kidzdoc "Stays Woke" in 2018, Chapter 4

Lisbon's Livraria Bertrand do Chiado, the world's oldest bookstore still in operation, opened on the Rua Direita do Loreto in the city's Chiado neighborhood in 1732. After the devastating 1755 earthquake it was forced to relocate and share a space with the Capela de Nossa Senhora das Necessidades, the Chapel of Our Lady of Needs, until it reopened in its current location on the Rua Garrett in Chiado in 1773, a short distance from the Baixa Chiado metro station. I'll meet deebee1 there on Friday, the day after I arrive in Lisbon.




Currently reading:

    

From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan
Olio by Tyehimba Jess
Known and Strange Things: Essays by Teju Cole

Completed Books:

January:

1. Red Star Over Russia: Revolution in Visual Culture 1905-55 by Sidlina Natalia
2. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
3. Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck
4. I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong

February:
5. Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America by James Forman Jr.
6. Smoketown: The Untold Story of the Other Great Black Renaissance by Mark Whitaker
7. In Pursuit of Memory: The Fight Against Alzheimer's by Joseph Jebelli
8. Mayhem: A Memoir by Sigrid Rausing
9. I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O'Farrell
10. The Devil Finds Work by James Baldwin
11. Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis

March:
12. Coltrane: The Story of a Sound by Ben Ratliff
13. Midwinter Break by Bernard MacLaverty
14. Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
15. Winter by Karl Ove Knausgaard
16. Die, My Love by Ariana Harwicz
17. The Vaccine Race: How Scientists Used Human Cells to Combat Killer Viruses by Meredith Wadman

April:
18. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder
19. The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine by Lindsey Fitzharris
20. With the End in Mind: Dying, Death and Wisdom in an Age of Denial by Kathryn Mannix
21. Miró: The Life of a Passion by Lluís Permanyer
22. Stay with Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀
23. To Be a Machine: Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death by Mark O’Connell

May:
24. Lisbon: A Cultural and Literary Companion by Paul Buck
25. A Man: Klaus Klump by Gonçalo M. Tavares
26. Sozaboy by Ken Saro-Wiwa
27. The Good Immigrant, edited by Nikesh Shukla
28. The Impostor by Javier Cercas

June:
29. Everybody Loves Kamau! by W. Kamau Bell
30. Rick Steves Snapshot Lisbon by Rick Steves
31. The Poor by Raul Brandão
32. City of Ulysses by Teolinda Gersão
33. The Portuguese: A Modern History by Barry Hatton

July:
34. Act of the Damned by António Lobo Antunes
35. The Struggle for Catalonia: Rebel Politics in Spain by Raphael Minder
36. Kader Attia: Architecure of Memory by Beate Reifenscheid
37. Guernica: The Biography of a Twentieth-Century Icon by Gijs van Hensbergen

August:
38. Cyprus Avenue by David Ireland
39. Where Pain Fears to Pass by L. Burton

Classic 20th Century Novels from the African Diaspora

Blind Man with a Pistol by Chester Himes
The Emigrants by George Lamming
The Famished Road by Ben Okri
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (re-read)
Maps by Nuruddin Farah
Moses, Man of the Mountain by Zora Neale Hurston
Native Son by Richard Wright
Petals of Blood by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Sozaboy by Ken Saro-Wiwa
Texaco by Patrick Chamoiseau

Notable 21st Century Literature from the African Diaspora

Abyssinian Chronicles by Moses Isegawa
Blackass by A. Igoni Barrett
Black Deutschland by Darryl Pinckney
The Book of Memory by Petina Gappah
Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat
That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott
The Drift Latitudes by Jamal Mahjoub
Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis
Foreign Gods, Inc. by Okey Ndibe
Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Juice!: A Novel by Ishmael Reed
Ladivine by Marie NDiaye
Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga
Pym by Mat Johnson
Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill
The Turner House by Angela Flournoy
Wading Home: A Novel of New Orleans by Rosalyn Story
Welcome to Braggsville by T. Geronimo Johnson
Zone One by Colson Whitehead

Nonfiction from the African Diaspora

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Beyond Black and White: From Civil Rights to Barack Obama by Manning Marable
Black in Latin America by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays by Zadie Smith
Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil by W.E.B. Du Bois
Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul by Eddie S. Glaude, Jr.
Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin
If They Come in the Morning … : Voices of Resistance, edited by Angela Y. Davis
In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture by K. Anthony Appiah
Known and Strange Things: Essays by Teju Cole
Letter to Jimmy by Alain Mabanckou
The Lights of Pointe-Noire by Alain Mabanckou
Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America by James Forman, Jr.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
More Than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City by William Julius Wilson
A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music by George E. Lewis
Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion by Robert Gordon
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
Tradition and the Black Atlantic: Critical Theory in the African Diaspora by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon

