RidgewayGirl Reads in Munich, Part Three

Time for a third thread! Still in Munich, and now is when it really comes alive with tables set out on every available outdoor surface near every restaurant, bar and cafe, packed with people enjoying the summer. I'm not sure why, but that old Katrina and the Waves song, Walking on Sunshine is getting a lot of radio play.

I plan to read ten books in ten categories, hoping to keep my categories proportional.

Currently Reading



About to Begin



Recently Acquired

Category One.

Short Stories



So this is a pretty picture of the Munich Altstadt with the Frauenkirche in the middle with the red roof and matching domed towers.

Look at that collection of beautiful buildings. So, short stories. Not a stretch at all!

1. Toronto Noir edited by Janine Armin
2. Love in Infant Monkeys by Lydia Millet
3. CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders
4. Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
5. Vintage Ford by Richard Ford
6. Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell

Category two.



Books set in England

The Englischer Garten is Munich's Central Park, cutting through the middle of town and full of Münchners enjoying the fresh air (sometimes naked) and probably a beer, since there are two beer gartens, including an enormous one at the Chinese Tower.

1. The Cuckoo's Calling by J.K. Rowling Robert Galbraith
2. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
3. A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr
4. Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding
5. Much Obliged, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
6. Frederica by Georgette Heyer
7. The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer

Category three.



This is the Neue Justizpalast, which is right behind the old one.

MysteryCAT and Other Crime Novels

The MysteryCAT is a good way to focus my crime novel reading, but there'll be plenty of other mysteries read.

1. The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by Alexander McCall Smith -- January -- Detective fiction
2. The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon by Alexander McCall Smith -- February -- Mystery Series
3. Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives edited by Sarah Weinman -- May -- Classic and Golden Age
4. Kind of Cruel by Sophie Hannah
5. The Carrier by Sophie Hannah -- June -- Police Procedurals
6. Walking the Perfect Square by Reed Farrel Coleman
7. Blind Eye by Stuart MacBride -- July -- Noir
8. Bitter River by Julia Keller
9. Nineteen Seventy-Seven by David Peace -- July and August -- Noir and British Mysteries

Category four.



Germany

This is Konigsplatz. Although it was built during the first half of the nineteenth century, it's pretty much an architectural fantasy for Nazis and they loved this place. It is beautiful, although not particularly warm or quirky.

I brought almost every book I had tagged "Germany" with me and most of them are about Nazis. I need to work on reading in German and this is the ideal place -- with plenty to choose from readily available. It seems that Germans share my love for crime novels and I saw several that looked interesting last time I was in a bookstore. I'm also interested in post-war German fiction, so this is my general Germany/German category.

1. Schneewittchen Muss Sterben by Nele Neuhaus (English title: Snow White Must Die)
2. The Girl on the Stairs by Louise Welsh
3. Das Muschelessen by Birgit Vanderbeke (English title: The Mussel Feast)
4. Die schönsten Jahre: Vom Glück und Unglück der Liebe by Elke Heidenreich
5. Springtime for Germany by Ben Donald
6. The Post Office Girl by Stefan Zweig (a bit of a cheat - Zweig is Austrian)

Category five.



Books of the Moment

Not very far into September everyone starts wearing Trachten; traditional clothes like lederhosen and dirndls and talking about Oktoberfest. It's three weeks of fun and difficulty getting on the train home, if one's U-Bahn line happens to swing by the Theresienwiese, as mine just happens to do. And, just as suddenly, it's over and life returns to normal.

So this is my category for those "books of the moment". You know, the ones everyone is suddenly talking about, whether as a possible candidate for this award or that, or a bunch of people on LT are talking about. Those books.

1. Dare Me by Megan Abbott
2. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
3. Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh
4. Night Film by Marisha Pessl
5. Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
6. To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris
7. The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes
8. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
9. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
10.Orfeo by Richard Powers

Category six.



RandomCAT

The Lenbachhaus is my favorite museum in Munich. One of the paintings is Tiger by Franz Marc.

Since I've rearranged my categories to allow for more from the CATs, I'm going to give this one to the RandomCAT. It will be fun to go through my shelves for books that might fit each month and there is always the possibility of a trip to one of the English language bookstores if I don't have anything on hand.

1. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer (February -- Children's books)
2. Gillespie & I by Jane Harris (March -- Birds of spring)
3. Nine Horses: Poems by Billy Collins (April -- Poetry)
4. The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley (June -- Roses)
5. Between, Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson (June -- Roses)
6. The Secret Place by Tana French (August -- Back to School)

Category seven.



Non-Fiction

The Deutsches Museum is a mammoth building occupying its own little island in the Isar river. My favorite part is where they have all the old aircraft and boats and trains. It's something to see them close up and life size.

1. Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink
2. July 1914: Countdown to War by Sean McMeekin
3. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
4. Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder
5. Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
6. Moranthology by Caitlin Moran
7. The Witness Wore Red by Rebecca Musser

Category eight.



Books that catch my eye

This is the Residenz. It's pretty spiffy and the gardens 'round back are also not bad.

1. Sorry by Gail Jones
2. The Passage by Justin Cronin
3. Never Go Back by Lee Child
4. The Maid's Version by Daniel Woodrell
5. 1914: A Novel by Jean Echenoz
6. The One and Only by Emily Griffin
7. Faith by Jennifer Haigh
8. Save the Date by Jen Doll
9. The Unwitting by Ellen Feldman

Category nine.



Books that have been on my shelves for at least a year

This is the Alte Pinakothek, where Munich keeps all of its oldest paintings. The Neue Pinakothek and the Pinakothek der Moderne complete the set.

1. In the Forest by Edna O'Brien (acquired May, 2010)
2. The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen (purchased June, 2010)
3. The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood (Santathing 2012)
4. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (reread)
5. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates (Entered into LT October 2009)
6. The Magicians by Lev Grossman (Mooched April 2011)
7. The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco (Received July 2012)

Category ten.



GeoCAT

Munich's Hauptbahnhof is a uniquely ugly building. I refuse to post a picture of the exterior, unless I get mad at Munich and want to make it feel self-conscious.

This will be my GeoCAT category. I'm not sure I'll manage to participate every month, given how unreliable I am in general, but this is the CAT that will most stretch my reading and I'm excited about it. It will also be used for book read for the quarterly Reading Globally topics.

1. The Imposter Bride by Nancy Richler (January GeoCAT)
2. A Blade of Grass by Lewis DeSoto (Reading Globally First Quarter Theme)
3. The Dead Women of Juarez by Sam Hawken (March GeoCAT)
4. Falling Off the Map: Some Lonely Places of the World by Pico Iyer (Reading Globally Second Quarter Theme)
5. Trawler: A Journey Through the North Atlantic by Redmond O'Hanlon (June GeoCAT)
6. History of the Rain by Niall Williams (August GeoCAT)

Possibilities:
Jan: Triangle by Katharine Weber
Oonagh by Mary Tilberg
The Imposter Bride by Nancy Richler
Canada by Richard Ford
Harbor by Lorraine Adams
Feb: A Grave in Gaza by Matt Beynon Rees
Ten Thousand Lovers by Edeet Ravel
Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
March: A House for Mr Biswas by VS Naipaul
Dead Women of Juarez by Sam Hawken
April: The Fifth Servant by Kenneth Wishnia
The Bronze Horseman by Paulina Simons
The Haunted Land by Tina Rosenberg
Prague: A Novel by Arthur Phillips
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy
Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler and many more…
May: No Way Down by Graham Bowley
Sept: Taroko Gorge by Jacob Ritari
Inspector Imanishi Investigates by Seicho Matsumoto
Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino
Dispatches by Michael Herr
Oct: The Seamstress by Frances de Pontes Peebles
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano
Nov: The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Dec: The Boy Next Door by Irene Sabatini
The Good Doctor by Damon Galgut
A Blade of Grass by Lewis DeSoto

After the San Francisco company Clay had been working for folds, he finds a job as the night clerk at Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, an odd shop with shelves reaching up three stories, crammed with books unlisted in the Library of Congress records. There are few customers and the proprietor has odd rules. Clay is curious, and his curiosity sends him on an odd adventure, assisted by his friends, and involving books, typography, Google, role-playing games and fantasy novels.

Robin Sloan has created a sort of Umberto Eco-lite world of conspiracies and arcane knowledge, but lacking the complexity and sense of danger. It's a fun, friendly fantasy of an ordinary guy who is able to accomplish extraordinary things because of his nerdy past and quirky friends.

There's no character development in this book, which is besides the point, this being an adventure tale, but Sloan's characters were all pretty much the same, just with different skills and quirks; each was self-contained, willing to help out Clay at a moment's notice, then equally ready to fade away when they weren't needed for the plot. Even the villain of the story isn't dangerous and is amenable to not spoiling the forward motion of the story. This would be an excellent book to read for a pleasant diversion, a sort of adult Rick Riordan book, without the supernatural. After The Magicians though, which made the point that adventures are deadly, rather than fun, and actual Umberto Eco tales, this one fell flat for me.

Happy new thread! I like that Katrina and the Waves song. :)

I do, too, Christina. I'm wondering if I will still like it at the end of the summer, however.

Haha, fair point.

Still starred!
I was very interested by the phrase "...odd shop with shelves reaching up three stories, crammed with books..." but I do need some character development. I'll put this one on the if-I-come-across-it list.

Happy New Thread Day! Hope you fill it with wonderful books.

Happy new thread, Kay. Your comment on tables being brought out reminded me of when I went dover to visit my husband while he was there for a couple of months on business years ago. He was in Frankfurt and I went over just before Jul 4th and I've never forgotten that the fireworks didn't start until around 10:30 because it stays light out so late. We had some great times sitting outside to eat. Hope you take full advantage of the summer.

I appreciate your comments on the 24-hour bookstore. This was chosen for the Reading Across Rhode Island book for 2014 and I wasn't sure whether I wanted to read it or not, but I think I might even without the character development. There's something about a book about books that pulls me right in.

Happy new thread! Your categories do look very balanced, which is impressive.

