avatiakh is busy reading in 2015 #2

Earlier this year I spent a couple of weeks in Israel, here's a cat at the harbour in Yafo, one of the many interesting neighbourhoods of Tel Aviv.

Currently Reading:
Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide by Michael Oren - iPod audio
The spy who loved: The Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville by Clare Mulley - kindle
Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts
The rest of us just live here by Patrick Ness

Yafo fleamarket

My 2015 reading plans are best reflected by my 2015 category challenge. I'll also be trying to fit in the British Authors Challenge and the ANZAC authors challenge, though not sure I'll succeed every month.

My 2015 categories (and some possible reads):

1) Israel: political nonfiction - I plan to read biographies of Israeli politicians
The Prime Ministers by Yehuda Avner
Menachem Begin: The Battle for Israel's Soul by Danial Gordis - READING
Ben-Gurion: The Burning Ground, 1886-1948 by Shabtai Teveth

2) Arab Spring - Middle East/North African/Islamism - fiction & nonfiction
Egypt on the Brink: From Nasser to the Muslim Brotherhood by Tarek Osman
A fort of Nine Towers by Qais Akbar Omar

3) Latin Roots - fiction & nonfiction from/about Spain, Portugal & Latin America
Death in the Afternoon by Ernest Hemingway
Hotel Florida: Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War by Amanda Vaill

4) Favourite Writers - continuing to read them and hopefully completing the ouevre
Bernice Rubens - I still have 3 or 4 left to read
Michael Chabon
Alan Garner

5) Shocked that I still haven't read this
The history of love by Nicole Krauss - DONE
Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee - DONE
The man who loved children by Christina Stead - READING
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

6) The young ones - YA and children's fiction
The Coldest girl in Coldtown by Holly Black - DONE

7) Challenging - shared reads, theme reads, group reads, CATs etc, shortlists, long lists etc etc
The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters - (Orange Jul)

8) Fact - nonfiction general, hopefully some travel literature
The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain
Childhood under siege: how big business targets children by Joel Bakan
We die alone by David Howarth
Philip Gibbs

9) Comfort reads - lighter reading and continuing series
Robert Goddard
Pepe Carvalho series

10) Down Under - New Zealand & Australian fiction
James McNeish
Maurice Shadbolt - ONE DOWN
Derek Hansen
Garry Disher
Wake by Elizabeth Knox - DONE

11) Shiny New - new writers and/or new books
Elena Ferrante
Siri Hustvedt
Kate Forsyth

12) Spotlight: New Zealand YA - so many titles to catch up on

13) Food Writing - cookbooks and food writing in general
MFK Fischer
Ruth Reichl
Anthony Bourdain
Laurie Colwin
Barbara Abdeni Massaad
Taste of Beirut by Jouman Accad

14) Images - photography, graphic novels, illustrated and picturebooks
The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman - I failed to read past the 3rd volume last year

15) Spies - both fiction and nonfiction
Alan Furst
Eric Ambler
Mossad by Ronald Payne
The Lawn Road Flats: spies, writers and artists by David Burke
A Spy Among Friends by Ben Macintyre
The Informer by Liam O'Flaherty
The Spy with 29 Names: The story of World War II's most audacious spy by Jason Webster

Reading plans for May

as well as the library book pile below I already have several books on the go -
The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma - debut novel
The crime of Father Amaro by Jose Maria Eca de Queiros
The casual vacancy by J.K. Rowling - READING
The Redeemer by Jo Nesbø
Menachem Begin: the battle for Israel's soul by Daniel Gordis - READING
Terror in Black September by David Raab - READING
Once were warriors by Alan Duff - ANZAC April - audio

also lined up:
The man who loved children by Christina Stead - ANZAC read - READING
The moon and Sixpence by Somerset Maugham - April BAC
The gendarme by Mark T. Mustian
Saga, volume 3 - graphic novel
In the Wilderness by Manuel Rivas
The snowman by Jo Nesbø
The Leopard by Jo Nesbø
Phantom by Jo Nesbø
Police by Jo Nesbø
Loyal Creatures by Morris Gleitzman

lying around looking forlorn:
The King of Children: the life and death of Janusz Korczak by Betty Jean Lifton
The ornament of the world: How Muslims, Jews and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain by Maria Rosa Menocal

Library Books, most I haven't got a chance to read but I like having a selection:

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie - scifi that everyone seems to have liked
ISIS: inside the army of terror by Michael Weiss - 2nd attempt to read this - READING
The Rise and Fall of Australia by Nick Bryant - read a good review of this a while back
Under the Egg by Laura Marx Fitzgerald - children's fiction about the Holocaust
I lived on Butterfly Hill by Majorie Agosin - childrens fiction set in Chile about a Jewish family
El Iluminado - graphic novel about Crypto Jews
For Lust of Knowing: the Orientalists and their enemies by Robert Irwin - looks interesting
My first Kafka: runaways, rodents and giant bugs - picture book
Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman - short stories
How to fight Islamist terror from the missionary position by Tabish Khair - can't resist a novel with a title like this
Henna House by Naomi Eve - novel about a Yemenite Jew
Mainlander by Will Smith - mystery set on Jersey
The thought of high windows by Lynne Kositsky- Holocaust novel
Rav Hisda's Daughter: Apprentice by Maggie Anton - series gets good reviews

some food pics from Israel:

82) I love I hate I miss my sister by Amélie Sarn (2005 French) (2014 English)
YA fiction
Excellent teen novel set in an immigrant neighbourhood of Paris. Two teen sisters, one wanting to break away from her Algerian culture and Muslim religion and the other sister wanting to embrace it. Sarn bases it around the 1989 L'Affaire du Foulard (the Headscarf Affair) which led to the 2004 French law that makes it illegal to wear religious symbols in public schools. She was also inspired by the horrific death of Sohane Benziane in 2002.
Sarn writes a balanced novel, with the older sister, Sohane, as narrator and Sohane's inward struggle to be both French and Muslim while her younger sister embraces a more secular approach with tragic consequences.
What I liked about this was that Sarn shows how the girls' grandmother's generation is far less fundamentally religious with their love of Algerian culture, jewellery, colourful clothing and Arab music within the same Paris neighbourhood.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sohane_Benziane

>4 avatiakh: I was just talking to Pierre earlier this evening about this amazing gourmet Chinese restaurant my mom and I used to go to in Tel-Aviv, which served St-Peter's fish from the Galilée, which they prepared lightly fried and was so memorable I still salivate over the very idea of it. So much good eats in Israel, not least of which can be found at some of the most basic falafel stands. Now you've got me thinking I really do need to take up my dad on his suggestion to go visit him soon...

eta: is that shakshuka served in that round bread? My grandma Sonia used to make the very best and I've made it myself over the years, but never managed to make it quite as yummy as she did.

Yes, that's shakshuka, those 3 photos of the cakes, shakshuka and borek were from a bakery cafe, Bread & Co on Ben Yehuda St cnr Ben Gurion Blvd. We went there a few times for breakfastI have a few more food pics, though you can see lots in my photobucket account, I took lots of street photos to show my husband: http://s811.photobucket.com/user/avatiakh/library/Tel%20Aviv%202015?sort=2&p...
The old neighbourhoods in Tel Aviv and Yafo are all being renovated now. It is really quite wonderful as these places looked so neglected on my previous trips. Yafo especially is undergoing a lot of change, the flea market area has become quite the bohemian hangout.
We ate at lots of ethnic places as I wanted to get the flavours memorised so I can recreate at home. Would love to go back for an extended stay. I must brush up on my Hebrew.

83) Saga, Volume 4 by Brain K. Vaughan
graphic novel
Another good instalment.


Hurayrah the cat:the snake catcher by Farah Morley (2014)
picture book
This is published by Kube Publishing an offshoot of the Islamic Foundation (UK) who have published several interesting children's books about Islam. This is a folktale that introduces Abu Hurayrah to a young audience. Abu Hurayrah was his nickname, it means 'Father of the Kitten' because he loved cats and was often seen playing with a kitten. He was important as he was a companion of Muhammad and was able to remember all the hadiths or sayings and actions of Muhammad before they were saved in written form. The kitten goes looking for Abu Hurayrah who has left the house and ends up catching a snake and saving a life. The book introduces a few Arabic words and there is a glossary to explain them.
The illustrations by Alexandria Nyerges are not that memorable. I'd like to read Morley's other picturebook, The Spider and the Doves: The Story of the Hijra.
Wikipedia about Abu Hurayrah: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Hurairah
Islamic Foundation children's books: http://www.islamic-foundation.com/product-category/books/children/



Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns: a Muslim Book of Colors by Hena Khan (2012)
picture book
This is a beautiful picturebook that introduces the Muslim culture through the theme of colour. The artwork is by Iranian Mehrdokht Amimi who now lives in the UK. There are several Iranian illustrators whose work I've admired and now I have another to add to the list.

henna = orange

hijab = blue

kufi (traditional hat) = white

Mehrdokht Amimi's website: http://www.myart2c.com/

not sure which book this is from but I love this illustration
Here is an interview with her and lots more illustrations: https://kathytemean.wordpress.com/2014/09/13/illustrator-saturday-mehrdokht-amin...

Happy New Thread, Kerry! Love the kitty topper! And all those delicious photos. Yum!

Wonderful pictures! Happy new thread.

>9 msf59: >10 banjo123: Thanks for visiting

I picked up a small haul of books from the library sales table these last couple of visits, total spend would be $4.
2 x rough guides: Morocco & Slovenia
Lonely planet guide to Africa - my husband enjoys these guidebooks even when we don't intend travelling to the destinations. I like to look up the maps and some ofthe background info from timeto time.
Cold Burial: A True Story of Endurance and Disaster by Clive Powell-Williams - adventure in Canada's wilderness
Love and longing in Bombay: stories by Vikram Chandra
3:59:4: The Quest for the Four-minute Mile by Bob Phillips - liking nonfiction about athletes
The Informers by Juan Gabriel Vásquez - I have a feeling that I own this paperback already but love this cover
The Locust and the bird by Hanan Al-Shaykh - biography set in 1930s Lebanon
Pathfinder: a special forces mission behind enemy lines by David Blakeley - blurb by Frederick Forsyth was clincher
Spike Milligan: the biography by Humphrey Carpenter - Humphrey Carpenter is an interesting writer
Poems 1951-2006 by C. K. Stead - esteemed NZ writer

Planned reading is continuing at very slow rate due to finding the next Harry Hole bumping my other reading as he has done all month. On the closing stages of the audio of Once were warriors which I've really enjoyed and will be watching the film this evening.

Watching series 3 of French crime tv Spiral - wow, this is soooooo good. Have had to put to one side as I have Season 1 of The Fall to watch and it is due back on Friday.

We watched a documentary, The real history of science fiction yesterday as well. The focus was mainly on film though some books were also discussed. Each episode had a different focus - Time, Invasion, Space and Robots. Lots of nostalgia and we have decided that at some point this winter we'll have a scifi marathon weekend of movies and tv. I'm also keen to read Asimov and Kim Stanley Robinson - both authors not read at all so far though I own their books.

Greatly enjoyed Under the Egg this week--thanks for the book bullet!

Popped in for a minute on LT and saw your new thread. Lovely photography. I have The Informers, but haven't read it. Was listening to the "Fighting Soldiers from the Sky" song, more properly known as "Ballad of the Green Berets", yesterday. It was the first song I ever remember hearing (b. 1967, so...). Thus Pathfinder caught my eye too. Love the illustrations from the children's books.

mmm...hungry now!

Nice to see photos of Yaffo.

On a different subject - I look forward to your thoughts on Terror in Black September!

>12 ronincats: Hi Roni, glad that you enjoyed Under the egg

>13 labfs39: Hi Lisa, I'm looking forward to The Informers. I had listen to 'Ballad of the Green Berets' which I sort of recognised, I'm not from the US so those sorts of songs aren't so common in our society.

>14 Polaris-: Hi Paul, Yaffo has changed quite a bit over the years, definitely becoming gentrified.
Enjoying Terror in Black September, just that I'm reading it on the kindle and my son keeps borrowing it to read Sherlock Holmes so we are both making slow progress.

Another good buy at the library sale table this week:
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Rick Steve's Portugal - looks like a handy guide and I like the maps. I've had a few visits to Portugal so will be recapping on those rather than planning a new visit.
Yiddish Civilisation: The Rise and Fall of a Forgotten Nation by Paul Kriwaczek - looks interesting

and library books:
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The book of Aron by Jim Shepard - Holocaust novel
East in Eden by Izabela Shopova - Bulgarian travel writer on New Zealand - this was a popular blog in Bulgaria and ended up in book form. Writer now lives in Australia.
And the good news is...: Lessons and Advice from the Bright Side by Dana Perino - not sure if this will appeal or not but I like to read a bit of politics before the upcoming US election campaigns.

_
83) Once were warriors by Alan Duff (1990)
fiction, New Zealand
Alan Duff was the New Zealand ANZAC author of the month in April, though it took me most of May to finish this. I listened to the audiobook which was read by Jay Laga'aia, a NZ actor. Wow, powerful stuff, a very violent story that still resonates all these years later. I really liked Duff's storytelling though not sure if I want to race to another one of his books that quickly, definitely not read the sequel any time soon. This tells the story of the Heke family, an urban Maori family that is locked in a cycle of poverty, domestic abuse, violence, gangs, drugs. One of those stories where you have to hit rock bottom before salvation can begin to find its way in.
Beth is ultimately rescued from Jake's violence by her ties to a rural marae, and she brings this influence of Maoritanga to her neighbourhood. I thought this resolution was more wishful thinking on the part of the author than anything else. I did appreciate Jake's journey towards redemption at the end which isn't shown in the movie..

After I read the book I watched the movie for the first time and found the storyline was altered from the book though still has impact. The ending is more realistic for Beth, just hinting at the Maoritanga influence reentering her life.

I have to mention that Alan Duff started Books in Homes, a very successful charity that started in 1992 and is still going. After visiting a school he discovered that many of the children came from bookless homes and he decided to change that...'The programme was developed following a visit by Alan Duff to Camberley School in Hastings in 1992. He found that the majority of those children came from bookless homes and showed little, if any, interest in reading. From this grew the key concept of book ownership prompting an interest in reading and a love of books. This would also create the opportunity to share the books with other family members.' http://www.booksinhomes.org.nz/

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84) Phantom by Jo Nesbø (2012)
85) Police by Jo Nesbø (2013)
crime
Harry Hole #9 & #10. The last two Harry Hole novels and as you can see I read them back to back, you really have to as book #9 leaves you on a knife edge. Anyway overall now that I've finished the series I can say I really enjoyed them a lot, I loved the character of HH though he changed quite a bit through the years, he suffered from addiction and alcoholism and these demons came and went, as did the serial killers. I did tire a little of Nesbø's plotting and little tricks of assumption, though not enough to throw any of the books at any walls, rather I just devoured them as fast as I could.
So 5 Harry Holes this month and 2 last month. I still have Headhunters a standalone to read as I also have the movie waiting to be seen. Happy to see that I can still devour a series all at once as since I joined LT I've tended to graze across several series in dribs and drabs. I've also made a good dent in the pile of crime books in my 'should read soonest' pile. Next series I tackle will possibly be Bernie Gunther as I have the omnibus Berlin Noir by Philip Kerr.

