Mabith's 2015 Reads

For this year I have no numerical goals and I'm not going to keep count of the books until the end of the year. My only goal is to read more non-western authors. I want to remove all my neuroticism from my reading.

I read a lot of non-fiction on many subjects, historical and general fiction (with a little sci-fi, fantasy, and mystery), and children's and YA novels (more children's than YA). I have great soft spots for ancient history and WWI reading.

2015 Reads
The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore
Pearl of China by Anchee Min
Grammar Snobs are Great Big Meanies by June Casagrande
Night Watch by Terry Pratchett
The Borgias by G.J. Meyer

Are Women Human? by Dorothy L. Sayers
Wild Strawberries by Angela Thirkell
Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
The Way to Paradise by Mario Vargas Llosa
Toast by Nigel Slater

Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi
Mr. Selden's Map of China by Timothy Brook
The Examined Life by Stephen Grosz
A Rare Benedictine by Ellis Peters
The Martian by Andy Weir

The Porcelain Thief by Huan Hsu
Prickle Moon by Juliet Marillier
1914: The Year the World Ended by Paul Ham
Ode to a Banker by Lindsey Davis
Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana

Mister Monday by Garth Nix
The Art of Communicating by Thich Nhat Hanh
We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo
Ingo by Helen Dunmore
Empire of Cotton by Sven Beckert

Chicago by Alaa Al Aswany
Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
On the Brink: The Inside Story of Fukushima Daiichi by Ryusho Kadota

Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
Freddy Goes Camping by Walter R. Brooks
Driving the King by Ravi Howard
Social Physics by Alex Pentland
The Jedera Adventure by Lloyd Alexander

Alan Mendelsohn: The Boy From Mars by Daniel Pinkwater
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
Mussolini: His Part in my Downfall by Spike Milligan
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Monkey Mind by Daniel Smith

The Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Grim Tuesday by Garth Nix
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
Drowned Wednesday by Garth Nix
Doc by Mary Doria Russell

Sir Thursday by Garth Nix
Sex at Dawn by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá
Rena's Promise by Rena Gelissen and Heather Dune Macadam
Stig of the Dump by Clive King
Forgotten Voices of the Blitz and the Battle of Britain by Joshua Levine

Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey
Lady Friday by Garth Nix
A Bridge Too Far by Cornelius Ryan
A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters by Julian Barnes
Superior Saturday by Garth Nix

All Joy and No Fun by Jennifer Senior
A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French
Freddy and the Ignormous by Walter R. Brooks
Islam: A Short History by Karen Armstrong
Lord Sunday by Garth Nix

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson
The Agony and the Eggplant by Walter Hogan
A World Undone by G.J. Meyer
The Clockwork Twin by Walter R. Brooks
Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell

Things Not Seen by Andrew Clements
The Truth by Terry Pratchett
My Planet by Mary Roach
The Great Dissent by Thomas Healy
I, Rigoberta Menchu by Rigoberta Menchu

The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith
Tolkien and the Great War by John Garth
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
Dreams in a Time of War by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o

The Inventor and the Tycoon by Edward Ball
Angelica by Sharon Shinn
The Voices of Glory by Davis Grubb
4:50 From Paddington by Agatha Christie
Kitty Genovese by Kevin Cook

Still waiting for that shelf to be filled

It's what we all dream of - the shelf that never runs out of free space! They're my ROOTs from last year (well, the ones that qualified for my rainbow challenge).

I love your opening picture! It's so pleasing to watch.

I hope your reading year is as fun as that opening picture, Meredith. :)

Thanks! It is somewhat hypnotic!

Agree with everyone about the opening image! And looking forward to following your reading once again.

>1 mabith: I want to remove all my neuroticism from my reading.

Sounds like a worthy goal! ;-)

We'll see! I say that as someone who decided to read the unread books I own in rainbow order... Sigh! I need a different hobby to soak up the neurotic tendencies.

The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore

This is really the history of the creator of Wonder Woman, what formed his opinions about women and women's rights, the push and pull of what various people wanted Wonder Woman to be, etc...

It was very interesting, though a more accurate title is "The Secret History of Wonder Woman's Creator." It mentions Wonder Woman's move through comics titles and time with the Justice League and all, but that kind of thing represents a tiny part of the book.

If your main interest is Wonder Woman's life in the comics, I'd skip this one. If you're interested in the feminist influences of Wonder Woman and how they were expressed, here you go! Good book, though not entirely satisfying somehow.

I love that first picture.

I'm intrigued by The Secret History of Wonder Woman...and I never read the comic, just curious where the idea of her came from.

Thanks! It turned out far better than I'd been expecting.

I never read the Wonder Woman comics either. By the time I was a kid DC and Marvel titles were largely not suitable for children and the old Wonder Woman never came my way. I have always loved Wonder Woman as an idea though (I did watch the Lynda Carter show for a bit when I was 11 or 12). She really seems to stick in the minds of most women as a beloved figure even when we just know the name.

The creator, Marston, was influenced by the suffragettes and by the movement to introduce and educate women about birth control. He was very vocal about strong women, sometimes in a way that makes you feel like he was quite the fan of bondage. His partner Olive Bern, who seems fairly responsible for keeping his name in the good books in various ways, was also Margaret Sanger's niece.

Moving this list down from the top, as I realized I didn't leave a spot for the list of books I read this year.

Top Ten Fiction Reads in 2014:
Fledgling by Octavia Butler
The Martian by Andy Weir
Master and God by Lindsey Davis
All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
The Siege by Ismail Kadare
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Top Ten Non-fiction Reads in 2014:
Why Does He Do That? by Lundy Bancroft
Rez Life by David Treuer
Games Without Rules by Tamim Ansary
1941: The Year That Keeps Returning by Slavko Goldstein
Forgotten Voices of the Somme by Joshua Levine
Paris 1919 by Margaret MacMillan
Gifts of the Crow by John Marzluff
Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace by Kate Summerscale
How to be a Victorian by Ruth Goodman
Millions Like Us: Women's Lives in the Second World War by Virginia Nicholson

Top Ten Children's/YA Reads in 2014:
The Rescuers by Margery Sharp
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Same Sun Here by Silas House and Neela Vaswani
Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan
Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai
Accidents of Nature by Harriet McBryde Johnson
Girls Like Us by Gail Giles
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren

>10 mabith: I never read the comic, but I am a huge Jill Lepore fan so I will eventually read this but I think I'll wait for the paperback.

>10 mabith: There was a good NPR piece about this book: http://n.pr/177ZlUZ

It's out of character for me, but I just bought a load of books, mostly fiction! I'm a library girl and then will buy books if I really love them, want them for reference, etc... Only 5% of the books I own are unread.





World's End: A Memoir of a Blitz Childhood and White City are Donald James Wheal's memoirs. I've read the first already and wanted to own it (or keep it as an emergency present for my dad!).

Union Street and Blow Your House Down are Pat Barker's first two novels, set in Northern England following working class women.

Chicago by Alaa Al Aswany was recommended in an article about Egyptian authors, I think. I added it to my to-read list long enough ago that I've forgotten!

Prickle Moon, short story collection by Juliet Marillier. I'm a great fan of her novels and only just found out about this collection. I'm not much of a short story fan, but I'll read them if I like the author already. It's the one book of hers my library didn't order.

Generally I'd talk myself out of so many books at once, as I'm rather miserably frugal. I seem to have accidentally been very thrifty in November and December though, so I had some extra spending money and my library doesn't have any of these (and I ask them to order stuff all the time). Granting I could afford these purchases (all used copies) any month, but again, miserably frugal.

>16 mabith: "Only 5% of the books I own are unread" : I bow to your moral strength and frugality!

Nice to see the books you bought. I'll be interested in what you think of Chicago because I bought it with high hopes after enjoying The Yacoubian Building and was so disappointed it even made me question some of the things I liked about The Yacoubian Building.

>17 h-mb: It's mostly just a personal preference. I like all the books I own to be things I love. Plus, my dad was a librarian, and while books were bought sometimes, we got so many for free in discards. Plus, the innate thriftyness and still being in a sort of mental recovery after a period where I had not one cent of disposable income.

Rebecca, oh no! I saw the average wasn't that high, but whatever I read about it seemed so convincing. We'll see, I guess! For $4, it won't be too upsetting if I dislike it.

I too am on a short string these days, which is why I am concentrating on books I have owned for a while. Frugality is not a bad thing!

That seems to be part of why many people will buy lots of books - so they have a good back stock if they have to curtail spending! When you have a librarian parent though (and had to spend a LOT of full eight hour shifts hanging out in the library from age 4 up), I don't think you ever stop thinking of the entire library collection as yours. Plus I've always been a big re-reader. If I'm snowed in for a month with no internet, I won't be unhappy with my reading choices.

Pearl of China by Anchee Min

This is a combination novel, a biographical novel about Pearl S. Buck and a historical novel of China during the 20th century. It is narrated by Willow, a girl in the village that Buck lives in with her missionary parents and siblings, who becomes best friends with Buck after a rocky start. Willow is from a poor family, and her father is an assistant preacher to Buck's father, more out of gratitude than belief in God.

Through partings and meetings they remain friends. Buck is forced to leave the country in 1934 (when she is 42), and neither realize they'll never see each other again. Willow has married a communist and struggles to be happy with the life that brings. The novel focuses on Willow, from that point, of course, though Buck is never far from her thoughts particularly when Buck is labeled an enemy of China.

I enjoyed this quite a bit though the period from the end of WWII to the Cultural Revolution is made exceedingly quickly. The way it's written is meant to give insight into what Buck might have thought of the events in China that were blocked from view. It's a good novel, but not a masterpiece. Recommended for fans of Min and/or Buck.

I'm hoping to read Buck's memoir, My Several Worlds this year, and it will be interesting to see if Min changed/added much. Buck was a remarkable person in many ways, as well as writing lovely novels. She was a political activist and humanitarian, and deserves to be recognized far more than she is. Her parents were also not your typical missionaries and were critical of the racism they saw in their peers.

>22 mabith: BB... actually 2 BBs... Read a bunch of books by Pearl S. Buck decades ago, and some I missed have popped up here on LT recently.

Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies: A Guide to Language for Fun and Spite by June Casagrande (re-read)

I re-read this now because my book club chose Eats, Shoots, and Leaves by Lynne Truss for our January book. The theme was language, and it baffled me why people suggested and voted for grammar books, but oh well. I will just spend a lot of time being angry if I read Truss' book, so I re-read this as a protest.

Casagrande has been a copy editor and started writing a grammar column for her newspaper (she's worked for newspapers in various capacities). This book is partially inspired by letters received from people wishing to correct minor points of grammar but also the sudden popularity of books like Eats, Shoots, and Leaves (which is about British usage anyway, so why was it so popular here??).

The book is both about grammar and about the super-snobs. Part of her point is that no matter what any particular expert says you can pretty much always find another expert to contradict them and there are always exceptions. Casagrande writes with a lot of humor and she explains various grammatical issues in a very accessible way while admitting that she'll learn something and then forget it in three months and start making the same mistake again (which usually doesn't matter even a tiny bit). She reminds us that our first instincts are often right and that if a mistake in a sentence gives it a better sound and flow then we should keep it.

For those of us who were raised or taught by people with particular mistake pet-peeves it can be hard to get over the automatic urge to correct someone. I had a teacher who was extremely picky about less than/fewer than being used correctly and I wish I could get that out of my head. There's nothing like reading a powerful, important, and moving sentiment only to find your brain fixating on a point of grammar which will never have any effect upon the clarity of the sentence.

Recommended for everyone.

Night Watch by Terry Pratchett (re-read)

This is only my second reading of this novel (I've read most of the books many more times). While Commander Vimes awaits the birth of his child he needs to go out after an extremely unpleasant criminal. The chase ends up in the library at Unseen University and both Vimes and the criminal, Carcer, are both sent back in time. The history monks make some brief appearances, and Vimes must become the sergeant who inspired his young self so much.

Unlike a lot of the recurring Discworld characters, Vimes grows with each book. His character changes quite a lot over the series. Oddly, I don't feel like all that many of those changes happened in this title or in The Fifth Elephant (another I've only read once). However, I've never read the Watch books in order, which might change that thought. Maybe that's a project for this year.

Discworld is Discworld, and the writing is always sharp and funny. This is definitely not a good title to start reading the series with, however.

>24 mabith: For what it's worth, I've worked as an editor for decades and I HATED Eats, Shoots and Leaves. This sounds like a much more sensible book. I must admit I'm a stickler for less than/fewer too, but I'm big believer in the idea that you have to know the rules in order to break them. It was allegedly Churchill who said "this is something up with which I will not put" to make fun of the rule that you shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition.

Being a stickler and an insufferable snob are definitely different things, as Casagrande often says. I spent so much time in high school correcting people saying "on accident" because my dad and sister ruthlessly corrected me on that when I was a little kid. One of those horrible automatic reactions that's hard to curb even when you know it makes people slightly loathe you.

I think books like Eats, Shoots, and Leaves tend to appeal more to the non-professional snob than people who are actually editors or teachers. Casagrande is definitely far more sensible, and fun along the way. She has a number of other books which I'm looking for.

Mabith--I love your opening image too.

I'll have to join Rebecca in saying I read Chicago and hated it as well. I'm hoping you'll have a different reaction.

Yikes! I may need to have words with the site that posted it then!

Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies is going on my wishlist. I know a couple of people who are annoying grammar pedants, seemingly more interested in schooling everybody on their knowledge of The Proper Rules of Proper English (many of which really aren't anything of the sort) than in clear and well-crafted communication. Maybe I will buy it and keep it around to thwack them with. (Or with which to thwack them.)

27 -
Waaaait a second. What are you supposed to say besides "on accident"? I can't think of what it is. Do I really not know or is this the effect of being in another country. Ack!

Oh, got it! By accident, right?

I look forward to your comments about Chicago, Meredith. I own it and The Yacoubian Building, but I haven't either novel yet.

>30 bragan: It really doesn't seem to serve a purpose most of the time, particularly when they're correcting your speech. Very few of us write the way we talk, particularly if it's writing for work or anything professional.

>31 lilisin: Ha, yes, by accident. My dad had trained my sister to correct me as well. Casagrande covers that and I think there's a loophole, but now I've forgotten what that is!

>32 kidzdoc: Darryl, I'll probably post about it this month or in early February. Seems like one I'll want to be finished with before the trip that takes me by the used bookstore I like to visit, given the negative reactions.

I started reading Eats, Shoots and Leaves, but gave up fairly early on as I thought the tone was insufferably smug.

Right? I couldn't go past the forward or introduction or whatever it was where she talks about seeing misused apostrophes being equivalent to a bereavement. I think she's trying to be funny but totally misses the mark.

We're doing a Book Bingo board in the 100 Books group, thought I'd link it here in case anyone wants to join.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/186079

That LShelby is fantastic, isn't she? She got the bingo card up and running over in the 2015 Challenge too.

Yup! I left a comment on her profile last night asking her and she responded ridiculously quickly. I'm still convinced it's magic.

The Borgias: The Hidden History by G.J. Meyer

Not long after starting this book I wondered why on earth I felt I should read it. The fault is probably not the book's, but the fact that I don't feel a deep enough interest in the Vatican politics that fill the work.

The short story is that the Borgia name was darkened out of personal spite and political motives and really, they probably weren't any worse than their contemporaries. Often there's just a lack of information but if they'd actually BEEN that bad surely there would be more contemporary and impartial records of that. Lucrezia especially shouldn't be viewed in a negative light.

