kidzdoc achieves TBR domination in 2014, part 11

My photograph of the Administration Building of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau in Barcelona.




Currently reading:

  

The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee
The Inevitable City: The Resurgence of New Orleans and the Future of Urban America by Scott Cowen

Completed books:

January:
1. Homage to Barcelona by Colm Tóibín (review)
2. 1914: A Novel by Jean Echenoz (review)
3. How I Became Hettie Jones by Hettie Jones (review) (TBR)
4. How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America by Kiese Laymon
5. The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordechai Richler

February:
6. Ghosts of Spain: Travels Through Spain and Its Secret Past by Giles Tremlett (TBR)
7. Christmas in Purgatory: A Photographic Essay on Mental Retardation
by Burton Blatt & Fred Kaplan
8. Down's Syndrome: The History of a Disability by David Wright
9. Lizard Tails by Juan Marsé (TBR) (review)
10. The Comedians by Graham Greene (TBR) (review)
11. No Name in the Street by James Baldwin (TBR)
12. The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History, and the Challenge of Bebop by Guthrie Ramsey
13. An Unexpected Twist by Andy Borowitz (TBR)

March:
14. The Enormity of the Tragedy by Quim Monzó (TBR)
15. Between Friends by Amos Oz
16. Chewing Gum Dreams by Michaela Coel
17. The Weir by Conor McPherson
18. Wounded: A New History of the Western Front in World War I by Emily Mayhew
19. The Husbands by Sharmila Chauhan
20. We Are Proud To Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915 by Jackie Sibblies Drury
21. Hallucinations by Oliver Sacks
22. 1984 (play script) by George Orwell

April:
23. Inconvenient People: Lunacy, Liberty and the Mad-Doctors in Victorian England by Sarah Wise
24. Ruin Lust: Artists' Fascination with Ruins, from Turner to the Present Day by Brian Dillon
25. Secret Barcelona by Veronica Ramirez Muro and Rocio Sierra Carbonell
26. Barcelona by Robert Hughes
27. Everyman Mapguide Barcelona
28. Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry (TBR)
29. The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer
30. Notes for a Spanish Odyssey by Calvin Baker
31. Kicking the Sky by Anthony De Sa
32. I Am a Japanese Writer by Dany Laferrière (TBR)
33. Gone by Colum McCann

May:
34. The Colonel by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi (TBR)
35. Gasoline by Quim Monzó (TBR)
36. Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje (TBR)
37. Arctic Summer by Damon Galgut
38. Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen
39. Morphine by Mikhail Bulgakov

June:
40. The Missing Year of Juan Salvatierra by Pedro Mairal
41. Quietly by Owen McCafferty
42. Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life by Alex Bellos
43. Shanghai Nights by Juan Marsé (TBR)
44. This Boy: A Memoir of a Childhood by Alan Johnson
45. Vlad by Carlos Fuentes
46. Rochester Castle by Jeremy Ashbee
47. The Sant Pau Modernista Precinct by Richard Rees
48. Lost Luggage by Jordi Puntí
49. Baedeker Barcelona by Baedeker Guides
50. Gaudí: Introduction to His Architecture by Juan-Eduardo Cirlot

July:
51. Barcelona Scams by Jonathan Stone
52. Gaudí: A Biography by Gijs van Hensbergen
53. Paul Robeson: A Watched Man by Jordan Goodman
54. The Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat : The Story of the Penicillin Miracle by Eric Lax (TBR)
55. Kieron Smith, boy by James Kelman (TBR)

August:
56. All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu
57. How to Be German in 50 Easy Steps by Adam Fletcher
58. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
59. To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris
60. Nevirapine and the Quest to End Pediatric AIDS by Rebecca J. Anderson
61. Dr. Mütter's Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz
62. History of the Rain by Niall Williams
63. Family Life by Akhil Sharma
64. When We Are Called to Part: Hope and Heartbreak in the Vanishing World of the Kalaupapa Leprosy Settlement by Brooke Jarvis

September:
65. The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
66. The Embassy of Cambodia by Zadie Smith
67. Strictly Bipolar by Darian Leader
68. Little Revolution by Alecky Blythe
69. Doctor Scroggy's War by Howard Brenton
70. Portobello Road: Lives of a Neighbourhood by Julian Mash
71. Joe Turner's Come and Gone by August Wiilson

Purchased and acquired books (purchased books in bold):

January:
1. 1914: A Novel by Jean Echenoz (1 Jan, Strand Book Store)
2. The Travels and Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen by Rudolf Erich Raspe (1 Jan, Book Culture)
3. King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild (1 Jan, Book Culture)
4. U.S.A. by John Dos Passos (1 Jan, Book Culture)
5. Looking for Leroy: Illegible Black Masculinities by Mark Anthony Neal (1 Jan, Book Culture)
6. Levels of Life by Julian Barnes (1 Jan, Book Culture)
7. Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat (1 Jan, Book Culture)
8. How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America by Kiese Laymon (1 Jan, Book Culture)
9. My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel by Ari Shavit (1 Jan, Book Culture)
10. Brave Genius: A Scientist, a Philosopher, and Their Daring Adventures from the French Resistance to the Nobel Prize by Sean B. Carroll (1 Jan, Book Culture)
11. The Daughters of Mars by Thomas Keneally (8 Jan, Amazon Kindle e-book)
12. The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 by Christopher Clark (18 Jan, History Book Club)
13. The Marsh Arabs by Wilfred Thesiger (18 Jan, Michael C. Carlos Museum Bookshop)
14. The Odyssey: A Dramatic Retelling of Homer's Epic by Simon Armitage (18 Jan, Michael C. Carlos Museum Bookshop)
15. Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey by Robert O'Meally (18 Jan, Michael C. Carlos Museum Bookshop)
16. The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharis (19 Jan, Kindle e-book)
17. The Tuner of Silences by Mia Couto (25 Jan, Kindle e-book (reimbursement))
18. The New Spaniards by John Hooper (25 Jan, Kindle e-book (reimbursement))
19. Barcelona by John Hughes (25 Jan, Kindle e-book (reimbursement))
20. Pimps, Hos, Playa Hatas, and All the Rest of My Hollywood Friends by John Leguizamo (26 Jan, Kindle e-book)
21. Just Kids by Patti Smith (26 Jan, Kindle e-book)
22. The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles (26 Jan, Kindle e-book)
23. The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land by Thomas Asbridge (26 Jan, Kindle e-book)

February:
25. Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup (6 Feb, Kindle e-book)
26. Christmas in Purgatory: A Photographic Essay on Mental Retardation by Burton Blatt, Fred Kaplan (9 Feb, PDF download)
27. Spain in Mind by Alice Leccese Powers (16 Feb, gift book)
28. The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (21 Feb, Kindle e-book)
29. Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics Is Fueling Our Modern Plagues by Martin J. Blaser, MD (LT Early Reviewers book)
30. The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert (25 Feb, Kindle e-book)
31. Wounded: From Battlefield to Blighty by Emily Mayhew (25 Feb, Kindle e-book)
32. Creation: The Origin of Life by Adam Rutherford (25 Feb, Kindle e-book)
33. Hallucinations by Oliver Sacks (25 Feb, Kindle e-book)
34. Far From the Tree: A Dozen Kinds of Love by Andrew Solomon (25 Feb, Kindle e-book)
35. Inconvenient People by Sarah Wise (25 Feb, Kindle e-book)
36. An Unexpected Twist (Kindle Single) by Andy Borowitz (27 Feb, Kindle e-book)

March:
37. Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker: 200 Recipes for Healthy and Hearty One-Pot Meals That Are Ready When You Are by Robin Robertson (3 Mar, gift from Karen W.)
38. Thrombosis & Bleeding: An Era of Discovery by Cecil Hougie (5 Mar, Kindle e-book)
39. On the Rez by Ian Frazier (9 Mar, Kindle e-book)
40. We'll Always Have Paris by John Baxter (10 Mar, Kindle e-book)
41. The Nonexistent Knight by Italo Calvino (20 Mar, Kindle e-book)
42. The Cloven Viscount by Italo Calvino (20 Mar, Kindle e-book)
43. Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino (20 Mar, Kindle e-book)
44. Chewing Gum Dreams by Michaela Coel (20 Mar, Kindle e-book)
45. 1984 by George Orwell (22 Mar, Foyles Bookshop)
46. The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer (22 Mar, Foyles Bookshop)
47. The Weir by Conor McPherson (22 Mar, Foyles Bookshop)
48. A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride (22 Mar, Foyles Bookshop)
49. Arctic Summer by Damon Galgut (22 Mar, Foyles Bookshop)
50. Sol Campbell by Simon Astaire (22 Mar, Foyles Bookshop)
51. Nomad's Hotel: Travels in Time and Space by Cees Nooteboom (22 Mar, Stanfords Bookshop)
52. The Husbands by Sharmila Chauhan (23 Mar, Soho Theatre)
53. The Hill Station by J.G. Farrell (24 Mar, London Review Bookshop)
54. Gob's Grief by Chris Adrian (24 Mar, London Review Bookshop)
55. Falling Out of Time by David Grossman (24 Mar, London Review Bookshop)
56. Plague and Cholera by Patrick Deville (24 Mar, London Review Bookshop)
57. The Making of Mr Hai's Daughter by Yasmin Hai (26 Mar, Foyles Bookshop)
58. We Are Proud To Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, From the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884-1915 by Jackie Sibblies Drury (26 Mar, Bush Theatre)
59. The Last Asylum: A Memoir of Madness in Our Times by Barbara Taylor (27 Mar, Daunt Books)
60. Gaudí: A Biography by Gijs van Hensbergen (27 Mar, Daunt Books)
61. Ruin Lust by Brian Dillon (27 Mar, National Theatre Bookshop)
62. King Lear by William Shakespeare (27 Mar, National Theatre Bookshop)
63. 1984 (script) by George Orwell, adapted by Robert Icke and Duncan MacMillan (29 Mar, Almeida Theatre)

Purchased and acquired books (purchased books in bold):

April:
64. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (11 Apr, Kindle e-book)
65. Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor (14 Apr, Kindle e-book)
66. An Introduction to the Catalan and Valencian Languages by David S. Luton (14 Apr, Kindle e-book)
67. Kicking the Sky by Anthony De Sa (15 Apr, LT Early Reviewers book)
68. Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Callahan (19 Apr, Kindle e-book)
69. Notes for a Spanish Odyssey by Calvin Baker (20 Apr, Kindle e-book)
70. Gone (Kindle Single) by Colum McCann (20 Apr, Kindle e-book)
71. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (30 Apr, Kindle e-book)

May:
72. Lost Luggage by Jordi Puntí (6 May, Kindle e-book)
73. The Dolls' Room by Llorenç Villalonga (7 May, Kindle e-book)
74. All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu (10 May, Barnes & Noble)
75. Living Language Spanish, Complete Edition (10 May, Barnes & Noble)
76. The Gray Notebook by Josep Pla (10 May, Barnes & Noble)
77. The Mussel Feast by Birgit Vanderbeke (16 May, Kindle e-book)
78. Pocket Rough Guide Madrid by Simon Baskett (19 May, Idlewild Books)
79. Barcelona Baedeker Guide (19 May, Idlewild Books)
80. Madrid: A Cultural History (19 May, Idlewild Books)
81. Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life (19 May, Idlewild Books)
82. Morphine by Mikhail Bulgakov (19 May, Book Culture)
83. Spilt Milk by Chico Buarque (19 May, Book Culture)
84. Family Life by Akhil Sharma (19 May, Book Culture)
85. Book of Hours by Kevin Young (19 May, Book Culture)
86. Rebel Music: Race, Empire, and the New Muslim Youth Culture by Hisham Aidi (19 May, Book Culture)
87. Stokely: A Life by Peniel E. Joseph (19 May, Book Culture)
88. Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture by Gaiutra Bahadur (19 May, Book Culture)
89. The Missing Year of Juan Salvatierra by Pedro Mairal (21 May, St Mark's Bookshop)
90. Glyph: A Novel by Percival Everett (21 May, St Mark's Bookshop)
91. Sleet: Selected Stories by Stig Dagerman (21 May, St Mark's Bookshop)
92. Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty (21 May, St Mark's Bookshop)
93. Paul Robeson: A Watched Man by Jordan Goodman (21 May, St Mark's Bookshop)
94. A French Book by John Christy (24 May, Kindle e-book)
95. Inés of My Soul by Isabel Allende (25 May, Kindle e-book)

June:
96. The Londonist Book Of London Pub Crawls by Matt Brown (1 Jun, Kindle e-book)
97. River Gardens by Lynda Kiss (2 Jun, Kindle e-book)
98. Lancelot by Walker Percy (3 Jun, Kindle e-book)
99. The Physician by Noah Gordon (3 Jun, Kindle e-book)
100. Quietly by Owen McCafferty (3 Jun, Soho Theatre)
101. In the Approaches by Nicola Barker (5 Jun, London Review Bookshop)
102. The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez (5 Jun, London Review Bookshop)
103. I Am China by Xiaolu Guo (5 Jun, London Review Bookshop)
104. The British Dream: Successes and Failures of Post-War Immigration by David Goodhart (5 Jun, London Review Bookshop)
105. Lost for Words by Edward St Aubyn (6 Jun, Brick Lane Bookshop)
106. This Boy: A Memoir of Childhood by Alan Johnson (6 Jun, Brick Lane Bookshop)
107. The Dream Life of Sukhanov by Olga Grushin (8 Jun, Baggins Book Bazaar)
108. Fima by Amos Oz (8 Jun, Baggins Book Bazaar)
109. Don't Call it Night by Amos Oz (8 Jun, Baggins Books Bazaar)
110. Our Street: East End Life in the Second World War by Gilda O'Neill (8 Jun, Baggins Book Bazaar)
111. Rochester Castle by Jeremy Ashbee (8 Jun, Rochester Castle gift shop)
112. Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham (12 Jun, gift book from Bianca Buchholz)
113. All Quiet on the Western Front by Eric Maria Remarque (12 Jun, gift book from Bianca Buchholz)
114. The Ingenious Gentleman and Poet Federico Garcia Lorca Ascends to Hell by Carlos Rojas (13 Jun, London Review Bookshop)
115. The Iraqi Christ by Hassan Blasim (13 Jun, London Review Bookshop)
116. Outlaws by Javier Cercas (13 Jun, London Review Bookshop)
117. Mr Loverman by Bernadine Evaristo (13 Jun, Oxfam Bloomsbury Bookshop)
118. Vlad by Carlos Fuentes (13 Jun, Waterstone's Gower Street
119. Portobello Road: Lives of a Neighbourhood by Julian Mash (13 Jun, Waterstone's Gower Street
120. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent (13 Jun, Foyles Bookshop)
121. A God in Every Stone by Kamila Shamsie (13 Jun, Foyles Bookshop)
122. Gaudi: Introduction to his Architecture by Juan-Eduardo Cirlot (17 Jun, Divers Newsagent, Estació Sants)
123. The Sant Pau Modernista Precinct (20 Jun, Hospital de Santa Creu i Sant Pau gift shop)
124. The Arch and the Butterfly by Mohammed Achaari (23 Jun, Come In Llibreria Anglesa)
125. Fear and Loathing in La Liga: Barcelona vs Real Madrid by Sid Lowe (23 Jun, Come In Llibreria Anglesa)
126. The History of Catalonia by F. Xavier Hernàndez (23 Jun, Come In Llibreria Anglesa)
127. A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present by Howard Zinn (29 Jun, Kindle e-book)

July:
128. The Unfinished Odyssey of Robert Kennedy by David Halberstam (1 Jul, Kindle e-book)
129. Thomas Jefferson by Christopher Hitchens (1 Jul, Kindle e-book)
130. Nevirapine and the Quest to End Pediatric AIDS by Rebecca J. Anderson (2 Jul, LTER book)

This is a list of the TBR books I'd like to read the most. I hope to complete 10-15 or more tomes (500 pages or longer), and 30-35 shorter works. This is a first draft, so the books that are listed here will almost certainly change as the year progresses.

