Hugh's reading highlights, 2014 and maybe onwards

I haven't tried a reading thread in years, but am inspired to do so by a magnificent haul from the library yesterday.

So right now my reading includes
Himalaya by Michael Palin
One Summer by Bill Bryson and, in the queue
Last of the Wilds by Trudi Canavan -- haven't yet found any of the Magician's Guild
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

which will do for now.

And one I'm greatly looking forward to, having skimmed the pictures, which are mouth-watering:
Books: a living history by Martyn Lyons

Hugh, I have your thread starred and I am looking forward to following your reading in 2014. I am also anticipating the possibility of some nice photographs appearing here.

Starred! :o)

I'm so glad you're doing a reading thread this year, Hugh! I'm hoping to see some pictures, too.

Starred! One Summer is on my upcoming list as well.

Looking forward to following your reading and other journeys this year!

Hurray! Looking forward to this thread. :)

#6 I'm now about 1/5-way into One Summer, and it's every bit as good as I hoped. Kloof library puts new books out on a special table, where I annexed the copy I'm reading. When I checked it out, the librarian saw I was first to do so, and insisted that I let her know what it's like. Maybe I should post a note here and give her the URL.

PS: General apology to all who've seen I haven't posted any 'starred your thread' messages. Correct. I lurk on all of them anyway, so I'm there, even if invisible (relying on Firefox to tell me which threads I haven't read).

I don't star threads either, Hugh. When I come to the Green Dragon page (which is what I always do) it sorts the unread messages to the top, so I simply read through them all. I use Chrome though, not Firefox. :)

I do much as you do, MrsLee, and I star threads. Big fan of redundant systems.

I only star the few threads that I follow in groups that I don't watch. So they all just come to me on the Talk page when it's set on "Groups and posts".

I star, but I don't comment on it on the specific thread...

Many thanks, all!

Now in the midst of the Babe Ruth chapters of One Summer. More than ever, I am convinced that I will never understand baseball, though I should live to be 500. Mind you, most Americans would say the same about cricket.

For a few minutes I considered proposing a "law of nature" that if you drive on the left-hand side of the road, you will understand cricket but not baseball, but if you drive on the right you understand baseball but not cricket. Then I remembered that the Netherlands team plays some of the most watchable 50-over cricket going (often much more so than South Africa, Australia India ...)

...also, in Sweden we drive on the right side of the road and we understand neither cricket or baseball.
Cricket, to us, is that bizarre "sport" were public school Englishmen stand around on a field drinking tea.
Baseball... it's a variant of the kids game "brännboll", played on school outings. Making it into a professional sports most of us feel is somewhat ridiculous ;-)

A nice rule nonetheless. Like the like celery/dislike coriander rule. Mostly valid, only I dislike both :D

#2, 5

The first picture for you!



This is the Emerald-spotted Wood Dove, a characteristic sound of the Lowveld but much less often seen. In siSwati, its call goes
"My mother is dead
My father is dead
All my family is dead
And my heart goes du du du du du du ..."

And you hear this lament all over the Lowveld when the weather is hot.

And one specially taken for @cmbohn (Cindy, are you there?)



Here's why:
When the South African forces went Up North in WW2, they took a vast amount of camping gear. And in due course, they brought a vast amount back. Somebody in the military used up their ration of one good idea per lifetime by realizing they weren't about to sell this stuff to anybody, and the Kruger Park needed all sorts of kit to get tourism on its feet, and so the Park inherited huge numbers of tents (used for cheap accommodation until they perished -- I think the last ones were scrapped in about 1960), folding chairs and tables. The chairs are now (mercifully -- any attempt to sit on them or move them results in bruises in interesting places) quite rare, but most picnic sites still have a few of the tables. So here is a table, 70 years after it saw service in the Western Desert, still ready for duty.

Emerald-spotted Wood Dove

Perhaps similar to our Mourning Dove? But more colourful.

Well, definitely a dove, but a more complex call. Here is a set of recordings of ours. The third is best.

I have book-marked that site, thank you! I love watching nature. I just watched a South African video online of a baby elephant saved and given a sheep for a friend. I also like to watch BigCatRescue.org and the PAWS site for elephants in California.

We had a bird in the Valley who called "peeeteeee where are youuuu?" It used to drive C crazy but I liked it. It was either a chickadee or a peewee.

Lurking Hugh!

#16 Busifer, you know the wonderful description of Test (5-day) cricket that originated, I think, in Zimbabwe?

Eleven guys in white suits come out and stand around the field. Then two guys with wooden clubs come out to the middle of the field. Then one of the eleven throws a ball to one of the two, who hits it. Then the eleven yell "HOWZAT!" and it rains for 5 days.

#22 - LOL! Not that far from how I see it ;-)
Thanks for the laugh!

22 - Ahhhh! We need to have a cricket match in our end of the country. We really need the rain.

Hi Hugh. Looking forward to your book thoughts, and lots of pics as well. That's a lovely one of a wood dove up above.

First book of 2014, and not before time: One Summer America 1927 by Bill Bryson.

All you ever wanted to know about just six months in America, namely May to October 1927. Charles Lindbergh's flight was fascinating, though as I suggested before, Babe Ruth and the baseball (who get second-longest coverage) need more local knowledge than I possess. The cast also includes a rich supply of bankers, politicians, anarchists and others, including the first steps of "talking pictures", TV and Gutzon Borglum's massive sculpture on Mt. Rushmore. And (blessings on Bryson's name, may his tribe increase), an epilogue telling us what happened later to the main protagonists. The expected good read, but still ... I'm less in tune with this one some of its predecessors, and so if At Home is a 5-star, I'd be uneasy giving this one more than 4.5. But also no less.

Special for Sandragon: this is at Nwanedzi in the Kruger Park. Mozambique starts just behind the ridge.

Has anybody in the pub ever encountered a book called 1913: the world before the Great War by one Charles Emmerson? He was on BBC3 talking to Sarah Walker about several cities' culture "on the brink", or 100 years ago, and sounds more than somewhat interesting.

Just about two weeks into the New Year, I discover this thread! But I haven't read that particular history of 1913. I would be interested in hearing more about it.

That 1913 book does look interesting. It appears to have a much more international approach than other books that I've come across about the prewar period.

#27 Mozambique There's another one of those evocations. A good day for it today - I am going to a wake for a very special person and I need another thought in my head to help me cope. Thank you.

We have some pretty good rocks here on the Bruce Peninsula too.

26 - That book probably neglected to mention the wedding of my grandparents on June 1, 1927.

My condolences, nhlsecord. That is indeed a gorgeous rock formation and surroundings, Hugh. Perfect for helping one get through a difficult day. It's like it is asking me to climb it and take in the view from the top and forget everything else.

#31 Condolences, Norma. I'll scratch in the picture collection and see if I have any presentable ones of Mozambique-for-real (though I fear the "best"ones may be on 8mm movie film -- a challenge to scan!)

#32 Stoopid Bryson! Left out the most important event of the year!

#33 Me I wouldn't. It also looks like the perfect habitat for hidden leopards, puff-adders and other nasties. We need you for next time, so would you content yourself with the lawful viewsite on the other side of the river, where I took the picture from? (Also, I suspect if you're used to Canada you may not enjoy a temperature close to 38°C / 100°F in the non-existent shade.)

Well, when you put it that way...

I used to love sport climbing, and that view brings back many happy memories of climbing at various sites in Canada and Japan. Getting to the top of a difficult climb, and pausing to take in the view before going back down, was the greatest feeling. We had to watch out for bears and cougars, but we never had problems from them. The nastiest things I encountered personally were mosquitoes and poison ivy.

But to have a chance to visit South Africa, and be able to see that view from the viewsite, would be another kind of wonderful accomplishment.

#1 by @hfglen> one day I'll read a Wheel of Time book. One day...

#35 Be assured that when you do, there will be a welcome on the mat!

Special for Norma: I found a halfway-decent picture of Mozambique almost first try!



It's a dhow in Maputo bay, and you can see the bush near Matola-Rio in the background.

Next book: Himalaya by Michael Palin. Remarkably and almost uniquely, the library has both the book and the DVDs (usually they manage one or the other only). Book is riveting reading, DVDs fascinating watching, but I'm glad I don't have to travel like that! Don't think I could manage anything like the volume of yak-butter tea they seem to have swallowed. Nor do I cope all that well with high altitudes. But what a pleasure to see the scenery that surrounds those discomforts. Makes me appreciate my own small corner of the world.

Loving the photos, Hugh. I have yet to visit Africa so it's great to see the landscapes and wildlife (although no snakes for me!)