Autobiographies, Biographies and Memoirs from the African Diaspora

Aké: The Years of Childhood by Wole Soyinka
The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
Black Boy by Richard Wright
Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama
Frantz Fanon: A Biography by David Macey
I Never Had it Made by Jackie Robinson
The Last Holiday: A Memoir by Gil Scott-Heron
Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
Mingus Speaks by John F. Goodman
Street Poison: The Biography of Iceberg Slim by Justin Gifford
Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson by Wil Haygood
Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter by J. Nozipo Maraire

The Man Booker International Prize 2018 Longlist:


Laurent Binet (France), Sam Taylor, The 7th Function of Language
Javier Cercas (Spain), Frank Wynne, The Impostor
*Virginie Despentes (France), Frank Wynne, Vernon Subutex 1
Jenny Erpenbeck (Germany), Susan Bernofsky, Go, Went, Gone
*Han Kang (South Korea), Deborah Smith, The White Book
Ariana Harwicz (Argentina), Sarah Moses & Carolina Orloff, Die, My Love
*László Krasznahorkai (Hungary), John Batki, Ottilie Mulzet & George Szirtes, The World Goes On
*Antonio Muñoz Molina (Spain), Camilo A. Ramirez, Like a Fading Shadow
Christoph Ransmayr (Austria), Simon Pare, The Flying Mountain
*Ahmed Saadawi (Iraq), Jonathan Wright, Frankenstein in Baghdad
+*Olga Tokarczuk (Poland), Jennifer Croft, Flights
Wu Ming-Yi (Taiwan), Darryl Sterk, The Stolen Bicycle
Gabriela Ybarra (Spain), Natasha Wimmer, The Dinner Guest

*shortlisted title
+prize winner

The Man Booker Prize 2018 Longlist:


Snap by Belinda Bauer (UK)
Milkman by Anna Burns (UK)
Sabrina by Nick Drnaso (USA)
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan (Canada)
In Our Mad And Furious City by Guy Gunaratne (UK)
Everything Under by Daisy Johnson (UK)
The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner (USA)
The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh (UK)
Warlight by Michael Ondaatje (Canada)
The Overstory by Richard Powers (USA)
The Long Take by Robin Robertson (UK)
Normal People by Sally Rooney (Ireland)
From A Low And Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan (Ireland)

Iberian Literature and Nonfiction

Act of the Damned by António Lobo Antunes
The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa
Catalonia Is Not Spain: A Historical Perspective by Simon Harris
The Crime of Father Amaro by José Maria Eça de Queirós
City of Ulysses by Teolinda Gersão
The Dolls' Room by Llorenç Villalonga
Fado Alexandrino by António Lobo Antunes
The Gray Notebook by Josep Pla
The History of the Siege of Lisbon by José Saramago
The Inquisitors' Manual by António Lobo Antunes
Like a Fading Shadow by Antonio Muñoz Molina
The Moor's Last Stand: How Seven Centuries of Muslim Rule in Spain Came to an End by Elizabeth Drayson
The New Spaniards by John Hooper
Obabakoak by Bernardo Atxaga
The Poor by Raul Brandão
The Portuguese: A Modern History by Barry Hatton
Private Life by Josep Maria de Sagarra
The Struggle for Catalonia: Rebel Politics in Spain by Raphael Minder
Things Look Different in the Light by Medardo Fraile
What's Up with Catalonia? by Liz Castro
The Yellow Rain by Julio Llamazares

Many of us who are long time members of Club Read and 75 Books were friends of rebeccanyc, who died last summer. I had the pleasure of meeting my "book sister" once, and she was both one of my first friends on LibraryThing, and a huge influence on my reading. We were both huge fans of Mario Vargas Llosa and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, and we share just over 400 books in our LT libraries.

I intend to honor her in 2018 by reading at least six books that we share in common.

In Memory of RebeccaNYC

1984 by George Orwell
The Bad Girl by Mario Vargas Llosa
Haiti After the Earthquake by Paul Farmer
The Green House by Mario Vargas Llosa
The History of the Siege of Lisbon by José Saramago
The Lights of Pointe-Noire by Alain Mabanckou
The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Metro Stop Paris: An Underground History of the CIty of Light by Gregor Dallas
Of Africa by Wole Soyinka
Petals of Blood by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
Something Torn and New: An African Renaissance by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o

Medicine, Illness and Public Health

AIDS at 30: A History by Victoria A. Harden
An Anatomy of Addiction: Sigmund Freud, William Halsted, and the Miracle Drug Cocaine by Howard Markel
Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic That Remains One of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries by Molly Caldwell Crosby
Asthma: The Biography by Mark Jackson
Bedlam: London and Its Mad by Katharine Arnold
Death in a Small Package: A Short History of Anthrax by Susan D. Jones
Hope in Hell: Inside the World of Doctors Without Borders by Dan Bortolotti
Jonas Salk: A Life by Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs
The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science by Douglas Starr
The Last Asylum: A Memoir of Madness in Our Times by Barbara Taylor
Madhouse: A Tragic Tale of Megalomania and Modern Medicine by Andrew Scull
Madmen: A Social History of Madhouses, Mad-Doctors & Lunatics by Roy Porter
The Man Who Closed the Asylums: Franco Basaglia and the Revolution in Mental Health Care by John Foot
Mania: A Short History of Bipolar Disorder by David Healy
Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics is Fueling Our Modern Plagues by Martin J. Blaser, MD
The Price of Silence: A Mom's Perspective on Mental Illness by Liza Long
Proper Doctoring: A Book for Patients and Their Doctors by David Mendel
States of Mind: Experiences at the Edge of Consciousness by Wellcome Collection

