almigwin tries to keep track

I will start with a few i have read so far this year and add them as i remember them. I hope to keep track from now on.

The Tale of the Genji by Lady Murasaki (reread)
The Bride Price by Buchi emecheta
The Moonlight Bride by Buchi Emecheta
The Joys of motherhood by Buchi Emecheta
The Assault by Harry mulisch
The Mortdecai trilogy by Kyril Bonfiglioli
Goodbye Piccadilly and the consequences of war by betty burton
Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati or Rosina Lippi (her other name)
The ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander and his short story collection.
Emily hahn's biographical novel about Aphra Behn
Betsey Thoughtless by Eliza haywood (reread)
The Dower House by Annabel Davis-Goff
The Coast of Utopia by Tom Stoppard

Welcome to the party house, almigwin!

Thanks Laura. You were my inspiration!

Some more of this years reading were a bunch of books by leo Perutz including
At Night Under the Stone Bridge,
Leonardo's judas,
Turlupin, and some Ivo Andric:

The woman of Sarajevo by ivo andric, The Bridge on the Drina by ivo Andric
Short stories in
Jewish Fiction from the Edge edited by Paul Zakrzewski

Edited to note that I found out I read the tom stoppard play The Coast of Utopia and the Perutz books in December so they don't really belong here. My memory is lousy. I will try to post as I go starting in February.

almigwin, Good to see you here. You know you're going to capsize the boat, don't you? What do you think of Andric? The Bridge on the Drina has been on my want list for quite a while.

LINDA: It was historical and sweeping. I liked The woman of Sarajevo better, because it was more about character.

I felt I should have liked The Bridge and Bosnian Chronicles more than I did. I think I just was not in the mood for the sweep of history.

I'll go back to them another time. Andric is a great writer; no question about that.

i DON'T MEAN TO CAPSIZE ANYBODY'S BOAT.

Remember, I am retired and don't have any day to day responsibilities for work or children. And I have been averaging a book a day for my whole life except when i was in college or grad school and had to slow down and really study seriously.

(i normally do more, but I moved to Florida this month, and spent some time real estate shopping).

tOUCHSTONES NOT WORKING.

almigwin: good to see you here. Will check in from time to time.

Welcome, almigwin--I look forward to seeing your year's reading!

A book a day!! *swaying with hand on forehead*
I'm doubly amazed, almigwin.

Are you sure you're in the right group, I mean, 50 books.....a challenge??

Got The Twilight of love Travels with Turgenev by Robert Dessaix in the mail today along with a bunch of hrabal, and an xtra copy of the Joys of motherhood to leave in Florida.

I got about a dozen of small modern Library books in a thrift shop today ( really yesterday due to the time being tomorrow). (shakespeare, Cellini, Trollope, Thucydides, Goldsmith, etc.) They were 99 cents each and from 1932 or thereabouts but in good shape. I have read them all, they are duplicates for the Florida library. I have to watch out: the condo is small. I catalogued them if anyone is interested.
I am reading The Twilight of Love, The Din in the
Head and Fast Women by jennifer Cruisie. I reread Another Marvelous Thing by Laurie Colwin. When I find one of her books in the thrift shop I gobble it up along with any Cruisie, janet Evanovich, andJennifer Weiner. i love funny chick lit for refreshment like Good in Bed.

I wrote a long discussion of The Twilight of Love and the computer ate it up. In brief, it is a bittersweet tale of Tugenev's lifelong obsessive love for Pauline Viardot, and his odder domestic arrangements with (near) her and her family.

The book is a travelogue of sorts, and follows Turgenev's paths through Baden Baden, Paris, Oryel, Spasskoye, moscow, Petersburg, and visits his partially restored homes or the places where they would have been.

It is a beautiful and sad book, and a must for Turgenev fanatics like me, but not necessarily for everyone else. If my lost review shows up, I apologize for the duplication.

I finished Fast Women which is like a combination of The First Wives Club and the movie Out Cold which combines the stories of rejected wives (and rejected husbands) with attempts to enter the business world and murdered bodies found in freezers. lots of happily ever after, happy sex, chinese takeout, and fashion discussions. Lots of fun if you are in the mood for chick lit mystery writing. It clears the palate after really sad books.

Am dipping into the Cynthia Ozick essays The Din in the Head , and have started Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil hrabal. Will report on it soon.

Cynthia Ozick's A Din in the Head is a treasure, imo. The essays are very different, some substantial, and some insubstantial.

The essay on Bellow discusses Ravelstein and it is interesting, in that Ozick is claiming that it is not necessarily a 'true' story, or a roman a clef even though Bellow was great friends with Allen Bloom and went through the food poisoning experience in the caribbean.
Much of the story is really what happened, in that allen Bloom did become a millionaire by writing he Closing of the American mind.

She says, about Bellow, and Philip Roth even when he is writing about 'Philip Roth' that this is FICTION. The novel takes whatever lliberties it cares to take to produce a work of art or a work of emotional truth or whatever you choose to call it. There are those that think that history and biography are fictional also, since no one can accurately recreate the past, or another's thought or speech or life. There is an element of invention or creativity in all of this.

I thought, when reading it, that Ravelstein was true in every respect. But maybe that is the genius of Bellow- to make you think that. I could write about all the other essays, but i guess this is not the place.

Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal is a comic novel about a passionate book lover, who spends his life compacting used books and waste paper, and taking home as many as posssible. He hopes to buy his own compactor and duplicate his job when he retires.

I can't explain the adorable character of the ?hero? but his comments about his life, and other people are very funny. It's a paen to the love of books.

I'm now reading Last Call by Harry mulisch about an aging actor getting a last chance to reenter the theatre. So far i love it and I thank whoever told me about HarryMulisch.

That is 24 so far including a few from december. I will keep count as I enter them from now on.

almigwin, what a literary inspiration you are!

Terri, thank you. It is a privilege to share my joys in discovering wonderful writers from other cultures, and new writers from our own, and revisiting cherished classics.

if i inspire anyone, I hope it is to use your reading time on the best stuff you can find, unless you need some fluff to recuperate from the trials of the real world. And to try to appreciate the difficult authors the critics say are worthy even tho it takes a lot of study, analysis, and the reading of much criticism to do it properly. And if you can master some languages well enough to skip the translations and read the originals, it really helps a lot.
i have been able to read Rilke and Brecht in german, appolinaire, desnos, breton, mallarme, verlaine, baudelaire and rimbaud in french, and lorca, neruda, paz, sosa, vallejo, and huidobro in spanish among many others.
I am so happy that I studied at a young enough age to get pretty good at it.
The riches of world literature are endless. I wish I could live a thousand years, and read ALL the good stuff. (And learn all the languages!)

Just read Swimming in the sea of Death by David Rieff. the son of Susan Sontag. It is a long meditation on the unwillingness she had to accept the facts of her terminal cancer- a brutal form of leukemia. I had read an article by him similar to this in the new york times magazine section, and a book has been made of it. (I bought it twice, by mistake, so I will have a copy for New York.) He seems to feel that he did not say or do the right things, or give his mother enough love or understanding at the end which was very long and horribly painful and debilitating. It is a very sad book, she lnever accepted the inevitability of death, and he was not able to comfort her.

I am finishing up Dancing to Almendra from the early reviewers. Although it is translated from the Spanish, i think it is brilliantly written. There are some unnecessarily gratuitous ugly parts, like snot dripping from noses, and leprosy victims with pieces missing, guts falling out of a dead hippopotamus, the smell of chopping dead animals for zoo food, etc. I think the mystery of Anastasia's shooting at the Park Sheraton, and the simultaneous death of a hippo in the zoo would have made a funny story if the book were not so full of ineptitude, sadness, murder, bloodshed, frustration, tragedy etc. It is bright and sprightly and noir at the same time. I really don't know what to make of it. I have no expereience with true crime novels. This one is very interesting, and odd, and often disgusting, and sometimes touching, and very weird.

My other Early Reviewer book is the Aaronsohn Saga by Shmuel (Samuel) Katz. It is a very complex story of the espionage work done for the British Army in their fight against the Turks, in the Palestine of World War One.

