Based on our experiences when they've chosen the eating venue I suspect you might be right!

Hey Darryl! Looks like you've having a great time in New Orleans! Keep up the good work. ;) Great photograph!

Darryl it sounds delicious. I must go there. I am really enjoying this trip of yours. :)

white chocolate bread pudding crème brûlée
yes, please! :)

OOOOOhhhh.....alligator. We have a restaurant here in Scranton that serves a very tasty fried alligator, as well as a spicy alligator gumbo that would not feel out of place in bayou country. Very few Cajun or Creole dishes in restaurants outside Louisiana make the grade with me, but those two I would recommend to anyone.

"white chocolate bread pudding crème brûlée" *Sigh* yes, that would be something I would love as well.
Very nice photo of you and your friends, also I do think I can see you smile with your eyes :).

I wish you some more lovely days and even more enjoyable food :)

Your meal, company included, sounds wonderful, Darryl!!
I just had a very nice lobster roll and an excellent bread pudding with bourbon sauce at a restaurant here in Newport with 8 other directors plus two spouces. Now I'm propped up in my plush hotel bed with LT, Beloved, and game 7 of the NLCS (the sound on my telly doesn't work, but I usually prefer not to listen to the announcers anyway!).

What a wonderful time you are having in NO! I enjoy hearing your experiences. I'm currently reading yet another book about NO and Hurricane Katrina. Thus far City of Refuge by Tom Piazza is very good. If you would like, I'll send it to you when I'm finished.

Today was a very full day, which was nearly as enjoyable as yesterday (which was probably my favorite day of the year spent on American soil). After a full morning of seminars and plenary sessions I met with one of my new partners and a friend of hers for lunch at Cochon, the new Cajun/Creole restaurant that Jane (janepriceestrada) recommended; fortunately it's only two blocks away from the convention center, on Tchoupitoulas & Andrew Higgins Avenues. I wasn't sure if they were coming to lunch, so I initially went to Cochon Butcher, the sandwich soup around the corner from the restaurant, where I ordered a takeaway pork belly sandwich with mint & cucumber on artisan white bread, which was excellent. Once my partner texted me and let me know that she and her friend were in the restaurant I joined them, and had a (not so) small plate of fried alligator with chili garlic aioli, which was mouth tingling, tender and utterly delightful. That was topped off with a decadent slice of dark chocolate layer cake with peanut butter frosting, which my lunch mates and I collectively couldn't finish.

I went to two afternoon talks, took a quick nap, and then met two other friends for dinner at Herbsaint on St. Charles Avenue, another nearby restaurant recommended by Food & Wine magazine. I had the gumbo of the day, which contained Andouille sausage and thinly sliced duck in a smoky rich roux with rice, an apple & radish salad, and seared trout with aragula and chick peas. It was very good and I would unconditionally recommend this restaurant, but it was a cut below both R'evolution and Cochon.

Tomorrow is the last day of the conference. I'll either return to Cochon with one of my former partners for lunch tomorrow, meet my new partner and her friend at Willie Mae's Kitchen, which is supposed to have the best fried chicken in town, or go with my friends from residency who I've had dinner with the past two nights. Everyone except me who is still here will leave town tomorrow, so I'll probably get one last po' boy at Mother's for dinner before I finally leave town early Wednesday afternoon.

dark chocolate layer cake with peanut butter frosting
Proof that God exists. Apparently He lives in New Orleans.

Here's a photo of Cochon's fried alligator small plate:



I'll probably go back there for lunch today, as I want to try the rabbit & dumplings:



And here's a recent review of Cochon:

Got New Orleans? Must Eat at Cochon

>104 avidmom: Proof that God exists. Apparently He lives in New Orleans.

Given the amount of sinfully delicious food here, an argument could be made for the existence of His nemesis as well.

>90 brenpike: Thanks, Brenda. Yes, Sunday was a perfect day, one I won't ever forget.

>91 maggie1944: The meetings at this year's AAP conference have been substantially better than in years past, and even if I hadn't met any friends here or had such good food it would still have been a very enjoyable and educational week here.

>92 thornton37814: I won't go to Mulate's during this trip, even though I pass by it every morning when I walk to the convention center. None of the friends I asked had been there either, on this trip or previous ones. It does have a reputation as a restaurant that caters to tourists rather than the locals, so that makes me reluctant to try it, especially since there are so many outstanding restaurants I've been to this past week (Cochon, R'evolution, Herbsaint, Domilise's, Port of Call) and many more that I'd like to visit but won't be able to go to before I leave (Brennan's, Commander's Palace, Willie Mae's Kitchen, K-Paul's, Dooky Chase's, Coop's Place, et al).

>93 jnwelch: Right, Joe. I've had some very enjoyable nights in Atlanta, London and Philadelphia the past few months, but none was as good as Sunday. We had a delightful and spirited conversation, and had it not been so late we could have gone on for many more hours, and I can't think offhand of a better restaurant experience (food plus service plus decor) I've ever had.

>94 richardderus: We need to find a restaurant in NYC that serves good Cajun & Creole food. Jane says there aren't any that compare to the best ones in New Orleans and Louisiana, and I'm sure that she's right, but there must be at least one that is passable.

>95 SandDune: There are hundreds if not thousands of very good NYC restaurants, but you have to do a little homework to find them, and you must be willing to venture outside of the tourist infested areas to reach them (although they aren't that far off the beaten path). That's true in most if not all of the major cities I've traveled to, though.

>96 The_Hibernator: Thanks, Rachel! I've only taken a couple of photos so far, so I'll have to remember to take more photos today, since this is the last day of the conference. I wish we had done so on Sunday, at the Georgia AAP mixer and at R'evolution. I had my camera with me in my messenger bag and my friends all have smartphones with decent cameras, but we were enjoying ourselves too much to think about taking photos.

>97 luvamystery65: New Orleans is one of the most pleasurable and unique cities in the world, Roberta. My friends and I regularly comment about how much of a good time we're having, and all of us will leave here with very fond memories and more than a little bit of regret.

>98 avidmom: The white chocolate bread pudding crème brûlée at R'evolution is high on the list of my all time favorite desserts. Although I haven't mentioned it as much, the desserts here are out of this world, including Bananas Foster (created at Brennan's) and bread pudding.

>99 laytonwoman3rd: That does sound good, Linda. I'm surprised (and very disappointed) that New Orleans and Louisiana cuisine isn't more readily available outside of the immediate area, since many people do love it so much. Despite its proximity, Atlanta is essentially bereft of authentic Cajun or Creole restaurants, although there is a new place downtown that is supposed to be good.

>100 drachenbraut23: Thanks, Bianca. I'll have at least one good meal today (although I'm not the slightest bit hungry at the moment) before I leave this magical city tomorrow afternoon.

>101 EBT1002: Yum! Lobster roll and bread pudding with bourbon sauce sounds delightful, Ellen. Which state are you in, Washington, Rhode Island or elsewhere? I haven't had time to read threads the past few days, but I'll catch up tonight or tomorrow.

Your evening sounded like a very relaxing one. I'm glad that the Giants beat the Cardinals last night, and I'll definitely root for them in the World Series. I suppose that the Series will be over by the time I travel to SF on November 4. It would be a great treat to be able to go to a game there, but I'd probably pay several thousand dollars to get a ticket.

>102 Whisper1: Thanks for your kind offer, Linda. I think I'll pass, though, as I plan to start purchasing e-books instead of paper ones whenever I can. My physical library is out of control at the moment!

Ooh, it's getting late...must head to the conference soon.

Ah, Food! I think I might not be hungry again for at least a month after having all the epic meals you have had, Darryl. I am duly impressed and still experiencing jealousy.. Sigh.

I was smart enough to give Mamie's potato soup a try last night, and it was great! Food is definitely one of my favorite things these days.

Next to books.

Enjoy your last moments at the conference, and then, safe trip home.

Couldn't follow you to Cochon but really enjoying your travels around the Big Easy. I haven't seen much mention of book shops amid the splendiferous cuisine you seem to be revelling in.

I also am really enjoying your travel reports, especially the food descriptions and pictures! What does alligator taste like?

I think alligator tastes like veal.

Thanks, Linda!

Oh oh oh oh ... I'm soooo glad you made it to dinner at R'evolution, Darryl. My friend went there and raved about the food, and also about the fact that it's in an old renovated church.

Haven't found a bookstore yet though? I think this is the most I've seen you post about food on your thread with nary a mention of a book haul.

#114...yeah, what about that? Could you at least have your picture taken in front of this one, for me?

The conference is almost over (sob), and people are leaving in droves, including all but one of my friends, who will also leave tomorrow. I'll go to one final lecture, "Could This Be an Endocrine Problem?", from 4:00-5:30 pm, which will almost certainly be one of the last lectures of the day. Checking...yes, there is nothing that ends after 5:30 pm.

Nadeen & I made a return visit to Cochon for a late lunch. I had the rabbit & dumplings, which was heavenly, along with the fried alligator, which tasted even better the second time around, along with another Turbodog. I might make one last trip to Mother's for dinner, but I suspect that I won't be hungry until late tonight.

Lecture is about to start...back later.

>109 maggie1944: Right, Karen. I'll be eating celery and fruit for the next two weeks, so that I can eat (somewhat) guilt free when I go to San Francisco next month.

Sorry if I made people jealous! Hopefully I've made people eager to visit New Orleans, and given them ideas about some of the city's amazing restaurants, particularly those that you may not read about in the travel guide books.

>110 PaulCranswick: You're right, Paul; I didn't make it to any bookshops during this trip, and I've read only a handful of pages for pleasure so far. I'll certainly be back in the very near future, probably no later than the spring of next year, and I'll do more exploring and book buying then. As I hope I've conveyed, the food here is absolutely amazing and unique, which you would be hard pressed to find in any other major city.

I had previously mentioned that a car was essential to get about in New Orleans. Um, that was an overstatement. I haven't used the car I rented since Friday night, and unless you're planning to explore parts of the city outside of the CBD (Central Business District), the French Quarter, the Garden District or Uptown (as the latter two areas are accessible via the St. Charles streetcar), a car really isn't essential to enjoy the city.

>111 phebj: Alligator tastes like...alligator ;-). It is frequently compared to chicken, but I think it's more delicate and has a different taste; it isn't fishy or gamey. The fried alligator I had today and yesterday literally melted in my mouth and was utterly delightful.

>112 laytonwoman3rd:, 113 I haven't had veal in a while, so I can't say how close alligator is to veal. (I love veal, though.)

>103 kidzdoc: I love how your best days revolve around good people and good food.
Life as it should be!

>114 cameling: Ah! I didn't know that R'evolution was situated within a renovated church, Caroline. We loved the design of the restaurant, along with the amazing food and the service. Here are some photos from Hospitality Design. First, the bar near the main entrance:



The Liquor Library:



The main dining room, where we ate:



The Market Dining Room:



The Expo Kitchen:



And, finally, Storyville Parlor:



This article describes R'evolution's layout in more detail:

Restaurant R’evolution Arrives in New Orleans

Haven't found a bookstore yet though? I think this is the most I've seen you post about food on your thread with nary a mention of a book haul.

After Friday there was no time to think about visiting a bookstore. The days were filled with conference activities from 7 am to 5-6 pm, and we would return to our hotels, drop off our bags, and then meet to have dinner shortly afterward. If anyone was still in town I'd be heading out the door to go to dinner now, but I'll probably skip dinner tonight, after a late lunch at Cochon.

I do love to buy and read books of course, but getting together and going out with good friends is even more preferable. I had a fabulous time when I was in London last month, but this past week has been even better.

I'm washing clothes now (sitting in one of the hotel's laundry rooms), and I'll start packing tonight (not that I have much to pack). I'd like to get up early and make a quick trip to Café du Monde for beignets and coffee before I have to leave for the airport, but I might decide to sleep until later in the morning instead.

>115 laytonwoman3rd: That bookstore does look enticing! It's adjacent to Jackson Square, which is just across the street from Café du Monde, so if I go there I'll take a photo if I have time. If not I'll be sure to do so when I return to New Orleans next year.

>118 LovingLit: Right, Megan. This trip wouldn't have been half as enjoyable if I didn't have friends to meet up with during and after the conference's activities.

>119 kidzdoc: Those pictures are truly stunning. What a gorgeous place! I'm sorry to see our your trip to New Orleans coming to an end.

Fabulous photos Darryl - looks one heeluva place. Your alligator episodes reminds me of my crocodile order in Singapore when I told the waiter to make it snappy!

I have to second that you don't absolutely NEED a car when you are in NOLA. We stayed and Harrah's and walked or took the street car. Only exception was when we went to the Jazz festival and we splurged and shared a cab with some folks from the hotel that were headed that way too. Same with coming back we shared a cab with folks that were headed to the French Quarter. Darryl did you ever make it to Du Monde's?

I had not updated your thread Darryl and saw you were going to try and go in the am. I hope you make it.

Wonderful pictures of that restaurant. What a pleasure to be able to eat there multiple times and be in a different room each time. It would be like being able to go to multiple restaurants without any effort!

Safe trip home, friend.

I'm at the airport, waiting for the flight to board. Fortunately it's a very short flight from here to ATL, as the scheduled flight time is roughly 1 hr 30 min gate to gate.

>121 avidmom: Thanks, avidmom. I'm very sorry to see this trip end, but I am determined to return here ASAP.

>122 PaulCranswick: Groan...

*throws rotten gumbo at Paul*

>123 luvamystery65: My hotel was just across the street from Harrah's on Poydras. I'm not one for gambling, so I didn't stop there. The rental car was useful for sightseeing on Wednesday and going to an Uptown barbershop on Friday, but it sat unused in a parking lot after Friday afternoon. Next time I'll take a shuttle to and from the airport.

I didn't make it to Café du Monde this morning, as I wasn't hungry enough for beignets. I'll be sure to go there when I return to New Orleans next year.

>125 maggie1944: Actually we only ate at R'evolution once, on Sunday night; Nadeen & I went to Cochon for lunch yesterday and Monday. It is a gorgeous place, and I look forward to returning there next year.

So far behind I'm just skimming, but lovely photos and it sounds like you're having a good time, Darryl. I'm signed up for a cooking class featuring Cajun/Creole cooking. You're getting me in the mood for it!

I'm back in Atlanta after the short flight from New Orleans. I fell asleep just after we pulled away from the gate, and woke up about 10 minutes before we landed, not completely refreshed. It felt as if we were in the plane for about half an hour at most.

