kidzdoc in 2013: Old World, New Imports part 9

Traffic on Euston Road in the 1950s, near King's Cross and St. Pancras stations in central London













Currently reading:

    

TransAtlantic by Colum McCann
Spitting Blood: The History of Tuberculosis by Helen Bynum
Algerian Chronicles by Albert Camus

Completed books: (TBR = To Be Read book, purchased prior to 1/1/12)

January:
1. Quiet London by Siobhan Wall (review)
2. The Chip-Chip Gatherers by Shiva Naipaul (review)
3. Our Lady of Alice Bhatti by Mohammed Hanif (review)
4. The Eleven by Pierre Michon (review)
5. Pediatric Advanced Life Support Provider Manual by Leon Chameides, MD (review)
6. Communion Town by Sam Thompson (review)
7. Damascus by Joshua Mohr (TBR) (review)
8. The Walls of Delhi by Uday Prakash (review)
9. Inspiring Quotes: The Greatest Quotes of Martin Luther King Junior by Martin Luther King, Jr. (review)
10. A Happy Death by Albert Camus (review)
11. Place of Mind by Richard Blanco

February:
12. Great House by Nicole Krauss (TBR) (review)
13. In the House of the Interpreter by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (review)
14. Bill Veeck's Crosstown Classic by Bill Veeck with Ed Linn (review)
15. Stone Upon Stone by Wiesław Myśliwski (TBR) (review)
16. Big Machine by Victor LaValle (TBR) (review)
17. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce (review)
18. How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid (review)
19. The Other City by Michal Ajvaz (TBR)
20. A History of the Present Illness by Louise Aranson
21. Domestic Work by Natasha Trethewey
22. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
23. Vertical Motion by Can Xue (TBR)

March:
24. Liquidation by Imre Kertész (TBR)
25. Philadelphia Fire by John Edgar Wideman (TBR)
26. Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah (TBR)
27. Dream of Ding Village by Yan Lianke (TBR)
28. Mortality by Christopher Hitchens
29. The Jokers by Albert Cossery (TBR)

April:
30. All My Friends by Marie NDiaye (review)
31. Palliative Medicine in the UK c. 1970-2010 by Caroline Overy and E.M. Tansey (review)
32. Childhood Asthma and Beyond by Lois Reynolds and E.M. Tansey (review)
33. Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw (review)
34. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (TBR)
35. Pow! by Mo Yan
36. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
37. There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra by Chinua Achebe
38. Burmese Days by George Orwell
39. Requiem: A Hallucination by Antonio Tabucchi
40. No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe

May:
41. A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis (TBR)
42. The Redundancy of Courage by Timothy Mo (TBR)
43. Never Mind by Edward St. Aubyn (TBR) (review)
44. Bad News by Edward St. Aubyn (TBR) (review)
45. Some Hope by Edward St Aubyn (TBR) (review)
46. Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients by Ben Goldacre
47. Why Me? : A Doctor Looks at the Book of Job by Diane M. Komp, M.D. (TBR)
48. The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez
49. Skios by Michael Frayn
50. The Aftermath of War by Jean-Paul Sartre (TBR)
51. Where There's Love, There's Hate by Adolfo Bioy Casares and Silvina Ocampo

June:
52. The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Mutant Gene and the Quest to Cure Cancer at the Genetic Level by Jessica Wapner
53. The Alienist by Machado de Assis
54. The Singapore Grip by J.G. Farrell (TBR)
55. The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna (review)

July:
56. Enon by Paul Harding (review)
57. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
58. The Amen Corner by James Baldwin (review)
59. The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks (review)
60. The Cripple of Inishmaan by Martin McDonagh (review)
61. A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
62. The Blue Riband: The Piccadilly Line by Peter York (review)
63. Drift: The Hammersmith & City Line by Philippe Parreno (review)
64. A Season in the Congo by Aimé Césaire

Books acquired in 2013: (✔ = completed book, bold = purchased book)

January:
1. The Eleven by Pierre Michon (5 January; LT Early Reviewers book) ✔
2. Place of Mind by Richard Blanco (21 January; Kindle e-book) ✔
3. A History of the Present Illness by Louise Aranson (29 January; Kindle e-book) ✔

February:
4. Old Man Goriot by Honoré de Balzac (15 February; Kindle e-book)
5. How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid (15 February; LT Early Reviewers book) ✔

March:
6. The Return by Dany Laferrière (1 March; Alibris)
7. Brazil Red by Jean-Christophe Rufin (7 March; Alibris)
8. Palliative Medicine in the UK c. 1970-2010 by Caroline Overy and E.M. Tansey (9 March; free e-book) ✔
9. Lamb by Bonnie Nadzam (16 March; Kindle e-book)
10. All My Friends by Marie NDiaye (16 March; ARC copy received from avaland) ✔
11. Mortality by Christopher Hitchens (17 March; Barnes & Noble) ✔
12. Burmese Days by George Orwell (17 March; Barnes & Noble) ✔
13. Searching for Zion: The Quest for Home in the African Diaspora by Emily Raboteau (17 March; Barnes & Noble)
14. Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi (17 March; Barnes & Noble)
15. Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw (19 March; LT Early Reviewers book) ✔
16. The Outsider by Albert Camus (21 March; The Book Depository)
17. Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver (24 March; Kindle e-book)
18. The Marlowe Papers by Ros Barber (24 March; Kindle e-book)

April:
19. Childhood Asthma and Beyond by Lois Reynolds and E.M. Tansey (1 April; free e-book) ✔
20. El Narco: Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency by Ioan Grillo (7 April; Barnes & Noble)
21. Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients by Ben Goldacre (7 April; Barnes & Noble) ✔
22. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (7 April; Barnes & Noble) ✔
23. There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra by Chinua Achebe (7 April; Barnes & Noble) ✔
24. Crock-Pot Slow Cooker Bible (7 April; Barnes & Noble)
25. The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks (16 April; Barnes & Noble)
26. The Crow Road by Iain Banks (16 April; Barnes & Noble)
27. Experiment Eleven: Dark Secrets Behind the Discovery of a Wonder Drug by Peter Pringle (21 April; Strand Book Store)
28. Lenin's Kisses by Yan Lianke (21 April; Strand Book Store)
29. Requiem: A Hallucination by Antonio Tabucchi (21 April; Strand Book Store) ✔
30. No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe (21 April; Strand Book Store) ✔
31. All Decent Animals by Oonya Kempadoo (21 April; Strand Book Store)
32. Julius Caesar (Modern Library Classics) by William Shakespeare (21 April; Greenlight Bookstore)
33. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander (21 April; Greenlight Bookstore)
34. Firefly by Severo Sarduy (22 April; gift from Caroline)
35. The Gate by François Bizot (27 April; Kindle e-book)
36. In the Land of Israel by Amos Oz (28 April; Kindle e-book)

May:
37. You Were Never in Chicago by Neil Steinberg (1 May; free e-book from the University of Chicago Press)
38. Hack: Stories from a Cab by Dmitry Samarov (8 May; free e-book from the University of Chicago Press)
39. The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna (15 May; Amazon UK)
40. The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez (15 May; Amazon UK) ✔
41. The Remarkable Story of Great Ormond Street Hospital by Kevin Telfer (15 May; Amazon UK)
42. Basti by Intizar Husain (18 May; Joseph Fox Bookshop)
43. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (18 May; Joseph Fox Bookshop)
44. What to Feed Your Baby: Cost-Conscious Nutrition for Your Infant by Stanley A. Cohen, M.D. (20 May; advance review copy)
45. Where There's Love, There's Hate by Adolfo Bioy Casares and Silvina Ocampo (26 May; City Lights Bookstore) ✔
46. The Bottom of the Jar by Adellatif Laâbi (26 May; City Lights Bookstore)
47. Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe (26 May; City Lights Bookstore)
48. And Still the Earth by Ignácio de Loyola Brandão (26 May; City Lights Bookstore)
49. Blue White Red by Alain Mabanckou (26 May; City Lights Bookstore)
50. Transit by Abdourahman A. Waberi (26 May; City Lights Bookstore)
51. The Girl with the Golden Parasol by Uday Prakash (26 May; City Lights Bookstore)
52. Salt by Earl Lovelace (26 May; City Lights Bookstore)
53. A Muslim Suicide by Bensalem Himmich (26 May; City Lights Bookstore)
54. The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Mutant Gene and the Quest to Cure Cancer at the Genetic Level by Jessica Wapner (26 May; City Lights Bookstore) ✔
55. Southern Cross the Dog by Bill Cheng (26 May; City Lights Bookstore)
56. Raised from the Ground by José Saramago (26 May; City Lights Bookstore)
57. From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia by Pankaj Mishra (26 May; City Lights Bookstore)
58. Ten White Geese by Gerbrand Bakker (29 May; City Lights Bookstore)
59. A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam (29 May; City Lights Bookstore)
60. Percival Everett by Virgil Russell: A Novel by Percival Everett (29 May; City Lights Bookstore)
61. Algerian Chronicles by Albert Camus (29 May; City Lights Bookstore)
62. Blacks In and Out of the Left by Michael C. Dawson (29 May; City Lights Bookstore)
63. The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History, and the Challenge of Bebop by Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr. (29 May; City Lights Bookstore)
64. Mingus Speaks by John F. Goodman (29 May; City Lights Bookstore)

June:
65. The Alienist by Machado de Assis (1 Jun; City Lights Bookstore) ✔
66. Ways of Going Home by Alejandro Zambra (1 Jun; City Lights Bookstore)
67. Satantango by László Krasznahorkai (1 Jun; City Lights Bookstore)
68. The World Is Moving Around Me: A Memoir of the Haiti Earthquake by Dany Laferrière (1 Jun; City Lights Bookstore)
69. That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott (1 Jun; City Lights Bookstore)
70. City of a Hundred Fires by Richard Blanco (1 Jun; City Lights Bookstore)
71. On the Imperial Highway: New and Selected Poems by Jayne Cortez (1 Jun; City Lights Bookstore)
72. Engine Empire: Poems by Cathy Park Hong (1 Jun; City Lights Bookshop)
73. Disposable People by Ezekel Alan (2 Jun; Amazon Kindle e-book)
74. Sons for the Return Home by Albert Wendt (8 Jun; Amazon Kindle e-book (free))
75. The Secret River by Kate Grenville (11 Jun; gift book from Paul Cranswick)
76. Enon by Paul Harding (12 Jun; May LT Early Reviewer book)
77. The Code of the Samurai: A Modern Translation of the Bushido Shoshinshu of Taira Shigesuke by Yuzan Daidoji (19 Jun; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
78. What Doctors Feel: How Emotions Affect the Practice of Medicine by Danielle Ofri, MD (19 Jun; Harvard Book Store)
79. The Dark Road by Ma Jian (19 Jun; Harvard Book Store)
80. Spitting Blood: The History of Tuberculosis by Helen Bynum (19 Jun; The Harvard Coop)
81. AIDS at 30: A History by Victoria A. Harden (19 Jun; The Harvard Coop)
82. Contagion: How Commerce Has Spread Disease by Mark Harrison (19 Jun; The Harvard Coop)
83. She Came to Stay by Simone de Beauvoir (19 Jun; The Harvard Coop)
84. The Quiet American by Graham Greene (19 Jun; Raven Used Books)
85. Chronicle of a Blood Merchant by Yu Hua (19 Jun; Raven Used Books)
86. Regeneration by Pat Barker (20 Jun; gift book from Caroline)

July:
87. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (4 Jul; Amazon Kindle e-book)
88. My Struggle: Book Two by Karl Ove Knausgaard (14 Jul; Archipelago Books)
89. The Flying Creatures of Fra Angelico by Antonio Tabucchi (14 Jul; Archipelago Books)
90. The Woman of Porto Pim by Antonio Tabucchi (14 Jul; Archipelago Books)
91. Country Boy by Richard Hillyer (16 Jul; Slightly Foxed Bookshop)
92. Wreaking by James Scudamore (16 Jul; Slightly Foxed Bookshop)
93. Perfect by Rachel Joyce (16 Jul; Slightly Foxed Bookshop)
94. TransAtlantic by Colum McCann (16 Jul; Slightly Foxed Bookshop)
95. Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch (16 Jul; South Kensington Books)
96. Othello by William Shakespeare (16 Jul; South Kensington Books)
97. The Blue Riband: The Piccadilly Line by Peter York (17 Jul; Foyles Bookshop)
98. Fireflies by Shiva Naipaul (17 Jul; Foyles Bookshop)
99. North of South: An African Journey by Shiva Naipaul (17 Jul; Foyles Bookshop)
100. A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry (17 Jul; Foyles Bookshop)
101. Between Friends by Amos Oz (17 Jul; Foyles Bookshop)
102. The Childhood of Jesus by J.M. Coetzee (17 Jul; Foyles Bookshop)
103. The Amen Corner by James Baldwin (20 Jul; National Theatre Bookshop)
104. The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh (20 Jul; Waterloo Bridge stalls, South Bank, London)
105. The Reprieve by Jean-Paul Sartre (20 Jul; Waterloo Bridge stalls, South Bank, London
106. The Night Alive by Conor Mc Pherson (24 Jul; National Theatre Bookshop)
107. The Cripple of Inishmaan by Martin McDonagh (24 Jul; National Theatre Bookshop)
108. East-West: Penguin Underground Lines (24 Jul; Kindle e-book)

2013 reading goals (✔ = completed goal):

1. Booker Prize group
     a. Finish reading the 2012 longlist
          Communion Town by Sam Thompson
          The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
          Skios by Michael Frayn
     b. Read the entire 2013 longlist by year's end, and the shortlist in advance of the award ceremony

2. 2013 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature ✔
     a. Finish the shortlist in advance of the award ceremony in late January
          Our Lady of Alice Bhatti by Mohammed Hanif
          The Walls of Delhi by Uday Prakash

3. Orange January/July group
     a. Read selected books from the shortlist of the 2013 Women's Prize for Fiction (WPF) in advance of the prize ceremony
          Bring Up the Bodies by Hilarly Mantel (read in 2012)
          NW by Zadie Smith (read in 2012)
          Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
     b. Read 8-12 or more books nominated for the Orange Prize or the WPF in any year, or novels written by women which would be eligible for the prize
          Great House by Nicole Krauss
          Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

4. Reading Globally group
     a. Read 3 or more books for each 2013 quarterly challenge
          *Central & Eastern European literature
               Stone Upon Stone by Wiesław Myśliwski
               The Other City by Michal Ajvaz
               Liquidation by Imre Kertész
          *Southeast Asian literature
               Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw
               Burmese Days by George Orwell
               The Redundancy of Courage by Tash Aw
          *Francophone literature
          *South American literature
     b. Read 6 or more books for the 2012 4th quarter challenge, China & neighboring countries
          Vertical Motion by Can Xue
          Dream of Ding Village by Yan Lianke
          Pow! by Mo Yan

5. Author Theme Reads group
     a. Read 4-6+ books by Simone de Beauvoir

6. Literary Centennials group
     a. Read books by Albert Camus throughout the year
          A Happy Death

7. Patrick White 100th 101st Anniversary challenge
     a. Read at least 1 of the 3 books that I own and was supposed to have read last year

8. Medicine group
     a. Read 12 or more books on medicine, science and public health throughout the year
          A History of the Present Illness by Louise Aranson
          Palliative Medicine in the UK c. 1970-2010 by Caroline Overy and E.M. Tansey
          Childhood Asthma and Beyond by Lois Reynolds and E.M. Tansey
          Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients by Ben Goldacre
          The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Mutant Gene and the Quest to Cure Cancer at the Genetic Level by Jessica Wapner

9. African/African American Literature group
     a. Read 20 or more works of fiction from the African diaspora
          Big Machine by Victor LaValle
          Philadelphia Fire by John Edgar Wideman
          Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah
          All My Friends by Marie NDiaye
          Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
          No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe

10. Read Mo Yan group
     a. Read 4-6 books written by Mo Yan
          Pow!

11. Other
     a. Read books longlisted or selected as finalists for these other literary prizes:
          * Wellcome Trust Book Prize (medicine in literature)
               Our Lady of Alice Bhatti by Mohammed Hanif
          * National Book Award
          * Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards (African diaspora)
     b. Read more books spontaneously from my TBR collection:
          The Chip-Chip Gatherers by Shiva Naipaul
          Damascus by Joshua Mohr
          The Jokers by Albert Cossery
          Never Mind by Edward St. Aubyn
          Bad News by Edward St. Aubyn
          Some Hope by Edward St Aubyn

Planned reads for July (as always, subject to change):

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah - completed
James Baldwin, The Amen Corner - completed
Iain Banks, The Wasp Factory - completed
Helen Bynum, Spitting Blood: The History of Tuberculosis - reading
Albert Camus, Algerian Chronicles
Aimé Césaire, A Season in the Congo - completed
Stan Cohen, What to Feed Your Baby: Cost-Conscious Nutrition for Your Infant
Assia Djebar, Algerian White
Paul Harding, Enon - completed
Mark Harrison, Contagion: How Commerce Has Spread Disease
A.J. Liebling, Just Enough Liebling
Colum McCann, TransAtlantic - reading
Martin McDonagh, The Cripple of Inishmaan - completed
Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance - completed
Boualem Sansal, The German Mujahid
Philippe Pareno, Drift: The Hammersmith and City Line - completed
Peter York, The Blue Riband: The Piccadilly Line - completed

Hope your cold/asthma clears up quickly, Darryl. I remember that you missed a play or two last time you were in London. Sounds like you have an amazing trip planned.

Happy new thread, Darryl! So good to see you can still get it done what with that nasty nasty cold you picked up SOMEwhere.

I, too, hope you are feeling better very soon, Darryl. What date do you head for London? Btw, love the opening photo here.

>5 Cariola: Thanks, Deborah. Fortunately I haven't planned until Monday evening, so I should have a chance to recuperate before Tuesday's meet up.

>6 richardderus: Thank you, Richard. Oh, wait a minute; this cold has Hempstead, NY written all over it.



>7 lit_chick: Thanks, Nancy. I leave for London on the 10:45 pm Delta flight from Atlanta tonight, a little over 10 hours from now, which arrives at London Heathrow at 12:15 pm local time on Sunday.

The hotel I'm staying at (Tune Hotel King's Cross) is very close to King's Cross railway station, whose clock tower can be seen in the top left hand corner of that photo. The terminal building can be seen along the right side of the bus in the center of the photo, and St. Pancras railway station is just across the street, part of which can be seen along the photo's left border.

What a hilarious JPEG!

I am innocent, innocent I say!

The London thread.....*hooray*
Travel well, Darryl. I hope your symptoms clear up STAT. (see, I know my medical speak)
Have a great flight and arrive refreshed and ready to soak up the city. I look forward to hearing about what you are up to.

Have a wonderful time in London, Darryl - and it would be so cool if you made it to New Zealand!! You could stop in SF on your way. The second flight would be 12 hours or so, which isn't that bad. (Honest.)

Hope your asthma gets better quickly and am looking forward to reading all about your trip. Are you going to take Americanah on the plane? Loved that book.

