GeoCAT -- January, Canada and US

The discussion isn't schedule to begin until December, but feel free to list your own suggested titles and authors for the Canada/US region and the focus challenge topic of Immigration.

Be sure to record your planned reads on the GeoCAT wiki: http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/2014_GeoCAT

Fun Facts

Canada is the 2nd largest country in the world (after Russia). US is 3rd (ahead of China). That is counting all territory, including water. If only dry land is considered, then US would be ranked ahead of Canada.

The border between Canada and USA is the longest international border between 2 countries in the world. (5525 miles)

Canada is the largest country in the world that borders only one other country.

Canada has a longer coastline than any other country. (125,570 miles)

Canada has more fresh water than any other country. 9% of its territory is water – it contains more than 2 million, and possibly as many as 3 million, lakes – more than all other nations combined.

Canada has 8th highest per capita income. US is 6th. (Qatar is 1st)

US has the world’s largest economy.

Canada has one of the lowest population densities in the world – only 8.5 persons per square mile.

US has the 3rd largest population (after China and India), more than 315 million. Canada ranks 37th with a population of about 33.5 million.

Canada’s largest city is Toronto – population 5.5 million. US largest city is New York at 19 million people.

Both countries have nearly universal literacy rates.

Both countries are each other’s largest trading partners, China and Mexico are 2nd and 3rd for both.

Canadian students score higher on international student assessments, but more Americans graduate from post-secondary schools.

US has higher crime rates.

Canada has higher (legal) immigration rates.

Americans have more telephones per capita, but Canada has more internet users.

Big Macs cost 18% more in Canada than US.

Note: I pulled these from a variety of internet sources, some more reliable than others. I did not verify the accuracy of any of them and did not document the source of any of them. They are just for fun.

Canada:

Canada's literature, in both English and French, reflects the Canadian perspective on 1) Nature, 2) Frontier life, and 3) Canada's position in the world. These three tie into the "garrison mentality". Garrison mentality is a common theme in Canadian literature (and movies) and features characters who are always looking outwards and building metaphorical walls against the outside world. It is assumed to come from the part of the Canadian identity that fears the emptiness of the Canadian landscape and fears the oppressiveness of other nations (especially the United States).

Other traits common to Canadian literature:
* Failure and futility as a theme
* Humor: serious subjects are often laced with humor
* Anti-Americanism, often in the form of gentle satire: sometimes perceived as malicious, it often presents a friendly rivalry between the two nations
* Multiculturalism: an important theme since WWII
* Nature, or man vs nature: nature is sometimes portrayed as an enemy, sometimes as a divine force
* Satire and irony
* Self-deprecation
* Search for self-identity, and the need to justify one's existence
* Southern Ontario Gothic: a sub-genre which critiques the stereotypical Protestant mentality of southern Ontario and used by many of Canada's most internationally famous authors
* Underdog hero: the most common hero, an ordinary person who must overcome challenges from a large corporation, a bank, a rich tycoon, a government, a natural disaster, etc.
* Urban vs Rural: a variant of the underdog, involves a conflict between urban and rural cultures and usually portrays rural characters as morally superior

For more information: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/91950/Canadian-literature

Canadian authors & books:

Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale, Surfacing, Oryx and Crake
Michael Ondaatje - In the Skin of a Lion, The English Patient
Joseph Boyden - Three Day Road
Lucy Maud Montgomery - Anne of Green Gables
Alice Munro - Lives of Girls and Women

Yann Martel - Life of Pi
Mordecai Richler - The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
Margaret Laurence - The Stone Angel, The Diviners
Robertson Davies - Fifth Business
Stephen Leacock - Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town

Douglas Coupland
Lawrence Hill - The Book of Negroes
Carol Shields - The Stone Diaries
Timothy Findley - Not Wanted on the Voyage, Pilgrim
Rohinton Mistry

Louise Penny
Kenneth Oppel
Wayson Choy - The Jade Peony
Pierre Berton
Elizabeth Hay - A Student of Weather

Margaret Avison
Leonard Cohen - Beautiful Losers
Robert James Sawyer - Hominids, Rollback
Farley Mowat - Owls in the Family
Thomas King - Green Grass, Running Water

Robert Kroetsch - The Studhorse Man, Seed Catalogue
Sinclair Ross - As For Me and My House
Eden Robinson - Monkey Beach
Dionne Brand - No Language is Neutral
Howard O'Hagan - Tay John

Susanna Moodie - Roughing It In The Bush
Joy Kogawa - Obasan
Marian Engel - Bear
Jane Urquhart - The Stone Carvers
Suzette Mayr - The Widows

Sky Lee - Disappearing Moon Cafe
Ann Marie MacDonald - Fall on Your Knees
Andrew Pyper
Diane Schoemperlen - Our Lady of the Lost and Found
Alistair MacLeod - No Great Mischief

Steven Galloway - The Cellist of Sarajevo

For more Canadian authors: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadian_writers

USA:

The US has such a large and varied literature that it is hard to make generalizations about it, but there are 3 characteristics that seem to stand out.

First, American literature reflects beliefs and traditions that come from the frontier days. Pioneer ideals of self-reliance and independence appear again and again. American authors have great respect for the value and importance of the individual. They reject authority and emphasize democracy and the equality of people. They often celebrate nature and a sense of boundless space.

Second, American writers have a tendency to break with literary tradition and to strike out in their own directions. While writers in other countries embrace their national literary traditions, Americans reject the old in order to create something new.

Third, a lively streak of humor runs through American literature, from the earliest times to the present. Often, a dash of salty humor saves a serious theme from becoming too sentimental. American humor tends to be exaggerated, not subtle. It reflects an ability of people to laugh at themselves even during difficult times.