Here are some photos I took at the conference yesterday. First, some photos of the Ernest Morial Convention Center, which stretches nearly a kilometer (over half a mile!) from one end to the other. My partner Nadeen is on the far right of the first photo:



The main food court in the convention center:



Some photos of the La Nouvelle Orleans Ballroom within the convention center, where the conference's plenary sessions were held:









This is me with Renee and Marcy, two good friends from residency; we had dinner at R'evolution on Sunday (with Roy and Geoff, who aren't pictured) and at Herbsaint on Monday:



My partner Nadeen, who joined me for lunch at Cochon on Monday and Tuesday, along with two of her friends from residency (although I only managed to capture the left shoulder of Carl on the right of Nadeen):

Some random New Orleans photos. First, a typical building in the Warehouse district on the corner of Tchoupitoulas & Notre Dame, which houses The District Lounge:



And a close up of the same building:



Finally, an apartment building on Tchoupitoulas, which demonstrates a classic form of New Orleans architecture:



I should have taken more photos; I'll do so the next time I visit the Crescent City.

Cool pics!

Wonderful photos!

Those balconies! I half-expect a sweaty Marlon Brando to show up: "S-T-E-L-L-A!!!!"

Thanks! It is fun to get some faces attached to some places.

Darryl - wonderful photos of what looks like it was a memorable trip and conference for you mate.

Enjoyed your photos, Darryl. Thanks for posting. That convention centre is outrageous!

Love the pics, Darryl! And it looks like you had some great folks to hang out with.

Great pics, and by partner, do you mean partner by any chance....
;)
(in which case I must have missed something along the way)

Another compelling travelogue Darryl. I've enjoyed every minute of it.

I'm another of your travelogue fans . . . Thanks so much for taking time to share!

Darryl - same here - thanks for sharing the wonderful time you spend in New Orleans and the beautiful pictures :) It's always a pleasure to read about your adventures. *smile*
BTW: Thank you for posting the programme of the conference.

>137 LovingLit:: that would make two of us. Do tell, Darryl! :)

I'm such a poor gossip....I just assumed he meant Partner in a Pediatric Practice Partner sort of way.

>142 laytonwoman3rd:: yeah, prollly. But it's fun to poke at him especially when he's not here to defend himself.

*drumming fingers on desk*

Now where could he be? Surely not avoiding the tough questions....
hehe
;)

*prepares finest bib and tucker for potential 2nd LT wedding*

>142 laytonwoman3rd:: right with you there, Linda. Me too!

Hiya Darryl, just catching up on some more of your NO adventures here. We'll be down next week so you've got me very excited. We're doing Herbsaint, Cochon, and Commander's with mid-afternoon snacks at some of the cheaper places. I'm also pushing for R'evolution after your recommendation. Didn't realize it was a John Folse place - he wrote the bible on Cajun/Creole cooking, The Encyclopedia of Cajun & Creole Cuisine.

I wish I would have seen your posts earlier though - there's a grocery store in CBD, Rouse's from my hometown that just opened at the beginning of the year. It was all anyone could talk about when I was down in January. Apparently it's the first grocery downtown since the 60s or something.

NYC, there's a couple of Cajun places that are supposed to be passable. I haven't tried most primarily because they are extremely expensive (to me anyway). Mara's Homemade is supposed to be good and authentic. There's a little po-boy place in East Village that's amazing - they ship the bread in so it's perfect, though small.

Turbodog I'll see occasionally outside of LA, but mostly from Abita you see the Amber and Purple Haze lines.

Loved all of your pics and recaps!

>130 richardderus:-136 Thanks Richard, Terri, avidmom, Paul, Tui and Joe; I'm glad that you enjoyed the photos.

>137 LovingLit: Thanks, Megan. Nadeen is one of my work partners, nothing more than that. :-)

>138 brenzi:-139 Thanks Bonnie and Brenda.

>140 drachenbraut23: Thanks Bianca. Let me know if any of the conference topics are of particular interest to you; many of them have handouts which are accessible online.

>141 lauralkeet: No.

>142 laytonwoman3rd: Right.

>143 lauralkeet: Hmph.

>144 LovingLit: I worked from a llittle past 10 pm today. I'll work tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday, so I'll be largely absent from LT until Monday.

>145 tiffin: Right again.

>146 janemarieprice: Hi, Jane! It's great to see you here. I've never been to Commander's Palace, so I'll be eager to get your take on it, along with the other restaurants you visit, especially R'evolution. I hadn't heard of John Folse, so I'd be curious to know if he runs any other restaurants in New Orleans.

Do you listen to bands when you're in the city? If so, I'd love to know where. I'm familiar with Tipitina's, of course, and my work partner found several places to hear jazz and neo-soul bands on Frenchman Street, but that's the extent of my knowledge.

Thanks for the info about Rouse's. I had difficulty finding a supermarket last week, so I'll remember to look for the closest Rouse's when I return there next year.

Thanks for the info about decent Cajun restaurants in NYC. I'll definitely have to check out the po' boy restaurant in the East Village; is it Cheeky Sandwiches on Orchard Street?

I think that Turbodog and other Abita beers are available in Atlanta. I'll have to ask one of my work partners; her family is from the New Orleans area.

I hope that Sandy doesn't interfere with your travel plans!

148 - Folse had a very famous restaurant Lafitte's Landing near Donaldsonville, LA which was amazing and won about 10,000 national cooking awards. It burned to the ground several years ago, and he reopened somewhere in Donaldsonville I believe. This is the first I'd heard of him opening anything in NO. His cookbook is amazing though because the entire beginning section is a history of LA settlement and how the different ethnic groups influenced the food.

We'll definitely be seeing some music while we're down. Our friend we're going with is a jazz saxophonist. Here's the list I put together for him:

Preservation Hall
Tipitina's
Howlin' Wolf
DBA
Rock n Bowl
Bon Ton - apparently Soul Rebels have a regular Thurs night gig
Vaughan's Bar - Kermit Ruffins has a regular Thurs here
House of Blues

We're going to go to Preservation hall Thursday night and then try to make it out to Vaughan's to see Kermit play as I've heard it's a hell of a party. Not sure what else from there. The other good reference is the WWOZ live music calendar.

And yeah, Cheeky's is the po-boy place, though they have several other sandwiches as well.

Love the photos, Darryl. I'm so glad you had a good time at the conference and a wonderful time with friends during the week. Are you on a diet now you're home? ;-) You had me salivating over the food you ate out in NO. I should look for a good and interesting book that gives me the history of NO. I just know bits and pieces of her history but I really should learn more.

>149 janemarieprice: Thanks for the info about John Folse, Jane. It looks as though R'evolution has only been in operation since June, so I'm glad that my friend found out about it. BTW, I found an article about R'evolution in NOLA.com that was written just after it opened:

Restaurant R'evolution's John Folse, Rick Tramonto share opulent culinary stage

The meal we had on Sunday night was the best one I've had this year, and I'm hard pressed to think of the last restaurant I enjoyed as much as that one.

Thanks also for those great music venue recommendations! I see that Howlin' Wolf is on South Peters Street, a stone's throw away from the convention center, so I'll be sure to go there in August, when the Pediatric Hospital Medicine conference will be held in New Orleans.

I'll definitely go to Cheeky Sandwiches soon, possibly as early as next month during Thanksgiving week.

>150 cameling: Thanks, Caroline. Yes, the post-New Orleans diet is in effect from now until Thanksgiving, except for the week I'll be in San Francisco. I'd also like to read a book about the history of New Orleans, particularly its streets, neighborhoods, music and cuisine. (Any recommendations, Jane?)

Hi Darryl,
Work partner only huh, OK. Sorry for nearly starting a rumour there.
I mistakenly took your silence for confirmation of your conflagration ;)

Im still thinking about my po'boy, and every time I say that I think of a song called...you guessed it, Poor Boy, by NZ band Split Enz. It is a lovely song.

>152 LovingLit: "Oo hoo hoo what more can a poor boy do? Oo hoo hoo what more can a poor boy do? Oo hoo hoo hoo"

Oh the eighties! Such fun times. :)

> 152 this from the person who was pregnant again if LT rumour was to be believed ........ hmmmm ??? :)

>153 luvamystery65: wow, you know that song? And you're not even from New Zealand! Im impressed.

>154 roundballnz: pregnant? me? No way. I'm feeling tired and sick just thinking about it.

Seriously behind, but appreciative of photos... they are WOW!

Soooo...now we know who Dr. Mrs. Darryl is, AND that Minerva is preggers for the third time! I wonder if it's twins this time...

>152 LovingLit: I hadn't heard of Split Enz or "Poor Boy". I listened to a bit of it on YouTube, and it was completely unfamiliar to me.

>153 luvamystery65: Hmm. I can't say that I'm a fan of 1980s music.

>154 roundballnz: Rumors. So easy to perpetuate, so hard to correct.

>155 LovingLit: Heh.

>156 mckait: Thanks, Kath. I wish I had taken more photos, though.

>157 richardderus: Heh.

I'm still in a bad slump, as I'm not interested in reading anything at this point. Hopefully I can get back in the groove next week.

You are having a reading slump?!?!? Not good. :-(

I was going to suggest you close your eyes and randomly pick something from your TBR pile.... it only works about 30% of the time for me but that is better than not at all ..... or maybe find some other distraction (sports on TV?) in the meantime.

Hope the reading slump is a short one.

Hope the reading slump doesn't last too long. I suggest you pick up Skios, it's a quick read that will at least give you a few laughs.

YOU are having a reading slump? Hope you will get back to your reading soon. Have a nice and relaxing weekend. May I assume you are off work, so that you can chill out a bit?

Not interested in reading anything? I understand reading slumps like "I'm so exhausted my eyes can't focus" (That happens to me frequently) or "I'm so busy with other stuff that there's no time" (That happens to me frequently as well) but "not interested"?

I assume that when I'm "not interested" it's because my brain's fried, and I read some sort of YA action that doesn't require a brain. But I suppose you're not interested in THAT either. :p

Magazines with lots of pretty pictures!

I get in reading slumps sometimes--they usually pass. You read a ton, so a break seems OK. Or if you must read, non-fiction usually works for me.

I would suggest watching the World Series, but tonight may be the last night. I am a Giants fan, but kind of rooting for the TIgers, tonight, because that way the series will go longer.

Poetry. Short Stories. These usually help me over a slump. Or sometimes, I just have to go for more walks.

oh no! Reading slump is no good. Maybe its after your holiday and the prolific Booker preparation reading you did. I hope you come right soon! All it takes is one good book.....

Darryl - Hope you get your mojo back shortly mate - the group needs your enthusiasm and erudition.

Short books. Books by authors you know you like. Rereading a book you loved but have forgotten. Reading something for fun and not because it's on your list of books to read this month. Hope whatever you do gets you back to reading soon.

I'm off for the next three days, after working the past four days, which weren't bad at all considering the time of year. I'll work Thursday and Friday nights (8 pm to 8 am), and then fly to San Francisco for my last vacation of the year on Sunday. I'll be in SF on Election Day, so I'll vote early this week.

>160 lkernagh: This slump is more of a reading burnout than anything else. Normally I'll look at my book shelves with envy, as there are hundreds of books that I'd like to read right away. Unfortunately nothing is appealing to me at the moment. I think I've put too much focus on reading books for different challenges and groups this year, which caused my pleasure reading to be a series of time sensitive chores. So, it goes beyond reading a particular book over ones that I am currently reading or planned to read, and instead getting back to reading books as I want to, and when I want to.

I won't plan to finish any books between now and the end of the month, and I won't commit to any reading groups or challenges for the remainder of the year. I'll look at the books I'm most interested in reading, and choose those instead. I suspect that I'll regain my desire to read when I'm in SF next week.

>161 avatiakh: Thanks for that recommendation, Kerry. I have Skios on my Kindle, so I may decide to read it next week.

>162 drachenbraut23: Thanks, Bianca. I did work this weekend, but it was one of the quietest weekends I've had this year, as I only saw four new patients on Saturday and Sunday (about 1/2 to 1/3 of what I would normally see this time of year). Although I'll be off from work the next three days I do have several work related tasks that I plan to complete, so my time for pleasurable activities (reading, LT) will be severely limited.

>163 The_Hibernator: I have been reading journal articles and notes from the seminars and lectures I attended at the AAP conference last week, and right now I'd prefer to do that than reading for pleasure. Oddly enough, reading journals is more enjoyable than my so called pleasure reading, probably because I've put pressure on myself to read certain books for different groups and challenges. I'm very well rested after a relatively light and stress free week, which followed a two week break from work, and although I do have some work related tasks that I need to do, only one needs to be done this week (and it's a relatively benign one). So, yeah, "not interested" in pleasure reading is the most accurate description at the moment.

I'll probably choose books by favorite authors to bring with me next week. One good candidate would be The Singapore Grip by J.G. Farrell, the last book in his Empire Trilogy. I adored Troubles and The Siege of Krishnapur, which are two of my all time favorite books, and I was planning to read it this year anyway, so that may be a perfect antidote for book burnout. I'll probably also bring NW, Zadie Smith's latest novel, which several people (including the editors of the Books section of the Guardian) felt was the one novel that should have been included in this year's Booker Prize longlist. I loved White Teeth, and I'm hopeful that this novel will be just as good, if not better. I'll certainly buy Telegraph Avenue, Michael Chabon's new novel, when I go to SF next week, and I'll likely read it there, as it is set in nearby Berkeley.

Just thinking about these three books has made me eager to pick them up now, so I suspect that this book burnout will be a short one.

>164 maggie1944: Magazines with lots of pretty pictures!

Does The New England Journal of Medicine count? ;-)

I'll bring an issue or two of The New Yorker with me, and maybe read an article or two this week.

>165 banjo123: Yes, I'm also thinking of bringing one or two nonfiction books with me on Sunday. I am enjoying The Opium War, although I read very little of it when I was in New Orleans last week, and my latest LT Early Reviewers book, The Cage: The Fight for Sri Lanka and the Last Days of the Tamil Tigers by Gordon Weiss, is also appealing.

>166 maggie1944: I may bring a poetry book or two with me as well. I do want to read Selected Stories by William Trevor, but I won't get to it until December, at the earliest.

>167 LovingLit: Right, Megan. Looking back, I now realize that I placed too much emphasis on reading goals, and not enough in reading for the pure joy of it. I liked the majority of the books I read, but lately I've been putting too much pressure on myself to read a certain book by a certain date. I do like participating in the reading groups and challenges, but I'll try to reestablish a balance between group reads and books I want to read purely for pleasure.