TBR Books to Read in 2014

Tomes (500 pages or more):
      Nicole Barker, Darkmans
      Simone de Beauvoir, The Mandarins
      Douglas Brinkley, The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast
      Saul Bellow, The Adventures of Augie March
      Ralph Ellison, Three Days Before the Shooting...
      Ian Gibson, The Shameful Life of Salvador Dalí
      David Grossman, To the End of the Land
      Lawrence Hill, Someone Knows My Name
      George E. Lewis, A Power Stronger than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music
      A.J. Liebling, Just Enough Liebling
      David Macey, Frantz Fanon: A Biography
      Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety
      Paul Murray, Skippy Dies
      Patrick O'Brian, Picasso: A Biography
      Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason: The Modern Foundations of Body and Soul
      Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses
      William Trevor, Selected Stories
      Patrick White, The Vivisector

Non-tomes (less than 500 pages):
      Stuart Altman and David Shactman, Power, Politics and Universal Health Care: The Inside Story of a Century-Long Battle
      Kwame Anthony Appiah, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers
      Bernardo Atxaga, Obabakoak
      Amiri Baraka, Tales of the Out & the Gone
      Eleanor Catton, The Rehearsal
      Patrick Chamoiseau, Texaco
      Randy Christensen MD, Ask Me Why I Hurt: The Kids Nobody Wants and the Doctor Who Heals Them
      Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, The Colonel
      Jean Echenoz, I'm Off and One Year
      Percival Everett, Percival Everett by Virgil Russell
      Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
      Louise Erdrich, The Plague of Doves
      Paul Farmer, Haiti After the Earthquake
      Juan Eslava Galan, The Mule
      Jerry Gentry, Grady Baby: A Year in the Life of Atlanta's Grady Hospital
      Amitav Ghosh, The Calcutta Chromosome
      Juan Goytisolo, Forbidden Territory and Realms of Strife
      Juan Goytisolo, Juan the Landless
      Graham Greene, The Comedians
      Alistair Horne, Seven Ages of Paris
      Jonathan B. Imber, Trusting Doctors: The Decline of Moral Authority in American Medicine
      Hettie Jones, How I Became Hettie Jones
      James Kelman, Kieron Smith, boy
      Robert Klitzman, When Doctors Become Patients
      Karl Ove Knausgaard, My Struggle: Book One
      Eric Lax, The Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat: The Story of the Penicillin Miracle
      Charles Lemert, Why Niebuhr Matters
      Juan Marsé, Lizard Tails
      Juan Marsé, Shanghai Nights
      David A. Mendel, Proper Doctoring: A Book for Patients and their Doctors
      Simon Mawer, Mendel's Dwarf
      Claire McCarthy, Everyone's Children: A Pediatrician's Story of an Inner City Practice
      Ian McEwan, Atonement
      Andrew Miller, Pure
      Quim Monzó, The Enormity of the Tragedy
      Quim Monzó, Gasoline
      Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
      Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Petals of Blood
      Reinhold Niebuhr, The Irony of American History
      Michael Ondaatje, Anil's Ghost
      Laura Katz Olson, The Politics of Medicaid: Stakeholders and Welfare Medicine
      Brian Orr, MD, A Pediatrician's Journal: Caring for Children in a Broken Medical System
      Orhan Pamuk, Snow
      Roy Porter, Madmen: A Social History of Madhouses, Mad Doctors and Lunatics
      Graham Robb, Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris
      Edward W. Said, Out of Place: A Memoir
      Giles Tremlett, Ghosts of Spain: Travels Through Spain and Its Secret Past
      Mario Vargas Llosa, The Green House
      Richard Wright, Black Boy

Recommended reads for the CanLit 2014 Challenge (by Canadian LTers) (books in bold are ones that I'm most interested in reading):

   Margaret Atwood, Alias Grace (Joyce, Nancy, Cait and Cyrel)
   Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin (Cait and Joyce)
   Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale (Tui)
   Margaret Atwood, The Robber Bride (Joyce and Nancy)
   Anita Rau Badami, Tamarind Mem (Tui)
   Anita Rau Badami, Tell it to the Trees (Cait)
   John Bemrose, The Island Walkers (Lori)
   Marie-Claire Blais, The Day Is Dark and Three Travelers (Suz)
   Joseph Boyden, Three Day Road (Suz and Cyrel)
   Joseph Boyden, Black Spruce (Suz and Cyrel)
   Wayson Choy, The Jade Peony (Nancy)
   Michael Crummey, Galore (Sassy)
   Robertson Davies, The Deptford Trilogy (Suz, Cait, Tui and Zoë)
   Suzanne Desrochers, Bride of New France (Zoë)
   Patrick deWitt, The Sisters Brothers (Nancy)
   Kim Echlin, The Disappeared (Cait)
   Timothy Findley, The Last of the Crazy People (Lori)
   Timothy Findley, The Piano Man's Daughter (Tui)
   Timothy Findley, The Wars (Suz and Joyce)
   Kenneth J. Harvey, Blackstrap Hawco (Sassy)
   Tomson Highway, Kiss of the Fur Queen (Joyce and Tui)
   Helen Humphreys, Coventry (Tui)
   Helen Humphreys, The Frozen Thames (Tui)
   Helen Humphreys, The Lost Garden (Tui)
   Wayne Johnston, Baltimore's Mansion (Tui)
   Wayne Johnston, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams (Cyrel)
   Thomas King, Green Grass, Running Water (Joyce)
   W.P. Kinsella, Shoeless Joe (Tui)
   Margaret Laurence, The Stone Angel (Tui)
   Mary Lawson, Crow Lake (Lori)
   Linden MacIntyre, The Bishop's Man (Suz)
   Alistair MacLeod, No Great Mischief (Cait and Nancy)
   Beatrice MacNeil, Where White Horses Gallop (Nancy)
   Rabindranath Maharaj, The Amazing Absorbing Boy (Cyrel)
   Rohinton Mistry, Family Matters (Tui)
   Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance (Tui)
   W.O. Mitchell, Who Has Seen the Wind (Tui)
   Lisa Moore, February (Cait)
   Alice Munro, Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage (Suz)
   Alice Munro, Too Much Happiness (Cyrel)
   Alice Munro, The View from Castle Rock (Cyrel)
   Michael Ondaatje, Anil's Ghost (Joyce)
   Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient (Cait)
   Michael Ondaatje, In the Skin of a Lion
   Michael Ondaatje, The Cat's Table (Suz)
   Jacques Poulin, Mister Blue (Suz)
   Mordechai Richler, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (Cyrel)
   Timothy Taylor, Stanley Park (Joyce)
   Kim Thúy, Ru (Suz)
   Michel Tremblay, The Fat Woman Next Door Is Pregnant (Lori)
   Jane Urquhart, Away (Tui)
   Jane Urquhart, The Stone Carvers (Tui)
   Ronald Wright, What Is America?: A Short History of the New World Order (nonfiction) (Tui)

First? Me?? Happy New Thread, Darryl!
Great review for Dr. Mütter's Marvels on your last thread, though not a book for me for now.

I didn't even know Bourdain has TV shows. I read the first two books ages ago, but didn't like them much. Sky Italy only gives me "Hell's Kitchen" in endless reruns and "Master Chef USA", so it's all about Gordon Ramsey.

>7 Deern: Thanks, Nathalie! I'm glad that you liked my review of Dr. Mütter's Marvels. I've written far fewer reviews than usual so far this year, but I hope to do better from now on.

Lovely photo up top, Darryl. I'm another who has taken note of Dr. Mutter's Marvels thanks to your review. Onto the wishlist it goes. I enjoy Anthony Bourdain on TV; he's a bit full of himself, but always entertaining. I have yet to see this new series, however. Used to watch "No Reservations" quite often. I don't particularly care for either his fiction or his memoirs, however.

Happy New Thread, Darryl. I'm looking forward to your next travelogue.

From the last thread: It would be great if we could meet in RL. So often as you are in good old Europe there should be a possibility one day for a meet-up.

Love the Barcelona picture; you got some great photos on that trip.

In response to the conversation about Borough Market from your previous thread, if you ever find yourself on the South Bank on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday you should head towards the Royal Festival Hall (part of the South Bank Centre complex) and check out the international food market behind it (the non-river side of the building). It's like Borough, with a great mix of fresh food stalls from all around the world, but a little more reasonably priced on average. And if the weather is not so great you can take your food into the foyer of the Hall and eat it sitting on the many chairs and sofas there. It's also handy for the bookstalls ;-)

About Tate Modern:

We've seen 'Energy and Process' and 'ARTIST ROOM Robert Mapplethorp'. Both are worth seeing.

Happy New Thread Darryl! I should be picking up A Place of Greater Safety around October or November.

Happy New Thread. I love the picture at the top.

>9 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks, Linda. I'll have to pay more attention to Anthony Bourdain's television programs, especially the ones I can watch online, since my own television is usually, as one of my former work partners said, an unused piece of furniture.

>10 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara; my upcoming travelogue won't be anywhere near as enticing as yours was, though! I hope that we'll eventually meet face to face, especially now that I've finally ventured outside of the UK.

>11 Sakerfalcon: Thanks, Claire. Barcelona was an architectural feast for the eyes, and it was easy for me to capture in part the beauty of the city in photographs.

I have been to that food market; Fliss and I met there last summer for lunch before we saw a weekend matinee performance at the National Theatre. We had a difficult time choosing between all of the yummy looking food options, but once we passed by Hog Roast and tasted a sample of the roast pork that was used to make pork belly, rocket and apple sauce sandwiches on ciabatta bread we were hooked. The sandwiches were only £5, which was a very reasonable price.

>12 Ameise1: Thanks for mentioning those exhibitions at the Tate Modern, Barbara. I'll definitely join Joe, Debbi, Bianca and Heather there on the 16th, and depending on what's on I may go once more before our meet up.

>13 Smiler69: Thanks, Ilana! October or November will be a good time for me to read A Place of Greater Safety, so I'll plan to read it alongside you.

I made an appointment to see my hand surgeon friend and colleague in Atlanta this afternoon; he is also from the northern suburbs of Philadelphia and we attended rival high schools, and he also is a consultant at the hospital I work at. He repeated X-rays of my finger, as I had hoped he would do, and he/we didn't see the finger fracture that I saw on the X-rays that were done by the hand surgeon I saw two weeks ago. It could be that the fractured bone ends have already come together, or, more likely, that the "fracture" seen on the first set of X-rays was an artifact. (That makes more sense to me, as the injury hardly hurt at the time I sustained it, and I would have expected that a fracture, even a small one, would have caused much more pain.) Since there is no obvious fracture I'll only have to wear this splint for five more weeks, instead of 8-10 weeks as the other hand surgeon mentioned. I'll go back to the office tomorrow to get fitted for a mallet finger splint by a physical therapist who works there, which will likely be easier to use than the splints that I'm currently using. Unfortunately we won't know if splinting will be enough until five weeks from now, and I still may need to have surgery if the avulsed tendon hasn't reconnected to the distal phalanx.

This morning I finished my third Booker Prize longlisted book, History of the Rain by Niall Williams, which for me was a much better read than We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves or To Rise Again at a Decent Hour. I gave it four stars, and I think it stands a good chance of being chosen for the shortlist in less than two weeks.

>14 BLBera: Thanks, Beth!

No fracture is good news...cranking up the ommmm machine for tendon reconnection.

>18 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks, Linda!

Good news about the finger!

Book #62: History of the Rain by Niall Williams

  

My rating:

Because here is what I know: the rain becomes the river that goes to the sea and becomes the rain that becomes the river. Each book is the sum of all the others the writer has read.

Ruth Swain is a bookish young woman who lives in the tiny attic of her parents' house in Faha, County Clare, Ireland. She is disabled by a serious chronic illness, so she is largely confined to her bed, surrounded by a large collection of books from her father's library, and her visitors are limited to her teacher, a young man who is smitten with her, and the remaining members of her family.

Ruth narrates her father's story, in an effort to understand and appreciate him, and in order to do so she must go back in time to learn more about the Swains, how their beliefs, eccentricities and personal tragedies have shaped the lives of her great-grandfather, grandfather and father, and in doing so how it has molded her own outlook on life.

The novel is filled with numerous literary references and allegories, and is written in a 19th century style in keeping with Ruth's primary influences, most notably Charles Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson. She paints an ethereal portrait of County Clare and her family, particularly her father Abraham and her twin brother Aengus, with a lightly humorous touch that belies and alleviates the tragedy and heartache that afflicts the Swains, and her own self depreciating tendencies are in keeping with the Impossible Standard that prevents any of the Swains from achieving true happiness or personal satisfaction.

History of the Rain is an elegiac work about family, an appreciation of literature and poetry, and the way in which one's imagination can be used to influence the art of storytelling, which can be a useful tool to provide healing and closure in the face of personal tragedy. This book is certainly worthy of inclusion in this year's Booker Prize longlist, and I wouldn't be surprised if it made the shortlist as well.

>20 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks, Reba!

>21 kidzdoc: Finally, one that deserves to be on the list!

Going back to the Borough Market conversation, I used to work right next to it, in one of the office blocks that border the river. Unfortunately, when I was there it wasn't the foodie heaven that it is now - it seemed to mainly sell cabbages at the time!

>23 laytonwoman3rd: Right, Linda. Nathalie and Kay (@RidgewayGirl from Club Read) were also high on History of the Rain, so hopefully it will make the shortlist. I probably won't finish any more longlisted books by the end of the month, but I'll be in full Booker mode next week.

>24 SandDune: Ugh. That reminds me of the small shop that was the setting for the play The Cripple of Inishmaan, which I saw last year; the shelves were stocked with endless cans of peas, and if you were lucky it might have a fresh egg or two.

7> Same thing here with BBC America: when it isn't Gordon Ramsey, it's Top Gear. Bourdain's shows are interesting, and he's a pretty captivating host. He goes off the beaten path and is good at finding out where and what the locals eat.

Darryl, I read two reviews of The Narrow Road to the Deep North this morning, both positive. The one in the NYT has me intrigued; the other (I can't remember where I saw it--might have been Powell's) rather turned me off as it was stressing the Nietzschean philosophy and poetic references on almost every page. Sounds like the kind of thing the "old-time" Booker judges would go for. I am still reading and enjoying History of the Rain, which I hope to finish over the weekend.

Hi Darryl, I wish you a fabulous weekend.

>26 Cariola: I am 100 pages from the end of The Narrow Road to the Deep North and it's very good. I'm not sure whether I saw the NYT review; I'll have to go looking for it. I agree with your comment, Deborah, that it's the kind of thing the "old-time" Booker judges would go for. A very similar thought crossed my mind early on, and I settled in for what I hoped would be a good read.

Good review of History of the Rain. Sounds promising. Hope you have a nice weekend, my friend.

Well History of the Rain looks like it has potential. I have been disappointed with the Booker of late but will give this a go based on your review, Darryl.

I'm making a fearless prediction, Darryl, that you will absolutely hate The Dog, by Joseph O'Neill. So you'll have to read it and tell me whether I'm right.

I'm going to try to finish Orfeo next.

>21 kidzdoc:: Great review of History of the Rain, Darryl. It sounds like my cuppa book! Lol. I was surprised when I went to reserve it that our library has two brand-new copies that no one is waiting for. Now I just have to find time to work it into my September reading. I'm sure if it makes the Booker shortlist there will be a long wait for the book.

Safe journey, Darryl.

Looking forward to your Booker London holiday posts.

Is it already time for London again? Oh dear, time is running faster and faster..
Have a safe trip and a wonderful stay!!

I am glad you liked History of the Rain. I think it's quite a clever book. I felt a bit manipulated, but enjoyed it so much that I didn't mind.

I believe you leave this evening...? Safe travels!

Happy trails to you!!

Woo! My short but intense work stretch is over, which consisted of two very busy night calls (8 pm to 8 am) on Friday and Saturday nights, followed by a backup day shift from 8 am to 4 pm today. I have difficulty making the night to day transition well, as it usually takes me at least two days before I can make the transition, but I had less than 24 hours of turnaround time this morning. Fortunately I decided to move back my departure date from tonight until tomorrow, and I'm very glad that I did, as I would have struggled to pack and make it to the airport in time for tonight's flight, and I'm glad that Delta offers at least three direct flights from ATL to LHR every day, as I didn't have any problems getting a good seat on tomorrow's first flight.

>26 Cariola: I missed the review of The Narrow Road to the Deep North in ?Friday's NYT, so I'll skim through the online version of it. I haven't started it yet, but I'll probably begin tomorrow afternoon after I arrive at ATL. However, The Bone Clocks will be released in the US (and UK) tomorrow, so if I see a copy of it at the International Terminal at ATL I might buy it and start reading it right away. If The Narrow Road to the Deep North is filled with "the Nietzschean philosophy and poetic references" then it will likely be too much for my sleep addled brain to handle until sometime later this week, when I've caught up on sleep and adjusted to British Summer Time.

>27 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara. It wasn't an ideal weekend, but I'll be in London for the next two weekends so I have that to look forward to.

>28 lauralkeet: I'm glad that you're enjoying The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Laura. If it is the kind of thing the "old-time" Booker judges would go for then I suspect that I'll like it. However, I might read something a bit more straightforward and less mentally challenging during the early part of the week; I'll probably bring two or three nonfiction books with me, most likely Portobello Road: Lives of a Neighbourhood by Julian Marsh, Contagion: How Commerce Has Spread Disease by Mark Harrison, and possibly Stokely: A Life, the biography of the African American activist Stokely Carmichael by Joseph Peniel.

>29 msf59: Thanks, Mark. At least I can say that I earned my keep this weekend between two 20 day off stretches in August and September. My partners and physician and nurse colleagues at Children's were shocked that I was going back on holiday so soon after I just got back in town.

>30 tiffin: I hope that you do give History of the Rain a try, Tui. It was worthy of inclusion in this year's Booker longlist, and hopefully I'll get on well with most of the other longlisted books.

>31 Chatterbox: Your prediction about The Dog makes me that much more eager to read it, Suz. I'll probably get to it next week, especially if it's chosen for the Booker shortlist (I think it's already been published in the UK).

>38 kidzdoc: Well, The Dog is a straightforward yarn. But you tend not to like dislikable or morally ambiguous characters, and there's lotsa that going on here... Yes, it's out in the UK; I got it for my UK kindle.

Reading Orfeo now, and liking it as much for the author's ability to capture music in language as anything else. Next up will probably be the Flanagan novel.

>32 Donna828: Thanks, Donna. I'll be interested to see what you think of History of the Rain.

>33 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara.

>34 avatiakh: Will do, Kerry. There are at least three group LT meet ups that are in the planning stages, so I'll be sure to take photos.

>35 Deern: Right, Nathalie! It seems like it was only a couple of weeks ago that I was in London and Barcelona.

I'm not sure why I liked History of the Rain so much more than I did We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves or To Rise Again at a Decent Hour.

One of my partners just scared the crap out of me, as she sent me a text message to inform me that I would probably need to work tomorrow. I checked our onlline schedule, and confirmed that I am off tomorrow. Whew...I was falling asleep as I was typing this message, but I'm wide awake now!

>36 katiekrug: Thanks, Katie! My mother and brother were a bit concerned about the recent change in the UK security threat level, but I (hopefully) reassured my mother that a terrorist attack isn't thought to be imminent there.

>37 catarina1: Thanks, catarina!

>16 kidzdoc: wow, congrats on finishing your third Booker Longlister! I have not the time nor the stamina for the longlist this year. I will try some from the shortlist.

>21 kidzdoc: I love literary references in novels. Especially when I 'get' them ;)

Darryl, just an update: The Narrow Road to the Deep North turned out to be my first 5-star read this year. Details on my thread. Or read the NYT review; they liked it too. It was in Sunday's Book Review and of course is online as well.

