Kerry (avatiakh) and her books in 2014

Hi and welcome to my first 2014 thread. I managed to wait till 2014 to create it. This is my 6th year participating in the 75 group and I've had lots of fun each year, meeting other readers online is a welcome addition to my day.

I'm currently away from home and working from an iPad and on a lousy connection so can't produce any lists of past or future reading plans.

Currently Reading:

The link to my 2014 Category Challenge:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/159815

My categories
1) A made-up place - children's literature
2) Right Book Right Time - YA literature
3) The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years - nonfiction on the Middle East (& North Africa)
4) Running through Corridors - books to film or tv
5) Reading on Location - travel books and books set in exotic locations
6) 1000 books to change your life - books on lists, group reads, themed reads, challenges
7) Fantasy freaks and gaming geeks - scifi and fantasy fiction
8) The old man mad about drawing - books with illustrations, photos or art
9) The Exercise Book - modern literary fiction (1950-)
10) Only Connect - series
+
11) Notes of a bag lady - my overflow

My January reading will hopefully include some TIOLI challenges, and a GEOcat read for the category challenge as well as an Orange january read.

Books I've got piled up for January include:
The Mistress of Spices by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (Orange Jan & TIOLI)
The Emigrants by W.G. Sebald (GEOcat)
Leo Africanus by Amin Maalouf (TIOLI)

Also jostling for position at present are:
The Salt Road by Jane Johnson
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith by Thomas Keneally

My 2013 Highlights sorted by my categories challenge:

1) Children's Classics from before 1990
16 books read - 10 by male, 6 female
Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner (1960)
Talking in Whispers by James Watson (1984)
The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tyler by Gene Kemp

2) Young at Heart - (YA and children's books - general)
38 books read - 16 by female, 22 by male authors

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (and I loved the movie)
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos
A world between us by Lydia Syson

3) Nonfiction
14 read - 5 by female, 9 by male
Six Days of War by Michael Oren

4) Scifi / fantasy
13 read - 6 by female, 7 by male
The Dervish House by Ian McDonald
Among Others by Jo Walton

5) All things Celtic
only 2 read - 1 by female, 1 by male
The Crow Road by Iain Banks

6) Mix - novellas, short stories, series
13 read - 3 by female, 10 x male
The Collaborator by Matt Rees - bk 1

7) Down Under - NZ and Australian
17 books read - 10 by women & 7 by male
The Tender Moments of Saffron Silk by Glenda Millard - children's fiction, the last in the wonderful series about the Silk family - highly recommended
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Questions of Travel by Michelle de Kretser

8) Translated Fiction
13 read - 2 by female, 11 by male
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

9) Israel & Diaspora
19 read - 6 by female & 13 by male
Between Friends by Amos Oz
The Family Moskat by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Journey to the Milennium by A.B. Yehoshua

10) Folklore - 0 reads
failure!

11) Mt TBR
19 read - 9 female & 10 male
(I did read from my tbr pile in other categories as well)
An Icecream War by William Boyd
A Stricken Field by Martha Gelhorn

12) Cult Writers
5 read - all male
Gormenghast trilogy - all three books by Mervyn Peake
Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh

13) Dropbox - new books, library books, graphic novels etc
24 read - 7 by female, 17 by male
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Powell
The Orphan master's son by Adam Johnson
An Officer and a spy by Robert Harris

Kerry I hope I am not jumping the gun by jumping in and wishing you the most wonderful of 2014s. I always look forward to catching up with your delightful threads and doing so has helped to broaden my own reading. xx

Hi Paul and welcome to my shiny new thread. I hope to make it a little more colourful over the next few days, but first i have a few hundred new threads to catch up on as I've mostly been ignoring this group these past few days.

Happy new year Kerry! I like your categories and I'm sure they are gong to lead to lots of books hitting my wishLost as usual.

I got halfway through Beevor's book on Spain a few years ago then put it aside. I have loved his other books but had less background knowledge on the Spanish Civil War and found it very dense. But reading it while you are here makes perfect sense!

Ok, back to doing laundry before we fly out tomorrow for London.

Hi Kerry and happy new year!

Happy New Year Kerry! Have a great 2014!

Thanks for the messages, I hope to visit lots of threads this afternoon.
Finished my first book which I started a couple of days ago.

1) The Big Killing by Robert Wilson (1996)
Bruce Medway #2
Crime
Dark and brutal thriller set across a few West African nations, couldn't put it down and had to finish. I'm a fan of his Javier Falcon books set in Seville and even visited places of note from the books on a recent trip there! Bruce Medway is another flawed hero and the action in these is just great.

#7: Cushla - I'm about 9 chapters in to Beevor's book which I've tried to read on numerous occasions before. What's helped this time I think is that I read Soldiers of Salamis just before I started this and it made the difference. I've also decided to reread Homage to Catalonia alongside the audiobook.
Enjoy your time in London.

Happy New Year, Kerry.

Happy New Year Kerry - congratulations on finishing a book already.

Starred for reading in 2014!

Welcome back - first book sounds like a good start to the year!

Happy New Year, Kerry! I'll try to do more than lurk here this year, and I'll be interested to compare notes on the 1001 Children's Books list!

Lovely to have now located your thread, Kerry and Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, Kerry! Isn't it great when your first book of the year is a page turner? I like to think it's an omen that we will have more good reads in the coming months.

Happy New Year, Kerry! Can't wait to see what you read this year.

Happy New Year, Kerry! Starred again, and I hope I'll be a better follower this year.

Diane & Rhian - hi, glad to make it to 2014.
Lori, Caro, Deborah, Nathalie - greetings. I will make it to all your threads but have limited wifi access still.

2) The sheep on the fourth floor by Leonie Thorpe (2010)
YA fiction, New Zealand
Have been meaning to read this one for a while as I try to get most children's fiction from NZ read and this got some good reviews. When on a school trip to her mother's research lab at a hospital Anne and 2 other students are taken to an off limits 'animal lab' where pharmaceuticals are tested on rats, rabbits and even a sheep. Anne and Kurt decide to rescue the sheep when Anne learns that it is about to be terminated.

I enjoyed this, it was more of a middlegrade read, light and entertaining. Anne learned that her parents were not perfect - her vegetarian mother was still up to testing animals and signing off the death warrent on the sheep, Rom. While her 'smokefree' father, a doctor, turns out to be a closet smoker. I worked in an agricultural research lab for a couple of years and one of my first jobs was pumping out the gastric juices from sheep that we had in pens, they had plugs in their sides for us to have straight access to their stomachs. We used the juices to simulate digestion on grass samples and obtain valuable data relating to nitrogen content etc etc.

Found you ...... Belated happy new year !

Will definitely look for that one when we are home Kerry.

Hi Kerry!

Wishing you and your family a bright and happy 2014!

It looks as if my friend's daughter and daughter's boyfriend are actually coming to New Zealand. They'll be staying at least for two years! Last I heard, they already purchased their plane tickets. I'm eager to find out exactly what their plans are for their time there.

I'll try to keep in contact with you this year. Here on LT I always seem to get overwhelmed with all of the threads so I tend to retreat to only a few of them.

I just started reading Gaza Blues...and, of course, reading anything by Etgar Keret always reminds me of you and Eva! :)

Welcome back, Kerry! I look forward to your comments about The Battle for Spain, The Emigrants and Leo Africanus.

Hi, Kerry! I'll be interested in your thoughts on The Corn King And The Spring Queen. I read it---gosh, I can't say "last year" any more!---in 2012 and struggled with it a bit, but mostly because it's so far out of my comfort zone. I found it stayed with me afterwards, though.

Hi, Kerry. Safe travels. I've finally found your new thread!

Wishing you and your family the best of health and happiness for the New Year.

More visitors! hi Alex, Madeline, Darryl, Liz and Nina

Madeline - They must be looking forward to their trip, wow, 2 years is a long time. Yes, Etgar Keret does have that effect, we were all recommending his books back when we first got together on LT.

Darryl - I'm really enjoying The Emigrants and they haven't left Sweden yet. I haven't listened to an audiobok for almost two weeks now so must make some time, but am down to sharing headphones with my daughter as her pair broke and we are waiting for sales to start here in Spain. 06 jan is the day of the Three kings and sales start the next day.

Liz - I'm up to the part where Tarriq leaves for Athens and Sparta. I'm enjoying it, though don't usually read historic fiction from this part of the world.

I'm forcing myself to finish my Orange January book, The Mistress of the Spices, it is really not for my taste.
I've started several books and not having much time for reading.
Today we went to Granada and spent our time exploring the Albaicin (old Moorish quarter). We had lunch at Balcony San Nicolas (El balcon de San Nicolas), which has a panoramic view across to the Alhambra, probably one of the more picturesque spots to have lunch. The lunch itself was fairly ok, but the view was fantastic. I tried to link to a few images, but iPad won't cooperate.

OK, I found a link for the restaurant:
http://elbalcondesannicolas.com/

Kerry what a nice place to spend your birthday! Happy birthday, my dear and have a wonderful weekend. xx

I FOUND you!!!! Not that I'm happy about it or anything.

Oh wow, what a fab place for lunch! I loved Granada (although I REALLY loved Ronda most, as it was so unexpected). I wish I had had more time to spend wandering through the Albaicin, but it was very hot and I only had a day in that neck of the woods. I remember watching bull-fighting on the TV in my hotel room that evening and being astonished that I understood it. There also was a big fair outside the city limits that was kinda fun.

I was the luckiest victim of crime in the world in Andalucia. Got mugged in Seville's railroad station, but as a result, a friend & colleague in Madrid introduced me to her husband's cousin & his family in Seville. Caridad & Miguel took me in and gave me a place to stay, and a friend of theirs helped me extract money from my US bank account (this was back in 2000) -- he worked for Banco Bilbao Vizcaya. At the time, BBV had some kind of sponsorship with the Alhambra, so they also took care of getting me an entrance ticket and guaranteed that even though I was still waiting for the consulate in Seville to replace my passport, I could get hotel rooms in Granada, Marbella and Ronda. My last weekend, Cari & Miguel took me off to their country house near Cadiz and to a fab dinner party at which I realized how much Spanish I had acquired in just two weeks. Too bad it has all gone now -- it would be very useful in Providence, which is so heavily Hispanic!!

Must read Leo Africanus this year. Oh, and finish Travels with a Tangerine. I have no idea WHY I put it down last year, unfinished.

I left a comment on your 2013 thread, but I do love the Alhambra. Lucky you!

Found you! *tosses a star in the air*

Belated Happy Birthday Kerry! What a lovely place and what a wonderful blue sky.

Oh my goodness - Happy Birthday!

Many happy returns of the day! I chose this because it had glasses of good Spanish Rioja red.

Happy Birthday ...... Hope you had an awesome day

Happy birthday!! I hope I'm still in time...

Happy birthday!

Thanks everyone, my birthday was great. we spent the day back in Cordoba as last weekend we hadn't managed to visit Medinat al Zahara, so managed that yesterday. then returned to a tapas restaurant we really liked from our previous trip and a quick visit to the Mesquita. Then came the rain that had threatened all day so back to Marbella in the early evening.

Finished another book as well. So not having an internet connection does have a plus side.

3) The Mistress of Spices by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Fiction
I picked this for my Orange January read and all I can say is that I'm glad it's off my tbr pile. didn't enjoy this, not my type of book. A wishy washy light romance wrapped up in some sort of fantasy about a spice 'mistress' with special powers looking after Indian immigrants to the US.

4) The chant of Jimmie Blacksmith by Thomas Kenneally (1972)
Fiction
This was a great read based on a true story. Jimmie Blacksmith is an aborigine whose father was a white man. As he tries to get ahead in life and live more like a white man than an aborigine he comes up against the prejudices of the late 1890s white Australian settlers and finally it all comes crashing down in a homicidal kind of way. Keneally is a great writer. This was on the Booker Prize shortlist.

Happy birthday Kerry!

#32: Love your story, Suzanne. I was also robbed a couple of times in Spain. The first time all our group had our passports etc stolen when we parked our van on the side of the road in some dismal rural area and slept. The second was years later in Burger King in Madrid, all they grabbed was my son's nappy bag which contained, well, nappies and wet wipes.

>43 avatiakh:: Unless you had back-up nappies, that could have been the bigger disaster :0o

Happy belated birthday, Kerry. It sounds like you're having a great trip this time. I hope your holiday is mugger-free. Would have been nice if the thieves had grabbed your son's dirty nappy bag and not the one with clean nappies and wipes.

Belated Birthday wishes and New Year's greetings, Kerry. I've placed my star and now am ready for the book bullets to commence!

I've added this to post#3 at the top of my thread:
My 2013 Highlights sorted by my categories challenge:

1) Children's Classics from before 1990
16 books read - 10 by male, 6 female
Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner (1960)
Talking in Whispers by James Watson (1984)
The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tyler by Gene Kemp

2) Young at Heart - (YA and children's books - general)
38 books read - 16 by female, 22 by male authors

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (and I loved the movie)
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos
A world between us by Lydia Syson

3) Nonfiction
14 read - 5 by female, 9 by male
Six Days of War by Michael Oren

4) Scifi / fantasy
13 read - 6 by female, 7 by male
The Dervish House by Ian McDonald
Among Others by Jo Walton

5) All things Celtic
only 2 read - 1 by female, 1 by male
The Crow Road by Iain Banks

6) Mix - novellas, short stories, series
13 read - 3 by female, 10 x male
The Collaborator by Matt Rees - bk 1

7) Down Under - NZ and Australian
17 books read - 10 by women & 7 by male
The Tender Moments of Saffron Silk by Glenda Millard - children's fiction, the last in the wonderful series about the Silk family - highly recommended
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Questions of Travel by Michelle de Kretser

8) Translated Fiction
13 read - 2 by female, 11 by male
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

9) Israel & Diaspora
19 read - 6 by female & 13 by male
Between Friends by Amos Oz
The Family Moskat by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Journey to the Milennium by A.B. Yehoshua

10) Folklore - 0 reads
failure!

11) Mt TBR
19 read - 9 female & 10 male
(I did read from my tbr pile in other categories as well)
An Icecream War by William Boyd
A Stricken Field by Martha Gelhorn

12) Cult Writers
5 read - all male
Gormenghast trilogy - all three books by Mervyn Peake
Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh

13) Dropbox - new books, library books, graphic novels etc
24 read - 7 by female, 17 by male
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Powell
The Orphan master's son by Adam Johnson
An Officer and a spy by Robert Harris

5) The Emigrants by Vilhelm Moberg (1951)
Fiction

This is the first in a quartet of novels about a Swedish family emigrating to America in the year 1850. This first one is set in Sweden and on board ship and covers brilliantly the hardship of their lives in rural Sweden and how they come to the decision to be the first in their area to leave for a new life. A great read and I hope that my library has the rest so I can continue.

if you like children's books and 'all things Celtic,' I humbly recommend The Hounds of the Morrigan, if you haven't already read it - it's also on the 1001 Children's Books list...

I loved Wonder. It was in my top books of 2013. I gave it 9 stars. A big thumbs up!

#49: Amber, I read 'The Hounds' in 2012, it was good. The Morrigan is one of the characters in Alan Garner's Alderley books which are most likely in the 1001 book too. I'll recommend Steve Augarde's The Various trilogy for a good children's faerie adventure.
I also recommend Mollie Hunter for excellent Celtic reads, she bases a lot of hers on folklore.

Morphy - yes, Wonder was one of the really good ones.

Caro & Judy - thanks for the birthday wishes. I will get to your threads.

Tomorrow we're returning to Granada for the day and hope to include a visit to the Alhambra as dana still hasn't been. A museum about the jewish history of Granada has just opened this week and I'm hoping to get there as well.
Yesterday we went to Malaga for the afternoon and climbed up to Gibralfaro to the fortress and walked all over the castle ramparts. Great views and such interesting history. We saw the start of the Three Kings parade for the Epiphany festival.

No new books for the new year so far, I'm limiting myself to downloading sample chapters to the kindle, I have a huge number now to read.

Hi Kerry! Happy Birthday and safe travels. I didn't find your thread until last night and was dismayed to find I was 52 posts behind. All caught up now and ready for more book bullets.

My daughter has been reading a lot of dystopian YA books lately, and I'm trying to keep up by reading what I can. It makes me nervous that we are reading the same books. She's growing up, and I'm not ready! Fortunately, we still read aloud together and discuss books that we have both read, so I feel somewhat in the loop. I spent years hoping that she would turn out to be a reader, and despair now that she has! :-P

Happy New Year and a belated Happy Birthday, Kerry! I've also been away from home, although not so far and for so long, but I'm back home now and trying to catch up on the 2014 threads.

>51 avatiakh:: Thanks for the recommendations!

6) The Salt Road by Jane Johnson (2010)
Fiction
Really enjoyed this and thanks goes to Suzanne for recommending it. Set in the North African deserts it's a story of the modern history of the region's nomadic tribes. Isabelle inherits an old amulet on the death of her father and along with it a mystery that unravels when she decides on the spur of the moment to go on a climbing trip to Morocco.
jane johnson has an interesting biography and her research for this novel is quite extensive. definitely opens one to reading more about this region of the world.

Have a wonderful weekend, Kerry!

Not sure which continent you are in presently Kerry but I hope this finds you in splendid form. Climbing in Morocco sounds nice but far too energetic for me nowadays.

Hi Kerry, hope this finds you well and still enjoying your travels. I love Spain - and Andalucia in particular - are you still there?

I look forward again to following your reading this year.

Wondering how you are doing in Spain and looking forward to more pictures!

Hi everyone - I'm currently based near Tarragona in Catalonia and will be here for a couple more weeks. Have finally acclimatised to the drop in temperature from Andalusia. Hope to load a few photos, we have a doubtful internet connection for a few days for our laptop only.

