Nathalie (Deern) still tries to read less and LT more in 2014 - Thread 3

I thought I wouldn't even make it to thread #3 in 2014, but here it is! Welcome, I hope I'll feed this one better than the first two.

I still couldn't upload my holiday pics from the ipad (my Apple notebook is too old), so at least here are some pics from Belgium, Grimbergen near Brussels:

The beautiful cathedral seen from the garden of the restaurant/brewery Fenikshof:



Where there's a brewery there's sure to be some beer! (I'll remove it if it's promotion?)



Okay, maybe you all have seen those in your countries, but I never knew they existed: it's a dog-wash station!

Read, to be reviewed:

September:
86. How to be German in 50 easy steps by Adam Fletcher - Kindle - EN - 104p - 3 stars
87. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot - Kindle - EN - 600p - 3.5 stars

Books read and reviewed in this thread
August:
70. The Dog by Joseph O'Neilll - Kindle - EN - 256p 3.8 stars
71. The Plot Against America by Philip Roth - Kindle - EN - 505p - 3.7 stars
72. Orfeo by Richard Powers - audible credit - EN - 384p - 4 stars
73. J by Howard Jacobson - Kindle - EN - 384p - 3 stars
74. Netherland by Joseph O'Neill - Kindle - 256p - 3.5 stars
75. The Road Home by Rose Tremain - Kindle- 456p - 4 stars
76. La Voce del Violino by Andrea Camilleri - Kindle - IT - 209p - 3 stars
77. How To Be Both by Ali Smith - Kindle - EN - 372p - 4 stars

September:
78. Badfellas by Tonino Benacquista - Kindle - EN - 283p - 3.3 stars
79. Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin - Kindle - EN - 272p - 3.5 stars
80. The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell - Kindle - EN - 597p - 3 stars
81. Lost For Words by Edward St Aubyn - Kindle - EN - 272p - 3 stars
82. Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald - Kindle - EN - 176p - 3.3 stars
83. Us by David Nicholls - Paperback - EN - 399p - 2.5 stars
84. In a Free State by V.S. Naipaul - Kindle - EN - 256p - 3.5 stars
85. Paare, Passanten by Botho Strauss - library book - DE - 204p - 3 stars

Books read and reviewed in older threads:

Books read and reviewed in 2014

Reviewed in thread 1 https://www.librarything.com/topic/163025

January:
1. Death Comes For The Archbishop by Willa Cather - Kindle - EN - 298p - 3.5 stars
2. The New Yorker. Lo humour dei libri by J.L. Chiflet - paperback - IT - 187p - 2.5 stars
3. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway - Kindle - EN - 490p - 4 stars
4. The Professor's House by Willa Cather - American Author Challenge + 1,001 - 4 stars
5.
6. Der kleine Alltags-Buddhist by Maren Schneider - hardback - German - 140p - 4 stars
7. Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan - Kindle - EN - 305p - 3.5 stars
8. La Promesse de l'Aube by Romain Gary - 1,001 book and January TIOLI - 4 stars
9. Blaming by Elizabeth Taylor - Kindle - EN - 202p - 4 stars
10.Needful Things by Stephen King - audible credit - EN - 948p - 3 stars

February:
11.The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall - Kindle - EN - 208p - 3.5 stars
12.Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks - Kindle - EN - 380p - 3 stars
13. Bartleby & Co by Enrique Vila-Matas - paperback - DE - 226p - 4.5stars
14. Der Tod in Venedig by Thomas Mann - paperback - DE - 129p - 4.5 stars
15. Leben in Venedig by Dirk Schlümer - paperback - DE - 239p - 2 stars
16. Conversazione in Sicilia by Elio Vittorini - paperback - IT - 339p - 4 stars

Reviewed in thread 2 https://www.librarything.com/topic/170830:

January:
5. Bitch in a Bonnet by Robert Jodi - Kindle - EN - 449p - 4 stars

February:
17. Garden, Ashes by Danilo Kis - paperpack - EN - 170p - 4.5 stars
18. Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner - audio - EN - 384p - 4 stars
19. The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing - paperback - EN - 159p - 4.5 stars
20. Italian SH book by Louise L. Hay - audio book+paperback - IT - 4 stars
21. The Power is Within You by Louise L. Hay - audio book - EN - 4.5 stars

March:
22. All the Pretty Horses by Cormac Mc Carthy - Kindle - EN - 302p - 3.5 stars
23. There But For The by Ali Smith - Kindle - EN - 355p - 3.5 stars
24. Casino Royale by Ian Fleming - Kindle - EN - 190p - 2 stars
25. Overcoming Fears by Louise L. Hay - audio book - EN - 4.5 stars
26. Feeling Fine Affirmations by Louise L. Hay - audio book - EN - 4.5 stars
27. Dave Barry is not taking this sitting down by Dave Barry - audio book - EN - 256p - 3.5 stars

April:
28. Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo - Kindle - DE - 603p - 3 stars
29. The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole, 1999-2001 by Sue Townsend - Kindle - EN - 282p - 3.5 stars
30. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend - Kindle - EN - xxxp - 4 stars
31. The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend - Kindle - EN - xxxp - 4 stars
32. Another Mole.. forgot the title - 2 stars
33. Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years by Sue Townsend - Kindle - EN - xxxp - 3 stars
34. Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years by Sue Townsend - Kindle - EN - xxxp - 3.5 stars
35. The Last Days of Humanity by Karl Kraus - Kindle - DE - 800p - 5 stars

May:
36. Das Treibhaus by Wolfgang Köppen - library book - DE - 180p - 4 stars
37. La Morte a Roma by Wolfgang Köppen - Kindle - IT - 172p - 3.5 stars
38. Gösta Berling's Saga by Selma Lagerlöf - Kindle - DE - 350p - 3.5 stars
39. Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Kindle - EN - xxxp - 3.5 stars
40. Wheat Belly by William Davis - Kindle - EN - 292p - 3.5 stars
41. Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky - Kindle - EN - xxxp - 3.5 stars
42. The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty - Kindle - EN - 178p - 3.5 stars
43. Inside Mr Enderby by Anthony Burgess - Kindle - EN - 232p - 4 stars
44. Dog Years by Günter Grass - Paperback - DE - 778p - 4 stars
45. Amatissima by Toni Morrison - Kindle - IT - 384p - 3 stars
46. Enderby Outside by Anthony Burgess - Kindle - EN - 245p - 2 stars

June:
47. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut - Kindle - EN - ?? p
48. The Clockwork Testament by Anthony Burgess - Kindle - EN - 145p
49. Ebdòmero by Giorgio de Chirico - paperback - IT - 119p - 2.5 stars
50. Halbzeit by Martin Walser - hardcover - DE - 778p - 4.5 stars
51. Living Vegetarian for Dummies by Suzanna Havala - Kindle - EN - 358p - 3.5 stars
52. Anständig Essen by Karen Duve - Kindle - IT - 210p - 4 stars
53. La Disubbidienza by Alberto Moravia - free Kindle - IT - 118p - 3.5 stars
54. The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope - free Kindle - EN - 136p - 3 stars
55. Peace Food by Rüdiger Dahlke - Hardcover - DE - 330p - 1.5 stars
56. Skinny Bitch by Rory Feldman - Kindle - EN - ??p - 3.5 stars
57. ... then just stay fat by Shannon Sorrels - Kindle - EN - ???p - 3 stars
58. Cecilia by Fanny Burney - free Kindle - EN - many pages - 3.5 stars

July:
59.Khufu's Wisdom by Naguib Mahfouz - Kindle - EN - ??p - 3 stars
60.If I'm So Smart, Why Can't I Lose Weight? By Brooke Castillo - Kindle - EN - ??p - 3.25 stars
61.Loving What Is by Byron Katie - Kindle - EN - ??p - 4.25 stars
62.We Are all Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler - Kindle - EN - 321 p - 3.5 stars
63.To Rise Again At A Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris - Kindle - EN - 337p - 3 stars
64.The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain - free Kindle - EN - ???p - 3.5 stars
65. The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt - Kindle - EN - 384p - 4.5 stars

August:
66. The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanigan - Kindle - EN - 485p - 3 stars
67. History of the Rain ny Niall Williams - Kindle - EN - 355p - 4.5 stars
68. The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth - Kindle - EN - ???p - 4.3 stars
69. The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee - Kindle - EN - 505p - 4.5 stars

Purchases January - June:

January:
- Death Comes For The Archbishop by Willa Cather - Kindle - EN - 304p - read
- Food lovers. Viaggio tra i sapori del mondo - paperback - IT - 303p
- Zio Paperone La disfida dei dollari - hardback - IT - 215p
- The New Yorker. Lo humour dei libri - paperback - IT - 187p - read
- The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien - paperback - EN
- Fumetto! 150 anni di storie italiane - hardback - IT - 505p
- The Professor's House by Willa Cather - Kindle - EN - 129p - read
- Bitch in a Bonnet by Robert Jodi - Kindle - EN - 449p - read
- Der kleine Alltags-Buddhist by Maren Schneider - hardback - German - 140p - read
- Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan - Kindle - EN - 305p - read
- Bird Song by Sebastian Faulks - Kindle - EN - 480p (1,001) read
- Blaming by Elizabeth Taylor - Kindle - EN - 205p - read
- Alberta and Jacob by Cora Sandel - Paperback - EN - 240p

February:
- The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall - Kindle - EN - 202p read
- The Bone People by Keri Hulme - paperback - EN
- Garden, Ashes by Danilo Kis (1,001) - paperback - EN - read
- Brésil, terre d'amitié - by Georges Bernanos - paperback - FR - 213p
- Conversazione in Sicilia by Elio Vittorini (1,001) - paperback - IT - read
- Bartleby & Co. by Enrique Vila-Matas (1,001) - paperback - DE - 226p - read
- Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner - audible credit - EN - read
- Leben in Venedig by Dirk Schlümer - paperback - DE read
- The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing - paperback - EN - 159p read
- Il sorriso di Don Giovanni by Ermanno Rea - paperback - IT - 231p
- L'estate senza uomini by Siri Hustvedt - paperback - IT - 231p
- La vita davanti a sé by Romain Gary - paperback - IT - 214p
- I Sommersi e i salvati by Primo Levi - paperback - IT - 188p (1,001)
- The Power is Within You by Louise L. Hay - audible credit - EN read
- Italian self-Help book of which I can't remember the title by Louise L. Hay - IT read

March:
- All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy - Kindle - EN - 302p (1,001) read
- Casino Royale by Ian Fleming - Kindle - EN - 190p (1,001) read
- There But For The by Ali Smith - Kindle - EN - 355p (1,001) read
- Bossypants by Tina Fey - audible credit - EN - ???p
- Amatissima by Toni Morrison - Kindle - IT - 456p read
- Feeling Fine Affirmations by Louise L. Hay - audio book - EN read
- Overcoming Fears by Louise L. Hay - audio book - EN read
- Dave Barry is not taking this sitting down by Dave Barry - audio book - EN - 256p read

April:
- The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole, 1999-2001 by Sue Townsend - Kindle - EN - 282p read
- The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend - Kindle - EN - 272p read
- The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend - Kindle - EN - 292p read
- Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years by Sue Townsend - Kindle - EN - 288p read
- True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole by Sue Townsend - Kindle - EN - 180p read

May:
- Dog Years by Günter Grass - Paperback - DE - 742p (1,001) read
- Wheat Belly by William Davis - Kindle - EN - 292p read
- The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty - Kindle - EN - 178p (1,001) read
- The Complete Enderby by Anthony Burgess - Kindle - EN - 672p (1,001)
- Ebdòmero by Giorgio De Chirico - Paperback - IT - 119p (1,001) read

June:
- Living Vegetarian for Dummies by Suzanne Havala - Kindle - EN - 358p read
- Skinny Bitch read
- If I'm So Smart, Why Can't I Lose Weight? by Brooke Castillo read

Purchases July - ??:

July:
- Khufu's Wisdom by Naguib Mahfouz read
- Loving What Is by Byron Katie - read
- We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler - Kindle - EN - 321p - read
- The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanigan - Kindle - EN - 488p read
- To Rise Again At A Decent Hour by Joshua Fowler - Kindle - EN - 337p read
- The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt - Kindle - EN - 384p read
- The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth - Kindle - EN - ???p read
- Orfeo by Richard Powers - Audible credit - read
- The Plot Against America by Philip Roth - Kindle - EN - 418p - read

August:
- History of the Rain by Niall Williams - Kindle - EN - 355p read
- The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee - Kindle - EN - 505p read
- "The Dog"by Joseph O'Neill - Kindle - EN - 256p read
- J by Howard Jacobson - Kindle - EN - 384p read
- Netherland by Jpseph O'Neill - Kindle - EN - 286p read
- The Road Home by Rose Tremain - Kindle - EN - 486p read
- La voce del violino by Andrea Camilleri - Kindle - IT - 209p read
- Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin - Kindle - EN - 272p read
- How To Be Both by Ali Smith - Kindle - EN - 379p read
- Badfellas by Tonino Benacquista - Kindle - EN - 283p read

September:
- The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell - Kindle - EN - 640p - read
- Gita A Tindari by Andrea Camilleri - Paperback - IT - ??p
- Le Infradito di Buddha by Zap Mangusta - Paperback - IT - 335p
- Diventare Vegani by Brenda Davis - Paperback - IT - ??p
- Rites of Passage by William Golding - Kindle - EN - 276p
- Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald - Kindle - EN - 206p read
- Lost For Words by Edward St Aubyn - Kindle - EN - 272p read
- Us by David Nicholls - Paperback - EN - 399p read
- Io viaggio da sola by Maria Perosino - Paperback - IT - 143p
- In A Free State by V.S. Naipaul - Kindle - EN - 256p read
- How to be German in 50 easy steps by Adam Fletcher - Kindle - EN - 104p read
- You can Heal your Heart by Louise Hay - Kindle - EN - 175p
- another self-help book
- Paradise of the Blind by Duong Thu Huong - Paperback - EN - 258p
- The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens - Paperback - EN - 224p
- Sous le Soleil de Satan by Georges Bernanos - Paperback - FR - 380p
- Taebek Mountains part 1 by Jong-nae Jo - Paperback - FR - 398p

Currently reading and planned:

Reading:
- Le Infradito di Buddha by Zap Mangusta - paperback - IT - 335p - p25
- The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot - free Kindle - EN - 608p - 55%
- Io viaggio da sola by Maria Perosino - Paperback - IT - 143p - p43

no cover pic available

On hold or slow-going:
- Erziehung vor Verdun by Arnold Zweig - 25%
- Staying Alive: real poems for unreal times by Neil Astley - paperback - EN - 464p - 52%
- Alberta and Jacob by Cora Sandel - paperback - EN - 240p - p16



Planned longer reads:

- "1,001 Nights" Richard Burton edition in 16 volumes - finished 5 volumes so far

2014 American Author Challenge:
Trying to read some 1,001s this way

Willa Cather- January - Death Comes For The Archbishop and The Professor's House - COMPLETED
William Faulkner- February - Absalom, Absalom COMPLETED
Cormac McCarthy- March All The Pretty Horses COMPLETED
Toni Morrison- April - Amatissima COMPLETED
Eudora Welty- May - The Optimist's Daughter COMPLETED
Kurt Vonnegut- June - God Bless You, Mr Rosewater COMPLETED
Mark Twain- July - The Innocents Abroad COMPLETED
Philip Roth- August - Plot against America COMPLETED
James Baldwin- September - Go Tell it on the Mountain COMPLETED
Edith Wharton- October - The House of Mirth
John Updike- November - continue the "Rabbit" series
Larry Watson- December - no idea

Booker 2014 LL Challenge:

To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris
The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt
J by Howard Jacobson
The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee
"Us" by David Nicholls
"The Dog" by Joseph O'Neill
Orfeo by Richard Powers
How to be Both by Ali Smith
History of the Rain by Niall Williams

Re-posting it here as well - ad then I'm done with the entry posts!

69. The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee (Booker 2014 LL 7/13)

Two quotes first:
“Poetry, I bid you goodbye today.
The world is prosey with hunger
The full moon is like a piece of singed bread.”

“… that all this talk about ‘the outside world’ turned round to one thing only: what the outside world made of your own life. You were forever at the center of things, the subject of the sentence; it was not the outside world you were thinking of, but where you stood in the regard of that world. He wanted to say to his father that others thought about their own lives too, perhaps more often, more deeply, than they did of his fathers’s”

“He” is Supratik, the book’s protagonist, the oldest grandchild in the house of the Goshes in Kalkutta. The book is set in the late 1960s until 1970, with numerous jumps far back to the youth of Supratik’s grandparents and the following generation.

On retrospect, this might become the greatest book for me on this year’s Booker LL. Certainly not the nicest one and by far (so far) the most uncomfortable one. It hits you on the head, over and over again, and just when you think you can lean back comfortably, thinking “well, those were the bad times, but now everything has changed”, the book makes a last jump into 2012 and you’ll lose that illusion as well. I love this book, but should you set out to read it, be prepared for lots of desperation, some graphic violence especially towards the ending and then something really disgusting I don’t think was necessary for the plot. This isn’t an important spoiler, so I’ll warn you: When Priyo sets out to a brothel, or when he opens the bathroom door to find his sister inside… don’t eat, put all food aside. Or maybe skip altogether the next couple of paragraphs. That’s a sexual practice I’ve heard of, but wasn’t planning to read about. Be also prepared not to especially like anyone, although Mukherjee will make you feel at least some pity or sympathy for most characters.

The book begins with an intro that for a long time seems unconnected to the rest of the story and sets the tone for some harsh scenes the reader has to expect in this book. A poor farmer, after 3 years of drought and days and days without any food, in an act of desperation kills his wife, his three little children and commits suicide.
Then, with chapter 1, the book turns into a classic family saga, rich in words and with a vast list of characters. The Goshes have made a nice fortune with paper mills and are among the best-respected families in their part of the town. From the first chapters on however, Mukherjee makes it obvious that the opinion of the ‘outside world’ is what counts most. In the first couple of chapters the family members are introduced by showing them doing some typical tasks on a certain day at the same time while one of the daughters-in-law calls her teenage daughter Buli back from the terrace “because what should the neighbors think”. That call is the connecting element in those scenes, and I liked the idea.

The family story is then regularly interrupted by diary entries in a different print. Those are linear while the family story jumps back and forward in time. At first the reader doesn’t know who is the writer of the diary and only much later he learns for whom this diary is written and why. I won’t give away much when I say it’s written by Supratik who sets out with two friends to a remote village to spread communist messages and to lead the rice farmers against the oppressive land owners and the corrupted police. He experiences almost two years of extreme physical hardship, living with the farmers, learning their work and starving with them, before planning the first attack.

I was annoyed at each interruption of the saga with diary entries and then again when the diary was interrupted with more saga. Both parts are equally captivating in different ways. Reading the diary, I grew more and more desperate with the hopelessness of the farmers’ situation. Reading the saga, I felt more and more oppressed by the traditional family structures and the impossibility to escape, like being in a box with the walls coming closer. The structure can be confusing in the beginning, but it makes sense and it works. In the family part I felt sometimes reminded of One hundred years of solitude, I can’t say why, maybe it was that growing feeling of doom.

The list has been accused of not being international enough and I can say that so far “navel-gazing” (as Darryl calls it) novels, set in some comfy Western world environment, dominate. Fortunately for me, I liked most of them. This book falls out of that category. It's 100% India, and comfy it might look only in the first chapters. Supratik tries to make “the (improvement of the) lives of others” his main concern, but at some point has to question his own motives and his priorities.

I have no doubts it’ll make it onto the shortlist, if not win the prize. Great and intelligent storytelling and important as well. Maybe my new favorite.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Happy New Thread, Nathalie!

I wasn't able tofollow your previous thread, but I'll try again with this one ;-)
Nice pics of Grimbergen!

Anita

Happy New Thread, Nathalie! Love your opening pictures. Love your review of the Mukherjee, which I'll look forward to reading sometime next year. I see that you need to put at least some of that review on the book page!
I'm eager to know what you're thinking about Orfeo.

>8 Ameise1: Hi Barbara, thank you!
Writing from my old Macbook which means I can visit your thread again today. Stupid office computer can't handle the pics, I hope the MB can.

>9 FAMeulstee: Anita!!! How wonderful to see you here! Yours is another thread I'll visit later today. I hope all's well?

>10 LizzieD: Hi Peggy, thank you!
I have mixed feelings so far about Orfeo. This year's list really IS laden with books about narrators looking at their own lives only, i.e. navel-gazing, Darryl's right. Orfeo is among them and it's also a "looking back on one's life" book, while some of the others deal with the narrator's present situation. I feel less connected to it, maybe also because I have it as audiobook which is such a different experience. It's far from bad bad, but so far its not among my > 4 star favorites. I am in audio chapter 14 of 20, and I hope the narrator's critical present situation will get some more space in the next chapters.

****
Okay, I finished another Booker candidate, "The Dog" by Joseph O'Neill. This book has only negative reviews on amazon and had 2 good ratings here. I enjoyed it far more than I expected, because, again, I could relate to the again navel-gazing protagonist/narrator. But fact is also that the story, if there was one, is quite weak and that the writing is something you'll either love or hate. I love long sentences with countless insertions, and I loved how he used brackets in brackets in brackets (I always wanted to do that!!) or lists, almost mathematical, pseudo-logical.
I rated with 3.8 (4) stars for now, but might lower it to 3.5 later. Most of the negative reviews recall O'Neill's older book Netherland which they say is equally well written, but has a better story. So I bought that, will read it soon and then decide if "The Dog" is really just a shallow copy of that earlier work.

****

The navel-gazing criticism made me think a lot this morning while reading the last pages of TD, and I might post sth later today.

I'll also post a food-update. That last week, spent with my parents, was dominated by cheese-compromises (at least I could avoid the eggs) but had an interesting result.

