kidzdoc in 2013: Old World, New Imports part 13

Currently reading:

    

The Tunnel by Ernesto Sábato
Proper Doctoring: A Book for Patients and Their Doctors by David Mendel
District and Circle by Seamus Heaney

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 (review)
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 (TBR) (review)
65. TransAtlantic by Colum McCann

August:
66. The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín
67. What We Talk About When We Talk About the Tube: The District Line by John Lanchester (review)
68. The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan (review)
69. The 32 Stops: The Central Line by Danny Dorling (review)
70. The German Mujahid by Boualem Sansal (TBR) (review)
71. Dark Heart of the Night by Léonora Miano (TBR) (review)
72. 419 by Will Ferguson (review)
73. The Last Brother by Nathacha Appanah (TBR) (review)
74. Harvest by Jim Crace (review)
75. Massacre River by René Philoctète (TBR) (review)
76. Almost English by Charlotte Mendelson (review)
77. The Return by Dany Laferrière
78. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (review)

September:
79. The American Plague by Molly Caldwell Crosby (review)
80. A Northern Line Minute: The Northern Line by William Leith
81. The Kills by Richard House (review)
82. Tomorrow I'll Be Twenty by Alain Mabanckou
83. We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo
84. Mind the Child: The Victoria Line by Camila Batmanghelidjh and Kids Company
85. A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
86. Spitting Blood: The History of Tuberculosis by Helen Bynum
87. The Remarkable Story of Great Ormond Street Hospital by Kevin Telfer
88. The African by JMG Le Clézio

October:
89. Fighting for Life by S. Josephine Baker
90. Ways of Going Home by Alejandro Zambra
91. A History of Capitalism According to the Jubilee Line by John O'Farrell
92. The Drugs Don't Work: A Global Threat by Professor Dame Sally Davies
93. Great Battles: The Battle of Isandlwana by Saul David
94. The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
95. The Sea Close By by Albert Camus
96. Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink
97. Earthbound: The Bakerloo Line by Paul Morley

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) ✔

August:
109. 419 by Will Ferguson (9 Aug; LTER book)
110. Almost English by Charlotte Mendelson (9 Aug; The Book Depository)
111. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (12 Aug; Amazon UK)
112. Unexploded by Alison MacLeod (12 Aug; Amazon UK)
113. South to a Very Old Place by Albert Murray (19 Aug; Amazon Kindle book)

September:
114. Death of a Naturalist by Seamus Heaney (1 Sep; Amazon Kindle e-book)
115. The Bridge of Beyond by Simone Schwartz-Bart (8 Sep; Book Culture)
116. The Sculptors of Mapungubwe by Zakes Mda (8 Sep; Book Culture)
117. Operation Massacre by Rodolfo Walsh (8 Sep; Book Culture)
118. Hypothermia by Alvaro Enrigue (8 Sep; Book Culture)
119. Rice: Poems by Nikky Finney (8 Sep; Book Culture)
120. We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement by Akinyele Omowale Umoja (8 Sep; Book Culture)
121. Unprecedented: The Constitutional Challenge to Obamacare by Josh Blackman (8 Sep; Book Culture)
122. The Omni-Americans: Black Experience And American Culture by Albert Murray (12 Sep; Strand Book Store)
123. The Hero and the Blues by Albert Murray (12 Sep; Strand Book Store)
124. Latino Americans: The 500-Year Legacy That Shaped a Nation by Ray Suarez (19 Sep; History Book Club)
125. Fighting for Life by S. Josephine Baker (19 Sep; New York Review Books)
126. Proper Doctoring: A Book for Patients and their Doctors by David Mendel (19 Sep; New York Review Books)
127. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra (23 Sep; Amazon Kindle e-book)
128. The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler (23 Sep; Amazon Kindle e-book)
129. The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri (24 Sep; Amazon Kindle e-book)
130. The African by JMG Le Clézio (30 Sep; Amazon Kindle e-book)
131. For the Public Good: Forced Sterilization and the Fight for Compensation by Belle Boggs (30 Sep; Amazon Kindle e-book)
132. The Drugs Don't Work: A Global Threat by Professor Dame Sally Davies (30 Sep; Amazon Kindle e-book)

October:
133. Spring Tides by Jacques Poulin (2 Oct; Archipelago Books)
134. The Rule of Barbarism by Abdellatif Laâbi (2 Oct; Archipelago Books)
135. Melancholy by Jon Fosse (4 Oct; Amazon.com)
136. Aliss at the Fire by Jon Fosse (7 Oct; Amazon.com)

2013 reading goals (✔ = completed goal):

1. Booker Prize group
     a. Finish reading the 2012 longlist
          8. Communion Town by Sam Thompson
          9. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
          10. Skios by Michael Frayn
     b. Read the entire 2013 longlist
          1. Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw
          2. TransAtlantic by Colum McCann
          3. The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín
          4. The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan
          5. Harvest by Jim Crace
          6. Almost English by Charlotte Mendelson
          7. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
          8. The Kills by Richard House
          9. We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo
          10. A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
          11. The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

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
          The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna
          Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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 Timothy Mo
          *Francophone literature
               A Season in the Congo by Aimé Césaire
               The German Mujahid by Boualem Sansal
               Dark Heart of the Night by Léonora Miano
               Massacre River by René Philoctète
               The Return by Dany Laferrière
               Tomorrow I'll Be Twenty by Alain Mabanckou
          *South American literature
               Ways of Going Home by Alejandro Zambra
     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 2-3 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
          1. A History of the Present Illness by Louise Aranson
          2. Palliative Medicine in the UK c. 1970-2010 by Caroline Overy and E.M. Tansey
          3. Childhood Asthma and Beyond by Lois Reynolds and E.M. Tansey
          4. Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients by Ben Goldacre
          5. The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Mutant Gene and the Quest to Cure Cancer at the Genetic Level by Jessica Wapner
          6. The American Plague by Molly Caldwell Crosby
          7. Spitting Blood: The History of Tuberculosis by Helen Bynum
          8. The Remarkable Story of Great Ormond Street Hospital by Kevin Telfer
          9. Fighting for Life by S. Josephine Baker
          10. The Drugs Don't Work: A Global Threat by Professor Dame Sally Davies

9. African/African American Literature group
     a. Read 20 or more works of fiction from the African diaspora
          1. Big Machine by Victor LaValle
          2. Philadelphia Fire by John Edgar Wideman
          3. Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah
          4. All My Friends by Marie NDiaye
          5. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
          6. No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe
          7. The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna
          8. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
          9. The Amen Corner by James Baldwin
          10. A Season in the Congo by Aimé Césaire
          11. Dark Heart of the Night by Léonora Miano
          12. Massacre River by René Philoctète
          13. The Return by Dany Laferrière
          14. Tomorrow I'll Be Twenty by Alain Mabanckou
          15. We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

10. Read Mo Yan group
     a. Read 2-3 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
              The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
          * 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
          A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis

Planned reads for September (subject to change):

Camila Batmanghelidjh and Kids Company, Mind the Child: The Victoria Line - completed
NoViolet Bulawayo, We Need New Names - completed
Helen Bynum, Spitting Blood: The History of Tuberculosis - completed
Patrick Chamoiseau, Texaco
Molly Caldwell Crosby, The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, the Epidemic that Shaped Our History - completed
Assia Djebar, Children of the New World - reading
Seamus Heaney, District and Circle - reading
Richard House, The Kills - completed
Abdellatif Laâbi, The Bottom of the Jar
Patrick Leith, A Northern Line Minute: The Northern Line - completed
Alain Mabanckou, Tomorrow I'll Be Twenty - completed
Albert Murray, The Hero and the Blues - reading
Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being - completed
Kevin Telfer, The Remarkable Story of Great Ormond Street Hospital - completed

List of TBR books to choose from for the fourth quarter Reading Globally theme: South American literature:

Argentina:
   Adolfo Bioy Casares, Asleep in the Sun; The Invention of Morel
   Jorge Luis Borges, Ficciones
   Julio Cortázar, Blow-Up and Other Stories; Hopscotch
   Juan Filloy, Op Oloop
   Ernesto Sábato, The Tunnel
   Juan José Saer, The Sixty-Five Years of Washington

Brasil:
   Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Quincas Borba
   Ignácio de Loyola Brandão, Anonymous Celebrity; Teeth Under the Sun

Chile:
   Isabel Allende, The House of the Spirits
   Roberto Bolaño, The Third Reich
   José Donoso, Taratuta and Still Life with Pipe; The Lizard's Tale
   Diamela Eltit, E. Luminata
   Alejandro Zambra, Ways of Going Home

Colombia:
   Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (I haven't read this yet!)
   Evelio Rosero, Good Offices

Ecuador:
   Ernesto Quiñonez, Chango's Fire

Guyana:
   Oonya Kempadoo, All Decent Animals

Peru:
   Mario Vargas Llosa, The Green House; Captain Pantoja and the Special Service; The Way to Paradise; The Bad Girl; The Dream of the Celt

Uruguay:
   Juan Carlos Onetti, Let the Wind Speak

Venezuela:
   Alberto Barrera Tyszka, The Sickness

Recommended reads for the CanLit 2014 Challenge (by Canadian LTers):

   Margaret Atwood, Alias Grace (Joyce, Nancy, Cait and Cyrel)
   Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin (Cait)
   Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale (Tui)
   Margaret Atwood, The Robber Bride (Joyce and Nancy)
   Anita Rau Badami, Tamarind Mem (Tui)
   Anita Rau Badami, Tell it to the Trees (Cait)
   John Bemrose, The Island Walkers (Lori)
   Marie-Claire Blais, The Day Is Dark and Three Travelers (Suz)
   Joseph Boyden, Three Day Road; Black Spruce (Suz and Cyrel)
   Wayson Choy, The Jade Peony
   Robertson Davies, The Deptford Trilogy (Suz, Cait, Tui and Zoë)
   Suzanne Desrochers, Bride of New France (Zoë)
   Kim Echlin, The Disappeared (Cait)
   Timothy Findley, The Last of the Crazy People (Lori)
   Timothy Findley, The Piano Man's Daughter (Tui)
   Timothy Findley, The Wars (Suz and Joyce)
   Tomson Highway, Kiss of the Fur Queen (Joyce and Tui)
   Helen Humphreys, Coventry (Tui)
   Helen Humphreys, The Frozen Thames (Tui)
   Helen Humphreys, The Lost Garden (Tui)
   Wayne Johnston, Baltimore's Mansion (Tui)
   Wayne Johnston, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams (Cyrel)
   Thomas King, Green Grass, Running Water (Joyce)
   W.P. Kinsella, Shoeless Joe (Tui)
   Margaret Laurence, The Stone Angel (Tui)
   Mary Lawson, Crow Lake (Lori)
   Linden MacIntyre, The Bishop's Man (Suz)
   Alistair MacLeod, No Great Mischief (Cait and Nancy)
   Beatrice MacNeil, Where White Horses Gallop
   Rabindranath Maharaj, The Amazing Absorbing Boy (Cyrel)
   Rohinton Mistry, Family Matters (Tui)
   Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance (Tui)
   W.O. Mitchell, Who Has Seen the Wind (Tui)
   Lisa Moore, February (Cait)
   Alice Munro, Too Much Happiness (Cyrel)
   Alice Munro, The View from Castle Rock (Cyrel)
   Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient (Cait)
   Michael Ondaatje, In the Skin of a Lion
   Mordechai Richler, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (Cyrel)
   Kim Thúy, Ru (Suz)
   Michel Tremblay, The Fat Woman Next Door Is Pregnant (Lori)
   Jane Urquhart, Away (Tui)
   Jane Urquhart, The Stone Carvers (Tui)
   Ronald Wright, What Is America?: A Short History of the New World Order (nonfiction) (Tui)

Planned Reads for October (subject to change):

S. Josephine Baker, Fighting for Life - completed
Simone de Beauvoir, The Mandarins
Adolfo Bioy Casares, Asleep in the Sun
Saul David, Great Battles: The Battle of Isandlwana - completed
Professor Dame Sally Davies, The Drugs Don't Work - completed
Sheri Fink, Five Days at Memorial - completed
Seamus Heaney, District and Circle - reading
Seamus Heaney, Death of a Naturalist
Jhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland - completed
Anthony Marra, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
James McBride, The Good Lord Bird
David Mendel, Proper Doctoring: A Book for Patients and Their Doctors - reading
Paul Morley, Earthbound: The Bakerloo Line - completed
John O'Farrell, A History of Capitalism According to the Jubilee Line - completed
Evelio Rosero, Good Offices
Ernesto Sábato, The Tunnel - reading
Mario Vargas Llosa, The Green House
Rodolfo Walsh, Operation Massacre
Alejandro Zambra, Ways of Going Home - completed

Just butting in to the reserved threads to say hello. Interesting Thelonius Monk cover; is that Patty Hearst I see in the background?

I love the opening image. And, I love the list of books you have accumulated!

I hope all is happy for you!

Just poping in to say tbe writer and artist of Scott Pilgrim is Canadian. I know it may not be your cup of tea but had to get my 2 cent in. This serise is a light read and makes me smile.

Oh, rats! I missed the chance to be first by waiting until your reserved threads were filled in. :-) Fantastic album cover, btw.

I started reading A House for Mr. Biswas a couple of days ago and am having a hard time staying with it. The character of Mr. Biswas has remained static with little development, and there is not much on the history of Trinidad, or plot, or, well, some sort of hook. I see that you loved it, so I'm going to keep plugging away. If this is his most famous (and one would assume best) work, I'm rather surprised that V.S. Naipaul won the Nobel Prize for Literature...

>11 Cariola: Hi, Deborah! In keeping with my past theme of favorite jazz album covers, I chose Thelonious Monk's 1968 Columbia Records album Underground, one of the more famous covers in history. It portrays Monk as a piano playing member of the French Resistance , during World War II, who is armed to the teeth and is being watched by the captured Nazi officer and his fellow freedom fighter (I'm not sure who either of them are, though).

Here's a YouTube recording of "Thelonious" from this album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVrixmds6bA

>12 Whisper1: Thanks, Linda! I need to update that list of books, as I've acquired at least a dozen more since my last entry.

I'm still waiting to obtain CanLit recommendations from Cait, Ilana and Tui, so I'll update the CanLit 2014 list as they (and other Canadian LTers I may have missed) provide them to me.

>13 BBGirl55: My kid wanted the movie, "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" and I was absolutely against the idea. It looked stupid. Finally broke down and got it for him for his birthday and now it's one of my favorite movies. I probably like it better than he does. :)

>13 BBGirl55: Thanks for mentioning Scott Pilgrim, Bryony. I'll compile a second list of CanLit recommended by non-Canadians, although I'll read books from the list that the Canadian LTers recommended for my 2014 challenge.

>14 labfs39: I'm sorry that you're not enjoying A House for Mr Biswas so far, Lisa. It's one of my all time favorite novels, and easily the best book I've read by V.S. Naipaul, although I also loved The Mystic Masseur, which is also set in an Indian community in Trinidad.

>16 avidmom: How old was your son when he asked for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, avidmom?

Hi Darryl- Love that topper. The Mighty Monk! And congrats on lucky #13! Looking forward to your thoughts on Constellation. It's one of my top reads of the year.

He was 14. We've watched the movie quite a few times. Nobody here has read the graphic novels, though.

I will also join you for The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz in January Darryl.

Wonderful thread topper, Darryl!

Hi Darryl,

Hmm, I have long wanted to read The Deptford Trilogy. 2014 appears to be the year to get to it.
I will be interested in your reaction to No Great Mischief, which I loved.

Hello Darryl - I loved No Great Mischief. And I really want to put in a recommendation for Carol Shields - whose The Stone Diaries won the Pulitzer.

Hi, Darryl! I love your thread-topper!

Thanks for posting (on your old thread) the congrats to the Pirates. There is truly much joy in in the Burgh and environs!

The Stone Diaries was a five star read for me and is on my list of all-time favorites. Deceptively simple. Still waters run deep and all that...

ETA: But I'm not Canadian, so what do I know? ;-)

#16 Scott Pilgrim is my favorite film it is done prety close to the graphic novals as well. The art in the film was done by the the writer and artist of the graphics.

I'm a big Scott Pilgrim fan. Clever and funny. I've been collecting the new color editions. I liked the film, too.

>26 BBGirl55: & 27 Good! So it's not just me then. From what I can tell, the movie is a bit of a cult classic already. Hmmm .... I think I know what movie we'll be watching around here pretty soon!

Darryl, I see that you have A Constellation of Vital Phenomena on your October reading list. I finished it last night and posted my review. While I'm a bit less rapturous than other readers, I did love the characters, and I'm looking forward to whatever Marra writes next.

Happy new thread, Darryl! Love the topper!

Hi, everybody! I had a busy day at work yesterday, and I'll probably have another one today. I'll catch up here tonight or tomorrow.

Happy new threadulation, Darryl.

When you say you have a busy day at work - and are expecting another one, I think "Uh-oh! The kids are sick!" :(

Hi Darryl,

Just got your message re: CanLit - here are some recommendations: I am seconding (thirding, fourthing...) Fifth Business by Robertson Davies, and No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod. In terms of Atwood, The Blind Assassin and Alias Grace are my favourites, and I will be really interested in your reaction to them - people usually love or hate Atwood. If you want to read more Ondaatje, Anil's Ghost is good, but I personally like The English Patient and In the Skin of a Lion better.