Aaron and Sarah Aaronsohn were heroes in the establishment of pro-British espionage in a time when many leaders including Ben-Gurion were pro-Turkish.

Aaronsohn, a botanist, discovered a weather resistant variety of wheat in the Galillee called Wild Emmer Wheat. He established an experimental station in 1910 in Atlit, Palestine through the efforts of sympathetic Americans such as Judge Brandeis, and Henrietta Szold. He succeeded in fighting a plague of locusts in 1915-16 which gave him prestige with the Turkish authorities.

The Aaronsohn family detested Turkish rule, when much Jewish owned property was seized. When hostilites began in the region, they established an organization called the Gideonites, to fight the Turks. They thought the British were more pro-Zionist.

In 1915, the British agreed to an espionage operation centered in Atlit. In 1916, Aron Aaronsohn put forth a plan to British intelligence about a detailed intelligence network between Palestinian Jews and the British. The organization was called NILI that translated means The Eternal One of Israel Shall Not Lie (Netzach Israel Lo Yeshaker). The name was chosen as a password.

His knowledge helped form the tactics used by Allenby to capture Beersheba and then Jerusalem October -December 1917. He showed Allenby where water was located underground, which made it unnecessary to transport it by rail from Egypt. Brigadier Gribbon credited Aaronsohn with saving 30,000 british lives.

Operations of NILI were directed by Sarah Aaronsohn and Joseph Lishansky. There were 21 active members and over a hundred working on Nili's behalf in the Turkish army, on road construction and on water supplies.

The Turks caught some carrier pigeons used by Nili, and thus discovered the network. After capture, a member of Nili, Na'aman Belkind, gave the Turks information that led to many NILI members being arrested. Virtually all NILI activists were captured and tortured. Sarah Aaronsohn took her own life after four days of torture.

Aaronsohn was a difficult person, and at odds with many of the leaders of the Zionist movement concerning the future borders of Jewish Palestine, relationship with arabs, and relationships with western governments.

He was present at the Paris Peace Conference , and played a role in the talks concerning the future of Palestine. When leaving London, and flying to Paris, the plane crashed and his body was never found. He was 43 years old.

The Aaronsohn home has been preserved as a national memorial and museum, but the contributions of the family, and of NILI have been given very little recognition. It is thought that disputes among the Zionists led to the omission of the Aaronsohn episodes from their view of history.

This history by Shmuel Katz should do a great deal to repair the omissions of history, and bring the Aaronsohn family the recognition they earned.

Up to 29, touchstones not working correctly (no surprise), finishing Last Call by Harry Mulisch translated from the Dutch and Not by Tim Powers whoever he is.

Taking a break; have to pack and get ready to move at end of the month. Much cleaning, sorting, discarding, etc. to do. Will probably just read light stuff or not read at all. See you all in March.

Couldn't resist reading some good stuff: dipping into Stranger shores which are essays by J.M.Coetzee, and reading The Discovery of Heaven a philosophical novel by Harry Mulisch.

reread A Far cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark for mental refreshment (clears the palate of turgid philosophical stuff). Dipping into Collected Poems by Philip Larkin.

I love A Far Cry from Kensington!!!!!!!!!

Isn't she a total treasure?

Hmmm..A Far Cry from Kensington is here in my TBR stack (or should I say in one of my TBR stacks?). It might be just what I need...

I just love Muriel Spark, her wit, her fluid prose, her plots......yes, Miriam dear, she IS a treasure!
Linda, if you want a pleasant cheerful amusing read, go dig it from that TBR pile!!!!!!

Just read Original Bliss by a.l.Kennedy, and reread splitting by fay weldon to clear the palate after Original Bliss. It (OB) was full of pop psychology, loneliness, desire for connection, masturbation, murder and suicide. Although the writing is stylish, i think her spirit needs some revivifying, or healing. Talk about Noir! I have a lot more of her work to get through, and she has won a lot of prizes besides being recommended by other LTers so I will persevere, but she certainly is not my cup of hemlock.

rereading Collected Stories by Noel Coward for relaxation. Great fun.

Read Paradise by A.L. Kennedy which is the most brilliant, searing, tragic novel about passionate drinking mixed with passionate love that can be imagined. The power of the addiction reminded me of Dostoievsky's the Gambler. I can hardly describe how ugly and horrible the story is, and how brilliant and beautiful is the writing. She is, imo, a great writer, but tragic, tragic, tragic in all her bones.

EDITED JUST TO KEEP COUNT, THIS MAKES 36.

I'm going to reread some nancy Mitford to refresh the palate after the A.L. Kennedy tragedies.

Reread The Pursuit of Love, The No. 1 Ladies Detective agency and am finishing Post Captain, all for the umpty umphth time. Count is 39.

almigwin, I'm reading 'the letters between the Mitford sisters' (can't remember the exact title) at the moment and it's great fun (although a little depressing as the book is heading into the war and Unity has become a nazi - I know she shoots herself in the head when England declares war on Germany). You might enjoy it as they are very funny women (I love Pursuit and Love in a Cold Climate).

ETA: Letters Between Six Sisters, The Mitfords edited by Charlotte Mosley
Touchstone not picking it up

I'm so glad that you rate A.L. Kennedy so highly, almigwin!
I thought Paradise was a masterpiece.
I'll admit that she's not the jolliest joker in the pack, but she can be hilariously funny, in her own cynical way, and is simply one of the finest writers around.

I read Jessica Mitford's Hons and Rebels and meant to read a lot more Mitford stuff, but never really got around to it. I really should get back to it. Just what I need--more books for the TBR list!

Reading a Natural Novel by Georgi Gospodinov and rereading Tristram Shandy ny Laurence Sterne for comic relief. These are the only two books that I haven't packed. Movers come on Wednesday, so I can get at other stuff. This makes 41.

Glad you enjoyed The Twilight of love Travels with Turgenev, which I think I recommended to you. I am also hovering over the Susan Sontag memoir by her son, but the TBRs are high.

I am, as always, amazed and inspired by your voracious reading.

Karen, as a doctor, I think it is really important that you read the swimming in the sea of death because there is a lot of discussion about how much intervention is reasonable or desirable in an incurable case, and how much truth s doctor should or should not tell the patient.

Sontag wanted extraordinary measures taken because her first breast cancer was considered incurable, and she went for an experimental treatment that was supposed to have been horrendous, but it saved her. When she got the uterine cancer, she ploughed through the treatment and survived again. The third cancer, the leukemia, was said to have been caused by the previous two cancer treatment regimens.

She wanted any treatment possible, and Seattle, at the Hutchinson center where my son got his stem cell transplant, they did hers. Her insurance wouldn't pay, and she plunked down 250,000 for the transplant. It caused great pain and didn't work.

Rieff thought her last doctor was wonderful because he went along with all the treatment even though he knew it was useless. What doctors should say and do in cases of terminal, incurable illness, when the statistics say incurable, but statistics are probabilities, not predictions. They are not always right. What should a doctor do? Go along with the patient's desires no matter the cost and the suffering?

The book is very powerful, but what moved me most was Rieff's desire to go along with his mother's fantasies that she was getting better. Later he questioned that. Tough stuff.

Miriam, I did just read that book by Rieff - see latest on my list. I was very interested in the book - esp. interesting was his criticism of the pamplet given to cancer patients which I thought was totally valid.

I understood completely how the MDs treated Susan -giving hope, answering questions posed but not baring the facts to make things look desperate, giving the patient a sense of control wrt treatment decisions, admiting the limitations of knowledge, etc.

I thought David was a bit too hard on himself through-out and that he captured the chaos of grief well. It was worth the read.

What was the name of this book? My sister has survived polio from 1948 and cancer from August 1964. I think she is very brave and that the doctors took extraordinary steps which is why she is still alive and kicking.

the book is swimming in the sea of death by david rieff.

Reading Pankaj Mishra's The Romantics about older european women and an indian college student. Very subtle, sensitive book. This makes 42.

Exactly twice as many as I've read so far this year, almigwin! Unbelievable. You are a force!!!

Terri: you keep forgetting i don't have a job! And I don't need a lot of sleep, so I can do a lot of reading every day.