I mentioned on Darryl's thread that I had a xuixo pastry the other day, it is a Catalan speciality - a croissant, deep fried like a doughnut, dusted with sugar and filled with crema Catalan. The main reason I had it was because of the name, a quick google search brought up a bit of a legend around the pastry which was possibly invented in the 1920s or even earlier. Xui-xui is the Catalan for sneeze, which is what the lover of a pastry-chef's daughter did when caught hiding in a sack of flour. To curb the pastry-chef's wrath he agreed to teach him how to make this 'delight' which was named after the sneeze.
After breaking it open and trying it I immediately thought of the 'cronut' and see that several online bloggers have commented on the similarities.

7) The Corn King and the Spring Queen by Naomi Mitchison (1931)
historical fiction
My first chunkster of the year and a very interesting read. Set in 200 BC, it follows the fortunes of the barbarian 'king' and 'queen' of fictional Marob alongside the story of the last King of Sparta, Kleomenes III. Mitchison gives you the politics, tribal beliefs and mythology, the Greek philosophers, brave Spartan warriors, and art and creativity all wrapped up with quests, love and strong female characters. Wonderful stuff.

8) The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud (2013)
YA fantasy
This is the first Lockwood & Co book and I hope Stroud writes a few more (and quickly). Lockwood & Co is a 'ghostbusting' agency which is run by 3 teenagers with no adult supervisors (only children have the ability to sense & fight ghosts). Britain is plagued by growing numbers of 'visitors', or ghosts and there are many agencies, government departments and a special police department all set up to combat the phenomenon. Lots of swashbuckling fun of the ghostbusting kind. I really enjoyed this.

9) Leo Africanus by Amin Maalouf (1986)
historical fiction
Based on a true story of Hasan al-Wazzan a sixteenth century traveller. The story starts with the expulsion of the Moors from Granada in the 1490s and follows the fortunes and travels of 'Leo' from Morocco to Cairo and eventually to Rome. I loved this though the last part set in Rome did not appeal as much.

I have also had xuixos' before Kerry and can second your enthusiasm for them. Lovely little story of their origins too. Have a lovely weekend in cooler Catalonia.

The xuixos sound delicious.

Leo Africanus looks really good - a nice bit of historic fiction with plenty of travel for me to enjoy vicariously.

Kerry, the Arabian Nights thread is at http://www.librarything.com/topic/163021

Not much happening there except saying where we might be in the books.

Leo Africanus has been on my TBR list for several years. One of these days I'll get to it.

Darryl and Paul - you should both love the Maalouf book.

Roni - I won't get to The Arabian Nights this year I'm sure, but will enjoy reading other readers' reactions to it.

10) Journey through a small planet by Emanuel Litvinoff (1972)
memoir
I found this little gem in the hotel's lending library and have a copy at home on Mt Tbr which I can now discard. From wikipedia: '...the writer Emanuel Litvinoff recalls his working-class Jewish childhood in the East End of London: a small cluster of streets right next to the city, but worlds apart in culture and spirit. With vivid intensity Litvinoff describes the overcrowded tenements of Brick Lane and Whitechapel, the smell of pickled herring and onion bread, the rattle of sewing machines and chatter in Yiddish. He also relates stories of his parents, who fled from Russia in 1914, his experiences at school and a brief flirtation with Communism. Unsentimental, vital and almost dream like, this is a masterly evocation of a long-vanished world.'

I loved these brilliant sketches of a bygone age. Now Brick Lane is a completely different place with a vibrant weekly market though I've also read news stories about protesters trying to impose sharia-like laws there. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/crime/article3948391.ece

I'm currently enjoying the alternate history The plot against America by Philip Roth.
Also rereading Orwell's Homage to Catalonia and have Helen Dunmore's The Betrayal and Howard Jacobson's The Finkler Question on the go as well.

We've done some interesting excursions these past few days and hope to get away early this morning to Monserrat. Yesterday Dana and I visited the small village of Nulles and took part in a winery tour of the Cellar Modernista. The architect, Cèsar Martinell, was a follower of Gaudi, and produced a magnificent and functional building for the local village cooperative in 1919. There were 5 of us on the tour, and the guide spoke Spanish rather than Catalan to include us a little more, he also gave brief explanations in English. We were happy just to tag along. We got to taste their latest vintage, a crisp young white wine and their latest cava (sparkling white) as well as local olives. (photos all sourced from internet)

We had lunch in the coastal town of Cambrils which has quite a lovely charm at this time of year. I'm pretty sure once summer comes these coastal places become overcrowded with holidaymakers.

On Saturday we visited Girona and then drove along part of the Costa Brava back into Barcelona to view the Sagrada Familia in the early evening. We walked up Gaudi Ave and had a coffee before heading south again. The old town quarter in Girona is beautiful. We'd driven through the city last time we were here in 2008 on our way to Figueres and I've always wanted to come back and explore.


Last week we visited the little town of Montblanc which is known locally as where St George fought the dragon outside the city walls. Another historic centre to walk around in and admire the buildings and city walls especially. We ventured into an old world patisserie that had a wonderful window display and got a few local specialities - merlets and catanies, both are almond treats.

merlets de Montblanc

catanies from Vilafranca de Pedena

Love the sculptures in the second photo. They are fascinating.

Interesting reading and interesting travels. Thank you for sharing both!

Great post Kerry, I love the photos as well. (The almond sweets look very tempting.)

Thanks so much for your bullet of Litvinoff's Journey Through a Small Planet by Emanuel Litvinoff. It's one that I wishlisted a couple of summers ago, but yours is the first review I've seen of it anywhere outside of the Jewish Chronicle review where I think I first encountered it. I have his The Lost Europeans wishlisted as well.

I can't recall if I already mentioned this but Girona is a place in Catalunya I've wanted to visit for a while. I was tantalisingly close to it once (at the lovely Portbou on the coast at the border - Walter Benjamin died near there) but was pretty much oblivious to it sadly... I've read that it has a lot of Jewish history pre-Espulso - were you able to see much of that while there?

Very envious of your trip! Bon voyage!

#67: Morphy - the sculptures are dedicated to the local fishermen and there are sculpted figures holding trays of seafood and fish in front of them. Quite stunning.

#67: Hi Lisa - yes, enjoying my reading at present and loving being able to plan each day to the full. Tomorrow Dana and I are going by train into Barcelona and plan to focus on Gaudi. We visited the Gaudi Centre in Reus last week, we've been before but needed a refresher. The visit to Monserrat was inspiring, the location of the monastery is spectacular. The funicular up to the top of the rock wasn't working, but it would have been too cold to walk for very long in the reserve anyway. We spent the late afternoon in Barcelonetta, the old port area of Barcelona, had a late lunch in the sun and then a quick walk along the beach before it got dark.

11) Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell (1938)
nonfiction
This was a reread. Orwell was in the POUM militia on the Aragon front and was also in Barcelona when the various left wing groups clashed with one another. He had been trying to move across to the International Brigade at the time but the local political climate left much to be desired. After he was wounded and the anarchist POUM outlawed by their former Communist comrades he sought his discharge and left Spain before he could be arrested as many of his fellow POUM fighters were. Altogether he and his wife were in Spain from December 1936 until June 1937. I found this a very moving piece of writing and his explanation of the various political groups really helpful. The book originally had a limited audience and wasn't published in the US till 1952.
I've been listening to The Battle for Spain but haven't had access to my iPod for a while so that has been on hold for a couple of weeks now. Orwell's book is a much more personal and heartfelt read. I hope to read more of Orwell's work.

From wikipedia:
'According to Raymond Carr:
The Spanish Civil war produced a spate of bad literature. Homage to Catalonia is one of the few exceptions and the reason is simple. Orwell was determined to set down the truth as he saw it. This was something that many writers of the Left in 1936–39 could not bring themselves to do. Orwell comes back time and time again in his writings on Spain to those political conditions in the late thirties which fostered intellectual dishonesty: the subservience of the intellectuals of the European Left to the Communist 'line', especially in the case of the Popular Front in Spain where, in his view, the party line could not conceivably be supported by an honest man. Only a few strong souls, Victor Serge and Orwell among them, could summon up the courage to fight the whole tone of the literary establishment and the influence of Communists within it. Arthur Koestler quoted to an audience of Communist sympathizers Thomas Mann's phrase, 'In the long run a harmful truth is better than a useful lie'. The non-Communists applauded; the Communists and their sympathizers remained icily silent ... It is precisely the immediacy of Orwell's reaction that gives the early sections of Homage its value for the historian. Kaminski, Borkenau, Koestler came with a fixed framework, the ready-made contacts of journalist intellectuals. Orwell came with his eyes alone.'

Yesterday was a lovely day in Barcelona. Our train arrived to the Passeig de Gràcia station. We visited Gaudi's apartment building La Pedrera then walked towards the Sagrada Familia. I found an English language bookshop by chance, BCN Books (Roger de Llúria, 118) and bought a slim foodie memoir, Apricots on the Nile off their 2 euro used books table. We walked up Gaudi Avenue to visit the Hospital de Sant Pau, a world heritage site designed by modernist architect Lluís Doménech i Montaner. We would have done the walking tour but most of the buildings are currently under renovation and closed off. We were given a map of where to go to see as much as possible under the current conditions. We visited a mercat, the modern Sagrada Familia one and after a late lunch we visited the Sagrada Familia which is truly stunning. We walked through the older Mercat de la Concepció and then relaxed in the Cafe del Centre (Girona, 69), one of the few remaining Modernista cafés, like taking a step back in time. We got there before the evening rush and the few other customers were all on their own and reading. There was a table of books by the entrance rather than the usual pile of magazines and newspapers.

Cafe del Centre


La Pedrera rooftop


Hospital de Saint Paul


turtle column at Sagrada Familia


interior of Sagrada Familia
Although I've been several times to Barcelona, I had never been inside any of Gaudi's buildings before but decided to treat myself & Dana this time. Each building has expensive entry fees and it really adds up quite quickly if you are a family group. This time as there was just the two of us it was finally 'affordable'.
(Images all sourced from online sites)

Lovely pictures of Barcelona Kerry. It's really making me want to revisit. The only time I've been was when J was 3 and there were obviously limitations on what it made sense for us to visit.

Hi Rhian - just a quick check in before the others hog the laptop and iPad. Today we went to the Royal Abbey of Santa Maria de Poblet which is about 50km inland from Tarragona. I had read about it in Gaudi's biography.
'In July of 1870, Anton Gaudí got excited, together with his friends Eduard Toda and Josep Ribera, with restoring the monastery of Poblet, ruined from the expropriation of 1835 and of great cultural, historical and patriotic importance.'
Nothing much happened except on paper for Gaudi and his friends and the monastery was finally restored in the 1940s..'Finally the monastery was refounded in 1940 by Italian monks of the same order and repair and reconstruction began. Close to the entrance of the church one building has been kept in a ruined state as a reminder. Remains of the deceased of the ancient Royal House of Aragon (12th-15th century) were put back in sepulchres.'


I have really loved the family trips we have done but it can be restricting at times. My favourite place to take children in Barcelona has to be Parc Guell. They also enjoyed the Miro Museum which has a sculpture terrace on the roof. There is a lot to see in Catalonia.

Oh yes I remember Park Guell. And Sagrada Familia was a hit too. And I remember we went to see some Roman remains somewhere in the centre of the city which he liked. The main problem we had was finding restaurants that opened early enough in the evening: all the ones me and Mr SandDune wanted to eat in didn't open until 9pm.

12) The Plot against America by Philip Roth (2004)
fiction
I bumped this one up my to read pile after finishing Dominion, both are alternate histories that change the events of the 1940s. In Roth's book, Roosevelt loses the presidential election in 1940 to hero aviator, Charles Lindbergh , who stands as a candidate for the Republicans on an isolationist platform. His first action is to sign an 'understanding' with Hitler and then Japan. The story is told from the perspective of a young Jewish boy in New Jersey, Philip Roth, and how the growing fascism and Jewish persecution in the country impacts on his family. A good read with interesting political depth.

I've got the Roth novel on my TBR list, and since I've never read any Roth (I know, so shoot me) I probably should bump it up my list. Glad The Salt Road worked out; I really can't take too much credit for it, since although I listed it, I've yet to read it myself! I THINK I have it lying around the house, but couldn't swear to this.

Have you run across the mystery novels by Caroline Roe? Set in Girona, which I think is near Tarragona?

I'm envious of the fab time you're enjoying in Spain, but relishing the pics, secondhand! Maybe by 2015 I'll be able to think about doing some more traveling.

I am so very much enjoying all of the Spain talk and pictures! Thanks for much for sharing your travels with us!

Suzanne - I've also read and quite liked The Human Stain. There are a couple more of his books that I'd like to read at some stage. The Salt Road was better than I expected it to be, and I would never have come across it if you hadn't mentioned it.
I haven't read anything by Caroline Roe but have now added her series to my to read list. Girona is about 100km north of Barcelona, about 60km from the border and Tarragona is 100km down the coast from Barcelona.

Hi Amber - thanks. I'll have an overnight trip to Zaragoza to write about after the weekend, if we have wifi next week. I'm using pinterest to pin some of the regional foods that we come across so I don't forget about them on my return home. Yesterday we ate in a popular taverna in the Gracia district of Barcelona. The place was packed with locals, and almost all of us were eating from the 'menu del dia' as there was a generous selection and only 10 euros. The table next to us filled up, put on bibs and plastic gloves which sure looked interesting. I was presuming they were about to eat crabs or something but three platters of grilled calçots, a kind of longer, juicier green onion, arrived to the table along with bowls of romesco sauce and this rowdy group had a noisy and messy time eating them all. I understand it is a bit of a winter tradition, never knew that spring onions could be such fun!
http://www.culinarybackstreets.com/barcelona/2013/calcots/

Yesterday we visited Gaudi's dragon gate at Güell Pavilions.

From wikipedia: The dragon represented Ladon, offspring of Typhus, the dragon that guarded the Garden of the Hesperides, which was overcome by Hercules as one of his twelve labours—an episode that was narrated by Jacint Verdaguer in his poem L'Atlàntida, dedicated to Antonio López y López, first marquis of Comillas, who was Eusebi Güell’s brother in law. Over the dragon there is an antimony orange-tree, another allusion to the Hesperides. The shape of the dragon corresponds with the position of the stars in the Serpens constellation, because Ladon was turned into a snake as a punishment for stealing the oranges.

and because it was in the vicinity we also visited the Monestir de Pedralbes. a gothic monastery which was built in 1325 by Queen Elisenda in an effort to be forgiven for her sins. Some of the most famous architects of the time worked on the project and it remained in use by the nuns right up to the 1980s. Followed by a trip to Park Guell (now have to pay an entrance fee!) and walk to look at Casa Vicens, Gaudi's first commission.
I also managed a quick trip to Hyperion Books which is Barcelona's only English language used bookstore, it's near the Fontane metro in Gracia.
Got two books - The Women in the Wall by Julia O'Faolain and Tasting the Sky: a Palestinian childhood by Ibtisam Barakat.

13) The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore (2011)
fiction
Sequel to The Siege and almost as good. This is set a few years after the end of the war.

I'll come back and add more but have to pack up now and get on the road.

Your Spain stories and photos are gorgeous, Kerry!

I am loving the travelogue, Kerry. Thank you for sharing!

Interesting to read your review of Homage to Catalonia. I have not read very much of Orwell's journalism, only Burmese Days. Yet his name came up in Bloodlands in context with the Popular Fronts (did you know Stalin sent NKVD agents to Spain to assassinate people?) and now here it is again. I know nothing of Spanish history and would probably need to start with some sort of primer.

The only Philip Roth that I've read is Nemesis, which I did not enjoy. I own The Plot against America and should give it a try.

I agree with you that The Betrayal was good, but not as gripping as The Siege. Did you hear about her new book Greatcoat? Although it still has a WWII setting, I guess it's more of a ghost story. *shrug*

Hi Lisa - I think that the opening chapter of Anthony Beevor's The Battle for Spain gives a pretty good background to the Civil War. Orwell's book is a pretty good intro to the Civil War even though he just touches on a small part. I found Ghosts of Spain interesting too, it looks at the legacy of the war. As far as Spanish history generally, it is huge subject and I'm not sure what would be good to start with. Suzanne mentioned The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain by Maria Rosa Menocal as an interesting read on one particular period.

I was interested in the idea of alternate history and the politics involved after reading Dominion so Royh's book appealed. I want to read Robert Harris' Fatherland as well, I have to wait till I'm home to get to it.

I saw Greatcoat in the bookshops a while back but wasn't interested as I knew The Betrayal was on my to read list, now I'll have to decide if I want to read it. I'm also partway through her YA fantasy series Ingo, I think I have 2 books left to read.

I'm halfway through Tasting the sky a Palestinian childhood but can't get my head around her vivid recollections of every detail of her life when she was 3.5 yrs old. Most of the book so far is about these few weeks of her childhood during the Six Day War and its aftermath.

I'm thoroughly enjoying your travels in Catalonia, Kerry! I've marked the places you visited in my Everyman Mapguides Barcelona book, so that I can remember to go there as well. I'll probably wait until February or March to make flight, train and hotel reservations for London, Paris and Barcelona.

Great photos! Thanks for sharing them.

#81 Thanks for the suggestions, Kerry. I'm not sure when I'll get to them, but I've marked your post so that I can come back to it.

Since Philip Roth is such a major American author, I think I will read another book, in case Nemesis was just not one of his best. I haven't read many alternative histories, being too absorped in trying to understand the history itself, but Fatherland looks interesting too. I see several Club Readers have it, but no one I know has reviewed it yet. I'll wait for your opinion. I have never read anything by C.J. Sansom, but Dominion sounds interesting as well. Anything to do with WWII, perhaps even alternate histories. I'm torn about Greatcoat as I tend not to go for the supernatural, but I do like Dunmore's writing. Perhaps as a quick library read.