For more information: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/19939/American-literature

American authors & books:

F Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby, This Side of Paradise
Herman Melville - Moby-Dick, Billy Budd
Toni Morrison - Beloved, Song of Solomon
Walt Whitman - Leaves of Grass
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Nature, Self-Reliance

John Steinbeck - Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath
Langston Hughes
Stephen King - Carrie, The Shining
J D Salinger - The Catcher in the Rye
Henry David Thoreau - Civil Disobedience, Walden

Henry James - The Turn of the Screw
Maya Angelou - I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Zora Neale Hurston - Their Eyes Were Watching God
Frederick Douglass - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
T S Eliot

Willa Cather - O Pioneers!, My Antonia
James Fenimore Cooper - The Last of the Mohicans
Emily Dickinson
Washington Irving - Rip Van Winkle, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Jack Kerouac - On the Road, Big Sur

Ken Kesey - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird
Jack London - The Call of the Wild, The Sea Wolf
Margaret Mitchell - Gone With the Wind
Harriet Beecher Stowe - Uncle Tom's Cabin

Hunter Thompson - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hell's Angels
Tom Wolfe - The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Right Stuff
Tennessee Williams - A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Truman Capote - Breakfast at Tiffany's, In Cold Blood
Louisa May Alcott - Little Women

Upton Sinclair - The Jungle
Edith Warton - The Age of Innocence, Ethan Frome
Alice Walker - The Color Purple
Kurt Vonnegut Jr - Slaughterhouse Five
Joseph Heller - Catch-22

Arthur Miller - The Crucible, Death of a Salesman
Tim O'Brien - The Things They Carried
Kate Chopin - TheAwakening
Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451
Stephen Crane - The Red Badge of Courage

Sue Monk Kidd - The Secret Life of Bees
Ralph Ellison - Invisible Man
Barbara Kingsolver - The Poisonwood Bible, The Bean Trees
John Irving - A Prayer for Owen Meany
Mario Puzo - The Godfather

Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita
Larry McMurtry - Lonesome Dove
John Williams - Stoner
David Foster Wallace - Infinite Jest
Phillip Roth - American Pastoral
Edward P Jones - The Known World

for more American authors:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_novelists

Focus on Immigration

Both Canada and the US are nations of immigrants. The majority of people in both countries have ancestors who came from somewhere else. But not every family has the same story. Some came early, some came recently. Some came willingly, some came in chains. Some came happily, others came in desperation. Some integrated into society, others kept to their own kind. Some thrived, others failed.

For this challenge, you are to find books which spotlight the immigrant experience in Canada and the US. Where did the people come from who built these two great nations? And why did they come? Did they find what they were looking for? How did 17th century immigrants differ from 19th century immigrants, and from 21st century immigrants? What about the cities where all these newcomers landed?, What impact did the immigrant population have on politics, on business, on religion, on education, on daily life in general?

A few suggested titles:
Lost in Translation by Eva Hoffman - a Jewish family escapes Poland and settles in Canada after WWII
In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje - an immigrant community in Toronto in the 1920's
Midnight at the Dragon Cafe by Judy Fong Bates - a family of Chinese immigrants in Ontario in the 1950's
Immigrant Kids by Russell Freedman - a nonfiction about European children who arrived at Ellis Island around the turn of the last century
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson - experiences of Japanese-Americans in the Pacific northwest during WWII

What other titles can you suggest? One book I read recently that might work here is The Given Day by Dennis Lehane about the overwhelmingly Irish Boston police department and their labor issues in 1919.

Canadian authors I'm hoping to read in January:

Steven Erikson the next book in the Malazan series
Robert S. Sawyer the sci fi book Hominids

As for US Authors:
Robert B. Parker God Save the Child
Rex Stout The League of Frightened Men

I really, really want to read Canada by Richard Ford but January's looking pretty tied up. So, I'll put it on the Jan. pile and hope for the best............An American author writing about Canada. a Double whammy.

And the main character does sort of emigrate to Saskatchewan, so you even get the focus challenge!

# 10 That's even more awesome -But I've already lined up Brooklyn - Drat if only I'd known! - Maybe, I'll read Bleak House in December and then I'll have room for Canada in January.

I think The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion would fit the immigration focus and it's getting a lot of positive buzz right now.

A few I would mention are The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, Camp Nine by Vivienne Schiffer, When the Emperor Was Divine and The Buddha in the Attic both by Julie Otsuka and for mystery lovers: Black Dragon by Kirk Mitchell (the detective is a MP at an internment camp) or - to fit the detective month in mysterycat - the Molly Murphy series by Rhys Bowen.

I am not very comfortable adding to the wiki, so if any of these are not yet on there I would be so grateful if someone would post them for me.

Some of Willa Cather's novels would also work. I've already read O Pioneers! and I'm considering My Ántonia for January.

I'm joining in the 75'ers American author challenge, so I'll be reading My Antonia by Cather in January.

http://www.librarything.com/work/189368 Giants in the Earth by Ole Edvart Rolvaag would also be a good book for this category. It is something I needed to read in high school but have not read since. I'm thinking of reading it if I decide to read fiction.

For the immigration focus, I would suggest Middlesex if you haven't already read it. The focus on 20th century Detroit history also makes it a great pick for the whole American story.

Some other immigrant stories I would recommend (all American focused): The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

I grew up on the Mexican border so I think I am going to read Dying to Cross: The Worst Immigrant Tragedy in American History by Jorge Ramos. This tragedy happened very close to home and not long ago.

I recently read The Devil's Highway, about immigrants crossing illegally into Arizona and the dangers they face. It's non-fiction and excellent.

Kay> That sounds like an interesting book.

A few years ago I read Susanna Moodie's Roughing It In the Bush, a story of immigrating from England to the Canadian wilderness in the 1830's. It's written with dry humor about their experiences as totally green upperclass non-farmers taking on the wilderness. I've been told here on LT, that it's been called Canada's first novel and is a staple read of Canadian students.

Margaret Atwood wrote a book of poetry based on the book called The Journals of Susanna Moodie: Poems. I thought the two together were outstanding.

I'm thinking I may take a different line and read something by an author form the area. In which case Alice Munro would seem a topical selection. With the added bonus I've never read any of her work.

I had The Devil's Highway as one of the books I might read for immigration but decided to with Dying to Cross because it happened in Victoria, Texas and the people were on the way to Houston where I live. It was really horrible. I'll keep The Devil's Highway on my TBR though. There is also an interesting one called The Beast: riding the rails and dodging narcos on the migrant trail

I've mentioned it before on the other thread but I'll post it here too. I have four books to read for this GeoCAT/Theme. I probably won't get to all them but we'll see.

USA: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz
USA: Digging to America - Anne Tyler
Canada: No Great Mischief - Alistair MacLeod
Canada: Midnight at the Dragon Cafe - Judy Fong Bates

I'm planning to read Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay, which is set in Canada (specifically the Northwest Territories). I have never been to Canada -- despite living in the U.S. my whole life! -- and my knowledge of Canadian literature is very sparse, apart from L.M. Montgomery. So I'm excited to broaden my horizons a little bit. :)

^ Apparently, I own a copy of Late Nights on Air, so I may join you in reading it for the GeoCAT, Christina. ;-)

Late Nights on Air is a fantastic book.