Voices of Color/Social Justice

Al' America: Travels Through America's Arab and Islamic Roots by Jonathan Curiel
Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class by Owen Jones
A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery by E. Benjamin Skinner
Criminal of Poverty: Growing Up Homeless in America by Tiny, aka Lisa Gray-Garcia
To Die in Mexico: Dispatches from Inside the Drug War by John Gibler
Dying to Live: A Story of U.S. Immigration in an Age of Global Apartheid by Joseph Nevins
The Ethics of Identity by Kwame Anthony Appiah
Ethnicities: Children of Immigrants in America, edited by Rubén G. Rumbaut and Alejandro Portes
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
For the Muslims: Islamophobia in France by Edwy Plenel
The Good Immigrant, edited by Nikesh Shukla
A History of Violence: Living and Dying in Central America by Óscar Martínez
The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen by Kwame Anthony Appiah
How Does it Feel to Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America by Moustafa Bayoumi
Howard Zinn on Race by Howard Zinn
Latino Americans: The 500-Year Legacy That Shaped a Nation by Ray Suarez
Latino Immigrants and the Transformation of the U.S. South by Mary E. Odem
Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
The Mosaic of Islam: A Conversation with Perry Anderson by Suleiman Mourad
The Muslims Are Coming!: Islamophobia, Extremism, and the Domestic War on Terror by Arun Kundnani
The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America by Andrés Reséndez
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Rebel Music: Race, Empire, and the New Muslim Youth Culture by Hisham D. Aidi
Serve the People: Making Asian America in the Long Sixties by Karen L. Ishizuka
Trans: A Memoir by Juliet Jacques
Violent Borders: Refugees and the Right to Move by Reece Jones
We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For: Inner Light in a Time of Darkness by Alice Walker
What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam by John L. Esposito
Who Are We: And Should It Matter in the Twenty-First Century? by Gary Younge

2018 Wellcome Book Prize longlist:



*Stay With Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀
*The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine by Lindsey Fitzharris
In Pursuit of Memory: The Fight Against Alzheimer’s by Joseph Jebelli
Plot 29: A Memoir by Allan Jenkins
The White Book by Han Kang translated by Deborah Smith
*With the End in Mind: Dying, Death and Wisdom in an Age of Denial by Kathryn Mannix
Midwinter Break by Bernard MacLaverty
+*To Be a Machine: Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death by Mark O’Connell
I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O’Farrell
*Mayhem: A Memoir by Sigrid Rausing
Behave: The Biology of humans at our Best and Worst by Robert Sapolsky
*The Vaccine Race: How Scientists Used Human Cells to Combat Killer Viruses by Meredith Wadman

2017 Wellcome Book Prize longlist:



*How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS by David France
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari
*When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
+*Mend the Living by Maylis de Kerangal (alternate title: The Heart: A Novel)
The Golden Age by Joan London
Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind Over Body by Jo Marchant
*The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss
*The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee
The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Stories in Our Genes by Adam Rutherford
Miss Jane by Brad Watson
*I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong

*shortlisted title
+prize winner

Planned reads for June:

The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa
City of Ulysses by Teolinda Gersão
The Crime of Father Amaro by José Maria Eça de Queirós
Fado Alexandrino by António Lobo Antunes
The Gray Notebook by Josep Pla
The History of the Siege of Lisbon by José Saramago
Like a Fading Shadow by Antonio Muñoz Molina
The Poor by Raul Brandão
The Portuguese: A Modern History by Barry Hatton
Rick Steves' Snapshot Lisbon by Rick Steves
The Struggle for Catalonia: Rebel Politics in Spain by Raphael Minder

>1 kidzdoc: That bookstore looks great. Enjoy your visit.

>11 Oberon: Thanks, Erik. Have you visited Lisbon? If so, have you (or anyone else) gone to this bookshop?

>1 kidzdoc: Wow!

>13 SqueakyChu: Indeed. I'll be sure to take photos outside of and within Livraria Bertrand do Chiado, and post them here and on Facebook. There are other Livrarias Bertrand throughout Portugal, but needless to say the one in Chiado is the flagship bookshop.

>12 kidzdoc: I have not been to Lisbon. I have been to Portugal but never made to the capital.

>15 Oberon: Ah. What cities did you visit, Erik? In addition to Coimbra and Porto I plan to take day trips to Sintra and Braga, at least, and take a cruise down the Rio Douro; unfortunately the Comboios de Portugal (CP) Miradouro train that passes through the Douro Valley doesn't start running until mid July.

Happy new thread, Darryl. That >1 kidzdoc: looks like a booklover's heaven!