Have a great trip!

>39 Chatterbox: I'll do my best to keep an open mind when I read The Dog, Suz! I'm glad that you're enjoying Orfeo.

>41 LovingLit: Thanks, Megan! However, Nathalie, Suz and possibly others in this group are well ahead of me in reading books from this year's longlist. I should be able to finish at least five or six books over the next three weeks (I don't return to work until the 22nd).

I love literary references in novels. Especially when I 'get' them ;)

Thanks to my previous focus on engineering, microbiology and medicine my literary background is far poorer than most members of this group, or at least those who I follow closely. I'm not sure I've read anything by Dickens or Robert Louis Stevenson, so those references would have been lost on me if the narrator didn't mention which books they came from.

>42 lauralkeet: Fabulous, Laura! In that case I'll probably read The Narrow Road to the Deep North before I start The Bone Clocks. I have the Kindle version of it, so I'll start on it tomorrow afternoon. I haven't read yesterday's NYT Sunday Book Review yet, so I'll look at it tomorrow as well.

Darryl, actually, I think you would like Dickens. Great stories with social conscience. Tale of Two Cities is my current favorite. You have to adapt a little, and put it in historical perspective, but I cried last time I read it.

>44 banjo123: I think you're right, Rhonda. I do want to read Dickens, and perhaps I'll start with Tale of Two Cities or Great Expectations.

Just popping in for a quite "Safe Travels!", Darryl!

>46 scaifea: Thanks, Amber! My flight (Delta 38) leaves Atlanta just after 6 pm Eastern Daylight Time this afternoon and arrives at Heathrow just after 7 am British Summer Time (2 am Eastern Daylight Time).

The longlist for this year's Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction (UK) has been announced:

Roy Jenkins: A Well-rounded Life by John Campbell
The Unexpected Professor: An Oxford Life by John Carey
God's Traitors: Terror and Faith in Elizabethan England by Jessie Childs
The Iceberg: A Memoir by Marion Coutts
Hack Attack by Nick Davies
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World by Greg Grandin
Common People: The History of An English Family by Alison Light
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh
An Encyclopaedia of Myself by Jonathan Meades
Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in Vichy France by Caroline Moorehead
The Mighty Dead: Why Homer Matters by Adam Nicolson
In These Times: Living in Britain Through Napoleon's Wars, 1793-1815 by Jenny Uglow
Romany and Tom: A Memoir by Ben Watt

I'll definitely read Being Mortal, as it's my LT Early Reviewers book for August, and several others on this list look interesting.

The Guardian: Samuel Johnson prize 2014 longlist spotlights memoirs

Very interesting list for the Samuel Johnson prize. I went looking for the Alison Light book and you are the only one on LT who has it. Then I discovered that it hasn't been published yet. So, how? You must have mystical powers.

>21 kidzdoc: Lovely review of History of the Rain and I'm glad you found a book you enjoyed from this year's longlist :-)

>38 kidzdoc: "I might read something a bit more straightforward and less mentally challenging during the early part of the week" I love your take on what constitutes something straightforward and less mentally challenging - I would be reading complete fluff!

>48 kidzdoc: Thanks for posting that - several books on the Samuel Johnson longlist look really interesting.

>49 catarina1: The only mystical power I possess is the ability to sustain increasingly bizarre musculoskeletal injuries that require visits to orthopaedic surgeons (mallet finger and hip flexor strain this year, torn rotator cuff last year after a fall from my bathroom, partially torn Achilles tendon two or three years ago after I slipped on a staircase running for a subway train in Brooklyn). Not only am I taking after my dear friend Caroline (LT's Queen of Clumsiness), I'm also besting her in the klutziness department.

I discovered a way to make LT recognize an unpublished or uncatalogued book: I find the book's ISBN number, usually on Amazon, select Add Books, enter that number into the Search bar, and the book appears. LT assigns it a unique number, in this case 15297627 for Alison Light's book. I then use a trick I learned from Zoë: in square brackets, enclose that number followed by two colons and the title of the book, e.g. {15297627::Common People: The History of An English Family}, substituting square brackets instead of curly ones. I store the book in my Wishlist folder; if I delete it then the book disappears from LT if I'm the only one who "owns" it.

>50 souloftherose: Thanks, Heather. I'm hopeful that those two books were an anomaly, and that the other longlisted books will be much more enjoyable and "Booker worthy".

I would be reading complete fluff!

Ha! I guess fluff for me would be a sports book, although one that wasn't well written or interesting would bore and irritate me. I'm tempted to bring Fear and Loathing in La Liga with me, the book about the rivalry between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid and the two cities, which I bought in Barcelona in June, but I think I'll stick with the books I mentioned above, along with my Kindle, of coursr.

The Samuel Johnson Prize longlist did look particularly interesting, which is why I thought I would post it here.

See you there, Darryl! We take off on Saturday.

>52 jnwelch: See you in London, Joe! Have a safe flight on Saturday.

I've got the Adam Nicolson book about Homer, thanks to ER -- it just arrived today! I almost snagged Nick Davies' book about Rupert Murdoch (your link goes to a kid's book, Darryl...) but opted not to, for now, although I own the Greg Grandin book and probably will buy Caroline Moorehead's book, simply because I tend to enjoy 2/3 of her work. (The exception was her last book, which was too much of a group biography to really work well.) I REALLY want to really Jenny Uglow's book, as it's a period that fascinates me. But it is neither cheap nor short, so it may end up on my Christmas wish list. (And it isn't out until November, anyway, even in the UK: I confess that I hate all these prize-nominated books that regular readers can't even sample...)

Have a safe flight.

I arrived in London not long ago, and I'm now having breakfast at the Costa Coffee in the arrivals section of Heathrow Terminal 4. The flight was delayed by an hour, due to bad weather in Atlanta and the flight from Orlando to ATL arrived late. Once we took off it was a smooth flight, but my otherwise pleasant (but tall and lanky) seat mate elbowed me very few minutes throughout the flight, so I didn't sleep well despite having a glass of red wine and taking two Nyquil tablets. I'll take the Piccadilly Line to Gloucester Road station shortly, as my hotel is only a block or two from there, and it's just around the corner from Slightly Foxed Bookshop. I'll almost certainly stop there this afternoon after I check in and take a nap. Hopefully it will have The Bone Clocks in stock.

>54 Chatterbox: Thanks for letting me know about the bad link, Suz; I've just corrected it.

From the Samuel Johnson Prize longlist I'll definitely get the Marsh (well written books about medicine are automatic purchases), probably the Coutts, and possibly the Grandin. I'll take a closer look at the memoirs as well.

I read roughly 10% of The Narrow Road to the Deep North yesterday. I had a hard time getting into it at first, which was probably because I was nearly brain dead after my two nights, one day work stretch, but I started to get into it after I had coffee and a light breakfast on the flight as we approached London.

>55 kidzdoc: Sorry your flight was uncomfortable, Darryl. I know that Costa! That's a great way to recharge before heading into the city. Are you staying at the Millenium Baileys hotel again? I'm still grateful to you for recommending it to me for my visit last March.

It took me a little while to get into The Narrow Road to the Deep North, too. You might want to wait until you've overcome jet lag!

>56 lauralkeet: Right, Laura. I normally stop at that Costa before I take the Piccadilly Line into central London. I'm staying at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel this time, which is one block behind the Millennium Bailey's Hotel on Harrington Gardens. Unfortunately I didn't know until I boarded a Piccadilly Line train at Heathrow Terminal 4 station that the Gloucester Road Piccadilly Line station is closed until December (it wasn't closed in June to my knowledge), so I got off at South Kensington station and walked from there.

I did take advantage of a "buy one, get one at 1/2 price" sale at the WH Smith shop in Heathrow Terminal 4 and bought paperback editions of two books that I was already planning to buy, The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters and J by Howard Jacobson.

I may have to find an easier book to read until I get caught up on sleep. Portobello Road might be perfect.

You are going to be very near the V&A - one of my favorite places in the world! And you bought two books before you had even left the airport! A wonderful start to a wonderful trip.

I've read Portobello Road by Ruth Rendell but I giess you have another one.

>58 catarina1: Right, catarina. I'm within walking distance of the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum, so I'll certainly visit all three at least once while I'm here, along with the Tate Modern, the British Museum and the Wellcome Collection.

>59 Ameise1: Right, Barbara. I have Portobello Road: Lives of a Neighbourhood by Julian Mash, which I bought in London in June. I want to visit the Portobello Road Market and the surrounding Notting Hill area, and this will probably be a good book to read today.

Oh gosh! A trip to London for me would definitely HAVE to include at least one trip to the Slightly Foxed shop. I'm confident you'll find what you need there. Happy Londoning Darryl!

Whew! All caught up! Fingers crossed (ugh., bad pun) the splinting does the trick. Loving reading about all your travels.

But .... Wait. Did I miss the scrapple eating excursion? Or is this a case of if-you-can't-say-anything-nice-don't-say-anything-at-all?

Love you are meeting up with everyone in London. Have a great trip.

Unfortunately the WiFi service in my hotel is quite poor and unreliable, although everything else here is great. I'm mainly using the Internet on my smartphone for now, and I probably won't post as often as I usually would.

I did sleep in all day on Wednesday, the day I arrived here. Bianca and I met in south London early yesterday afternoon, and we had a very pleasant day together. We exchanged gifts, went to a charity shop (St Christopher's Hospice Shop on Lordship Lane in Dulwich), traveled by bus to the Horniman Museum & Gardens but never made it past the café (as we were chatting nonstop for at least two hours), went back to Lordship Lane for an upscale fish & chips dinner at The Sea Cow, then took another bus to The Old Vic to see the stunning performance of The Crucible by Arthur Miller. It was the best play I've seen so far this year, as I'd give a slight edge to it over the adaptation of 1984 I saw at the Almeida Theatre this spring.

Bianca and I will meet up again this afternoon in Greenwich, as we'll go on one of the medical walking tours found in the book Medical London: City of Diseases, City of Cures. Unlike this past June, when Bianca, Claire, Heather and I were supposed to have taken a guided tour of Bloomsbury led by one of the book's authors, only to find out that I had the right date but the wrong year (2011), this time we'll use one of the maps and explore the area on our own.

Tomorrow a group of LTers will meet in Cambridge, although the details are still being worked out.

I've added two more books to the pile: The Hunger Angel by Herta Müller (a gift from Bianca), and A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar, which I'll read for Rachel's Suicide and Mental Illness Awareness Theme Read.

>61 Smiler69: I'll definitely visit Slightly Foxed Bookshop at least once while I'm here, Ilana. I'll go to Foyles later this morning, and probably go there early next week.

>62 michigantrumpet: Thanks, Marianne. The splinting has gone well so far, and my finger injury is having almost no impact on my trip so far.

You're right in noticing that the scrapple eating excursion didn't happen. Katherine and I decided to meet at 30th Street Station, as our trains both arrived there and since it was a short walk from there to the Penn Museum. We didn't go to Reading Terminal Market, and I didn't think to look to see if any of the restaurants in 30th Street Station offered scrapple. Next time, for sure!

Hmmmph...I think you're avoiding the scrapple, that's what I think.

Slightly Foxed is on our list of bookstores to visit, Darryl and Ilana, as is Foyles. An upscale fish & chips dinner at The Sea Cow. Oh my, I have to remember to ask you about that restaurant.

Sounds like you are having another good London trip. Envious, as always.

>64 laytonwoman3rd: Me, avoid scrapple??? Noooo...I love unrecognizable animal parts!

>65 jnwelch: I'd be happy to accompany you and Debbi to Slightly Foxed Bookshop and/or Foyles, Joe. The Sea Cow is definitely off the usual path, though; it's on Lordship Lane in Dulwich, a section of south London that is close to Bianca's flat. I know how to get there, but a trip to that restaurant would require one and probably two Underground trains, followed by a trip on the London Overground to the Denmark Hill Station and a decent walk or bus ride from there.

Bianca and I hung out again today. We walked through Greenwich and went on a portion of one of the Medical London walks, had dinner at a Chinese noodle house and coffee at the Peyton & Byrne shop near the Cutty Sark DLR (Docklands Light Rail) station, and called it a relatively early night, as she has to work this weekend. Photos will be forthcoming.

Tomorrow Fliss, Rachael, Rhian and I will spend the afternoon in Cambridge.

>66 catarina1: Definitely so, catarina! I'm waiting for the City of London department of travel to contact me soon to make a tourist video of the city.

>63 kidzdoc: I don't know what I am more envious of, your viewing of the Miller play or the fact that you had actual English fish & chips at a place called The Sea Cow!!

>64 laytonwoman3rd:: I'm with Linda. And yes, I saw you denied it but I don't buy your story. :)

>64 laytonwoman3rd:, >69 lauralkeet:
>63 kidzdoc: Katherine and I decided
Ahem. _Darryl_ suggested that we meet at 30th St. I sorta suspected that he was avoiding his originally proposed stop at Reading Terminal Market, but since I wasn't about to offer myself as a companion scrapple eater, I agreed.

Looks like you're having a grand time in London.

>70 qebo: aha!

Darryl, I wish you a fabulous weekend.

Darryl, I wish you a fabulous weekend.

You are SOOO busted on that whole scrapple thing!

To what plays are we looking forward?

That's great that you are enjoying your trip! I am jealous about the crucible.

Happy Sunday, Darryl! I hope you are having a wonderful trip and I hope you have a fantastic time with Joe & Debbi. I will be waiting on a full report. Grins...

(Yawn) Happy Sunday, everyone! This old man has slept in so far today (it's half past 2 pm here), after a fun filled and busy day in Cambridge yesterday. Unfortunately my international plug adaptor suddenly stopped working on Friday night, which meant that I had no way to recharge the batteries of my camera (which gave up the ghost as Bianca & I walked through Greenwich on Friday) and my cell phone (which I turned off after I initially met the other LTers for lunch yesterday). So, there is very little photographic evidence of our day out. (I wouldn't have taken that many anyway, since I've been to Cambridge several times already.) In addition, the hotel's WiFi is still spotty and unreliable, so I haven't been able to upload many of the photos I have taken so far. Once I do wake up fully (which at this rate may not be until tomorrow!) I'll upload them to Facebook and copy them here.

Our day out yesterday started at the Cambridge train station just after noon, as Luci (@elkiedee) and I met there after I took an express train from King's Cross and she took the earlier local from Finsbury Park. We walked from there to the Pint Shop, a British restaurant specializing in "Meat. Bread. Beer.", which Rachael had recommended. Rhian (@SandDune), Rachael (@FlossieT), her husband Rupert and two of their three children joined us shortly afterward, and Fliss (@flissp) came a short while later. After conversations on Rhian's LT thread and my Facebook page about the relative lack of lamb consumption by Americans compared to Britons (0.4 kg per person per year in the US, versus 4.7 kg per person per year in the UK) I felt compelled to prove that at least one American loves lamb. I had a tender and tasty roast lamb shoulder smothered in a light mint sauce and peas (which fortunately weren't mushy), along with bread dipped in beef drippings and butter (low fat, of course) and a pint of a nice bitter from the tap.

Rachael also gave me a book that she had told me about earlier this year, The Axeman's Jazz by Ray Celestin, a thriller set in 1919 New Orleans that is based on a true story. Depending on how I get on with the Booker shortlist, which will be announced on Tuesday, I may start reading this next week.



After lunch Rachael and her family said goodbye, and we walked through the crowded streets of town (damned tourists!) and had cream tea (Fliss and I), latte (Rhian) and ?hot chocolate (Luci) at Fitzbillies, a 90+ year old café which is best known for its Chelsea buns. The clotted cream that Fliss and I had for our scones was as authentic as any that I've had before.



By that time it was nearly 4 pm, and I wanted to visit The Fitzwilliam Museum, the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge, so we spent roughly an hour there before it closed.



Rhian left to return home afterward, and Fliss, Luci & I visited Heffers Bookshop, which dates back to 1876 and is now a branch of Blackwell's (surprisingly, as Fliss said, Cambridge is relatively bereft of independent bookshops, unlike Oxford or London). I bought two books from the Booker Prize longlist that I was most interested in reading, The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell, and The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee.



The three of us then had drinks at Bill's, one of a chain of restaurants that didn't feel like one, due to its unique interior design. We were swallowed in low backed but very comfortable lounge chairs, surrounded by old books and magazines, as Fliss and I enjoyed prosecco while Luci had a hot chocolate served with a small bar of dark chocolate on the side.



We walked back toward the train station, where we said goodbye to Luci, and Fliss and I had dinner and drinks along with Rachael at Anatolia, a relatively new Turkish restaurant that was the best one I had ever dined at, although Fliss and Rachael insisted that there is an even better one on the other side of town. (Apologies for the lack of pictures, as the meal was a feast for the eyes as well as the taste buds.)



We had a splendid conversation, mainly about books, and we left just after 10 pm, but only because I needed to get back to the station to get the 22:30 train to King's Cross, the last one I could take before the Underground stopped running. I got back to my hotel just past midnight, as the Gloucester Road station was preparing to close. It was another memorable and immensely enjoyable meet up, and I look forward to similar ones over the next two weeks.

>68 avidmom: Ha! Fortunately sea cow (i.e. manatee) was not on the menu at that restaurant, avidmom. Bianca had wanted to try it (the restaurant, not manatee), as she had heard good things about it, and I think it lived up to her expectations (I liked it as well). However, seeing that performance of The Crucible at The Old Vic easily trumped that meal IMO.

>69 lauralkeet: I can't wait to try scrapple, Linda! And Claire (who lived in Philadelphia for a time) is just as eager to try it as I am, provided that we can find a vegetarian version here in London when we meet up next week.

>70 qebo: I didn't want for you to have to make the perilous journey from 30th Street station to Market East station, Katherine, just so that you could watch me eat scrapple.