But first I'll visit some threads. We have a holiday today, so I have a nice long weekend ahead. And yay, it's cool and grey outside, so I can stay in my pajamas and read and LT.

De-lurking to say Happy New Thread, Natalie!

>12 scaifea: Hi Amber! :)
I think I lost your thread a while ago during one of my numerous absences... Looking for it right now!

Okay, starting with the food update, because that's easier to write than the (self-centered) thoughts about self-centered narrators in modern novels.

Please feel very free to skip if not interested!!

General update on my meat-free experiment started in January:
I am now living a 98% vegan life at home and a vegetarian life outside. The remaining 2% at home are cakes. I love cooking but hate baking. And when I bake and the result is good, there's danger I eat it all at once, so most of the time I still prefer buying just one slice. But I am experimenting and since I learned about cashews I already made 2 types of raw + frozen mini-cheesecakes which I actually prefer to the real thing and love so much that I can't even wait for them to de-freeze a bit and almost hurt my teeth biting through iced cashew lime cream.

I still eat my 3-4 small fat-free yogurts per week to remain able to digest lactose. I was absolutely surprised how easy it was for me to cut out the cheese at home. I wanted to reduce it because in my first weeks as vegetarian I just ate way too much of it and felt it didn't do me good, so I stopped buying it "for a bit" I think in April and I havent bought any since. Replacing butter with soy spread was easy because I don't like the taste of butter much. And soy milk stays longer fresh in the fridge, so for my 3 drops for the morning coffee I switched as well.

Now in summer I developed real cravings for raw vegetables with humus and for smoothies. I found I prefer the green ones because they aren't as sweet. And I love lentils and chickpeas and as I haven't missed meat once in all those months I guess my iron levels are good.

I actually gained weight though, not much, but a bit, since changing my diet because that stuff tastes so good. I am now trying to finally, finally limit the sugar. I am eating more sweets than before because the vegan varieties taste better and are less sweet. So when I had half a pot of milk pudding before and no ice cream at all, I now finish my equally caloric soy chocolate puddings and keep buying and eating chocolate ice cream made with rice milk. The result is that I eat more sugar. Not good. :(

Parents week:
Okay, so I spent a week with my parents and as I didn't want to make too much fuss (and more importantly as some of the lunches were with potential DAIRY clients) I behaved vegetarian in the restaurants. And as usual all the kitchens had to offer as alternatives was "something with cheese on top". Worse when the cheese was melted. I really didn't feel good anymore after the first 3 days and it was such a relief when I returned to my own kitchen.
On one occasion all the others had a 4.5 course lunch and I had a 4.5 course vegetarian alternative: fried raviolo with cheese filling as amuse bouche, then salad with goat cheese, mushroom risotto with cheese, grilled vegetables with about a pound of melted mountain cheese on top (which I didn't eat and tried to hide under the remaining vegetables). Dessert was hot chocolate lava cake for all. And it was a humid day with about 40°C and we were sitting outside. Absolutely lovely Michelin-starred restaurant, the food tasted great, but I thought I'd die. I mean - why not put a nice gazpacho on the menu in August? Or offer sth cold with fruits as dessert, like sorbets?

Anyway, I noticed how much meat, hams and sausages my parents eat nowadays while claiming "we eat it only occasionally". I didn't say anything at all, just ordered my salads and friendly refused to "try just one bite".

Now today my dad called me and told me that last night they had been to a restaurant and ordered omelette, because they felt "they should give that vegetarian thing a try, not 100% to be sure, but seeing their own health situation, and noticing that I clearly wasn't starving and seemed healthier than ever, they thought they should maybe change something".
Really - they are free to eat what they want and I really(!!) didn't say anything to influence them, but if my extremely overweight dad with his high blood pressure and blood sugar levels and my just as underweight mother with her arthritis and gastritis would finally PLEASE do something for themselves, it would be so wonderful!! So no, I didn't say a thing about cheese and eggs and won't do so unless asked. :)

You are a very wise woman, and I hope that your parents will work their own way into a healthier diet (a thing that I should do) and that you will continue to thrive on yours!
I had never thought about vegetarian dishes being smothered in cheese. Sounds fine to me, but not 4 times in the same meal!

The only vegan options in restaurants here would be a salad without dressing and maybe the omni-present spaghetti with tomato sauce. In all other dishes the fish or meat is replaced with the weight equivalent in cheese which would often make the meat or fish option "healthier" (less fatty). I can deal with one dish, but 4 were 3 too many. That same evening we had dinner at my parents' hotel and the chef offered to make a nice plate of grilled veggies with cheese especially for me. I had to decline and just used the salad bar that night. :)

But my parents both eat next to no fruits and vegs at all, so if they opt for the salad with cheese in future instead of the steak and fries/roast potatoes, something should (hopefully) improve. My mother doesn't cook anymore, they eat in restaurants several times a week. In between it's sandwiches 3 times a day and once a week a pizza delivery.

Hi Nathalie! Just stopping over to wish you a Happy New Thread and say I've never seen a self dog wash station before. I'll be back to read all I've missed.

>17 Smiler69: Hi Ilana, I also took pictures of the manual. You have to pay 10 Euro for 10 minutes, put your dog in the tub and then there are various buttons for warm water, shampoo and even conditioner. I didn't see it in action though. I doubt dogs like it much, but mainly because it is attached to a carwash and on the busy parking place of a supermarket, so the experience might be stressful for them.

Nice photos to open your new thread, Nathalie; I haven't seen a self dog wash station in the US.

Kudos on your outstanding job of making it through the Booker Prize longlist. I'm glad that you enjoyed The Lives of Others, as it's one of the books I'm looking forward to the most.

>19 kidzdoc: Hi Darryl!
Thank you! I was well-prepared this year: 2 months of almost no reading and many months without contemporary fiction. I was really hungry for that list! :)
TLoO for me is a perfect Booker book: set in a Commonwealth country, great storytelling, challenging writing (structure) and political significance. A serious candidate I'd say, especially in a year where the judges sure want to show that "nothing has changed".
Possible criticisms: Some readers find the structure confusing (it needs getting used to) and the saga part is really rich with characters and very wordy. There is a family tree and a glossary and also an explanation of Indian family names which I all found very useful.

I adore the self-wash dog station!!! I do now have a table outside and a hose connection that provides hot water - it's a little awkward but it has made all the difference as Miss Po loves to roll in horrible things.

And I read your vegan/veg update with great interest. I think your 'management' of Mom and Dad was brilliant. Amazing how example without words can do the trick when no amount of talking and explaining can.

Some restaurants here offer wonderful veg/vegan alternatives and others - as you describe - seem to think cheese solves all problems. Very annoying. I am not a vegetarian but I don't eat meat every day or more than a modest amount once a day, generally. So beans and lentils! Yay!

70. The Dog by Joseph O‘Neill (Booker 2014 LL 8/13)

My 3.8 (4) stars rating is a temporary one because I feel I should read O’Neill’s lauded earlier work Netherland before deciding. Readers often criticize a prize jury’s selection a certain author’s work, claiming that his earlier (overlooked) novel(s) is/are better and usually I don’t care and just look at the one book before me. Here however I was surprised that all of the amazon reviews (until a couple of days ago) were negative and referred to Netherland as a great work and to this one as a shallow plotless copy although most of them admit the writing is great.

That the writing is great was my impression as well, but I guess it’s not for everyone’s taste. I love pagelong sentences and I LOVE brackets. And O’Neill’s non-hero does what I never dared doing: he puts brackets in brackets, like in maths, and takes great care to close them all when the argument is finished which might look like this: )))))). He also loves argumentative lists and formulates e-mails and comments in his head without ever really writing/ sending them, we have that in common. That writing style + all the navel-gazing (have to use Darryl's expression again) and you got a result I really enjoyed but many will hate.

“He” (his real name is never mentioned) is an American with Irish and Swiss roots who after a very bad break-up from his colleague Jenn after a 9year relationship follows the call of his Lebanese ex-school friend Eddy to work for the family corporation and to move to Dubai. In Dubai he leads the typical expat life, or at least what all non-expats expect to be typical. Work isn’t hard, is paid well enough and he asks no questions. As everyone is constantly on the move from one expat destination to the next (Shanghai is coming), real friendships can’t be built and no-one seems to need them. Contact to the locals is almost impossible. Money is easily earned, great apartments are available in impressive buildings, even alcohol, porn and prostitutes are easy to find in that Muslim country. But he has the ambition to do things “right”. If there’s slave labor in the building industry, he makes sure to donate some of his earnings to Human Rights Watch. If he sleeps with prostitutes, they must be “friends” of a friend, and what he wants from them more than everything is that they are nice. This guy clearly is deeply unhappy and has been so all his life. He has been unhappy throughout the relationship with Jenn, and while some readers might think “what an a**hole” while reading about the breakup, I thought the woman was just as delusional as him. You can’t expect happy married life if being in the same room has been such impossibility for so many years.

Some little action comes up when Ted, one of the expats and a guy who lives in the same building, goes missing. It quickly comes out that Ted lead a double life with one wife in the US and one in Dubai. Well wishes and condolences on his facebook page quickly turn into a shitstorm and “he” wonders about the power of social networks that can build you up and destroy you in a minute. He stays away from all that but in the end has to realize that nowadays you can’t hide, that everything is manipulable, that an existence can also be destroyed offline and that no-one is to be trusted in the end.

So yes, it’s another self-centered novel about a wealthy single guy in his 30s. I have no issue with that, everyone is allowed to have problems, independently from their earnings and to think about them a lot. Why not? But it’s also a novel that doesn’t tell the reader anything new. The expat life in Dubai with all its temptations and risks, the results of the building crisis, the power of social media… it was a bit like reading a book (or at times a lifestyle magazine) from 2010, not 2014. The observations are sharp, it reminded me of a more moralistic modernized American Psycho or Money, without all the violence and the drugs.

Rating for now 3.8 stars

I have mixed feelings about the next two books I am going to review.
For me, both suffer from the same problem. I believe that many authors carry certain ideas in their heads for many years, triggered by recent events or by own areas of interest (like music and science in case of RP). They have those perfectly thought-through pieces of work readily formulated in their heads or in their computers and then one day decide to take the step and to spin a story around them. And while writing that framing story they might find that it doesn’t really fit. There are those perfect, long-prepared pieces that want out, must out, but then there’s the pressure to get a coherent story. And the result are books where I am thrown between being in awe with the sheer brilliance and thinking “Oh nonono, please don’t go there” and invariably they go there. Like the authors have written themselves into a dead-end and take the easy way out. It is easier to read a book that’s okay, but not exceptional throughout than one that throws you from one extreme to the next. It was worse with the Roth, therefore the lower rating.

71. The Plot Against America by Philip Roth (AAC August read)

I believe it needs some guts to write alternate history. Stephen Kings 11/22/63 was great, but he took a much easier road, keeping the real alternate part small and indulging instead in a 1960s world he well remembered. Philip Roth’s project is much more ambitious. In his book Charles Lindbergh wins the 1940 presidential election against Roosevelt by promising the people to keep them out of WWII by becoming a Hitler ally. Roth quite convincingly describes the USA’s slow descent into fascism, seen from the eyes of his 8-10 year old self Philip Roth, growing up in the big Jewish community in Newark. A child’s perspective is also handy because you can always use blurred memories or misunderstandings when something doesn’t fit well. I must say I wish he had written from the older brother Sandy’s perspective, that would imo have made for a more interesting read.

The first 25% were great and I read them in one go. Then the book seems to drift into a predictable “teenage son revolts against parents” drama and I had to put it on hold for two weeks, I was so disappointed and didn’t want to read that same old clichéd story again just in a new frame. Well, Roth is a great writer and gets out of that dead end and also avoids some others. Maybe he was actually playing with the readers’ false expectations at those points, I don’t know.

Where I got really disappointed – although being half-prepared by spoiler-free reviews that the ending wasn’t to be so great – were the last 2 parts. I think that’s where the pre-written ideas were all used up and he wanted to come to an easy ending that seamlessly fits the real events. It’s worse that he invented a motif that’s so overblown and bad that it almost destroyed the earlier parts of the book for me. And then, suddenly, the book was finished at 90% when I had expected a bit more of “…and then later” story. The ending is extremely rushed while the book really takes its time in the first half.

I rate with 3.5 stars because we need books that show how fragile our 'safe' democracy is.

>21 sibylline: Aaaaw... I just imagine Posey in the wash station. Yes, all dogs love to roll in horrible things or to eat them. I have some not so fond memories of our cocker spaniel and her preference for decomposed mice... :(

I couldn't believe my eyes on Saturday when I was checking the ads board at the organic food shop and found an ad for a vegetarian/vegan restaurant in Merano. It's well hidden in a backyard and was closed when I checked it, but I'll try it one of these days. I have my doubts that it has a future though. Some interesting dishes with seitan and tofu, but no legumes at all or anything as inventive as a green smoothie. Cheaper meals are the usual steamed vegetables and mixed salads which I hope they'll prepare better than the standard restaurants.

72. Orfeo by Richard Powers (2014 Booker LL 9/13)

I read up on RP today on wiki and wasn’t surprised to see that he “is into” science and music. I was however surprised that he is into IT as well because there are some inconsistencies late in the book where you’d expect the contrary.
I listened to this book on audio which is always quite a different experience and I am not sure I got all the musical references.

The story has multiple levels:
First there’s the today story. The protagonist Peter Els, ex-teacher, ex-composer, now in his early 70s, calls 911 when his beloved dog suffers a stroke. The police arrives and notices his private lab. A day later, new investigators turn up, take a look, notice more suspicious stuff like the print of an Arab song text. When Els returns from his jogging the next morning he finds his house surrounded by police and his apartment being stripped of everything. He understands he is suspected of bio-terrorism and goes into hiding, but not before giving a last and most impressive music lecture in a retirement home. His escape and confrontation with the three most important people from his old life frame the story. And yes, it’s another take at the ‘our democracy is fragile and we are in danger to destroy it from within’ theme. I believe the book wanted to be finished together with the Roth. (Now I am wondering which approach to the same theme Howard Jacobson’s dystopian J will take)

The second level is the usual looking back on his life (yay, navel-gazing again!). Blessed with an incredible talent and ear for music, young Peter concentrates on the avant-garde movement although it would have been easy for him to write the odd pop song to make some money. But he decides to stay true to his ambitions although that costs him everything in his private life. He spends most of his life in solitude, composing pieces no-one will ever hear. Around 1990 his old friend, the dramatist Richard Bonner seeks him out and together they realize an avant-garde opera about the 1530 siege of Munster. The premiere coincides with the Waco siege and again Peter retracts from the world of composing. (I had to look that up, it’s an event that’s not exactly burned into my European brain. And tbh I absolutely didn’t get Els’ scruples here. Those things happen, you certainly didn’t wish for them, but doing what he did? Why?).

Level 3 is where Powers inserted into his story what I believe were prepared analyses of musical pieces that influenced him. Those were the brilliant parts and I’d buy the paper/e-book just to use them as references when I’ll have the occasion to listen to the original music.

Where the story didn’t really fit for me was Els’ mega talent. Where would it have gone if he hadn’t been encouraged to follow it by the women in his life and by Richard? With all his solitary working away and extreme ambitions I wondered if he hadn’t developed a mania? The purpose of his genetic experiments and what he does in the last 2 audio chapters proves that for me. This was for once a self-centered protagonist to whom I didn’t find a connection, I stayed detached from him and his strange decisions throughout the read. Another thing I wondered SPOILER wouldn’t it be a question of minutes to locate a smartphone, especially if the holder twitters away like crazy??

Rating: 3.8 stars (4)

I had a frantic reading/ listening weekend, now I can relax a bit. The Philip Roth was hard to get through but if I had put it down again I might never have finished it. The weather was nice on Sunday for a change, sunny but real cold for August. I took a long walk while listening to and almost finishing Orfeo. Got through the last audio chapter this morning on my way to work.

Now there's J going and then the next candidate, Ali Smith's How to be Both is to be published on the 28th. The Mitchell is due on September 2nd, a day before the SL is announced, and the Nicholls I believe on October 28th (US and Europe) which is 2 weeks after the award. At least in the UK the Nicholls will be out in time, on September 30th.

Those late publishing dates might give me the time to start my September GRs early: Go Tell it on the Mountain for the AAC and The Mill on the Floss for the 1,001 Group.

A WARNING first: the review in the guardian gives the whole mystery away in the first parapgraph. Should you want to read this book, you should better stay away from any reviews until you’re about half through and have an idea where it is leading.

73. J by Howard Jacobson (Booker 2014 LL 10/13)

What can I write about this book without spoiling the story and without doing what I absolutely refuse to do: serve the author’s intent? Not that much, except for a short preview of the setting.

Dystopian novel, set in the not too far future around 2085 I’d say. Decades after WHAT HAPPENED, IF IT HAPPENED happened. WHIIH are the events that lead to the UK now being a cut-off, unhappy place where thinking about history is not wished for and where happiness and love for everyone is prescribed but not followed. Violence abounds, mostly against women as the weaker ones and because an object for real hate is missing. Jacobson’s idea is that mankind needs a “necessary opposite”, otherwise the rage and hatred that is innate in them finds no outlet and will be lived out with the nearest and should-be dearest. In this world, in a remote village by the sea, Ailinn and Kevern are thrown together – by fate or by some strange plan – and fall in love. Both are different, both are not popular, not part of the village community, although Kevern has been born there. Both are orphans and know nothing of their family history. Ailinn lives with Ez, an older woman she met not long ago, after having left the Catholic orphanage where she spent her childhood. Kevern lives on his own after his parents’ deaths, in a small cottage that holds far more antique furniture and family heirlooms than the law permits. He believes to be watched and follows some strange rituals to make sure he’ll detect eventual visits by intruders into his home, without knowing what nourishes that feeling. From his father he also took over the habitude to pronounce words beginning with “J” only by placing two fingers on his lips, again not knowing why.

Kevern is right, he is being watched by a neighbor who provides long reports that bit by bit give the readers an insight into WHIIH. The neighbor has no idea why he is ordered to watch Kevern and who is behind it all.

For the first 50% I felt intrigued by this book. There are subtle hints, but they seem so far off that I thought I was on a wrong track, and I wish it had been so. At around 55% Jacobson stops with the hints and starts throwing bricks at the reader and doesn’t ever stop again.

Now while there is much that speaks for this book and while the bitter-sweet love story was so touching, there are many things I don’t buy of which I can mention only two. I don’t believe we need objects for hatred in our lives. And I don’t believe Jacobson’s “vehicle” here would be the trigger for the big "apocalypse". Maybe he should get out more.
If I wrote anything more about the reasons why I strongly disliked the second half, I’d be jumping on the wagon he so lovingly prepared and I refuse to do that. At least for now. Among other things I feel personally offended by this book and if I told you why you’d know more than you should about WHIIH before even starting the book.

I rate with unobtrusive 3 stars because I refuse to show my opinion in my rating.
I’d say a safe candidate for the SL, I hope not a winner. Why I hope so? Because – independently from my issues – some of the other books I read were simply better.

Maybe Jacobson has succeeded in writing a book that's uncriticizable.

Great reviews all, and I love your indignation. Peggy loves Powers - I have read just the book she gave me and while I was engaged, a part of me always stepped back. Everything has to be so extreme with his characters. As if ordinary or even, somewhat better than ordinary, is insufficient. He is only interested in the super-duper gifted end of the spectrum. Where few abide. What bothered me was a hint that these super-gifted are worth more than any of the rest of us. Didn't care for that.

Maybe if the vegan restaurant is ever open you can ask if they are considering LENTILS!!! And - heavens - I think of Italians as the masters of those lovely white beans in a little garlic and olive oil. I have tried and tried to replicate that - mine are always, even if only very slightly, mushy!

>29 sibylline:: Thank you! If Peggy loves Powers I'll probably try another one soon. Super-duper gifted end of the spectrum is definitely right, but now some days later I am wondering if I was meant to believe in Els' godlike talent or if I should pity him for clearly having lost it? Maybe a bit of both which would speak for Powers. I mean spoiler composing in bacterial DNA? Composing in outer space by sending crazy-sounding twitter messages? If that's genius it's genius boiled far over.

Food:
I believe those beans are traditionally cooked in huge bottles over an open fire. It's not too unrealistic because polenta is still prepared over open fire where possible, though in a kettle. I tried the easy home version of those beans once and my recipe also had sage. Loved it!
I also love lentils and chickpeas. Lentils in all forms (also as fake meat on tacos) and chickpeas mainly as salad with tomatoes, olives and lots of parsley. Eating more vegan I notice how well those old recipes are often attuned to nutritional needs - like adding parsley (vitamin C) to chickpeas for better iron absorption.
I now tried chia seeds for the first time. Those are still new in the EU and the recommended daily intake is limited to 2 tablespoons! :)
Well, I follow mainly US recipes and there the chia and hemp seeds are just "thrown in" everywhere by half-cups, so I just go along.

Such thoughtful reviews, Nathalie! I am looking forward to Orfeo, and I do encourage you both to read other Powers. The Echo Maker, for example, has no super-duper gifted individuals except maybe for one doctor. My favorite in memory remains The Gold Bug Variations - Bach and the human genome and computers. I would never recognize if-y IT assertions.

>31 LizzieD: Thank you for the recommendations, Peggy! The Gold Bug Variations isn't published on Kindle , so I did that "please publish for Kindle" request on amazon and put it on my WL for now. The other one is available and I got the test chapter.

****
I started the relatively short Netherland by Joseph O'Neill yesterday and I begin to see what many readers of "The Dog" criticize. 25% in it is basically TD with a bit more "meat" - this time the lonely expat guy lives in NY and is seperated from his wife who lives in London with their little son. Instead of diving he plays cricket and, cricket being a team sport, has some more acquaintances. TD might be the consequence of Netherland with O'Neill basically taking the same protagonist and stripping him off most human relationships - no colleagues, no friends, traumatic break up pre-marriage-and-kids, even taking away his name.