In terms of lesser known authors, I loved The Disappeared by Kim Echlin, February by Lisa Moore, and Tell it to the Trees by Anita Rau Badami.

I will let you know if I think of any others - looking forward to your adventure through CanLit next year!

>18 msf59: Thanks, Mark. I'll probably read A Constellation of Vital Phenomena in mid October when I go to London, as I bought the Kindle version of it.

>19 avidmom: Thanks for letting me know about that movie, avidmom.

>20 brenzi: Great! I'm glad that you'll read The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz in January with us, Bonnie. So far that makes you, me, Joyce and Paul as probable readers.

>21 lkernagh: Thanks, Lori!

>22 EBT1002: Sounds good, Ellen. I'll probably read The Deptford Trilogy during the late spring to early fall. No Great Mischief is a relatively short read, so I may read that in the winter or early spring.

>23 PrueGallagher: Thanks for your vote of support for No Great Mischief, Prue. Hmm, that's interesting that The Stone Diaries won the Pulitzer Prize, given that Carol Shields lived for most of her adult life in Canada.

>24 tymfos: Thanks, Terri. I was excited to see the Pirates do so well this year, especially after last year's promising first half of the season turned into disappointment after the All-Star break. It would be ironic and fitting if the Pirates were to face the Atlanta Braves for the NL pennant, and beat them in the last game on a bang-bang play at home plate.

>25 katiekrug: Good to know that you also liked The Stone Diaries, Katie. I'll be sure to add it to the list of CanLit recommended by non-Canadians.

>26 BBGirl55:-28 Thanks for the recommendation of Scott Pilgrim Bryony, Joe and avidmom.

>29 Cariola: Thanks, Deborah. I'll probably look at your review of A Constellation of Vital Phenomena tomorrow after work.

>30 TinaV95: Thanks, Tina!

>32 richardderus: Thank you, sir.

>33 avidmom: When you say you have a busy day at work - and are expecting another one, I think "Uh-oh! The kids are sick!" :(

Exactly, avidmom. The hospital census has increased substantially since last week, so much so that we are putting patients in overflow areas, mainly observation beds that are normally used for kids undergoing same day surgeries, such as T&As and BMTs. I was on long call today (10 am to 8 pm), and admitted 11 new patients in that time frame. I left the hospital just before 11 pm, and I'll be back on call again tomorrow, this weekend and the next one.

Speaking of children's hospitals, I did finish an excellent book this morning, The Remarkable Story of Great Ormond Street Hospital by Kevin Telfer, which described the history of the first children's hospital in the English speaking world, located in Bloomsbury close to Russell Square. I gave it 4½ stars; I'll review it early next week.

>34 Cait86: Thanks for those CanLit recommendations, Cait! I'll add them to the list. I have The Disappeared and February, so I'll probably read one of those along with the six others I've selected, and five or six others from my TBR pile.

Off to bed...

Just catching up after a very busy week, although of course my busy weeks are nothing compared to your busy days and weeks. Love that album cover!

I'm another whose trying to catch up after a crazy busy week. That's the thing with my work: I love it, but it seriously interferes with my reading time!

Great new thread, Darryl. You've collected some fabulous recommendations for CanLit. So hope you will enjoy them as much as those of us who suggested them. Btw, I think since you are flying the Canadian flag, we need to make you an honourary Canuck : ).

hmmm Can Lit...
agree with Suz about the Deptford trilogy by Robertson Davies, especially Fifth Business the first book of it
agree with Joyce about Tomson Highway
The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Tamarind Mem by Anita Rau Badami
The Piano Man's Daughter by Timothy Findley
The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys. I also liked her The Lost Garden and Coventry
Baltimore's Mansion by Wayne Johnston
Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry
Who Has Seen the Wind by W.O. Mitchell
Away; The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart
What is America by Ronald Wright {non-fiction}

If I think of more, I'll add them.

>37 rebeccanyc: Thanks, Rebecca. Today was another long day (7:30 am to 8 pm), but it was much more relaxed since I was only on call for two hours today. I'm grateful for that, since I'll toward the beginning of a long stretch with two consecutive weekends and only two days off in between. Fortunately there will be a light at the end of this tunnel, as I'll leave for London on October 10th and stay there until the 21st. As usual I'll see several LTers during this trip; four of us (Heather, Jenny, Rachael and myself) will see Much Ado About Nothing starring Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones at the Old Vic on the 15th, Fliss and I will see two plays together before then, and I'll meet up with Bianca on the 20th. I have tickets to see two other plays, and I'll probably see at least one or two more performances while I'm there.

I'm glad that you like that album cover. There are several other Monk album jackets that I'm also quite fond of, so I'll post them on here soon.

>38 lit_chick: Absolutely, Nancy. My reading output (and free time for LT) plummet during busy work days, so I try to make up for it on my days off.

I've now received CanLit recommendations from seven eight Canadian LTers, including yourself, so I'm set for next year. I'll read a book that was recommended by each contributor, along with five four from my library that are high on my TBR list. I've updated my post in message #9 to include Cait's and Tui's recommendations. Here are the recommended books I plan to read, along with the name of the person I'm reading it for:

   The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler (Cyrel)
   February by Lisa Moore (Cait)
   The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies (Zoë)
   The Wars by Timothy Findley (Suz)
   Kiss of the Fur Queen by Tomson Highway (Joyce)
   No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod (Nancy)
   The Fat Woman Next Door Is Pregnant by Michel Tremblay (Lori)
   Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry (Tui)

I'll read these books from my TBR list:

   Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje
   Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill
   The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
   De Niro's Game by Rawi Hage

>39 tiffin: Ah! Thanks, Tui! I didn't see your message until I posted mine, So, I'll read Family Matters for you, and update the CanLit message shortly.

I've loved nearly everything I've read by Helen Humphreys, especially The Frozen Thames and Coventry.

I'll reread The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz . I am curious to see how well it has "aged" and whether the initial reaction to my first reading is still the same.

Still busy at work (I worked 11 hours yesterday on what was supposed to be my short day), but I'll be off on Tuesday and Wednesday, and with any luck I won't be needed on Monday. I'm the back up doc of the day, but we needed the back up doc every day last week.

>42 Cariola: Thanks for mentioning those books by Helen Humphreys, Deborah. I'll add them to the list of books recommended by non-Canadian LTers, which I'll create this upcoming week and post on my threads for the remainder of this year and throughout 2014.

>43 torontoc: Great! I'm glad that you'll be reading The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz with us, Cyrel. I'll create a group thread for the book once the 2014 version of the 75 Books group is up.

Today is International Translation Day, so I plan to read at least one and hopefully two books that have been translated into English: The African by J.M.G. Le Clézio, translated from the French by C. Dickson, and Transit by Abdourahman A. Waberi, translated from the French by David & Nicole Ball. I'll definitely finish the Le Clézio today, and hopefully I'll be able to stay awake long enough to read the Waberi as well.

46> Too bad there isn't an "EJECT" button!

LOL! *looking for the EJECT button*

We should amend the Constitution and add one! XD

Hmmm, wonder if Ctrl + Alt + Del might work?

Hi Darryl, I just finished reading a remarkable book that I think you would like. It is called The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire and is by a Chechen surgeon named Khassan Baiev. Trained as an oral and maxillofacial surgeon, he remained in Chechnya through both wars and operated a hospital outside Grozny practically singlehandedly. Towards the end of the war, he was hunted by both the Russians and the Chechen fighters because he treated all the wounded regardless of which side they were on. His book covers his whole life, and the insight into Chechen culture is fascinating, as well as his training, and of course war experiences. He was granted political asylum in the US. I highly recommend the book. In some ways it reminds me of Izzeldin Abuelaish's book I Shall Not Hate, but I think I liked it even more. It is also the book that the author of A Constellation of Vital Phenomena relied on most when creating his character, Sonja. I read the two books back to back, and they complimented each other well.

>51 labfs39:: I'm reading Constellation right now. That book definitely looks interesting.

>47 Cariola: Great one, Deborah!

>48 lit_chick: Push that EJECT button if you find it, Nancy.

>49 avidmom: I'd also like to ban extreme political groups like the Tea Party, avidmom.

>50 Cariola: *pushes Ctrl+Alt+Del repeatedly* Nope, Ted Cruz is still there. Sigh...

Hey, Ted, Paul Ryan and other Tea Party pinheads! Read this:



>51 labfs39: Thanks for mentioning The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire, Lisa. I'll add it to my wish list.

>52 lauralkeet: I look forward to your review of A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, Laura. I'll probably read it the week after next when I visit London, as I purchased the Kindle version of it.

I've just started reading Fighting for Life, a recently published New York Review Books reprint of the 1939 autobiography of the physician and public health crusader S. Josephine Baker, who in her role as the director of the Bureau of Child Hygiene in New York City in the early 20th century instituted numerous reforms and programs that directly led to a dramatic decrease in childhood mortality and improvement in the well being of young children and their mothers. Many of the plans she put into place were widely adopted throughout the US and the world, and they are credited with saving the lives of 90,000 NYC children during her career and millions more since then. She was also known for chasing down and capturing the notorious "Typhoid Mary" Mallon on two occasions, once sitting on top of her in an ambulance to keep her from escaping from it. If the introduction is accurate it should be an enlightening and entertaining book, which I'll finish no later than tomorrow.

I'll look forward to the review, it sounds like an interesting book.

Hi Daryl, Just started reading Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King as an e-book last night. It's one of those books that you open, then just fall into completely. From what I've read so far, I think you would like it.

Also...in this past week's episode of This American Life (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/414/right-to-remain-silent) NY police officer, Adrian Schoolcraft, experienced the exact same situation as the main character in Victor Lavalle's Devil in Silver. Naive me thought the author was stretching things with that plot line.....guess not.

Hmm didn't mean to ...but this post sure has a lot of "devils" in it.

Also...finished Harvest and loved it. Will write a review in a day or so....some things have to percolate in my head a little bit.

Five minutes of Jhumpa Lahiri being articulate and pretty.

You're welcome.

>56 tangledthread:: I was just listening to that episode of This American Life on my way to work this morning. I am in the middle of Adrian's story and I can't wait to listen to the rest of it on my way home. Fascinating stuff.

The New York Times and CNN have just announced that bestselling author Tom Clancy died in a Baltimore hospital yesterday, at the age of 66.

Not The Hunt for Red October guy!
:(

59 & 60> And the video game entrepreneur: http://redstorm.com/

Finished the underground book. My thoughts about it will be on my thread soon. :)

I still think you should read Joseph Boyden... :-) I can't wait until I can lay my hands on my (signed) copy of his new book, The Orenda.
But hey, it's your Canlit list! Have fun with Mordercai Richler. I really want to read some more of his work this year or next. Like St. Urbain's Horseman. Although he was writing about a Montreal that largely no longer exists.

Tks for your list, Tui -- I noted, too, that Jane Urquhart has a new novel coming out soon. Although of course I didn't spot the ARC listed on Amazon Vine until I had already made my two picks. Pooh.

>55 labfs39: I finished Fighting for Life by S. Josephine Baker, Lisaand it was superb; I gave it 4½ stars. If I have time I'll review it tonight, but I'd like to finish Ways of Going Home by Alejandro Zambra first.

>56 tangledthread: I remember hearing about Devil in the Grove earlier this year when it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction. Thurgood Marshall is a hero of mine, so I'll definitely add this to my wish list. Thanks for mentioning it, tangledthread!

Thanks for mentioning that story in general, and This American Life in particular. I enjoy this program, but I often forget to tune in to it, as it comes on late Sunday afternoons on my local NPR station. I'll listen to this story soon.

>57 richardderus: Thanks, Richard! I did watch that segment this morning, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn't know that Lahiri had such a lonely and apparently unhappy childhood, although I should have suspected it, given that she was born abroad and raised in the US. I downloaded The Lowland onto my Kindle last week, and I'll read it late next week.

>58 lauralkeet: I never thought to check if This American Life had a website. I've liked its Facebook page, and I'll register for weekly email updates shortly.

>60 avidmom: Yep, avidmom; the same guy. I haven't read and don't own anything by him, but he's probably my father's favorite author. Actually a couple of his books that my father read are in my room at my parents' house, so I guess I do "own" them. I was surprised to see a breaking news alert about his death this morning, due to his relatively young age, which is why I posted it here and in the In Memoriam thread.

>61 tangledthread: I had heard that The Hunt for Red October was the basis of a video game; I think my brother told me and my father about it. That's definitely not my thing, though.

>62 BBGirl55: Remind me which Underground book you read, Bryony? I'll check out your thread now.

>63 Chatterbox: I'll probably read Three Day Road in 2015, Suz. I'll read the six books I highlighted, along with February by Lisa Moore for Cait (in February, of course), and Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry for Tui, along with four CanLit books from my library: Anil's Ghost, The Blind Assassin, DeNiro's Game and Someone Knows My Name. This will be essentially a year long CanLit 101 course for me, and I plan to continue the theme in 2015, as I do want to read more Canadian literature.

I'll keep an ear out for the forthcoming books that you mentioned.

Oh; speaking of CanLit I just received the two books I ordered from Archipelago Books earlier this week, The Rule of Barbarism by the Moroccan poet Abdellatif Laâbi, and Spring Tides by the French Canadian author Jacques Poulin. If I don't get to the Poulin by year's end I'll add it to the list of books to read in 2014, to make a CanLit baker's dozen.

Weren't you one of the folks that read Poulin earlier this year or last year? For some reason, I had stuck in my mind that you were... I just got his Translation is a Love Affair, and hope to read it this month or next.

IMO, Anil's Ghost is not Ondaatje at his best... I loved both The Cat's Table and The English Patient, and am debating on whether to make Divisadero or In the Skin of a Lion my next Ondaatje.

So many books; so little time.

>66 Chatterbox: Yep. I've read two books by Jacques Poulin, both published by Archipelago Books, Translation Is a Love Affair and Mister Blue, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed. I had meant to buy Spring Tides when Archipelago had its 50% off sale earlier this year, so I jumped to buy it when the International Translation Day sale was announced.

Hmm, I had heard good things about Anil's Ghost from other LTers (I think). One of the gastroenterologists I work with lent it to me last year, so I really should read it soon and return it to him. I didn't like The English Patient, particularly in comparison to The Cat's Table, and I do own In the Skin of the Lion but haven't read it yet.

So many books; so little time.

Amen, sister.

>65 kidzdoc: Three Day Road is an excellent novel!! You can't afford to push it all the way to 2015!

Hi Darryl- I haven't been by in a few days, I was schmoozing with authors and book-lovers. Yes, it was heavenly.
I finished Harvest. I really liked this book. Very original. It might be my least favorite of my current Booker reads, but it holds it's own. I might still have to go with Transatlantic, which just edges out the Lowland.

And speaking of the lovely Lahiri, I adored the interview!

I was disappointed that I missed the Archipelago sale. Somehow lost track of that email. I didn't like Spring Tides as much as Translation or Mister Blue, but it is still beautifully written.

For what it's worth, I liked Anil's Ghost much better than The English Patient, and although I had an issue with an aspect of Three Day Road, I think you would like it very much. My grandfather was Quebecois, so I'm part Canadian, right? ;-)

Lisa, if it doesn't involve spoilers, what was your issue with Three Day Road? Just curious...

I agree -- I liked Mister Blue much better than Spring Tides.

Hi Darryl, finally caught up with you. I see the discussion has moved on from the Booker discussion. So far I've read three of the long listed books and like them equally (The testament of Mary, Five star billionaire and Transatlantic). I cannot rank them. Next up is The luminaries.

Hey Darryl -- just noticed that Branagh is bringing the production of MacBeth to NYC (the Park Avenue Armory) for a run starting in June. Shall we put together a group and plan to go?? Sounds better than the film version -- and KB is electrifying on stage in person.

We are so there - but for some reason i thought it was earlier than June.

Ah yes. New York is under a blackout for the NTLive broadcast in January. We might look at traveling to new jersey to see it. In the past, the Armory tickets have been very expensive.

#71 if it doesn't involve spoilers, what was your issue with Three Day Road? Just curious...

Here's what I wrote in my review:

...This is the complex and unusual story that I expected of such a well-reviewed novel. What I hadn't been expecting was the amount of time spent on morphine addiction: it's allure, progress, and outcomes. While an integral thread in the story, I tired of its prominence, even dominance. Perhaps if I had been expecting it, I would have found it less annoying. So although there are parts of the book I think worth raving about, overall I am a little less enthused.

That's how I felt at the time, but now, looking back, the annoyance has worn off and I like it more. Fickle, huh?

#75 -- Oh ho -- that explains why I couldn't find it listed on the Symphony Space website any more. I could go to Boston, but I'd rather see KB live, frankly. That can be my summertime treat to myself.

Hmm ... we may see KB via NTLive in November. I'd love to see it live in NYC but am not sure what June will bring. We have one daughter graduating from high school and another returning from study abroad.

Two work days down, four more to go, and six days before I depart for London on Thursday night. I'll meet up with LTers on at least five of the 10 full days I'll spend there and see at least five plays (three with LTers), so I'll take pictures and describe my and our escapades, as usual.