How much can she remember at 3.5? I wonder how much is true memories and how much is what she remembers others saying as she grew up. Memories are often created by looking at photos and hearing family stories. Is it an autobiographical novel?

Darryl - I'll keep updating, we have about 5 days left here and plan to pack quite a bit into these last few days. I've been using a slimmed down Rough Guide to Barcelona which fits into my bag. We also have a larger Eyewitness Barcelona and Catalonia to refer to but don't carry it around. I'm constantly looking up opening times as lots of places close for a couple of hours in the afternoon. I'm looking forward to my next walk down the Ramblas as I've just read an article, George Orwell's Barcelona and made note of lots of places to look at as I reread his Homage to Catalonia last week.

We've just come back from an overnight trip to Zaragoza in Aragon. It's about a 2.5 hr drive each way and well worth it. The Plaza Pilar is very beautiful, and Aragon cuisine is quite different.

The girl at the tourism office suggested a sidetrip to Belchite and Dana and I drove out there this morning. The village of Belchite was destroyed in the last battle of the Aragon front during the civil war.
'Franco ordered Republican prisoners to return to Belchite and to rebuild it – his argument being that as they had destroyed it then it was their responsibility to restore it. However, the dictator had a perverse idea, a trick up his sleeve – that the town should be left destroyed and a new one built next to it. He intended it to be a reminder of the damage wrought by the forces of communism on Spain.'
So right alongside the modern town there is this eerie collection ruined buildings including churches. While you can't walk through the main street without a local guide as it isn't very safe what with being surrounded by buildings on the verge of collapse, you can walk all around the perimeter. We went very early, it was terribly windy and we were the only ones there apart from the odd appearance of locals doing a bit of farm work.
Quite a good blog about the history and photos here, though since it was posted there are more restrictions on visiting the site and you can't wander freely anymore.



Lori - thanks for visiting, I'll have to track down your thread

Lisa - Betsy Bird, a NY children's librarian reviewed it on her blog, so first of all it's an older children's book. She calls it a 'fictionalisation of Ms. Barakat’s own life' and liked the book, though initially thought it was historical fiction, which is how it reads. I suppose I was trying too hard to see it as an actual memoir.

I haven't been one for alternate histories either but have been quite taken with the idea now I've read a couple. Fatherland seems to be a hit with most LTers who've read it.

Those photos are amazing. The one on the blog of a view through what would have been the basilica roof... What an eerie looking place. Did they build the new city to resemble the old, or just built a new city?

For many years Kerry I thought Roth was a writer who could only write about the penis and the strenuous efforts of all his characters to use it more and have it perform better. Eventually however I realised that there is much more depth to his work than that. I also have The Plot Against America on the TBR and may read it this year.

Thanks for all the photos of Catalonia; brings back very happy memories of Spain for me.

14) Tasting the Sky: a Palestinian childhood by Ibtisam Barakat (2007)
children's nonfiction

I picked this up in the biography section of a used bookstore and started reading it thinking it was a straightforward memoir for adults. It is a quick read of only 170pgs and it was only when I was halfway through that I looked up a few reputable reviews and saw it described as a 'fictionalised memior' which reassured me as I thought it would have been really hard to write in such detail about a period of a few weeks when the author was only 3.5 years old. I also realised that the writer's audience was perhaps much younger than I first thought. The book has won a few awards as well.
It starts when she is an older teenager and is blocking her memories of the past. When she goes back to her early years, she describes Palestinian rural family life that ends when the family decide to move to nearby Ramallah when she is about 7 soon after the death of Egyptian President Nasser.
Barakat describes the food, spices, orchards, the toys and games, the clothes and some of the escapades she and her older brothers get up to. The family is quite poor, isolated and live on a small plot of land on a hill near Ramallah. The nearest neighbours are unfriendly and their own extended family are a bus ride away.

The traumatic events that she was blocking are probably when she is left behind by her family when they join other families walking to Jordan during the start of the Six Day War, she is about 3.5yrs old at the time and eventually catches up to them amid the crowds of people. Then about a year later she and her brothers are put in an orphanage by the mother, saying they have no father, as she is frightened by the fact that the Israeli soldiers use a nearby field for training when her husband is away during the day. They hate the orphanage and Barakat's brothers are expelled and sent to another orphanage in a refugee camp. The parents eventually agree to bring them home again.
As a 6yr old she is lucky to get away from a brutal much older boy who tries to force himself on her when she is walking to the bus one day, so refuses to tell the truth or go back to school and eventually she is allowed to wait two extra hours at the school on her own till her brothers' class gets out. Another event that lots of farm-raised children will remember is the favourite or pet farm animal ending up in the cooking pot. Barakat cradles the heart of her beloved baby goat, whispers her love and vows not to eat at her brothers' circumcision feast.

Overall this is probably a good book for a teacher to include in a class study on the region, Barakat manages to avoid political issues and brings us to a 1960s childhood quite different to one that we would have had. Barakat a Palestinian-American author, poet, translator, artist and educator now lives in the US and holds two Masters degrees, has taught language ethics.

#86: Lisa - I don't think the new town resembles the old that much. The new town much bigger, fairly uninteresting with no significant buildings that we saw on a quick drive through. The area beside the ruins is mainly small agricultural plots and a few small olive oil production plants. The town is surrounded by olive groves, a few vineyards and is set on an immense plain. The area is a well known destination for bird watchers - 'The steppeland to the east of the town of Belchite is a prime attraction for birders hoping to track down that elusive and highly prized avian gem, the Dupont's Lark'

We didn't think we'd see that church with the basilica roof, but just before we got back to the car, by walking into the yard of one of the olive oil plants, we got right up close to it. To be honest I wouldn't want to walk inside these ruins they look on the verge of total collapse. It is an archaeological site in the making. I was intensely happy that the girl in the tourist office mentioned it when I asked if there was anything of interest to visit on our way back to Catalonia. In the end we decided to visit it from Zaragoza and were back in time for a trip to the art museum and an early (by Spanish standards!) lunch.

The museum currently exhibits three series of etchings by Goya and some of the prints were hard to look at so grotesque were the actions (especially of warfare and pillage) they depicted.
From wikipedia: Los Caprichos are a set of 80 aquatint prints created by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya in 1797 and 1798, and published as an album in 1799. The prints were an artistic experiment: a medium for Goya's condemnation of the universal follies and foolishness in the Spanish society in which he lived.

The Disasters of War (Spanish: Los Desastres de la Guerra) are a series of 82 prints created between 1810 and 1820 by the Spanish painter and printmaker Francisco Goya (1746–1828). Although Goya did not make known his intention when creating the plates, art historians view them as a visual protest against the violence of the 1808 Dos de Mayo Uprising, the subsequent Peninsular War of 1808–14 and the setbacks to the liberal cause following the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in 1814.

La Tauromaquia (Bullfighting) is a series of 33 prints created by Spanish painter and printmaker Francisco Goya, which was published in 1816. The works of the series depict bullfighting scenes.

Hi Paul - yes, The Human Stain was a bit like that though I found the whole idea of a man pretending to be something he wasn't and then being accused of being a racist quite intriguing. I want to read Portnoy's Complaint, Goodbye Columbus and American Pastoral.
I just read on a review that he repeats himself, always writing about growing up Jewish in Newark. So perhaps my reaction to The plot against America was positive because I was basically 'fresh' to his writing.

Kerry, sounds like you have been having a great time in Spain. I don't know Soithern Spain at all - I've always wanted to go but somehow we have never quite got around to it.

Belchite looks like a fascinating place to visit - even if only skirting its edges or seeing it from afar. As you say - an archaeological site in the making. Love all your commentary on the restaurants/cafes you've eaten at: Cafe del Centre sounds great, and I loved reading up on that link to the grilled calçots. They sound delicious (if a bit messy!).

I hope you do get to Goodbye Columbus in your further Roth reading - it's a long time since I read it but I remember being really charmed. I sort of stumbled upon the Zuckerman Bound series recently when I took an audiobook version of Zuckerman Unbound out from the library on a whim - and really loved it. George Guidall narrates, so that helps, but I definitely want to read the other 3 in the series now.

Enjoy the rest of your trip.

15) The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson (2010)
Fiction
I enjoyed this much more than I expected. A Booker Prize winner that explores Jewish identity in modern day London. Julian Treslove, a non-jew but with two Jewish friends both recently widowed, aspires to be Jewish.

Rhian - we are currently in southern Catalonia and enjoying discovering the countryside and smaller towns very much.

Paul - The Belchite ruins aren't that extensive and we did see it all, it took a relaxed hour to walk the perimeter.
Now that I know about calcots, I'm noticing a few calcoditas - rural restaurants that specialise in serving them, around he local area. The set menu seems to start at around 30-38 euros which is a bit steep for our budget.

Today we had our last trip in to Barcelona but unfortunately Dana wasn't feeling that great so it was a rather muddled day in the end. We started by walking the Ramblas and noting the landmarks from George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia. we had coffee & churros in Cafe Moka which was taken over and barricaded by the civil guard for several days in 1937. It has been modernised but still in operation. The link to the article I used for all the addresses is in post #85.
We ended up having a second coffee in Cafe Opera so that Dana could have some timeout. The cafe was been open every day since it opened in 1929, even during the fighting during the Civil War.
We also wandered through the gothic quarter again. The first day in Barcelona we had walked through the tiny Jewish quarter and visited the remains of one of Europe's earliest synagogues. Finished up at Barcelona Football Club so husband could visit the megastore, we bought nothing in the end, but was interesting to note that in all central Barcelona he was unable to buy any dvds of Spanish football.

16) Sweet William by Beryl Bainbridge (1975)
fiction
One of a pair of bargain Bainbridge paperbacks I picked up in London. I enjoyed this story of a naive young woman who is suddenly caught up in an unpredictable and unsettling relationship with 'Sweet William', someone who you can never quite pin down and neither can she.

Glad to hear you enjoyed The Finkler Question. Some of the Club Readers lately have been posting some quite negative responses to this book, and it seems to be a read that's really dividing opinion.

Do you think that it might be a question of American readers, or perhaps American Jewish readers, not 'getting' something about the London/British Jewish sensibility? Or maybe it's just a matter of taste - and you either like Howard Jacobson's style and sense of humour or you don't? I've not read it yet by the way, and have not read anything by him so far (I have Kalooki Nights TBR), though I'm very familiar with his vibe so to speak as he often pops up on radio, tv, and in the press...

Hi Paul - I was probably in a really good headspace for Jacobson's book. It was the first one for me and I'll be reading others, possibly going for his nonfiction next. It's the first recent fiction I've read that dealt indepth and with intelligence about Leftist anti-zionist Jews, the new trend for anti-semitism to be cloaked in anti-Israel talk. Sure there were parts that made me cringe and none of the male characters were particularly likeable but overall I liked it a lot, those characters stay with you. While the book covers Jewish tradition through Treslove's quest, it was the political stance of Finkler that kept me reading.
Not sure on the American response, I'm racking my brains to think of something comparable to Jacobson's book over there. Roth writes in a more nostalgic tone.

17) Winter Garden by Beryl Bainbridge (1980)
fiction
The second Bainbridge paperback that I picked up, see book #16 above. This was quite entertaining and I read it through in one sitting but overall not a great read. Set in the 1970s, Douglas accompanies his mistress on a trip to Moscow, she's one of a small group of artists making an official visit. His wife thinks he has gone on a fishing trip to the Highlands. Things start to go wrong right from the moment he arrives at the airport.

I have yet to read Beryl Bainbridge, but I have her novel about the Titanic on my list. No, actually I put the one about the arctic on my list, because in my mind, no novel could compare with Walter Lord's fabulous nonfiction account of the Titanic (A Night to Remember).

hi Lisa, last year I read two by Bainbridge that were superior to these two, The Bottle Factory Outing and Master Georgie, which was about the Crimean War.

Today is our last day in Spain, we fly out in the morning for three days in Paris.

Ok. I added Master Georgie and found that you had previously recommended A Quiet Life to me as well.

I have to admit that I only got about thirty pages in to The Finkler Question - it just didn't appeal at all!

Bainbridge was almost always entertaining and came close to winning the Booker Prize without actually doing so more times than any other writer (most unsuccessful shortlistings). You are probably right about her best work too.

Lisa, I forgot about A Quiet life, that was good as well and her most autobiographical novel.

Rhian, I sat on those first 30 odd pages as well, it got a bit better after that though it's not one I'd recommend to everyone.

Paul, I've now read five of her novels and definitely want to keep reading her work

Kerry - I think that there was a fair bit of autobiography in An Awfully Big Adventure and would recommend that one too, if you haven't read it yet.

Have a great weekend.

Kerry, thanks for your thoughts on The Finkler Question - very interesting. I think I've veered back towards re-adding it to the wishlist!

On Beryl Bainbridge - I'm definitely a fan of her writing, and also enjoyed Master Georgie, but I LOVED The Birthday Boys on Captain Scott's Antarctic expedition. I thought it was one of the most moving books I ever read. (Especially if you have the cover with the famous and very haunting self-taken image of the polar attempt team of five.)

Paul & Paul - OK, I'll have to make those two Bainbridge books a priority.

I've managed to finish two Booker Prize winners - both have been on my tbr list since forever and both were really good reads especially the Peter Carey one. Haven't had much time for reading.

18) The Life & Times of Michael K by J.M. Coetzee

19) The true history of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey

and after a couple of hectic days in Paris, we are now in Hong Kong for a couple of nights and will be back in New Zealand on Friday.
I managed to watch 3 movies on the flight - Captain Philips (gripping), Austenland (fun) and a French comedy on the Tour de France - La Grande Boucle (silly fun).

I'll update my travels once I get home.

I confess that I loved The Finkler Question when it first came out, and was delighted it won the Booker. That said, it is one of those divisive books with unlikable characters, which may explain part of the aversion. I'm not Jewish and (hopefully) not anti-Semitic, so I may be tone-deaf/oblivious to some of the issues others might have with it in that connection. I thought it was an absurd but extremely well-written novel of manners, in a very English manner, ultimately.

Now -- any suggestions for a friend and her husband planning a trip to Andalucia later this year for their anniversary? He is from Tunisia, originally, but can trace his family right back to Seville and Granada pre-1492 (I gather that over the centuries in Tunisia, the Andalucian Arabs held themselves aloof from their Arabian peninsula Arab fellow Tunisians; I suppose it's the WASPs versus the lazy Irish and the Italians here?). I've made the usual suggestions, but thought you might have more to offer.

Belchite: a les Baux in the making, perhaps?? It certainly would be a great field trip for teachers wanting to drum home the devastation wreaked by war.

I just watched Captain Phillips last night -- enjoyed it much more than I thought I would! Austenland, I'm trying to recall whether I've seen it. I'll have to look for La Grande Boucle.

Bon voyage et bon retour chez vous!

I am another who has to say that my enjoyment of Captain Phillips far outweighed my expectation of it. Don't understand why Tom Hanks didn't get an Oscar nomination- he was brilliantly believable in it.

Safe journey.

Oh, Kerry, what gorgeous pictures and what an exploration you are having! Color me green.

Oh, my goodness...Those photos are incredible.

I'm currently reading one of the 2014 Newbery honor books -- One Came Home by Amy Timberlake is a wonderful book.

Have you read this one yet?

Hi, Kerry. I liked Boxers & Saints a lot, and Ilana reminded me that you were probably the first LT 75er to point that one out. It was well done, wasn't it?

Beautiful photos up there. My MBH and I have never been to Spain, and we're committed to fixing that in the next few years.

Ok, I'm finally getting back to my own thread. I've been home for almost a week and have been battling stints of jetlag but am now over that hurdle.

Suzanne - I'm not sure how much more I could recommend in Andalusia, Granada and Cordoba are the drawcards for the Moorish history plus Seville. I really liked Cadiz and Jerez though there is less to see there, which means less tourists. The national parks are also beautiful though some of the roads are a little extreme. If they are visiting in summer everything will be very busy. I like Malaga, the waterfront is a vibrant area and the old city's pedestrian streets are great at the weekend, so crowded with locals.
I'd suggest a visit or overnight at a parador, the one at Carmona was a 14th-century Arab fortress and quite impressive.
http://www.paradores-spain.com/spain/pcarmona.html
I wish I'd also squeezed a visit in to Jaen, only found out that it had an interesting Jewish history in the last couple of days I was there. Jaen also has an impressive looking parador. http://www.paradores-spain.com/spain/pjaen.html
The tourist office in Ronda recommended a nearby white town built into rocks, Setenil de las Bodegas, but sadly we never got there either.

As far as dining out goes, it pays to research a few good places to eat, though not be obsessive about it. Nothing more annoying than paying good money for a lousy meal especially on holiday though I also don't recommend spending hours trying to track down great places in obscure locations. We mainly ate tapas and a lot of the highly recommended tapas places turned out to be ultra busy stand-up bars that held no appeal. We were mostly after quietly bustling places that you could linger in after a morning of sightseeing. A lot of the local cuisine references Moorish and Jewish influences.
I'll go back through my notes and photos so I can mention a few tapas places worth a look.

Hi Kerry

I'm looking at your marvelous photos once again! They are breathtakingly beautiful.

Paul - I saw a couple more movies on the Hong Kong - Auckland flight. Mister Pip with Hugh Laurie was a bit slow and I confess I fell asleep through the middle section. I did enjoy the book a few years ago. The other was My Lucky Star a rather fun Chinese film. There was a German time travel film I didn't get to see, Rubinrot, but have ordered the book from the library, Ruby Red by Kerstein Gier.
Tomorrow I'm finally getting to see The Hobbit 2.

Roni - Now that I've loaded my photos onto the laptop I can finally write up my last days of the trip.