>168 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. Hopefully I can get back in the groove next week.

>169 rebeccanyc: Thanks, Rebecca. One book I was thinking of rereading, especially if the books I've chosen don't get me out of my current state, is A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul.

Yes, The New England Journal of Medicine counts. I completely know what you mean about having put too much pressure on yourself to meet goals and this list and that group. Hooray! no more challenges for a while. Good idea. Enjoy those days off. Relax - it is good for you.

Me, I'm still setting my goal of a certain number of pages per day in Team of Rivals and so far that has not been too, too hard. We shall see what happens when I'm in Hawaii and my companions wonder what the heck I'm doing reading when they want to go swimming.

Oh, well, I've got a few days before that confronts me.

Have a great week, and a good trip to the west coast!

I sort of overdo it with committing to group reads and challenges, too. But I'm willing to back off of a reading commitment as long as my participation isn't essential to the discussion. Then, after a couple of months, I'll forget my promise that I'll read what I want to read instead of letting challenges dictate what I read...and the cycle starts all over again. ;)

Sorry to hear you're in a reading slump, Darryl ... I think it's the result of your not visiting bookstores while you were in NO but instead indulging in gastronomic delights instead. A diet of plain oatmeal for 2 days will cure you of this slump.

>172 maggie1944: I'll be quite busy the next three days, but I won't be under any pressure.

I won't commit to reading Team of Rivals next month, but I won't rule out reading it either.

>173 The_Hibernator: I've generally enjoyed group reads, although I often didn't complete the planned book in time, but this year has been a different and less enjoyable one for me, overall. I enjoyed reading the Orange and Booker Prize shortlists, and I'll continue to be very active in those groups (and I'll definitely continue to lead the Booker Prize group next year and for the foreseeable future). I only blame myself for overcommitting to group reads, and not reading the books I am most eager to get to, such as A Place of Greater Safety and The Singapore Grip. I've also been spending far too much time on LT, which has cut into my reading time, so I'll need to cut back from this point forward.

>174 cameling: I didn't have much free time to sightsee last week, so I didn't make it to any bookstores. However, last week was possibly the most enjoyable one I've had this year, so I wouldn't change anything I did.

I've also been spending far too much time on LT, which has cut into my reading time, so I'll need to cut back from this point forward.

Oh, good. It's not just me. I feel much better now. :)

I know what you mean about LT time, Darryl. Tough to balance everything. From what little I've read of Team of Rivals so far, it does seem like a really good read, so I hope it catches fire with you.

I may also venture to say it is written in a very accessible style and next time I looked up I'd gotten many pages read. I like books like that!

p.s. "it" is Team of Rivals

Darryl, there's a good book on the urban development of NO, it's a bit architecturally focused but very thorough. Unfortunately I don't own it so I'll have to track it down from some papers I wrote. Why New Orleans Matters was written shortly after Katrina and is a pretty good overview, not so substantial, but might be a good place to start. My favorite books I've read post-Katrina are Nine Lives: Death and Life in New Orleans* and Where We Know which you've read. For music, I recently read New Atlantis which had a ton of good stuff on currently NO muscians but had a some history to it.

Let me know when you're in the city, I can possibly meet you over at Cheeky's. We'll definitely be here for turkey day - I just finished setting my menu. :)

* One of the lives covered is Tootie Montana who was chief of the Yellow Pocahontas Indian crew, and was one of the old school innovators who changed the Indian culture to be more abou the costume and less about the fighting. He had a fascinating life and death - something of a spoiler here - he died on the floor of the city council speaking out against police brutality, very dramatic.

>176 avidmom: I'll continue to be an active member of LT, but I need to find a better balance between it, reading for pleasure, reading medical journal articles (which I've fallen woefully behind on this year), and regular exercise (ditto).

>177 jnwelch: Thanks for the recommendation of Team of Rivals, Joe. If I don't get to it next month I'll make it a priority read for next year.

>178 maggie1944: I think I've read one or two books by Doris Kearns Goodwin, although that would have been PLT (pre-LT). I've been a fan of hers for years, particularly her panel appearances on PBS with other noted presidential scholars.

>179 janemarieprice: Thanks for those great NOLA book recommendations, Jane! Apparently I own Why New Orleans Matters, so I'll have to look for it. I've read several good reviews of Nine Lives, so I'll plan to put it at the top of my Christmas wish list. New Atlantis sounds interesting, as I'd like to become more familiar with contemporary NO musicians, so I'll add it to my wish list.

I'd love to meet up at Cheeky's during Thanksgiving week. Wednesday or Friday will likely be the best days for me, although Tuesday should also be doable.

ETA: I hope that you're doing okay in NYC!

180 - Tues/Wed I'll be working but could go after I get off. Friday I'll be off and could do lunch before we go to watch the LSU game. :)

We're doing pretty good here - far enough uptown that none of the flooding or power outages are affecting us. The wind was very bad for a while but it's died down now. Still no work because of the subway but I guess I can't complain too much about that.

Darryl, I've been vicariously enjoying your visit to New Orleans. I'll have to mark this thread for reference in case I ever get down there. So many great places--especially to eat!

I stopped joining challenges for the most part because I felt it was making reading a chore. I have enough reading-related work to do in prepping for classes and grading students papers; reading is my escape, and I want to keep it that way. While it can be fun to read along with others, I sometimes can't keep up with the pace, or I lose interest. So I just read what I want, when I want, at my own pace, and post my reviews on the 75 Books and Club Read threads. I don't feel pushed even to read 75 books; I just chose that group as that's pretty much my average per year, and I like the company there.

Along those lines, I finally finished Joseph Anton and posted my review yesterday.

>181 janemarieprice: Friday would be good for me, especially an early lunch, as I'll probably stay with my parents in Bucks County, PA that week and I would like to get back there in time for dinner that night. I'll take NJ Transit into Penn Station from Trenton and take the subway to Cheeky's.

I'm glad to hear that y'all are doing well. My parents did fine yesterday, with no power outages or flooding, but her sisters, who live in Jersey City, weren't as lucky. My youngest aunt had to evacuate her condo yesterday morning, and the complex is out of power and possibly flooded (she lives on the ground floor). She's staying with her older sister in the Heights (Jersey City); they didn't experience any flood or wind damage, but they have been out of power since last night.

>182 Cariola: Thanks, Deborah! New Orleans is filled with great restaurants, along with some mediocre ones.

BTW, how did you fare in yesterday's storm? You're in the Chambersburg area, right?

For the past couple of months my "pleasure" reading has become a chore, particularly after I returned from London. I liked the books I read, but the act of reading itself wasn't enjoyable or something I looked forward to as I normally do. I think this is just a temporary phenomenon, but I'll probably limit my group committments in 2013 and beyond.

I've also found that reviewing books has become a chore, especially if I don't do it within a day or two of reading the book. I may limit my lengthy reviews to the most important books or the ones I like best.

I'm off to check your review of Joseph Anton...

Glad to hear your parents are OK.

Reading and LT are supposed to be fun! Don't do anything that's a chore!

>185 rebeccanyc: Thanks, Rebecca. I'm anxious to get more information about my aunts in Jersey City. I spoke to them this morning, and I've been listening to 1010 WINS online to get information about New Jersey and NYC.

I'm sorry I don't know more about what's happening in Jersey City, Darryl. All I heard was the same as what you reported above, that there was lots of flooding and that the power is off. I have to say I never would have thought I would hear NJ's idiotic governor, Chris Christie, praise President Obama!

There's a picture on FB of Christie and Obama holding hands (as in a shaking hands position) while walking away from an airplane. I think Gov. Christie is very happy for the rapid federal response to his crisis. Also, interesting piece on public radio about "yes, this was a more intense storm because of climate change, and yes, human activity is one very important reason why the climate is changing. The ocean has risen in the last century and the flooding in New York City is greater because of that". I am hoping the Congress will hear this message and cooperate with some policy changes to reduce the human produced catastrophe.

I apologize if this brings up too much politics in a time of need for common community caring.

184> The university cancelled classes for both yesterday and today, but I'm sure we will go back tomorrow. There may be a few flooded roadways, but things should be fairly back to normal. We got a lot of rain and quite a bit of wind, but I see nothing except some smallish dead branches on the back lawn, and most of the remaining leaves have been blown down. Power never went out here. The surprising thing was that I got prerecorded messages yesterday from PEMA, the municipal water supply, and Comcast (they provide my phone and internet as well as TV) with information on what to expect and how to prepare. That has never happened before. I guess they learned something after Katrina.

>187 rebeccanyc: I'll call my mother later to find out how her sisters are doing. Our biggest concern is whether my youngest aunt's ground floor condo has suffered any flood damage. The complex is located on sea level, not far from the Hackensack River in the city's flood zone. Her condo is a good 1/4 mile from the river, so hopefully it was far enough away from the flood waters. I'm still listening to 1010 WINS on an off, which does give limited information about downtown Jersey City and Hoboken along the Hudson River, which have both been hit hard.

I was very surprised and impressed by the positive comments Governor Christie made about President Obama's and FEMA's efforts in providing quick help to the state of New Jersey. The President will tour the state tomorrow with Governor Christie tomorrow.

His opponent, Mitt Romney, who stated last year that he wanted to eliminate FEMA and allow the states to provide emergency management without federal assistance (presumably to its wealthier residents while allowing its poorer ones to drown, in keeping with the most recent Republican president's response to Hurricane Katrina), was last seen in the flood ravaged states of Ohio and Wisconsin. Good work, Mittens.

>188 maggie1944: CNN's Anderson Cooper interviewed a scientist in NYC earlier this afternoon, who also mentioned the effect of global warming on the intensity and destruction of this storm, along with the unusual impact of three weather systems colliding simultaneously to create the "perfect storm". Hopefully the Party of No can begin to appreciate that global warming is real, and is likely to cause more severe weather in the US unless we as a nation begin to take the lead and seriously address this problem. I wouldn't bet more than a dime on that happening anytime this decade, though.

>189 Cariola: I'm glad to hear that your community and university came through Sandy relatively unscathed, as my parents did in Bucks County. I'll ask my parents if they received similar messages from PEMA, Comcast and Middletown Township.

Mitt's plan for states to provide emergency assistance presumably to its wealthier residents while allowing its poorer ones to drown I had to laugh, sad as the situation, and Mittens, are.

>190 kidzdoc: His opponent, Mitt Romney............................... Good work, Mittens.
lol, I know its not a laughing matter, but I do like the way you have presented this discussion point, Darryl.

Governor Cuomo (NY governor) mentioned in his morning press conference not once but twice that we will have to rebuild with an eye towards "changing weather patterns." Of course, he dared not mention the words "climate change" or "global warming," probably because of his national ambitions, but at least he's smart enough to figure out what's happening.

Both my telephone provider (Verizon) and my cable/internet provider (Time-Warner) sent me e-mails in advance of the storm telling me who to contact if there were problems. (As if I couldn't figure that out myself, but nice anyway, I guess.)

If we left everything to the states, women still wouldn't be able to vote (let alone control their own bodies) and segregation (if not slavery) would still be flourishing.

>194 Cariola: - Only in some states. I think it was Wyoming who granted women the right to vote first. That of course is the problem; if we leave everything to the states we will rival the fractured mess that is parts of the former Soviet Union. What is the term? Balcanized? Balkanized? Yugoslavia? Georgia (the one in Europe)?

Oh, I know, I need to go Google.

Here you go: Balkanization, or Balkanisation, is a geopolitical term, originally used to describe the process of fragmentation or division of a region or state into smaller regions or states that are often hostile or non-cooperative with each other.1 It is considered pejorative.2

Well, that's why we had a Civil War. It's bad enough that we have this red state/blue state thing going on. At least the federal government can overrule the states.

>191 jnwelch:, 192 Mittens (or Mitthead, take your pick) has so far refused to answer reporters' questions about his publicly stated comments about FEMA, and his opinion that emergency management would be best placed under the control of private companies. Assuming that the US will have an increased number of severe weather events, due at least in part to the effects of global warming, this would be a disaster for the states, particularly for the poorest ones (read: Deep South) and for the lower classes throughout the US. I'll be very interested to see if he comes up with a coherent response to the question "Would you seek to eliminate FEMA if you are elected President?"

Romney held a thinly veiled campaign rally in Ohio yesterday, which was billed as a relief effort for the victims of Hurricane Sandy. The campaign collected canned foods and other items that organizations such as the Red Cross said that it doesn't need or want at this time. I'd be more impressed with him if he traveled to the states that are most affected by the hurricane (NY, NJ), albeit in an unofficial capacity, rather than the unscathed battleground states (OH, WI, FL).

>193 rebeccanyc: The people of this country need to be able to discuss climate change and global warming intelligently, and politicians should be able to use these terms without loud shrieking and condemnation from the scientifically illiterate members of the extreme right wing.

I think it was a nice gesture for Verizon and Time Warner to send out e-mails to its customers, as I would bet that a not insignificant number of people would not have known how to contact their customer service departments.

>194 Cariola: Right. We know that the Southern governors expressed a willingness to desegregate in the 1960s, but slowly and at their own paces. I suspect that many of them would have taken decades to do so, and places like Mississippi and Alabama may still have been largely segregated to this day had the US permitted them to choose when to do so. And we've already seen how willing certain states are to limit women's options and dictate what they cannot do with their own bodies.

>195 maggie1944: I have no data to back me up, and I could be entirely wrong, but I would hypothesize that the poorest states receive more money from the federal government than they contribute to it, and would therefore suffer the most if they were allowed to function relatively independently from the federal government. Needless to say, the poorest residents in these states would suffer even more than they are now, which would ultimately affect all of us.

>196 Cariola: Right, Deborah.

Normally I would have posted a list of planned reads for the upcoming month. I won't do this in November, and instead I'll read the books I'd like to read the most, along with at least one or two Early Reviewers books that I've recently received or haven't read yet. This month I received The Cage: The Fight for Sri Lanka and the Last Days of the Tamil Tigers by Gordon Weiss from Bellevue Literary Press as my September LTER book, so I'll start that today. I won A Possible Life by Sebastian Faulks from this month's collection, and I haven't yet read A Mind of Winter by Shira Nayman, so I'll read them soon.

I'll definitely read NW by Zadie Smith next month, and I'd like to finish the two books I'm sort of currently reading, The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams and the Making of China by Julia Lovell and The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. I won't commit to any other books beyond these for November.