I look forward to your comments about Rick Steves' Portugal. I ordered Baedeker's Portugal earlier this month, in anticipation of a trip there in October, and because I was so impressed with Baedeker's Barcelona.

>18 kidzdoc: I'll try to look at it this weekend. The maps are hand drawn so will be interesting.

Another great library sale bargain today, I picked up The Lust of Knowing: The Orientalists and their Enemies by Robert Irwin for 50 cents. I had borrowed the book and taken it back earlier this week after realising that I'd never read it in the borrowing period and thinking I'd have to get a copy on kindle one day, then there it is sitting on the library sale table this afternoon. Charlotte/@charl08 has read it and recommended it.

So I started Headhunters last night...sigh...I just need to finish all the Nesbøs in my house. Made good progress on Terror in Black September finally and hope to finish this one by month's end.
The man who loved children, my May ANZAC read is going more slowly and will probably not be finished for a couple more weeks.

>19 avatiakh: Take your time in reading Rick Steves' Portugal. It will be a couple of months before I know if my October vacation request has been granted, and I haven't completely decided to visit Portugal that month if I do get holiday time then, but it seems more likely than not that I will go there. I'll let you know what I think of Baedeker's Portugal in return.

Darryl, I haven't managed to pick up the Rick Steve book at all so far. I used The Rough Guide to Andalucia on kindle and took an Insight Guide to Spain that we left there, just wasn't a practical book to carry, too heavy.
I did quite a lot of research online, reading travel blogs etc and had a few pinterest boards set up with links to websites which were helpful.

I'm almost halfway through Headhunters and I'm torn, the main character is unlikeable, and all the people in his world seem to be shallow and unlikeable as well. I could easily put the book down, but it's the last Nesbø in my house so I'll probably keep going.
I haven't read much today so won't finish anything more for May. Instead I watched the delightful movie Spud which is based on a YA book I read a few years ago which I really enjoyed. The film was great, it's set in South Africa, the year that Nelson Mandela is freed and is about a boy's first year at an elite boarding school. John Cleese acts as the inspirational though alcoholic literature teacher. All the books he recommends to Spud are well read paperback editions that just look so familiar, loved this. The book had two sequels and there are also two more films.

Happy Weekend, Kerry! Sorry, to hear that Headhunters is a bit disappointing. I just finished Blood on snow, another stand-alone and I really enjoyed it.

I am far behind on the Hole series. I'll have to get slowly caught up.

I remember watching Once Were Warriors with a Kiwi buddy I used to work with in London, and being blown away. Very powerful story, well told.

Yiddish Civilisation: The Rise and Fall of a Forgotten Nation does look interesting. You have the best library sales near you!

>22 msf59: Mark, I read another chapter and the book has become quite a bit more exciting. I'll finish it tomorrow and report back after I watch the movie.

I have a few other series I want to finish this year - Anthony Powell's Dance to the Music of Time, I've finally started on #7 on audio. Also want to finish the last book in the Lymond Chronicles.

>23 Polaris-: Paul, there are many weeks in a row when they don't put out a sales table at all so I've had a lucky run.
I was really impressed with the movie and now wish I'd seen it on the big screen at the time.

>19 avatiakh: 50 cents! Wow. What a deal...

>25 charl08: Bargain indeed!

_
86) Headhunters by Jo Nesbø (2008)
crime fiction
I ended up enjoying this even though there weren't any characters to like that much, the main character does end up a better person by book's end. Roger is one of the top recruitment agents in Oslo, a headhunter, but he has another side, he is also an art thief which supplements his income for he has a very expensive wife. Recruiting the right person to work at one of his most important client companies leads Roger into more trouble that he could ever have dreamt about.
After finishing I watched the film and enjoyed it almost as much, a few tweaks to the plot didn't worry me as this is pure escapism anyway. I thought the film was really well cast.

Reading Plans for June:

I've already finished 2 books, some of my leftovers from May
Headhunters by Jo Nesbø
Terror in Black Septemberby David Raab

I want to finish all the books I've started over the past two months:

The Valley of Bones by Anthony Powell - current iPod audio
I Lived on Butterfly Hill by Marjorie Agosín - children's novel set in Chile
The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling - taking this one slowly
The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead - ANZAC May read
Menachem Begin by Daniel Gordis - didn't pick it up once in May
Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman - ditto
ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror by Michael Weiss - slowly getting there

Young people books I want to read this month:
Half Wild by Sally Green - #2 in the half Bad trilogy
The Last of the Spirits by Chris Priestley - retelling of A Christmas Carol
The thought of high windows by Lynne Kositsky - Holocaust
A stone in my hand by Cathryn Clinton - set in Gaza
Falling by Anne Provoost - extreme nationalism in Holland
Close to the wind by Jon Walter - escaping war
Wanting Mor by Rukhsana Khan - based on true story of living in Taliban-Afghanistan
Mixing it by Rosemary Hayes - terrorism

other Challenge books:
Any old iron by Anthony Burgess (BAC)
The birthday boys by Beryl Bainbridge (BAC)
That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott (ANZAC)
The moon and sixpence by W Maugham (BAC)
In the wilderness by Manuel Rivas (Iberian challenge)

other library books:
Jakob's Colours by Lindsay Hawdon - novel about the Gypsy Holocaust
Children of Jihad: A Young American's Travels Among the Youth of the Middle East by Jared Cohen
East in Eden by Izabela Shopova - Bulgarian in New Zealand
And the good news is... by Dana Perino - memoir
Remembrance of things Paris: Sixty Years of Writing from Gourmet
The book of Aron by Jim Shepard

I've also made a start on The Spanish Game by Charles Cumming and there are probably other books lying around that I should be reading such as my latest kindle read, Spies against Armageddon.

whew

Unterzakhn turned up at my library yesterday (I got the brand new shiny copy, as they ordered it for me :-). Fab book, as you say, gritty and realistic. Thank you for the recommendation. Hoping to find and read more of the author's work too.

Wow! Food pictures. Yum.

Great review of Once Were Warriors.

I am wondering how you're going with Shadow Scale. For some reason, it's a bit of a slow read for me. I probably should have re-read Seraphina.

I've barely started it, I own my copy so it's continually being bumped by library books. I'm actually ok with the storyline but have to say that I've just picked up Half Wild which follows Half Bad which I really liked and I'm really having trouble working out who is who.

87) Terror in Black September : The First Eyewitness Account of the Infamous 1970 Hijackings by David Raab (2007)
nonfiction
Raab was compelled to write this book years after the incident because nothing has ever been published directly about the hijackings. He was 17 years old and travelling home to the US with his mother and younger siblings after a long holiday in Israel.

'On September 6, 1970, terrorists from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) hijacked TWA flight 741 from Frankfurt to New York and Swiss Air flight 100 from Zurich to New York, diverting them both to a disused airfield in the Jordanian desert. Terrorists also hijacked Pan Am flight 93 from Amsterdam and diverted it to Beirut and then Cairo. El Al officials thwarted another hijacking attempt on their flight from Amsterdam. On September 9, another PFLP sympathizer seized a British Overseas Airways Corporation flight in Bahrain and brought it to the same Jordanian airstrip as the first two. The terrorists removed all hostages, separating fifty-four Jewish and other captives, and blew up the empty planes.'

Raab writes about the terrible day to day happenings for the hostages but also and most compellingly writes about the diplomatic efforts and also about the civil war that broke out between the PLO/PFLP/Fatah and Jordanian forces in the midst of the hostage negotiations. Yasser Arafat was ready to topple King Hussein and takeover Jordan, his fedayeen fighters were incredibly well armed and well entrenched in Amman as well as other cities especially in the north. Syria sent in tanks painted as belonging to the PLA (Palestinian Liberation Army). Israel, the US and Russia are on the sidelines ready though unwilling to intercede. Indeed it looked like only Egypt and the Arab Council would be able to organise a ceasefire and what happens...Nasser dies... In all this the remaining hostages are holed up in camps and apartments across Amman & Irbid surrounded by mortar fire, snipers and land mines.
Compelling reading, I now know much more about how the PLO were ousted from Jordan, they went on to establish themselves in Lebanon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_September_in_Jordan
An account from Raab's book is here: http://www.meforum.org/1768/terror-in-black-september-an-eyewitness-account

88) The Last of the spirits by Chris Priestley (2015)
children's fiction
This is a retelling of Dicken's A Christmas Carol and is a great adaption of the tale. It is told from the POV of Sam and his sister who are street waifs sleeping in the graveyard where Marley's ghost appears. They are orphans, their father owed money to Marley and went to prison, their mother joined him and the children were taken into care which they ran away from. So there is a tie to Scrooge and the children also partake in a Christmas past, present & future. Needless to say it looks bleak. Overall I loved this blend of a younger POV to the Scrooge story.
In the afterword Priestley talks of his experience of a teacher reading the original version when he was eight and how he just loved that first description of Marley's ghost. He immediately knew he'd become a writer.

Chris Priestley has written other retellings which are also good:
Mister Creecher - Frankenstein
The Dead Men Stood Together - Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Great review of Terror in Black September, Kerry. I knew very little about that hijacking, although it was briefly mentioned in the biography of Abdel Nasser I read several years ago.

>31 avatiakh: Great review. I am adding that one to my pile. I would really like to know more about some of the background there - sounds like a well written account.

>33 kidzdoc: >34 nittnut: The Jewish hostages, especially those returning from visits to Israel, were terrified, as the PFLP were looking for Israelis (only 3 dual citizens were among all the group) and went through all the baggage and personal items looking for proof. One man ate the Israeli passport of a young boy so it wouldn't be found. Raab boarded the flight wearing a tourist bought army uniform of an IDF officer but was able to change into other clothing fairly quickly, he was terrified they'd find the uniform, I think they were able to hide it.
A pregnant woman gave birth on the plane in the time they spent sitting on the desert runway and the Red Cross representative did not offer any assistance or supplies such as water or nappies but said they'd try to get her some flowers to celebrate the birth.

Thanks for your Terror in Black September review. Sounds like a great read. If I get to Joseph's Books in Golders Green when Darryl's in town next week then I'll hope to pick it up!

>35 avatiakh: Nice thought - getting flowers to celebrate the birth of the baby. Good grief. How about some water?

Passing thru, I think it was you who put me onto Rivers of London etc ... Thanks, its Fantastic, only a matter of time till I acquire the others ...

Alex - possibly was me as I was an early adopter and have read all the series so far and still enjoy them. So pleased to see another convert.

89) The Handkerchief Map by Kiri English-Hawke (2010)
YA fiction
Not sure where I came across mention of this slight YA epistolary novel, '...the author wrote it while still a high school student in Australia, with no direct contact with survivors of the war. Several years on, she returned to it with the benefit of further research and experience...'
Ok, to be honest this just didn't engage me and then I took quite a dislike to it, possibly because I saw it described as a Holocaust novel and it is so far from that.
The book is in three sections, the first is a young German soldier, Franz, who eventually deserts the army and becomes a partisan fighter in East Europe. The second is Helga, a young Russian woman he meets as the war ends, she has been a fighter as well. Thirdly we meet Jewish Susannah who has been separated from her husband and then children and sent to Bergen-Belsen. Miraculously Susannah's children are located in East Europe and miraculously they share a cabin in the train trip back to Germany with Franz & Helga where miraculously Franz's mother has been helping Susannah since the end of the war at the displaced persons camp. Miraculously they all love each other so much that they decide to emigrate to Denmark with the friendly Danish/German soldier who helped Susannah when she was in the concentration camp (he gave her the paper & pen for her letterwriting).
So the writing is too hopeful and for me unrealistic.
Susannah in her 'letters' to husband talks about the fate of their children only once or twice. Once she is reunited with them she doesn't want to know their experiences as it will be too awful.

The handkerchief map of the title is a WW1 map embroidered on a hanky that is Helga's sole reminder of her friend Olga and from their childhood. She writes (unsent of course) to her lost friend. Franz writes to his mother and about halfway through stops mailing his letters as he becomes disenchanted with the Nazi philosophy.
Most of the letters in the book were unsent so really written as an outlet for the fictional letterwriter.

I've read many YA novels about World War Two and the Holocaust and would definitely recommend other books over this one.

90) Half Wild by Sally Green (2015)
YA fantasy
The second installment in the Half Bad trilogy. Pure escapism about white witches and black witches, our hero who is a half-black and half white. I enjoyed this one, quite the page turner with an especially grisly ending. Now to wait till 2016 for the final book.

91) ISIS: inside the army of terror by Michael Weiss & Hassan Hassan (2015)
nonfiction
I haven't read any nonfiction about the US involvement in Iraq over the years, only relied upon articles and news reports so I came to this with the bare bones of knowledge of the various factions and back story.
Weiss and Hassan gives the reader all the background necessary on understanding how Al-Qaeda and ISIS evolved.
interesting points were:
1) how much the US prison camps such as Camp Bucca in Iraq helped the eventual ISIS leadership to organise and recruit
2) Assad in Syria allowing so many extremists freedom at the start of the civil war as a tactic against the more secular FSA.
3) the tribal nature of the various factions especially in Iraq. The media seems to focus more on the foreign fighter and recruits, but they're mostly not hardened fighting material like the Iraqis who've grown up with constant conflict or the Syrians with military conscription.

The last chapter about how ISIS takes over an area or town and then stays in power is quite illuminating as well.

I set up a pinterest board while reading the book, I find this a useful device for these types of reads.
https://www.pinterest.com/jelsamina/middle-east-politics-terror-war/

Now on to some lighter material such as another YA fantasy....

Library sale table haul from Friday:
The selected stories of Mercè Rodoreda for 50 cents.

Read a few pages of East in Eden by Bulgarian Izabela Shopova (2015) which is promoted as a hilarious look at a Bulgarian family's 6 years in New Zealand. Shopova now lives in Australia, so I can presume that like many other immigrants to NZ she waited only for the NZ passport before jumping ship to Oz.

Anyway the book is based on the blog she kept for family and friends back in Bulgaria. I found numerous spelling mistakes and overall just didn't like the tone she took. The 'funny' is not funny just jabs at NZers and our country. She talks about how we drive on the left like she's never heard of this phenomenon before and how she never can get used to it, how she's always grabbing the door handle instead of the gear stick and driving the wrong way round roundabouts. Well, I've driven on the left all my life but have no problems switching to right-hand driving when renting a car in South America, USA or Europe, it takes only a few minutes to adjust.
The book starts with flying in to Auckland airport and only seeing fields and sheep, then the inevitable sheep jokes. Well I normally see an urban area with lots of green spaces and harbour views when I fly in to the city.
She raves about how everyone talks about fishing in every conversation, I haven't had a conversation or overheard one about fishing for several years. Maybe I'm too cranky but this is a DNF for me.

Can't resist quoting from pg xvi: 12 September 2002 blog post - 'Singapore Airport - at the airport before our flight to Auckland, while waiting at the gate I got really scared. For the first time then I realised that I have taken my child to the ends of the earth. Literally. All passengers around us were Asians or Polynesians, heavily tattooed, in flipflops or barefoot, with Indian saris or turbans, big dark-skinned men stripped to the waist, with neck bone amulets and sarong skirts, women wearing exotic flowers in their gorgeous long hear. All speaking tongues, carrying surfboards, guitars, bundles and sellotaped boxes in addition to the suitcases. Very much like that scene from 'Star Wars'.' - are you kidding me!!! My daughter grabbed the book out of my hands when I read this aloud to her to find out what year it had been published.