Happy travels. Your itinerary sounds wonderful and I wish you good weather; I'm sure the sights and company will take care of itself!

>17 jessibud2: Thanks, Shelley. From what I can tell Livraria Bertrand do Chiado sells some books in English and Spanish, although the majority are, understandably, in Portuguese.

Thursday, the day I arrive, is supposed to be rainy, and there are lesser amounts forecast for Friday and Saturday morning, with high temperatures in the mid to low 60s. I'm not meeting deebee1 (Friday) and Joaquim (Saturday) until noon or later, so hopefully the rains will have passed by then. I'll probably crash on Thursday, save for a quick exploration of the neighborhood immediately surrounding my hotel.

Darryl, it has been too long since I visited one of your wonderful threads. As always, there are wonderful images (that bookstore in >1 kidzdoc:!!!) and dangerous lists. :-)

Enjoy your Iberian travels!

Happy new thread, Darryl!
I am looking forward to read about your travels. I love the pictures at the top, so specal an 18th century bookshop still in business!

Happy travels Darryl. I look forward to some photos in time.

>19 EBT1002: Hi, Ellen! I haven't been great about visiting other friends' threads this year, either. I look forward to visiting the Livraria Bertrand do Chiado, and hopefully I'll be able to make it to Livraria Lello in Porto, a bookshop that originally opened in 1869 and moved to its current location in 1906. In addition to being considered one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world, and it and the city of Porto served as an inspiration to JK Rowling, who lived there from 1991 to 1993 while she was working on the Harry Potter series:

  

>20 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita! I'll do my best to keep my Facebook timeline, and hopefully LT threads, updated with my doings in Portugal and Catalunya. I'll stay in one hotel in Barcelona, but I'll take day trips to Girona and Tarragona, at least, while I'm there. I may also try to visit Zaragoza, depending on the length of the train ride from Barcelona Sants. (ETA: The fast trains take less than 90 minutes to go from Barcelona to Zaragoza, so a day trip there is very doable.)

>21 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Caroline. I shall do my best, although I'll use my Facebook timeline to post the majority of my photos.

Happy new thread!! Almost looks like it's a thread for your trip.

>23 tangledthread: Exactly. I find it much easier to post and, especially, start new threads on my home laptop than on my iPad Mini, which serves as my computer away from home. I do have a Bluetooth keyboard/case for it, which does help tremendously. I'll also create a new Club Read thread later today or tomorrow before I leave, with the same goal in mind.

That looks like a great bookstore to meet up in, Darryl. Safe travels and happy new thread!

Happy new thread! Enjoy your time in Lisbon.

>16 kidzdoc: I believe it was Lagos along the southern coast but I am embarrassed to admit that I am no longer 100% sure. Clearly I need to go back and jog my memory.

>25 Familyhistorian: Thanks, Meg!

>26 thornton37814: Thanks, Lori!

>27 Oberon: Nice. Lagos looks like a gorgeous little town, and a historically important one, as the first colonial slave market in Europe was built there in 1444. It's at least a three hour drive south of Lisbon, so I won't plan to go there on this trip, but I'm already all but completely certain that I'll return to Portugal in no more than two years from now, and visit the cities and towns of the Algarve when I'm there.

>16 kidzdoc: I had a electric train when i was 10 that looks just like that

Happy new thread and safe travels. Absolutely loving all the great photos you've posted here so far!

Happy new thread Darryl and have a really lovely time in Lisbon and Catalunya mate. Hope to see some great photos and plenty of chat about both places as we would love to visit Lisbon ourselves and are considering a nice long weekend within the next year.

Have a fun trip! We also loved Sintra, it is beautiful

Bom dia, y'all! I arrived in Lisbon two hours ago, and I'm having a leisurely breakfast in a bistro in the airport, as it's just past half eight in the morning and check in at my hotel isn't until 3 pm. When I called to ask about the possibility of early check in I was told that the hotel was full, and that an earlier check in time wasn't guaranteed, but the staff would do their best to get me a room as early as possible.

The (direct) flight was a very pleasant one, although I only slept for two hours, as my very enjoyable seat mate, a Vascular Surgery physician assistant for the hospital directly across the street from the hospital I work at, and I chatted for nearly six hours. We exchanged contact information, and we'll probably try to meet up when she and her husband return to Lisbon next week. I'll crash once I check in, especially since it will be a rainy and cool day here, with a high of only 64 F (18 C).

>29 magicians_nephew: Nice, Jim! I wouldn't be surprised if you wished that you still owned it.

>30 figsfromthistle: Thanks! I'll post more photos after deebee1, her husband, Vivian, her friend and I meet up tomorrow afternoon and evening.

>31 johnsimpson: Thanks, John! I plan to post what are essentially travelogues of Lisbon, Coimbra and Porto, as I'm a member of a private Facebook group dedicated to travel that is run by one of my work partners; she has never been to Portugal, although she's traveled far more widely and often than I have, so I've been tasked to mention the places I visit and the restaurants I dine in. I'll post that same information on my Facebook timeline and, time permitting, my LT threads.