>68 tangledthread: Three Day Road is an excellent novel!! You can't afford to push it all the way to 2015!

I have at least 100 books in my library that I feel the same way about, tangledthread, including A Place of Greater Safety, Kafka on the Shore, and Darkmans that I've been very eager to read for at least two years but haven't managed to get to yet. Three Day Road can definitely wait until 2015 or later!

>69 msf59: I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed Booktopia, Mark. I liked Harvest when I read it, but I appreciated it even more when I thought about it and what it represented (class warfare in ?18th-19th century England, which had direct applicability to the modern Western world). tangledthread's recent review captured what I also thought was the essence and brilliance of this novel. I'll start The Lowland next week, probably during my flight to London and after I arrive there, as I bought the Kindle version of it.

>70 labfs39: I received the e-mail notification of the Archipelago Books sale, Lisa, but Rebecca's mention of it reminded me of the date of it. I'm sorry to hear that you didn't like Spring Tides as much as Mister Blue or Translation Is a Love Affair, though.

I'm glad to hear that you liked Anil's Ghost. The English Patient didn't do anything for me; perhaps I wasn't in the right literary frame of mind when I read it.

>72 mausergem: I look forward to your comments about The Luminaries, Gautam.

>73 Chatterbox:, 74 I'd definitely be interested in seeing Macbeth, Suz and Judy, although I almost certainly won't be in the US for the entire month of June. My group has adopted a new work schedule, and some of us part-timers (I work 80% of a full time equivalent) have agreed to work more shifts during the busy late fall to early spring months, in exchange for having a month off in the late spring to early summer, without using vacation time. I've requested the month of June off, and I plan to spend it in Europe, probably two weeks in London and a week in both Paris and Barcelona. I'll look at the dates that Macbeth will be on after I get home (I'm still at work, waiting for the notorious Friday afternoon traffic in Atlanta to die down).

>75 ffortsa: I'd like to see the NTLive broadcasts of Macbeth and Frankenstein, but I'd probably have to see it in PA, NJ or NY, unless it's on next week or the week after when I travel to London. It's not being shown here in Atlanta, nor anywhere nearby.

>76 labfs39: Interesting comments about Three Day Road, Lisa. I'll definitely still read, although I don't know when.

>78 lauralkeet: Where are you planning to see the NTLive broadcast of Macbeth, Laura? I assume that you'd probably go to Bryn Mawr, but I don't think it's on around Thanksgiving.

Heading home...

Lisa, nope, I understand your POV. I confess that it didn't bother me as much, perhaps because of the overall hallucinatory tone of the book (Darryl, FYI, the reference in the title is to the trip homeward to his native community in the far north of Ontario -- Cree or Ojibway, can't remember -- who has lost his leg during WW1. He has just been discharged from a hospital in Montreal and is being taken home, the journey of the title, but because of the pain he has become addicted to morphine.) I think Boyden is an immensely talented writer -- and he also seems to be a very pleasant guy. Although probably all my gushing about his novels means that your expectations have been raised so high that they'll be impossible to live up to! That said, Three Day Road would be an interesting novel to read after Findley's The Wars. But then, after spending summers as a tour guide at Vimy Ridge, I'm a bit of a sucker for any good WW1 fiction.

Have fun in London! I may have to send you to Sainsbury's on Tottenham Court Road in search of Amazon UK gift cards for me, since the nasty people at Amazon won't let me send them to myself any longer!

What are your theater plans for this trip? I'm about to read The Habit of Art and would like to catch that on screen here when it airs in December. Fingers & toes crossed.

>80 kidzdoc:: Darryl, Macbeth is at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute November 10. We're seeing Othello there next Sunday. Woo hoo!

>79 kidzdoc: Thanks for the credit on the Harvest review Daryl. I really view the book as a socio-political alllegory. The Enclosure Laws (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inclosure_Acts) in GB and the Highland Clearances (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Clearances) of the 18th and 19th centuries = current day moving of manufacturing overseas.

Edmund Jordan knew exactly how to stir up the people with their belief in witchcraft etc. = the Koch brothers et al funding the tea party movement....change the name of the Affordable Care Act to Obamacare....and wave it in front of them like a red flag to a bull.....voila! They are happy to vote against their own best interests.

*cough* but that's just my take on politics of the day.....

edited to correct spelling *blush*

>81 Chatterbox: Suz, the hotel I'll stay at (Bailey's Millenium Hotel) is on Gloucester Road, just south of the tube station, and from my first visit to London in 2007 I know that there is a Sainsbury's on Cromwell Road, which is within easy walking distance. I'll probably go there on Friday, after I check in to my hotel room. I'll see if it has Amazon gift cards; if not, I know where the Sainsbury's is on Tottenham Court Road (the one close to the Tottenham Court Road tube station, right?), and I'm sure that I'll be in the area at least once during my visit.

What are your theater plans for this trip?

I'll see Hysteria at the Hampstead Theatre on the 12th; The Drowned Man with Fliss at Temple Studios (on London Road, near Paddington Station) on the 13th; Chimerica at the Harold Pinter Theatre on the 14th; Much Ado About Nothing (starring Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones) at the Old Vic with Heather and Jenny on the 15th (Rachael won't be able to join us as originally planned, unfortunately, as she's been invited to the Granta Booker Prize party for Eleanor Catton that evening); and A Doll's House at the Young Vic with Fliss on the 19th. I'll spend the day with Rhian on the 16th, and with Bianca on the 20th, and there's a group meet up planned for the 15th before the play. I'm free on the 17th and 18th so far, so I'll probably see Edward II and/or The World of Extreme Happiness at the National Theatre on those days.

I saw The Habit of Art at the National Theatre (with Fliss?) in 2009 or 2010, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Hmm...which is my biggest addiction? Books or London plays?

>82 lauralkeet: Excellent, Laura! I loved the rendition of Othello that was on at the NT this summer, but I missed seeing the NTLive broadcast of Macbeth when I was there. I'll have to see if it's being rebroadcast when I'm there next week or the following one.

>83 tangledthread: You're welcome, tangledthread! I completely agree with your assessment of Harvest.

Re your addiction -- it's a tossup, I think!! That is a lot of theater, but then you're theater-deprived for much of the rest of the year, so...

I love the concept behind "Hysteria"; that would be a play that I'd love to see if it comes to NY. Vanessa Redgrave in Much Ado would be fab. I have seen her in a LOT of Shaw over the years, but one of my fave of her performances was opposite her daughter, Natasha Richardson, way way back in 1985, when they played opposite each other in Chekhov's The Seagull, somewhere in the West End. (It was on Shaftesbury Avenue, but I'm damned if I can remember the theater.)

Well, I confess I'd opt for the Granta party, too, were I invited to attend!

The Tottenham Court Road Sainsburys is just north of Goodge Street tube stop, I think; I think the one on the Cromwell Road will be MUCH easier for you. Wow, and you'll be so close to the museums, too! When I was very little and we had just moved to London for the first time, we were put up for a month or so in a bedsitting apartment near Gloucester Road, on Queen's Gate, just south of the Cromwell Rd and north of Old Brompton Road. I remember it was the ground floor (basement/area) flat, and I spent waaaay too much time there because my brother got mumps! I didn't but was in quarantine, and that's how & when I became a book addict. By the end of that month, I had begun tearing through books the way I do now! That area is where I grew up -- we ended up in a flat on Basil Street, literally half a block from where Julian Assange is holed up in the Venezuelan embassy, and from Harrod's. I still identify the sound of the slightly creaky wooden floors under the carpets in Harrod's with going to shop for books, because that's where I spent much of pocket money, once my mother had told the nice man who ran the book department that yes, although I was only 8 or 9, I was allowed to buy books intended for grownups. (The library wouldn't let me read theirs, though... and the only reason I was happy to move back to Ottawa at the age of 12 was the ability to take out any book that took my fancy from the library without silly age restrictions...)

>85 Chatterbox: That is a lot of theater, but then you're theater-deprived for much of the rest of the year

Right, Suz. Atlanta is almost entirely bereft of quality theatre (or quality anything other than sports for that matter...).

Hysteria is now sold out, and I nabbed one of the last tickets for it. I've never seen Vanessa Redgrave on stage, nor James Earl Jones to my recollection, so I can hardly wait to see Much Ado About Nothing.

I'll definitely go to the Sainsbury's on Cromwell Road for supplies soon after I arrive; I just checked, and it's still where it was in 2007. There are two Sainsbury's on Tottenham Court Road, one close to Oxford St (and the Tottenham Court Road tube station), and another just south of the Warren Street tube station, close to Euston Road. I'm sure that I'll go to Foyles at least once, so I can easily walk from there to the Sainsbury's near Oxford Street if the supermarket on Cromwell Road doesn't have the Amazon gift cards.

BTW, how many gift cards (or how much in pounds) do you want?

I had a feeling that Rachael might not be able to join us to see Much Ado About Nothing, since the Booker Prize ceremony is on the 15th. We just finished chatting on Facebook Messenger, and we'll probably meet up for drinks and/or a nibble that afternoon. I'll probably meet her for lunch at least once before then as well.

I'll have to see what's on at the museums. I definitely want to see the Paul Klee exhibition at the Tate Modern, which opens on the weekend before I leave, I think.

See PMs.

Paul Klee would be great -- Tate Modern has excellent curators, too.

>85 Chatterbox:: Darryl, my daughter is on a study abroad program at University of Exeter. Last weekend her group went to London and saw 4 plays (2 on Friday, 1 each Saturday & Sunday) including Chimerica and Edward II. We haven't had an in-depth discussion of the plays but I know she liked Chimerica. They're seeing quite a lot of theater this fall -- in fact she may be in London again next weekend -- I'm rather envious.

>87 Chatterbox: The Paul Klee exhibition starts on the 16th. I'll probably go on the 17th (unless Fliss wants to go on the 19th before we see A Doll's House), as I just bought a ticket for the performance of Edward II at the National Theatre that afternoon, along with the evening performance of The World of Extreme Happiness on the 18th.

Off to look at your PMs...

>88 lauralkeet: I'm glad to hear that your daughter liked Chimerica, Laura. It's received outstanding reviews, and I'm fortunate that I was able to get a ticket during the last week of its second run in London. I'd be very interested to find out what plays she saw and will see, although I doubt that I'll have time to see any more plays! I think the most plays I've seen during a visit to London is six, and I now have tickets for seven performances in nine days.

85> Suz, I was fortunate enough to see that same performance of The Seagull on my first trip to London in 1985--with not only Natasha and Vanessa, but a young John Lynch as Constantin and Jonathan Pryce as Trigorin as well. I have a program around here somewhere and will post if I can find it and pin down the theatre.

Have fun, Darryl! Have you read or seen Edward II before? If not, you are in for some wonderful verse and a rather shocking ending. I just finished teaching the play. My students loved the 1970s version with a very young and very blonde Ian McKellan as Edward.

Darryl - Will second Deborah's recce of Edward ii, possibly the most useless of English monarchs following the formidable Longshanks.

Have a great weekend.

92 > Nicely put !

> 92 Ha! Thanks, Paul. I'm working my second weekend in a row, but I'll spend the next two weekends in London, so life is good.

> 93 I'll have to look up Longshanks after I finish rounding on my patients.

Morning Darryl- I am still deeply immersed in Five Days at Memorial but have to strongly recommend that you read this one. It's not only harrowing but it's filled with thorny & knotty ethic issues and I would love to see your take on it.
Have a great Sunday!

>95 msf59:: ooh, yes ... I haven't read it but knowing what it's about I'd love to get Darryl's take on it too. And yes Mark, I know I should read it too!

>95 msf59: I won an Early Reviewers' copy of Five Days at Memorial from the August batch, but I haven't received it yet, nor has anyone else from what I can tell. I want to read it ASAP, and it's on my list of books to read this month. Unless I receive my copy before I leave town on Thursday I may buy the hardcopy or download the Kindle version of it, and read it next week or the following one. If I receive the LTER copy I could send it to two of my cousins, who worked there in the 1970s, when it was known as Southern Baptist Hospital.

>96 lauralkeet: Yep. I'll read it soon...

Hi Darryl, just checking in after a poor presence on LT over the weekend. I always seem to post more during the week, and then have a lot to catch up on after the weekend.

I am taking my merry time with The Luminaries and enjoying it for both the writing and the story. I is giving me wrist trouble, trying to hold it up, though. :)

> 98 I'm glad that you're enjoying The Luminaries, Megan. The Booker Prize ceremony is next Tuesday, so I hope that you finish it before then.

Darryl, I'm happy about your being in London the next two weekends. I love your detailed updates about meetups, theater events, art, and BOOKS!

I am also excited about your Canadian reads for next year. I am becoming a big fan of Canadian literature. I have read nine books off of that stellar list suggested by our Canadian friends. The three books by Robertson Davies are at the top of my list of books read. I will be reading his Cornish Trilogy sometime next year.

I didn't know about Hilary Mantel's A Place of Greater Safety, Darryl, and I've been seeing it come up a lot as a really good one of hers. I'm adding it to my wishlist.

Darryl, a long overdue to visit to your thread, just in time to wish you safe travels!

#84 "Rachael won't be able to join us as originally planned, unfortunately, as she's been invited to the Granta Booker Prize party for Eleanor Catton that evening" I was sad to see Rachael wouldn't be joining us anymore but given her love of Eleanor Catton I can understand not wanting to pass that one up!

I was also wanted to say thank you for prompting me to go and see the NT Live performance of Othello. We saw a broadcast last week and it was fantastic. I have tickets booked for the 50th anniversary showings of Hamlet (also starring Rory Kinnear) and Frankenstein later this month.

Hi Darryl. I'm another one who's looking forward to your trip to London and sharing in all your adventures vicariously.

The NT Live "Frankenstein" was our introduction to the series - its a corker!

There are two versions out there - Benedict Cummerbach and the other actor took it in turns to play The Doctor and The Creature. If you have to chose pick the one where Cummerbach is The Creature

Delurking just to say hello Darryl. :)

Just popping in to saying "hi", Darryl.

>100 Donna828: Thanks, Donna! Unfortunately the same cannot be said for my close colleagues at work. Three of them told me separately today that I wasn't allowed to post any updates, photos or descriptions on Facebook, since it made them jealous, and one of them, a nurse practitioner on the Neurology service, playfully complained to the Physician in Chief at Children's about my frequent trips and refusal to take her along with me, despite the fact that she's married and has two sons.

I'm looking forward to exploring the best in Canadian literature next year, and in upcoming years as well. That reminds me...I don't think I included Tui's excellent recommendations, so I'll do that once I've caught up with today's messages.

>101 jnwelch: Rebecca and others have highly recommended A Place of Greater Safety, Joe, and I've been putting it off for the past couple of years, along with Darkmans by Nicola Barker, The Mandarins by Simone de Beauvoir, The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh, Pure by Andrew Miller and dozens of other "must read soon" books that sit patiently in my library waiting to be read.

>102 souloftherose: Thanks, Heather! I'm eagerly looking forward to this trip and seeing you, Bianca, Fliss, Jenny, Luci and Rachael again, and meeting Rhian and Lesley (Rachael's friend's friend) for the first time (apologies if I left out anyone).

Fortunately Rachael is planning to join us for drinks or dinner before we go to the play and before she goes to the Granta party for Eleanor Catton. She & Fliss are good friends, as they both live in Cambridge, and Jenny has met her at least once, when we got together in Cambridge two years ago, but I don't know if the rest of y'all have met her. We almost always meet up whenever I visit London, although it's most often a quick lunch on the days that she's working in Bloomsbury.

I'm glad that you and your husband also enjoyed Othello. Apparently the NT Live rebroadcasts of Hamlet and Frankenstein are taking place in London just after I leave, and it seems as though I'll miss the showings in the US as well, unless I have time off in December and can see it in Philadelphia or NYC.

>103 phebj: Thanks, Pat! I'll post photos and descriptions here as I usually do.

>104 magicians_nephew: I'm glad that you & Judy enjoyed Frankenstein, Jim. I'd love to see it, even if I have to make a quick trip to NYC, Philadelphia or elsewhere to watch it, but my group's December schedule isn't out yet, so I don't know if I'll be off on the days it will be on in the US. I'll recheck the list of theaters in the UK that are rebroadcasting it, and with any luck it will be on during my visit to London.

Thanks for letting me know about the two versions of Frankenstein.

BTW it seems pretty certain that I'll visit my parents for Thanksgiving next month. Caroline & I have discussed getting together for lunch at Joe's Shanghai in Chinatown for soup dumplings on Black Friday (I haven't had them in months, so I'm dying for some). My group's December schedule isn't out yet, so I don't know if I'll have to go back to work on the Monday after Thanksgiving or not, so I haven't made any flight reservations yet.

I'm definitely adding to the chorus in favor of Edward II as your other play pick. Marlowe is fab and the play is great. And Paul is right -- a bloody useless monarch! Probably more noticeable because he was sandwiched in btwn two other Edwards, his father and his son, who were very effective.