Nathalie, one more recommendation for you ---- Tremain's The Road Home is my favorite. She follows the fortune of Lev (last name escapes me), who arrives in London from an unnamed eastern European country and fortunately falls into the restaurant business. I dearly love Lev, and love the book which won the Orange in '09 without violence, incest, abuse, or any of the other must-haves for serious fiction these days.
Meanwhile, I'm happy to have a copy of Netherland which I do mean to read sometime.

>33 LizzieD: Yay, that makes me so happy! :))
I had a look at Tremain's books on amazon, saw that one, read the blurb and thought "this sounds so good, I hope Peggy recommends it and doesn't say "stay away!!"". Goes straight on top of my tbr!

I am hundred percent on Tremain too. And I am going to try another Powers sometime - the story has remained strong in my head. Always a good sign.

I still eat some meat once in a while, and have been eating more fish this summer on the grill, maybe once a week, but mostly I tend to eat a vegetarian diet, and my favourite salad this summer has been a variation on tabouleh that I make with the basics; loads of parsley and coriander and tomato and cucumber (no onion of any kind because they give me tummy trouble when raw), into which I add cooked then cooled down quinoa and chick peas, then good Cretan virgin olive oil, lots of fresh lemon juice, powdered cumin, sea salt, ground 5 pepper mix. I eat the stuff by the vatful. Well, not quite, but I never tire of it. I think chick peas are my favourite beans, so I don't vary enough. I like the canellini (white) beans too. I love lentils, and have some here, but never think of preparing them. The ones I have are many years old, so maybe that's why. When I was growing up, there was no expiration date on those things, but now I don't know... what do you think?

I'm impressed with your reading lately, especially since I haven't really done any serious reading this summer (i.e. literature) at all, except maybe for Amsterdam by Ian McEwan last week which I really loved. Mostly I've been reading YA and murder mysteries, typical summer fare, which for me isn't typical at all since I usually like to vary my reading a lot more, but for some reason I'm needing to keep it light lately. I started listening to The Dog Stars by Peter Heller a few days ago, and while the writing was beautiful, I saw it start to plunge me into doom and gloom, and I wasn't going to let it do that to me, so switched to the latest Camilleri, Excursion to Tindari. I've decided to read the entire series over again from the beginning, and that one is new to me and I'm really enjoying it, especially as I got this one as an audio from the library and it's the British version read by a narrator I much prefer to the American one.

I answered to your response about the body issues on my thread. I think being from the same generation and having similar sensibilities you can probably understand better why I made those initial comments. I feared I mind offend some readers, because I KNOW I ALWAYS offend my mother (who is extremely overweight) with those kinds of comments about my weight, but I can't be faulted if my desirable standard for myself it to be... slender. But of course, women being women, we always end up projecting each other's body images on each other. It gets complicated. I doubt it'll ever get simpler.

Nathalie, I wish you a gorgeous weekend full of reading.

>35 sibylline: Finished my first and certainly not last Tremain today and managed to make it my #75, yay! :)

>36 Smiler69:: that tabouleh variation sounds delicious, Ilana! I'll make it the next time I get coriander (almost impossible to find, I even tried to grow it several times, but it always dies quickly... ). I also avoid onions and in most cases replace garlic with asa foetida.
About those lentils: I don't know if they turn bad or just lose all taste and texture when cooked after many years. Maybe you can still use them for blind-baking cake crusts, so they aren't wasted?

Your reread of the Montalbano series inspired me to finally get to book #4, despite my difficulties with the Sicilian dialect. I don't really like him, but I guess I am not meant to. Quite enjoying the book so far.

Re. the body image I noticed some years ago that while I wanted to be slim for myself, to enjoy my reflection in a mirror or shop window instead of going "eew...", I couldn't cope with the extra attention a thinner body always brought. So I almost automatically drifted back to a higher weight (just a dress size) that moved me out of the focus and made me invisible again.

>37 Ameise1: Wishing you a relaxing weekend as well, Barbara! :)

Food:
So, I made it to the vegan restaurant for lunch yesterday. Usually avoiding gluten, I have next to no seitan experience, but I made an exception and ordered the seitan with mushrooms and lots of vegetables. It was surprisingly good and also surprisingly close to a veal roast in looks and texture, though the taste was different. I can see how seitan is popular as a meat substitute if people are used to their meat + 2 veg in a restaurant. I couldn't have it everyday though.
The portion wasn't big, so I thought I could have a dessert as well, and that was fresh-from-the-oven dark and moist chocolate cake. To die for, and I almost died while unsuccessfully trying to finish it. I interviewed the waitress about their future plans and she told me the menu would change monthly and that they now had a bigger menu for the evening including a selection of antipasti and that they also just started offering salads and sandwiches during the day. So that looks promising and I'll try to support them with my visits. :)

Reading:
The sun's finally out again and is promised to stay for the week, so I'll be off now for a walk. Just wanted to say that I managed to finish book 75 today, The Road Home by Rose Tremain. I'm so glad that I got there while it's still summer, after my reading funks in May and June.

Happy Sunday, everyone!

Nathalie, congrats on reaching

>40 Ameise1: Thank you, Barbara! :)

Hooray! Reaching 75 is an achievement!

Yay for 75 Nathalie! Unlike you, so far I've only been looking out for Rose Tremain's historical fiction, as I'm so fond of that genre and she does it so well. Looking forward to your comments on The Road Home.

Congratulations on finishing 75 books, Nathalie!

Congratulations on reaching 75 books, Nathalie! I must say once again that I am a big fan of your well-thought-out reviews. I loved the mini-rant about author's self-absorption, although I do love a good navel-gazing book on occasion. I'm glad your new way of eating is working well for you. I like the 2% cakes part! I am trying to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. It is easy to do this time of year with such a great variety…and the fun of going to a farmer's market!

Congrats!

Congratulations on the big 75!!!

>42 sibylline:, >43 Smiler69:, >44 kidzdoc:, >45 Donna828:, >46 drneutron:, >47 LizzieD: Thank you all! I was much slower this year than in 2013 and I believe in 2012 but still better than expected. I might get to 100 after all.

74. Netherland by Joseph O‘Neill

It’s like I thought – when you read both Netherland and The Dog, you’re likely to prefer the one you read first and see the other one as the same story in a not too different dress. I read the guardian’s lukewarm review for The Dog, and in the last paragraph they say as well they would probably have loved that book if Netherland didn’t exist.

As I said in an earlier post, here we have a Dutch expat in New York instead of an American expat in Dubai. This expat was lucky to be given a name, Hans van den Broek, while the Dubai guy remained nameless. Both have gone through a difficult break-up. Hans makes an effort to be more social, he plays cricket in a team and works in a bank, so has some colleagues. 9/11 automatically adds some depth to Netherland and the character of Chuck was an interesting addition as well, as was Hans’ reaction to him, although I wish O’Neill had explored that a bit further. It’s as if O’Neill had thought “now I’ll take Hans and strip him off everything that connected him to the world – colleagues, wife, kid, friends/ (cricket) team buddies and a cultural surrounding that reminds him of home, and let’s see what’s left”.

I myself prefer The Dog – probably because I read it first, but also because I like the reduced setting. In comparison Netherland felt crammed with side stories and side characters that had not much influence on the development of the protagonist. And really – I have no connection whatsoever with either cricket or baseball and so the repeated droning on turf quality was tiring for me. Over long parts of Netherland I was just bored and I can see how readers who know and like this book will have the same problem with The Dog. You just know the guy already and in book 2 you’ll stop caring about him. I rated with 3.5 stars because it's not this book's fault I didn't read it first.

Rating: 3.5 stars

This is NOT free of spoilers!

75. The Road Home by Rose Tremain

I agree that Tremain writes beautifully and I forced myself to read slowly instead of devouring the story.
Her characterizations often felt inconsistent, but that made her people human and believable and kept me thinking and analyzing and arguing with them in my mind throughout the book. It was quite an intense read.

After finishing I read some reviews on LT and was surprised that most readers seem to like Lev and to “feel for him”. I must say I disliked him strongly for most of the book and I saw that as strength of the writing – I was in his head and understanding his train of thoughts most of the time, but I didn’t like him, I didn’t want to read those thoughts. I lost my patience with him and wanted to kick him already on page one and only liked him better in the almost to-good-to-be-true ending. I couldn't believe myself - I mean I even found sth likeable in that dentist in the Ferris novel. Maybe Lev showed some characteristic which I don't like about myself and therefore can't excuse in others.

Tremain leaves it open from which “Eastern European country that just became a full EU member” Lev originates. But any full EU entry takes a couple of years, and therefore I was surprised that the country remained in that unmoving post-communist state while having had the time to become an EU member. And while I of course understood Lev’s motivation for leaving that place to find a job abroad, I absolutely didn’t see how he could get on a bus to London of all places without any real preparation. If he had the time to learn as much English as he did, wouldn’t it have been possible to find out how much money is required in the first weeks from a teacher/emigration advisor instead of relying on a village friend who’s never set foot outside of the country? Wouldn’t it have been possible to organize a first job and first place to stay from there? In Italy and Germany those immigrants often arrive in organized groups, contracts already signed, to do cheap work on building sites or fruit picking or even in slaughterhouses before looking for something better, unless they already have friends/ family in the new place and stay with them in the beginning (as Lydia does). So that first part with Lev being completely lost in London, non-stop smoking, with those vodka bottles in his bag went against me and I didn’t feel any pity, mainly annoyance because he was so badly prepared, especially as he had to provide for a family at home. I was relieved when after about 12% of the book he was settled in a first job (and a nice one with a real salary and social insurance - quite incredible!) and a clean room and had time to look for new acquaintances. Really – how would Lev have ended without Lydia? Doubtlessly as a homeless drinker, asking passers-by for a coin after a while while feeling sorry for himself.

My main concern with Lev was his general passivity which I am not ready to excuse with the death of his wife and his job loss. In all his memories of the good old times with Rudi or Marina, said Rudi or Marina were the motors moving things forward with Lev following. He often seemed sluggish and that didn’t change much during his romance. Lack of open communication was another big issue. couldn’t he have asked her what that play was about, btw.? Couldn’t she have told him in advance, being aware of his non-understanding of modern culture??. I hated his jealousy and his unfair punishment of Marina in his memories. I hated his escapes into drink when something went wrong and his consequent looking for help from others (Lydia) and then not following their advice. Yes, understandable insofar as it fit his character. But likeable? I liked him only when he dealt with food and old people and Christy. And yet, I found that part between job#1 and “great idea” more true than the last 20% where he finally gets his act together.

Yes, Tremain is great! I think it needs some courage to crawl into the thoughts of such a difficult character as Lev and to make him come to life and to force the readers to go along with him.
The last part was feel-good writing and more “enjoyable”, but also weaker. What was Eva’s role by the way?

I could write another long paragraph just on Sophie – the second contradictory and therefore believable character. Lydia was another interesting person and I wish she had been given more space. She said something in her last encounter with Lev that shows Tremain's tremendous insight into people's motivations.

Is it her speciality to give us people we can’t crack with our usual novel-logic? I wondered if people in other novels are really that one-dimensional that a Lev and a Sophie can fall out of the range so considerably and that reading them can make me feel so uncomfortable.

Rating: 4 stars

>45 Donna828: Donna, I generally love those navel-gazing books! That's why I am quite happy with this year's Booker list. They are like self-help books.

I am lucky to have a wonderful small fruit shop round the corner that opened last year. They are extra strong in regional fare and buy much directly from local farmers. It makes such a difference in quality and taste although it's not necessarily organic. But it's fresh and ripe and therefore tastes good. I go there twice a week and always buy a huge and heavy bag of stuff (I mean - consider just the weight of a melon...) and it costs less than in the supermarkets. Right now it's the season for apricots and chanterelles and I can't get enough of those.

Oh my goodness! I see that I'll have to read *TRH* again in the light of your review. Not being European, I have no idea about what it takes to join the EU or how easy it is to find an emigration advisor, but I will say that I obviously accepted Lev's ignorance of what he was getting into more easily than you did. Good review, Nathalie!!!

>52 LizzieD: No worries! :)
Sure it is possible to do what Lev did, I'd just say it's not likely for a guy of his age with a family, more something a young man (Vitas) might be doing. The English teacher seemed to me also a kind of emigration counsellor in his memories. Didn't she among other things advise her students to get a mobile phone asap? They would have discussed cost of living as well I'm sure.
Honestly, I had the impression RT had a story to tell and didn't want to bother too much with background research, therefore also the unknown country of origin and the blurred ending. I don't mind much, it still was a great read. The importance was in the character interaction during Lev's time in The UK.

>50 Deern: I haven't yet read The Road Home, but some of your comments about Lev don't seem too far fetched to me. Friends of ours were confronted a couple of years ago by a Polish (I think) immigrant knocking at the door looking for casual work who had literally just arrived in the UK, and walked the few miles from the airport. No job, and not enough money to even get to somewhere where he was likely to find a job. That must be unusual, but it does happen. He ended up staying in a tent in my friend's garden for several days while they sorted out a job for him with a local farmer, but he was hugely lucky that he found someone who was prepared to do that.

>54 SandDune: Hugely lucky - yes, definitely! :)
As I said above, sure it's possible. Maybe I have been thinking too much instead of just accepting the setting.

****
Reading the 4th Montalbano novel La Voce del Violino while waiting for the next Booker candidate (How To Be Both by Ali Smith) to be published on Thursday. I find it surprisingly easy to read - either my Italian has improved or there's less swearing - but I also find it quite boring. I have an idea where it will end, but am not interested in the investigations at all. I don't really like Montalbano as a character and that has nothing to do with Livia. Not much food mentioning yet either.

I also started Go Tell It On The Mountain for the September AAC, but that one reads so quickly that I put it on hold, not wanting to finish it in August, because that would mean I'd have to read another one I guess?

76. La Voce Del Violino by Andrea Camileri (Montalbano series #4)

It rarely happens nowadays that I feel a craving for a “giallo”, a crime novel, but now it’s summer, so I decided to finally go on with the Montalbano series. I had my murder mystery phases, repeatedly reading the Poirots and the Miss Marples, all the early Mangkells before they became repetitive and too violent and dark, a good portion of the Brunettis by Donna Leon as well. I read 3 Lord Peter Whimseys, but those are “winter mysteries” for me. I like Marco Malvaldi’s series although the cases are simple, but the old men quartet makes up for it. But I just can’t connect to Montalbano. Maybe because I know too many people like him, maybe because there’s some Montalbano in me and it’s a part I am trying to improve, I don’t know…

I love Sicilia, I enjoy the general setting, I just dislike the man. He has a great sense for justice which is one reason why he refuses a career which automatically would throw him into the mafia pond. I respect that. But I don’t respect that he can’t even try to make peace with this situation. If you can’t change it, then love it or leave it I was told once in my old job. I tried my best to love it, and then I left it. Montalbano should make an effort to "love it", but all I feel coming from him is impatience and a grudge against everyone who enjoys life (Mimi!). I hate how he looks down on everyone else, always conscious that he could reach so much higher than all of them if he only wanted. And if one of those “lower beings” goes for a career, he acts jealous (although he for the above good reason refuses promotions) and dismissive. And don’t get me on Livia. It gives me pain to read their scenes because this is such a dysfunctional relationship on both sides. Or I should better say: two people who both can't live a close relationship and try to pretend to each other and the world that they want one. After book 3 I wondered how they would dispose of Francois and Camilleri went for the obvious and most agreeable way. I could write pages and pages on Livia and her reaction. Let me just say, I understand it wasn’t so much about Francois.

Anyway – no promotion offer in this book and not too many Livia scenes. Instead for once a clear-cut murder case, quite straight and easy. M solves it because he acts less clumsy than the rest. A nice new role for the mafia. A new character I hoped would be the killer, but wasn’t and now I fear will become annoying in future books. I miss a character that was killed off in book 2 and gave so much life to the stories. Since he’s gone the language is so much tamer. Where’s all the swearing gone? And the food… well… I’ve been to Sicilia and most of the food there is delicious, but surprisingly heavy, given the climate. Adelina’s dishes often sound appetizing, but M’s typical 4 course lunches would block my arteries and kill me in a month. I'd get through the day on fresh fruit and those sticky super-yummy almond sweets... *sigh* ... time to plan my next trip :)

Yes, I will continue with the series, but slowly.
Rating: 3 stars

Nathalie, I can see why Montalbano gets on your nerves, but at the same time, I feel compassion for him for the same reasons; there are so many people in his situation, including being stuck with a love life that is less than satisfactory. Few people are able, for all kinds of reasons, to make the difficult choices it takes to make themselves happier. After all, there are no guarantees. My mother is one of those who has always been willing to take risks all her life and refused to get tied down to anything, and never resisted criticizing me for taking the 'safe' way out and compromising these last years, but honestly, I look at her (figuratively of course, since haven't seen her in over a decade!) and don't at all see a happy person, so I'm forced to conclude there really isn't a formula for happiness, including "following your intuition", and I say this as someone who has done so many times in the past and has f***ed up royally in the process. Not that my experience speaks for everyone. Also, it's really impossible in the end for one person to judge another's happiness, when you think about it.

But now that I'm revisiting Montalbano for the 2nd time, I see a man who is stuck with some not so great circumstances to deal with, yet at the same time gets enjoyment out of life in his own way; he lives right next to the ocean, he eats like a gourmet every day, he reads good literature, he gets to express his annoyance and piss off people whenever he gets the urge to... not so bad, no? Hmmm.... Maybe I've got Sicilian blood in me... Or probably it's a combination of that French Canadian and Irish blood that can somehow sympathize! :-)

I've been very lazy in more ways than one this summer, including intellectually speaking. It must have started because of the unending migraines, which meant I had trouble taking in anything too complex or demanding, so that I've been reading loads of YA and mysteries and hardly any literature at all. That is not my usual, as I tend to mix it up a lot more and quickly get bored with only "light" fare, but I've been enjoying it, so that's what matters I guess. I'm hoping this fall I'll be able to return to more substantial books though, because there are many many on the tbr!

Ilana, I am sorry if I offended in some way. I DO generally understand him and I guess in a normal novel I wouldn't complain at all. I see some of my own issues reflected in him and when I think "why doesn't he/Livia finally get their **** up and do something about themselves" then I know that this anger also refers to my own sluggishness and other characteristics that aren't great.
But somehow, in a detective, in a protagonist in such a long series, my requirements are different. I want "my" detective to like his job. I mainly want to follow the murder mystery and not the detective's personal issues. Maybe that's why I prefer the old style. And that's also why I gave up on the Mangkell's or don't watch any of those "(superhero of your choice) How It All Started" movies. Because those are books/ movies I consume for entertainment and easy distraction. I should get back to Lord Peter asap. :)

Not offended in the least, no worries. I do think the hyper-flawed 'hero' is characteristic of modern detective series. I agree about Mankell. I almost decided to give up in Kurt Wallander, book 2, The Dogs of Riga, when he gets so nervous at one point he suffers an upset stomach and must have a bowel movement there and then and has it in a trash bin. Really?!?!?!? You'd never have seen that in the Golden Age novels, that's for sure. That made me long for Dorothy L. Sayers too, so I know what you mean. ;-)

edit: typo

OMG, that's the one thing I really remember from the Wallanders except for the overall grey atmosphere. I would happily not have read that in a detective novel.. :(

Sorry to remind you. I hope there's nothing like it in the subsequent novels, because I will give up. I don't need that at all. Who does, honestly? I'll give the next book a chance (have them all on audio from the library) and we'll see. But they really are very grey aren't they?

How odd. I don't remember that from *Riga* at all - even when you mention it. On the other hand, I haven't read another Wallander since. Of course, Lord Peter is my perfect man.

>61 Smiler69: Should you ever read The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee, better check my warnings in my review. :)

>62 LizzieD: I love my mystery classics, even if they all follow the same pattern. Best if it's a murder in some manor house. I mean the modern ones are just as predictable, it's just a different pattern, and while I can handle feeling depressed after reading some great stand-alone novel, I just don't want to feel all bad after a series mystery. But that's just me...
Which reminds me that I started a nice Indian series recommended by Barabara this year and I should get to book 2 soon. Now that was nice food mentioned on every second page!

****
I punctually started the Ali Smith Booker candidate How To Be Both this monrning and I am confused. Checked the net for reviews and found only one in the Independent, saying it's two books and which version I am reading is a random thing depending on which copy I grab in the bookshop (how do they handle that with ebooks?). Parts of the one are integrated into the other and vice versa. I thought Kingsnorth's The Wake would be this year's stylistic challenge, but here we have another demanding one.

Hi Nathalie and congrats on thread #3 AND reaching 75! Also congratulations are in order for being a wonderful influence on your parents. I hope they change they diet even if it's in a minor way. Anything would be better than carrying on as before. You're a great daughter to know that it's sometimes better to teach others by doing rather than rant, rave and then regret. Sorry to have to say it, but from my experience, maturing parents need cared for just like little tikes.

How interesting about the Ali Smith! I've read only one of hers, Hotel World, but I thought that it was outstanding - innovative and captivating. *HTBB* hasn't been released here yet, but a glance at Amazon doesn't show a Kindle edition coming out. I remember Lampriere's Dictionary that had a male and female version, but I think that they were identical except for a paragraph (or page or sentence) or two. Again, I'll be waiting to see what you think.

Gosh, I've had The Accidental waiting in the stacks forever. I really am behind the times.

Speaking of which, I gave some thought to our conversation, at least in regards to Mankell and once again, am seriously questioning why I'd even want to continue with that series. Not like I got anything out of it with the first 2 books, and not like I'm lacking for things to read/listen to either!

>62 LizzieD: I'm surprised you forgot that bit. Just as well really. It shocked me so much it's now scorched into my memory, and every time I think of Mankell I think of that. If I were a writer, I certainly wouldn't want that to be my legacy. I'm thinking I should read/listen to more just to give him a chance to scrub my memory cells clean.