Linda - I'm behind with reading all these books though I have read the Printz winner., Midwinterblood. My current plan is to always have a children's book or a YA one on the go alongside whatever else I'm reading. At present I'm reading Tinder and A small free kiss in the dark, both by award winning authors.

Joe - I think Mark was first with the Boxers and Saints. Anyway they were very good. Spain is such a huge country with an amazing history. I'm looking forward to reading more about where I've been and I simply must finish that Beevor book, I stalled on chapter 6.

So I've got several more books to write about, finish off my trip with my own photos and talk about my book purchases but first I better go serve up some dinner.

It's great having you back, Kerry!

Kerry, I'm trying to get back to making a dent on reading all the Newbery medal and honor books.

I've read Flora and Ulysses by Kate Decamillo..It is well deserving of the medal for 2014
I read One Came Home by Amy Timberlake and loved it! Her first book, and it garnered a Newbery honor!
I read The Year of Billy Miller by Kevin Henkes and was greatly disappointed. I can't understand why this won a Newbery honor for 2014
I'm on hold at the local library for Paperboy

Hi Kerry :-)

Hi Linda - I'll have to put in a request for Flora and Ulysses at least.

Hi Lisa & Stephanie

Books Acquired:
In Paris I visited a few bookshops including Shakespeare & Co. which I found a little too crowded for my liking, it being a weekend visit. Later in the afternoon while walking along Rue de Rivoli I came across a great bookshop, Galignani, enjoyed a leisurely browse and came away with Monsieur Proust's Library by Anka Muhlstein. Had to get a Prioust book as I was next door to Cafe Angelina where Proust loved the hot chocolate (as did Coco Chanel), I missed out as the place is very popular and the queue was off putting.

On Sunday morning we were on Rue Bretagne in the Marais, right beside Le Marché des Enfants Rouges (Paris' oldest covered market) and had to enter a bookshop which had a great window display of art books. I ended up buying a comic book, Papier #2, which was very cute and suited my limited grasp of French. The shop's name Comme un roman... or 'Like a novel...'


Since I've been home I've picked up a few library books and visited the Scholastic Factory Bookshop where I was able to pick up a few hardback YA novels for next to nothing:
Fireweed by Jill Paton Walsh
Tinder by Sally Gardner - illustrated retelling of the Tinderbox
The impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
The coldest girl in Coldtown by Holly Black
A moment comes by Jennifer Bradbury

Library:
The war within these walls by Aline Sax
Full Ride by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Saints of the Shadow Bible by Ian Rankin
Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier
Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Alex by Pierre Lemaitre

I also had some books waiting for me that I'd ordered before I left:
Gone to Soldiers by Marge Piercy
City of Darkness, City of Light by Marge Piercy
The Crusades: a very short introduction by Christopher Tyerman
Books v. cigarettes by George Orwell
What we talk about when we talk about the tube by John Lanchester

plus I've visited 3 charity shops on my return:
Harnessing Peacocks by Mary Wesley
The Curative by Charlotte Randall
Lunch with the Stationmaster by Derek Hanson - (series that I'm reading)
May we be forgiven by A. M. Homes
Being and Nothingness by Jean-Paul Satre
Telling Liddy by Anne Fine
Petropolis by Anya Ulnich

20) Thraxas by Martin Scott (Martin Millar) (1999)
fantasy
First in a series of nine fantasy novels by Millar. I really enjoy his Kalix books and have been meaning to read this earlier series since I found out he wrote them under a different name.
Thraxas is an ex-soldier, failed sorcerer and now bumbling PI in a city state in a mythical world populated by humans, elves, orcs and others. He lives above a pub, is always broke and his sidekick is the barmaid, Makri, who is a mix of Orc, Elf and Human. Rather fun and I'll be reading the others as I come across them.


21) The Unit by Ninna Holmqvist (2006)
scifi

This dystopian Swedish novel reminded me of Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, though rather than young people it deals with childless older people. Dorrit has turned 50 and as she is single, has no children or work in a needed profession she is considered 'dispensible' and enters the Second Reserve Bank Unit for Biological Material. Here along with her peers, her body is considered an asset of the state and to be farmed for organs needed by the more useful members of society. Quite a thoughtful book, the relationships formed with the others in the Unit are for Dorrit the most important relationships she's had in her life and yet they are all already written off by their society.


22) The War within these walls by Aline Sax (2013)
illustrated YA novel
This is by Belgium writer Aline Sax and is about the Warsaw Uprising from the POV of a young Jewish boy who is also a fighter. You could almost consider it a graphic novel, it is definitely a work of art, with much thought taken over the layout and use of black on white and reverse. Some pages only have a line of text and others several paragraphs. The drawings by Caryl Strzelechi are interesting, not finely drawn. The book itself is a shade taller and narrower than the usual book shape and this gives it additional appeal even though the cover illustration is quite grim. The story itself is poignant.

23) Far Rockaway by Charlie Fletcher (2011)
YA fiction

I enjoyed this one. Cat is hit by a truck and lies in the Intensive Care unit of hospital with extensive head injuries. But she wakes in a fantasy world peopled with characters from the classic adventure books that her grandfather used to read to her and her older brother - Kidnapped, Last of the Mohicans and Treasure Island. She feels the urgency of her quest almost immediately and senses that her grandfather's life is in the balance. This was at times quite a dark novel, with no easy choices.


24) Full Ride by MArgaret Peterson Haddix (2013)
YA ficiton
Another interesting read. Becca's father is an identity thief, a corporate criminal and computer hacker, sentenced to ten years in prison for embezzlement in a high profile court case. Becca and her mother must flee Georgia and start a new life, under cover, in a new town where no one suspects their true identity. Three years later when it comes time to apply for college scholarships and financial aid, her real identity might be revealed putting her and her mother's lives at risk. A 'full ride' is a scholarship that covers one's entire college education and that is what Becca is after as she and her mother live in reduced circumstances but when she finds the ideal scholarship to apply for Becca becomes suspicious. A bit of a thriller, I really enjoyed this one.


25) The Jerusalem File by Joel Stone (2009)
fiction
Set in Jerusalem, this is rather an intense novel that I quite enjoyed reading. Levin, a PI is asked by an acquaintance to follow his wife as he is convinced she is having an affair. Stone conveys the drama of Jerusalem during the Second Intifida and the tension felt by the inhabitants due to suicide bombings, the mistrust building between former friends on both sides. Throughout is the constant thought of relocation.

I really "liked" The Unit; thoughtful, and thought provoking. i've re-read it twice, I think.

Thanks for the suggestions re Andalucia; I will pass 'em on!

And I may have to seek out that Proust book by Anka Muhlstein...

I usually quite enjoy Margaret Peterson Haddix's work, but I hadn't heard of that new one yet. On the list it goes! She really does know how to keep the action and suspense moving.

I read The War Within these Walls last year and thought it interesting as well. In my review I wrote Particularly moving was the juxtaposition of black text on white pages with the occasional black page with white text.

Suzanne - Yes, The Unit is one that would be worth a reread at some point in the future. I haven't read any Proust as yet, but intend to have a go at some future point. I read Madame Proust and the Kosher Kitchen by Kate Taylor a while back (I think we did a shared TIOLI read) and that is my sole Proust venture apart from making madelines all the time.
Muhlstein is married to Louis Begley and I enjoyed their Venice for Lovers.

Faith - I saw the Haddix while browsing a library display, otherwise I wouldn't have come across it either. I must get on with the Shadow Children series.

Lisa - thanks for commenting. I remember now that your review is what alerted me to this gem of a book. I had to ask my library to purchase it and then wait till I returned home to finally read it. I love the thought that has gone in to the design & layout of this book.

Books Read in January:

.....

.....
.....

Love the cover gallery, and refuse to acknowledge how many book-bullets you've struck me with, fiend incarnate.

Hi Richard - that's me, fiend incarnate!

Plans for February
I'm a bit behind on all this but with TIOLI and Fantasy February plus a couple of the challenges over in the category group and library books once again piling up, I do have some plans for this month.

TIOLI:
Challenge #1: Read a book from the library of the LT member with the greatest weighted number of books which match your own
Magic for beginners - (@Candiss/Your Library) - Kelly Link - need to find my copy of this
Ellen Foster - (@Candiss/Your Library) - Kaye Gibbons
Challenge #4: Read a book that has an older person as a main character
Saints of the Shadow Bible - Ian Rankin
The Unit - Ninni Holmqvist
Challenge #5: Read a book that is part of a series
Thraxas - Martin Scott/Millar
Challenge #6: Read a book by an author from, or set in, a country beginning with "I"
Death's Dark Abyss - Massimo Carlotto (Italy)
The girl on Via Flaminia - Alfred Hayes (set in Italy)
The Jerusalem File - Joel Stone (set in Israel)
Challenge #7: Read a book and then remove it from your physical presence
Full Ride (library book) - Margaret Peterson Haddix
True history of the Kelly Gang (give to daughter) - Peter Carey
Challenge #14: Read a book whose cover is dominated by the color red
Ruby Red - Kerstein Gier
Challenge #16: Read a book about love, or that has a "love" word in the title and/or author's name
School for Love - Olivia Manning
Challenge #18: Isn't it Romantic?: Read a book originally written in a Romance Language
The age of reason (French) - Jean-Paul Satre
Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Challenge #19: Read a 'beer' book
Far Rockaway - Charlie Fletcher
Challenge #21: February Free Reads: Read a book you got free with no strings attached
*Frederica (matched read)- Georgette Heyer
*Last Friends (matched read) - Jane Gardam

Fantasy February
Thraxas - Martin Scott/Millar
The Anxiety of Kalix the Werewolf - Martin Millar
Tinder - Sally Gardner
Magic for beginners - Kelly Link

GEOCat - Middle East read
The Jerusalem File - Joel Stone (Israel)
School for Love - Olivia Manning (Israel)
A grave in Gaza - Matt Rees (Gaza)
Dancing Arabs - Sayed Kashua (Israel)

February RandomCAT --CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
Tinder - Sally Gardner
Far Rockaway - Charlie Fletcher
The war within these walls - Aline Sax
Full Ride (library book) - Margaret Peterson Haddix
Magic for beginners - Kelly Link
A small free kiss in the dark by Glenda Millard
Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier
The Enchanted Forest by Comtesse de Segur
Ellen Foster - Kaye Gibbons

Luckily some of the books double up on the lists and then again I'm not planning on getting to everything either.

additional library books include:
The Explorer by James Smythe

Kerry
You always amaze me with your planned reading list and all the challenges you participate in.

What an amazing haul of books from the Scholastic Factory Bookshop! Color me green!

I'm unfamiliar with any of your books except Thraxas, which is sitting in my TBR pile.

Welcome home, Kerry!

You had a great reading month, Kerry. Did I miss a review on the Salt Road? It's one I've been thinking about reading.

A warm welcome home from me too Kerry.

Kerry, I meant to drop by sooner and thank you for turning my attention to Beaufort some time ago, I read it this month and was quite blown away by it. Glad to see you are home safe and sound.

Lovely to see you back from your travels so energised. Like RD I love your book gallery and envy your 20 plus recent splurge. Plenty of great looking books all round.

Have a lovely weekend.

I.must.resist. Must.resist. Arrrrgh! Added The Unit to Mount TBR.

The unit now that looks very good .... added to my ever increasing wish list :)

>118 avatiakh:: Did I read that right? Did you say Scholastic Factory Bookshop?! Where is this wonderful place?!

Hi Kerry, so many interesting books here as ever.

Glad you liked The Jerusalem File, I so nearly picked it up when I was last in London - and will now do so the very next time I see it!

Did I miss your comments on Emanuel Litvinoff book? I hope not!

Orwells Books v. Cigarettes looks enjoyable.

Welcome back!

I saw on FB today that it is Australian bush poet, Banjo Patterson's 150th birthday. So I was able to watch the film The Man from Snowy River as since reading The true history of the Kelly Gang which mentions the wild horses a few times and mountain riding I had been hankering to watch it and had picked the dvd up from the library only a few days ago. I had also requested a book of Patterson's poems so read the poem as well. The film is pretty good and here is a true dinkum Australian reading of the poem set to the best parts of the movie. I love it when his horse just dives off the mountain top after all the wild brumbies...

'But the man from Snowy River let the pony have his head,
And he swung his stockwhip round and gave a cheer,
And he raced him down the mountain like a torrent down its bed,
While the others stood and watched in very fear.

He sent the flint stones flying, but the pony kept his feet,
He cleared the fallen timber in his stride,
And the man from Snowy River never shifted in his seat -
It was grand to see that mountain horseman ride.
Through the stringybarks and saplings, on the rough and broken ground,
Down the hillside at a racing pace he went;
And he never drew the bridle till he landed safe and sound,
At the bottom of that terrible descent.'

I had also gotten the film of Ned Kelly from the library which stars Heath Ledger, but only watched a little of it as the film just can't do justice to a great book, sorry Heath and Orlando (Bloom). I loved the casting of the characters but...


Meet Ned Kelly by Janeen Brian (2013)
picturebook
This is part of a series of 'Meet...a famous Australian" of picturebooks. The illustrations are by Matt Adams and mostly work though that cover image for me seems like his head is on back to front, but it's just unfortunate that the beard has been drawn like that. The story is pretty well told though some of the rhyming feels a bit tortured.

26) Saints of the Shadow Bible by Ian Rankin (2013)
fiction
This is Rebus #19 and I still love reading this series. If you read Rankin then you already know how great these are and if you don't then you really should try.


27) School for Love by Olivia Manning (1951)
fiction
When young Felix is orphaned during WW2, he has to relocate from Iraq to Jerusalem and wait there till the end of the war when he can be sent back safely to England. He comes under the care of Miss Bohun, a sort of de facto aunt. She runs a strange household of servants and lodgers and is one of the 'ever readies', a religious group that awaits the coming of the messiah. Through Felix we meet a bizarre bunch of characters all stuck in Jerusalem, none have any money and all are waiting for the war to end. I enjoyed this weird mix of unsympathetic characters.


28) A small free kiss in the dark by Glenda Millard (2009)
children's fiction
I adore Millard's Kingdom of Silk books and this one has also been on a few shortlists. Skip, a homeless boy, and his companions must survive when their city comes under attack in a war. They take shelter in an abandoned amusement park. Millard writes so sensitively about fragile relationships.

29) Ruby Red by Kerstin Grier (2009 German) (2011)
YA fantasy
First instalment in a time travel trilogy that is a gem of a story. Gwen's cousin Charlotte has been brought up as the one who has inherited the family time travel gene, she receives all the training, the education etc... however it is Gwen who unexpectedly travels through time. I really liked this and have already requested books 2 & 3 from the library.

#129: Stephanie - I haven't been that good at challenges lately. I think Feb will be my only good month as March is shaping up to be busy in RL.

#130: Linda - I love my visits to the Scholastic Factory Shop - affordable and I can usually pick up cheap copies of recent NZ children's ficiton

#131: Roni - Thraxas was fun. I think you'd like the Ruby Red trilogy as well.

#132: Cushla - after being home 10 days it's like I never left!

#133: Lisa - I did mention The Salt Road in post #56. I liked it overall.

#134: Hi Ilana

#135: Judy - glad you enjoyed Beaufort and the movie is pretty good as well.

#136: Hi Paul - yeah, I've started accumulating books again, though this year I intend to rehome a large number of books.

#137 & 8: Morphy & Alex - 'enjoy' The unit

#139: Amber - yes, the Scholastic Factory Shop is located just 4 or 5 km from my home. It's the home of Scholastic Publishing New Zealand, and their warehouse. They have wonderful sales in their warehouse once or twice a year and the Lucky factory shop is where they sell odds n bods, the unwanted, the damaged etc. My favourite area is the bin of sample YA books that they get in from the US. I go every 6 weeks or so, I try to stay away but keep having to visit to see what's new. It's a favoured port of call for local teachers and home school families.

#140: Hi Paul - The Jerusalem File is probably one to get from the library as it is one of those slim Europa Edition books. Look in post #66 for my comments on the Litvinoff book, I really enjoyed that one.
I got the Books v. Cigarettes in one of the Book Depository.co.uk 24 hr sales that they run occasionally.

I saw something like "The Hairy Bikers Eat Your Pig" cookbook on Pinterest, but now I can't find the pin! I confess to being very curious about this title.

Ruby Red sounds very interesting. Ha-ha, says genetics.

Oh, that's right, you're in New Zealand. Well, dang. Okay, brushing off the disappointment and trying to be happy for you and not insanely jealous that you live so close... Ha!

#145: Richard - not sure about that but I had their Hairy Bikers Great Curries out from the library a while back and despite the title it's a pretty good cookbook.
Recipe for their Chicken Tikka Masala here

Ruby Red won't meet your exacting standards but it was a lot of fun. Being the unexpected time traveller does mean she deals with everything in an unconventional manner. And of course her time travelling companion, the handsome and talented Gideon, has been trained (indoctrinated) alongside her beautiful cousin.

#146: Amber - yes, Scholastic NZ have been one of the mainstays of children's publishing here in NZ.

AHA! I read "Great Curries" as "GOAT Curries" and then forgot the animal. Mystery solved. Thanks, that was making me a crazy person. Crazier, I suppose, if I'm honest.

Thanks Kerry!

Well I'm a banana then 'cos I already commented on your review of Litvinoff's book back in post 69! I think I might have to get it for my Dad (and then 'borrow' it from him).

Hi Paul , I really enjoyed it. I have a few more on this area of London on my to read list:- Jack London's The People of the Abyss, Rachel Lichtenstein's On Brick Lane and Jeremy Gavron's An acre of barren ground.