Recommended to people VERY interested in the Borgias general normalcy or Vatican politics of this period. Recommended to the general history reader who doesn't mind papal politics (which for whatever reason make me die a little inside).

Are Women Human? by Dorothy L. Sayers

This slim volume is comprised of two essays Sayers wrote on the way women were viewed and the cause of feminism. Sayers did not consider herself a feminist and her ideas on "well we can't have aggressive feminism" are rather dated and make me roll my eyes (particularly in light of Sayers' privileged background and life).

In general the essays are still heart-breakingly relevant. The sections on how women are treated in the media are especially on point. While male actors are asked about the psychology of the role women are asked what their pre-shooting diet entailed. It never fails that when I mention my mom works for an airline people automatically think she's a flight attendant (though perhaps people don't realize that workers at the ticket counter, gate, and on the ramp are employed by the airline and not the airport in general).

Here's a quote from a section on what interviews would be like for men if they followed the pattern foisted on women (generally involving the idea of men being looked at solely in terms of stereotypes and needing to be the quintessential Man in order to be taken seriously):
If he gave an interview to a reporter, or performed any unusual exploit, he would find it recorded in such terms as these: “Professor Bract, although a distinguished botanist, is not in any way an unmanly man,. He has, in fact, a wife and seven children. Tall and burly, the hands with which he handles his delicate specimens are as gnarled and powerful as those of a Canadian lumberjack, and when I swilled beer with him in his laboratory, he bawled his conclusions at me in a strong, gruff voice that implemented the promise of his swaggering moustache.” Or: “there is nothing in the least feminine about the home surroundings of Mr. Focus, the famous children's photographer. His 'den' is paneled in teak and decorated with rude sculptures from Easter Island; over his austere iron bedstead hangs a fine reproduction of the Rape of the Sabines.”

That kind of thing is so recognizable in current life.

>39 mabith: Despite your caution, I am adding The Borgias: The Hidden History to my wish list because of my interest in the Renaissance. I probably fall somewhere between the two categories of readers you mention. A few years ago I read A World Undone by G.J. Meyer (totally different subject but his writing is good) and it was excellent.

>40 mabith: I am a big fan of Sayers' Peter Wimsey series. I think I'd like to read this?

>41 Poquette: It was definitely interesting and certainly not poorly written. Once you get into papal politics I just want to sleep, I think. Plus of course, he's not writing the salacious, largely dishonest portrait of the Borgias we've come to expect. Lucrezia is a pawn in male family members' plans and then finally gets a bit of a happily-ever-after, a far cry from expert poisoning. I have A World Undone on my to-read list, so I'm glad to hear it's excellent!

>42 NanaCC: They're very short and definitely worth a read. It's neat to see her write in her own words (I'm a great fan of the Wimsey series as well). I admit to being a little depressed that it's the same sentiments I see written up today, albeit using very different language. She'd be turning in her grave (she did seem think women had won all they needed for true equality).

Thanks for your review of The Borgias: The Hidden History. I think I might get that one..

Interesting your comments on Dorothy L Sayers's essays.

I'm looking forward to the day when newly married male actors are asked how they intend to balance working with having a family. Or about their skin care regime. And then the female actors being asked about their character's motivation and how it was to work with that director.

>44 baswood: It was nice to have the history set a big straighter in my head. Given past reading I do think anything about the papacy just makes me want to scream, and many readers won't have that issue.

>45 RidgewayGirl: Oh to see that day!

>39 mabith: I recently listened to The Borgias, and I really enjoyed it. I consider myself a casual history reader, but I felt like I got a lot out of it. I liked that he would stop the story and give background context to help understand what was going on.

That's good to know, Ursula, and I've edited my review. The background context is what I liked the most, I think the papacy stuff just kills my brain a bit. Maybe partly because I have a very hard time understanding how the teachings of Jesus could lead to that kind of structure in general and then I start thinking of all the money spent on the ornate structures and garments that could have helped the poor and ugh. It also might be that I found the exact wrong time to pick this up.

Wild Strawberries by Angela Thirkell

A lightly comedic lightly romantic novel of the 1930s. Not a masterpiece, not bad, a nice light fiction book, which is just what I needed.

Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

A family story set in the 1980s narrated by younger sister June. Her uncle, Finn, who she adored, dies due to AIDS. She gets to know his boyfriend, Toby, who she didn't know existed until the funeral. While she sneaks around to see Toby (the rest of the family blames him for Finn's death), her sister Greta is self-destructing a bit.

For me, this family was not believable. The mother and older sister Greta particularly felt unreal. Greta's actions seemed totally unbelievable and unnatural for her age (I say that as someone with an older sister and three older brothers). While the effect of watching a brother slowly die would certainly impact a person, the mother seemed to pay no attention to what her kids did even when in very close earshot while driving.

The unbelievable family kept me from enjoying the book. The narrator was believable, particularly to me since as a 14 year old I spent a fair bit of time in imaginative games (an aspect some people might find uncommon in an early teen). Her reactions to her sister and the world in general felt largely true.

This book got so many amazing ratings and reviews, and I can't quite understand it. It's not a bad debut novel, but it's certainly flawed.

The Way to Paradise by Mario Vargas Llosa (Nobel Prize winner)

The book chronicles the lives of Flora Tristan and her grandson Paul Gauguin, the artist (born four years after Tristan's death). The chapters go back and forth between their lives, covering the last ten years of Guiguin's life and the last eight months of Tristan's (but with both reflecting on the entirety of their lives).

While both are seeking ideal lives, they are running on opposite tracks. Tristan was a socialist activist and early feminist. She views marriage as the buying and selling of women, is disgusted by sex, and works ceaselessly for her idea of a worker's paradise. Gauguin fetishizes non-western ways of life (seemingly because he thinks they'll allow him to do whatever he wants with no consequences), views women entirely as sexual objects, and thinks only of himself.

The attitude doesn't come off as being the author's, but I found many of the Gauguin chapters disturbing. His ideal age for a partner is 14, he constantly fondles women without their permission, intentionally pushes himself on children whom he knows are uncomfortable with his requests, spreads his syphilis around without thought, and if he doesn't explicitly rape (though I think he does) he is certainly extremely coercive regarding sex. The extent of the truth of these things is not something I know off-hand, and would take a very good biography to find out. Only at the moment at least I never want to see anything connected to Gauguin again. The lack of anyone criticizing these actions was part of the problem for me, but in the chapters our subjects focus purely on themselves

I enjoyed Tristan's sections far more, though Gauguin's got less awful as the book went on. I was quite happy when he died.

The writing style is distinct, switching between second and third person narration. That may sound annoying but it was done extremely effectively and I found the writing quite engaging. I would certainly read more by Llosa, though I will be more careful about what I pick up.

>51 mabith: This sounds interesting - disturbing, but interesting. I've never read anything by Mario Vargas Llosa, either, but I am definitely interested in his work.

He was on my radar as I was trying to read all the Nobel Lit winners from countries outside of the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia and western Europe (it's quite a small list). I have his book The Dream of the Celt on my shelf too, which is about Roger Casement, and will maybe be less disturbing. The writing was very good though, and effect of the tense switching just worked beautifully.

Excellent review of The Way to Paradise I believe that Gaugin was not a very nice person

Thanks, Barry. He certainly doesn't seem to have been someone you'd like to be around. I suppose part of what Llosa wants us to think about is what might have changed if Flora Tristan had lived and had some influence on Gauguin.

The Way to Paradise is one of the few Vargas Llosa books I haven't read (yet). Interesting to read about it.

I wasn't aware Gaugin was that bad. That is quite interesting - goodness doesn't that sound wrong. Anyway, great review of the Llosa and too bad about Brunt's book.

Nice review of The Way to Paradise, Meredith. It's also one of the few books by MVL that I haven't read yet, although I've owned a copy of it for several years.

My favorite MVL novels are The War of the End of the World, The Time of the Hero, The Feast of the Goat, Conversation in the Cathedral, and Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter.

Again, I have not read much else about Gauguin, my dad said that from what he'd read he wouldn't have wanted to spend time around the man. At the moment I'm happy to just leave the man behind.

>58 kidzdoc: Thanks for the list! Of those my library only has The Feast of the Goat. It's unfortunate for me that like a lot of books in translation (esp. if the author is from outside western Europe), there are no audiobooks available. You'd think someone would say "He won the Nobel Prize, let's at least make a couple audiobooks available," but no.

I would second the Feast of the Goat and Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter. I also remember liking The Storyteller, which, strangely enough, I believe I read for an anthropology class in college.

>60 ELiz_M: Thanks, good to know!

Toast by Nigel Slater

This is one of those memoirs of childhood and very early adulthood told from the perspective of childhood. Those are fine and dandy, but Slater seems to keep the much younger tone through to the end of the book when he's older. He employs almost no introspection throughout the entire book. It also gave me the feeling that he didn't bother talking to anyone about these memories, and in fairness, there weren't many people left to talk to who were around. With adult introspection that's less of a problem, without it I frequently found myself wondering how events really happened (our own memories are often great big liars).

The theme of food does run throughout, but not in a way that made the book particularly interesting. It did make me crave sweets, but that's not my measure of a successful memoir.

I feel like this kind of memoir writing only works up to age 12 or so (I loved it in Haven Kimmel's A Girl Named Zippy, but she's also a million times less whiny and spoiled). Slater went too far along without any change in tone or maturity.

Not particularly recommended. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't great either. If it's in a pile of books left in an airport or hotel and you're desperate you could certainly do worse. Also, trigger warning for brief mentions of sexual abuse to a minor.

Nice review of Toast, Meredith; I won't read it, though.

>58 kidzdoc: >60 ELiz_M: I loved Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter but wasn't as fond of The Feast of the Goat as I have been of some other Vargas Llosas. Like Darryl, I love The War of the End of the World and Conversation in the Cathedral, and I also really liked The Green House and Death in the Andes. And Captain Pantoja and the Special Service is a total hoot. I liked but didn't love The Storyteller.

Why have none of you Llosa fans read the only other one I own (The Dream of the Celt)?!

>63 kidzdoc: The review was successful then!

>65 mabith: Read it. Disliked it. Wouldn't have finished it if Vargas Llosa hadn't written it.

>65 mabith: Rebecca ordered me not to read it.

Drat. Well. I'll probably give it a bit of a go anyway, but not push myself to finish if I'm not enjoying it.

>67 kidzdoc: Ordered you????? Aren't you carrying my dislike of it a little too far, Darryl?

Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi

First off, this magical realism novel takes very little from the fairytale of the same name (similar to Bluebeard). In the beginning it SEEMS like it will follow that more, but then things just go nuts.

Is this person a fiction character come to life, is this section something that's actually happening or something written by the author character, etc... While I didn't dislike the writing and didn't dislike it to the point of stopping the audiobook, I also didn't really enjoy it. I like my books to make sense, to have a flow, to not just veer off into a random "is it real or not" vignette. I've known magical realism was not for me for some time, but didn't realize this one took it quite so far.

If you don't like magical realism I would stay away from this book.

Mr. Selden's Map of China by Timothy Brook

I'm trying to determine whether or not this counts as a micro-history, so if you've read it, let me know your opinion!

John Selden was an English polymath scholar, particularly interested in Asia. When he died (1654), he donated many items to the Bodleian Library at Oxford, including a remarkable map of China. Its accuracy was unprecedented and no map (that we know of) would match it for four decades. However, it was not made use of or placed in the hands of anyone who could be influenced by it's accurate 'mapping from the sea' method (which helped account for the curvature of the earth).

The book explores the times in which it was produced, the relationship between China and the west in the early to mid 17th century, the way cartographers worked, life in China during this period, laws governing sea traffic, etc... We glimpse an entire world through its connections to this map.

I really enjoyed this book, and as with any which deals with the early 17th century I always find myself amazed that my ancestor left for Jamestown in 1606, that the Tempest was written while he was facing The Starving Time (well, likely facing that, it's a bit unclear whether or not he went back to England in 1609 with Smith, as he doesn't 'appear' in England until 1620 or so I prefer to think he was there in the colony eating the dead to survive).

I recommend the book generally but especially if you have any interest in China.

The Examined Life: How we Lose and Find Ourselves by Stephen Grosz

Grosz recounts various experiences with patients in his psychoanalysis practice, generally talking about the way we humans are. I'm not a fan of psychoanalysis or Freud (one guy takes an entire year before they actually get into the issue he's come about), so that made some sections shine a bit less for me.

Also, the parents who signed their 10 year old, middle child up for 5 sessions/week when she started wetting the bed and being clumsy soon after a baby brother arrived... REALLY? How hard is it to figure out that she's feeling ignored and displaced! All parents really should have to take a course in basic psychology. When I was little I'd wet my bed once and been allowed to sleep with my parents that night, so I kept doing it to get to sleep with them (not consciously) and it only took a couple times for my mom to say "You don't have to wet the bed if you want to sleep down here," and it never happened again. And my mom is not the most astute person when it comes to psychological issues.

It's an interesting little book, and a very quick read. Recommended despite my eye-rolling at certain things.

>71 mabith: Mr. Seldon's Map of China sounds very interesting. That's interesting about your Jamestown relative too. None of my ancestors were here until the late 1800s, but my husband had relatives here in the 1600s.

>70 mabith: I enjoyed Mr. Fox and was eager for, and very disappointed by, Oyeyemi's next novel, Boy Snow Bird.

I've finally caught up with all your great (and not-so great) reading. I won an ER copy of The Borgias and was so excited because Meyer's A World Undone was so well done. Unfortunately, it never showed up.

Good start of the year, here, with several very interesting books.

>74 rebeccanyc: I wish I could have just gone along with Mr. Fox and been swept up enough to really enjoy it, but the old brain just won't let me. If I'd been reading it in print I probably would have given it up. I remember your review of Boy Snow Bird, it's the primary reason I haven't picked that one up.

>75 fannyprice: That stinks about the missing ER! I've been lucky and have received all of mine (though not receiving some of the terrible ones might have been preferable!). A couple were very late though. You'd think with the major publishers there wouldn't be an issue with getting these out.

>76 edwinbcn: It has been a pretty good start to the year!

But the cover for Mr. Fox is so beautiful!

>77 mabith: It seems to me that Mr. Fox would be difficult as an audio book because of the shifts in time and characters. At least, reading it as a paper book, I was able to look back if I got confused.

>78 RidgewayGirl: One of the reasons I bought Mr. Fox was because I was attracted by the cover!

It is a very nice cover. I've been reading mostly via audiobook for 8 years or so, and following shifts isn't really a problem anymore unless there are a ton of characters and they don't all have separate, distinct sounding readers (As I Lay Dying was a bit problematic in that sense).

Enjoying your reviews Meredith. Mr Selden's map of China has caught my interest.

I think someone reviewed Mr. selden's map of China last year, but i can't recall who. In any case, i just put it on my wishlist after reading your review.

I've heard good things about Grosz. I'll keep that one in mind.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it went on my list due to a review I read here last year. It jumps about in a pleasing way (while always relating things back to the map).

A Rare Benedictine by Ellis Peters

The last published book in the Cadfael series, though chronologically it's the first. It contains three short stories, the first the only one to take place before Cadfael joins the Benedictines (it is after he is home in England though).

They were enjoyable, though felt a bit rushed. That may be down to me just being used to the novels, or possibly Peters just wasn't as adept at short stories. I'm pretty sad to be done with the series, and I may re-read a few favorites this year.

The Martian by Andy Weir (re-read)

One of my favorite books from last year still just as great on the re-read. I love basically everything about it. The success/failure ratio is good, the science is explained well, and Watney is hilarious. The humor employed by most of the characters is part of what makes it seem so real, since people do tend to use humor to help them cope with frightening situations.