(Longshanks is what Edward I was referred to as; he was v. tall, hence the moniker. He managed to put down the barons' rebellion under Simon de Montfort, crushed the Scots and the Welsh -- rather brutally but effectively; he's still not v. popular in either nation, to put it mildly. It was left to Edward II to lose Scotland to "the Bruce" at Bannockburn. Edward III did a great job of grabbing back a lot of French territory during the early stages of the 100 years' war; Crecy and Poitiers were notable victories.)

Edward II has the distinction of being the first Prince of Wales in the modern sense. The possibly apocryphal tale runs like this: after he had demolished the Welsh (and disembowled and beheaded the last real Welsh prince, Dafydd ap Gruffyd), he promised the Welsh a new prince who couldn't speak a word of English. He then awarded the title to his newborn infant, who of course couldn't speak anything yet. And ever since, the (male) heir to the English throne has carried that title. What I'm curious about is what will happen now that the line of succession has been changed and the eldest child of either gender succeeds to the throne. It won't happen in this generation, as William & Catherine have a son as their firstborn, so that's one question I'll probably never have answered!

This is Nobel Prize week, which began with the announcement of the winners of the Prize in Physiology or Medicine. James Rothman of Yale, Randy Schekman of the University of California, Berkeley,and Thomas Südhof of Stanford were chosen as this year's winners, for elucidating the mechanisms that permit intracellular transport of molecules to the sites that they are needed to allow the cells to function efficiently and correctly, and allow for the release of hormones and interactions with the peripheral and central nervous systems in higher organisms.

Research on Cellular Traffic Bags Nobel Awards

The Nobel Prize in Literature will be announced on Thursday at 1 pm CET (Central European Time), which is 7:00 am Eastern Time in the US, I believe. According to the latest odds by Ladbrokes, Haruki Murakami is a 5/2 favorite to win the prize, followed by Alice Munro at 4/1, Joyce Carol Oates and Péter Nádas at 8/1, and Jon Fosse at 9/1. Fosse, a Norwegian writer I hadn't heard of before, skyrocketed to near the top of the list, which has frequently happened in the recent past for the ultimate prize winners. So, I ordered two of his books last week, Melancholy and Aliss at the Fire, as much of his work isn't currently available in the US. Has anyone read either of these books, or anything else by him?

>105 TinaV95:, 106 Hi Tina and Linda!

>107 kidzdoc: I did buy a ticket to see the matinee performance of Edward II at the NT on October 17th, Suz. There were a few £12 tickets still available that day, so I nabbed one of those. Thanks for the background information about him!

This about sums it up, I think.

#111 -- I'd like to laugh, but I'm having trouble...

This raises so many questions about what a majority owes to a minority, and thus about politics in general, regardless of which side of the debate you happen to be this time.

How does that parliamentary "no confidence" thing work? I wish we could get a do-over. I'm sick of every single one of them, on both sides.

Hi Darryl, I've had A Place of Greater Safety and Pure and A House for Mr. Biswas and Rondo and a bunch of other great books sitting on my shelf just waiting impatiently for far too long.

>107 kidzdoc: I hope we get to keep working on our tbrs in the afterlife . . .

That would be heaven!

>112 Chatterbox: I'm definitely on the side of President Obama and the Democrats in this matter, Suz. The Republican Party has let itself be hijacked by a group of right wing extremists, who will do little but make it more likely that the Democrats will take back the House in 2014.

>113 brenzi: I hadn't heard of Rondo before, Bonnie, but I just looked at Cushla's review of it. She compares it to two books I loved, Pereira Maintains and Chess Story, so I'll have to add it to my wish list.

>114 jnwelch: Same here, Joe!

>115 labfs39: Wouldn't it, Lisa?

The Republican Party has let itself be hijacked by a group of right wing extremists, who will do little but make it more likely that the Democrats will take back the House in 2014.

I hope you're right. But with the gerrymandering of districts, I'm not so sure.

>117 Cariola: Right, Deborah. However, only 17 seats are needed to flip the House back into a Democratic majority, and there are enough elections in key districts to make this change possible.

I woke up this morning to another of my wacky dreams; fortunately this one wasn't a typically frightening or disturbing one (not to me, anyway), but it was quite entertaining. My eccentric uncle bought me a jaguar for my birthday (13th or 16th), and to keep the peace, my younger brother got one as well. Unfortunately my mother was not happy, particularly when she discovered me and my jaguar taking an afternoon nap, with her wrapped on top of me like a large fuzzy blanket, purring contentedly. She kept trying to wake us up, causing my jaguar to growl at her, and told me that the jags had to go, since she didn't want them in the house and because the neighbors had noticed that several of their pets and small children were suddenly missing. (Sheesh. Doesn't every neighborhood need a good culling now and then?) My mum kept poking the jaguar, to my increasing concern...and then I woke up.

Hmph. Mothers spoil everything.

sheesh. For a whole sentence there, I thought you meant the car.

>119 ffortsa:: me too...until it purred.

>119 ffortsa: me, too - and I don't think of the car as being like a large fuzzy blanket, even in a dream.

Jaguars purr. Look at this and tell me it's not purring:



Heck, *I'M* purring.

Hmph. Mothers spoil everything.
Muahaha!!!!

I envy your upcoming London trip! We're leaving on Thursday too--to Houston. For the first time all three of our grandkids will be in the same place at the same time, since the NYC bunch will be visiting Houston too. Getting together with the grands outweighs the London cultural events and LT meetups---but only by a smidgen. Esp. the Klee exhibit--my favorite artist.

Re Five Days at Memorial--as you know I recently reviewed it on my thread, and Mark is right--it is very thought-provoking, so I hope you get to it soon. My three oldest children were born there (late 70's, early 80's), so perhaps we crossed paths with your cousins who were working there.

Keep me advised about any NYC meetups over Thanksgiving. We are spending Thanksgiving there this year, and will be there for 10 days, so hopefully I can join in.

>119 ffortsa:-121 Receiving a Jaguar in a dream would have been too ordinary for me to comment about, compared to my usual surreal dreams and nightmares. I did wake up in the middle of the night after I fell asleep early, and while I was awake I looked at a video story on espn.com, which claimed that the Jacksonville Jaguars are the worst team in the NFL. I assume that this is why I dreamt about jaguars (cats, not cars or football players) later in the morning.

>122 richardderus: Damn skippy! You beat me to it, bro; I was going to make the same comment.

That car is sweet!

>123 avidmom: That dream seemed like something from a Calvin & Hobbes comic strip, in which one of Calvin's brilliant ideas is squashed by one of his parents.

>124 arubabookwoman: Have a great time with your family in Houston, Deborah! And please take plenty of photos of the grandkids. Yep, that meet up sounds priceless, and if I was in your shoes I'd feel the same way; London will always be here.

I saw that Terri received her LT ER copy of Five Days at Memorial yesterday, so I'm hopeful that my copy will arrive in the mail today or tomorrow, so that I can read it during my vacation.

My cousins were working at Southern Baptist Hospital as orderlies when I moved there in the summer of 1978 to attend Tulane, but I don't remember how long they worked there. They and their mother lived close by, a couple of blocks east of Napoleon Ave and just north of Freret Ave, which cuts through the middle of Tulane's campus to the west.

My group's December schedule isn't out yet, but I do know that I'll be off from Wednesday to at least Sunday of Thanksgiving week, and I'm all but completely certain that I'll spend at least Thursday to Saturday with my parents. If so I'll be free on Black Friday, and assuming that Caroline's husband Edd will visit his parents on Long Island we'll probably get together then. She & I have had our hearts set on going to Joe's Shanghai for soup dumplings, after our plan to go there two years ago was voted down, so we will go there this time if we're both around NYC. With any luck I won't have to go back to work on the Monday after Thanksgiving, and if so I'd definitely be interested in returning to the city to do other things.

Speaking of LTER, where's the October list? (I know, new folks on board, I'll be patient.)

Have a great time in London, Darryl. You've got a wonderful theatre line-up!

>126 Cariola: The October list was posted about an hour ago: http://www.librarything.com/topic/159947

ETA: Five Days at Memorial wasn't in my mailbox today. Hopefully it will come tomorrow. My flight doesn't leave until nearly 11 pm, so I'll be able to check the mail before I leave for the airport.

Thanks, Deborah! It will be a fun filled trip, with seven plays in nine days and at least five meet ups with eight other LTers in London, Cambridge and Ely.

My oldest was born at Baptist in July 1978 (and second was born there in July 1980), so the time matches! We lived right off Napoleon on Chestnut, which is between St. Charles and Magazine. Don't know if it was west or east,--it was a few blocks off Napoleon on the Tulane University side. And I well remember the "Freret Jet", the bus from campus to downtown (as opposed to the St. Charles trolley).

Darryl, my sincere wishes for a London trip where you do not become ill!! Take allergy meds non-stop from before you leave until you get back.

I'm purring Richard!

A few hours to the Nobel prize;

My own tips:

1 Adonis (just like them to keep Syria in the news)
2 William Trevor (cause I like him)
3 Margaret Atwood (don't like her especially but loads do)
4 Mary Oliver
5 Nuruddin Farah

Less than five minutes to go to the Nobel Prize in Literature announcement. Ladbrokes now has Svetlana Alexievich as a 4/5 favorite, followed by Haruki Murakami at 4/1, Assia Djebar and Joyce Carol Oates at 7/1 and Alice Munro at 8/1.

It's Alice Munro!

Ghe, and everyone was so sure about Haruki Murakami.

Well, that's nice timing for your CanLit challenge, Darryl!

Here's the link to a video of the prize announcement, and an interview with Peter Englund, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, about Munro. His favorite book by her is The View from Castle Rock.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XZahN6TtKgA

I own one book by Munro, the novel Lives of Girls and Women, so I'll read it and I'll plan to pick up or download at least a couple of her short story collections, including The View from Castle Rock, soon. And clearly I'll have to include Munro in my CanLit 2014 plans. Any other recommendations?

Yay! Alice Munro! ( scampers off to do a happy dance)

I've finally updated my list of CanLit books recommended by Canadian LTers to include Tui's excellent suggestions in message #9, which I'll include in my remaining 2013 threads and throughout 2014. I've also emboldened the eight books recommended by eight different Canadian LTers that I plan to read in 2014:

Robertson Davies, The Deptford Trilogy (Zoë)
Timothy Findley, The Wars (Suz)
Tomson Highway, Kiss of the Fur Queen (Joyce)
Alistair MacLeod, No Great Mischief (Nancy)
Rohinton Mistry, Family Matters (Tui)
Lisa Moore, February (Cait)
Mordecai Richler, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (Cyrel)
Michel Tremblay, The Fat Woman Next Door Is Pregnant (Lori)

I'll also read these books from my library:

Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin
Rawi Hage, De Niro's Game
Lawrence Hill, Someone Knows My Name
Michael Ondaatje, Anil's Ghost

And, now that Alice Munro has been chosen as this year's winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature I'll read at least two of her books, Lives of Girls and Women and The View from Castle Rock.

Of all the Munro I've read, Darryl, The View from Castle Rock is my favorite. Lives of Girls and Women is a novel, maybe her only one (?); I haven't read it, but she is definitely more known for her short stories.

>128 arubabookwoman: Ah yes, I remember the "Freret Jet", Deborah! I took that bus hundreds of times to go to the CBD (Central Business District), as it was the closest bus line to the center of Tulane's campus.



Is Chestnut & Napoleon in the Garden District? One of my aunts lived on Marengo near Magnolia, close to Southern Baptist Hospital, and the other two lived across from each other on Fern just south of St. Charles, close to Carrollton. My great-aunt (my maternal grandmother's younger sister) was the best cook in our extended family, so I would frequently go there on Sundays for dinner, especially when she was making red beans & rice and seafood gumbo. Sigh; I miss those days...

>129 ronincats: Thanks, Roni! I hope for the same thing. I did get a flu jab last month, so I'm protected from that at least, and I'll bring a full supply of allergy and asthma medications with me, along with a Z-Pak (a five day supply of Zithromax). I have a lot of things to do before I leave, so I just changed my flight to one that leaves tomorrow night instead of tonight. That won't interfere with any of my plans, as I'll have time to check in and take a nap before I see Hysteria at the Hampstead Theatre on Saturday night.

>130 PaulCranswick: I didn't have time to respond to your message before the prize announcement, Paul. I would have been thrilled if either Amos Oz or Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o had been chosen. I'm a big fan of Haruki Murakami's earlier works, but I don't think of him in the same category as other Nobel laureates. I haven't read enough Trevor, but based on what I've heard I'd be highly in favor of seeing him win, especially since he's getting up in years. I think Atwood will win the prize eventually. I own at least two of Adonis' poetry collections, which I bought a few years ago when he seemed likely to win the Nobel Prize, and I own at least three books by Farah, but I haven't read these books yet. Who's Mary Oliver?

>133 wilkiec: I think everyone was looking at the bookies' predictions, Diana. They have correctly predicted the winner several times in recent years, and I'd have to assume that someone was providing them with inside information; the winner is only notified 30 minutes prior to the actual announcement. I was looking at Ladbrokes' odds and following The Literary Saloon, my favorite blog, which is dedicated to international literature. After Jon Fosse and Svetlana Alexievich started to make their moves this week I purchased two books by each of them, anticipating that they would be hard to find after the prize announcement.

>134 katiekrug: Right, Katie! I'm sure I'll read at least three or four books by Alice Munro next year.

>136 torontoc: Which of Munro's books would you recommend, Cyrel? Linda recommended The View from Castle Rock, as did Peter Englund, so I'll pick that up.

>138 rebeccanyc: I'm glad to hear that you also liked The View from Castle Rock, Rebecca, so I'll definitely get it. Even though Lives of Girls and Women is a novel I'll still read it next year.

What's boggling my teeny little brain is that Munro is the first Canuckistani to win the prize. Really? Robertson Davies didn't win it? What were they thinking?

>141 richardderus: I just saw that on the Literary Saloon, Richard, and I was equally surprised.

I have no idea how such decisions get made. Committees scare me.

Yep. There have been some curious choices of Nobel laureates in the recent and distant past (Elfriede Jelinek? Seriously???). The hospital committees I've been on have been largely dominated and overly influenced by their loudest and most persistent and opinionated members, who occasionally shout down other members and insist on getting their way. I'm generally in the silent majority, who wants the meetings to end ASAP and with a minimal amount of dissension.

I was pleased, too, to hear that Munro won the Nobel. I read Lives of Girls and Women in university, and think I still have that *ahem, very old* copy here. Must reread.

Well, hospital committees, pfoof pfaff, they're just deciding piddly stuff like who lives and dies, it's not like it's *important* or anything.

I tremble at the boundless stupidity of humankind.

Jelinek is the strangest, least comprehensible choice I can conceive of...but then again, I thought The Piano Teacher was a second-rate romance novel kind of a thing.

I won' t be alive in 2054, when they unseal the list of actual nominees as opposed to the speculated-about possible winners, but I'd love to know how lame a bunch it was for this one to have been the clear winner.

I LOVE #111!! So spot on, from my perspective. Sad that all the rest of us take it on the chin, too, though.

Darryl, I know you pay a bit of attention to college football (Pitt and Rutgers, in any case, right?). I've posted on my thread that College GameDay is coming to UW this Saturday (#16 Huskies playing #2 evil Ducks) and I am SO excited!!!!! I'm a geek about these things. :-)

Meanwhile, I will join you for at least a couple of those CanLit reads next year.

Darryl - Alice Munro first Canadian winner? Maybe but not the first Canadian born. Saul Bellow has that honour.

Mary Oliver :

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/mary-oliver

You are kidding right?

Munro is not a bad pick - certainly worthier than some of the previous winners (Jelinek was one such that you picked out) - I am a bit disappointed though for William Trevor who now probably won't ever get the honour despite, for me, a more formidable canon than Ms. Munro.

#148 "You are kidding right?" My very words. You beat me by a couple minutes.

>145 lit_chick: Can I assume that you liked Lives of Girls and Women, Nancy?

>146 richardderus: Well, hospital committees, pfoof pfaff, they're just deciding piddly stuff like who lives and dies, it's not like it's *important* or anything.

Mmm, not always. I was on the hospital's Bioethics Committee for several years, which occasionally did discuss life and death matters, but the other committees I'm on don't decide life and death matters, at least not directly. I'm amazed at how much time is spent in meaningless minutiae, such as the wording of a sentence or paragraph in a proposal to the Medical Executive Committee. Occasionally it is very important, but often it isn't.

Jelinek is a disturbing woman to look at and read. I'm, of course, strongly opposed to banning books, but if I had to choose books that should be banned, The Piano Teacher would be the first one on my list. There have been books I've hated, but Jelinek's "masterpiece" was icredibly vulgar and completely free of any redeeming qualities IMO.

I'd love it if the Nobel committee relaxed their rule of not releasing information until 50 years after the prize has been awarded, as I'd love to know who thought Jelinek was worthy of this award.

>147 EBT1002: Nice honor for the Dawgs, Ellen! I had meant to comment on your earlier post about the Wazzu flags that are always present on College Gameday on ESPN; I had wondered why they showed up at Michigan-Notre Dame, Alabama-LSU and Clemson-Florida State games! I gather that Washington State fans won't be warmly welcomed in Seattle.