30) Last Friends by Jane Gardam (2013)
fiction / audio
I really enjoyed this third book in the Old Filth trilogy. This book uncovers the childhood of Veneering and follows the last two 'friends' of the Hong Kong pack, Dulcie and Fiscal Smith. I'll pick up the short story collection The People on Privilege Hill at some stage too.

Still wading through Marina, it feels like work at present rather than a fun gothic horror. I finally picked up Frederica from the library and have already devoured the first chapter. I also have a children's graphic novel Hilda and the midnight gang.

31) Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (2013 Eng) (1999 Spanish)
YA gothic

This was Zafon's last YA written before he switched to writing for adults and it once again delivers a decidely gothic Barcelona. I've read too many of Zafon's novels now and they all start to merge one into the other so for me the pleasure was the setting rather than the story itself. I've just recently spent a few days exploring the same neighbourhoods so derived a lot of pleasure from that. The story is a mix of gothic and horror and I did enjoy the closing pages that unfolded the mystery of Marina.

I've only read Shadow of the Wind by Zafon. I gave it 7 out of 10 stars. So a decent book. Do you think it is his best or would you recommend a different one?

Hi Morphy - I think that would be one of Zafon's better books. His others are enjoyable reads as well but I think he adds a bit more horror into them. They all share the gothic Barcelona setting except for a couple of his YA books. The YAs were written before he wrote his adult fiction but have been translated and published after the success of The Cemetery of Forgotten Books series and all play that 'gothic horror' card.

I have one more to read, The Watcher in the Shadows, I got it signed by him at last year's Readers & Writers Festival so really must read it.

Another book that has a Barcelona setting that I really liked was Nada by Carmen Laforet.

32) Frederica by Georgette Heyer (1965)
fiction
I joined a group read for this Heyer. It's another lovely Heyer, a delightful romance with manners type read. This time I really noticed the Regency slang, which I hadn't picked up on with some of the recent rereads I've been doing.
"It was nothing - just fun and gig! But the Bag-wig was feeling out of curl, and he chose to cut up stiff"
Anyway I can share this link to a glossary of Heyer's regency slang that @SylviaC posted on the group thread - http://www.georgette-heyer.com/slang.html

Quite hilarious at times, Frederica comes to London in 1818, with her younger siblings, with the intention of launching her beautiful younger sister on society and securing a successful marriage for her. They are a respectable family, though orphaned and with little fortune. She manages to gain the backing of a distant cousin, a Marquis, who finds himself increasingly embroiled in the turbulent life of the Merrivale family especially that of the two younger boys and their escapades.


33) Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons (1987)
YA fiction

I've had this down to read for a few years, it was probably Linda who brought it to my attention at the time. I was intending to read Magic for Beginners for Madeline's TIOLI challenge but the library request hasn't advanced in two weeks and the book is still showing 'available' so I don't know what happened there. Anyway I noticed this title on my own bookshelves and remembered it would fit the criteria for the challenge.

Ellen is about 11 yrs old, an orphan who has finally found her 'new mama'. Now safe and secure she tells her story about how her own mama died, her abusive father and the time she spent with various relatives and how she found her new home. This tale is interspersed with small episodes from her current life with its safe routines, the anticipation of three good meals each day and a caring adult. The book is set in southern USA in the 1970s.

I loved a lot about this book, Gibbon's found Ellen's voice and let it do the telling - so the language is of a young, uneducated child, the story is one of neglect, prejudice and abuse. Not a sad book though, as the present day-Ellen is there right from the start to reassure the reader that she did get the 'fairytale' ending she sought.

Hi Kerry, I've only just lurked the last few times I was here, but thought I'd leave a sign of life this time. I was hesitating on getting Ruby Red when it was on offer with other series 'firsts' over at Audible, but after reading your review I decided to get it after all. I had been looking forward to reading Old Filth so I could get the audio version of The Man in the Wooden Hat, but they've since removed it from circulation for the Canadian market, so I'll be borrowing the other two books from the library. Glad you enjoyed the last in the trilogy, and also to know there's a connected short story collection.

I'll have to plunge into Georgette Heyer eventually. So many people here on LT whose reading tastes I tend to agree with seem to love her. Now that I've made my peace with Jane Austen, there might be a chance I'll 'get' GH and appreciate her too. I have several of her books on the WL, but have had the audiobook version of Frederica for quite a while now...

Hi Kerry, I want to thank you for being one of the first people to welcome to the 75ers my first year and for turning me on to TIOLI, which is just tons of fun. :-)

I enjoyed revisiting the Man from Snowy River, and School for Love sounds interesting. I have yet to begin the Old Filth trilogy, but enjoyed the Gardam I did read, Crusoe's Daughter.

Ilana - I think you'll enjoy Ruby Red though it is pretty lightweight. I did the audio for The Man in the Wooden Hat and Last Friends, really enjoyed the narrator. The short story collection has just one story based on Old Filth so isn't quite connected to the characters, rather to the place where they all retired.

Heyer's books are a great distraction, Regency romances but on a higher level than most. Do look out the recommendations of a real fan, there's a Heyer LT group worth visiting - Almacks. I've been revisiting her work since I read An infamous army for the battle scenes. My library has several on audio. My next one will be Cotillion.

Hi Stephanie - thanks. TIOLI can get addictive but is also a fun way to deal with the old tbr pile.

Lisa - I love the aussie accent on that youtube clip. School for Love is hard to describe without giving away parts of the plot that are best encountered as you read the book. And I think you'll love Old Filth, I haven't read Crusoe's Daughter but it sounds interesting. My first Gardam was Bilgewater about a girl growing up at a boys' boarding school where her father is a housemaster.

I've been watching a few documentaries lately. One on the Crusades narrated by Thomas Asbridge whose written a few books on the subject and then last night 'Jerusalem: the making of a holy city' narrated by Simon Sebag Montefiore which was especially good. Anyway watching the footage where the Jordanians blow up most of the synagogues in the Jewish quarter in 1948 and then the mayor of Jerusalem talking about making the plaza beside the Western Wall after the Israelis take East Jerusalem in the Six Day War put my mind to the current endless destruction of Mecca's heritage sites in Saudi Arabia under the Wahabist rulers as well as the dismay whenever I think of what is being destroyed in Syria though that is tempered with the awful statistics of human loss.

Anyway Mecca is starting to look more like Las Vegas than a place of pilgrimage -


This 220-year-old al-Ajyad fortress on a hill bulldozed along with the hill 12 years ago is replaced with the Abraj Al-Bait Towers complete with the world's tallest clock tower with the world's largest clock face, and probably the third tallest building in the world.


There's an interesting blog post by a professor of Islamic studies that makes me want to read more about all these sects and how they evolved - 'More and more people are speaking out against the Saudi regime, and the way in which its Wahhabi ideology has linked together an utter disregard for the historical heritage of Muslims with an unabashed embrace of vapid capitalism.'

And love the FB status update from NZ crime writer, Vanda Symon - 'Those of you who know me will appreciate the massive exercise in self-control it has taken for me to stay away from the annual Dunedin Public Library Book Sale!'

Kerry, that Jerusalem documentary (by Simon Sebag Montefiore) is one that I did catch when it was on over here. I think it was made in conjunction with his recent and deservedly praised Jerusalem book. Both are very good.

I had no idea about what's been going on in Mecca. Thanks for including the photos and the blog link. Yes, I echo what you say about Syria. It is truly a shameful tragedy that the international 'community' has failed miserably in stopping the horrendous rate of bloodshed, displacement, destruction, and now mass starvation, happening inside Assad's dictatorship.

Recent additions to my library:
from trademe, a local online site where I was looking for secondhand textbooks for my son's uni study -
Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Oblomov by Ivan Goncharov
Chronicles of the Crusades by Jean de Joinville - for son
Introduction to global military history: 1775 to the present day by jeremy Black - for son

Library books:
The Dust of 100 Dogs by A.S. King - a YA piratey adventure by the looks of it
The Summer Prince by Alaya Johnson - YA fantasy set in hitech Brazil
The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater - YA fantasy
Sepharad by Antonio Muñoz Molina - Spanish historical
Three trapped tigers by Guillermo Cabrera Infanta - Cuban lit
Battle Bunny by Jon Scieszka - juvenile humorous
Journey by Aaron Becker - picturebook
self-portrait - biography of photographer Marti Friedlander

Unfortunately, the Jerusalem documentary is not on Netflix. I'm have to keep an eye out on PBS.

Echoing Paul regarding Mecca. What a shame.

Oblomov is a book I've been meaning to read for about 20 years. Maybe you'll push me into it. ;-)

>162 avatiakh: I think my dad is going to be on a discussion panel with Marti Friedlander (and Ans Westra) at the Auckland readers ad writers fest.....keep an eye out for it, he is Andris Apse, and I think it is in Auckland.

#162: I really enjoyed Oblomov when I read it, so I hope you do too, Kerry!

I am going to have to check and see if my local library has some of the young adult titles that you mention.

>155 avatiakh:: I like the sound of Ellen Foster - wishlisted!

>162 avatiakh:: Oho, you're in for a treat with Journey!

Lisa - Oblomov certainly looks interesting, though I'm not ready to focus on Russian lit just yet so it might sit on my shelves for a fair while.
Hope you can track down the Jerusalem doc, maybe it's on youtube? My library is pretty good for this type of thing.

Megan - I usually volunteer for the Readers & Writers Festival so hope that I'm free for (or working) that session. The programme hasn't been announced yet only the school one and Eleanor Catton will be speaking to students which I hope to catch.

Hi Stasia - must find your thread. Thanks for the thumbs up for Oblomov, I was looking through the listings of one particular trader who was selling textbooks and that's how I ended up with it and the two American classics.

Amber - I saw somewhere that Ellen Foster is on required high school reading lists which is probably why it gets mixed reviews on GR and LT. I love reading 'my teacher made me read this' type reviews even when they aren't helpful, a lot of them seem in the style of 'the dog ate my homework so here it is'.

Just finished 'Journey' and yes, it is lovely. Need to take another look. I've also got Shaun Tan's Rules of Summer.


Hilda and the Midnight Giant by Luke Pearson (2012)
children's graphic novel

I love reading smart, funny graphic novels for the younger age group. This one involves 'invisible' elves, forest giants and a plucky girl heroine. Hilda and her Mum live in an isolated valley and are being plagued by tiny letters telling them they should leave. Recommended both for the story and the artwork.

Hi Kerry, I want to thank you for being one of the first people to welcome to the 75ers my first year and for turning me on to TIOLI, which is just tons of fun. :-)

Hey, Kerry!

Thanks for sending AuntieClio to us. She's one of most devoted TIOLI participants now! :)

Did my friend's daughter who's traveling in new Zealand ever contact you? From looking at her blog, it seems as if she and her boyfriend are having an exciting time there!

Your trip to Spain sounds fabulous. Thanks for sharing those incredible pictures. I, too, had the opportunity to travel through Spain, but that was many years ago.

I'm now reading a lovely (and funny) memoir called Driving Over Lemons written by a young man, Chris Stewart, who decided to move to farm in a very rural area of Andalucia. You might enjoy this book, too. It's a light, fun read.

#168 Madeleine,
awww .... thank you!

Horrifying what is happening to Mecca's heritage -- although slightly hilarious that Paris Hilton is quoted as being excited about the store opening in the Mecca mall: a store she'd never be able to visit and where that image (her in a bikini) would never appear. Sigh. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds? (Can't be bothered to google the precise quote...)

Have the Jerusalem book on my TBR. Would love to read a book about Islamic sects -- and, for that matter, a really well written contemporary book along the lines of that blog post.

having just finished Dead Souls, Oblomov will be on the back burner for a while. Though I think I have a copy. Somewhere!

You got it.

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hi Madeline - yes, I've been contacted, but they are in another part of the country at present.
I've been to Spain & Portugal a few times over the years and remember travelling in the Algarve and the Spanish coastline before most of the current development got underway.
I read Driving over lemons many years ago and really loved it. What is that dish he eats almost every night with the neighbouring farmer - potatoes and onions or something.

The dish is called papas a lo pobre.

Do you speak any Spanish?

I just discovered that Driving Over Lemons is just the first book of a three-book series. I might look for the other two books at a later date. @jessibud2 offered to trade me one of those books. She has book two, but I'm no longer shipping books out of the U.S., and she's in Canada. Postal rates are too high now, and I just lost my job. It's a good thing that I can replenish my book supply (not that it needs any replenishing...) with free books from fellow Bookcrossers. :)

Suzanne - Don't even know where to begin whenever I think of the ME and the troubles it brings to the world. I also have the Jerusalem book on my tbr pile. I thought i'd read Dead Souls but now I'm not sure. I'm going to have to do a Russian lit focus sometime in the next couple of years.

Thanks Morphy!


34) The Saladin Murders or A grave in Gaza by Matt Rees (2008)
Omar Yussef #2 / mystery

Bethlehem based Omar, a UNRWA teacher, travels with his Swedish boss to Gaza and becomes embroiled in the turf wars between various factions. What makes these books work for me is that Rees concentrates on the local Arab politics and power struggles, Israel barely rates a mention.

I was listening to and enjoying Alone in Berlin but when I copied the cds to my itunes library I didn't check that each cd was copying the correct info for the tracks and cd # etc, so on discovering the mess after the first hour of listening I've had to give up for a few days and re-order the cds from the library....or find a hard copy to read.

I have two more fantasy reads to finish for the month and then I want to think about March reading. My early thoughts seem to be that I should finish up my three nonfiction reads that are taking far too long:
The Battle for Spain by Antony Beevor - I was listening to this but felt I should switch to reading
Israel: a history by Anita Shapira - barely started but enjoying
The Colossus of Maroussi by Henry Miller - read a few pages today, beautiful writing

and also press on with a few series I've neglected:
Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell - I got halfway through the twelve books a few years ago and meant to join in the group read last year but never did. So I'll have a go at reading the Autumn omnibus.
I should also look out the Sharon Penman's Henry II / Eleanor of Aquitaine series again, I read the first two books last year and am up to Devil's Brood. I want to read about the Crusades and have read positive things about her Lionheart which comes after.
Also on the backburner and needing to finish up are the last two of Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles, so will look out The Ringed Castle.
And need to get back into the GOT with A feast for crows.

plus all my library books and others lying around shouting 'read me', 'read me'.

Madeline - I made papas a lo pobre a couple of times over there as it was fairly simple dish and with the local olive oil tasted much better than it ever could here (and thought about his book when I did make it).
I don't speak Spanish but understand a little, I did a Spanish uni paper but too long ago to be useful now. I'd love to brush up on my language skills.
I haven't read the other books, I felt that that first one was quite perfect by itself. Postage is so expensive, I agree. I no longer bother with bookmooch as all the books need to be sent internationally. Hoping that your job loss wasn't too traumatic. I remember being made redundant long ago when I worked in the lab at an iron foundry that went out of business. I was lucky to pounce on a quality control position at a local brewery soon after.

> 175

Kerry, I didn't even know it was a 'real dish". I thought it was just something that the neighbors scrambled together with their local produce. It seemed that was all they ate.

I'd love to brush up on my language skills.

Spanish is such a fun language. It's pretty easy to learn as well. If you plan on going back to any Spanish-speaking countries in the future, it'll be time well invested. Now my younger son is trying to learn Spanish. Too bad none of my kids took advantage of learning it when they were young as my husband is a native of El Salvador.

I no longer bother with bookmooch

I pop into BookMooch from time to time, but I can still find some books that I can ship within the U.S.

Hoping that your job loss wasn't too traumatic.

Sadly, my job loss was extremely traumatic...and I'm still not recovered from that experience almost three months later. I was walked off my job suddenly one day after 39 1/2 years at the same company with no advance warning. I spent the last two and half months trying to scramble around to find income, retirement benefits, and health insurance for both my husband an myself. I've never suffered from insomnia before, but I was awake night after night trying to figure out what to do.
I hate being without a job. I am pretty limited in what I can do now for employment due to my age (66) and my hearing loss. What I did prior to my reduction-in-force was quite a niche job (quality auditing of nursing records). I have no intention of doing that any more though I loved what I was doing. I want no reminders of the past. I want to move forward from this.

Oddly enough (and by coincidence), I'm now reading Betty Friedan's The Fountain of Age which talks about ageism. I sense that this book will leave me feeling empowered again. Once I take stock of my assets, I'll know how to proceed. I'm very much afraid of not having enough money on which to live. I have no intention of dying any time soon, either! :)

My former rabbi offered me a job. He's in the used Jewish book business (@tibooks). My job is to shelve Jewish fiction and catalog them on LibraryThing. I told him I couldn't accept pay for that because that's what I do for fun at home...so I do this as a volunteer job and enjoy it much when he needs the help.

Suzanne, I'm so sorry about your sudden job loss. Being walked off site with no advance notice is so demoralizing. I had a similarly traumatic experience and don't think I'll ever really get over it. I'm glad you are keeping busy with the fun cataloging job, and I hope something high paying and adventurous comes your way very soon. Good luck!

> 177

I'm generally a happy person. I just need time to let all of this disorder fade away. I'm still mad at my agency, and will never go back to liking them the way I once did. Nothing high paying is on the horizon as I am no longer going to stay in my profession (nursing) nor am I going to look for another job in the near future as my hearing is too bad. I will figure out what I want to do to keep busy in my retirement, though.

Madeline - I'm also sad to hear that it was such an abrupt departure from your job especially after your long work record with them. Hope you are able to begin focusing on the positives in your life and leave those 'unappreciative gremlins' behind you. I haven't read anything by Betty Friedan, sounds like something I should have a look at.

Ok, I've just started reading photographer Marti Friedlander's memoir Self Portrait. She talks about her childhood in a London Jewish orphanage (all she knows about her parents is that they were poor refugees from Kiev) and this is interspersed with her thoughts on photographing children. It makes for a moving narrative.