>32 banjo123: Thanks, Rhonda! I'll probably visit Sintra on Monday, as most of the museums and monuments are closed that day.

Happy new thread! Have fun in Lisbon - and post a bunch of pics so we can vacation vicariously... 😀

I keep reading Sintra as Sinatra.

Have a great time in Portugal, Darryl. The posted photos are smashing, and I've heard of that bookstore. The Moravian Book Shop in Bethlehem boasts of being the oldest bookstore in the US, but it's dismal in comparison to that one in Lisbon.

>34 drneutron: Thanks, Jim!

>35 tangledthread: You're not the only one. My iPad Mini's autocorrect feature also wants to convert Sintra into Sinatra.

>36 weird_O: Thanks, Bill. I looked it up, and the Moravian Book Shop is only 13 years younger than Livraria Bertrand do Chiado, as it opened in 1745. Actually, it's a bit surprising that there aren't older bookshops in continuous operation that are still around; the Librairie Nouvelle d’Orléans in France opened in 1545 and is still in existence, but it must have closed at some point in the past.

>33 kidzdoc: leisurely breakfast sounds perfect!

I just popped in to say that I read your review of Go, Went, Gone on one of your threads, and am now leaving uni early to go to the library and grab it. So thanks! I handed in a thesis section today for my supervisors to peruse, so will need something to read this weekend other than social constructionism or social psychology!)

Happy travels!

>35 tangledthread: ...while I keep pronouncing Sinatra as Sintra, or at least pronouncing the first syllable as seen rather than sin.

I visited my parents several times, sometimes for a month or more, while Mom was posted to the American Embassy in Lisbon. We took some lovely day-trips, up to Coimbra and out to Boca de Inferno in Cascais (which is spectacular but as previously discussed rather touristy and crowded), and longer trips out to the Algarve. However, I was always a passenger for those trips, and I haven't the faintest idea where things are in relation to one another.

Oddly, I don't think we ever went to that bookstore - at least, it doesn't look familiar. The one in Porto is certainly more spectacular, but...hmm. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, maybe I did go - but I couldn't find any English books and I don't comfortably read either Spanish or Portuguese. So all I bought was a Portuguese Asterix - Asterix Legionário, which I still have. I'd say the tile looks familiar, but there's tile _everywhere_ in Lisbon - that and black-and-white square cobblestones.

Do try a convent sweet, at least once - if I recall correctly, you're not much for sweet stuff, but it's not all that sweet (in my memory, at least) and the custard tastes lovely. They're little, 1- to 3-inch custard tarts. I've been trying to figure out how to make them at home practically since I first visited - haven't found a recipe that sounded right yet.

Oh yeah, you have to have Pastel de Nata. But the people in Lisbon will make sure that you do! I think Manteigaria is the best place, maybe better than the ones in Belem. (anyway, that's what our AirBNB host told us)

Bom dia a todos! I had a fantastic first day in Lisbon, spending the afternoon with DB (deebee1) in Baixa and the Chiado, two of the oldest neighborhoods in the city, followed by dinner with DB, her husband Nuno, Vivian (vivians) and her college friend Connie at a marisqueira (seafood restaurant) in Cacilhas, a small town across the Rio Tejo from Lisbon easily accessible by a short ferry ride. Here's an after dinner photo of the group that Vivian shared with me:



I took nearly 100 photos, which are in an album on my Facebook page. I'll post a few of them here later today, after I return from a meet up with a fellow pediatric hospitalist in just over an hour.

Looks like a great set of folks for dinner!

That looks like a fine group for dinner, Darryl. Enjoy your travels!

Glad you are having a great time in Portugal, Darryl! LibraryThing meetups, great food and beautiful sights ... what more could you want!

Agreeing with Claire. Sounds like another great holiday and LT meet up Darryl.

I'm back in the US after a terrific few days on the road! A couple of thoughts about Porto: the Lello bookshop has become of the city's premier attractions. It was pouring the day we went, and there was a line to get in that snaked all the way around the corner. There is an annex to the bookstore on the corner (which is essentially a book themed giftshop) where vouchers are sold for 5 euros. The voucher allows you to "jump" the line, and it can be used as a credit against the purchase of a book. There was a small collection of Portuguese authors translated into English.

We had a terrific dinner at a local restaurant - I'll get the name from Connie and send it to you.

The highlight of our trip (other than the LT meet-up of course!) was the town of Obridos. We arrived in the evening and had hours of walking around both at night and early in the morning, before the hordes of tourists arrived. Stunning town.

One other thought: we arrived in Coimbra in the afternoon and there was a 3 hour wait to enter the Joanina Library at the university. Our time was tight so we had to skip it. If you can, try to get there first thing in the morning.

I'm eager to hear about the rest of your trip!

Bom dia a todos! I've been in Lisbon a week, and I'm having a great time so far, although I've spent several very lazy days doing little or nothing, including today so far, although I'll meet up with deebee1 again in a few hours. Lisbon (Lisboa) is a wonderful city with friendly people and a laid back vibe, with a rich history, plenty of diversity due to Portugal's colonial history, and fantastic food.