>71 lauralkeet: My hand surgeon buddy in Atlanta (who is also from the Philadelphia area) recommended avoiding scrapple for the next couple of months, as it would impede the healing process. He did give me permission to travel to London and eat prodigious amounts of lamb, fish & chips and bacon buttys, though.

>72 Ameise1:, >73 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara! I hope that you're enjoying your Sunday as well. I'm still incredibly sleepy, but I'm having a nice day in my spacious and comfortable hotel room. It's also very quiet here, as it's another beautiful day in London and everyone else seems to be outdoors. My hotel room is on the other side from Gloucester Road station (Laura, it's in the building adjacent to Millenium Bailey's Hotel, away from Gloucester Road), so it isn't as noisy here as it would be if I was in a room just across the hall.

I'm here until the 18th, so I don't mind "wasting" a day indoors.

>74 michigantrumpet: I was talking with Fliss (my longstanding theatre going buddy) about plays of interest that are on in London and Cambridge. Unfortunately there aren't many plays that either of us were eager to see, and the one play she would have recommended the most was The Crucible, which she saw last month. Joe, Debbi, Bianca, Heather and I will see Dr Scroggy's War on the 16th, which is the only other play that I have tickets for, and I'll see Little Revolution at the Almeida Theatre sometime during the week. I'll have to see if there are any last minute tickets for Wolf Hall at the Aldwych Theatre, and I may consider going to see a Royal Shakespeare Company performance at Stratford-upon-Avon, especially if there is a play that ends before the last train to London leaves the station there. I may also look to see what's on well outside of the city, as I wouldn't mind taking a train ride to someplace like Manchester or Birmingham if there is a play or other cultural event of interest taking place there.

>75 banjo123: Thanks, Rhonda. That reminds me; Deborah (@Cariola) did find out that The Old Vic's production of The Crucible will be broadcast to cinemas throughout the world. I'll look for the link she posted on my Facebook page and post it in the next message.

>76 msf59: Happy Sunday, Mark! I do miss being in the US for the first week of the NFL season, but I wouldn't change this trip for anything. I'll send a text message to Joe shortly to see if he & Debbi would like to meet up during the week, and/or would be interested in joining another LT group meet up on Saturday.

Here's the link for the story about The Crucible that Deborah found. It will also be available as a download for viewing at home.

http://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/richard-armitage-crucible-old-vi...

>78 kidzdoc: Larry the Cucumber would be pleased that no manatees were consumed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpcf_qD3GW4

Or how 'bout a little sea cow comedy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM_lrK4upvw

:)

Once again, thanks for the travelogue; it's probably the closest to England I'll ever get!
I would ask you to send me some authentic fish & chips in the mail; but I think that would be a Very Bad Idea.

>79 kidzdoc: yep, I'm familiar with the Millennium Gloucester. My husband and older daughter stayed there a year ago, when Kate was on her way to Exeter for the school year. Also, their fitness center is available to guests at the Millennium Baileys, and I made several visits when I was there in March.

I'm glad you're enjoying your trip. I don't really believe your surgeon's dietary advice, btw. :D

>81 avidmom: Thanks, avidmom; I'm also in love with Barbara Manatee now!

My father would also like me to send him authentic fish & chips, as he grew fond of it when he traveled to the UK for work years ago.

>82 lauralkeet: I'm enjoying my stay at the Millennium Gloucester so far. I upgraded to a larger room, which I particularly appreciated today.

I'm surprised and disappointed that you didn't believe my hand surgeon's advice. Physicians never lie.

Tomorrow Bianca & I are planning to go on a Jack the Ripper guided tour, and we'll probably go to the V&A (Victoria & Albert Museum) in South Kensington and possibly the Jewish Museum in Camden. On the reading front I hope to finish The Road to the Deep North by tomorrow, and start either The Bone Clocks or The Lives of Others on Tuesday.

No doctor on the surface of the earth ever approved of a patient eating a bacon butty. Never. Doctors want patients to eat healthy, high-fiber diets replete with antioxidants and life-enhancing nourishment!

In other words, become so depressed and miserable that they'll get ill. Don't think we don't see right through y'all's little game!

"My hand surgeon buddy..." See, right away, I know the fix is in. And vegetarian scrapple would just be fried mush, wouldn't it? Not that that's a bad thing, necessarily.

>84 richardderus: >85 laytonwoman3rd: thank you for piling on! :)

Mmmmmm Fish & Chips + Bacon butties can't see the problem as along as none of us are seeing a Cardiac specialist .....

>87 roundballnz: Bacon butties can't see the problem as along as none of us are seeing a Cardiac specialist

yet

;)

Aaaargh... Darryl, did you see that shortlist??

Edit: I just saw you did...

>89 Deern: All I can do is echo you, aaaargh.

Both Fowler and Ferris?? WTF??? I have been enjoying Orfeo and think, thematically, it's FAR more interesting than Ferris. I can see that the metafiction nature of Hustvedt's novel may have kept them away from that, just as the epic poetry may have steered them away from The Wake, but of the remainder, the only ones I was remotely interested in are the Flanagan novel (of which I have an ARC) and J, which I have on my Kindle. The Mukherjee didn't sound all that appealing and Ali Smith's novel sounds more clever than fascinating. Meh.

I have always enjoyed the long list rather than the short list & winner of Booker esp in recent years .... maybe its just me ? meh

>88 avidmom: maybe never as long as we keep walking up hills/towers ? .... or is that my imagination

Bianca (@drachenbraut23) & I did go to the V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum) on Monday afternoon, had a splendid vegetarian dinner in Covent Garden, and went on the free Jack the Ripper tour through Whitechapel and Spitalfields that evening.

Yesterday I met Claire (@Sakerfalcon), Joe (@jnwelch) and his wife Debbi (@walklover) at the Marylebone branch of Daunt Books. Claire was on her lunch break, so we went to a nearby Lebanese restaurant, ordered take away and sat and chatted in a nearby park. We returned to the bookshop, said goodbye to Claire, and the three of us browsed and bought books. I came away four books:

How to Be Both by Ali Smith: the remaining title from the Booker Prize shortlist that I didn't already own.

Fodor's San Diego: purchased in preparation for my first trip to the city for a conference next month.

Strictly Bipolar by Darian Leader: a Penguin Special about bipolar disorder, including the substantial increase in children and adults who have received this diagnosis and been prescribed mood-stabilizing medications in the past 20 years.

The Embassy of Cambodia by Zadie Smith: a novella about a female servant employed by the Embassy of Cambodia in London, who escapes from one set of hardships in her native country only to find more difficulties abroad; this copy was signed by the author.

Here's a photo of Claire, Debbi and Joe taken outside of the bookshop:



I said goodbye to Joe & Debbi, then took the Underground to Embankment station, where I met Bianca. After coffee we went on one of the walks in my book Medical London: City of Diseases, City of Cures, titled "Life and death by water: A walk along the medieval Thames". We passed through the Embankment Gardens, proceeded along the Strand, Fleet Street and The City (the original site of London, which was surrounded by the city wall), crossed the Thames via the Blackfriars Bridge into Southwark, and walked westward along the river, as we planned to see the newly restored version of Fritz Lang's classic 1931 movie M at the BFI (British Film Institute) Southbank. Before the movie we had dinner at Pieminister, a restaurant that claimed to offer "award winning pies". After we gazed at the menu we decided to give it a try, and we weren't disappointed. Bianca had a heidi pie (Somerset goats' cheese, sweet potato, spinach & red onion pie), and I had a deerstalker pie (British venison, dry cured bacon, red wine & puy lentil pie).

I'll comment more about M tomorrow, but it was superb.

Today I'll meet Bianca, Debbi and Joe to go on a free guided Plague Tour that starts at Holborn tube station, and tonight Bianca & I will go to the National Theatre to see the play James I, the first of a trilogy of plays that opens today.

The hotel's WiFi is still very wonky, so I'll post pictures when I can.

I didn't have time to post the Booker Prize shortlist before I left yesterday; here it is:

Joshua Ferris, To Rise Again at a Decent Hour
Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North
Karen Joy Fowler, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
Howard Jacobson, J
Neel Mukherjee, The Lives of Others
Ali Smith, How to Be Both

I've read the Ferris (execrable, one of my least favorite books of the year), the Flanagan (very very good) and the Fowler (ugh). I started reading the Mukherjee yesterday, but I only got through the first few pages. The prize will be awarded on October 14th, so I'll easily finish the shortlist before then.

I'm with Nathalie and Suz; when I saw the shortlist, particularly the inclusion of the Fowler and the Ferris, and the exclusion of David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks (which everyone assumed would make the shortlist) and Niall Williams' History of the Rain, my first reaction was also "WTF???" The longlist was strange, but the shortlist is straight up bizarre. This year's judges, IMO, aren't as out of touch as the ones were in 2011 (the group led by Dame Stella Rimington), but they are far worse than any of the others from the past eight years.

ETA: Here are some comments about the shortlist from the Mookse and the Gripes Forum, which consists mainly of the contributors on the discussion thread of the prize's web site until the administrators pulled the plug on online discussions two years ago:

"Has the forum ever been so at odds with the Shortlist??"

"But Fowler, Ferris and Jacobson on the shortlist... come on..."

"not even Stella Rimington did this badly. Absolutely clueless nonsense by any standards, I'm sorry. Fowler AND Ferris are better than...well, any of the others? Really? They should all be sacked and replaced swiftly."

"What an odd list. What on earth is their reasoning?"

"If they give it Ferris or Fowler it will be up there for worst ever winner. Surely neither will survive a third reading?!"

"Which means Karen Joy Fowler is going to win. I'm even putting a £5er on it ASAP. These people are idiots and it will happen."

"I am as flabbergasted as everyone else by this bizarre shortlist, for my money the worst in Booker history. Dame Stella's strange group at least had enough wisdom to finally award the prize to Sense of an Ending, a very worthy winner -- there is nothing approach that on this list."

"I give up. I'm not bothering with the Booker again now until next year. I daren't try and find out who's chairing the next one. Boris Johnson? Sir Alex Ferguson? Jilly Cooper? This is what you get for appointing Grayling. Does he know what constitutes a decent novel? Based on the shortlist, and longlist: no. Lame."

"Ferris and Fowler are dire. The former is actually quite promising in the first 80 pages or so, but then you have 250 pages more of increasingly bizarre and unfocused ramblings on religion, which seemed to be scrabbling for profundity but fell woefully short, and endless repetition of the main character's neuroses. The Fowler is just a bit of fluff, really. That sounds terribly dismissive of me, but it's just a vaguely entertaining story with no features that particularly recommend it."

I couldn't agree more.

>93 kidzdoc: Oh! dear. Personally have high hopes of the Richard Flanagan and the Neel Mukherjee with a faint stirring for Ms. Smith. The rest leaves me cold.

Strange isn't it that I was able to find this from the Daily Telegraph seemingly as equally out of step with the serious reading public. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booker-prize/11084297/A-funny-dark-Man-...

Yesterday I read the (official) comments on the Guardian, the Independent and the Telegraph and I don't know what those writers were fed or if they are paid to find the SL great whatever is on it. The overall opinion is like in Paul's link: the list is dark and funny and oh-so-wonderful. I read all 6 books and somehow I managed to miss all that fun. Must be that famous German lack of humor.
The readers' comments are different, of course.

Your London trip sounds amazing!!

I've never been much of a follower of the Booker prize lists, relying on the recommendations of LT readers to choose which of them I might want to read. It amazes me how unanimous the derision seems to be for these selections. I have read Flanagan, and thought he was terrific, and since you liked this one, I will be looking for it.

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.

My local indie bookshop owner on why they aren't doing their usual stuff around the prize this year. Publishers are meant to make a few copies of longlisted books available on sale if they're published later, and some just haven't bothered even doing that.

http://woodgreenbookshop.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/booker-prize.html

>92 kidzdoc: I thought you'd been to San Diego before, kidzdoc. You're in for a treat!

I am so, SO disappointed that History of the Rain didn't make the short list. Howard Jacobson does absolutely nothing for me, and the Ferris sounds dreadful.

We had another splendid day in London yesterday. Bianca, Debbie, Joe & I met at Holborn Underground station, and we went on a free guided Great Plague tour through Holborn and Bloomsbury that was given by GoToMidtown (http://www.gotomidtown.co.uk/walks/). After the 45 minute tour we proceeded to the nearby London Review Bookshop, and had lunch, tea and dessert in the Cake Shop that is within it. Debbi & Joe left to go to Covent Garden, and Bianca & I visited the British Museum, which is practically next door to the bookshop, then traveled by bus across the Thames to the National Theatre, where we saw James I, the first of a trilogy of plays about the Stewart kings of Scotland who ruled in the 15th century. Unfortunately we were both disappointed in the play, although it wasn't bad by any means, possibly because we couldn't help but compare it to the brilliant production of The Crucible which we saw last week.

I'll have a quiet day today, as I won't meet up with anyone and will try to catch up on sleep and rest. Tonight I'll go to the Almeida Theatre in Islington and see the play Little Revolution, which is about the 2011 riots in London and elsewhere in the UK that followed the death of a young man at the hands of the Metropolitan Police.

I forgot to post my purchases from the London Review Bookshop yesterday:

Skylight by José Saramago: The author submitted this novel to his publishers in Lisbon in 1953, but it was lost for decades and it was only released in English translation this year. It's set in a neighborhood in Lisbon in the late 1940s, and revolves around the lives of several ordinary inhabitants of an old apartment building who are struggling to make ends meet.

The Children Act by Ian McEwan: A 17 year old British boy refuses potentially life saving medical treatment for religious reasons, and his devout parents support him in his decision. A family court judge who is successful in her career but is childless and in a troubled marriage is assigned to the case, and she visits the boy in the hospital, in order to come to the judgment that ultimately has momentous consequences for both of them.

The Zone of Interest by Martin Amis: "a violently dark love story set against a backdrop of unadulterated evil, and a vivid journey into the depths and contradictions of the human soul." I've read comments that said that this is Amis' best book in years, and that it's comparable in quality to his acclaimed novel London Fields, so this book was high on my wish list, along with the other two I bought yesterday.

Sounds like a quiet day is in order, you have really been busy.
I got The Zone of interest for my thingaversary this week among others, I also read the comments and couldn't resist getting the book. I haven't read anything by Amis as yet but will be reading his The Rachel Papers as soon as I finish Jules et Jim as I'm reading 'books to film' for my category challenge.

I should collect all your London posts as a travel guide for the far-away day when I'll get on a plane to visit that city again. It all sounds so wonderful!

>94 PaulCranswick: The Flanagan was good, Paul, and IMO it would be a worthy winner of this year's prize. I'll dive into the Mukherjee later this morning, and I should be able to finish it by Sunday. I'll read the Jacobson and the Smith next week.

I read that befuddling article yesterday and posted a reply to your message, Paul, but apparently it didn't appear here, due to the spotty WiFi signal in my hotel room. The last sentence of the article left me scratching my head: "Unlike in previous years there is no dud in this shortlist: whether funny or traumatic (or indeed both) each one holds its own." Really???

>95 Deern: I'm also surprised at the lack of criticism about the shortlist in the London dailies so far, Nathalie. The papers had a field day dissecting and bemoaning the 2011 longlist and the judges who chose those books, so much so that Dame Stella Rimington, the chair of judges, gave a long and rather strange address during the prize ceremony in defense of her fellow judges and the books they chose. I do wonder if the papers have put muzzles on their writers to avoid a similar public evisceration this year. I'll be interested to see what articles appear in those papers later this week.

I'm not German, of course, but I didn't find anything amusing in either the Ferris or the Fowler.

This trip to London has been a blast so far, and I find it hard to believe that I have a full week left to be here (my flight doesn't leave until next Thursday afternoon). Joe & Debbi are as lovely in person as I expected them to be, and we've had a great time together, and I've enjoyed spending more time with Bianca (she's doing quite well). I'll see them at least twice more before I leave, and Bianca and I will meet up again early next week as well.

>96 laytonwoman3rd: It's been interesting to read the comments here and on The Mookse and the Gripes Forum Shortlist Discussion thread, particularly in contrast with the love fest that the shortlist has received in the British press so far (I haven't looked at the NYT web site since I left the US, so I don't know if there has been any comment about the shortlist there yet). If there weren't so many fellow readers whose opinions were similar to mine I would think that I was the one who was out of touch, although most people liked the Fowler much more than I did. That forum ranked the Flanagan first overall, and although I haven't submitted my rank list it would get my top vote so far.

>97 Smiler69: There have been some solid longlists since I started following the Booker Prize in 2007, particularly the outstanding 2009 longlist, which included Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, The Glass Room by Simon Mawer, The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt, Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín, Love and Summer by William Trevor and Heliopolis by James Scudamore. The 2012 longlist was good, but the 2013 longlist was a bit mediocre, although I loved The Luminaries and Harvest.

I'm starting to give serious consideration to not following the Booker Prize closely starting next year, especially if the longlist looks like another disappointing one.

>98 elkiedee: That was a very interesting comment by your local indie bookseller, Luci. I agree with him completely, particularly his comment that the prize "seems to be becoming an inclusive, industry focused love in." It will be interesting to see how many copies of the longlisted and shortlisted books are sold and borrowed, both before and after the announcement dates (LL, SL, winner). If by, say, the end of the year the books that were published relatively late don't sell as well as the ones that were published earlier that may encourage the publishers to push forward the release dates more in accordance with the prize rules. I would suspect that the Nicholls, the one book that hasn't been published yet, will end up suffering a lack of sales, since it wasn't chosen for the shortlist and those who are following the Booker are now focused on the six books that are still eligible for the prize rather than the seven which weren't chosen.

>99 avidmom: I'm looking forward to the national conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics, seeing old friends from medical school and residency along with colleagues from work, visiting San Diego for the first time, and going to San Francisco for a few days afterward. That will almost certainly be my last holiday trip for the year, as I'll probably only visit my family for Thanksgiving and either my family or my best friends in Madison, Wisconsin after Christmas.