Highly recommended to all. There is a moderate amount of swearing, but only one character swears gratuitously when the situation doesn't warrant it.

>84 mabith: I think you just hit me with a new series. I will have to check out the first in the series and decide from there. :)

The Porcelain Thief: Searching the Middle Kingdom for Buried China by Huan Hsu

This is an ER that won't be published until March and this review is based on an ARC copy.

Huan Hsu grew up in Utah trying to be as un-Chinese as possible. After becoming interested in porcelain after seeing an exhibition of it, he's told to ask his mother about her family's collection.

The family story goes that his great-great-grandfather had a large collection of porcelain, including from the imperial kilns, which he buried in the garden before fleeing as the Japanese approached his village. Hsu is driven to go to China and do what he can towards digging for the porcelain, while also finding out more about his family's history.

The book is a mixture of Hsu's experiences in China, the history of porcelain, the personal history of his various relatives, some of whom never left China and some who fled to Taiwan when the Communists took power, and the history of 20th century China in general (often viewed through a relationship to porcelain).

While the title is rather misleading (there's really nothing about theft mentioned except in an abstract way), I really enjoyed the book. I liked Hsu's writing style, the mix of histories, and Hsu's growing appreciation for his family and for China in general. It ends incredibly abruptly, and there's not much narrative arc, but I would recommend it to pretty much anyone with even a slight interest in China.

Prickle Moon by Juliet Marillier

This is Juliet Marillier's first collection of short stories, some written specifically for this book, and some initially published elsewhere. I liked it quite a bit more than I'd been expecting to.

Most of them are quite short barring the title story (30 pages) and Twixt Firelight and Water (48 pages), which deals with two minor characters from the Sevenwaters trilogy universe. I really enjoyed that one.

A lot of the stories have a fantasy element, but there were a fair few without that too, which she'd written for various women's magazines. Given that I don't enjoy short stories all that much in general, the book was a surprise and a treat. Marillier gets to pull out some humor, does a couple fairytale retellings (I especially liked her take on Rapunzel), and I think any of her fans will be pleased with the book.

1914: The Year the World Ended by Paul Ham

This is a very well done primer to how WWI started and the course of battle within 1914 (the war itself started in late July with the western front being formed in early August). The first third of the book covers the years prior to 1914, the various alliances and treaties, the stress points, and it gives a strong focus on what was actually going on between Austria-Hungary and Serbia.

Ham's writing is immensely readable, and while he may not evoke as emotional a response as say, Barbara Tuchman, that's not necessarily a bad thing. The information was clear and organized, and he covers various common perceptions of the war and whether or not they're accurate. He gives only overviews of the battles, rather than detailed coverage, so those with a military history phobia need not fear.

Highly recommended, certainly a good one for people who will only read a few books about the war. While this was largely a refresher for me, Ham put emphasis on slightly different events and relationships, viewing some events from a different angle than many books, so I recommend it to the WWI completest as well.

I've certainly put Ham's other books on my to-read list on the strength of his writing. I wonder sometimes if modern Australian historians are able to get into these events more accurately, without the drummed in sensitivities of Americans and Europeans where the world wars are concerned (granting it may be different when battles featured heavy ANZAC losses).

Very interested in your review of 1914: The year the World ended That ones added to my to buy list

It's definitely worth the spot!

Ode to a Banker by Lindsey Davis

This is the 12th book in the Falco series, and Davis' sharp eye is on bankers, publishers, and writers. She makes sure to state that the publisher is not based on hers nor are her writing peers anything like the writers in the book...

The Falco series are some of my favorite books out there. Falco wishes he were a totally hardboiled detective, but in the end he is also a poet with a relatively soft heart. While he is a progressive man of his era, Davis doesn't make him unbelievable. He is always cynical about the suspects in his investigations, and he doesn't underestimate the women around a crime. As usual Davis excels at building historical detail and really immersing you in this time and culture, showcasing both the differences and similarities between their lives and ours.

While Davis works hard to make sure that the books can be read out of order, I wouldn't recommend starting cold later than the 6th book. The first six really give you the firm foundation you need to enjoy the rest in almost any order you choose (barring the last three, I think).

Just in case anyone is hesitating to read Toms River by Dan Fagin I thought I'd give it another plug here. I heard him speak last night, and while he's less cynical about some things than me (I'd say less realistic), it was a great talk.

I got the book as an ER and was not at all in the mood to read something which would depress me. At that point I was really strident about reading ERs within two weeks of receiving them though (HA HA, no longer the case), so I sat down and blew through 130 pages in the first sitting. It's depressing, but the thread about the Toms River environmental disasters and cancer cluster are balanced with chapters about the history of epidemiology, the history of the EPA and superfund sites, the history of environmental laws. The writing is great, but the balancing of the most distressing aspects and the interesting historical aspects made it so easy to read.

I've added The Porcelain Thief to my wishlist under the theory it might help me understand China better (when I finally get around to reading a about it). Intrigued by Tom's River and Ham's WWI book.

Just added The Martian, The Porcelain Thief and 1914: The Year the World Ended to my wishlist, even though LT tells me I won't like the last two.

>94 dchaikin: If you want modern China from a western perspective, Lost on Planet China was pretty interesting.

The Porcelain Thief is definitely a bit up and down. I really like reading about China, so I was able to ignore the "Uhh, what's this thief business and are you ever going to go find that porcelain?" issue. Part of what was interesting is that his family was really spread out and you get a good picture of various types of life in China in the 20th century and the exit paths for those who left versus the lives of those who stayed. The history of porcelain production and the fortunes of the main porcelain producing city were interesting enough to me as well.

If you're not that into history reading 1914 could be a slog, though I feel like it's less dense and dry than many I've read.

Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana Jr

Originally published in 1840 and written to expose how poorly common sailors were treated, this book also became a literary classic.

Dana is suffering from vision problems so he leaves Harvard for a spell on the sea in hopes his eyes would improve. That makes no sense to me, but it was 1834.

While Dana isn't outside the racism of his day, you can also see clearly that he is a good person in the way he talks about others, and he became an avid abolitionist. He is deeply interested in the indigenous peoples they encounter and in the culture of the California Mexicans (he was there when it was a province of an independent Mexico vs of Spain).

At times I was bewildered by the ship-speak, but I didn't worry about it too much. It certainly was an interesting (and hazardous) journey, and I can see why it sold so well as a simple sea adventure too. Certainly recommended reading.

Mister Monday by Garth Nix (RE-READ)

If I were forced to name an heir to L. Frank Baum's world-building prowess, I would choose Nix. While the style of the writing and the level of action is very different, the other world created in the Keys to the Kingdom series (of which Mister Monday is the first) is absolutely fantastic (and I find the world in Sabriel refreshingly original as well).

Arthur is 12 and living in a world that is not quite our own. In his world there are widespread flu epidemics (and far reaching government powers to deal with them), one of which killed both of his parents when he was only a baby.

On his way to school he has a bad asthma attack and while two other children run for help he sees two strange creatures arguing about whether to give him a key. Mister Monday needs to pass the key on to an heir and hopes to snatch it back after Arthur dies. However, Arthur doesn't die. When he's back at school creatures from this other world are after him to attempt to take the key back meanwhile the school is being quarantined. He must trust someone called The Will and go into the other world and there the action really begins.

It's almost a non-stop action book, and very fun. You want to immediate go on to the next book to join Arthur for the next adventure. Really well down and original children's fantasy isn't the easiest thing to find. I highly recommend this series. It is Fantasy! with some very classic archetypes and references to a zillion things, and it's really fun. I was not a big reader of fantasy as a kid, but if I'd started on this book I think I would have been easily hooked into the series.

>97 mabith: I have been meaning to read Two Years Before the Mast forever. Your comment re Dana's vision raised a question: Did he ever say whether his time at sea made the desired difference?

Two Years before the Mast seems to be one of those books that has gone out of fashion and so it was good to read your comments on it.

He never did address the vision (though admittedly that's a detail that would slip my mind very quickly). He completed his law degree when he returned though and had quite the career (as well as writing a few more books), so I assume his vision couldn't have been that bad.

It's certainly a book that still deserves to be a classic (though one tires of Dana's opinion on indigenous languages). He traveled to Cuba in 1859 and wrote a book documenting that too, and I'm quite curious about that one.

The vision thing intrigued me because as I sit here in my dotage, I have noticed that I get eyestrain quite easily if I read for too long without "resting" my eyes by looking off into the distance, out the window, etc. So Dana's notion of leaving his studies to improve his vision didn't seem as far fetched to me as it does to you. I am farsighted — which may have something to do with the relative restfulness of looking at distant objects — and had good vision before presbyopia required me to finally get glasses when I was around sixty. But I don't need two years before the mast!!! Twenty minutes at most will be enough to "reset" my eyes to the point where I can comfortably read again.

I assumed it was more serious than something that simple eye-resting would help. I get that too, as I embroider a lot and there's so much close squinting in that. Though I've found I have a lot more trouble reading on a computer screen lately despite my vision not having changed (I've had glasses since childhood). I have to increase the font size on pretty much every site I use. The optometrists have had no suggestions for that issue.

I have an extra set of glasses that were prescribed specifically for computer use. I don't use them for anything else. The focal length is set for the distance between eye and computer screen give or take a few inches. This solved my computer-caused eyestrain.

For me it's probably largely because the computer just adds to the close-looking that tires the eyes, and I do seem to be sensitive to the light (I keep the screen at it's least bright most of the time). I keep baffling at the people who can read books on their phones or other light-emitting things. The whole point of the Kindle's e-ink was to avoid a light-emitting screen!

>105 mabith: I can read books on my phone, but I prefer the e-ink of the Kindle. I keep my phone on a very low brightness setting too, and I've had people saying they thought the screen was off when I've been looking at it.

>105 mabith: I think you're probably more sensitive to the light than most people. Yes, e-ink is more comfortable because it doesn't emit light, but for many people reading on a phone is comfortable enough. The discomfort is also relative to the size of the screen, so what is OK on an iPhone is more of a problem on an iPad.

>107 FlorenceArt:

It depends on how long you read. I can read for an hour or three on my phone but go over that and my eyes get tired. The Kindle? 8-10 hours on a flight are not a problem at all (usually followed with even more reading on a connection or at various airports...).

The only time I read on my iPad, is on the treadmill. I can't see my kindle while I'm moving, and the iPad is much bigger. But I love reading my kindle. I have a cover that has a built in light for reading in the dark. I find that the iPad hurts my eyes if I try reading for very long in bed. The phone is way too small, but I have resorted to using it in the doctor's waiting room when I've forgotten my book.

I also can't read for long on a backlit screen like a computer or iPad. I do love my kindle with the e-ink though.

The phone's smallness (and mine is a pretty big model) is definitely a factor too. I remember when Project Gutenberg first started and there were so many neat things but I couldn't read that long on the computer. That's about 90% of my Kindle use.

I readily admit to having a motherly/smothery concern about people's eyes and light emitting things. Possibly my sensitivity is why I've never been much for long browsing online (vs communicating with people directly).

The Art of Communicating by Thich Nhat Hanh

A nice quick read and a reminder that we often bring more sorrow upon ourselves by not communicating when we're upset and by assuming the person who has upset us realizes that. It is also about communicating with ourselves to the extent of being able to acknowledge what we're feeling. While communicating our feelings isn't as guaranteed to help as Hanh believes (there certainly are people who don't care, just as there are people who will use how someone feels against them), it is a first step that often gets ignored.

This was a good January read for me, a reminder to set the tone for the rest of the year. Recommended.

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

This was a great read. It's the story of young Zimbabwean girl, Darling, telling the story of herself and her friends as they roam through Paradise, the neighborhood of tin huts their parents brought them too after their houses were destroyed by paramilitary forces. When Darling is 13 (she is ten at the start of the book) she goes to live in Detroit with her aunt, and it becomes the story of her changing expectations and the realization that she cannot go home (not if she wants to return to finish school, as she's overstayed a visitor's visa).

It's a book of adaptation, displacement, and how small the circles of our lives often are, if we do not choose to widen them.

Until I got into the last quarter or so of the book I wasn't sure I'd like this one as much as a few friends did. Recommended.

I also love this cover so much, I think changing it for the paperback was quite a mistake.

Ingo by Helen Dunmore

I really did not like this children's fantasy book. It tells the story of Sapphire, her older brother, Conor, and their parents who live in cottage on the sea in Cornwall. Her father is a fisherman and disappears one night and is presumed dead by all but Conor and Sapphire. Soon after Sapphire is worried about Conor who has been away from home for an entire day. She goes to look for him and sees her brother talking to a mer-person, Elvira, on a rock. He is unaware that so much time has past. Later she sees him talking to Elvira again and meets Elvira's brother Faro who takes her into Ingo, the sea kingdom. Because Sapphire and Conor both have some mer-blood they can be taken into it.

That sounds fine, right? Well sure, but there's no real plot guiding the book. You think it's going to be about finding the dad, since the kids believe he's alive. NOPE. Is it going to be about saving her brother from the clutches of Ingo? NOPE. Soon it's Sapphire who is missing all day and Conor couldn't care less about Ingo. Everything is just completely inconsistent. The passage of time in Ingo compared to the air world shifts based on what's convenient for the story (VS anything that makes sense), the kids barely even mention their dad when everything leads you to think he's in Ingo, one minute resisting the sea is difficult, the next it isn't, Faro's attitudes about humans and decisions shift wildly...

If I didn't have a bit of a problem not-finishing books I would have stopped half-way through at the latest, which is when I realized it was never going to improve. Took me ages to finish as I just hated starting it up again (I listened to the audiobook, which has a good reader).

This is the first book in a series, but it read like maybe it was combined with the second book in the series and Dunmore decided that instead of editing it she'd just publish two books. I haven't been so annoyed at a children's book in a long time. Not at all recommended.

Empire of Cotton: A Global History by Sven Beckert

This is an excellent history, both of cotton and the rise of global capitalism. Beckert never loses sight of the fact that the cotton industry was built on slavery and exploitation in general. In fact, it is still an industry that keeps many in extreme poverty and in dangerous working conditions.

It's written very well in chronological order and covers the entirety of the industry, the growing of cotton and it's processing into yarn and cloth.

Highly recommended.

>113 mabith:. I have We Need New Names on my kindle. Maybe I'll get to it this year. Thank you for adding your recommendation.

I've seen Empire of Cotton in the bookstore and it seemed intriguing. Thanks for the review.

Very nice review of We Need New Names. Intrigued by The Empire of Cotton. As I understand, before Spindletop cotton transport was Houston's main industry.

Chicago by Alaa Al Aswany

This is a book about Egyptian students and teachers (and their loved ones in the US) at the University of Illinois at Chicago. It has a large cast, some who've been in the US for many years and some who have just arrived. It's about adjustments, compromises, culture, and immigration. There aren't many likeable characters, but that didn't bother me.

While I didn't hate this book, I also didn't love it. I did, however, feel a keen want to keep reading it, and it went quickly. Partly this is due to how frequently the focus changes (among the characters), but I also wanted to find out how all the characters would fare. It's not really fair for me to say this, as Naguib Mahfouz is probably the only other Egyptian author I've read (though I also have an Egyptian aunt), but the book felt VERY Egyptian.

It would have been a three-star read for me, except for the end. In part I felt Aswany wrapped up threads that didn't need wrapping up. This is not a book with a firm plot, but a meandering novel of real life. One ending felt extremely forced and not particularly believable and the events of the last page were unbelievable to the point of being totally ludicrous. A character has an abortion and when it's over the staff have let her boyfriend, who did not accompany her to the appointment, into the recovery room to see her! No clinic in the US would let someone in who hadn't accompanied the patient, even if that person were a relative, spouse, or the bloody President! That's such a silly mistake for an author to make and it wouldn't have been hard to work around.