I'm planning on reading Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngartx for the immigrant focus and To Kill a Mockingbird, which fits one of my challenge categories for the American author. Hopefully, I can get Anne of Green Gables from the library and include that for a Canadian story.

I'm planning to read Swamplandia for the American book and, if I get to it, Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love for the immigrant focus.

sjmccreary, I don't think I thanked you earlier for you wonderful introductions in the top posts! Thanks for your wonderful work!

Trying not to set things in stone too far in advance, but tentatively settling on Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, by Stephen Leacock, for my Canadian book.

I MIGHT read The other Wes Moore for my book on the US in January. (If anyone else has read it -- how violent is it?)

rabbitprincess, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town is a five-star read!

I'm thinking of Border Songs by Jim Lynch. If I'm right, it covers both Canada and the U.S. However, don't count chickens... I never plan my reading that far ahead.

I loved Border Songs when I read it a few years ago - *nudge, nudge* - it is such a fun, quirky book and tells so many truths about the 'unmanned' border between BC, Canada and Washington, USA.

Border Songs is very, very good.

Border Songs goes on the wish list but I may not get to it in January. This group is so dangerous.

Both Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town and Border Songs have gone onto my spreadsheet wishlist (which is supposed to take the place of running out and buying them and adding them to my physical Planet TBR).

I wish the border was still "unmanned"... Now going back and forth is just a nightmare.

I haven't crossed to the US since pre-911, but it seems our border is now one of the trickiest to cross.

Well, I just took my first book bullet from the 2014 Challenge! Border Songs has been added to my wishlist.

>37 streamsong: streamsong I just started a spreadsheet wish list too. I was using Amazon but I couldn't color code and reorder that. It is an addiction, isn't it?

> I have a spreadsheet, too - columns for GeoCAT, GeoCAT focus, and MysteryCAT.

I did go through my TBR and found books for every region (which surprised me), so I've made a list for those. I even had several books about immigration for next month. I've promised myself that I won't start reading any of them (or for any other CAT) until Christmas.

I went through my tbr collection too and found books for every region except eastern Europe. But I have plenty of time to find one that will fit. I'm hoping I'll get a book bullet!

My spreadsheet is well filled out now.

12>> Carrie, I have The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion on my list for January too!
I've also requested American Passage, the history of Ellis Island - my grandfather came through Ellis Island so I thought that I would like to know more about his possible experiences.

As for me, the spreadsheet got too cumbersome so I have several collections here - Wishlist, get from the Library, NookWishlist.

ETA - I too want to say "Great Job, Sandy, on the intro." This could be hard to beat.

** and I say to myself "at least I have 6 months to work on mine." Shakes head...Mine will never be this good.**

Cheli> I didn't see The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion on the wiki so I added it. I have American Passage: The History of Ellis Island in a TBR pile so I decided to join you on that one.

Just think what our readings may do to the TIOLI points!

I have a pile of books ready for the January CAT's and group reads. My Christmas holiday starts December 20th so some may actually be read in December.

Cheli> I was out of town when the December TIOLI went up so I'm really behind. I hate to even think of January's yet!

I've had this one on my to read list forever. This challenge might be the push I need to read it.

I highly recommend Burro Genius by Victor Villaseñor and Translation Nation by Héctor Tobar for the focus on Immigration.

>51 topperarnold: To get author touchstones, use double brackets. ;) That first one sounds really good, dammit I can't buy more books, evil woman! lol

Lori and Kay I am listening to Border Songs and it is really good. I won't count it for the challenge. I'll have enough other stuff to participate but I wanted to thank you for recommending it.

I'm so glad you're enjoying it!

Thank you! I think I fixed it.

Well done! :))

I've got Shanghai Girls by Lisa See for my immigration focus book. I'm still considering a Canada book. So many sound so good...

I think my immigration book might be The Golem and the Jinni by Helen Wecker

Has anyone read Ragtime? Would you consider it fitting to the focus or no? I was doing tagmashes to try and see if anything I own (and happens to be cataloged) fits, and some people seem to have used immigration/immigrants tags on it, but I didn't think it really dealt with that and my husband read it a couple mos ago and he doesn't think it really gives any focus on that either. So I thought I'd check if anyone could provide any more insight? :)

#59 by @PolymathicMonkey> It's been a long time, but I sort of remember that it was about newly arrived immigrants to NYC. Well, it is about the blending of different cultures.

59. I've read it but what I remember most from it was preparing to go on the arctic expedition. I don't remember there being much focus on the immigration.

@ 59 -- But it would definitely fit the broader GeoCAT of books set in the U.S. and/or Canada! The focus theme is optional, just as the broader CATs are optional.

>62 christina_reads: I know :) For 2013 I didn't do all that many (I quit paying attention to the alphabet only a few mos in, but still managed to wind up with at least one letter for most months lol), but if I have something that fits, especially when I'm quite motivated at the beginning :P then I'd like to use it :)

>59 .Monkey.: -- Here's my review-- a 5 star read for me, loved it.
This book, set in the first two decades of the twentieth century is excellent telling of American culture through three fictional families but with so many actual personalities that it almost was like reading a newspaper. The first of the three families was white, living in New Rochelle, New York and only designated as Father, Mother, mother’s Younger Brother, the Boy and Grandfather representing the upper middle class, the second representing the immigrants were a Jewish family known as Tateh and Mameh (Yiddish for father and mother) and the little girl, and the third represented by the “Negro” ragtime musician Coalhouse Walker and his common-law wife Sara and their child. The last two family groups were largely invisible groups in America during this time known as the Progressive Era. The opening remarks by the narrator “There were no Negroes. There were no Immigrants,” reflects the selective vision of the upper middle class. Doctorow includes such personages as Booker T. Washington, Evelyn Nesbit (a Gibson Girl), Architect Stanford White and Harry K Thaw, J.P. Morgan, Ford and Harry Houdini giving the novel rich history. Music (Ragtime) often provides us with a picture of a time in history such as “Acid Rock Era” or the “Jazz Age”. The title centers the book on the African Americans and others that are marginalized such as the Jewish immigrants and political radicals like Emma Goldman. Doctorow has such a way of telling his stories, there never really is a protagonist. You might say that the culture is the protagonist just as the March was the protagonist in his book The March. Partly his story telling reminds me of Michener because of how much historical events are included in the story. If you like historical fiction, I recommend this book. The back cover says that this is “a joy to read and it reads like a streak” and it does.

hm, maybe I will go ahead with it, and if I wind up feeling like it's not enough immigrant focus I can either hopefully find something else on my shelves that is, or just be satisfied with the region completed. :)

After that review, I'm interested in reading it!