Nice new thread! Safe travels, Darryl, and I hope you feel better very soon!

I'm in ATL's new International Terminal; the flight to LHR will board shortly.

>9 richardderus: Innocent, he says. *cough, wheeze* I did pick up my asthma medications and other cold supplies before I left. I felt pretty lousy this afternoon, and thought seriously about postponing the flight by a day, but the outrageous prices and lack of comfortable seats convinced me to go ahead and stick with this flight. I'll take some Nyquil soon after we take off, and hopefully I'll sleep like a baby tonight.

>10 LovingLit: Right, Megan! The London thread it is.

Thanks for your good wishes. I've started to have a tight cough and some mild SOB (shortness of breath, not, um, you know...), but I have all the medications I should need (it's nice to be able to call in my own prescriptions for routine medications). The worst case scenario (which won't happen) is that I need to see a GP or go to A&E. Fortunately UCH (University College Hospital, which has a large A&E department) is less than a mile away, and there are several GPs in central London that take my insurance.

Tomorrow is Bastille Day, and there is a celebration taking place on the South Bank. I won't check into my hotel until 3 pm, and now that I have this cold I probably won't do much. I have tickets to a talk at the National Theatre Monday afternoon, and a play that night. These are probably the two things I'm looking forward to the least, so I may skip one or both of them if I'm not feeling well, so that I'll be in as good a shape as possible for Tuesday's LT meet up.

>11 cushlareads: Thanks, Cushla. The return flight from LHR to ATL is 9-1/2 hours, so another 2-1/2 hours seems doable.

I also hope that this asthma flare up is a relatively mild one.

Yes, I am bringing Americanah on the plane. I suspect that I won't get much reading done, though, due to the late departure of this overnight flight (10:45 pm).

>12 tymfos: Thanks, Terri!

9 > Innocent ???!!! I'm sure that's not possible for you ......

Innocent. Totally.



...drat...how did that get here?

Bon voyage Darryl; looking forward to your updates.

Enjoy your trip

Hi Darryl- Congrats on the new thread! And have a safe and pleasant trip to London. I am looking forward to your thoughts on The Wasp Factory. It's extremely dark & creepy but a one-of-a-kind read. I hope to dip into A fine Balance, for the first time today. Did you bring it along, on your trip?

Stopping by to say hi! I have no time to peruse threads of individual LTers much these days. :(

Any chance of your coming to DC this year for the National Book Festival? It would be fun to finally get to meet you.

I really liked The Wasp Factory, but I adore books that are weird. I, too, am looking forward to your comments about that book.

Have fun in London!

Hello from summery London! The flight from Atlanta was uneventful and very pleasant, and I slept from about 45 minutes after we took off until an hour before we landed, so I had a solid 6-1/2 hours of sleep, aided by Nyquil (a night time cold medication that normally allows me to sleep well). I had a bulkhead seat with unlimited leg room, as it was also an exit row seat, so I could stretch out to my heart's content and get up without disturbing my friendly seat mate.

I took the Underground (Piccadilly Line) from Heathrow Terminal 4 to King's Cross St. Pancras station, but I still had an hour before I could check into my hotel a short walk away. I got off the tube and entered the beautifully restored St Pancras International Station, which was filled with passengers coming from and going to Paris, Lille, Brussels and other cities in the UK:



It was just after 2 pm when I arrived there, so after I looked around a bit I decided to have lunch at Peyton and Byrne, a lovely café with indoor and patio seating.



I had a Coronation chicken sandwich, a Scotch egg, and a bottle of carbonated juice, which was superb (actually I only ate half of the sandwich and Scotch egg, as my eyes were considerably larger than my stomach).

I passed by the St Pancras branch of Foyles Bookshop, but I was too tired to stop in, so I checked into my hotel, the Tune Hotel King's Cross, located on Gray's Inn Road, about three blocks away from King's Cross Station, which is adjacent to St Pancras Station on Euston Road. It's a budget hotel, but it received very good ratings on Hotels.com, and when I saw a deal for $105 (about £70) per night, including high speed WiFi access, I thought I'd give it a try. My room is small but clean and comfortable, with modern European fixtures and amenities. It's roomy enough for a single person, but it's probably too small for most couples. Considering that this room will cost half or less of what I would have paid for the usual hotels I stay at in London (and less than my round trip airline tickets!) it seems to have been a good choice so far.



I'm feeling better today than I did at this time yesterday, although I'm very glad that I picked up my asthma medications before I left, as I would have been in deep trouble if I hadn't. I won't go to the Bastille Day Festival on the South Bank, and I'll probably take a nap soon and/or turn in early.

Darryl - a Malaysian owned hotel in the heart of Old London Town. The Tune group belongs to Air Asia which belongs to Malaysian tycoon Tony Fernandes. He famously bought the airline for the equivalent of $0.30 and has turned it into an empire using everyone else's money. Clever fellow.

>14 roundballnz: Spot on comment, Alex.

>15 richardderus: ...and that toxic brew in the cauldron only confirms this.

>16 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. It will be easier than usual to provide daily updates from my hotel, since I have free high speed Internet access.

>17 xieouyang: Thanks, Manuel.

>18 msf59: Thanks, Mark! I brought The Wasp Factory with me, and I'll definitely finish it this coming week. I'll buy A Fine Balance while I'm here, and I'll start reading it after I finish Americanah and The Wasp Factory.

>19 SqueakyChu: Hi, Madeline! I'm glad to see you here. I was about to say that I probably wouldn't make it to the National Book Festival this year, but I just looked at my group's September work schedule, and noticed that I'm off from work from Sep 21-24. I'll be off the first half of the month, which I'll spend with my parents, so it still may be too much to try to head back to the Northeast less than a week after my return. I'd say I'm possible at best, but doubtful.

I'm glad that you liked The Wasp Factory as well. I'll probably finish Americanah before I resume reading it, but I should finish it by mid week.

Very sleepy now...time for a nap.

>21 PaulCranswick: Ah. Interesting comment, Paul. I was pretty sure that the woman at the front desk of the hotel was Malaysian.

Okay, Darryl, a joke's a joke. I'll lift the impending asthma-attack curse if you'll lift the week-of-90-plus days you slapped on the Northeast. Deal? Back down to 70s, no trip to the London ER.

Delighted you've arrived safely and had a good sleep en route, Darryl. Lunch sounds great, hotel sounds like an excellent choice. So far, so good ... : ).

>23 kidzdoc: I wish I could control the weather! It's hotter and much sunnier here than it is (and has been) in Atlanta, where monsoon season hasn't ended yet. I just checked The Weather Channel iPad app; the NYC weather sounds hideous. I suspect it will be a while before you see the 70s, sir.

>24 richardderus: Thanks, Nancy. The last time I reserved a room in a non-standard lodging in London I found myself in a tiny B&B near Paddington Station in the middle of summer. It had no air conditioning, and sleeping there was often unpleasant. My room has adjustable A/C, and it's a comfortable 22 C (71 F) in here.

I spend my summers inside no matter where I am, but it's bad when the dog resents going outside enough that, upon reentry to the house, she bounds up the stairs to get into my sub-zero aircon as quickly as she can!

Thank you for posting those lovely London pics. It's so much fun traveling vicariously through you :)

Darryl, your trip to London already sounds (and looks) delightful. I'm quite envious. ENJOY!

Am loving your London pics Darryl. Seeing St Pancras is reminding me of the trip I did with both kids to London on the train from Switzerland. When you come to NZ, Wellington railway station will NOT be on your list of things to photograph!

Settling in for the latest chapter in Darryl's travelogue---popcorn in hand, cold beverage at my side.....

Oooh London....hope you had a good first day. Your hotel sounds like a good value one.

I stayed inside the rest of Sunday evening, and I'm in the process of adjusting to London time now (it's just after 9 am, but it feels closer to 4 am). I'm still coughing quite a bit, so I'll forego most of my plans for the day, although I'll have to go out for food and coffee within the next couple of hours.

I'm nearly finished with Americanah, and I should be done by this afternoon. Hopefully I can finish The Wasp Factory as well, and then start reading A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, for Mark's group read, with Colum McCann's TransAtlantic on deck.

>27 richardderus: It's unusually hot here as well, with forecasted highs of 87 degrees today and tomorrow (normal high temperatures for this time of year in London are in the low to mid 70s, I believe). I hope that you (and Stella) get a reprieve soon.

>28 avidmom: You're welcome, avidmom. I downloaded those photos from the Internet, but there will be real pictures after tomorrow's LT meet up.

>29 EBT1002: Thanks, Ellen!

>30 cushlareads: Thanks, Cushla. My most memorable image from yesterday came when I had lunch at Peyton and Byrne in St Pancras Station. As I was eating just outside the café I could feel someone looking intently at me. When I looked up I caught the eye of a lovely young girl, maybe 5 or 6 years of age, who looked to be of Caribbean descent, who gazed at me curiously as she walked past, holding her mother's hand. She was dressed in a bright yellow dress with a matching hat, in an outfit that would have been perfect for an Easter Sunday church service or a magazine cover shoot. We smiled at each other, as other passersby also turned and looked with pleasure at her stunning outfit.

I looked at several Google images of Wellington railway station. The exterior looks fabulous, but the interior is exceptionally drab and dull.

>31 brenzi: I don't think there will be much to report today, Bonnie. I might go book shopping later, and I do have a ticket to a play tonight, but it's one that I'm only marginally interested in seeing and didn't pay much for. I think that the theatre is within walking distance or a short bus ride from the hotel, so I still might go if I'm feeling more rested and less wheezy and headachy than I am now.

>32 avatiakh: Thanks, Kerry. It was a good first day, although I stayed inside from 3 pm on. My biggest fear was unrealized, as my neighbors have been very quiet so far and the street traffic didn't keep me from getting several hours' worth of uninterrupted sleep, although I'm still adjusting to the five hours' time difference.

I have a big smile on my face from reading about your trip (so far), it feels like I'm there!
I remember London pretty well, the train stations are a very important part of the city- so much goes on there. Your hotel looks lovely, and I guess there isn't much in the way of cheap decent hotel rooms that are central, so it sounds like you have done well.

I hope your SOB comes right (shortness of breath....people, please, as if I meant the other!)

eta: re NZs train stations....poor old us, we have had our railway services cut and slashed in the last decades. Dunedin has a lovely building, Christschurch's historic one was demolished recently for earthquake damage, and our usable one isnt much to write home about, I'm sorry to say. Better soak up Londons ones!

>34 LovingLit: Right, Megan. The rail and tube stations are interesting, bustling and visually enticing places, much more so than most US train stations, with NYC's Grand Central Terminal being one notable exception.

I generally prefer mid-range hotels, but I was struck by how much cheaper this hotel room was in comparison to others on Hotels.com. It was a special nonrefundable rate, but it was discounted significantly from the regular room rate and came with several amenities that weren't included in the standard fare.

I'm a little tight and wheezy this morning, but I'm much better than I was yesterday!

ETA: Atlanta, whose roots derive from the confluence of several rail lines, now only has one train station, which was built in 1918 to serve as a suburban train station in what is now the Buckhead neighborhood of the city, not far from where I live.

  

Only two trains pass through every day, the northbound and southbound Southern Crescent, which travels between New York and New Orleans. There are no other Amtrak (national rail) stations in metropolitan Atlanta, so the passengers taking this train are normally traveling long distances. Although the interior of the station is pleasant enough there are no shops or restaurants, and the only sources of refreshment, from what I remember, are a couple of vending machines and water fountains.

Glad you are feeling a little better today and hope you improve by leaps and bounds so you can fully enjoy your trip!

Darryl, I hope you feel much better after another day of reading and rest. It's good to set up your home away from home in a quiet clean room with A/C and high speed wi-fi. I thought the end of Americanah was a little flat but thoroughly enjoyed the book. I am looking forward to following your adventures in London.

>36 rebeccanyc: Thanks, Rebecca! I took a two hour nap, so I'm a bit more rested, but feeling quite lazy. It's 2 pm here, but it feels like mid-morning, as I'm still on Eastern Daylight Time physiologically. I'll go out for lunch and coffee in about an hour or so.

>37 Donna828: Thanks, Donna. I find that I can enjoy lazy days much more when I'm not at home, where I can think about tasks and projects that I could be doing there.

I'm on page 391 of Americanah, so I have 87 pages to go. It will likely earn 4-1/2 stars from me, but a disappointing ending might push it closer to a 4 star read.

Tomorrow should be a fun day, although it will still be hot here, with a projected high temperature of 87 degrees in central London. Although our plans are not yet finalized Bianca, Genny, Heather, Luci and I will meet up in the early afternoon to go book shopping in Kensington, then visit the nearby Victoria & Albert Museum, and end the day with dinner at a vegetarian restaurant in Camden Town. Fliss will take the train from Cambridge after work to join us. Unfortunately Rachael and Jenny won't be able to make it, but I'll probably see Jenny this coming weekend and Rachael during the week when she is working in London.

I'm enjoying your trip along with you, Darryl, and am glad you're feeling better. I bookmarked the hotel page for the next time I visit London. I usually stay at the Central Park Hotel in Bayswater, which is basic but very affordable. It has the advantage of being near three different tube stations, Queensway (where there are lots of cheap but good eateries), and Kensington Park, plus there is a small frig in every room.

What play do you plan to see tonight, if well enough?

I've been in London in July, and it was hot and humid--but I don't know if that's normal.

Looking forward to more photos and reports!

>40 Cariola: Thanks, Deborah. I've bookmarked the web site for the Central Park Hotel, as well.

I won't go to the play tonight, as I am in complete slug mode. It's nearly 6 pm, and I still haven't gone outside today, as my appetite is nearly nonexistent. I imagine that I'll get hungry soon, though, but there are plenty of takeaway restaurants on Gray's Inn Road that I saw yesterday.

The name of the play is what happens to the hope at the end of the evening, which is playing at the Almeida Theatre in Islington. It sounded interesting at the time, but not so much now. I would go if it was one of the performances that I was eager to see. So, the first play I'll see is A Season in the Congo by Aimé Césaire on Wednesday night at the Young Vic.

I finished Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, which wasn't perfect but was very good, as it covered a variety of interesting topics in superb detail. It's certainly Booker worthy IMO, and I'll give it 4-1/2 stars for now. I'll probably write a review of it on Wednesday.

Yesterday's London LT meet up is now in the books. (Yes, yesterday; it's 40 minutes past midnight London time as I'm starting this message.) A good time was had by all, and in keeping with every past meet up I've attended there was plenty of delightful conversation, trips to multiple book shops, good food...and plenty of photos! Unfortunately I'm having a hard time at the moment transferring my photos from my smartphone to Facebook or some other source (without paying an exorbitant roaming fee), so it may take me a day or two to figure out how to do this.

In lieu of photos, here's a description of the day's events.

The meet up started in South Kensington, where I met Genny (gennyt) at the Gloucester Road Piccadilly Line tube station. Heather's (souloftherose) train was running late, so Genny and I stopped in a branch of Starbucks for iced coffee. We then walked a block or two down Gloucester Road to Caffè Nero, a popular Italian coffee shop that is nearly as ubiquitous as Starbucks is in central London, as it was next door to Slightly Foxed Books, our first planned stop. Heather joined us soon afterward, and we had a light lunch and iced fruit drinks al fresco, as we enjoyed the summery and, at that time, non-humid afternoon. Bianca (drachenbraut23) and Luci (elkiedee) joined us within the hour.

Our next stop was to Slightly Foxed Books, which contained a small yet rich collection of new and secondhand books, along with previously out of print books under its own label. As I was typing this message Genny posted photos that she took of us in and outside the bookshop on Facebook, so I'll post one of them here:



Left to right: Bianca, Heather, me and Luci

I came away with five books:

Country Boy by Richard Hillyer (a Slightly Foxed Edition)
Good Offices by Evelio Rosero
Wreaking by James Scudamore
Perfect by Rachel Joyce
TransAtlantic by Colum McCann

From there we walked on Stanhope Gardens and Exhibition Road to the Victoria & Albert Museum, one of the great London museums. Entry was free for the standard exhibits, so we split up and each spent a little over an hour viewing a couple of rooms in the massive collection.

Afterward we had a light snack on a plaza near the V&A (tea and scones with clotted cream and jam for me), and then proceeded to South Kensington Books, another small secondhand shop that has come under new management and has a much beter selection of books than the last time I visited it in 2007. I came away with two more books:

Othello by William Shakespeare (purchased because I'll see the National Theatre performance on the 24th)
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch (recommended to me by several LTers)

From there we took the Underground from South Kensington to Camden Town, and had a superb vegetarian dinner at inSpiral Lounge, close to Camden Lock, which had a very friendly staff and a warm and welcoming atmosphere. Fliss (flissp) traveled by train from Cambridge to join us, and we continued our good conversation past 10 pm, where the remaining LTers parted company.

It was great to meet Bianca, Genny and Heather, and to see Fliss and Luci again. I'll meet up with a couple of them during my remaining nine days here, and see several other LTers as well.

HA!! You bought RIVERS OF LONDON! HAHA!!

I *knew* if I kept my mouth shut and let the gals lead the charge you'd succumb to a light, frothy, majgicqkal read sooner or later.

HA!! And once more for emphasis, HA!!

Light? Frothy??? They told me it was dreary, dismal and life sapping, in keeping with my usual reading fare. I'll go back to South Kensington Books tomorrow to demand a refund.

>44 kidzdoc: lol!

Hey- what a wonderful photograph of your meet up! I think it is most excellent that the photographer has made sure to include the bookshop sign. :)

Hi Darryl- Yah, for Meet-Ups!! Great photo of you and the lovely ladies. How very cool. Where is all those glorious pints?

I am LOVING a Fine Balance. I think you are in for a major treat!

Darryl, Richard Hillyer went to grad school with me at U-Mich. I didn't know he was writing novels. (If you look at his LT page, you will see that he turned his dissertation on Sir Philip Sidney into a book.) He was very enthralled with Michael Ondaatje at the time; wonder if his style is anything similar?

I'm vicariously enjoying your meet-ups and events in London. How do you find room to pack all those books for the journey home?

Great photo of you and the gang, Darryl. Love the name of that shop: Slightly Foxed!

Yay for Slightly Foxed! I subscribe to their quarterly and I eagerly await it with each season. Follow them on FB Darryl. They are quite delightful.

I just finished the audio of Rivers of London which Bianca had given a wonderful review. I enjoyed it immensely. I'm not sure if it is typical Darryl fare but the descriptions of London alone may make it worth the price of admission. I look forward to your thoughts.

>45 LovingLit: Right, Megan. I also made sure to include the signs in my bookshop photos, but I took my life in my own hands for a moment, as I tried to stand in the middle of Gloucester Road to get the best photo. I soon gave up that idea after I saw black taxi cabs coming at me in either direction. Hopefully I can get those photos posted here later today.

>46 msf59: Sorry, Mark, no pints were consumed yesterday! That will change soon, though. I'll probably go to Foyles Bookshop later today and pick up A Fine Balance, which I'll start after I finish The Wasp Factory today.