Just stopping in to see how your family faired... I hope they all escaped major damage..

Mr Doc, sir, yore a wise man.

Way back in the winter of '09 (she says putting on her best old timers face), I put so much pressure on myself to read in various groups, that I left and needed a couple year sabbatical from this place.

In the past week, I was actually playing with making 13 catagories for next year's reading and feeling like I wasn't being very creative and also that I **should** read more of this and that. I think I've pulled myself back from the brink--but it's so darn tempting.

>199 mckait: Thanks for asking, Kath. My parents in Bucks County, PA were doing fine as of last night, as they did not lose power or have any structural damage. My brother, who lives in South Jersey across from Philadelphia is also doing well. My mother's sisters, who live in Jersey City just across the Hudson River from Manhattan, haven't fared so well, although they are both safe. My youngest aunt had to evacuate from her ground floor condo on Monday by order of the city's mayor, as her complex is close to the Hackensack River and in the city's flood zone. She's staying with her older sister, who lives in the Heights well above sea level and far from any water (if you've ever taken Amtrak from points south into Penn Station you'll see the Heights just before the train goes into the long tunnel that runs underneath Jersey City and the Hudson River). They don't have power, but they were otherwise doing well as of last night. I'll call my parents shortly to see how they are doing.

>200 streamsong: LOL! I typically enjoy making lists and participating in group challenges, but the past couple of months have been different. I had tried participating in the 9 in '09 and 10 in '10 challenges, but I failed badly each time. I suspect that I'll get back to this at some point, but for now I need to establish a better balance, and to read books spontaneously instead of doing so for particular groups or challenges.

I like being open to books which come along during the year, and stand right in front of me: read me, read me, read me

Being retired, I am a big fan of not being too, too planned!

I am glad your family is well, and safe. Next is to find ways to help all those with property damage. And you know, I agree, the federal government frequently steps up when no one else will.

Just to get back to the thing about the states, it might have been Montana that first allowed women the vote, not Wyoming, but I would have to check.

For some reason, I was thinking about Mitt Romney in the middle of the night (I know, nightmare!), but it occurred to me that his opinion about returning control of things to the states is completely at odds with what his business sense (if he really has any) should be telling him. In a corporation, you don't want every far-flung office doing everything itself; you want to centralize certain functions when it would be more effective and more cost-effective to do so rather than replicating them at every location. Certainly disaster recovery falls into that category. So Mitt is not just callous; he is hypocritical. (Well, there's news, and off my soapbox.)

Glad your aunts are OK, even without power. Hope it's restored soon, or that maybe they could go stay with another relative.

I understand about book burnout- I stopped participating in book challenges early on because I didn't get enough from them in conversation about the books- I find that I choose my reading based on seasons ( light reading and mysteries in hot weather) and impulse.- sometimes I feel like reading biographies and sometimes I need short stories. Your new redesign plan for reading sounds good - so good luck!
Glad that your relatives are safe from Sandy-my family in New Jersey have no power but no flooding.

198> I'll also be reading the Faulks when it gets here. I feel quite guilty as I have several backe3d up books to review.

No Rebecca - the first state was Wyoming. It actually granted female suffrage in 1869 but was only admitted as a State in 1890 and it did so only on proviso that it kept suffrage for its ladies. The second state was Colorado in 1893.

It is interesting that it was the eastern seaboard now seen as the more progressive that dragged its feet the most in giving the vote to the female of its species. New York only granted it in 1917 apparently as it was feared that women would more likely support prohibition.

>203 maggie1944: I like being open to books which come along during the year, and stand right in front of me: read me, read me, read me.

Right, Karen. I've had that same experience multiple times the past couple of years, but I've told myself that I can't read book X, as I "need" to read these other books for challenge A or group B. I want to get back to spontaneous reading for pleasure, instead of the semi-rigid box that I've placed myself in.

Thanks for asking about my family. I spoke to my parents this morning, and they are doing well. My aunts in Jersey City are safe, but when I talked with them they hadn't been back to see if the youngest one's ground floor condo had any flood damage. I'll call them tomorrow morning to get the latest information.

>204 rebeccanyc: I agree with you about Romney's hypocrisy and lack of common as well as business sense. It would be foolish to privatize emergency management or to make each state responsible for its own disaster relief programs, and ultimately it would be more costly for the affected states and the country as a whole. And, I still think that any limitation of financial resources or manpower would affect the poorest communities the most.

ETA: It's entirely possible that my aunts may decide to stay at my parents' house. The three sisters are exceptionally close, and my aunts normally drive down to PA every month or two to visit my parents.

>205 torontoc: I'd still like to participate in groups such as Reading Globally and Author Theme Reads, but I may limit my participation to smaller numbers of books, so that I can have the freedom to read spontaneously. I'd still like to read the entire shortlists for the Booker Prize and the Orange Prize Women's Prize for Fiction in advance, though.

I'm glad to hear that your NJ relatives haven't experienced any flood damage. Hopefully they will regain electrical power soon.

>206 Cariola: I had planned to catch up on my outstanding LT Early Reviewer books, but I've fallen further behind, due in part to my participation in group reads and challenges. Checking...actually I haven't done too bad, as I've read and reviewed four of the six LTER books I've received so far.

>207 PaulCranswick: That is interesting. I am nearly completely ignorant about women's suffrage in the US; I must change that soon.

Wow I'm finally getting caught up with you Darryl and find out that many people feel the same way I have been feeling, too much pressure to read certain books that I have somehow committed to (through my own fault), and too much LT time taking away from actual reading time. It's so hard to find that perfect balance. It's good to see that I'm not alone in this thinking. It's almost as if we've got too much of a good thing but I was planning to tweak the way I operate to allow for more spontaneous reading rather than always knowing what the next five or six books are that I will be reading.

I felt great satisfaction with my last book which I decided on by perusing my shelves, taking a book down, reading a few paragraphs, putting it back, selecting something else, until I hit on one that I've had sitting on my shelves for some time and felt just right for that particular time. I plan to do that more often. Hopefully, you find the perfect book to take you out of your slump:)

I think, maybe, we should start a thread for people who are being spontaneous. What do you do to put yourself in the mood to choose a new book to read? Will you start more than one at the same time? What are you reading now?

What do you think? Would it be fun to have a thread with such a discussion?

I like that idea, Karen.

207 Thanks, Paul. I'm a bit abashed that a Brit living in Asia can teach me about US women's history! And as for women supporting prohibition, there was a whole Women's Temperance Movement!

208. Glad your aunts may go stay with your parents.

Wyoming might have been the first to give women the vote, but Montana elected the first congresswoman, Jeanette Rankin.

She was a fascinating person who worked on the forefront of issues regarding women and children. Elected to congress right before WWI, she joined several other pacifists in voting against the US entry into the war. Those who voted that way were vilified by the entire US so Jeanette didn't get elected to a second term

until

right before Pearl Harbor was bombed. She then became the ONLY person to vote against US entry into WWII.

The good ole boys of Montana were pretty embarrassed by her.

Good news to report: my youngest aunt's condo in Jersey City did not suffer any flood damage, although the complex itself was covered with water. Fortunately her entrance is above street level by a few steps, which prevented any water from getting inside. She still doesn't have electrical power, but PSE&G has said that her complex should be back online by Monday.

So, now that I know that they are doing okay I will go ahead with my planned trip to San Francisco on Sunday. Zoë, Fliss and I are in the process of planning one or more meet ups, probably on Tuesday morning (Nov 6) and Friday afternoon (Nov 9), if anyone will be in the Bay Area at that time. I've created a thread for the meet up(s) in the LibraryThing Gatherings and Meetups group:

Bay Area meet up(s) Nov 4-11?

>209 brenzi: Right, Bonnie. I blame only myself for joining too many groups and participating in too many challenges at one time. There's no way that I'd ever think about leaving LT or the 75 Books club, as I've enjoyed this group immensely and I've made several real life friends from this group. I'd hate to restrict the number of threads I follow, so I think the best solution for me would be to follow threads every 2-3 days, to limit the overall time I spend on LT.

I've also developed the habit of looking at a particularly enticing book from my shelves and reading a few paragraphs from it. Unfortunately I've often returned these books to the shelves, as I told myself that I couldn't read them now because I have other ones that I've committed to reading instead.

I may not participate in certain groups in 2013, or at least limit my participation in them. I'll probably forego the Author Theme Reads group next year, since it will apparently focus on French literature and authors who I have only a marginal interest in reading. I'll only participate in the Reading Globally themes that interest me the most, and I plan to cut back on my TIOLI participation from now on.

>210 maggie1944:, 211 I do like the idea of having a thread dedicated to spontaneity. On the other hand, I'm reluctant to add yet another thread to the ones that I'm already following.

>212 rebeccanyc: Thanks, Rebecca. It sounds as though my aunts will stay in Jersey City for now, assuming that they get power back relatively soon.

>213 streamsong: I read about Jeanette Rankin somewhere, particularly her decision to cast the only vote in opposition to the USA's entry into World War II after Pearl Harbor. I assume that she wasn't re-elected to office in 1942. Checking...no, she did not stand for re-election that year, as she knew she didn't have enough support after she cast her vote against the declaration of war against Japan.

Hi Darryl!

Glad to hear your relatives are doing well.

I sympathize with your challenge over-commitment issue. I had signed up for the 12 in 12 challenge this year, but it sort of fell apart a few months ago. A lot of it has to do with my categories being way too narrow. My plan for the future is to focus on my many life-long and broad reading goals with no time commitments attached. I do, however, enjoy TIOLI as it helps me narrow down and organize my monthly reading, so I'll continue to do that.

On a selfish note, I'm somewhat relieved that you now probably won't be horribly sad if I don't organize a Sub-Sahran African fiction thread next year (which I believe you were interested in). I had been thinking about doing that, but I don't see it happening at this point.

Oh...before I forget: ¡Feliz Día de los Muertos a todos!



I'll definitely go back to the Oakland Museum of California next week, to see this year's Días de los Muertos exhibition, and I'll post photos here. This is a photo I took of a funeral altar displayed at last year's exhibition:

I can completely relate to book pressure--I've been feeling completely overwhelmed lately by the books I "have to" read, and it doesn't help at all to know that it's completely my own doing. The problem is that the books I have to read are also books I want to read--it's just that I can't actually read everything at the same time. :(
I clearly need to rethink some things for next year. Meanwhile that TBR pile just keeps growing!

Feliz Día de los Muertos back!

Darryl, I'm happy to hear that you are going to do some spontaneous reading and I can completely agree that sometimes the various groups get to be too much. I've read very few books for Reading Globally as I never seem to feel like reading those particular books at the time that the theme runs. I'm a bit the same with group reads and now pick very few to participate in.

I still like TIOLI as it only looks ahead for a month and I'm good at using the 'leave it' option and just pick up a book that takes my fancy.
I know I can't keep up with most of the threads and end up mostly lurking in this group. I do love all the book talk that you generate on your thread, all the enthusiasm for the Booker Prize longlists reading and all your travel / bookbuying adventures too.
My problem with LT is mainly the number of books I keep adding to my tbr pile both physical and on lists as everyone here reads such interesting books and then proceeds to make them sound too appealing in their reviews.

Ha! I know what you mean: planning a spontaneity thread seems a little oxymoronic, doesn't it!

None the less, I think I might start one, later, and see if people want to stop by, spontaneously, and just brag about something they found when doing a less structured reading program. We'll see how many folks like the idea by whether or not they show up, right?

I am committed to reading TOR and my two ER books. Other than those, I'll need to try to catch my RL group's reading for December, which if I remember correctly is the charming and funny and short archy and mehitabel by don marquis

I'm so glad your Aunt's apartment survived without damage. Now to get back to normal life. Whew.

>217 AnneDC: Right, Anne. I bought several dozen books this year for particular challenges or longlists (Author Theme Reads, Orange Prize, Booker Prize, Wellcome Trust Book Prize), which both added to my TBR pile and simultaneously kept me from decreasing it, as I didn't read the older TBR books that I had intended to tackle this year, e.g. A Place of Greater Safety. So, unless I manage to read more books than I already am, the only way to decrease the unread books pile is to stop buying so many books!

I don't mind the addition of new books to my collection as much as I dislike being unable to get to the books I'm most eager to read.

>218 avatiakh: I agree, Kerry. I have over-participated in groups and challenges the past few years, especially Reading Globally and Author Theme Reads, so I'll be more selective from now on. I have also been too eager to add books to TIOLI, which has decreased my ability to read books spontaneously. From now on I'll add books to TIOLI as I'm reading them, instead of signing up for 10+ books every month.

I find that I do skim a lot of threads and lurk on others, in order to keep up, which in itself has become a bit of a chore (though not necessarily an unpleasant one). I'll have to rethink this for the remainder of the year, and especially in 2013.

>219 maggie1944: Right, Karen! However, I'll look at your "planned spontaneity" thread if you decide to create one. ;-)

I won't plan to read Team of Rivals this month, but I won't completely eliminate the possibility that I may pick it up.

I'm curious to get your take about Archy and Mehitabel. I had heard of it years ago, but I never bought it.

>216 kidzdoc: This morning I walked into the classroom I work in and one of the girls was still wearing (and applying more on top of it) her Halloween zombie make-up. It threw me for a minute until I realized she was made up for Dia de los Muertos!

>207 PaulCranswick:/213
Go NZ! On this front I think we were first.

Suffrage opponents had warned that delicate ‘lady voters’ would be jostled and harassed in polling booths by ‘boorish and half-drunken men’, but in fact the 1893 election was described as the ‘best-conducted and most orderly’ ever held. According to a Christchurch newspaper, the streets ‘resembled a gay garden party’ – ‘the pretty dresses of the ladies and their smiling faces lighted up the polling booths most wonderfully’.

Kate Sheppard was our most famous suffragette and graces our $10 note.

Yep Megan I'm pretty sure we were first!

It was funny living in Switzerland - women got a vote in the federal elections in 1971, 3 weeks before I was born. And in one of the cantons, Appenzell, women got the vote in 1990. I went to that canton and had a very yummy cheese fondue-y thing there but I was quite happy to head back to Basel. Interestingly and happily women are quite prominent in Swiss politics these days.

Darryl, I hope you can find a good balance between being on here, doing group reads and reading spontaneously. It's a nice problem to have but I find it hard to get the balance right now that my reading time is way less than it used to be. I mainly do TIOLI on the go now except if there is a challenge that I really love and have a book that fits it that I also want to read.