It's supposed to be pretty good :) I got it from a local 2ndhand bookshop, 5 for €5, figured what the heck I've not read any Doctorow I might as well pick up this one here for so cheap! :P

Here are my planned books for January:

The Book of Negroes (Canadian, immigration of a sort)
Of Mice and Men (American)

And if there's extra time somehow:
The Mental Floss History of the United States
something by Alice Munro

67. It is good! At least I think I liked it. Can't remember fully. Mostly I remember my uni teacher going on and on about "the melting pot". I learnt a lot about (fairly) recent history in the US from it.

I really enjoyed Ragtime but I read it pre-LT so don't have any written review to look at.

I'll probably read Maria Chapdelaine by Louis Hémon, about a girl coming of age in rural Quebec at the beginning of the 20th century. The pressure/temptation to emigrate provides much of the tension in the last third of the novel, as one of Maria's suitors has made his fortune in America and wants to take her back with him. Ultimately, she has to decide if a luxurious life in New England is preferable to a hard one among her people in Canada.

I'll also be reading Blue Highways: A Journey into America by William Least Heat-Moon about his travels on America's back roads, and The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin, which was recommended on my 13-in-13 thread last month. It's a non-fictional look at the blizzard that catches Laura and her school by surprise in The Long Winter.

Inge87, I read Maria Chapdelaine back in high school, but liked it. The movie (made around 1985?) is also worth seeing if you can find it.

I don't have access to my books at present but managed to bring with me The Emigrants by Vilhelm Moberg, the first in a Swedish trilogy about Swedes escaping religious oppression in 1850 by moving to Minnesota.

I loved that entire trilogy by Moberg when I read it years and years ago.

Candidates are:
CANADA
Three Day Road
The English Patient
USA
On The Road
A Confederacy of Dunces

Just have to make a small comment.
Vilhelm Moberg's Emigrant series is not a trilogy, it's made up of four books (The Emigrants, Unto a Good Land, The Settlers and The Last Letter Home) and the people move to America to escape famine and poverty, not religious oppression.

The books, especially the first two, are some of the most well known and loved in Swedish literary history. I hope you enjoy reading them.

We here in Minnesota have many churches started by Swedish and Norwegian people that immigrated here because they were seeking religious freedom.
Baptist (now called something else but was known as the Swedish Conference of Baptist)
Lutheran's
Evangelical Free denomination

I first heard of the E-Free church in college - I thought it was some newfangled independent denomination. I never guessed it came with Scandinavian immigrants!

I'm having a hard time deciding on what to read first for this challenge. I might go with sturlington's recommendation of Middlesex, as I'd recently got that from a BookCrossing friend. Also, inge87's mention of Maria Chapdelaine reminded me that I've had a copy of this sitting on my shelf for 20 years now! The problem is that my copy is in French, and though I was fairly fluent 20 years ago, my French is really rusty now and it will be a struggle to get through the book. I'm also thinking of Cockroach by Rawi Hage, as it's one of the 2014 Canada Reads contenders, and it'll fit the immigrant theme well.

To manage my desire to start reading my 2014 books, I have been plotting my reading and so far have January a bit planned - with mysteries, of course. I really should check my shelves for some other stuff.

As our main area is the US and Canada, I can say that most of the mysteries take place in the US and for Canada I am going to do the Klondike mystery series by Vicki Delany starting with Gold Digger.

With our focus on the immigrant experience I am planning on:
Murder in Little Italy by Victoria Thompson which looks at the problems between the Irish and the Italians in NYC,
The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye - more Italians in NYC,
In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord - a 10 year old immigrant in Brooklyn,
Monkey Bridge by Lan Cao and
When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka

The Klondike series will also fit for the MysteryCat.

Hi mathgirl40, I didn't know about Maria Chapdelaine but it seems interesting. It goes on the WL. Looking forward your comment if you read it ...

77. Oh, for sure there were people who did emigrate for religious reasons (Swedenborg et. al). I was just saying that Kristina and Karl-Oskar from the Moberg books (along with most other Swedish emigrants, I dare say) were not among them. They emigrated because of poverty.

I'm sorry if I came off as rather rude and mean; I didn't meant to but reading my post I fear that may be tha case.

# 78. Yes, Scandinavian. My understanding from what the founders of my church say, the Scandinavians immigrated to Minnesota (US) to have the choice of church outside of the state church. I don't think it was persecution in the sense of being harmed.

83. Well, some may have been, but it stopped being illegal to be part of free churches in the mid 1850's or so. Sweden has had big free church congregations ever since then. Obviously, people may still have emigrated for religious reasons (these free churches are all Protestant ones, I don't know about the history of the legality of catholicism in Sweden). But my point still stands that though some people may have left for religious purposes the vast majority of people left to try and avoid starving. They may still have founded congregations when they arrived in America, no matter the reason for emigration.

(I have relatives in Minnesota! They were part of the second great wave of emigration (early 1900s).

84, what part of Minnesota?

Hennepin. That's where those who emigrated lived and died, at least. I don't know if their children and grandchildren are still in the area - family lost touch.

Hennepin is a county which is where Minneapolis is found. Yes, that is where most of the emigrates settled for a time.

Ok, someone above mentioned "tagmashes". Does that mean there is a way to search multiple tags to see if there are books tagged with those multiple tags?

Could someone explain how to do that? That would be very helpful (in the meantime, I'll use shelfari's multiple tag search)... Thanks!

Ok, it looks like I have a Canadian one that might work:
- Away by Jane Urquhart

Question - if there are multiple book with the same title and I want to link to the book, how can I make sure it's linking to the proper one? (I tried with this, but it linked to one by a different author.) Thanks again!

I can't say about the multiple tags but for books with multiple titles click on (other) in the touchstone. It will link you to a list of works with the same name. Find the one you want and then click the title. It will show up as your touchstone.