Right. You only just redecorated one condo and packed up everything and moved to and set up house in another. No big deal. ;o)

Found the library! It's one built by Andrew Carnegie, and overlooks Mirror Lake. It is a short walk from my house. Yay!
I got (and read) Judith Jones The tenth Muse: My life in food. She was the editor and sometimes friend of my favorite cookbook writers: Julia Child, Marcella Hazan, Madhur Jaffrey, Claudia Roden, Ed Giobbi, Linda Bastianich, Edna Lewis and Elizabeth David.

She had a very long marriage to the writer Evan Jones who wrote a book about bread among other things. They lived in Paris in their early days together and fell in love with food there. She had an incredibly interesting set of friends, and gave dinner parties almost every week.
She mentioned wanting to have a squirrel stew, but the local squirrels were not considered to have been eating right, so Edna Lewis asked her brother in Virginia to shoot some, and he sent them in a package. They were then cooked by the young man who was Edna Lewis's companion/caregiver/collaborator/biographer. It's a lovely book. Also read The Furies by Janet Hobhouse. It is a very powerful semi?-autobiographical story. Spoiler: The part where she is struggling with ovarian cancer was very painful to read, especially because in the book she survives it, but in life it killed her at 42. It is imo a great book. This puts my score at 44.

Read Away by Amy Bloom which is a story that is very hard to believe, but has an interesting and touching and brave heroine. I thought the writing was wonderful, but the story stretched my willing suspension of disbelief.

Spoiler:

Going across the Bering Straits and trekking through Alaska in a dead woman's fur lined boots, looking for a baby thought to have been abducted from the remains of village that experienced a pogrom, and then finding love in a cabin and then the lover gets lost and they are reunited and live happily ever after!!!

This makes 45.

Read The Death of Achilles by Boris Akunun which is a James Bond Type thriller (minus the casanova stuff) set in czarist Russia. It is extravagantly plotted, and lots of fun. I will look for others of his. This makes 46.

I have been reading the new anthology of short stories done by Daniel halpern - called the Art of the Short Story. It has writers from all over the world, born after 1937. His earlier anthology was called The Art of the Tale and it is one of my very favorite books. His selections are wonderful.

I recently enjoyed a story called "Intimacy' by Hanif Kureishi , and a story by an African writer named Ama Ata Aidoo which was about the healing of a child by a witch doctor. I have heard of her but never read anything by her before. I will look for her work.

Read Vivian Grey by disraeli which he wrote at age 21!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. It is a society novel, comedy of manners, bildungsroman and romance all rolled into one. It's amazingly erudite for someone only 21 and the passages about politics are brilliant. He wrote about the hero, before college, making friends with important friends and acquaintances of his intellectual father, and trying to start a political party with the men who were bypassed and shunted aside by the major parties. He is amazingly successful for a time but it all falls apart. There is a duel; and he kills his opponent even though he fired wildly. the second half of the novel takes place in Europe, since he had to leave England after the duel. This book gets me to 50.

Reading the Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon. It's a lot of fun. This makes numero 51.

Wow, 50 already! Congratulations!

Wow indeed, Almigwin, you are the super reader extraordinaire - you read like I buy books. Glad you like Chabon - I think he is one of the best in current US fiction at present.

Enjoyed the Chabon but didn't really get it. Reading The road to samarcand by patrick obrian who never fails me. This is 52.

Reading Across the Bridge by Mavis Gallant which is a set of linked short stories about a family in Montreal. This makes 53.

reread bitter prerequisites by wm. Laird Kleine-Ahlbrandt which is a historical study of a group of Purdue faculty members who survived the holocaust. It is based on interviews with the principals, and includes situations such as posing as gentiles, and surviving Auschwitz. One of the subjects of the study was a personal friend of mine while i was a faculty wife and a student at Purdue in the fifties. This makes 54.
Read Matters of Honor by Louis Begley about a polish jewish refugee who goes to harvard and becomes a successful international lawyer, and his two roommates, one of whom is a successful novelist. These characters appear to be composites of Begley himself, since he has been a very successful lawyer and novelist. This makes 55.

You always manage to stay just about 100% above me -- I just finished #27. I aspire....

Almigwin - I read Wartime Lies quite a while ago and really enjoyed it.

I remember believing at the time I was reading an autobiography. The part where the Nazi takes the child away from the mother and puts it down a drain (or something similar) kept me awake for nights after.

Karen, in Wartime Lies, I liked the part where his beautiful aunt pretended to be a Polish gentile doctor's wife, said she had taken her son to the dentist, needed to get back to the suburbs, and complained to the Nazi officer that the train due to take her out of the city was being held up by the Aktion (the collecting of Jews for transport). I suspect a good bit of that book was autobiographical, but I don't know how much.

Would you say that Begley's other books are as good? Is his writing consistent?

I think Wartime Lies is his best book, and I don't think his writing is consistent at all, but I do think all his books are worth reading. If you should by any chance see the film About Schmidt with jack Nicholson, don't think it is anything like the book. the book deals seriously with subjects like social and class differences, anti semitism in New York Law firms, psychoanalysis, adultery, painful relationships with adult children and their materialism, May September romance, etc. The film didn't mention anti-semitism, but it was a big deal in the book.

Read The Fifth Child by Dorois Lessing which is a tragic and terrifying story about a family that has a behavioural monster for a fifth child, and the disintegration of the family because of it. Horrendously sad.

It has a sort of science fiction cast because the author suggests that the child is an alien. I do not recommend this book to anyone with children, or who contemplates having children.

This makes 56.

The Fifth Child was the first Doris Lessing book I read, and my reaction was much the same as yours--I was very glad my own child was well grown up before I encountered that story!

reading literary love stories, a collection of terrific stories by important contemporary writers: Paley, Oates, Leavitt, Brodkey, Just, Rush, etc,
this makes 57

read Household Words by Joan Silber. Very sad. this makes 58.

As you are speeding through volumes and volumes, Almigwin, can you suggest perhaps summarize 2 or 3 favourite books amongst them all??

67- Karen: I can't possibly choose two or three favorites from the 58 books on this list.

I recommend the story anthologies of Daniel Halpern The art of the story (recent) and the art of the tale - earlier.

You might discover writers you would like to read more of, and the stories he chose are all very good.

I don't really look for 'a good book to read' but rather I look for a really great writer, or an original mind, or a glimpse of a foreign culture, or all of the above.

I think about Mulisch, Perutz, Hrabal and Dessaix because they are European writers that I have discovered in recent years, and they are very fine. I have only read one of Dessaix, but it is about Turgenev who is a great love of mine.

I recommend Nathan Englander's The ministry of Special Cases about the desparecidos of Argentina. Also, his short stories.

However, my favorite books are the classics that I reread, like all of Henry James, Laurence Sterne, Henry Fielding, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and for the moderns, Bellow, Roth, Edith Wharton. Muriel Spark, Anita Brookner, J.M.Coetzee, D,H, Lawrence, Faulkner, Hemingway, Welty, F. O'Connor, Fitzgerald (Scott and Penelope), Ivy Compton burnett, and the playwrights Williams, Miller, o'Neill, Stoppard.

If there are any in this list that you haven't read, I suggest you read them.

If you haven't read any Norman Rush, I recommend him highly. (Post colonial africa and illicit sex, but real literature, not porn).

Sorry, Almigwin, I was not trying to get a short list (well actually I was), but not in the way you might think, but more in the way of discovering a new author that really appeals.

I think I was the one who introduced you to Dessaix! I have not tried Hrabel and Perutz so will have to do so. I also discovered Mulisch last year.

Thanks for all your effort in replying - I was just trying to take advantage of a very well read mind!!!! Some new fodder for thought.

Indeed!

Read The Attack by Yasmina Khadra which is the nom de plume of an Algerian who lives in France and writes in French.

It is a brilliant depiction of the Israeli-Arab conflict, where the supposedly happy wife of an assimilated arab surgeon becomes a suicide bomber unbeknownst to him. They are both Israeli citizens.

The book shows the tragedies on both sides of the conflict, and it is very powerful and moving. This makes 59.

(I was returning my books to the library, and it was on sale there for $2. What luck!)