>100 Cariola: I agree, Deborah; the Williams deserved to be on the shortlist. I liked The Finkler Question, although I'm in the minority of those on LT who have read it, but I loathed his earlier novel No More Mr. Nice Guy. The Ferris is dreadful; it's certain to end up on my "Ten Worst Books of 2014" list.

>103 avatiakh: Right, Kerry. These past few days have been busy, but immensely enjoyable. I'll hang out with Debbi & Joe tomorrow, and we're in the process of organizing a group meet up on Saturday, so the next two days should be busy ones as well.

I own at least one or two books by Amis but I don't think I've read anything by him yet. As you said, the glowing comments about The Zone of Interest made me unable to resist it.

>104 Deern: Thanks, Nathalie! Due to the hotel's spotty WiFi connection I haven't posted the photos that appear on my Facebook page. I'll do that after I return to Atlanta next week.

>92 kidzdoc: Forgot to mention that I love that you bought a guidebook to San Diego while traveling in London. That is so Darryl!

Your trip sounds wonderful. All those books, and time to read them. Not to mention the walking tours and the plays. Loved the pictures from Cambridge. Thanks for posting them.

I know that you and Joe are having a good time in London, and I hope that it continues to be wonderful for you.

Just thought I would let you know - I have had scrapple in Philadelphia and liked it. Since then I have made my own and it is very tasty.

>108 laytonwoman3rd: ha! I had a similar thought.

I note you got the Fodor's for San Diego. I'll be happy to give you some input too, if you like, even though it doesn't look like we'll be home when you're there.

I had a great time with Debbi & Joe midday yesterday. We met at the Tower Hill Underground station, which is adjacent to the Tower of London, and attended the Old Jewish Quarter Walk, a guided tour given by London Walks. The tour ended next to Old Spitalfields Market, and the three of us had lunch and shopped for a while. As you may have seen on Joe's thread I did buy a porkpie hat, along with a couple of small gifts for family.

I took about 35 photos, which I uploaded (downloaded?) to an album on my Facebook page last night. I'll post photos from that album, and a couple of others I've created this week later today or probably tomorrow, once I get a reliable Internet connection.

Claire (@Sakerfalcon) and I will spend the day in Brighton, and our next planned group meet up will be on Tuesday, when five of us will go to the Tate Modern, see an afternoon matinee at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre next door in Southwark, and meet two others for dinner that evening.

>108 laytonwoman3rd:, >110 lauralkeet: Ha! I thought that Daunt Books would have travel guides and other books on San Diego, and I wasn't disappointed. Now that Atlanta has become increasingly bereft of independent bookstores I thought my best bet would be to look for one here.

>109 benitastrnad: You're welcome, Benita. I usually post photos and travelogues much more regularly, but I'm having enough difficulty posting simple messages on LT (although I've been able to upload photos from my camera to Facebook without too much problem). I haven't done much reading in the past week and a half that I've been here, but I'd rather spend time with friends than read. I'm very happy that Debbi & Joe are here, and that Bianca and other LTers have been available to meet up.

Those photos from Cambridge were taken from the Internet, as the batteries on my camera and cell phone were running low. I did meet up with Rachael (@FlossieT), Fliss (@flissp) and Jenny (@lunacat) in Cambridge in 2011, and the photos from that meet up are in one of my Facebook albums. I'll make that album public and post a link to it here when I can.

One of these days I will try scrapple, maybe when I visit my parents in the Philadelphia suburbs during the Thanksgiving holiday.

>111 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks, Reba. I'll be in San Diego from October 10-15, and the conference is from the 11th-14th, so I'll have a little bit of time to see the city while I'm there. If you know of any particularly good restaurants near the convention center I'd love to hear about them.

I've made my Facebook albums public; here are the links to them (you can view them as long as you are a member of Facebook):

The Old Jewish Quarter Walk (12 Sep)

A walk through London (9 Sep)

Victoria and Albert Museum (8 Sep)

Darryl, I wish you a lovely weekend.

I read about your porkpie hat over on Joe's thread and immediately imagined you with it on and though: of course! I'm sure it looks great on you Darryl.

Of the books you mention from the 2009 Booker lists, I ended up reading quite a few in my own good time: Wolf Hall (2012), The Glass Room (2012, directly based on your recommendation) The Children's Book (2011, mostly bought because I loved the cover, though I mean to reread it once I've done some background research), Brooklyn (2010). Love and Summer is still on the wishlist, though I can't wait to read some William Trevor and Heliopolis is still on my tbr, but also landed there based on your recommendation. I read, but didn't love The Luminaries as much as you did, but did think Harvest was rather brilliant and would not have been upset had it gotten the prize.

The Booker Prize has definitely brought many books to my attention which I might have never paid attention to otherwise, including winners and the shortlisted and longlisted ones, and while I'm always a bit in awe of readers like you and Nathalie for example, who take time out from your otherwise busy lives and overbooked schedules in 'Booker Season' to read the Longlist and do your own grading, perhaps I'm not adventurous enough, and prefer to let others sort the good from the bad, then get to those books which sound likeliest to appeal to me in my own good time. I know I must miss out on the excitement of that brand new novel which hasn't entered into collective consciousness yet, but I feel too guilty abandoning my long-suffering tbr for that rush of excitement which I know I can live vicariously through trusted and experienced reviewers like yourself.

>92 kidzdoc: >112 kidzdoc:
How cool is that. You and Joe hanging out in London. LT rules! (I must say).

All your shots are reminding me of being there, last night I went to a birthday party of a friend who I stayed with a lot when I was there, we reminisced a lit and the pics bring it home!

>114 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara! I hope that you're having a splendid weekend as well.

>115 Smiler69: Thanks, Ilana. I hope to sport my new porkpie hat at some point this coming week, and if so I'll ask one of my LT buddies to take a photo of me wearing it.

Very interesting comments about the books that have been longlisted for the Booker Prize in the recent past. The first sentence in your last paragraph ("The Booker Prize has definitely brought many books to my attention which I might have never paid attention to otherwise") is spot on, and that is one of the main reasons why I follow it and similar literary awards. I'm willing to read some duds to discover gemssuch as the ones we both mentioned, and it will take a run of bad years before I completely turn my back on the Booker Prize.

Claire and I had a splendid time in the coastal town o Brighton yesterday, on a warm and partly sunny day. I boarded a train from London Victoria station just past 10 am, and Claire hopped on two stops later. It's a short journey from London Victoria to Brighton, as the 50 mile journey takes 51 minutes on the express train. Upon our arrival we visited three of the secondhand bookshops in town, Books for Amnesty, which is run by Amnesty International UK, Oxfam Books Brighton, and Brighton Books, along with a vendor who sold books and other items from a square near the Brighton railway station.







I bought a total of six books:

So What: The Life of Miles Davis by John Szwed
Joe Turner's Come and Gone by August Wilson
The Quarry by Damon Galgut
Only in London by Hanan al-Shaykh
Chloroform: The Quest for Oblivion by Linda Stratmann
The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante

En route to the bookshops we saw some superb street art:

After we walked through the Kemp Town shopping area we proceeded to the Royal Pavilion and Museum. The pavilion was built as a seaside retreat for George, Prince of Wales (who later became King George IV) in three stages, beginning in 1797. During World War I it served as a miltary hospital for soldiers of the Indian Imperial Army, and it now serves as a public attraction to roughly 400,000 visitors per year.









We had lunch at Pompoko, a small but very nice Japanese restaurant, where I had takoyaki (octopus balls) and unagi don (grilled eel in a rice bowl with sweet soy sauce); I think Claire had the tofu shouga yaki don (tofu marinated with honey, ginger and soya sauce in a rice bowl).

After lunch we walked to the famous Brighton Pier, then met Claire's sister Karen, who lives in a flat nearby. En route we saw an old Routemaster bus which was hired for a wedding:



The Victoria Fountain at Old Steine Gardens:



The Royal Albion Hotel:



And, the Brighton Pier:



We walked along the boardwalk near the Pier, and, inspired by several children and their families, took photos of each other at the doughnut on the Doughnut Groyne:





In the lower right hand photo of me you can see the hand of the little boy who was gazing through the doughnut at me as Claire took the photo.

We also loved seeing kids flying up in the air on a contraption near the pier, particularly the young girl in her ballerina outfit:

Why no porkpie hat? Otherwise, loving all the photos.

By the time we reached the coast it was mid afternoon, and the temperatures had warmed to the low 20s (low 70s F), which made it very comfortable to walk on the boardwalk, sit on the beach, or stand and wait for the cyclists to arrive at the end of yesterday's stage of the Tour of Britain:







After we met Karen we walked back to the Royal Pavilion, and we visited the Brighton Museum. Yesterday was Heritage Open Day, which commemorated the 100th anniversary of the history of Brighton during World War One. As we walked to the museum we saw men dressed as soldiers of the 15th Ludhiana Sikh Regiment:

The Brighton Museum featured the work of local artists, the history of the city from its days as a fishing port to a resort destination for Britons and foreigners, transportation to Brighton by coach and by rail, and the changing life and industry of the city.









An old photograph of Brighton railway station, which opened in 1841 and looks essentially the same today as it did then:



Here is my photo from last night, in comparison:



Karen and Claire in front of an giant evil cat, as we left the museum:

Your day in Brighton plus your photos = "LIKE". Glad you had such an excellent time, Darryl.

We enjoyed BBC Proms in the Park and today's street art guided tour. Cooling out back in the flat now.

Is the English Board of Tourism paying you? Because they should! I have never really been that interested in going to England before but now ..... well, I'd hop on the next plane out!

>118 kidzdoc: I want to go to the Graphic Novel Shop and I don't even read them. LOL!

After our visit to the museum we went back to Brighton Pier and walked to its end, which provided great views of the town and surrounding coast:









We walked along the beach to Regency Square, which featured Georgian homes that were approximately 200 years old, then proceeded back toward the center of town:













We had dinner at Sing Tong, a Thai restaurant that sat one level above a pub near the railway station.



After dinner Claire and I said goodbye to Karen at Brighton railway station, then took the train back to London. It was a day I'll never forget, and there are many more photos of our day out in an album that I've posted on Facebook.

>121 Smiler69: Thanks, Ilana. It was too warm to wear my porkpie hat in Brighton, but I suspect that I'll wear it in the next day or two.

>124 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe. I look forward to hearing more about the Last Night of the Proms when we meet up on Tuesday.

>125 avidmom: I would be happy to work for the English Board of Tourism, avidmom! I'm sure that everyone knows that I love it here, both because of all that the UK has to offer but even more because of my LT friends who live and work here.

We didn't visit the Graphic Novel Shop but I loved the exterior of it, and I'll have to stop there on my next trip to Brighton.

The Royal Pavilion is indeed quite wonderful- I visited it a number of years ago-the story of the restoration was quite amazing as well.

Thanks for all the pictures! I don't do Facebook so seeing them here was great.

I agree with avidmom - you make me want to visit England, and do it soon. Keep posting about your adventures.

They still have those red double decker buses in Northern Ireland - or they did in Belfast in 2009. The Ulster buses that ran into the country were not that old style but the ones in the city were. It amazed me at the time, and seeing your pictures makes me think of it here, how walkable those cities are in Europe. In Belfast we walked from my friends house to the downtown and had we not be tuckered out from pushing baby strollers around and all that walking we would not have taken the bus back.

Did you choose your hotel because of the proximity to areas you wanted to see this time around? Or for other reasons? I am always intimidated by trying to find a place to stay that will meet my nocturnal needs (which are minimal) and my daylight needs (which I like to maximize by proximity to lots of things I want to see.)

Is the doughnut sort of like the Chicago bean? A work of art that makes people happy and they just have to have their picture taken there?

I read lots of titles on prize lists like the Booker. Part of that is my job, as a librarian, but part of it is that it forces me to read things I would not ordinarily read. Even though I read thousands of book reviews it is easy to not know about some worthy books, and lists and prizes keep me aware of what is out there.

I have started keeping track of the titles I read that are on various lists. It is surprising how many of them I read that are prize winners, of one kind or another.

>126 kidzdoc: Choccywoccydoodah!! I'm going to have to find a way to start using that ....

Your picture of the large ferris wheel reminded me of one of my all-time favorite shows, "Sherlock" - which I'd list as another great thing England has given us. :)

>106 kidzdoc: I'm starting to give serious consideration to not following the Booker Prize closely starting next year, especially if the longlist looks like another disappointing one.

I sincerely hope not Darryl as your dissection of the years Booker books is an LT highlight for me.

>113 kidzdoc: Pleased to note that you have got some pics up on FB as SWMBO was beginning to get on my nerves asking about the lack of Darryl's photos!

As always your pictorial haunt/jaunt around the bookeries and rookeries of London (and Brighton) are simply splendid.

>128 torontoc: We didn't go inside the Royal Pavilion, but visited the excellent Brighton Museum instead, Cyrel. I'm sure that I'll make a return trip to Brighton, and hopefully I'll see it then.

>129 benitastrnad: You're welcome, Benita. The hotel's WiFi signal seems to be much better now, although it's still dodgy, so hopefully I'll be able to post photos from the three other albums I have made on this trip so far.

I won't see anyone today, but tomorrow Joe, Debbi, Bianca, Heather and I will see an afternoon play at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, and we had planned to meet up at Tate Modern beforehand. Claire will join us for dinner, and hopefully Caroline McElwee (@Caroline_McElwee) from Club Read can meet us for lunch. Alex (@roundballnz) will come into town on Wednesday, and I'll definitely meet up with him in the afternoon. I'm sure that I'll take photos, and I'll post them on Facebook and here when I can, either before I leave on Thursday or after I return to Atlanta.

I would highly recommend a visit to England! There's so much to see and do, and so many lovely LTers here who are eager to meet up.

Ah. I had asked Claire and her sister if Routemaster ran in major cities outside of London before they were taken out of service, but they didn't think that there were any. Brighton and Cambridge use double decker buses, but the only Routemasters I've seen in active service are the few that are on the Heritage lines in central London on routes 9 and 15.

That's been the great thing about visiting Cambridge, Ely, Rochester and Brighton. The cities have excellent train service (especially in comparison to what we don't have in the US!), and you can walk to nearly everywhere in these towns, although Brighton and Cambridge had good bus service to and from the stations. And, the European cities I've visited are far more pedestrian and bicycle friendly than their US counterparts.

I choose my hotel based on its proximity to the Piccadilly Line of the London Underground, and to the sites I'm most interested in seeing; the accessibility of public transport (bus and tube) to the places I'm likely to visit at night (namely theatres); and, of course, cost. The Piccadilly Line goes directly to Heathrow Airport, and that's the cheapest way to go to and from there, which costs at little as £3 one way if you have an Oyster (Transport for London) card and ride during off peak hours. You can also take local buses or coaches from there, but the next best option IMO would be to take a Heathrow Express or Heathrow Connect train from the Terminals 1,2 & 3 station. The Express takes 15 minutes to travel to London Paddington station and costs as little as £21 one way or £34 return; the Connect service makes several intermediate stops en route to Paddington, takes 26 minutes and costs £9.90 one way. Hired cars and black cabs in and outside of London are obscenely expensive. Last year I stayed in a hotel in South Kensington (actually the one next to the hotel I'm currently at), and after a late night out with Rachael and Fliss I arrived at London King's Cross station just after the Underground had stopped running (around 12:30 am). I took a black cab from there, and it cost just under £40 (about $60)! There are night buses that run here, but I didn't know at that time how to use them. I need to learn, though, as I came close to being in that same situation the weekend before last when I had dinner with Fliss and Rachael in Cambridge and arrived at Cambridge station less than 90 seconds before the train I needed to catch left the station. Oh...actually, if I remember correctly, I think I read that the Underground will move to 24 hour service in the near future.

Hmm...good question about the Doughnut Groyne. (And for that matter, what is a groyne?) Let's see...I found this information about the "doughnut":

Created by East Sussex sculptor Hamish Black, Afloat was unveiled in 1998.

Its torus shape is supposed to represent what a black hole might look like.

The 2.2 tonne bronze structure is 5 to 6mm thick and was winched on to the groyne with a crane.

Based on a globe, the points at the north and south poles are pushed together through the sphere, forming a central hole where they meet.

Viewed from the beach, the sculpture’s aspect is what would have been one of the poles.

The site for Afloat on the end of the small promontory was selected so the viewer could see the horizon through the central hole in the sculpture when looking out to sea.

The blue and green colouring represents the link to the changing colour of the sky and the sea.

The first two concrete groynes to be built in Brighton were the East Street groyne in 1867, followed in 1876 by the Albion groyne which also carries a storm water outfall.

The East Street groyne is a popular spot for thrillseekers to plunge off.

In recent weeks emergency services have been forced to issue warnings about the practice, known as ‘tombstoning’.

A spokesman for the RNLI said: “Jumping from piers and groynes, known as tombstoning, can be incredibly dangerous at any state of the tide for a number of reasons such as submerged rocks and strong currents.”

I guess that explains the sign on the groyne that I saw and photographed:



Article: Looking back: Bronze doughnut and ‘black holes’

From Wikipedia:

A groyne (groin in the United States) is a rigid hydraulic structure built from an ocean shore (in coastal engineering) or from a bank (in rivers) that interrupts water flow and limits the movement of sediment. In the ocean, groynes create beaches, or prevent them being washed away by longshore drift.

Several groynes can be seen in this photo:

>130 benitastrnad: Interesting comment about the books that are chosen as finalists for literary awards, Benita. Are you aware of The Prizes group on LT? It's a great resource for literary prizes, within and outside of the US.

>131 avidmom: I hadn't heard of it before, but apparently Choccywoccydoodah is a famous set of shops, with locations in London and Brighton, which are staffed by "a dedicated team of artists, designers and chocolatiers who specialise in creating decadent, bespoke wedding cakes, chocolate birthday cakes and unique chocolate gifts." I didn't take any photos of the cakes, but I can confirm that the ones I saw were intricately designed and looked decadent.