>88 LibraryCin: For example: http://www.librarything.com/tag/immigration,+America
You can simply replace the words with whatever you want. And when you're on the tagmash page it also gives you a box to just type them into.

When you do a touchstone and you see it over on the right, it shows Title of Book by Author (other) «—click "(other)" and a lightbox pops up that you can scroll through to find your work. Click on the little green + to the left of the correct title. Be ware, for the super popular titles for some reason something weird goes on with it and they're not always available in the list.

90. Thanks for the help. Where do I find "other"? Do I add in the square brackets, then click on the link it gives me to find "other"? Or somewhere else? Thanks again!

91. Oh! Ok, I need to add in the square brackets, then scroll to the list of books at the top right on this page! I'll take a look.

And I'll have to try the tagmash. I didn't know there was a page for it. I'll see if I can find that, or just start by following your link, then replacing the words in the URL! :-)

So much to learn!

91 and 93.

Hmmm, I still don't see "other" anywhere. Other is supposed to be beside the author's name in the list at the top right of this page? I see the title and the author LT thinks I wanted, but I don't see "other" to be able to change it.

No problem, just post back if you're still having trouble, one of us will surely be around in the not so distant future to help :)

ETA Hold on, I'll take some screenshots for you

LibraryCin try this to practice. Type in Seven for a Secret in the square brackets. The touchstone will pop in on the side of the message box with Victoria Holt as the author followed by (other). Click on other and a list of works will come up. Look for Seven for a Secret by Lyndsay Faye. Click on the title with her name next to it. It will take you back to your message box and show the "correct" touchstone.

Does this help?

96. I think I'm cluing in! I have to do this before I save what I'm posting? Is that right? Yikes! and thank you all for your patience with me, as I guess I've sort of "hijacked" the thread with my questions.

...or maybe not...

97. That's it! I need to look right beside my message. I see it now! Thanks again! Must be blind.... ;-)

Yay! Got it (finally!).

93. Yes, you did describe it well, as well. I just also need to slow down and read it more carefully!

No worries :)

Interesting challenge and one I may look at attempting (amongst others!). I think I am going to go from reading about 3 books this year to reading a 100 in 2014!! But that is precisely why I signed up for the 2014 challenge :)

Interesting focus on immigration and as soon as I saw Minnesota mentioned my eyes pricked up! My husband is from Minnesota (he moved to the UK a couple of years ago to be with this here Brit). He is from Germanic and Swedish origin and there are so many 'suns' and 'sons' around in MN, I should really look for something for the focus section around this.

Anyway, I have chosen to read a 'classic' from a US author - Double Indemnity by James M. Cain - it is in my mystery category and also fits in with the US GEO Cat. I'm hoping the book will bring to mind the classic 'noir' atmosphere of the US during the 40s. Reading more about Cain he was from an Irish Catholic family background but I think I would be stretching a bit far to include as the focus choice as well ha ha!!

I've been away from the thread for a few days and just caught up now on all the Minnesota & Moberg posts. I posted 'religious oppression' from the blurb on the back of the book, I think it also mentioned the famine & poverty but I didn't want to write a long description. Anyway, I'm more than keen to read the book now, even though it is an unattractive old and rusty paperback.
Interesting that so many here have a connection to Minnesota.

How did I miss this?!

I have a few books that would fit in nicely here:
Ceremony
The Bean Trees

And for the immigration focus:
Aloft

I read The Bean Trees last month and loved it. It would also fit the immigration focus.

I've had it for a while, so it is nice to see a recommendation!

I just finished The Impersonator by Mary Miley, a mystery set in the U.S. in the 1920s. Lots of interesting period detail about vaudeville, speakeasies, race relations, and the like!

I completed Killing Floor by Lee Child. It is the first book in the Jack Reacher series, set in the US.

Quick question, does it need to be a fiction book to count for this challenge? Or can I put In Pursuit of Reason in the wiki as my entry?

There's no rule specifying that the books you read for any challenge must be fiction. Go ahead and read non-fiction or poetry or anything else that fits.

Great! Because if there's something that shouts American it's a biography about an American president!

Which one are you reading?

112 > If that question was for me, I'm reading In Pursuit of Reason: The Life of Thomas Jefferson by Noble E. Cunningham, Jr.

Are you a member of President's challenge?

114 > Yep :D. This is my third book for that challenge, I'm reading the presidents in order. (And that came out sounding slightly wrong, but I think you know what I mean).

That's impressive, Samantha_kathy. I mean, you're going to have to wade through several boring presidents before getting to Millard J. Fillmore or William McKinley.

To be honest, those president's names mean nothing to me. That's what I get for being Dutch, I guess ;).

I finished Their Eyes Were Watching God which counts for this challenge and I'm starting Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather for the January AAC but it fits into this challenge as well!

ETA: Just realized that this also qualifies for the focus challenge!

It's January 4th and I feel the month is already slipping away reading wise...argh!

I just put The Devil's Highway on hold at the library (this was in the plan for 2013 but I never got to it). I have started Mornings on Horseback, but I'm not that enamored with it and have been sidetracked by Wheelmen for the Random CAT. I'm hoping to get to The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas for this CAT too.

I'm starting to wonder if my emigrants will make it to the US in this first book of the 4. Will keep reading.
Also realised that my Orange Jan book fits this theme , tbough I can't recommend it, The Mistress of Spices.

I've just started The Imposter Bride by Nancy Richler, about a woman emigrating to Canada.

Kerry - I have The Mistress of Spices from the library book sale. I looked at the back to see if it would fit the immigrant story line but I was not completely convinced. It just wasn't calling me either. Not great?

Another immigrant story done, Murder in Little Italy by Victoria Thompson. Focuses on the problems between the Irish and the Italians in NYC at the turn of the century.

I've opted to use Death Comes for the Archbishop for this CAT -- and some other commitments, too. I see someone else already used it for this CAT.

I finished Fer-de-Lance by Rex Stout, the first Nero Wolfe mystery. The book is set in New York City and Westchester County and the cast of characters includes several immigrants, not the least of which is Nero Wolfe himself.

I finished The Golem and the Jinni by Helen Wecker. The book is set in NYC and involves immigrants from Eastern Europe and the Middle East and also mythologies of Jewish and Arab cultures but was about free will and responsibility to others.

125> I am also reading Fer-de-Lance!

I'm in the middle of Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay, and I'm really enjoying it! The book is set in the 1970s in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. I feel like I'm learning so much about this part of Canada -- the history, the relationship between whites and natives, the various attitudes toward the proposed Mackenzie Valley Pipeline. It's really a perfect book for this CAT!