>64 Carmenere: Hi Lynda, thank you!! Well, I am a bit too old for raving with my parents now I guess. I am surprised that they accept what I am doing, this is quite new, they are extremely critical people. I guess it has to do with the shock it gave them, especially my dad, when I had to start my therapy sessions 2 years ago.
But like they are now finally respecting (most of) my decisions, I have to do the same and to accept that if they want to continue living unhealthy despite of all the good things life has to offer nowadays, there's nothing to discuss. In theory they know it all, but words are in most cases useless. I saw for myself that I am more likely to be inspired by people who live differently and seem happy than by those who just talk about it.

>65 LizzieD: I only read her There But For The which I quite liked although the 4th character (the chapters are named "There", "But", "For" and "The" and each has a protagonist) was too technical to be real. Ali Smith seems to be a very experimental writer and I love that. *

I am still an amazon.com client although they try to persuade me to finally switch to amazon.it. (Reason is that I am also on audible.com and as soon as I switch I'll lose the option of those read/listen combos.). Anyway, they know where I am from my IP, so I am subject to publishing dates in my region which is probably the reason that I got HTBB already yesterday. **

>66 Smiler69: Well, for myself I never thought I'd have to read a complete series only because I started it. I gave up on the Brunettis for example when I was no longer able to distinguish them. I want to continue with the Camilleris for a bit though, they are so popular in Italy.

+++++++++++++++

* I took one thing from the Hustvedt book and am slowly trying to incorporate it into my life. Harriet's son is said to be a young man who lives a very free life in many aspects, he likes to "bend the categories". I love that expression. I have it on the wall above my desk at work.
We are all too willing to label everything, ourselves included and then to stay within the often just imagined bounds of that drawer that carries the respective label. "Bending the categories" in our heads and be it just in smallest steps, is so liberating. I guess Ali Smith does just that. She wrote conventional novels and now she's trying to do things differently. The result isn't necessarily great or successful, but taking the step counts. I'll read more of her books. I don't love this one yet, but find it really inspiring.

**
Okay, that's how I understand the book so far: the 'ghost' of an Italian painter from the 1400s, Francesco, wakes up in his own painting that hangs in a museum in I guess either London or NY. He is understandably confused. Two people are watching his work, a pretty blond woman and a young boy. Francesco realizes he's somehow connected to the boy, he's forced to follow him and watch him. He soon recognizes the short-haired boy is really a girl, i.e. "both". Francesco is both as well, which the reader soon learns when F. gives away his first memories.
See? They both bend the gender categories!! :)

The girl is constantly taking pictures with her tablet which F. sees as a modern painting device.

I am now at 15% and the book starts growing on me. There are elements I enoy less, like the usual "historical character speaking with today's voice".

I believe the second version of the book (if it really exists) has its focus more on the girl, probably describing her thoughts while watching the painting.

The ebook starts with "you can either chose eyes or camera", but there wasn't anything I could have actively done. I just paged forward and got "eyes" which clearly stands for Francesco, while "camera" must be the girl and the way she views the world through the tablet camera.

This is an exciting idea and I am looking forward to the further development.

Francesco is Francesco del Cossa, a renaissance painter in Ferrara and Bologna. The frescoes described in the book are in the palazzo Schifanoia (the palace that will chase away boredom), to be found on wikipedia (sorry, can't do links on the ipad).
I've now read 234 of 372 pages, but am only at 31% or location 2456 of 7693. I guess that means the ebook has both book versions and will at about 50% start a second page count.

I'm sorry Nathalie, but I'm not sure I know which book you're talking about?

>69 Smiler69: sorry, I should have mentioned it's How To Be Both by Ali Smith. Quite enjoying it now.

Ah ok, forgive me, I'm struggling a bit with the migraine, which is preventing me from thinking clearly. You'd mentioned it above, but I failed to make the connection.

>71 Smiler69: No, I should have typed it. I admit I am lazy with titles when writing on the ipad because those brackets are so well hidden on the keyboard. :)

I looked at some de Cossa paintings on google last night and there are elements I liked a lot.

Well, I finished the How To Be both last night. Doubtlessly, many readers will hate it and call it artsy overblown blah or similar. I enjoyed it and for me personally, it was inspiring as it really tries to "bend the categories" in more than just one way (gender).

The fascinating element really is the order of reading. The book is just two parts, one focussing on Francesco's voice, the other on the girl's thoughts. I see that reading George first, gives the whole thing a different meaning and a different rhythm. It would also be the more conventional story that way. Now my version did Francesco first which gives it an ethereal atmosphere, but is clearly less harmonic and the ending is no ending. It felt incomplete.
After the ending the book started again (camera version, with the identical George part first).
I guess the paper copy also has both versions and you can just open and read it in two ways?
Anyway, should someone want to read it, I don't know which way to recommend. I liked mine. Maybe best let the book chose for you.

Hi Nathalie, I wish you a fabulous weekend.

Back on my rock and looking in - loving the food/books :) I'm a loving meat sort of gal, but I love my veggies too and some of what you describe sounds amazing. I also recognise that craving for fresh veggies and dips well - my friends think I'm crazy cos I love celery!

Your Roth looks good, at least to start. Mine has been a struggle (Operation Shylock) and I'm only a third through. I think it'll be a struggle to the end, which will be way outside August, for the first month this year (ignoring Jan, when I wasn't playing and caught up afterwards).

Also WOOOO 75! Congrats :)

Congratulations on your 75, Nathalie :)

>73 Ameise1: Thank you Barbara, and a fabulous week to you!!

>74 BekkaJo: I loved my meat, but I realized long ago that with the exception of a nice grilled medium rare beef or lamb steak, the taste nowadays is in the preparation and the spices (although I saw on TV that in the UK you can still get some excellent free-range pork). Most other meats are so bland and watery that they need spicing up, crispy breading, etc. - and that can be easily done with tofu or seitan as well. I've had some organic breaded seitan schnitzels from a supermarket in Germany that were far tastier then the cardboard-like veal ones you get in most restaurants here.
The steak craving usually came with an iron deficiency, so since I increased the legumes and iron-carrying vegetables like rocket, that craving has completely vanished. For months I said "I'll make an exception for a real Chianina bistecca" (Chianina are the white free range cattle held in herds in Maremma/Tuscany), but now I don't think I would.
I like the taste of celery, but I don't sleep well when I had it, so I only use it sparingly as ingredient in soups and sauces. What a pity, it's the perfect veggie for dips of all kinds.

>75 PiyushC: Thank you Piyush! :)

How to be both sounds like an interesting concept, I quite like these bold writers who are game to try something a little different (and have publishers willing to indulge them).
I've got Fiona Farrell's book The hopeful traveller which is 'written in two halves, this is a book to be read from either end. Begin with the past and race toward the future, or begin with the present and circle back towards the past.' I've read one of her books but still not started this one.

#76 I think a lot of people have the same thoughts - my Dad shoots and fishes however so we get a lot of game and wonderful fresh fish and shellfish. I am a lucky lady :)

You make my eyes itch to read the A. Smith, Nathalie. I will be on the watch for it. In the meantime, I could read my copy of The Accidental. I also notice that the price of There But for the is down into my range for the hardcover, but I'd rather have it in pb. I don't want to read experimental stuff all the time, but I do enjoy having the boundaries stretched. I expect my current ARC Monastery to do that; Halfon's earlier book (which features the same protagonist/narrator, Halfon) certainly did it in spades.

About How To Be Both: I am considering spending a weekend in Ferrara now, I'd really like to see those frescoes. I just love the story around them - small spoilers following for the historical part of the book, but that's also what you'd find on wiki when you look up del Cossa: they were hidden in a room that has been used as stable and what-not for centuries, the walls painted over numerous times. People found the letter of that young artist, Francesco del Cossa, to the project sponsor (names...) asking for more money because he hadn't just been an assistant of the main artist, but responsible for the months March - May. So the frescoes were found under all that old and dirty wall paint, and his were extra-well conserved, because he'd bought his own colors from Venetian producers at high cost.

And then in 2012 the earthquakes around Bologna almost destroyed the building and only the room with the month frescoes has now been re-opened for visitors!

>77 avatiakh: The hopeful traveller is noted! I also really loved Mitchell's Cloud Atlas with the onion construction.

>78 BekkaJo: yes, you are! :)
In History of the Rain there's a scene where a freshly caught salmon is cooked. It gave me such a craving that I'd almost given in. But then I remembered that the only salmon I can get here is frozen and from fish farms, probably full of antibiotics. And not just un-pc, but also in taste at best a sad shadow of the real thing.

>79 LizzieD: The Accidental and Monastery are noted as well. :)
Catching so many BBs this month!
I enjoyed TBFT, but it isn't so special that you should get the hardcover.

Reading plans for September:

- The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot for the 1,001 GR
- Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin for the AAC
- The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell for my 2014 Booker challenge
+ working off some BBs.

I'd love to join the Martin Chuzzlewit GR, but the Eliot and the Mitchell are already over 600 pages. Maybe I'll follow with a delay, it's been ages since I read a Dickens novel.

I finished a wonderful fun novel while waiting for the Mitchell, Badfellas by Tonino Benacquisto. I would have loved it, had it not been for the very weak and inconsistent last part. I noticed I missed the movie both in cinema and on Sky Italy. Maybe I can get hold of the DVD somewhere.

Oh - I'll be doing Go tell it on the mountain too. I can't decide whether to force myself to finish the Roth first or to gazump it and just let it take its sweet time.

Oh, I've been wanting to get to The Mill on the Floss for such a long time! I'd join you, but September is already way, WAY overbooked. Will look forward to your comments though. The Bone Clocks too. As for Martin Chuzzlewit, I was tempted, but same story, plus I have several other unread Dickens novels on the tbr, while this one remains on the wishlist for now.

Nathalie, I will be reading The Bone Clocks with you as soon as the ER gods send it to me. My reading boundaries are just fine with me so I'll take a pass on How to Be Both, for now anyway! Have a good week!

I'm waiting for The Bone Clocks too. I hadn't checked to see how long it was, but I'll be starting it when it comes. YAY!

>83 BekkaJo: Sorry, haven't read that Roth, so I can't give an advice. But I guess the Baldwin is quite a quick read. Maybe you can do that one first and then see how you feel about the Roth?

>84 Smiler69: I tried to start The Mill on the Floss several times over the years and never got over the first two pages with that landscape description. I am only at 5% now, but so far it has been fun as soon as dialogue set in.

>85 Donna828: and >86 LizzieD: So great that you both won the ER! The interesting books are never available for me, so I quite gave up on it. I only ever won the German translation (bad) of a (bad) English novel about a couple moving to France with their horses and I never finished it. I know it's disrespectful, but it really wasn't for me.
I already started The Bone Clocks, but I'll put it on hold now and wait. I'd like to take my time with this one and I don't need to finish it before the SL is out.

77. How To Be Both by Ali Smith (Booker 2014 LL 11/13)

The book consists of 2 parts, called “Eyes” and “Camera”. The reader can decide to either read Eyes or Camera first and then the other part. The Kindle has both versions – Eyes, Camera, then starts again with Camera followed by Eyes. I don’t know how it’s done in the paper version or for the audio. I read Eyes before Camera and was quite happy with the result, but the links between both parts probably work better if Camera is read first. Camera ends where Eyes starts and Camera prepares for Eyes, but the other order has an own charm, it’s more fragile and I am very glad I read it that way.

In “Eyes” the first person narrator is Francesco del Cossa, an Italian painter in the 1400s. He wakes up in a museum in today’s London in his own painting and from then on is forced to follow one of the two people who have been watching his picture at the exact moment. The narrative moves between his confrontation with the modern world and memories of his life in Italy. He sees the work through his eyes mostly as an expression of colors and tries bring those into his paintings, with the difficulties that meant at his time. Colors were expensive, good colors were difficult to get. The person he watches uses a tablet camera to take pictures (so we can guess s/he will be important in “Camera”). Francesco describes himself as “both” and I don’t want to spoil here what that means.

“Camera” starts at an earlier point. Here the first-person narrator is Giorgia, called George, a teenager from Cambridge. Her mother has died some months ago and George remembers situations that in retrospect seem important, among those a trip to Italy last summer to see del Cossa’s frescoes. George is traumatized by her mother’s death and has no-one to talk to. She gets counseling at school but doesn’t open up. She has to look after her little brother and often also after her dad who copes with his wife’s death by going to the pub every night (the absence of the father for me was an element I must criticize, it wasn’t believable for me, just convenient – it made George’s part more of a construction than it needed to be). George might also be “both”, but doesn’t know yet where to place herself.

To be honest – if the book hadn’t offered many elements which I personally found inspiring, I’d probably say that this is a book where concept/ construction dominate storytelling to a point where the stories have some flaws and you can often see the scaffolding that holds it all together. Although it's a great scaffolding to look at! It reminded me of the 4th chapter in There But For The where another precocious child/teenage girl was too obviously used less as a character than as a stylistic device (not finding a better expression here, sorry).

For me this is a book I’ll certainly read again and probably find new inspiration again and again, but it’s nothing I’d wholeheartedly recommend to everyone.

Rating: 4 stars

78. Badfellas by Tonino Benacquista - contains spoilers mainly for chapters 1 and 2

I saw the book on Kerry’s thread and it sounded like fun – just what I needed in between those Bookers.

The Blakes arrive in the small town of I-forgot-the-name-as-usual in Normandy late at night and move into their new home. They aren’t happy about the new place, but are used to frequent relocations and settle in quickly. Already on the next morning the teenage kids Belle (17) and Warren (14) are off to school while Mum Maggie takes a closer look on the town. Warren gets bullied and has to hand over his pocket money, Belle gets into a dangerous situation with some guys and Maggie gets insulted in a grocery shop for being American and therefore tasteless and cultureless. By evening, the school bullies are beaten to half-pulp and beg for mercy. So are the guys interested in Belle. And the grocery shop is in ashes. Warren, Belle and Maggie learned from a master: Dad Fred Blake, real name Giovanni Manzoni, is an ex-high-rank-mafioso from Newark. He has acted as witness in a big anti-mafia trial, snitching on all the big guys and so sending them to prison for centuries, then had to change identities and since then is on the move with his family in France, always followed and watched to his dismay by three FBI agents who moved into the house opposite. But even in this small town Fred can’t forget his roots. His feeling for justice (the way he interprets it) leads him on risky quests and covering up for him and preventing the worst becomes an increasingly difficult task for the FBI agent Tom.

I must say, I expected this book to be flatter and was positively surprised how Benacquista plays with the expectations of the reader. At first I felt guilty for the happiness Warren’s, Bell’s and Maggie’s revenge acts brought to me. And then there is a chilling scene with Fred and a plumber where you realize that Benacquista doesn’t really play violence down. There are bits again and again when the fun suddenly ends and you are reminded that no, violence isn’t an answer, because it will lead to more and it will corrupt you. The “acts of justice” are a bit like watching an old cartoon movie, and Benacquista even lets his protagonist say it: the reader enjoys a story about revenge far more than one about forgiveness. He also plays with the mafia mythos. Often in this book the old “Godfather” fascination is recalled and we see: yes, it might work to a point. But then there’s the scene with Warren on the platform in the station, and both he and the reader understand in that instant that there is nothing to glorify, that mafia is power by terror, and it is something Warren and the reader don’t want.

I was disappointed however by the ending. It’s written from first perspective as a memory and for me it had so many flaws that I had to remove half a star.

Still a great read, and the scene in the spoiler will stay with me for a bit.

Rating: 3.3 (3.5) stars

>Thank you for this helpful review, Nathalie. I didn't realize the structure was that unique. I'm looking forward to reading it, once it's out in the U.S. (or maybe I'll break down and order it from Amazon UK.) I enjoyed There But For The, but mostly because I appreciated it as a retelling of Bartleby. It was a bit cold and I felt distanced from the characters.

>90 DorsVenabili: I never read Bartleby (and didn't know there was a connection), but wanted to do so since reading Bartleby & Co. by Enrique Vila-Matas last year. Thanks for reminding me!
Yes - two parts that can be read in either order sounds like a simple idea, but it really has an effect. When I do the reread I'll try the other order, although it will of course be much different from a first read.

>89 Deern: That's great that you enjoyed the book. For me coming from the film to the book there were different expectations. The last part is a little different in the film, a bit more gunfire and I think the final scene worked better than the ending in the book which I'm finding hard to recall now.
Benacquista has a few more novels that look interesting as well as a couple of screenwriting credits.

>92 avatiakh: I must check my library if they have the DVD, I'd really like to see the film now. Or maybe Sky will take it into their "on demand" selection. (All those services like netflix and others which are often mentioned here are illegal for us Europeans as far as I know).
Do you remember if in the movie the last gangster was also killed by the family dog? Now that was some revenge!

Well, therapies should probably be about other things, but I had a lovely chat with my therapist today about authors "bending the categories" of novel writing. I told her about the Ali Smith book and she thought the idea was fascinating. She admitted she gave up on Ulysses, because she thought she had to "get it" and couldn't. Unlike me she enjoyed most of the Montalbanos. She understood however why I dislike Lidia and have issues with Montalbano. In the end we discussed "the novel as mirror of bits of oneself and/or as inspiration for steps to take in your own life" and wondered if we find books when we need them or if the books find us.

I went to the vegan restaurant afterwards and bought a 1-portion Sachercake for takeaway, because I had to return to the office. I might never become a full vegan (and don't want a label for my eating or lifestyle anyway), but wow - vegan cakes are the way to go. Quite unsweet, rich dark chocolate cake covered in even darker chocolate icing and filled with fig jam instead of the traditional apricot jam... for me it was impossible to eat half of the thing and it's meant as a dessert.
The service has improved (they are smiling now!) and the September menu looks better than the one in August. I'll keep supporting them.

YUM! Are you reading The Bone Clocks yet? At 80 pages in, I'm in complete shock - not at all what I expected!

>93 Deern: Ha, I took the film out from the library to watch again! I don't want to say too much, but the film compresses quite a bit of the story so a lot takes place on the final evening (eg film society meeting), there is also an extra story thread for the daughter which ties in... and Tommy Lee Jones is good as the head FBI guy.
Everyone probably thinks we're mad to obsess over such a light read and light movie.

>95 LizzieD: Yes, I finished part 1 and now am annoyed because like in Cloud Atlas I am with part 2 in a completely different setting with different characters, and I don't know yet if I can handle that 6 times if that's the idea of the book. I want to know more about Holly at the point where we leave her! And I might have to reread part 1, because I didn't really get the supernatural stuff, hoping it would be explained later. But now that it's no longer about Holly, I fear I might get no explanation and instead new supernatural events?

I enjoy it though, it's quite an addictive read. And it would be a very quick read as well if I hadn't put it on short hold now to first finish the Baldwin for the AAC.

>96 avatiakh: Tommy Lee Jones plays the FBI guy? Oh, I MUST see that movie!
Unrealistic as it was, I quite enjoyed the world trip of the school paper that brought love to almost everyone who had contact with it. It's those little elements and some strong moments (plumber, platform) that make this light read quite memorable.

I am very conscientiously not looking at the spoiler, but I'll read some and be back! It is certainly going faster than I expected - (it = *Bone Clocks*)

About *BC* --- I'm sure that you're into it enough now to see that Holly and Constantin are back. I had to go back to check that there were 7 years between parts 1 and 2. I'm not quite through the second part, but it is going quickly.....definitely NOT Cloud Atlas.
This is very much reminding me of Tim Powers, and with his books, you simply keep reading and trust that all the jargon - bone clocks, for instance - will eventually make sense.

Nathalie, I wish you a fabulous weekend.

>99 LizzieD: I read part 3 today on the train and I must say that both parts 2 and 3 weren't exactly for me. I didn't like those men's voices, can't say why. I want to know now where the supernatural things lead, because I can't say I am otherwise interested in the characters. Part 4 is set in 2015, so the first one in the near future. It will be interesting to see how he manages that - near future I mean, not far far away as in CA.

>100 Ameise1: A wonderful weekend to you too, Barbara. Is that Positano o Amalfi?

Last night I packed a small suitcase, because I felt I must get away from Merano for the weekend. Sometimes I almost feel those mountains pressing on me and then it's time for some "culture", i.e. bigger city, no mountains in sight, museums and shops. I hadn't decided at that point where to go, but this morning I decided that I needed BIG city, drove to Bolzano and booked the next connection to Milano. I checked into a lovely small hotel close to the main station, changed dress (it's hot here) and off I went. Didn't do much, but had two nice meals and a big aperitivo, crossed half the city in the underground (so clean!) and went shopping. I bought pink fake Doc Martens at Benetton. I know... don't say anything, please! Tomorrow I want to see some modern art and maybe some gardens if time allows. I'll write more when I have a keyboard, too many typos on the ipad...

Yay! Sounds so exciting! I'd SO join you. I am so unadventurous these days, but probably if I lived in Europe like you, would do the same and enjoy little getaways like that. Enjoy every bit of it, including the pink 'fake' Doc Martens! :-)

Milano, wonderful. Indeed, it's Positano on the pic. Well done, Nathalie.

#102 Jealous jealous me! I miss being able to get away - even just up through the UK when I lived over there. Jersey is stunning but just occasionally it also feels a little claustrophobic. Or maybe that's just the kids :/

Glad you are having fun - and pics of the boots please :)

>103 Smiler69: But you live already in a big city "with all the culture", so maybe there's less need to escape from time to time. It was surprisingly unadventurous. Milano is basically like Frankfurt, just bigger - i.e. a big town full of foreigners (bankers, workers, tourists) where you feel safe in most places and during the day. By now, despite living in that German speaking autonomous provincia, I get along quite okay in Italian, at least I don't have to pre-construct everything in my head before saying it (which might however lead to getting stuck mid-sentence).