I must read Himalaya, as I like Palin's writing and I spent 3 weeks in the Indian Himalaya last February. It is a fascinating place and culture, and I actually liked the yak butter tea. I very much want to explore more of that part of the world, although I did find the altitude made me tired.

37 - And the same goes for you, if you ever decide to visit my side of the globe.

>28 hfglen: And that's the first book bullet of the year for me...I just bought 1913: The World Before the Great War. :)

If you read and enjoy it, you also might like Juliet Nicolson's The Perfect Summer: England 1911, Just Before the Storm which was excellent.

Oh dear, Marissa, that was completely unintentional. I think I've seen it at Kloof library, and was wondering if I should keep an eye peeled with the idea of checking it out one day. Will now have to add The Perfect Summer to that list. So touché, in a manner of speaking.

I'm about to start on 1913, so I'll let you know what I think. It follows up nicely on the biography of Edward VII of England that I just finished.

Well, 1913:The World Before the Great War must be a more than decent book because when I trotted (metaphorically speaking) over to Amazon to see whether I should order it as part of my birthday book-buying binge, I discovered that it was already out of stock...

Oh, and @hfglen? I thought The Perfect Summer: England 1911, Just Before the Storm was a good read when I was delving into World War I history.

Just finished Books: a living history. I think many Dragoneers would like it, seeing it's about our favourite subject ;)
He treats each point in a richly-illustrated 2-3 page essay, and I found them all fascinating. Also, the asides are fun. Did you know why actors have roles? Because their parts wrer written on rolls of paper long after everybody else used bound books. And the latin for a scroll is volumen, giving us the idea of a volume of a multi-decker book, but also linking it to an architectural volute and a wheel revolving. Loved it.

Uh oh. That one looks good, too.

Oh. Darn. Looks VERY interesting.

The Life and Times of Alfred the Great by Douglas Woodruff. Meh. The series is usually good, but this one falls short. Factually accurate, but the writing is pedestrian, and the whole package, to me, fails to answer the question "Why do I want to know this?". The series is a product of the early 70s, and at the distance of 40 years it shows. Too many out-of-focus pictures, and the rest marred by a too-coarse screen; and the few colour pictures moatly flat and lacking the sparkle of more recent printing.

So I shall now go off and read a Sister Fidelma instead.

Here's this week's photo (even though it's 10 years old):



Jellyfish on the beach at Catembe, across the bay from Maputo.

The Spider's Web by Peter Tremayne

Great 7th-century whodunit, and every bit as good as expected. May I suggest to the ladies looking for credible female leads that their lists are incomplete without Sister Fidelma? If only because she's still around today, or at least I've had the pleasure of working with a lady botanist who grew up in Dublin (now lives in England), and could be Fidelma to the life, less the red hair and green eyes. More unsettling is that Father Gormán is alive and well and living in South Africa -- in several thousand copies, each as narrow-minded and obnoxious as the man described.

#50 - What kind of jellies are those? Stinging? Lovely pics, by the way!

Thank you, Clam! Most of our jellies sting painfully, so I wasn't about to get close enough to these to ask for an ID card! (Though they're not as bad as the Australian box jellyfish -- you'd most likely survive the sting. Enjoy the experience is a different matter.)

Those are big jellyfish! The ones I've seen are tiny compared to them.

Sylvia, this is what I love about the GD: how we all learn from one another (And a whole lot else besides). I've only seen the little ones in nature movies on TV, and in a bowl of perfectly vile soup in Beijing!

Yuck! I like mushy foods, but that's just revolting.

It was rather. Problem was, our hosts made it part of a celebratory luncheon.

Ewww. Hard to evade it, then.

Fortunately this was a Chinese celebratory meal, so there were about 24 other items among 12 of us, all on the table at once. Curious that the westerners' soup bowls tended to move through the clutter to a position just out of reach towards the middle of the table. And 'ewww' describes it well: the soup was a strange shade of luminous diarrhoea-yellow, and tasted as foul as it sounds. (Needless to say, I gave up after the first taste.)

Gorgeous photos, but - glad I wasn't eating when you described that soup! Gaaaah! I cannot even contemplate eating a CLAM! far less jellyfish. EEEEW is a class 1 understatement.

*bows deeply* Thank you, Janny! Please feel free to use that description if you need an emetic description of food at any time. And if you want a truly emetic foodstuff for a story, I'll look out, scan and post a picture I took some time ago of masonjas in Thohoyandou market.

Ick! Prawns and lobsters are the closest things to bugs and insects you'll get me to eat.

#61 - Clicking on that masonja-link - ewwwww!!! - I found a link to biltong, thought "what is this, then", and realised it is exactly the same as the the dried reindeer meat we stock our fridge with.
I like it when I find things from around the world that are alike but with different names :)

Himself and other Animals by David Hughes

The subtitle says Portrait of Gerald Durrell, and that is probably about right. The author follows his subject from the South of France to Jersey over the period of a week in the 1970s, with the expected wide-ranging conversation, and cameo appearances by Larry and Margo. He then put the MS in a drawer until after Gerald died in 1995, he tells us. This enabled him to prune the original version heavily and add an epilogue sketching the memorial event at Jersey Zoo. To be read with a straight face, mostly, but with a twinge of sadness at the end. Sadness, knowing that giants like Durrell are as extinct as the dodo, the bluebuck or the passenger pigeon, and we need them. Even though I hope he'd be pleased, or at least mollified, by the growth in environmental awareness in the last decade or so. To be recommended.

Weird things customers say in bookshops by Jen Campbell

Great loo reading -- each page has at least two stories. Sometimes one doesn't know whether to laugh or cry though: what would certain Dragoneers make of the customer who asked if the bookseller had anything by an author called Jane Eyre?

>65 hfglen: That looks fun.

I have got to remember to call my bathroom the "loo." Love that word.

I would tell the customer, "No, but I do have a wonderful biography of her dramatic life by Charlotte Bronte!"

MrsLee, I can only conclude that Shaw was right in his comment about "two nations separated by a common language";)

MrsLee, I think that is a fabulous comeback! No wonder they have you dealing with the public.

Smart-assery is my long suit. It isn't always appreciated by the public. ;)

Drifting continents, shifting seas by Patrick Young.

Oh dear. A wise person once pointed out that science books are quickly perishable as science, but after 100 years or so maturing, they become palatably quaint as history. Plate tectonics dates from the early 1960s, and this offering from 1976, so it falls neatly between the stools of being informative and being quaint. Added to which, the author writes down to his audience, so I suspect this one will not mature gracefully. Fortunately it's a library book, and so doesn't clutter my shelves. But should it continue to clutter theirs?

#70 I can only second what Jill said. But what about the customer wanting a children's book said to be good: "Lionel Ritchie and the Wardrobe" ?

And this week's picture, for which I burrowed in the family archives (hence the naff colour):



It's one my father took of Birchenough Bridge in then Southern Rhodesia on a family holiday in July 1960. The bridge is still there, across the Sabi River on the main road between Masvingo and Mutare, Zimbabwe. (and yes, the kid is me.)

I was going to ask.

Nice Picture. Your father obviously had an eye for a good photograph, just like his son.

oh that's a lovely memory for you Hugh. What a terrific shot.

I was going to ask, too. :)
That's a really cool picture.

I'm trying to take a firm line on outdated science books, and discarding those that were published more than 15 years or so ago, especially in fields that are changing rapidly. And I sort by date now when I browse for science books online.

Lovely photo, Hugh.

What a great idea, Sylvia.

(edited for typo!)

#71: "...falls neatly between the stools..."

I've read some books that I'd put there too.

#72 - "Really, I think if you are looking for a book about celebrity clothing, one with Liberace, Elvis or Cher would be more interesting. Lionel Ritchie wore mostly black."

Cool picture! And I love the way the naff colour adds to that sense of 'long ago'.

#74-80 Many thanks all.

I have just read a paragraph (about a tree) that includes the phrase "... used for fishing, which is an anaesthetic agent ...". The obvious meaning presumably isn't what the author intended, but is nevertheless horribly true IMHO.

>81 hfglen: That is very funny!

That is a stunning photo, Hugh.

Last of the Wilds by Trudi Canavan

Not the strongest fantasy writing ever, but I shall look for the last volume in the library. Had to rush a bit to get it finished in time to return before the due date.

Voice of the Gods by Trudi Canavan

Whoever said that the denouement of this series is clearly visible from halfway through the second volume, was right. So I skimmed the second half of this one. I can't help wondering if this lot would not maybe have gained from being trimmed down to a single, standalone volume.

This week's picture is inspired by what I believe to be one of @katylit's favourite stories:



"'Member it wasn't the Low Veld, or the Bush Veld, or the Sour Veld, but the 'sclusively bare, hot, shiny High Veld ..."