>47 Cariola: The Richard Hillyer that wrote this book is a different author than your colleague, Deborah. His real name is Charles James Stranks, also known as C.J. Stranks, and this book is an autobiography of his impoverished childhood in the UK countryside during World War I, which was originally published in 1966 and reissued by Slightly Foxed Editions this year.

I do have a tote bag which I use to bring home books when I travel, especially to San Francisco, NYC and London. I typically buy somewhere around 25-30 books whenever I come here, and with the Booker Prize longlist announcement on Tuesday and my barely touched Amazon UK wish list I'm sure to come away with at least 15-20 more books before I leave next Friday.

>48 lit_chick: Thanks, Nancy. Genny explained the meaning of that term to me and Bianca, which refers to a well worn used book with brown water spots.

>49 luvamystery65: Will do, Roberta. The bookshop was quite cozy and atmospheric, with a very pleasant and helpful bookseller and a good selection for a small shop. It's only a block or two away from the Gloucester Road tube station in South Kensington, and I'd definitely recommend a visit for anyone visiting London.

Your comments about the descriptions of London in Rivers of London is what convinced me to get it, along with enticing reviews by Bianca and others. South Kensington Books had a brand new copy on sale for £3.50, and it was already on my wish list of books to buy here, so it was an easy decision to purchase it.

Sounds like you had a wonderful day, Darryl!

50> Ah, that explains things! The title didn't quite sound like something my Richard Hillyer, a rather elegant David Bowie-looking figure, would have written. He was a Brit, however, so I wasn't too crazy to make the assumption.

>51 lauralkeet: It was a great day, Laura. I really enjoyed meeting Bianca, Genny and Heather for the first time, and it was great to see Fliss and Luci again. I've made definite or tentative plans to see Bianca, Fliss, Jenny and Rachael over the next week and a half, and hopefully I'll be able to meet Joyce when she and her family arrive here next week, just before I leave.

Needless to say I both enjoy the cultural amenities that London has to offer, and I'm continually amazed at how friendly the average person is here, considering how large and bustling this city is. I had very friendly and warm interactions today with one of the staff at Foyles Bookshop, two others in the Café at Foyles, and even a newspaper vendor near King's Cross station.

>52 Cariola: No, that doesn't sound like the same author, Deborah!

If I was a David Bowie fan I would go back to the V&A to see the exhibition about him there, which closes soon, I think. Luci managed to get a prized ticket for one day next week.

I bought six more books at Foyles, five of which were from the top of my wish list:

Fireflies by Shiva Naipaul
North of South: An African Journey by Shiva Naipaul
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry (for Mark's group read, which I started reading in the Café)
Between Friends by Amos Oz
The Childhood of Jesus by J.M. Coetzee
THe Blue Riband: The Piccadilly Line by Peter York: This was the only book that wasn't on my wish list. The London Underground is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, and Penguin has put out a series of short works by different local authors for each of the tube lines, along with the old East London line, which has become the London Overground. The Piccadilly Line is the one I ride the most, so I thought I'd start with this one.

I'll head back out shortly to the Young Vic to see this evening's performance of A Season in the Congo by Aimé Césaire, his play that was based on the assassination of the first post-independence Congolese prime minister Patrice Lumumba in 1961.

Theatre review!

A Season in the Congo by Aimé Césaire
The Young Vic Theatre, South Bank, London

My rating:

Aimé Césaire (1913-2008) was a legendary and influential Caribbean poet, playwright and public intellectual, who was also one of the creators of the Négritude movement in Francophone literature, whose aim was to unite the peoples of the Caribbean and African French colonies in opposition to the "mother country".

One of Césaire's most famous plays is Une saison au congo, written in 1968, which is a description of the rise, fall and assassination of Patrice Lumumba, who rose from humble beginnings to become a leader of the Congolese independence movement from Belgium and the first democratically elected prime minister of the newly formed Republic of Congo in July 1960. The King of Belgium attended the Independence Day ceremony, but was publicly embarrassed when Lumumba gave an unplanned speech that was highly critical of the brutalities inflicted upon the Congolese people by the Belgians, and which celebrated the victory of the people over their former enslavers.

Lumumba was faced with crises through his seven month term in office. The Belgian government, concerned that losing the wealth contained in the Congolese mining industry would cause it to become the "Liechtenstein of Europe", secretly collaborated with the leader of Katanga, the richest province, and supported a separatist movement whose aim was to keep profits flowing from the Congo to Belgium in exchange for enriching the Katangan leader and his cronies. Lumumba, with the support of President Kasa-Vubu and the chief of the military, Joseph Mobutu, engaged in a military strike against the separatist movement. Lumumba sought support from the United States, which turned him down, and the United Nations, which took a passive and indifferent stance toward the Congolese government. He then turned to the USSR for support, which led Belgium, the US and possibly the UK to secretly plot his removal and assassination. Mobutu removed both Lumumba and Kasa-Vubu from power, and ultimately Lumumba was captured, brutally tortured and executed by Congolese and Belgian troops loyal to Mobutu on 17 January 1961.





A Season in the Congo was a brilliant, powerful and innovative interpretation of Césaire's play, which starred Olivier Award winning actor Chiwetel Ejiofor as Patrice Lumumba. His physical resemblance to the Congolese leader was striking, but was exceeded by the strength and conviction of his outstanding performance. The supporting cast was solid, and the play was enhanced by the use of puppetry to represent the colonial powers and the UN (such as the Belgian government in the second photo above), a wise old man who spoke in Swahili throughout the performance, soothing African music, and especially the very athletic and stirring dance routines that were mesmerizing. I couldn't have been any closer to the stage of the Young Vic, located on The Cut a block or two away from the famed Old Vic Theatre. The audience on the floor sat in chairs around small patio tables, and my chair abutted the front of the stage, as several of the actors including Ejiofor were within easy reach on numerous occasions, which made the performance that much more powerful for me. It lasted over 2-1/2 hours with a 15 minute intermission, making it one of the longest plays I've seen recently, but I was engrossed from the first scene to the shocking one at the end of the play, which caused an audience member to scream in horror. The cast was given a solid 4-5 minute standing ovation at the play's conclusion, which was well deserved. A Season in the Congo closes at the Young Vic on 24 July, and I can only hope that it finds a new home in the US in the near future.

The theater experience sounds (and looks) wonderful, Darryl!

I'll be interested in your reaction to A Fine Balance. I quite liked it when I read it a few years ago. There are scenes that stay with me even though enough time has passed for me to forget much of the novel.

Thanks, Ellen. It was an unforgettable performance. As I'm sure I've mentioned before, seeing theatrical performances in London is probably the #1 reason I love coming here, although having old and now new LT friends to meet up with comes a close second, with book shopping, attending museum exhibitions, and experiencing the capital's rich and diverse culture also high on the things I love about this city.

I did start A Fine Balance yesterday (yikes, it's just after 2 am here). I'm about 30 pages into it, and I'm enjoying it so far.

seeing theatrical performances in London is probably the #1 reason I love coming here

Yes, that makes complete sense.

Darryl - You really do treat us every year with your London trips. A Fine Balance would be in any top ten list I produced - I adored it when I read it some 17 years ago. A Season in the Congo also looks like a winner.
Lastly you were spoiled rotten by meeting a bevy of our finest UK ladies.

Great review of A Season in the Congo! I hadn't realized it was about Lumumba--how interesting. I hope you post your review in the Reading Globally Francophone thread as well.

I was tempted by that play, but didn't succumb due to my limited time in London -- glad to hear it was good.

Chortling along with Richard at the idea of you reading lighter, non-Literary fiction... tee hee....

A Season in the Congo sounds just the ticket! Great review, Darryl!

Oh, I love The Young Vic, and I love Chiwetel Ejiofor. Lucky you! That sounds/looks wonderful.

Are you seeing anything at the Donmar? That' my favorite London venue.

I typically buy somewhere around 25-30 books whenever I come here, ..........I'm sure to come away with at least 15-20 more books before I leave next Friday.

I love your life. I am pretty sure you lead the perfect lifestyle. I would take it in a heartbeat if it came with my kids, a nanny and not having to have the lives of childrens in my hands :)

Glad you loved the play!
>54 kidzdoc: The cast was given a solid 4-5 minute standing ovation
wow! That is impressive.

Hej Darryl, thanks for sharing text and pic from your LT meet-up in London. Must have been a great event.

A quick post, since I'm meeting up with Bianca in South London later this morning.

>58 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul. 'Spoiled rotten' could be an apt descriptor for this entire trip!

>59 banjo123: Great idea, Rhonda! I'll do that now. I had intended to bring my copy of A Season in the Congo with me and read it after I saw the play. I'll do so the weekend after next when I return to Atlanta.

>60 Chatterbox: A Season in the Congo was better than I expected, Suz. It was sold out, too, as it received great reviews in the London press.

I'm looking forward to reading Rivers of London, and Fliss, Genny, Bianca and Heather encouraged me to give Embassytown by China Miéville a go as well, as I try to expand my reading boundaries a bit.

>61 lit_chick: Thanks, Nancy!

>62 Cariola: That was my first time going to the Young Vic and seeing Chiwetel Ejiofor, Deborah, so it was a special treat. I couldn't find it at first, although I saw the Old Vic straight away, as I asked several passersby where the 'New Vic' was.

Ooh, thanks, I forgot to see what's on at the Donmar Warehouse! Let's see...there's a play called The Night Alive, which sounds interesting. I just reserved a £7.50 standing room only ticket for next Thursday's matinee performance, and paid £3 extra to be able to refund it if Joyce wants to meet up that afternoon.

>63 LovingLit: This 'culture vulture' life is essential to my happiness, Megan. It would be nice to have a wife and kids, but I haven't met the right person yet (too long of a story to discuss here and now), and it would be difficult if not impossible to do so with a family in tow. Several of my colleagues at work, particularly our practice manager who lived in London for several years, look wistfully at me when I describe my trips.

That was one of the longest ovations for a play for me. My hands, and probably everyone else's, were getting tired from all of the clapping.

>64 paulstalder: You're welcome, Paul!

Wanna do a Tube books swap later? I have John Lanchester on the District Line, that I'm about to read. Will do you a mail loan of that in exchange for the Piccadilly book?? ;-)

I'm looking forward to reading Rivers of London, and Fliss, Genny, Bianca and Heather encouraged me to give Embassytown by China Miéville a go as well, as I try to expand my reading boundaries a bit.

WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH DARRYL?!?

Darryl - glad to see that you have had such an enjoyable meet-up. Hopefully I'll be in the country for your next visit and will be able to join in.

#67 WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH DARRYL?!?

My thoughts exactly Richard! Aaronovitch and Miéville read by Darryl. I am looking out the window for flying pigs or incoming asteroids!

Just kidding a little Darryl. It's nice to see you trying something different. Your lovely London stars in those books so I think it will hold your interest.

Looks like you're having a grand time in London Darryl. You might as well give it a go---expanding your reading habits I mean. You might be surprised. I never would have predicted that I would enjoy (shudder) historical fantasy but I took the plunge last year and was shocked at how much I enjoyed it.

Where in South London were you? Can you post any photos? My grandmother was born in Lambeth and I've longed to see it. I'm so envious of your frequent trips to London>

>66 Chatterbox: Wanna do a Tube books swap later? I have John Lanchester on the District Line, that I'm about to read. Will do you a mail loan of that in exchange for the Piccadilly book?? ;-)

You have a deal, Suz.

>67 richardderus: WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH DARRYL?!?

Heh.

>68 SandDune: Thanks, Rhian. I'm less than halfway through my visit, but it's been excellent so far. There's a very good chance that I'll be back in October or November, and hopefully we can organize another meet up then.

>69 luvamystery65: Thanks, Roberta. As you said, London stars prominently in those two books, which has a lot to do with my eagerness to give them a try.

>70 brenzi: Definitely so, Bonnie. Which books of historical fantasy did you like?

Hi Darryl- Hope you are having a great time on your trip! I am halfway done with A Fine Balance and it is outstanding. It will be right at the very top of my best of the year list. I have no idea why I waited this long. Hope you are enjoying it too!

>71 catarina1: Where in South London were you? Can you post any photos?

I took photos today, but I'm still working on getting them transferred from my Samsung smartphone to my iPad without paying an exorbitant roaming fee.

I met Bianca at noon at the Denmark Hill railway station in Camberwell, which is close to where she lives.



The station was built in 1865, and is served by London Overground and National Rail trains.

From there we walked through Dulwich Village, a upper middle class neighborhood filled with lovely old homes. When we reached the main shopping area we had a long and pleasant lunch at Gail's Artisan Bakery, a small restaurant chain that sells enticing breads, pastries, tarts and sandwiches:



We proceeded from there to Dulwich Park, a 72 acre urban oasis that was created from farmland in the Victorian era. We walked through wooded paths for a couple of peaceful hours, stopping midway through for a snack overlooking the park's golf course.



We emerged in East Dulwich and walked through the neighborhood until we reached Lordship Lane, the main shopping street. Unfortunately the charity shops with their secondhand book offerings were closed, but we did stop for dinner at Jaflong, an excellent Indian restaurant. Bianca then walked with me to the East Dulwich railway station, and we parted just after 10 pm. At one point her pedometer indicated that we had walked for over 11 kilometers, and I'll bet that we added another 2-3 km on to that total before we parted. It was a splendid day, with great conversation, beautiful scenery, good food, and much needed exercise. Fortunately my current asthma exacerbation didn't affect me significantly, although we walked at a very leisurely pace.

More photos to come.

>73 msf59: Thanks, Mark. I started reading A Fine Balance, and although I'm only 30 pages or so into it I've enjoyed what I've read so far. I haven't done much reading the past couple of days, but hopefully I can make a dent into it tomorrow.

good morning Darryl :)

what a lovely account of our meeting yesterday! I also enjoyed our day tremendously and was happy to introduce you to the more quiet London.
However, the part overlooking the golf course belongs to Sydenham Hill Woods and we also walked part of Dulwich Woods.
Considering your asthma, you have done remarkebly well on our long walk, yesterday. I am soo happy that you enjoyed the scenery and the food and "your so much needed exercise" *big smile*.
I wish you a wonderful weekend and hope that everything goes as planned.

Good afternoon, Bianca! Thank you again for a splendid day yesterday, and thanks for reminding me that we were in Sydenham Hill Woods and Dulwich Woods.

I'm still wheezy, as I was yesterday, but I still feel quite well overall. I'm still mentally on East Coast time (US), so even those it's just after noon here it still seems like early morning (7 am) to me. I'll head out shortly, though.

I also wish you a great weekend! The weather is supposed to be a bit cooler today and tomorrow, before the heat and humidity return on Monday.

Darryl, you are a wonderful dear to give us so much of your holiday. I've read every word and pondered over every picture - the closest I'll ever get to London now. Sorry about your wheezes, but I hope that will come right and that you'll breeze through the rest of your time there.
(Hooray for Aaronovitich and Miéville!)

I'm envious of your London escapades, Darryl, but also enjoying them vicariously. A Season in the Congo sounds like it was really good.

Like Richard, I can't believe you're going to read Rivers of London. I hope its fun-ness doesn't throw you off. Embassytown has the virtue of being mentally challenging, at least it was for me.

Hope your asthma goes easy on you and you continue to have a great time there.

I'm sitting in a Starbucks on Tottenham Court Road near Goodge Street station, and I was able to use the café's WiFi to download the photos I took on Tuesday and Thursday from my smartphone to my iPad, via Facebook. I can't see those photos at the moment, but once I do I'll post them here.

Now that the two British women sitting next to me have left I think I'm the only person here whose first language is English!

>78 LizzieD: Thanks, Peggy. Fortunately the current asthma exacerbation hasn't had an impact on my trip so far (touch wood). Hopefully that will continue to hold true, as the next six days will be busier than the first half dozen.

>79 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe. Comments from you and Richard are making me very eager to start Rivers of London straight away, but I'll finish The Wasp Factory and A Fine Balance first.

Ha, I know the precise Starbucks that you are occupying... Luci and I were in there briefly last month....

More meet up photos: first, from Tuesday.

In front of the Slightly Foxed Bookshop:



At the entrance to the V&A:





Afternoon tea at Greenfield's Cafe on the Exhibition Road plaza:



And, finally, the group descends upon South Kensington Books, as Caty and Tui said, like bees to honey:

And here are photos from my meet up with Bianca yesterday:

Houses at the entrances to Dulwich Park:





Entering Sydenham Hill Woods:



Walking through Sydenham Hill Woods (or was it Dulwich Woods, Bianca?):

I've tried twice to get to the Dulwich Picture Gallery. The first time the trains shut down due to ice on the rails; the second, due to torrential rains and flooding. One of these days . . .

Lovely photos, Darryl. So nice that you are having sunny weather!

Enjoying the photos - thanks!

Wow, your weather is the antithesis of what I 'enjoyed' six weeks ago, Darryl!

Love the photos, and so glad you were finally able to download your personal one without the high surcharge.

It really looks as though you're enjoying yourself, Darryl! This must be stopped.

>84 Cariola: I remember you mentioning the Dulwich Picture Gallery, Deborah. It looks relatively close to where we were. Bianca had suggested going to a museum, but I don't know if it was this gallery or another one.

It has been sunny here; I don't think I've seen a single drop of rain all week.

>85 jnwelch: You're welcome, Joe!

>86 Chatterbox: Right, Suz. It will cool down briefly this weekend (although it will still be warmer than average), but the temperatures will return to the high 80s next week.

>87 ronincats: Thanks, Roni. I had hoped that I could use the free WiFi at Starbucks to download my photos from my smartphone to Facebook, and fortunately that was the case. I hadn't been able to do so using the WiFi in my hotel, though.

>88 richardderus: Au contraire, Richard; it's been a week of utter misery. It's been the hottest week in the southeastern UK in the past seven years; the buses and trains are crowded and lack A/C; the city is filled with thousands of obnoxious American tourists; and, worst of all, Bianca forced me to go on a 8-10 mile hike through mosquito infested woods in the middle of a steamy afternoon yesterday. I almost wish I had spent this vacation in Anniston, Alabama instead.

Thank you so much for the photos of South London - Dulwich, Sydenham, Camberwell as well as Norwood, and a place called Gypsy Hill were all places that I've been able to track my family. Someday I'll get there too but these photos are such a treat in the meantime.

Great photos!!! You've gotten to travel to a lot of cool places lately! Cool figuratively, not literally. As for the mosquitoes and steam, you could've found them in the Midwestern US too. & I can't believe that list of 6 or so books is all you bought!

Bianca forced me to go on a 8-10 mile hike through mosquito infested woods in the middle of a steamy afternoon yesterday. I almost wish I had spent this vacation in Anniston, Alabama instead.

Anniston, Alabama doesn't have Bianca so you win!

Love the photos and travelogue- fantastic times you are having.

#89 in response to #88 - Darryl at his insincerest!
Love the photos, envy all the meet-ups, looking forward to more from our roving reporter. Have a lovely weekend.

>90 catarina1: You're welcome, catarina.