35) Tinder by Sally Gardner (2013)
YA fiction
A gothic retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's The Tinderbox which Gardner has set during Europe's 17th century Thirty Year War. Gardner brings the Werewolf Trials that were being held in Germany during these times to the story and the end result is a compelling read. The book has been beautifully illustrated by David Roberts (who also illustrates Chris Priestley's books) and the book design is fairly stunning as well. Everything is black and white with just slight splashes of blood-red. The story is great and definitely for teens not juvenile readers.





And just need to add that Sally Gardner suffers from dyslexia and expresses what that means very eloquently in this article - http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jun/24/dyslexia-not-a-disability-g...
'Dyslexia is not a disability – it's a gift. It means that I, and many other dyslexic thinkers can portray the world through images because we think in images. I can build worlds, freeze the frame, walk around and touch. I can read people's faces, drawings, buildings, landscapes and all things in the visual world more quickly than many of my non-dyslexic friends. I paint with words; they are my colours.'

Love this one:

>177 labfs39:, I think it was Madeline who suffered this -- sadly for her, but I'm glad it wasn't me. The great thing about self employment is that while work can be scarce, it's rare that your sense of self is tied up with any single employer. And no one can fire you COMPLETELY except for you.

>174 avatiakh:, Matt has written a non-fiction book about the ME, too, which I thought was excellent. Cain's Field. It really focuses on the divisions within each side, and how they work to prevent both groups from finding a way to move forward and coexist. I thought it was very good, though I can't claim any specialist knowledge of the region. It struck me as even handed. After four mysteries, he's gone on to write historical mysteries, mostly self-publishing now.

>180 avatiakh: I like that image of the dyslexic painting with words. Her book certainly looks like a great re-telling.

Hope the rest of your weekend is wonderful, Kerry.

>181 avatiakh: LOL!

And the dyslexia quote is so true!

Hi Kerry :-)

36) Sapphire Blue by Kerstin Gier (2012 Eng)
YA fiction

This is the second in the Ruby Red timetravel trilogy by German writer, Kerstin Gier. It's a little light but the characters are fun, the story a bit intriguing and I'm enjoying unraveling the mystery behind it all. I've already got the final book and will sneak a read in it from time to time as I've got others on the go that need my attention more. The three books have been released in paperback recently and the covers which emphasise the costuming rather than the adventurous time travel aspect don't appeal quite as much. (see below).


>182 Chatterbox: I've got a copy of Cain's Field and had looked it out to read along with a pile of others on Islam, a couple by Bernard Lewis and Islamic Imperialism: a history by Efrain Karsh. I also have A place among the nations by Netanyahu that I thought might make an interesting read. Just need an extra few hours in the day.

>183 PaulCranswick: I've always admired Gardner being able to overcome dyslexia and write such fine stories. I also like reading positive descriptions of the 'differently abled'.

>185 AuntieClio: Hi. I've been to your thread but not managed to even write hi. Will try harder.

I can feel that this will be a month where I read quite a bit less. I'm starting a whole lot of books but just don't feel like reading a lot of the time. I have three nonficitons on the go and need to finish at least one before all the facts get jumbled up.

Hi Kerry- It looks like I haven't been by in a long long while. Bad Mark. I hope you are doing well and that your books are treating you kindly.

>187 msf59: Hi Mark, I've been MIA on your thread as well. I just can't keep up with the fast moving ones, I must get back for a visit.

Earlier this week I drove down to Hamilton to visit my mother who had just returned from West Australia where my oldest brother just celebrated his 60th birthday, don't the years just fly by. Anyway we drove a few km south to Cambridge as neither of us had made a stop there for a few years. One of her friends recommended Rouge Cafe for lunch and while the coffee was pretty good the selection of items to eat was less so. After we wandered a few streets, found 3 places selling books, a food speciality shop and an arts coop shop. I loved the name of the used bookstore - 'Armchair Traveller'.

I purchased 2 books:
Diary of a nightmare: Berlin 1942-1945 by Ursula von Kardoff
Hidden Places: a memoir in journalism by Michael King

from the food shop I got some black tahini which I've heard of but not seen for sale before and some harissa paste which is hard to come by in my corner of the city for some reason.

my Mum holding random book

art coop

Armchair Traveller Bookshop

I love the photo of your mum. Sounds like a lovely day.

Harissa - now you can make shakshuka (and other lovelies too...). Bon appetite!

>186 avatiakh: would these be too light & fluffy for me as someone who likes time travel yarns but has a low tolerance for YA fluffiness?

Looks like a fun day out -- and now I'm hungry for dinner.

>189 labfs39: Lisa, My mum is about to turn 85 and very active but lonely and feels isolated as she lives on my brother's 10 acre block, but he and his wife have been living in Port Hedland, Australia for several years. She loves to read and we swapped some books before I left for home.

>190 Polaris-: Paul, I'm a keen maker of shakshuka but haven't added harissa to it before. I usually just throw in some cumin and chilli or paprika. I haven't referred to a recipe for a while, but will look up an Ottolenghi one. Have you made the Turkish version, menemen? It's eggs scrambled into a spicy tomato mix and easier to get just right. Today I've made ajo blanco soup, which I really enjoyed in Spain and hoping this version gains approval with family.

>191 Chatterbox: Suzanne, Much as I'd like to recommend them I think they'll be a bit too flimsy for you. Have a look at time travel novel The Sterkarm Handshake which is more of a solid read, it's also YA but from memory it's at the older end. The other YA time travel book I enjoyed more recently was Crusade in Jeans by Dutch writer Thea Beckman where a modern Dutch schoolboy ends up joining the children's crusade. Both those are included in the 1001 children's books you must read before you grow up.
Have you read Jasper Fforde? The Thursday Next series is not time travel but more 'book travel' and quite a fun series.

You'll have to get your mom on LT!

>193 labfs39: I don't think her computer skills are up to it. She's mastered liking photos on FB and does skype and email but that's about it. She's been printing out full A4 size photos that she finds on family FB posts. While I was there I tried to show her how to save the images to USB so she can get smaller ones printed at a local store rather than paying out for endless print cartridges.

I've had a few picturebooks home that have come to my attention of late for various reviews or awards shortlistings.

Journey by Aaron Becker (2013)
picturebook
Illustrator Becker has worked on movies such as The Polar Express and this is his first picturebook. A young girl finds the 'magical door' to another world and explores (in her dreams). There are many successful picturebooks following this idea and this is another good one. I really liked the use of red on each page as well as the architecture inspired by his own travels. This is a wordless book and a Caldicott Honour Book (2014).
Other wordless picturebooks - The Arrival, Zoom, Flotsam
Other magical/dream journey picturebooks - John Burningham has a few - Oi get off our train, Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley, Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are.
I might make some lists along these lines.


Rules of Summer by Shaun Tan (2013)
picturebook
Another great outing by Tan. I won't say more, just read this interview with him here.
http://www.paulgravett.com/index.php/articles/article/shaun_tan


The Matchbox Diary by Paul Fleischman (2013)
picturebook
A young girl spends time with her grandfather and he tells her about his early family life as an immigrant from Italy. The illustrations by Bagram Ibatoulline are beautiful, the story interesting as the whole family worked really hard once in the US and moved around constantly looking for work, so it brings up issues such as child labour. I loved the idea of simple momentos such as an olive pit or torn newspaper headings being stored in old matchboxes as a form of diary by a then illiterate boy.
'That's why I started saving bits of newspapers, so that someday I could look back and say I was in that exact place on that exact day. I still love newspapers.' Needless to say he eventually got the chance to attend school, taught his older sisters at night what he learnt through the day and went on to become a printer, bookseller and collector.
Not an exciting read but an informative one that will be useful in the classroom.

I brought Journey home last week from the library, liked it. Looking forward to getting The Matchbox Diary along with other books illustrated by Ibatoulline I reserved a few days ago. I'm getting lots of ideas from Linda lately. She's on a a roll.

>Kerry, Ellen Foster was a five star read for me.

>195 Smiler69: Ilana, You are making me smile. I've recently discovered Patricia Polacco. I think you might like her illustrations. Like you, she works magic with pencil or charcoal.

Kerry, the Shaun Tan picture isn't showing for me. Love your pictures of your mom and the bookshop.

>188 avatiakh: Your mum looks in her element Kerry and about to fill up that capacious green bag with books.

I also don't see the Shaun Tan picture.

>195 Smiler69: Ilana, I haven't been focusing on picturebook art of late, I've been looking at photography and graphic design. Was a treat to grab a couple of picturebooks off the library shelves. I have a few graphic novels to read too. I hadn't come across Bagram Ibatoulline before.
A French illustrator I noticed in a bookshop in Paris is Isabelle Simler. The book was Tete-a-tete avec mon chat and was quite adorable. Here's a cute clip of her picturebook about plumage with cat Plume - http://vimeo.com/41612944



>196 Whisper1: Linda, It would have been your review that put Ellen Foster on my tbr list, just took me a few years to get round to reading it. I also like Polacco's work.

>197 ronincats: >198 PaulCranswick: Roni & Paul - I've hopefully fixed that.

>192 avatiakh: I tried the Jasper Fforde book (after really liking his "colors" dystopian tome) but while I found the first one amusing, never really made it past that. Just not interested enough...

Ooh! I'd missed the book by Shaun Tan. How exciting! Will have to seek it out. Will also look for Isabelle Simler, just lovely, thanks for the tip!

Hi, Kerry! Charlie and I are huge fans of Journey - I can't wait to see what else Becker comes up with!

Books Read in February:

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37) The Dust of 100 Dogs by A.S. King (2009)
YA fiction

I have to say it, I love this book cover. This is King's debut novel and I've also read her great Please Ignore Vera Dietz. This is about a pirate queen who is cursed to spend 300 years living the life of 100 dogs before returning to human form and finally being able to get her treasure. Of course she has to grow up first and so the story telling is split between the tale of Emer, an Irish orphan who ens up as a pirate and Saffron, a modern teenager whose only desire is to get to Jamaica and get the treasure. Less of interest are a few dog tales scattered through the book, I'm pleased that these were kept to a minimum as they don't add that much to the story. Overall I much preferred the story of Emer but I did like the way this was structured and it does work. I'm adding a couple of her other books Everybody Sees the Ants and Reality Boy to Mt tbr.

Battle Bunny by Jon Scieszka & Mac Burnett (2013)
children's book

Nothing to say, this is a great idea, done really well. Will it cause your offspring to deface their own books? Not sure.
I recommend visiting the rather extensive interview about how they figured out the original text, the subversive text and then the wonderful twice over illustrations by the illustrator, Matthew Myers - here: http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=2584



Maia and what matters by Tine Mortier (2013 Eng) (2010 Belgium)
picturebook

Another beautifully produced picturebook by new NZ publishers Book Island. I'm in love with the illustrations by Kaatje Vermeire, the story less so. Maia & her elderly grandmother are both sort of free spirits and spend time together, however after a fall the grandmother becomes hospitalised and in a weakened state. When Maia's grandfather dies peacefully at home the grandmother wants to see him one more time. Not really the type of story you are going to rush out to buy for your children but will be useful if you experience a similar situation.
My own take is that most grandparents are much younger than those depicted in the illustrations, these two look more like great-grandparents.
There's an interesting interview with the illustrator, Kaatje Vermeire, here and that blog/website has a recent post with downloadable children's 'book bingo' & caller’s cards.

>180 avatiakh: woah, scary wolf pictures in that one. I don't think I will be getting that for the kids to read any time soon. For about a year Wilbur talked about a dream he had where a dog came out of the wall, we ended up moving his bed in the end and he eventually got over it.

The Readers and Writes festival thing I mentioned my dad was talking at has now changed, the other photographers in the panel had a schedule clash, so dad will just be talking about his book Andris: Where are you?......well, not his book as it was written by Ron Crosby, but it is about his life and family history, so the publishers thought there would be interest. It must be great getting to volunteer there!

>206 avatiakh: great great idea! I love the different layers in that book, possibly more than a (little) kid would. And from a design perspective it is also very interesting.

Megan - careful, Tinder is for teenagers, there's a hint of sex in it. The Battle Bunny is probably more appreciated by adults, I can see it giving kids ideas of their own. I have to admit that I had to force myself to read the actual 'story', I loved the idea and looking at it.

I have a family reunion thing happening in may, I have to check that the dates don't clash with the festival.

>206 avatiakh: Wow! Talking about getting hit between the eyes! Or in the eyes? Anyway, I hurried over to the library site to reserve Battle Bunny as soon as I caught a glimpse of that page you've posted, and happily for me there are several copies presently on order, so I will be among the fist to borrow it when they arrive.

And I am now officially in love with Kaatje Vermeire's work. Read the interview too, and her process is fascinating. I did a Dada printing workshop a couple of years ago where I tried etching for the first time and it seemed like something I had/should have done forever! They have two books illustrated by her available at the moment, and at first I didn't recognize Marie et les choses de la vie as the same book you mention above. I wonder why they would change the name like that? Seems kind of silly, but I'll definitely borrow it, if only for the illustrations. Definitely a young artist to look out for, thanks for sharing Kerry!

>206 avatiakh: I'll be on the lookout for Maia and What Matters - it looks lovely!

38) Self Portrait by Marti Friedlander (2013)
memoir

Marti Friedlander is a well known NZ photographer who is perhaps best known for her stunning 'moko' portraits taken for Michael King's Moko: Maori Tattooing in the Twentieth Century. Now in her 80s she looks back on her career and life, the text is adapted from conversations with Hugo Manson, where they discuss her life and outlook around the themes and timings of her photos. This makes for really interesting reading as rather than a straightforward 'this is my life', we get a very honest revealing look at the photographer behind the camera and her memories of why/how particular photos were taken. I especially enjoyed her chapter on photographing children which also covered her own childhood growing up in a London orphanage with her sister after being abandoned by their destitute Jewish refugee parents who had fled East European pogroms. And the photos are stunning, she did not have a studio preferring to photograph people outside or in their own surroundings where they would be most comfortable, using only natural light for her work.
From the publisher:
‘Seeing unexpected things in the lens is what I was about.’
From a childhood in London’s East End to half a century in New Zealand photographing wine-makers, artists, children and kuia, Marti Friedlander has lived a rich life – one defined by the art of looking. In Self-Portrait, Marti tells her story for the first time. As forthright and revealing in words as in her photographs, she tells of growing up in London orphanages, being Jewish, working in a Kensington photography studio, marrying a New Zealander and moving across the world to a challenging new country. Here she began to photograph the ordinary and the extraordinary, protests and politicians, balloons and beaches – capturing on film the transformation of New Zealand life over more than fifty years. This book is a rich meditation on one woman’s photographic journey through the twentieth century.

_
More here: http://www.martifriedlander.com/galleries.php
I can also recommend Leonard Bell's Marti Friedlander book, which has a stunning self portrait of Friedlander on the cover. She is sitting beneath two child portraits at an exhibition of her photographs.

WOW!

Thanks for the links, and for reminding me... I've seen some of Friedlander's work come up for auction, but loved seeing so much of it at once in the mini-galleries, especially the portraits, which are captivating.

and another picturebook


A is for Auckland by Deborah Newcombe (2013)
picturebook

Illustrated by Melissa Anderson Scott. Well, this will have limited appeal as it is aimed at young Aucklanders or young visitors to Auckland, but it's been published by Random House so they are obviously sure of a few sales.
I initially thought it would be a bit naff as the cover illustration was a bit busy for me. A quick read and I'm a fan. The choices for each alphabet letter are thoughtful and not cliche, the text is pretty good and the illustration style starts to appeal as you make your way through the book. The choice of printing onto brown 'recycled' paper is quite inspired too.
K is for K Road (Karangahape), F for Fo Guang Shan Temple, O is for Otara Market, R is for Rangitoto, D is for Duder Regional Park, V for volcanoes, W for the Waitakeres etc etc. They get right around Auckland region and finish with Z is for zoo of course. At the back is a glossary of all the places with a little explanation. This will also be an excellent classroom resource for Auckland schools.

I'm also chuffed that the writer and illustrator initially met years ago through playcentre, a play philosophy movement that I belonged to for several years when my children were young.
Anderson Scott provides art therapy for bereaved children through Cloud Workshop. "My work with these kids, trying out different techniques and finding out what works for kids helped steer my designs for this book," she says.
The pair wanted the book to have a handmade feel. Rather than creating digital artwork, Mrs Anderson Scott made each image with pen and ink, watercolour pencils, rubber stamps, collage and paint.

>212 Chatterbox: Suzanne, they are stunning. She tended towards people shots when a lot of photographers here focus more on the natural landscape. And as an outsider to NZ she 'saw' things differently so captured the 1950s & 1960s New Zealand warts and all.

>209 Smiler69: Ilana - That's the only Kaatje Vermeire book my library has. I hope you enjoy Battle Bunny, Matthew Myers has done lots of 'collaborative paintings' and showcases a few on his website, I think they're rather fun. http://myerspaints.com/Site/Collaborative_1_myerspaints.html

>210 scaifea: Amber - hope you enjoy the book. It probably has a different publisher in the US as Gecko Press usually buys the worldwide English rights excluding the US.

39) The Battle for Spain by Antony Beevor (2006)
nonfiction

So pleased that I can finally report finishing this book. I mostly listened to the book, and several times I backed up and went over the same ground to make sure I was focused and taking it all in. I also read from the text and looked at maps etc. Last week I started a pinterest board on the Spanish Civil War and found that really helpful for following the vast cast of culprits in this war.
The book goes into almost exhaustive detail on the various factions and actions and that can be overwhelming as there are so many tendrils in this sad episode of Spain's history. At the end Beevor poses the question, would the state have been better off if the Republican side had won? The answer is probably not, as instead of Fascist power it would have been ruled by a Stalin-like communism and the purges would have happened as well.