This, O Best Beloved, is the same 'sclusively bare, hot, shiny High Veld, taken in November, in the short period when it's not quite 'sclusively sandy-yellowish all over. And now Katylit can tell us the source of the quote.

Reading Snuff by the inimitable Sir Pterri. Having recently overdosed on the entire 4 series of Downton Abbey, I couldn't help wondering how Tom Branson and Sam Vimes would have got on together in the Ramkin country retreat. Any suggestions?

87> Vimes would probably get along better with him than any of the other characters. I really can't see him liking Robert Grantham.

I can't imagine either even understanding a word the other said! On the other hand, being a fly on the wall at tea with Lady Sibyl (Ramkin) and Dowager Countess Violet would be at least entertaining.

Ooo, that looks marvelous! ~ L

Completed Cellarmasters in the Kitchen by Wendy Toerien.

I can most definitely recommend this to the foodies in the pub, but possibly not to anybody else. It is a most beautifully evocative memoir of some of the top Cape winemakers, with some great, mouthwatering recipes. But -- it is unashamedly Cape-centric (read it and you will see why the rest of South Africa holds that the Cape believes that the world end at the Hex River Mountains) and, worse, although the people and places are indexed, the recipes aren't. Probably shouldn't get more than 3.5 stars, though it could so easily have been 4 or more.

Also available as an e-book, if the ISBNs are to be believed.

In a different thread, Karen said "Wouldn't it be fun if we had started a reading journal at age 8 or so and kept it ...". I'm inclined to agree, but only if it's done the right way, so as to be useful and not a chore. The way a teacher at my primary school tried was definitely among the worst of the wrong ones. It was compulsory, marked and entries read out in front of the class. Wrong, wrong and wrong. Which is one reason (the other having much to do with innate laziness) why it's only in the GD that I have resumed any approximation to such an activity.

I'm glad you are trying it on your own terms again. So many well meaning teachers put up roadblocks instead of opening avenues. I think keeping a reading journal, in your own way, place and time. Is great fun. Will I ever go back and read/use them? I don't know, but they help me think about what I've read and gain some perspective on it, and on my reading tastes.

Many thanks, Lee. Methinks that teacher should have been given an 'Ass of the year' award when it happened -- in 1961! (If memory serves me well at this distance, he pushed off early in the year and his bright idea collapsed within seconds.

In happier news, a week or 3 ago I at last persuaded the tablet I bought with retirement money that it could indeed (1) accept downloads through the laptop, and (2) having done so, let me read them. Battery still only lasts about 2 hours between recharging, though. So I've been overdosing on Piers Anthony's Xanth stories:
Man from Mundania, Yon Ill Wind, Swell Foop and Stork Naked.

... And here's this week's old picture:



I took it in May 1971, and it's a corner of Victoria Falls from the Rhodesian (now Zimbabwe) side. Memo to self and anybody interested in going there (highly recommended): it's not a great idea to go when the peak of the rainy season is coming over the falls (like when this was taken) -- all you see is spray, and it gets into everything. Notwithstanding raincoats, towels around necks and all, within minutes we didn't have a square millimetre of dry clothing between the four of us, and some of my pictures have stains where the film got wet. Inside the camera, inside a protective case.

>95 hfglen:
Oh, my. That is . . . majestic. And very wet.

Majestic.

Simply majestic.

Great picture.

Wow, that is incredible.

I can FEEL the wet! Lovely.

Majestic is the perfect word. I can hear the thundering in my head.

... and sure enough the local name "Mosi-oa-tunya" means "the smoke that thunders"

Thank you, all.

Just breathtaking.

Flushed with Pride, a biography of Thomas Crapper, by Wallace Reyburn. The story of a great Victorian benefactor of the human race, told not without humour. The result is a quick and enjoyable read. If you find a copy of this gem, grab it.

#104. Bwahaha. I need that book!

The Missing Ink by Philip Hensher. Oh dear. Either the right book by the wrong author, or a case for a body-changing spell -- Flushed with Pride could happily fill the 260-odd octavo pages this one occupies, and the parts of this that don't serve merely to annoy wouldn't need much more than the 95 12-mo pages Mr Crapper gets. Long-winded, pretentious, padded with badly-expressed and probably indefensible opinions. But somewhere in there are a story worth telling (about handwriting and its teaching) and a point worth making (that in the last generation or so, typing has supplanted handwriting to a possibly unhealthy degree. That the author is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Bath Spa isn't an entirely flattering reflection on his university.

Here's the picture I intended to post this week. It's the view I was looking for when I took the picture I posted last week



I'm told the view of Victoria Falls is better from the Zambian side, though 3/4 of the width of the falls is on the Zimbabwe side of the border. Obviously in 1971 with a South African passport I wasn't able to verify this.

But then this hyena came along and was irresistible



Seen in Kruger Park this past November

Finished If I pay thee not in Gold by Piers Anthony and Mercedes Lackey on the tablet last night. I gather from the author notes that the synopsis is Mr Anthony and the style is mostly Ms Lackey, which suggests to me that I should look our some of her solo works one day. Enjoyable story, interesting magic, revolting societies (which may be the point). But I'd like to see how Xylina and them cope 5 / 10 / 50 years on beyond the end of this story, which is a good sign.

Another lovely water photo. I love the hyena photo too, but shifty is the word I would use, not irresistible. He's (she?) is looking for mischief. :)

#106 - Ha, that "review" made me laugh :)

I like both Victoria Falls photos, but if I was going to frame one and hang it on my wall, I would go with the first one. It just seems closer and more atmospheric.

#111 You're right, of course. This week's is the 'picture postcard' that fixes the place (and if I were being mean, would carry the text about Vic Falls being twice as wide and twice as high as Niagara), but last week's is the view not everybody gets to see.

But does it have as many arcades and wax museums within walking distance as Niagara Falls does? I would imagine Victoria Falls must be a HUGE tourist hotspot.

First I must admit that I haven't been back since 1971. There are towns on both sides (Victoria Falls, Zim, and Livingstone, Zambia), but Livingstone is about 7 miles / 11 km away -- a stiff walk, to say the least! No wax museums (Zambia has an archaeological site and museum), but Vic Falls had all the shops and hawkers one could manage, well within range. There are game reserves on both sides, and airports, and hotels and resorts ... one day I should talk the Girls into going. (But I'd go up through Botswana and cross into Zambia at Kazungula, then into Zim for the day at the Falls. Twould be great if you could come too!) Oh, and you can bungee jump from the bridge, if you're a raving lunatic; it's supposed to be the second-highest in the world.

It would certainly be a sight to see! But I would probably skip the bungee jumping.

thereby displaying a decent level of commonsense and self-preservation ;)

Yeesh. It looks lovely and I'd enjoy seeing it as well. I'll also skip the jumping. It takes we weeks to recover from things like scraping ice off my driveway. How could I possibly handle being dangled and bounced at the end of a massive rubber band?

Love the hyena. The expression you caught is wonderful.

Thank you, Clam!

#95 - Holy Wow, what a picture, Hugh!!!

great pics Hugh!

>119 JannyWurts: >120 majkia: Thank you both!

Have at last managed to complete @Busifer's inspiration and read Tigana. Wish I'd done so earlier! It's a truly amazing story, deserving of every good word said about it here and elsewhere. One point on which I beg to differ with the esteemed Mr Kay: Alberico may indeed be drawn as a Communist functionary in Eastern Europe, but seen from this angle he is almost indistinguishable from a great many corrupt politicians in this and neighbouring countries. And with one eye in the sign in the foyer, I shall say no more.

Also read several of Piers Anthony's Xanth stories on the tablet. Kinda hard to tell apart, but great for a mindless rainy day or bedside in a tent.

Oooh, Tigana is somewhere down in one of the boxes near the bottom of my Mount TBR! This makes me think I should move all those boxes to try and find it and maybe move it up to April or May (I can't see me getting to it before then at the earliest and when I know I bought it pre-2011 and likely pre-2000 another month or two won't make that much difference!)

#123 by @Peace2> I gave up on Tigana. I found it irredeemably depressing.

>124 majkia: Sorry pardon, it picks up near the end, and the good guys win out very cleverly in the last 20 pages or so. But I'd agree that there is a very sad bit towards the end , namely Dianora's slow, purposeful and probably very difficult suicide. So @Peace2, despite @majkia's reservations, I'd definitely suggest you dig this one out and give it time to work its magic. And at 800+ pages, you'll need time!

Another spoiler @majkia will be horrified to hear I'm inflicting an element of Tigana on my nomenclature students in May. One of their exam questions is based on Tiganan wine.

hahahaha!