>91 cammykitty: Thanks, Katie. I've purchased 13 books so far, five from Slightly Foxed Bookshop and two more from South Kensington Books on Tuesday, and six more from Foyles Bookshop the following day. I'm definitely not done, but I'll wait for the Booker Prize longlist announcement on Tuesday until I start buying more new books. I'll meet up with Fliss this afternoon at the secondhand book stalls under the Waterloo Bridge before we see The Amen Corner at the National Theatre, so it's very possible I'll pick up a few more titles there.

>92 luvamystery65: *secret message to Roberta, which Richard is forbidden to read*

Anniston, AL doesn't have anything of appeal, I suspect. I didn't want RD to think that I was having a fabulous time here in London, so that he wouldn't put another hex on me.

>93 LovingLit: Thanks, Megan! (Shh. Don't tell Richard.)

Well, you haven't properly visited a place unless you've seen it's bookstores! "Slightly Foxed" is such a great name.

hmmmmmm where is that grimoire

Oh! here it is..."spel for ye usage ynne cases of ingratious wretches disporting thems selfs"

oooo boils! *gleeful handrubbing*

I love those book stalls under Waterloo Bridge...

Sounds like things are proceeding well; I'm glad neither the weather nor the asthma have slowed you down!

Darryl, I'm thoroughly enjoying your travels in London: the sights and the LT meets. Thank you for sharing so generously with us : ).

Great pictures! I am glad that the asthma isn't slowing you too much--such a drag to be sick on vacation. I have funky lungs myself, so can sympathize.

Darryl, it was lovely to meet you earlier this week and I've loved being able to follow the rest of your London trip on here and on Facebook.

Hope you and Fliss enjoy The Amen Corner.

Darryl, thank you so much for posting all those wonderful pictures. I sounds like your meet ups will continue. Lucky you. I'm also glad to know what "slightly foxed" means; I try to avoid those kinds of books but several of the old Robert B. Parker books I've been forced to borrow from out-of-city libraries would fit that description. I'll be glad to get to his newer ones.

What's up for this week end?

Nice pictures, thanks for sharing

Theatre and book review:

The Amen Corner by James Baldwin
National Theatre, London



My rating:

James Baldwin began to write this play in the summer of 1952, after he returned to New York after spending four years in Paris. While he was there he completed his first novel, Go Tell It On the Mountain, and after he borrowed money from Marlon Brando he returned home in an attempt to sell the novel. The Amen Corner, like Go Tell It On the Mountain, is set in a black church in Harlem and is semi-autobiographical in nature, as both works feature young men who are brought up in a religious environment which is simultaneously nurturing and stifling, and each must decide whether to reject the church and the hypocrisy contained within it, in order to be true to himself and his personal desires, or embrace it and become subjugated to the parent or community that desires to keep him within it.

Unlike Go Tell It On the Mountain, whose protagonist is the young man John, The Amen Corner's central character is Sister Margaret, pastor of a church whose members respect her more than they embrace her. She is firm in her faith in God, but she is unyielding and harshly critical toward those who would challenge or question her opinions as the church's leader. She has a teenage son, David, who plays piano in the choir, who she puts forth as an example of a good Christian young man and as a personal vindication to those who doubted that she could raise him as a single mother, given the numerous worldly temptations that brought down many black young men in postwar America.

Margaret is shaken by the news that her former husband, Luke, a talented jazz trombonist, has returned to town to perform a gig downtown. Neither she nor David has not seen him for the past 10 years, and Luke is in poor health due to tuberculosis and the ravages of life on the road. He turns up at her apartment, located beneath the church, just after Sunday service, and both David and several church elders learn about the secret that Margaret has hidden from all of them, which leads to crises on several levels. David feels betrayed by his mother as well as his father, and must decide whether to follow her wishes to stay with her in the church, or to pursue a career as a musician. The elders question whether Margaret is spiritually fit to lead the church, given this new information about her and Luke. And Margaret herself faces a crisis of confidence and faith, as her son appears to be drifting away from God and to the lure of the world, while Luke's presence makes her realize that her own house is not in order.





The National Theatre's production of The Amen Corner was a very spirited one, filled with humor and pathos within the rich experience of a sanctified black church. As I mentioned to Fliss during intermission, when Sister Margaret asked the congregation to bow its heads in prayer during the first act, I started to do the same, until I realized I was watching a play and that I was not in a church service! The gospel songs were very well done, and each actor, major or minor, was very good and portrayed his or her character quite accurately. This was another superb National Theatre performance, and at £12 it is one of the best bargains in London at the present time.

So, today was a good day, although I didn't do nearly as much as I had planned. I forgot to set my alarm, and missed seeing the Pompeii exhibition at the British Museum (my ticket was for 9:00 am). I met Fliss at the Real Market at Southbank Centre for lunch, and we each had a pork belly sandwich on ciabatta bread with organic rocket and, for me, homemade apple sauce. We saw The Amen Corner together, then traveled back to King's Cross station, where she took the train back to Cambridge while I walked from there to my hotel. We each had tickets to see tonight's NT Live broadcast of Macbeth starring Kenneth Branagh, whose last performance was this evening at the Manchester International Festival. Presumably Fliss saw it; I felt quite tired after a shower and dinner, and wasn't up for going to the movie house in West India Quay, near Canary Wharf, to see it, after I realized that I would have to take two Underground trains and the Docklands Light Rail (DLR) to get there. I did purchase a ticket to see the rebroadcast on Wednesday evening at a theatre in Covent Garden, three stops south from King's Cross St Pancras station on the Piccadilly Line, so I won't miss seeing it.

ETA: I forgot to mention that Fliss & I stopped at the book stalls under the Waterloo Bridge after we left the National Theatre. She bought three secondhand Penguin books, due in part to my refusal to dissuade her from buying them, and I bought two secondhand Penguins: The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh, on Fliss's recommendation, and The Reprieve by Jean-Paul Sartre. Oh, and before that we stopped in the National Theatre Bookshop, where I bought a copy of The Amen Corner.

Tomorrow I'll see another afternoon performance at the National Theatre, and I may go from there to see the Paul Klee exhibit at the Tate Modern afterward.

>94 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul; I hope that you're enjoying your weekend, too.

>96 cammykitty: Right, Katie! I wouldn't have known what slightly foxed meant if Genny hadn't mentioned it, so I thank her for that.

>97 richardderus: It was another miserable day in the capital, Richard, and the hot weather returns tomorrow, so you can put your cauldron away.

>98 katiekrug: Right, Katie; the stalls under the Waterloo Bridge are difficult to resist. I'm going back to the National Theatre tomorrow afternoon, so I'll probably take another look there before the play.

>99 lit_chick: You're welcome, Nancy! I'm glad that you and others are enjoying my exploits, and I love reading about others' travels, too.

>100 banjo123: Thanks, Rhonda. My lower airways still contain excess mucus, but my bronchi and bronchioles aren't constricted, so I can breathe relatively easily, with only the mildest shortness of breath with exertion. When I had my last asthma attack in March there were times when I was short of breath just sitting down, so I'm appreciative that this exacerbation has been a milder one so far (touch wood).

>101 souloftherose: It was a pleasure to have met you on Tuesday, Heather, as I enjoyed your company and your infectious laugh. Fliss & I both enjoyed The Amen Corner; we're both avid theatre goers, and huge fans of the National Theatre. I'll probably return here later this year to see Much Ado About Nothing and two NT performances, and I'll look to see what's on at other theatres in the capital. Jenny wants to see Much Ado About Nothing too, so I'll let you and others know when I'll be back, most likely in late October or early November.

>102 Donna828: You're quite welcome, Donna; I enjoyed your recent vacation photos and of course the ones of Haley and her new baby (sister).

>103 paulstalder: My pleasure, Paul.

The Amen Corner...what a terrific story that was. What price salvation?

Very true, Richard. Baldwin didn't provide any easy answers or ways out of the dilemmas that Sister Margaret and her son David faced, which made the story that much more powerful.

Hi Darryl- I love all the photos. It was great following with you on your London adventures. I only have 150 pages left in A Fine Balance and it's shaping up to be my favorite read of the year, but I am very lonely over on the Group Read. It's a desert over there. LOL.

>109 msf59: Thanks, Mark. I'm also enjoying A Fine Balance very much; my UK copy has 614 pages, and I'm currently on page 161. I'll flip through the remainder of The Wasp Factory, so that I can finally be done with it, then return to reading Mistry after I take another shower to rid myself of the stench of Banks's novel. I should finish A Fine Balance before I leave London on Friday.

I've lost track of the Group Read thread for both books; I'll look for them shortly.

Theatre review #3: A Walk in the Light, Part 4: Centre Stage a Celebration
National Theatre, South Bank, London

My rating:

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Royal National Theatre, and this past week featured several talks by noted black British playwrights and actors about the contributions of blacks to English theatre. The week culminated with this afternoon's celebration at the Lyttleton Theatre of the NT, in which dozens of playwrights and actors of all races came together to honor and recognize their predecessors, perform scenes from several notable past productions, and acknowledge that although great strides have been made in the past 50 years, further efforts must continue to ensure that the voices and faces of all Britons are represented on the stage.



The performance began with a gospel song by the Walk in the Light Mass Choir, a multiracial compilation of up and coming actors, with solo performances by the lead actress and a supporting actress from The Amen Corner, as seen in the above photo. Actor Giles Terera served as the main host of the event, and he and his colleagues chronicled the history of black Britons and those from the US, Africa and the Caribbean who performed on and wrote for the stage, starting with Ira Aldridge, who played Othello in London in 1833. Blacks were marginalized and stereotyped on stage until the 1970s, and it wasn't until the 1980s and 1990s that black actors assumed central roles and plays written by blacks were shown at mainstream and leading theatres such as the NT. The Thatcher years and those that followed were characterized by severe cutbacks to funding for the arts, and independent theatre companies, especially those which featured nonwhite actors and playwrights, were often shut out or given a tiny fraction of what others received. Two white theatre directors, including the head of the Tricycle Theatre, were honored and applauded for their efforts in providing support to black actors and playwrights during those lean years.

The highlights of Centre Stage a Celebration were Clive Rowe's performance of his song Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat from the 1997 NT production of Guys and Dolls; a reading of a poem specifically written for this event, read by 12 young actors; readings from the work of Kwame Kwei-Armah and other noted playwrights; a reading from a statement by Edgar Lawrence, father of Stephen Lawrence, a young man who was killed in 1993 by racist thugs in SE London in a crime that was covered up by local police and led to significant institutional and cultural changes in the UK; and two spirited songs by the Mass Choir that closed the celebration on a high note.

This was a moving and, particularly for me, instructional performance, which included several black actors I have seen on stage in past performances at the National Theatre and elsewhere. The event was well attended, with a very appreciative audience of all races, and at £10 it was worth the price of admission several times over.

Hi Darryl, sounds like you're having a fabulous time in London again this year. Thanks for posting photos of your meetup with the girls. Looks like a great time was had by all and I wish I could have been there with you.

I discovered Slightly Foxed maybe a month ago via their quarterly, which was being promoted to Folio Society members. I've since bought quite a few of their back issues (they are all kept in print). If you haven't done so yet, I suggest you pick up an issue as I'm sure you'd enjoy it and will probably want to subscribe like I did. I've since purchased a few of their editions too and will try to get my hand on them all over time, including Country Boy of course.

I got to see Helen Mirren in The Audience during a National Theatre Live rebroadcasting of the play recently (fabulous) and they were promoting upcoming broadcasts of three Shakespeare plays, namely your Othello and Macbeth and Coriolanus as well. Those will only be available to us in autumn, but that gives me plenty of time to study the plays in the meantime!

Speaking of Shakespeare, I read The Tempest a while ago in preparation for Murdoch's The Sea, The Sea, though I probably won't get to the latter much before the fall as I joined a Coursera course called The Fiction of Relationship which I know Claudia (bahzah) joined also and the assigned reading is taking precedence over everything else till then.

Book #59: The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks



My rating:

Iain Banks' debut novel is set on a small island adjacent to a Scottish town and is narrated by Frank, a 16 year old boy who was greviously maimed as a younger child. He spends his days protecting the island from real and perceived invaders, using embedded poles crowned with skulls from animals he has killed to mark off the territory around the house that he shares with his father. Frank had murdered three younger members of his family on separate occasions when he was younger, and somehow managed to convince his father and local authorities that each one was a tragic accident, to his great pleasure. He is viewed as a pariah by most people in town, except for a couple of friends with whom he gets stinking drunk on a regular basis.

Frank is not the most dysfunctional member of the Cauldhame family, though. His older brother Eric was institutionalized after a traumatic event as a student led him to torment humans and kill dogs for enjoyment. Frank and his father have learned that Eric has escaped from an asylum, and through regular phone calls to Frank he tells his younger brother that he plans to pay them a visit, which strikes fear in them and the town's residents. As he comes ever closer, Frank bolsters the island's defenses, while knowing that a potentially violent showdown with his brother is all but inevitable.

The Wasp Factory was one of the most depraved, nauseating, and meritless books I've read in a long time. Many readers hold it in high opinion, though, as it has been selected by a group of British readers as one of the top 100 novels of the 20th century. Based on comments I've read, I suspect that readers will either love it or, like me, think that this adolescent fantasy is complete rubbish.

Hi Darryl, great review of The Wasp Factory. When I saw that people were interested in reading it, I read the first few pages on Amazon and decided it wasn't for me. Thank you for confirming that. I trust you will like Americanah much better!

I've just recently had a chance to catch up on your thread and have been enjoying your posts about London, especially about the LT meetups. How much longer will you be there?

>112 Smiler69: Hi, Ilana! Yes, I've had a splendid vacation in London so far. I'm very grateful that I can travel here as often as I do, and I would loved it even more if others could have joined us this past Tuesday.

I had meant to pick up a copy of the latest Slightly Foxed quarterly from the bookshop. I may stop back there before I leave, as it's an easy trip on the Underground from my hotel.

I'll have to pay closer attention to the NT Live broadcast dates in the US for the performances that I couldn't see. I'll see Macbeth and Othello this week, but Coriolanus isn't currently on stage, so I'll look for that one. Unfortunately none of the theatres in metro Atlanta broadcast NT Live performances, so I'd have to see it elsewhere.

Thanks for the reminder of The Sea, the Sea. Let me know when you intend to read it, and I'll do my best to accompany you.

>114 phebj: Hi, Pat! I finished Americanah last Sunday, and it was infinitely better than The Wasp Factory. I'm currently reading A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, and it has also been superb so far.

I have four full days left in London (it's nearly half past midnight here), with tickets to four more plays (Mon, Wed (2), Thu), a planned meet up with Rachael (FlossieT) on Tuesday, and a possible meet up with Joyce (Nickelini) on Thursday before my flight leaves just after noon on Friday.

I'm so happy to hear how good A Fine Balance is from you and Mark. As soon as I finish The Long Ships, which is a great read, I'll be starting it.

Darryl,
I hope your remaining days in London are wonderful!

I send good wishes for a safe travel home.

Darryl, superb review of Wasp Factory. I've read enough from readers I follow here on LT to know that it is NOT one I intend to pick up. Appreciate your comments.

Thanks for the review of Wasp Factory. It sounds horrible. Glad that your current reads are more enjoyable.

It sounds like you picked a good week, theater-wise, to visit London.

Darryl, have you ever read William Carlos Williams' The Doctor Stories? I picked up a copy from a swap shelf the other day that has an introduction by Robert Coles. So far,the stories are quite interesting in both subject and style.

You and I are in complete agreement on The Wasp Factory Darryl and I suspected we would be from the minutes I finished the book. Thumb!

I'm really enjoying the travelogue and the pictures you're posting.

Woo, that's one heck of a review of The Wasp Factory, Darryl. Big thumb from me!

Okay, I guess when I get around to reading Banks, I'll skip The Wasp Factory. That sounds about as exciting as watching Dexter. Okay, I know a lot of people love Dexter, but I can't get past knowing the protagonist is someone's idea of what a sociopath is like.

>105 kidzdoc: second hand Pengiuins, and then Tomorrow I'll see another afternoon performance at the National Theatre, and I may go from there to see the Paul Klee exhibit at the Tate Modern afterward.

*sob sob*

I cant take it any more. Next time I am coming with you!

>113 kidzdoc: 2 stars! Woah, I wasn't expecting that! Would now be a good time to tell you I loved that book?

>113 kidzdoc: Wow. This is one polarizing book!

Oh, I loved the weirdness of the Wasp Factory. We'll agree to disagree, though I have to say that I'm currently making my way through The Crow Road and it is nothing at all like Wasp, neither was Stonemouth which I really enjoyed. His Culture novels are wonderful too, those that I've read. I'm also lining up his Espedair Street which is about 1970s rock music so for me is a must read.

Glad to see that you are enjoying A fine balance, I read this a few years ago but the ending had been spoiled for me by someone mentioning what happens, so I had to mark it down a star or two.

Thanks for all great London stories, Darryl!

I hope your remaining days in London will also be fabulous.

Good morning Darryl,
Woah, what a great review of The Wasp Factory which only confirmed that I would not enjoy this book. As it got such critics I was looking at it some time ago, but thought it might was too much for me.

I wish you a great remaining time in London. I am currently enjoying my time with Alex very much and we will be off to the Southbank a little later, as there is apparently still the summer festival going on. However, Alex wants to go to the Natural History Museum as well, but I am not to sure about that, as yet.

>116 phebj: I'm glad that I decided to participate in Mark's group read of A Fine Balance, Pat. I haven't read anything by Rohinton Mistry before, so this has been a great introduction to his work. I'll have plenty of free time to read over the next two days, so I should get through it much more quickly than I have been.

>117 Whisper1: Thanks, Linda!

>118 lit_chick: Thanks, Nancy. I should have realized that a book about gratuitous torture and murder of animals, almost gleeful tales of murder of younger children, and adolescent tales of public drunkenness and descriptions of body fluids would not appeal to me. It was a struggle to read more than 10 pages at a time until I decided yesterday that I would flip through the last third of the book to be done with it.

>119 banjo123: The Wasp Factory was as horrible as it sounds, Rhonda.

It has been a superb two weeks of theatre in London. I've seen three plays, and have four left to go. Next up will be tonight's performance of The Cripple of Inishmaan starting Daniel Radcliffe at the Noël Coward Theatre in Soho.

>120 ffortsa: Judy, I think I read the contents of The Doctor Stories, either in that actual book or another one, but it would have been roughly 20 years ago. Checking...yes, I do have it in my LT library, and after looking at the cover I do remember reading it. I don't remember any of the stories off the top of my head, but I did like this book.

>121 brenzi: Right, Bonnie. There seems to be very little middle ground with this book.

>122 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe!

>123 cammykitty: I hadn't heard of Dexter before, but I just read a bit of the show's page on Wikipedia, and I would agree with you. I have no idea why anyone would want to watch such a vile program!

>124 LovingLit: I'd love to have had your company on this trip, Megan! I didn't make it to the Tate Modern, but I'll try to get there on Wednesday, before I see the matinee performance of Othello at the nearby National Theatre.

The Wasp Factory is a well liked book, but it wasn't for me. What did you enjoy about it?

>125 richardderus: Yep. I don't think this book was ever one I should have read, Richard, and certainly not as an introduction to Iain Banks. It will take a while for the bad taste left by this book to fade away enough for me to want to read anything else by him.