Read the Yacoubian Building which I thought was very well done, and kept all the plot lines and characters moving along. It was very sad, however, since everyone ended tragically unless you think that the poor girl bride who married the older man was not tragic. This makes 60.
during packing and traveling,

I was rereading The book of Luminous Things, a poetry collection of the favorites of Czeslaw Milosz, and the anthology of french poetry edited by Paul Auster. This makes 62 unless rereading doesn't count.

Also during this period, reread The oxford book of Short Stories edited by v.s. Pritchett which contains many masterpieces like 'Paste' by Henry James. This makes 63.

I always read anthologies during stressful periods and while traveling because you can deal with a complete work in a small period of time.

rereading The Secret Life of Our Times = Fiction from Esquire edited by Gordon Lish which has marvelous stories. It was published in the early seventies. it has Raymond Carver stories, among others.The one called 'Lady' by Bruce Jay Friedman ( a friend of lillian Hellman) is a searing tale about cocaine addiction in an upper class new yorker.

Read The Renaissance of italian cooking by Lorenza di Medici which is a discussion of italian haute cuisine as practiced in the 19th century by the italian nobility (and their chefs) somewhat simplified for modern cooks by the author. She grew up playing in castles with aristocratic friends, and eating the incredible food. She became a cookbook author and teacher.

The book has pictures of the beautiful castles and villas, and vineyards owned by the castle dwellers. There is a great deal of text about the different italian regions, and a menu with recipes and pictures for each area. There is family cooking, banquets for a king, wedding, holiday, and an 'ordinary' meal. The truffles are not spared. Many of the families mentioned own vineyards, and their wine is displayed and discussed.This makes 65.

Almigwin, the Italian cookbook sounds incredible. Does it feature food from all of Italy or is it more Florentine?

It features food from all of Italy. To cook from , I don't think it is as good as the books by Lynne Rossetto kasper, marcella hazan, elizabeth david, claudia roden, joyce goldstein, Lidia Bastianich, Anna del Conte, The Romagniolis, Maria Lo Pinto, Carol field, ed giobbi, edda servi machlin, and jeff smith. However, all of those are more criented toward 'cucina povera' more than 'cucina borghese'.
(Peasant cooking rather than the cooking of the aristocracy).
The de medici book is beautiful and the pictures of the food are almost as much fun as the pictures of the castles, villas and vineyards. I wish I could afford to go to her castle for cooking school. It sounds like great fun. The authors I listed are listed in the order I think they are in according to importance, ease of use and authenticity.
Of course Ada Boni's regional cookbook, and Artusi both have some elegant recipes of the Italian haute bougeoisie.

Mystery chick lit for relaxation. I will need a lot of that in this difficult period. Plum Lucky by janet evanovich makes 66.

Now rereading The voice that is great within us by hayden carruth which is one of my favorite anthologies of 20th century American poetry. Since I probably won't read every poem in the book, i wont count it in the total.

almigwin, you forgot to mention Giuliano Bugialli. As far as 'authenticity' goes, he is one of the best.
You might be interested to know that I met Edda Servi Machlin on two occasions, when she presented her books at our Institute. On one of the evenings, she gave me one of her books as a gift. Lovely person!

Paola, It isn't that I forgot him, it's that I never read his books. I don't know why, but I completely ignored him. I'll have to try to find him in the library, or put him on my wish list.

He is good, Miriam, you will like him.

reading Homecoming by bernhard schlink, author of the reader. Translated from the german. this makes 67

Reread Independent People by Halldor Laxness the Icelandic Nobelist. Story of harsh poverty in sheepfarming. Lengthy, powerful, and well written, but bleak.
This makes 68.

Read Fire in the Blood by Irene Nemirovsky. I'm glad her biographers found the missing chapters. I love her writing. This makes 69.

reread homestead by sara donati (Rosina lippi), The namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. and A family and a fortune by Ivy Compton-Burnett. This makes 72.

Once again you are exactly twice my total. Bizarre. What did you think of Schlink's Homecoming? and of Lahiri's Namesake? I have them both waiting in the wings....

I found them enjoyable, but lacking in intellectual heft. The characters were believable and the Namesake would be interesting to anyone who wants to understand Bengali immigration experience, and arranged marriage between an educated Bengali man and a young uneducated woman. It is reminiscent of Brick Lane by Monica Ali, but not as good, imo.
I don't think the Homecoming was half as powerful or moving as the Reader.
(touchstones are wrong). Schlink writes smoothly, as far as can be told from translation, but is not a heavyweight..

rereading The Flight from the Enchanter by Iris murdoch and reading the sisters by mary lovell. I enjoyed her biography of beryl markham, a true adventuress. This makes 74.

just finished The Fading Smile by Peter Davison which is a memoir of his Boston poetry friends (and lovers) in the late fifties - Kunitz, Frost, Lowell, Sexton, Rich, Roethke, Sissman, etc. i was disappointed. It is more gossip than criticism and i found it to be a vanity thing rather than a useful book. This makes 75.

reading What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt.This makes 76.

I saw that book in the store, Almigwin - it is worth buying? I know she is the wife of Paul Auster......

I have mixed feelings about it, Karen. She writes brilliantly, and it gives a picture of the life of professional artists, writers and academics in Soho, before and after soho became fashionable.

However, I think the second and third parts of the book were unnecessary, and I don't see the point of all the tragedy and unhappiness.

If you want to read about avant garde art, feminist psychosociology, and grief, try it. I wish I could have edited it down. I would borrow it from the library and try it.

Rereading Taras Bulba by Nikolai Gogol. Wonderful storY of ukrainian cossacks before the revolution. GREAT BOOK!!!!!!!!!!

THIS IS NO. 77.

Ohhh, Taras Bulba brings me back to my young years!!!!!
:-))

I would love to read that Gogol book, Almigwin. I read 'Dead Souls' last year and really enjoyed it.

Karen,there is a two volume paperback set of Gogol short stories. Do by all means get it if you can. If you get a chance, try to pick up a copy of Nabokov's biography of Gogol. It is a very teeny book, but important. Most Russian writers believe that modern Russian literature was begun by Gogol. One of them said 'We all come out of Gogol's Overcoat'', meaning his story "The overcoat" which is equal to or greater than 'The Nose". Think of Kafka's 'Metamorphosis' in relation to 'The Nose'!

I am rushing back to the internet this minute, Almigwin. The biography sounds really good!

(come and introduce yourself on the gathering place thread!)

Read Mrs henderson by Francis Wyndham. He reminds me a little of Evelyn Waugh (but not as brilliant or sarcastic) (or religious). The book is linked short stories. I liked them well enough to order more of them. I hadn't hear of him before, but was directed to him by something in LT. This makes 78.

Just got Mary Ann Caw's book The yale Anthology of Twentieth Century French Poetry which is the best bilingual anthology since 1987 when Random house published one edited by Paul Auster with some of his translations. I will be reading and memorizing from this book for quite a while. it doesn't affect my total, however.

Rereading The Nice and the Good by Iris murdoch which is a fun comedy of manners qua mystery story about family life among the rich upper classes in Britain after the war in the family of an high level civil servant.

Also reading Craig Claiborne's autobiography with recipes called A Feast Made for laughter.

It has a GREAT list of cookbooks - David, Child, Clayton, Zia chu, Heatter, Hazan, Jaffrey, Sahni, lang. He also included his 100 favorite recipes which I didn't find particularly interesting.

His life, however, was. How he finally got his job at the New York Times after hotel school in Switzerland is interesting.

There is the menu of a $4000 dinner one of his friends paid for, full of caviar, truffles, foie gras, ortolans, game, filet, and Chateau Lafitte Rothschild 1947 and Chateau d'yquem among other wonderful things. Yum Yum. This makes 80.

Reading The unofficial Rose by Iris murdoch. This makes 81.

almigwin, I think you need a challenge room all on your own. As fast as you're reading, I'm scribbling the titles down!

Reread the Flowering Thorn by margery Sharp instead of finishing the Iris murdoch. I needed something lighter and cheerier. Numbers stay the same.

Reading Great Soviet Short Stories edited by F.d. Reeve.This makes 82.

read and savored Modigliani Portraits and Nudes by Annette Kruszynski which had insightful analysis, and lovely color reproductions with a biographical chronology. He is in my pantheon of favorite painters. The nudes are breathtaking, and the portraits show a lot of character. Just like Carrington and Strachey, his wife killed herself the day after he died. So sad.