>104 Ameise1: Thank you! :)
I spent a week near Amalfi with my mother about 13 years ago and we also did a day-trip to Positano then. So beautiful - and so, so crowded. It was one long queue of tourists from the bus stop way up in town down to the harbour, past countless souvenir shops. We just fell into the next boat back to Amalfi from where we had the perfect view on Positano.

>105 BekkaJo: I know what you mean. It costs me some effort to get started every time although it's no island. First through the valley to Bolzano, then it's always those 120km to Verona (either by car ==> traffic jams all summer, or by very slow regional trains). Verona then has the airport and all the fast trains to everywhere. Frankfurt spoiled me...

Boots pics will come soon! :)

Okay, I really had a wonderful weekend! Much better than expected. The only annoying parts were the train rides - mainly the ones between Bolzano and Verona as usual. The first train took 2.5 hours and the train on the way back was so packed that I (and others coming from Milano) had no chance to reach our 1st class coach and had to stand all the way in one of the entrances without aircon shoulder to shoulder with other sweaty people returning from weekend trips.
But the fast trains between bigger cities are great in Italy (unless there's a strike which happens often) - mostly clean, comfortable, you even get free drinks and snacks like on a plane. I always book 1st class there because it doesn't make much difference, the prices are lower than in Germany.

I was also really amazed with the Metro service in Milano. Trains were punctual, spacious and clean - far better than in Frankfurt. Okay, most lines are still quite new, but there wasn't a bit of that typical Metro smell at all in the stations. And cheap! One ride is 1.50 EUR, a 24h hour ticket is 4.50 EUR!

My hotel was incredibly lovely for a place that close to the station. Amazing staff and the biggest breakfast I've ever seen in an Italian hotel. Guests come from everywhere, so you get everything - couscous, steamed broccoli, sausages and eggs, tortilla, fresh fruit, all the cheeses and cold cuts, breads, fresh carrot juice, chunks of Swiss chocolate - plus all the usual Italian cakes and croissants of course.

****
On Saturday I arrived at 1.30pm, checked in and then went to a vegetarian café I'd found in the internet to finally have one of those veggie burgers. Very small, very friendly staff, good food. Then I went to the city centre - cathedral and the beautiful Galleria Vittorio Emanuele with all the shops. Of course I'd managed to get yellow vegan mayonnaise on my white T-shirt, so I went to Benetton and bought a new T-shirt AND a blouse with pink flowers which I put on immediately AND those fake Doc Martens. Walked around, had an aperitivo (campari spritz) at the historical Campari bar, and with the drink they brought me a big bowl of crisps, a bowl of olives and I think 6 mini pizze, so if I had eaten all that I could have saved dinner. Instead I went to "Il Rinascente", the famous big store, and had vegetarian sushi in the food halls and bought some rose macarons for later. Back to the Hotel where I had the macarons and fell asleep at about 9pm.

Classic Duomo pic:


Glass dome of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele:


On Sunday, after the big breakfast, I checked out early (I left my suitcase there) and went to the Palazzo Reale to see the show of Takashi Murakami. Absolutely loved it, but there was no catalogue and nothing in the bookshops.
Then to the "'900" which shows mainly Italian art of the 1900s. Quite a big collection, the only name I knew was Giorgio de Chirico whose Hebdomeros I read earlier this year.

As I wasn't allowed to take pictures of any of the art, at least I took this one of the view:


Fed with art for the day and a bit tired again (it was so hot!) I walked to the Castello to see the Sempione gardens. Really nice, and as Milano is preparing for the EXPO next year, there were already information tents and some works ongoing.



Mini mais maze between the Expo tents, in the Background the clocktower of the castle:


After a relaxing break on a bench under a big tree I walked on to Eataly, that's a quite new chain of special quality foodstores with several restaurants. I'd seen the one in Torino last year and they recently opened that one in Milano. Packed as could be expected, but I managed to get a seat in their fast-food place outside where I waited an hour for another veggie burger. At least it was worth the wait - really delicious, made of lentils and potatoes and topped with oily half-dried tomatoes.

Picture from the inside:


After that not-so-fast food I had to hurry to get my luggage and walk to the station. My train was delayed so I rushed into the Feltrinelli bookstore and bought Montalbano #5 and a book about Indian religions. Got on the train which managed to get even more delayed towards Verona, so I had 2 minutes to get my Bolzano connection. Some others had the same problem so we helped each other with carrying suitcases and holding train doors open and we all managed to jump into that last carriage where we were then stuck for almost 2 hours. :)

I've never been to an Expo, not even the one in Hannover/Germany, but I decided I'd love to see the one next year, in fact I'd love to spend a whole week in Milano. The Castle alone has so many museums. And I never made it to the "Last Supper", the visit must be pre-booked weeks in advance. Should probably start looking for accomodation right now...

An update on The Bone Clocks: I was quite happy with part 4 although that author character had the same unlikeable voice as the two characters in chapters 2 and 3. I didn't know if I should find Mitchell's shots at the literature and publishing world and the Booker prize witty or bitter, so I just decided not to give them any weight.
In part 5 now the book finally takes up the speed again it lost since part 1. I can't wait to get home and read on!

New DM-style Benetton shoes from Milan:

Didn't know it would be so challenging to take pics of one's own feet without the legs looking fatter than they are. I didn't have much time, so I tried once and failed. Might substitute with a better pic soon.



Thought I could as well post a pic of my new wellies - November can come!

Nathalie, thank you for your generous treatment of your weekend! It sounds and looks wonderful!! Now if only there were some way for you to share the taste!! (I'm still stuck in rose macarons! *sigh*) And the bookstore!! *sigh**sigh* AND the clothes!
Highly successful, I'd think, even with the 2½ hours standing on the train.
I'm sort of bogged down in the 3rd section of *BC*. I'd love to slap Brubeck several times. I'm glad to hear that it picks up again.

Oh! We cross-posted! Quite handsome, both pairs!

#107 Book shop droooooolllll....

What a wonderful travelogue with all those pictures, thanks so much for sharing Nathalie! Sounds like you had a lovely trip, minus the hassles with the train.

I guess it's true enough Montreal is a big city with plenty of culture, but having lived here all my life I more than take it for granted, and also can't help comparing it to NYC which has so much more, and truthfully, nowadays I hardly ever venture away from home much anyway. But the appeal of being in Europe and just one or two hours away in any direction from so many interesting destinations has always appealed to me tremendously.

Great footwear! At one point I was buying footwear seemingly several times a week and was taking pictures of it too, so I know what you mean about the camera angle skewing the size of the legs. I was picturing the Doc boots in a hot pink, but I guess they're more of an oxblood?

From the comments I've been seeing posted by Peggy and you (minus the spoilers), I can't say I'm much tempted by The Bone Clocks.

>110 LizzieD: The rose macarons were a dream, so tender, they melted immediately on the tongue, just as they should.
I wish I could habe bought more books, I love the Feltrinelli stores. They look small when you enter and then they become those huge mazes where you really can get lost for hours.
I was also more annoyed with Brubeck than with any of the others although he is supposed to be 'good guy'. Yes, it gets better, but something is lacking, can't say yet what it is.

>112 BekkaJo: Yes, it was so great being in a big book store again! they usually have big sections of books in foreign language, far more than the usual mysteries. I was hoping to find the new Murakami, but no..

>113 Smiler69: You know, I've been thinking that a town of Verona size might be perfect for me, at least it has an airport. The real big cities like London or NY are nice to visit, but they also stress me. Milano is much smaller, then I was lucky this time with the weather, there were still holidays, but on a rainy weekday, maybe during fashion week or any of the countless trade shows when it's all busy and the Metro is packed, I'd certainly feel very stressed.

You're right about Europe, I realized that when I was in Western Australia. Great cities, but incredible distances.
The trains between Verona and Milano were full with American and Australian tourists. I talked to some and they were all quite fascinated that they could get from Milano to Verona in just 1.5 hrs, see the opera, get on another train and be in Venice another 90 mins later. Or in Rome in 3 hrs, or in Florence in just under 2. I would miss that, as crammed as it sometimes feels.

I wanted to buy real Docs in hot pink online last week, but they were sold out in my size, so I was happy to find these. I don't have a name for the color, it isn't oxblood I'd say, it's a warm "pinkish" red, in German I'd say "rosarot".

Where have I been? I've missed many great reviews, - The Road Home, How to Be Both and Badfellas are all stand-outs. I love the pix of your trip and your NEW SHOES. I care about shoes! Vermont is one of those places where you need a lot of specialized shoes to deal with the range of weather!

Looks like you had a lovely time in Milan and I also love your new shoes & boots. I've had some enjoyable stays (and meals) in Milan though haven't been there for for a long while.
I've just picked up a Europa Editions copy of The Thursday Night Men by Tonino Benacquista. The blurb reminds me of Derek Hansen's Lunch with... series.

>116 sibylline: Well, those two pairs are worlds away from elegant, but as I am planning to walk to work as much as possible also in the coming even more rainy months, they are what I need and in colors that will make the bad weather more bearable. :)

>117 avatiakh: The last two times I went to Milan I sure ate better, but this time I really wanted to try some untraditional veggie food I can't get in Merano - so it was burgers and sushi instead of the usual pasta and risotto feasts.

So the Booker Shortlist is out - let's see who made it...

Now, this really IS ridiculous:

- To Rise again at a decent hour
- We are all completely beside ourselves
were the 2 US candidates I liked least. Darryl quite hated them. Fluff without sense and half-fluff with some sense. So where are Powers and Hustvedt??

- The Narrow Road to the Deep North
which I disliked but knew it would be selected (the only non-British/Irish/US candidate)

- J
- The Lives of Others
- How to be Both
Not unexpected and okay for me. The Jacobsen book is uncriticizable anyway and might manipulate ist way to victory, I liked the Ali Smith, and the Mukherjee is my favorite.

As I feared, History of the Rain "died in beauty" as the widely beloved Transatlantic did last year.

I can't believe they selected both the Ferris and the Fowler over Hustvedt and Powers. Both aren't great books, the Ferris is actually close to bad. I guess they are cannon fodder to make the final decision easier, at least that's what I hope.

Now I really, really hope it will either be Mukherjee or Smith - or I'll give up on that price after just two years.

Thanks for the list, Nathalie. They mostly look unappetizing, so I'm a bit glad that I don't feel the need to fork out a lot of money to read them now.

>120 LizzieD: Hi Peggy, yes I am disappointed. The Hustvedt was really smart and part of me wants to believe they kept her and Powers out to better push a British winner. It wouldn't look good to have an US winner in the first year already, after all those complaints.
I finished part 5 of The Bone Clocks today - can I call it highly entertaining rubbish? I am having fun with the book, thanks to Holly, but since part 1 I never had the feeling of reading high-quality lit. It's like a mix of 1,000 elements which are currently popular, plus all those not-so-smart side hits in all directions and the links to other Mitchell books.
I can't decide if it's an intelligent satirical approach to popular literature, a sad desperate try to be critically acclaimed again or just a lazily written work to keep a deadline.

I'm wondering whether the whole metafiction thing was just too much to try to get any degree of popular support for -- Hustvedt's novel is one of the less accessible ones, and yes, its heroine is that least favorite of all characters, the unappealing, unattractive, aging female.

Both of the US survivors were literate and had a degree of public appeal (in the case of the Karen Joy Fowler book, at least). but that's really all I can say about them.

I'm exceedingly dismayed.

I've not read the Mukherjee novel yet, and indeed, the description on Amazon.co.uk hadn't made it sound all that appealing. I suppose I'll try the Ali Smith book now, and Flanagan is on deck to read in the next few days, since I have an ARC (and since I'm interested in the era/topic). I found myself sitting and staring blankly at the list and saying to myself, "really??"

Just another indication that what prize juries are doing isn't necessarily what groups of readers think that they are doing. I do feel strongly that it's subjective -- and also that even within this, different groups of readers can go in with different criteria -- but this is more inexplicable than usual. Orfeo may have its flaws, but it's a far better/more interesting novel than that dentist nonsense.

>122 Chatterbox: Hi Suzanne - when I saw the Fowler and Ferris on top of the list I had to make sure twice that I was reading the short list and not the list of books NOT selected. It's like a bad joke.

From the amazon description I wouldn't have read the Mukherjee either, but as I was determined to read them all anyway, I just started it and was positively surprised. It was an intense and often difficult read for me, but also a very rewarding one.

I even counted on the Fowler book being shortlisted, they always need some popular and not too difficult books on the SL I guess - and of those on the LL Fowler might have been the best choice. But the Ferris?? And both over Hustvedt and Powers - it's quite a shame!

Alltogether I got the impression that they selected the candidates with less "actual political relevance".

Okay - online identity kidnapping in the Ferris book, but how badly was that worked out? Nothing in the Fowler, nothing in the Flanigan, the Mukherjee is to 99% set in the comfortable past AND in India, Ali Smith is arts and political only in a way that is generally accepted (gender issues) and "J" is uncriticizable anyway and quasi "unrealistic sci-fi dystopia".
Whereas Hustvedt is feminism, Kingsnorth is civil courage (+ difficult to read also for judges + isn't it self-published or fund-raised?), Powers plays with the fear of terrorism and misinformation of the public, Mitchell is partly anti-publishers/ anti-literature prizes/ vegetarian/ environmentalist and above all very strongly anti-Iraq war. O'Neill is a bit anti-corruption/anti-slave-labour/ anti-over-consumerism and Williams repeatedly mentions the effects of the banking and building crash in Ireland (and his heroine prefers classic novels over contemporary fiction). The Nicholls book... isn't published yet anywhere, or is it?

Edit: edited to add that I thought The Blazing World was quite accessible, more so than The Lives of Others or The Wake. When I read "notebooks" I feared something similar to The Golden Notebook (which I loved, but which was one of my hardest reads ever), but TBW wasn't really difficult to follow imo.

I must say that though I've yet to read any of the books from the short or longlist, the Mukherjee was the one that appealed most to me from the synopsis I read, so nice to know you liked it. I've still got The Blazing World staring at me as well as the Fowler (both from the library) . We'll see if I actually get to them this month, or indeed even this year!

>124 Smiler69: You might love The Blazing World if it doesn't hit some sore points too hard... I don't think it will bore you, but as you can certainly well relate to the arts world, it might also be painful and bring up some memories. Just be careful and don't let yourself get sucked into it too deeply if you start feeling negatively about it.
Reading it was an intense experience for me as well, I found it inspiring and helpful for my present situation. Harriet the woman (not so much the artist) was another mirror for me, like a bad example whose fate I don't want to share.

Mukherjee: I repeat my bathroom/ brothel scene warning from my review. Just thinking of your Wallander issue.. :)

I think the O'Neill suffered from having a character who, while he expresses views that are anti-slave labor, etc., is part of the system and profits from it and never really does anything about but instead just drifts around. He's essentially an amoral kind of guy -- not actively amoral, passively amoral. In some ways, I find myself liking the book, because it's honest about what it is -- a critique of the corporatist system, but from within. There's no righteous indignation here, and that's what people want, I think.

I found Hustvedt accessible, with the exception of the prologue, but I know a lot of people who didn't (or who didn't try to.) I think it was the references to Habermas early on...

Nope, Nicholls isn't out yet, and besides, that was a reach. His last book was male chick lit...

>107 Deern: Nathalie, thanks a lot for sharing your weekend trip to Milano. Gorgeous photos. xx

I'll respond later from work, have to get up now. But wanted to say that I just finished The Bone Clocks and am glad it didn't get SLed. Thanks to the unnecessary dystopian part 6 it went from highly entertaining rubbish to annoying rubbish, I skipped many paragraphs of those last 15%. The ending of part 5 would have been the perfect ending for the book - why attach that useless admonishing outlook? Why answer what was wonderfully and promisingly left open after part 5? Back at that point I just wanted to return to the beginning and reread some chapters I didn't understand on first read. Now I want to move the book to my Kindle archive, i.e. back on the shelf.
My rating rushed down from a solid 3.8 to a 3, but just so...

What a fabulous weekend, Nathalie! I applaud you for taking off on your own and exploring!
What great taste you have! Now, I've just discovered I want a new pair of Wellies too!

Staying clear of The Bone Clocks, just doesn't seem worth the investment of time.

This is fascinating and entertaining reading, Nathalie. I applaud your reading of the Booker books - it does make one wonder what exactly goes into the decision-making process.

Well, Nathalie, I'm glad there are people like you who devote themselves to reading from the long and shortlists every year, but I'll repeat what I just said on Darryl's thread after reading some of the responses from disgruntled readers about the results of the shortlist this year: makes me sort of glad I don't bother with the lists on any given year and just take my time getting to the nominees and winners in my own good time.

>126 Chatterbox: For me he was like someone who wanted to act morally correct but didn't understand the code of healthy interpersonal behaviour. On the other hand he noticed the material advantages amorality might bring, but even there he didn't really 'get' the code. He was somehow between chairs. I quite liked the book as well, but understand why others don't.

>127 Ameise1: Thank you Barbara! I hope I'll make it to your thread some time this week.

>129 Carmenere: Thank you Lynda! I love it that wellies are now finally available in bright happy colors even here in Merano.

>130 sibylline:, >131 Smiler69: In the end the getting worked up over SL or winner decisions is part of the fun. As is the challenge to read 12/13 books in such a short time frame. But for me there's also the element of the books' freshness - some are just published when the LL is announced or even during the selection process between LL and award. So there aren't many reviews available and my reading is completely unbiased. When I decide to read the complete LL, I don't bother with test chapters or blurbs, I buy them all and just jump into each book without knowing what I am in for. I might have been the only reader of The Wake who wasn't informed about the language Gimmick - and what a surprise that was! :) In the 2 years I've read the LL + the SL of 2012 I read few bad books, some mediocre ones, but a couple of great ones I might otherwise have overlooked.

>132 Deern: Yes, he was an observer, not a participant -- and a puzzled observer, at that. Who then wonders why people are baffled by him, and who is baffled by the way the world works, eg his ex girlfriend's machine-like behavior and astonishing response to the end of the relationship.

I think that what I DON'T like is that people get worked up about it, at least in the sense of assuming that their judgment is better than that of the judges, and that the judges must be flawed because they don't agree with ME. That sometimes feels like all the Internet commenters on all the stories I write -- when I write something they agree with, I'm a hero; if I write something that they disagree with, I must be an idiot, even if I'm the same person they thought was smart yesterday. Who died and made everyone god?

What I do like is that people are still capable of getting worked up over what is and isn't good writing and good fiction -- and you're right to note how rare it is to come to a new book (often by a new author) unmediated. I rarely read reviews, not because I dislike the idea of reviews, but more because I'd rather spend the time reading the books themselves, and I can usually get a better sense from reading the jacket and the first few pages of whether it's something I'm likely to want to try to read. If I don't like it, it's not going to be because of someone else's opinion. To the extent I care at all about anyone else's opinion, it's because often it tends to reflect what I find interesting and rewarding to read. Professional reviewers, who often are simply handed a book to review, aren't necessarily the best indicator of that. Then there are inexplicable tastes. I love some authors who have stylistic quirks or employ writing devices or plot tricks that are old hat or obvious but that I really enjoy, that others will find irritating. Rumer Godden, Michael Gilbert, Robert Goddard all fall into that camp. Some of 'em are genre writers, too -- another acquired taste. If you don't share that quirky taste, you won't like the book: it's as simple as that.

>133 Chatterbox: Well, it isn’t serious getting worked up in my case. Let’s be honest – most of us expect that at least half of the books we liked won’t get onto the SL and are almost looking forward to lamenting that. How boring would it be to be “right” (i.e. conform with the jury’s decision)! I for myself have always 2 lists in my head – my own preferences, and then what I believe would be a jury’s list. For example I quite disliked the Flanagan book, or last year’s Testament of Mary, but in my jury guesses they both were in the top three. I was also prepared for History of the Rain falling through the meshes. I counted on Fowler or maybe Ferris, but definitely not both – that was a real surprise this year. If Fowler, then Powers as 2nd US candidate, if Ferris then together with Hustvedt. Ali Smith as as the only female non-US candidate was another safe bet.

I am also not among those who comment personally on the jury or make their guesses based on a jury member’s preferences, because those are usually names I never heard of. For me it’s “the jury” and I wouldn’t even notice if it were the same 5 or 6 people every year. I don’t believe I am more intelligent or well-read than they are, on the contrary, I just often wonder what they can possibly see in a book which I find at least partly not well written (both Ferris and Fowler) , where I as a non-writer and foreigner think “I would never have given that anyone to read”. But that’s it – tastes are diverse as are.. err.. focusses? Focus with a long u?

I often write how I “feel” about a book, “this feels like”, etc. This might be annoying to read, but that’s how I experience books. I am at best a “head reader” to 50%, the rest is all “feeling”, mainly if the book sounds “true” to me. Many novels are like patchwork – there are bits that flow for me (where I feel “one” with the work while reading it – if I like the story or not) and then there are bits which feel (sorry!) added, constructed, squeezed in, rushed because deadline time was running out, whatever, that don’t resonate with the rest. That was the case with the whole Amy story plus more in The Narrow Road To The Deep North or with the convenient “I wasn’t present when that miracle happened, so allow me to have my doubts” in The Testament of Mary or the shallow treatment of side stories/ characters in the Fowler book.
I don’t claim to be right in that, it is just what I experience.
I love it when a book feels overall consistent, and that was the case on this year’s list with the books by Mukherjee, Hustvedt, Williams and Kingsnorth and I rated them highly. Even The Dog and J are quite even, I just liked them less for different reasons. Last year's The Marrying of Chani Kaufman was basically chick-lit and I would never have put it on the LL, but it was "even" (for me) in the type of novel it is.
This year the books by Ferris, Fowler, Flanagan, Mitchell, partly (just a bit) Powers “feel” like “patchwork books” for me. Ali Smith’s book feels over-constructed and therefore uneven, but I love how she is creative with the usual novel form, the spirit and energy behind it and for me it worked well. Those list decisions show me that others experience the same books obviously completely differently and I’d love to know what they found in them that made them prefer them over the others (sorry for 3 thems).