Betty, I'm a sucker for books set in bookstores. A lot of people loved this one and you might too. It's a quick and fun read, so it won't feel like a slog.

RP, they were looking lopsided, so I changed an empty category and rearranged the books accordingly. Now to hope they stay even.

Happy new thread! I intend to read Mr. Penumbra at some point. I think I'll enjoy it as long as my expectations are realistic.

Try as I might, I always seem to have one or two categories that run ahead of the others. This year it's my historical fiction category. Somewhere along the way I will try to do a catch up month and work on getting all my categories even(ish) again.

It took me several months to get around to reading Life After Life, depite buying my copy right after it was published and despite always liking Kate Atkinson's writing. She writes with a subtle sense of humor and has the ability to spin complex plots that seem to be a mess until she pulls it all together in a way that brings everything together brilliantly. But this one looked a bit like work and maybe even boring. How can a life told and then retold over and over not be repetitive and a little boring?

I'm not sure even now how she managed to pull it all off, but Life After Life is the opposite of boring, including as it does Hitler, the Spanish Influenza and the most vivid descriptions of life in London during the Blitz that I have ever read. The next time she writes a book with an odd and unlikely plot, I promise to just trust Atkinson to know what she's doing.

Wow! That's a ringing endorsement if I ever heard one!

I kept running into Jhumpa Lahiri's books here on LibraryThing. With the release of The Lowland, there have been discussions about whether she's a better short story writer than a novelist and I would like to have an opinion! So the only reasonable thing to do was to read something by her and Unaccustomed Earth was close at hand.

Set primarily in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Unaccustomed Earth is a collection of short stories dealing primarily with the experience of being a second generation Indian immigrant, with parents who still prefer traditional foods, are still deeply rooted in Indian culture and who spend their vacations back in India. The children float between the world of their parents and American culture, which adds a layer of complexity to the ordinary struggle to become an adult and to find a purpose and a place in the world.

Lahiri writes with subtlety and understanding. I especially liked the series of stories alternating between two characters who are tangentially connected by the friendship between their parents.

As to whether Lahiri is a better short story writer or novelist; I'm still unqualified to have an opinion. Her short stories are awfully good, however.

>26 RidgewayGirl: - Now that I have read all four of her books, I would give the edge to her short stories. I enjoyed her novels, but felt more invested and interested in her short stories.

Nice tribute to Maya Angelou.

Great quote from Maya Angelou.

I've read two of Lahiri's novels and liked them very much. I'll have to seek out Unaccustomed Earth, especially since my short-story category needs filling up.

Hi Kay:

Of course I had a feeling you would love Life After Life. I have to give it to her, the book was different but excellent!

Nice tribute to Maya Angelou as well. I remember so clearly reading I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in 8th grade.

Some parents weren't crazy about us reading the book, but I remember my mother saying something along the lines of "you can't always avoid the uncomfortable things in life" which is so true. Dr. Angelou will be missed, I loved that deep voice of hers!

That's a lovely quote by Maya Angelou. She was such a wise person. I completely agree with you about Life After Life. Those scenes during the Blitz made me feel like I was living it myself!

Happy new thread! Angelou was truly amazing. I've only read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings but have heard her speak many times - such a wonderful woman.

Stacy, that seems to be the consensus. Which leaves me torn between reading The Lowland next, or another book of her short stories. I'll let chance decide for me.

Paulina, I'm enjoying having a category for short stories - I certainly have enough books on my TBR to fill it.

Lisa, it's been years (probably decades) since I last read anything by Maya Angelou. I'll have to fix that.

Shannon, while the Blitz scenes were the most powerful, I loved the entire book.

Eva, she had a great voice, didn't she?

A few people, who normally read Very Serious Books, have mentioned that they find Georgette Heyer's romantic novels set in England during the Regency, to be the perfect escapist read. Then my library added several of her novels to their ebook collection and it seemed a good time to give her novels a try.

I have to agree with the consensus. The two I read, Frederica and The Grand Sophy, were hugely entertaining, combining a light, good-natured plot with rigorous historical research and a wonderful vocabulary. Yes, there is a romance, but it's secondary to, well, the secondary characters, who are a lot of fun.

The first novel, Frederica, concerned a family of limited means, lead by Frederica, who come to London to give the younger sister a proper coming out in the hopes of her making a comfortable marriage. To effect this, Frederica imposes on a sort-of relative, Alverstoke, a Marquess who is easily bored. He finds himself drawn into Frederica's family, mostly due to the exploits of the two youngest boys and their Baluchistan Hound, causing him to become less bored. This was a charming story, in the best sense of the word, without becoming cloying or twee. My one complaint about the story was that it was continually pointed out that Frederica gave no indication of showing any interest in Alverstoke, and this was shown as the reason he fell for her.

This was not the flaw of The Grand Sophy, which features as strong a female character as can be found in any novel. Sophy, raised in an assortment of diplomatic and military environments in Europe by a negligent father, is sent to London in order to find a husband. Sophy, who has her own money and her own ideas, simply ignores the rules and expectations put on young women. She quickly comes into conflict with the oldest son of the house, who disapproves. What made this book fun was that it concerned a meeting of equals. There was one egregious example of anti-semitism in this book, with the character of a Jewish money-lender being so over the top as to cause Charles Dickens discomfort.

Yay, another Heyer convert! The Grand Sophy is my favorite. And Charles Dickens has no room to talk after Fagin, in my opinion!

I also really enjoyed reading Life After Life and have to admit that it is the first Kate Atikinson book I have ever read, so I didn't really have any expectations.

Vintage Ford is a hodge-podge collection of Richard Ford's writing, consisting of mostly short stories, from both early and later collections, a magazine article about his mother and an excerpt from his most famous novel, Independence Day. I'd never read anything by Ford, and this seemed a good way to see if I would like his writing.

The first few short stories, written early in his career, were very much in the Raymond Carver-Hemingway vein; manly men, or boys trying to become men, in difficult circumstances. They were well-written and the settings were vividly drawn. It's the later stuff that shines, though. The later stories holding more subtlety and depth than I had expected, with each character, even those given only a few sentences in passing, fully real and complex.

The best part of this collection was the article that Ford wrote about his mother. It's the story of an understated love between mother and son that was no less strong for the space it gave both of them to live their lives. Ford's language here is understated and perfect.

Vintage Ford was a good introduction to an author I should already have some familiarity with. I'm inclined to read his later stuff first, with Canada, Women with Men and Independence Day at the top of my list.

It had seemed, at the time, a good idea, this holiday in Pyongyang.

Falling Off the Map: Some Lonely Places of the World is a series of essays about the parts of the world isolated by politics, geography or culture. Pico Iyer spends time in the places you'd expect, like North Korea, Cuba, Bhutan and Iceland, but also in Argentina and Australia. Iyer comes across as a more thoughtful, less humorous Jon Ronson, able to insert himself into interesting situations, offbeat locations, and to get people to speak openly with him, without becoming the focus of his tales. Even the one in which police officers had a great deal of difficulty determining whether "Pico" or "Iyer" was his first name revolves around life in a Cuban village.

Back in the Gran Hotel, the receptionist greeted me in Hindi, a cockroach was waiting to welcome me in my bedroom, and a sudden thunderstorm turned the hotel corridors into rivers, a few dead leaves floating by my door. In the beautiful dining room, where La Madama had once held masked balls and taught le tout Asuncion to polka, four men in ponchos were putting on a show of Paraguayan culture, featuring songs from Mexico, songs from Cuba, and songs from Peru.

Iyer spends time in each of the places featured, returning to some years after his first visits. He falls into the daily rhythms of the places he's staying in, becoming familiar with Saturday markets or the movies being shown at the local cinema. The book itself is a bit dated, having been written twenty years ago but, for me at least, it has lost little of its appeal, the countries that he wrote about remain as exotic and unknown as they were when he wrote the essays.

A sad note--Rik Mayall died today. Not an author, but a brilliant and odd comic actor.

http://flavorwire.com/461605/the-unique-anarchic-genius-of-rik-mayall



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/comedy/comedy-news/10887340/Rik-Mayall-his-10...

I posted the BBC obit on my thread. Such horrible and unexpected news.

1914: A Novel by French author Jean Echenoz begins, predictably enough, in August of 1914, as Anthime, out to enjoy the day with his bicycle and a book, hears the tocsin being rung from every church bell in the countryside. He rides home to find that war has broken out and so he enlists although, unlike the others, he doesn't think that it will all be over in a few weeks.

There is nothing here that anyone with a passing knowledge of the First World War will be surprised by, but the vividness with which Echenoz describes the life of a soldier in the trenches certainly drives the futility and inhumanity of this war home. And that seems to be the point of this slender novel in which men die or are injured in all the expected ways and those who survive are not always able to pick their lives up where they had left them when they marched off, full of patriotism.

You know Kay, I've never been a big history buff, but my husband was in Germany for a 2 month tour of duty in the late 90s and I went over to visit for a couple of weeks. We went down into France over a weekend and went to Verdun and some cemeteries and museums, etc. And I was amazed to see it all. A town totally destroyed, just signs in the ground to tell you where things used to be. Pete had a great time while he was there, going off each weekend he was off duty to a different battlefield or museum, etc. and your last sentence is still true today - how sad.

>41 RidgewayGirl: I think I'm going to try and get hold of that one. It sounds good, and I've built up an appetite for WW1 books. Ugh, that sounds so wrong! What I mean is, since I realised how little I know about WW1, I've been very keen to read, and learn, more.

Betty, there is something about standing somewhere where history happened.

Paws, come August it will be a hundred years since that war began. It seems a good time to try and understand a bit about it. I've been drawn to books about WWI this year, too.

>44 RidgewayGirl: Yeah, a couple of years ago I realised the centenary was coming up, so I picked up a few books to get acquainted with the topic and it made me want to read even more.

For those of you interested in doing some reading on WWI, the Reading Through Time group has selected WWI as the theme for August. Here is a link to the thread, if you'd like to join in or just see what others are planning to read.

>46 Roro8: Thank you! Great source of reading-inspiration.