Last night I watched Yentl, I saw it years ago but felt like a re-watch after reading the novella recently. Mandy Patinkin is delightful in it and I'll now have to re-watch The Princess Bride. Barbara Streisand produced, directed, wrote the script and starred in the film, she's good, the singing is beautiful though I would have liked a less well known actress to play Yentl.

>44 avatiakh: Wow. Inventive. Even the airport in Apia, Samoa doesn't look like her description of her flight to NZ from Singapore. Good grief. She must have gone to live in the "other" New Zealand. As though there aren't parts of Bulgaria that look like the ends of the earth...

I loved Yentl. I agree on how it would have been nice to have someone else play Yentl, but it was still a great film. I should read the novella.

I've never seen 'big dark-skinned men stripped to the waist, with neck bone amulets and sarong skirts' on any of my outings in Auckland or Singapore! I worked with many Polynesian families at the Otara playcentre and I never saw any of the menfolk running around stripped half-naked!


Just watched a disturbingly great New Zealand movie, The Dark Horse (2014), based on a real life character, Genesis Porini, a former speed chess champion who suffered from bi-polar disorder. Cliff Curtis put on 30kg to play the part.
'Though battling bipolar disorder himself, Potini managed to turn around the lives of a group of rebellious local youth, coaching them in chess and leading them to a national championship. Curtis takes on the lead role of Potini, while James Rolleston (Boy, 2010) plays his nephew Mana, who has been brought up surrounded by gangs, drugs and violence.' I saw this described as 'Once were warriors' meets 'Shine'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3YopiaQ3k8

Now I'm hanging out to see 'Pawn Sacrifice'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFHvH9FtACg

Went to Pakuranga Library today and my library sales table score:
The Alan Coren Omnibus - described as a master humorist
The seven fires of Mademoiselle by Esther Vilar - Argentinian writer

from the library:
Sacred by Éliette Abécassis - French novella that was made into the Israeli film Kadosh. She lived in the Mea Shearim quarter of Jerusalem for six months as research for the book.

I don't watch a lot of movies/Films but thought 'The Dark horse' was awesome .....

I do watch a lot of films especially foreign ones and Dark Horse is right up there. I especially 'loved' the gang scenes, wondered if they just filmed real gang members in a real gang house. I read that it was the first acting role for Wayne Hapi, who played Mana's father.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&object...

I'm looking forward to watching The Dead Lands soon, I'm #23 in the library queue.

Will always be a favourite thread of mine, Kerry. Travels, food, and a veritable smorgasboard of genres in your reading invariably of huge interest.

The gourmand in me looked wistfully at your Israel photos as the Malaysian government extremely stupidly prevents its citizens from visiting Israel due to a political situation they have zero comprehension of and I couldn't go without Hani. Harry Hole is a favourite of mine too and I have Cockroaches and Police still to go. Number 2 and Number ten is because they weren't translated in order.

Have a lovely weekend and thanks for visiting my thread more than I have in the last month or so. xx

>49 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul, I appreciate your visit as I can see that you are currently running on limited leisure time these past weeks. You'll enjoy Cockroaches as it's set in Bangkok and Nesbo shows us the seedier side of the city.

Again a pity that Hani can't visit Israel. There's many the Arab/Islamic country that our family would not/could not visit due to the hostility towards those of Israeli birth or parentage even though we travel on safe NZ passports. Our family name is pure Israeli as my husband changed it from the Turkish version, Halifi, that his Belarusian great grandfather adopted when he brought his family to Ottoman Palestine in 1902.
My husband wouldn't let our children wear t-shirts with Hebrew writing on them when we travelled in Europe many years ago. We experienced a scary episode at the train station in Milan with an immigrant hotel tout that made us quite paranoid and we wanted to make sure our kids remained safe. It's quite sad that Jewish people are now becoming afraid to even show symbols of their religion on some of the streets of Europe.

Malaysia has adopted some unfortunate laws of late, I remember reading about how Christians are no longer being allowed to use the word Allah in their bibles though they have been doing so for centuries.

A bit of film escapism this weekend, I've re-watched Runaway Jury and then High Crimes. Book-wise I'm finishing up on I lived on Butterfly Hill a children's book set in 1970s Chile, it's far too long, the author has been indulged in her reminiscence about her own childhood I do think. Otherwise I'm making progress in several books.

The Dark Horse sounds fascinating! I will have to look for it.

>51 banjo123: A bit of a rough diamond, just note that there is a bit of violence. I felt the film was very realistic in the portrayal of gang culture.
>47 roundballnz: Now that I read this news item, I think I walked past him the last time I was in the city.
http://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/kiwi-film-actor-wayne-hapi-returns-to-busking-2015...

I'm so sorry to have neglected your thread. I haven't been as active this year. It is my hope that in the next few months I can get back in the swing of it all. For now, I've added The Last of the Spirits to my reading list. It sounds like a good book.

>46 avatiakh: The Dark Horse sounds a really good film - will keep an eye out for it.

I really want to read Éliette Abécassis's Sacred. I remember reading about the film 'Kadosh' when that came out a few years back and the critical acclaim it received. The book looks excellent.

>52 avatiakh: Interesting how people react to this type of news, beyond the thinking of many that it could be a 'choice' ....

>53 Whisper1: Linda - I only wish you get back into the best of health. Don't fret about not visiting threads, it's beyond most of our capabilities these days.

> Hi Paul - well, Sacred was a very quick elegant read, a short novella or a long short story that impresses. I've looked out the dvd, Kadosh from my husband's Israeli dvd collection and will be watching it this afternoon.

>55 roundballnz: Alex, he does seem to love the busking lifestyle. My son did a busking stint for a while with a friend who plays a saxophone and he had lots of stories to tell of the many encounters with the public, mostly positive. They played jazz classics.

92) I lived on Butterfly Hill by Marjorie Agosin (2014 Spanish) (2014 Eng)
children's fiction
Based on Agosin's own childhood experiences growing up in Chile during the 1970s.
Must mention the delightful illustrations throughout the book by Lee White.
Eleven year old Celeste's idyllic childhood, nestled in a loving family of mother, father, nana and her mother's old nanny comes to an abrupt end with Pinochet's overthrow of the government. Her parents, doctors who've run a free clinic for the poor, must go into hiding and Celeste herself is sent to live with her estranged aunt in Maine, USA.
The language is quite delightful in this gentle story based on the terrible years Chile suffered under Pinochet, though we follow Celeste away from this and into her new life in Maine where she lives for two years before returning to Valparaiso in Chile.
We get glimpses at the horror of the disappeared in ways appropriate for this age group. She finds her father after a harrowing journey into the south with her friend Cristobel. Her mother hides out in and around the cottage of poet Pablo Neruda on the remote Isla Negra and returns home a few days after Celeste's father. Celeste is an interesting character, full of dreams and hopes and wishes for a world of peace and love...near the end she wins an essay competition about her vision for a new Chile and shares her prize money with her community on a literacy program rather than on her own future college/university studies.
My only complaint would be that at over 400 pages the book is very long and only the most keen junior reader would finish this. It should have been published as two books as there are clear cut off points.

University of Minnesota website: Marjorie Agosín was born in Maryland and raised in Chile. She and her parents, Moises and Frida Agosín, moved to the United States due to the overthrow of the Chilean government by General Pinochet's military coup. Coming from a South American country and being Jewish, Agosín's writings demonstrate a unique blending of these cultures.
Agosín is well known as a poet, critic, and human activist. She is also a well-known spokesperson for the plight and priorities of women in Third World countries. Her deep social concerns and accomplishments have earned her many awards and recognitions, and she has gained an international reputation among contemporary women of color.

Wikipedia: Marjorie Agosín (born June 15, 1955) is a Chilean-born American writer.

Not sure which site is correct on her birthplace.


Pablo Neruda's cottage
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20141020-chile-through-pablo-nerudas-eyes

93) Falling by Anne Provoost (1995 Dutch), (1997 Eng)
YA fiction
I picked up this book as I'm familiar with previous translations done by John Nieuwenhuizen (he's married to Agnes, a well known children's literature specialist in Australia).
The book is set in 1990s Belgium and is one that I had to force myself to keep reading, as one knows from the first pages that something dreadful has happened before we hit backstory mode.
I had done a library search for 'extremism' in children's and teen fiction and this book had been one of the results of that search. I'm interested in how this concept is being addressed in young people's literature.
It's about a 17 yr old boy whose grandfather has recently died. Over the summer he and his mother go to her childhood home on the edge of a small town/village with the idea of cleaning up the house and garden. There has always been a secret about his grandfather, something not so honourable about the war, and so Lucas is either shunned by some locals and lauded by others but finding out truth behind the secret is difficult, his mother refuses to tell him. The local population now includes large numbers of Arab immigrants, who some locals despise as they take their jobs and are responsible for many of the burglaries that are rife throughout the town. With the anticipated conversion of a church building into a local refugee centre for more immigrants, protests are inevitable, violence is going to happen. Lucas gets caught up in all this, and somewhere along the line we know that something bad is going to happen involving his grandfather's chainsaw, fire and a visiting American girl who is now in hospital.
Quite a challenging read for a teen.
Note that the book was written in the 1990s so relates to tensions about Arab immigration of those times.

I see that it was made into a film (2001) by Hans Herbots - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Pw18uO6o1g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFNpeiHu-eQ

_
94) Sacred by Eliette Abécassis (2003 French)
novella
Possibly the Israeli film, Kadosh (1999), which was based on this novella is more well known. I'm going to watch it this evening. This novella tells the story of a woman living in the Mea Shearim quarter of Jerusalem. Her ten year old marriage has not been blessed with children, though the couple are deeply in love and now according to Rabbinic Law her husband is within his rights to divorce her and marry another.
The story has been translated from French and is quite elegantly written, I did have one moment of displeasure with the language, when instead of 'children' the book referred to 'offspring' which sounds too blase for my liking though could perhaps have been used as a legal term.
'No man may abstain from keeping the law “Be fertile and increase” (Gen. 1:28), unless he already has children'
There is a discussion of this Rabbinic Law here: http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/infertile-wife-in-rabbinic-judaism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMBY-4stUak


95) enormous smallness: A Story of E. E. Cummings by Matthew Burgess (2015)
picturebook
Lovely lovely biographical look at the life of poet e.e. cummings. In the author's notes Burgess tells of leading a literary walk around Greenwich Village and the chance meeting with the woman who lives in the apartment where e.e. cummings lived and how the group were invited in to see the room where he wrote. Eventually this book evolved from the inspiration Burgess felt in that room.
The arrangement of text is playful and the illustrations by Kris de Giacomo seem perfect for conveying cummings' distinct personality.
“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”
http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/03/30/enormous-smallness-e-e-cummings-matthew-...

>57 avatiakh: I Lived on Butterfly Hill looks really good. I've added it to the pile. It might be good for my daughter too.

>60 nittnut: It took me a while to read it, mostly because I juggle too many books at the same time. I found the many references to Chilean foods and culture quite interesting. There's also a sprinkling of Spanish throughout the text, just enough to give the book a Hispanic flavour. I think girls will enjoy this as long as they don't mind the length.

Hi Kerry!

#8 I really must get round to giving Saga a go - I got the first few volumes through a Humble Bundle package quite a while back now, but I never seem to get to them, despite all the rave reviews I keep hearing...

#18 Baedeker guide books always make me think of A Room With a View ;o)

#44 Oh wow that sounds dreadful!

96) The Thought of High Windows by Lynne Kositsky (2004)
YA fiction / Canada
I really warmed to this Holocaust novel. It starts out with an unsympathetic protagonist, a German Jewish teen, Esther' or 'Mouse'. Esther's parents originally came from Poland and as WW2 looms her father, a baker, is sent back East. Esther insists that her mother applies for her to go to a Belgium Children's Home through the Jewish Agency, the eventual fate of her mother and baby brother remains unknown but easily guessed at. Esther joins the group of Jewish children and they eventually end up in Vichy France. Slowly Esther's survival instincts emerge and she shines as a fallible heroine of the Jewish Underground in the south of France. Esther and windows are an escapism theme running through the book.
Kirkus reviews: 'Esther is plagued with guilt and self-hatred as well as terror of dying in the looming Holocaust. Kositsky deftly describes the twisted pains of war, genocide, and cruelty. Kositsky’s poetic and piercing language honors Esther’s severe loneliness and the horrors she witnesses.'

I'll be looking out for more by Kositsky, Claire by Moonlight looks interesting, I've never read about the Acadians.


97) A stone in my hand by Cathryn Clinton (2002)
children's fiction
I was less impressed with this story set in Gaza during the 1988/89 First Intifada. The story is reasonable, a young girl finds solace with a wild bird that keeps returning to the roof of her Gazan home after the disappearance of her father. Her father was probably a victim of an Islamic Jihad bombing of an Israeli bus, when he ventured into Israel looking for work. Her brother is becoming seduced by extremism and the constant presence of IDF soldiers is always in the background.
What I didn't find convincing was the author's portrayal of some Muslim customs, in the Middle East especially, Muslim burials are held as soon as possible, generally before sunset on the day of death. Coffins are used rarely, usually the bodies are wrapped in a shroud. So when a funeral is 3 days after a death and the coffin is carried through the streets of Gaza, one does wonder whether Clinton has done her research. By stating that Muslims usually abstain from alcohol during Ramadan, Clinton is again confusing the young reader. Her IDF soldiers are extremely trigger happy, opening fire at the slightest provocation or even less.

The book was inspired by a Creative Writing class exercise, the participants were asked to write something inspired by a cover photo from a collection of National Geographics. Clinton chose one of a young Arab girl holding a bird.


98) Wanting Mor by Rukhsana Khan (2009)
YA fiction / Canada
This was inspired by a true story that Khan read in a report on children in crisis from a Kabul orphanage (she'd sponsored a library in the orphanage from the proceeds from one of her books). The story is set in post-Taliban times and is about Jameela, who loses her mother in the first chapter, is eventually abandoned by her father in a Kabul marketplace after he remarries. She ends up in an orphanage and blossoms, though chooses to continue to wear the chador. This story, apart from a few coincidences for plot purposes, feels authentic. Jameela is a strong character even though she is continually in positions of powerlessness, relying on kindness and charity, she stays strong through her devotion to her religion and eventual love of learning. I loved this story, the kindness shown by some of the characters balanced out the cruelty of others.
There's a great book talk by Khan here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEGxki41L-U


99) Mixing It by Rosemary Hayes (2007)
YA fiction
This focuses on extremism in the UK and Hayes consulted a group of Muslim teen girls before writing the book. Fatimah is walking to school with best friend Aiesha, just behind them is Steve also a student at the school. There is an explosion as they pass a church, Aiesha is dead and Fatimah saves Steve's life, using her head scarf as a tourniquet on his broken and bleeding leg. The resulting photo of the uncovered Fatimah with Steve is on the cover of all the newspapers along with the media story speculating at their relationship. Muslim extremists are behind the bombing, angry at interfaith attempts by the local iman and vicar to build understanding and tolerance. Now both devout Fatimah and nonreligious Steve and their families have become targets. I ended up liking this more than I thought I would as the book started off a little too didactic for me, with the writer instructing the reader on various aspects of Islam through the conversation between Fatima and Aiesha.