Needless to say I won't see College Gameday or watch any American football for the next two weekends. Both of my alma maters have tough road games this week; Rutgers travels to #8 Louisville tonight, and Pitt goes up against Virginia Tech in Blacksburg on Saturday. I think RU will get squashed, but Pitt definitely has a chance to beat the Hokies, and they currently have a four game winning streak against them.

I keep forgetting to mention that I recently joined a new group on LT, The Sports Bar, which is dedicated to sporting events, from college football and baseball to cricket and rugby. Everyone is welcome to join!

>148 PaulCranswick: I didn't realize that before I saw the mention today in the Literary Saloon, Paul. I think of Saul Bellow as being American, not Canadian. According to his Wikipedia page he was born in Canada, but his family moved to Chicago when he was nine years old, and from what I can tell he never lived in Canada from then until his death at the age of 89. I think we can properly claim him.

I am glad that Munro was chosen, even though I haven't read anything by her yet.

I wasn't kidding about Mary Oliver. I honestly didn't know that she was American, and couldn't have told you anything about her.

I admittedly find it curious to read oft repeated comments that author B from country X won't win the Nobel Prize anytime soon, since her countryman author A was chosen this year or in the recent past. You and others are right, though; it does seem that the Nobel committee puts a lot of weight behind the author's country of origin and preferred literary genre (poetry, short stories, novels), seemingly above literary merit in many cases (read: Jelinek). I don't see any reason why William Trevor shouldn't be a strong candidate for next year's Nobel Prize, regardless of Alice Munro's selection today. I'd much rather see him honored during his lifetime than fall victim to some arbitrary exclusion based on a previous winner. Amos Oz and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o are relatively young writers in comparison, so they can wait until their names are called IMO.

Darryl - none of us know everything about all literary genres and some of us have more depth in some areas than others. As you know I am a bit of a poetry geek but it was on your pages that I first heard of Ngugi wa Thiong'o and one of the great things about this group is the wide variety of interests and informed interest at that.

You can't go wrong with The View from Castle Rock and I also liked Too Much Happiness very much.

Guess what day it is? It's the day I received my LT ER copy of Five Days at Memorial. Whooo whooo!



I'll definitely bring it with me tomorrow, and start reading it this weekend.

>149 laytonwoman3rd: Nope, not kidding Linda! Clearly I need to become acquainted with Mary Oliver. Any recommendations?

>151 PaulCranswick: Right, Paul! Considering that Mary Oliver is apparently one of America's leading contemporary poets it would have reasonable to assume that I had heard of her, though.

LT has definitely expanded my reading horizons, and I assume that nearly everyone else would say the same thing.

Back to William Trevor. I had planned to read Selected Stories for the past two years during the summer, along with A Place of Greater Safety and Darkmans, but I didn't manage to do so, mainly because I spent most of the summer reading from the Booker Prize longlist and the Reading Globally theme on Francophone literature. I'll have to tackle those books before or after Booker season next year, assuming that I don't get to any of them before the end of this year.

Then again I could just stop buying books. I'll consider that after I return from London.

>152 torontoc: Thanks, Cyrel. I'd added your recommendations to the CanLit list, and I'll plan to read both of those books next year.

Well, this will be twice in one day, Darryl, and I feel very full of myself to be able to make another recommendation to you. Mary Oliver's Red Bird never leaves my nightstand. Here's a sample of her clear unsentimental style: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse/165/1#!/20604151

>141 richardderus: The way that I heard it on CBC this AM is that she is the first author born and bred in Canada to win it. Perhaps there were others who "transplanted to Canada" who've won it?

edit...oh, I see...there've been some transplanted from Canada.

>139 kidzdoc: Favorite Mary Oliver quote:

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”
― Mary Oliver, New and Selected Poems

>154 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks Linda! I loved Morning Glories, and I've added Red Bird to my Kindle wish list.

>155 tangledthread: According to Wikipedia's List of Nobel laureates by country the Nobel Prize in all categories has been awarded to 22 Canadians, five of whom were born abroad, and one organization. Two literature prizes have been awarded, the first to Saul Bellow in 1976, and the second to Alice Munro today.

>156 tangledthread: Thanks for that quote tangledthread!

Just caught up on the Nobel news (bit slow this morning) and am happy that Alice Munro has won it. The View from Castle Rock was excellent.

I have Love and Summer sitting here waiting to be read and haven't read any William Trevor yet, despite exhortations from LT friends...must move it onto the right pile of books.

I liked Love and Summer, but I suspect that it pales in comparison to his short stories, Cushla. I also own The Story of Lucy Gault and Cheating at Canasta in addition to Selected Stories, but I haven't read any of them yet.

I really liked Love and Summer. Lucy Gault recieved a lot of favorable reviews, but through most of the story I felt like shaking one character or another. If they had only had cell phones back then......there wouldn't have been a story.

>160 tangledthread: In the last paragraph of my review of Love and Summer I said "For me, Love and Summer was a beautifully written, quiet novel of love and repression in a small town. The intentions and portrayal of two key characters were unclear to me, which made this an incompletely satisfying, though still very enjoyable, read." It's been more than four years since I read it, so I don't remember what I didn't like about it; I did give it four stars, though.

Wow, busy thread today. In all honesty, Darryl, I read Lives of Girls and Women so long ago and in such a hurry (as I did most of my university literature), I cannot remember most of the collection.

Yay for Munro. She has toiled at her craft for a long, long time. And luckily, I have two of hers on my shelf: The View from Castle Rock and Runaway so I will plan on reading those in the not too distant future Darryl. Joyce Carol Oates is another one that I think is very deserving of the prize. She is incredibly prolific.

Hi Darryl- Congrats on receiving your copy of Five Days at Memorial. I can't wait to hear your thoughts on it. There are some very sticky issues to deal with here, with not a whole lot of clear answers.

I just started the behemoth known as 2666. I like his writing but this is not a page-turner. I can NOT think about my page count. It will sink me.

Sadly, I have only read one Munro collection. That has to change.

Bonnie- Maybe a group of us should read The View from Castle Rock, before years end. Just a thought.

Since I started the advocacy of Trevor in these august climes Darryl, I have to add that The Children of Dynmouth is my favourite novel of his. I have many of his short story collections. Alice Munro has concentrated more than Trevor on the short story form and she understands the medium perfectly to the extent that Cynthia Ozik called her "our Chekhov". Rebecca is right she has only written one novel even though fantastic fiction lists two. The Beggar Maid was a collection of short stories on one theme. Here is her bibliography from fantasticfiction.co.uk

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/m/alice-munro/

Well, I very much like Mary Oliver's work--but I have to agree that I don't really find it Nobel-worthy. I was rooting for William Trevor, who has been around forever, it seems, although I only discovered him a few years ago. I read and loved Bodily Secrets, a small collection of unusual love stories, last June. I also read Love and Summer, but my review wasn't stellar and sounds a lot like yours, Darryl; I wrote, in part:

"While Trevor has crafted a story of some emotional depth here, it left me unsatisfied, and I'm not sure exactly why. It may be in part that the characters all have a strong measure of reserve about them; I never really felt that I knew them very well, or even that they would allow themselves to any kind of inner emotional lives. . . . Perhaps this is the atmosphere Trevor wanted to convey: a place so overpowered by tradition and constrained by secrets that no one feels comfortable revealing an inner life of any kind. The result is a kind of flatness, and the novel, while well written, didn't leave much of an impression on me in the end."

I loved The Story of Lucy Gault (4.5 stars), and my review of Death in Summer ended with this thought:

"Trevor is a master at depicting the broad divide between the upper and lower classes as well as the depths of the human heart and the psychological effects of a loveless childhood. Part of his mastery is that he is able to unfold all this subtly, without whacking his readers over the head with a purpose and a moral."

I hesitate to admit it amid all the celebration, but I'm not a fan of Alice Munro. I've tried two short story collections (can't remember the names), and The View from Castle Rock was such a yawner for me that I couldn't finish it. I suppose I should give her another try one of these days . . . or maybe not. I did appreciate the film 'Away from Her,' which was based on a Munro short story.

I wish I had saved that lengthy review I found about a year ago that summed up exactly what it is that I don't like about her writing. It may have come out when they were placing bets on whatever the Big Booker was called (lifetime achievement sort of thing?).

>162 lit_chick: This has been a busy thread today, Nancy! I may read Lives of Girls and Women before the year is out, and I'll probably download The View from Castle Rock and Too Much Happiness onto my Kindle soon.

>163 brenzi: I look forward to your comments about The View from Castle Rock and Runaway, Bonnie. JCO is another author who I haven't read. I only own one of her books, Black Girl/White Girl.

>164 msf59: Thanks, Mark. I'm eager to get started on Five Days at Memorial, and I'll read it and The Lowland starting

It took me well roughly a month to read 2666, but I'm glad that I finished it, and I did like it.

I'll definitely read Munro in 2014. I'd be up for a group read of The View from Castle Rock, but I'm not sure I could get to it this year.

>165 PaulCranswick: Thanks for the info about and link to the biography of Alice Munro, Paul. It seems as though several of us will be reading her works in the near future.

I'll hold off adding The Children of Dynmouth to my wish list until I finish the books by Trevor that I already own.

>166 Cariola: Interesting comments about William Trevor, Deborah. Your thoughts about Love and Summer are quite similar to mine. I'm glad that you liked The Story of Lucy Gault, as I'll probably read it next year. Death in Summer sounds interesting, but I'll also hold off until I finish the books I have already.

Wow, a strongly dissenting voice against the Munro love fest! I may have to read The View from Castle Rock this year after all.

Was the article you were thinking of the review of Dear Life that appeared in The London Review of Books earlier this year? Here's the link:

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n11/christian-lorentzen/poor-rose

>99 kidzdoc: The Booker Prize ceremony is THURSDAY!?@? That is today! (in the UK anyway) EEK
I am only 2/3 of the way through the Luminaries!
And worse than that, I haven't had time to remember to get excited about the announcement. I will have to pack my excitement into the short remaining time then.....*off to get excited*

>168 LovingLit: The Booker Prize ceremony is on Tuesday the 15th, Megan. You have time to finish The Luminaries!

I need to set up a Booker Shadow Jury thread tomorrow (it's still Thursday here, just before 11 pm Eastern Daylight Time (EDT, also known as LT Time)). I'll start The Lowland, the last shortlisted book I haven't read yet, tomorrow, and I should finish it by Monday at the latest.

Darryl, congrats on snagging a copy of Five Days at Memorial. I'll be interested to see how you like it. I'm looking forward to its wider release. I finally got my copy of Americanah from the library and hope to start it this weekend, even though Mark is nudging me to read 2666 with him.

I'm very pleased about Alice Munro's award. I've not read a lot by her but the stories I have read have been excellent. I'm not a huge fan of Mary Oliver's work but perhaps I haven't given her enough of a chance. Oh, and I loved The Story of Lucy Gault. I hope you enjoy it when you read it next year.

>169 kidzdoc: Phew!
I must have mis-read Tuesday for Thursday and, yes, I'll admit it, freaked out :) Thanks for putting me right, I will build excitement from now on.

I will keep my eye more closely on the Booker thread from now on.

>170 EBT1002: Thanks, Ellen; I'm thrilled that Five Days at Memorial arrived before I leave town. I think it's been published already; checking...yes, it was released on September 10th.

I'll be interested to get your take on Americanah. I think you should read 2666 with Mark, even though he's a Bears fan (and his team beat my hapless Giants last night).

I can't believe that the Giants are 0-6. They look to be on pace to have their worst record since the 1983 team went 3-12-1. And to think that it was only two years ago that the 2011 team made their incredible postseason run and beat the Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI.

As expected, Rutgers lost to #8 Louisville 24-10 last night, but it was a closer game than the final score would indicate. U of L was clearly the better team, though. RU is still 4-2, with the only other loss coming to #21 Fresno State on the road in OT (they failed on a two point conversion that would have won the game), and they should be favored in at least five of their remaining six games, so a nine or 10 win season and a postseason bowl game appearance still seems likely.

Back to books: I'm also glad that Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize yesterday. The PBS NewsHour had a nice story on her at the end of yesterday's broadcast; I'd post it here but the link isn't working.

It looks as though 2014 will be dedicated in part to CanLit and to short stories.

>171 LovingLit: Glad to help, Megan! I'll create the 2013 Booker Prize Shadow Jury thread now.

Here's the link to the 2013 Booker Prize Shadow Jury thread:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/160003

167> Thanks, Darryl--that's the one.

>174 Cariola: You're welcome, Deborah!

I made it to London late yesterday morning after a restful overnight flight. I was far more tired when I checked in to my hotel, and after lunch I crashed into a semi-coma. As a result I missed seeing "Hysteria" at the Hampstead Theatre last night.

I slept in all morning (it's just after noon here), but I now feel much more rested. I'll go out soon, as Fliss and I have tickets to see this afternoon's performance of "The Drowned Man" at Temple Studios, next to Paddington Station.

I have gotten some reading done since I left Atlanta. I'm just past halfway through The Lowland, the last of this year's Booker Prize shortlisted books I haven't read yet. The reviews here have been mixed, but I love it so far. I should finish it no later than tomorrow, in advance of Tuesday's prize ceremony.

I've also read about 60 pages of Five Days at Memorial, which is also excellent so far.

glad to see you are rested up, enjoy the show and I will see you tomorrow!

Darryl- Looking forward to your thoughts on "Five Days". Fink is a fine writer and she poured a ton of research into this.
I am enjoying 2666 but it is not a page-burner. He takes his time, but I like the creepy atmosphere he creates. Funny, the Nobel Peace Prize is mentioned here, in regards to the mysterious author they are pursuing.
Have a great time in London.

Sorry to hear you missed Hysteria but welcome to London and our very autumnal weather :-)

I hope you enjoy The Drowned Man - it sounds very unconventional and I'll be interested in your thoughts of it even if I wasn't brave enough to go myself!

Delurking to say glad you made it to London safely! Stay healthy and have a great time. Looking forward to some more vicarious travels here!

I'm glad to hear you're enjoying Lowland, because I've been looking forward to it, and a bit concerned over the "meh" reviews.

Have a great time in London, Darryl.

Will you be participating in the X'mas Swap 2013 this year? In case you missed the post, here's a link to the thread: X'Mas Swap 2013

*envious sigh* Darryl loose amongst the restaurants and bookshops of London. Oh woe is me, his happiness reduces my will to live.

Have fun in London Darryl. I just posted my very "meh" review of The Lowland.

You're right, of course, Darryl, and I have Five Days at Memorial on hold at the library. I'm glad you're enjoying The Lowland (more than some) because it's waiting for me to pick up (after I finish watching this comedy of errors called the Seahawks-Titans game). I've decided to hold off on reading 2666, not because of Mark's misguided football loyalties, but because I'm hoping to complete 100 books this year. I feel embarrassed to be placing quantity over quality, but I can taste this goal and I doubt I'll come close again until after I retire. Next year, I'll re-embrace the 75 Books goal which will allow me to also embrace some heftier volumes.

I'll be starting Americanah as soon as I finish my current read.

The Drowned Man: A Hollywood Fable was easily the most unique, bewildering and fantastic theatrical performance I've ever seen. It was set in the Temple Studios, next to Paddington Station, which was the British outpost of a major Hollywood movie company during the late 1940s until 1962, when it closed abruptly and was later condemned. The "stage" was the entire four story building, which was filled with darkened and smoke filled rooms that contained old furniture, costumes, scripts and other items that looked as though they were left over from 50-60 years ago. The audience members stood in line on the ground floor, and were then admitted, roughly a dozen at a time, into the building. Each was given a Carnival mask, similar to the ones that partygoers wear to Mardi Gras balls, and we were instructed to keep silent throughout the performance, and encouraged to separate ourselves from our companions. Fliss and I ended up separating within five minutes, and we didn't see each other again until the end of the performance.

The audience spent the first part of the experience exploring the different rooms in the studios, and I was quite confused as to what was going on and what I was supposed to get out of it. Eventually the actors appeared in the rooms; they did not wear masks, so it was easy to distinguish them from the theater goers and the "stage hands", who also wore Carnival masks.

The actors performed different brief segments, most with one other actor, and then scurried to another room, often on a different floor, where they would enact a scene with an actor who was different from the previous one. The audience walked and sometimes ran after these actors, and since there were no formal seats there was a blurring of the line and distance between actor and audience member, and in some cases the actors intentionally interacted with one or more audience members. The performance lacked a clear plot, and each person in the audience experienced the play differently, depending on what scenes he saw and which actors he followed.

It's just past 1 am here, so I'll try to finish catching up tomorrow, before I meet Bryony.

Hope you continue to have a good time!

I'm amused by the definition of who is Canadian (in terms of the Wikipedia list). I don't know too many people who think of Bellow as Canadian (vs Canadian-born), and some of the economics laureates, like Scholes, have done all their work in the US, having moved here for graduate school. Not as sure of the scientists. I know John Polanyi was working in Canada - -his daughter was one of my classmates at university.

I, too, hope that William Trevor gets a shot at it. In terms of the caliber of the writing, I frankly don't see much difference -- both are excellent. I'm not a short story afficionado, but I'll quite happily read the work of either. In terms of Munro, I remember Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage as being a rather good collection; in fact, I was discussing it with a friend just last month, who had picked it up to read in spite of the fact that these days he reads rather little. He was loving it, too.