Paws, you are much more historically aware than I am! I only realized it was the centenary of WWI when all these news articles appeared to point that out to me. Still, I've read a few books on the topic this year and hope to read a few more.

Roro8, thanks for pointing that out! A good reason to find another book set during WWI for August. I wonder if I'm up for August, 1914?

>48 RidgewayGirl: Bah! I only knew because I was watching something about the "in between years" on telly a few years and my mind went "Oh, my! Has it been nearly a hundred years already? Oh, my goodness, it's been a hundred years!" Not so much historically aware...

The Carrier continues Sophie Hannah's series of crime novels loosely centered around a small group of detectives working in the fictional Culver Valley in England. In this one, a businesswoman named Gaby discovers that a man she had had a sort of relationship with has confessed to the murder of his disabled wife. Gaby is certain that he could not have killed her, which causes her to rush back to save him. Returning to a group of old friends, she finds things are quite a bit more complicated than she'd assumed, but her faith in the man's innocence is undaunted. Meanwhile, the detective leading the investigation, Simon Waterhouse, is dealing simultaneously with his conviction that something is wrong with the case as well as the machinations of his somewhat unhinged boss.

Hannah writes as though Ruth Rendell and Barbara Vine had combined their novels (yes, I do know they are the same author), with Vine's odd and compelling psychological suspense forming the heart of each novel, but with Rendell's solid and intuitive police work going on simultaneously. Of course, Wexford and Burden would be shocked and dismayed by the sheer unprofessionalism of Waterhouse and his colleagues, but their determination and interest in motivations are similar.

Hannah's plots are growing more convoluted, and I'm not sure that she entirely sold me on the resolution to this one. But her books are always fun to read and to puzzle out and I'm happy that she's allowing both Zailer and Waterhouse, her lead detectives, to become more rounded as characters and to begin to give the reader the background needed to understand why Waterhouse is such a repressed and angry individual. Secondary characters were also fleshed out, which makes the crime-solving team much more enjoyable to spend time with. I really enjoy this series, in part because Hannah is willing to create central characters who border on the unlikeable, although they are growing on me.

I picked up The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley knowing nothing about it except that it has a pretty cover. I thought I was getting a Kate Morton-style story, but it was something entirely different.

After Eva's sister dies, she brings her ashes back to Trelowarth House, in Wales, where they had spent their summers as children. Soon, odd things begin happening; Eva hears voices in empty rooms and then she keeps finding herself in the same place, but 300 years in the past, when Trelowarth House was owned by an infamous group of smugglers.

So, I was surprised to find a time-travel romance but, hey, smugglers are almost as fun as pirates and this story came complete with hidden caves and unscrupulous customs officers. And the writing was good enough not to get in the way of the story. In the end, however, the flaws outweighed the fun of this novel. I'll set aside the idea of going back to the eighteenth century to find a boyfriend, but what ended up bothering me about this story was the protagonist's passiveness, and the careless way the author explained time travel. Eva takes no real action until the final chapters of the book and is happy to pretend to be mute for much of the story.

How the author handled the questions of both how time travel worked and how the inhabitants of the past handled having someone show up claiming to be from the future irked me. If you were involved in dangerous political matters involving succession that could well result in you and your family's imprisonment or execution and someone showed up from the future, would you ask them who the next king was? Would you be curious about the future, or would you simply decided that it was better not to know, thanks anyway? Would everyone around you go along with this? And even though dismissing witchcraft out of hand is easier nowadays, would mental illness occur to you as a more likely explanation for a stranger claiming to be from the future than that she really was from the future? Time travel is such an interesting idea and the book never explores any of that, with everyone being bizarrely uninterested in the topic.

So while I can't help but like this book for having smugglers in it, in the end it missed the mark, lacking both adventure and characters with a healthy sense of curiosity.

>51 RidgewayGirl: There are too few books about smugglers. Try as I might, I can only remember reading Rosen på Tistelön, a Swedish adventure classic (which is very good, but still). I wonder why that is? For time-bending value though, your latest Atkinson read seems much more appealing than The rose garden.

Have you read The House on the Strand? It's set in Cornwall and it involves time travel back to the medieval period. I think the explanation is probably more plausible.

Anders, there are clearly too few books about smugglers. According to The Rose Garden, they are all hot proto-feminists with a strong moral code. Slightly more forward-thinking than the average guy today, which is pretty good considering it was 1715. Which is my big beef with much of historical fiction -- when the characters behave like modern people, only in fancy dress. I'm waiting for the historical novel to come out about Jacobeans who are vegan libertarians, or pioneers who are wiccan animal-rights activists.

Carrie, that looks interesting. And I have yet to read anything by Daphne du Maurier.

It might be a good place for you to start with her. It's not as wel-known as Rebecca so perhaps less chance of being disappointed by unmet expectations. I haven't yet read Jamaica Inn (but I've seen the movie), and I think it involves smuggling.

Good Morning:

Just weighing in on Daphne du Maurier, I've been reading My Cousin Rachel which is very good. I haven't finished it because I keep getting distracted by other books. Now I'm off to see if I read Jamaica Inn, I honestly don't remember.

Ergh, I wasn't a fan of Jamaica Inn (but really liked Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel, and Frenchman's Creek!). But I definitely support more books about smugglers!

Also, nice review of The Rose Garden, RG. I keep wanting to love Susanna Kearsley -- she seems like one of those authors I should love! -- but none of her books have really grabbed me so far.

Kearsley's older stuff is better than her new stuff (now she seems to recycle the same story). If you like that genre, Barbara Erskine may be a better bet (can't remember any smugglers in her stories though!).

I read Jamaica Inn years ago. I don't remember the plot of it nearly as much as I do Rebecca; however, I do believe it did involve smuggling.

Carrie, I am constantly having my attention drawn to the gaps in my reading. You'd think I'd have read something by Daphne du Maurier by now!

See, Lisa, you've read more than one book by her. Maybe I'll find one of hers when I'm back in SC this summer.

Christina, the book is really pretty. But nothing about the cover or title says, "time travel romance" at all. In fact, except that a secondary character grew roses, the title had nothing to do with the book. Of course, Hot Smugglers would probably not have sold very well.

Danielle, since I was so displeased by the bringing time travel into the story without exploring the idea in any depth, I suspect that I'm not the audience for this kind of book. I remind my SO constantly when we watch movies about the willing suspension of disbelief and I was unable to give that to this book.

Hi, Lori. A band of smugglers is a memorable thing.

So, I had read that for this month's RandomCAT. I read a second book for the same challenge and this one was much better. Joshilyn Jackson threw a bunch of unlikely things into Between, Georgia and I believed every word.

I first read Rebecca in high school and fell in love with du Maurier then and there. I've recently read The House on the Strand and it's made me want to read more of her work - and sooner rather than later! Hope she makes it to the top of your list in the near future!

Between, Georgia tells the story of Nonny, from her birth in Bernice Frett's entryway, through her quiet upbringing by two spinster sisters, one deaf and the other subject to crippling bouts of anxiety, and her attempts to divorce her feckless husband, who is still trying to get his band some traction. Nonny is also the center of unrest in her small town. Born to a frightened, teenage member of the shiftless and criminal Crabtree family, but raised by the prominent Baptist Frett family, Nonny's existence heightens the tension between them.

Joshilyn Jackson's books are marketed as pleasant women's fiction, but to consider them as such is to ignore her biting wit and deep understanding of what it means to be a Southerner. These are strong women, molded into steel, but with that thin coating of perfect manners to hide the sting of their words. There are people getting by on cheap booze and disability checks who have as much kindness in them as the woman who is raising her granddaughter to be quietly terrified that her friend who goes to the Methodist church is going to hell. All that in a charmingly-told story of eccentric people in a small town. Jackson writes with both love and a clear eye.

I'm another who have yet to read du Maurier. But one of these years...

I have 2 books by Joshilyn Jackson in my TBR pile. guess I might need to move one of them up a little higher.

I discovered Caitlin Moran in 2000, the year I moved to England for the first time and went a little wild with all the newspapers. She recently wrote a funny book about feminism and that was enough to get a collection of her newspaper columns published as Moranthology. It's a solid collection of her writing, although I thought it was a mistake to leave out her review of Wife Swap, and there were a few longer pieces included only because the person she interviewed and wrote about was really, really famous.

Caitlin Moran is very funny. She's also opinionated, a feminist, a geek and really very funny. She writes about what she calls "the bangingness of Sherlock," her unconventional childhood as a one of eight children being home schooled by "the only hippies in Wolverhampton," and binge drinking. She gets Keith Richards to talk like a pirate and visits the set of Doctor Who.

In this feature, the BBC let me go around the Doctor Who studios, where I found the Face of Boe in a warehouse and sat on him. For two years, a picture of me doing so was the screensaver on my laptop. There is no doubt in my mind that, when I'm dying, and my life flashes before my eyes, that particular picture will get a longer slot than many other pivotal life moments, with a caption saying "WINNING!" flashing over it.

She also speaks seriously about the importance of libraries and what it was like being raised on benefits. These columns make for every bit as compelling reading as her account of her teenage job deliberation, which had her debating being a check-out clerk at the grocery story, a prostitute or a writer. I'm glad she chose writer, although she would have made being stuck working the late shift at the supermarket a lot of fun.

Yaaay Caitlin Moran! I loved that collection and now want her to publish another one!

You can read her current articles here:

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/profile/Caitlin-Moran

I'm glad to find another fan!

Count me among her fans too! I listened to her excellent narration of How To Be A Woman last year and became and instant and rabid fan. I'm trying to save Moranthology for a reading slump or something, just so I have another book of hers to look forward to.

Laura, you won't be disappointed. I have How to be a Woman set aside for a long plane trip in a few weeks.

Walking the Perfect Square is the first installment in Reed Farrel Coleman's crime series about Moe Prager, an ex-cop who is asked to look into the disappearance of college student who disappeared one night after he left a Manhattan bar. Set in the mid-seventies, this is a classic hard-boiled, with the hard-nosed but tender Prager going up against various shady characters who are out to either intimidate him or to use him for purposes of their own.