100) Of Guns and Mules by David Lawrence-Young (2010)
fiction
Novella that I've been meaning to read since Eva from the category challenge reviewed it when it first came out. It's a fictionalised account of the Jewish Legion and Zion Mule Corps from World War One. When WW1 breaks out, Tel Aviv based David and his father are deported by the Turks to Egypt, along with all the other fighting age Jewish males. David is drafted into the British Army's Zion Mule Corps which serves in Gallipoli and then in the newly formed Jewish Legion which after much time training in Britain and Egypt serves in Palestine and helping to drive the Turks from the Judean Hills, Es Salt and Um Es-Shert areas around the Jordan River. Many of the soldiers succumbed to maleria rather than Turkish fire.
Ironically they find several dozen of the Turkish prisoners they capture are Jewish, drafted in Turkey to serve in the Ottoman army.
This was an interesting read, a good starting point to find out more about the service of the Jewish Palestinians in the British Army. My husband's grandfather was one of these soldiers.


101) The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling (2012)
fiction
J.K. Rowling's first book after the Harry Potter phenomenon and it's her first adult novel. I had this staring at me for a long time, it's quite a hefty tome, another reason not to pick it up, but I wanted it out of my home and I had read enough reviews to know that it would probably appeal and so it did.
Slow and steady with a great bunch of divisive characters ends up as a entertaining read. Not one I'm going to recommend as it isn't a page turner.

>62 flissp: Hi Fliss - yes, you'll like Saga. I must must finish reading Gaiman's Sandman. I've been saying that for at least 3 years and still haven't gotten past book #3.

Whoops, forgot my finished audiobook:

102) The Valley of Bones by Anthony Powell (19640
Fiction / Dance to the Music of Time #7

I'm listening to the audio of The Third Movement of the DTTMOT series and have just finished this book and have two more to go. I started the series just as I joined LT groups and the series fell to the wayside at the halfway point as I got hooked onto what everyone else was reading. Anyway one of my goals this year is to finish books 7, 8 &9. These deal with Nick's experiences during WW2 and I keep feeling I'm back in Evelyn Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy.

Nice review of I Lived on Butterfly Hill, Kerry.

thanks Darryl, it turned out to be a lovely children's book and I'm picking up a book about Pablo Neruda from the library as a direct result of reading it.


103) The return of the Dapper Men by Jim McCann, illus Janet Lee (2010)
graphic novel
I found this a bit weird. It was a recommendation by Mark and I don't think I liked it quite as much as him though if I simmer on the storyline I might come to like it a bit more than my initial reaction. It's about the land of Anarov, a place where time has ceased to exist since the clocks first stopped ticking and then stopped tocking. The upper world is full of robots who keep working in the endless day and underground is the playground for human children bar one. That exception is our hero, Ayden who is friends with a robot girl. The arrival from the skies above of the Dapper Men begins a process of the remembering and taking things forward. It's sort of a modern fairytale and reminds me of several stories and books that I've read over the years. The artwork is really detailed on some of the pages and quite stunning at times. There is a gallery of art at the back that shows other artists' interpretation of the characters, an interesting addition.

There is this mingling of the natural with the manmade throughout the GN

Films over the weekend:
I've still got to watch Kaddosh but watched two German films, both were entertaining.
_
Vincent wants to sea (2010)- comedy drama - Florian David Fitz wrote and stars in this tragicomic road movie about a young man with Tourette syndrome taking his mother’s ashes from Germany to the Italian coast. Warehoused in a private institution by his blustery politician father, Vincent enlists anorexic doper Marie and obsessive-compulsive roommate Alex to drive him over the Alps, pursued by the odd couple of dad and combustible clinic head.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE_yskjXBOA

Go for Zucker (2004) - comedy - Jakob Zuckermann alias Jaeckie Zucker is Jewish. But he says he's got nothing to do with "that club", ever since his mother and his little brother left him behind the Iron Curtain in East Germany when he was young. Therefore when he learns of the death of his mother, he does not care. However he has to care. His religious younger brother pays him a visit with his family, because according to Jewish tradition, they have to observe the seven-day Shiv'ah period of mourning, and their Mamme's will requires them to reconcile in the presence of the rabbi and the family. If they fail, her assets will be bestowed upon the Jewish community of Berlin, and not them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axXGQ1gWPj4

Mrs Mo's Monster by Paul Beavis (2014)
picturebook
This is a great story and the illustrations are delightful and bold. The text is great to read aloud and the book is just fun and full of colour. Beavis lives in New Zealand though grew up in the UK and studied graphic design in London. The book has just won our Russell Clark Award for illustration.

Hi, Kerry! You are a reading machine, my friend. I think I will take a pass on the Rowling. I may still try The Cuckoo's Calling at some point.

Hope you had a nice weekend. I hope you can find Nimona.

>59 avatiakh: Enormous Smallness sounds like a sweet read, and a nice journey for the author too.

I am loving your usual collection of YA inspirational reads too, your threads will be my go to place for YA books in the future!

>61 avatiakh: Long is OK, she devours books and it's hard to keep her in books. She just read the entire Giver quartet in about two days. Sigh. Maybe this one will keep her busy for a week? Lol

>69 msf59: Mark, unless you own a copy of The Casual Vacancy I'd definitely suggest The Cuckoo's Calling instead, much more fun to read. I liked The Casual Vacancy but it is a tome and I only press the excellent ones on my reading friends.
Nimona is on request at the library, they'd ordered a few copies so I'm near the front of the queue.

>70 LovingLit: Megan, I also just picked up a picturebook bio of Pablo Neruda, Pablo Neruda: poet of the people. It looks good, though I might have to look out for a more adult book as quotes from his poems in I lived on Butterfly Hill appealed.
I still enjoy reading YA fiction though have moved away from most of the paranormal fare.

Current reading - I'm doing well on my list of YA/children's reads for the month, only one left to complete, Close to the Wind. I also started Life in Outer Space last night, it is quite engaging, a little like Eleanor & Park.
I'm back to reading the bio on Menachem Begin by Daniel Gordis, will keep going slowly on this.
I started The man who loved children a while back and haven't made much progress, there is an annoying feature with this novel. Stead is Australian but lived in New York, her publisher requested that she rewrote her manuscript changing the setting from Sydney to NYC, unfortunately all the slang is Australian and it just doesn't seem right in the US setting with US characters. Still will keep reading, but again taking it slow.
I also started American Sniper last week as a followup to the ISIS book, quite different from my normal reads but again will keep reading. Also started The Book of Aron which is a great read and one I need to finish in the next couple of days as it's due back at the library.


Just watched another German film, Two Lives (2012) - riveting drama. 'Europe 1990, the Berlin wall has just crumbled: Katrine, raised in East Germany, but now living in Norway for the last 20 years, is a "war child"; the result of a love relationship between a Norwegian woman and a German occupation soldier during World War II. She enjoys a happy family life with her mother, her husband, daughter and granddaughter. But when a lawyer asks her and her mother to witness in a trial against the Norwegian state on behalf of the war children, she resists. Gradually, a web of concealments and secrets is unveiled, until Katrine is finally stripped of everything, and her loved ones are forced to take a stand: What carries more weight, the life they have lived together, or the lie it is based on?'

Now we have 2 films and 1 miniseries, all Polish, to watch. Dekalog is based on the 10 Commandments and all episodes are set in one apartment building.

Sorry - about to take over your thread briefly - could not resist. Here is my most favorite Pablo Neruda poem:

Mara Mori brought me
a pair of socks
which she knitted herself
with her sheepherder's hands,
two socks as soft as rabbits.
I slipped my feet into them
as if they were two cases
knitted with threads of twilight and goatskin,
Violent socks,
my feet were two fish made of wool,
two long sharks
sea blue, shot through
by one golden thread,
two immense blackbirds,
two cannons,
my feet were honored in this way
by these heavenly socks.
They were so handsome for the first time
my feet seemed to me unacceptable
like two decrepit firemen,
firemen unworthy of that woven fire,
of those glowing socks.

Nevertheless, I resisted the sharp temptation
to save them somewhere as schoolboys
keep fireflies,
as learned men collect
sacred texts,
I resisted the mad impulse to put them
in a golden cage and each day give them
birdseed and pieces of pink melon.
Like explorers in the jungle
who hand over the very rare green deer
to the spit and eat it with remorse,
I stretched out my feet and pulled on
the magnificent socks and then my shoes.

The moral of my ode is this:
beauty is twice beauty
and what is good is doubly good
when it is a matter of two socks
made of wool in winter.

Pablo Neruda

>71 nittnut: Oh you just snuck in while I was writing my last post. I'm sure it will appeal, long reads are so satisfying.

>73 nittnut: - great poem, I think his poems will appeal to younger readers. I'll have to do some more research. We've been eyeing the cheap fares to Chile and Argentina these past few days, tempting, but it's also winter there so not quite tempting enough.

I love the last stanza (?) of the Neruda poem. That is a great ending.
I would love to go back to Chile, having had such great times there in the past....plus, the southern landscapes remind me of NZ. It is kind of easy to travel too, start at the top and go down, or at the bottom and go up!

104) Close to the Wind by Jon Walter (2014)
children's fiction

The ship on the cover figures large in this enjoyable story. Malik, a 10 year old boy arrives to the port area along with his Papa, grandfather in the middle of a war in their unnamed country. His mother was taken by soldiers and his Papa says that she'll be meeting them on the docks. They must get on the ship that has come to take refugees but find that they'll need tickets, prices for which are escalating.
This is a great story, involving trust, who should Malik trust and has his grandfather been telling the whole truth? The relationship between Malik and his Papa is written really well and the plot is exciting and tense.

105: The book of Aron by Jim Shepard (2015)
fiction
First note that this adult novel has a young child as narrator. We meet Aron at the start of WW2 and the invasion of Poland by the Germans when he is just 8 years old. He and his family move to Warsaw and the book chronicles Aron's life and the eventual last few weeks/months spent with Janusz Korczak and his orphanage in the ghetto.
The book can be seen as an attempt to tell the story of Korczak though through the eyes of a small boy and while I'm really happy to see his story brought to today's readers I feel that there are more interesting novels and nonfiction accounts on the Warsaw Ghetto. It was a terrible time with much deprivation and horror, yet even though Shepard tells of some of these things I just didn't feel it. At one point Aron is taken by one of the Jewish Ghetto police to a cafe where he buys two hot chocolates and when Aron doesn't agree to be an informer he drinks both. For me, I can't see how there would have been a cafe serving hot chocolate at that point in time in the ghetto, I understand that when the ghetto is first walled up there would have been, but when the Germans were well into the deportations I'm not so sure. Overall this is a good read but not one I'd recommend before others if you wanted to know more about the Warsaw Ghetto.
At the back of the novel Shepard has listed the many many books he referred as well the people he consulted with, to to write this, very extensive and I would have liked to take more note of these references but the book was due back at the library and I finished it while at a nearby cafe before dropping it back. I read a couple of Korczak's children's books earlier this year and hope to read Betty Lifton's biography sometime in the near future.

For children's books /YA on Poland during the war: Uri Orlev's Run Boy, run, The island on Bird Street, The man from the other side and Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli.

Janusz Korczak - The King of Children: the life and death of Janusz Korczak by Betty Lifton
Review by Geraldine Brooks in the NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/24/books/review/the-book-of-aron-by-jim-shepard.h...

106) Life in Outer Space by Melissa Keil (2013)
YA fiction
This was a delightful quirky romance, I'd probably say like Eleanor and Park but without the difficult bits. Set in Melbourne the book is narrated by 17 yr old Sam, a Horror film fan, who has 3 good friends who are all at the mercy of the 'in' crowd at their high school. Enter new girl, sophisticated Camilla who is able to fit in with any crowd but chooses to focus much of her time with Sam's group of friends, to their amazement.
I like that while the romantic prospect is obvious from the get go, for most of the book Cam and Sam are developing a real friendship over common interests.

107) Boy in the Tower by Polly Ho-Yen (2014)
children's fiction
Ade and his mother are trapped in their tower block when buildings all around them begin collapsing. His mother has hardly left her bedroom for weeks, and everyone else seems to have evacuated their area of London. The collapses are blamed on a new type of plant life, named the Blucher after a street in their area. When the water and electricity stop working, Ade must explore his building for more food and water, it's too unsafe to go outside as the plants send out deadly spores. I really enjoyed this survival tale aimed at the younger reader.


108) Never fall down by Patricia McCormick (2012)
YA fictionalised biography
This book caught me by surprise, from the cover I was expecting another YA angst tale of an American-Asian fitting in at high school or some such. I knew that the book had been praised in many reviews and awards nominations but hadn't even read the back cover before picking it up.
What I found was a riveting survival tale of a young boy caught up in the 1970s Khmer Rouge takeover of Cambodia. The story is terrifying, horrendous and also inspiring. So I get to the end of the book and finally realise that it's actually the novelisation of a real person's story, Arn Chorn-Pond. who founded the Children of War & Cambodia Living Arts charities.
I read this in one late night sitting as it was a pageturner. Amazing story and one that needs to be told, but the acts of cruelty and deprivation also mean that the book could upset sensitive readers.
2012 National Book Award Finalist: 'One day, Arn Chorn’s world is transformed into a moveable hell ruled by Angka and black-pajama soldiers, where again and again he must yield the price demanded to go on living. Based on interviews, the harsh vignettes of Cambodian life under the Khmer Rouge are indelible, as McCormick’s narrative never flinches from scenes of murderous anarchy, or from the consequences of a boy’s four-year quest to survive a nightmare by bending like grass and never falling down.'
Arn Chorn Pond -TedTalk: Music saved my life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Crv9Bre_T2g
Guardian article about Cambodia Living Arts: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/mar/31/...
Another children's book, A Song for Cambodia by Michelle Lord is also based on Arn's life.

109) Baddawi by Leila Abdelrazaq (2015)
graphic novel
Abdelrazaq tells the story of her father's life growing up as a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon. The story is fairly bland, her father is not political, he gets a part time job and studies hard and eventually goes to the US to study in Texas. Abdelrazaq is an activist who has been very much involved in pro-Palestinian campus politics in the US and the book reflects this. Starting with the cover image, she has deliberately depicted her father as a child in the style of the late Palestinian cartoonist, Naji Al-Ali's Handala who is considered an icon of Palestinian defiance. Her text is polemic, depicting the 1948 Independence War as ethnic cleansing and the 67 Six Day War as another opportunity for ethnic cleansing.
The artwork is difficult to describe, she is an untrained artist and the art is almost naive. Scattered throughout are small examples of traditional Palestinian embroidery patterns.
I enjoyed Zeina Abirached's A game for swallows more though that is about a Lebanese family. I've requested her GN I remember Beirut from the library as a follow up.