I'll be interested to hear what you think about the middle portion of The Lowland, the part that I found sagged and dragged. Not the writing, which was superb throughout, but the distance it created between me as a reader and the characters. (I'm referring to the point just after the main character's return from his emergency trip back to India, and the unfolding of his new life -- trying to be cryptic so as to avoid spoilers!)

Must now get back to work. Sigh. The perils of being a wage slave.

Hi Darryl, glad to hear you're having a good vacation so far. I'm looking foward to reading all about it.

I'm happy that Alice Munro won the Nobel, though I've enjoyed her earlier fiction more than the later stuff. The Beggar's Maid was my favorite (it had a different title in Canada, I think.) I am going to have to check out Dear Life, because I read a review recently that thought the last 3-4 stories in the book were the best, and I didn't get to those when I listened to an audiobook earlier this year.

Looks like you are, as always, having a wonderful time in London. I can't wait to see what books you're picking up while you're over on that side of the pond.

Yesterday (Monday) was another very enjoyable day in London, which began with a meet up with Bryony (BBGirl55) just before noon at The National Gallery on Trafalgar Square. We viewed the Paintings 1700-1900 gallery, and Bryony was an excellent tour guide to works by Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, Turner, De Goya and other noted artists. I was familiar with several of the paintings from art books, but seeing them up close and in person was a far more enriching experience.

From there we went to The Silver Cross, an English pub on Whitehall Street close to Trafalgar Square. Bryony had tomato and bean soup with chips, and I had a wild boar sausage roll with chips, which were very good. From there we walked on Whitehall Street to Parliament Square, where we viewed the statues there along with Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. We crossed the Thames via Westminster Bridge, and walked along the South Bank to the Southbank Centre Book Market, which is commonly known as the stalls under the Waterloo Bridge. Bryony bought three books, and I bought four:

Worthless Men by Andrew Cowan
Quarantine by Jim Crace
The Empty Space by Peter Brook
Lost New Orleans by Mary Cable

We also stopped in the nearby National Theatre, so that I could pick up my tickets for the plays I'm seeing on Thursday and Friday, and while we were there we visited the National Theatre Bookshop, where I bought the scripts for the two NT plays I'll see this week, along with another that I might try to fit in if I can:

Edward II by Christopher Marlowe
A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen
Liolà by Luigi Pirandello

We walked back across the Thames via the Waterloo Bridge to Aldwych and Covent Garden. By that time my gimpy left ankle, which began to bother me this morning, was starting to hurt and swell, so we parted ways a bit early. Bryony headed on to Forbidden Planet, and I returned to my hotel to elevate my ankle.

After a couple of hours I headed back to Piccadilly Circus to see the play Chimerica at the Harold Pinter Theatre. It was a superb production, and I'm fortunate that I was able to get a great ticket (dead center, third row from the front), as it closes on the 19th. I'll review it later this morning (it's now just after 1 am BST).

This afternoon I'll meet Heather at Daunt Books, and from there we'll go to Southwark and meet Jenny, Lesley and Rachael for dinner, and then see Much Ado About Nothing at the Old Vic, starring Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones.

I finished The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri just before I left to see Chimerica, and I think I liked it better than most people here who have read it. I gave it 4 stars, which still only puts it in fourth place on my final Booker Prize shortlist ranking:

1. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
2. Harvest by Jim Crace
3. The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín
4. The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
5. A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
6. We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

The Booker Prize announcement is tonight, but I'll probably miss the live broadcast, which will take place at 9.45 pm BST (4:45 pm EST). Fingers crossed for Eleanor Catton!

Here's my updated longlist ranking; I've finished the shortlist, and read all but two of the longlisted novels:

1. The Luminaries
2. Harvest
3. TransAtlantic by Colum McCann
4. The Testament of Mary
5. The Lowland
6. Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw
7. A Tale for the Time Being
8. The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan
9. We Need New Names
10. Almost English by Charlotte Mendelson
11. The Kills by Richard House

Later this morning I'll count the shortlist votes on the 2013 Booker Prize Shadow Jury thread on LT, and announce our winning book then, ahead of the actual ceremony.

I'll be interested to know how you like Much Ado. There's a fashion these days to cast the sparring leads as older, but this is REALLY older, to the point that at least one line won't make any sense. Let us know how you think it plays.

Good to see you enjoying London once again.

May I have the envelope, please...the winner of the 2013 LibraryThing Shadow Jury Booker Prize is The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton! By all measures this book comes out on top, even though only four of us (Cushla, Kerry, Nathalie and myself) read it. We all ranked it #1, so it has the best average score (see below), and it garnered one more first place vote than The Lowland did. I only counted books that jury members had read, and, as Daniel assumed, I wanted the members' opinions about the books they had read rather than guesses about which book the actual jury might choose.

Here is the jury's rank order, with number of votes and average ranking, based on a scale of 1 point for first place, 2 points for second place, etc.

1. The Luminaries: 4 votes, 1.00 average ranking
2. Harvest: 7 votes, 1.86
3. The Lowland: 7 votes, 2.42
4. The Testament of Mary: 7 votes, 2.77
5. A Tale for the Time Being: 6 votes, 4.00
6. We Need New Names: 4 votes, 5.00

Of the first place votes, Catton had four, Lahiri had three, Crace had two and Tóibín had one.

Thanks to everyone who participated!

Catching up...

>177 BBGirl55: It was great to meet you yesterday, Bryony! Thanks for your excellent guided tour at the National Gallery and Parliament Square, and I look forward to seeing you again soon.

>178 msf59: Will do, Mark. Now that I've finished The Lowland I can devote my reading attention to Five Days at Memorial, which I'll hopefully finish in the next couple of days.

I'm glad that you're enjoying 2666. As you said, it isn't a page-burner, and I also found it to be atmospheric and compelling.

>179 souloftherose: Thanks, Heather! I love crisp autumn days, and the rain hasn't bothered me a bit. I have been surprised to see so many people (tourists, presumably) in central London dressed in winter coats and gloves and shivering like frozen ducklings in 50-60 F (15-20 C) weather.

I'm also sorry that I missed Saturday's performance of Hysteria, especially since it the production has now ended, but seeing The Drowned Man on Sunday and Chimerica last night has made me forget about it.

See you soon!

>180 avidmom: Thanks, avidmom! I haven't picked up any colds or had any asthma exacerbations so far (touch wood), so I hope that my good luck continues. Most of the people I've encountered in public settings have been free of obvious cold symptoms, and Fliss and Bryony were getting over colds when I saw them Sunday and yesterday.

>181 laytonwoman3rd: I did enjoy The Lowland, Linda, although I wouldn't rave about it. I think it deserved to be on the Booker Prize shortlist.

>182 cameling: Thanks, Caroline. I haven't looked at the Christmas Swap thread yet, but I'll do so shortly.

>183 richardderus: Hang on for a few days longer, Richard. By the middle of next week I'll be up to my eyebrows in sick kids, with no planned holiday trips until March.

>184 brenzi: Thanks, Bonnie. I'll check out your review of The Lowland soon.

>185 EBT1002: I hope that you get to read Five Days at Memorial soon, Ellen.

I hadn't read the LT and published reviews of The Lowland in detail, as I didn't want to be overly influenced by or learn details about the book from them. I'll look at some of them now, to see if I agree with their comments or not, but based on what others here have said I think I liked it much better.

2666 is a door stopper (I can't remember how many pages it had, but I would guess at least 700), and for me it wasn't as quick a read as The Luminaries was (I read the last 500 pages of it within a 24 hour period, which is extremely fast for me). It would be a good book to read over a holiday break, such as Thanksgiving or Christmas, and if I remember correctly it was the first book I finished in the year that I joined the 75 Books group, so I must have read it from late December to early January.

Mark's football loyalties are clearly displaced. I'm not happy with him at the moment, since his Bears refused to allow the sad sack Giants to win their first game of the season. I won't get to see any (American) football until I return to the US on Monday, but I'll try to keep up via threads such as yours, and ESPN.

Wow. I can't believe that it's nearly 11.30 am here. My body is still holding on to Eastern Daylight Time, so it feels more like 6.30 am instead. I'll probably forego my plans to get a haircut and go shopping, and instead have lunch here, take a nap (since I only slept for about 5 hours), and leave sometime after 3 pm to meet Heather and Luci at Daunt Books.

>187 Chatterbox: Thanks, Suz. I still have at least four more plays to see, along with two group and three individual meet ups in the next six days.

I still think it's a stretch to consider Saul Bellow as a Canadian writer. I'm not familiar with the other writers you mentioned, though.

Thanks for recommending Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage. I'll add it to the CanLit list.

I'll have to look at your review more closely, but I wasn't overly put off by the middle section of The Lowland as you were.

Hmm. WageSlave may be a more appropriate LT name for you than Chatterbox...

>188 markon: Thanks, Ardene. I'll continue to post photos and descriptions of this holiday this week.

My first Munro will likely be Lives of Girls and Women, which I believe is one of her earlier works.

>189 cameling: Definitely so, Caroline. I have a set of books that I want to buy on my Amazon UK wish list, so I'll write those titles down before I leave to meet Heather and Luci this afternoon.

>192 ffortsa: Will do, Judy. Fliss and, I believe, Rhian were not interested in seeing Much Ado About Nothing with us, mainly due to the vast age difference between the two main characters that Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones will be portraying. I'm not familiar with the play, and I mentioned to Fliss that I would pay to see those two legendary actors in performance together regardless of what play they were in.

>193 avatiakh: Thanks, Kerry! London has definitely become my favorite city, replacing San Francisco and NYC, and I feel very much at home here.

I hope you love Daunt Books as much as I did, Darryl! It may inspire you to expand your travel circle, as well, in that it arranges most of its stock by country/region. I wish I could go there before every trip I make to get a taste of my destination in advance!

I don't think James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave are that far apart in age. It's that their age is much older than Beatrice and Benedict were originally written. But it's a wonderful play; the film version with Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh is also quite good.

Enjoy! I'll be in London (sorta) for about three hours tomorrow morning waiting for my connection home :-)

Darryl, lunch and a nap sound to be just the ticket for a tired body. Your afternoon sounds wonderful, meeting Heather and Luci at Daunt!

(the other Nobelists I mentioned were economists or scientists, so no reason to be familiar with 'em!)

Enjoy "much ado" -- it will be one of those plays that is interesting for the sake of the actors/casting perhaps.

Like Francesca Annis cast opposite Ralph Fiennes (as his mother) in some classic Scandinavian play full of sturm und drang, Brand, when she was romantically involved with him. The play was bleak but otherwise unmemorable.

I've seen Beatrice and Benedict, the main characters in Much Ado, played young and played thirty-ish, but to play them as old as Redgrave and Jones are is fairly idiotic. Of course, they will be able to speak the speech wonderfully. I may look up the production and see who else is in it.

eta: No one else I'm familiar with in the cast, but of course I know of the director, Mark Rylance, who is not above doing really interesting casting. For instance, he was in an all-male production of 'Measure for Measure' at BAM a few years ago, and he is scheduled to play Olivia in 'Twelfth Night' on Broadway this season. I can understand all-male or even all-female casting ( as in the current production of 'Julius Caesar' at St' Ann's), much better than I can serious age differences. But of course, those two can be very interesting to watch.

Oh Darryl, I am late for the shadow jury :( Sorry, as you did a great job in setting it up and tallying. I have finished The Luminaries just in time though so that is great ! I ended up reading 4 of the 6 shortlisted novels, and am really pleased with that.

I wanted to drop by and say that tonight (Wed evening NZ time) I will be tuning in to Radio New Zealand National to listen to a radio adaption of the Cairo Trilogy series. I'm sure that after it airs, it is available to listen to from their website.

I have still to get the first in the series, but have managed to collect the last 2, so I will be reading them once I find the first. All inspired by your review of the series last year!

And your poll was spot on!

>230 Chatterbox: WOOHOO!
As I read your message, the 10am radio news just announced the same thing!

Yippeee!

Yaaaaaaaaaaay!!!! So happy that The Luminaries has won! It's the top story in the NZ papers already.

Woo hoo! Congratulations to Eleanor Catton, the youngest writer to win the Booker Prize. The Luminaries, at 831 pages (UK edition) is also the longest book to win the award. She was up against stiff competition from Colm Tóibín and especially Jim Crace, so this win and the recognition that will come with it must be especially sweet for her.

I found out via a text message that Rachael (FlossieT) sent me during the second act of Much Ado About Nothing, which I saw with Heather, Jenny and Lesley, a friend of a friend of Rachael's, at The Old Vic Theatre. Rachael met us for about 20 minutes at The Cut Bar in front of The Young Vic Theatre, where the four of us and Luci met for dinner and drinks; she was supposed to have joined us for the play, but she received an invitation to the Granta Books party for Eleanor Catton last week, so she couldn't make it. I'm glad that she decided to go to the party, as it is very likely a once in a lifetime experience for her. I'll see her again on Saturday night in Cambridge for dinner; Fliss and I will see A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen that afternoon, and then we'll take the train to Cambridge to meet her and Jenny. I'll be very interested to find out details about the party!

Heather and I met at the branch of Daunt Books on the Marylbone High Street; Luci joined us later, but left to go to a nearby Oxfam shop. It was the first time that either of us had gone there, and we were both impressed and slightly overwhelmed by the beauty of the bookshop and its book selection. It's primarily a travel bookstore, with sections for the world's major countries, and each section includes guide books along with fiction and nonfiction books about each country, organized by city and region. Since I plan to go to Barcelona next year I started my journey in Spain, where I found these books:

Secret Barcelona: Jonglez Guide by Verónica Ramirez Muro & Rocio Sierra Carbonell
Everyman Mapguides Barcelona
Homage to Barcelona by Colm Tóibín
A Thousand Morons by Quim Monzó

From there I traveled to Peru, where I picked up The Blue Hour by Alonso Cueto, to South Africa for Small Circle of Beings by Damon Galgut, and to Sierra Leone for The Devil that Danced on the Water: A Daughter's Memoir by Aminatta Forna, then returned "home" to England for On Brick Lane by Rachel Lichtenstein and The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell. Nearly all of these books were either on the wish list that I brought with me, or were ones that I've been wanting for a year or long but couldn't find elsewhere.

After we left and met Luci at the Oxfam bookshop we rode on a very crowded Bakerloo line train from Baker Street to Waterloo, and walked to The Cut, the street where The Old Vic and The Young Vic Theatres are located. We met Lesley and Jenny for drinks and dinner at The Cut Bar, located just in front of The Young Vic. I had a Pimm's cup, in honor of Katie, along with salmon and scrambled eggs on toast and chips.

Rachael and Luci left us in front of The Old Vic after a pleasant conversation, and we saw Much Ado About Nothing, which I found to be quite amusing and entertaining, although I suspect that I missed some of the dialogue and the details of the play, as I was completely unfamiliar with it. We said goodbye to Lesley there, and the three of us walked to nearby Waterloo Station, where we went our separate ways.

It was another very enjoyable day in London, and I'm glad to have seen old friends and to have made a new friend in Lesley.

I think I'll turn in now, as I'll take a mid-morning train from King's Cross to Ely to meet up with Rhian later this morning (it's just past 12.30 am here). I'll catch up either on the train to Ely or the return trip to London, or sometime tomorrow evening.

Oooh, love Ely. Say hi to the cathedral for me. It's quite startling; one of the oldest Norman cathedrals, and remarkably vertical in a remarkably horizontal setting. I have vivid memories of attending a sung evensong service there -- one of about a dozen people in the congregation. It was beautiful.

Sounds like you are amongst it all there, Darryl! Soak up that Booker buzz while you can. Maybe next year it'll be a US book that wins?

Just dropping by real quick to see the news about the Booker winner. You must be thrilled indeed. I haven't been around lately, but wanted you to know that you can add me to the list of those who read it. I thought it was good, very good actually, but had quite a few reservations. In fact, I finished it well before they announced it as a winner today and could probably have fit it one or two other shortlisted books, but didn't feel compelled to, plenty of time ahead, one hopes.

I am honored by the Pimms salute!

Today I spent several very enjoyable hours with Rhian in Ely, a town in Cambridgeshire about 15 miles north of Cambridge. It was a easy and pleasant ride by train on First Capital Connect's service from London King's Cross station to King's Lynn; the train runs nonstop from King's Cross to Cambridge, and then continues local service to King's Lynn. Rhian met me at the train station, and from there we first walked along the River Ouse to the center of town.

Our first stop was to Ely Cathedral, which was originally founded by St. Etheldreda in 673 AD as a double monastery. It was destroyed by the Danes 200 years later, and a Benedictine community was founded on the site in 970. The current buildings date back to the early 11th century, and it became a cathedral in 1109. It has undergone several additions and renovations from then until 2000.

As we were about to enter the main building of the cathedral we saw a sign on the main door that indicated that 600 schoolchildren were touring the church until 2 pm. So, we decided to proceed to Topping and Company Booksellers on the High Street, a lovely small shop with an excellent selection of fiction and nonfiction. I came away with six books, nearly all of which came from my wish list:

The Sea Close By by Albert Camus
Archipelago by Monique Roffey
The View from Castle Rock by Alice Munro
Quesadillas by Juan Pablo Villalobos
Black Vodka by Deborah Levy
The Marrying of Chani Kaufman by Eve Harris

The bookshop provides coffee for its customers, which was greatly appreciated, as I didn't have coffee before I got on the train at King's Cross, and we had a nice chat in the bookshop.