I think that England has given citizens of the US far more useful and substantial things than we have given them, unless you count hundreds of Burger Kings, McDonald's or Pizza Huts as substantial.

>132 PaulCranswick: That was probably more of an idle threat than anything else, Paul. I'll certainly continue to keep an eye on the list, but Nathalie has proven to be a much more reliable gauge of the longlist over the past two years, at least. She's read 12 of the 13 Booker Dozen, and all of the ones that are currently available including the entire shortlist, whereas I've only read four of them so far, although I've read half of the six shortlisted books and should easily finish those titles by the end of this month, well in advance of the prize ceremony on October 14th. I definitely won't finish the longlist by then, and given its mediocre quality I'm not inclined to do so by the end of the year, despite promising that I would.

Ha ha! I mentioned to Bianca last week that Hani would either kill me for posting photos on Facebook, or take the first possible flight from Kuala Lumpur so that she could join us. She urged me to take photos of the food we ate, but I failed to do so on Saturday. She did post some enticing photos of your Japanese meal this weekend and tag me so that I would be sure to see them, probably as payback for me tagging you/her on my posts.

I'm glad that you're enjoying these photos. They provide me with good memories of my trips, and my parents, especially my mother, love to see them as well.

I'm off to do laundry!

Oh, so many fantastic photos, Darryl! Thanks for sharing and I'm so glad that you're having such a great time!

Can't thank you enough for those wonderful photos, Darryl. I know I am repeating myself, but I'd really really love to spend a week in London again soon. And a trip to Brighton would be nice as well - I was there in 1987, aged 16, the typical summer holiday language stay.
I'd say maybe next year, but next year is Expo in Milan, so hopefully in 2016. Just a weekend would be too short.

>134 kidzdoc: *blushing*
Tbh I find my own Booker behaviour annoying and half-obsessive. But as long as I enjoy the yearly race, I'll continue reading the list. I don't follow any other prizes as you do, so that serves as my excuse. I like the Booker because it's open for all kinds of stories and authors, and also because it is comparatively easy for me here in Italy to get the books. Candidates for US prizes often aren't published yet in Europe when the shortlists are out.
I once considered following the German Buchpreis, but that's such a pretentious award that it makes me shudder, just looking at the yearly longlist. They have 20 candidates (if the Booker can limit itself to 13, even including US authors, it's ridiculous that the Buchpreis can't), the period between LL and award is shorter and some books aren't published prior to the award ceremony, so there's no way to read all in time. Add to this that most books are 500+ pages and all of them are dead serious and super-intellectual, so it's not a very tempting challenge.

Hiya, Darryl. We're enjoying the photos, too.

In the last couple of days in London I've been struck by the interconnectness of the U.S. and England in the arts - music, theater, street art. Maybe it's not just Big Macs and Pizza Huts.

>135 scaifea: Thanks, Amber! I didn't take any photos today, but I'll surely take some tomorrow and Wednesday.

>136 Deern: I hope that you do visit London soon, Nathalie; it would be great to meet you here! Given our strength in numbers, I propose that the publishing companies should get together and sponsor an annual week long all expenses paid LibraryThing conference in cities like London, San Francisco, NYC and other major English speaking countries, and provide speakers, free books, and literary and cultural tours. Anyone want to push this idea on to Tim?

I don't find your Booker behaviour the least bit "annoying and half-obsessive"! On the contrary, your contributions have been very useful and helpful to me, the Booker Prize group, and the 75 Books group IMO.

The Buchpreis longlist sounds painful. However, I'd appreciate it if you told us about any German language books that you thought were particularly notable, so that I would look for them in English translation.

>137 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe. You raise an excellent point about the interconnectedness of the US and UK arts movements, both now and in the past 50+ years. British plays seem to be coming to the US with increasing regularity, and vice versa, and I can think of several museum exhibitions that have crossed the pond in either direction, including the Matisse exhibition which recently closed at Tate Modern and will travel to MoMA next month.

ETA: I finally saw Little Revolution at the Almeida Theatre tonight, the play about the 2011 riots in Hackney, London and other UK cities following the death of an unarmed black man at the hands of the Metropolitan Police, and it was worth the wait. I'll tell you and Debbi about it tomorrow and bring the program with me.

So many wonderful pictures here and on FB, Darryl. There is so much to see and do in London. I long to go back someday. For now, though, your on-the-scene reports are making me happy. As are the pictures of meetups. How fun to meet Joe and Debbie so far away from Chicago and Atlanta. I'm glad you are seeing so much of Bianca. I sure do miss her LT postings. Be Calm and Carry On with your Fantastic Trip!

What a lovely round-up of our day in Brighton! I'm really glad you enjoyed it and didn't think that we walked too far! But I must point out that the cat isn't evil; he is a much-loved icon of Brighton, named for Beau Brummel, the famous dandy who was part of the Prince Regent's set who were responsible for Brighton becoming a fashionable resort. Hence his rather gorgeous coat!

>125 avidmom: The graphic novel shop is amazing, and I think that anyone could find several books to add to their wishlist, even those who dislike the medium.

>134 kidzdoc: & >136 Deern: Nathalie you could never find it possible to be annoying! Darryl, Hani loves your trips to London and the meet-ups with Bianca, Joe et al. I can only assume that it will result in more LT meet-ups for me rather than less as she realises we are not just book nerds!

Darryl, it was lovely to meet up with you, Heather, Debby, Joe, Lucy and Claire today. I enjoyed the play at the Globe (my first visit there, though sorry Bianca was unwell and not able to make it). The Mexican was a great choice Claire.

Photos of the Theatre team:





***

Grayson Perry was a hoot, he was Claire in a clown romper suit! For those who don't know him he is a potter and artist, commentator and general all round smart guy, who is also a transvestite who uses the persona of Claire.

http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/past_exhibitions/2012/grayson_perry.aspx

Enjoy the rest of your stay (you too Debby and Joe).

>126 kidzdoc: I wonder if the Wai kika moo kau vegan restaurant is run by New Zealanders? There are some place names in NZ that sound like that when the original Maori is bastardised....it has become a sort of "said" word here :)

Great photos, and as avidmom said, you are doing a great job of selling Britain to me~!

>139 Donna828: Thanks, Donna. This excellent trip is nearing its end, as today is my last full day in London. We had another great group meet up yesterday (details below), and I hope to meet Alex (@roundballnz) later today when he arrives here.

Unfortunately Bianca has had severe back pain last week and even more so this week, so she wasn't able to join us yesterday and I haven't seen her since last Thursday. Hopefully she'll be able to be seen this week and get some relief soon.

I had a fabulous time with Joe & Debbi! We met up four times in just over a week, and we got on like old friends practically from the start.

>140 Sakerfalcon: Thanks, Claire! I agree, I don't think we walked "too far", but my occasionally gimpy left ankle started to protest toward the end of the day, as we headed to the Thai restaurant for dinner. Fortunately it was better by midday on Sunday, and it didn't bother me at all yesterday. Thanks for the information about the not-evil cat, I had meant to ask you and Karen about it.

Thanks again for your suggestion for dinner last night; that was perfect. I'm glad that you joined us, and I look forward to seeing you on my next visit here.

>141 PaulCranswick: Right, Paul! Although we are all "pathological" bookworms, as Debbi said, all of the LTers I've met have other interests beyond reading, and our conversations are mostly about topics other than books. I hope to meet both of you in the US or UK in the near future.

>142 Caroline_McElwee: It was great to see you again, Caroline, although it would have been better if you and Bianca were both there. Thanks for posting those photos; BTW, they were taken in the gift shop at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, which is adjacent to Tate Modern on the south bank of the Thames, after we saw the afternoon matinee of Doctor Scroggy's War. From left to right in the first photo are Heather, me, Caroline and Joe; Debbi replaces Caroline in the second photo.

I'm glad that you enjoyed Grayson Perry yesterday. I'll have to keep an eye out for him in the future.

>142 Caroline_McElwee: Claire pointed out that restaurant to me as we walked back from the beach, and I picked up on its name ("why kick a moo cow") right away. We didn't eat there, though, and I don't know if it's run by New Zealanders or not. Apparently its name is taken from the word waikikamukau, which is "a generic name for a small rural town or locality in New Zealand" according to Wikipedia.

I'm glad that you and others are enjoying the photos. I'll post a lot more after I return to Atlanta and have a reliable Internet connection.

Our day yesterday started with a visit to Tate Modern, the world class modern art museum located on the south bank of the Thames just across from St Paul's Cathedral. Joe & Debbi arrived there at 10 am, I got there an hour later, and Heather and Luci joined us at noon. We had intended to have lunch at Borough Market, but as we walked through office buildings toward Southwark Road we passed by several outdoor food stands on a square, and we decided to eat there. Debbi and I had paella, Heather and Joe had halloumi, and we all sampled the delightful homemade fudge from another stand.

After lunch we walked to the nearby Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, where Caroline was waiting for us. The five of us (except Luci) saw the play Doctor Scroggy's War, written by Howard Brenton, which was mainly set in an English military hospital that specialized in facial injuries during the early years of World War I. Despite its grim topic it was richly infused with humor, and we all enjoyed it.

After the play we said goodbye to Heather. Luci rejoined us, and Claire met us at the theatre after work. We walked along the south bank of the Thames past Southbank Centre and Waterloo station, and had dinner at Wahaca, an excellent Mexican themed restaurant which Claire recommended. We had a combination of small dishes and entrees, which were both visually striking and very tasty.

We went our separate ways after dinner, and another splendid LT meet up came to a happy end.

Photos to come.

Sounds like you had a great day. If I'd been able to take a day off at the moment I'd have loved to join you but unfortunately my holiday days are all allocated between now and the end of March. And as it is, even if I had planned to join in, I have now gone down with a very bad cold and am struggling to do anything that doesn't involve curling up on the sofa.

>146 SandDune: I'm sorry that you're under the weather, Rhian; I hope that you feel better soon.

The WiFi seems to be working decently at the moment, so I'll try to post photos from yesterday's meet up. First, some photos from lunch, starting with Debbi's vegetarian paella:



My chicken and chorizo paella:



An Argentinian food stand:



The stand which sold homemade fudge:



The box of fudge that Debbi treated us to:



Heather demonstrates proper fudge holding technique:



The lunch crew (sans Debbi, the photographer):

Again, wonderful photos, wonderful travelogue. I'm taking notes. Thank you.

Some additional pictures from Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, an open roofed structure that was built in the fashion of Shakespeare's original 16th century London theatre. I managed to quickly snap this photo just before the play started (apologies for the stray finger). Caroline, Heather and I were fortunate to get seats directly behind Debbi (in the blue baseball cap) and Joe (who is seated next to her in the right of this photo):



The exterior of the Globe Theatre, after the play:



St Paul's cathedral, on the north side of the Thames:

Re Globe Theatre, this just showed up elsewhere on LT, re Shakespeare performed with original pronunciation; YouTube video here.

I really enjoyed yesterday evening; it was a pleasure to spend time with you, Joe, Debbie, Caroline and Luci. I hope you are enjoying your last day (for now) in London - don't buy too many more books in Foyles!

Dinner photos from Wahaca (apologies for the poor quality of some of them):

Joe & Debbi:



Debbi & Claire:



Debbi, Claire, Caroline and Luci:



Plantain tacos:



Grilled corn:



Salmon tostadas:



?Chicken tinga tacos:



???



Cactus tacos and black bean quesadillas:

>148 catarina1: You're quite welcome, catarina. There are still many more photos that I haven't posted here yet.

>150 qebo: Ha! I'll have to look at that video when I have a more reliable Internet connection, Katherine, which probably won't be until I return to Atlanta. I was only able to watch the first few seconds, which is where we were exactly 24 hours ago.

>151 Sakerfalcon: I'm very happy that you joined us for dinner yesterday, Claire, both for your company and your recommendation of Wahaca; I'll certainly go back there on future visits to London.

I didn't make it to Foyles today (and I haven't gone there once yet), and Alex and I will meet at King's Cross station in a little while for dinner. I had a thought of stopping in the Foyles branch at St Pancras, but I just saw that it has now closed. There is a nice bookshop in King's Cross, Watermark Books, that Fliss showed me earlier this year, so maybe we can stop in there.

>153 kidzdoc: I can confirm Watermark Books is indeed very good ........

>152 kidzdoc: wow, that meal looks delicious! Looks like you've had a wonderful time, as usual.

Looks like a wonderful meal. But "Wahaca" and not "Oaxaca"?

Loving all the photos, Darryl!

Nice description of Dr. Scroggy's War; a grim topic infused with humor is a good way to put it.

>142 Caroline_McElwee: Thank you for the great photos, Caroline, and for letting us know that Grayson P. showed up as Claire. :-). We really enjoyed the chance to meet you.

>153 kidzdoc: those Plantain Tacos were good.

Safe travels tomorrow Darryl.

>157 jnwelch: It was lovely to meet you and Debbi too Joe.

This evening I was back on the Southbank to hear Joan Baez, she still has the voice. I complete my culture vulture week with the Zulu Ballet, and Ladysmith Black Mambaza at Sadlers Wells tomorrow night.

>152 kidzdoc: I want chicken tinga tacos. I want them now!

All that food looks amazing! The company doesn't look too bad, either...

Alex (@roundballnz) and I met for dinner last night at Karpo, a very nice restaurant on Euston Road directly across from King's Cross and St Pancras railway stations, which are adjacent to each other. Our meals were quite delayed in coming, but otherwise it was a nice meal, and we had a very nice conversation while we waited.

Today is my last day in London, as I'll leave from Heathrow just past 3 pm and arrive in Atlanta early this evening Eastern time. This was another fabulous holiday, with numerous LT meet ups (by my count I met 12 LTers on this trip in all) and unbelievably nice weather, with no rain in over two weeks. Thanks to all of my friends for their great company, and I look forward to seeing all of you again soon.

>154 roundballnz: Yep. Although I've only visited Watermark Books once I was impressed with its stock, and I'll definitely go there again.

>155 lauralkeet: Right on both counts, Laura. It was a splendid meal, and this trip has been a memorable one.

>156 catarina1: Yep; the restaurant's name is Wahaca and not Oaxaca, catarina. Claire told me about that when she suggested going to that restaurant earlier this week.

>157 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe! Meeting you and Debbi was the main highlight of this trip, as I had a blast with both of you. If I haven't said so already I felt like I had known you two for years shortly after we met the first time. Hopefully we can meet up again sometime next year, in the UK or US.

I didn't realize that Major Gillies (Dr Scroggy) was a real person until I looked at the program yesterday. I definitely plan to read more about him, and I'll pass on anything I find out here.

>158 Caroline_McElwee: Right, Caroline; I loved the plantain tacos, and the salmon tostadas and grilled corn were also superb, not to mention the hibiscus margaritas! I'll definitely be going there again.

Joan Baez and Ladysmith Black Mambazo sound great! Please let us know how those two concerts were.

>159 avidmom: Ha! I think that those were chicken tinga tacos, and from the photo it looks as though Debbi had them.

> 160 Right, Amber. The best part of all of these meals was the company.

Happy trails. . .

Sounds like a great trip. Hope your journey home is going smoothly.

>163 catarina1:, 164 Thanks catarina and Reba. I'm back in Atlanta, after a very smooth and restful flight from London. I had a great seat mate, and we both slept for several hours during the trip (I think I slept for at least four hours of the 9½ journey).

I did manage to read a nice chunk of The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee, which made the Booker Prize shortlist, and I'm enjoying it so far.

It's 10:30 pm in Atlanta, which is 3:30 am in London, so I'll go to bed now and catch up on LT tomorrow.

Darryl, I glad to hear that you are safely back home.

Happy it was a good journey and, of course, a happy homecoming!

Welcome back

>166 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara. We took a different flight path than normal, possibly due to storms along the Atlantic coast, but we only experienced a few minor bumps toward the end of the flight. That was definitely one of the most restful and pleasant westward trips across the pond that I've ever had.

>167 richardderus: Thanks, Richard! It was a good journey home, and it will be good to get back to work and see my colleagues and friends here, starting with dinner tonight with one of the nurses I work with and her husband, who I've been very eager to meet, at my favorite restaurant in the Atlanta area.

>168 brenpike: Thanks, Brenda!

Glad you arrived home safe and sound.

The news this side of the pond being that the majority of Scots wanted to remain in the Union. I wish our general election next year would bring the kind of turnout for this referendum.

>161 kidzdoc:. Meeting up with you was a highlight for us, too, Darryl, and we also had a blast. It did seem from the get-go like we all had been pals for a long time.

Debbi asked me to send her best.

We look forward to the next time we see you, and hope it won't be too long.

The longlists for this year's National Book Awards were announced earlier this week. Apologies if someone else has already posted them.

Fiction:
   Rabih Alameddine, An Unnecessary Woman
   Molly Antopol, The UnAmericans
   John Darnielle, Wolf in White Van
   Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See
   Phil Klay, Redeployment
   Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven
   Elizabeth McCracken, Thunderstruck & Other Stories
   Richard Powers, Orfeo
   Marilynne Robinson, Lila
   Jane Smiley, Some Luck

Nonfiction:
   Roz Chast, Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?
   John Demos, The Heathen School: A Story of Hope and Betrayal in the Age of the Early Republic
   Anand Gopal, No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War through Afghan Eyes
   Nigel Hamilton, The Mantle of Command: FDR at War, 1941-1942
   Walter Isaacson, The Innovators: How a Group of Inventors, Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution
   John Lahr, Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh
   Evan Osnos, Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China
   Ronald C. Rosbottom, When Paris Went Dark: The City of Light Under German Occupation, 1940-1944
   Matthew Stewart, Nature's God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic
Edward O. Wilson, The Meaning of Human Existence

Poetry:
   Linda Bierds, Roget's Illusion
   Brian Blanchfield, A Several World
   Louise Glück, Faithful and Virtuous Night
   Edward Hirsch, Gabriel: A Poem
   Fanny Howe, Second Childhood
   Maureen N. McLane, This Blue
   Fred Moten, The Feel Trio
   Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric
   Spencer Reece, The Road to Emmaus
   Mark Strand, Collected Poems

Young People's Literature:
   Laurie Halse Anderson, The Impossible Knife of Memory
   Gail Giles, Girls Like Us
   Carl Hiaasen, Skink—No Surrender
   Kate Milford, Greenglass House
   Eliot Schrefer, Threatened
   Steve Sheinkin, The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights
   Andrew Smith, 100 Sideways Miles
   John Corey Whaley, Noggin
   Deborah Wiles, Revolution: The Sixties Trilogy, Book Two
   Jacqueline Woodson, Brown Girl Dreaming

The finalists will be announced in each category on October 15th, and the award ceremony will take place on November 19th. More info: http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2014.html#.VBv6O1czI84

>170 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Caroline. The Scottish independence referendum is the leading story here as well, and I suspect throughout most of the world. I'm listening to Morning Edition on NPR (National Public Radio) now, which is leading its 7 am broadcast on the election now. The web sites of CNN and The New York Times also have this story as the lead article. I also hope that the turnout here for the 2014 midterm elections in two months is just as strong.