I can't say I particularly recommend this book, but I think I'll probably still try to read the author's The Yacoubian Building.

Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers (RE-READ)

This was the 8th Lord Peter Wimsey novel, and a favorite of mine for the advertising slogans and such. Sayers herself worked as a copywriter for an advertising firm for nine years, quite successfully. She is also given credit for the phrase "It pays to advertise."

Wimsey is Wimsey, of course, and it's quite fun to see him going undercover at the ad agency. This year I might go back and re-read Wimsey from the beginning. I know he's one of those "too perfect" detectives, but he does make the books such fun.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

My book club chose this for our books-to-movies month, much to my dismay. I'd seen one review that made me feel like reading it, but most made me feel like it wasn't a book for me. Then another book I was reading (Bad Feminist) revealed the main 'twist.'

It is not a bad book, but I don't really understand why it's SO popular (or why anyone would call it a thriller, I know I had the main thing spoiled, but it's not hard to guess and it's really not that suspenseful). It's not a work of genius, it didn't feel particularly original, and it didn't provide great psychological insight at any stage. It seemed like an average contemporary, stand-alone mystery.

The book is also SO anti-women, and in ways that don't seem entirely right for the main characters' lives. As in, last year I read The Slap, which oozes misogyny, and while upsetting, it felt extremely realistic. I stopped using gendered insults some time ago, and the frequency of the word b***h in this one was hard to take.

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

One of the most important things about Dahl's books is that he gives us some key unhappy children with unfit guardians/parents. It's an important thing to represent. I loved the movie they did of this one when I was a kid (some aspects are very different from the book, for better and worse), but hadn't made time to read the book.

The downside with Dahl movies is that they have to miss out so many funny little scenes. I think they missed quite a trick by not including some of the centipede's excellent poetry in the movie, not to mention the discussion about insect anatomy.

A wonderfully fun book, destined to be a classic for many decades to come.

>118 dchaikin: I did hate Chicago because I felt it was ultra-stereotyped and probably based on when al Aswany was in the US decades earlier. It actually made me question whether the characters were stereotyped in The Yacoubian Building which I had previously read and loved.

I think since there were a variety of characters and types it spread things around enough for me, plus with grad school aged people I think any author has trouble staying away from stereotypes with those ages, particularly when the author is older. I did really dislike Graham, the American professor though.

>122 mabith: My son (just turned 5) is loving the Roald Dahl books. We've read James and the Giant Peach, The Twits, and Fantastic Mr. Fox. He loves them, especially the silly parts and the gross parts.

>124 mabith: It's a long time since I read it, and I've mostly forgotten it, but it was the US characters, in particular, that I felt were stereotyped. With respect to the grad students, I think al Aswany was reaching back to his own experience as a grad student in Chicago and was creating characters who faced challenges that would have been current at that time even though the novel was set more or less now. And I think that a good author should be able to create believable characters of all ages.

I think when we draw from our own memories is often when it's most likely to go wrong, as we're really not reliable witnesses.

Really, I think the challenges described are still current. In many ways there was probably a period where life was easier for non-American Muslims in the US, but after 9-11... I know things were pretty hard for my aunt and cousins after they moved here, and still are. The challenges facing foreign students in the US in general are probably somewhat timeless. At the university I briefly went to they had a large population of students from all over Asia and were insistent they all choose American names on arrival, which is just... Ugh.

I have finally caught up with your thread! Enjoyed reading your reviews - drooling over such a lovely mix of reading.

It's definitely been an interesting reading year so far. After one year when I got burnt out on reading (due to too much mediocre fiction in genres I don't like that much) I've stayed very aware of keeping a good mix of books going.

On the Brink: The Inside Story of Fukushima Daiichi by Ryusho Kadota

I got hit with a major book bullet after reading LoisB's review of this, which is far better than mine will be.

When my library finally ordered the book it had been a while since I'd read her review, and I was stalling on starting it. Once I did though, that was it. It is an intensely compelling read and I didn't want to put the book down.

Kadota gives us the inside story in the sense that he interviewed people who were in all stages and sides of the disaster (those who worked in the plant, those in the self-defense forces, the government, those who lived in the nearest town...). If there's a personal focus to the book it is on Masao Yoshida, the site superintendent.

Kadota doesn't get into debates about nuclear power, he simply tells the story, day by day and hour by hour. Going through events that way definitely adds to the air of suspense even when you already know what basically happened, because now you hear the human side and begin to understand conditions on the ground..

I can't recommend this book enough. It is absolutely a five star read, no matter what your interest level in the subject. I admit I even got a bit misty-eyed at the end.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo

If you haven't read this yet and plan to, I highly recommend reading Boo's afterward first. It somewhat baffles me why it wasn't a forward, as it talks about how she wrote it, how much time was spent on it, and her hesitation to write this story (as a white, westerner). I would have been able to get more out of it if that had been first. I did wonder at how and why she arrived at this subject, and I did feel like the style it's written in was too presumptive (it's written like a novel and I was unsure about all the thoughts and motives attributed to these real people).

Though of course it's never true, this is one of those books where I feel like I'm the last one reading it. It tells the story of a group of people dwelling in the Annawadi slum district which sits near the Mumbai airport, partly surrounded by luxury hotels. The people she talks to are in a variety of positions in their lives, some are scraping by and some are just edging ahead so precariously they may fall back at the slightest bump. It's a snapshot, albeit taken over a few years, of this one tiny part of a large city in a large country.

The book is well done in that she does not judge anyone, and she largely lets the people she met speak for themselves. She shows the good and bad traits together, and does not get sucked into a "Poverty is noble" narrative. If you've read much about poverty and makeshift cities anywhere, it's also not a necessary book. Poverty is poverty is poverty, basically, and human nature doesn't differ much.

>131 mabith: Though of course it's never true, this is one of those books where I feel like I'm the last one reading it.

Definitely not true! It's still sitting on my TBR shelves. Maybe I'll remember to read the afterword first, when I finally get to it.

Very tempted by On the Brink (based on your review, although i did read LoisB's too).

I keep hoping Behind the Beautiful Forevers will show up in my library's audio collection- i think it would work for me better that way. But it hasn't yet.

Ah, hopefully soon! My library had Beautiful Forevers as an e-audio book on their website. If your library has a digital collection through Overdrive, you can request digital titles through the site as well (generally there's a link after you search something). It is well read, and it's always nicer to hear names and places properly pronounced. Since it's written in a very novelistic style it shouldn't be too hard in print though.

Freddy Goes Camping by Walter R. Brooks (RE-READ)

This is number 15 out of 26 Freddy the Pig books, and it's a goody. Well, they're pretty much all goodies, though I do find the obsession with space travel in the later books a little tedious (talking animals, fine, talking animals who are going into space, maybe too much).

What happens in this book isn't particularly important, though it involves camping, a ghost, a plot to swindle an old lady, two hard-to-handle aunts, Simon and Ezra and the rat gang, some sad poetry, and a lot of campside pancakes.

The important thing is that the Freddy the Pig books are golden, and should be held as a national treasure. I'm not sure why their popularity has never been more widespread (neither of my parents were aware of the books when they were kids). They are funny, charming, and contain truly excellent character building. The animals have flaws and strengths, all of which are represented. Many of the books cover fear in some way, and learning to be comfortable admitting to fear and to be honest about our feelings in general.

When Freddy dresses up in human clothes I do have to laugh at the suspension of disbelief required to believe that a pig in a dress and bonnet walking on its hind legs could ever be mistaken for a person.

If there's a young person in your life, buy some of the Freddy books. They really are excellent and Brooks deserves to sit alongside Roald Dahl, Eleanor Estes, Beverly Cleary, and the other great children's authors of the 20th century.

Driving the King by Ravi Howard

This review is based on the audiobook received through the ER program.

This novel focuses on a fictional childhood friend of Nat King Cole, Nathaniel Weary, who stood between Cole and a white attacker during a show in their hometown of Montgomery, Alabama (a fictional event based on the attack on Cole in Birmingham in 1956). After beating the man Weary served ten years in prison. The book goes back and forth in time, from the night of the first show, to Weary's post-prison job of driving Cole in Los Angeles, to a second try at the Montgomery show.

The changes in time were a little confusing at first, as years aren't stated, and it took me a little while to get Weary's timeline straight in my head. Otherwise, I thought the book was well done. It does a good job conveying the times, and the difficulty being a black musician in the United States, even when Cole's popularity was at its height. It also contrasts the bus strike in Montgomery with Cole's relative lack of politics (he continued to play to segregated audiences until negative comments caused him to join other entertainers boycotting segregated venues, the attack in Birmingham may also have forced him to face the fact that following the rules laid down by whites did not lessen their bigotry toward him).

It's an evenly paced, but short book, about individual lives, choices, and consequences, without much plot. A solidly good read, though not in the 5-star realm for me. I do look forward to reading Howard's future novels.

Interestingly, Nat King Cole held the number 1 song in the US charts on the days both my parents were born (in 1948 and 1951). It made me laugh that the one for my mom's birth was "Too Young."

Lesley Gore, singer of It's My Party, Judy's Turn to Cry, and the extremely beloved You Don't Own Me, has died. I don't think you can overestimate the importance that You Don't Own Me has had for millions of people. Gore was an incredible woman.

Social Physics: How Good Ideas Spread-The Lessons from a New Science by Alex Pentland

This is quite a short little popular science book, quite narrowly focused (which isn't bad). Some things that were 'proven' were a little ridiculously obvious (people with more money seek out more new experiences and people than poor people? what a shock!), but in general it was an interesting read.

Recommended to anyone. It's a quick read.

The Jedera Adventure by Lloyd Alexander

This is the fourth in Alexander series about Vesper Holly, a young woman who is a mix of Indiana Jones and Sherlock Holmes. They're set in the 1870s and narrated by her guardian Brinnie (I love how he goes on about doings things befitting a Philadelphian).

In this Vesper ensnares Brinnie in a trip to an isolated desert city in order to return a 700 year old library book her father had borrowed. As usual Vesper makes friends and trouble very quickly and eventually her nemesis Dr. Helvetius shows up. As is frequent with this series, emphasis is placed on the fact that unbending adherence to a custom or decision is often a negative thing and that compromise is important.

One of the things I admire most in these books is that Alexander does not hesitate to use words from whatever language is spoken in the places traveled to, and doesn't feel compelled to give translations with them. It's not necessary that kids have an exact translation, the words are understandable from context but especially now that kids can look everything up online, they might learn something. Alexander doesn't hesitate to drop in famous names that 10-12 year olds won't necessarily recognize either. These are the kind of books, I think, that make children value learning for its own sake. Vesper is an adventurer but she also just LOVES learning.

Alan Mendelsohn: The Boy From Mars by Daniel Pinkwater

Leonard Neeble has just moved to a new neighborhood and is going to a new high school. He is miserable, the school is awful, and he finds that by pretending to be a little dim and confused the teachers don't bother him.

A new boy at the school, Alan Mendelsohn, immediately shakes things up. In the course of their explorations that come across a course that claims it will help them master mind control. They end crossing existential planes, among their adventures. It is zany and silly and fun. This book also features a grandmother who insists on being called The Old One, something I'm going to steal when my nieces and nephews are older.

For me, this book represents an incredibly important moment in my youth. Picture it, a girl has just been ditched by her friends at the start of seventh grade because she doesn't wear brand names, follow fashion trends, or express interest in makeup or dating. I was that girl, and it served to make me pretty insecure about my interests (which included imagining I was Caesar on campaign and making tiny banquets for elves). This, and a couple other Pinkwater novels, helped me continue to value my imagination. The idea of existential planes stacked on top of each other really grabbed me at the time, perhaps partly because there were many times I wished I could vanish into a different reality (what teenager doesn't sometimes feel like that?).

Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh

This book is set prior to the First Opium War (1839), and features a large cast of characters from a variety of walks of life. The pace is fairly slow, given that not a whole lot happens in this, the first volume of a trilogy. While I am somewhat curious to see what happens with the characters, I'm not rushing out to the read the next in the series, and I don't particularly CARE about any of them.

Some of the plot elements also just came absolutely out of nowhere. Like, someone doesn't want to be married off (she's been laughed at for wanting love and she has kind of fallen for someone), but when she's asking for help to flee the reason is totally different and off the wall (that character did not feel very real anyway). Okay, technically that's how real life often is, humans are good at hiding things, we're blindsided a lot, but we don't generally read fiction because we want it to mimic every aspect of real life.

Before a few sudden events towards the end, I was enjoying this a lot more, despite not really caring about the lives of the characters. The writing is good and the atmosphere is evoked very well. When I think about the book I do want to read the second, but really just out of curiosity to see if author continues the "out of the blue" plot devices or if Sea of Poppies was written merely to set up the story he really wanted to tell.

Mussolini: His Part in my Downfall by Spike Milligan

The fourth in Milligan's war memoirs, and quite a bit longer than the previous installments. It involves a lot of difficult fighting in Italy, the result of which was shell shock for Milligan, worsened by a superior with severe shell-shock denial. He leaves the army after these events (discussed in the next book Goodbye Soldier.

I love these audiobooks, because Milligan is so amused by the 'worst' jokes (I kind of love bad jokes) that he can't keep from laughing. As usual the switch between silly and serious can be a little jarring, but they're worthwhile reads.

With the latest reviews written I finally feel like I'm properly on vacation! I brought books, obviously, but at the moment I feel like just vegging out. Part of that is being so worn out and in so much extra pain due to the drive and first day out, no brain for reading!

Very foggy day, so strange when islands suddenly disappear in the mist!

Just catching up on your lovely thread - love your opener; how in the world do you do that? It's hypnotic.

Enjoyed reading your reviews. The Martian has been on my TBR/WL for so long now. I saw it yesterday at the store and was sorely tempted to buy it! There are some books here on your thread that I have been "maybe" interested in, but after your reviews am "definitely" interested in now, especially 1914.

Enjoy your vacation!

ETA: Cool pics by the way; thanks for sharing.

I took individual pictures to make up each frame of the animation, and after that you just stack them as separate layers in a photo editing program like Photoshop (I use GIMP, as it's free). From how people have talked about making gifs I thought it would be hard, but it was super easy (other than taking all the pictures and attempting to keep the camera in the same place, which was rather a chore).

Thanks! I'm glad some of my reviews have helped tip the balance! 1914 was definitely a star WWI read for me.

And thanks on the vacation note. It was a very nice time. Difficult adjusting back to regular life now.

We got one lovely sunset at the beach. I've not even been home for a week and it's all snowy here again. Dratted March!

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

I expected to really enjoy this novel, and I did. It wasn't quite a 5-Star read for me, but it was a great read. I'm not sure where that most common cover with the rose came from, but I find it deeply inferior to this version with the fox (which actually ties in with the book).

Here's a better summary than I can write:
"On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born, the third child of a wealthy English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in any number of ways. Ursula's world is in turmoil, facing the unspeakable evil of the two greatest wars in history. What power and force can one woman exert over the fate of civilization -- if only she has the chance?"

Atkinson handled the transitions to and from Ursula's lives very well, and while it may sound like a grim book, it's really not. There's even a fair bit of humor. What could have been tedious or just generally melancholy is handled very lightly. Ursula is curious about the flashes of insight she sometimes has, rather than anxious.