I loved Tigana, too. I thought it was well worth the slog.

Here's a link to our group discussions back in the dawn of time: http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/Groups:The_Green_Dragon/Group_book_di...

>127 clamairy: Wow! it really was the dawn of time! I shall keep that in mind for once I get around to reading it! I like it when the book bullets are for titles already somewhere in the pile of books!

>128 Peace2: I like it when the book bullets are for titles already somewhere in the pile of books!
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Extracting some of those bullets can mean a major operation.

Tigana is one of my favourite Kay books. It has interesting twists.

>129 pgmcc: - *sigh* Yes, once upon a time I knew where everything was... :o(

>127 clamairy: Dawn of time? That's positively prehistoric!

Despite non-posting, I have still been reading. (And pictures are on the Trip Report thread for now.)

The Elements: the new guide to the building blocks of the universe by Jack Challoner. About 2 years ago I had a perfectly dreadful book on the chemical elements, called The periodic kingdom, out of the library. The Elements is what that should have been, and has the advantage of being many years younger. This one is a much better offer, with more accurate structure (not more recent: this one has the structures I was taught in undergraduate in -- eep! -- 1968), intelligent commentary and good pictures.

The secrets of the Code and Secrets of Angels and Demons by Dan Burstein. Uneven, and no inspiration to read The Da Vinci Code. Nuff said.

>134 hfglen: Yah know I really enjoyed The Da Vinci Code. The rest of his stuff? Not so much.

Still reading -- pictures resume here when the trip report's finished.

Finished Time's Great People of the 20th century. There's a great Seffrican word that describes it exactly, but is completely untranslatable: jawellnofine. I get that Time is based in New York. There is no way that you can escape that fact when looking at their selection. I get that the magazine considers itself highbrow. That's obvious from the stodgy design, heavy-going typeface and foggy text. Granted, every reader's selection of Great People would be different, but I think mine would be very different to theirs. Overall, I have to agree with the LT work page, and give this book 2--2.5 stars. A good one to leave on the library shelf.

Downloaded A little cook book for a little girl from Project Gutenberg, following this comment. Inneresting. I could see myself making a few of the recipes, though.

Also acquired A Study in Scarlet from the same source, and have only just discovered how long ago the group read of this one was. Have read the first part and skimmed the second. Can't see why he filled one third of the book with the bulk of the second part with the Mormon story. Surely he could have said all that was necessary in 3 or 4 pages.

By the way, how do others record data about e-books in their collections? Presumably in a separate collection? How do you record the absence of anything physical to describe?

>135 clamairy: You surprise me. I found it laughable because of the clumsy writing. Couldn't finish it. I liked the premise, but the execution, not so much. :) I'm not saying this to criticize, only to once again marvel at how we each read books differently.

>136 hfglen: I may have to go look for that cookbook. I think I read that other comment, but it didn't grab me the first time.

When I add ebooks or audio books, I enter them manually. I don't use a separate collection, but I use tags, ebook, Kindle, audio. Collections would work too.

It would still be great if you entered your remarks on A Study in Scarlet in the Sherlock thread. I think there are still people floating around reading some Doyle.

#138 - I'm only willing to forgive clumsy writing when I get sucked into something. And I got sucked it. What can I say? :o)

The library yielded a cookbook that would surely gladden @MrsLee's heart (or would, but for the loss of Ophelia): Aharam: traditional cuisine of Tamil Nadu by Sabita Radhakrishna. Quaint English, but the food may at that be good. And why MrsLee in particular? Because I don't know any other Dragoneers who would look a recipe in the face that calls for 10 green chillies plus two more later on, to a pound of meat, as two in a row do here, or a whole tablespoon of ground chillies (the hot kind) as another does. But some recipes are milder, and I shall report further after making one up tomorrow night.

>140 hfglen: My mouth is watering! Yum. :)

>141 MrsLee: Leap on a plane and you'll be here in time for leftovers;)

>141 MrsLee: & >142 hfglen: Bring some Pepcid.

I wish I could click my heels three times and say, "There's no place like Hugh's. There's no place like Hugh's. There's no place like Hugh's." Then I would find myself there! I keep trying to tempt my OH with the hippos. :)

To pacify The Girls, I had to leave out the chillies when making "ginger mutton curry". The result was b-o-r-i-n-g.

Finished Luck of the Draw an hour or so ago. Piers Anthony is definitely showing signs of age; I can't imagine him having included an octogenarian hero in the first score or so of Xanth stories, but somehow it makes sense. And I think I agree with the LT reviewer who says the most recent stories are darker, or at least less fluffy, than the Xanth some of us grew to enjoy. Fortunately the puns still come thick and fast.

>144 MrsLee: MrsLee, if he doesn't think he'll have a hippo thyme here, you could always sigh and comment that gno gnus is good gnus, though I'd point out that they aren't in the least, like that dreadful Hearty Beast ;)

A gnother gnu?

That's the end of the gnus. Now for the weather forecast.

Indeed, Sylvia :)

>148 pgmcc: The weather bureau forecasts that there will be weather all over the country tomorrow.

Sillies.

145 - I have a great recipe for a garlic-chili chutney. I use that on dishes where I've been required to tone down the heat. That way each can apply to their own level of comfort. Not ideal, but better than no heat at all! :)

If the mango tree fruits and the spirit moves me, I sometimes make a batch of "City of Durban Atchar" from Indian Delights. Main ingredients are green mangoes, peanuts and green chillies, with smaller quantities of sugar, water and turmeric. So it's not unknown for Herself to mistake the residue in a used teaspoon for honey. The results were dramatic!

>151 hfglen: - Oh my! That sounds wonderful.

>152 MrsLee: You'll have to come visit: it's getting time to make another batch.

Clarissa's England by the late (sadly) Clarissa Dickson Wright of Two Fat Ladies fame. Well the subtitle does mention "a gamely gallop", but this is still very rushed. Shrewsbury without Brother Cadfael? Good Heavens! Too breathless and bitty, and too much hunting, methinks. On the other hand, the book is as much about the author as the subject.

I read Clarissa's England not too long ago. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Clarissa herself. The hunting, fishing, and politics were a bit much, but the historical tidbits were fun. Unfortunately, the memory that stays with me the most is the blatant racism. In general, I find that Clarissa had excellent entertainment value, but I disagree with many of her opinions.

Hmmmz. Inneresting. Now that I've thought a bit, I wonder if In Search of England and I Saw two Englands, both by H.V. Morton, would be a suitable antidote. I wonder if I'm subconsciously judging Clarissa by an ancient memory of Morton? Around here the books are quite common in used-book shops, though they are about 80 and 70 years old, respectively. There's also a more recent collection of excerpts with colour pictures, that turns up occasionally.

Here be Dragons by Dennis McCarthy. Great book! How geological history and plant and animal distributions work on each other, and both work on the distribution of human civilizations and appearance. Short and sweet (less than 200 pages), too. Highly recommended!

Into the Unknown by Brian Fagan. National Geographic book, so beautifully illustrated. Text possibly a little thin and inclined to jump around unpredictably, but written by one of The Greats in the field, so accurate and well produced. At twice the length, it would be brilliant.

>157 hfglen:
I have that one. It's been sitting beside my chair for a year now so that I can just pick it up when I need something to read. Unfortunately, I keep picking up other books. It certainly looks good, though.

>157 hfglen:
I think National Geographic books only have words to give somebody a job. The pictures are what the books are all about.

Pete, I think I agree with you.

>159 pgmcc: That's why I loved them so as a wee child!

>161 clamairy: That's why I still love them. I can browse the magazines or their books for hours.

>161 clamairy:, >162 pgmcc: .Yes indeed. A few months ago I snagged a bundle of the magazines dated between 1951 and 1959 at Msasa Books. Fun to see how the first ads for travel by jet came in at the end of the period, placed by Boeing and Douglas, not yet the airlines (who were still touting Lockheeds, DC6s and DC7s). One of the 1959 ones has an article on divided Germany picking itself up out of the ashes, with a picture of a Berliner riding a bicycle down a street half of which was in the western zone (all neat and used), the other in the Soviet zone (weed-grown and clearly unused). By a curious coincidence I am scanning slides fro the family archives, and last night's batch was of the Berlin Wall between Potsdamer Platz and the Brandenburg Gate, that I took in 1982. And now neither scene exists any more.

>163 hfglen: Wow! I'm impressed and a bit jealous. (Both of the photos and the 'family archives.')

Voila! Here's Potsdamer Platz, 1982, from a viewing platform. Rather sad, but I imagine it looks somewhat different today. If there are any Berliners in the GD, could you please post a current picture?

ETA: Helps if you add the picture ...