110) Mike's Place: a true story of love, blues, and terror in Tel Aviv by Jack Baxter (2015)
graphic novel
Film-maker Jack Baxter arrived in Israel with the intent of making a documentary about the 2003 trial of Palestinian Marwan Barghouti. He was scooped but in the meantime he discovers a little bar on the Tel Aviv beachfront that functions on the rule no talk on religion & no politics. Regulars are locals including Arabs and expats, the language is English. After a talk with the owner, Gal, Baxter decides to make a documentary about the bar, the staff and clientele. The bar has also been chosen as the target for a Hamas suicide bombing mission by two British born men which takes place a few days later. Baxter is severely injured in the bombing, there are 3 dead and over 50 wounded. Thanks to the bravery of the bar's security guard, Avi who was badly injured, the number of fatalities was low. Baxter's camera keeps rolling in the days after by cameraman/director Joshua Faudem, catching reactions, recovery and eventually the reopening of the bar.
This graphic novel is Baxter's story and that of the people he befriends in these few weeks and also traces some of the steps taken by the terrorists in their journey. The artwork is well drawn, the lettering easy to read. Each chapter opens with a verse from the Quran, chosen to reflect more peaceful messages.
From a news website: 'At about 1:00am on April 30, 2003, Hanif attempted to enter Mike's Place on Herbert Samuel Street in Tel Aviv, not far from the United States Embassy. The security guard posted at the entrance detected the bomber and immediately blocked him from entering the pub. Hanif self-detonated on the spot, killing three people and injuring 55. His partner, Sharif, fled the scene, apparently when his explosive device failed to detonate. His whereabouts at the time were unknown, but the body of the would-be suicide bomber turned up on a Tel Aviv beach two weeks later.'

Book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxFzZGm4nuk
Blues by the Beach documentary trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN-ORfYk2ZE

Old Winkle and the Seagulls by Elizabeth and Gerald Rose (1960)
picturebook
I requested this from the library after noting that it was a Kate Greenaway Medal winner in 1961. The story is fairly straightforward, a fisherman who feeds the seagulls is the one who is rewarded by being shown where to fish by one of the gulls when the usual fishing grounds have no fish. The story shows the reliance of the whole village on the fish industry. The illustrations are typical for that era, mostly black and white line drawings with a little greyish wash, and 4 or 5 pages of colour. I loved the comic detail and overall was quite charmed.
__


The Spider and the Doves: The Story of the Hijra by Farah Morley (2011)
illustrated folktale
I judged this book by the cover, and now that I've read the story I'm less enthused. I expected the text to be more suited for a very young audience, but it's probably more for schoolaged listeners/readers. It's a folktale about how a spider helped Muhammad hide in a cave on the Hijra when he was ousted from Mecca and journeyed to Medinah where his teachings were accepted and the Islamic faith was founded. I hoped that the illustrations would be more inspiring than they were. I read Morley's Hurayrah the Cat a few weeks ago, both books are probably worth having in a public library.


111) Stealing People by Robert Wilson (2015)
crime fiction
This is the third Charlie Boxer book and I'm enjoying these reads in the same way that I enjoy my Jack Reacher books. Boxer has had a complicated past, ex-Army & ex-police, and is now a freelance kidnap consultant based in London. Pure over the top escapism with lots of action.


112) How to Fight Islamist Terror from the Missionary Position by Tabish Khair (2012)
fiction
This was first published in India and only recently republished in the UK. Khair is an English literature academic based in Denmark and so too is the narrator of this enjoyable little tale. I think the title will perhaps put some readers off, it did intrigue me and then the first sentence included the f-word which put me off a bit. Once I got going I really enjoyed this tale about judging people by your suspicions rather than by their actions.
'Funny and sad, satirical and humane, this novel tells the interlinked stories of three unforgettable men whose trajectories cross in Denmark: the flamboyant Ravi, the fundamentalist Karim, and the unnamed and pragmatic Pakistani narrator.'
I'm going to look out for his The Thing about Thugs.


113) I remember Beirut by Zeina Abirached (2008) (2014 Eng)
graphic novel
I really liked her A game for swallows and this is a looser story, more a collection of memories, still highly enjoyable. I really really love her style of illustration, the emphasis on black is powerful and dramatic. Do read the Swallow GN first.

_

would love to have a look at this book, French only I believe

Reading Plans for July:

I'm still dragging my feet on a few reads so will keep at them
The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead - ANZAC May read, still going
Menachem Begin by Daniel Gordis - on the backburner these past 6 weeks
Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman - small font makes it difficult to read at night
Spies against Armageddon by Dan Raviv - kindle read

Library books:
Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith - YA
Buffalo Soldier by Tanya Landman - YA, 2015 Carnegie Medal winner
The eternal city by Paula Morris - NZ YA
Zahra's Paradise by Amir - graphic novel
The Antarctic Book of Cleaning & Cooking by Wendy Trusler - travelogue
Konstantin by Tom Bullough
Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi
Boo: a novel by Neil Smith - YA
Towers of February by Tonke Dragt - YA
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
The girl on the train

my tbr pile:
Upstairs at the Party by Linda Grant
Brilliance by Anthony McCarten
Close your pretty eyes by Sally Nicholls - YA

The Soldier's Art by Anthony Powell - audiobook

Hi, Kerry! Love all the GN dedication over here. I picked up some recs! Thank you!

Good luck with your July reading plans. I have not heard of most of those authors, so I will watch for your thoughts.

>83 avatiakh: Hi Kerry - looks like an interesting line up for July. I may join you with Buffalo Soldier if I can get a copy from the library and I'm also hoping to read Tonke Dragt's The Letter for the King - sadly none of her other books seem very easy to find in English here.

>84 msf59: Mark, I have a requested a number of graphic novels from the library of late mainly due to that goodreads recommendation feature, it catches my eye more than the LT recommendations do, probably the layout of the page. I'm currently reading Zahra's Paradise, political about Iran and it is another good one. Also reading Moving Pictures which has a double timeline which will converge at some point but is a little hard to follow, the art is interesting though. I also have the Don Quixote GN by Rob Davis home from the library, I'm not sure if I'll read it all, might just dip into it.

>85 souloftherose: Heather, this will be my second book by Dragt and the only other one I have access to. I had to do an interlibrary loan which costs $5, copies on abebooks were going for over $70. I'm finding it rather dry at present, I loved The letter for the King so will push on. I've really enjoyed reading YA/children's literature from The Netherlands over the past couple of years. Now I've also got a couple of classic German YAs to tackle, No hero for the Kaiser & Brothers like friends.

Buffalo Soldier sounded interesting and it was still available at my library a couple of days after the Carnegie announcement so I grabbed it. I've also got Shackleton's Journey, the Kate Greenaway winner to read.

I'm not a huge fan of graphic novels, but a few of the ones you've read recently have caught my eye. I may see if my library has them. I am not sure why I don't like the graphic novels, but I think it has something to do with the way I read...

114) Uprooted by Naomi Novik (2015)
fantasy
I really loved this. Novik has written a fresh new story, one that is deeply nourished by East European folktales of dark forests and Baba Yaga. I raced through this in a couple of days, so different from my current meandering read of Shadow Scale (which is finally picking up). Every ten years a girl raised beside the woods is chosen by the Dragon wizard to be his companion helper. This coming year it's expected that the Dragon will choose Kasia, best friend of Agnieszka, as she has all the qualities of the previous chosen ones. The Dragon protects the local villages from the evil that lurks in the forests.

>87 nittnut: I read graphic novels when I'm in the mood for them. There's been lots of occasions when I've sent them back to the library unread.
I have a nonfiction one here at present that my daughter is really liking, Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas. Ottaviani did a GN on Richard Feynman that I enjoyed a while back, this one looks to be for a younger audience.

>88 avatiakh: Oooh, that one looks good - and I love the cover!

Hi, Kerry! I've been hearing good things about Uprooted. I hope I can find it on audio. I also have a copy of Primates, home from the library.

115) Close your pretty eyes by Sally Nicholls (2013)
YA
I picked this up after reading that Nicholl's latest book, An Island of Our Own won the 2015 Independent Bookshop Award for children's fiction. I like her work especially her first novel, Ways to live forever. This is a powerful look at foster care and how damaged some of these children are. 11 yr old Olivia is in her sixteenth foster home and this one looks to be her best shot at staying in a family, but she's haunted not only by her memories, but also the ghost of a Victorian baby farmer who used to live in the farmhouse. Not a book for sensitive readers.
This reminds me of Nicholas Dane by Melvin Burgess, though that one was focused on institutional abuse. Also some of the damaged children Adam Rapp writes about. Blood Family by Anne Fine also comes to mind.

Ok, now I'll look out for An Island of Our Own which involves a race to find buried treasure.

>90 scaifea: >91 msf59: I loved this and now need to read her other books.

Mark, I've also got The cute girl network which is possibly a bit light but I liked the idea of it.

Ok, my next focus has to be my interloan book, The Towers of February by Tonke Dragt, finishing off Shadow Scale (I'm finally getting there) and getting back to the Daniel Gordis bio of Menachem Begin.

Library books I've picked up since I posted my July reading plans:
The girl on the train by Paula Hawkins
The house of twenty thousand books by Sasha Abramsky
The spring of Kasper Meier by Ben Fergusson
A crackle of thorns: Experiences in the Middle East by Alec Seath Kirkbridge

and from the library sales table:

a few used dvds including Klute & Les Fugitifs
Hope Street Jerusalem by Irris Makler - a memoir
The pagan religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy by Ronald Hutton
Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals by John Gray - had this one out & never got to read it
The Servants by Michael Marshall Smith - unusual looking fantasy
Decently in Order: the centennial history of the Auckland City Council 1840-1971 - a handy reference
Lavinia by Ursula Le Guin

Ooh. Nice book haul - and Lavinia too. Serendipitous. :)

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on The Girl on the Train. Opinion seems to be mixed on LT but I liked it.

Have you read Hicksville? It is my current GN and it is quite good, but challenging. Much of it takes place in NZ.

>95 nittnut: Yes, I'd just been reading the Ursula Le Guin thread so it seemed only right that I grabbed her book. I notice on TIOLI that many peeps are reading her Catwings books, my daughter worshipped those when she was younger.

>96 msf59: I noticed that The girl on the train isn't beloved by all, one of the reasons I've sat in a huge library queue for most of the year, so hoping I enjoy at least.
Yes, I've read Hicksville, I love love the area it is set in. I've been to a couple of panel talks that Horrocks has participated in, he's an interesting speaker.

116) Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman (2015)
fantasy
This is the sequel to Seraphina and although I dragged this read out to several weeks I ended up enjoying the final section quite a lot. One of the biggest obstacles I found with this book was the small print and also the thinness of the font they chose to use. These two points combined to make the book hard to read at night, which caused me to avoid the book rather than giving me a reason to keep picking it up. I won't mention the plot as this is a sequel and I'm not sure what would be a spoiler for the first book.

>98 avatiakh: I didn't love it - and I found it very difficult to read. I may have over-anticipated this sequel. :(

As I raced through Uprooted in a couple of days, making myself read at least another 30-50 pages of Shadow Scale from time to time, I can probably say that I was also a little underwhelmed by SS and yet the last 100 pgs weren't that bad. I wondered if I'd read it more quickly perhaps I'd have liked it more. Reading Uprooted gave me the push to finally finish SS. Oh well, my next big fantasy read will be David Hair's Moontide Quartet, I've had the first book sitting around for too long.

The cute girl network by MK Reed (2013)
graphic novel
This caught my eye what with the title in hot pink and cute couple on the cover. Some of the language is a bit raunchy which was a little unexpected. Anyway skater girl, Jane starts dating Jack, the guy who runs a soup kiosk on her way to her job in a skater shop. She's new to town and soon finds out through the interference of the Cute Girl Network that they don't approve. Apparently Jack has 'history' with some of the members. The 'history' isn't really that bad, basically he's lazy and forgetful and the stories the women tell also reflect how unsuitable they were for Jack anyway. An exploration of gender as Jane's role in the skater shop is also focused on plus the attitudes of the various flatmates.


Pablo Neruda: poet of the people by Monica Brown (2011)
picture book - nonfiction
Slightly bland offering on the life of Pablo Neruda for younger readers. The illustrations are more interesting with lots of words incorporated into the art on every page.
Brainpickings did a more positive review: http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/11/04/pablo-neruda-poet-of-the-people-book/



Shackleton's Journey by William Grill (2014)
picturebook - nonfiction
This has just won the 2015 Kate Greenaway Medal for Illustration and I have to say the entire book is a beauty. it's not often that a nonfiction book wins these awards. Grill is also the youngest award winner at 25 yr old.

I really like his comments at the awards ceremony - 'William Grill spoke of how non-fiction and illustration could encourage those with reading difficulties to enjoy reading – and of his own experience of being dyslexic. “I believe there is a large, untapped reserve of non-fiction stories waiting to be re-interpreted that, handled correctly, can be educational and entertaining. They can also be more accessible for those who struggle with reading, as dyslexics like myself have. Picture books and graphic novels are a way into reading for us, and I was moved to create my book after reading of Shackleton’s heroism and endurance.”
Grill hopes his book will inspire children to succeed in life: “In Shackleton’s case, children can see that he and his crew proved that just because you fail it doesn’t make you a failure. In Shackleton’s own words, ‘the only true failure would be to not explore at all.’”
A passionate advocate of children drawing, Grill told us, “It’s sad that we lose the confidence and freedom of drawing as we age. As Picasso said, ‘every child is born an artist, the problem is staying one as you grow older’. Apart from being simply enjoyable, drawing has many benefits. It can be a way of thinking and communicating in a more lateral way. Observational drawing sharpens the eye and makes us more aware. I tell the children I draw with that to draw well you don’t have to be good-looking, but you do have to be good at looking!”' Guardian Books
I have the 2015 Carnegie winner out from the library also based on a true story - Buffalo Soldier.

Again Brainpickings has a great review of the book: http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/02/26/shackletons-journey-william-grill-nobrow...

I will have to get a copy of Shackleton's Journey. It looks fabulous.

>101 avatiakh: I just bought this for my mum who is a big reader of Arctic adventures. Family history claims my grandfather once owned Shackleton's hatbox. (No, I have no idea why this was seen as a good thing either!).

Such a beautiful book, and nice to read that the author has a passion for encouraging reading too.

117) The Towers of February by Tonke Dragt (1972)
YA scifi
The book's description is 'A fourteen-year-old boy finds himself transported to another dimension and unable to remember his past.' This is quite a read, at first a little exasperating and then a puzzle until pieces begin to slot in and sense is finally almost made. The book is mostly a diary, starting from Tim's first memory of standing in the dunes by the sea, and sighting two compelling towers in the distance...
Quite different from her A letter for a king.


118) Bandette Volume 1: Presto! by Paul Tobin (2013)
graphic novel
What a charmer, bold colours and a joie de vivre heroine along with a bunch of great characters. I loved this and my daughter did too. The intro by Paul Cornell is well worth reading before starting as it fully explains what to look out for and what makes this a great little GN without spoilers. At the end we are given an extra treat, short 2 page spreads by a selection of other artists giving a better glimpse into the other characters as well as a short story.



A River by Marc Martin (2015)
picturebook
Gecko Press tweeted a pic from this picturebook (not their publication) and that was enough to convince me to request it from the library. Melbourne-based artist Marc Martin has produced a beautiful study of a river and its path through forest, pasture and city to the sea. The cover is really striking.


http://www.marcmartin.com/
from an interview at The Design Files: Marc Martin is a quiet achiever. He has authored and illustrated four beautiful picture books, and has amassed a back catalogue of commercial illustration work which is SO seriously impressive. His clients include Monocle magazine, Wired magazine, The Financial Review, The Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Readings, Hitched Magazine and various festivals.

Much, though not all, of Marc’s work is influenced by nature. His work often depicts lush tropical flora and fauna, and with its hand rendered textures and meticulous detail, Marc’s work often channels creatives of the modernist era – Charley Harper and Bruno Munari count amongst his many influences.