Definitely recommended. I wish I could have read this and her Behind the Scenes at the Museum when I was in late middle school or early high school. I know they would have been favorites that I pored over again and again.

Monkey Mind: A Memoir of Anxiety by Daniel Smith

A friend of mine recommended this and rather over-hyped it for me. I think in part that's because she's still absolutely thrilled to read about anyone thinking even a bit like she does. For me books about disability make that light turn on, whereas I'm well aware my anxiety issues are run of the mill.

This book covers a relatively short period of the author's life, and deals with not only his but his mother's and brother's anxiety briefly too. He talks about his trials and tribulations with different therapists and the one who finally lit a bit of a lightbulb for him, as well as some techniques which have helped a bit.

It's a book that covers everything briefly and moves in circles more than delving deeply. It will be eye-opening for some and repetitive for others. For me and the type of anxiety I've been dealing with, it wasn't on much of a parallel.

Not a bad book at all, recommended with caution.

Beautiful Sunset. I'm hoping to see a few of those starting next week when I go to Florida for a couple of weeks.

I'm glad you enjoyed Life After Life. It is one I'm pretty sure I will read again. I understand that Atkinson has a sequel or related book coming out this year, with Teddy as the main character.

>147 mabith: Life After Life was a fun read for me too. I had been expecting it to be dark and broody, and it was anything but.

>148 mabith: I think Monkey Mind sounds good. Anxiety is not a new thing for me, but it's seemed to have increased and taken on a different form.... I even catch myself thinking about my ridiculous thinking, if that makes any sense... I tried reading another book My Age of Anxiety, which is good but my library loan keeps running out before I get through it!

>149 NanaCC: I can't remember exactly who Teddy is. Wasn't he Ursula's brother?

The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi Coates was born in 1975, in Baltimore, to Paul Coates who was a "Vietnam vet who rolled with the Black Panthers, an old-school disciplinarian and new-age believer in free love, (and) an autodidact who launched a publishing company in his basement dedicated to telling the true history of African civilization." He also had a very good understanding of the challenges facing his children and the knowledge that they would need help making it through adolescence and into college.

Ta-Nehisi is a dreamy and sensitive child, one who checks out of school while pouring over his father's books that many would think too difficult for his age.

Coates' adolescence is about as far from my own as you can get in the US, on one axis at least. It's an important book, especially if your ideas of childhood and high school are limited to only a few narratives. At times it is easy reading, Coates is curious about and interested in the world, like most kids, and at others it's not. The book is well-done though, and worth reading.

Grim Tuesday by Garth Nix (RE-READ)

This is the second in the Keys to the Kingdom series (the first is Mister Monday). It is one of the finest children's fantasy series I've read, certainly the best of the 21st century. If L. Frank Baum has an heir when it comes to creating unique other worlds, Nix is it.

Arthur Penhaligon has only been back from his first adventure in the House for eight hours when he is called again. He was promised six years before he had to take over, but of course House time runs much more swiftly than earth time. He faces Grim Tuesday, whose greed has caused him to mine the Far Reaches for Nothing to make into copies of fine artworks.

It's a great adventure, and I love that Arthur would really rather be at home and not be adventuring (however the goings on in the House always threaten earth and his family, so he goes on with it).

Highly recommended, great for ages 8 or 9 and up through middle school (depending on the child). I first read this a few years back, in my mid-20s though, so if you can appreciate juvenile fiction, give them a go.

>149 NanaCC: That's interesting about the sort-of sequel! I wonder which of her lives it will happen in... Fingers crossed you get many many sunsets instead of the miserly one we did (it was a cloudy week).

>150 avidmom: Teddy is the second youngest of Ursula's brothers, I think (Morris, then Teddy, then Jimmy). Fair warning, Monkey Mind did make me feel more anxious for at least the first half! The author is quite young, born in 1977, which is another thing to keep in mind going in, I think.

I only bought four books on my vacation. Due to the weather when we left we had to take a smaller vehicle, so we didn't take the box of books I had to exchange for credit at my favorite used bookstore along the drive.

At the bookstore in the town we stay in I bought Roman Britain: Outpost of the Empire, Victorian Needlepoint, and Phoenix Rising (a favorite YA novel from childhood).

My big find was at a charity shop where I found a first edition of The Grapes of Wrath for $1.

My big find was at a charity shop where I found a first edition of The Grapes of Wrath for $1.

I think you hit the jackpot there!!!

They're not super rare (judging by eBay, though some sellers seem to struggle with the definition of a first edition), and it's missing the dust jacket, but I'll keep it safe for 20 years and then see where we are. Steinbeck is my favorite novelist if I'm forced to choose, and The Grapes of Wrath was the first thing I read by him, so it's nice to have value aside.

Sorry your vacation is over, but nice to have you back here. Looks like some good reading. I'm intrigued by The beautiful Struggle, partly just because the author is close to my age.

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

I have somewhat mixed feelings about this book. I really enjoyed the writing, the depth of the characters, the flow of the book, and everything that should make me love it, and in many ways I did love it.

There is however, the aspect of the Saintly Disabled Person trope (and being disabled myself this strikes me hard). To McCullers credit, she exposes and criticizes the way the townspeople treat Singer as the saint (a deaf man, and I should say many deaf people do not identify as disabled). At the same time though, she has written this saint, who patiently sits while a group rotate through his room, talking talking talking at him, projecting themselves onto him, and expecting him to attend to their ramblings. Singer never locks his door, Singer never pushes them away, Singer never confronts them when they're talking to him about things he does not/cannot understand (Mick and her music), he never tries to explain about himself. So yes, McCullers shows us the selfishness and self-absorption of these people in their treatment of Singer, but has him play the saint anyway.

It is still a great book, and this aspect won't bother most people (unfortunately), especially since her writing does show that the townsfolk's treatment of Singer is ridiculous. It's hard to believe she was only 23 when she wrote it, and I certainly recommend the book and will look forward to reading more by her.

(Nothing to do with anything, but I'm tickled that her real first name was Lula, as I can't imagine her being called that.)

>115 mabith: Noting this one down. Definitely sounds like something I'd be interested in. Thanks for sharing.

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter was a five-star read for me. I do plan to reread it and I'll keep your comments in mind and see how it changes my impressions of the book.

And that's funny about her name. I bet she hated being called Lula!

It was still a solid 4 star read for me. I mean, you still get that attitude today (I've experienced plenty who want me to be their wise, calm, inspirational, always-cheerful, disabled friend), along with much worse, so I can ascribe a lot of it to the times. It was just frustrating to see her understand part of the ableism but still write Singer like that, not allow him to get frustrated even in his own thoughts.

Drowned Wednesday by Garth Nix (RE-READ)

The third installment in the Keys to the Kingdom series, just as strong (perhaps stronger) than the first two. This one has some particularly charming inventions and events (it's pretty much all sea-faring too, which leads to a lot of fun, including a counting house turned ship due to a flood).

Again, highly recommended to anyone who enjoys children's literature, and especially adults who love the Oz books. Can't wait for my nephew to become old enough for this series.

Doc by Mary Doria Russell

This is an excellent historical novel. Whether staying true to real life or going on the built up legends, the Earps and Doc Holliday are always a good read. This novel focuses on Doc, obviously, and on his and the Earps time in Dodge City.

Doria strips away myth and gives us as much truth as she can. The book uses an all-knowing, omnipresent narrator which adds to the western feel. The audio edition is very well narrated.

Definitely recommended. It was a great read. It has made me yearn to watch Tombstone again. Val Kilmer made a great Doc.

Sir Thursday by Garth Nix (RE-READ)

Fourth in the Keys to the Kingdom series. Arthur faces Sir Thursday, leader of the House's army. He is drafted and faces a washing between the ears, not to mention the army of nifflings. Meanwhile there's an Arthur simulacrum causing havoc in his own world.

Can't repeat enough how much I love this series. It is juvenile adventure fiction at its best. Arthur is an immensely likeable and relatable protagonist, and Suzie Blue a really fun character. Arthur's friend Leaf gets more page time in this one, which I'm also glad of.

>151 mabith: I admire some of the articles Ta-Nehisi Coates has written, so this sounds intriguing.

Sex At Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha

This is an excellent book, and was a really interesting and enjoyable read for me. If you like Mary Roach I think you'll like this too. The authors don't try to say people should behave any one way or that certain things are unworkable, they're just presenting the data and correcting fallacies. The audiobook is also well done.

Highly recommended.

Rena's Promise by Rena Kornreich Gelissen and Heather Dune Macadam

This is an expanded edition of a memoir that was initially released in 1995. New information and verifications have been added, as much more information is available now.

Rena Kornreich was among the first registered transport of Jewish women to Auschwitz (998 women). She was taken there in 1942, at the age of 21, her sister Danka soon followed. They had been illegally in Slovakia (they were Polish), but Rena feared what would happen to the people harboring her and turned herself in. Danka followed her example, feeling they should stay together. Both had been fooled as to what life in the camp would entail.

They survived over three years in the camp, including the death march to Ravensbrück. Rena did everything in her power to keep her sister's spirits up, and promised that they would get out. She was resourceful and wise beyond her years, and while her sister came first, she helped others as much as she could, and would not directly harm anyone just to live.

The book is done extremely well. Macadam recorded Rena's story and manages to capture the directness of it without sacrificing readability or quality of writing. The sense of how our memories fracture and compartmentalize and connect is preserved, and footnotes let you know the precise dates of events Rena describes. Even though you know that she and Danka survive, it's a book it's a book you don't want to put down. Rena seems to have been one of those people who is liked by everyone, and the reasons for that come through, I think.

Absolutely recommended.

Stig of the Dump by Clive King

This is an odd little book which is or was a bit of a British classic (presumably is since there was a new TV adaptation done in 2012), and it gets referenced relatively frequently by people of a certain age on panel shows.

Barney is staying at his grandmother's for some holiday, and near her house is the town dump. In exploring it he meets Stig, a caveman living there. King doesn't make any explanation for how Stig is there, which I appreciated. Barney mentions Stig to various people but they continue to think he's an imaginary friend.

The book doesn't really have much plot, and things get a little too ridiculous at the end for my tastes. It tries to be two things at once, I think, and doesn't quite pull it off. I don't think it's destined to be a classic in 50 years, but we'll see.

Forgotten Voices of the Blitz and the Battle of Britain by Joshua Levine

This is part of a series largely using audio interviews with a wide range of people who have experienced these events (the series explores numerous wars and trying circumstances in general). If you listen to the audiobook you get to hear the actual people, speaking from their gut, not reading prepared statements.

Last year I read Forgotten Voices of the Somme, which felt more cohesive and complete than this volume. I don't think it's possible to get the same amount of scope covering the Blitz and the Battle of Britain.

Lately I'm somewhat oppressed by the fact that the men and women who served in WWII, and those old enough to really remember it, are rapidly aging and dying. The fact that those who served in WWI would all die in my lifetime was automatic, most were dead when I was born, but WWII has been such a constant part of my consciousness. I started heavily reading that period, particularly about the Holocaust, when I was nine years old and never stopped. I'm glad my aunts did an oral history interview with my granddaddy. It's nice to be able to hear his voice (particularly now that his heavy Norfolk VA accent no longer baffles me).

>168 mabith:: hi there - yours is another thread I'm just managing to catch up with for the first time, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading through your reading journey.

To give you a British perspective on Stig of the Dump, it's one of those books that has been routinely rolled out to many junior secondary school classes. I'm not sure if it's still as popular now, but nearly 30 years ago I remember it being a popular text with the English teachers in my school. I have to say I've never felt a burning desire to read it personally, and was more than happy that my class got Animal Farm instead. I imagine it must feel quite dated now?

It didn't feel that dated really, or not to me, maybe it does for the kids who grew up with smartphones around. I mean, boy visits granny and spends time exploring a pit full of junk, that's exactly what I'd had have been doing as a child (technically I was doing that in high school when I'd go to my mom's work in order to explore the abandoned oil refinery nearby). There's not a lot of stuff specific to the 60s in it, there's just not that much to the book in any sense. I suppose it would make a good enough introduction for 7-9 year olds before they do a unit on neolithic life, might pique their interest more (though who at that age is UNinterested in early man and flint spears and mammoths?).

It's probably one that is fun if you're a kid and read it at the right age. Just doesn't survive that well into adulthood, as the story is so incomplete and somewhat fractured.

Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey

Tey certainly chose a title that would never grace any other book. This was the last new-to-me mystery I had by her, and I'm tempted to go back and read the earlier ones.

While it's hard for me to put my finger on the specifics, Tey's mysteries are always just a bit different. They stand out from the pack of mystery writers who started in the golden age (technically only two of Tey's fall in the golden age which is usually considered to be the period between the two world wars). Her books are also rather calmer and more even-keeled than Christie's or Sayers'.

Brat Farrar is an orphan, he took to wandering and working with horses on American ranches until the focus switched to oil. He returns to England, and a chance meeting draws him into a missing heir scheme, which he is largely uncomfortable with, but the family's horses draw him in.

It's an engaging book, and a great light read.

Lady Friday by Garth Nix (RE-READ)

Plowing ahead with this series. I took a break of five books between this and the last volume though, so it could be worse!

There's a lot of interesting development in this one. Again, I'm just so fascinated with the world Nix built. It's absolutely wonderful. It's the only world-building I've seen that comes close to Baum's in Oz.

Oh my, thanks for the flashback! I've never read Stig, but it used to be a TV show when I was a child. For those of a certain age (an a number of personalities on British TV channel shows are of my vintage) it is one of those touchstone things. Its something we all know and reference at times, even if I doubt many people could describe much beyond the headline of boy visits granny, plays in pit, discovers a caveman.

Josephine Tey is a blast from the past for me. Enjoyed your review of a book I never read.

A Bridge Too Far by Cornelius Ryan

Reading three WWII focused books in the last week was not my best decision (though all focused on very different events/areas). A Bridge Too Far was a book too many for me, I think.

It's a very well done book, and I appreciate that the author was reporting from Europe and with various military groups during the last years of the war. The book interviews many people after the fact. For me that kind of intense battle detail is hard to read, though.

Operation Market Garden needed to take five bridges across the Meuse and two arms of the Rhine. It was a total failure (though often misrepresented as a partial success), and between 15,000 and 17,000 allied troops died. The detail Ryan achieves in covering the nine days of this operation was stunning, and the book is a well-deserved classic.

If battle-detail (especially here with so many different groups involved) boggles you a bit, maybe just watch the movie of the same name. If you love military history though, this should be a winner.

Brat Farrar has been my favorite of the Josephine Tey mysteries I've read. Yeah, the title/name is not so great, though!

A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters by Julian Barnes

Someone at Knopf ridiculously decided to label this a novel (including having it written on the cover), not sure why that was agreed to, it's not labeled like that in England. It is a collection of short stories which occasionally reference each other in small ways (I think there's only one instance where not having read a previous story would negatively impact the reading).

Some of these I liked quite well, others were just okay. I didn't hate any of them, but I'm not a fan of short stories really. The Raft of Medusa was my favorite, and well-worth reading on its own. The first story, from the point of a view of an insect stowaway on Noah's ark was a great idea, but I felt it really needed editing.

One of those difficult to rate, didn't hate, didn't love it books. I am still thinking about some of the stories, but then I just finished the book today.

A Bridge Too Far made for a great movie, which I have seen several times. Have not as yet tackled the book, and perhaps it is just as well.

I thoroughly enjoyed A History of the World in 10½ Chapters, and I have to say it didn't occur to me to question whether it qualified as a novel or not. I saw it as a postmodern spoof history of the world since it was larded with irony that highlighted how subjective the telling of history really is. Interesting how most of the chapters deal with one shipwreck or another, or if not a shipwreck, at least a ship. Enjoyed your comments!