Many thanks to @Runefirestar for a heads-up in the direction of Lilian Jackson Braun's Cat who books. A positive fusillade of book bullets! But the library seems to have a good supply. I picked up The Cat who tailed a thief and was well rewarded. A whodunit, but it took almost 3/4 of the book to work out what they dun. But the idea that all the good guys are owned by cats who have at least as much as their hoomins appeals (being myself owned by a characterful cat). And the Koko the cat knows what's up long before anyone else, but it takes the stoopid hoomins a while and a half to catch up.

>166 hfglen: - When I first read those books, I was owned by a male Siamese very like Koko. I thought the cat portrayal was spot on.

>140 hfglen: - Someone else who own's a copy of Aharam! Very much a chance buy for me, whilst I was out there looking for a traditional cook book.

>168 reading_fox: The someone else is actually Kloof library! But I'd quite possibly buy a copy if I saw one for sale at a reasonable price.

The Cat who could read backwards by Lilian Jackson Braun. First of the series, in which we can deduce that Jim Qwilleran is a reformed alcoholic rebuilding his life. In the course of two murders and one fatal accident, Jim teams up with Kao-K'o-Kung (aka Koko) the Siamese cat to open and sort out a whole can of worms. Koko's character is beautifully drawn and immediately recognizable if you've ever been owned by a cat. And yes, he does read the headlines and the signature on a painting from right to left. Much enjoyed; I'll be raiding the library for more of this series, but probably rationing myself to make them last.

Deep Ancestry by Spencer Wells. How the team supported by National Geographic are using DNA to plot human evolution and migrations. This is a breaking story, so any book will be frustratingly out-of-date by the time it is published, and this one is a "hoary" eight years old already. Can't help wondering what new insights have appeared in that time, what bits have been falsified, how many more samples they've collected, whether the project is still running and so on. The body of the book is fascinating; the appendices heavy going. Which is probably the way it should be. Recommended.

>171 hfglen: I enjoyed that one, and I've seriously considered doing that ancestry kit/swab thing so I can trace the genes on both sides of our family unit. They keep refining the test though, so I think I'll hold off just a little longer.

>172 clamairy: Yes indeed. It doesn't seem from their web site like they ship the kit outside North America, and by African standards it's bleep expensive, so I'll be holding off too. Though I'm sure Deep Ancestry mentions a collaborator in South Africa. I may go back one day and check that.

I'm torn and bleeding, having been hit by a series of book bullets aimed by assorted Dragoneers and fired by the local libraries. In the next week or 2 I'll be reading

The Cat who knew Shakespeare -- from Kloof library (a good find for Shakespeare's 450th birthday!

Mr Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore (most surprised that the library had this! evidently the Friends listened when I complained they need to think outside the top 10 bestsellers when buying for the library!) and
The Door into Fire by Diane Duane.

What the Dog saw by Malcolm Gladwell. Extended essays on the Enron scandal, social problems, trying to force people to conform to bad statistics, and more. Interesting while reading, but good heavens, eight hours later I can't remember any of the detail!

The Cat who knew Shakespeare by Lilian Jackson Braun.

Currently reading Mr Penumbra's 24-hour bookstore -- profoundly odd, but very enjoyable.

The Terracotta Warriors by Maurice Cotterell. DNF. Abandoned after nine pages. In fact, the calls of cuckoos every sentence soon became deafening, indicating that this was most certainly not the book I wanted to take out of the library. Thank goodness it's a library book, and I therefore didn't sink any money in this. And in answer to the author's forst question, the authorities ignored your hobbyhorse because they know fruitloopery when they see it.

The Door into Fire by Diane Duane. Many thanks to the various Dragoneers who have discussed this author's works and raised enough interest to cause me to borrow one from the library. Definitely worth while, and I shall look out for more.

I'm so excited for you that you have all these great books to read right now. (So do I.)

>179 reconditereader: Thank you! I'm enjoying them.

Berlin: coming in from the cold by Ken Smith Fascinating, although the author's writing idiosyncracies grate occasionally. A write up of his stay in the city for about a year from August 1989 to July 1990, with what one needs of the history from 1949. Follows on beautifully from When the Wall came down, which examines 9 November 1989 in great detail, but ends at about that point. In this one the text is all one could wish for, but oh dear, the illustrations! Surely one picture (why seven?) of graffiti would make the point, and allow space for others making other points left unillustrated. And the map in the book is next to useless, hardly mentioning any of the places named in the text. A few pages in, and I was rummaging among old maps for Berlin: stadtplan ..., a souvenir of a visit in 1982, which has a decent street index and (naturally) shows where the Wall was. Turns out that Smith rarely left an area just south of the city centre, which could have been a flaw, except that the pulls back often to fit those vignettes into a generally much larger picture. He leaves one asking oneself 'und dann?'-- what happened next?, which is a good sign. I shall now go look for a relatively recent eyewitness guide to answer that question.

How very appropriate to be re-reading H.V. Morton's account of Glastonbury in In Search of England, where he mentions the bird song specifically, only a few minutes after hearing Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending on the internet-radio. No matter that Morton's journey was 90 years ago, his sightseeing is still fresh and mostly repeatable; a good palate-cleanser after Clarissa's England mentioned earlier.

>181 hfglen: I really enjoyed Morton's In Search of London - his glimpses into the post-war city were fascinating to this modern Londoner. I might have to seek out his other Searches - they sound equally rewarding.

>182 imyril: Apologies for the delayed response; I'm only just in from a month in the Wild Blue Yonder.

If you liked In Search of London I'd recommend ANY H.V. Morton -- his style is delightful. Note that many of his travel books don't have titles starting "In Search of ..."; think of I saw two Englands or The Waters of Rome for example. The good news is that, at least in South Africa, you can pick up good copies of most of them at the SPCA or similar second-hand book shops.

Holiday reading included

two guidebooks:
Mapungubwe: ancient African civilisation on the Limpopo by Tom Huffman and
Mapungubwe: South Africa's crown jewels by Sian Tiley

two of Lilian Jackson Braun's Cat Who series:
The Cat who played Brahms and
The Cat who said cheese. Both ingenious if not exactly thriller-type mysteries. And the cats are splendid!

miscellaneous:
Why are Orangutans orange?, another series of New Scientist's back-page questions and answers
Tips for Trips by Carol Lazar -- great ideas for going away, if somewhat repetitive. Carol Lazar edits, or at least used to edit, the travel supplement for a Johannesburg newspaper, and has had some distinctly hairy experiences.
The edge of Physics by Anil Ananthaswamy, who writes more-than-readable articles for New Scientist,
and a couple of Xanth novels by Piers Anthony, as e-books.

Two other reference books consulted but not read from cover to cover:
African Brew: exploring the craft of South African beer, by Lucy Corne Sadly, probably out of date already: we were told of a new brewery opening next month in Wakkerstroom. Butrh then a book like this couldn't possibly stay current for more than about five minutes. And
Geology off the beaten track by Nick Norman, which explains the geology of the Mapungubwe area (among others) more intelligibly than most.

Nice to have you back, Hugh!

*bows with a flourish* Thank you, Sylvia!

Oooh! Did you just doff your hat, Hugh? How elegant!

But of course!

>183 hfglen: no apologies needed, but I'm looking forward to hearing all about your trip :)

The Cat who went bananas
The Cat who talked Turkey

Clearly, I'm still on a Koko-the-Siamese kick. Could someone please tell me what State, if any, Pickax is supposed to be in?

I always felt it was Minnesot-ish.

>191 MerryMary: Thank you!

I can't find the thread now, but somewhere in the last day or 3 we've been having a group whinge (entirely justified IMHO) about snobs who look down their noses at YA and fantasy. I was reminded of that thread while listening with half an ear to this BBC programme on the rise and fall of authors' literary reputations. The piece is 56 minutes long, and the first reference I heard (as I said, I only listened to most of it with half an ear) to the ability to tell a story was in the 47th minute; the idea was dismissed as, apparently, of at best minor concern by the 49th minute.

A propos of this, can somebody please explain to me why one would put wood pulp in the foundations of a road? The one currently under construction in the next suburb seems only to use grit, stones, cement, tar and such-like orthodox substances.

1434 by Gavin Menzies. A fascinating idea if true; I wonder to what extent it is?

>194 hfglen: Hmm, interesting. I remember reading half of 1421 before putting it down to finish later (um, I never quite got back to it yet) with much the same thought - fascinating, I wonder how true it is?

I've got some time on my hands over the next couple of weeks - I might do some digging and see what I can find out in terms of critical rebuttals / confirmations. I'll shout if I come up with anything!

>195 imyril: Thanks. I'd be glad to hear of anything you find.