BTW, the follow up story on Morning Edition is set in Barcelona, which should come as no surprise given the increased Catalan push for independence.

>171 jnwelch: Please give my best to Debbi, Joe. This would have been a great visit without you and Debbi, but meeting and spending time with the both of you made it extra special. I greatly enjoy the online community on LT, but the meet ups and the friends I've made have been more meaningful.

I hope to see both of you soon, perhaps in Chicago later this year or next year, and hopefully I'll be able to meet Mark as well.

Here are some photos from last Friday, when Debbi, Joe and I went on the Old Jewish Quarter Walking Tour that was run by London Walks. The tour began at Tower Hill Underground station, close to the Tower of London, and it was led by Judy, an award winning and very entertaining tour guide (she is seen in the center of this photograph, near the beginning of the tour):



From Tower Hill we proceeded to a segment of the London Wall, which was constructed by the Romans in the late 2nd to early 3rd century AD. Jews were thought to have lived in London from Roman times, but the first documentation of their existence there was in 1070, shortly after the first portion of the Tower was built:



Most Jews were expelled from London by King Edward I in 1290, although some remained in the city for over 250 years, and they either practiced Judaism in secret or converted to Christianity to avoid persecution. In 1656 Oliver Cromwell permitted a small colony of Sephardic Jews to return to the city, and the following year the first synagogue was constructed on this site (a small blue plaque marking the site is in this photograph):



As the community grew in size its leaders recognized that a larger synagogue was required, and the Bevis Marks synagogue was built nearby, which opened in 1701. It is the oldest synagogue in the United Kingdom, and the oldest continuously operating synagogue in Europe:



This is a memorial plaque to the Jews who died in service to England during the two World Wars, which is displayed on an outer wall of the synagogue:



We were treated to a 30 minute history of the synagogue by one of its leaders. No photos were permitted inside, but it is one of the few 18th century London churches whose original woodwork, chandeliers and details remain unchanged from its original opening. Here are a couple of photos from the Internet of the inside of the synagogue:

After we left the synagogue we proceeded through the streets of Whitechapel and Spitalfields, as Judy pointed out sites of historical interest, including the former Soup Kitchen for the Jewish Poor:



19 Princelet Street, which served as a synagogue for immigrants from Poland in the late 19th century:



The Brick Lane Jamme Masjid ("Great Mosque"), which was originally built in 1743 as a Protestant church for the French Hugenot community who emigrated to London to escape religious persecution. It was adopted by Jewish refugees from Russia and central Europe in the late 19th century and renamed the "Machzike Adass" or "Spitalfields Great Synagogue", which eventually closed in the mid 20th century as the Jewish community in Spitalfields dwindled. In the 1970s Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh flocked to the East End, and in 1976 the building opened as the Brick Lane Jamme Masjid:



This building housed the first Jewish theatre in the East End, which opened in the 1910s but closed for good several years later, after a false alarm led to a stampede that led to the deaths of 17 theatre goers. You can see Joe and Debbi along the bottom left of this photo:



The former location of the S. Schwartz shop on 33A Fournier Street:



The former site of the Ch N. Katz shop on Brick Lane, which sold twine and string:



Our tour ended across the street from Old Spitalfields Market, where Debbi, Joe and I had lunch and shopped for a while (that is where I bought my porkpie hat). The market itself dates back to 1638, and the current buildings were constructed in 1887. The market was best known for selling fruits and vegetables until 1991, when New Spitalfields Market, located in the East London district of Leyton, opened.

Amazing photos. Thanks for posting them.

These walking tours sound wonderful. This is the kind of trip I want to take in London.

Welcome home Darryl. Thanks for the travelogues and the many photos you posted, allowing us armchair travellers to share the experience. The only book from the National Book Awards longlist I've more or less read was An Unnecessary Woman, which I read ¾ of and then wasn't able to finish, because the woman in question was so unsympathetic to me. But that's neither here nor there. I know Suzanne loved that book. I'm very happy about the Scottish vote to remain in the union. I was concerned about the impact a decision to separate might have here in Québec, which might have revived the zeal for yet another referendum and inspired a similar outcome, God forbid.

>176 benitastrnad: You're welcome, Benita. I have at least four more sets of meet up photos to post here, including pictures from the Victoria & Albert Museum, the British Museum meet ups with Bianca in Greenwich and The City (the portion of London contained within the Roman wall), and I'll get those on here this weekend.

I hadn't gone on any guided walking tours of London before this trip, and all of them were pleasant ones. Bianca & I went on a guided Jack the Ripper tour; the two of us joined Debbi & Joe for a Great Plague tour; Debbi, Joe & I went on the Old Jewish Quarter tour that I posted above; and Bianca & I did parts of two walking tours contained in the book Medical London: City of Diseases, City of Cures. The latter tours were a bit disappointing, though, in that they focused on sites that weren't there, and they weren't guided tours. We did enjoy our walks, though.

>177 Smiler69: Thanks, Ilana; I'm glad that you have enjoyed the photos. I imagine that Debbi & Joe will also have a ton of photos to post once they return to Chicago. Taking photographs helps me to remember what I saw and did, and with whom, and they help me to remember details of the historical walking tours, especially if I post and label them soon afterward, which helps cement the details I learned in my memory.

I haven't read any of the books on the NBA longlists, haven't heard of most of them, and the only one I own is Orfeo, which was chosen for the Booker longlist, but not the shortlist. I'll read that one, since the reviews of it have been good, and I'll look into some of the other NBA longlisted books. After the London book haul I don't think I need to buy anything else for the rest of the year, though, although I'll almost certainly buy The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, the new collection of short stories by Hilary Mantel that will be published next week.

Even though I don't have a stake in the matter I'm very glad that Scotland voted against independence from the UK. Needless to say the referendum was the main focus in the media and in the UK for the two weeks that I was there, and I was involved in several conversations with other LTers about the vote during that time.

I may post a photo of me wearing my new porkpie hat later today, as I'll go out for dinner with friends at a nice Iberian restaurant later today. It's quite warm here in Atlanta, though (currently 27 C), so I may wait until it cools down a bit before I actually wear it outdoors. I'm still a bit miffed with Debbi, who said that I looked "adorable" in the hat after I tried it on. Only babies, toddlers and old men (older than me!) should be described in that fashion, and I would have been much happier if she said that I looked rakish or mysterious.

Glad you had a good trip and safe journey home. All those pictures are making me hungry!

>179 banjo123: Thanks, Rhonda! Those photos have made me hungry at times as well.

Looking forward to all of your photos but particularly the porkpie hat. And I'm sure you will be "adorable" in that. To be rakish or mysterious, you might need to wear a beret.

>181 catarina1: Nicely played .....

Not sure how I feel about the Scotland vote, esp as there seems to be some back pedalling on the "vow" - since many who voted 'No" were really voting for more devolution that could be very problematic, esp for Labour in next elections .....just goes to reinforce what many think of Westminister

Thanks for sharing your photos and experiences during your great trip, Darryl. I'm glad your trip home was safe and uneventful.

Most Jews were expelled from London by King Edward I in 1290, although some remained in the city for over 250 years, and they either practiced Judaism in secret or converted to Christianity to avoid persecution.

A book I read recently The Demon's Parchment, set in 14th century London, spoke of the Jewish community in London (then underground) quite a bit. The author kept referring to the "Domus Conversorum" - which I had never heard of (I admit complete ignorance to English history). Apparently it was a communal home for the converts, who gave up all their possessions when they converted. I think she even mentions "Brick Lane" in her story.

So nice to see the pictures to make it all a bit more real. :)

Wow! Looks like another fantastic London adventure. Filled with great theater, food and friends. You have become quite the ambassador, my friend. I am so glad you got to meet Joe & Debbi and got to share some quality time with them.

I hope you can make it through Chicagoland, one of these days. Glad you made it home safely.

>181 catarina1: Sigh; not you too, catarina! I'm going for this (rakish) look:



And not this (adorable) one:



>182 roundballnz: That would be underhanded and deeply unfair to the promises made by the current government to the Scottish people were withdrawn.

>183 BLBera: You're welcome, Beth.

(I fell asleep before I could finish this post last night!)

>184 avidmom: Thanks for mentioning The Demon's Parchment, avidmom. Last week's Old Jewish Quarter tour and my visit to the East End with Paul (@Polaris), whose Jewish relatives immigrated there in the 19th century, has piqued my interest in the Jewish history of London, so I'll add that book to my wish list. I'll also read On Brick Lane, a history of the street and its inhabitants by Rachel Lichtenstein, a bit sooner.

>185 msf59: It was a great trip, Mark. I assume that Joe & Debbi will serve as fellow ambassadors after this trip, as they will also likely visit London on a regular basis in the future. I'm also very happy that we were able to spend four days in each other's company, as we got on like old friends soon after we first met.

I love Chicago! I was crushed when I found out that I would be going to Emory University in Atlanta for my pediatric residency instead of Northwestern (Children's Memorial Hospital) in Chicago after I graduated from medical school, although it worked out well for me in the long run. I'm long overdue for a visit to one of my closest friends from residency; she's a primary care pediatrician in the city. And, my closest friend from medical school lives in nearby Madison. Hopefully I can make it up there this coming spring, and as I told Joe & Debbi seeing them again and meeting you will be high priorities when I come.

Clearly I'm still on British Summer Time, as it's 4:20 am in Atlanta but my body says that it's time to have breakfast (it's 9:20 am in London).

I had a nice evening yesterday, as I had dinner with one of the nurses that I've worked with for years at Children's, and her husband, who grew up in Brooklyn and Long Island. As Liz said, Steve and I have a lot in common (music and theater), and so do she and I (books and theater), so we'll start going to cultural events in Atlanta in the near future, and hopefully I can encourage them to join our merry band.

Good news on the finger front: after 5+ weeks of splinting the ruptured ends of the extensor tendon of my left middle finger do seem to have come together. I briefly let my finger extend out of the splint, as I prepared to give it support if it began to flex. Fortunately it stayed in the neutral position (i.e. perfectly straight) for the 1-2 seconds that I let it go, instead of flexing unopposed as it did in the photo I took of it after I sustained the injury. The extensor tendon doesn't seem to be working yet, though, as I can't hyperextend my finger at the distal interphalangeal joint (DIP), but I think that's supposed to be the case for this injury. I think I have an appointment to see my hand surgeon buddy in a week or two, and hopefully I can get out of the splint during the day (although I'll have to wear it at night, I think) and start range of motion exercises soon.

British Summer Time is a good place to be. Although RD's curse appears to have been mistimed and we've had torrential rain and thunderstorms the last two days. This is very good for the country as we've been in a mini-drought and the ground has been rock hard, but it's certainly made me want to hibernate even more.

>188 lunacat: I don't think it was a coincidence that there was no measurable rain between the time I arrived in London on the 3rd and the time I left on the 18th, Jenny. (Bianca and I felt a couple of drops of rain on the day we visited Greenwich two weeks ago, but it stopped before we could get our umbrellas out). I've been told by a couple of my London area friends (possibly including you, Jenny) that I seem to bring good weather whenever I come. I am sorry that it affected Alex, Debbi and Joe this week, though; Richard can certainly be blamed for that.

It looks as though tomorrow's weather in the UK will be better.

Rain?! Blame me for something paltry like RAIN?!? Nay nay nay! It will be Apocalyptic when I'm behind it! Like Atlanta's 90-degree December. (Speaking in Celsius terms.) *cue evil genius laughter*

England's Jewish history is a large lacuna in my world view, so I'm enjoying the intro course. Thanks!

>190 richardderus: One doth protest too much .....

>190 richardderus: Yikes, Richard. Can you make it stop raining now?



I'm glad that I went with Debbi & Joe on the Old Jewish Quarter walking tour last week. That combined with the Jack the Ripper tour I went on with Bianca the week before, and the day out I had with Paul (@Polaris, from Club Read) in Shoreditch, Whitechapel and Spitalfields in June has taught me a lot about the history of the East End and the Jewish populations that resided there. Taking those photos, writing captions for them on Facebook, and posting them here has helped me to cement what I learned into my memory, sort of like taking notes after a lecture and reviewing them a day or two later.

>191 roundballnz: Yep.

The rain is actually appreciated as it has been SO dry, and selfishly I need rain every week or so to keep the ground good for riding on - I'm planning on going hunting at the beginning of October which is lots of charging around the countryside so could do with the ground not being like concrete!

This photo sums up today - weather forecast for Snowdon.

>192 kidzdoc: Gorgeous pic. :-D

More meet up photos, from my day out with Bianca on the 9th of September. We met at Embankment Underground station in The City (the oldest portion of London, contained within the Wall that surrounded the city in the 2nd and 3rd century AD), as we planned to follow the route of a walking tour contained in the book Medical London: City of Diseases, City of Cures. After coffee we walked through the Victoria Embankment Gardens a public space built between 1865-1870 which is filled with striking foliage, sculptures and monuments. It's a popular lunch and resting spot for people who work in The City and tourists.











Bianca tries to make a new friend:

Bianca explores the memorial to the Imperial Camel Corps:



The memorial for Robert Burns, (1759-1796), who is considered to be the national poet of Scotland:



The sculpture honoring Robert Raikes (1736-1811), the English philanthropist who started the Sunday School movement:



The memorial for Herbert Eaton, the 3rd Baron Cheylesmore (1848-1925):

After we left Victoria Embankment Gardens we walked past King's College, London, Bianca's alma mater, and visited several former landmarks. The majority of the sites on the walking tour were no longer there, but one exception was the old Roman public baths, located in an alley near King's College:







Unfortunately there still wasn't much to see after we reached the location of the baths:



On our way back we passed the now closed Aldwych Underground station on the Piccadilly Line, which opened in 1907 and closed in 1994:



From there we proceeded along the Strand and Fleet Street, which parallel the north bank of the Thames, and then crossed the river via Blackfriars Bridge. The bridge is adjacent to Blackfriars station, which serves as a through station for trains headed to City Thameslink, London Bridge, or Elephant & Castle stations.

Blackfriars Bridge, built in 1869, with St Paul's Cathedral in the background:



Blackfriars station; the platforms on the Blackfriars Railway Bridge extend over the Thames. Also visible in this photo are the columns from the old railway bridge, which was torn down in 1985 as the structure wasn't strong enough to support modern trains:

Several buildings on the north side of the Thames, as seen from the south bank adjacent to Blackfriars Bridge:



Sion Hall, formerly part of Sion College, which now houses private offices:



The "dazzled" anti-submarine ship HMS President, which was built as the HMS Saxifrage in 1918 and given its current name in 1922. It was moored permanently on the Thames as a Royal Navy Reserve drill ship until recently. She currently serves as a venue for conferences and functions and also houses the offices of a number of media companies:



Barges in the middle of the Thames:

Interesting to see the memorial to the Camel Corps.

My great grandfather emigrated to New Zealand in 1913 as a young man. He spent a year working as a farmer out there before the outbreak of WWI when he then joined up as a member of the NZ forces and was sent to Egypt.

At some point during his service he was wounded and was evacuated by camel stretcher to the nearest hospital! He was eventually invalided out early in 1918 after some severe bouts of malaria and returned home to East Anglia to his father's house. He got married in 1920 and my grandmother came along in 1922.

How different his life would have been if not for the First World War. And not just in the standard life and death/wounded in action/PTSD way, but the fact he had emigrated for good and wasn't planning to ever come home, and less than ten years later he was married with a child in his home village.

>199 lunacat: Wow, that's a great story about your great-grandfather, Jenny! Thanks for sharing it with us.

Oooh cool black flower! Wonder what it is? Any ideas/memory?

Ok Mr. Morris I think we are all waiting for your pic with this rakish looking porkpie? hat. ;) Why ist it called porkpie?

>201 richardderus: I am just as curious as you are about that black flower so I googled it ...... is it a black barlow? Never heard of it, but the pictures seem to match.

Somebody should send all that London rain here. It is very dry in Alabama and we could use the break in the weather. Many, many, people left the football game today because of the heat. It was revealed after the last football game that the stadium in Tuscaloosa has the most expensive water in the South. It is $4.50 per bottle. It is $4.00 per bottle at Disneyworld. Jordan-Hare stadium in Auburn charges $2.00 and bottles can be refilled for free.

I think Auburn wins this contest hands down.

Oh, Lord...am I guest hosting tonight's episode of Ask Dr. Stupid in place of Stimpy?

>201 richardderus: Oooh cool black flower! Wonder what it is? Any ideas/memory?

Are you kidding? I didn't know that the flowers in the preceding photo were petunias until today. Next question?

>202 drachenbraut23: Why is it called porkpie?

Uh...because they look like pork pies? (What the heck is a pork pie?)