I feel like labeling it as a novel just makes people who are expecting a novel upset (as it did with the person who runs the book group I'm in). Better to go in thinking "short stories" and then be pleased and intrigued by the connections between them. I mean, even if a collection of short pieces involves the same characters and setting (like Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford), I don't think that necessarily makes it a novel.

I have noticed that a lot of readers get upset with postmodern novels. The first one I read caused me a bit of consternation because I wasn't really familiar with postmodernism and did not understand all its peculiarities and the literary gamesmanship, etc., but after digging into it a bit, I realized that this area quite often provides a fun and interesting reading experience, very different from the run of the mill.

By looking at Barnes' novel as merely a collection of short stories you may be missing some aspects of it that make it a unique contribution to the postmodern tradition, which was actually born out of a desire to break out of what was, to the postmodernists, a dead tradition. Of course, genre fiction will always be with us, and we all enjoy it, but Barnes History of the World is something quite other than genre fiction, and you might appreciate it more for what it is if you can look at it in that light. Just a thought . . .

Frankly, I've found I'm not a fan of postmodern anything. I don't think genre fiction is a negative thing, or denoting of any particular quality or style, it's merely a labeling tool to help us find books similar to others we've liked. In any case, I didn't view History of the World as genre fiction, just as fiction, and fully admit that I find short stories difficult to enjoy (despite connections in theme/views/etc...).

There are so many books in the world that I'll enjoy, that I don't feel any pressure to try to appreciate a book I found 'just okay' more. Okay is good enough for many things, and I'm already too neurotic about my reading.

I did not mean to demean genre fiction, merely to indicate that it is part of the original tradition of novel-writing. After WWII, everything changed. And thankfully there is plenty out there to enjoy without putting oneself through the equivalent of a college course in order to understand it. That is the main problem with postmodernism in my view. It has an overlay of intellectualism that makes it almost impossible to just pick up a postmodern novel and enjoy it in the same way one would a traditional novel. It requires some extra work, and I fully understand and appreciate not wanting to go that route.

I'm a bit touchy about the phrase genre fiction at the moment, due to the authors who are certainly writing science fiction but get insulted when you call it that. I have immense time on my hands for extra learning, but I'm a straight forward reader, and prefer straight forward books (plus, my disability keeps me stuck at home, and too many mediocre books kills my mood). I don't think the extra study would actually make me enjoy them more, it's just not the way that I read/enjoy books, and in the end that's always extremely subjective.

You are so right, reading is completely subjective, personal and we all know what we like. And fortunately, there are enough choices out there to please everyone.

Meredith, your so-so review of the Barnes book have me wanting to read it. I liked your review. Barnes is hit or miss with me, but this sounds like something I'd like.

Historical analysis, psychological analysis, I'm all about, but reading must be foremost about pleasure for me, especially given my life situation. That pleasure includes lots of non-fiction, but is unlikely to ever include literary analysis, which is fine by me.

>186 RidgewayGirl: That's what I love about LT and these groups. We get to know someone's reading likes and dislikes, and people are largely careful in reviews, so we can often tell we'd like something that someone else found so-so.

Superior Saturday by Garth Nix

The only bad thing about reading these books mostly in one month is that I'm a little tired of having to write the reviews! Great books, heir to Baum's world-bending, exciting, great characters, blah blah blah.

All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood by Jennifer Senior

Rather than the traditional tack of studying parents' effects on their children, this studies how children affect their parents. It's also about how parenthood has changed, and the societal and cultural expectations put on mothers (and how this makes it harder for mothers than fathers to balance their own needs vs time actively spent with kids).

Really great read, fascinating and important. I've never wanted children, and my closeness to my niece and nephew cemented that (though I adore them and being with them, I just want to be the aunt). Barring that in mind it was probably an easier read for me than it would be for a parent, but I think most parents will find the book largely affirming.

One interesting tidbit was about how having children so much later gives new parents a much clearer idea of the freedom and the independence they no longer have.

A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French

I went into this with relatively low expectations, given the whole actor writes a book thing. I love Dawn French though, so I wanted to read it.

The novel circles around mom Mo, dad (who's name I currently forget because I'm terrible) and their two children, almost 18-year-old Dora, and mid-teen Peter. Dora is in the grips of utter teenage self-obsession. She's extremely insecure but also totally self-obsessed. For those of us who were lower-key as teens she may well feel over-the-top, but I had friends who were a lot like this (meaning HORRIBLE to their very nice parents who gave them bloody everything). Peter is obsessed with Oscar Wilde, which may also be an eye-roller for you. Given that I was obsessed with Damon Runyon and wore a lot of pinstripe pants with dress shirts and fedoras, plus talking the talk, I didn't mind that. Mo is a psychologist who specializes in working with adolescents, which she wishes Dora would understand as a blessing.

All in all, I enjoyed the book. It gets a bit over-the-top, but it is largely a comedic novel and shouldn't be taken too seriously. The novel switches narration between Mo, Dora, and Peter, with a single solitary chapter narrated by dad at the end. The way French chose to end it was a bit... I don't know. Not great, but also made one aspect of the book make a little more sense to me so maybe that's good. It felt a bit too wrapped up (there was no reason to resolve this particular thread) and was predictable.

It was an interesting read to have just after the parenting book, and particularly since I'm a long way from teenage-hood but also a long way from being 50 (as Mo is turning in the book).

Recommended as a light, fun novel, particularly to parents who have coped with teenagers.

>189 mabith: & 190 I need those books. :)

Avidmom - i'll second All Joy and Now Fun. And it's great on audio.

Enjoyed catching up.

I wasn't super pleased with the audio edition, but largely just because Senior reads it and her voice is SO husky. It sounded like she was getting over strep throat and made my own throat hurt. She does read it well though, and I think it's a book that should work on audio for most people.

Yeah, you're right, her voice is just like that. I liked that she sounded more like she was talking than reading, and i liked her manner of reading. She comes across as very sincere.

Freddy and the Ignormous by Walter R. Brooks

I reread this just last year, but I had a simul-listen with a friend, so here we are again.

The Freddy books deserve so much more press. They're incredibly fun and funny, but the characters are also very very human. Children will relate endlessly to the appropriately flawed animals. Freddy is curious and poetic, and would like to think himself very brave but is often scared. He is able to admit to his flaws in good humor though (an excellent example for kids).

Islam: A Short History by Karen Armstrong

Armstrong has written a number of books about Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, and seems perfectly suited for this short work. I found it well done and interesting throughout. It's organized well and the information is very clearly presented, not to mention important. I'd like to send a few dozen copies to Fox News...

Highly recommended.

Lord Sunday by Garth Nix

The last installment of the Keys to the Kingdom series. As I've read I've tried to pinpoint what makes this series so special to me. Part of it is just the world Nix created. It's very neat and extremely original. While Nix brings in all sorts of symbolism, it's not something that most children will think about. Just like most don't think of Christianity while reading the Narnia books.

Another positive to the series is that events in the House affect earth. When denizens come to earth strange diseases modern medicine can't easily fight are spread, and the world stays affected. Arthur is not on this journey in order to help the House or fix things over there, he does this because it's the only way to change what's happening on earth, to his friends and family (and there is usually only partial success). There's also a lot of fun word play, and immense potential for vocabulary building for kids (in this one at one point someone is in a "slough of despond," I love things like that).

I recommend this series so much, to children or to adults who can appreciate children's books, and put themselves back to their child mind.

Just catching up after vacation. You've done some good reading. I'm surprised that I haven't read anything by Josephine Tey. That book sounds like something for me.

Tey was never very prolific, so that could be part of it. She wrote five all featuring one detective inspector (and three mysteries without him). The fourth of those was voted the greatest mystery novel of all time by the Crime Writers Association in 1990 even though the inspector is in the hospital and the 'mystery' in it was about Richard III! She's probably more akin to Ngaio Marsh than to Christie or Sayers.

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson

This is Winterson's memoir, which among other things serves to show how much in her novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is fictional. If you found Oranges far too grim, maybe skip this memoir, as the truth was rather worse. Winterson does not sink you into the abuse in an overbearing way though.

Winterson also talks about love and loss, her feelings as an adopted child, her search for her birth mother, and other subjects. I found it a very good read, and enjoyed the audiobook especially since Winterson read it. Winterson has interesting insights and an interesting perspective.

Recommended.

>199 mabith: Being in hospital did not stop him from solving it though - if anything, it helped :)

>189 mabith: Sounds like an interesting parenting book, perhaps I may pick that up for my very pregnant daughter. Hmm.

>200 mabith:: I read Oranges earlier this year, so feel I really have to read this follow up sooner rather than later. Glad you enjoyed it - I'm sure hearing Winterson herself read it would be great.

>201 AnnieMod: Oh I'm not saying it was a hindrance (I mean, Nero Wolfe manages to solve things almost never leaving his house), just pointing out that despite being so atypical it still garnered such an award.

>202 avaland: It's one where I think the giver may want to read it first. There was also a pretty good article going around against helicopter parenting (What Would My Mom Do? (Drink Tab and Lock us Outside). It seems like a lot of working mothers are under this pressure of "Well you have both work and parent as though you're only a worker and only a mother," (even though being a stay at home parent is a pretty big privilege, anymore). It may not be 1950 anymore, but dad just aren't under the same level of societal and cultural pressure.

>203 AlisonY: If you liked Oranges I think you'll enjoy (loved it when I read it some years ago, but haven't read any of her other fiction).

The Agony and the Eggplant: Daniel Pinkwater's Heroic Struggles in the Name of YA Literature by Walter Hogan

This is a critical analysis of Daniel Pinkwater's YA novels, with some chapters devoted to his entire body of work (as of 2001). Pinkwater has only written three full-length novels and two shorter works where the protagonists are teenagers when this book was written, and these are the focus of the book. There are also chapters devoted to the expedition novels, as Hogan calls them, which have pre-teen protagonists (Borgel, Lizard Music, Yobgorgle, etc...).

If you're a fan of Pinkwater, this is a really interesting read, and sometimes very affirming if you read him when you were young. His books helped me so much in middle school when my imagination and desire for silliness was under attack by the forces of conformity. The book also contains a lot of good biographical information (and, no surprise, Pinkwater came up with the title for this volume). It shines the light on Pinkwater as an excellent satirist and general humorist and talks about how his books have been reviewed.

While Pinkwater, in 2001 and now, was a much more prolific picture book author than novelist, that was largely because that's what publishers wanted and would pay for. After the first couple Harry Potter books came out and became hits Pinkwater was optimistic that longer books of quality could be published more easily and he was right. He's written four since 2006, with another on the horizon. Some of his long out of print works have also been released as ebooks recently and Pinkwater records audio editions of many of his books which he gives away for free via his website.

It would have been nice to see an edition that just dealt with his younger-age novels, and included his two series of beginner chapter books (longer than I Can Read books but maybe only 40-50 pages) Fat Camp Commandos and The Werewolf Club.

A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918 by G.J. Meyer

I think this is the only WWI book I've read that has focused on all the fronts and all the years of the of war. It is a book of epic proportions and really done well. Meyer takes the time to give us background where it's most necessary and it is very detailed.

Definitely a good read, an important book, and one I would recommend. If you're only going to read one book about the war, it probably won't be this one, just due to the daunting length, but it wouldn't be a bad choice. It is possible to read it in stages. I took a short break two thirds of the way through just because it was getting a little overwhelming. The specific battle descriptions were done well, for those of us who don't like a minutely detailed report on all movements. They're substantial enough to be very worthwhile though.

Given the title you might expect more commentary on changes in the world after the war, but there really isn't TOO much of that. For me, that's a good thing. What there is focuses on the big, obvious changes like debts incurred by the fighting nations, women in the work place, etc...

Thanks for your review of A world Undone That looks to be a great read to understand the history. It goes onto my to buy list

>206 mabith: You have captured the essence of A World Undone very well. I read it as part of a group read several years ago and agree that it is a great choice, especially if you are only going to read one book about WWI.

The Clockwork Twin by Walter R. Brooks

The fifth Freddy book, deals in part with the story of Adoniram, a boy who lives with his cruel aunt and uncle who exploit him for farm labor. During a flood Adoniram rescues a dog, Georgie, from the raging river, only for both of them to be swept away as the summer house they're standing in is taken by the flood. Adoniram swiftly rescues a rooster, Ronald, as well. Thankfully, the river bumps them into a department store before too long, so they climb over to that, where thankfully there's food and drink. And who are in the department store? Why, it's Freddy the pig and Jinx the cat, on their annual holiday from the Bean farm. With a bit of a detour, they all head back to the farm, as the Beans are eager to adopt another child.

Uncle Ben, an extremely adept engineer (he builds a spaceship in a later book) and former clockmaker is also staying at the farm. Freddy commissions a clockwork boy to be made as a companion for Adoniram (which will eventually be powered by a small animal who sits inside). Some great suspension of disbelief is required, as very few can tell the difference between it and the boy (talking animals, on the other hand, seeming very natural to all).

If you're wondering why Brooks went with the name Adoniram, it's because there's another plot in this volume involving the finding of Georgie's previous master, Hiram. Georgie says Hiram and Adoniram look so alike they must be brothers. There's another the issue of how to convince Adoniram's aunt and uncle (who turn out to be no relation at all) to let the Beans adopt him when they're hell bent on keeping him for free labor.

Just as much fun as the rest of the series, though not destined to be in my top five, I'd say (there are 25 books total in the series). A pig using a typewriter, fine, but when Brooks goes into mechanical marvels it doesn't work so well for me.

Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell

Gaskell's first novel, while her powers were not yet fully developed, was as enjoyable to me as the rest of her work. It takes place in Manchester, where Gaskell moved after marrying. Scandalous for the times she includes Manchester regionalisms, and is sympathetic to the labor unions. In none of her books does she ever give unions full support but rather embarks to explain to readers why want them and why them see them as the only recourse.

Mary Barton and her father John are alone for most of the book. Her mother dies, (John thinks out of grief for her sister's disappearance). John falls into a depression and though concerned enough to keep Mary out of factory work, he doesn't pay much attention to her movements or actions. Mary is very pretty and has long had an admirer in the part of Jem Wilson, son of family friends, universally admired himself. Growing up on "someday I'll make you a lady" talk from her aunt before she disappeared, Mary has never had any time for Jem. She has developed a secret relationship with Harry Carson, who she feels sure will marry her.

It's a slow sort of novel, but it didn't feel slow while I was reading it, but like the right pace for this kind of book. Gaskell's razor sharp insights aren't as well honed here as they are in her last work, Wives and Daughters, but one wouldn't expect them to be, but they're not far from it. Given that Gaskell only had three (possibly only two) short stories published prior to Mary Barton, I was surprised that the quality was so close to that of her later work.

I assume the Penguin edition of this, like the one I have of North and South, includes a glossary of the regionalisms. If you're listening to the audiobook (as I was), you can look many up on dictionary websites, though the only that I wasn't immediately getting from context was clemming (starving).

>210 mabith:: Mary Barton sounds great. I've not got to any Elizabeth Gaskell books yet - I feel she deserves a place on my wish list.

Things Not Seen by Andrew Clements (published 2002)

I really don't remember why I added this to my list. I thought it must have been a Newbery winner or nominee, but it isn't. I can't really imagine the plot appealing to me all that much for this age group. One of life's mysteries I guess.