What fun to read a novel that both respects the rules of the genre, while keeping the story feeling fresh and interesting. Prager is an interesting character and I'll be looking for other books in the series.

Good grief, another BB!

I had the Moe Prager series on my wishlist for a long time and just within the last month I decided to take them off my wishlist. Looks like I had better put them back on again!

Judy, I picked up Walking the Perfect Square ages ago based on some list of good mystery novels. And then it sat there until I picked it up at random. I'm glad I did.

Rebecca Musser grew up as the daughter of a second wife in a polygamous marriage. Isolated in Salt Lake City, where they lived in a basement, rearranging sleeping arrangements whenever another baby is born, she grew up in quasi-hiding, never allowed to run around much outside for fear of the neighbors. The first wife was abusive toward Rebecca and her siblings and some of her own children joined in. Rebecca only felt free at the school run by Rulon Jeffs, the prophet of the FLDS, the prophet and leader of the polygamous mormon sect she belonged to, and in Short Creek, an area isolated between Arizona and Utah where polygamous groups live openly.

While she is naturally curious and questioning, she is also integrated into the sect and works hard to both "keep sweet" and avoid all contact with boys in general and Warren Jeffs, Rulon's son, in particular. When she turns eighteen, she is called into Rulon Jeffs' study to be told that it's time she marries. While she asks for more time, this is denied and she is quickly married to Rulon Jeffs, the prophet himself, as his nineteenth wife. Jeffs is elderly and while she has been taught to revere him, she does not enjoy her nights with him. He quickly marries many more women, but when he has a stroke, his son takes over the group. Quickly marrying off more and more girls to a small group of men, the younger men are declared apostates and sent away and the girls being married off become younger and younger. After being told she was to be remarried to Warren Jeffs, Musser runs away and struggles to build a life without an education or any usable life skills.

After Warren Jeffs is arrested, along with many of the men in his inner circle, Musser testifies against them, as well as helping law enforcement to understand the customs and beliefs of the FLDS.

Musser is an interesting person, leaving the sect and yet still being sympathetic to their beliefs and way of life. In The Witness Wore Red, she was careful in how she portrayed the members of the FLDS which, I think, made her into a somewhat opaque character in her own memoir. Since most of her family are still part of that world, I can see how she didn't want to burn any bridges, although the reactions of her family members to her testimony indicates that she may never be welcomed by any of them. Musser is a determined individual, and she had to be, to have the courage to run away, but it's also clear that she is lonely and doesn't entirely feel comfortable in the world outside of FLDS.

I'm not sure I learned anything new from this book, having previously read David Ebershoff's The Nineteenth Wife, Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven and having watched Big Love. Despite Musser's reticence, I felt a little voyeuristic while reading the parts of the book set in the world of the FLDS. It's so alien, and they clearly do not want outsiders to know what goes on. On the other hand, it's also clear that this is not a healthy way to live, with women reduced to a number and required to "keep sweet" and never indicate any opinion of their own and men focussed unduly on sexual matters. The lack of education for the children and the dishonest and sometimes criminal activities engaged in by the sect are also worrisome.

Interesting review of what sounds like a very interesting read!

We realized we had gone too far; the idea of a three-headed devil who banqueted with the leader of the Italian government was difficult to swallow.

The protagonist of Umberto Eco's novel, The Prague Cemetery is not a sympathetic character. His first words to the reader are in the form of an epic rant in which he disparages and reviles every single group he can think of; women, Jews, Catholics, Germans, the French, Jesuits, and Freemasons are among those singled out for his disgust. And Simonini never does a single thing to endear himself to the reader.

And that's my quibble with this outrageous, conspiracy-driven book. It's similar to Foucault's Pendulum, being full of arcane plots and secret societies, and to Baudolino with an opportunistic main character who deals in forgeries. But while Casaubon and Baudolino were engaging characters despite their flaws, Simonini is a guy who inspires only a mild distaste. With a complex plot that requires concentration and a good grasp of nineteenth century European history (among other things), I needed someone to hold on to through the cyclone of events and obscure references.

Simonini gets his professional start forging wills and titles for an unscrupulous lawyer, until that gentleman dies and leaves Simonini his business, in an unexpected will. Simonini is then asked to implicate his friends in an imaginary plot, which then lead to an assignment with Garibaldi's forces in the South of Italy and on to further work in Paris. Simonini is less a spy than someone who is able to enjoy the reputation of a spy and to convey that reputation into a steady income. But his masterpiece, one that takes much of his life to complete and use appropriately, involves an imaginary meeting of rabbis in the Jewish cemetery in Prague in which they agree on a series of protocols that will allow them to control the world.

The conspiracies that Simonini is involved in are fantastic. More than a few times I'd be reading along and think, "hey, that sounds a little like that scandal/affair/coup," only to realize that it was that scandal/affair/coup and that Eco has the entire event based on Simonini's forgeries and groups with devious intentions.

This is a book I struggled with in part because my grasp of the history of that time is shallow and unsteady. I'd like to reread this book in a few years, with a bit of advance reading under my belt. I suspect I will like it more with a second reading.

If I was to read just one of Eco's books, which one would you recommend?

Foucault's Pendulum is my favorite, and full of conspiracies involving the Knights Templar. I liked it a lot the first time I read it and loved it at the second reading, during which I spent a lot of time looking things up -- Eco gets going and he thinks everyone has an exhaustive grasp of history, philosophy and esoterica.

Eco gets going and he thinks everyone has an exhaustive grasp of history, philosophy and esoterica.
I do feel woefully ignorant while reading Foucault's Pendulum, which I still haven't finished yet. I wish I knew more about European history, but I'm learning lots at the moment, vacationing in Germany. Unfortunately, I've never been to Munich and won't get a chance to do so on this trip. Your Munich photos are lovely and make me wish I could see those places in person.

I listened to an audio book about the Jeffs cult last year--Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs, by Elissa Wall. It was fascinating. Wall also testified against Jeffs. From what I've read and heard, I think her break with the cult has been cleaner.

Joyce, Elissa Wall is often mentioned in Musser's book as the group is small and interbred enough that everyone is related to everyone else. Musser also testified, but she left earlier, mainly to avoid being married to Warren Jeffs.

And I'm sure Rebecca was mentioned in Wall's book too. I think they knew each other quite well. Both are on YouTube.

Redmond O'Hanlon is used to hiking through rain forests in the Congo, Borneo or Brazil, but when personal circumstances require him to stay closer to home, he comes up with the idea of writing about the wild places in Britain. Most people would decide that meant hiking in the Pennines or walking the length of the Ridgeway, but to O'Hanlon wild entailed traveling through the North Atlantic. On a deep sea fishing trawler. In January. While a hurricane raged.

Trawlermen are well paid, not just because of the very real dangers they face, but because a fishing trip lasts two or three weeks in which each man will sleep only a handful of hours, while performing dangerous and arduous tasks in very cold weather. O'Hanlon, in his fifties, didn't keep up with the younger men, but he did stretch himself to his limit, gutting fish and packing them in ice alongside the others. He was there to help a graduate student in marine biology working on his dissertation, which made for the most interesting parts of Trawler: A Journey Through the North Atlantic. Luke had an exhaustive knowledge of the geography and zoology of the North Atlantic, and his monologues and explanations made for riveting reading. Also compelling were the personal lives of the trawlermen, whose working hours and conditions made it difficult for them to maintain relationships.

The weakness of the book, where it bogged down for me, were when O'Hanlon was monologuing. Extreme exhaustion causes all the men to talk without filters and while the others might go on and on about how working affected their marriages, the wonders of the Wyville Thomson Ridge or the defense mechanisms of the hagfish, this was welcome in a book about the North Atlantic. But O'Hanlon's areas of expertise; native customs of the Congo or famous naturalists he has known, are out of place and took me out of what was going on on the Norlantean. On the other hand, O'Hanlon did a beautiful job of describing what utter exhaustion felt like as well as the fear and violence of a force 12 hurricane.

You do find the most interesting books, Kay!

It's not like affluent white guys living in New York don't have problems. But a book about the anxieties of an affluent New Yorker will have to work harder to get me to care. Joshua Ferris is a fantastic writer, but even he could not get me to do much more than shrug about his protagonist's worries.

In To Rise Again at a Decent Hour, Paul O'Rourke, newly divorced, Red Sox fan and a dentist with a successful Manhattan practice, is driven by doubt. He's made it the center of who he is, even as he longs for a father figure. His ex-wife is Jewish and he longs to be a part of her extended, affectionate family and despite his atheism he has thrown himself into the celebrations and rituals they practice. He's also terrified of death, his own, but mostly the potential loss of anyone he loves, causing him to refuse to have children or even own a pet. Then someone creates a website for his dental practice, interspersing segments from a biblical-sounding document in with the staff biographies.

There's no doubt that this novel is both clever and humorous. It reminds me of The Finkler Question in many respects. But, in the end, I was not won over, despite Paul's desperate desire for connection. I have been more diligent with my flossing, however. A novel about a dentist will do that.

>85 RidgewayGirl:

I have been more diligent with my flossing, however. A novel about a dentist will do that.

I laughed out loud at that line!

I found flossing religion after a deep root cleaning. Don't ever want to go through that again!

The Shining Girls has a most amazing premise; what if there was a serial killer who could travel through time? How on earth could he be caught? And the best part about this book is that Lauren Beukes almost pulls it off. Along the way, she's written a story that's a lot of fun to read, too.

The beginning is a little shaky, with a series of disjointed segments too short for me to become invested in any character or situation before the next segment began with another character decades removed from the previous one. But eventually Beukes introduces Kirby Mazrachi, the girl who lived, and the story settles down to follow Kirby as she tries to do what the cops have be incapable of; to find the man who killed her dog and left her for dead.

Kirby's great. She's got a lot of baggage, what with her unconventional upbringing, the aftereffects of what happened to her, and the media storm that surrounded her afterwards. But she's plucky and resourceful and willing to follow leads that are taking her into some very odd territory. She's got help in a sportswriter who once covered the police beat and now serves as her mentor.