Enjoying the discussion on the Booker shortlist, I don't usually read these books till further down the track though I really appreciate the comments of everyone on LT who does try to read themduring the 'Booker season'.

On the movie front I watched a French film, Read My Lips (Sur mes lèvres; 2002) today that had Tonino Benacquista in the writing credits. Very good it was too.

>135 avatiakh: I forgot to mention that I looked in vain for "Malavita" (the Italian title of Badfellas) in a big DVD store in Milano. I thought the book was a bit like "reading a movie", script writing must be B's main talent. I'll add RML to the movies to watch out for.

79. Go Tell It On A Mountain by James Baldwin (1,001 #340)

I know, I usually write novel-length reviews, but here I don't know what to say. It really impressed me and I liked it very much up to about 80% when part 3 started. Then I was lost and I don't even understand the ending.

I enjoyed how part 1 built the basis, giving the readers certain ideas what to think about the main characters. And I loved how part 2 then looks at each of them and suddenly you develop sympathy even for the father. I am so grateful not to have grown up in such an atmosphere of inherent guilt and permanent fear of sinning and being sent to hell.

Then in part 3 I skipped paragraphs because I just didn't get it and I don't want to read the bible to understand the Baldwin book better. I had expected a different ending, but this seemed to be no ending at all?

Rating: 3.5 confused stars

80. The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell (BB 2014 LL 12/13)

This is the quite spoiler-free review. I posted my thoughts on characters in the Booker group: https://www.librarything.com/topic/178388 (post #3)

Mitchell’s book consists of 6 parts, set between 1984 and the 2040s. All parts are written in first person narration, diary style with dates, and we have 5 different narrators. It won’t be surprising that the parts are connected. The book starts with the narration of Holly Sykes, a 15year old girl from Gravesend in England. After an argument with her mother she runs away from home and has some strange encounters which at that early point are unexplainable, but are slowly and almost too completely explained later in the book. The supernatural mystery element is strong in this first part which I really enjoyed. Holly was a character who came to life for me, from the first page on. For once not a super smart wunderkind, but a real teenager, with all the black-and-white thinking and the exaggerated reactions. I liked the narrators of parts 2 and 3 considerably less, and while #4 was basically unlikeable as well, there was a bitter-sweet element that made me enjoy that part. Part 5 is the longest and the one that explains everything. Part 6… the less said the better.

This would have been a quick read if I hadn’t slowed it down deliberately, knowing I had a week before the SL was out. Up to part 6 I enjoyed the book, but it never felt like “high literature” in any way and if I were a jury member I wouldn’t have put it on the SL either. The only other Mitchell I ever read was Cloud Atlas which I loved. I tried to read some of the others, but never even got through the test chapters. This book has some references to the older works which are even obvious for me who hasn’t read them, but that trick didn’t feel smart, it just felt unnecessary for me. I still don’t know where to place this book, I have no idea what was Mitchell’s intention. As I posted in a response to Peggy, this is “either a (wannabe) satirical approach to popular literature, a sad desperate try to be fully critically acclaimed again or just a lazily written work to keep a deadline. “

What annoyed me was that there were no surprise elements in part 5. The way it is constructed I had this list of elements in my head which might become important later. And they were then in part 5 all cleanly checked off that list.

Before part 6 I would have rated this with 3.7 or 3.8 as a fun read and because I loved Holly. With part 6 it just makes it to a weak 3.

>134 Deern: I completely understand what you mean by "patchwork" books. My bete noire is a category of books that I struggle to define, but end up describing, somewhat helplessly, as ones in which very, very clever ideas (with respect to plot, character, and very often, structure and narrative style) tend to overwhelm the book's role as the teller of a tale. So, I'm always conscious that I'm reading something that is the product of an author, rather than being able to immerse myself in the story. The author is demanding my attention (or so I feel, in reading the book) and applause for being so clever in their wordplay, in their creativity, in their structural playfulness, etc. If I can't let the author "vanish", if I'm always conscious that I am sitting here, playing the part of an audience, it ruins much of the joy that I get from the reading. So, even if the writing itself is of high caliber and the cleverness oozes off the page, the work fails in its primary task: that of captivating me and transforming me into a fly on the wall in other real peoples' lives, even if those people don't really exist.

Because of that, I'd often rather read an OK novel that accomplishes that task than a tremendously innovative book that distances me from the tale. I may still read and enjoy the tale, but it's as if there is an opaque shield stopping me from getting too close. Swamplandia was one novel that had that impact on me, and The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht.

I read Go Tell It so long ago..... but.... I think I took the 3rd part as.... part of a American tradition of ecstatic transformative experience - a thread that comes up mainly in Southern literature and in white writers too, like Flannery O'Connor (who was Catholic but well acquainted with Tent Revival revelation). It's an aspect of American culture that unless you are born in it (which I was not) is hard to understand and maybe even harder if you were born in it, to make sense of, who knows? Anyhow, you are not alone in your confusion.

Nathalie, I wish you a lovely weekend.

Phew, trying to type a longer post on my ipad now. i apalogize in advance for all the typos!!

>139 Chatterbox: You're expressing that so perfectly, Suz!
I am often a bit torn... the Ali Smith book is patchwork, but I really liked what she did, so I was lucky, but I expect many readers to really dislike that it.
Both parts of her book are far from great, but it has such an impact (I thought) in which order you read them. I was sorry I couldn't unread it again and restart in different order, I could just guess what it would have been like. Maybe I like it because the cleverness doesn't feel condescending, more like she herself wanted to try that form and see what would happen
On the other hand, I am now reading my last Booker candidate, David Nocholls' "Us". It doesn't even pretend to be anything but fluff, insofar it's honest, and no-one forced the jury to put it on the LL, I hope. But although it's "even", I find it also terribly boring and would rather read 2012's "Umbrella" once more, that says a lot.

>140 sibylline: Thank you Lucy, that really helped me!!!

>141 Ameise1: a lovely weekend to you, Barbara!

After last week's big success with Milano, I went on a day trip to Verona today to celebrate my 5 years in Merano anniversay! Yes, I know, by leaving Merano for the day... but the forecast wasn't great for here and I am still in city mood. I'll write more later and I'll post some pics on Monday when I can connect my phone to the office computer. I even went to Juliette's house again to take some pics for LT.
Big surprise: 2 copies of the so far unpublished "Us" by David Nicholls were displayed in a small bookshop in the main station. When they were still there on my way back, I bought one of them, although I never wanted to own that book in paper format. But it means I'll be done with this year's LL by Monday or Tuesday and don't have to wait until October! :)

Not just still in city mood, also in Booker mood. Since my last reviews I finished Edward St Aubyn's Booker satire "Lost For Words" (meh) and Penelope Fitzgerald's 1979 winner "Offshore" (doesn't age well imo) and started "In A Free State" by Naipaul, which I belive was the 1971 winner? Some of those winners are also on the 1,001 list which I neglected lately.

I quite liked Lost For Words, in the sense I felt it was a clever spoof of the whole process. I wouldn't say it was especially memorable or essential, but clever and likeable, yes. I did get the library to purchase the audiobook for me, and really like Martin Jarvis, who narrates all of St. Aubyn's books and whom I like a lot as a reader, so that helped as well.

As I said on Peggy's thread (but in different words): no chance in hell I'll be reading The Bone Clocks. The title alone turned me off from the first, now I think of it.

>144 Smiler69: For me there's often such a difference between audio and eye-reading, and Martin Jarvis is great. Should have done that as well, I can imagine it's good listening material. With the Kindle version I got bored about halfway through, because it was absolutely lifeless and auntie was the only character I liked. And a good narrator can make such a difference!

It remineded me much of "Chart Throb", a spoof of X-factor which is not as well written but automatically more down to earth (no highbrow writers/critics and instead hopeful, delusional wannabe popstars and a disinterested jury).

When I learned what a Bone Clock is, I was turned off as well.

Uh oh. I don't even know what a BC is. I usually like to look things up, but seeing as I'm in a poor mood today, perhaps I'll refrain from doing so this time.

I'd say Martin Jarvis definitely injected life into LfW. Auntie was so wonderful! Her and her cookbook... just the thought of it makes me smile. :-)

>146 Smiler69: Just for those who don't want to read Bone Clocks, a BIG spoiler The book has two types of atemporals/ immortals: the returners/sojourners whose souls don't die and who, 49 days after the death of their host body, are re-awakened in a new host ( usually a child close to death, they take over the body when the child's soul leaves it) - they are the good ones with all the empathy. Soujourners always stay in the same place and have the same gender, while returners can't control where and in which body they are reborn. the bad ones are the anchorites, whose soul stays in the same body that doesn't age. To keep up that state, they kidnap humans ( bone clocks) and "decant" their souls into a wine-like substance which they then drink. Yes, so Mitchell didn't even shy away from giving us sth like vampires, so much about popular elements.

I would have loved to read auntie's cookbook!

Oh ugh! REALLY happy to stay away from that one!

You know, the more you make me think about Lost for Words, the more I enjoy it in retrospect! I'm only sorry I didn't write a review for it. Maybe I should listen to it again?? :-)

Sorry, most pics are blurry, so I kept them small.

On Saturday I had my „5 years in Merano“ anniversary, so I wanted to do something special and took a train to Verona. The trip was very nice, I sat next to a woman who had the cutest terrier on her lap and a book on top of him. During the following almost 2 hrs the dog Misha made friends with everyone in the coach. She got her own seat after a bit, looked out of the window, stood on her hind legs... We were all in love with her when the train arrived in Verona.

I bought a map in the bookshop and that was when I found the still not officially published Us by David Nicholls. I decided to leave the book till the afternoon, my bag was already heavy enough, and set out to the city centre. On my way I encountered a suspiciously high number of older men wearing hats with feathers and when I arrived in Piazza Bra, my fears came true – it was an Alpini weekend! Maybe you remember, Alpini are the elite unit of the Italian army. The veterans meet yearly some place in Italy and it’s always a great street party, but also an occasion for many of them to get extremely drunk. I was half-lucky – it wasn’t the national meeting, just a smaller one of the North-East divisions. Nonetheless the town was filled with people in party mood, while I had thought with the opera season just being finished I’d have a quiet Saturday there. Instead there were queues everywhere and I lost all will to do any shopping.

Arena decorated with Alpini banners:


Part of Arena seen from Piazza Bra:


I had planned to get into the arena, but the queue at the ticket office was too long and I have been there already several times. But I made it to Juliette’s house to take some pics for LT. There isn’t much to see, a small courtyard and the famous balcony and a Juliette statue.



The fun is in watching the other tourists. Most of them either scribble their names (+name of partner ) on one of the walls which are whitened every couple of years just to be covered in felt-tip pen again within weeks.

Wall of names:


Or they buy and hang up one of those locks you now see everywhere (those didn’t exist yet on my earlier visits).


Also new and eeeww was the chewing gum wall, people put their used gums on a wall and write their names on it.



On the balcony there’s always some tourist girl posing as Juliette:



But more fun is the bronze statue. Somehow Juliette’s right breast seems to bring virility or good luck or whatever, because all men touch it. Therefore it’s shining brightly and golden while the rest of the statue is dark and greenish. The guy on the pic here posed forever, so I guess it’s okay if I post this. He clearly wanted to be on as many tourist pics as possible.


And here is Romeo’s house, slightly less popular it seems:


More pics to follow in the next post.

This is the Roman theater where they still show plays and ballets during the summer season. I’ve never been there before, I might go there next year to see a show.


View from top of the RT:


View from the Ponte di Pietra:


This year the weather was extremely unstable with rain and often blizzards on most nights. The big opera events in the arena were a bit less frequented as a consequence, and already in July the opera company spoke of losses. I really wish them all better weather next summer, those open air events are so wonderful! And then the restaurants in Piazza Bra around the arena and and the bars are all open until 3 or 4 am (Aida as the longest opera ends by 1am and then the piazza is run over by hundreds of hungry people).

Small part of Piazza Bra with some of the restaurants, the Arena is behind me:


I wanted to take pics of the lovely market in Piazza delle Erbe, but thanks to the Alpini event there wasn’t a single stall. I hope that was the reason and they didn’t stop the market altogether, it was a real attraction.

I tried to find the restaurant where I’d been with friends pre-opera (Nabucco) last summer and where we'd had the most delicious pasta, but no success although I must have tried every small side street - except for the right one, obviously. So I escaped the crowds and went to a veg-friendly place next to the Duomo where I had a quarter of local white wine and fennel-scented bigoli (thick spaghetti) with a beetroot sauce. Sorry, it looks like a bloodbath, but the taste was great. I wore a red sweater, so no food accidents this time. :)



It was really warm and I became tired from all the walking on cobbled streets and with those Alpini all the bars and cafés were crowded, so I returned earlier than planned. I bought myself a small anniversary cake to eat at home, a Torta Russa, a Veronese specialty made of puff pastry, filled with a kind of almond sponge cake, totally delicious though very sweet. Sorry, no pic – and the cake is already eaten. 

I had been to 2 bookshops (Mondadori and Feltrinelli), but as they both didn’t sell Us I decided to make my purchase at the station shop. I also bought a book about women travelling alone in Italy (it seemed to wait for me) and a cheap basic Russian language course with teaching language Italian. I’d love to be able to say some words to my Russian friends in their own language next time they come to Merano. Speaking of Russians, the train back was crammed again, but I got a seat next to a young Russian couple who then for the next 1hr 45mins couldn’t keep their hands off each other and were giggling all the time. I was very grateful for my books as there wasn’t another free seat.

>148 Smiler69: I was looking through your threads because I remembered you mentioned it, but didn't find the Review. Now I know why. :)

81. Lost for Words by Edward St Aubyn

I liked this book less than I had expected. The idea, a satirical novel about the process of selecting books for a literary award sounded so very promising and I had heard so many good things about Edward St Aubyn's writing.

I should first say that some years ago I read Chart Throb by Ben Elton which is a harsh satirical take on the X-factor with a very similar build-up. It’s free of subtleties or literary greatness, often un-pc and therefore in wide parts hilariously funny. It also has some real weaknesses, the revenge plot for example is horrible and unnecessary and when I reread I ignore it, but overall it was what it promised to be. Because the author showed no respect towards the jury characters, made them almost one-dimensional and shallow in their RLs as soon as they were out of the spotlights’ reach. On the other hand he made the candidates (mainly teenagers and Charles, Prince of Wales) touchingly naïve, so the reader has a clear black and white pattern to follow. In St Aubyn’s book authors and jury are all equally grey. You don’t have the indestructible trust of the authors when it comes to the competence of the jury, nor is there the jury’s spite against the cannonfodder candidates and against each other. The characters in Lost for Words are intelligent and grown-up and they know that today’s enemy might be useful tomorrow. That might be close to the truth, but as a satire I tought it was too harmless and still a bit too nice.

I believe it is best enjoyed as audio, as Ilana said. A good narrator can add some bite and spirit to the dialogues and even make something of those extracts of candidates’ books which I found mostly boring. It didn’t help that I liked exactly one character who only had 3 or 4 scenes.

The story starts out great with the selection of the jury and then the selection of books for the longlist, but then (imo as always) it really loses steam. I don’t know if St Aubyn suddenly remembered that it would in fact be nice to be awarded the Booker prize one day and that therefore he shouldn’t burn all his bridges. Or if he just lost interest in his own story and therefore let so many threads just peter out which I would have liked to follow further (what about "the scandal"?). Or maybe he was on a deadline to get this published before the 2014 LL, not to be on it, but to profit from it?

It was a very quick and amusing read, but I had expected a bit (not much) more.

Rating: 3.2 stars

82. Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald (Booker Winner 1979)

This 1979 Booker winner hasn’t aged very well. It’s a short book about several people living on Thames barges anchored on “the Reach” in Battersea in the 1960s.

It’s an irretrievably lost world the reader is confronted with and s/he’s thrown into it without preparation. When I had finally found my way and recognized characters, remembered their story, knew to which boat they belonged, the story was already and very abruptly over again. The setting is wonderful and I would have loved to remain on those barges for a hundred pages or so longer, or I should say I would have loved to have started 100 pages earlier before the big meeting on the “Lord Jim”. Contrary to St Aubyn’s book, here I liked most of the characters and didn’t get to know them well enough to change my mind at any point. Post-war limitations are still present, men are old-fashioned and don’t let women carry things, (Catholic) single mothers don’t go to work and the kids’ teachers pray for the return of the estranged father… Even the language was different. It reminded me much of the Muriel Sparks and Iris Murdochs I’ve read so far, so it seems there was a typical “female author’s voice” in the 1960s and 70s.

Well, the book was very nice and as I said I wish it would have been longer, but I wonder if its literary value lies merely in the fact that it allows us just a coincidental glimpse into the lives of those people. Was that seen as fresh and modern in 1979?

Rating: 3.5 stars

Loving the travelogues :)

>154 BekkaJo: Thank you, I hope to add some more in the near future.

Nathalie, thanks a lot for sharing the photos an your impressions of Verona. It looks lovely.

Once again, enjoyed your travelogue. As I was saying to Joe yesterday, we've been doing lots of armchair travelling here on LT this summer. There was Ellen in Scotland, now Joe and Darryl in England, Mark in Hawaii*, you around Italy... what am I missing? That's already a lot more travelling that I've been doing in a long long while!

I enjoyed Lost for Words more than you did, but as you say, obviously St. Aubyn didn't want to completely burn bridges—any author would be crazy to spit on the possibility of a Booker prize!

Just for future reference, you don't have to search through my threads for any reviews next time, as I always list them near the top of my current threads; in the "Books Completed in" whatever the month is, where I list the book and give a rating, whenever there is a review I give a link to the review when there is one, which makes for an easy reference tool. I found it useful for myself and thought hopefully for visitors too. I've been doing that for at least a couple of years and will continue doing so, so you'll be able to find that more or less at a glance if need be.

*eta: although with Mark we're getting more pictures of beer glasses than anything else! :-)

>156 Ameise1: Yes, it is a lovely place! And so close, I should get there more often.

>157 Smiler69: I actually checked that list first and didn't find a link to the review. I remembered however that we had discussed it briefly, so there must have been comments, but I didn't find those. How do I do strg+F on an ipad? :)
I am just wondering if maybe the publisher (as they are interested in winning that prize as well) had some say in the editing process. :)

****
Yay, done with the 2014 Bookers!! :))
I just wish the last one wouldn't have been such a not-great one. Don't want to say "bad", the book is what it is - how do you call "chick-lit" that deals with more grown-up themes? - and in that it's honest. It should just never have been selected as a "best English novel of the year" candidate.
I'll donate the book to the library, I wonder if they'll be impressed to get a copy prior to its publishing date. I guess not, they'll at once throw it into the giveaway basket because it's in English. But so at least it will find a loving owner. :)

83. "Us" by David Nicholls (2014 BP LL 13/13)

As soon as I had finished this book today during my lunch break, I walked to the supermarket to get something to eat. Standing there at the counter for ready meals confronted with the extremely boring and bland selection of food (yes, Italians still prefer home cooking over takeaway), I thought my lunch would be like the book I just finished and I was right. (and then on my way back I built parallels between books and restaurant types and wondered if the Booker might be compared to the Michelin guide or better to the slightly less reputable Gault Millau... I clearly spend too much time thinking about unimportant things)

David Nicholls does his work well in this genre of which I don’t know the name. At some point I got angry with story and characters and started arguing with them in my head – which is a good thing – but as it is typical for this genre he cleanly smoothed off all the edges in time for the ending, so that I don’t really have anything to complain. Siding with one character against the others? Not before having read all those scenes in the last third where he acts like an idiot. Disliking the kid and thinking he’s a spoiled brat? Then wait BIG SPOILER until he’s saved his dad’s life and found out he’s gay which of course explains all the earlier bratty behavior away as “insecurity” and altogether becomes so insightful from one day to the next. But if there’s nothing to complain about, there also isn’t anything to praise.

On page 1 or 2 Connie the wife tells Douglas the husband after 20 years of marriage that she might want a separation. Despite that new situation, they decide to set out on the long-planned family holiday with their 17year old son Albie who will leave for college after the holidays. The holiday will be a grand tour by train, taking them to Paris, Amsterdam, Munich and several places in Italy. In the course of this journey Douglas at length and in detail reminisces about his completely unremarkable relationship with Connie, from how they met until today.

Some unimportant spoilers following:
We read from Douglas’ pov and I quite liked him before Nicholls gave him some useless embarrassing scenes (Siena!) and then added some flashbacks where he shows some exceptionally anal behavior. However I never got why he’d ever believed a family grand tour through Europe might be a good idea with that (then) immature and unwilling teenage boy. I travelled a lot with my parents, but because we all loved doing those things together. I planned the routes and spoke the languages (English, French), my dad did the driving and paying and my mum just enjoyed. But with a boy as difficult as Albie and the separation looming above Connie’s and Douglas’ heads it was a stupid idea before the book even starts. And no, it isn’t normal to allow your son who isn’t of age yet to get out in Paris until the early hours, return drunk and with a girl 9 years older, then start a jam session in his room with accordion and guitar and loud singing. To let this girl for whom the room wasn’t paid strip the breakfast buffet the next morning and even pack food for later. I would have kicked her out when the accordion started (or at least asked her/Albie to pay for the stay); Douglas was far too nice and too understanding (which doesn’t fit in at all with those later memories)!
It is normal to expect some interest from your son when you show him the Ardennes from the train window and tell him that’s where his great-grandfather died in WWII. It is not normal to have to apologize to said son after you expressed your disappointment on his total lack of interest. For all reactions that seemed absolutely normal or even extremely liberal to me, Douglas is permanently either scolded or derided by Connie and Albie. Okay, the later flashbacks turn the cards a little, but the effect was that I disliked all three.
What Connie does in the end was zero surprising.