I also read The Other Garden by Francis Wyndham which won the Whitbread prize for first novel. I got it because I liked his stories in Mrs. Henderson. The novel is about the friendship between an eccentric 30 something woman and an adolescent boy who becomes a soldier in wwii. I was disappointed although it is very well written.

This makes 84.

For relaxation, rereading Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati also known as Rosina Lippi who is a Library Thing Author. It is a historical novel with a character from the last of the Mohicans and it has a strong, feisty feminist heroine.
This makes 85.

read the collected fiction of francis wyndham which contains two of the books mentioned above, so I won't count it.
Reread the modern jewish canon by ruth wisse who teaches jewish lit at harvard. It skips a lot of writers that I think should have been included, but it only deals with complete novels and not short stories so Peretz and mokher-Sforim among others are omitted. This makes 86.

read Where or When by Anita Shreve which is a sad story of a compulsive love affair that destroys two marriages. Sad. this makes 87.

rereading The Modern Hebrew Poem itself which is a dual language book with a literal line by line translation, a transliteration, a short history of hebrew poetry, and analysis of each poem. This makes 88.

reading Life in a Cold Climate the biography of Nancy Mitford by Laura Thompson. Very sympathetic, and well written. This makes 89.

I am reading an early reviewers copy of
The Genizah At The House Of Shepher by Tamar Yellin.

They seem to be sending me Jewish themed books. this is a historical novel about several generations of scribes/scholars in Jerusalem written by a
British lady professor of Jewish studies.

I am also reading Emerald Ice by Diane Wakoski, a popular feminist poet of the 60's and 70's. I loved The Motorcycle Betrayal Poems in the 70's.This is a collection of 20+ years of her poetry. This makes 91.

Wow -- amazing reading! The Craig Claiborne looks yummy.

Read Peace by Richard Bausch.

This is a superb wwii book set in Italy close to the end of the war, that belongs in the august company of Sebastian Faulks's Birdsong, Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy and Norman mailer's The Naked and the Dead.

It is about 7 soldiers, an old Italian fascist, and a sniper. It places you right smack in the mountains of Italy, slogging through the freezing rain, where you can hear every sound, and feel every fear and pain. IMO, a masterpiece.

This makes 92.

Read Peter Conradi's biography of Iris Murdoch and started his study of her novels which was his dissertation. This makes 94.

reading Life Class by Pat Barker. A sexual merry go round of art students and models at the Slade.

The second half of the novel is about the field hospitals in wwi. It deals with the horrible injuries, amputations and loss of life which was exacerbated because the surgery was not done immediately where the wounded were picked up.

I count this as 94.

I'm not counting the dissertation about Murdoch, because i am going to read the essays in conjunction with rereading the novels, rather than reading the whole book in one gulp.

As far as her biography goes, I was curious about her relationship with Canetti, since it was a sado-masochistic relationship and she was a moral philosopher. Strange. And she married a gentle, kind and supportive man, but continued to care for Canetti for years. I was also interested in her evolution from an anti-platonist to a platonist, and from a communist to a middle of the road liberal

She thought Heidegger and Wittgenstein were the two most important 20th century philosophers. (I never could understand either of them). She herself was not well regarded as a philosopher, especially since she was interested in moral philosophy which was not considered important by the school of analytic philosophy in the ascendant at Oxford and elsewhere. Moral philosophy is getting more attention now.

read Diary of a Bad Year by J.M. Coetzee. It has an interesting three part running story, divided on each page, of an old writer (ostensibly Coetzee) living in Australia, a filipina typist with major sex appeal, and the narrator. It is full of the sadness of aging and impotence, and is replete with political comments on the world situation. I think it is the weakest of his novels.

This makes 95.

read Joshua and Isadora by Michael Benanav. AA memoir of holocaust survivors. Makes 96.

Read the Septembers of Shiraz by Darla Sopher. This makes 97.

I want to start my Tremain marathon and my Faulks and Murdoch marathons but I have stuff from the library to read first.

The Sopher book was very well done, about the persecution of supporters of the Shah, or those opposed to the Revolutionary guard, or just the wealthy, or Jews.

Her father's imprisonment, the attacks and thievery of previously loyal servants, and the final escape of the family with the help of smugglers, are all done in a clear, beautiful and understated fashion. Terrific book.

Read The Way i Found her by Rose Tremain about an English adolescent in Paris with his mother who is translating a romance novel for a Russian emigre. The boy is bewitched by the novelist, and his thoughts feelings and adventures are wonderfully portrayed. The novelist is abducted for ransom, and the boy also discovers his mother's love affair. It has a tragic ending. This makes 98

Read Sadler's Birthday by Rose Tremain which is the tender story of an aging butler who fell in love only once with an boy evacuee during world war II.

He narrates his own story in a straightforward and delicate fashion. It is a beautiful and touching book, and it was her first novel. This makes 99.

reading The Stone of Chastity by Margery Sharp. This makes 100.

BRAVA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You reached 100 books!! You are an inspiration indeed!
:-))

P.S. Could you tell me the details (where it is) about the Poughkeepsie Library Sale on Friday? I will be there, even though not at the Early Bird sale, more probably around 10:30 or so.

Well done, almigwin. An inspiration!

read The Colour by Rose Tremain about gold prospecting and homesteading in new Zealand. It has floods, desertion, adultery, deaths from illness, an aboriginal seer and enough stories and characters in it for three or four novels.
This makes 101.

Read After Every War translated by Eavan Boland the Irish poet. It contains poetry in German by Nelly Sachs, Rose Auslander, Ingeborg Bachmann, Else Lasker-Schuler , Gertrud Kolmar and a few others. It is a very small collection, but the translations are very fine, imo. Boland is a well known Irish poet, and because of the Troubles, was very sympathetic to the concerns of the women caught up in WWii. This makes 102.

Read Sacred Country by Rose Tremain which is a novel about a transgender person (female to male). It was done in 1992 which was early for so sensitive a treatment of the subject. This makes 103.

reread two adorable Marjorie Sharps: Something Light and Sun in scorpio.
That makes 105. Logging my book sale finds has slowed me down this weekend.

Read my newest Margery Sharp Lise Lillywhite which is 106. Now reading Consequences by Penelope Lively for 107.

Loved the Penelope Lively but was disappointed in the Margery sharp. Now reading the essential talmud by Adin Steinsaltz. it is a wonderful overview of the subjects covered in the talmud, and a description of the law for various human activities. it also describes the methods used to discuss and interpret the law. This is 108.

Reading Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks which is a novel about the beginnings of psychiatry where young medical students atttend the lectures of Charcot at the Salpetriere. Faulks certainly has an enormous range in subject matter.

I'll stay at 108 because the Steinsaltz book is more of a reference, and I will not zip through it like a novel. I also just got the Steinsaltz book on Jewish mysticism : The thirteen petalled rose which I will read in conjunction with the talmud overview.

reading Once in Europa by John Berger which is part 2 of a trilogy. It is linked stories about alpine peasants. Extraordinary writing. Author is well known as an art critic. This makes 109.

Read Fair Stood the Wind for France by H. E. Bates which is an adventure/love story about a downed RAF pilot in occupied France, his group, and the family who sheltered them. A touching book. this makes 110.

REread When I lived in Modern Times by Linda Grant about the establishment of the state of Israel through the eyes of a British girl pioneer. It won the orange Prize
SPOILER
She falls in love with a freedom fighter (Irgun) and becomes a spy. The lover is executed, their son dies tragically, and she remarries and moves to America. After she is widowed she returns to Israel. Fascinating heroine and a wonderful book. This makes 111.

Reading the Kissinger biography by Walter Isaacson. It is terrific. This is 112. I am also reading Pig Earth by John berger for 113. It is volume one of the trilogy before Once in Europa. (I can't take a full dose of Kissinger).

reading Lilac and Flag, the third volume of the trilogy by John Berger. This is 114. He is trying to show the impact of industrialization on the peasant class.
He has enormous empathy for its members.

I think he is a wonderful novelist that I didn't know about. I don't know how I missed his novels. I only knew of him as an art critic.