>126 avatiakh: I don't mind limited amounts of weirdness, Kerry, but the repeated descriptions of animal torture and child murder were repugnant. One of my roles as a hospital based pediatrician is to admit, on an all too regular basis, babies and young children who have been subjected to physical abuse, so I'm a bit squeamish about stories of physical or sexual abuse, even in an absurd book like this one.

Thanks for mentioning other books by Iain Banks that you've liked. Fliss gave me some other recommendations last night, too.

Ack! I hate it when someone spoils a book for me, and I almost always fear that I've done the same when I write a book review. I'm sorry that that experience ruined A Fine Balance for you.

>127 wilkiec: You're welcome, Diana! The weather has had an impact on my plans, as I haven't done as much as I would have ideally liked due to the extreme temperatures. It's supposed to reach 34 C (93 F) in the capital today, which will make it the hottest day of the year, and tomorrow, when I'm supposed to meet up with Rachael, will be filled with thunderstorms and heavy rain throughout the day in southeastern England. Despite that it's been a great vacation overall.

>128 drachenbraut23: Good morning, Bianca! Have an enjoyable day along the South Bank with Alex today; I was there both days this weekend, and it was quite lively and crowded, although not unpleasantly so.

In case you haven't heard the Duchess of Cambridge has gone into labor, and is at St. Mary's Hospital. I passed by the hospital, which is close to Paddington Station, yesterday, and the area didn't seem to be any more crowded than normal, probably because the hundreds of newscasters are stationed along the rear of the hospital.

LOL - of course I heard that the Duchess is gone into labor. So, now we should hope that everything goes well and that she won't need a section.

Glad to hear that you enjoyed your time at the South Bank, so hopefully Alex will enjoy the crowds as well.

>132 drachenbraut23: Given what you said about your son being very interested in news and current affairs I'm curious to know if you learned this news from him, Bianca. ;-)

I had meant to post that news at the top of my first message, and not to you specifically, as it's only half past 7 am on the East Coast of the US, so I imagine that most Americans are just learning about this news. I'll certainly avoid going to Paddington today!

Darryl, the NT event you attended sounds wonderful. You might be interested in a play I saw performed in DC quite a few years ago: The African Company Presents Richard III by Carlyle Brown. It's about a troupe of African American actors who put on the Shakespearean play some time after the Civil War and all the problems they encountered--everything from legal technicalities to boycotts to riots. You also mention Ira Aldridge, who I always bring up when I teach Othello; he was forced to flee to England and lived there the rest of his life because he could not pursue a career in the US. Although a number of Brits made their fortunes in the slave trade, there was more abolitionist support and generally more racial tolerance there. Free black men were not such a rarity as in the US.

I thought I had seen The Cripple of Inishmaan at the Donmar Warehouse, but it was actually saw the debut of another Martin McDonagh play with a similar title, The Lieutenant of Inishmore. That one is a VERY dark comedy--I was going to warn you in light of your comments on animal cruelty in The Wasp Factory), but you're safe!

I'm just finishing a great LTER book and think I will pick up A Fine Balance from the shelf next; I've been putting it off for years, and I've loved other works by Mistry. Is there a thread for the group read?

Darryl, you are very lucky indeed to be able to see all those plays live while actually sitting inside the theatres in which they are performed! I don't know why it is they won't be broadcasting those Shakespeare plays live, but I'm sure I'll enjoy seeing them nonetheless. Strange that such a large city as Atlanta wouldn't offer NT Live in any of their cinemas. So far I've seen a baroque opera live from the Met, the Kirov ballet, also live, and aforementioned The Audience, not live, but all of which I could barely afford otherwise, given how much money I spend on deluxe book editions these days! If I were in London right now, one of the first places I'd visit would be the Folio Society headquarters. But if you haven't discovered them yet, best stay away as they are an absolutely ruinous obsession to most members who join.

Thanks for the review on The Wasp Factory. I'll be sure to stay well away from it as it sounds dreadful, though I do admit to watching a couple of seasons of Dexter until common sense returned and utterly disgusted, I swore I wouldn't watch it again. To me the appeal was mostly that he does away with vile criminals who have always managed to evade being convicted for their crimes. But if you watch Shakespeare, you are certainly not avoiding sociopaths and foul deeds!

Hi Darryl, after all the glowing reports on A Fine Balance from you and Mark, I decided to pick up my copy last night and just see what it's like. I was drawn in right away and wish I didn't have anything else to read at the moment so I could just sink into it.

A couple of years ago, I read Such a Long Journey for a book group and really liked it. I remember other members of the group raving about A Fine Balance and that's what prompted me to buy a copy but up till now the length of it has intimidated me. I really want to finish The Long Ships so I guess I'm going to try reading them both at the same time. While I don't mind reading more than one book at a time, I don't often read two fiction books simultaneously. But I should be able to keep India in 1975 and the Vikings in the 10th century separate in my head.

Hi, Darryl. Delurking briefly to say how much I have enjoyed your London posts. Brings back lots of memories. Thanks!

One quick question -- why wait until you got to London to buy a copy of A Fine Balance? Isn't it readily available here?? I'm fairly sure it's still in print. My question, of course, displays my bias in favor of not buying books in the UK that I then have to ship all the way home if they happen to be readily available at home, simply in order to have a different cover/edition...

>130 kidzdoc: The Wasp Factory is a well liked book, but it wasn't for me. What did you enjoy about it?
I liked the flippancy with which his cruel and dangerous behaviour was described, I think that really added credibility to his insanity. He really didn't think he was doing much wrong. For someone like me who cannot bear violence or confrontation, let alone outright cruelty, I found it fascinating to be inside the head of a depraved lunatic.
My defense mechanism of being unable/unwilling to really imagine that the things he did would ever be done (to children) kicked in and allowed me to be carried away in the story.

Hi Darryl... Happily catching up with your thread & living vicariously through your adventures! I love your meet up pictures! Trying not to be too jealous of all the fun you're having across the pond. ;)

Theatre review: The Cripple of Inishmaan by Martin McDonagh
Noël Coward Theatre, Soho, London

My rating:

This play, which initially premiered in London in 1997, was based on a true event, in which noted Hollywood director Robert Flaherty, who became famous for his 1921 documentary film Nanook of the North, came to the Irish island of Anan in 1932 to create another documentary about its people. The resultant film, Man of Aran was released in 1934 to critical acclaim, but the residents of the Irish Republic in general and Aran in particular denounced Flaherty for his condescension in his treatment of the islanders (as he put the lives of several local men at risk during the filming of one scene at sea), his stereotypical attitudes toward the Irish, and his ignorance of the poverty and struggles that they regularly faced.





The central character of The Cripple of Inishmaan is Billy Craven, known by the town's residents as Cripple Billy, a unattractive young man afflicted with cerebral palsy from a birth defect who lives with two unrelated "aunts" that operate a small grocery store; he was orphaned at a young age after the simultaneous deaths of his parents at sea. His days are filled with boredom, and his only escapes are reading books and staring at cows. Due to his physical deformity and homely face he has little hope of finding a mate, although he is very attracted to Helen McCormick, a stunning 17 year old redhead whose feistiness is exceeded only by her sharp tongue and good natured cruelty toward everyone in town, including Billy.

One day Johnnypateenmike, the local gossip, comes to the store to report that an American film director has come to a nearby town on the mainland, in order to recruit local actors for a film about Ireland, and those selected would travel to Hollywood and be guaranteed fame and a life free from work (since, as he said, "actors don't really work"). Helen convinces a local fisherman, Babbybobby, to transport her and her younger brother Bartley to the mainland town, as she is sure that her beauty will allow her to be chosen for the film and escape from her tedious life in Inishmaan. Billy manages to convince Babbybobby to secretly take him to the mainland as well, as he wants to pursue a career in acting and escape from his meaningless existence, while knowing that his aunts would strongly disapprove of this decision. Babbybobby returns to Inishmaan several days later, but he only brings back Helen and Bartley, as Billy was one of the ones chosen to travel to Hollywood for a screen test for the film.

The Cripple of Inishmaan is a dark and wicked comedy about Ireland, its people, their attraction to the perceived riches that America offers, and how the hopes and dreams that America promises don't always reflect the reality of life there. Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame was fabulous in the role of Cripple Billy, but Sarah Greene (Helen) and Pat Shortt (Johnnypattenmike) were also excellent, and the cast as a whole was a solid one.

Sounds like a really interesting play!

I see that you will be able to be part of the " Royal Birth" celebrations!

Finally, some rain! There is an impressive thunderstorm currently taking place here, which the BBC had said would start tonight and continue through tomorrow and possibly Wednesday. Today was the hottest day in London since July 2006, with a maximum temperature of 33 C (92 F) in central London this afternoon (make that Monday afternoon, as it's just past 1 am here).

The audience learned during intermission that the Duchess of Cambridge had given birth to a boy, which led to a rousing cheer. However, the enthusiasm at this news paled in comparison to that of the hordes of young women who emerged from the Noël Coward Theatre running and shrieking as they headed toward the stage entrance, in an effort to get Daniel Radcliffe's autograph.

The BT Tower is visible from the window of my hotel room, and it is displaying images of a stork carrying a baby and the words "It's a Boy" at the present time.

>134 Cariola: That play (The African Company Presents Richard III) does sound interesting, Deborah. I hadn't heard of it before, but I'll keep an eye out for it, in case it comes to a theatre in Atlanta (fat chance) or elsewhere in the US.

I hadn't heard of Ira Aldridge before yesterday, and had no idea that a black man had first performed Othello on stage that long ago.

I hadn't heard of Martin McDonagh before, but I read in the playbill I bought that four of his plays were on stage in the West End in 1997. I'll certainly look for more of his work on both sides of the Atlantic from now on.

>135 Smiler69: Ilana, I'm pretty sure that the main reason that the NT doesn't broadcast live performances, instead of rebroadcasts, is the time difference between the UK and North America. The 8.30 pm showing of Macbeth this past Saturday would have started at 1.30 am on Sunday on the East Coast of the US, and 4.30 am on the West Coast.

Atlanta, as I've mentioned previously, is largely bereft of cultural events that interest me, despite being one of the major cities in the US. I'll see more live plays during this two week visit (6, not counting the NT Live rebroadcast of Macbeth that I'll see Wednesday night) than I've seen in the 16 years I've lived in Atlanta.

Definitely avoid The Wasp Factory. I expect sociopathic characters in Shakespeare's work, but I'm sure that the stories will have much more to say than Banks did in his debut novel.

Hello Darryl - loving following your London culture-fest! My daughter is living in London now - working just near Buck House, so no doubt there is a lot of action around Grosvenor Square. Isn't new life just worth celebrating - no matter who the parents. And what extraordinary weather London is enjoying (?). Though, you know, they don't do aircon very much, so I hope you are not finding it too uncomfortable..

>136 phebj: I'm glad that you've started and are now enjoying A Fine Balance, Pat. I still hope to finish it by Thursday, although I didn't get as much reading done today as I had hoped to.

I have Such a Long Journey and Family Matters at home, and I'll definitely read both books in the near future.

>137 RandyMetcalfe: You're welcome, Randy!

>138 Chatterbox: Suz, I knew that I wanted to read A Fine Balance during this vacation, and I didn't want to lug a copy from the US with me. My intent was to buy it here, and then give it to one of the LTers or donate it to the Oxfam Bookshop in Bloomsbury once I'm finished with it, so that I don't lug it back to the US on Friday. I also plan to leave behind Americanah and The Wasp Factory, which I brought with me from the US. I did buy TransAtlantic, which is obviously available in the US, but I thought that I would be able to finish it before I left London.

After the Booker longlist is announced this afternoon I'll buy the titles that aren't available in the US at the present time, and get the others either next week when I go to New Orleans, or next month during the week I'll spend in San Francisco (assuming that I don't change my mind and travel to the Northeast after I return from NOLA).

>139 LovingLit: Interesting comments about The Wasp Factory, Megan. I thought that Frank had some very minimal regrets over his role in the death of the three young children, but these paled in comparison to the heinousness of his crimes.

>140 TinaV95: Thanks, Tina!

>142 torontoc: Right, Cyrel. However, except for the announcement of the royal birth during the intermission of The Cripple of Inishmaan or the current display on the BT Tower I haven't seen any difference in how Londoners and visitors have taken this news (except for the nonstop coverage on BBC News).

>144 PrueGallagher: Hi, Prue! Yes, every birth is worthy of a celebration, and I'm sure that all of the British newspapers will feature large displays of this story on their front pages.

This weather has been extraordinary, although similar to typical summer weather in Atlanta in July. Fortunately I paid attention to the weather forecast before I left Atlanta and brought appropriate clothes with me (mainly T-shirts, polo and short sleeved shirts, and shorts), rather than what I would normally bring here (mock turtlenecks and long sleeved shirts). I've been taking at least two showers every day, but fortunately my hotel room has very good A/C.

Hi, Darryl; I heard there were meet-up photos, so I thought I'd drop by. Love your accounts of your stay in London, and the plays, too. Will have to come by more often.

Oh - and congratulations on the new baby ;0)

Darryl, because London is 5 hours ahead of us here in Montreal, an 8:30pm performance would actually be aired live at 3:30 in the afternoon here. I do believe some of the performances are broadcasted live, but not these upcoming Shakespeare plays for some reason. The shows I've attended so far have been in the early afternoon, but I'll report back in future when I can confirm one way or the other if they ever broadcast live from London or not.

Slightly exasperated by all the baby coverage here -- one would think that it were a unique event.

The weather that you are having is amazing!! You're lucky that you have A/C -- a rare commodity on that side of the pond.

Do remember that Atlanta has an excellent symphony orchestra and some very good live music events of other kinds happening... I think generally in the USA we are underserved by theater (with NY being the exception that proves the rule.) Also, a friend of mine has raved about something called Actor's Express -- a rep company, I think? Not London, not NYC, but then those are two of a kind. Theater in Canada is relatively anaemic (except for the Stratford and Shaw festivals). Year-round quality drama is scarce.

That makes me think: does anyone feel like doing a road trip to either Stratford or Niagara-on-the-Lake next year??

>147 humouress: Thanks for stopping by, humoress. I'm glad that you and others are enjoying my accounts of this trip.

The BT Tower continues to honor the royal birth in its display, and BBC One's morning news is dominated by live coverage of the happy event, as it was yesterday.



That isn't my photo, but it's what is visible to me from my fifth floor hotel window.

>148 Smiler69: *smacks forehead*

Right, Ilana. Can I blame my grevious maths error on the late hour that I typed that message (after 1 am BST)? Macbeth was broadcast live throughout the UK on Saturday night at 8.30 pm, but I don't know if it was shown live in other parts of Europe. I missed Saturday's broadcast, but I have a ticket to see the re-broadcast tomorrow night, at the nearby Odeon Covent Garden.

>149 Chatterbox: This royal birth is a rare event, though not a unique one. I don't mind the worldwide attention and live coverage on the BBC and I'm certainly happy for William, Kate and their families, but there has been so little actual news since the Duchess of Cambridge arrived at St. Mary's Hospital yesterday morning compared to the hours of time spent covering this event. BBC One continues to broadcast live from Buckhingham Palace, St. Mary's Hospital, where William, Kate and the new baby spent the night, and Kate's home town. The hundreds of broadcasters outside of St. Mary's continue to wait expectantly for a glimpse of the royal couple and the new Prince of Cambridge.

I'm very pleased to have an excellent A/C system in my hotel room, as I have a difficult time sleeping at night if I'm too hot (icicles can hang from my nose on the coldest winter nights, but as long as I have enough blankets I can sleep like the dead).

Yes, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is one of the best in the US, but I maintain that the theatre there in particular, and the fine arts offerings in general, are pathetic in comparison to other major American cities.
Thanks for mentioning Actor's Express; I looked at its upcoming season, and there are several plays that look interesting, so I'll plan to see them. There are two theatre houses within a short walk from where I live, the 14th Street Playhouse and the Alliance Theatre, which are both affiliated with the Woodruff Arts Center. The 14th Street Playhouse, despite its name, almost never shows plays, and what it does show is generally limited to "chick plays", such as the upcoming one day performance of Don't Bring Flowers to Dinner:

Kevin, Adam, and Mike have all been friends since their college days and are now in their late 20’s looking for love. Kevin, a fast rising attorney, has been in a relationship with his girlfriend Samantha for almost a year and has plans to make her his wife. The only problem is Sam doesn’t feel the same way about her relationship with Kevin. Adam, a successful investment banker, has been chasing endlessly after his college crush Lisa since their freshman year in college. Adam soon realizes, after chasing Lisa for about seven years and watching her go from one failed relationship to another, that everything that glitters isn’t always gold. Mike, a free-spirited bartender, has no intentions of settling down in the near future. After a brief run-in with someone from his past, Mike soon realizes that eventually the dating scene starts to get old and every man wants someone to come home to.

Gag. The Alliance Theatre's upcoming season includes one play of marginal interest, but that's it.

I've been spoiled by growing up just outside of NYC. My mother used to take me to children's plays and author readings in Greenwich Village and elsewhere in the city when I was a young boy, and I'm convinced that this is why I love reading and live theatre as much as I do. Pittsburgh had very good live theatre and cultural arts, and when I moved to Atlanta I expected that there would be even more fine arts events there. Wrong.

Woo hoo! The Booker Prize longlist will be announced in just over 2-1/2 hours. I'll go to the London Review Bookshop shortly afterward to look for the longlisted books I don't own that aren't available in the US, then meet Rachael (FlossieT) for a late lunch in Holborn. My evening should be free, so I'll check to see if there are any plays that I'd like to go to.

>149 Chatterbox: That makes me think: does anyone feel like doing a road trip to either Stratford or Niagara-on-the-Lake next year??

I have tickets to see the Royal Shakespeare Company's performances of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies in Stratford-upon-Avon on 26 March 2014, so I doubt I'd want to go there again in the near future. I don't know anything about Niagara-on-the-Lake, though.

Guardian on Booker Prize longlist

Judges for the 2013 Man Booker prize have drawn up what is "surely the most diverse" longlist in the prize's history, they say, naming 13 books by authors who are mostly far from being household names.

Only two authors on the list have been nominated for the prize before: Jim Crace is listed for his 11th and probably his last novel Harvest, 16 years after he was shortlisted for Quarantine; and Colm Tóibín, shortlisted twice before, is in the running for The Testament of Mary, which came out last year.

Robert Macfarlane, this year's chair of judges, said: "This is surely the most diverse longlist in Man Booker history: wonderfully various in terms of geography, form, length and subject. These 13 outstanding novels range from the traditional to the experimental, from the first century AD to the present day, from 100 pages to 1,000 and from Shanghai to Hendon."

The 1,000-page book is one of the most intriguing on the list. The Kills, by Richard House – a writer and artist who teaches at the University of Birmingham – could be described as a political thriller but is much more than that, Macfarlane said. Strictly speaking, it is four books in one novel and comes with extra, digitally available film and audio content, although the Booker panel is judging only on the words.