A propos of finding stuff, among the potsherds excavated from Mapungubwe (within sight of where South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe join, so far from the coast) were some fragments of a green Mongol / Early Ming Celadon pot. Mapungubwe was inhabited and prosperous roughly AD 1200-1300, which suggests that possibly Zheng He had antecedents somewhere.

>196 hfglen: oh fascinating! Yes, that's very suggestive, isn't it?

>197 imyril: Indeed it is. And now that I think of it, add all the Ming-period Chinese trade beads (tens of thousands at Mapungubwe alone) found all over the south-eastern part of Africa.

ETA: Not the world's easiest quest, but if you can find it, you may wish to browse through the Sian Tiley / Mapungubwe Museum book I recently added to my "read but unowned" list (on checking I see the title is Mapungubwe: South Africa's Crown Jewels) -- the pictures are gorgeous, and include the pot, the beads and much more.

>198 hfglen: Ah, there's nothing like a good bit of research to feel like Mount TBR deserves to be a few books higher :) It doesn't count if it's for knowledge!

Inspired by an old BBC4 program, I pulled a copy of Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome of the kiddie shelf in the library, to read while waiting for Better Half to finish her shopping. I remember it fondly from yonks ago (think I read it in late primary school / early high school) and wondered if the suck fairy had touched it. The BBC program suggested maybe not. The few pages I managed also suggest that half a century on, it would still be well enjoyed.

>200 hfglen: Swallows and Amazons and sequels are still among my favourite comfort re-reads. The suck fairy touched them not at all, in my opinion. Wonderful books.

>201 tardis: Ditto! In fact, I think The picts and the martyrs in particular is even better when read as an adult - the grown-up characters' reactions to Nancy's plan are much funnier when you yourself can see their point of view.

>202 Sakerfalcon: Agree! The one I love more as an adult is We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea, which was my least favourite as a child. Also, The Big Six is a really good detective novel :)

P.S. Sorry for cluttering your thread like this, Hugh :)

>203 tardis: Absolutely nothing to be sorry about, Jane! I'm delighted to have started a discussion I find interesting :)

I'm another Swallows and Amazons fan - one of my favourites is Pigeon Post - I think it appeals to the geologist in me.

>205 NorthernStar: It's also my favourite! I've always loved the mystery of Timothy the Armadillo that runs through the book, and its resolution at the end as well as the main story of course.

Between a slew of Cat Who ... books, I recently finished Foundation: The History of England vol. 1 by Peter Ackroyd. From earliest times to the end of the Wars of the Roses, with the characters and doings of the upper classes interspersed with chapters on food, health and other pressing questions of the times. To be recommended, with as many felicitous passages as stretches where the mind needs to be in 4x4 mode.

El Niño: unlocking the secrets of the master weather-maker by J. Madeleine Nash

Be scared. Be very scared. By elevating CO2 in the atmosphere we are messing with something very complicated and very powerful that we don't understand. A well written account of how climatologists have found out what we know of El Niño and La Niña, and how each answer raises more important questions than it solves. Recommended, but as the story is ongoing (and this is written in the midst of the World Cup), it unavoidably has a whiff of a match commentary that breaks off at half time.

>208 hfglen: When was it published? I find that by the time I read most climate change books, they are already outdated. The science is changing so fast, and new natural disasters keep happening that change the perspective, so I never feel up-to-date.

>209 SylviaC: 2002, so it's very much the half-time score.

What to Eat by Marion Nestle -- or, why ignorance isn't bliss when shopping in a supermarket. She describes supermarkets in Manhattan and Ithaca, NY (mostly), but they map pretty accurately on to Durban. Regrettably. Moral: never believe a store flyer when it talks about food, and if you believe half the "nutrition facts" labels, you're credulous.

The Woman who died a lot by Jasper Fforde -- another delightful romp around Swindon. But Thursday is showing signs of middle age, and having problems recovering from injuries sustained in the previous story. One of those being that she can't read her way into the Bookworld. Any more would be spoilers.

And two re-reads:
I shall wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett -- Not often that a book makes more of an impression and is more addictive the second time around, but this one is. What's the proper name of the 'anti-suck' fairy? She's definitely spread good-news dust on this one.

In Search of Ireland by H.V. Morton -- written 80 years ago and showing signs of age. I do not believe that all Irishmen live for racehorses to the extent that Morton claims, or ever did. But everything else is well described.

>212 hfglen: I do not believe that all Irishmen live for racehorses to the extent that Morton claims, or ever did.

I suspect you are correct in your belief. I would suggest his writings in this regard may be more indicative of the class of people he associated with in Ireland than a measure of general attitude amongst the general population.

>213 pgmcc: Thank you. And, reading on, one could further restrict it to the places he went in the immediate area of Dublin.

>214 hfglen: the places he went in the immediate area of Dublin.

Literally within the Pale. There was a Pale defined around Dublin. The term, "Beyond the Pale", has a political, historical and geographical meaning in Ireland.

One brain cell was aware if that. Unfortunately, it was "out to lunch" until I read your note.

And in general "the pale" refers to a fence (literally, a stake). The expression "within the pale" happens to occur often in the Brother Cadfael novels, for instance, and I understand it to mean (in that context) within the confines of the abbey, i.e., within the defined boundary of the walls and gates. Something beyond the pale is out of bounds.

I am not a great fan of Wikipedia but this article is fairly accurate in relation to The Pale in Ireland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pale

The Map Book, edited by Peter Barber. A magnificent and beautiful coffee-table book, with full-page (some double-page), full-colour illustrations of maps from a Babylonian clay tablet to a satellite image of Mount St. Helens. Amazing that the library would lend such a book out.

I saw The Map Book at a bookstore recently, and I had to firmly convince myself that I really don't have a place to put another coffee table book, or the spare money to pay for it.

I own The map book; it really is gorgeous.

>221 Sakerfalcon: Lucky you!

Latest library book is Sex, Genes and Rock 'n Roll by Rob Brooks. Pretty well exactly what it says on the tin. How evolution in the shape of sexual selection promotes the spread of some genes and eliminates others, and how that shapes human culture. And rock 'n roll. Recommended.

Re-read Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson: just as good and addictive second time around.

Started an omnibus volume of Arthur C. Clarke's Rama series. I'm sure I've read three, but this volume has four. No matter. The re-read of the first has me hooked all over again.

Raffles and the Golden Opportunity by Victoria Glendinning has a title that sounds like it belongs in the same stable as Harry Potter. Actually, it's a very readable biography of the man who founded Singapore. He comes across as someone tremendously energetic who Got Things Done, and in consequence spent half his life fighting the ponderous, slow-moving and slow-witted bureaucracy of the English East India Company.

>223 hfglen: I loved the first and found the second ok. I gave up half way through the third and didn't botger with the fourth. When I finished the first book I loved tge phrase, "The Ramans do Everything in Threes", and I looked forward to the next book of what would obviously be a trilogy appeared. After many years the second arrived and it was a collaboration. I always think such collaborations are an attempt to boost the name of the junior partner by association with the main name. This was my interpretation of the Rama books and I believe none of the sequels lives up to the original. Also, the Ramans would never have agreed to more than three books. It is just not Raman.
;-)

>225 pgmcc: A short distance into the second: There seems to be a major continuity gap between the first and second, and roughly the first 7 chapters seem to be papering over the several dates that the action of the first wanders around between, an uncertainty of when the second actually begins, and incompatible political systems between the two. If memory serves me well, this wasn't the only collaboration between those two authors; the other one was also eminently forgettable. As for your last point, I suspect the rationalization (not explanation) is that it's one human + 3 Raman. At this stage I'm still willing to get to know the Ramans better.

100 cars 100 years. Considering that both authors live in New York and the publisher is in New Jersey, the USA-centric bias of the choice of 100 cars makes sense. It's also evident that they love convertibles. My own personal choice of 100 significant cars would have dropped some of the convertibles in favour of such classics as the VW Beetle, the indestructible Peugeot 404 and Landrover Series 1, both of which got Africa moving without much concern about what was under them, and the Citroën 2CV. Among others.

50 Great Adventures. Illustrated accounts of 50 startling buildings. Mostly, my response was "Yes, but how badly does the roof leak?" or "What do the unfortunate users say?". The last one in the book is Friedensreich Hundertwasser, and notes that his detractors damn him with the adjective "people-pleasing". Yes, well, many users have lamented the frustration of trying to make the product of an egotistical architect who's too arrogant to pay any attention to the user's needs work. And then the windows leak, as well as the roof.

I enjoyed reading your comments on the car and architect books. I agree with the cars you added.

Thank you, Pete. And regards, congratulations and welcome home to Team McClean.