>102 nittnut: >103 charl08: Definitely a book worth reading. I'm already wondering what Grills will do next.

119) Zahra's Paradise by Amir & Khalil (2011)
graphic novel

This is a powerful political statement about the 2009 Iranian protests. Done as fiction the GN follows one family's search for their missing son. Throughout the book are scattered beautiful sayings from classical Persian poets & philosophers.
ZP was started as a web-comic with weekly episodes by Amir Solani and 2 others who remain anonymous to protect their families in Iran.
Zahra's Paradise is the name of the huge Islamic cemetery on the outskirts of Tehran.
Included in the informative glossary is a list of 16,901 names of the Omid Memorial project, these are the names of those executed, shot in demonstrations or assassinated since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
https://www.iranrights.org/memorial/about
The story of Neda Agha-Soltan, a young woman who was shot is touched on, her story is covered in The Gaze of the Gazelle: The Story of a Generation by Arash Hejazi. Arash tried to save her life during the protest, but failed, he is a friend of the author.

in the jaws of the Mullahs
An interview with the author: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaYBT7YCO70
NYBooks review: http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2011/nov/01/slide-show-in-jaws-of-mullahs/

Good review of Zahra's Paradise. I have added that one to the WL. I picked up Delilah Dirk from the library.

>106 avatiakh: Wow, that is such a striking image. I will see if the library will get hold of Zahra's Paradise for me.

Kerry, I will give Uprooted a try, based on your recommendation. I just put the book on hold in our library system; I'm #19 in line, with 11 copies checked out.

>107 msf59: >108 charl08: Definitely a good read around this time of the Iran nuclear talks.

>109 ronincats: Roni, I raced through this one so fast.

Well, I'll be off on a holiday of sorts in a couple of days. About 2 weeks mostly in the Coromandel area, which is a couple of hours drive from here. We'll be based in Pauanui and I'm hoping that despite it being winter we'll get to see the whole peninsula. I remember some fairly windy and unsealed roads from the last time I was there, though that was more than a few years back.

one place I'm looking forward to is Hot Water Beach

and Cathedral Cove

First I have to finish My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante which I'm enjoying. This is about the 4th time I've borrowed the book from the library so about time I actually read it. I've already packed a load of library books for the trip.


120) Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas by Jim Ottaviani (2013)
graphic novel
Captivating graphic novel for younger readers about the lives and work of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Biruté Galdikas. It's fiction based on fact.

121) My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (2012)
fiction
The first in a trilogy, this is a beautifully written novel, set in a poor neighbourhood of Naples, Italy in the 50s & 60s, about two friends and their journey through childhood and adolescence.

Back from my sojourn around the countryside. We were based in the Coromandel and then a few days near the Tongariro National Park in the centre of the North Island. Enjoyed the time out of the city and will post a few photos once I have them off my camera.


122) A winter's day in 1939 by Melinda Szymanik (2013)
YA historical fiction
This novel is based loosely on Szymanik's father's story. His parents had a farm in the part of Poland that was disputed by the Russians and when Germany invaded Poland, the Russians also moved in to grab this part of the country. The Poles were forced off their land and families with ties to the military or army service were taken to camps in Russia. Once Germany declared war on Russia, these Poles were allowed to enlist again in the Polish army in Russia, their families ended up in Iran after suffering much hardship. The story follows the experiences of one family and their struggle to be together. This is well written, the hardship, starvation, work conditions, the endless travel are all in here. The book was a finalist for several awards here in New Zealand and was the winner of Librarian's Choice at the 2014 LIANZA Children's Book Awards.
I've read a couple of Szymanik's books, she did an outstanding picturebook, her debut publication I think, several years ago based on East European folklore, The Were-nana: (not a bedtime story), the illustrations by Sarah Nelisiwe Anderson are very evocative, a great collaboration. Her Jack the Viking, a junior novel, is on my to read pile.

were-nana illustration
http://www.sarahandersonillustration.com/Sarah_Anderson_Illustration/Sarah_Nelis...

123) The girl on the train by Paula Hawkins (2015)
mystery/thriller
I was about #690 in the library queue back in February and finally got the book a couple of weeks ago. I rushed through reading it as I noticed that the queue was still at about 800. Anyway, I'm pleased that I didn't fork over money for this one, it is an enjoyable read though doesn't really earn the hype that surrounds it imho. I felt that the characters acted in unrealistic ways in order for the plot to work. Enjoyable but not great.

124) Goodnight, Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian (1981)
children's fiction
I thought I'd read this, then realised a few months ago that I was getting it mixed up with Tom's Midnight Garden (1958) by Philippa Pearce. So when I saw it available as an e-book on the library website downloaded it for holiday reading. Quite a tough little story, I did feel that the mother was borderline unrealistic. The story is set around the child evacuees from London's blitz. In a small village, a young boy is taken in by reclusive widower Tom. Tom sees fairly quickly that the young boy has suffered from an abusive parent and treats him gently. Willie slowly emerges from his private hell and begins to blossom, but their story is far from over. Overall this is a wonderful story.

125) Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith (2014)
YA
I read Smith's The Marbury Lens which was fairly weird in a good way and this is sort of similar. He writes for teen boys and there is an element of constant 'horniness' going on for the main character. Anyway there is a lot going on here, first you have an almost love triangle - Austin loves his girlfriend Shann, but his best friend Robbie is gay and and Robbie loves Austin. Austin is really unsure how he feels about Robbie sexually. Robbie and Shann are friends who 'share' Austin. Sounds weird but as you read the book it sort of makes sense in an adolescent sort of way, hormones being hormones. On top of this is the actual plot of scifi apocalyptic proportions, the story is based on the few days when hell on earth is set loose in their Iowan hometown, in the form of six foot tall praying mantis creatures. And there is also the humour.... Austin's only way to deal with these fast moving events, you're also treated to the back story on Austin's Polish family background. Believe me, this crazy mix actually works.
If I make this sound like confusion on hormones then best just to read this NYT review here:
'Andrew Smith does it astonishingly well. “Grasshopper Jungle” is a rollicking tale that is simultaneously creepy and hilarious. Its propulsive plot would be delightful enough on its own, but Smith’s ability to blend teenage drama into the bug invasion is a literary joy to behold. Austin and Robby are intelligent and observant kids, keenly aware of how messed up the world is, even before the praying mantises begin their rampage.'

126) Buffalo Soldier by Tanya Landman (2014)
YA historical fiction
This book recently won the Carnegie Medal which is the main reason I picked it up. I have had Landman's I am Apache on my 'to read' list for a few years after seeing several of my childlit friends give it rave reviews. While researching her Apache novel, Landman came across mention of the Buffalo soldiers and the story of Cathy Williams, this novel eventually was written.
The Civil War is over, the black people have their freedom from slavery, but attitudes have not changed. A young black girl after many many months of deprivation poses as a boy and signs up to join the US Cavalry, protecting the settlers heading west from marauding Indians. The men of the 9th and 10th US Cavalry Regiments were black and faced discrimination from their fellow white soldiers. They can also see that the evolving treaties, agreements and peace talks that are being made with the Indians are basically worthless. Really interesting corner of US history being covered in this very fine novel.
Judge's comments: '“We were particularly impressed with how Buffalo Soldier explored what it means to be truly free: the evolving idea of freedom is an essential part of this gripping, often traumatic book.
Tanya Landman’s Carnegie winner, Buffalo Soldier, was inspired by the true story of former slave Cathy Williams, who was the only known African-American woman to enlist in the US army, under the guise of a man, serving for three years before her true identity was discovered.

Good review here: https://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/buffalo-soldier/
wikipedia about buffalo soldiers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Soldier

127) The Soldier's Art by Anthony Powell (1966)
fiction
A Dance to the Music of Time #8 and the second book of the Winter sequence which focuses on the War years. I enjoyed this, I'm getting back into the characters a little more, this novel had more interaction with various ones which added to my enjoyment. I'm heading straight into listening to The Military Philosophers.

128) The Eternal City by Paula Morris (2015)
YA
I was reading Paula Morris's blog when she was doing her research trip to Rome, so was keen to read this even though I'm not a total fan of her YA books. I've loved her adult fiction and also have enjoyed attending events at the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival where she has interviewed several writers, a highlight was her talk with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Laura is on the last day of a high school classics tour of Europe, the small group is in Rome, and a storm is brewing. The ancient gods of Rome are about to go to war, and it seems to be over Laura and the gemstone bracelet her grandfather obtained in Rome during WW2, a stone he found in bombed ruins seems to have more significance than one could ever think.
This is the third YA I've read of Morris, she injects supernatural elements, adding a small touch of romance, it works but these can only be considered lighter reading. She's writing for a US market, her characters are American and the other books are set in York, UK and New Orleans.

From the book I noted a few buildings and fountains in Rome that I want to find out more about, one of the joys of reading. This book gave us Mercury in boy form and as a crow as well as harpy seagulls. I'm quite enjoying these books where statues or paintings come alive, Charlie Fletcher's trilogy comes to mind.
Santo Stefano Rotondo / Fontana del Api / Fontana delle Tartarughe / Domus Aurea (Nero's Palace), also want to read more about the Pantheon.

129) Woman at point zero by Nawal El Saadawi (1973)
novella
This novella is quite a powerful statement on the role of women in Egyptian/Arab society. Firdaus has been sentenced to death for killing a man, and the night before her execution, she agrees to tell her story, and what a story it is.
Nawal El Saadawi has had an interesting life, and her foreword for this story is compelling. This book was republished in 2007 in a new series of classics of contemporary Middle Eastern literature by zed books.
I've added her The Hidden Face of Eve to my 'to read' list.

Hi, Kerry! Buffalo Soldier sounds really good. Just my cuppa. I am also enjoying Delilah Dirk, which I think you recommended.

I am listening to Girl at War. Have you heard of this one? It sounds like your "cuppa". Smiles...

>119 avatiakh: Glad you found this worthwhile. Were there any others republished that caught your eye? I wasn't aware this was part of a Middle East series, as I was reading it as part of the 50 books by African women writers.

>120 msf59: Mark - Buffalo Soldier is well worth your time.
I put Delilah Dirk on my to read list recently so not sure who is responsible for bringing it to our attention. Girl at War sounds good, I'll have to check my library.
I've just started the first Temeraire book and finding it immensely enjoyable. My other reading is puttering on.

>121 charl08: Now that I check zed books list, it seems they only republished her 3 novels:
Woman at point zero, The Hidden face of Eve & God Dies by the Nile
I was intrigued to see that Woman at point zero is included in 1001 books you must read. I don't follow that list but it always feels good to know that I've read one from there.

I started a few LT lists a year ago, you are welcome to add to them - Women in Islam, Middle East Fiction, Middle East and Maghreb Graphic Novels
http://www.librarything.com/list/9792/all/Women-in-Islam
http://www.librarything.com/list/9482/all/Middle-East-Fiction
http://www.librarything.com/list/9484/all/-Middle-East-and-Maghreb-Graphic-Novel...

Ooh. You got me with the Nawal El Saadawi books. She looks fascinating.

I had to tell you - I purchased Shackleton's Journey as one of my Thingaversary books. It makes me happy. :)

I'm glad to see you liked Goodnight Mr. Tom. I thought it was a sweet story. I have yet to listen to the one you confused it with - Tom's Midnight Garden, but it's waiting for me on Audible.

Glad that you are enjoying the Shackleton's Journey book.

I've just raced through the first Temeraire book and will definitely keep reading the series, just need to find where I stashed them.

130) His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik (2006)
fantasy/alternate history
Loved this first book in the Temeraire series. Will Laurence, a naval captain in the fight against Napoleon, suddenly finds himself bonded to a dragon and having to join the wayward Air Corps to learn the intricacies of aerial combat. Reminds me of the Pern novels, though quite different enough.

Soon after finishing this book, I saw a facebook post by Brian Falkner showing the cover of his latest YA book, Battlesaurus: : Rampage at Waterloo - Napoleon has developed a fearsome new monster weapon. So will be reading this asap, looks like lots of fun.

>104 avatiakh: Yes Kerry, The Towers of February is very different as The letter for the king, although the binding element (in most of her books) is another time...

>125 avatiakh: Happy to read you enjoy Temeraire too, I love that dragon!

Hi Anita - after reading Novik's Uprooted I knew that her style would appeal. I have the first few Temeraire books in a cupboard, just need to unearth them.
I'm fairly sure that only two books by Dragt are available in English, I think that Pushkin Press is planning to publish the sequel to A letter for the King (wow, what a difficult book to touchstone, always have problems).


131) Exquisite Corpse by Pénélope Bagieu (2010, French), (2015 Eng)
graphic novel
While I didn't quite gel with the plot, I adored the illustrations for this amusing tale. Zoe isn't that clued up on anything especially books and famous writers so when she meets reclusive writer Thomas Rocher, there is no instant fandom. She eventually moves in and becomes his muse....but when she finally works out the truth about this guy things get a bit awkward.
Zoe is drawn so beautifully, I love in the beginning her journey home from work, she starts off in high heels, hair in chignon and smart uniform, slips into runners, survives being squashed in the metro and by the time she reaches her unemployed boyfriend who spends all day in bed she looks as neglected as he does.
_

Just finished Uprooted. I read it all in one sitting, pretty much. As much as one can when home with the family on a Sunday afternoon. Lol. I really enjoyed it. :) I requested it at the library before they issued it - got to be the first one to read the new book. I like that clean, shiny new book feel. :)

Lucky you, I got it as an e-book from the library, surprised that it was available so easily. I haven't seen the book in any bookstores as yet. It's one that I'll consider getting a copy of as my daughter will also love it.
I picked up a copy of Egg and Spoon by Gregory Maguire when I was in Thames, it's about the Baba Yaga.

132) The Military Philosophers by Anthony Powell (1968)
fiction / audio
Book #9 in the Dance to the Music of Time series, I only have three left to read. I really enjoyed this one, Nick is working in London, liaising with first the Polish Free Army and then the Belgians towards the end of the war. I'm really keen to press on and find out what happens to Widmerpool, he so needs to be checked but probably won't be as these horrid types of people usually go from success to success. I've enjoyed listening to these 3 books on audio. Such an ugly cover.


133) Boo by Neil Smith (2015)
YA fiction
This was a great read. I saw a good review of it somewhere and so requested the book from the library. It's the first novel by Canadian Smith, his short story collection Bang Crunch was well received back in 2007. My only complaint would be that the font should have been slightly larger, as the dense print could be off putting to the target audience.
I loved the use of the periodic table to head the chapters or just play with space for pausing.
13 yr old Oliver 'Boo' Dalrymple finds himself in heaven or Town as it's known here, he thinks his weak heart gave out on him, though when he's soon joined by Johnny, another 13 yr old from the same school, he discovers they are both victims of a school shooting. Town is not what anyone could expect, they are in a walled off zone for 13 yr olds from the US and this environment of 13 yr olds who live on for 50 odd years before 'passing on' is quite fascinating. There is also the mystery surrounding their deaths, Johnny is convinced he'll know 'Gunboy' if he sees him, he's sure he's in Town by some administrative mistake.
There's lots to like in this.