So, I planned to read Life of Pi for this challenge, and I may still finish it, but along the way I picked up The Way of the Fight by Georges St. Pierre, not even thinking about the challenge. As it turns out, looking back to the description of Canadian literature, it fits in pretty perfectly, and it was a quick and fascinating read for anyone interested!

Added Home of the Braised by Julie Hyzy to the wiki. It's set in the White House, so fairly American *winks*. My review can be found here.

Starting Dying to Cross by Jorge Ramos for the immigration focus challenge.

I just finished Ru by Kim Thuy which was a great choice for the focus on immigration. This book has very lyrical and poetical writing as the author describes her family's exit from Viet Nam and eventual arrival in Canada.

I've finished and reviewed The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin, which I really enjoyed (as much as one can enjoy a book about people dying of exposure in a snowstorm).

I didn't realize it until I started, but immigration has an important place in the book, because many of the families caught in the storm were first generation immigrants, such as Norwegians and German Mennonites from Ukraine. The first chapter, "Departures and Arrivals", describes their journeys across the Atlantic propelled by the dream of free land on the open plains. However what they find is rather different from what they were expecting.

Finished Dying to Cross about the deaths of nineteen illegal immigrants that were being transported in an un-airconditioned trailer truck from Harlingen, TX to Houston, TX. The truck stopped right outside of Victoria, TX about 2 hours outside of Houston. The account is well documented by Jorge Ramos but it left me wanting more. Ramos very frankly states in the beginning of the book that he is a journalist and he would not add to or dramatize the story apart from the documented facts. That he did.

>133 inge87:. It's been a number of years since I read The Children's Blizzard, but I also remember it being very good. I'd forgotten about all the immigrants.

I started Still Life by Louise Penny. I've been wanting to get to this series and it is set in Canada.

Just realized I have finished a book that fits the broader Canada-US theme for this GeoCAT - The Gatekeeper of Lies is predominantly set on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia. The lead character "might" be considered to be an immigrant, but that would be pushing the immigration focus to far, IMO so just the larger GeoCAT for this one. ;-)

My immigration book is finally ready for pickup at the library. But I did read the bios of 2 American Presidents - one even talked about laws at the turn of the 19th century/20th century about Chinese immigration, so I supposed it could count, do you think?

>136 luvamystery65:, I am hoping to get to Still Life this year. Hope you find it good!

#139 Kristel from what my fellow LTers tell me about the Three Pines mysteries is that many of them did not care for Still Life but persisted with the series and love it. I'm only two chapters in but I love the interactions with the villagers already. I will definitely post my opinion on it when I'm done.

#122: Roberta - The Mistrss of Spices is set in San Francisco and is about Indian immigrants to the US, the mistress helps them with their problems of integration etc, but it wasn't really my type of read. Others have enjoyed it though.

The Emigrants was great but they only arrived in the US in the last chapter, the book focused on their life in Sweden, the decisions to leave and the voyage to New York. Hoping to come across the second book at my library.

I have started The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier, about a young English woman who moves to Ohio and then gets involved with the underground railroad. Perfect for our focus theme this month.

Finished In Pursuit of Reason by Noble E. Cunningham, for what's more American than a biography about a US President?. A full review can be found here.

Question: On the wiki, are we only placing books that fit both the geographic region AND the focus, or are we placing books that only fit the geographic portion there too? If so, how does one differentiate which meet both criteria?

Both. Should we have them separated?

I don't know. I was just wondering because I read something that fits the U.S., but not the immigration focus and most of the listed books were immigration-based.

Another question. How in the world can one earn a CAT TRICK when you need two books to satisfy the Geo Cat?

No, just one book to satisfy the GeoCAT. The focus part is just for people who'd like a little extra challenge in their challenge. So a CATtrick is satisfied by reading a book that fits the three CATs, the MysteryCAT, the RandomCAT and the GeoCAT (whether it's the focus or the general is not important when it comes to the CATtrick).

And you don't need two books for the GeoCAT, the immigration is the focus option for that region, so if you're reading that, then you're covering both...

Okay, thanks. Guess I was trying to make it way too difficult for myself. Been told that before when asking questions about computers. Ha!

;)

144-146 > Maybe put in brackets behind a book if it fits the focus, like TITLE (immigration focus) or something?

152. Yeah, that's what I'd go with.

I've just finished Elizabeth Street by Laurie Fabiano which was an enjoyable read dealing with Italian immigrants in NYC around the turn of the century. I'm also working on Cet ete qui chantait (Enchanted Summer) by Gabrielle Roy which is a collection of short vignettes about a summer Roy spent at her home in the country in Quebec. So this would fit the broader Canadian aspect of the CAT.

I can't seem to locate Staci's thread but wanted to comment that I'm happy to see a favorable review of Elizabeth Street because I know it's on my Kindle TBR. I've read one book by Gabrielle Roy and enjoyed it. I have another on my wish list.

I just finished Dear Mr. Knightley by Katherine Reay, which technically fits this CAT because it's set in contemporary Chicago. There's not a lot of setting-specific detail in the book, though, apart from a few references to the Chicago Marathon and the "L" trains. I also wasn't a huge fan of the book in general…haven't written my review yet, but it'll be at my thread within the next couple of days. Anyway, now I'm reading Rex Stout's Fer-de-Lance, which also fits the CAT, as many others have mentioned!

First GeoCAT read of the year was Swamplandia! by Karen Russell. It's set in the Florida Everglades and actually begins with someone literally buying swamp land in Florida. It's hard to get more American than that. I wish I had enjoyed the book more. My full review is on my thread.

I've read A Nation of Immigrants by John F. Kennedy which is a very short history of immigration and immigration policy up to 1963. I would like to read more about this, both fiction and nonfiction but don't know if it will happen in January.

I finished Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather. I think it fits the focus well, and I really liked it.

I finally finished Return of the Crimson Guard by Canadian Ian C. Esslemont. 701 complex pages. whew.

Finished a Canadian mystery - The Silk Train Murder by Sharon Rowse. It takes place in Vancouver in the late 1800s. Granville and his friend Sam Scott are hired as guards on the Silk Train before it is loaded. A man is killed, Scott arrested and Granville must clear him. The Silk Train was a train that would carry the silk imported from China rapidly to New York. It was a good story and interesting facts about the train. Rowse is a Canadian, living in Vancouver.