>227 hfglen: How could they leave out the VW Beetle?! That is iconic even in the USA!

>231 Sakerfalcon: I think because they included a (convertible, sporty) Karmann Ghia. Neatly illustrating the problem I have with their selection.

>225 pgmcc: I have now given up on Rama: the omnibus. Got about as far as you did, skimmed the rest. Loads of philosophizing in the last 50 pages, which sort-of explain where the story was going. But it needs someone else to tell that story.

Foodies and history buffs in the GD (often the same people) will love Dinner with Churchill: policy-making at the dinner table, I hope. It seems this is Cita Stelzer's first book, but the words flow so smoothly that the pages almost turn themselves. She makes the point that for his class and time he was neither a glutton nor a lush, but every now and then I couldn't help feeling a little green about the gills reading about some of the multi-course meals he used to do his diplomacy. Recommended.

Drat you, >234 hfglen:! That one most definitely goes on my wishlist. I have been eyeing it, but was waiting for someone I trust to recommend it. Love food, love Churchill, so, read it I must.

ETA: Just went to Amazon, and it is on the Kindle Unlimited plan, so I can read that next. :)

>235 MrsLee: Despite the dratting, I'm impressed that I'm "someone you trust" and my recommendation had that effect :)

*preens*

Ooooh, Hugh. You preen so well. It makes me feel like swooning.

Bowler's Cape Town by Cor Pama.

Cor Pama was a leading, elderly historian in Cape Town when I was a student there a-many years ago. This is the third of a series of well illustrated (for the time; it was published in 1977) volumes on Cape Town before it became busy. One senses that Pama rather misses the slower, genteel pace of life a hundred years before the time of writing, and considered the conservation of historic buildings to be important, which it is. And so he records with distaste the loss of stoeps of Georgian houses in town to make way for roads, sidewalks and the tram line to Green Point. (Fortunately the book ends before the major destruction of Georgian Cape Town in the century following the discovery of diamonds at Kimberley and gold in the Transvaal.) Parts of the town he portrays were undoubtedly idyllic -- some still are -- but he does include a chapter on the slums (some still there, and many new ones since), lack of sanitation and the still-present problems presented by the weather. A great read if you know the place, but probably rather meaningless otherwise.

Okay, score a book bullet for Hugh. You got me with the Dinner with Churchill title. I never get to dine with people who are that influential on a global level. I don't really know that much about Churchill and it might be time to remedy the gaps.

And while I'm not a car buff, I can't imagine leaving out the Volkswagen Beetle if one is looking for iconic vehicles. My dad drove one until the floorboard on the passenger side was near to being rusted out.

Talk to the Tail by Tom Cox. Library book, DNF. Assorted essays. The first quarter or a tad more, where he describes his cats, is hilarious. He then becomes repetitively, boringly autobiographical. I gave up, thinking "Either get a life or realise that some things are best kept private because they're so mind-numbingly banal".

>240 hfglen: Well, guess I won't read it, but I love the title. Makes me think of my Siamese.

>241 MrsLee: Good decision. I got it out of the library for the title. Despite the drawbacks, he has one delightfully memorable image (the more so as I am owned by an overweight and none-too-bright ginger cat). He claims that his neighbour's ginger cat was so fat that it was visible from space. Because, he said, he looked at the neighbourhood on Google Earth, and in his neighbour's driveway was a distinctive orange spludge right where the cat liked to sleep :)

Right now I'm re-reading old Giles cartoons and cackling all over again; they're both valuable historical documents and timeless.

I love the Giles cartoons. They give such a strong sense of place and time, and it is so much to explore everything that is going on in the background.

Did I read while I was away? Did I just! Here are some titles read in the last six weeks or so.

The Picts and the Martyrs by Arthur Ransome. Totally immune to the suck fairy. The (ghastly) Great-Aunt reminds me of both my mother and my grandmother. Well done to the Picts and Martyrs on outwitting her!

The Romance of Cape Mountain Passes by Graham Ross. Civil engineer's account of passes in the former Cape Province. Fascinating when you either used them or are about to use them within days.

Waking the Giant by Bill McGuire. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Causes and consequences of climate change in general and the present global warming in particular.

Cheeses of South Africa by Kobus Mulder. What's not to like? Only the difficulty of getting hold of some of the subject matter. And that one of the shops mentioned (at least) is already defunct.

Dessert Wine in South Africa by André P. Brink. An interesting picture of the state of sweet wine in this country, 40 years ago. But some delightful asides, such as that Pliny knew a sweet wine in Rome that could be ignited with a flame, and so was at least 20% alcohol. Made without knowledge of distillation, so unfortified!

Exploring the earth and the cosmos by Isaac Asimov. Even his non-fiction has been hit hard by the suck fairy.

No one's died laughing by Pieter-Dirk Uys. Fragments of his early career, including the arrival of Evita Bezuidenhout (the local answer to Dame Edna Everage).

Bluff your way in the Classics by Ross Leckie. Short, sweet and funny. What it says on the tin.

Coins: questions and answers by Clifford Mishler. But only about U.S., Canadian and Mexican coins, and none too many of the latter two.

The Huguenot Heritage by Lynne Bryer and François Theron. Between about 1680 and 1720 some 67 French Huguenot families made their homes at the Cape. Most of their names are still here, if somewhat knocked-about by time (for example, I didn't know that the good Afrikaans surname Bruwer was originally Bruyère). @MrsLee might be interested to know that Olifantshoek, ringed with snow-capped mountains in winter, turned into Le Coin Français when the Huguenots moved in, and is now Franschhoek (same thing in Dutch), one of the most expensive tourist-trap areas in South Africa.

Screw business as usual by Richard Branson. It would be great if it were to happen.

The southern tip of Africa by Stephan Wolfart. Eco-tourist's guide to the Agulhas plain, from De Hoop in the east to Hermanus in the west.

>244 hfglen: Some interesting titles there. The Huguenot Heritage caught my eye. There were many Huguenots settled in Ireland. In fact, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu whom I may have mentioned on more than one occasion, was of Huguenot descent.

That's a good bit of reading! The "Olifant" part I get, but what does the "shoek" stand for?

>246 MrsLee: In dutch, the s is what glues the Olifant and hoek together. So the second part of the word is hoek, which literally means corner, but could mean something like area, quarter, region in this context. I imagine it's the same in south-africa...

>247 zjakkelien: Thank you, Jakkelien! Bearing in mind that the shift to Le Coin Français took place in 1689 or 1690, the Powers That Were still spoke recognizable Dutch. As the place is right at the head of the valley and the Huguenots chose the word "coin" rather than "quartier" in their name for it, I'd go with the literal and obvious corner. Very soon I'll start a Trip Report thread which will have a picture of the valley in the appropriate place.

>245 pgmcc: Pete, the important thing they did here was to teach the locals how to make decent wine and brandy (very important for storytelling)! And to this day, the Franschhoek valley is home to some of our most expensive prizewinning wines, and most of the estates that make MCC (Méthode Cap Classique, indistinguishable from Champagne except by the origin label).

>248 hfglen: Ah, interesting, so it is really called hoek on purpose!

> Hear! Hear! with regards to the essential ingredients for storytelling. ;-)

That's a lot of reading! It must have been a very good holiday!

I love The picts and the martyrs and agree that it is immune to the suck fairy. In fact, I enjoy it more as an adult than I did as a child.

>244 hfglen: , I am charmed by the factoid extracted from Dessert Wine in South Africa.

>248 hfglen: I am of Huguenot lines. My ancestors settled in New Rochelle, New York, then some moved up to Canada to stay British. By then their name had changed from de Sicard to Secord. Are there any names of that sort in the area you write of? And there is a village near my town, here, named Oliphant.

>253 nhlsecord: Fascinating. I can think of at least 3 possible answers to your question, so here goes.

1. I suspect that because Dutch surnames may be two or three words long (such as Van der Merwe, for one very common example) the 2-part French names were less likely to lose a bit, and I can't think of any that did.
2. However, French surnames did get mauled, often into less than obvious forms. So we get Le Clerq morphing into De Klerk (which you may recognize from 20 years ago), Bruyère into Bruwer, Des Prés into Du Preez, Taillard into Taljaard and others as well. But each of these has the same number of words in the original and modified forms.
3. Place names: There weren't enough Huguenots ate the Cape to support more than one settlement, but just look at the names of the surrounding farms! Here's a list of estates from the 2013 edition of John Platter's South African Wines, reading from near Paarl up the valley towards Franschhoek: Val de Vie, Plaisir de Merle, Allée Bleue, L'Ormarins, La Chataigne, La Motte, La Vigne, Grande Provence, Dieu Donné, La Bri, La Bourgogne, Bo la Motte (truly bilingual, this one; "bo" being Dutch for "above") and, right at the head of the valley, Haute Cabrière. Oh, and the first Huguenot pastor (Père Simond, who left no descendants here) is commemorated in the hamlet of Simondium, founded in the mid-19th century.