I am also reading a volume of his essays: Keeping a Rendezvous. for 115.

I am reading a book about Nixon and Mao by MacMillan and it mentions a lot about Kissinger - mostly complimentary. This is at variance with the other book I have on Kissinger by Christopher Hitchens - have you read that one, Almigwin?

Good to hear the Isaacson book is terrific - perhaps it would give me a more balanced view of the man.

I thought that Human Traces was perhaps one of Faulks more flawed books - a bit too long and a bit too quagmired in detail somehow. I struggled through it a bit, despite loving most of his others.

You really are an amazingly voracious reader!

read a chicklit Everyone worth knowing by Lauren Weisberger to relax from cooking for my 4th of July party that I'm having tomorrow. It was ok; nothing to write home about. It covered the club and party scene in New York, and painted a very ugly picture of the club life. This makes 116.

Now that I have my little scanner working with my laptop and wireless connection in the first floor library, I will be cataloguing for a while. I bought about 150 books at the library sale, and I am finishing up the cataloguing of those.

Next, I will try to enter the books I have missed when I did my cataloguing from memory in Florida, last year. I have about 1500 novels catalogued, and I probably missed about a third. I also have to do the plays, and the rest of the cookbooks. Then, of course, the films and cd's.

I'll try to squeeze in a little reading. I am starting Kay Boyle's The Human Majesty and Maeve Brennan's The Springs of Affection. (a reread). That makes 118

Ohh..I'm eager to see what you add to your library.

Put aside the Boyle and the Brennan to read c.s.Forester's Ship of the Line and Flying Colors.

I had just seen the Hornblower movies, and found that I had a few of the books that I had never read.

I rescued them from the Montgomery ny dump where I found them discarded without covers. I took them to give to my step-grandsons, but I forgot them in the move to Poughkeepsie. I found them in my current cataloguing fling.

They are a lot like the Patrick O'Brian Aubrey maturin novels, except that the hero is almost too perfect, and there is no strong interrelationship in them.

The score stays at 118.

read a fortunate man by the wonderful john berger and the citadel by a.j. cronin, both about idealistic doctors - one who really lives the life, and one who sells out for money. This makes 120.

Next will be my only forester until the new batch gets delivered: Beat to Quarters and then back to the Kay boyle and the Maeve Brennan.

I have been spending time with my new Bugialli cookbooks, and mario Batali's Simple Italian Food. Terrific! I'm not counting cookbooks, but I should since I really read them cover to cover, and love them. If I count them, it makes 125.

Almigwin, I read A Fortunate Man by Berger (recommended by the redoubtable Citizenkelly) and thought he did a great job at capturing the angst of the medical man. It was sad to find out that he actually committed suicide afterwards!

I read cookbooks cover to cover too, curled up on the couch and everything. I put sticky tabs on every recipe I want to try, so most of my cookbooks have many, many tags sticking out of the top.

Read The Nymph and the Nobleman and Sophie Cassmajor by Marjorie sharp. They were in a collection called Three Companion Pieces. I was surprised at what was in it. The two little novellas were darling. The third is Tigress on the Hearth.

I'm busy cataloguing and haven't been reading at my normal speed. I'm reading Five stories of Ferrara by Giorgio Bassani who wrote the beautiful Garden of the Finzi-continis. This makes 128.

Read my friend monica by jane duncan. Her books were recommended by a new LT friend. This makes 129. many more have been ordered from Amazon. The heroine is delightful. A feisty scottish woman with a heart of gold. I look forward to her other books.

Edited to put the number in.

read hornblower and the atropos by c.s. forester. I'm getting all of them, but out of order, because the first three that I had belonged in the middle. This makes 130. I have two more that came today, the midshipman one, and the lieutenant one. Oh well. I love them anyway. What wonderful adventures!

Edited to fix the touchstones.

rereading The mind body problem by Rebecca Goldstein which is an adorable book about a philosopher and a mathematician. This is 131. I got another copy of it at the library sale and couldn't resist.

read Lieutenant Hornblower by c.s. Forester out of order in the series, but perhaps the best so far. The interpersonal dynamics among the officers, and the martial adventures plus all the info about sails and ropes and anchors- It was terrific. This makes 132

almigwin, have you read any of the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian? I noticed you've recently added several of them to your library. Naval adventures never drew me in, so I can't personally recommend them, but my father-in-law was addicted to O'Brian, and if you like Hornblower, it seems they might be your cup of tea as well.

#137 > kwidoc, I'm slowly going through some stacks of old magazines I've saved over the years, trying to read something in each and then get rid of them. As part of this process, I recently read the excerpts from Hitchen's book on Kissinger that appeared in the February and March 2001 Harper's Magazines. Based on that information, it's hard to imagine a book on Kissinger that would be mostly complimentary! But I guess you never do know how much personal bias can get in the way of such work. (And by that I mean either the MacMillan or the Hitchens.)

#139 et al > almigwin, Regarding Kay Boyle, I was wondering how you were enjoying her work. I've been gradually going through the collection Thirty Stories by Kay Boyle, which presents stories from different periods of her life, arranged in chronological order. It's pretty cool to see how her writing matures as the stories and time periods progress. Mostly, very beautiful writing.

I have always loved Kay Boyle, and think of her like Martha Gellhorn. Interesting lives, and interesting fiction, but not groundbreaking aesthetically. Not in the same class as Edith Wharton, Eudora Welty and flannery o'connor but a pleasure to read just the same.

Linda, I have read ALL of the Aubrey/Maturin books many times, and love them. The cataloguing is trying to catch up with the collection. I have had the O'Brian books for years. They are a bit more psychologically complex than the Hornblower ones, but the adventures are terrific in both groups. Great escape reading.

I should have known *wink*.

read Hornblower and the Hotspur by c.s. forester.

I have 3 more waiting - the Mr. Midshipman Hornblower , Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies, and the last one about the "crisis" with his notes about finishing it.

This makes 133. I'm still cataloguing, so serious reading has to wait.

read otherwise: New and selected Poems by jane kenyon and wrote a poem about poets dying young like she did.

It's on my thread, and also on "Poetry Fool Share your own poetry" if anyone wants to read it.

Reading her husband's book: White apples and the taste of Stone, Selected poems 1946-2006 by Donald Hall. In her book, she anticipates death, and in his book, he mourns her.

This takes me to 135.

read the memoir by donald hall - the best day and the worst day about his happy marriage, his wife's battle with leukemia and her early death. This makes 136.

read to the boathouse a memoir by mary ann caws. It discusses her career, and her unhappy and unwanted divorce, etc. She is a heroine of mine for her scholarship and her honesty, and brilliance. This makes 138.
Now reading Mr. Midshipman Hornblower by C.S. Forester. I like it as well as Mr. Midshipman Easy by Frederick Marryat which I thought could not be equalled. This is 139

Reading Glorious Eccentrics by Mary Ann Caws about Dorothy Bussy (Lytton Strachey's sister who loved Gide), Suzanne Valadon who loved everybody including Toulouse-Lautrec, Emily Carr - Vancouver's answer to Georgia O'keefe!, Dora Carrington who loved Lytton Strachey (and killed herself over him),and Judith Gaultier. The book is not a sob story. it sees their eccentricities as a form of assertiveness. They were determined to be serious artists even though they were largely unrecognized until after death (except for Valadon who Degas helped to exhibit). I am lost in admiration for Mary Ann Caws - her independence, her willingness to be an art historian and literary critic and scholar and feminist and academic all at the same time. (She is a Distinguished Professor in the Graduate School of the City University of New York).
Also reading Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies by C.S. Forester.I have almost read all the Hornblower books and enjoyed them a lot. This gets me to 141.

Continuing with Mary Ann Caws. Read her book
Women of Bloomsbury: Virginia, Vanessa,and Carrington which discusses their personal lives and their struggles to be serious artists in a very male chauvinist world, with the added complication of homosexuality, bisexuality and mental illness. At 142.

Read Jean in the Morning by Jane Duncan writing as Janet Sandison. This makes 143. It was charming but very lightweight. Her books were recommended by an LT friend, so I am giving them a try.