I was originally supposed to leave Lisboa for Coimbra tomorrow morning, but I've decided to skip that city for this visit, and go directly from here to Porto on Monday, which gives me more time to explore this city.



Woo! Today is the opening day of the 2018 World Cup, which will be followed fervently in Portugal and Spain, two of the teams that have a good shot at capturing the Copa do Mundo. Both teams are in the same group, and they will play tomorrow night, which undoubtedly will be this weekend's most important event in both countries.

Catching up (before I post photos):

>38 LovingLit: Hi, Megan! I'm glad that my review of Go, Went, Gone encouraged you to borrow a copy of it. It's very timely, given this week's crisis involving the two ships carrying hundreds of African refugees that were stranded in the Mediterranean Sea; the refugees from the first ship were refused by Italy and Malta but accepted by Spain, and those on the second ship were, to my understanding, accepted by Italy, as that ship was not supported by an NGO, as Italy claims that NGOs actively encourage and support these refugee journeys by ship from Africa and the Middle East. I am certain that Erpenbeck's novel will provide to be more compelling than social constructionism and social psychology!

>39 jjmcgaffey: DB and I met at Livraria Bertrand on Friday. It's easy to get to, as it's only a block away from the Baixa-Chiado metro station, on the Rua Garrett. There were very few English language books there; however, she took me to the FNAC in the Armazéns do Chiado mall at the foot of Rua Garrett, which has a far more extensive collection of books published in English. I'll go back there on one of the next four days, as I saw a couple of books that are on my wish list, and there were several music CDs that were on sale that were of great interest.

I had a pastel de nata when DB and I had lunch on Friday, and it was very tasty and not overly sweet. I'll have another one when I go to Belém tomorrow.

>40 banjo123: Ah. I see that there is now a branch of Manteigaria in the Time Out Lisboa Market in the Mercado da Ribeira, located just across from the Cais do Sodré metro and CP (Comboios de Portugal) train station. DB and I are meeting in that area later this afternoon, so I may stop there on my way back to purchase pasteis de nata (pastel is the singular form of the word, and pasteis is the plural version).

>42 drneutron: Right, Jim! We had a lively conversation over a splendid dinner, and it was great to meet Vivian, her friend Connie, and DB's husband Nuno.

>43 Familyhistorian: Thanks, Meg! I still have two weeks left in my vacation, so even though I've been in Lisboa a week it's just getting started.

>44 Sakerfalcon: Thanks, Claire! Right you are.

>45 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Caroline.

>46 vivians: I'm glad that we were able to meet last week, Vivian! I enjoyed meeting Connie, and our dinner was superb.

Thanks for the tip about Livraria Lello. I'll definitely purchase one of those vouchers before I go there. I'd love to know the name of the restaurant in Porto that you enjoyed there.

I'll have to pay a visit to Óbidos the next time I visit Portugal, which may be as early as this coming autumn.

I'll take a nap now, and post photos a bit later.

I meant to add that you can get good pastel de nata from the South Bank Food Market, if you need a fix when you are in London later this year! I love them.

>51 Sakerfalcon: Thanks, Claire! That's good to know, and I'll be on the lookout for them there.

I just saw your marvelous photo album on Facebook; very well done!

Both Connie and I racked our brains to remember the name of the restaurant in Porto. Here are some "clues":

It's on R. do Ateneu Comercial do Porto, a small and very short alley like street which is parallel to St. Catarina Street. St. Catarina is a long pedestrian shopping street.

The restaurant name begins with "Ab" and was close to the corner with R. de Antonio Pedro. There were two other restaurants on the street but one was more of a food-court and I think one was more of a pizza place.

I'm going to check my credit card statement to see if I can get more clarity!

>53 vivians: Thanks, Vivian! With the help of the map of Porto, Google maps, and your clues, it seems that the restaurant you're referring to is the Abadia do Porto. I can see the R. do Ateneu Comercial do Porto in the City Centre insert of my map, so I should have little trouble finding it.

ETA: Even better, I located my hotel, InSitu Living, on the Rua Formosa close to the Bolhão metro station, and it is very close to Restaurante Abadia do Porto! I may go there for dinner on Monday; obrigado, senhora!

I spent four hours in the company of deebee1 yesterday, most of it in Vestigius, an excellent bar and restaurant along the Rio Tejo in Lisboa, close to the Cais do Sodré metro, ferry and railway station:



I loved Vestigius's funky interior:



DB had already had lunch, but I had a late lunch/early dinner of arroz de pato (roast duck with rice and chouriço, seasoned with olives, garlic and orange), which was divine:



I normally don't eat dessert, but our waiter highly recommended the cheesecake, which was unlike any I've ever had:



We had a great view of the river, the towns on its south bank with mountains in the distance, and the frequent ferries that brought rush hour commuters home and younger people into Lisboa for a night out:



We saw a typical Portuguese fishing vessel as we walked along the Rio Tejo from Cais do Sodré to the Plaça do Comércio:



DB was a great dinner companion and an excellent tour guide to Lisboa, and ambassador for the city and country. She has left me with much to think about, specifically the consideration of retiring to Portugal rather than Spain. I'll definitely spend more time in Portugal over the next few years, and I may return to Lisboa for a week in November instead of traveling to London for the EFG London Jazz Festival as I had originally planned.