As I said, the start is rocky, but once this odd tale got going, I had a hard time putting it down. In the end, there are some pretty big holes in the explanation of how this guy found the girls he murdered and the means he used to travel through time, but if you don't look too closely, it's a fantastic summer read.

Got The shining girls very close to the top of my TBR - it was one of the books I was meant to read for FFSF june. Glad to see you liked it, looking forward to see how I feel about it.

>88 RidgewayGirl: Can't read you whole review as I've only just made a brief start on this myself and am having the same trouble that you did. Glad to see that it settles down somewhat and ends up an enjoyable read in the end.

Anders, I look forward to finding out what you think of it.

Wolfy, it took me several days to read the first fifty pages. And I finished the rest in a day of neglecting children and errands.

>91 RidgewayGirl: Exactly the same experience for me. Was picking at it on Friday/Saturday and really struggling to get interested but this got me to the 50 page mark. Without your comment I'm not sure I would have gone back to it last night at all but I positively raced through the next 300 and odd pages to finish the book (review coming in the next few days). Makes you feel sorry for those people that will pearl-rule this book after 50 pages wondering what all the fuss is about.

Great review of The Shining Girls and good to know about the struggles both you and Dave have had with the first part of the story.

So I've added a few more books to the wishlist after my visit here. Now if I can just remember to take them with me when I'm buying books. I did pick up Dare Me and Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives on Monday at Murder by the Book.

I'm glad you enjoyed The Shining Girls, too, Wolfy. It's interesting that you had the same experience getting into the book that I did. I think this book has the potential of being this year's Gone Girl or Where'd You Go, Bernadette? as long as too many people aren't put off by the confusing and slow beginning.

Lori, are you planning to read it? I'd be interested in seeing if the beginning goes more easily if you're expecting it not to be entirely coherent.

Roberta, those books added to your wish list are just revenge for what you've done to me. But good choices -- although TDTW added more than a few new authors to my list.

I'm glad I'm ahead (a bit) since there hasn't been much reading time so far this vacation. I'm only here now because jet lag had me up at five, despite a late night catching up with friends last night.

I am. Not this month, but I have The Shining Girls on the shorter list of books that I want to try and read this year.

Stuart MacBride writes a series of gritty crime novels set in Aberdeen, Scotland, following the career of Logan McRae. In Blind Eye, the police department are trying to solve a series of brutal blindings of Polish immigrants, while trying to control the rising crime rate. Then a Scottish crime lord is also blinded and violence erupts.

The series is always dark, certainly falling under the description of "tartan noir," and McRae is, as always, a mess. He's drinking, which is par for the course, but it is beginning to affect his ability to do his job and he makes some pretty stupid mistakes along the way. Really, he isn't a very good cop, despite his distain for the abilities of everyone he works with. The story was interesting, but many of the characters are drawn in such broad strokes that they become cartoons. I also think that MacBride's portrayal of McRae's female boss has moved from the funny to the offensive.

I'll continue with the series in the hope that MacBride regains his footing with the next book.

Hm, good to know about this installment! This is one series I am reading in order and I have just finished book 2, so I won't get to Blind Eye for a while. It is a very dark series and I have to be in the right mindset for it.

RP, but Aberdeen is such an excellent setting. I am willing to forgive a lot.

Yes - I'm reading book 2 now for the noir month, so it will be a while before I get to this one also. I was hoping he was going to redeem himself and get away from female boss he has, but your review tends to indicate that isn't going to happen. Well I'll wait and see. I'm about halfway through so I might finish this weekend.

Betty, I'm glad his portrayal of the female cop is as offensive to you as it is to me. I think he was going for broad comedy, which he really isn't that good at.

I am looking forward to reading Cold Granite. I might as well tour Scotland while I complete my Tartan Noir category. I seem t be getting better with dark feel of some stories... in the past, I used to steer clear of these types of books.

Yes Kay - I'm finding her more and more annoying as I read. And (not important to the story) I'm not getting a lot of the food references. Which is annoying as I love food and want to know what they're eating.

Lori, the books are really dark in places, but the setting is fantastic.

Betty, it does help to know at least some of the food. I hadn't thought of that. I spent a few years in England and traveled around Scotland a bit, which means I didn't notice the food. I wonder if Scottish people read books mentioning grits, pimento cheese and hush puppies and wonder what we're eating (why, yes, I am in the South).

>104 RidgewayGirl:
Eh? Aren't hush puppies shoes??

ETA: Look at that, it's a food as well - Google to the rescue! :)

And, done right, they're gooood!

>105 -Eva-: My first reaction to this question was utter shock! But then, I grew up in the South, so hush puppies were just (a delicious) part of life. :)

Yep, hush puppies are shoes to me too. I'll go google and find out what you're talking about ;-)

Hush puppies, like most of the food down here, are Not A Health Food. But if you get them from a place that knows what it's doing (the best are found at cheap, local bbq joints) they are delicious.

I've read a few of Emily Griffin's fun, chick-lit novels and enjoyed them, so The One & Only: A Novel looked like just the thing to keep me company on a long flight. The story is about Shea, a girl who grew up in a small Texas town with a solid college football team. Her entire life is consumed with the team; she works for the athletic department, her best friend's father is the coach, and she is dating a guy who once played for the team. But when her best friend's mother dies, a woman she's known since infancy, she finds she needs to stretch herself. She takes a job writing for the sports section of a newspaper and even a new boyfriend -- a hot NFL player. Things are looking up, but despite her shiny new life, there's a man she can't get her mind off of.

And this is the beginning of what didn't work in this book. That guy is her best friend's father. A man she's looked up to as a father figure and known since she was a baby. It wasn't the age difference, but the near incest that tainted the relationship, not to mention the power disparity; Shea has worshipped the coach her entire life. So there was a significant ick factor that didn't work in what was intended as a light, entertaining read. The relationship was deeply troublesome throughout the book and had he not been "Coach," I suspect she would have been calling him Mr Carr even when they made out.

But that's not my big issue with this book, it's that Griffin used domestic violence as a convenient plot point. She is cheating on her boyfriend, but that's fine, because later he turns out to be a little bit grabby, jealous and almost-rapey. This is a serious thing. Not something to be added to allow Shea to remain a sympathetic character, even as she cheats and lies to the people around her. Griffin pulls her punches and has the boyfriend turn out to be a bad guy so that Shea doesn't have to be. Then, when his usefulness has ended, Griffin has the bad boyfriend fade away, leaving behind only a few grateful texts in which he apologizes and seeks treatment. Abusive, controlling guys don't politely bow out when a woman breaks up with them. Even when the woman acts all empowered. Making domestic violence an exciting, but temporary episode does a disservice to the women who have to deal with this. Just don't do this.

I normally like Giffin's books but this one was awful (and rather creepy).

It totally was creepy! And I loved Something Borrowed and Something Blue.

>110 RidgewayGirl: Phew, thanks for that review -- I'll definitely be steering clear! I didn't like Something Borrowed either, so it seems like Giffin just isn't the author for me.

As always, lots of book bullets on your thread. But I think I'll skip The One & Only: a novel.

Living in the midwest, where we get a nice mix of northern and southern foods, I know what hush puppies are. But they probably aren't done very well here and I don't like them. You can have mine.

It sounds like you're traveling so I'll wish you a safe and fun trip.

Sheila grew up in a respectable Irish-American household near Boston. Her older half brother even became a priest, a great source of pride for her mother, although her father, now falling into dementia after a lifetime of alcoholism, has never had much respect for the Church. Then her brother is accused of molesting a child.

Jennifer Haigh is good at bringing out the nuance of situations and creating complex characters. In this she reminds me of Tom Perrotta; she never takes the expected path. In Faith she's taken a controversial topic that everyone has strong opinions about and tells a story, not of monsters and victims, but of damaged, complicated people with histories and reasons. And all without having written anything that feels exploitative. Faith is also a vivid picture of a specific place and culture.

I read over on Judy's thread that you are currently at Edisto Beach. That one is really nice! I'm kind of wanting to do the beach, but I don't think it's going to happen this summer.

Lori, I love Edisto. It's so laid back -- there's a handful of gift shops and restaurants, a single grocery store and nothing else. The Serpentarium is the only entertainment in town, if that kiosk renting dvds is discounted. And the beach is never crowded.

Bitter River is a mystery novel set in the mountains of West Virginia. It follows Bell Elkins, the prosecutor for a small county that is slowly dying of poverty, and the sheriff, Nick Fogelsong. The mystery concerns discovering who killed a promising young high school student, who turns out to be pregnant, making the prime suspects her boyfriend and his family. This is a mystery novel of the classic kind, where the pool of suspects is finite and the story follows the investigators as they gather clues and interview witnesses.

The setting is a gritty coal town, slowly dying. Local businesses are going out of business with people going to the chain stores and restaurants on the highway out of town. There's drug abuse and many who still live in the area are scraping by on welfare or what they can cobble together. Bell's an interesting character; she's too arrogant to really be likable, harsh and with a giant chip on her shoulder. Fogelsong's the classic sheriff, gruff and kind-hearted underneath it all, he cuts corners here and there, but is dedicated to his job. He's a walking stereotype of the Longmire variety.

Then the author, Julia Keller, decided to make the story Much! More! Exciting! by adding a Middle Eastern terrorist, snipers, explosions and a schizophrenic wife, among other plot twists and it all became too improbable and short changed both the central story and the setting which made this book a bit more interesting than the books beside it on the shelf. Keller's writing and her knowledge of the region are enough to make a solid mystery novel that is worth reading. The added thriller elements detracted from this and reduced my enjoyment in what might have been a very good vacation read.

> 117 - it might get more crowded, Kay, now that you've told everybody here how nice it is! ;)

>117 RidgewayGirl:, >119 dudes22: You had me sold until you mentioned the Serpentarium. It sounds like someplace that I'll be happier if I stay far, far away from it!