I'm reading a lot of the excerpts in World Literature Volumes I and II edited by Mary Ann Caws and containing prose and poetry from Asia, Africa and Europe from the Ancient greeks until the present. Wonderful compilation but I am not counting it in the total because I will be reading it for many months.It has the Stanley Kunitz translation of Akhmatova's Requiem. I based a painting on that poem. (Not the translation).

I have a tbr pile of more Jane Duncan, and Svenka Drakulic, Antonio lobo Artunez, Salmon Rushdie , Arno Schmidt, Thomas Bernhard, Leonardo Sciasciaand Robertson Davis. Also a group I'm in is doing Rose Tremain in August. So I have my work cut out.

Read This Cold Country by Annabel Davis-Goff about a land girl who marries a soldier in wwii and goes to live on his ancestral estate with his family in Ireland.

Then read Writing at the Kitchen Table : the authorized biography of elizabeth david by Artemis Cooper, An Omelette and a Glass of Wine and Is there a Nutmeg in the House. The latter 2 are collected essays or articles by Elizabeth David that were published in Vogue and the Spectator among other publications. She was quite glamorous, came from a posh family and grew up in a manor house with a lot of servants, etc.
She was quite a difficult person and led a complicated and rather bohemian life. She knew a lot of very interesting people - Norman Douglas (40 years older and her mentor in epicureanism), Sybille Bedford, Evelyn Waugh, Paul Scott, The Durrells, and a lot of editors who were not always respectful. I am a big fan of hers. This makes 147.
Next I am alternating with My friends the miss boyds by Jane Duncan (light) and kaddish for a child not born by imre kertesz (painful).

almigwin, Kaddish for a Child Not Born is working its way up my TBR pile. Painful subject, but I've read reviews that have piqued my interest.

I have three of his books on the tbr pile. and will try to read them in the order in which they were written. The other two are Fatelessness and Liquidation. I think Fatelessness was first.

I try to read all the Nobelists, and I missed him.

Finished My Friends the Miss Boyds by Jane Duncan. Continues adorable Scottish coming of age story. This makes 148.

I tried to read Kaddish for a Child Not Born a couple years ago. Could not get through it. It is one I mean to try again someday.

I'm reading No Simple Victory World War II in Europe 1939-1945 by Norman Davies. It discusses the fact that most historians of the period wrote from the perspective of their own societies, and did not recognize the enormous casualties that occurred in Belarus, the Ukraine and other parts of Europe.

The evils committed by the Red Army (rapes, pillaging, slave labor, the Katyn Forest Massacre, etc) were not emphasized in the histories and journalism of the west.

He shows what areas were free of bombardment or occupation as the south of France. Apparently, the largest number of civilian casualties was sustained by the Ukraine. American arms production was mind boggling and so was the bravery and determination of the Russians in the siege of Leningrad and in the defense of Stalingrad.

Russian military losses were in the millions. while the western allies losses were in the hundreds of thousands.

This book is blowing my mind.

I finally caught up with your thread (I'm so bad at checking out the challenge). I have been meaning to add a collection of Ozick essays to my library for a while, so am taking your recommendation from earlier in the year.

Currently reading Homecoming by Schlink for my studies, and so far am of the same opinion as you.

I'll be back to take some notes on other books that made an impression on you.

So far I think I am grazing 50 reads, which isn't too bad with the study, but I can't wait til the last two pieces of work are in and it can all become leisure reading for a while!

Read Disobedience by Naomi Alderman. She won the orange prize for new writing, and I discussed it briefly on the prizes thread. It purported to be about rejecting orthodox judaism, but it was really about conflicts with lesbianism in oneself. (In one case in relation to the prohibition of it in the religion, and in the other case just a plain old conflict).
I found it a very sad book with unappealing characters (almost caricatures). I do not recommend it. This makes 150.

Reading Paper bridges by Khadya Molodowsky, a dual language Yiddish poetry book by a woman poet, very prolific, who won the itzik manger prize (An important prize in jewish literature. She founded a literary journal (Svive) Surroundings, which she edited for thirty! years. Translated by Hellerstein, a woman lecturer in Yiddish language int the dept of germanic languages and the jewish studies program at the University of Pennsylvania. So good to see Yiddish being taught in the universities. It wasn't so when i was in college (40's). I won't count this in my total.

More about kadya molodowsky: she died in 1975 and the book has pictures of her from her village, and with important Yiddish writers in Poland like Isaac Bashevis Singer, all the way up to her old age.

Adrienne Rich and John Hollander, when very young, are pictured with her at a reading of her translated work at the 92nd street y.

Just read The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek and absolutely hated it, even though the writing was brilliant. Horrible characters, horrible subject matter, yuk yuk yuk. This makes 151.

reading The fatal englishman by sebastian faulks for 152. Three biographies of tragic but interesting lives.

Reading essays in Love's Knowledge: Essays on Philosophy and Literature by Martha C. Nussbaum which supports my view that it is important to recognize and deal with good and evil in literature, and that it is not irrelevant. She and Wayne C. Booth, also of the University of Chicago, deal with literature and ethics. I think Nussbaum is a very profound and important writer.

By "Dealing with good & evil in literature" does that mean - to put it broadly- that evil deeds go unpunished, that characters with evil motives are portrayed as heroic, that "the good guys finish last?" Your review of the piano teacher which you didn't like in spite of its good writing -- would that serve as an example of "evil in literature?" (I haven't read that book, & had no plans to read it as my TBR pile is overwhelming)

Nussbaum's book is so subtle and brilliant, I hesitate to try to paraphrase it. I guess I really did oversimplify. But yes, I do think The Piano Teacher exemplifies evil in literature. But it is so close to pornography, it isn't a good example.

The formalist critics took the position that the structure and polish of the writing in a novel was what mattered, and not the values of the characters or the author. Nussbaum quotes Wayne C. Booth as taking issue with that.

For myself, I think what I am looking for, and what Nussbaum is describing, is a literature where the human being is valued, and respected. She mentions Booth latterly recognizing the historic condescension toward black people in Huckleberry Finn, as pointed out by a colleague, and the arguments of the feminist movement against the novels where the women are belittled.

She is a classical scholar, a philosopher, and an ethicist at the University of Chicago law school. I say, read her book.

Also reading Dubravka Ugresic The Ministry of Pain about Yugoslavian refugees/exiles in Amsterdam. (See review).

Just counted - i have read 201 of the Viragos in the virago tracker. I don't own all of them. Some I gave away, some I borrowed from the library, and some were in other non-virago editions.

Reading A Writer at War: Vasily grossman with the Red Army by Vasily Grossman. He was a great reporter and novelist, and these are his diaries, edited by Anthony Beevor.

He was luckier than Isaac Babel in a similar situation, and lived until the 60's. he was greatly beloved by soldiers high and low. And he used the material for his great novel Life and Fate which I think is the greatest 20th century novel or tied with Ulysses for different reasons.

returned to Gellhorn by Caroline Moorehead, the biography of the war correspondent and journalist, who reported from the spanish civil war, and the wars that followed. A very interesting woman. I think this makes 156 but I have been moving back and forth, and reading light stuff I don't want to bother counting.

rereading Mr Facey Rumford's hounds by R. S. Surtees which is a very funny novel about hunting, and slogging thru the World War II War in Europe 1939-1945 book by Norman Davies which will get me to 158 when I finish them. The Davies concentrates on the battles in Russia, which amplifies the Writer at War by Grossman that I just finished.

The losses of life in Russia were staggering, and many of them were due to Stalin's bad decisions. The battles at Stalingrad, Leningrad and Kursk accounted for millions of deaths. The Red Army soldiers were thrown into battle with inadequate equipment, supplies and even clothes and food. They performed heroically under horrible conditions.
On the other hand, the evils perpetrated by the Red Army on civilians, and the use of the concentration camps by the Russians to kill prisoners, civilians and soldiers was horrifying. (Like the Katyn Forest Massacre).

There was a propaganda blackout about Russian atrocities during and shortly after the war (I suppose because they were allies). Americans are taught history as though the war began in 1941 but it began in 1939 and for the Jews in Germany, it began sooner.