In the early 1930s Spanish elections were won by a weak Leftist coalition. They immediately started implementing reforms, such as wresting control of education from the church and help for the rural peasant who had suffered through generations of aristocratic landowners treating them like absolute dirt. They opened more schools in 3 years than had been opened in the 24 or so years that the previous conservative governments had done.
The 3-4 years of fighting led to massive numbers of dead, many executed by Franco's side after they won. Germany sided with the Nationalist side and sent them much support which was in their own interests too. They were able to hone their equipment and battle tactics during this conflict. They made many improvements to their tanks and introduced strafing and aerial bombing techniques - all to give them an advantage in WW2. Guernica was the first town to experience the relentless aerial bombing, German planes continued to drop bombs for 2.5 hours, the locals that fled the town were shot down on the roads and fields outside. The nationalists also had the support of the Italians under Mussolini. Franco had the use of a fighting army, the Army of Africa, who were seasoned fighting soldiers.
Unfortunately for the Republicans, they were a looseknit bunch of workers groups and liberal thinkers - anarchists, communists and socialists. This was bound to lead to trouble and first up was the decision by the governments of France, Great Britain and the USA not to help or sell armaments to them. The only countries that supported the Republicans were Russia and Mexico. As the War progressed the communists began to have greater and greater influence and then began to purge their ranks of the anarchist movement and then the alleged Troskyists. The Republican generals also made many strategic mistakes that cost them ground and casualties.
Overall by the end of the war more than 200,000 people had died. 'Julius Ruiz contends that, "Although the figures remain disputed, a minimum of 37,843 executions were carried out in the Republican zone, with a maximum of 150,000 executions (including 50,000 after the war) in Nationalist Spain'. 500,000 refugees flooded across the border to France and many crossed to Morocco. Franco wielded a heavy arm, many thousands spent years in concentration camps, lent out to landowners to work, or put to work on public projects. Franco gave the church control of education once again. Children of Republican parents were either put in orphanages or given to Nationalist couples without children.

I could go on and on but won't. What did I take from the book was an interest in the non-intervention policies of the British, US and French governments. I also need to learn more about the politics of Russia at the time. From what I understand, more from Orwell's book than this one I think is that Russia didn't want a revolution in Spain which was the initial goal of the anarchists and socialists and Russia had a huge influence on this side through the various communist organisations who took their orders from Russian advisors rather than the Republican government. A mess on the left. I'll be rereading the chapter on the Battle of the Ebro as we visited this area of Catalonia and I'll also be lining up a few memoirs by International Brigade soldiers as well. I'm also lining up Hotel Florida: Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War by Amanda Vaill which comes out in April.

A recent movie that my library is getting for me is There be dragons/Blood & Country (2011) (goes by both titles) which covers the war, it doesn't get brilliant reviews but the trailer looks fairly spectacular from a cinematography point of view. It stars Charlie Cox (Stardust) and Dougray Scott (Ripley's Game).
Ok, now I'm off to finish my latest Montalbano dvd - love it, I also have a dvd of the Ang Lee film Lust, Caution based on a book by Eileen Chang to watch.

Now I can concentrate a little more on my other nonfiction reads, Israel: a history and The Colossus of Maroussi. I'm not reading as much this month and I'll probably be taking lots of books off the TIOLI challenge.

40) Canterbury Quake Christchurch, 2010-11 by Desna Wallace (2014)
children's fiction

This is part of the 'My New Zealand Story' series of historical fiction put out by Scholastic Publishing. Each book is in diary form and set around a significant event in the country's history. Most countries seem to have similar series and I've heard that some young readers get really hooked on these types of series. I've enjoyed the ones I've read and this is no exception. We follow the diary of 11 year old Maddy through the two devastating earthquakes and how it affects the lives of Maddy, her friends, family and neighbours. It's very thorough and appealing. Maddy's sister is at a highschool that is damaged and now must commute across the city for an afternoon school shift at new location where two schools share the premises. She doesn't get home till 7.30pm each evening after the long bus commute. Her elderly neighbour is sent to a retirement home far from Christchurch and ends up fading away, so far from those who would have visited and provided companionship. Her 5 year old brother begins wetting the bed and Maddy's best friend moves away from Christchurch as their house is completely damaged by liquefaction. The book closes with a series of b/w photographs of the damage, they are a bit blurry unfortunately.

I recommend this blog review by Bob Docherty who lives in Christchurch and can tell you how authentic the book is: http://bobsbooksnz.wordpress.com/2014/02/05/canterbury-quake-by-desna-wallace/

41) Belonging: conversations with men and women who have made Israel their home by James McNeish (1980)
nonfiction

From the jacket flap: 'Belonging is an oral portrait of a nation: Israel'
Watching the newspaper reports of the Yom Kippur War, New Zealand writer McNeish was in the south of France on the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship. 'A small nation, Israel, was attacked by two bigger nations, Egypt and Syria, and I experienced, for a reason I cannot adequately explain, a feeling of frustration and helplessness. Each night we watched the war on French television; each night through the eyes of cameras stationed on the Egyptian and Syrian sides, the war came closer until it seemed to me, a non-Jew, uninformed and uninvolved, watching from the sidelines, that a nation might be conquered and obliterated, It worried me, out of all proportion to other world events. 'Is it possible,' I remember saying to my wife when the war had finally ended, 'that one can exterminate a nation?"
He travelled to Israel in 1974 and then again in 1977 when he interviewed a cross-section of 15 Israelis to find out what ties them to the ancient Jewish homeland.
Included in the 15 are a non-Jew of Indian descent who has a Jewish spouse and an Israeli Arab woman, the others are native Israelis and those who arrived at various times in the nation's history, these include Ada Sereni who was the head of the Mossad Le-Aliyah Bet in Italy (1945-1948) which organised the illegal immigration ships to the mandate of Palestine.
Another interview is with Sylva Zalmanson who at the time was still waiting for her husband and brothers to join her from Russia. They were the Soviet refusniks who were involved in the 1974 Dymshits–Kuznetsov aircraft hijacking affair or The First Leningrad Trial. Also a painful interview with Robert Mimouni who had just lost his 15 yr old son, Jean-Jaques, in the 1976 Entebbe hijacking. Another is a Yemenite Jew who describes his journey 'on the wings of eagles' (Operation Magic Carpet) to the land of the bible.

Very profound reading, we look back now over 40-odd years and see how much the political landscape has and hasn't changed.

>216 avatiakh: I've read Beevor & other military histories of the war and found them overwhelming -- Giles Tremlett's book linking (relatively) recent political culture with the war and its aftermath was more accessible for me, I confess!

If you're looking for movies about the era, can I suggest "Blood and Freedom", directed by Ken Loach? It's the experience of an Englishman who volunteers to fight with the Republicans and discovers that while he remains committed to the cause, his new allies themselves are divided and factional. It's less simplistic than that makes it sound, however.

Suzanne - I'm quite taken with some of the military histories but this one had a lot of players in it. I was helped by breaking off at chapter 6 and reading Homage to Catalonia and of course, being in Spain this year was also a big help. I must write up on a couple more of my days there. I also read Soldiers of Salamis late last year which covered interesting ground.

Regarding the films, I did know about Blood & Freedom though I'm not sure if I can track down a copy to watch. I have got the dvds of Hemingway & Gellhorn and Head in the Clouds out from the library at present. Though I'm right now, utterly in the sway of the Israeli tv series Prisoners of War, which I mentioned on your thread is what Homeland is based on. My husband and I ended up watching 7 episodes last night when the intention was to only watch 1 or 2. Thank goodness I have season 2 lined up here as well. The Montalbano dvds take a back seat at present.

Okay today I went to the library and brought home a heap of really great looking books that I would love to read but as I'll only finish a couple of fiction books this month it's looking unlikely that i'll manage more than 1 or 2 of these:

Alamut by Vladimir Bartol - recommended on the 2014 category challenge this 1938 novel from Slovenia was inspiration for some modern video games such as Assassin's Creed.
The Boy from Aleppo who painted the war by SUmia Sukkar - a debut novel about the present conflict in Syria
What makes this book so great by Jo Walton - collection of blog posts on her rereads of scifi and fantasy classics
Kiwi Companeros: New Zealand and the Spanish Civil War - I've already read this but want to have a quick browse now that I know more about the conflict
Notes from a Defeatist by Joe Sacco - graphic novel
Neuland by Eshkol Nevo -- his latest and it 's a hefty read
Alif the unseen by G. Willow Wilson - this looks good
We will work with you - an art book of NZ activism
My brilliant friend by Elena Ferrante - good review in the local paper
Out of the shadows: a life of Gerda Taro by Francois Maspero - following on from the Beevor book

>216 avatiakh: >217 avatiakh: >218 avatiakh:

As always your range of reading means that there is plenty for most tastes here! Particularly impressed by your review of the Beevor book although the other two (especially Cchurch being a place I fairly recently visited) also interest immensely.

Your mammoth library haul also promises more tantalising books to be teased with.

Have a great weekend, Kerry.

Thanks Paul, looking forward to this weekend. The Beevor book was very thorough, my next one will probably hone in on a more particular part of the conflict, or maybe just a novel set during the Civil War.

>219 Chatterbox: Suzanne - I forgot to say that I've read and enjoyed the Giles Tremlett book, just didn't recognise his name when I first read your post.

And I forgot to mention a few purchases, mostly charity shops or ex-library:
Jews and Words by Amos Oz and his daughter
Silk by Alessandro Baricco - I've seen the movie a few years back
The fat man in history by Peter Carey - because it's by Peter Carey
Hotel on the corner of bitter and sweet by Jamie Ford - cos I keep coming across it on the threads
Habibi by Naomi Shihab Nye - I read another of her books earlier this year
In search of Fatima: a Palestinian story by Karmi Ghada
Queen of Swords by Judith Tarr - recommended by Elizabeth Chadwick
The Magician's Wife by Brian Moore

& four Holocaust books
Hanna and Walter by Frederick Kohner
This way for the gas, Ladies and Gentlemen by Tadeusz Borowski
Along the tracks by Tamar Bergman
Landscapes of the metropolis of death by Otto Dov Kulka - this slim book just won the JQ Wingate Prize (2014)

As you probably noticed I also collect and read plenty on the Holocaust and I am pleased to say that I don't have any of the ones just listed. Look forward to your views on them, Kerry.

Paul - the Hanna and Walter book came from a friend's FB post and link to an early "This is your life" episode in 1953. Hanna was one of the first Holocaust survivors to have her story broadcast on television and really got the US public aware of the tragedy. You can see the actual episode here: https://archive.org/details/this_is_your_life_hanna_bloch_kohner

>223 PaulCranswick: "This way for the gas"... is one of the Holocaust classics, Paul; I've not read it either, and have been pondering it for some time.

Kerry, have you read anything Aharon Appelfeld? I was offered a book on Amazon Vine by him yesterday that (in the absence of anything more appealing) looked like a possibility. Then I checked some of his other books, and I started wondering whether he was re-writing the same book with different kinds of characters and settings over and over again; he's written some 20 novels, all with the Holocaust at their center, and the reviews seemed to come from people whose reading is Holocaust-themed almost exclusively, which isn't always a good sign in terms of a good novel.

I haven't read anything by Appelfeld as yet, I have a couple of his books on my tbr pile. You could check with Madeline.

*Happy weekend wave*

I thought The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet was pretty good (7/10). My micro-review: "I liked the characters yet the plot seemed to lack weight. Areas I would have liked to read more in depth about were dipped into then gone and the conflicts seemed too easily surpassed. Otherwise, an enjoyable and quick read. I'd try something else by this author."

*wave back to Diana*

Hi Morphi - good to know, I was borderline with choosing this one as I thought it might be a bit sentimental but it was only $1.


42) Emerald Green by Kerstin Gier (2013)
YA fantasy
The third of the time travel trilogy and while it was good, I have to say it was a slower read. Probably I just read them too close together. Anyway this is a great timetravel trilogy with a likeable heroine who sees ghosts and demons and has a rather resourceful best friend. There is a touch of romance but not enough to get in the way of the story. Lots to like, just didn't quite hold my attention as I read the three books almost back to back.

Hi Kerry, just getting caught up on your thread. I got stuck on the Marty Friedlander post for a long time. Liked the Beevor review too. I know very, very little about the Spanish Civil War, mostly tangentially from Russian history.

I have Silk sitting on the pile, and I don't know why I haven't read it yet, it's very short. I liked In Search of Fatima and thought This Way for the Gas amazing, though horribly depressing. It's quite autobiographical and deals with issues surrounding those who complied with the Nazis in the camps to some extent in order to survive. I've not read much, if anything else, that deals with this question from the point of view of a survivor.

Hi Lisa - Thanks for visiting my thread. It's about 99% that I got those books after reading your reviews. I don't keep note of who I get the recommendations from, used rely on my memory though since joining LT that doesn't work that well.
I've said before that the Spanish Civil War is an area of interest for me. Currently I'm tracking down a few documentaries and films to follow up on.
I read a couple of reviews last year of Silk here on the threads and it seemed to be an enjoyable read. I remember that the movie was quite soulful and portrayed early-European contact Japan convincingly.
My Cousera course on the Middle East has just kicked off and I need to start reading a lot about the topic, I really think I have to put most of my fiction reading aside for the time being. The introduction thread was amazing, so many participants from all over the world. The course is run by Tel Aviv University and it is good to see people have signed up from many Muslim countries. One participant struck me, a student from Morocco who wanted to see how the Middle East is portrayed from an Israeli point of view, though it looks to be fairly neutral from the course material so far. The busiest thread so far has been about the failure of Arab nationalism, and it's not the facts that make this fascinating reading, it's all the different viewpoints and the quoting of different sources to confirm them.

I thought I'd mention a few of the tv series and films I've watched lately (if I can remember them) as we don't watch much regular tv apart from tuning in to watch news stories. My current interest is Al Jazeera's weekly Head to Head program.


Hemingway & Gellhorn (2012)
I watched this mainly for the portrayal of the Spanish Civil War. While a bit forgettable mostly, I did really love the way the film managed to blend the archival footage and the live-action footage together into a set piece. We also get to see Robert Capa taking some of his most famous photos. The film follows the career of Martha Gellhorn and her years spent with Hemingway. I'm not a fan of Nicole Kidman but she does excellent work here. Clive Owen was probably not overacting, I presume Hemingway in real life did have that overwhelming persona.


Lust, caution (2007)
I didn't finish this, it was too tense. Ang Lee based it on Eileen Chang's novella Lust, caution. It's about a group of Chinese university students who are in a drama club. They decide to dabble in espionage using their amateur acting skills to bring down a local politician. It's set in WW2 Shanghai. I'm definitely going to read the book and then I might go back to the film.


Dollhouse (2009/12)

A Joss Whedon series that my son and I are watching though he's ahead of me now. A bit of escapist scifi.
'A futuristic laboratory assigns different tasks to its various residents, who then have their memories erased upon the completion of their assignments.'

_
Prisoners of War (2009–2012)
Hatufim

This riveting Israeli tv series just held my attention for the past 4 days as we raced our way through all 24 episodes. The last episode was so intense that the opening credits didn't happen until about halfway through. The US series 'Homeland' is based on this production but having watched a few episodes of 'Homeland' I can say that this is a far more humanistic look at soldiers returning from years in captivity than the US version. Do track this one down, it is really great, though comes with subtitles. The soldiers have been taken captive in their 20s and now after 17 years of constant torture have returned to Israel where all their friends have successful careers, children have grown up, not to mention the relationship they must now forge again with their partners.
I read a comparison review between the two programmes that is worth checking out. 'The difference between the series can be summed up, superficially but accurately, by saying that “Prisoners of War” is about soldiers, while “Homeland” is about Claire Danes.'

So much good stuff to catch up on here Kerry!

>192 avatiakh: You must try the harissa/shakshuka combina - had some again yesterday and even if I do say so myself, it's pretty perfect! I hadn't heard of that Turkish dish menemen, but I like the sound of scrambling eggs with a spicy tomato sauce so will give it a try some time soon.

>211 avatiakh: Self Portrait by Marti Friedlander looks excellent, and one that I'm pretty sure I'd love (and my brother too maybe...). I really liked the shots you posted as well.

>217 avatiakh: looks interesting as well. Powerful images.

>218 avatiakh: Belonging: conversations with men and women who have made Israel their home must have been an interesting read. I expect that it is very poignant, and that some of the people the author met must have since passed away. Always fascinating to get that sort of a snapshot of a society - especially a young one like Israel's - in development. You might enjoy Street People by Helga Dudman that I'm reading at present. It was written in the early '80s, but in the main hasn't dated too much, as it's a series of mini-biogs of a selection of those that streets and squares are often named after in the largest Israeli towns - e.g. Motzkin, Nordau, Dizengoff, Toscanini, Melchett, Pinsker, etc. A nice idea.

So much I'd like to say, but have to get off the computer right now...except...

>231 avatiakh: Prisoners of War ('Hatufim') is excellent, and one that we both enjoyed very much. We're also fans of the Homeland series, but they're a bit more 'throwaway' in terms of the lasting impression that Carrie, Saul and the gang leave you with. 'Hatufim' - although obviously made on a lower budget has much more resonance I thought. I'd read a year or so ago that another series was on the way, but it looks like it might have hit the buffers. Fans of Homeland will enjoy it I reckon, but it's a different sort of show really. Better. (Did you see 'B'tipul' by the way? The original version of the therapist-based series of one-to-one dialogues remade as 'In Treatment'? It's excellent.

>231 avatiakh:
Kerry, I really enjoy just about anything Joss Whedon does. I was not, however, happy with the way "Dollhouse" ended.

Stephanie - I'll keep watching, my son says season 2 starts a little strange.