Picked up my focus book at the library over the weekend, but had to finish the book I was reading first. Today I can start American Passage: The History of Ellis Island.

Cheli> I have that one sitting out to begin as my non-fiction read. I'm probably going to read a Kindle short as my fiction read and then then also begin The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion on which I matched someone else in the GeoCAT too.

Finished Still Life by Louise Penny. Now that my reading ventured up to Canada I am happy.

I'm the match in The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion.

I read The killer angels which is a novel about the Battle of Gettysburg. It manages to be very human. I even enjoyed it.

@ 166 -- I was very pleasantly surprised by The Killer Angels! As someone not terribly interested in the Civil War or the minutiae of military strategy, I was expecting it to be dull, but I really enjoyed it!

I have added two books to the Wiki so far, Ru by Kim Thuy which deals with emmigaration to Canada, and now, One of Ours by Willa Cather who excells in her descriptions of the American heartland.

I'm reading and really enjoying Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town. Leacock had me hooked from the first sentence of his Preface!

I wanted to read Enrique's Journey but it is checked out. Hopefully it will return soon. In the meantime I found this book in our immigration section. Denied, Detained, Deported: Stories from the Dark Side of American Immigration by Ann Bausum (2008) is a quick read, written for a middle/high school reader, has lots of great pictures and covers the flip side of the American Dream. Quite illuminating.

>161 mysterymax:. Oooh, that sounds good! Sigh... I guess it was only a matter of time, since getting more involved in groups here at LT, that I would start adding to the tbr from here in addition to shelfari... Oh, the tbr will never end!

I just finished The Goldfinch, which was brilliant. Most of the story takes place in New York City and Las Vegas

I just finished The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier. It fits this month's immigration focus as Honor Bright moves to Ohio from England. She is accompanying her sister who is to be married on their arrival. Unfortuately her sister dies of yellow fever shortly after arriving in America and Honor must proceed alone. I have written a bit of a review on my thread post 43 (I haven't worked out how to send to the correct post yet)
ETA - It worked MarthaJeanne, thanks

Click on the 'more' link of the message you want to link to. Then on 'link'. Now your browser's URL space at the top of the page should show the right URL for that message, and you can copy and paste.

Thanks MarthaJeanne. I will try that and edit my post.

Or you can just right-click, copy link location. The post number is also the link to it, so you can get it without extra clicks.

I finished the audio of The Namesake for the immigration subfocus. I thought it was good but not great.

Starting Canadian author Alice Munro's Dear Life.

I'm reading American Passage about Ellis Island and I'm being blown away by the "cruelty" of the Immigration Restriction League and how they tried to prevent the entry of Southern and Eastern European immigrants (Jewish, Polish, Italian) because they felt they were mentally inferior. Don't know how my grandfather managed to get pass them.

Cheli> I'm not sure how I feel about the book yet. I started it last night. I'm going to reserve judgment until I've read a little more.

I've just added The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout to the wiki.

The finishing line of my review for American Passage is 'Lady Liberty's light was slowly extinguished by legislation and quotas.'

A problem rising its ugly head again in this day and age. :-(

Thanks Sandy for such an enlightening topic to start the new year.

I've started The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. I like it so far (reading chapter 3), but I feel part of the book or emotion is lost because I don't understand the Spanish that is peppered throughout the dialog and Dominican culture is new to me.

I've finished the book I chose to fit the focus challenge -- The Imposter Bride by Nancy Richler tells the story of a Polish-Jewish woman who arranges to marry a Canadian in order to get out of Europe in 1945. Interesting details about life in mid-century Montreal in the Jewish-Canadian community.

I'm almost finished with Brooklyn and I believe this one has done it! Colm Toibin's going onto my favorite author list. I am so loving it but hoping it ends well. I find it amazing that an Irish author can write about America so perfectly.

Away / Jane Urquhart
3 stars

This is the story of a family – Brian, Mary and their son Liam (and a daughter to come later) – as they immigrate from Ireland to Canada in the mid-1800s.

I waffled between 2.5 and 3 stars on this one. This is the first book I've read by her and I don't think I like her writing style, it's very vague and indirect. I thought I missed a couple of things happening at times where I was skimming, when it didn't seem very interesting, but then she seemed to come back to those things later and I figured it out. Parts were good, but a lot of it was not that exciting for me. In the end, because I did “like” the ending – that is, I was slightly surprised by it – I upped it to the 3 stars, which is “ok” for me.

I just finished Die Trying by Lee Child. It is the second book in his Jack Reacher series. This one is set in Montana mostly so good for the North America location this month. Heaps of action, of course.

I just finished Little Failure: A Memoir. The author describes his emigration from the Soviet Union to the US as a child in 1979 and his life as an immigrant in Queens, NY. The story was interesting and leads to a lot of "What if?". What if his parents had spoken English at home? What if he had attended public school rather than a private Jewish school? What if his parents had not been so frugal that they got furniture from the dump and clothed them in cheap, used "by the pound" clothes? What if he had not followed his girlfriend to college in Ohio?

The author is likeable as a child, evoking sympathy for the bullying he received during his struggle to be accepted, but develops a mean steak as he grows older, in turn bullying those weaker than him, and lying almost pathologically. The good news is that although he did not meet his parents expectations he achieved the success as a novelist that he had longed for. ***

Without intending to, I have managed to finish a book yesterday that that fits all four CATS - even the unofficial ApphaCAT - so I am very happy about that! Always Love a Villain on San Juan Island by Sandy Francis Duncan and George Szanto is book four in a mystery book series set in the Pacific Northwest with one investigator based in Canada (Nanaimo, BC) and the other one based in the US (Bellingham, WA). Not as good as the first three books in the series, IMO but I did enjoy the reader trip to San Juan Island, even if the book was a bit of a 'meh' read for me.

Just finished The Burn Palace by Stephen Dobyns, a crime novel set in a fictional small town in Rhode Island. Setting was very important in this book, and it gives a great portrayal of quirky small-town America. My full review is on my thread.

I just finished Haven: The Dramatic Story of 1,000 World War II Refugees And How They Came to America by Ruth Gruber. This was a very interesting look at a little known story from World War II.