I’ll post something about the longlist and why I believe it shouldn’t have been there separately. If it hadn’t been listed, I wouldn’t have read and rated it. The 2.5 stars reflect my honest opinion about the book and aren’t any form of punishment for undeserved list status. It’s not the book’s fault if the jury put it there.

Rating: 2.5 stars

Oh too bad, the Nichollls sounds like a balloon with a leak in it - I got the impression, that is, that you were looking forward to it.

Being me I might like the Fitzgerald as a period piece. I almost feel I have read it.... but I may be conflating it with some other 'people living in barges' books!

Something about that no-name-genre (don't want to call it "fluff", that's sth different for me). Maybe I'll call it the "I feel SO well understood" genre.

I had my fair share of (English) chick lit novels in my late 20s and early 30s and enjoyed them. They were appealing for 3 reasons:

1. They improved my English.

2. I was scared of high literature. In Germany they make such a difference between “good” and “bad” books, so you feel guilty for reading the bad ones while being terrified of the good (=serious) ones. Good are Thomas Mann and Goethe and Boell and Grass. Bad are all mysteries, romance, everything that’s easy to read and doesn’t somehow deal with a world war, the Holocaust or the GDR, at least if it’s by a German author. To be honest, German chick lit was mostly really awful, bad stories, bad writing. The English books probably weren’t any better, but as I liked to say “trash in a foreign language feels far less trashy”. I read loads of them. And you didn’t have to hide the covers on the train. At some point I got bored by it and carefully started “reading up”.

3. I was the right age for chick lit and in the right situation. Chick lit, lad/bloke lit and whatever else those books are called, imo are mainly read by people who can identify with the settings. You read situations you have experienced similarly and you don’t feel alone anymore – be it looking for Mr Right or reading about a marriage falling apart or a couple failing to have a child. Those books are full of RL identification anchors we can grab – clothes brands, songs, movie titles, etc. I stopped reading chick lit not only because I moved to the more challenging books, but also because once over 35 I couldn’t identify anymore with those young women around 30 whose life plans were focused on finding a man and starting a family. I had grown out of it and as I didn’t follow the characters' example by getting married and having kids I never grew into the follow-up novel categories (the horrors of pregnancy, the strain of parenthood, oh-so-funny family holidays, etc)

For that 3rd reason, Us certainly makes perfect sense for many readers. It is a book for those middle-aged couples whose children are leaving home and who suddenly don't know what's left of their marriage. It doesn't offer any solutions, but it shows them that they are not alone out there.

And that’s what divides great writers and okay-bestseller-writers. The great writer would manage to tell the story about that fading marriage in a way that I’d love reading it although it is not my situation. The obw however doesn’t deliver an intense study on marriage/relationships, the slow estrangement. He delivers an exchangeable observation that’s far more superficial. It’s not bad and as said it works perfectly for the target group and can even be extremely helpful for some people who feel understood. But if you’re not in that target group there’s nothing for you to discover.

And no, I don’t think such a book should be on the list for a "best novel of the year" literature prize with a good reputation. There are certainly prizes for that category, but books for the Booker should (yes - in an ideal world) have an element that makes them special. Either an exceptional story and/or a stylistic concept that has the potential to move literature to a new level. I hated last year’s The Kills, but the concept with the video links justified its list status. The Marrying of Chani Kaufman was a coming of age story in a Jewish Orthodox setting, not in the usual heavy drama robes but fluffed up as chick lit and therefore courageous and fresh. Both no winners, but okay candidates. "Us" (imo!) doesn’t add anything of value to the literature world, and therefore it shouldn’t have been listed.

>160 sibylline: The really sad thing is that the "balloon with leak" effect could be expected... I just wish it had been published earlier and therefore wouldn't conclude this year's Booker challenge for me. Mitchell would have been more fun.
I was not looking forward to reading it, I was just so happy and surprised that I found it before its official publishing date (and in Italy!!), so that I'd be able to read the LL completely before the award date.

"Period piece" is a good expression and I agree. It even gets better in retrospect. I really guess it was that snapshot feeling that turned it into a winner. Like being shown just the middle part of a movie.

Yes, as soon as I saw David Nicholls' name on the longlist, I knew that was a mistake. Yes, he can write, but what he writing is pretty standard fare. There is nothing of much interest there.

I still have fun with chick lit, although in some cases, I'm aging out of it. I get bored of novels featuring 20-something narrators, for instance, and I'm looking for books that feature more complex characters and interesting situations. And I still like my guilty pleasures -- the kind of immense sagas I enjoyed as a teen and in my early 20s. Think authors like Penny Vincenzi. Epics, no redeeming value whatsoever.

My first reads in French were Harlequin romances and Agatha Christie romans policiers... et alors?? :-)

I liked the St. Aubyn novel for precisely what it was: someone sticking out his tongue at the Man Booker crowd and going, nyah, nyaaah nyaahh nyahhh, nyaaah,.

Personally, I have always see them, and Orange and the others, as more Gault Millau than Michelin. Anything else is the product of THEIR (successful) PR and OUR wishful thinking. We want their to be a standard bearer for good literature, in terms of a prize. But as this list clearly demonstrates (also, the opening up of the Booker to US titles) the pressure is always there to be populist and commercial, too. And it was the juggling of all that which I enjoyed about St. Aubyn's novel. Although I haven't read Ben Elton's novel so perhaps was fortunate enough not to have had to make comparisons.

I think with the Nobel, where it's awarded for a body of work, I expect them to get it right. With a prize for a book in a year, my expectations are very, very modest. A jury is human and fallible. And who am I, to insist that their taste accords with mine? I may find their choices bizarre (and I do...) but who died and made me literary god?

#163 Literary god... now there a good job. Or maybe too much pressure... nope - my first act? Remove from existence every copy of 50 Shades of Grey!

Sorry I neglected my thread... I updated my ipad mini to iOS8 some days ago and now have real problems with the internet. I read I might set everything to new, but then I'd have to do backups first, but I don't trust clouds, so have that de-activated... so for now I am just hoping for a new update that will heal the issues.

>163 Chatterbox: I have lots of guilty pleasure books although I quite grew out of the chick lit and the mysteries after 20 years of not reading anything else. I still reread my Poirots and Miss Marples from time to time. My GPs nowadays are more "stupid" non-fiction books, if possible with lists. There's even a book of guilty pleasures among them. And a book of lists. :)

>164 BekkaJo: That be a great thing to do... and take all its followers as well, please! Tbh I didn't care much about the book hype, that could be avoided, although I still can't believe my small bookshop here had put up pallets of copies, and sold them! But the movie will be omnipresent, in all papers, magazines, trailers and discussions on TV... and then it will be on Sky (again with trailers), then on TV.. :(

>163 Chatterbox: Interesting comments from Suz on the stuffiness and merits of annual book awards. Must admit that what seems obvious to most of us seems to be missed yearly by panels of supposed experts. How can a panel of five jointly decide that David Nicholls' book, as readable as it surely must be, deserves a place at literature's intended top table? Yeah we expect them to get it right at the Nobel but they often don't do they?

Have a lovely weekend Nathalie and I'm glad your internet woes have been overcome.

I'm dreading that iOS 8 upgrade for my iPad after reading about the problems users were having with it earlier this week. I think I'll stick with the old version for now.

Your day out in Verona sounds just wonderful.
I've taken Filippo Bologna's recent novel The Parrots out of the library twice now but haven't read it still. I mention it here because a) he's an Italian writer b) it's had good reviews c) it's about a literary award and so I thought you might like to find out more about it.

I tried reading David Nicholls' One Day and only managed 3 pages.

>166 PaulCranswick: Thank you Paul, a lovely week to you! Internet woes still ongoing, scrolling through a long thread takes forever and pages with many pictures don't open at all...

>167 kidzdoc: Hi Darryl - see above. If I had known that I'd never have updated. But my ipad is an older model, I believe pre-retina, just wifi, 16MB only. So maybe yours will take it better?

>168 avatiakh: It was quite wonderful, yes.
I read somewhere that Italy is the country with the most literary awards which seems strange. The Italian section of the bookshops here is always much better assorted, but I almost never see people reading books. I think the Strega is the most famous award. Bologna is noted, I believe I also saw his name somewhere...

I never tried One Day and without a doubt would have passed over "Us" had it not been for the Booker.

Psycho stuff following once again, feel free to skip. :)

I had kind of a low weekend. And I feel ungrateful for saying that. Because I live ‘in paradise’, I have quite a safe job in those times of crisis, a nice apartment, my parents aren’t ill, I am healthy… so I should be happy. It’s my duty to be happy, isn’t it? All the time people are telling me what a wonderful life I must be having and sometimes I am able to see and believe it for myself and manage to function for a couple of weeks or months, but sometimes I feel just like a terrible failure. And then I get so anxious and feel lost and like I don’t fit in and on really bad days (like yesterday) I might cry a lot. I am not depressive, at least my therapist doesn’t think so. It’s just “bouts of anxiety” for which I have low-dosed “S.O.S. pills” which I very reluctantly and very rarely use to take off the edges.

I mean – it’s obvious that I am kind of lonely. But I am also quite a solitary person who 80% of the time enjoys the solitude and gets awfully stressed by any events that involve lots of people. Hyper-sensitive? Definitely! It is a fact that I haven’t been able to find the “right” friends here in this place. And with my experience from my life in Germany, here I have been very careful getting close to people who don’t feel “right”. When I come back from a lunch with a friend and feel just drained and exhausted, it will be a while until I contact that friend again. I don’t mean that I am not willing to listen or to give advice when s/he needs me. That’s usually even enriching, not draining. I mean those meetings where you can’t be yourself and have to pretend all the time to think like the other person because otherwise you wouldn’t have to say much to each other.

Also, after all those weeks/ months, I am not over “the man”. Because after spending time with him I always felt inspired and lighter. If he was a woman-friend and thus we wouldn’t have had all those relationship-panic issues, he would certainly have become my best friend here. I really do miss him. Also, he was the first (and only) person here who tried to show me something of my new surroundings. With others you meet for coffee and gossip, but they are all quite sedentary, be it because of work, because of a partner/ family, and they are very, very traditional. He was much like me, liked travelling, trying new foods, and he enjoyed having me around. There must be more people like him I am sure, but I don’t know where to find them….

******

Please don’t post me any “but you’re doing great” things. Really – I am not fishing for that, that’s not why I am posting that here. What I’d like to ask you however: I know we all have our low times without “external” reasons like illness or real well-founded worry, so what are your safe recipes to get out of those depths again?
Chocolate, an old movie, playing an instrument, singing, a walk in the park - whatever it is, maybe it helps me too. :)

And what are your anchors to grab on bad days – this question I’d like to ask those who don’t have kids/ grandkids (for whom it is always worth going on), who don’t have a profession that’s also a “calling” and are instead doing a job that earns their bread but doesn’t fulfill them, who aren’t currently 100% involved in some other “project” (could be everything) that distracts their thoughts.

Yes, I thought about volunteering, a lot, but it quite scares me (what if I don't do it well?) and I am not sure I'd be doing it with the "right" intention.

I never wanted kids and never thought I’d be a good mother, so that isn’t something I really regret. Sure, sometimes you ask yourself how it would be, but that’s normal - and I guess all parents sometimes wonder what their lives would have been like without children. Maybe I am caught in a thought trap: is life only valuable if you either follow the traditional path with marriage, kids and family home or alternatively do something that’s obviously self-fulfilling and maybe a little crazy? Do I feel a failure because I decided not to take the one way, but don’t have any calling towards the other accepted path and am now uselessly hanging around in a no-man’s-land type of existence? Is that an example for German “weltschmerz”? :)

Reading:

I finished V.S. Naipaul's In a Free State and Paare, Passanten/ Couples, Passerby by Botho Strauss, the latter from the 1,001 unread list.

I started a big book project: Jahrestage by Uwe Johnson, another group-unread 1,001. My edition has app 1,800 pages thanks to small font, the standard length is around 2,200p. It has only been translated in an (authorized) abridged version into English. I read 120p yesterday and am in love with it. The language is a dream, especially after the very forced German Botho Strauss used in his book.

Sure, it's another novel about the German past, concentrating on the third reich and the Holocaust, but it's written from the perspective of a young woman who back then was still a child and who now (1960s) lives in New York. It is written in form of a diary and starts with daily excerpts from the NY Times usually by giving the number of yesterday's fallen soldiers in Vietnam. Memories are mixed with observations of life in Manhattan, in a part around the lower Broadway which then was inhabited by countless poor European immigrants, many of them Jewish.
50 years later it has become a time witness of two periods long past and therefore is certainly of interest for a broad range of readers.

84. In A Free State by V.S. Naipaul (Booker Winner 1971/ 1,001 #341/376)

This is one of those highly uncomfortable books which you want to shake off you like a biting insect while reading it.

It consists of 2 short stories, one novella and two short framing pieces in first person writing. It starts nice and easy with some observations on a ship full of travelers and emigrants between Greece and Egypt.

The first short story also was easy to follow: an Indian diplomat is sent to Washington and decides to bring his servant along. The servant has a hard time adapting, but finally finds a way to grab a hold in this new “free state”.

The second story was somewhat cryptic. Again it’s about emigrants from India, this time two brothers moving to England (another free state) , the younger one to follow his studies, the older one (the narrator) then following to look after him. The older works two shifts and manages to save some money which he invests into a roti shop. He finds out the brother’s studies don’t exist. Then some things happen and if I interpreted it correctly in the end the younger brother makes his way despite his initial problems while the narrator is ‘lost’.

The novella with the title “In a Free State” reminded me much of Coetzee's Disgrace. In an unnamed African country (not South Africa) that’s recently become independent, a tribal war is rising between the people of the president in the north and those of the king in the south. On the day of the first uprisings, a British government employee travels from the capital towards the king’s town in the south after a conference, and he gives a colleague's wife a lift back. Gradually they are confronted with the new situation up to the point where they experience physical violence. Both characters are for a modern reader highly unlikeable as they express two very opposite opinions re. “the African Question”, both in their own way highly condescending and racist (the man’s racism being of the “next time I’m born I want to be black” type). But I as a reader had to ask myself how I would behave in their place, how I’d talk. Those were the late 60s/early 70s, they had a certain upbringing and are mixing in their own experiences. What would have been the chances that I, the mighty reader, would have been any better? And what remains open is the question what would in fact have been right in their situation? This is a case of wrong place, wrong time and I doubt anyone could have done well.

The book closes with another couple of pages by the first narrator who has now made it to Egypt where he witnesses some awful treatment of local beggar kids by both tourists and Egyptian people.

The book begins with stories that convey a kind of hope, then gradually moves into an atmosphere of despair and disgust. I thought the title was well chosen, as it can be interpreted as "free country" or "free (personal) status", both alternatives applicable to all 5 stories.

Rating: 3.5 stars

85. Paare, Passanten (Couples, Passerby) by Botho Strauss (1,001 #342/377)

This isn't a novel, it's just a series of short scenes taken from life by watching people. A quick read, and the first part, "Paare" (couples) is timeless and well observed to the point where you'll feel exposed and embarrassed, as if he'd secretly been watching you and you're grateful he didn't.

The rest is much influenced by the political situation around 1980 in Western Germany and therefore really dated. Interesting if you've been there and can relate, otherwise... I don't know. If there was so much to complain about computers in 1980 I wouldn't want to know what he'd say about today's tablets and smartphones.
He laments the decay of culture, naming a 1970s quiz show as example for low culture that's so far above "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" that you couldn't broadcast it anymore nowadays. He should be grateful for never having to witness "Big Brother" or "I am a Celebrity...".

The writing overall feels forced, like he used a book of synonyms and always selected an expression as far away from spoken language as possible.

German is a language that's imo quite resistant to "beautiful writing". You have to go poetic to make it sound good, some modern authors have succeeded in that. Thomas Mann found his own way, Walser, Böll and now Johnson are great later examples. Alternatively stay factual and sparse. But Strauss wants to be intellectual and detached and different, he uses those expressions to be above mainstream, and I found the result almost unbearably forced.

Rating: 3 stars

>170 Deern: Yes, I thought about volunteering, a lot, but it quite scares me (what if I don't do it well?) and I am not sure I'd be doing it with the "right" intention.

As someone who works for a charity that is frequently desperate for volunteers in a number of capacities, I can say that whether someone has the 'right' intentions or not isn't something that really matters as long as they are prepared to help out. At the moment, we have a volunteer within Finance who is trying to ease herself back in to work after long-term sickness due to stress. Her reason for volunteering is to build up her confidence again in a work environment, and I'm sure that as soon as she has done that she will leave and obtain paid employment. But in the meantime it's great that we've got an extra pair of hands. And for very many volunteer positions having that extra pair of hands is all that matters, nobody is expecting you to be perfect or to replace paid staff who may have a lot of expertise and training.

What Rhian says about volunteering is very true - it's more about being a willing presence. It also has been my experience that you can't volunteer at just anything, it has to be in some area that fits with who you are. One of my volunteer 'jobs' has led to friendships, the other is just satisfying.

I've struggled most of my life with similar issues despite having achieved life in a setting and situation that you might think would preclude problems. I think some extremely intelligent and sensitive people (and I mean you!) have as part of their internal programs a constant questioning of motive, examination of performance, and a real need to be challenging themselves... . Most of the time this 'program' is useful, but at times it goes crazy and is counter-productive. I wouldn't hesitate to use whatever medication gets you through such times. (I take something daily, in fact.) Otherwise, I would counsel patience and kindness to yourself, and keep in mind that it is rare that these bad episodes last long. - When in the throes I cycle through all the things that help, from scrubbing the undersides of pots or cleaning up some mess in a drawer - (satisfying and visible improvement) taking a really really long walk (wearing myself out) choosing a book I know I will get lost in and allowing myself a bowl of popcorn (relief). But some days are just like climbing some mountain in bad weather..... pace yourself and keep moving.

I hope that is useful? I always worry that I might be annoying. (That's part of the program!)

I think Sibyx covered most of what I thought this morning when I read your status :)

I really relate to the feeling that one is supposed to be doing something else, or something more. I also know that it keeps me from enjoying the moment - I always envy those live in the now people. And now I read that it's prob not a helpful comment but I'm going to leave it anyway.

Pre-kids when I needed to sort my head I'd go walking on my favourite places on the cliff paths near my parents. Walk and walk until either I'd a) sorted it out or b) got knackered. And yes the second was more often the case I guess.

These days it's a re-read of a favourite book (usually something in the fantasy genre) or a moronic computer game whilst re-watching episodes of trash tv (I'm a Next Top Model Junkie. It's wrong and I keep trying to quit). Don't be afraid to just indulge anything that lifts your mood and gets you through the hard part.

And also never feel worried about venting/talking to us because we all care about you and want to help. Even if we can't really.

Nathalie, those are so e lovely pics of your travels to Milano and Verona. You are fortunate to be able to hop on a train and arrive in such beautiful cities. And, yes, you do live in Paradise, but I don't think it's our duty to be happy. I try to accept my "moody" days as part of who I am. Being in nature (even sitting under a tree in my yard) helps to take me out of the doldrums.

I am sorry you and Peggy were disappointed in The Bone Clocks. I am still eager to read it to find out what a bone clock is and form my own opinion. I enjoyed all your reviews as usual. Like you and others, I was disappointed in the Booker SL. So it goes...

Nathalie, all I'm sure of is that happiness is never a duty. It's either present or it's not. When it's not, I hang on because I know that nothing lasts. Time will eventually bring gifts of contentment just as it will again bring whatever you call bouts of sadness. I think Lucy has given very good advice all around. I hope that long distance support which your friends here give is a bit helpful.
As usual, I love the pictures and the travel notes. They are as close as I'll ever get to Europe.
Do think about the things you enjoy and see whether you can find an organization that needs volunteers to do them. The good thing about volunteering is that it is just that: you can always not do it when you need not to, and when you mess up (as I do from time to time) everybody says, "What do you expect? She's just a volunteer."

ETA: Scrubbing the bottom of pots or cleaning out a drawer NEVER works for me!!!

Happiness is never a duty. It's something to celebrate it when you have it within your grasp, and to hope that you are lucky enough to rediscover. Unfortunately, it's like misplacing your car keys: the harder and more desperately you try to nab it, the more elusive it becomes.

I empathize. I, too, am largely solitary; increasingly so. Because I work independently from home, days can go by without my talking to anyone at all, and a week or two elapse without my speaking with anyone about anything that isn't perfunctory or related to a specific task. I enjoy the solitude, but am now realizing how easily it tips over into the "too much" category and becomes loneliness. In large part, too, because I don't want to compromise when it comes to friendships. I'm on the "wrong" side of 50 now, and frankly have less than zero interest in spending time with people who I find to be predictable, dull, gossipy, full of opinions and rigid ideas but lacking in real curiosity about the world, who aren't willing to challenge themselves, blah, blah, blah. Can I afford to be that picky? Absolutely not. Do I have excessively high standards/am I a snob? It's certainly possible. But either I can be myself or I can painfully fake my way through friendships, at cost to myself and the others involved.

Re getting over the man, well, that, too is simply a matter of time, like any kind of grief. It's particularly wearing for you because you don't have other relationships to fill in the gap, and when you travel there is no one to turn to and share your delight in something, or your curiosity about something else, etc.

How do I cope? Displacement activities. Sometimes doing something physical is a great recipe for just switching off one's brain. So, too, is trying something new, where you're actively learning a new skill and can't afford to let your mind wander, or even focus on the people around you.

Re volunteering, who cares what your motivation is? There's no moral purity test, here. And it certainly would meet my criteria, above, even if you don't meet new people. You'd certainly find it helps to clear your brain, because you'd be busy doing something. A course would serve the same purpose. Language? Photography? I don't know what's available. Teaching a course? Explore -- you may stumble across something that you end up feeling passionately about in the process.