After we left we had lunch at The Almonry Restaurant, which is located within the former almonry of the Ely Cathedral, which was built in the 12th century to distribute alms to the poor. Rhian had a prawn sandwich with crisps and Earl Grey tea, and I had a salmon & dill quiche with chips and Lapsang Souchong tea, with more excellent conversation.

We then proceeded to the cathedral, which was absolutely stunning. I took plenty of photos, and I'll post them here shortly.

Rhian drove me back to the Ely train station, and we said our goodbyes after a very delightful day.

That does sound like a great day, Darryl. I notice the bookshop was promoting signed copies of The Luminaries and other shortlisters.

At first I read that as "The Alimony Restaurant! Haha!!!

Sounds like you're having a great time. Thanks for taking us "along." Can't wait to see the pics!

^^^Yes! Me too!

It sounds like a perfect, peaceful, contented day. Wonderful!

Catching up (again)...

>198 katiekrug: Heather and I loved Daunt Books, Katie. I liked how it was organized, which made it easy to find guidebooks for Santiago and two books about the city.

I don't think James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave are that far apart in age. It's that their age is much older than Beatrice and Benedick were originally written.

Exactly. That's what I meant to say; I think that Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones are roughly the same age, but Beatrice and Benedict are supposed to be a much younger couple.

But it's a wonderful play; the film version with Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh is also quite good.

Right. It was filled with humorous scenes and lines. The play was set during the early portion of World War II, with a mixture of what seemed to be American soldiers and mainly British civilians. The funniest segments were a blues piece, in which one of the actors that played a decrepit old man performed a wacky and hilarious dance, and the opening of Act II, which featured two Boy Scouts and one Girl Scout as guards who captured Don John, the villain of the story. Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones were absolutely delightful in their roles, and their interaction with each other. I hope that the play comes to the US next year, although I'm sure that tickets will cost more than the £28 (roughly $45) we paid to see it.

Heather and Jenny both mentioned the same film version of Much Ado About Nothing, so I'll have to rent or buy it.

>199 lit_chick: Yesterday afternoon's and evening's meet up was delightful, Nancy. But, the past four days have been equally as enjoyable, thanks mainly to the so far seven LTers and one new friend who accompanied me. They have all made me feel very much at home here, and all are the best examples of the British hospitality that I have grown to love.

>200 Chatterbox: Much Ado About Nothing was very delightful and wickedly funny, Suz. Believe it or not I had never seen a Shakespeare play before this year, and this was the third one I've seen in 2013, all of which have been superb.

>201 ffortsa: I've seen Beatrice and Benedict, the main characters in Much Ado, played young and played thirty-ish, but to play them as old as Redgrave and Jones are is fairly idiotic.

Fliss (and Rhian?) had essentially the same opinion as you expressed, Judy. I had never seen Much Ado About Nothing before, so I didn't share the same expectations as you and they did. Heather, Jenny and Lesley all had seen it, but they all enjoyed it. As Jenny said, it was "Very enjoyable. Definitely improved once I put past experiences of the play behind me and focused on it as it was."

At least one actor was familiar to me from the National Theatre's production of English People Very Nice, which I saw several years ago. I forgot to buy a program, but I'll probably pick one up tomorrow afternoon after I see Edward II at the NT, which is within walking distance of The Old Vic.

>202 LovingLit: I'm sorry that I wasn't able to include you in the Shadow Jury, Megan. I did see that you ranked The Luminaries first, so your vote wouldn't have affected our jury's winner.

I also voted in The Mookse and the Gripes Forum's shortlist ranking. Of the 14 people that voted, 11 chose Harvest #1, and I was the only one who selected The Luminaries as my top choice. It did finish in second place in the forum, though.

Well done on finishing four of the six shortlisted books! I think that only Nathalie and I completed the shortlist before yesterday's prize announcement. Brenda, danieljayfriedman and vivians read five books, and you and Donna were right behind with four books each.

The radio adaptation of The Cairo Trilogy sounds interesting. Do let us know how you like it!

>203 Chatterbox: The Booker poll was spot on, Suz. I'll be interested to see if others agree with us, now that The Luminaries is finally available in the US.

>204 LovingLit: I feel a bit sorry that Jim Crace didn't win the Booker Prize, as many had thought he would, but The Luminaries was a much more ambitious and memorable book, IMO. I'll have to look at my list of reads so far this year, but I'm pretty sure that it''s my favorite novel that was published this year.

>205 cushlareads: Catton's win was featured prominently on Breakfast on BBC One television this morning, although the hosts mainly commented on the size of the book, as it is the largest one ever to win the Booker. I forgot to buy The Guardian or any of the other London dailies today, but I'll bet that Catton was mentioned on the paper's front page.

>207 Chatterbox: The Ely Cathedral and its friendly staff said hello to you as well, Suz. It was a stunning building, especially since the original portion was built just over 1000 years ago, and the "new" portion was completed in 1349.

>208 LovingLit: I hope that a book by an author from the US doesn't win the Booker Prize next year, Megan, unless it's truly an outstanding work of fiction.

>209 Smiler69: I was thrilled that The Luminaries won the Booker Prize, Megan, but I'm sure that Rachael was far more excited than I was. I'll see her on Saturday night, and I'll be interested to find out what her reaction was, and how the Granta party for Eleanor Catton turned out.

>210 katiekrug: I've now come to associate you with Pimm's Cups, Katie! I suspect that we are the two American LTers that like them the most.

>212 jnwelch: Right, Joe; Topping did have the shortlisted books prominently displayed on a large table near the front of the bookshop, although I cringed when I also saw The Kills on a nearby display.

>213 avidmom: Good one, avidmom! I had to look up the restaurant's name on Google, as I thought it was The Almondry.

>214 richardderus: Today was a perfectly lovely day with Rhian, Richard, even though the weather wasn't the best, as it was cool, rainy and for a spell quite windy.

#211 Glad you had a good day Darryl.
I had a great time showing you around Ely - and glad the bookshop lived up to expectations and you were able to find some books!

According to this article in today's Telegraph, which was written by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, one of the Booker judges, there was general agreement amongst the judges that The Luminaries was the choice to win the prize:

Booker Prize 2013: Confessions of a judge

>218 SandDune: Thanks for a wonderful day, Rhian! I loved meeting you and seeing Ely, and buying more books of course!

*champs at bit waiting for Friday's UPS delivery*

Here are some photos from yesterday's outing to Ely.

The Cutter Inn, alongside the River Ouse:



A standard houseboat on the river:



A not so standard houseboat, which is covered in willow and adorned with sculptures made from willow:



The original portion of the Ely Cathedral, which was initially constructed over 1000 years ago:



More photos of the exterior of the cathedral:





Rhian approaching the main entrance of the cathedral. On the door to the left was posted the sign warning visitors that 600 schoolchildren were inside:

Topping & Company Booksellers of Ely:



Rhian and I having coffee in the bookshop:



Entrance to the Almonry, where we had lunch:



Some photos of the interior of the Ely Cathedral, none of which can do justice to seeing it in person:











Finally, a house I particularly liked on the walk back from Ely Cathedral:

>221 richardderus: *champs at bit waiting for Friday's UPS delivery*

Wha?

Here are the two photos Bryony and I took when we met on Monday. First, Bryony outside of the Covent Garden Underground station just before we parted:



And me on Parliament Square, beneath the statue of Nelson Mandela:

I finally caught up on all the wonderful London, Shakespeare, and Booker talk. Thank you for sharing photos.

I also want to thank you for recommending The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. I just finished reading it today, and it was fabulous. Either a 4.5 or 5 star read for me. Probably my second favorite read of the year so far, behind The Song of Achilles. Although it's hard to compare such different books.

Enjoy the rest of your trip!

Gorgeous pics. It must be overwhelming to be in such a huge, gorgeous historical place like Ely Cathedral That's a nice photo of you by the Nelson Mandela statue. Just curious, though, who are the other statues of at Parliament Square?

Darryl, I came over to celebrate with you even though I have not (yet) read The Luminaries. I did not expect such a visual and narrative treat. Wonderful photos. Ely looks like a town worth visiting. I'm getting more and more excited for next year's excursion to Scotland: hiking, pubs, distilleries, and bookshops!

>224 kidzdoc: The Luminaries Day! It arriveth upon the steps to my vestibule!

Heavens, you have a lot of enjoyment ahead of you with Shakespeare! I also recommend reading and/or listening to the plays. There's a good series of BBC radio versions, and some classic television versions as well from the RSC. (I was part of a Shakespeare reading group in NYC for several years -- it's how I met LT 75er chexmix abt 10 years ago -- and they had some recommendations on that front.) Once you start reading and listening to them, you'll find it's amazing how phrases and speeches so clearly are the root of so much that you're probably reading today -- including plot elements. Shakespeare single-handedly invented more words than probably anyone else ever in the English language and used far more words than most of us ever do or ever have.

My suggestions:
-- look for the Kenneth Branagh video of Henry V. It's astounding and done on a shoestring budget. I think I went to see it three times when it was first released, including once when there was no heat in the theater (it was winter...)
-- read or listen to Julius Caesar. I love the story and the personalities
-- classic comedies include Twelfth Night -- I'm going to go to a version that the Brown MFA folks are staging here at the beginning of November, I think.
-- you probably should look for a good version of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

I remember that you saw Othello but can't remember which others you've seen. Macbeth, King Lear and Hamlet are the other 'great' tragedies. The Polanski film version of Macbeth is quite remarkable, in a gory kind of way.

Two other great plays to see/watch are The Tempest and As You Like It. The latter, along with "Dream", is one of the most often performed non-tragedies; the former is fascinating, with Prospero the magician and his daughter Miranda.

From there, the Henry IV plays are probably good, although I've only read bits and pieces of them. I like Richard II, among the histories, for bits like this:

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,--
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

If you read any of them, try reading them aloud to get into the rhythm of the language. It's great fun.

#187 - I'm amused by the definition of who is Canadian (in terms of the Wikipedia list). I don't know too many people who think of Bellow as Canadian (vs Canadian-born), and some of the economics laureates, like Scholes, have done all their work in the US, having moved here for graduate school. Not as sure of the scientists. I know John Polanyi was working in Canada - -his daughter was one of my classmates at university.

Yes, well I find that we Canadians can be sort of embarrassing in our need for accolades and recognition. Not one of our better national traits in my opinion, but it comes from living in the shadow of the behemoth directly to our south, and being one of the children of the British Empire.

eta: I also wanted to point out that the Canadian press is also pointing out the Luminaries has a Canadian connection, because apparently Eleanor Catton was born somewhere in Canada.

Sorry to highjack your thread, Darryl.

#188 - I'm happy that Alice Munro won the Nobel, though I've enjoyed her earlier fiction more than the later stuff. The Beggar's Maid was my favorite (it had a different title in Canada, I think.)

Indeed it did. I studied it at uni under the title Who Do You Think You Are?, which I don't like as much because it's not as distinct as The Beggar Maid, and also because I never figured out how it related to the book, really. Also, we considered it a novel, although one made up of a series of short stories about the same characters.

I love crisp autumn days, and the rain hasn't bothered me a bit. I have been surprised to see so many people (tourists, presumably) in central London dressed in winter coats and gloves and shivering like frozen ducklings in 50-60 F (15-20 C) weather.

Ha ha ha. What a great image.

Did I mention that I'm positively green with jealousy that you're back in London so soon, and I'm not?

(Although my daughter is graduating high school this year and is busily looking through university catalogues for UK unis. If she can get a scholarship, and if she actually does the leg work, I may be back next year).

Here's a summary of the Tea Party-led US government shutdown, which cost the country $24 billion, adversely affected hundreds of thousands of ordinary Americans, and brought the country's and world's economy to the brink of disaster:



Americans, please remember this chart in November 2014, when all of the members of the House of Representatives come up for re-election.

>226 labfs39: You're welcome, Lisa! I'm glad that you liked the photos and descriptions of London and Ely, and I'm very pleased that you enjoyed The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down.

>227 avidmom: Right, avidmom. The Ely Cathedral is indescribably impressive, and these photos do little justice to it.

According to Wikipedia's page on Parliament Square, there are 10 statues on the square. Starting with Winston Churchill and proceeding counterclockwise the others are: David Lloyd George; Jan Smuts; Henry John Temple, 3rd; Edward Smith-Stanley; Benjamin Disraeli; Sir Robert Peel; George Canning; Abraham Lincoln; and Nelson Mandela.

>228 EBT1002: Thanks, Ellen. Ely is definitely worth a visit, particularly for the cathedral and the Topping & Company bookshop. I look forward to your visit to Scotland next year!

>229 richardderus: Ah! I hope that you enjoy The Luminaries as much as most of the rest of us did, Richard.

>230 Chatterbox: Thanks for those Shakespeare recommendations, Suz! I've favorited your message for future reference.

>231 Nickelini: Your comments about the Canadian psyche make sense, Joyce. I remain incredibly ignorant about your country, despite its proximity, and I suspect that most Americans are just as clueless about Canada as well.

According to Wikipedia, Eleanor Catton's father, who was born in New Zealand, was a graduate student at the University of Western Ontario when she was born. She and her family returned to Christchurch when she was six years old, after they spent a year in Leeds.

Feel free to hijack my thread at any time, as long as it doesn't involve conservative political rants such as the one by the right winger who fouled Paul's thread recently.

>232 Nickelini: Topping & Company prominently featured several books by Alice Munro at the front desk, so I bought The View from Castle Rock. Now that I have it I'll probably read the first story from it soon.

>233 Nickelini: The frozen ducklings in London reminded me of some Atlantans, who dress like Eskimos when the temperature drops before 60 F (roughly 20 C).

Theatre review: The Drowned Man: A Hollywood Fable

This performance by the award winning Punchdrunk company was set in the Temple Studios near Paddington Station, a large four story building which was originally designed to be the British outpost for Republic Pictures, a major Hollywood film company. The studios operated throughout the postwar years until they abruptly closed in 1962, and the building has been largely unoccupied since then.



The members of the audience were given Carnival masks to wear as they entered into the performance space. Each was instructed to remain silent, and encouraged to separate themselves from their companions, in order to experience the play on an individual basis. I attended the performance with Fliss, and within five minutes we were separated from each other until it ended.





The four stories of the building served as the performance space. The rooms included decrepit studios, which were eerily lit, smoky and so dark in some places that it was difficult to see more than a few feet in front of you, along with musty hotel rooms, a small movie theater, deserted offices containing items from the 1940s and 1950s, gaudy dressing rooms with burlesque clothing, a doctor's office and waiting area, and various bizarre items including trailer homes, a wrecked 1950s automobile which contained the body of a woman killed in an accident, shrines that were very similar to the Day of the Dead altars from Mexican culture, and chicken cages. The spooky atmosphere was enhanced by ominous, booming orchestral music. The audience wandered randomly from room to room and floor to floor, and the silence added to the perplexity and absurdity of the space.





After a half hour or so actors began to appear within the rooms, who did not wear masks, unlike the audience members or the staff that manned the rooms like attendants in museums. Each would enact a scene solo or with one or more other actors, then proceed to another space, as the audience chased after them. There were no seats, and little if any separation between the actors and the audience, who frequently had to part to let the actors pass and were sometimes included in the performance as an actor fell into someone's arms or led someone astray by the hand. There wasn't a clear plot, but the larger theme was the manner in which Hollywood film companies promised actors fame and wealth, used them for their own means, and discarded them like rubbish haphazardly thrown out of a moving automobile. Meaningless sex and alcohol and drug use were rampant, as actors and directors conspired to abuse and lie to each other for personal gain.

The Drowned Man was easily the most unique theater performance I've ever attended, and I wouldn't have gone to see it if Fliss hadn't recommended it. It was bewildering, frustrating, and weird, but overall it was an enjoyable and definitely unforgettable experience, and one that I'm glad to have seen.

Definitely sounds like a unique experience.

The shortlists for this year's National Book Awards were announced yesterday:

Fiction:
Rachel Kushner, The Flamethrowers
Jhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland
James McBride, The Good Lord Bird
Thomas Pynchon, Bleeding Edge
George Saunders, Tenth of December

Nonfiction:
Jill Lepore, Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin
Wendy Lower, Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields
George Packer, The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America
Alan Taylor, The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832
Lawrence Wright, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief

Poetry:
Frank Bidart, Metaphysical Dog
Lucie Brock-Broido, Stay, Illusion
Adrian Matejka, The Big Smoke
Matt Rasmussen, Black Aperture
Mary Szybist, Incarnadine: Poems

Young People's Literature:
Kathi Appelt, The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp
Cynthia Kadohata, The Thing About Luck
Tom McNeal, Far Far Away
Meg Rosoff, Picture Me Gone
Gene Luen Yang, Boxers & Saints

The winners in each category will be announced on November 20th. More info: http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2013.html#.Ul-15TK9KSM

>230 Chatterbox:: PBS recently aired Shakespeare's history plays (Richard II, Henry IV parts I & II, and Henry V) in a "mini-series" called The Hollow Crown. They were well done although Henry V wasn't nearly as good as the Branagh version Suz mentioned. It's fantastic. My husband maintains you have to watch all the previous history plays in order to understand Henry V, but I disagree.