Glad to hear that everyone, including your youngest aunt did ok during the storm. So many have endured so much.. and are stil in dire circumstances :(

I'm finished with my first two night calls of the month (8 pm to 8 am Thursday/Friday and Friday/Saturday); both were very busy, as I admitted 13 patients Thu/Fri and 14 more Fri/Sat, and I didn't sleep a wink either night. Fortunately I won't have to work again until the Monday after next, the first of three night calls that week.

I'll fly to San Francisco tomorrow morning, and return to Atlanta Saturday afternoon. Fliss, Zoë & I will meet up for breakfast on Tuesday at Caffè Greco in North Beach, then go to City Lights Bookstore afterward. We're also in the process of planning a get together with the two other LTers who live in the Bay Area on Friday. I'll bring my camera with me, and take photos, which I'll post here.

Speaking of Tuesday, which is Election Day, Georgia permits early voting, and I voted yesterday morning after my first night shift, which was the last day voters could cast a ballot early. I hope that every one from the US on LT votes on Tuesday, even if you do vote for the man who wants to outsource your job to Outer Mongolia.

>221 avidmom: Nice story about the girl in your class, avidmom! I hope that there is a Día de los Muertos event somewhere in SF on Sunday, although it looks as though all of the celebrations are scheduled for yesterday and today.

>222 LovingLit: I hope that our election on Tuesday is as well conducted and orderly as the 1893 election in New Zealand.

>223 cushlareads: I'm shocked that Swiss women weren't allowed to vote in federal elections until 1971!

Thanks, Cushla. I will definitely strive to achieve a better state of balance in my reading, and life as a whole, in the upcoming months, and hopefully 2013 will be a more fulfilling reading year than this year was.

>224 mckait: Thanks, Kath. My parents, aunts, and brother (who lives in South Jersey, across the Delaware River from Philadelphia) all feel very fortunate that they came through the hurricane with only trivial inconveniences, particularly in comparison with the thousands that have suffered far worse than they did.

(Yawn) Off to sleep...

Goodness, kidzdoc! Isn't nearly 30 admits in two days a bit much?? What's going on out there in Atalanta anyway?

That same student I mentioned showed up made up again on Friday. Apparently she is involved in a club (M.E.Ch.A. maybe) that was celebrating & selling something during lunch to raise $$$. I saw the booth set up on campus when I was leaving yesterday so I didn't get to check it out.

I hope that every one from the US on LT votes on Tuesday, even if you do vote for the man who wants to outsource your job to Outer Mongolia.
This is the first year my son gets to vote. He's very excited about it (and the release of Halo 4).

Watching "your" game. :-). Nice scoring drive there.

I'm so glad your family survived the storm without too many problems, Darryl. Have a wonderful trip to SF. I can't wait to hear all about it. :)

>227 TadAD:: ........but the ending....ouch!!

Washington state has mail-in ballots only. Mine has been in the mail for several days. We're a pretty predictably blue state, so no one is paying much attention to us (this being fine with me because the ads to reject Referendum 74 are painful enough without adding Mittens' ads to it). Still, I voted.
P and I will be getting together with friends on Tuesday evening, hoping to open a bottle of bubbly.

I'm glad your family survived the storm, Darryl. It was a doozy.

>226 avidmom: Isn't nearly 30 admits in two days a bit much??

I think so! My partner that was on long call on Thursday only had two admissions from 10 am to 8 pm, compared to my 13 admissions from 8 pm to 8 am. Thursday night was bad, but Friday was even worse.

What's going on out there in Atlanta anyway?

We start getting busy in November, as there are more cases of severe asthma exacerbations and lower respiratory infections (especially pneumonia and viral bronchiolitis). Double digit admissions on night call aren't unusual in the dead of winter, although it's a little early in the year for us to be that busy. Hopefully my next series of calls won't be as bad.

Apparently she is involved in a club (M.E.Ch.A. maybe)

I had to look up M.E.Ch.A., el Movimiento Estudiantil Chican@ de Aztlán, the Chicano/Chicana student unity movement.

This is the first year my son gets to vote. He's very excited about it (and the release of Halo 4).

Excellent (at least about his first voting experience)!

>227 TadAD:, 229 I fell asleep when the score was 3-3. (BTW, we're talking about the Pitt-Notre Dame football game.) I woke up well after the game ended; as you know, Notre Dame (undefeated and ranked #3 in the country) trailed 20-6 at the start of the 4th quarter, as Pitt threatened to pull a major upset. ND tied the game at 20, heading into OT. Pitt had a chance to win in the 2nd OT, but its very unreliable kicker missed an easy FG, which allowed ND to win it in the 3rd OT, 29-26.

Pitt's loss was a painful one, but it wasn't anywhere near as agonizing as LSU's last minute loss to Alabama tonight in Baton Rouge, which will keep Bama's national championship dream and almost certainly destroyed LSU's chance at revenge for last year's defeat by Bama in the championship game. Sorry, Jane; I was pulling for the Tigers. :-(

>228 phebj: Thanks, Pat! I'll definitely post updates on our meet ups here.

>230 EBT1002: Washington state has mail-in ballots only.

Interesting; is Washington the only state that does this? Georgia allowed voters to cast their ballots by mail this year, which I believe is the first time this has happened. I decided not to do so, even though I knew I would be out of town on Election Day, as I value the experience of going to a polling station, casting a vote in person, and receiving an "I'm a Georgia Voter" sticker at the end. I'll probably wear or display mine on Tuesday:



We're a pretty predictably blue state, so no one is paying much attention to us

And Georgia is a predictably red(neck) state. Unlike Pennsylvania, hardly any of the votes I've cast since 1998 have mattered here, as my US congressman (John Lewis, one of MLK's most trusted deputies) has only been challenged twice (but never seriously threatened) since he won his seat in the 1986 election, and my local representatives, all Democratic, win overwhelmingly if they are challenged at all. The governor and US senators are staunch Republicans, who have decidedly won elections in the past two or three cycles, and Georgians as a whole are solidly against Barack Obama. However, I wouldn't dream of not voting in a major election, as many good people, white, black and Latino, have laid down their lives to fight for the right for people like me to vote freely in this country, particularly in a Deep South state like Georgia.

I'll probably go out on the streets of San Francisco on Tuesday night, to join in the celebration of President Obama's re-election. (Hmm, I must remember to bring my Obama/Biden buttons...)

It looks like we may have an election almost as close as the Dubya / Gore slugfest. I hope for a slightly different and certainly less contentious result. Obama certainly hasn't delivered much of the high hopes many placed upon him but the alternative is replaces hope with cynicism and care for calculation. I do think the right could have offered far starker choices than Romney and I don't think he would be an absolute disaster for your country but the alternative is surely more appealing. I do think that Romney will prevail in a close contest but my vote would be cast with yours mate. Have a great weekend nonetheless and give my best wishes to Fliss and Zoe whose threads I get to less than I ought.

Paul, I'm cautiously optimistic about an Obama victory on Tuesday. The latest polls show Obama with a firm lead in the electoral vote in the non-battleground states, 243-206 (270 votes are needed to win the nomination). The President is also ahead in 7 of the 9 remaining states, including the key state of Ohio. If Obama wins Ohio, Romney is in deep trouble. If Romney wins Ohio and Florida, then it could be a long and very interesting night. I hope that this country never experiences a repeat of 2000, though.

I think that the President's ability to govern was hampered by his inexperience as a leader on the national stage and some unwise choices, but mainly he was blocked at nearly every turn by the intransigence of Congress and its inability to place partisan bickering and personal goals aside. It's easy to blame the Republicans for everything, but I think it's more fair to accuse both major parties of their failure to lead. What concerns me most about Romney is that he has not firmly stated what his positions are on the major issues, and he seems to be unduly influenced by the extremist right wing elements, in particular the Tea Party wackos like Michelle Bachmann and Sarah Palin.

IMO, the best thing for the country would be for Romney to lose, and for the Republican Party to finally understand that the attention paid to the Tea Party and other extremists has caused the GOP to lose two very winnable elections. I'd like nothing more than to see the Republicans turn their backs on the Tea Party, and force it to become a fringe group with little influence except on talk radio and in limited regions in the US.

Since Wa. St. went to all (with a few exceptions for people with access issues) mail ballots, I have also missed the trip to the polling place and the greetings among the neighbors and the appreciated work of the seniors who worked the polls. I even miss the occasional political operative trying to see who has voted, and who needs to be given a ride to the polls. Ah, democracy... where have you gone?

I'm voting in Ohio this year--It's the first time ever that my vote has "counted" ;)

ETA: I'm not a big fan of the electoral college. I think everyone's vote should "count." There was a purpose for this process when it was first organized, but I think in modern times its purpose is obsolete and it only gets in the way. :(

Unlike Pennsylvania, hardly any of the votes I've cast since 1998 have mattered here.

My presidential and senatorial vote may matter here in PA (thanks to Pittsburgh and Philly), but nothing else will; I'm in the Republican T-zone. The only thing that might make a difference is if the students get out and vote--but a lot of them will also just vote a straight ticket like their parents.

What concerns me most about Romney is that he has not firmly stated what his positions are on the major issues . . .

I loved Bill Maher's remark last week: "Romney has more sides than Picasso could have painted."

234> I don't know, mail-in ballots sound to me like asking for tampering. How do folks know their vote has been received (let alone counted)?

My friend in Oregon told me yesterday that Oregon does mail-in voting only. I am a by-mail voter here in California. Here you can go to the Registar of Voters website and actually track your ballot.

I like Maher's comment about Romney: "If you think a Superstorm is bad, if Mitt and anti-Mitt ever met the Universe would implode."

In Washington State you can also check to make sure your ballot was received; and presumably counted. Of course, they can't tell you they counted your ballot exactly because that might violate secret ballot rules.

I've never done it. Just trusted my ballot is received and counted. I'm not a believer that there is wide spread, and effective, efforts at voter fraud.

I know the individual states value their independence but surely a straightforward popular poll across the country could decide the election. It would make everyone's votes count. It would also be nice to have the two main parties put say 5 candidates before the public each and have the public choose which one should be the candidate.

Deb, I agree, I think our vote will count in PA. It is an interesting election. Tie race = every vote counts. My daughter lives in Ohio and is an assistant principal of a very impoverished area. People need jobs; people need a chance to move ahead. I'm very proud of her! She has the heart of a social worker and bleeds when day in and day out she sees these kids who are lost.

Working in a journalism department, I watch how media covers issues. It is very significant how the media sways people, for example, Fox, of course endorses Romney, then flicking the clicker to CNN, the coverage is slanted toward Obama. The same issues are spun in different modalities.

Your comment is a good one regarding "I loved Bill Maher's remark last week: "Romney has more sides than Picasso could have painted."

And then, the some media sources focus on Romney's comment to Obama that "We cannot kill our way out of this mess", or one played over and over today in the media is Romney's comment in relation to Obama stating we need to get revenge compared to Romney's comment regarding don't vote for revenge, vote for America (I'm paraphrasing here).

Personally, I don't necessarily vote regarding what my registration card indicates. No matter who wins, I wonder how in the world any candidate can get the US out of the economic mess. Our school systems are in a mess.

I'm at SFO, after a very relaxing and seemingly shorter than usual flight. We did arrive at the gate 15-20 minutes early, but the flight only seemed to last a couple of hours. I took the first direct flight on Delta from ATL to SFO today, so the airport and the plane was less crowded than usual. Unfortunately, I seem to have forgotten that I can't check into my hotel until 3 pm, nearly 4 hours from now, so I have quite a bit of time to kill. I'm having coffee at Peet's now, and I'll grab lunch in the International Terminal in half an hour or so.

>234 maggie1944: I suppose that in the near future we'll all cast our ballots via mail or electronically. It will be more convenient, for sure, but I think the sense of community and civic duty that you mentioned will be lost as a result. I'd be curious to know if the percentage of eligible voters who cast ballots in Washington has increased, decreased or not changed appreciably after the mail in ballot program was begun.

>235 The_Hibernator: Your vote definitely counts! If you don't vote on Tuesday (even if you support Romney) I will take a mid-week flight to Columbus and chastise you mercilessly!

My votes, both at the local, state and national level, definitely counted when I lived with my parents in suburban Philadelphia and in Pittsburgh. Georgia? Not so much. There have been several lead stories in the New York Times Magazine during the past few election cycles, which mention the town my parents live in, and how important it and the Philadelphia suburbs are to determining which party carries Pennsylvania, and who is elected President. Fortunately, and a bit unusually, Pennsylvania seems to be a safe state for President Obama this year.

I agree with you that the popular vote should determine who is elected President, rather than the number of Electoral College votes. Al Gore won the popular vote in 2000, but of course lost the Electoral College vote that year. It will be interesting to see what happens this year. Then again, one could make the argument that the popular vote in safe states for either candidate would increase significantly if everyone's votes counted toward the presidential election, so the popular vote may not be reflective of the overall opinion of the eligible voters in this country.

>236 Cariola: As I'm sure you know, the local elections in suburban Philadelphia, especially Bucks and Montgomery counties, tend to be very tight, and it's rare that any candidates win more than 55% of the vote.

I'd also be concerned that a mail-in ballot would get lost, be discarded, or otherwise not counted. Then again, I had the same feeling when I first cast an electronic ballot, with the cards that register the voter's choices.

>237 avidmom: I'm sure I'll find out on Tuesday, but does California have in person voting in addition to mail-in ballots?

Although I'm enjoying the Mitt Romney jokes, I will be very happy to see him be driven by limousine into the sunset, and fall into irrelevance. Although I'm a registered Democrat, I'd also like to see the Republican Party move back toward the center, to provide Americans like me with a viable alternative. Of the hundreds of candidates I've voted for in Georgia, only one was a Republican, whereas I would vote for one or more Republican candidates every election when I lived in Pennsylvania, in particular the recently deceased former US Senator Arlen Specter.

>238 maggie1944: Thanks for that information, Karen. I'm sure that I would check to see if my ballot was received the first time or two that I voted by mail, and I think I would probably continue to vote in person if that option was available to me. I've become a big fan of early voting, and I'd be happy to continue doing that for the foreseeable future.

>239 PaulCranswick: Interesting comments, Paul. I suppose you could say that the Democratic and Republican primaries do permit five or more candidates from each party to be considered as the party's nominee for the presidency. However, by the time many people vote, particularly if their state votes after Super Tuesday, most of these candidates have fallen by the wayside. Hmm...should we have a one day nationwide election for the primaries as we have for the Presidential election? I'll have to think about that a bit more.