Wanted to add a couple of reviews from elsewhere:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/review-neil-smi...
http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/review-boo-by-neil-smith-1.2255931
'The plot of Boo has real-life resonance for the author, who was on campus at the Université de Montréal in 1989 when a 25-year-old man, Marc Lepine, shot and killed 14 female engineering students. One of the stories in Bang Crunch details the aftermath of such a massacre at a university. In Boo, Smith moves to a high-school setting, where the focus is on bullying and mental health.'
'For all its dead characters, the novel is alive from the outset. Town is a captivating landscape, far away from Hollywood notions of heaven. The tagline on the book’s cover – “Even in heaven, life can be hell” – prepares the reader for horrors, but instead the author cleverly offers a banal no-man’s-land of an afterlife that is neither stereotypically hellish nor heavenly, just utterly believable.'

I loved Goodnight Mr. Tom when I read it years ago.

134) Menachem Begin: the battle for Israel's soul by Daniel Gordis (2014)
biography
While I felt I was covering ground I've been reading about constantly of late, this all serves to heighten my awareness of certain points in history and also reinforces current events in more perspective than just believing what I see in the day to day media which tends not to be as balanced as it could be when it comes to Israel.
What stood out in this book is the Jewishness and morality of Menachem Begin, he really was a great man for his country. I also became much more aware of the rift between Begin and Ben-Gurion, both before the establishment of the state in 1948 and then again afterwards. Ben-Gurion let Begin and the Irgun take the fall for much of the bad press in fighting during the Independence War such as the Deir Yassin incident, much of which that happened there has been exaggerated and become a main story for the Nakba. At the time it suited the Jewish leaders to let this impression given by the Arab radio reports of large numbers of dead be broadcast as it affected the morale of Arab fighters and communities.
The other huge clash was the Atalena affair, and as I had spent some time exploring the Atalena monument/memorial in Tel Aviv I found this also very interesting. Towards the end of the book Gordis relied several times on quoting Yehuda Avner, whose book The Prime Ministers I'm enjoying on audio at present. Avner was the English speechwriter for four Israeli Prime ministers as well as an ambassador, so was present at many pivotal moments in Israel's political history.
Overall this is a good introduction to Israel's modern history and to Menachem Begin, though to know Begin well you do need to read his The Revolt. I think also that The Prime Ministers, which I'm currently listening to, will give an even greater understanding of Begin as Avner has lived and documented the events he writes about. Begin remains my favourite Israeli Prime minister, probably because he was PM when I lived there.

I picked up Michael Oren's Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide from the library yesterday and just have to read it asap. I think I'll be forced to take a break from Israeli politics once I finish up these two books. I've also just started A crackle of thorns by Sir Alec Kirkbride which is a memoir of his times in the Middle East especially Jordan in the early 20th century. I've just read his take on Lawrence of Arabia which was interesting.

Link to Begin's Nobel Peace Prize speech from 1978, he was awarded alongside Anwar Sadat of Egypt who did not attend the ceremony.
Begin quote: “It is terribly important for an educated man, if he wants to know things, to read a minimum of 150 pages a day.”
Gordis wrote this article a couple of years ago about Begin: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Menachem-Begin-His-legacy-a-century-afte...

135) In the heart of the seas by S.Y. Agnon (1934)
novella
I really liked this though I can see it won't appeal to too many readers, rich as it is in Jewish traditions, biblical references and magical realism. It's the story of a group of Hasidic Jews who leave rural Poland (Galicia) to travel to a new home in the Land of Israel during the early 19th century. They are simple, religious folk who want to be buried in Israel so they can be counted among the first to rise when the Messiah comes. This is a religious pilgrimage and these aren't terribly worldly folk. When they come to the Black Sea and must abandon the wagons and voyage by ship, the womenfolk are terrified. They demand to return to their village, a rabbi must be found to divorce them from their husbands so they can return and the men continue. This is done, but now the women calm down and decide to continue the journey, the rabbi must now remarry all the couples and so the journey goes on. But in their haste, they forget their companion, Hananiah, a poor unmarried man whose own journey takes on magical proportions.

My edition has simple line drawings by Theodor Herzl Rome, who I discover on doing a bit of online sleuthing was the President of Schocken Books, the original publisher of Agnon's work in English.
'Under the leadership of Mr. Rome, who was considered by scholars as an authority on Jewish learning, literature and culture, Schocken published works of Franz Kafka, Martin Buber, and S. Y. Agnon. Mr. Rome was also known as an artist and book illustrator, and painted in Persia and pre-Israel Palestine before entering the publishing business in 1959.'


I read this for LT Reading Globally's theme read of Nobel Laureates Writing in a Language Other Than English.

>131 thornton37814: I still have lots of children's classics to get to.

Reading Plans for August:

would like to take it easy this month so lets see what I have lined up -

shared read with Judy @DeltaQueen50: Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts
and with Ilana - The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joël Dicker

ongoing reads:
The Man who loved children by Christina Stead - made some progress this past month, will try hard to finish
Spies against Armageddon by Dan Raviv - my kindle read, I'm about 32% done, just don't pick up the kindle that often
The Prime Ministers by Yehuda Avner - iPod audio - about 18 hrs left and I'm really enjoying this, Avner had an interesting job

Library books:
Konstantin by Tom Bullough
Marzi: a memoir by Marzena Sowa - graphic novel
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson - graphic novel
The Seven Good Years: a memoir by Etgar Keret
Dave at night by Gail Carson Levine - YA
A crackle of thorns : experiences in the Middle East by Sir Alec Kirkbride - memoir
Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide by Michael Oren - memoir
Gods of tango by Carolina De Robertis
Touch by Claire North
Daniel half human: and the Good Nazi by David Chotjewitz - interloan / YA Holocaust fiction
The Spring of Kasper Meier by Ben Fergusson - spy thriller
Dancing on the Bridge of Avignon & Hide and Seek by Ida Vos - Holocaust children's fiction
the cage by Ruth Minsky Sender - YA Holocaust fiction
The drowning girl by Caitlin Kiernan - YA
The story of Owen: dragon slayer of Trondheim by e.k. johnston
Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant by Tony Cliff

from my own shelves:
The stone book quartet by Alan Garner - childrens
The Reckoning: How the Killing of One Man Changed the Fate of the Promised Land by Patrick Bishop
The French Intifada: The Long War Between France and Its Arabs by Andrew Hussey

looks like a lot but I have that TIOLI approach to my reading, so....

Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins by Eric Kimmel (1985)
folktale/picturebook
Another Hanukkah story for children to enjoy. I loved the illustrations and will be looking out for more work by Trina Schart Hyman. Hershel comes to a village just before the Hanukkah holiday only to find that they cannot celebrate due to the goblins haunting their synagogue. Hershel must outwit the goblins and their king to save the village. A Caldecott Honor Book.
I've read a few of Kimmel's stories and they are always well told.

I'm interested in what you think about The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair. I think I disliked it more intensely than any other book I've read in recent years. On the other hand, I liked Yellow Blue Tibia, especially when you find out what the title means.

I've known about Hershel for a long time and thought the title was so funny that I've convinced myself I've read it... but I don't think I really have! Must go to library and correct that! I know I've looked at some of the illustrations though. Aren't they wonderful!

>137 arubabookwoman: I had decided against reading it as I've seen mixed reviews on the book, so, I might discard it if I'm in the 'not liking this' camp. I won't start reading till later in the month. I'm much more looking forward to Yellow Blue Tibia.

>138 cammykitty: I hadn't really taken note of illustrator Trina Schart Hyman before though I've read several books she illustrated. This book definitely made me sit up and take notice.
I found a flickr page with some of her work - https://www.flickr.com/photos/eoskins/sets/72157625221753124
The book I'd like to read now is her Self-Portrait, Trina Schart Hyman except my library doesn't have it.

Some new arrivals over the past few weeks -

In Thames we visited Carsons Bookshop (est. 1906), I've been here before and remembered that it was a well stocked independent and so it was. I spent some of the book vouchers that I had on -
Egg and Spoon by Gregory Maguire - fiction based on Russian folklore
Evie's War by Anna Mackenzie - one of my favourite New Zealand YA writers
The Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus Sedgwick - YA, love his work

In Taupo I managed to purchase:
H is for Hawk in another independent bookstore
We also visited a fair few charity shops and looked over their books:
Salvation Army in Taupo: full set of the Poldark series for $7
SPCA charity shop - Taupo: The crack in the teacup by Marina Warner - literary look at Victorian times
Charity shop in Turangi:
The Story of Moses by Walter de la Mare - mainly because it's illustrated by Edward Ardizzone
Paddy's Puzzle by Fiona Kidman - NZ author
Hand in Glove by Robert Goddard - collecting his books, they're good reads
Tirau - the fab used bookstore is gone, all that remains is a few bookshelves in the new cafe on the premises
In Forkbeard's Wake: coasting around Scandinavia by Ben Nimmo - travel
Holocaust: a history by Deborah Dwork - nonfiction

Back in Auckland my local independent, Readaway Books finally came up trumps and I got my copy of Maurice Gee: Life and Work by Rachel Barrowman,
I also had credit from the vouchers so browsed the shelves and came away with The unexpected professor: an Oxford life in books by John Carey. Having heard Carey speak to a hall full of students and again to an adult audience, I'm fairly sure this memoir will be a great read.
also picked up Hamish Clayton's second novel, one I've been waiting for ever since I read his debut, Wulf. The Pale North is set after an earthquake in Wellington. And Station Eleven with final of my vouchers.

a few other books for other family members as well. Plus this amazing green ginger honey at a Honey specialist shop in Taupo, along with some honeycomb.

First to the top by David Hill ill by Phoebe Morris (2015)
picturebook
Informative book for a young audience on the life and achievements of Sir Edmund Hilary. David Hill manages to keep the text very simple though informative and interesting while balancing the achievements with info on Hilary's childhood and interests. The climb to the top of Everest and down again is an exciting few pages. Well done illustrations, I just love that cover image with the mountains reflecting back in the googles. Would suit 4+


http://phoebe.design/

Sounds like a good book haul! I've read Marina Warner and really enjoy the way she can weave together both art and history. I'm heading over to flicker right now!

I have Warner's book on the Arabian Nights, just need to squeeze it in somewhere.

Sounds like you had a great time buying books, some really interesting ones there. Looking forward to your comments. The Hillary book also looks like fun.

136) Konstantin by Tom Bullough (2012)
fiction
Historical fiction that tells the story of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935) from childhood in the 1860s through to the birth of his first child and how he develops his theory for space travel. Told almost as vignettes, I found the second half of the book especially interesting, Tsiolkovsky teaches himself physics and mathematics by studying each day in a library in Moscow where he is supervised by librarian, Nikolai Fyodorov. Fascinating look at how the theory of rocketry and space travel developed. The launch in 1957 of Sputnik was timed to coincide with the centenary of his birth.
http://www.space.com/19994-konstantin-tsiolkovsky.html
https://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/rocketry/home/konstantin-tsiolkovsky....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Fyodorovich_Fyodorov

>98 avatiakh: Sorry to hear Shadowscale was a bit disappointing. I'm reading Seraphina at the moment and enjoying it. I will probably still go on to Shadowscale but perhaps with lower expectations!

I've also been on the library reserve list for Uprooted for ages - there's only one copy and I think one borrower just hasn't returned it.

>101 avatiakh: Shackleton's Journey is also on my library list. Glad you enjoyed it.

Hi Heather - I'm enjoying Touch by Claire North, i think you've read this?


137) Daniel Half Human and the good Nazi by David Chotjewitz (2004 Eng) (2000 German)
YA historical
I'm surprised that this is less known than other books, it seems quite a worthy read. Chotjewitz focuses on Germany in the 1930s and the growth of anti-semitism and the Nazi threat. Most YAs I've read have either focused more on the war itself or on an action plot whereas this book looks at the complex relationships at play within the family setting and with Daniel's friends.
Daniel at first is keen to join the HJ, the Hitler youth group, his best friend Armin is going to join. His father is against it, and then it comes out that Daniel's mother is Jewish, though her parents converted to Christianity and renounced their Jewish faith many years earlier. Daniel is so angry with his mother for betraying him like this. He has to come to terms with his heritage while his father is advised to divorce and let his wife and son emigrate. At school the students are taught that worse than a Jew is the half-Jew, a corruption of the Aryan race and barely half human, a monstrosity.
The book begins with Daniel as an adult, a US army interpreter, back in Hamburg after the war ends, about to begin questioning German soldiers who are being demobbed.
The book won several awards in its English translation.

From Kirkus reviews: 'Readers will feel Daniel’s self-loathing upon learning that he is half-Jewish, his mother’s growing hysteria as she realizes her blood damns them all, his lawyer father’s increasingly desperate faith in the German capacity for reason, and Armin’s conflict as he struggles to be both a good friend and a good Nazi. There are many Holocaust books for children, but this one stands out in its careful dissection of one family’s experience before the war, and in its nuanced approach to the complexity of emotions and relationships under stress. '

The Iridescence of Birds: A Book About Henri Matisse by Patricia MacLachlan (2014)
picturebook
A look at the early life of Henry Matisse and the influences that led to his love of colour. Brilliantly told in simple sparse text, the artwork by Hadley Hooper is delightful.

>136 avatiakh: This was a favorite Hanukkah book when my daughter was little. And Kimmel lives in Portland!

The Right Word: Roget and his Thesaurus by Jen Bryant (2014)
picturebook
Wow, this picturebook is an illustrated superstar. Melissa Sweet uses a combination of collage, illustration, fonts and lists of words to engage the reader in the simple story of Roget's life and how after a lifetime of making lists for himself, he came to publish his thesaurus (Greek for treasurehouse). A treat from cover to cover.




The king and the sea by Heinz Janish (2015) (2008 German edition)
picturebook
The artwork is by Wolf Erlburch and you either love it or dislike it. I'm close to the dislike on this one though I see how it works for the text, I just think this art style is too sophisticated for the audience perhaps. Anyway it accompanies 21 short tales about a king, each only a couple of sentences long. Would provoke good discussion among young children as they could make up and add their own stories to the mix.

Three samurai cats: a story from Japan by Eric Kimmel (2003)
This retold tale is illustrated by Mordicai Gerstein and is a lot of fun. I liked the use of traditional Japanese names for the various people eg daimyo, docho. There's a glossary at the back to explain, though most is explained within the text. Anyway a fairly straightforward folktale, a giant rat is taking over the home of a Japanese nobleman and it takes three attempts by three different styles of samurai cat to get rid of him. The artwork combines hilarity with authenticity.
I would love my own copy.

Squishy squashy birds by Carl van Wijk (2014)
picturebook
I mostly loved this one. Sammy carries around his beloved copy of New Zealand Endangered Birds in his backpack all week and only gets to bring it out for the weekly show and tell in class. Inside the book the birds are all squished and squashed and can't wait for their weekly outing.
The artwork is extremely well thought out, the squashed bird takes up every bit of space on the page. When released they all have their own personality and illustrator Alicia Munday has tried to give a good depiction of wing span and size.


The artwork is available on tote bags (very effective) and other general merchandise here, I'm tempted to get a tote if I can make up my mind to which one: https://society6.com/vanwijk

138) Hide and Seek by Ida Vos (1981 Dutch) (1991 Eng)
children's fiction
This is an autobiographical novel that closely follows the experiences of Vos and her family during the years of WW2.
I found it very heartfelt in the young girl's experiences of the early days of Nazi occupied Holland, the shame of having to wear a star, giving up her birthday bicycle when Jews were no longer allowed them, not being allowed to sit on benches, go into shops, follow friends into the park, walking past the horrid 'Jew' poster on her way to school (Jewish children were no longer able to ride the trams) etc etc.
While many Dutch agreed with the antisemitic policies, there were many who helped hide families, though oftentimes as in Vos' case the parents were separated from the children.
Especially telling were the chapters about the aftermath of the war, how so many people never came back.