Nice names, very descriptive - somehow they make me hungry and thirsty ;) Allee Bleue (sorry about the missing accents) sounds like a good place for a story or for the character's name. Say Allee Bleue lived in La Motte in the Grande Provence, mulling over the wine list ...

ETA di Sicar got changed in several ways: Secord, Secor are 2. Likely there are a lot more. When you think of all the different people, schooled or not, and all the different languages of the people coming to this continent in the 17- and 1800's who had little education and less ear for languages and accents who were writing things down or speaking only from memory, it isn't surprising so much got changed. But it sure can be interesting.

Great idea for a story, especially as La Motte and Grande Provence both have swanky restaurants. But it might just occur to our hero that halfway up the mountain behind him, at Haute Cabrière, they (in real live the owner, who rejoices in the imposing name of Achim von Arnim) do the trick of decapitating a champagne (in real life his own 4-star MCC) bottle with a sword. At their own expensive restaurant.

What a wonderful mix of sounds and images and history these names are - makes life interesting in the most surprising ways!

Revolution in Time by David S. Landes. History of clocks and clockmaking. Dry, dry, dry, and assuming a degree of expert knowledge for full appreciation.

Codex Born by Jim C. Hines. I like the idea of magic being found in books; it often is in RL. I like the idea of a dryad as a companion, and would happily plant a tree for that purpose. But do we really need all the gratuitous violence that is the greater part of this book. DNF, but quit "only" 40 pages from the end. May well not look this author out again, while admitting his creativity and writing ability.

Hot sun, cool shadow by Angela Murrills. It would be great to speak French, or better Occitan, and visit the Languedoc as she did. But I find it hard to believe that one would get anywhere with English, Afrikaans and German with a smattering of holiday Portuguese. Looking forward to trying the recipes, though.

The Gunpowder Plot by Antonia Fraser. The author's name remains a guarantee of high-quality history, well written. An appropriate and gruesome read for this time of year.

The Dragon and the Unicorn by A.A. Attanasio. Library book. Eventually one tires of the thought that, based on Humpty Dumpty's assertion in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (that words will take on unusual meanings if they are paid extra), this book must have cost the author a fortune in wages to misused words. Yes, the writing is often lyrical, and the story is an interesting variant on the Arthurian canon, and the magic is interesting. But in this case I'm quite pleased that Durban libraries rarely get more than a third of any series. I'll not be looking for any sequels.

Shakespeare's Local by Pete Brown. So now fact is blessed relaxation after exhausting fiction? Yes, this is. There has been a pub on the site of the George in Borough High Street, Southwark (London), since the 14th century. The name has been somewhat unstable, and the pub burned down in 1670 and 1676, but was rebuilt after each fire. And today you can still enjoy a meal and a pint in the 1677 rebuild, or at least that part which survives (rather less than half the original inn), just as generations have done before us. And these generations include some amazing people. Dickens certainly ate and drank there. Shakespeare probably did; the Globe was just up the road. And we all surely remember the lines

"Bifel that in that sesoun on a day
In Southwerk at the Tabard as i lay ..."

It turns out that Chaucer's Tabard (later the Talbot) shared a back wall with the George, and in particular the surviving part of the George, at least from 1386 (Chaucer's day) to 1875, when the Talbot was finally demolished. I find that fascinating. Pete brown writes like a man chatting to his mates in the pub, which makes for a pleasant read. This one is thoroughly recommended.

>260 hfglen: I'm going for a Christmas meal at the George in early December! I'll be sure to report back.

>261 Sakerfalcon: Oh! Lucky lucky you! I scored a lunch there in c. 1982, and remember it fondly. If you can find the book before then, it would be an excellent background read (if needed).

Best Seat in the House. A collection of Frank Johnson's sketches, originally published in the Telegraph and the Spectator from about 1972 until his death in 2006. Mostly about the goings-on in Westminster (the British Parliament is the House of the title), but also on a holiday home in the Languedoc and the commute between there and London, opera, ballet, Greats that We Have Known and a collection of stray columns. His writing is often hilarious (for example, Mrs Thatcher campaigning in a chocolate factory when still Leader of the Opposition), almost always humorous, and not rarely thought-provoking (for example, suppose the Stauffenberg plot to assassinate Hitler in July 1944 had worked? What then? -- and reasons to be grateful it didn't.) A moment of pure slapstick to be savoured: Johnson, aged 14, was a silent minor character in a performance of Norma at Covent Garden with La Callas in the title role. His part was as one of her offspring she was about to sacrifice but decided not to, and so he was required to stay close for her big aria. The first performance he misjudged matters somewhat, and reports that he spent most of the aria with her right nipple stuck in his left eye. Definitely worth reading!

The Lodger. The Montjoy family of Silver Street had a lodger in their house in Silver Street, near Cripplegate in London, for a year or 2 in about 1604 -- 1606. His name was William Shakespeare. The William Shakespeare. The book goes into every possible detail of life in this menage, and shows how the domestic dramas of the Montjoys and their extended family illuminated the plays he wrote at the time. Recommended.

Empress Dowager Cixi by Jung Chang. What a character! In 1852 the 16-year-old "woman of the Nala family" was selected as a sixth-class concubine for the Emperor of China. She had considerable intelligence and determination, which she used to rise to being Empress, and when the Emperor Xianfeng died, Dowager Empress. In this capacity she blindsided the Grand Council who acted as regents to the new child-emperor, and ran the country for 40 years, until her death in 1908. Whereupon the place erupted into chaos that it's still recovering from. In more detail, Ms Chang has used a mountain of archival material only recently released for study (in Beijing), and contemporary Western accounts, to paint a picture of Cixi totally at odds with the one we're used to. No, she wasn't a bloodthirsty dragon; she "only" compassed the demise of some two dozen people (even if one of them was her adoptive son), rather than the 70 million that Mao chalked up. No, she wasn't a narrow-minded traditionalist; half the book details the steps she took to thwart the mandarins and bring China into the 19th century (at all times having to hasten slowly because the person a French diplomat apostrophised as "the only \proper man in China" was the wrong sex to be listened to). The book is occasionally heavy but mostly the pages turn themselves easily; the overall effect is riveting. And the thesis chimes in well with the Cixi-ana on public display to this day in the Summer Palace. Item: she was given a car (I'm sure the guide said she bought it, which would seem to have been in character), but only when it was delivered did someone realize there was a protocol problem: everybody had to kneel (or, with her permission, stand) in the presence of the Empress Dowager, and neither position is exactly conducive to safe driving. So she never got to try it out, and today it is parked in a museum hall in the Summer Palace.

I see this is Ms Chang's third book, and the library has one of the others. I can't wait go grab it.

Nice review, Hugh. Sounds like a book I would like to read.

Thank you, Lee. I think you would enjoy it, and would certainly recommend it as background reading for any Dragoneer planning to visit or recently returned from China. (wishhh ...)

>265 hfglen: that sounds fascinating - I don't know anything about Cixi, but I may have to correct that next year by the sound of it.

Empress Dowager Cixi just got added to my wish list! If I don't get it for Christmas, maybe I'll get it for my birthday in January!

>265 hfglen: I'd like to give a thumbs-up to your review of Empress Dowager Cixi, but I don't see it posted on the works page. So consider this a rudimentary thumb: hm. (Anybody know how to make a thumb out of ASCII characters?)

>270 Meredy: Review duly posted, as requested. Many thanks for the thumbs-up.

The Top Gear Story by Martin Roach. If you like the BBC TV show, you'll love this one. If you're not a petrolhead, you are more likely to be mystified that anybody would care. Either was, a well written account of a show watched by 350-million people worldwide. I enjoyed it.

I would love to compare Empress Dowager Cixi with Pearl Buck's Imperial Woman. I have read and re-read the second over the years.

That would be interesting! I shall have to see if the library has anything at all by Pearl Buck.

Excellent idea there >273 MerryMary: !

Dear Francesca by Mary Contini. Jawellnofine, to use a good Sarf Efricanism. Good on the family for escaping the poverty of southern Italy and making good in Edinburgh, but. Myself I wish neither to make nor eat any of the recipes, and the story in which they're embedded inspired me to three re-reads (ETA: of other books) halfway through, so almost a DNF. Nuff said.

Very happy holidays to all in the pub, and many thanks for the fellowship and kind comments. No cards this year; partly following MrsLee's excellent example, and partly because a long strike has effectively killed the South African Post Office.