>240 Whisper1: Although Pennsylvania is leaning toward Obama, it isn't a safe state for him, unlike California or New York, and, from what I've read, a Romney victory in PA isn't completely out of the question, although it is unlikely.

People need jobs; people need a chance to move ahead.

I couldn't agree more. I regularly see the effects of the economy on the families whose kids I care for in the hospital. So many parents remain out of work or are seriously underemployed, and many families who would normally make enough to afford private insurance for their children now resort to Medicaid or the states' Children's Health Insurance Programs (CHIPs), which are much more affordable but do not give the kids the same flexibility as Blue Cross, Aetna, Kaiser etc. This was a topic of conversation when several friends and I went to R'evolution in New Orleans two Sundays ago. The four of them are all primary care pediatricians, and they mentioned that it is nearly impossible for a private practice to stay afloat if its patient population is more than 30% public insurance (Medicaid or CHIP). They didn't mention this, but I've met numerous families who had to switch pediatricians once their kids were enrolled in a public insurance program; however, most of the PCPs (primary care pediatricians/providers) I know will do their best to keep their well established families in the practice, especially those who have had to switch to Medicaid or CHIP due to financial difficulty.

I am anxious for the vote to be over...
Since Romney Paid Zero Taxes From 1996 To 2009... you would think people would sit up and notice... but they don't.. media isn't covering it...why?

People need jobs; people need a chance to move ahead.
Agreed.

Kids need insurance, and even with CHIP they don't have what they need if their parents are too poor to give them good food and shelter.

I paid into social security my whole life. Once Reagan got into office, my life fell apart. No retirement for us. Kids and elderly are going to suffer. I'm afraid.

Hi, I'm jumping in from the bottom of your thread- since I'm so far behind. Just a comment on your statement that the "popular vote may not be reflective of the overall opinion of the eligible voters in the country."

My opinion on this is that the rules are very clear- it's the number of electoral votes the deciding factor on who gets to be president. So I always tell my friends when this topic comes up that if they don't like the rules, work towards a constitutional amendment to eliminate the electoral college. If there is a movement towards that, however, I can see many states objecting and trying to stop such amendment- Wisconsin would be one of them since we are pretty evenly split between the two parties. If it's the number of votes the deciding factor, candidates would not pay much attention to Wisconsin since the gains would be negligible. The focus would be on the most heavily populated states (back to the reason why the Founding Fathers opted for the electoral college.)

Anyway, I always look at every election as an interesting contest- some of them with greater consequences than others. The current one seems to be at a stage similar to the Carter-Reagan contest, where the country was moving in a totally wrong direction, at that time the communists were taking advantage , but voters saw clearly which option was best. In the end, after a few years we saw the collapse of communism among other things.

Darryl my library finally has 3 copies of the Devil in Silver coming! I requested they purchase a copy after your review. They have other LaValle books so I had my fingers crossed. I am the first requestor. I have Lucretia and the Kroons on the Kindle but have been holding off until the library got the main book.

Loving the political discussions here Darryl. I learn more here than on the news that's for sure :)

does California have in person voting in addition to mail-in ballots?
Yes. We have the option of snail-mail, standing in line and voting in a booth, or filling out ballot at home and dropping it off in person at any poll or drop-off location on Election Day. (Usually the County libraries here are also "drop off mail-in ballot" locations on the Big Day.) Even if you are a "by the mail" voter you can simply show up at the polls and hand them your by-mail ballot (which I'm sure they destroy) and do it the old fashioned way.

I'd also like to see the Republican Party move back toward the center, to provide Americans like me with a viable alternative.
My mother is (or she was) a staunch straight-ticket Republican voter historically. Not this year though! It was Romney's comment about his "healthcare ambulance" that got her. Me too. IMO, stupidity on just too many levels with that one..........

I am starting to feel like that little Colorado girl who started crying when her mom turned on the car radio because "I'm tired of Bronco Bama and Mitt Romney!" (If you haven't seen the YouTube video, it's priceless.)

Remembering that a large number of absentee ballots were deep-sixed in 2000 is what makes me nervous about mail-in ballots. What happens if you mail it in, check online, and CAN'T verify that your ballot was received?

I don't get to vote in the PA primaries because I consider myself an independent voter and refused to align myself with either party. The upshot is that I'm getting bombarded now by political phone calls from BOTH parties. Yesterday I counted: I got 11 pre-recorded calls, including one from Clint Eastwood.

Linda, I don't understand how the public seems to think that voting in a new guy will be a quick fix. It took years to get into this economic mess, and they seem to forget that we had a budget surplus under Clinton. It will take years to get out of it, whoever wins this election.

We need serious election reform in this country, but since so much money and influence depends on the campaigns, I doubt it will ever happen. I think it would be quite sufficient to skip primaries, run 90-day presidential and congressional campaigns, eliminate PACs and Super PACS, limit individual donations to $100, and set time and expense limits on television and radio advertising. If that were to happen, we might actually see some good candidates running, folks who can't compete monetarily today. I think it's a disgrace that we're pretty much stuck with those who can buy an election.

Just think what all that money spent on the election could do if put towards healthcare, schools, poverty, etc. . . .

>248 Cariola: very well put!

Yup. Well said, Deborah.

I agree with you Deb,

"Linda, I don't understand how the public seems to think that voting in a new guy will be a quick fix. It took years to get into this economic mess, and they seem to forget that we had a budget surplus under Clinton. It will take years to get out of it, whoever wins this election."

I believe the system is flawed and in deep trouble.

Darryl, regarding private practice and the difficulty regarding how to treat patients with medicare, etc.

My partner Will his practice nine years ago. As a self employed physician, in the state of PA, he had to accept X amount of medicare patients.

Some of those patients came to him with detached retinas, macular degeneration and/or the need for cataract surgery. Many elderly have complicated conditions.

Hypothetically, if he was paid for approximately 15 minutes of service, in reality, because he is a kind soul, he spent a long time with his patients. Of course, the amount of time he gave did not cover what medicare paid him. In addition, the paperwork was incredible.

Deb, getting back to the root of the problem, I think it is ever so sad that we, as a nation cannot provide health insurance that is affordable and still, in a market system, find a way the doctors can be paid for their skills in a fair, reasonable amount.

Both republicans and democrats got us in this mess. I too don't understand how people feel that a new person can result in a quick fix. I think it analogous to people who cheat in a relationship, thinking that the new person will fill all their needs.

Every doctor who is my friend, or whom I visit -- and I've seen many these last three years -- all say the same thing "Why should I stay in practice?"

I fear there will be a huge brain drain, ie many people who are very competent will go into other fields rather than stay in the medical profession.

>248 Cariola: I got 11 pre-recorded calls, including one from Clint Eastwood.
Pre recorded?
How on earth does that have any validity whatsoever?
*shocked*

Just delurking to say hi Darryl, and also, that I feel your pain in wanting to find better balance with your various LT engagements. I've felt like I was out of the loop for the better part of this year as I try to make more time for other activities, and I'm still spending too much time on the computer (mostly here on LT), but there's such a great bunch of people here that it's hard to switch off sometimes.

I'd been looking at you go with all your planned reading and wondering how you did it. I mean, I plan my reading to a certain extent, but there's plenty of room for the Leave It part of the TIOLI attitude and mission which I apply across the board. I find I need a certain amount of planning to help guide my choices because otherwise I typically get overwhelmed with all the options I have in my tbr. Good luck finding the right balance, I'll be watching with interest and taking notes.

No comments on the elections. Other than to say I hope sanity prevails.

And also: I grew up with a mother who was so much into politics that that poor little girl's cry over "Bronco Bama" seemed all too familiar to me, and I still feel much the same over it all.

I believe that WA and OR are the only states that have only mail-in ballots. One can go down to the elections office to vote, but I don't know how many take that option.
I am glad I got to vote at an old-fashioned polling place in the last presidential election. I live in a very diverse neighborhood and being with a wonderful mix of races, ethnicities, cultural backgrounds, and family compositions, waiting in line to vote for Obama (in my neighborhood there was little doubt about how most of us were voting and the pooches wearing Obama t-shirts helped us to recognize one another) was so emotionally powerful. My next-door neighbor is an 84-year-old African American man originally from New Orleans and he has shared how amazed he is that he has lived to see a Black man in the White House. Knowing what he experienced in the south through the Jim Crow era, and seeing that change can happen (albeit more slowly than we would like) has been awe-inspiring.

So, back to the topic at hand, I have mixed feelings about the mail-in ballots. It's convenient for a busy soul like myself, but I worry that it's too easy for one member of a household to influence another (you know, the old secret ballot really gave voice to those who wanted to see change, but whose husbands might not have been so enthusiastic.....). I don't worry about fraud at a more systemic level, but perhaps I am naive.

Fingers crossed for Tuesday. I think it's going to be a nail-biter. SFO sounds like a good place to spend the evening, Darryl.

Damn. I'm badly sleep deprived, with a total of 9-10 hours of sleep in the past 3+ days, but I can't seem to stay asleep. I may have to resort to taking a sleep aid (e.g. Nyquil or Advil P.M.) if I can't get a good night's sleep tonight (it's just after 10 pm on Sunday here). Fortunately I don't have any fixed plans between now and Tuesday morning, and I can sleep in tomorrow if need be.

>243 mckait: Same here, Kath. I was sitting on pins and needs on Election Day 2008, and I'm sure I'll be the same way on Tuesday. I'm feeling good about an Obama victory, but I'm far from comfortable at the moment.

I'm not sure I knew that Romney didn't pay any taxes between 1996 and 2009, but you're right:

Romney Avoids Taxes via Loophole Cutting Mormon Donations (Bloomberg)

However, this confirms what I already knew: Mittens is a rich SOB who is out of touch with the vast majority of Americans. It's interesting that it seemingly hasn't been discussed widely in the media (unless I glossed over it).

I totally agree with your comment about CHIP; it's an essential safety net for lower middle class families, but it in itself doesn't guarantee comprehensive health care, particularly for mental health service and care by PCPs and subspecialists, such as the dermatologist who came to the hospital to see a patient with private insurance but refused to see my patient who had Medicaid (an extreme example, but not an isolated one). And, too often the parents of these kids can't afford insurance for themselves, and struggle to put food on the table or provide adequate shelter for their families. Every so often we encounter parents who are reluctant to take their child home from the hospital, and we find out that they are living on the streets, in abandoned homes, or in their cars. Many other families live in squalid conditions, and it's not at all uncommon for parents to be unable to afford food for themselves or the siblings of the hospitalized child.

The hospital system I work for recently enacted a program called HeLP, short for Health Law Partnership, in which lawyers who work for Children's and law professors and students from the city's public university donate their time and efforts to provide free legal representation and help for poor or needy families who we encounter in one of Children's hospitals or clinics. HeLP certainly doesn't meet the needs of all of the families that pass through our system, but it's a large step in the right direction.

The middle and lower classes will continue to suffer mightily unless elected officials get their heads out of their asses and start instituting some common sense reforms on a local and national level. This country cannot afford four more years of failed Republican policies, which only serve to enrich the wealthy at the expense of everyday Americans.

>244 xieouyang: Interesting comments, Manuel. I'll have to come back to your thoughts once I'm a bit more awake...

>245 luvamystery65: Excellent news, Roberta! As you know, I read Lucretia and the Kroons after I finished The Devil in Silver. Even though Lucretia is the prequel to The Devil in Silver I'd suggest reading the longer novel first, as it isn't essential to read the novella and it's a much better book, IMO.

>246 LovingLit: Thanks, Megan...and thanks especially to the people who visit my thread and make valuable contributions to it!

I promise that this thread will return to discussing books soon! That seems to be the only topic that isn't a regular one here.

>247 avidmom: I see that California also has in person early voting, up until today (Nov 5).

One concern I would have with mail-in ballots is the possibility that one member of a couple or family could ostensibly fill out ballots for the other members, based on his or her own preferences rather than those of the spouse, parent or adult child whose ballot is being completed. I'm sure everyone knows a couple or family whose members hold differing political views, and unless there are processes put in place to prevent ballot fraud I could easily envision this problem, although I imagine it would affect local races more than statewide or national ones.

Mitthead has made several tone deaf comments this year that did not go over well with Democratic and independent voters, particularly his description of himself as "severely conservative" and especially his "47 percent" comment, when he labeled the 47 percent of eligible voters who wouldn't support him as freeloaders who pay no taxes and rely on government support, which I found deeply insulting and unsettling. (Dear Mitthead, I pay far more taxes than you do, have never asked for support from the government, and have made a positive contribution to the lives of thousands of children in this country, unlike you. Thanks for ensuring that you or your ilk will never get my vote, asshole.)

For me, the choice between Democrats and Republicans on a statewide and national level is similar to the choice between a meal at a local diner and a piece of rancid meat. I may not love the menu selection at the diner, but I'll surely find something that I'll like, whereas the worm and bacteria infested piece of meat will taste horrible and make me sick. (Sorry, but it's nearly midnight and I'm sleep deprived.)

>248 Cariola: We need serious election reform in this country, but since so much money and influence depends on the campaigns, I doubt it will ever happen. I think it would be quite sufficient to skip primaries, run 90-day presidential and congressional campaigns, eliminate PACs and Super PACS, limit individual donations to $100, and set time and expense limits on television and radio advertising. If that were to happen, we might actually see some good candidates running, folks who can't compete monetarily today. I think it's a disgrace that we're pretty much stuck with those who can buy an election.

Just think what all that money spent on the election could do if put towards healthcare, schools, poverty, etc. . . .

I agree 1000 percent!!! Outstanding comments, Deborah.

That was a cute video about the 4 yo girl who became upset and started crying when her mother listened to the election coverage on NPR (National Public Radio in the US) in her car. Here's a link to the story and video, in case you haven't seen it:

‘Bronco Bama’ Girl: NPR Apologizes to 4-Year-Old Tired of the Election

However, I like the somewhat similar viral video from last November, in which a 4 year old girl becomes touchingly and hilariously distraught after her favorite NFL team, the hapless Minnesota Vikings, were trounced by the undefeated Green Bay Packers:

Little kid freaking out about the Packers beating the Vikings

Yes, I share your concern about mail-in voting, and I would have to have more reassurances about its integrity before I would feel comfortable casting my ballot in this fashion.

Ugh; 11 pre-recorded phone calls, including one from that old fool Clint Eastwood? Was his message coherent, unlike his notorious appearance at the Republican National Convention? I'm so glad that I got rid of my landline years ago; I found that the only calls I was getting were from telemarketers, parents who looked me up in the phone book (when my number was not unlisted), and wrong numbers, as everyone who knew me well would call me on my cell phone.