Hi Paul - I immediately had a look for 'B'tipul' but can only get 'In Treatment'. We really loved 'Hatufim', I had put quite a few things I had to do on the back burner as we couldn't stop watching it. I couldn't get over how 'broken' they were especially in comparison to Homeland's soldier. Anyway we have season 1 of Homeland to watch now. I've seen a few episodes when it first started but I'm terrible at following a weekly tv show and soon give up on most of them.

Felt a bit sad for Marti Friedlander when I was reading her book, first that she refuses to ever talk about her parents and what they did (she makes clear that the years in the orphanage were mainly positive, with lots of companionship and supportive adults). Then when she came to NZ with her husband they were intending to only stay a few months before heading to live on a kibbutz in Israel, but her father-in-law, a refugee from Germany, had already purchased a dental business for her husband and they found it impossible to sell at the time and ended up staying permanently.

I'll look out for Street People, my library doesn't have it. I'm currently reading another history of Israel, it's a textbook by Anita Shapira and goes into a lot of detail.

43) Still Life: Inside The Antarctic Huts of Scott and Shackleton by Nigel Watson & photographer, Jane Ussher (2010)
nonfiction

This photography project was supported by the New Zealand's Antarctic Heritage Trust. The huts built by the expeditions of both Scott and Shackleton have survived for over a 100 years. Photographer, Jane Ussher and Nigel Watson, executive director of the Antarctic Heritage Trust, have worked together to bring this beautiful book to life. The photographs are haunting, beautiful and document the Discovery Hut, the Shackleton Hut and the Scott Hut along with their contents. A lot of the equipment and supplies including clothing etc are still in the huts, along with the smells of seal blubber which they used as a fuel. Alongside the images are short essays by Watson, describing each hut and its surroundings. Also included are diary entries from Scott, Shackleton and others, mostly about the huts and the men's activities in them. At the end of the book is information on the recent Antarctic Heritage Trust's renovation project which was necessary to ensure the buildings' survival. These should be UNESCO World Heritage sites but the UN has no recognition of Antarctica.

_
_

Some of the images are of Herbert ponting's darkroom and photography equipment, so i was interested to see what images Ponting took in 1911/1912.

CS Wright on return from the Barrier (January 29 1912)

Chris and the gramophone

Captain Robert Falcon Scott, 13 April 1911

>231 avatiakh: I wish Cox Cable here offered access to Al Jazeera and BBC all news channels. Sigh.

Moving Hemingway & Gelhorn up the Netflix list. When Nicole Kidman does a good job, which isn't all that often, she can really nail it. I'm thinking of a very early series she did as an Aussie prisoner in a Thai jail, set up for drugs offenses, and that ghost story -- Ibsen or James or ??? Sigh, senior moment.

Suzanne - I'm not sure if you can get live streaming over the internet but you can watch lots of news items from their websites. The last Head to Head that I watched on Al Jazeera was about political Islam: 'Islamic intellectual Tariq Ramadan discusses Islamism and the rise and fall of the Muslim Brotherhood'. I'm fairly impressed with the host Mehdi Hasan.
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/headtohead/2014/03/political-islam-failed-20...

We discovered i24 News live streaming a few months ago - news in English, French or Arabic from Israel.
http://www.i24news.tv/en/

44a) The Faces of Fantasy by Patti Perret (1996)
nonfiction
This is a follow-on from Perret's 1984 Faces of Science Fiction. Her photo portraits of 100 writers of fantasy are accompanied with the writer's definition of fantasy, philosophy or a more general statement. For me only a few of the writers shine here in their own words. Neil Gaiman takes the book's title to heart and writes about the mask writers wear in public that in the privacy of their writing room they can take off and show their real face as they put their stories down on paper, he manages to make this sound eerily creepy all in the space of a few paragraphs. Ursula Le Guin simply states that she's already said all she wants to about fantasy in her previous essays and then briefly paraphrases her stance. Other writers say it in one or two sentences, some fill their allotted page.
Most other contributions are fairly mundane, abstract or tell their own life story about how they came to write fantasy. Some I just could not be bothered to read, at the time it was published it would have been an ideal book to dip into from time to time, but as a library book it was hard to read about 100 odd definitions of fantasy or variations on. The majority of the photos are fairly standard, a few are quite inspired. While I hadn't heard of several of the writers it was great to see photos of those I knew, especially stepping back almost 20 years in time.
I think this book needed a more robust editorial process, the selection of writers looked a bit random, there is no order in how the writers appear in the book and more thought into the selection of photographs.
I'd love to see an improved and updated version with a more international cast of writers.

makes quite a good autograph book - here's Ursula Le Guin with cat

Patricia McKillip


44b) Photojournalism: 150 years of outstanding press photography by Reuel Golden (2011)
nonfiction

I ended up just looking at the photos and reading some of the captions, though I started out with good intentions. What is the greatest fault with this book is size. This would have worked so well in a larger format and please, with larger fonts especially for the captions. I was reading late at night and in the end gave up on the tiny tiny print size. The photography is mostly wonderful and the topic of news photography so worthy. Golden includes many lesser known international photographers, historical ones and also the well known. But and it is a big but, I just could not read the words unless I held it up vlose and concentrated on focusing on the tiny print. I know my eyesight isn't the best but I do wear glasses to rectify that and don't have this much trouble usually.
Still worth looking out if you enjoy this type of thing.
Sample of photographers that caught my attention (most photographers in the book caught my attention!):

“It’s my constitutional right to own a gun and protect my family.”
from Zed Nelson's book Gun Nation
www.zednelson.com


Gerd Ludwig photographs Russia
http://www.gerdludwig.com/


Carol Guzy's Kosovo refugees.
'Guzy gets results because she focuses on shooting feelings rather than pictures. Through her lens, she has delved into the darkest corners of human existence, hoping to bring understanding between people in all parts of the world.'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/photo/bestofthepost/guzycarol/

*ducking the photography book bullets*

Oh, wow, such ambitious reading, Kerry! But thanks for reminding me that I have What Makes This Book So Great on my wishlist, and now my library has it, so I've just put a hold on it!!

Enjoying the photography on your thread Kerry. I am a bit of a Polar anorak and love documentary photography as well so Herbert Ponting's and Frank Hurley's work really interests me. The images of the Antarctic huts are fascinating, and the portraits are incredible.

It's a bit of a bad joke that the UN doesn't "recognise" Antarctica - whatever that means - but then so often the UN is a joke organisation itself. Wishlisting Still Life: Inside the Antarctic Huts of Scott and Shackleton.

That photo of the man seemingly holding his gun to his baby's head gives me the shivers. It's just crazy to me that guns should be so readily available in this day and age when it's been shown time and time again that they inevitably fall into the wrong hands and cause untold mayhem and grief.

>239 AuntieClio: Lol Stephanie, I'm forever dodging book bullets on other LT threads

>240 ronincats: Hi Roni - I was reminded of the book on another thread last week, luckily no-one here in Auckland seemed to want to read it so it was available through the library.

>241 Polaris-: Paul - Still Life: Inside the Antarctic Huts of Scott and Shackleton got a lot of buzz when it was published. Not being an expert, or even that widely read on the Antarctic, I found myself using the internet quite a bit while reading the essays and diary entries as there wasn't enough info for me, and yet, I had mainly taken the book out of the library to look at the photographs. I found overall the photographs need the historic information to fully convey their importance.
Those huts are special and Ussher conveys what struck her interest initially in the foreword - 'In the summer of 2007 I happened to attend a speech given by Helen Clark. New Zealand’s then Prime Minister had just returned from Antarctica, and spoke with great passion about the experience of visiting Scott’s Hut at Cape Evans. I’d heard the Prime Minister speak on many other occasions but never with this genuine and awestruck depth of emotion. I was immediately seized with the desire to get down to the ice and photograph these huts.'
Here's the link to the foreword which is on about pg 6 of the pdf, well worth reading to get a sense of the emotion involved in visiting the huts.
UNESCO can't recognise the Antarctic huts because the Antarctic isn't a country which is a shame but the AHT was able to get international help with the restoration project anyway. I agree that the UN has turned into a bit of a joke of late especially the Human rights council.

Have you read Who will remember the people-- : a novel by Jean Raspail? Not set in the Antarctic but in the icy south of Tierra del Fuego and about the indigenous Kaweskar or Alacaluf people. I found it fascinating.

>242 Smiler69: Ilana - isn't it a chilling image. I have to say that it is a play on angles and he most probably isn't pointing it at his daughter. I remember a documentary from a few years back that went into the homes of gun lovers and their families where all the children were being brought up to love guns. One family, all the children had their own guns, visited firing ranges every weekend and the children were accomplished at stripping and reassembling their weapons - AK47s, Uzis etc it was very scary.

{/lurk}

Sad about the fate of Antarctica, isn't it. The book is amazing.

{lurk}

>243 avatiakh: Not read that one Kerry. Does indeed look fascinating. Thanks for the tip-off!

The book bullets are flying fast and furious. Thank you for all the wonderful reviews, sorry not to comment individually. I have had the Middle East Coursera course bookmarked for months, but unfortunately my insomnia and resulting mood are not conducive to study at the moment. I do hope they offer it again. But in the meantime, I intend to haunt your thread and learn all I can vicariously!

Lisa - I'm barely keeping up on the course. There is a discussion forum already with many threads, students have also set up a FB group, a google group and a wiki. I find it really hard to find time to read these alone. Unfortunately most of the texts the Prof suggests are a bit old or really expensive, he also recommends students read Bernard Lewis who has been dismissed by quite a few students. While we don't get to the Israeli/Arab conflict till week 5, this is by far and away the hottest discussion thread to follow. I'm reading a history of Israel but need to put it aside to read up on Turkey and Egypt at present.
I'm slowly building a list from the suggested reading and student recommendations: http://www.librarything.com/list/9473/all/The-Emergence-of-the-Modern-Middle-Eas...

Wow. I really wouldn't have time for this at the moment. Good luck! I'm off to star your recommended reading thread.

I've only read a few: Iran Awakening, a very good memoir; the Karen Armstrong books, good intro level; Nine Parts of Desire, ok; and the one about the wall, which was so bleak. I felt that there was no hope for a solution while reading it. I saw the movie based on The Lemon Tree, which was very good.

Lisa - It is all quite fascinating as everyone comes from a different background. The list is quite diverse but I wanted to capture the many texts mentioned in one place. I'll possibly try to sort into countries and topics somehow.

Yesterday I wanted to buy more sumac, a lovely lemony spice, that I can't get at any local shops. They all specialise in Indian and Chinese products. So drove to nearby Pakuranga where there are two Middle Eastern shops only to find they have no sumac at present. A bit annoyed. I also discovered that the Paperplus book stationery shop has also closed its doors there (my local PaperPlus closed recently as well) and a hospice charity shop was installed.
So a few purchases:
According to Queeney by Beryl Bainbridge
Behind the beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
As for the Godwits... by James McNeish - his articles reprinted from The Listener 1967-1970 about living on a remote headland on the Tasman Sea coast
The Story of the night by Colm Toibin
The Denniston Rose by Jenny Pattrick - I knew I'd eventually get a replacement copy, still to read this NZ classic

in the mail
The Gollantz Saga by Naomi Jacob (first 3 books)
Private Gollantz by Naomi Jacob
Gollantz: London, Paris, Milan by Naomi Jacob
my grandmother read her books and I had a bit of a discussion about Jacob with Suzanne before deciding to search out this series of hers, was also quite taken with this article: http://extra.shu.ac.uk/wpw/thirties/thirties%20tylee.html and more on her life here: http://womenshistorynetwork.org/blog/?p=1052

Library books that I'll probably only have time to glance at:
___
Plenty: a collection of food & lifestyle from the Eastern Bay of Plenty, New Zealand by Whakatane West Rotary Club' - a local cookbook with 'recipes from famous and infamous characters of the coast!'
The art of Robyn Kahukiwa by Hinemoa Hilliard - she also illustrates and writes children's books which i'm more familiar with.
Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell - Carnegie Medal shortlist
The Sleeping Baobab Tree by Paula Leyden - Carnegie Medal shortlist
Love, InshAllah: the secret love lives of American Muslim Women - essay collection edited by Ayesha Mattu & Nura Maznavi
I killed Scheherazade: confessions of an angry Arab woman by Joumana Haddad
The New Persian Kitchen by Louisa Shafia - her blog is here: http://lucidfood.com/

I'll look forward to your thoughts on the Gollantz saga, and keep my eyes peeled for my own copies...

Good luck with tracking them down. I was able to get the first 3 in one volume from a NZ bookshop via abebooks, and they had two more of the series. I'll try to start reading them, I'm not reading much at present.


Jane Ussher Portraits by Jane Ussher (2004)
photography

Jane Ussher is the official photographer for NZ Listener which covers the political, cultural and literary life of New Zealand each week. This book showcases a sample of her portrait work up till 2004. On the cover above is the actor Bruno Lawrence. The book is full of great and unexpected photographs of a full variety of well known New Zealanders. Unfortunately I can't locate much of her work on the internet so will go with Russell Crowe (1997). Actually I think it's rather a good photo of him.

Good haul in stores and libraries and via mail Kerry.
Your comment about Sumac caught my eye and I now have Hani rustling up chicken, chick-peas, carrots, tomato, saffron and sumac with hearty chicken stock, plenty of olives and olive oil with couscous.

Yummeee!
Thanks and have a wonderful Sunday.

Hi Paul - I ended up putting in an online order for my sumac, it's coming direct from the importer. So I added in extra supply of smoked and piquant Spanish paprikas and some whole nutmegs. That chicken dish sounds very yum, I bet there'll be no leftovers.

I've been searching online for book that gives a definitive history of the Kurdish people, one that's up to date and came across this booklist:
The US Army Chief of Staff's Professional Reading List

What do you think of the reading list? I must say I found it surprising. I didn't see a Kurdish history though, or did I miss it?

Lisa - it just came up in a google search and, no, there wasn't a Kurdish history in there. I've requested David McDowall's A Modern History of the Kurds after reading reviews of a couple of books.
Since then I found that they (US Army of Military History) update the reading list each year and here's the link to the latest list: http://www.history.army.mil/html/books/105/105-1-1/

45) Dark Sun by Robert Muchamore (2008)
children's fiction

This was a World Book Day novella in the popular CHERUB series and as such was messing up my clean sweep of the CHERUB series over on fictfact. The novella also contained a further 3 or 4 brief stories about CHERUB campus life. Anyway so I'm done and then I notice that there is another book in the second or Aramov series due out later this year.
The CHERUB books make ideal reading for boys and girls who are a bit disenchanted with books or who want an adrenalin rush with their reads.


46) Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada (also known as Every Man Dies Alone) (1947)
fiction / audiobook
Wow, everyone who reads this loves it and I'm joining the fan club. It's about living in Berlin under Nazi rule when you don't agree with the politics and refuse to join the Nazi Party. I listened to the audio version and it was quite enjoyable and seems to be the only way that I get to some of these classics.

My current audiobook is The Story of the Jews by Simon Schama

>244 richardderus: Richard - I missed waving hello to you. I'm definitely reading a book about Antarctic exploration sometime....eventually.

My local Paperplus shop closed while I was on holiday and in its place for a while is a popup shop selling the old Paperplus stock at not very reduced prices. Still worth a browse and yesterday I picked up 2 books from the Stanfords Travel Classics series which I hadn't been aware of till now. I visited Stanfords Bookshop when I was in London as my daughter wanted a travel guide to Krakow, even took a photo of their amazing floor.



There's twelve books in the series and I got the only two in the store, I really like the covers:
Camping and Tramping in Malaya by Ambrose B. Rathborne (1898)
Afoot in England by W H Hudson (1909) - read his wonderful Far Away and Long Ago: A Childhood in Argentina
_

Glad you enjoyed the Fallada; I seem to be the odd one out in my feelings about that one. Perhaps I was just feeling cantankerous since Everyone loved it so. Are the travel books travelogues or guide books?

Stanfords is one of my favourite bookshops in London. Being on Long Acre and near all the lovely shiny shops of Seven Dials, Floral Street and Covent Garden, it is well worth the minor detour to do some shopping for the mind.

I like the covers of those two Stanfords Travel Classics.

>258 labfs39: Wanted to edit to add that I did like the book, but I felt that there was little character development. People were either good or bad and there they stayed. I would have liked a few more shades of grey (but not fifty!). Anyway, quite impressive book considering he wrote it in a little over three weeks then overdosed.

Stanfords is a favourite with me as well. After being on a fairly consistent fiction kick for the last two or three years I'm getting some urges to read more non-fiction including travel literature which I used to read a lot of. So maybe a visit is overdue

>258 labfs39: Lisa - the books are travelogues mostly from the 19th century.
I felt there was some character development though possibly not a lot, maybe Fallada wrote it like that to emphasise the effect that the Nazis had on their own citizens which meant their lives had little meaning apart from producing sons to fight on the front and to work in the factories.
I didn't realise till now that it was based on a true story or that Fallada spent a lot of the war in an asylum.
I've looked at a couple of reviews and it seems that plot wins over most people but that the book does falter on a focused reread.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/mar/20/reading-group-hans-fallada-alone-in...
http://anzlitlovers.com/2013/05/25/alone-in-berlin-by-hans-fallada-translated-by...

>259 Polaris-: Paul - Stanfords would be on my list of bookshops to return to for a browse. And my next shakshuka will have harissa in it

>261 SandDune: Rhian - I also find travelogues appealing reads. That said I'm finding Miller's The Colossus of Maroussi a bit of a slog.

>262 avatiakh: - Kerry let me know when you're next in London with time for a nice Levantini breakfast in Golders Green, followed by Josephs Books in Temple Fortune (no.1 secret independent bookshop in London...sshhh..), and then some book and food browsing further afield perhaps!

That sounds pretty neat. Unfortunately no plans for London or anywhere else for a long while. I've not heard of Joseph Books, might tell my daughter to take a look.