Bobby Phillips wakes up one morning to find he's become invisible. He immediately tells his parents (a scientist and a literature teacher), who immediately say he shouldn't tell anyone else or he'll be carted off by the government. Before they can really figure much out, his parents are in a car accident and must stay in the hospital for a few days. This begins a long series of lies, as a school counselor finds out and calls to make sure some adult is coming to stay with him (and a series of problems with the authorities).

Along the way he makes friends with a blind girl, Alicia, and there's much about teenage (non-literal) invisibility, disability, suffocating parents and other subjects which may well feel deep to your average 10-14 year old. Bobby and Alicia take the lead on figuring out why this has happened as their fathers both think in the longterm. A crush developing between the two is present but mostly kept in the background.

It's not a bad book, just one best read at the age it's intended for.

Glad you enjoyed Mary Barton and that you thought that Mary Gaskell's first novel was so accomplished. I loved North and South and so Mary Barton (which I have on my bookshelf) is a pleasure to look forward to. Interesting that she felt able to come out in favour of the trade unions.

Gaskell seems to have been pretty bold in general. While Ruth, her fallen woman book, didn't excuse the woman as thoroughly as Hardy did with Tess, she definitely didn't excoriate her. I've only got one novel left by her that's new-to-me, but I can't wait to re-read North and South and Wives and Daughters especially.

Edit: her father left the Scottish Unitarian church over a matter of conscience, so I assume she was very much raised with a sense of "doing what feels right to you regardless of possible consequences."

I really should get back to Gaskell. I loved North and South and Cranford. I have the "Works of" on my kindle, so I will read more by her later this year.

I hope you squeeze in another Gaskell soon, Colleen! She's definitely one of my favorite writers. Sometimes her writing strikes me as impossible modern, something I especially noticed in Ruth, though I couldn't really pinpoint it. My Lady Ludlow is another funny one, like Cranford, but poking fun at the landed gentry. The BBC adaptation of Wives and Daughters also had some really funny moments.

The Truth by Terry Pratchett * RE-READ

This is only my third read of this one, making it one of my least read Discworld books. It's not a lesser work really, it just didn't seem to speak to me as much.

It deals with the first newspaper (and then the first tabloid) in Ankh-Morpork, and hence the beginning of investigative journalism, as there is also a plot against the Patrician. Something about our plucky newspaper writer/editor, William de Worde, just doesn't draw me in, nor do the villains. I do love the vampire photographer though.

My Planet: Finding Humor in the Oddest Places by Mary Roach

This book collects a series of short columns Roach wrote for Reader's Digest (I think largely before she started book writing). Unlike her books science gets nary a mention, and they focus on daily life and marriage. While I liked some of them quite a lot, Roach relies on far too much “men do this, women do this,” nonsense. If you like Roach, give it a go, but be prepared for the sexism. Other than the sexism, she sounds like someone I'd get along with (re our general sense of humor and feelings on how often bath towels and sheets need to be washed).

>210 mabith: Mary Barton sounds great. I've recently discovered Gaskell (just read North and South) - perhaps this one, next.

Enjoyed catching up. Great reviews of The World Undone and Mary Barton.

I had the same reaction to The Truth. I couldn't place it and just thought i was losing interest with Pratchett. It's a very clever book, but never captured me.

>219 reva8: I hope you enjoy it if you get to it! I really enjoy Gaskell's writing.

>220 dchaikin: That period seems to be a slump in Discworld, at least for me (granting a very short one, with only three books I didn't particularly like in a three year period). With so many books published I think there are bound to be some 'meh' books for any reader.

The Great Dissent: How Oliver Wendell Holmes Changed His Mind--and Changed the History of Free Speech in America by Thomas Healy

I was a little disappointed in this book. It's pretty short, which is fine, but what's there kind of seemed padded out. It's a very rambling book which largely felt disorganized. I think probably because of having to look into various factors it couldn't be a straight forward book, but still.

Definitely interesting, and not a bad read, but also not particularly gripping or inspiring.

I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian Woman in Guatemala by Rigoberta Menchú, edited by Elisabeth Burgos-Debray

This is an oral history from civil rights activist Rigoberta Menchú, originally published in 1983. Menchú was born in 1959 (the same year as my youngest aunt, which always makes things doubly interesting for me). She had an extremely difficult childhood (which one can scarcely call a childhood at all), and was involved in various uprisings of the Indians in Guatemala (who made up most of the population but were/are oppressed and exploited).

This is another rather rambling book, because it is literally an oral history transcribed, and somewhat edited/reorganized. There is a lot of repetition though, and if you're looking for beautiful turns of phrase or deep insights you won't find it here. Menchú's immediate family all seem to have been involved with various activist groups, and her mother, father, and at least one brother were all killed by the army. I believe this was a book which really helped put the situation in Guatemala on a larger stage and bring it to wider world attention.

It's a book that's worth reading, especially for the description of her family's life and cultural traditions. It's not the book to pick up in order to understand 20th century Guatemalan history, however.

The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

This is the first book I've read by Eliot, and it won't be the last. I really enjoyed her writing style and the way the narration was done. The book was also far less predictable than 19th century classics tend to be (in my limited experience). You can still predict what probably WON'T happen, but Eliot lays out a lot of options.

The book is largely about siblings Maggie and Tom, and their complex and changing relationship and lives. They must struggle through poverty and disgrace, and determine what's really important. Maggie is loved by two men, one of whom she is forbidden to talk to (as his father had a role in the ruin of their father resulting in a bit of a feud). It is an every day novel, largely without huge dramatic events. The book covers a period of about ten years, and I didn't find the pacing particularly slow, just appropriate for what the book is. The ending was a bit sudden and I'm still not sure how I feel about it.

It was a generally enjoyable and interesting read, and I'm looking forward to reading more by Eliot. If you want something where the characters get to be happy, maybe don't pick up this one.

I loved Middlemarch and you had me ready to go start reading immediately until your final sentence. It's still a book I will read, but not today.

>224 mabith:: enjoyed your review. I've not read any of Eliot's work yet, so can't wait to read something of hers soon. Which one to pick...

This was Eliot's second novel, so maybe she's still finding her way through "women don't have to write romances, damn it," even though she's writing under a pen name.

Alison, I was advised the Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, or Silas Marner were good places to start with Eliot.

Just catching up on your thread--I've added Sex at Dawn to my wishlist, and bumped up the Julian Barnes (although I think I'll read the other books by him that I already own first).

Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith

This YA novel (though I feel it's perfectly appropriate for any age down to nine or so) set during WWII, follows Ida Mae, an African-American woman in Louisiana who lives to fly. After learning on her father's crop dusting plane it's her life's ambition to be a pilot. After her brother enlists in the army she sees a flyer advertising the WASP (Women's Airforce Service Pilots) and uses her light skin to pass as white so she can join.

The novel deals with the restrictions placed on her as a woman and as a black person, and the deep rift passing can cause (not to mention the danger of trying it in the south). Ida Mae's sense of herself, wanting to just be HER, just a person is very strong. It's a good book, but not mind-blowing. Smith has based the depiction of the WASP on historical facts, and it's an interesting part of WWII history that's rarely told in fiction for young people.

Recommended for the history loving youths in your life. I think the strength of it fades a bit for a adults. It would be a great classroom book, since there are a lot of angles to discuss.

Once upon a time, The Mill on the Floss was read in grade school, perhaps because the protagonists were children. If it were still offered, I'm sure there would be howls of protest from certain quarters about the content.

I'm sure you're right, given that people will always find something to complain about (Sylvester and the Magic Pebble being on banned book lists because the cops are pigs, for instance), though I can't see anything in it that I'd feel a child shouldn't read. There's nothing graphic in it, and since living with someone before you marry them is the norm now... Granting when I was in grade school I went on a kick where I almost solely read books about the Holocaust (adult and children's/young adult books). Definitely can't see children ENJOYING the book really, but that's another matter.

Interesting how things shift around though. Like Daddy Long Legs being published for adults and later become a staple of children's reading. Guardian twice your age who makes you miserable half the time and then you get married, not something I thought about when reading it as a kid, but I'd think twice before giving it to my nieces to read.

I loved Daddy Long Legs as a young teenager, but found it creepy when I read it as an adult. But the sequel Dear Enemy is fantastic, as long as you're willing to regard their attitudes toward the mentally disabled as a product of the time.

I also really enjoyed Dear Enemy, it's definitely the funnier book and not one you'd hand over to children. Plus I managed to find an old edition with a tartan cover, which amuses me.

I made a shelf of the books I own but haven't read yet that I'd like to get to this year. Of course then I went on a library spree so I have lots of holds coming in (this is more to do with finally phoning them to confirm my address was the same which was blocking my ability to put anything on hold but which of course I couldn't deal with without calling).

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Union Street and Blow Your House Down by Pat Barker
The Dream of the Celt by Mario Vargas Llosa
White City by Donald James Wheal
Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng

Bring Me a Unicorn by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Beyond the Vicarage by Noel Streatfeild
Unbeaten Tracks by Isabella Bird
String Too Short to be Saved by Donald Hall
Matewan Before the Massacre by Rebecca J. Bailey

Suicide and the Soul by James Hillman
Foundation by Peter Ackroyd
The Beauty and the Sorrow by Peter Englund
Bury Me Standing by Isabel Fonseca
The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fussell

Love, InshAllah by Nura Maznavi
The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt by Ian Shaw
Life in Ancient Rome by F.R. Cowell
Anne Thornton, Junior Guide by Lotta Rowe Anthony
Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl by Daniel Pinkwater

If anyone has strong feelings that I should read one of these sooner rather than later, do let me know!

I have read none of those, although Foundation by Peter Ackroyd is high in my TBR pile. My mom loved Life and Death in Shanghai, but we didn't share the same taste in books, and I've lost my copy. I do have her high praise though.

Good to know! I'd had Life and Death in Shanghai on my list for a while (went on a Maoist China kick after Lisa See's excellent book Dreams of Joy), then when my mom moved I discovered she had a copy and took it home. Surprised my mom picked it up, really, she's not much for non-fiction now, and I imagine that was doubly so when she bought since she had three children under 8.

It's largely a shelf of books I can't find audio editions of (other than Foundation, I think).

I've got both of those books by Pat Barker on my list of books to read soon. We'll have to compare notes.

I read Invisible Man decades ago, and it is a great book, and I read Bury Me Standing 15 years ago or so (and liked it), but I've read none of the others.

This is fun. I'd go with Matewan before the Massacre, which I'll have to track down, or The Dream of the Celt. I've read Life and Death in Shanghai. It didn't really stand out from many similar books out there, but was perhaps written better than some of the others.

>238 RidgewayGirl: I'm really excited to read Pat Barker when she's focused on working class women, rather than men in the war.

>239 rebeccanyc: Invisible Man is one of the few I can get on audio, so it should definitely be read in the next month or two.

>240 SassyLassy: I actually have started Matewan Before the Massacre (the WV mine wars being my pet subject since high school), but it's been somewhat annoying. Bailey's made statements like "Well labor supporters say the march was just made up of upset miners and not criminals, but these TWO GUYS did have criminal records so that's just a big union lie."

>240 SassyLassy: I'm a big Mario Vargas Llosa fan and I would never recommend The Dream of the Celt; it was a total slog and I only finished it because I'm such a MVL lover. (Didn't see it on Meredith's list, though).

Whoops, that's because I left it out of the list. It's in the picture though. Yeah, I know no one had good things to say about The Dream of the Celt when I was reading The Way to Paradise earlier this year. It subject matter is something I'm interested in, so I'm going to at least give it a go, since I own it. Giving myself full permission to stop if I'm disliking it by page 100 though.

>241 mabith: That doesn't sound too encouraging. Do you have any other titles you could suggest? I have The West Virginia Mine Wars.

>242 rebeccanyc: I saw the book in the picture. I haven't read this one, although like you I'm a big fan of the author. I don't have it, so I can concentrate on the other titles in the VL TBR pile.

>244 SassyLassy: The most comprehensive book about the mine wars is Life, Work, and Rebellion in the Coal Fields, by the same author who edited the book you own, David Corbin. I think Bloodletting in Appalachia is also very worthwhile, though it has flaws. The author lived through the period and was WV Attorney General from 1927-33, and did help end some of the political corruption of the period. He is not unbiased (though no one involved in writing about this history is, really, particularly not anyone from southern WV), but it's a valuable book.

Nice list of planned reads, Meredith. I'll probably re-read Invisible Man this year, and I may bite my tongue and read The Dream of the Celt, despite its negative reviews. I don't own and haven't read any of the other books on your list.

I'm so shocked none of you have read Anne Thornton, Junior Guide, sequel to the incredibly ridiculous, Anne Thornton, Wetamoo (I love 1920s-30s girls' fiction, so much fun, and a darn sight better than Babysitters Club or Sweet Valley Twins or the other awful series around when I was a kid).

Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth by John Garth

I feel like this is a more interesting book if you're a more hardcore Tolkien fan than I will ever be. The Hobbit was the first proper novel I read myself as a kid that I really loved, and I'll always treasure it dearly. Lord of the Rings I can mostly live without, though I have read the books.

The main point of this point is to show how the war (and his experiences in it) affected Tolkien's writing just as much as it did, say, Wilfred Owen's, how fantasy does not equate to escapism, etc... It was generally interesting to hear about Tolkien's love of languages and the process of coming up with some of his invented ones, but then it would go into his poems about fairies and I just don't care enough. It's not a badly done book, just better if you have a greater (or equal to) interest in Tolkien than in WWI.

Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín

I've been looking forward to reading this for some time, feeling relatively sure I'd enjoy it after seeing reviews here, and I did really enjoy it.

Eilis is young woman living in 1950s Ireland with her mother and sister. She is gifted at accountancy but can't find work. Her sister wants her to have a different life and arranges for her to go work in the US. Eilis doesn't really want to go, but it has all been arranged around her.

In New York City she has work as a shop girl, but is intensely homesick and takes a bookkeeping certification course as a distraction. She lives in a rooming house with other Irish and Irish-American girls, but isn't really friends with any of them. She largely floats around with the current, and lets people and events happen to her, even when she has doubts or concerns or would rather be anywhere else.

It's a novel of the everyday, a story many people lived and in many ways still live. It's also a novel that feels like it might get a sequel. If you want a novel that ends with all the strings tied tightly up and a clear arc of beginning, climax, conclusion, this may not be for you. The writing was lovely and Eilis felt so incredibly real. When I was younger I also just let things and people happen to me, and adjusted my hopes and needs in the aftermath, so I really related to some of her experiences.

>249 mabith: I'm in the middle of reading this too, so glad you didn't include any spoilers in your review! Really enjoying it - I'm about halfway through.

Books like that I feel it's best to give as little information about as possible. I like going into fiction as blind as possible though, I think. Hope you enjoy it!

Catching up after being away for a week.

>224 mabith: Enjoyed your review — belatedly — of The Mill on the Floss, which is on my list to read this year, along with Middlemarch. I have read Romola and Silas Marner, but somehow have missed the two Eliots that everyone has read!

Thanks, Suzanne! It was definitely an interesting read, and not precisely what I'd expected. I was going to say it made me feel better about the online book club I'm in, because the point for me is to read things I might not have picked up, but then I remembered that The Mill on the Floss was my suggestion to begin with!

but then I remembered that The Mill on the Floss was my suggestion to begin with!

That's funny!

I decided it was high time I read some fiction by West Virginia authors (talk about rare in the audiobook world). I started almost at random with Davis Grubb. Grubb was born in 1919 and was a relatively prolific writer of short stories and ten novels before his death in 1980. A number of the novels are crime dramas and he wrote Fools' Parade, which was adapted into a movie starting James Stewart.