I agree with you and Linda, of course. It took many years for us to get into the mess that we're currently in, and political, social, health care and environmental reform will take decades to achieve, especially if extremists from either party are allowed to have an undue influence on policy. But that's the American way, isn't it? We want a quick, easy and painless solution to our problems, which preferably don't affect us as individuals. Until we begin to make some hard choices that impact all of us instead of those who aren't like us, nothing substantial will ever get done.

>249 luvamystery65:, 250 Ditto.

>251 Whisper1: Very insightful and accurate comments about the current state of medical practice in the US, Linda. Many if not most physicians, I believe, would willingly care for underserved patients and those who have public insurance like Medicare, Medicaid or CHIP (except for dermatologists, plastic surgeons and other boutique physicians). However, most physicians lose money on the services they provide to these patients, in both the outpatient and inpatient settings, and private practices cannot survive if they see a majority of these patients unless they are subsidized externally or if they run a "Medicaid mill", in which they provide marginal care to dozens of patients every day, rushing them in and out of the exam rooms like cattle. The group I work for has to be subsidized by the hospital, due to the high and increasing number and percentage of patients that we care for, to the tune of nearly $1 million. From what I understand no hospitalist practice in the US (or at least those which only provide inpatient services) is self-supporting, although some have found unique ways to generate additional income, such as providing sedation services for inpatients and patients in the ED.

Health care reform is absolutely essential to ensuring the long term solvency of this country, and I'd describe it as an urgent problem that needs to be fixed ASAP. People in this country pay far too much for health care, and receive so little and such substandard care in return and compared to other first world countries.

BTW, I meant to mention that one of the main roles of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is to serve as an advocate for children in Washington and in the statehouses (unlike the American Medical Association (AMA), which most pediatricians, including myself, believe doesn't give much of a damn about children's health or health care reform, and is more concerned with preserving physician income and autonomy; and, no, I'm not an AMA member). One of the most dynamic speakers at last month's AAP national conference was a lawyer and lobbyist employed by the AAP, who spoke about the academy's Get Out the Vote campaign, which aims to ensure that all pediatricians vote in this year's elections and take a greater role in standing up and lobbying for the well being of children on a local, state and national level. All of the conference's attendees received posters and buttons from this campaign, and I will wear my button proudly today and tomorrow.

Yawn...I think I'll go back to sleep now, and catch up with the remaining posts and create a new thread later today. Thanks for visiting and posting your excellent comments and observations, everyone!

Good luck with getting the sleep challenge sorted out. I on and off "suffer" from nights when I just do not stay asleep but I try to just carry on and not care. Usually within a few days I get back to regular sleeping but I do not have the added challenge of those all nighters you have the "privilege" of having to do.

I agree on the election reform. I have said for years... all donations should go into a central fund. Each candidate should be given a fixed amount and that is all they get .. all they are allowed to spend. Each should be monitored on spending. Each time a blatant lie is told, they should be fined money from that that
account. Each lie, another fine, higher each time. That would slow down the lies I am sure.

Healthcare is indeed essential. Anyone who thinks otherwise is blind to the dilemma of their fellow men, or they just don't give a damn. Sickening. Equal rights for mariage, voting, and ALL things are essential. Religion has no place NO place in politics. If a ranting atheist would make the best president, so be it. Religion is...a personal choice. It has nothing to do with the integrity or quality of a person. For so called Christians to try to make rules about how others live their lives is just wrong.

oh.. and here is another for your stupid parents club....

This one is tragic, and I;m sure you know of it.. since I know that you monitor PGH news, too.
I posted it in another thread but here it is :
************************************
A local mom stood her toddler on the fence of a wild dog exhibit. Yes, he toppled in and the wild dogs killed him. The family will probably sue the zoo. The zoo that erected the fence to keep the public safely away from the animals. People make me angry..and sad...and angry. Rules are for everyone.. stop signs, yellow lines, exit only ... FENCES .. all have reasons for being.

I am really eager to read Lucretia and the Kroons because Lucretia was probably my favorite character in The Devil in Silver, but I have not as yet broken down and bought a Kindle so I can do so!

I will be VERY glad when the election is over as I'm rapidly becoming a nervous wreck with all the TV coverage my political junkie sweetie likes to watch. He is convinced Obama will win, but he is the optimist in the house.

>262 rebeccanyc: rebeccanyc you can get the Kindle app on your computer and read Lucretia and the Kroons. It's short so it shouldn't be too bad to read on the computer. :)

Finally caught up again. I also feel that our political campaign patterns have gotten way out of control. Several friends of mine have suggested we'd do better with a parliamentary system, where leaders can change at any time and elections are far shorter in duration. But I'm not sure that would work in a country as populous and spread out as ours. (Hm, works in India after a fashion.)

I'm not in favor of a single day primary system. Think how much we learned about the candidates as they struggled in each separate race! However, I do think the primaries should not have been advanced as they have been - we're all so sick of politics and news about politics and quotes from politicians and pundits. And it takes so much time away from doing the work some of these people were hired (elected) to do!

Sigh.

thanks for the tour of N'Awlings, and no thanks for the envy you provoked with yet another vacation in SF. Good luck on losing your book funk. Darryl without a book is a strange thought indeed.

>252 LovingLit: I don't remember ever receiving a phone call from a candidate or political party, so I'd be curious to find out what the recorded messages were about. Was the goal to make sure that you vote, or vote for a particular candidate?

I'm sitting in a barbershop at the moment, waiting to get my hair cut and listening to CNN. One of the pundits just said that Romney is looking at Pennsylvania as his dream state. Get thee to the polling stations tomorrow, LT Pennsylvanians!

>253 Smiler69: Hi, Ilana! I definitely enjoy the conversations and camaraderie on LT, not to mention the book reviews and recommendations. However, I found that I was spending several hours a day catching up on LT, and although I wouldn't describe it as a waste of time, I did regret spending so much time here that could be spent on reading and other desirable activities.

I did and do like planning what books I want to read on a monthly basis, but lately it's become too confining and stifling. I've swung over to not planning any reading, but I hope to achieve a good balance between planned and spontaneous reading soon.

I'm looking forward to Election Day tomorrow with a mixture of excitement, anxiety and dread, and I think this is contributing to my inability to sleep well (I've been awake since just before 3 am Pacific Time).

My family definitely paid close attention to major elections, and I was chomping at the bit to be able to vote for the first time in the 1980 presidential election (I voted for John Anderson, the third party candidate although I was a registered Democrat).

>254 EBT1002: Interesting comments about your voting experience in 2008, Ellen. Although I do like early voting in Georgia, I usually vote in the county government center downtown, so I lose the sense of neighborhood participation than I felt in previous elections. There still is a general sense of community and purpose, though, and the employees that work at the polling stations are far more friendly and enthusiastic than the typical city workers here.

It will be very interesting to experience Election Day for the first time outside of the city that I'm living in, and especially in San Francisco.

>260 maggie1944: Even though I slept badly last night and have been awake since 3 am I feel very energetic and wide awake. I thought I would sleep in today, but I only have five days to spend in SF, and I hated the thought of wasting a day in bed. I'll probably take a nap after I have lunch at my favorite Mission District taquería, where I'll head after I get my hair cut, and I'll return to the Mission tonight to see a documentary based on the career of legendary jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman. He was supposed to have performed on Friday night as part of the San Francisco Jazz Festival, but he is currently ill and had to cancel his concert.

I did stop at City Lights Bookstore this morning after breakfast, and bought seven books. I'll list them here later today.

I hope your sleep gets better soon Darryl! And that you have a fun time in SF.

I haven't received any calls, but that's probably because I don't have a land-line. On the other hand, volunteers from the Obama campaign have stopped by my apartment four times in the past couple of weeks. I told the third person "You're the third person!!!" she said: "Really? How strange." I told the fourth person "You're the FOURTH person!!!" she said: "Yeah. I know. We're just going to keep stopping by until you vote." I decided that if the Obama campaign stopped by today I'd tell them I'd changed my mind and am now voting for Romney. :p

Of course, I DO appreciate the hard work they're going through trying to get people to vote. And my apartment complex is filled with students, so I imagine they're hitting it pretty hard. But STILL!

#263 Oh good to know! Thanks, luvamystery65!

I don't think they bother calling us in NYC -- they figure we're voting for Obama! But at my family's house upstate, we get all kinds of messages from local candidates on the answering machine.

Ah! Volunteer #5 came by today. I told her I was voting for Romney now. She laughed. I don't think she took me seriously.

265> Sorry, I can't answer your question, since I hang up the phone as soon as I figure out it's a political call. Clint got as far as "Hello, there. This is Clint Eastwood--yes, it's really me." Yesterday I had prerecorded calls from both the wife and daughter of the Tea Party senatorial candidate, Tom Smith. They got about as far with me as Clint did. I also get ones that try to sound like they are a survey. A few days ago, I got one that from Focus on the Family that said it was a short, three-question survey. The first question: "Do you agree with the Rev. Billy Graham's statement that we need to put faith and God back into our government? Press 1 if yes. Press 2 if no." Well, I pressed 2, and they didn't bother to ask me the next two questions--which I'm sure were leading up to "Will you support Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan on November 6?"

But in the name of science, I'll hear the next one out. Surprisingly, I haven't gotten one since I got home two hours ago, but the after-dinner calls are sure to start up soon.

My big conundrum is when to get in line to vote. If I go before classes and there is a line, I might have to leave and come back later. If I go after work, I will get there around 4:00, when things start to get crazy. I will probably opt for 4:00.

I once reported a poll worker. There was a long line around 7:30, and I was in it. He was going down the line telling people to just pull a straight party ticket, that it didn't matter and that this would to make it go faster for everyone else.

I spoke too soon. There was one left in my comcast Voicemail:

"Hello, Pennsylvania. This is Bill Clinton, and I am calling on behalf of President Obama. Pennsylvania has always been good to me. Your support paved the way for me to become president and for us together to do a lot of good: to improve the economy and quality of life for Pennsylvanians and for all Americans. Now we need to do it again. Election Day is Tuesday, and all across the Keystone State, your friends and neighbors will be heading to the polls. I've been through a lot of elections, and believe me, this one's going to be close, and there is so very much at stake. President Obama has been fighting for all of us; now it's our turn to fight for him. To find your voting location, please visit BarackObama.com/vote, or call the Voter Hotline at 1-855-834-VOTE. Again, that number is 1-855-834-8683. As long as you're in line when the polls close at 8:00 p.m., you can vote. And remember, you don't need an ID to vote. Thanks for all your support in the past, and thanks for being a voter who cares about the future of Pennsylvania and of our great country."

You don't need an ID to vote?!?

NO!!!! The Republicans tried to make it law in several states, including PA, that one needed to show a photo ID in order to vote. The point was (and I am not making this up, a Republican state senator was dumb enough to say this in public) that people without drivers' licenses--mostly the poor and the elderly, who are more likely to vote Democratic--or without the money to pay for a state ID or the transportation to get to the place to order one or the necessary birth certificate and whatever else one needs would just give up and not vote. This idiot stated that passing this law would guarantee Pennsylvania for Mitt Romney. You need to register to vote, which requires a signature, and they can then match up signatures when you go to vote.

Ok, this is old news, because it's all from 2008, but I thought it might make some of you chuckle http://www.mittensromney.com

As Cariola said, the whole voter ID issue is designed to decrease the ability to vote for people who are likely to vote Democratic: poor people, old people, students, etc. It is a return to the purpose of literacy tests. Not only are old and poor people less likely to have drivers licenses, but the whole "well you can get another state ID" concept is flawed too, because it relies on people having or getting (costs $) their birth certificates and having whatever the fee is and paying to get to wherever they have to go to take care of this transaction. Furthermore, some poor and elderly people, especially African-Americans, may have been born at home and there may never have been a birth certificate. The whole "voter fraud" issue is a cynical, prejudiced attempt by Republicans to minimize the Democratic vote.

It's an even more overt and corrupt attempt to grab power than redistricting.

Hi Darryl, breezing through to spread happiness and cheer that the 21st century exists and we live in it.

If you hadn't explained what the whole ID issue means in the US, it would have never occurred to me that it was any kind of ploy to make voting difficult. When I said "No ID?!?!??", I meant it to mean I was shocked that they would not ask for it, not because I have any sort of Republican leanings (god forbid), but because here in Quebec, everyone has photo ID by virtue of the fact that we have medicare and everyone is required to have a photo ID (provided for free) to receive free health care, so that even the poorest of the poor have photo ID here. It would never have even occurred to me that one could be charged for ID. I mean, sure you have to pay for a driver's license, but I guess having lived here all my life, I never even stopped to think that we all have ID here because we enjoy a public benefit that is so highly contested in the States. I forget sometimes how very different Canada is from the US in some very fundamental ways, and a "detail" like this drives it home.

For instance, I've always been amazed that a great faction of the American population gets all worked up about anything they deem to have the remotest whiff of "Socialism". We live in organized societies. Things need to be structured to maintain equilibrium within those societies. If that's what "Socialism" is, then so be it! To me that's just plain common sense, and most Canadians, and Europeans probably, would agree with me I think. I can't for the life of me understand the mindset of the very rich and the level of greed and selfishness and hypocrisy so many of them can reach, and DO reach and loudly defend very openly in the States.

I am also new the vote ID issues in the US. As Ilana mentioned, Canadians are used to having ID that identifies them, in one form or another. That being said, not everyone has driver's licenses and not all provinces has photo ID health care cards - where I live in BC we are still in the process of launching a photo ID health care card - but the majority of residents in Canada have a provincially issued health care card (kind of mandatory if you want the government to cover your health care costs!) and the majority pay some form of utility (hydro, phone, etc). For our federal elections, ID is required and has been as long as I can remember, but there are options: 1) one piece of government issued photo ID (driver's license, resident/identity card, passport); 2) two pieces of original authorized identification, both must have your name and one must have your address (non-photo health care card and utility bill); or 3) take an oath and have an elector (someone already registered to vote) who knows you vouch for you and is part of the same polling division (a roommate, neighbor). It is not a requirement in Canada for photo ID to be presented to be able to vote and I would be horrified to see something like that happen on either side of the border.

Sorry, that is my quick two cents on the topic.