I'm just finishing breakfast in my hotel room, and I'll leave shortly to go to the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, to visit its modern and ancient art museums. I'll plan to go to Belém early on Sunday, and visit two other museums on Saturday. I'll post more photos from previous days here this weekend, hopefully starting this afternoon. Até mais tarde! (See you later!)

Happy new thread! Looks like you are having a wonderful time. Loving all the photos here and on FB

I can see that I'm going to have to add Portugal to my list of places to (re)visit in the future! Your pictures and descriptions make it very tempting.

Love traveling with you, Darryl. And that duck looks amazing.

>55 kidzdoc: that all sounds delightful Darryl.

I’m watching the replay of the game today - this is some amazing football! I’ll bet the fans were out in force today where you are. 😀

>56 ChelleBearss: Thanks, Chelle! I'll post more photos this morning before I head out. Lisboa is a fantastic city, and, if I haven't said so already, I may return here during my week of vacation in November instead of making a second trip to London. DB, her husband, Joaquim, the retired pediatrician who I met on Saturday, his friend Ana, and other Lisboetas I've spoken to over the past week have given me insight into the city, the surrounding area, and Portugal as a whole, and as DB proposed before I came here, it is now on a radar screen as a potential place to retire in seven or eight years.

>57 Sakerfalcon: Thanks, Claire. I'll definitely visit Portugal on a regular basis from now on, at least once or twice a year, in order to start exploring the different parts of the country as potential places to retire. Due to the extension of my stay in Lisboa I'll miss seeing Coimbra, but I will have as many as 3-1/2 days to spend in Porto, the second largest city in Portugal, which DB says has a different vibe than Lisboa does. I rebooked my train ticket for Monday, and it only takes 2 hr 45 minutes to travel to Porto from here. Lisboa's public transportation system is very good, and I can take the Blue Line of the metro directly to Santa Apolónia station, where my train to Porto departs. Porto also has an extensive metro system, and I'll be able to take a subway train from Porto Campanhã railway station to Bolhão station, 1-1/2 blocks from the flat I'll be staying in.

>58 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks, Linda. The duck was very tasty, and I could easily go back to Vestigius for another meal, either for it or more seafood.

>59 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Caroline.

>60 drneutron: The Portugal-Spain match was highly entertaining, although Spain was clearly the better team. The fouls that led to two of Cristiano Ronaldo's three goals were questionable, and the Spanish keeper should have handled the other goal just before halftime. I saw the last few minutes of the Morocco-Iran match yesterday afternoon, and neither team looked very good. Those are the other teams in the group with Spain and Portugal, and it would be shocking if either of the two Iberian powers lost to the Middle Eastern lightweights and failed to advance to the knockout rounds.

Oddly enough I didn't see all that many people who were openly supporting the Portuguese football club yesterday, save for one or two men who were riding bicycles with one or two Portuguese flags mounted on them, wearing the team's jersey and cap, and blowing whistles to support the team. I suspect that this was the same person that I saw twice, at Café a Brasileira in the Chiado, and along the Rio Tejo a couple of hours later as I was having lunch near Cais do Sodré station, in a restaurant close to the one that DB and I met in on Thursday. I suspect that the less tourist filled areas of Lisboa were filled with supporters in bars and restaurants, as compared to the area where my hotel is, which has far more tourists and expatriates.

Backtracking a bit...last Friday deebee1 (DB) and I met at Livraria Bertrand, the bookshop shown in the top of my thread. It's a beautiful store, but its collection of English language books is very small, so I didn't buy anything, although I'm tempted to get a lovely but hefty Portuguese cookbook that she pointed out to me if I can't find it on Amazon. The bookshop is very easy to get to, as it's only a block away from the Baixa-Chiado metro station that connects the Blue and Green Lines.

We stopped briefly in front of Café a Brasileira, which opened in 1905 to sell Brasilian coffee to Lisboetas, and soon became a hangout for local intellectuals and artists in the early 20th century, most notably Fernando Pessoa. There is a statue of him seated at a table on the plaza outside of the café, with an empty chair next to him, and untold numbers of tourists have photos of themselves seated next to the great writer:



The café is just to the right. In this photo, there is a waiter standing on the far right edge. The blue tiled building behind him is Livraria Bertrand.



From there we walked through the Chiado, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Lisbon. Our next stop was the Igreja de São Roque, the Church of St. Roch, which dates back to the early 16th century and is one of the few buildings which was not destroyed or heavily damaged by the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755. It is named after the patron saint of plague victims, and construction of the church began in 1506, the year after a plague devastated the city, and it was built on the grounds of a plague cemetery.