Three first-time novelists are on this year's list. NoViolet Bulawayo, who was born in Zimbabwe a year after it became independent and moved to the US at the age of 18, is on for We Need New Names, which has been described a "visceral and bittersweet" portrayal of life in a Zimbabwean shantytown called Paradise. Eve Harris, published by the small Highlands publisher Sandstone, is longlisted for her yet-to-be-released book The Marrying of Chani Kaufman, set in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community of Hendon in London. And Donal Ryan makes the longlist for The Spinning Heart, a novel told from the points of view of 21 people struggling to get by in a rural Irish village.

Ryan is one of three Irish writers on the list, the others being Tóibín and Colum McCann, nominated for TransAtlantic, which spans 150 years.

The other novelists who have yet to be published are: Eleanor Catton, the youngest writer on the list at 27 for The Luminaries; Indian American writer Jhumpa Lahiri, for The Lowland; Alison MacLeod for her second world war novel Unexploded; and Charlotte Mendelson, for Almost English.

The other nominees are the Malaysian writer Tash Aw, for Five Star Billionaire, which charts life in the new China; and Ruth Ozeki, a Canadian-American writer and Zen Buddhist priest, for A Take for the Time Being.

Other judges this year are the broadcaster Martha Kearney, the critic and biographer Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, the classicist and critic Natalie Haynes and the essayist and former literary editor of Scotland on Sunday Stuart Kelly. They will meet again in September to name a shortlist, with the £50,000 winner in what is the prize's 45th year being named on 15 October.

This year's Man Booker Prize longlist has just been announced:

Tash Aw, Five Star Billionaire
NoViolet Bulawayo, We Need New Names
Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries
Jim Crace, Harvest
Eve Harris, The Marrying of Chani Kaufman
Jhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland
Richard House, The Kills
Colum McCann, TransAtlantic
Alison McLeod, Unexploded
Charlotte Mendelson, Almost English
Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being
Donal Ryan, The Spinning Heart
Colm Tóibín, The Testament of Mary

More info: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jul/23/man-booker-longlist-2013-diverse-jud...

Darryl, Transatlantic by Mr. McCann is also on the list.

Thanks, Diana. I saw that just now, when I counted and realized that I had only posted 12 titles.

Five of the 13 books haven't been published in the UK yet, namely the novels by Catton, Harris, Lahiri, McLeod and Mendelson. Five Star Billionaire, We Need New Names, A Tale for the Time Being, The Testament of Mary, The Spinning Heart and TransAtlantic are currently available in the US. So, I'll pick up Harvest and The Kills within the hour from the London Review Bookshop before I meet Rachael for lunch, and buy We Need New Names, A Tale for the Time Being, The Testament of Mary and The Spinning Heart after I return to the US. I've read Five Star Billionaire, and I bought TransAtlantic last week, but I don't have any of the other longlisted books.

Apparently the Booker Prize longlist is the second royal birth in as many days:

Just catching up, Darryl. What a well-done review of the play The Cripple of Inishmaan! I'd thumb it if it were a book review.

Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago has produced a number of Martin McDonagh's plays that we've seen, including The Beauty Queen of Leenane and The Pillow Man. They can be really violent and harrowing in spots, but unforgettable. The Cripple actually was replaced there by The Beauty Queen, so we didn't get to see it. Based on your review, we'll look for a chance.

Hooray! Transatlantic made the list!

I've almost picked up A Tale for the Time Being several times, so the nomination pushes me to do so. The Lahiri has been on my Amazon wish list since its publication was announced, and I'll be looking for The Spinning Heart, which sounds like my kind of book.

Of the Booker list, I've read Colm Toibin, bogged down in TransAtlantic and Five Star Billionaire (though I must finish the latter. I had just requested We Need New Names from Amazon Vine's Last Harvest (where they put all the leftover ARCs after a couple of months) yesterday, oddly enough, and had contemplated buying the Alison McLeod novel recently. Not sure why I didn't. I do have A Tale for the Time Being on deck. I'll take a look at the rest of the list later, but the only must-read on it for me is the Eleanor Catton novel, which actually seems as if it isn't out in the UK either yet. (Amazon UK sez publication is early September??)

ETA: Almost English hasn't been published yet either -- it is set for next month. Perhaps they'll bring forward the publication dates for these? The same with Unexploded, which I see I do have on my wish list for my UK Kindle as a 'must buy when released' book. It, too, is scheduled for September. Lahiri's novel is for LATE September, so you may be a bit out of luck with your shopping, Darryl, since The Marrying of Chani Kauffman, too, is a September release.

ETA Again: Whoops, just re-read your note to see that you realized this -- I have a headache again today and clearly it is buggering up my ability to process the written word... Hope you can lay hands on the others.

I met Rachael (FlossieT) at the London Review Bookshop during her lunch break from work, but not before I bought six books, two from my wish list and four from the Booker Prize longlist (yes, I know that I said that I would only buy two of them, but the other two were short books):

The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín
Tomorrow I'll Be Twenty by Alain Mabanckou
Vauxhall by Gabriel Gbadamosi
The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan
Harvest by Jim Crace
The Kills by Richard House

We then proceeded to have lunch at pod on High Holborn, near the Holborn tube station, which sells healthy seasonal foods. I had a Korean salad and Thai green curry chicken, which was very good.

>157 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe! I'll buy the script of The Cripple of Inishmaan when I go to the National Theatre tomorrow afternoon, and I'll submit it as a book review after I read it later this week.

I'll definitely be on the lookout for additional plays by Martin McDonagh, either here or in the US.

>158 Cariola: I'm also glad that TransAtlantic made the Booker longlist. I was planning to read The Lowland anyway, so I'm glad that it was chosen. The Spinning Heart is only 157 pages long and won't take up much space in my tote bag; likewise The Testament of Mary is only 104 pages in length, so I bought it as well. I'll probably download A Tale for the Time Being and We Need New Names onto my Kindle.

>159 Chatterbox: Rachael and I were talking about Eleanor Catton's new book. She loved The Rehearsal, and she interviewed Catton for Belletrista two or three years ago. She often receives advance copies of upcoming books, but she hasn't requested or received The Luminaries yet, as she is very busy with work and with an exciting literary project.

Here's a list of the US and UK release dates for the longlisted titles (apologies to my friends in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere):

Tash Aw, Five Star Billionaire (available in the UK and US)
NoViolet Bulawayo, We Need New Names (available in the UK and US)
Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries (Sep 5 UK, Oct 15 US)
Jim Crace, Harvest (available in the UK and US)
Eve Harris, The Marrying of Chani Kaufman (Sep 19 UK and US)
Jhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland (Sep 24 US, Sep 26 UK)
Richard House, The Kills (available in the UK; US?)
Colum McCann, TransAtlantic (currently available in UK and US)
Alison McLeod, Unexploded (Sep 5 UK; US?)
Charlotte Mendelson, Almost English (Aug 15 UK; US?)
Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being (currently available in UK and US)
Donal Ryan, The Spinning Heart (currently available in UK; Mar in US?)
Colm Tóibín, The Testament of Mary (currently available in UK and US)

ETA: I just purchased the Kindle versions of A Tale for the Time Being and We Need New Names, so I now have all eight currently available titles.

Can I just correct you on one thing? Harvest has been out since February in the US and I currently have it in my hands from the Providence library system. You may be looking at the paperback release?

The Donal Ryan novel is available via Amazon in the US, but you're ordering the UK copy via one of their vendors. The US paperback isn't due until March.

You'll have to let me know what you think of "The Kills"; looking at the Amazon page I got the feeling that it might be one of those books that is more clever than good or engaging.

Hi Darryl, have just been perusing the Booker LL this morning over coffee. Curious: where did you find the release dates?

Definitely an interesting longlist this year.
Catton's book comes out in New Zealand next week (August 01), it's being published by Victoria University Press. I'm first in line at my library for it but it's a big read at 848pgs so I might just buy a copy.

I'm also keen to read Almost English as I really liked her When we were bad.

>161 Chatterbox: Ack. Thanks, Suz. You're right about Harvest; I looked at the release date on Amazon US, and somehow my brain said Feb 14, 2014 instead of Feb 14, 2013.

I see what you mean about The Spinning Heart; I'm glad that I bought it this afternoon. I don't see a US release date, so I'll take your word that it will come out there in March.

The Kills consists of four interconnected stories: Sutler, The Massive, The Kill and The Hit. Each one is roughly 250 pages long, so I'll probably leave that one until the first half of September.

>162 lit_chick: I looked at Amazon UK and Amazon US to obtain the Booker longlist release dates, Nancy. Hopefully I have it right this time.

>163 avatiakh: Rachael had mentioned that The Luminaries was a weighty book. I'll try to read it in mid to late September.

I'm curious to read more about these titles, especially the ones which haven't been released yet.

Hi Darryl. I'm glad you've enjoyed the NT plays and shows you've seen so far. You've prompted me to sign up to their mailing list along with their NT Live mailing list to keep track of what they have on.

Your review of The Wasp Factory has confirmed that this particular book is not one I would get anything good out of reading although your comment to Nancy in msg 129 made me chuckle.

"I should have realized that a book about gratuitous torture and murder of animals, almost gleeful tales of murder of younger children, and adolescent tales of public drunkenness and descriptions of body fluids would not appeal to me."

The Booker longlist looks like an interesting and diverse list this year although I'll probably wait for you and others to read and review them before dipping my toe in the waters.

Hope you enjoy your last few days in London!

But...but...but what happened to Americanah and Life After Life?? Oh well. I've put a hold on Five Star Billionaire and A Tale for the Time Being and neither one had a waiting list so that's good. My library also has Harvest and The Testament of Mary and I've already read and loved Transatlantic.

>165 souloftherose: Thanks, Heather. I wish we had an organization like the NT in the US, as I would go there reguarly regardless of what city it was located in. I've never been to our own National Theatre, located in Washington, but from what I've seen its performances are far less interesting to me than your NT, and they are much more expensive, as it isn't subsided by the federal government.

Fliss regularly attends plays at the NT and elsewhere in London. She almost always goes by herself, but she's very willing to see plays with me, and I'm certain that she would with you, too.

I really should have read a synopsis of The Wasp Factory before I decided to buy it, instead of taking the word of others that it would be a good book to read as an introduction to Iain Banks.

I'll be in full Booker Prize mode after I finish reading A Fine Balance. It looks to be a superb longlist, and I'm eager to get started. Fortunately I won't be working much over the next two months; I think I'm only on for a total of 10 days between now and September 15th, so I should be able to make a solid dent in the longlist during that time.

I'm simultaneously sad to see this trip come to an end, and eager to return to the US, in part because I'm looking forward to going to New Orleans to attend the annual Pediatric Hospital Medicine conference next Thursday to Sunday (although I'm dreading the steamy weather that will almost certainly be present there). I'll have to see how much vacation time I have left next week, but I definitely hope to return to London in the fall.

>166 brenzi: Right, Bonnie! I was certain that Americanah and Life After Life would make the longlist and was disappointed that they didn't, but I may feel differently after I start reading the chosen books. I'm very eager to read several of the ones that haven't been published yet, particularly The Luminaries (especially after my conversation with Rachael over lunch today), The Lowland and Almost English. I'm also eager to experience The Kills, despite its length of just over 1000 pages, as the book is enhanced by online multimedia content from its web site, http://www.thekills.co.uk.

Darryl, Almost English just popped up on my UK Kindle wish list as being available. You might have a bit of trouble finding a copy for a day or two, but give it a shot -- clearly they moved up the publication date.

A Tale for the Time Being was available at a very reasonable price on Kindle for no apparent reason a few months ago, so I have that, and I have an ARC of Almost English through Amazon Vine, as I enjoyed Mendelson's 2nd or 3rd novel When We Were Bad very much - I haven't read Daughters of Jerusalem and have only just found out about Love in Idleness.

Hi Darryl- Whew, I somehow found myself nearly 60 posts behind. WTH? I really liked your review of The Wasp Factory. I like dark, disturbing books, so this one worked for me. Yes, it was creepy and grotesque but oddly fascinating.
Thanks for posting the Booker list. I am currently reading TransAtlantic and I was lucky enough to snag an ARC of the Lahiri. The Ozeki book is also high on my WL.

A Fine Balance is just....WOW!

>150 kidzdoc:: I suddenly wondered, given the proximity of your hotel to THE hospital - did you choose that one out of professional interest? ;0)

Enjoy your last few days; I'm sure they'll be different from your usual experience.

170> I started reading A Fine Balance this afternoon--it's a real grabber. I've had it on my shelf since it came out in 1999. I'm not sure why it has taken me so long to get around to it, especially with the high praise it has gotten from LTers that I trust and considering that I've read several other books by Rohinton Mistry and enjoyed them. Maybe it's because some readers mentioned being haunted by some things that happen towards the end. But that's the mark of a good writer, I think--that he or she can move readers, affect them deeply enough that maybe, just maybe, they will be moved to action. Or at the very least, to empathy.

Deborah- I did the same thing with a Fine Balance. I kept putting it off. Maybe, I thought it would be dry and heavy going. Boy, was I mistaken!! Enjoy and stop by the Group Read thread. It's a ghost town over there.

Ugh. My GI tract isn't behaving itself this morning and afternoon, even though I haven't eaten anything since I had lunch with Rachael yesterday (I doubt that anything I ate there are the cause of these symptoms). So, I'll miss today's matinee performance of Othello, but I did manage to get a ticket for tonight's performance. However, that means I'll miss the NT Live re-broacast of Macbeth at the Odeon Covent Garden, but hopefully I'll be able to see that in the US later this year.

>168 Chatterbox: Suz, I'm not sure what's going on with the availability of Almost English! Cait (Cait86) told me yesterday that the Kindle version was available on Amazon Canada, and when I checked it was. I couldn't purchase it, since I wasn't a Canadian citizen. However it isn't available for purchase from Amazon.ca now. I remember that one book from the longlist of either the Booker or Orange Prize a year or two ago was briefly available as a Kindle book in advance of the publication date, but only for a day or two after the announcement. I'll keep looking at Amazon US for it and the other unavailable longlisted books, to see if any of them pop up.

I read an article this morning about The Marrying of Chani Kaufman, which was published by a small independent publisher, Sandstone Press I believe. Apparently print copies of the book are about to be released, and supposedly electronic versions will be available today. I'll keep an eye out for it as well, and report back here and in the Booker Prize group if I find out anything more.

>169 elkiedee: I look forward to your comments about Almost English, Luci.

>170 msf59: It took less than three days for you to fall 60 posts behind, Mark, so that's perfectly understandable. I'm sure we've all experienced the same thing when we don't read certain threads for a few days, especially yours, Paul's and Richard's! I do like certain creepy and disturbing books, but I have to be able to suspend belief and get into the story to appreciate it. I loved The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan, but offhand I can't think of more recent books I've read like it that I've enjoyed since then.

>171 humouress: Ha! My hotel isn't all that close to St. Mary's Hospital; I'm much closer to University College Hospital, which is a mile or less away on Euston Road. I prefer to be in Bloomsbury or Holborn; this hotel is either in Bloomsbury or just outside of it.

>172 Cariola: I'm also unsure why it's taken me so long to read anything by Rohinton Mistry. Although I bought A Fine Balance last week I have two of his other books at home, Family Matters and Such a Long Journey. I'm not sure that I'll read either of those books this year, but they will be high on my priority list in 2014.

>173 msf59: I haven't been reading as much as I had hoped to this week, so I may have to finish A Fine Balance on the flight to Atlanta on Friday.

I checked Amazon UK, and the Kindle edition of The Marrying of Chani Kaufman is now available, for £6.17. The print edition release date is still listed as September 19th, though.

If anyone wants to try the first book in The Kills, which consists of four interconnected books, you can do so for free, in exchange for posting a tweet about it. I read yesterday that the author had made the e-book of the first story, Sutler, available for free from the book's web site, http://www.thekills.co.uk, in exchange for a tweet about it. I just tried it out, and that offer still stands. If you go to the book's web site and click on "Pay with a tweet", you'll be directed to another page. There you'll log on with your Twitter account, click to post the pre-written tweet, and then you'll be able to download Sutler onto your device (Kindle, other e-reader, PC/Mac, or tablet). I compared the free e-book to my actual book, and it is the same.

Good morning (evening), Darryl. Sorry about the GI troubles. No fun.

Like others, I was surprised by the Booker long list and, not surprisingly, I have much reading to do to catch up with them. There are several with which I am completely unfamiliar.

Pay with a tweet! What a great idea! Thanks for letting us know about that, Darryl.

The Kindle version of Almost English, one of the Booker longlisted books, is now available the UK and Canada, but not in the US.

>178 EBT1002: Thanks, Ellen. I'm feeling better now, and I was ravenously hungry after not having anything to eat in 24 hours, so I stopped by my favorite fish & chips shop, North Sea Fish (thanks, Luci!) for haddock & chips. I'll stay in for a bit to make sure that my GI symptoms don't return before I head back out.

I think nearly everyone was surprised by the Booker longlist and has only read a couple of the titles, especially since five of the books were unavailable before today. It does look like a very enticing list so far, though.

>179 richardderus: You're welcome, Richard!

173> Mark, where can I find the group read thread for A Fine Balance? I'd definitely like to join in. (Hope you love Transatlantic as much as I did.)

>181 Cariola: http://www.librarything.com/topic/156267

Sorry you're feeling unwell, Darryl, and that you'll miss the live broadcast of Macbeth. I'm sure it will be broadcast somewhere in Atlanta in the fall (maybe at Emory?).

Deborah- I am only 50 pages into Transatlantic and I am solidly hooked! His writing is butterscotch.

Oh, hi Darryl!

>183 Cariola: Unfortunately I doubt it, Deborah. The closest theatre that regularly broadcasts NT Live performances is in Macon, Georgia, about 100 miles south of Atlanta. That's a good idea, though; I should check to see if Emory has NT Live broadcasts at its performing arts center, as that would be the most likely place for it to take place in the city, other than the Woodruff Arts Center, home of the city's main museum and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

Assuming that there are no broadcasts in Atlanta I would hope to be able to see it in Philadelphia, NYC, San Francisco, or possibly here if I return in the fall.

>184 msf59: I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying TransAtlantic, Mark. I'll almost certainly read it this weekend.

185> Maybe you should consider DC? And attend a performance at the Shakespeare Theatre while you are there, so that you can compare a US performance to the NT. (They tend to be more glitzy or gimmicky, I think, probably because the directors don't trust American audiences to appreciate Shakespeare without the additions--but they are often still very good.)

I love today's Google image, which is in celebration of the great but underrecognized British physicist Rosalind Franklin, whose mastery of X-ray crystalllography permitted visualization of the structure of the DNA molecule, which was essential for Francis Crick and James Watson to be able to describe the molecule's double helix structure in 1953. Unfortunately the two men gave her little recognition for her contribution to their discovery Crick and Watson were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1962; sadly Franklin died of ovarian cancer in 1958, at the age of 37.

>186 Cariola: Good idea, Deborah. It isn't hard for me to get from Philadelphia to Washington via Amtrak, or fly directly into DC. I could also go to one of the Shakespeare in the Park performances in Central Park, especially if some LT or non-LT friends were also interested.