Carrie, my kids are nuts for reptiles and amphibians. They love the place. I love how the people working there are passionate about it. And it helps to know more about something I don't like very much. It's a good drive from the beach part of Edisto--I'm sure most summer visitors never set foot in the Serpentarium!

Betty, I'm sure most people want their souvenir stores and margarita bars. It's kind of a throwback to an earlier time, with no wifi except in a few houses and in front of the excellent independent bookstore.

Marc is a GP with a thriving practice, a husband and a father to two adolescent girls. He's also a big jerk, but if you read Herman Koch's previous novel, The Dinner, this will come as no surprise to you. He hates his patients' bodies and petty concerns. Most of his patients are artists of some sort or another and he hates to attend the various openings and viewings they invite him to. Arrogant and contemptuous in his inner life, he nonetheless manages to put forth a genial and easy going face to the world and his patients like him. Then he meets Ralph Meier, a well known stage actor who takes a liking to him (and especially to Marc's wife) and invites Marc and his family to join them at the Summer House With Swimming Pool they've rented for the season. Marc has his own, less than admirable reasons to want to be there and so he engineers things so that his wife's misgivings are overridden. And then things begin to go seriously wrong for everyone present.

Less extreme than The Dinner, this new novel still features a few reprehensible individuals. Koch manages to make Marc, despite his own horribleness, into the one the reader is pulling for.

#122 - That just sounds really great. Can't wait to read this one.

>122 RidgewayGirl: - i enjoyed The Dinner, so am happy to read your thoughts on his next book.

>117 RidgewayGirl: I avoid the Serpentarium. It would never make my "must see" list. It would, however, make the "must flee" list.

Summer House with Swimming Pool sounds delightfully yucky!

When he worked like this, he didn't drink, which we all appreciated. He'd been diagnosed with diabetes a few years back and shouldn't have been drinking at any time. Instead he'd become a secret drinker. It kept Mom on high alert and I worried sometimes that their marriage had become the sort Inspector Javert might have had with Jean Valjean.

Rosemary's family is fractured, her father's drinking being by far the most minor of symptoms. Her brother has left, her mother is depressed and no body speaks of her sister at all. As for Rosemary, she's off kilter to the ordinary world, finding it difficult to negotiate friendships and relationships. Of course there's a reason, which is revealed fairly early in We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler, but I'm not going to reveal anything.

Rosemary's voice is wonderful. She's observant, honed from her years of being a loner and having a professor for a father. She has a wry sense of humor and an odd way of looking at the world. There is also a lot in this book about language and families and social interaction, all of which is fascinating. The telling of the story is not linear. When Rosemary was young, she talked all the time, causing her father to ask her to start her stories in the middle, and that is what she does here, flowing back and forth with the connected randomness of memory.

This is a good choice for for the American debut into the Booker Prize race.

Ha! And it's science fiction too. Great review of We are all completely beside ourselves.

I thought The Dinner was brilliant and liked it very much despite the unpleasant characters, so I'll have to pick up Summer House with Swimming Pool sometime.

I'm glad to see your positive review of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. I've got the audiobook on hold at the library and hope to be starting it soon.

Katie, well, it's fiction and science is mentioned…

Paulina, I thought Summer House with Swimming Pool was better than The Dinner, although I liked The Dinner a lot.

And I recommend that if you plan to read We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves that you try to learn nothing more about it and don't read the blurb. There's a thing revealed early in the story that benefits from not being known until then.

>131 RidgewayGirl: Thanks for the warning about We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves! I recall reading Never Let Me Go without knowing anything about the book, and I'm really glad I did. A number of my friends had read reviews beforehand and, as a result, the "big revelation" was not nearly as powerful.

I enjoyed Jen Doll's memories of the various weddings she has attended in Save the Date, but I don't think that this book is something that would interest more than a few people. Doll writes lightly and with humor and she seems like she'd be a fun person to have a drink with. I'll be eager to see if she writes something more substantial next.

Happily reading a string of your, as always, fun reviews, giggling at phrases like Then the author, Julia Keller, decided to make the story Much! More! Exciting! or had he not been "Coach," I suspect she would have been calling him Mr Carr even when they made out. Also liked your comment about not using domestic violence as a convenient plot point.

We are all completely beside ourselves is such a great title I want to pick the book up just because of that.

The discussion about next year's CATs has begun! If you've missed the thread so far, you can find it here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/178741

Thanks! I stared it, but I haven't done any of the CATs this year. Maybe next year.

As always, have taken a couple of book bullets with Summer House with Swimming Pool and We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves.

>128 RidgewayGirl: I already know the big spoiler for We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. I think I read it in one of the library review publications I use for collection development in my job. The book still sounds interesting. Do you think it would be worthwhile to read it when I won't have that element of surprise?

Judy, they are both very good.

Carrie, I wouldn't think so, but I have read comments saying that the way the situation was framed before the reveal was annoying if you already knew the twist. Of course, you could just take that into account and read on -- the reveal happens fairly early in the book.

Vampires in the Lemon Grove is a book of short stories by Swamplandia! author Karen Russell. I wasn't surprised to find each story to be inventive and unusual, but I was unprepared for how much variety and heart Russell put into a slender volume of stories. From an eerie story about homesteaders in Nebraska, to a group of former presidents reincarnated as horses, each story was fantastic. I'm looking forward to more from Russell.

I agree about Vampires in the lemon grove. I loved it. For me, this was the book when Russell went from promising to really acomplished.

Anders, it was your reaction to the book that pushed it out of the "someday soon" pile! What a great collection. It reminded me a bit of George Saunders with fewer slacker guys.

>142 RidgewayGirl: Oh, totally! I'm convinced Russell must know and love Saunders' work. Look at that hell theme park in Swamplandia! for instance - that's like something straight out of Saunders. In my mind, I even think of Russell, Saunders and probably Katherine Dunn (whom I haven't read yet) as flagships of a literary genre of their own, a sort of contemporary American strange. (Or perhaps I'm just starting to get the hang of what "slipstream" is atually about?)

What I feel R and S have in common is a strangeness that seems very closely connected to a nation's (in this case America's) self image, creating distorted versions of something that is very relatable in everyday life - without being as full of purpose as satire.

With such a definition, I guess Magnus Mills could be seen as an English equivalent, Etgar Keret as an Isreali version, Jenny Erpenbeck as a german one, and so on.

Loosely based on the myth of Orpheus, whose musical ability saved the Argonauts and almost allowed him to rescue his lover from Hades, Orfeo tells the story of Peter Els, a talented but obscure composer who has taken up amateur genetic manipulation in retirement. Things go terribly wrong when someone spots the home lab and a government agency arrives to confiscate his equipment and question him.

This portion of the story is very much just a background to the larger story of Els' life. He's talented, but not able to take responsibility or make decisions for himself. His life path is determined by a girlfriend, his divorce by his inability to forge his own path or to take his life seriously. I was frustrated by the character, who came across as less of a valiant hero and more as a guy who just goes wherever the wind takes him. Had he been younger, he would have been the classic slacker dude, just wanting to make his music and letting a series of disillusioned girlfriends make the big decisions.

Els has one good friend in his life, although at the time the book opens they have not spoken for eighteen years, a hot-headed choreographer who pushes Els to greater accomplishments, even as his blowhard style causes them to constantly fall out.

There is a great deal of music described in Orfeo. Music, like visual art, is difficult, if not impossible, to describe with words if the reader hasn't experienced those works for themselves. I wish there had been a way for Richard Powers to communicate the deep love and understanding Els has for music without the detailed descriptions, which made up a large portion of the book. Maybe he should have gone further and incorporated the music into the text somehow (shouldn't this be possible with an ebook or an audiobook?). There was a theme of our shrinking attention spans, which is echoes in Powers' use of brief snippets of Els' thoughts to break up the book into segments instead of chapter breaks.

I can see why Richard Powers has the reputation he does and why the Booker Prize committee has put Orfeo on their long list. But my appreciation of his skill remains more theoretical than actual. I'm glad I've read something by this author, but I don't have any plans to renew the acquaintanceship.

>144 RidgewayGirl: Interesting comments on Orfeo. Sounds like an interesting concept, but I agree -- it's really, really hard to write about music well.

I think that music is art, it's just that the artists aren't 'visual thinkers', so instead of being able to create pictures with a physical medium, they do it with sound. And art is hard to explain or write about.

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

Christina, I know vastly more (and still not very much) about visual art, but enough to say that I've found it very hard to describe in words. I understand music much less and found many of the passages about music beautiful in their own right, but they gave me no idea about what it actually sounded like. I do wonder if Orfeo would have more meaning to someone conversant in music.

Exactly, Di.

Jack Whitehead is a seasoned journalist haunted by the spectre of a murdered woman. Bob Fraser is a cop married to the daughter of a legendary officer, with a bright future and a clean reputation. He is also involved in an obsessive relationship with a prostitute which may not be entirely consensual. In the flawed and dirty world of the villages and towns near Leeds, in Yorkshire, in Nineteen Seventy-Seven, they are the good guys. A violent sexual murderer, called the Yorkshire Ripper, is hunting down the prostitutes of the region, but there are questions about whether all the dead women were killed by the Ripper and about possible police involvement.

The second installment in David Peace's Red Riding Quartet is as violent and relentless as the first. This is Noir in its very darkest and bleakest incarnation. The Yorkshire of Peace's imagination is devoid of hope or even basic human decency, where Blacks and Gypsies are the targets of police brutality as a matter of course and where women are victimized with callous disregard. Whitehead and Fraser have reasons for pursuing their search for the killer, but they have their own demons to fight, which might just prove more formidable than the corrupt and venal system they operate within.

One needs a strong stomach to read this series, but they are compelling; the violence is graphic but it never feels gratuitous. After reading the first book in the series, Nineteen Seventy-Four, I rushed right out to get a copy of Nineteen Seventy-Seven, which I then eyed distrustfully for several months before reading. I'll be doing the same with Nineteen Eighty.

Great review, Kay! I too have decided that I need to follow through with this quartet and as soon as I muster up the stamina and fortitude I will be picking up Nineteen Eighty.