Books help, although I realize that they are also a form of escapism.

I think all that I can say, broadly, is that for some reason when you are happier about your life and more at peace with yourself, it is then that you are more open to meeting new people, and suddenly, those people seem to appear. I don't know why that is. The same law that says when you're in a relationship, suddenly three more men decide they are interested in you? It's something about vibes, I think.

And pay not attention to people who are telling you what you *should* be thinking or feeling about your life. "Should" is a word that "should" be banned. And until they have lived inside your skin, they don't get to wag their fingers in your face.

Here endeth the lecture.

Wow, this is so, so amazing! Thank you all for your feedback!! Before I get to individual responses, I’d like to add something.

So much has improved since summer 2012 when I had to start that therapy. Then it took me almost a year to accept that help and not to feel guilty for using it. Then came very careful little steps, like taking a painting class, wearing colorful clothes, my yoga, new foods, my walks to work and back home, etc.. I now have long phases where I feel “okay” and sometimes even “happy” in the sense of quiet inner happiness – but that makes it so harsh when a bad day comes, then I fear it will all come back and all the steps I took were in vain – and that I am a failure. So the constant anxieties have quite disappeared, but the remaining peaks are hard to cope with.

On Saturday I’d been at the hairdresser’s, had a nice lunch, even baked cookies in the afternoon, because that idea had been in my head since reading scaifea’s/Amber’s thread with all the little Charlie surprises. I watched the reality shows I had recorded over the week while doing housework and had half-plans for Sunday. I didn’t feel great, but on the surface everything was fine. And then Sunday came and was just awful, and of course I became angry and impatient with myself and then the usual circle started where I feel ungrateful and useless and not worth having such a wonderful live. Going out wasn’t an option. I started on more housework, threw out some shoes and clothes (I always give those to charity organizations), even cooked a meal and LTed a bit, but that was all cosmetics and in the evening it was really bad.

Yesterday I spontaneously took the afternoon off because the weather was lovely and I forced myself to leave the house and take a walk in town. I sat in the sun and was able to relax a bit and to once again see the beauty around me. I went to the bookshop (of course) and found 2 books that might be helpful, we’ll see. I am by now convinced that books find us when we are ready for them or when we need them.

Actually, I now believe that the reading of The Mill on the Floss might have been a trigger, those destructive and desperate dynamics between Maggie and Tom brought some family issues to the surface, and sadly the book doesn’t offer a solution. I had expected it to be a comfort classic after the often intense Bookers, and instead I felt suffocated. Maggie-Tom showed me how trapped in the (imagined?) expectations of others I still feel, I started doubting the motives for every step I took in the last couple of months, including my city trips. So yes, books can be an escape as Suz said, but they can also be great confronters and they can throw me off-rail on weaker days.

>174 SandDune: Thank you, I needed to read that!
I am one of those people who believe they must be capable to do things before they learned them. I know that makes no sense at all and it something I want to get out of my head and soon!

And for a long while I also feared volunteering might be a way to make me feel better about myself. Of course the question of motivation takes only 2nd or lower rank, but I feared that with the wrong motivation I might run away from it as soon as the first difficulty comes up and thus disappoint others who’d count on me.

>175 sibylline: Thank you Lucy, this was so very useful!

Quote: Most of the time this 'program' is useful, but at times it goes crazy and is counter-productive
It really goes crazy, doesn’t it? It feels like my program has an error and runs into a loop with thoughts flying from wall to wall, always bouncing back, and the program can’t run on until I’ve managed to take those thoughts out or changed the program in order to be able to execute them correctly.

>176 BekkaJo: Thank you, Bekka! I already apply some of your techniques (see above), and while the video game and the DVDs this time didn’t work, on Moday morning “the universe” sent me a brain candy book that gave some relief, and it sent it in such a funny way, I didn't know it had such a sense of humor!
I’ll write about it in my review.

>177 Donna828: Donna, thank you for your kind words!
I also try to 'connect' with nature and sometimes find it so helpful. I even touch things now and then on my walk to the office - flowers, grass, twigs above my head (but make sure that no-one sees me doing that).
I even actually had 'my' tree one, a fir tree opposite my house. I often spent time on my terrace just staring at that tree, it was like meditation. Then – in summer 2012 of course – they cut it off. Still missing it and looking for a substitute. 

Some readers really loved The Bone Clocks, you might be among them! It just wasn’t for me, but I won’t give up on Mitchell, on the contrary, I’ll try another one soon.

>178 LizzieD: “Happiness is never a duty” - thank you for saying that so clearly. Maybe I had some too many of those affirmations although I believe I use them correctly most of the time as a help to accept those things that can’t be changed and to find the courage to change those that can.

As usual, I love the pictures and the travel notes. They are as close as I'll ever get to Europe.
I wish they had hurried up a bit with the invention of beaming, I hate flying so much. Maybe in the next life…

I often started clearing out stuff on bad days and then suddenly lost my energy and found myself in a big chaos of clothes or books. So now (as on Sunday) I strictly limit myself to one part of my wardrobe or the shoe cabinet.

>179 Chatterbox: Thank you for the ‘lecture’ and for sharing your own experience! I answered to some of your suggestions in the posts above. Re. the new Tasks, I learned that it is difficult for me currently to take those commitment decisions, so I just decided against starting a language class which would have booked 2 (quite late) nights per week for 4 months (Options here are a bit limited) . But I booked some separate cooking classes and my yoga class contract is renewed every 5 weeks only, so I can always see the finish line. The painting class last year wasn't for me, it was too strict where I had hoped for some more free-form fun, and the laughing yoga didn’t work for me either, but at least I tried and I am checking the list of new classes every couple of weeks.

I always loved my solitude, already in kindergarten, but yes, it can become too much if I don’t pay attention to get a small dose of positive social interaction every day (which can be a phone call or just a friendly exchange in the grocery shop).

"Should" is a word that "should" be banned. And until they have lived inside your skin, they don't get to wag their fingers in your face.
I’ll print that and put it on my wall. :)

Well, on Monday morning, after a bad night with many sleepless hours there was a bit of time left before I had to get up and quite exasperated I decided to check how to become a good enough person (i.e. for volunteering for the right reasons) by googling it.

Yes, I did that.

So I typed "hot to be g" and the Google algorithm didn't add "ood" as top choice, but "erman". Who would have thought that being German was more important for Google users than being good??? Okay, I thought "being German is something I am able to do, but let's see if I do it right", followed the link and soon downloaded

86. How To Be German in 50 Easy Steps by Adam Fletcher

It cost only 5 USD (Kindle books for me are rarely below the 10 USD - that has to do with fixed book prices in Europe), it sounded like fun and I was curious. So I read it right then and there and then had to rush to office.

Sure this isn't well researched in any "scientific" way, Adam Fletcher moved to Germany for work some years ago and (not 100% sure) stayed, because he found he liked it. And probably because of the German girlfriend he's mentioning in some chapters. And exactly because he didn't do real serious research apart from watching his new German friends, most of the things he mentions are spot-on. Just that not all of them are very interesting. I guess for publishing he had to get to 50 out of the original 20 or so on his blog, so some are a bit far-fetched. One of the funniest anecdotes is how he buys cheap front-row tickets for the movie theater and then forces his GF to sit in one of the free seats in the back rows, hoping no-one will claim it. When he says it takes her half the movie to finally relax I thought "I'd sit alone in the front row in a half-empty theater because otherwise I wouldn't be able to relax at all". It really must be in our genes. Or in the water.

Bianca (drachenbraut) told me she got it for Darryl when he was in London. Darryl, if you're reading that, I can confirm that's how we are! :)

Rating: 3 stars

******

P.S.: "how to be good" mainly leads to the book by Nick Hornby of the same title.

Hello Nathalie, Thanks for the spot on review on How To Be German in 50 Easy Steps as I mentioned to you before I read this with my sister and we were just howling with laughter as so many things ARE true.

You have me worried now about your thoughts on the new Mitchell as I just got myself The Bone Clocks as the unabridged audiobook version. So far I have read Cloud Atlas and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet which I both enjoyed quite a lot. Due to my health issues I still have got quite severe concentration problems at times and now have a tendency to read (listen) quite a few books at the same time. At present I am reading/listening to 6/7? books.

However, some of my faves this year - which you may even read yourself already, or which you may would enjoy :) - were The Shock of the Fall - by Nathan Filer, Company of Liars - by Karen Maitland, The Painted Veil and Of Human Bondage both by Somerset Maugham, and Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym.

I will answer to your pm shortly and I saw on some of your earlier posts that you have been experimenting with quite a few raw food recipes as well. I think that seriously invites to exchanging recipes :)

Here you can see one of my raw food frozen cheese cakes experiments - as I didn't use as many dates as the recipe suggested the cake turned out to be quite soft after thawing - However, I hate anything too sweet so I am still working on something to make them more firm without using dates :) - Well, it didn't matter to my friends who shared this cake with me as it was gone in no time *grin*.

>183 drachenbraut23: Yay, Bianca's here! :)))

I really had to laugh about Apfelsaftschorle and Bionade (and others like "Dinner for One"), but there are just so many entries you'll only understand if you've been to Germany. Fenster auf Kipp, too! :)

I am not so good with the audiobooks at the moment (they just take so long), but I have a nice one waiting and 5 audible credits to spend, so I'll get some more soon. Thanks for the list, I only ever read Of Human Bondage out of those.

That cheesecake looks delicious! Is it "cashew cream cheese" as well? Sadly I never took pictures of my experiments and I always made mini cheesecakes in the muffin mould. I don't think I ever let those thaw enough to become soft. I really have no resistance when it comes to cheesecake.
Once I made a selection classic/ peanut butter/ blackberries and once a batch of mini lime key pies. The base was walnuts and dates, but reduced quantities as well. I also reduce the sirups and the coconut oil.

:) I am definitely spending to much time on LT today :) However, yes this cheese cake has got a cashew nut base as well. I always take photos and document my experiments. The reasons? There are so many foodies on fb who ALWAYS demand photos and I am still working on a blog (which my liver dietician suggested) to show that you can eat very healthy AND tasty most importantly - low fat, low salt, low sugar in my case.

Hm, the classic peanut butter one sounds great as well. I really think we should start exchanging recipes. Either by email or pm :)

Did someone just say cashew nut based cheesecake?

*swoon*

>186 BekkaJo: still swooning when I say that the cashews replace the cream cheese? :)
I couldn't imagine it at all at first, but already on the first batch I preferred it to the real thing. Surprisingly creamy and so tasty, and especially great with that peanut butter topping (and I normally don't like peanut butter, will never forget the shock when I tasted it for the first time).

>185 drachenbraut23: Okay, I'll start taking pics as well in future if the results are half-presentable. Looking forward already to the blog! I must find a way to reduce my sugar intake, so I'd be glad for some advice. Since I quite abandoned the cheese I've been escaping into sugar. :(
I got most of my recipes from UK and US blogs and some from Italian cooking books. The latter try to veganize classical Italian dishes, so mostly aren't raw and not exactly light.

Lovely to see you here, Bianca!!!!! And what fun for both of you that you share an interest not only in books but in healthy cookery. And we all can lurk and learn.

>188 sibylline: and all: Happy weekend to everyone!

I had a very busy week at work, so not much LTing possible from there, and at home my internet line was working only sporadically, quite annoying because of all those sleepless hours which I would have loved to spend at least in part here.
I managed to walk to work and back for lunch and back to work and back home on 4 of 5 days, so had 1.5 hrs of walking on those days which did me some good I guess. Did much thinking and I might have found an approach that could work for me for now. If it does, I'll write about it. I believe that every crisis is a chance to take another small or maybe big step forward. We'll see... :)

Wonderful weather today, I was out for a walk, then reading on the terrace and still found the time to do some food prep for the next days.

I bought a butternut squash today which has been partly turned into pie (already in the freezer) and the other two thirds will become quinoa risotto and simple oven-baked squash. Then I boiled a cauliflower, half of which will be mashed into a pasta sauce and frozen and the other half will be mashed into, well, mash (with rosemary).

There are such wonderful foodblogs, I am a bit overwhelmed and sometimes don't know where to start and then end up with the same easy salad again. But today I was motivated. Also made my favorite green smoothie for tonight, I will soon need a new and good blender.

And while all that sounds terribly healthy: I also had cake. A lot of cake, for breakfast and after lunch. I won't say how much. But still I had to take the pie from the freezer and try a spoonful and only then I remembered that I was meant to take pics from now on... So maybe I'll post a pic of the last crumbs. Tastes delicious btw and is my first ever encounter with pumpkin/squash pie. Very pleasantly surprised. And again soaked and blended cashews were used to substitute cream cheese and I still can't believe how well that works.

Reading: trying to make a mini dent into the Johnson book which is so heavy it can only be read while sitting upright and it can't be taken anywhere, so it will be a weekend book. So far I adore it, should I have to rate it now it would be a 5 star.

Started The House Of Mirth for the October AAC, but am wondering if I need yet another classic that confronts me with my issues. 10% in the heroine declares herself a complete failure in life. But it's so beautifully written, I think I'll read on for now.

Then there's an Italian non-fiction book which started ok but now I am close to abandoning it. Still reading it for the language improvement, trying not to think too much about the statements the author makes.

#189 Oddly enough I also bought a butternut squash today - I'm going to have another stab at Megan's butternut Squash Laksa. My last result tasted AMAZING but it wasn't really laksa. Sooo yummy though!

Glad you're feeling more positive - and fingers crossed that you've found an approach that will help.

House of Mirth is worth sticking with - I love Wharton. I've read all the 1,001 ones so I've been perusing Gutenberg to find one for October - downloaded several but still can't decide which to read!

>191 BekkaJo: laksa... sth I never heard of, must check wiki. TG my pie is now so solidly frozen I can't cut out pieces anymore :)
Feeling not yet positive but more composed and able to face the world again. Even wore a dress in town today instead of the "don't look at me combo" of the last days. Tomorrow's Sunday, that will be the test.

Well, I took pics, with this ipad, but couldn't upload them here because my ipad behaves really badly since that update and is awfully slow. Or would it normally be possible that it can't upload its own pics?
I am thinking that maybe my internet connection is as bad as it has always been, it is just more noticeable because the ipad now constantly reloads the pages while I am scrolling. I lost trace on some threads here already with that, when there are more unread posts than maybe 5. I scroll, see a blank page, the side reloads, gives me a failed connection message and when I get the connection working again, I have to access the thread again and there are no unreads left. Happened several times tonight, so I apologize if I post sth that shows I haven't read all previous posts.

> 188 - Thank you Lucy, trying to ease my way back into the LT life which I missed incredibly over the last year. However, currently just posting - too early for my own thread.

Nathalie your food exploits sound utterly fab. Well, I use a stick blender to make my smoothies and they are absolutely brilliant. My sister was very generous and bought me a "slow juicer" and I am in love. Presently, I am experimenting what one can do with all the pulp - aside from throwing it away - it's virtually pure fibre and so far it went into muffins, smoothies and soup :)

On the reading front - I am almost finished with The Golem by Gustav Meyrink, have you read this one already? I initially found it very hard to get in and had to re-start a couple of times, but now I really enjoy the book.

I have to confess that I am awed by your foodie-adventures and by your willingness to get dressed up. I live in "don't look at me" garb, and am about to eat leftover fried rice. *sigh*

Nathalie, I wish you a lovely Sunday.

>170 Deern: As someone who has had a pretty trying 2014, I can empathise greatly with your sentiments and that, when things seem to be going well externally, internally they remain difficult. Loneliness is something I feel rarely in truth and I am (suprisingly maybe) content with my own company for 90% of the time but on those occasions that I do crave company its rare unavailability has something akin to the feelings of claustrophobia.

No answers from me and I couldn't begin to match some of the sensible, intelligent and surely helpful comments from many of our friends above but I do feel that this group of itself provides some crumbs of comfort to me and certainly did so when life was at its most trying earlier. xx

>193 drachenbraut23: Bianca, I've seen recipes lately für cakes that explicitly require pulp because it's nice and dry and freshly grated carrots/ zucchini etc. would have to be pressed and dried for ages. I don't have a juicer and I admit I am not a great juice fan with the exception of fresh orange juice and everything with carrots. I prefer blending, and I got a new blender now (more in next post).
I got The Golem on my Kindle but never felt drawn to it. Maybe it would be a good Halloween read?

>194 Chatterbox: I LOVE take-away left-overs! Left-over Asian food is to die for, I thought it was a liking I shared mainly with men... I remember a friend (at whose house I was staying for the weekend) scolding her husband and me when we preferred the Thai left-overs of the night before over her lovingly prepared full English breakfast. In the end we had both of course. :)

Most of the time I wear more than casual clothes. That comes from living in a place where all the tourists and half of the population live in hiking gear, you start caring less. It's funny, when I wear a dress as last Saturday, shop people or waiters automatically talk to me in Italian although I am blonde, they clearly use the clothes as a guideline. When I am in jeans and sneakers it's always German.

>195 Ameise1: A wonderful week to you Barbara! :)

>196 PaulCranswick: Thank you for your comments, Paul. Yes, this group gives so much comfort, it's amazing!

Being content with one's own company is great! That's what I am trying to learn - I am not alone, I am always with myself. :)

I have loads of work but as the internet line here is steady and I have a keyboard, just a quick update.

Okay, Sunday was not good. But not as bad as the Sunday before, and I think I ate less sweets. Maybe I'd just better make plans for the next weekend early enough.
I went to Bolzano in the morning where some shops are open on Sundays and I bought a new blender. I finally had to accept that the brown stuff oozing from my old blender into my smoothies can't come from the veggies if none of them is brown, so it must have been either rust or machine oil, and I don't really want to know...
And it makes quite a difference, I no longer have to chew those smoothies, it's a great improvement!

*****
I am still slowly reading The House of Mirth and I can't believe how beautifully it is written. Of course I am very fond of Lilly, I SO feel for her, and as it is a classic book I know how it will end. Those 1800s women who don't fit in always commit suicide, have some tragic fatal accident or die of some mysterious illness, there's never another way out for them. That's another reason why I am reading so slowly - identifying with a heroine who (I am sure) is doomed might have negative effects on my own self-work.

I am planning only 3 books for October:
The House of Mirth for the AAC
Jahrestage by Uwe Johnson for the 1,001 challenge
Paradise of the Blind for the GR in the 1,001 Group

Of Jahrestage I have now read 300 pages (which must mean about 400 in the normal edition), so there are only 1,500 (=2,000) left. Can I say it's exquisite? If it remains that way it will be one of the best books I've ever read. It would sure make for an interesting read for everyone with some knowledge of and interest in New York. The detail in the descriptions of life in and the scenery of Manhattan in 1967 is amazing! And those daily quotes from the New York Times, that's such valuable and real information.
And it's such a rare pleasure to read wonderful writing in German. It can be done after all! I really hope they did a good translation, there's lots of intelligent word play. So why isn't Johnson as famous as Mann, Böll, Walser, Grass?

Hooray for the new blender!
I am another one quietly respectful of all the attention that you give to food. I'd like to, but I never seem to get around to it. Also, I still cook the same way my mother did in the 50s with lots of butter, cream, and mayonnaise, and I guess that's why I still have my big stomach - that and genes, of course.
I have never heard of Uwe Johnson, also of course. I've been looking at Amazon and am about to grab what has been translated into English - maybe 6 or 8 volumes..... That is the beginning of my birthday present to myself.
I like to hear about all your walking!

>198 Deern: I am a BIG fan of Edith Wharton's, and The House of Mirth is another gem from her collection.

>199 LizzieD: 6 or 8 volumes? I read that the translation was an authorized abridged version of the original, but still in so many volumes? Maybe better try one first - I loved mine from page one, but you never know with the translations?

I realized that a) cooking at all and b) cooking so differently are also "acts of liberation" from the old ways. My mother's food - when she cooked - tasted very good and the one thing I learned from her in the kitchen was not to be too careful with the spices. I don't over-season (recipes where marinades consist of soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, chili and wasabi make me shudder), I just think I have a good hand for it.
But she made the most wonderful layered cream cakes for birthdays and weddings and for that I never had the patience. Mine tasted good, but were of a particular ugliness and I stopped making them long ago.

>200 PiyushC: Hi Piyush, yes - it feels like a gem. I read her Age of Innocence only so far, but I couldn't get Winona Ryder's and Michelle Pfeiffer's faces out of my head then. Here I am unspoiled and can just enjoy.. :)

As far as I can see, only the first two volumes of Jahrestage by Uwe Johnson seem to have even been translated! That's based on what I can see via Abebooks. Since I don't read in German, my options are to read the first two in English and then to switch and read the second two in French (Amazon.fr has #3 and #4, but NOT the first two... there's logic for you...) Sigh...

ETA: They do seem to have been translated into 4 volumes.

#197 LOL - definitely not a man only thing. I actually felt so sad last Saturday when I got up with a hangover (not my fault - totally not my fault) to find out that my hubby had not disobeyed my explicit orders and got a take away. I just wanted leftover deep fried chilli beef. Or left over noodles. Or leftover pizza.

*drools on keyboard*

Oh and enjoy the Wharton - it's brilliant. I've run out of 1,001 Wharton's so I think I'm going to read Custom of the Country for my Wharton AAC.

Nathalie, I wish you a gorgeous weekend.

>202 Chatterbox: the original has 4 vols as well, I don't know in which form they did the abridging. But it was authorized, so it should be okay.

>203 BekkaJo: you're right, left-overs are perfect for the day after, hangover or not. Already as a kid I loved having leftovers from my parents' birthday parties for breakfast, those cold meats and spicy dips. On Wednesday night I got my first ever Meran Asian takeaway just to have some cold spicy soy noodles for breakfast on Thursday. :)

>204 Ameise1: A wonderful Sunday to you, Barbara!

Starting a new thread now because I probably won't get to it next week. See you there!

#164 Hear, hear!