Ilana, the US has a history of "Jim Crow laws"--states, mostly southern, requiring voters to pay a poll tax or take a literacy test, things that were obviously aimed at preventing African Americans from voting. That's one reason why some of us are so sensitive about the picture ID requirement.

I agree with you that the phobia against "socialism" is extreme and often silly. It's probably a throwback to McCarthyism and the Cold War. I'm old enough to remember being terrified that my parents weren't building a bomb shelter in our back yard, since every day the news seemed to be threatening nuclear attacks from Russia.

My brother, who is a sociologist, claims that the "American Dream" concept has convinced the average middle class and even lower class citizen to believe that he or she has more in common with someone like Donald Trump or Mitt Romney than with the scapegoated "welfare mom." They want to believe that anything is possible, and that with hard work and a little luck, they, too, can be billionaires. I've been seeing an ad on TV paid for and presented by a man who grew up in a Soviet country, "dreaming of coming to America" where he would have opportunities to get ahead. He claims that what made America great is "people working hard to be successful," and that what he has seen in recent years is that, because of government "handouts," people are getting lazy, losing ambition, and the country is becoming more and more like the Soviet Union, "where the rich will get poorer, but the poor will get even poorer." Of course, this is a guy who has made enough money that he can independently afford to produce and run an a political ad on national television. It's the first time I can recall an individual doing so.

It's a bunch of crock. But it explains why so many people will vote against their own best interest. They would rather dream of being on their way to becoming a Donald Trump or Mitt Romney than accept that they will probably never be able to get ahead unless the system starts to change.

Politics politics politics....and it seems the same everywhere. I see a lot of support on LT for Obama, and little for what is termed "the right", but "the right" does win (as in NZ) yet who owns up to voting for them? People must, but they appear to be ashamed of admitting it! To me this proves that it is a selfish vote, done for personal gain over what is actually best for everyone. This is my latest eureka moment, as it only just dawned on me that this has to be the case.

>261 mckait: I heard on NPR today that Obama and Romney spent $6 billion on their combined presidential campaigns. That amount of money was spent on the tiny minority of undecided American voters (10%? Less?) whose votes were up for grabs. And, this doesn't include the millions (billions?) of dollars that were spent on other electoral campaigns throughout the country. What a colossal waste of money that could have been better spent on so many other things.

I did hear about that horrible tragedy at the Pittsburgh Zoo. Just awful...

>262 rebeccanyc: I'll be interested to see what you think of Lucretia and the Kroons, Rebecca. It has very little to do with The Devil in Silver, and had I read it first and not received an Early Reviewers of The Devil in Silver, I probably wouldn't have wanted to read it.

As Roberta said in message 263 you can get the free Kindle app for PCs, iPads, smartphones, etc.

I had a long afternoon nap after lunch today, and I missed tonight's single showing of the Ornette Coleman documentary as a result. I'll probably see it tomorrow night, even though the election probably won't be decided by 6:30 pm Pacific Time. I'd rather be outside tomorrow night anyway, instead of holed up in my hotel room watching the election night coverage on television.

I watched CNN's election coverage while I was in the barbershop for roughly an hour, and that was about as much as I wanted to see. I strongly prefer to watch PBS on Election Night, but as I said I probably won't be at "home" for most of the day. Zoë, Fliss and I are meeting tomorrow morning in North Beach, and I'll probably go to SFMoMA (the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which has free admission on the first Tuesday of every month) after we part.

I'm very optimistic that President Obama will be re-elected, but I'm still very nervous about tomorrow. If he wins Ohio it will be nearly impossible for Romney to win, unless he pulls an upset in Pennsylvania or some other major state that was supposedly a safe one for the President.

>264 ffortsa: I'd have to learn more about it, but I think I would be in favor of a parliamentary system of government in the US. However, I think that hell would freeze over before it could be implemented here.

Good points about the downside of a single day primary system, Judy. The primary season is arguably too long, but it gives the American people a chance to select the best candidate in each party. I shudder to think about some of the people who won state primaries in the past and could have conceivably been chosen as the party's nominee in a one day primary election (e.g., Michele Bachmann).

This is my last vacation week of the year, although I'll spend Thanksgiving week with my parents in Philadelphia, so there shouldn't be any more envy-inducing tales after Friday. :-)

Very interesting Deborah.

That whole Jim Crow influence on the way voting is controlled, for one. Again, something that is not part of our culture here, and which of course I'm familiar with, but only from some of the limited reading I've done, all fiction too, mind you. Of course racism exists here too, but maybe not as systematized historically. French Canadians were probably treated just slightly better than the native Indians here for a very long time mind you.

When I made my comment about socialism, I meant to bring up the McCarthy influence and how I'm sure it's still very much remained in the culture. Amazing though that even now that the USSR hasn't existed already for... how long has it been now? Republicans still use the spectre of Communism to scare people.

Also very interesting take on how the "American Dream" has influenced the average American to vote against his or her best interests. Who in their right mind wants to be a Donald Trump anyway?? Don't they see the man is a monster? How is that desirable in any way? Sad really.

Megan, I'm bemused about your conclusion that most people who vote for "the right" are ashamed to admit their views. Somehow, I doubt it. It's just that places like LT and the 75ers are probably not an accurate representation of the population at large. After all, how many people out there are avid readers like us? Open-minded like us? Willing to discuss potentially explosive issues with so much respect for one another's viewpoints? You do have a point that in this kind of forum were liberal-minded people feel free to express themselves with such volubility probably discourages those "rightists" from showing their political colours quite so openly. But out there in the "real" world, they band together and are very proud of their views, is what my impression is.

Having a quiet chuckle. No photo ID or signature to vote here. You show up, give your name to a worker who confirms your address with you, then asks, "Have you voted anywhere else today?" You say "No", and they hand over the ballot(s).

Of course, since voting is compulsory (or at least, turning up to get your name crossed off is), there's not much to be gained by fiddling the system. If someone gets crossed off at two places, it's automatically obvious that something is wrong.

Whoa. I can't keep up with my own thread! ;-)

>266 The_Hibernator: Thanks, Rachel! I spent yesterday planning things to do here on Wednesday and Thursday. I'll meet up again with Zoë, hopefully Fliss, and two other LTers on Friday in San Francisco and Berkeley, before I leave town Saturday afternoon. I'll probably go to bed soon, and hopefully I'll be caught up on sleep by tomorrow morning.

The weather here has been unusually warm, with near or above record high temperatures for at least the past two days in and around the Bay Area. It will be warm again tomorrow, with a projected high of 80 degrees in the city, before a cold front passes through, which will cause the highs to drop back to the upper 50s by Thursday.

I'm not sure which is worse, multiple robocalls from politiicans and their supporters or volunteers repeatedly banging on your door. I think I would have voted early and posted a sign that read "I've already voted!" on the outside of my front door.

I agree with you, though; these volunteers are critically important in getting voters to the polls, especially in the key battleground states.

>267 rebeccanyc: I'll have to ask my parents (who still own a landline) how many calls and visits they have received over the past few days. Romney is making a big push in Pennsylvania in these last few days, as he was in neighboring Morrisville yesterday and will be in Pittsburgh tomorrow afternoon (hmm, I thought that the candidates were not supposed to campaign on Election Day, but apparently I'm wrong).

>268 The_Hibernator: Yikes. Were the five volunteers all from one party?

>269 Cariola: I might have been tempted to listen to the entirety of Clint Eastwood's message, to see if he was as incoherent as he was at the Republican National Convention. I would have shrieked in horror if I had received a phone call or visit from anyone supporting the Tea Party or Focus on the Family, though.

I usually voted as soon as the polls opened on Election Day, to avoid the pressure of having to get back from school, residency or work in time to cast my ballot.

I hope that poll worker was severely reprimanded for making that comment!

>270 Cariola: I'm a fan of Bill Clinton, especially the post-presidential variety, and I definitely would have listened to the entirety of his message.

Well, I'm going to bed and when I wake up it will be Election Day! It will be interesting to see what happens.
Wishing you some good sleep, Darryl.

>271 Smiler69: I had to think that through for a minute, as Georgia does require ID for citizens to vote in person. I think I've always shown my driver's license every time I've voted, in Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Georgia.

>272 Cariola: I remember reading about that comment from the Republican state senator about Pennsylvania's proposed voter ID law. What a yutz!

>273 Smiler69: Cute! I like this candidate much better than the real one.

>272 Cariola:, 274, 275 That's absolutely right, Deborah and Rebecca. The Republicans have resorted to this tactic as its main one to decrease the votes of segments of the American population that would likely vote Democratic. Their purported claim that these laws are necessary to prevent voter fraud is completely hypocritical, as a vanishingly small number of Americans cast illegal ballots.

Georgia does allow its residents to obtain a free voter ID card, if they do not already own one of the acceptable forms of ID (driver's license, passport, federal or state government ID, military ID, or tribal photo ID). However, the process to obtain this voter ID is far from easy, as the applicant must provide a "photo identity document or approved non-photo identity document that includes full legal name and date of birth; documentation showing the voter's date of birth; evidence that the applicant is a registered voter; and documentation showing the applicant's name and residential address." I'll bet that hundreds if not thousands of Georgians have been unable to meet these requirements or decided that it was too difficult to do so, and will not vote in the upcoming election as a result (and I'll also bet that the vast majority of these people would have voted for President Obama).

On a somewhat related note, the Georgia state legislature recently passed a law that requires all physicians licensed to practice in the state to provide proof of citizenship, even if they (like me) have been in practice for years. I have to renew my state license by the end of March, so I'll have to go through this process later this year or early in 2013.

>276 richardderus: Hi Darryl, breezing through to spread happiness and cheer that the 21st century exists and we live in it.

This message came from Richard, LT's favorite curmudgeon? Happiness and cheer?!! Can someone check on him please? I fear he is suffering from terminal cabin fever.

>277 Smiler69: Interesting comments, Ilana. Here our birth certificates serve as our initial and primary form of identity in childhood, unless the child travels abroad and receives a passport. I got my Social Security card when I was in high school, along with my first of several driver's licenses, followed by my US passport. Still, this isn't enough proof of my citizenship for the Republican infested Georgia legislature, so I'll have to prove my identity all over again to be able to practice medicine in the state next year. The Republicans are fond of talking about government inefficiency and wasteful spending, yet they enact laws like this one that counteract their so called goals.

I agree with your comments about the senseless and immature hysteria by the right wing in this country toward anything that smacks of (gasp) socialism, as if communism would necessarily follow as a result.

I can barely keep my eyes open, so I'll finish catching up tomorrow.

I think I would have voted early and posted a sign that read "I've already voted!" on the outside of my front door.

If I had it to do all over again, I would have. But not knowing I would be hounded by the very campaign I was rooting for, I originally decided to vote normally on election day because I was cynically worried that half of the vote-early ballots wouldn't be counted for some reason or another. :p

YES, all five volunteers were from the Obama campaign. None of them had anything new to say to me. AND even though I told them all that Mr. Simpson no longer lives at this residence--I get a lot of his junk mail, but I've never met him--the next volunteer always wants to talk to Mr. Simpson and convince HIM to vote, too! :p Volunteer #5 admitted that they were going to do "several sweeps" of my neighborhood tomorrow, so I might put a sign on my door today.

I spent one evening working for the Obama campaign. All I can say is that the people who worked alongside me, and who ran that particular office must surely have been in the employ of the other party, for the way they behaved, and the way that office was run.

I have had the sound off for approximately 40% of my tv viewing int he last 2 months. I have stopped answering my landline 95% of the time. There has to be a better way. I never look at the cards they send, if it feels like one of the nasty things.. or I happen to glance at it and see it is another attack ad, it goes into the bag I will use for cat litter that day.

IMO 2$ should be taken out of everyone paycheck every time. 1$ should go into a disaster relief fund (FEMA) and 1$ should go into an election fund for president. No candidate should be allowed to campaign any earlier than 8 months before the election. They should each be forbidden to take money from any corporation. No money from any individual. Eight months prior to election the money from the funds should be split in half.. and no other money allowed. If a candidate is caught using other money, disqualify him/her.
If any candidate is caught lying they should be fined .. amount to be paid from that fund. If they lie twice, same but double, three times .. etc. I would willingly give that in order to try to end the madness.

Campaigning has become an ugly and torturous business, and it calls for extraordinary measure to protect the citizens against the onslaught and the lies .

I voted at 7:07a.m. I declined to show my ID. At least this year the machines were turned toward the wall instead of toward the public. I had turned them in for violation of voter privacy in the past. The woman working there were loud and unfriendly. Why be there if it isn't something you want/like to do?

286> Unless it was a Philly thing, you shouldn't have had to show a driver's license to vote here. While you're in line, they give you a little slip to print your name on. The poll workers are seated at alphabetically organized stations with the voter registration books. You go to the right one, hand them your slip, and they find you in the registry. You sign the book, they match the registration, and they write a polling number on your slip. If you vote by paper ballot, before you enter the booth, you hand the slip to another person who writes your number on the ballot and gives you back the slip of paper. I guess this is a way you can theoretically check if your ballot was received or tampered with.

Deborah.. I had to laugh at one of your posts above. ( Tom Smith)
I am so sick of the ads! I agree... there should never have been an instance of ID required to vote in Pa.
I hate voting machines. I wish we still had paper ballots, and two security guards for each polling place who stood with the ballots until after the ballots were counted and recorded. I do NOT trust machines...

Hi Daryl..
Just breezing through....I see that you are in SF right now. Just finished a book that might interest you, The Language of Flowers ....it takes place in SF and is about a young woman aging out of the foster care system at age 18.
Don't let the title put you off...it's not "New Age-y"

In fact, the author knows of what she writes. See the family photo: http://www.randomhouse.com/rhpg/features/vanessa_diffenbaugh//author/

and her other work here: https://camellianetwork.org/

Interesting conversations! One comment - the US reaction of socialism goes back way earlier than McCarthy and the 1950s. It really comes down to the role of a strong vs weak federal government in our society, and that's been an ongoing discussion since the beginning of our country.

One thing my reading for the US Presidents Challenge has made clear is that while we're talking about different specific issues today, the political conversation is pretty much the same. In fact, we've got it easy with regard to elections and campaigning compared to mid- to late- 19th century politics. The big difference today is in how in-your-face it is given the presence of the media in our lives today.

I know the election is over, but I had a brief comment on the ID issue. Although ID was not required to vote, the election officials were supposed to ask for it, theoretically to get people accustomed to the idea that they should have it with them, for "next time", when the powers-that-be expect to be able to enforce the law, which has not been overturned in PA, just blocked for this election.