>148 RidgewayGirl: Your reviews always make the darkest books sound interesting. After reading the other reviews, though, I'm waffling. On the one hand, I want to prove that I can read and appreciate such a dark and violent book for what it has it offer. On the other hand, I'm a little relieved that the library doesn't have it, or any of the other books in the quartet.

However, I see that our neighboring library system has it, so I'll add it to the wishlist and perhaps I'll get around to it later.

Thanks. I think.

Judy, it will be interesting to find out which of us picks up the next book first. I'm eager to find out what happens, since the terrible ending (in the sense of what happens, not in the sense of being badly plotted) of the last book has me curious to how Peace will proceed. And who will feature.

Sandy, I would absolutely not read this series unless you are thick-skinned. I've got a high tolerance level and this series is testing the edges of what I find readable. It's not enjoyable in many places and more than a few scenes made me very uncomfortable. Peace describes scenes in cold detail, including the conditions of dead bodies and violence against women.

Well, I have a higher tolerance than many people. I don't remember every quitting a book for those reasons, but I'm sure I must have a limit. I've put the first book of the set on my wishlist, so it will show up on my radar from time to time. I'll have to do an ILL to get it, so that will be inconvenient. I'm not making any plans for it. But I won't forget about it, either.

I look forward to finding out what you think of the series, Sandy.

I have an old friend coming to visit in a few weeks who reads only cozies. She's asked me for a book recommendation and I am at a loss for something we both would like. I may suggest Kate Atkinson -- she's not as gentle as my friend is used to, but neither are there eviscerated corpses studding the landscape.

I think Jackson Brodie would have crossover appeal for a cozy reader. Possibly Tana French. There are a few scenes with gore, but she doesn't dwell on it. The Likeness with its limited circle of suspects is similar to cozies in that way. Ann Cleeves' Sheltland Island series might be another possibility. If she tries and likes Jackson Brodie, Stef Penney's The Invisible Ones would be another possibility. Some of Josephine Tey's mysteries were unconventional for her era. Two of my favorites are The Franchise Affair and To Love and Be Wise.

Another thought - how about Morag Joss? I know you didn't like Funeral Music as much as some of her other books, but I think it would have crossover appeal for a cozy reader. I haven't managed to read any more of her books from my TBR list yet.

Thanks, Carrie. She's agreed to read Case Histories and In the Woods next week. Now what will I do if she hates them?

And because I do love to brag -- I have just brought home a copy of Tana French's new book, The Secret Place. I'm so excited! This is the reason to live in Europe, am I right? I almost picked up the new novel by Chelsea Cain, One Kick, but then I saw the new Tana French right there in a pile. I have two books to finish and then I'm spending the first day the kids are back in school with my book.

Lol, Kay great minds think alike! I am impatient for the library to get the new Tana French so I preordered it! I'm not sure that I will be able to squeeze into one of my categories, but I'm sure going to try!

A new Tana French! Sounds like heaven to me! Faithful Place is next up for me, but I'm not sure how soon I'll get to it.

Woo! New Tana French! I'm way behind. Or perhaps I subconsciously space them out so they don't run out too quickly. (Yes, that's how I'll rationalize it!)

Ooh, new Tana!! We have to wait a few more weeks here in the US. Very much looking forward to hearing what you think.

I find it easier to review a book I hated, or one I liked, much more than that rare book that I love. It makes for boring reviews to say something along the lines of, "I loved it sooooo much," over and over in various iterations. Nevertheless, I will try.

History of the Rain is a odd book by Niall Williams about books, family history and Ireland. Ruth is a plain girl, twin of the golden Aeneas, daughter to a beautiful, determined mother and an impractical, poetic father, who is haunted by his own eccentric history. Set on the western edge of county Clare in Ireland, History of the Rain is Ruth's story, written from her attic bedroom, surrounded by the thousands of books collected by her father, which have formed her writing style and which she is determined to read.

Told in a meandering style, History of the Rain reminds me of some of Kate Atkinson's writing. It's the journey through the pages that delights; this is not a book that proceeds forward with any urgency. Longlisted for this year's Booker Prize, I recommend this book to anyone willing to slowly wander the water-soaked meadows along the Shannon and to page through yellowing paperbacks. It's not a book for someone who wants a quick pace or a linear plot.

Hmm. Books and family history has me curious. Happily, the public library has copies at several branches so it is now on my wishlist.

I tend to pay attention to books you strongly like or dislike, so have put this in my "Recommended by LT" list for future reference.

Carrie, I think you'd like it. Betty, you would, too.

So last Spring, I discovered that Munich hosts a literary crime festival twice a year and got tickets to see Donna Tartt and Louise Welsh. I was very excited, but then my mother had heart surgery and I went back to help take care of her for a few weeks and missed the whole thing. However, the festival is back this fall and my mother is doing very well, well enough to be out playing golf whenever I try to call her, so I am there!

I've just bought my ticket for Ian Rankin -- he's signing Saints of the Shadow Bible, the German translation, so I'll bring my copy.

And I'll run by the bookstore hosting Denise Mina later today to get a ticket. For those not privy to the obsessive workings of my mind, she is at the top of my favorite authors list, one of a half dozen authors whose books I pre-order.

Most of the authors are, quite naturally, German. One featured is Nele Neuhaus, whose book, Snow White Must Die, I read and hated earlier this year. Not going to that signing! Thinking about Peter James though.

Ian Rankin and Denise Mina! I am green with envy. (Hope you do add Peter James to the list, I am a fan of his, too)

Have a great time! I met Ian Rankin last year and he was lovely.

History of the Rain sounds oh so Irish. Not in the mood for something slow moving now, but maybe someday.

Have fun at your crime festival!

Both Rankin and Mina - what a treat! I'm taking on the same hue as @DeltaQueen50... :)

Thank you Judy and Eva for responding so well to my bragging. But it is a fun surprise to come from a small Southern city, where the book signings tend to be for locals and are not that plentiful -- the single independent bookstore in town is heavily focused on cozies and pleasant beach books, which are not my thing -- to a big city that can attract the authors I want to meet. That Munich's niche is a crime fiction festival is delicious.

RP, you've got your own fantastic opportunities, and I remember when you got to meet Ian Rankin. I'm glad he wrote Saints of the Shadow Bible in the meantime -- do you remember me wanting you to take him to task for doing such a poor job with Malcolm Fox in Standing in Another Man's Grave?

Katie, you do have to be in the right frame of mind for History of the Rain, but when you are, it's perfect.

The Unwitting by Ellen Feldman follows a woman from the end of the Second World War and through her marriage and widowhood. Nell meets Charlie when she's still getting over a previous relationship, one which ended badly. Still, Charlie wins her over and they embark on a life together, he as the editor of a small, liberal-leaning magazine and she as a journalist often writing for that same paper. The magazine is lucky enough to receive support from an arts foundation, and Nell and Charlie start a family and travel quite a bit for the magazine.

I love the Mad Men era setting of this book, a time when you really could move to New York, get a job in publishing and work your way into a comfortable life, full of interesting parties and meaningful arguments. Nell's determined to keep working, even as a mother and she's got a passion to shed a light on injustice everywhere, marching with civil rights demonstrators and even traveling to Russia with a theater group to see conditions there for herself. When Feldman slows down and lets us experience Nell's life, the book comes alive.

The flaw of The Unwitting is that Feldman is taking on a long swath of history, meaning that much of Nell's story is told in summary and that the important political events of the cold war take precedence. This chops the book up and removes the reader from the immediacy of Nell's life. I really wish that either Feldman had chosen a tighter time frame or written a much longer book. Feldman is fantastic at rendering the telling details of a scene, of capturing the atmosphere of a time and place, a skill used beautifully in her earlier novel, Scottsboro. But she is less adept at the broader strokes of books set on longer time frames or with a large cast of characters. Those scenes in which she takes her time to give us one woman's perspective of a party or a conversation are pitch perfect.

>169 RidgewayGirl: Indeed I do! That reminds me, I still have to read Saints.

>164 RidgewayGirl: How exciting that you'll get to meet some of your favorite authors! Both are on my list of authors I want to try at some point - with a lot of others. If I retired today and did nothing but read for the rest of my life, I still wouldn't manage to get to all the books on my list.

>161 RidgewayGirl: I'm going to take that book bullet too, I think.

Lori, I think you'll like the narrator's explorations of her family history.

>128 RidgewayGirl: It's a BB, you had me at causing her father to ask her to start her stories in the middle. I like story about family.

>161 RidgewayGirl: Great review, this is my kind of book :)

Both History of the Rain and We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves are both excellent and long listed for the Booker. I don't think you can go wrong, Electrice.

History of the Rain is definitely on my radar now. Interesting review of The Unwitting. I can totally see why what you've listed as flaws would take away from the book.

Tana French's latest novel is a good one. The setting of The Secret Place is new; a posh girls' boarding school, but the themes are ones that French returns to book after book. There are two familiar characters this time and the book opens with Holly, Frank Mackey's daughter, waiting to talk to Stephen Moran, the young detective in Faithful Place. Holly goes to St. Kilda's, an expensive private school in Dublin. A year ago, a boy from the nearby boys' school was found murdered on the grounds. Despite an extensive investigation, the case has stalled out. Holly found an anonymous postcard on a school bulletin board saying, "I know who killed him." Stephen's been waiting for a chance to work with the Murder Squad and so inserts himself into the investigation with the spiky Antoinette Conway, a woman who never played along with the boys and after blowing the St. Kilda's case has been a pariah in the squad room.

In form, this is a classical mystery. There's a limited number of possible suspects; eight girls who could have posted the anonymous note, and a limited time; the entire book taking place over one single, exhausting day. Teenage girls are a cipher, with their tight bonds with one another and ability to freeze out adults. Holly and her friends share a tighter bond than most, having boarded together in the same room for a few years and sharing the same distain for the games being played by their contemporaries. Conway knows that once they are allowed back together the detectives will have no chance of finding out what went on that Spring night in the early morning hours and so she and Stephen work to decipher Girlworld, with its shifting allegiances and language all its own.