Theatre review #5: Othello by William Shakespeare
National Theatre, South Bank, London

My rating: (4.8/5.0)





This production of Othello, which is playing at the Olivier Theatre within the NT until 1 October, has received rave reviews in the British media and the New York Times, and it definitely lived up to the hype. It stars two well known and highly regarded British actors, Adrian Lester in the role of Othello, and Rory Kinnear as Iago, along with excellent performances by Olivia Vinall as Desdemona and Jonathan Bailey as Cassio.

The Venetian Army in this production resembles a 21st century British Army unit set in Afghanistan, and the opening scene takes place in a local pub. Iago and Othello are cast as working class Britons, while Cassio comes across as an Oxbridge gentleman. The characters were utterly believable, as Iago was a convincing liar, even though his bitter hatred for and jealousy toward Othello and Cassio were palpable. All four main characters were superb, and the supporting cast was also outstanding. The audience was rapt throughout the entire performance, which clocked in at just under 3 hours not counting the intermission, and most gave the cast a prolonged standing ovation at its end, which is not at all common at the National Theatre.

Othello may be the best play I've attended at the NT, and I would highly recommend seeing it, either live at the NT or via a NT Live re-broadcast, which will take place in selected US theatres in September.

That sounds like a memorable performance.

Thanks for the link to get the first book in The Kills, I'm downloading it right now. That's my first tweet in a few weeks as well, I'm more of a follower on twitter than a tweeter! Sounds like he's put together an interesting digital book. I've come across a couple of YA writers such as Patrick Carman who've added to the reading experience by getting the reader to access youtube clips or whatever.

The New Zealand Book Awards shortlist was announced yesterday and what's probably most interesting about them is that 2 of the shortlisted writers live in the UK. Anthony McCarten's Absence of Heroes is a sequel to his wonderful Death of a superhero and I've even read it. Kirsty Gunn's The Big Music looks interesting, she now lives in Scotland and her book is also shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize which will be announced at the Edinburgh Festival next month. The other two are a debut novel which has had great reviews, The Intentions Book by South African-born Gigi Fenster and Emily Perkins' The Forrests.

The audience was rapt throughout the entire performance ... and most gave the cast a prolonged standing ovation at the end of the performance

That performance sounds ... Wow!

What an extraordinary production of 'Othello'! Proof that Shakespeare really is timeless. And thanks so much for the explanation about Rosalind Franklin. I clicked on it today and wondered who she was! (such an ignorant girl, I am!)

Great review of Othello, Darryl. Delighted it was so stellar and that you were in London to see it. Love the pics, too!

Great review of The Cripple of Inishmaan. So envious of your trip, but at least I'm getting a glimpse of theater across the pond.

Darryl, I wanted to mention that The New Yorker has a long article this week on Ira Aldridge.

>190 avatiakh: Definitely so, Kerry. I won't forget any of the five plays I've seen so far, but Othello was particularly memorable.

I'll be interested to see what LTers think of the first book of The Kills, as I probably won't read it until early September. That book literally could be used to prop open a door!

Thanks for mentioning the New Zealand Book Award shortlist; I admittedly don't pay as much attention to literary awards outside of the US and UK. Death of a Superhero sounds interesting, so I've added it to my wish list; In the Absence of Heroes doesn't seem to be currently available here or in the US, though. I've added The Big Music to my wish list as well.

>191 humouress: It definitely was, humoress. You could have heard a pin drop throughout several spots in the play, particularly after one of Adrian Lester's (Othello's) cries of anguish or rage, or when Rory Kinnear's (Iago's) described his nefarious plans to the audience. I'm pretty sure that I've seen Lester on stage before, and I remember Rory Kinnear from The Last of the Haussmans, which I saw with Fliss at the NT last year, but both men were at the peak of their acting abilities in this performance.

>192 PrueGallagher: I'm ashamed to say that I had never seen a Shakespeare play before this year, Prue, but Othello and Julius Caesar, which I saw at the Brooklyn Academy of Music earlier this year, are my two favorite plays of the year so far. I had several bad experiences with Shakespeare in my high school English courses, as I've mentioned previously, and was lukewarm about seeing any of his plays, but not anymore.

One thing that was notably different about last night in comparison to other plays I've seen at the National Theatre was the young age of the audience. There were hundreds of men and women who looked to be in their 20s and 30s, whereas the majority of audience members for other NT performances tend to be in their 50s or 60s. The play was completely sold out, and I was lucky to nab one of the two remaining tickets that suddenly became available at noon yesterday.

I first read about Rosalind Franklin when I was an undergraduate student in Microbiology roughly 30 years ago, in a book about the discovery of DNA. Franklin was the first to be able to visualize the molecule, and she steered Crick and Watson toward the proper orientation of its components, as they were way off base in their first analyses. She was portrayed as a bit cantakerous and irascible in the book, but she had a difficult time gaining credibility as a woman researcher during the 1940s and 1950s, even though she was unquestionably brilliant. In the Google image about the "l" represents the DNA double helix, and the "e" is a cartoon of the X-ray crystallography image that Franklin first saw.

>193 lit_chick: Thanks, Nancy! The theatres here are very strict about the taking of photographs during plays and their intermissions, and on numerous I've seen attendants approach an audience member, demand that they delete the photos from their smartphones or cameras, and stand over them to see that they have done it. So, these images I've posted have all come from the Internet.

>194 cammykitty: Thanks, Katie. The plays I've seen on this and other trips is only a tiny fraction of what's on in London at any given time. There are numerous theatres on the West End, other notable venues in Southwark, and dozens of smaller theatre companies throughout the capital. I'd bet that I could see one or two plays a day for a year and not see everything that is on stage here.

>195 ffortsa: Thanks, Judy! I subscribe to The New Yorker, although I admittedly read few of its articles. I downloaded the current issue onto my iPad, and I'll probably read that story later today or tomorrow.

All good things must come to an end, and today is my last full day in London. I have a ticket to see The Night Alive by Conor McPherson at the Donmar Warehouse in Soho this afternoon. I bought the text of the script last night at the National Theatre Bookshop, and I'll look at it shortly. I'll probably go, but mine is a £7.50 refundable standing ticket. If Rachael is able to meet up for a late lunch I'll probably see her instead, and make one last trip to the London Review Bookshop then.

That performance of Othello sounds terrific, Darryl.

Hope you have a great last day in London!

Darryl, I'm enjoying the account of your trip to London and have bookmarked several of the plays to see. I remember seeing that 1997 NT production of Guys and Dolls that you mentioned a while back. I've seen Guys and Dolls live three times, but that was by far the best production.

I'm bummed that Othello is not playing the week I will be in London at the end of August. Sounds like a great production!

>197 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe. I putzed around in the morning, and since I needed to get lunch and do laundry I skipped the matinee performance of The Night Alive at the Donmar Warehouse. I also skipped it because the Warehouse is supposed to be quite warm at the top, and I didn't think I'd enjoy standing for nearly two hours on a warm day.

However, while I was doing laundry I did enjoy another visit to my favorite fish & chips shop, The North Sea Fish Restaurant on Judd Street, and café Americano and a croissant with jam at Firebox, a lovely café on a quiet side street. Firebox had outdoor seating on its patio, which was perfect as it was sunny with a light breeze when I was there. I had a very pleasant 15-20 minute conversation with the young woman who worked there, as we talked about London, NYC, the splendid summer weather, my current read A Fine Balance, and the plays I saw here. It was a great place to people watch for a couple of hours, with local residents from Somalia and North Africa, including a few toddlers holding their mothers' hands and kids on bicycles passing by, along with students and faculty from the nearby University of London, tourists and other passers by.

My tote bag is nearly full, so I won't plan to buy any more books, although I'll probably go to the Café at Foyles Bookshop a bit later.

>198 SandDune: Hi, Rhian! I hope that you get to see some of these plays, and I'd love to hear whatever performances you see, especially since there is a very good chance that I'll return here in October or November. Enjoy the rest of your stay in Malaysia and your meet up with Paul!

>199 katiekrug: That is a bummer, Katie. There looks to be several good plays that are on at the end of August at the NT and elsewhere, though.

Catching up and glad to hear that your GI upset was temporary. Except for that, you're living my dream!
I must have a slightly stronger stomach than you (but then, I don't deal with abused children either) because I can get through 20 pages of *Wasp Factory* at the time. Now that I think about it, I remember how repelled I was by the "Eaters" episode in Consider Phlebas. This one will never go on my list of recommendations, but I am curious about what he was doing in it, and I'll read to the end.

Darryl, glad to hear that the NT Othello was so outstanding. Like the aMacbeth, it will be broadcast (delayed) in the US, so those of us stateside who won't have the opportunity to get to London this year can still see it.

The main reason the theatres prohibit photos (aside from the obvious distraction during performance) is to protect the rights of the set and lighting designers.

So how many books in total are you hauling back this time? :)

>201 LizzieD: Thanks, Peggy. I regret that you and others couldn't be here with me.

I've had a sensitive stomach for physical and sexual abuse since college, after I was (seriously) traumatized by the end of the movie Looking for Mr. Goodbar. From looking at the comments on the group read thread of The Wasp Factory others read far more into it than I did, but I couldn't get past the abuse of animals and the murder of children to delve deeper into the book.

>202 Cariola: It was, Deborah. I decided not to go to any plays tonight, mainly because I knew that nothing would compare to Othello and I wanted to leave here with that as my last theatrical memory of this trip.

Your comment about the prohibition of photos in theatres makes sense; I hadn't thought about that. I was asked by an attendant to delete the photos I took during the intermission of One Man, Two Guvnors last year during its intermission, as I thought it would be okay to take them then.

How many books am I bringing back? Let's see...five from Slightly Foxed Bookshop, two from South Kensington Books, five from Foyles (I bought six, but somehow I lost The Blue Riband, the book about the Piccadilly Line), two secondhand Penguins from the stalls under the Waterloo Bridge, six from the London Review Bookshop, and three from the National Theatre Bookshop. That makes 23 books, assuming that I don't buy anymore from a bookshop at Heathrow Airport tomorrow (heh).

Can I suggest that you stop at Waterstone's and buy a UK Kindle? I'm sure one of our friendly 75ers in London will let you piggy back on their address for registration, and then you simply set it up in a separate account from your existing Amazon UK one. Use the existing one to buy gift certificates that you then apply to the new UK one, so the new account doesn't get confused with your billing address not being in the UK on your credit card. It's working for me...

Just purchased Unexploded, which suddenly became available today, although it still doesn't have a touchstone! And I was offered the Jhumpa Lahiri novel as an ARC/freebie from Amazon Vine today, so I don't have to buy that. (Kerry -- I also just snagged The Panopticon by Jenni Fagan via "last harvest" on Vine, which is another James Tait Black finalist).

You LOST The Blue Ribband? Grrr. Shall have to add that to my UK Kindle in that case.

>204 Chatterbox: Clever idea, Suz. I don't have time to do that on this trip, but I'll consider it when I return here, hopefully in the fall.

Although I'd love to have obtained all 13 longlisted books I won't mind waiting for the others, especially if the print editions are released by early September, as I'm not certain that I'll have read the seven titles I bought by then.

The Blue Riband wasn't that good. I'm not exactly sorry that I lost it, and even if I were to run across it tomorrow I'm not sure that I would buy it again.

Amazon US is selling an Kindle book entitled East-West: Penguin Underground Lines: The District, Central, Piccadilly, Hammersmith & City Lines, which apparently consists of the four separate Penguin Underground Line books, including The Blue Riband, for $9.99. Considering that The Blue Riband cost £4.99 and assuming that the others cost the same this is a good deal. I'll purchase it now.

ETA: There are Kindle e-books for all 12 Underground Line books, either sold separately, as an edition that includes all 12 books (for $30.20), or three editions that each contain four of the books (East-West, North-South, and Circles and Diagonals). Those three editions together cost less than the price of the edition that has all 12 books, for some reason. I'll read East-West soon, and I'll almost certainly buy North-South and Circles and Diagonals soon.

There are only 11 Underground lines; the 12th book in this series is the old East London Line, which is now part of the London Overground.

Suzanne - there were quite a few writeups about Jenni Fagan in publicity around the James Tait prize, so she'd be the favourite to win i think. Was she one of the Granta New Writers?

Darryl - there is a rather good review of Catton's The Luminaries here

>207 avatiakh: Thanks, Kerry! I liked that review. I'm very much looking forward to reading The Luminaries, and I hope that you, Megan and Cushla (and Alex?) wil read it as well.

Kerry -- yes, she was on that Granta list.

Darryl -- I already have John Lanchester's District Line book, so I'll probably get the Piccadilly Line one for my UK Kindle. The other one I'm looking at is the Circle Line volume.

Wow! England sounds like a heaven for actors!

>209 Chatterbox: I'll start with the Kindle e-book I downloaded yesterday. If I like that one then I'll plan to read all of the books in the series. I was most curious about the Piccadilly Line, as that is the one I ride the most (as I did this morning, to travel from King's Cross St. Pancras station to Heathrow Terminal 4 station).

>210 cammykitty: There was an article in the Guardian earlier this week about the difficulties even experienced and highly regarded actors experience in London, which was written in response to the premature deaths of two men. I haven't read it yet, but I did save it. It's in my checked luggage, so I'll read it this weekend and post a link to it.

Ah. I found the article.

Paul Bhattacharjee and Cory Monteith deaths: is acting today just too tough?

>189 kidzdoc: a modern take on Othello: sounds fascinating!

>206 kidzdoc: I'm interested...but what does the book contain? Poetry from the Underground? Short stories? I might see what the Book Depo is doing it for.
Eta: just searched and figured out what the books are about...they look great! Box set available on Book Depo for NZ$90...so pretty

>212 LovingLit: It was, Megan. The set was very well done, and the play was completely true to the script. I hope that you can see the NT Live re-broadcast in Christchurch later this year.

The individual Penguin books are visually appealing, and the colors of the covers correspond with the colors of the Underground lines. They are a bit overpriced, though, and I didn't think they were worth £4.99 each.

Only three quid on the UK Kindle... *grin*

They are short and while interesting enough, I agree with Darryl that five pounds is excessive.

>212 LovingLit: 75 USD!!! Yowch.

Have a good flight back to ATL, Darryl!

I hope you've arrived safely, Darryl. Have a good weekend!

I made it back safely to Atlanta yesterday, and the flight was uneventful until we approached the immediate Atlanta area. A strong thunderstorm passed over the airport as we were set to land, so we circled the area for 30-35 minutes until the worst of it had passed. The descent was bumpy, but we landed safely.

This was my first time arriving at the new International Terminal at ATL, which opened in spring 2012; I left from there last September to go to Heathrow, but returned to JFK. I would have loved to have had a pedometer after we deplaned, as the walk from the plane to the initial Customs and Border Protection area seemed twice as long as it is at JFK, Gatwick or Heathrow airports. The entire process from deplaning until I entered the main terminal took well over an hour, and several arriving passengers were audibly complaining, as they were in danger of missing connecing flights (ATL is the world's busiest aiport, as many passengers pass through it on their way to the final destinations). The re-entry process through JFK was much faster last year. So, if you have to fly through ATL on an international flight be sure to allow 2 hours between the time your flight from abroad lands and your departing flight leaves. Or, better yet, avoid ATL altogether.

As I had hoped I did finish A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry yesterday, as we were circling Atlanta. It was as superb as advertised, and it's closer to a 5 star than a 4-1/2 star read; if it isn't my favorite novel of the year it's awfully close. I also finished The Blue Riband: The Piccadilly Line, the Penguin book that I somehow lost in London but read as part of the East-West: Penguin Underground Lines Kindle e-book I downloaded Thursday. It was pretty awful, and it wasn't worth 99 pence, nonetheless the £4.99 I paid for the print edition last week.

I'm off this weekend, and I'll start reading TransAtlantic soon.

>214 Chatterbox: How did you like What We Talk About When We Talk About the Tube: The District Line, Suz? That's one of the four books in my East-West e-book, and I'll probably read it next week. I'll review The Blue Riband shortly, but I wouldn't recommend paying one quid for it, nonetheless three.

>215 richardderus:-216 Thanks, Richard and Diana. It was a comfortable flight, as I was able to get an exit row seat that had plenty of leg room; that and being in a section that doesn't have a middle seat are the most important things I look for in selecting seats when I travel. (BTW, if I haven't mentioned it already, a great site for determining which are the best seats on any flight, regardless of airline, is SeatGuru, which gives detailed information about the flight's aircaft, seat configuration, and which ones should be sought after, and avoided.

Diana, have you recovered from Tour de France withdrawal yet? ;-)

Book #62: The Blue Riband: The Piccadilly Line by Peter York



My rating:



For many first time visitors the Piccadilly Line is their introduction to the London Underground, as it is provides fast and easy transport from Heathrow Airport to central London. Service on the line began in December 1906, more than 43 years after the first sub-surface line opened in the capital, and it originally ran from Hammersmith in west London to Finsbury Park in Islington, north and east of the City. The Piccadilly Line passes through some of the most elite areas of the city, including Kensington, Knightsbridge, Mayfair and Bloomsbury, and it stops at several areas popular with students and tourists, including Piccadilly Circus, Covent Garden, Leicester Square and Russell Square, close to the University of London and the British Museum. Since its creation the Piccadilly Line has been extended to Heathrow Airport and Uxbridge to the West, and Cockfosters to the east, and it is the fourth busiest line on the Underground.

The Piccadilly Line was also the focus of the worst attack during the London terrorist attack of July 7, 2005. A bomb was set off on a train traveling from King's Cross St. Pancras station to Russell Square station, which claimed the lives of 26 passengers.

In this book, one of 12 published this year by Penguin to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the London Underground, Peter York, a management consultant, broadcaster and newspaper columnist, primarily describes the areas served by the Piccadilly Line rather than talking about the line and its creation. True to his upper middle class heritage he focuses on the wealthiest areas and the people who live there, including well established families, business elites and the global rich, who he fawns over repeatedly. He is quite dismissive of the lower forms that live away from central London in areas such as Hounslow near Heathrow Airport, which he describes as "too poor, too ethnic" and Cockfosters, which is "too small and odd" for his taste. The 2005 bombing was also not worthy of York's attention, unfortunately.



The Blue Riband is recommended for anyone who wishes to read about the moneyed classes of London, but those wishing to learn about the Piccadilly Line, its lovely stations, such as the Russell Square station pictured above, and the Underground are advised to look elsewhere.

Darryl, I've survived the Tour de France withdrawal.
However, I'm glad that in 2 minutes, the TV broadcast of the Classica San Sebastian will start ;-) That's a one day race.

Welcome back Darryl. Enjoy your weekend. . .

>219 wilkiec: LOL! What will you do once the Classica San Sebastian ends, Diana?

>220 brenpike: Thanks, Brenda; I hope that you have a good weekend, too.

Interesting that the Picadilly line was the focus of the terrorist attack July 7, 2005. You know, I remember exactly where I was, who I was with, and where I was standing when I heard about the attack. It is one of those moments in history for me, forever etched.