From wikipedia: 'During the 1970s Vos was admitted to a hospital due to her war traumas. This led to writing about her experiences, first as poems, but soon in the shape of stories and - eventually - children's books. Central in her work was the infringement on her freedom by the Nazi occupiers and the time she spend in hiding.'

Last year it was brought to light that Jews, returning from concentration camps were forced by the Amsterdam city council to pay back taxes and fines on their property seized by the Nazis - http://www.timesofisrael.com/amsterdam-fined-taxed-holocaust-survivors-in-hiding... - City of Amsterdam fined hundreds of Jewish Holocaust survivors for failing to pay taxes while they were in hiding or in concentration camps.

excellent review here: http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-395-56470-7

>149 banjo123: I enjoy his books, it's his Samurai cat one that I want now.

Current reading is not really what's shown at the top of my thread. Those are three books that I'm dipping into when I get time for the devices - iPod audio, kindle and iPad. Mostly my reading is library books and today I went out without my kindle so started a library graphic novel that I picked up on my way to the cafe.

Message to Adolf Part 1 by Osamu Tezuka - this GN was mentioned in an article I read when researching the background to Daniel half-human, a recent read. It starts during the 1936 Olympics, a Japanese sports journalist becomes embroiled in some coverup of his brother's death in Munich. Quite a good read so far, sort of noir thriller in a graphic novel. I requested both volumes and at 650+ pgs each it's going to be a rather epic read.

Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant by Tony Cliff & Marzi by Marzena Sowa - other GNs I started
A crackle of thorns: experiences in the middle East - by Sir Alec Kirkbride - memoir
Touch by Claire North is the second book by Catherine Webb/Kate Griffin writing under his name. I enjoyed the first, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, though it wasn't a rave read. I've been thinking that this one is almost a reaction to her first book, there are similarities but the plot is thrilling enough that you keep reading along.
The Stone Book Quartet by Alan Garner - started this children's novel,
The Prime ministers by Yehuda Avner - my current audiobook is a memoir that is proving very entertaining and interesting.
The man who loved children by Christina Stead - on the iPad and one I will plug into soon
Spies against Armageddon by Dan Raviv - kindle, I'm trying to finish this one, it's interesting about Israel's Mossad and Shin Bet, currently been reading about how Dimona got built.

Thanks for posting the images from the picture books: the Matisse one in particular looks beautiful.

Nice review of Hide and Seek, Kerry. I read a somewhat similar autobiographical novel last month, A Childhood by Jona Oberski, which was written by a young Jewish boy from Amsterdam who was deported to a concentration camp along with his parents during World War II. (Ah; I see that you own this book as well.)

I recently learned that the Jewish population of Amsterdam was severely decimated by the Nazis, as more than 75% of the city's residents perished and that their homes were looted and in some cases destroyed during the last months of the war, when thousands of non-Jewish Amsterdammers starved, many to death, during the Hunger Winter. (You probably know all of this already.) I did not know, though, that the Amsterdam City Council forced the Jews who survived and return to their homes to pay fine and back taxes during their incarceration. That is unbelievably shameful, but most Amsterdammers did little to defend or protect its Jewish neighbors during the Nazi occupation.

Happy Sunday, Kerry! Looks like you are doing some fine reading over here, as usual. How do you like Delilah Dirk?

>156 charl08: The Matisse book illustrations were fairly understated considering the vibrancy of Matisse's own art.

>157 kidzdoc: The Oberski book looks interesting, I haven't read it and don't remember it from others I own. I'll have to look it out.
When I was a child we had neighbours from Holland who used to talk a little about the war years and surviving by eating tulip bulbs. I can't remember much but I think the husband had delivered messages for the resistance. They were farmers so must have lived in rural Holland.

>158 msf59: Hi Mark, I haven't picked it up for a few days but enjoyed the start. I need to dedicate a day to finishing some of the GNs I have on the go.

139)Touch by Claire North (2015)
fiction
I enjoyed her The first fifteen lives of Harry August but didn't love it. This one feels like the same sort of read but with different premise. The protagonist is able to move through human bodies through touch, sparked by a violent death eons ago, where he jumped from his dying body into that of his killer. Forever chased by mystery people who want to kill off these 'parasites' who live in host bodies. Well written enough to keep me reading, though again, not that great a read that I feel I can recommend it either.

140) The mystery of the clockwork sparrow by Katherine Woodfine (2015)
children's fiction
This was a lot of fun to read. Most of the action takes place in a newly opened department store, Sinclairs, reminiscent of Selfridges or suchlike. Newly orphaned Sophie with a riches to rags story to match is lucky to join the staff as the eccentric American owner readies it for opening. The opening day exhibition of Mr Sinclair's jewellery collection is marred when his collection is robbed and Sophie's innocent movements are deemed suspicious. Most precious is the mysterious clockwork sparrow.
Great read for tweens.

Oh and so I went to look at Katherine Woodfine's bio and boy, she has one of the best jobs going, working at Booktrust in London and project manager for the children's laureate.
'Today, I live in London, where as well as my own writing, I also work as Arts Project Manager for reading charity Book Trust. I’m lucky enough to be the project manager of the Children’s Laureate programme, which gives me the chance to work with children’s writers and illustrators including the likes of Anthony Browne, Julia Donaldson and Malorie Blackman. I also manage book events such as YALC (the UK’s Young Adult Literature Convention), run book prizes and create materials such as Book Trust’s annual Best Book Guide.' - http://katherinewoodfine.co.uk/about-me/

>162 avatiakh: I just ordered that for my daughter. It looks like fun!

Jenn - she should enjoy it. A little more grim but worthy are the books by Mary Hooper, most are historical fiction set in London. Also Katherine Sturtevant's books.


The Princess and the Pony by Kate Beaton (2015)
picturebook
My daughter and I spotted this tucked in amongst a display of picturebooks. Dana is a fan of Beaton's web comics and was delighted to see a book featuring the beloved pony. Needless to say she is now the proud owner of something at least by Kate Beaton.
A subversive story, quite cute, that both adults and children can enjoy.




Shh! We Have a Plan by Chris Haughton (2014)
picturebook
Love Haughton's books and this one is especially good. Love the colours, love the art, love the story.



Book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyJx9cu7snc

>164 avatiakh: We are discovering she doesn't like grim. I've been trying to get her to read Esperanza Rising - one of my favorites - and she says it's too sad. She's been complaining she's got nothing to read, so I've ordered her A Single Shard, The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow and The Mother Daughter Book Club for us to do together (rather hoping it will spark some interest in some of the classics). They are all very different, Lol. We will see what she chooses.

I'll put my thinking cap on and try to remember a few more fun books for this age group.
Spud comes to mind, a 14 yr old boy in 1990 South Africa keeps a journal of his boarding school life.

141) Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant by Tony Cliff (2011)
graphic novel
Swashbuckling adventure set in the Ottoman Empire. Fun with swords and flying sailboats.

142) The Stone Book Quartet by Alan Garner (1976)
children's fiction
Four stories across four generations of a family, spanning the 1890s through to the 1940s. Each one about a young boy linking their place in the family story along with vivid descriptions of rural life. Excellent.


143) Nimona by Noelle Stevenson (2015)
graphic novel
Fun GN starring Nimona, an annoying but adorable shapeshifting girl who turns up to be the sidekick to Lord Ballister Blackheart, villain. Entertaining.

Happy Sunday, Kerry! Glad you enjoyed Nimona. It has been one of my favorite GNs of the year.

I liked Nimona, too, Kerry. She's got a clever, understated sense of humor. Her Lumberjanes also is fun.

Delilah Dirk was kind of like an amusing Saturday afternoon movie for me. In fact, it probably would make a pretty good movie, wouldn't it?

>80 avatiakh: How I enjoy visiting here. You read such wonderful books! I have a copy of Never Fall Down. I think I'll wait awhile to read it. I don't deal with torture and man/woman's inhumanity to man/woman.

>169 msf59: Hi Mark - yes, Nimona was a treat. I'm now reading Marzi.

>170 jnwelch: I've got Lumberjanes out from the library.Yes, Delilah Dirk would be good as a movie, that aqueduct scene would be a treat.

>171 Whisper1: Linda, I also find your thread an inspiration. Never fall down was a great read, though definitely a hard one.

144) A crackle of thorns : experiences in the Middle East by Sir Alec Kirkbride (1956)
memoir
I came across mention of this book in an online article about Middle East history and was pleased to see my library had it stored away in their stack room.
Kirkbride was a British diplomat who spent 30 years in Jordan, first as an advisor and then later as the first British ambassador. He was also governor of Acre and of the district of Galilee in Palestine from 1922 to 1927 and from 1937 to 1939. This memoir was a fascinating read, so many historical moments that Kirkbride was present at; he was part of the team that surveyed the border between Syria and Jordan in 1932, taking the straight lines from the map drawn up in Paris and marking it out on the terrain itself. He describes numerous hunting trips, archaeological adventures in his favourite part of Jordan, Wadi Rumm and even includes some ghost stories.
Kirkbride first travelled to the Middle East at the age of nine. His family lived in Cairo and Kirkbride grew up fluent in French, English and Arabic and developed an understanding of the Eastern mindset. He was still in Egypt when WW1 broke out and enrolled in the British Army there.


145) Spies against Armageddon : inside Israel's secret wars by Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman (2012)
nonfiction
An indepth look into Israel's Mossad, Aman and Shin-Bet and their activities of intelligence collection, covert operations, and counterterrorism. The book covers the historical perspectives, the various leaders over the years and some of the most well known missions. Very interesting read, I'm fairly sure that I've read an updated edition of the book.
Here are a couple of links:
Review: Spies against Armageddon : http://www.jewishpost.com/news/secret-wars-of-israel.html
Raviv's website: http://israelspy.com/about-the-book/

Bandette : Stealers keepers! vol 2 by Paul Tobin (2015)
graphic novel
Second volume about Bandette, almost as good as the first.



The Scraps Book : Notes from a Colorful Life by Lois Ehlert (2014)
picturebook
A peek into the creative mind of Lois Ehlert, children's picturebook illustrator. She tells a little of her childhood and then some of how she gets inspiration for her work as well as how her picturebooks come together. Her art is so colourful and her books so simple yet bold. This gives a glimpse at her creative process. The book will appeal to adults who love and promote her picturebooks and also children will enjoy seeing into the book process.


Some more pics here: http://ritaottramstad.com/inspiration/6-reasons-i-want-to-be-lois-ehlert-when-i-...

>173 avatiakh: A Crackle of Thorns sounds interesting. Was it well written? I read Desert Queen quite a few years ago, and have always wanted to read more about that time period.

Well it was interesting though I think there are more informative books out there. I just enjoyed a lot of his stories, many gave a low key look at life in these places before it got so political.
He says at the end that he found the sons of many of the men he worked with very different from their fathers in their outlook and much less friendly and open.
Suzanne read Lawrence in Arabia a while back and recommended it and would be able to recommend a good historical read for this region. I have a book by Sir John Glubb to read, A soldier with the Arabs, he helped form Jordan's Arab Legion and Kirkbride mentions him often.
Another one I'd like to read is, Star of the Morning: The Extraordinary Life of Lady Hester Stanhope.

A couple of years ago I read A Line in the Sand: Britain, France and the Struggle That Shaped the Middle East by James Barr and that shed quite a bit of light on how the region was divided up.
Another worth looking at is Jerusalem: a biography by Simon Sebag Montefiore - this gives the history of the city from the earliest times.

146) Marzi: a memoir by Marzena Sowa (2005 French) (2011 Eng)
graphic novel

Sowa tells the story of her childhood growing up in 1980s Poland under communist rule. I found it really interesting to read, there's a lot of humour and also a child's worry for her father when the factory goes on strike. The tales of the shortages of basic commodities is done really well, and she also tells of her annual holidays in rural communities visiting family. All told it gives a fairly decent overview of life in Poland from a child's perspective. The GN is a omnibus of 4 vols of Marzi.
She would never have written this if it wasn't for her partner, Sylvain Savoia, who encouraged her to write these stories down, which he proceeded to illustrate. The illustrations are wonderful, I loved his depiction of the child 'Marzi'.
There's an interview with both here: http://www.cafebabel.co.uk/politics/article/marzena-sowa-in-communist-poland-id-...

I'm fairly much all graphic-novelled out at present, I have two more out from the library and then I need to take a break. Lumberjanes and This one summer both look good.

edit: forgot that I'm also reading Message to Adolf, a huge doorstopper in two volumes.

I've got Lawrence in Arabia on the TBR list, and I've looked at A Line in the Sand a couple of times, but the reviews aren't exactly glowing. Of course, not everyone is fond of just the facts. :) Jerusalem looks like an interesting companion to Old Testament studies and I think I may pick that one up and read it in a leisurely fashion. :)

The good thing about A line in the sand is that Barr had access to newly released archival stuff from both Britain and France which sheds new light on some of the decisions etc. I think I found it a rather dry read, I remember taking a while to get through it.
You might like Michael Oren's book about the Americans in the Middle East, Power, Faith and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, it also covers a wider time period but I found it quite fascinating. I listened to the audio of this and also the audio of Jerusalem.

There are lots of memoirs around from this time period as many missionaries were active across the Middle East. The American University in Beirut was established in 1860 or so, railways being built, oil becoming important so there was a large active European & American community looking after their interests.

147) Message to Adolf part 1 by Osamu Tezuka (1983 Japanese) (2012 Eng)
graphic novel
I flew through the first volume of this manga epic. The story is dark, set in Japan and Germany during the late 1930s and going into the start of WW2. The story involves 3 Adolfs: Hitler and two boys, one a Jewish refugee in Japan and another a Japanese/German whose father is a Nazi, also living in Japan at the start. The story also follows Sohei Toge, a Japanese sports reporter who is covering the 1936 Olympics in Germany when he uncovers a mystery when his brother, a student radical, disappears in Berlin and then turns up dead. The premise is that there are documents proving that Hitler is part-Jewish and everyone wants to get their hands on them.
A good overview is here: http://au.ign.com/articles/2005/05/03/required-reading-adolf - 'Osamu Tezuka is best known for creating fanciful characters including Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion. Often likened to Walt Disney, some may find it surprising that one of Tezuka's most stunning works focuses on World War II. Though a work of fiction, the 1983-1985 work Adolf (originally titled "Tell Adolf" in Japan), examines three lives from the 1936 Olympics in Berlin through the end of WWII and years beyond. All three men happened to be named Adolf.'

'Osamu Tezuka (1928-89) is the godfather of Japanese manga comics. He originally intended to become a doctor and earned his degree before turning to what was still then considered a frivolous medium. His many early masterpieces include the series known in the U.S. as Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion. From the early seventies on, he increasingly targeted older readers as well, employing a grittier style and mature themes. With his sweeping vision, deftly intertwined plots, and indefatigable commitment to human dignity, Tezuka elevated manga to an art form. Since his passing, his international stature has only grown, his eight-volume epic Buddha winning multiple Eisner and Harvey Awards in the United States.' - http://www.vertical-inc.com/books/adolf.html