The statistics in the book about the relative losses of each country, and the contribution or manufacture of equipment by each country are amazing. The American war production and the lend lease effort to supply Russia made the victory possible in addition to cutting off the nazi supply of oil from Baku.

This book is an eye opener, although it may be old news to Europeans.

Lost count of your reading numbers, Almigwin!!!

Life and Fate is on my must read pile.

The Sebastian Faulk non-fiction look at the three Englishmen was good, but I don't think it is up to his fiction standards.

Reading about the atrocities of the Russians was a huge eye-opener for me - especially being bought up in English history classrooms focusing on Nazi and Japanese atrocities. Always takes some universal perspective and time to get a broader picture. The Gulags were horrifying.

I am reading I will bear witness: 1942-1945 diary of the war years by Victor Klemperer.

He was allowed to remain in Dresden because he had an aryan wife, and he recorded the daily insults and difficulties he underwent as an elderly Jew.

Starvation, humiliation, conscripted manual labor (for a professor of philology!), the loss of job, home, possessions, manuscripts, library, colleagues, friends and finally the fire bombing of Dresden, before he was able to return to his home.

This is supposed to be the fullest account of what it was like to be a Jew in Nazi Germany. He recorded details of his daily life from 1933 through 1941 (volume 1) . Then 1942-45 in volume 2. I started reading it in the middle book, and will get the other volumes, hopefully.

Read The Shadow Catcher by Andrzej Szczypiorski which is the delicate subtle story of an adolescent boy in Poland, right before the start of wwii. I liked his The Beautiful Mrs Seidenman so I got another of his books. I think I am too old to enjoy a book so completely in the mind of an adolescent. This makes 160.

Reread Colcorton by Edith Pope which is a story of distressed southerners of mixed race who endeavor to keep their racial make-up secret because of the total social rejection the knowledge of it would bring. It was one of the Plume 'forgotten women writers' books. I was reminded of it by a Floridian on Reading Globally, and got it down off the shelf after many years.

Also rereading the Novellas of Martha Gellhorn. They were more meaningful to me after reading her biography and relating the novellas to the places where she lived and to the stages of her career. One of the novellas is about the death of the photographer Robert Capa (under another name) who was her closest friend. This makes 162.

Reading The Russian Jews Under the Tsars and the Soviets by Salo Wittmayer Baron which covers the Jewish settlements in Russia from their earliest days until the first 'thaw' when Jewish immigration was permitted again, but before the demise of the Soviet Union. The author was an emeritus professor at Columbia University and wrote over 500!!! books and articles.
He mentions Rabbi Schneerson, who started the Lubavicher yeshiva in the late nineteenth century, and is the ancestor of the Lubavitcher leader of the Chassidim in Brooklyn, who recently died, and had a world wide following. This makes 163.

Reading the third volume of the The Lesser Evil: Diaries of Victor Klemperer 1945-1959. He achieved respect and even an honorary doctorate from the Technical University where he taught. The 'Lesser Evil' was communism. He supported the East German regime, and believed that if you became a member of the Communist Party and worked within it, you could change it for the better, whereas you would never have control over the evils of capitalism.

After his beloved first wife Eva died, he fell in love with a student. She was a Catholic, and young enough to be his granddaughter. He married her less than a year after his wife died. He was extremely happy with her. The second wife, Dr. Haydwig Kirchner, transcribed his written notes and made a typed copy for the translator to work with. This is 164.

The three books of his diaries are considered to be the most complete account of life in Germany during and after the Nazi period.

Backing into the first book of the I Will bear Witness Diaries of Victor Klemperer that covers the period where he lost everything except his life, and was subjected to the slidhts, fears, harassments and shortages of life under the Nazis. This is 165

I am also alternating with a comic novel to keep my spirits up- Ask mamma by R.S. Surtees The Victorian hunting novelist.This is 166

Also reading When Titans Clashed by David Glantz. This makes 167 and continues my study of the war on the eastern front following on the Norman Davies book No Simple Victory The War in Europe 1939-1945, (my 158).

Someone in the Second World War Group who seems to be a specialist, and probably a professor, said that the Norman Davies book was garbage, but I found it to be very interesting, and full of statistics about war materiel production, numbers of casualties and prisoners, etc.

Added Russia at War by Alexander Werth to the studies above. This is 168.

Reading That Awful mess on the Via Merulana by Carlo Emilio Gadda who is a terrific writer I didn't know of. thanks, Paola!!!!!!. This is 169.

almigwin, I read Russia at War at few years back and found it an excellent read for anyone with an interest in the subject matter. Werth was born in Russia but became a war correspondent in England. As a Russian native, however, he gained entry during his work covering the war in Russia to places no Western-born journalist would have. Excellent book, but long.

I am glad you are enjoying it, Miriam!
His use of the language is terrific, I wonder how they managed to translate it.

I only have 31 books to read this year to make 200 for the year.

That is only ten each for Oct, Nov, and Dec! I will probably do that without too much trouble. I'm surprised. I never counted or catalogued my reading before.

It is wonderful to be retired and to be able to read a lot every day.

I'm sure you will reach 200 before end of year!

Like you I am reading a lot more since I retired! Don't think I shall reach 200 though! Maybe next year!

Reading A House Unlocked by Penelope Lively, a favorite writer of mine. This is a sort of memoir mixed with social history of her family house during several generations, including the time the family took in Cockney children during world war ii. This house was purchased in 1923, when there were maids, and gardeners, and a cook, and grooms, etc. PL grew up in Egypt and came to Britain after the war. I was sorry there were no photographs, only charming illustrations. This makes 170.

Read Passing On by Penelope Lively which is a very Anita Brooknerish book about a brother and a sister who live together, and their experiences shortly after the death of their difficult, domineering, sarcastic mother who lived with them. Lots of inhibition, ineptitude, inadequacy, with sparks of independence shining through. The brother and sister are middle aged. It is beautifully done.

Read Road to lichfield by Penelope lively which is another stale story of a mid life love affair after the death of a parent. Well written, but why bother. This makes 172.

Read Winter Wheat by Margaret Walker after she was recommended here. I thought the book was charming, but I would class it as YA lit. Sort of like Bess Streeter Aldrich or Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings rather than Willa Cather. I have two more to try. Also read Dr. Norton's Wife which I found melodramatic and sentimental. A disappointment. This makes 174.

I am embarking on a rereading of Remembrance of Things Past by Proust.
(The Montcrieff/Kilmartin translation).

I have Beckett's essay, Phyllis Rose's The year of reading Proust, the book about the Night at the majestic, a dinner attended by Proust, joyce, Picasso, Diaghilev and Stravinsky written by the biographer of Auden, Richard Davenport-Hines and the Painter biography. I will be busy for quite a while.

Just counted, and I have read works by 76 of the Nobel prizewinners.

Now, THAT is impressing!!!!!!!!!

That is pretty amazing, Miriam! Keep up the great work! How many to go, then?!

Akeela, I'm not attempting to read all of them. I have only missed a few that I want to read, and I will get to them in time.

I counted what I had read of the writers on the Ladbroke -sportswriters betting list for the Nobel prize due in about a week.

I have read 40 of them.The ones I missed are:
Adonis
Magris
Les Murray
Inger christensen
Ismail Kadare
Antonio Tabucchi
Assia Djebar
Gita Sereny
Ko Un
Bei Dao
Herta Muller
James Ngugi
Mahasweeta Devi
Ernesto Cardenal
F. Sionil Jouse
Willy Kirkland
eeva kilpi
Jonathan little
Michael Tournier
Patrick Modiano
Rosalind Belben
Vasilis aleksakis
Bob Dylan

edited for spelling of Tabucchi.

Miriam, the writer's correct name is Antonio Tabucchi, not Anyoni Tabucchi. He is Italian, and an expert and translator of Portuguese literature.

Thanks, Paola,. I fixed it.

I have just done a list of the rest of my reading for the year, so far, and it is over 200, and not complete by a long shot. I am going to start a 200+ group. I will put the list in there, and see if I can continue with it and be more accurate next year.

That's exceptional, Miriam!

It will be a very select group of readers in the 200 group, but certainly very inspiring to the rest of us!

It now exists, and is called the '250 book challenge'. I am sorry that it is less than accurate, but I will try to do better as I go on.