French returns to the theme of her first book, that of what makes a good partnership, the effortless give and take, the feeling as though you can read the other person's thoughts. Conway and Moran are very different from Rob and Cassie, but their working relationship, begun under duress, begins to develop into something that Stephen hopes might continue, and not only because he is desperate to move up into the Murder Squad.

Holly and her friends are another set of relationships. Having roomed together for years, having formed an allegiance against the queen bee and her follower, and having become closer to each other than to their own families, they each have secrets, ideas of what really happened and strong reasons to protect each other. French beautifully captures the cadences of girl speak, the stylized patterns that disguise real feelings and deep communication.

They always act like they're having an amazing time, they're louder and high-pitched, shoving each other and screaming with laughter at nothing. But Becca knows what they're like when they're happy, and that's not it. Their faces on the way home afterwards look older and strained, smeared with the scraps of leftover expressions that were pressed on too hard and won't lift away.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Secret Place. It reminded me of both the masterful Skippy Dies, Paul Murray's look at boys attending a posh boarding school in Dublin and Megan Abbott's latest books about teenage girls.

I went ahead and read your review. Since I'm only at book 2, I'll forget what you said by the time I get to this one. But nice to know they'll be good.

Betty, they are so good. And today, we went and had coffee and cake with the parents of one of my son's friends and we started talking about books - she asked me a few minutes in if I had ever heard of Tana French -- she'd just read The Secret Place and had loved it.

I sneaked a peak at your review for Secret Place too, even though I haven't read book 4, Broken Harbour yet. I did notice the reference to Skippy Dies, a book I loved and Megan Abbott, an author I loved so I am well on board for The Secret Place!

One of my ideas for next year is to pick 15 authors and just immerse myself and catch up with my series. But I'm afraid I'd get bored at some point. And the there are the CATs and the BINGO. Aargh! Decisions -decisions.

Betty, you wouldn't get bored with Tana French. She doesn't follow a blueprint and each book is very different from the others.

Judy, you'll like both books. I loved Broken Harbor. It was so amazing how French took Scorcher, who was definitely not a nice guy in Faithful Place and made the reader empathize with him.

>182 dudes22: I like that idea. Sadly, I wouldn't be able to read multiple books by fifteen authors. To properly "immerse" myself I'd have to read 4-5 books at least by each author. So that's 60-75 books just there. I'd never be able to read that many.
Maybe five authors. Possibly.

After seeing your recommendations of Tana French, I picked up In the Woods a little while ago. I'm glad to hear that the series continues to be strong.

I wasn't going to read your review, but I had to skim a little - sounds like a good one! I am so pleased about that! Got to wait a few more days over here for it to come out, but hope I can get my hands on a copy soon.

Ben Donald's book, Springtime for Germany, was both frustrating and informative. It aims for a humorous look at those wacky Germans, which is a niche that is sadly under filled, given the sheer quantity of similar books focusing on the French, Italians or even Brits. There are just not a lot of fun ways to learn about German culture and customs or even books that just give a feel of the place.

Springtime for Germany had a bad beginning, starting as it does with the fictional and silly premise that the author comes under the helping hand of a travel therapist, because he has lost his love of exploring new places. This therapist, a ridiculous German American named Manny, send the author to various places in Germany, each time having his concentrate on a different aspect of the German soul. It also begins with a snarky tone of amused contempt for the Germans, which made the first few chapters less than enjoyable.

But as Donald proceeds along in his travels, he settles down and begins to be interesting. I've been living here and knew most of the cultural references to some degree or another, but he often was able to provide me with a deeper understanding of several of these. And it's always fun to run into references to these cultural tics, as they are not well known outside of Germany. For example, there is a New Year's tradition here to watch a short British film called Dinner for One. This is something every German is as familiar with as we in the US are with How the Grinch Stole Christmas, but I've never met a non-German who ever saw it. This guy knows German culture and he had some interesting things to say about the reasons Germans value order and rules so much and why it isn't a big deal for them to sit in a sauna naked with strangers.

All in all a useful and interesting book marred by the author's need to force the humor. He's genuinely amusing when he isn't trying so hard.

I'm sorry, it sounds like a worthy book, but I can't help but think of Springtime for Hitler from "The Producers" and now the music is stuck in my head.

>188 sjmccreary: Haha, same thing happened to me!

The author is clearly referencing that. The Brits are worse than Americans for always thinking of Hitler, from that Fawlty Towers episode to the inability of the British press not to mention WWII whenever there is a sporting event pitting England against Germany.

>190 RidgewayGirl: I know I'm missing most of the cultural undercurrents - but I can't help but think that the book would be better received if it were presented straight, rather than latching onto some silly parody. Who was the target audience?

>187 RidgewayGirl: The title alone supports your comments. Trying way to hard, and if I were doing a book on modern German culture, especially how wacky it is, I wouldn't allude to Hitler first thing off the bat - and I don't think many people can read that title without remembering the tune.

I read The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins to both be polite and to prove a point. I know a couple of atheists, and they've been interesting to talk to, and they've known a lot about Christianity and the Bible. It just seems fair to understand their point of view by reading the book most associated with atheism today. And, in an internet conversation, I backed myself into the corner of having to read it now, rather than at some vague, future date.

So it's an interesting book. Dawkins gets in his own way more often than he should have, especially with his point that atheism is the only rational choice. But he presents the basic reasons for atheism and the criticisms he has of religion in a clear way. It was one of those books I'm happier to say that I've read, than I was to actually read it, but it was informative.

If you've ever followed the topics of religion and science, even casually, probably none of the issues he raises will be unfamiliar. And much of the arguments he raises are against a fundamentalist, anti-science version of Christianity which very few Christians espouse. But in addressing some of the science of our beginnings, he does go into some very interesting areas, with clear, engaging explanations of issues involving natural selection, fascinating creatures and chemistry. He's less sure-footed on topics like linguistics, but the issues he's raised are worth thinking about. He's a polarizing guy, who expresses himself forcefully and not tactfully. It's useful to know what he actually has to say, as opposed to what people say that he's said.

I listened to The God Delusion last year and found it a breath of fresh air. My parents taught me that asking the questions he discusses--even thinking them--was a sin that would send me to burn in hell. It's nice to grow up and get past that.

much of the arguments he raises are against a fundamentalist, anti-science version of Christianity which very few Christians espouse . . . I'm glad to hear someone say that and happy that that is your experience. For myself, I still bump against fundagelicals too often for comfort.

Dawkins is a smart man, but he does make some really dumb comments sometimes. The God Delusion was good though.

>193 RidgewayGirl: Ah, Religion, Politics and Family, are more often than not sensitive subjects. It's better, when possible, to go to the source :)

Joyce, I've found that living in Germany has it's advantages. But, yes, I can see that just talking about this stuff can be liberating. I've been following the blog of a progressive Christian and the commenters include several atheists, so I've been able to learn quite a bit without Dawkins' bite attached to it. Although given the vitriolic reaction he sometimes inspires, I don't blame him for being testy.

No kidding, electrice. And in the US, politics and religion are often seen as the same thing.

The Post Office Girl is Stefan Zweig's last novel. Christine lost the best years of her life to the First World War, which began when she was just 16 and which also took her father, her brother, her family's wealth and her mother's health. Through connections, she manages to find a job as a post office clerk in an isolated village. The salary, barely adequate for one, is stretched to also care for her mother and means that they live as unwelcome tenants in a damp attic room. Now in her late twenties, Christine lives a quiet life, until an aunt and uncle, visiting from America, invites her to stay with with them in a Swiss resort town.

Christine blossoms under the care and luxury of this alien life. She dances and laughs with witty, well-dressed men and discovers a new way of looking at life, but eventually and too soon, she returns to her old life as the post office girl and finds that she can't return to her earlier acceptance of her straightened circumstances.

The Post Office Girl is beautifully written and so perfectly captures Christine's inner feelings as she moves from blind acceptance to elation to a clear-eyed awareness of the bleakness of her life. The War to End All Wars destroyed more than young men's lives and the economic depression that followed robbed many of all hope, while the well-off danced, blithely unaware of the suffering around them.

I'd expected this to be a serious and somewhat dour read, but found instead an impossible to put down novel about a vibrant woman destroyed by circumstances beyond her control. It's not a feel-good story, but it's also not without hope and the ending was pitch perfect and occurred at the right moment.

The planning thread for the SFFFCAT is now up at the 2015 Category Challenge.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/180263#

Please come help us make this a fun CAT for everyone!

What does linguistics have to do with the existence/nonexistence of God? I'm thinking The God Delusion is not the book I thought it was.

#199 - Intriguing. What did you think it was?

Katie, Dawkins spends time trying to come up with reasons we may have an inherent need to believe in a God. He explores several ideas from the point of view that there must be reasons we've invented this idea and why that might be.

>199 cammykitty: & >200 Nickelini:
I thought it was about how it's irrational to believe in a god and about all the nasty acts that have been performed in the name of (fill in name of pretty much any god here). I don't get how linguistics enter into it either. It's on my to-be-read list regardless, so looking forward to see its span.

>202 -Eva-: It is about that, but it's also about why people might believe in a god. About how we're biologically predisposed to believe in religion.
I can't recall how that ties to linguistics because it's been a while since I read it.

>203 PawsforThought:
"biologically predisposed"??
OK, that'll be interesting to read as well! But, yes, it was the linguistics part I was curious about.

>204 -Eva-: Yeah, basically. How our brains are wired. It was a very interesting part of the book.

Now I've got to move that particular book by Dawkins higher on my "read some day" list.

hailelib, it was an interesting book. His joy in natural science comes through and I think reading one of his books on that topic might be more fun. I didn't run into any arguments or ideas about God or religion that I hadn't heard before, however.

Looks like there's just time for one more thread before the end of the year.

For those interested in Dawkins' natural science side I whole-heartedly recommend watching his Christmas lectures "Growing Up in the Universe" from 1991. It's incredibly informative and easy to understand (it's aimed at kids). It's available (legally) on YouTube. And Douglas Adams makes a cameo!