I finished Middling Folk: Three Seas, Three Centuries, One Scots-Irish Family about the author's Hammill ancestors. It fits the immigration sub-focus since the author follows her Hammill ancestors from Scotland to the Ulster Plantation in Ireland and then to the American colonies in the Scots-Irish migration of the 18th century.

I'm currently reading the alternate history The plot against America by Philip Roth which I'm enjoying.

I just added The Tall Men by Will Henry to the Wiki. This was a great western about a cattle drive from Texas to Montana.

I've been failing the Canadian aspect of this challenge, but have finished some good U.S. reads: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and Of Mice and Men. I am currently reading The Devil's Highway and A Painted House and will be finishing those before the month is up.

I've finished a couple of memoirs for the GeoCAT recently, Blue Highways: A Journey into America by William Least Heat-Moon and Imperfect: An Improbable Life by Jim Abbott & Tim Brown. The first is the author's account of his 1978 journey around the United States in his van, Ghost Dancer, and the second is Abbott's memoir of his life with one hand, his baseball career, and his 1993 no-hitter.

I've just finished two books set in New Orleans, the USA: Fashion Victim and Dead Housewives of New Orleans by G.T. Herren.

I just finished the powerful yet poignant The Death of Sweet Mister by Daniel Woodrell, which is set in the Missouri Ozarks.

#198 Glad to see Daniel Woodrell getting lots of positive comments in your thread, Judy. I don't know if anyone remembers back to the voting of focus themes, but one of my nominations was a focus on the poverty-stricken areas of the Ozarks and Appalachia. Daniel Woodrell was the author I promised would be the easy way of doing that focus.

I finished a book that I hadn't planned to read for this theme, but it fits: The Shipping News by Annie Proulx. I read it for my picked-by-a-friend category. -Eva- picked it for me, saying only that the writing was beautiful. She was right. A native Newfoundlander who grew up in the US moves back to Newfoundland as an adult. I won't claim it fits the immigration focus, but the descriptions of Newfoundland were fabulous, and I can see several of the traits of Canadian literature (post #3) evident in this book. Thanks, Eva!

Finished Life of Pi...and loved it!

Re 198 and 199 I was one of the few people who voted in favor of the Ozarks and Appalachia focus; I live near Appalachia and have been to the Ozarks. I'll put Daniel Woodrell on my list of authors to read sometime.

My January summary: (6)

Fer-de-Lance - Rex Stout (immigration subfocus)
Little Failure: A Memoir - Gary Shteyngart (immigration subfocus)
Madam: A Novel of New Orleans - Cari Lynn, Kellie Martin (US)
My Antonia - Willa Cather (immigration subfocus)
Seldom Come By (The Iceberg Trilogy) - Sherryl Caulfield (Newfoundland)
Three Doors To Death - Rex Stout (US)

# 199 - I can't prasie Daniel Woodrell enough! I just love his writing. I was probably the other person whose vote went to the Ozark Focus with that author firmly in mind!

Finally finished the book I'd planned all along for the immigration focus - Shanghai Girls by Lisa See - which follows the lives of two sisters who fled China in 1937 after the Japanese invaded at the beginning of WWII and managed to come to the US and settle in Los Angeles. Once there, the book highlights the plight of the family and the whole Chinese community as they deal with prejudice and persecution, first as they are mistaken for Japanese by Americans who can't tell them apart in the 1940s, and then because they are assumed to be communist sympathizers during the 1950s. Very good.

That was a good choice, Sandi. I read that and the sequel a couple of years ago and enjoyed them both.

Sandy, just wanted to say thanks for a great job for the first month of the GEOCAT. I learned a great deal about the immigration so the focus was a good one.

GREAT JOB!

#205 Betty, thanks for reminding me that there is a sequel to this book. I was a little disappointed that this story ended with a cliff-hanger.

#206 de nada, as our new immigrants from the south might say. I'm still very excited about GeoCAT, and already have my N. Africa/Middle East book standing by for February. When I nominated the focus themes, immigration was not my first choice, but it turned out to be the best one - thanks to all the GeoCATers for making such an excellent choice!

>204 sjmccreary:. sjmc... Will you be reading the sequel Dreams of Joy? I think I liked that one a little better than Shanghai Girls, though they were both very good.

I've just started the book I chose for this challenge - In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje but I'm not sure I'll finish by the end of the month. More reading, less LT.

I finished three more GeoCAT books before the end of the month. My Antonia by Willa Cather fits the immigration focus, and it was my favorite read for January. Both The Bughouse Affair and Golden State are set in San Francisco. Unfortunately, I didn't like either one very well.

Last book of the month was The Life and Times of Persimmon Wilson, good historical fiction set in Louisiana during the Civil War and then on the Texas frontier.

I'm a little bit late in posting here, but I also finished The Son and Mission Road for this challenge. Both were set in Texas. One was historical fiction and the other was a modern-day mystery. I was very happy to have read these, as I've not read many books set in the Southern US and did not know much about Texas's history.

Dearest CATNIPS,
I am just joining the GeoCAT group & would like to post my January choice - is this where I do that? I'm going to be reading textile-related books, mostly from my shelves.

I'm reading "Mardi Gras Indians" by Michael P. Smith. It's about the New Orleans tradition of black men who spend all year making incredible beaded & feathered costumes to wear for Mardi Gras & for other occasions during the year. The costumes are amazing - I saw some once, in person - just beautiful & beautifully done. The men who make these costumes call themselves "Indians"; one of the given reasons is that they were paying tribute to the American Indians who helped black people during the slavery years in Louisiana.

I see that although I have a 2007 edition, the copyright is from 1994. I hope the tradition is still going strong…it does seem to have survived Hurricane Katrina.
Anne

You can mention the book here. And if you touchstone it, we can all look at it more easily. Mardi Gras Indians

But you can also list it at http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/2014_GeoCAT so there is a full list of everything that was read. Insert your line so that the titles are in alphabetical order, and I can never remember the formatting so I just follow the example above mine.

#214 - MarthaJeanne, thanks. I've never touchstoned anything - maybe this will do it: Mardi Gras Indians.

And for the /2014_GeoCAT page - I've been there several times & tried to add my book, but I couldn't break into the list or add my book at the bottom. Usually I just get the link for the book next to where I'm trying to go - (and "Madam: A Novel of New Orleans" looks pretty interesting...)
Anne

You want the edit link in this line: January - Canada and the US
If that doesn't work PM me, and we'll figure it out.

This month I finally finished O Pioneers by Willa Cather which I had started back in January