*checks Wikipedia*

A pork pie is a traditional British meat pie. It consists of roughly chopped pork and pork jelly sealed in a hot water crust pastry. It is normally eaten cold as a snack or as part of a meal.

A pork pie hat (sometimes known as a porkpie hat) is a term used to refer to three or four different styles of hat that have been popular in one context or another since the middle nineteenth century but all of which bear superficial resemblance to a culinary pork pie dish.



Hmm. I think I'll stick with shepherd's pie. Do pork pie hats resemble that meat pie?

It's still too warm in Atlanta for the porkpie hat. Hopefully I can sport it sometime next week, or maybe for Halloween at work.

(It's great to see you here, Bianca!)

>203 avidmom: is it a black barlow? Never heard of it, but the pictures seem to match.

Uhh...yeah, yeah, that's it! (I still have no idea.)

>204 benitastrnad: $4.50 per bottle of water at Bryant-Denny Stadium??? What else is in that "water"? And how large is it? One of my pediatrician friends in town goes to Sanford Stadium in Athens on a regular basis, as her daughter plays in the UGA band. I know that she was there this afternoon, as she posted photos on Facebook of her and her family at today's Georgia-Troy football "game" (UGA won 66-0), so I'll have to ask her how much water costs there. One of my favorite nurses is a rabid Bama fan, so if she's working on Monday I'll ask her about this as well.

Jordan-Hare stadium in Auburn charges $2.00 and bottles can be refilled for free.

That's just more evidence that the Bama water is spiked if you ask me.

We could use some rain out here in So. Cal. - not a lot at once, thank you, since all that does is cause a bunch of flash floods, but we are now on a watering schedule .... We can water our yard on Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays - since our street address ends in an even #. NO watering on Sunday; no car washing unless you have a hose with a "gun" - and only then for "quick rinses".

Years ago, during another drought, one of my then co-workers was caught washing her car during a ban. A policeman pulled over and actually gave her t a ticket for doing such an evil thing!!!!

No, from what I see googling black barlow is a true flower (yeah, it's a columbine - it droops, too, rather than looking upward like the picture). Those guys are succulents - I've seen them here in northern California, both in pots and in the ground. The green leaves around them don't belong to them, they're just overlapping.

OK, how about these?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/g_austin/7713289642/

"Black Succulent - Aeonium arboreum var. atropurpureum
Actually deep purple. Taken outdoors in the RHS gardens at Harlow Carr, near Harrogate"

Yeah, looks like.

http://www.finegardening.com/black-rose-aeonium-arboreum%C2%A0-zwartkop

ETA:
And I had to go hunting for the source of that flooded-London picture - wasn't hard to find, though ("flooded London picture" brought it right up). Interesting - we've been seeing similar pics for San Francisco and the Bay Area dealing with sea-level rise...

>193 lunacat: I missed this message entirely, Jenny. How is the weather in southern England today?

>194 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara. I hope that this amount of flooding never takes place, though.

>206 avidmom: It seems as though California, especially along the coast, could always use rain, avidmom. I briefly saw a story on BBC One earlier this week about the wildfires out west, although I can't remember if they took place in California or Arizona, or in both states.

It's easy for me to become disconnected with the news in the US when I visit London, as don't watch CNN or read the NYT, in print or online, when I'm there.

>207 jjmcgaffey: Good work, Jennifer! Thanks for finding out the name of that plant.

More photos, from my visit to the Victoria & Albert Museum with Bianca on September 8th. First, the impressive main entrance:



The equally impressive John Madejski Garden:







Our first visit was the excellent Disobedient Objects exhibition, which examined "the powerful role of objects in movements for social change" from the 1970s to the present. Unfortunately my photo taking skills were not on display, and many of the ones I took came out blurry and lacked adequate light.

The entry to the exhibition:



Paper mache puppets created by the Bread and Puppet Theatre, whose work popularized the use of puppetry in social movements in the US and abroad:



A directional sign created by Occupy Sandy, the offshoot of Occupy Wall Street, to assist those affected by Hurricane Sandy who weren't getting adequate help from local, state and federal government officials:



Book blocs, which were cardboard and plexiglass shields created by Indian students and used to symbolically protest against severe education cuts enacted by the federal government in 2011:



These are two of the arpilleras that appeared in the exhibition, which are "appliquéd textiles which originated in Chile. Made by women, they documented the violence and hardships experienced during the Pinochet dictatorship. Sold through solidarity networks abroad, arpilleras generated vital income for the women who made them."

The work of art that impressed me the most was the Tiki Love Truck that was created by the London artist Carrie Reichardt as a moving mauseoleum and a protest against the execution of John Joe 'Ash' Amador by the state of Texas in 2007, after he was found guilty of murdering a taxi cab driver. His conviction was apparently based on controversial evidence, and Amador maintained that he was innocent on the day of his death. (Apologies again for the poor images.)

The top of the front of the truck is graced by a death mask made of Amador shortly after he was executed:



The truck's design is a mixture of Polynesian and Chicano influences:



The skulls and quotations along the panels are often seen in ofrendas, memorial altars constructed by Chicanos in honor of those who have recently died. This quotation, presumably from Amador, reads, "To know but not to do, is not to know at all":



"I've learned so much from my mistakes I'm thinking of making a more few":

These are some random photos I took in the few remaining minutes we had to explore the V&A before it closed for the day:

The weather is much more pleasant today, thanks for asking. A little chilly and drizzly this morning but had cleared up by 11am and was very nice, if somewhat windy. We've had some blue sky showing, although I was cold in a dress and cardigan - but then I'm always cold!

I didn't realize that the Victoria and Albert Museum was an art museum. I thought it was a historical museum. Glad to see the pictures.

Wonderful photos. Thanks for sharing them.

The ofrenda art-truck was very moving.

The succulent (!) is very weird.

I made it before midnight, so I'm very proud.

>212 lunacat: Good news, Jenny. I see that next week's weather will be pleasantly warm and mostly dry there.

>213 benitastrnad: According to Wikipedia, the Victoria and Albert Museum (also known as the V&A) is "the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects." The Natural History Museum and the Science Museum are adjacent to the V&A, on the other side of Exhibition Road in South Kensington.

>214 Ameise1: You're welcome, Barbara! I've shared most of the photos, save for the ones I took at the British Museum, the Tate Modern, walking through Greenwich, and some random ones.

>215 richardderus: The Tiki Love Truck was augmented by a video of its creation and 'Ash' Amador. I won't soon forget it.

That was an unusual plant, and one I don't ever remember seeing before, which is why I took a photo of it.

It's now just past midnight, and I start a 7 day work stretch in less than 8 hours, so I probably won't be on LT much until next Monday.

I'll keep this thread starred as my future London guide when you start a new one.
Happy week, Darryl!

Work? WORK?? What is this dastardly concept Darryl. You should give that up immediately as bad for your health ;)

Lots of great photos, Darryl. Lunacat's right - work is a dastardly concept. There's not even a pub in sight where I am.

Looking forward to seeing the photo of you in the porkpie hat. I know it looked quite good in person, and I know "adorable" from Debbi is a very positive comment. For comparison, she often calls me "annoying", and "so full of it", so you're doing pretty darn well.

>197 kidzdoc: I love the brickwork on the Surrey Steps. What wonderful photos, Darryl!

Returning to work must be a bit of a come-down after that amazing trip.

Good luck with achieving that rakish look (over the adorable) ;) I loved those photos for a comparison!

I hope the pork pie hat doesn't go the way of scrapple.

Very cool pics up there .......

Just caught up Darryl, more lovely photos. I need to visit the V&A soon, it's been a while, and it is one of my favourite places.

How did 'Ask Dr Stupid' go, what is it exactly?

Taping foot, awaiting the pork pie hat photo (snickering at Debbi's audacity).

Please, join Diana (Wilkiec)'s thread. She needs our support. Thanks a lot.

I spent every winter/spring Sunday at the V&A when I was a kid... exploring and in various programs. Loved it. Though the gardens were always closed off (this was the 70s...) I associate the entrance with orange lollies and/or a perfect "99 flake" -- a soft ice cream in a cone with a Cadbury's Flake stuck into it. Yum.

Pork pies are good. If they are good quality, that is. M&S pork pies are good.

Next trip suggestion: there is a little medical hospital -- I think it's near Guy's? At any rate, it's on the South Bank. It includes old surgical instruments and cools stuff, and an example of a surgical theater/lecture hall. Small, but fascinating.

Also, for when you are there in spring/summer, the Chelsea Physic Garden. Sir Hans Sloane's creation during the Restoration (1660s) and worth seeing as an example of the crossing point between hit and miss "medicine" and modern day medicine, and the systematization of plants as people tried to understand, scientifically, why some worked as cures or preventatives. Very small, and nice little place for a Sunday afternoon tea.

Darryl - I posted this on my thread but I really wanted to share it with you as if the link works for you I think you'll appreciate the section on Barcelona's artists:
I've just watched a wonderful 3 part BBC documentary, Art of Spain, it's a fantastic 3 hour tour of Spain and her 1000 years of art and culture. The last part starts with Goya and goes on to Gaudi, Picasso, Miro and Dali then on to filmakers and modern architecture. He finishes at Ysios Bodega in the Rioja region, designed by Santiago Calatrava.
video link: http://art.docuwat.ch/videos/art-of-spain/art-of-spain-01-moorish-south/?channel...

Darryl, just caught your excellent review of History of the Rain : ).

Darryl, thought of you when I saw this, looks like the 24 hour tube will be up & running soon - no worrying about missing the last service soon ...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/uk/london/11117869/Night-T...

It's been a very busy week back to work, as I've been getting home at 10-11 pm the past three nights. I have a few minutes to spare now, so I'll catch up as best I can.

>217 Deern: Thanks, Nathalie. Fortunately it's nearly half over (three days down, four to go).

>218 lunacat: Ha! Work=$$$=trips to London.

>219 jnwelch: Work is a necessary evil; how could I buy books without $$$? It's been a pleasant and rewarding week so far, though.

One of the mothers of a child I'm taking care of came up with the suggestion of a decompression lounge for parents, which would include a smoking room, an open bar and a pool. I told her that I was all for it, provided that the medical staff was also allowed to visit.

Ha! I was teasing about Debbi's "adorable" comment, of course. I don't think I was around her enough for her to describe me as "annoying" or "so full of it", though.

Oddly enough, one of the Children's shuttle bus drivers sported a porkpie hat yesterday, which I saw when I took the shuttle from the metro station to the hospital. Maybe it is porkpie hat weather after all.

>220 LovingLit: Thanks, Megan! I'm glad that you liked the photos.

Although I miss London and my friends, it's also good to return to work, do something useful and rewarding, and see my friends there.

Despite my protests I suspect that Debbi is right, and that I'll be about as rakish as a large teddy bear.

>221 catarina1: Ha! I hope not, catarina.

>222 roundballnz: Thanks, Alex.

>223 Caroline_McElwee: Ask Dr. Stupid was an occasional segment on the 1980s cartoon series The Ren and Stimpy Show in the US, in which Stimpy, a mentally challenged cat, would attempt to answer questions on a fake TV show and generally fail badly. I felt like Dr. Stupid when Richard asked the question about the plant, since my knowledge of plants and flowers is poor.

>224 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara. I'll check out her thread tonight if I have a chance.

>225 Chatterbox: Nice V&A memories, Suz!

I haven't seen pork pies on the menus or in the stores, but I'll have to give one a try.

You're right about the hospital on the south bank. I haven't visited it yet, but I definitely want to.

The Chelsea Physic Garden sounds very interesting! Thanks for mentioning it.

>226 avatiakh: Thanks for posting that link, Kerry. I'll look at that video as soon as I can.

>227 lit_chick: I'm glad that you liked my review of History of the Rain, Nancy. It's a shame that it wasn't chosen for the shortlist.

>228 roundballnz: Ah! That's good news about the 24 hour London Underground service. Thanks for posting that, Alex.

>230 kidzdoc: re> 225 That's the Old Operating Theatre which was part of St Thomas's hospital. I always meant to visit it the summer I worked on the Guy's campus but somehow never made it. And the Chelsea Physic Garden is lovely. If you speak nicely to Caroline she may take you there as her guest ...

It is definitely porkpie hat weather here in London now ;-)

The Old Operating Theatre I think this is the place chatterbox is refering to Darryl. I think I have mentioned this to you on your visit as one of the places I still haven't seen myself *hangs head in shame* Indeed supposed to be an incredible small museum, but known to be extremely interesting.

So, maybe something to consider when you come back next year! :)

I do hope that the rest of your shifts go as smoothly, and I am sorry to say that I just can't wait to see you as rakish as a large teddy bear. with your porkpie hat *big smile*

Darryl, I am now visualizing you as a teddy bear in a pork-pie hat, and it is adorable.

>234 banjo123: Great mental picture, there.

>234 banjo123: >235 lauralkeet: LOL, me too :)

Someone is definitely stalling over providing that photo of himself in the alleged pork pie hat. If not for Joe's testimony above, I would begin to doubt the very existence of this chapeau.

hi, Darryl. i skimmed through all the posts on this thread and now feel entitled to say hello. Your trip to London sounded wonderful, as usual. I followed your comments on FB too, of course.

Jim is campaigning to go next year, but will Alaska wait? Not sure.

I'm catching up (*again*!). Loved the London pics and it sounds like a fantastic trip.

The weather in Tuscaloosa has noticeably cooled in the last few days. Atlanta is about 100 miles directly east of Tuscaloosa and higher in elevation. I would think the weather there is perfect for a porkpie hat. I'm with a couple of others above and think it is time for that picture of you and the "adorable" hat. However, given that you are working this week I will wait.

Wow! What great photos, and what a wonderful trip you had! I'm envious on so many levels. :) I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for some more Booker reviews - not that I need more books in my house, but I "need" more books in my house! Hope the rest of your working week is easy breezy!

Happy Saturday, Darryl! Hope your week went well. I am reading The Bone clocks. It sure doesn't feel like your usual "cuppa" but I am enjoying it, in the early going. Did you ever read Cloud Atlas?

*waving to Darryl from the Atlanta airport if he's in town, where we are having a lovely layover en route to home!*

Darryl in town?!? Does that ever happen?

I suspect Darryl is working his butt off, in downpayment for the next holiday ...... currently Reading Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage but Bone clocks is not far away

Darryl, I wish you a lovely Sunday.

>245 roundballnz: (going out of order for a minute) You're spot on, Alex. I had only worked one day this month before Monday, so this is Payback Week for the 20 consecutive days I had off. My partner who makes the schedule knows that I like to travel, so she bunches my shifts together so that I can have huge stretches of days of in a row.

Yesterday was my early day, as I only worked for 11 hours (8 am to 7 pm). Fortunately I'm off service for a couple of days after today, although I'll be on call for admissions (I'm working from 10 am to 10 pm) so it will likely be a rough day, as we continue to be very busy.

>232 Sakerfalcon: Ah, that's right, Claire. I definitely want to see the Old Operating Theatre at St Thomas's Hospital, and after your and Suz's comments I'd like to visit the Chelsea Physic Garden as well. There is a hospital close to the BFI IMAX near Waterloo Bridge that I'm curious about as well.

It's definitely not porkpie hat weather here now, as the high temps will be 26-27 C for most of this week.

>233 drachenbraut23: I would definitely be interested in an outing to the Old Operating Theatre next year, Bianca!

I hope that today is an easy call day, as I'm dog tired, but I doubt that it will be. At least I'll be able to sleep in tomorrow.

>234 banjo123: Thanks, Rhonda!

>235 lauralkeet:, >236 LovingLit: , >237 laytonwoman3rd: I shall have to have someone take a photo of me at work next week with the hat, then.

>238 ffortsa: Good to see you here, Judy! I hope that you two do decide to visit London next year; maybe our trips can overlap as well.

>239 cushlareads: Thanks, Cushla; it was a splendid trip, although after this work week it seems as though it took place a long time ago.

>240 benitastrnad: The mornings here have been cool, but it seems as though they have gotten progressively warmer as the week has progressed, Benita. I saw that the temps will be mainly in the low 80s next week, and my hat is 100% wool, so it still seems too warm for me to wear it outside.

>241 LauraBrook: Thanks, Laura; it's good to see you here as well. I haven't read anything since last Sunday, so I've still only read three of the Booker shortlisted titles. I hope to finish The Lives of Others by Tuesday, then knock out J and How to Be Both next weekend.

Oops, it's getting late. I'll catch up with the remaining posts later today or tomorrow.

The old operating theatre is fascinating - I remember going when I was 15 or 16. One of the units we had to study for our History GCSE was the History of Medicine so they took us up to London as a school trip and we looked round there, and either the Science Museum or the Natural History Museum, I can't remember which it was that excursion.

Woo hoo! My work week is over!!! I'm only off for two days, but I'll gladly take them.

Catching up again before I crash for the night...

>242 msf59: I hope that you enjoyed your weekend, Mark. Today was busy, as we were understaffed and I was on call for hospital admissions, but I was fortunate to have a very good intern working alongside me today, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying The Bone Clocks. I'll probably read it next month, along with the new Murakami. I own but haven't yet Cloud Atlas yet, but I hope to get to it sometime next year.

>243 tloeffler: Hi, Terri! Sorry that I "missed" you, and I certainly hope that you've left the world's busiest airport by now!

>244 RebaRelishesReading: Ha! I'm in town now, and after my trip to San Diego in a couple of weeks I'll mainly be in Atlanta for the next 4-5 months.

>246 Ameise1: Thanks, Barbara. I wouldn't say that my Sunday was a lovely one, since I spent it working in the hospital, but it was a better day than I thought it would be, so I'm thankful for that.

>249 lunacat: That sounds like a nice trip to the Old Operating Theatre, Jenny. I never did make it to the Science Museum or the Natural History Museum on my trip to London this month, so I'll have to go there next year.

I don't know if you've read anything by Dannie Abse, who died yesterday aged 91 - he was a doctor and poet, and apparently used his experience as a doctor quite a lot in his writing.