I'm reading The Voices of Glory and absolutely loving it. Each chapter is told by a different narrator (some of them dead) and reveals information about Marcy Cresap, a social worker who seems to be accused of some crime (I'm only 50 pages into the 450 page book). It's a little reminiscent of the way Faulkner did As I Lay Dying, only much broader. Grubb is letting you know the town through individual members of the community and the writing is great. He was influenced by Mother Jones and his mother who was a social worker during the 1920s-30s.

It's a very new experience for me to read a book that feels like home, that feels truly West Virginian, and I absolutely love it. WV is so often misrepresented and misunderstood. It is entirely Appalachian in culture, not southern, not eastern, certainly not midwestern. You can tell I'm a West Virginian by the way I have strict guidelines about who "counts" as a West Virginian (I am only slightly joking). For instance, lists of WV writers include Pearl S. Buck who didn't consider the US to be her home, let alone WV where she never lived (beyond the age of three months) or attended school.

From The Voices of Glory:
“And I would say to myself: It is still Virginia. It will always be Virginia. Nothing ever can really make it be West Virginia. But I was mistaken. Years later I came farther west. I settled clear across the state in the town of Glory. Within a few years I discovered that people here had traditions and a history peculiarly their own. They were West Virginians. Perhaps they had always been West Virginians, even back in the days when Washington and his rich neighbors lived elegantly in east Virginia while the mountaineers hewed out a tough life of a far more austere and lonely sort in the western counties. "

Of course it's still early days, maybe I won't love where the book goes, but I think I will enjoy feeling so at home in the pages. Reviews at the time of publication, in 1962, weren't all hugely favorable, but I think that was partly due to literary trends of the time.

I can't comment on WV, but there is something about reading a book very grounded in a place you know intimately.

Dreams in a Time of War by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o

This memoir covers Thiong'o's childhood through his admission to high school. He was born in 1938 in Kenya, and his family was caught up in the Mau Mau war. As a child he lived in a community with his mother, his father, his father's three other wives, and his half-siblings.

He keeps the tone throughout the memoir that of his childhood self, throughout, engaging in little to no hindsight speculation or expansion. I appreciate this in a childhood memoir, as I think it presents things more realistically.

Definitely recommended. I'm eager to read some of his fiction now. (Also, I LOVE this cover.)

I am a huge fan of Ngugi wa Thiong'o and think Wizard of the Crow is his masterpiece; it was the first book of his I read, and it set me to reading most of his other books.

Glad to know that! Of course the only thing my library has by him is the memoir. Grumble grumble.

I am looking forward to learning more about what it means to be a "real" West Virginian; hope you continue to enjoy The Voices of Glory

My parents were both born in WV but didn't live here until their late 20s (they did the back-to-the-land hippy thing). They were in a small town, population roughly 300, and a fair number of locals preferred to deal with my mom because she was born in southern WV while my dad was born in Wheeling in the northern panhandle and they didn't feel that really counted. I am not so strict, and it's largely a self-identifying thing, but attending high school here doesn't mean someone is a West Virginian (Jeanette Walls' The Glass Castle is often listed as the most well known book by a West Virginian, it's either that or The Good Earth always, but given the short amount of time she was here and I doubt she considers herself a West Virginian...).

I am still really enjoying The Voices of Glory, and feeling aggrieved that he's not more well known. The library's copy was signed by him as a gift to a friend and then later donated. I'd love a copy for my own library but it's more money than I usually spend on a single book.

The Inventor and the Tycoon: A Gilded Age Murder and the Birth of Moving Pictures by Edward Ball

For no good reason the author of this decided that jumping around in chronology was a great idea. I would say this is a book where chronology is particularly important, especially since there has to be the back-and-forth of telling the story of Eadweard Muybridge and Leland Stanford.

It was an interesting book, and not badly written, but a change in the organization of the information would have made it a more pleasant read for me. I don't mind tripping back and forth in time in fiction, but unless there's a really compelling reason I don't want my non-fiction to do that.

Muybridge was initially funded by Stanford and seems to truly have been the originator of moving pictures (granting I'm assuming this book is properly researched and presented, as I haven't studied the issue in great detail), and is behind those famous studies of horses galloping and trotting. He also murdered his wife's lover and has a link to temporary insanity pleadings (this link was, if you go by the book, a bit overstated on the TV show QI).

Generally recommended for the non-fiction enthusiast. If you don't read much non-fiction there may be more worthwhile books to spend your time on.

Very interested in where your West Virginia reading takes you. All i know of West Virginia is The Glass Castle...and coal mining and mountains and a general lack of large cities.

Not ready to drop everything and read The Inventor and the Tycoon, but if I suddenly got interested in the topic I might consider it.

We're an interesting state! While Charleston isn't a huge city, it's a nice city to live in. Plenty of good restaurants, an independent bookstore with art gallery and cafe, really good buyers at the local library, great and varied music scene, a good art scene, and you're only ever 10 or 15 minutes from being in the woods.

Yeah, The Inventor and the Tycoon is definitely nothing for anyone to rush for, unless you know a child doing a school project who wants to (probably) contradict the textbook.

I once read a great book by Rebecca Solnit called River of Shadows that was about Eadward Muybridge and the west.

Nice review of Dreams in a Time of War, Meredith. Like Rebecca I'm also a huge fan of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, and I agree that Wizard of the Crow is his best book. I would also recommend A Grain of Wheat, The River Between and Matigari, but I don't think I've read a book by him that I didn't like.

Shame on West Virginians for identifying Pearl Buck as one of their own; her family moved from WV to China when she was only five months old! My parents have lived in Bucks County, a suburb of Philadelphia, since the mid 1970s, and the Pearl S. Buck House, where she lived for over 40 years, is located within the county, in Perkasie, PA. So, we have a much stronger claim to her than y'all do. :-)

To be fair, I think it actually tends to be non-West Virginians who make those lists and include Buck and Walls for West Virginia choices, because they're two of the only nationally known authors with links here. We do have a Buck house too, that she apparently wanted preserved. I love Buck's work, and want to respect her feelings, so I don't think PA gets to claim her either, really, she would have been back to China like a shot if she'd been able to go! Being in the US was being in exile for her.

It's odd though, because Stephen Coonts is a West Virginian, born here, grew up here, went to college here, and has had 17 out of his 20 books hit the NYT bestsellers list. In realistic terms surely his books are read more than Buck's or Wall's.

>262 mabith: Agree that the jumping around in time was problematic. I thought the story was interesting, but the telling of it was not the greatest.

Angelica by Sharon Shinn

This is the fourth of Shinn's Samaria books, but it's chronologically set before Archangel, the first in the series. It's interesting in part because if you've read the trilogy Archangel is part of then you're privy to this BIG secret about Samaria that these characters don't know.

It's not my favorite of the books, but it's not bad. As usual there's a pair of would-be lovers who are having communication issues and can't quite hit it off, there's a threat to Samaria which is mysterious and hard to counter, there are people who are lost in the sphere they usually inhabit and looking for their true home.

This series is very much that combination of science fiction and fantasy (though what denotes something as fantasy? are a race of people with wings necessarily fantasy? I don't know). The Archangel trilogy is my favorite though, and really threw me with its twist partway through (there are plenty of hints, but I'm not that sort of reader).

The Voices of Glory by Davis Grubb

Originally published in 1962, the book is set in the late 1920s and told in twenty-eight chapters each narrated by a different resident of the town of Glory (a stand-in for Moundsville, WV). Each chapter mentions, in some way, Marcy Cresap, a woman who is a county nurse and devoted to treating TB especially. Grubb was inspired by chiefly by Francina McMahon, but also by his mother, who was a social worker in the 1930s and by the activism of Mother Jones.

I really enjoyed this book and the way it was told, perhaps partly due to how at home I felt. This was my first time feeling my home described in a book. I enjoyed the way the book was written, getting all these perspectives. It's stated early on that Marcy Cresap has been charged with some criminal offense, but the exact nature isn't made clear until close to the end. The novel includes all the racism, sexism, anti-immigrant feeling, and antisemitism of the period (on behalf of certain characters, that is, less so the author), though most chapters largely deal with the sexism. I think any woman reading this will be quite sure a man wrote it, but mostly those areas didn't bother me, as they rang true to the general attitudes (versus fringe views) of the period the book is set in and the period it was written in.

The reviews of this when it came out were quite mixed. Time magazine felt that the book was railing against "enemies long since weakened or dead," but frankly, that wasn't the case for West Virginia (not in the 1920s and not in the 1960s either). WV is one of the few states which allows NO personal belief exceptions in its vaccination requirements for public schools (only medical exceptions), and I have a feeling that law still stands because vaccination was a longer, harder battle here due to the largely rural population (and we love our elderly politicians who would remember these diseases). Another criticism was that the characters were pure good or pure evil, but I didn't see that. Most of the characters had mixed, realistic natures, and they were extremely recognizable to me. These are the people I grew up around in the 1980s and 1990s.

I'm pretty sure this is the first novel I've read by a West Virginian (I've read a lot of non-fiction by my fellow residents). In following this up with more, the next WV read will be Storming Heaven by Denise Giardina.

I recommend this book particularly if you're from a rural area or anywhere in the upper Ohio river valley. I felt like maybe it was a bit too long, but perhaps that's because I'm an impatient reader of fiction, particularly when I'm enjoying it. The chapters grow longer as the book goes on, with the last being 80 pages, and I'm not sure those last few people needed THAT much room to speak.

I think a new lt tradition should be buying the number of books that match your age on your birthday. I'd like an excuse to buy 30 books right now.

>271 mabith: You have my blessing. Happy Birthday. XD

>271 mabith: It's my birthday too and I'm 58. I think I'll immediatly adopt this "tradition". Yeah, old is good!!!

Hmmm. I just celebrated my birthday on Wednesday. But at 69 I'm afraid I'd break the bank.

Growing up the only person I know with a birthday in this week of April was my cousin, but now I find us everywhere! I even have a new niece just born on the 23rd too and a four year old niece born on the 20th (plus three other people in my apartment building actually born on my birthday).

Even with thirty, I'd definitely want a library book sale to carry this out!

Wow! It's my birthday too! But I'm 62 today, and I agree with Colleen (>274 NanaCC:). Happy birthday to all.

Happy Birthday Meredith and Rebecca!

Would it be more reasonable to buy 3 books instead of 30?

Many happy returns to all of you. Hope the book fairy visited each and everyone of you this week.

No one ever gets me books for presents, except occasionally my dad but it's rarely something I actually want (a facsimile of a Beatrix Potter text was one of them). It makes me sad, though in a way it's probably a good thing.

>277 kidzdoc: I thought about just the first digit, but that seems so parsimonious! I guess combined with the LT anniversary buy it's okay.

Wow! It's a party! Happy Birthday to everyone!

4:50 From Paddington by Agatha Christie

A classic Miss Marple mystery, also published under the title What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw. A friend of Miss Marple's sees a murder happen in a car of the train traveling next to hers. She immediately informs the railway authorities and the police, but they generally dismiss her as a befuddled old woman. Marple of course figures out the most likely place the body would have been dumped (since none was found on the train), and sends a young woman of her acquaintance out to work nearby and investigate.

It was an enjoyable read. The young cohort, Lucy, is fun and nearly as sharp as Marple herself. Just the kind of easy read I needed after a physically demanding weekend.

Kitty Genovese: The Murder, the Bystanders, the Crime that Changed America by Kevin Cook

I would guess that most people in the US know the name Kitty Genovese and its connection with the Bystander Effect. Certainly anyone taking a basic psychology course learns about the case. However, the vast majority of books report a great exaggeration of the case which trickled down from a police commissioner to a newspaper reporter. The false information is also the main reason her case became (and remained) famous and became the driving force behind decades of psychological experiments.

Cook sets out to tell us the real story of the night Kitty was killed, but also to let us meet Kitty as she was in life, not simply as an unfortunate victim. He also shows us her killer, a man rarely mentioned in all those textbooks. I'm not sure I even knew her killer had been caught at all (that's not particularly relevant to what they're teaching you in psych courses, but still).

This book is extremely well done, and puts the case into the perspective of the times. It was very easy to read, and the short chapters made one want to continue for "just one more chapter" a dozen times over. Realizing that this happened shortly before the World's Fair in New York City, which my own mother attended, was a bit of a shock (prompting a list of questions I'll now be asking her, which will elicit her usual bafflement about why I'm interested in her experiences growing up, sigh!).

Highly recommended.

I just found out that my library has a book club which only reads Australian authors. While it seems a little random for my area (though rural West Virginia is probably somewhat simpatico with rural Australia, plus nation of immigrants and displaced native population similarities), I'm dithering about trying to join it. I don't think I've ever read something by an Australian author that I've disliked. The book they'll discuss in early May is Breath by Tim Winton. Oh, actually maybe this month's book is Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (but he's from New Zealand! Gasp!).

>282 mabith: I wasn't aware of this case, but a quick look on Wikipedia has filled me in on the gist of it. Sounds like an interesting book.

It's definitely an interesting read, and I think just as interesting for those who didn't grow up hearing about this case. Plus it's a relatively short book that feels even shorter because of how it's written.

>283 mabith: That sounds fun! I've had a couple of years where I've picked a focus country and done about 15-20% of my reading for the year from that country. It's neat to get immersed in a different literary tradition.

>286 japaul22: I've done that for specific periods of history, and since I'm happiest reading at least 60% non-fiction, I'll certainly do that again. Probably best for my reading sanity to keep fiction choices more random (plus when you rely mostly on audiobooks it's way harder to find fiction in translation in that format, like, someone is a Nobel prize winner, should at least a couple of their books be in audio format?).

>282 mabith: I read a long article somewhere a while back basically debunking all the myths about the Kitty Genovese case, and I was genuinely shocked to realize how much of what I'd always "known" about it was just flat-out wrong, and how much that calls into question all the conclusions everyone draws from it. I wonder if it's worth reading the book as well?

I would say the book is definitely worth it, especially since it's not all that long and reads quickly. People didn't really draw conclusions from the case itself, except in a public "age of apathy" sense, but from the thousands of experiments that followed the case. The Bystander Effect wasn't proved through the case, but through many different scientifically controlled experiments. In psychology courses I've taken and books I've read, the Genovese case is mentioned only as a preamble to specific experiments, and not something we actually studied.

In some ways the exaggeration was good, because without it we wouldn't necessarily have those experiments (or wouldn't have had them as soon). It was bad for her neighbors of course... Cook catches up with them and with others directly involved personally, he doesn't just rely on data gathered at the time. And I do think it's valuable to know more about Kitty as the person she was, and to know about her killer.

>289 mabith: Psychologists may not have drawn their conclusions from it (being, hopefully, scientific enough to know better than to conclude anything from one data point, anyway!) but, boy, members of the general public did. And that one inaccurate story surely makes it all seem much more simplistic than it really is.

I think I will put the book on the (now insanely unwieldy) wishlist. Thanks!

In general it was probably good for the public to have the exaggeration too, as it may serve to make people more vigilant and less apt to succumb to the bystander effect. At the time I have a feeling a lot of the public had a "well it couldn't happen in OUR neighborhood" reaction, particularly since knowledge of her killer isn't really part of our cultural consciousness (it being an extremely random, motiveless killing). 24-hour news coverage has had a far, far worse effect on the public consciousness of crime, in terms of making people overly paranoid with no positive side effect.

Interesting about Kitty Genovese. I only knew the myth not the true story...or even a name to associate with it.

I really enjoyed your review of The Voices of Glory.

>292 dchaikin: Thanks! I felt more confident reviewing that book than I often do with fiction.

New thread started!