>222 lit_chick: The 7/7 attacks occurred during the morning rush hour in London, so most of us in the US would have awakened to the news several hours after it happened. I remember seeing it on the news, but it isn't emblazoned in my memory as 9/11, the coverage of Princess Diana's accident and death (which I watched live on CNN after midnight), the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin by a fanatic in Tel Aviv or other major tragedies are.

Planned reads for August (subject to change, as always):

NoViolet Bulawayo, We Need New Names
Helen Bynum, Spitting Blood: The History of Tuberculosis
Stan Cohen, What to Feed Your Baby
Jim Crace, Harvest
Assia Djebar, Children of the New World
Danny Dorling, The 32 Stops: The Central Line
Will Ferguson, 419
Richard House, The Kills
Dany Laferrière, The Return
John Lanchester, What We Talk About When We Talk About the Tube: The District Line
Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being
René Philoctète, Massacre River
Donal Ryan, The Spinning Heart
Boualem Sansal, The German Mujahid
Colm Tóibín, The Testament of Mary

Welcome home, Darryl! I'll be eager to see what you think of Transatlantic. I'm still working on A Fine Balance and hope to finish it by the end of the month.

That book on the Picadilly line sounds quite snobbish and rude, and the fact that it doesn't cover the bombing is most peculiar.

You are so lucky you left yesterday we now have a monsoon. Glad you made it saftly home.

Darryl - here's a link to a local article about the Booker Prize and Eleanor Catton's reaction to being longlisted, Book club or fight club?. There's a link at the very beginning to her winning entry for a short story competition run by the paper in 2007.

Hi Darryl and welcome home! I'm now reading A Tale for the Time Being and am close to the halfway point. I'll reserve judgment but it is not as entertaining as the only other Booker long list book I've read, TransAtlantic but its got a rather quirky premise.

>225 Cariola: Thanks, Deborah. I've just finished the first chapter of TransAtlantic, and I love it so far. I found it amusing that, less than 24 hours after I took a transatlantic flight from London to Atlanta, I just finished a literary flight with Adcock & Brown from Newfoundland to Ireland, both of which I saw yesterday from my window seat.

>226 ffortsa: Right, Judy. It was an irritating book to read, and I was fed up by York's worship of the moneyed classes, his disdain for everyone else and the lack of focus on the topic he was supposed to be writing about. My 2 star rating is a bit high, I think, so I'll subtract a half star from my rating of it.

As bad as The Blue Riband was it was much better than the second book I read from the East-West collection, Drift: The Hammersmith & City Line by Philippe Parreno, which I'll review shortly.

>227 BBGirl55: Thanks, Bryony. I'm sorry to hear that the weather in the UK has deteriorated since yesterday. I vainly claimed credit for the warm, sunny weather when I met up with Rachael (FlossieT) on Tuesday, as she said that last summer was basically a washout. I hope that the rain doesn't last for long.

>229 avatiakh: Thanks for posting the link to that interesting article about Eleanor Catton, New Zealand authors that have won or been longlisted for the Booker Prize and the infighting in the publishing industry, Kerry. I haven't read the short story yet, but I'll do so today or tomorrow. I'm eager to read The Luminaries, and hopefully I can get it in time to read it during the first half of September.

>230 brenzi: Thanks, Bonnie! Although it is good to be back in the US, I feel much more at home in London than I do in Atlanta. As I've said before I love my job, its numerous perks and the people I work with, and I appreciate the convenience of having the world's busiest airport a few miles from where I live, but there isn't much else positive I can say about living here.

I look forward to your comments about A Tale for the Time Being.

Was the 7/7 bombing on a Piccadilly line station? I thought it was Metropolitan or Bakerloo...

I may still read this, because as a child I lived in Knightsbridge -- yes, one, of THOSE stations -- and Piccadilly would take me to Hatchard's and tea at Fortnum's -- a great treat. And also to the theaters and the BM as a grown up.

Haven't read Lanchester on the District line yet, but it's sitting there at home, staring at me reproachfully.

Book #63: Drift: The Hammersmith and City Line by Philippe Parreno



My rating: (only because LT won't allow me to rate a book with zero or negative stars)

Although the Hammersmith & City Line was officially named in 1990, the origins of this line go back to 1864, the year after subway service began in London. In that year the Metropolitan Railway extended the Paddington to Farringdon service westward to Hammersmith. In later years the line was extended eastward, reaching its current terminus at Barking in 1902. The line shares stations with District, Circle and Metropolitan Line trains, which run just under the street surface throughout much of its route, unlike the deeper tube lines such as the Bakerloo, Piccadilly and Victoria Lines. The Hammersmith & City Line formed part of the Metropolitan Line until 1990, when it acquired its current name.

Here's a photo of the "new" Hammersmith station, built in 1868 to replace the original 1864 station:



The Hammersmith & City and the Metropolitan Lines are now served by the newest London Underground trains, the S stock, which are the first fully air conditioned lines to operate in the system.



French artist and filmmaker Philippe Parreno was given the task of writing a book about the Hammersmith & City Line for Penguin's Underground series, which celebrates the 150th anniversary of the London Underground in 2013. His contribution is a collection of crudely drawn images, such as the one that appears on the cover of this book, which consists of animals, insects, people and buildings, but no trains or stations, which seem to have no connection to one another and nothing to do with the Underground in general or this line in particular. The only text is found on the cover and on one interior image at the beginning of the book. I have absolutely no idea what Parreno was trying to do here, and, more importantly, I don't understand why Penguin would have published this piece of rubbish as a book or paid Parreno to create it. A six year old child of average talent could have created a more meaningful work than this one, and would have been far cheaper to employ than Monsieur Parreno (and why was a Frenchman hired to write a book about the London Underground?). I feel sorry for anyone who bought this book without looking through it first, and those who paid more than five pence for it should be given an immediate refund.

I briefly glanced at the other two books in the East-West: Penguin Underground Lines e-book, What We Talk About When We Talk About the Tube: The District Line by John Lanchester, and The 32 Stops: The Central Line by Danny Dorling, and fortunately both seem to be vastly superior than the two books I read.

I don't mind the rain,Rachael was right last year was just rain nice that globel warming is changing it up abit this year. Still very hot!

>232 Chatterbox: Was the 7/7 bombing on a Piccadilly line station? I thought it was Metropolitan or Bakerloo...

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_July_2005_London_bombings

There were four bombs, two on Circle Line trains, one on a Piccadilly Line train (where the most deaths happened), and one on a route 30 Transport for London bus. I remember the television coverage outside of Russell Square station, as seen in this photo, especially after I stayed at the Hotel Russell (seen along the right edge of the photo) for the first time:



I'll read What We Talk About When We Talk About the Tube: The District Line next month.

>235 BBGirl55: It was uncomfortably hot for most of the past two weeks in London, and I didn't do nearly as much as I had intended to do as a result. I arrived there in the midst of a moderate asthma exacerbation, and I would have more mucus production in my lower airways, cough and some difficulty breathing if I spent too much time outside, especially in the middle of the day.

I have the same problem though it is more hayfever now I'm trying not to be outside between 12 and 2 as this is the worst time.

Right. I had some upper airway symptoms (nasal congestion), but my lungs were much more affected. I still have some symptoms, but every day is better than the previous one so far (touch wood).

Next time you are in bonnie england i will have to take you too a local second hand book shop near me you would have a field day.

I think on Darryl's next trip someone should escort him to Hay-on-Wye. No???

>233 kidzdoc: The only text is found on the cover and on one interior image at the beginning of the book.
What the?
This is making the Picadilly Line book seem a lot better I suppose, in comparison anyway. How odd.

>236 kidzdoc: The medical book I read recently, Extremes by Dr Kevin Fong, had a section dealing with the London bombings as he was a junior doctor at the time in an emergency room nearby and was sent out into the action.

My friend was working at the Teddy Bear shop on Oxford Street at the time and heard the explosion. I think I had just left London to travel when it happened.

Hmm. My biological clock seems to be adjusted to Greenland at present, after I slept for three hours after dinner. I can't tell if I should be going back to sleep, or waking up for breakfast.

>239 BBGirl55: Sounds good, Bryony!

>240 Chatterbox: I'd like to go to Hay-on-Wye someday, Suz, either for the literature festival or for a visit to the town's bookshops.

>241 LovingLit: Right, Megan. I didn't love the fawning over the moneyed elite in The Blue Riband, but at least there was some discussion of the Piccadilly Line. I wouldn't have minded a graphic book that was about the Underground, but Parreno's images IMO had nothing to do with it, or anything else for that matter. I still say that a six year old child could have done better.

I also read a book in which the 7/7 bombings were featured prominently, Brixton Beach by Roma Tearne, which was very good.

I can't remember where I was on 7/7. I didn't make my first visit to London until two years later, so the story didn't have the impact on me as it would have after 2007.

Not surprisingly, the two Booker Longlist novels I could put on hold at my library were the one by Colm Toibin and the one by Jhumpa Lahiri. Oh well, the others will come available, but it will take a while. (TransAtlantic is, of course, also available but I plan to buy that one.)

ETA: It turns out that SPL has We Need New Names, as well, so I'm now in the queue for that one. I'm #95 in line for one of 17 copies.

Darryl - Safely back and having left London pining in expectation of your annual pilgrimage. Have a great Sunday recuperating from your holiday!

Daryl, welcome home! I don't know how you are with jet lag, but it's always taken me a good week to get over it at least.

I was very happy about your review of Othello obviously, since it's one of the plays which I intend to see in the fall when it's rebroadcasted here. Just checked the schedule and I see it's slated for September 26 and 28, at least here in Montreal, though I suspect this might be the case for North America in general.

Seeing the discussion about the Booker Prize Longlist has encouraged me to finally get my hands on the Ruth Ozeki book, which I'd had my eye on for a long time now. One of my very first Kindle purchases, which I look forward to reading on my new iPad. Actually, I have gotten a few Kindle books already and got this particular title at the iBook store and was slightly shocked to see I had been charged tax on top of the stated price, so I think I'll stick to Kindle henceforth to avoid nasty extra charges. Back to Ozeki, I read My Year of Meats around the time it came out and was fairly blown away by it at the time, so I look forward to this one.

I also got the Kindle Almost English yesterday when I saw the discussion here about it being available. I also want to get The Testament of Mary, and am intrigued about Transatlantic because of the talk I've seen about it on your thread so far, though when I read the synopsis and a couple of reviews, I felt doubtful that this was a book for me, since I know nothing about the real life characters or the politics involved. I look forward to Eleanor Catton's book coming out in September, although I admit I was rather mystified by The Rehearsal and didn't quite know what to make of it.

Don't know when I'll actually read any of these or other Booker hopefuls, since my reading schedule is heavily taken up with the course material I have lined up for the Coursera class I've been auditing, The Fiction of Relationship. A really fascinating look at some great literature from the 18th century onward, which so far has been an introduction to new-to-me authors and works, like Manon Lescault, Herman Mellville, William Faulkner and Jorge Luis Borges so far, as well as an opportunity to revisit some works like Jane Eyre, The Metamorphosis and To the Lighthouse to mention just those. Professor Arnold Weinstein of Brown University, who is heading the course, has put together some fascinating series of video lectures which make the prospect of reading even works I'm not especially keen on, like Coetzee's Disgrace something to almost look forward to, if only to see what interpretation he'll give to what would otherwise be obscure passages for me.

Sorry to ramble on so. Bout of insomnia for me after just three hours of sleep, so am prone to blathering.

>243 EBT1002: That makes sense, Ellen. Jhumpa Lahiri, Colum McCann, and Colm Tóibín are certainly the best known authors on this year's Booker Prize longlist, with Lahiri winning the Pulitzer Prize for Interpreter of Maladies and McCann the National Book Award for Let the Great World Spin. Hopefully all three authors will appear on these and other US prize award longlists as well. (Hmm, is this the year that the National Book Award adopts a Booker-like format, i.e. longlist followed by a shortlist and the prize announcement? I hope so.)

It turns out that SPL has We Need New Names, as well, so I'm now in the queue for that one. I'm #95 in line for one of 17 copies.

So that means you'll get it in 2015? Or 2016?

>244 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. Although it would have been nice to have stayed until Saturday or Sunday, and seen Joyce (Nickelini), who arrived there on Thursday, it was definitely the right move to have two days off at home before I returned to work. This upcoming week will be a short one, though. I'm on service for three days, and then fly to New Orleans on Thursday for the 2013 Pediatric Hospital Medicine conference, which runs from Thursday through Sunday. Several of my partners are also going (at least four that I know of), so I've been charged with choosing places to eat while we're there. Checking NOLA weather report...ugh, as expected. The high temperatures will be in the low 90s F (32-34 C), with heat indices in the low to mid 100s F (39-42 C). Thankfully the conference is in the hotel that we're staying at, and I'm sure we'll take taxis to go out at night. New Orleans is brutal in the summer, and although we're all looking forward to the conference and NOLA cuisine, we wished that the organizers of this conference had chosen a different time of year to go the Crescent City, or selected a different, non-tropical location such as Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, or SoCal in August.

It's a good thing I went to sub-tropical London to prepare myself for the steamy weather in New Orleans. ;-)

>245 Smiler69: Thanks, Ilana. As I've gotten older it takes me longer to recuperate from changes in my biological clock, whether it's working the overnight shift (8 pm to 8 am) or coming home from a multiple time zone difference. I find it easier to adjust if I'm returning from the UK to the east, rather than California to the west, and I woke up at a reasonable hour (just before 7 am) today. New Orleans is on Central Time, one hour behind Eastern Time, and the flight from ATL to MSY is less than one hour wheels up to wheels down, so no bio clock adjustment will be necessary.

It does seem as most of the NT Live rebroadcasts of Othello are taking place on September 26th. It was interesting to look at the map of the theatres that will show the play; the only theatres that are showing it in the Deep South are in south Florida (which many people don't consider to be truly part of the Deep South). The closest theatres to Atlanta that are broadcasting it are in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, which is over 300 miles away, and Memphis, Tennessee, almost 400 miles from here. Interestingly (and to my great surprise and pleasure - yay!), the NT Live broadcast of The Audience is playing at the Midtown Art Cinema, barely a mile away from me, on the weekend of August 10-11; I just bought a ticket for the Sunday 8/11 performance, and I'll invite my friends and colleagues from work when I see them tomorrow.

I suppose this means that a love affair between a black man and a white woman remains an unspeakable taboo in the eternally backward Deep South; maybe the theatres are afraid that the local rednecks will burn their buildings down?

I'm glad that you've joined Generation iPad. I haven't bought many iBooks (maybe one or two?), but I didn't realize that tax was added to the purchase price. I prefer to read text on my "old" third generation Kindle (now known as the Kindle Keyboard), but I would use the Kindle app on my iPad for books that have photographs or diagrams. I bought the Kindle version of A Tale for the Time Being, and I plan to read it next month.

I look forward to comments about Almost English, as I'm eager to read it. Then again practically everything on the Booker longlist looks interesting, which is the main reason I'm so fond of this award. TransAtlantic is very good so far, and I should finish it today. I haven't read The Rehearsal yet, but I'm impatiently awaiting the release of The Luminaries. I'll be on vacation (again?) the first half of September, and I plan to read it then, as it's supposed to be nearly 850 pages in length.

I failed badly last year, but I do want to read the entire longlist by the time the prize is announced on October 10th. I had hoped to get a head start by reading Americanah and The Hired Man, but unfortunately neither book was chosen for the Booker Dozen.

Your Coursera course sounds very interesting; I'll definitely follow your reading plan for it, and consider joining it if it's offered again in the future.

Feel free to ramble here anytime, m'dear!

Morning Darryl- I hope you are getting back into the swing of things. I finished TransAtlantic. It was perfectly gorgeous. I can't imagine you not falling head over heels. That's back to back 5 star reads for me, at least in print.
I hope to get to the new Lahiri in a week or so.

>247 msf59: Good morning, Mark! I'm a bit sleepy and out of it, but that's to be expected, and I suspect that I'll be right as rain by this afternoon. I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed TransAtlantic; I'll get back to it shortly.

Have you found The Lowland? From what I can tell the release date in the US is still September 24th for the print edition, and September 26th for the Kindle version. I have six Booker longlisted novels to read next month, including The Kills, which is just over 1000 pages long, so I probably won't be finished with those books, and the other ones I want to get to, before September.

#189 Glad to hear you enjoyed the NT production of Othello, Darryl. There's an NT Live showing of that locally in October which I'm hoping to go to and I will definitely make it a priority following your review.

And glad to hear you made it back to Atlanta safely and have found somewhere close to you that shows some NT Live broadcasts.

I was able to snag an ARC of the Lowlands at the ALA convention. Actually my wife snagged it on the second round. Yes, I hugged her.
Enjoy your Sunday!

>249 souloftherose: Thanks, Heather. I'm thrilled that The Audience will be re-broadcast here; to my knowledge it's the first one that has been on in the city, and I thought that the Midtown Art Cinema would be the most logical place for NT Live broadcasts to appear here. My group's practice manager spent several years in London and attended several NT plays with her husband, so she will almost certainly want to go, and I suspect that several of my partners and one friend in particular, who sees a lot of Broadway plays, will also attend.

I'm very grateful that I can take nonstop flights to and from ATL, which is the world's busiest airport. The lead story on yesterday's morning news on my favorite local station concerned the hundreds of passengers that were stranded at ATL after their flights on Delta were cancelled due to Friday's severe thunderstorm, which passed over the airport just before my flight landed. Dozens of them had to sleep on seats in the airport, as the hotel rooms that Delta booked for them were already full. I overheard several passengers in the International Terminal say that they were in danger of missing their connecting flights; I would have hated to have taken a long transatlantic flight, only to find out that I couldn't leave ATL until the following day and would have to spend the night there.

>250 msf59: Well done, Mark! I look forward to your comments about The Lowland.

221 -What can I say, Darryl, the Classica San Sebastian was 2 hours of dull TV, but hey, it was cycling!

I'm falling in the black hole again ;-)

>253 wilkiec: *extends rope to Diana*

*climbs out hesitantly and sits waiting for the Vuelta d'Espagna that starts August 24. But no TV broadcasting...*

Thanks Darryl! x

New thread here!

245> . . . am intrigued about Transatlantic because of the talk I've seen about it on your thread so far, though when I read the synopsis and a couple of reviews, I felt doubtful that this was a book for me, since I know nothing about the real life characters or the politics involved.

Absolutely NOT necessary to enjoy the book, which is hands down the best I've read all year. I knew nothing about Alcock and Brown, not a whole lot about Frederick Douglas aside from the fact that he was a former slave and a great orator against abolition, and not much about George Mitchell--you learn on the first few pages of that section that he's going to try to negotiate peace in Northern Ireland, and that's all you really need to know about the politics. The book fills in any essential gaps along the way, and it really isn't a book about politics and history, it's about people, places, and how both transcend time and distance. More than half of the book focuses on fictional female characters that figure only peripherally into the stories of the 'great men.' Please don't dismiss it for the reasons you've given here--it's a wonderful book.

250> I'm also awaiting The Lowlands, from Amazon Vine. They ship pretty quickly, so I expect it to arrive this coming week.

256> Drat--posted before I got to the bottom!