If you're considering watching the history plays, you might want to pick up a copy of The Royal Line of Succession. I think we got our copy at a National Trust property somewhere, or possibly at the British Museum. I can't believe how often the hubs and I consult this little guide whether we are watching a TV show or movie, or reading some other book. That and our Kings & Queens of England playing cards, which I feel compelled to put in order every time I take them out of their box. Our kids think we're nuts. Maybe we are. :)

>234 kidzdoc:

Thanks for the pics! What a trip.

The play sounds unique and quite intriguing. Kudos to Fliss for recommending it. You won't forget that one anytime soon. :-)

My goodness, the NBA crowd in fiction is grisly. I'd read none of them voluntarily.

Non-fiction I'd read all of them.

Poetry and YA *loud derisive laughter* as if.

Some years are like that, I suppose.

>236 kidzdoc:: Darryl, you know I'm a big fan of yours, but I don't think it is fair to say that Paul's thread was "fouled" by a right-winger. Jenn was expressing a different perspective and she did so articulately and without resorting to any ad hominem attacks or crazy rants. I also thought it was brave of her to express her opinion on a thread where opinion was already demonstrably favoring the opposite view. She was respectful and mature, much more so than the politicians who hold similar opinions to hers (and there is my ad hominem attack on politicians!).

I am NOT starting a political discussion here, just sticking up for an individual who has a right to express herself and who did not seem to upset the thread's owner in doing so.

So... How 'bout them Giants?

;-)

Okay, back to books. Hope I'm not banned from your thread now...

Oh boy oh boy oh boy The Luminaries arrived a day early!! #happyoldcoot

>240 lauralkeet: Thanks for mentioning The Royal Line of Succession, Laura. I've added it to my Amazon wish list, and I'll look for it if I do any more book shopping before I leave on Monday. I've already purchased 23 books, if my count is correct, so I may not make any other bookshop visits during this trip.

>241 jnwelch: You're welcome, Joe; I'm glad that you liked the photos. Unfortunately I didn't take any on Tuesday, when we went to Daunt Books, The Cut Restaurant and The Old Vic, but we were pressed for time and I was busy sending texts to Jenny, Rachael, Lesley and Heather until we were all together. Fliss, Jenny, Rachael and I are meeting again for dinner in Cambridge on Saturday, so I'll take more photos then.

I'm not sure what the Tea Party hijackers accomplished, other than to ensure their irrelevancy and extremism. Hopefully there will be a major backlash against them in next year's congressional elections, and that they will be replaced by moderate and sensible Republicans.

>242 richardderus: I may read as many as four of the shortlisted fiction titles, Richard. I definitely plan to read The Good Lord Bird, and I was thinking of reading Bleeding Edge and Tenth of December. I'm interested in The Unwinding by George Packer from the nonfiction shortlist, but none of the other titles are particularly appealing to me.

>243 katiekrug: I sent you a private message a little while ago, Katie. No worries, you are definitely not banned from this thread, unless you express support for the Dallas Cowboys or Notre Dame. ;-)

I should clarify that I know that Joyce wouldn't post any conservative political rants here, that was meant to be a general comment. :-)

>244 richardderus: Excellent! Have at it, sir.

What Katie said re Jenn. She's not the kind of person to embark on a rant, really.

It's an interesting list of demands. Some of these topics I think are important, and shouldn't be tossed out -- we clearly need tax reform, knowing a fair amount about pipelines, I'm not sure that the Keystone pipeline should be tossed out the window (vs made as safe as possible; it's not as if banning its construction means that the oil won't be developed -- it will -- or that we won't need resources from somewhere to meet demand -- we will) or that tort reform might not be a good idea. (After 18 years, I still think it's absurd that I had to sue someone to get medical costs for a car accident covered, because my own insurance wouldn't cover anything that someone else's might, and that other insurance co. wouldn't pay up unless I sued...) That said, by no means is this remotely appropriate as a strategy for achieving ANY of these objectives. It reminds me of preschool kids throwing a temper tantrum. Constructive engagement is the word, peeps.

Joyce -- re Canada, yes, I know precisely whereof you speak. I'm a dual citizen -- born in the US to Canadian parents -- who has spent about 1/3 of her life in the US, a third in Canada and a third overseas. My father was in the Canadian foreign service, so I've seen that attitude evolve, and the tug of war that happens beneath the surface. It's one reason why Trudeau intrigues me still as a political figure -- he tended to see this odd position Canada occupies as something interesting and good rather than as something to struggle with.

I'm with Richard on that list of fiction. The Flamethrowers was a triumph of style over substance -- uber literary but very unengaging. More consciously stylized than the Lahiri novel, but less engaging as a narrative. Not surprised that both were chosen by the same pool of judges though, and the combination makes me very wary of the other options.

That said, the non-fiction list is more interesting. I'm reading the Packer book -- picking it up and putting it down from time to time -- and the Lawrence Wright book was a very comprehensive look at the phenomenon of Scientology. Two of the others are available via Amazon Vine -- perhaps the Jane Franklin one is already gone, though. I'll know this afternoon.

And if you have any questions about the line of succession, Darryl, you can just ask me... I'm a tremendous source of great trivia on all this, especially when it comes to the wars of the Roses, the Stuarts and the Hanoverian succession... :-) (oh yeah, I'm modest, too....)

234> AMEN!

I should clarify that I know that Joyce wouldn't post any conservative political rants here, that was meant to be a general comment. :-)

Probably not, although I've been getting a lot of my entertainment from the Right Wing Watch website lately. Lots of posts from the Value Voters Summit. Wow, do you ever have some vocal loonies down there! Everything is as bad as slavery/Nazis, and the US is two years away from becoming an Islamic theocracy. How do these people get anything other than a trip to a padded cell?

Darryl, I'm thoroughly enjoying being in London with you, again. Stunning, stunning architecture, non? Thanks for being so good to us : ).

>219 kidzdoc: I loved that article, thanks for posting the link, so interesting.

I havent a hope in catching up here, but the photos stand out and are lovely! I the Ely Cathedral is very impressive!

>245 kidzdoc: I'm not sure what the Tea Party hijackers accomplished, other than to ensure their irrelevancy and extremism. Hopefully there will be a major backlash against them in next year's congressional elections, and that they will be replaced by moderate and sensible Republicans.

As long as we have gerrymandering, we will have exactly what we've got I'm afraid. Last week I was listening to NPR (On Point to be exact) and they interviewed a congressional candidate from Texas who was running because the present Tea Party congressman was not far enough right! I'm afraid, as crazy as these representatives seem, there's always somebody farther right waiting to run in the primary. And that was what caused them to take the stand they did. Their jobs are on the line because they don't answer to you or me but to their often crazily shaped gerrymandered congressional district.

Interestingly, the ACA is crashing and burning so these same representatives in the "suicide caucus" of the Republican party, could have saved themselves the trouble and the rest of the country the grief and just let it play itself out. I don't know how we return to sanity where compromises are the norm and government runs, relatively, smoothly.

Enjoying the travelogue immensely Darryl.

My trip to London is nearing an end, but I have two full days ahead before I leave. After I do a bit of shopping I'll meet Fliss to see the afternoon matinee of A Doll's House at the Duke of York's Theatre near Leicester Square, and afterward we'll take the train to Cambridge to meet Rachael and Jenny for dinner. Bianca and I will meet on Sunday morning to see the Paul Klee exhibition at the Tate Modern. I had hoped to see a play that afternoon at the NT or elsewhere, but for some reason most of the theatres are closed that day.

Last night I saw The World of Extreme Happiness at The Shed, the temporary performance space in front of the National Theatre that is taking the place of the Cottlesloe Theatre (the smallest of the three theatres within the NT) as it undergoes renovations. It was very good and the ending was very powerful and shocking; the lead actress was crying when the performers received their worthy applause at the play's conclusion.

I won't be on LT much until Monday, when I fly back to Atlanta. Have a good weekend, everyone!

Have a good weekend and a safe trip back, Darryl. Sounds like another excellent theater experience.

I will be curious to hear what you think of A Doll's House I read it a couple years ago for a class, and had some mixed feelings. But Nora is a marvelous role--I hope you get a good actress.

Enjoy these last few days!

Reading, smiling, nodding, frowning, snorting, etc.

Oh, I really like A Doll's House! I hope the performance is wonderful. Safe trip home, Darryl.

I saw Tara Fitzgerald as Nora a few years ago--she was delightful.

Darryl, I always leave your thread, when you are tearing a hole in London, a little nostalgic and dare I say homesick.
The photos of Ely especially were very evocative and the houseboats, cathedral, bookshop and tea-rooms all unmistakably english.
Nice to see you met with Rhian whose company I was honoured to share together with Alan and J (the two men in her life) while the family was on holiday in Kuala Lumpur.

The photo of you by the statue of Nelson (Mandela not Lord) is interesting if not only because Mr. Mandela seems to have left his bag behind.

The table of Republican achievements is not, to me, in the least surprising. I hope it will be worth it when you all get to vote shortly.

My political views are well known here mate - I am left of left of centre. Yours are too. Others who don't share our view are, of course, free to express their opinions. I know you were particularly offended by certain comments on my thread. I wasn't in truth although I didn't agree with the views expressed I didn't feel they went over the line. You are much closer to the issues than I am of course.

Loved your posted article by the Booker judge. 170 books in ten months. That would mean that the list of potential judges amongst our ranks is not universal!

Have a great weekend, Darryl, and a safe trip home.

Love the pics & London tour commentary ....... sounds like you are having a absolute ball ...

someone mentioned 2666 up there it comes in at a whopping 900 + definitely door stopper .... been on my TBR for too long.

Great to see one so young win the Booker .... rather excited to see what her writing career will bring to us readers ....

Darryl, I know you are enjoying your last few days in London. Thanks for taking the time to keep us updated on your activities. I'm glad you were able to have some meetups with other LTers. When I first started in this group, I had no idea that it would become a big part of my life. I hope to meet you - and so many others - someday. Safe travels home!

I'm now back in Atlanta, after a fabulous trip that included six plays, meet ups with eight LTers (along with a friend of a friend of Rachael's), two museum exhibitions, plenty of good food, and the purchase of 30 books. It's a little past 10:30 pm EST, which corresponds to 3:30 am London time, so I'll catch up here and create a new thread tomorrow (as I'm off from work on Tuesday and Wednesday).

ETA: I finished Five Days at Memorial on the flight from Heathrow to ATL today, and it was a superb book, as Mark (and others?) have said. I'll give it 5 stars and review it soon.

Welcome home Darryl. I love to live vicariously through you. I feel as I get to know London a little better each time you go.

Now I am going to have to read Five Days at the Memorial I had been avoiding it, because for some reason I thought it was a novel about a monument, maybe the Lincoln Memorial.

Glad you are home safely - as usual I loved reading about your trip away.

Glad you got home safe.

Catching up...

>253 jnwelch: It definitely was another great theater experience, Joe. I'll review the other five plays I saw on my new thread shortly. All of the plays were very good, but Othello, A Season in the Congo and Julius Caesar remain my favorite performances of the year.

>254 banjo123: A Doll's House was very good, Rhonda, although the experience was marred for Fliss and I due to the presence of 20 or more giggly and yakky teenagers that sat in the balcony just above us. I'll write a review of it today or tomorrow.

>255 katiekrug: I definitely enjoyed my last few days in London, Katie! The entire trip was great, but of course it was far too short.

It's hard for me to adequately express how much I love visiting London. I would love going there if all I did was go to theaters and museums, buy books, and view its rich culture, diversity and history, but having the ability to spend time experiencing these things with the friends I've made thanks to LT makes it 10 times more meaningful and special. I love all of you, and I'm deeply appreciative of your friendship and hospitality.

>256 tiffin: Reading, smiling, nodding, frowning, snorting, etc.

Ha ha! Why frowning, Tui?

262: six plays, ... eight LTers, two museum exhibitions, ...30 books
Sheesh. Quite the tally. How do you get all those books home?

>257 lit_chick: Thanks, Nancy! It was a good performance of A Doll's House overall, despite the teenagers in the audience.

>258 Cariola: Hattie Morahan played Nora in this performance, Deborah. She won two theater awards for her rendition of Nora in an earlier production of this play at the Young Vic last year, but Helen Mirren (rightfully) bested her for the Olivier Award for Best Actress, for her rendition of Queen Elizabeth II in The Audience.

>259 PaulCranswick: I had a splendid day in Ely with Rhian on Wednesday, Paul. The Ely Cathedral was breath taking and overwhelming, the bookshop was excellent, lunch at the Almonry was just lovely, and Rhian's company was the best part of all. I suspect that I'll return there next year, as Fliss, Rachael and Jenny also enjoy visiting that lovely town. For non-UK based LTers, it's easy to get there by train, via First Capital Connect's service from King's Cross to King's Lynn; Ely is two stations north of Cambridge.

Looking at those photos of Ely makes me a little bit "homesick", too! The more I visit London and see the UK the more comfortable and at home I feel there. If I didn't have any obligations, responsibilities or financial limitations I could easily envision myself living in a town like Ely, a peaceful and quiet place that is also close to London and Cambridge.

I'm not going to respond to or think about any posts about Republicans, Tea Party politicians or their supporters for the time being, in order to keep the good feeling of this trip flowing as long as possible. :-)

I think I might have to take a year long break from reading if I had to go through 170 books in 10 months! Kudos to this year's Booker judges for taking on that monumental task and selecting a very worthy winner. I'll make mention of Rachael's comments about the Granta party for Eleanor Catton and her own experience as a literary prize judge, which she shared with Fliss and I over dinner in Cambridge on Saturday, in my new thread.

The flight back to Atlanta (which I refuse to call "home") was a pleasant one, once we were on board. Because of my frequent flier status on Delta I was able to choose a bulkhead and exit row window seat, which had unlimited leg room (it's just behind the wing of the Boeing 767, in the middle of the plane, and facing it is a drop down seat that is used by one of the flight attendants on takeoff and landing. I sat next to a quirky but very pleasant older Englishman during the flight, and I was able to sleep for a good two or three hours and read in peace the remainder of the time (the flight time between London Heathrow and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is about 9½ hours from gate to gate, and there are multiple direct flights between LHR and ATL daily, on Delta, Virgin Atlantic and British Airways).

>260 roundballnz: Thanks, Alex. Yes, the trip was an absolute blast from beginning to end.

2666 was a good read, so I'll be interested to see what you, Mark and others make of it.

I'm pleased that the Booker judges chose The Luminaries as the winner; I suspected that they were going to give it to Harvest, in a nod to Jim Crace's comment that it would be his last book. That book would have been a worthy winner, and it would have been my favorite if it had been nominated in several other recent years, but The Luminaries is definitely my favorite of the two.

>261 Donna828: I'm glad that you and others are enjoying my London travelogue, Donna; there is definitely more to come! If nothing else, I hope that others are encouraged to visit London, and to meet up with the very friendly and hospitable LTers who live in or near there.

I definitely would love to meet you in person! I very much enjoyed meeting Brenda and Terri in Philadelphia this past spring, and I told them that I would be interested in going to a Midwest meet up in the future.

>263 luvamystery65: Thanks, Roberta! I also hope that I've encouraged you to visit London and the UK. Every time I go I see something new and very pleasurable, which makes me love my newly adopted country that much more.

>264 banjo123: Now I am going to have to read Five Days at the Memorial I had been avoiding it, because for some reason I thought it was a novel about a monument, maybe the Lincoln Memorial.

Ha! Five Days at Memorial is a thoroughly researched and very well written book about the five harrowing days that patients, their loved ones, and hospital staff experienced at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and the resulting flooding decimated the city in 2005, which resulted in 45 patient deaths there, including several suspicious ones on the fifth day just before the hospital was completely evacuated. It became a major news story here, and this book does a fabulous job of describing what led up to this tragedy, what took place in those five days, and the aftermath of the deaths and the prosecution of one physician and two nurses who cared for several of the patients who died on that last day. It will definitely end up as one of my favorite books of the year.

>265 cushlareads: Thanks, Cushla!

>266 BBGirl55: Thanks, Bryony! It was a pleasure to meet you last Monday. I should mention that I downloaded the Kindle version of London by Tube: A History of Underground Station Names by David Revill, one of the books you had recommended to me, after I noticed that it was on sale for $2.99. I'll definitely read it soon.

>268 qebo: How do you get all those books home?

Up until my July visit I had been using a Travelpro tote bag that I bought several years ago. Unfortunately it developed a tear close to the zipper this summer when I went to London in July, probably from me putting too much stress on it by overloading the bag with books (imagine that!). So, I'm now using an even older but still serviceable tote bag from Columbia Sportswear, which is a bit more rugged:



All 30 books fit in there. I normally bring an empty bag with me on my trips to London, San Francisco and Philadelphia/NYC, to bring back books, food and other bounty. This bag flattens out nicely when empty, so it fits easily in my suitcase.

It's time for a new thread...

Glad you had such a great trip, Darryl, but not surprised!