It was the first Jesuit church built in Portugal, and one of the first ones built in the world. After the expulsion of the Jesuits from Portugal in 1759 the church was given to the Lisbon Holy House of Mercy, whose church was destroyed in the 1755 earthquake, where it has remained since then.

The church is notable for its richly gilded chapels, such as the Chapel of Our Lady of Piety:



The Chapel of Our Lady of the Doctrine:



The Chapel of the Holy Family:

The 14th century Igreja do Carmo (the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel) is probably the best preserved monument to the Great Lisbon Earthquake. It serves as an archeological museum, and in summers its interior hosts light shows and concerts; the Kronos Quartet will perform there next month.





Lisbon is a very hilly city, and it has several miradouros, or lookout points, which provide spectacular views of the city, the Rio Tejo, and the towns and mountains across the river. This photo shows the Castelo de São Jorge and the buildings that surround it in the Alfama:



The entrance to Rossio, the most central of Lisbon major railway stations:

The 13th century Igreja de São Domingos was heavily damaged during the earthquakes of 1531 and 1755, and gutted by a fire in 1959. It reopened in 1994, although the interior damage from the fire is plainly evident:





This plaque, the Memorial às Vítimas do Massacre Judaico, commemorates one of the darkest days in Lisbon's history, the massacre of 2000-4000 conversos, Jewish converts to Christianity, by mobs in Rossio Square on April 19, 1506. After the Reconquista, the centuries long campaign for Christians to reclaim Spain and Portugal, ended in 1491 with the conquest of Granada, Moors and Jews were forced to either flee the Iberian peninsula, leaving their homes and other worldly belongings behind, or convert to Christianity. The conversos were targeted by Christians during times of social strife, one of which occurred in the first few months of 1506. On April 17 of that year several conversos were discovered to be secretly practicing Jewish customs by local officials, who soon released them. The general public became enraged, and Dominicans and other Old Christians hunted down and slaughtered the "New Christians", along with "Old Christians" who befriended them.

These are pieces of bacalhau (bacalao), dried salted cod that have been brought to Portugal, Spain and other countries from the North Sea since medieval times. Bacalhau cannot be consumed as is, it must be soaked in water for roughly 24 hours to remove the salt beforehand.



One of my favorite memories from that special day was seeing these schoolgirls sing fado with great joy and energy before an appreciative audience on the Rua Augusta in the Baixa, as we walked toward the Praça do Comércio. I should have taken a brief video of them singing. I had a huge smile on my face when I first saw and heard them, and I think the two girls on the right noticed as I took this photo of them.



The Rua Augusta Arch, which separates the Baixa from the Praça do Comércio and was begun just after the 1755 earthquake to commemorate Lisbon's rebirth:



A 1920s era Lisbon tram, which is part of the city's public transit system but is most often ridden by tourists. This one is a bit unusual, in that the #15 runs along the Rio Tejo from the Praça do Comércio westward to Belém and is usually stocked with modern trams, as it's a straight and flat journey along a wide avenue, whereas these old trams are used on the narrow, winding and hilly medieval streets in the Alfama, Baixa and Chiado neighborhoods:

DB took this photo of me on the Praça do Comércio, on the other side of the Rua Augusta Arch:



Hmm. I don't have any good photos of the Praça do Comércio (Commerce Square), so this one will have to do. Until the Great Lisbon Earthquake this was the site of the main palace of the Royal Family, the Paços da Ribeira, but the tsunami that followed the earthquake destroyed the palace. King José I, whose statue can be seen in the center of this photo and the following one, fled with his family to Belém, and the empty space was rebuilt shortly after the earthquake:





The Praça do Comércio begins at the Rio Tejo, and we walked westward along the river to Cais do Sodré, which serves as a metro, railway and ferry station. There we met Vivian and Connie, her friend who vacationed with her. We took a short ferry ride across the river to the town of Cacilhas, where we met DB's husband for dinner at a marisqueira (seafood restaurant) there. We arrived early, so the three visitors took photos of Lisbon from the dock:





Our ferry, heading back to Lisbon:



Here's a better photo from the Praça do Comércio:

Restaurante Cabrinha, the marisqueira where we met for dinner:



Our meal was fantastic, especially the shellfish!







Here again is the photo of the dinner party. From left to right, Nuno, DB's husband, Vivian, Connie, DB and me:



As always, LT meetups are filled with great conversation that could have lasted for many more hours. Vivian, Connie and I said goodbye to DB and Nuno, who live in a city close to Cacilhas, and the three of us rode a ferry back to Cais do Sodré in Lisbon, where we said goodbye. That was a wonderful and unforgettable day, and I look forward to seeing DB and Nuno again in Lisbon within the next year, and Vivian a bit closer to home.

That food might have made me moan a little. The fish looks especially wonderful. I find it is even harder to get good fish here than it is to get good shellfish.

Yeah, I had to wipe the drool away... 😀

>68 laytonwoman3rd:, >69 drneutron: Did you both say you wanted more food photos? Glad to oblige. 😎 I forgot to mention the superb lunch that DB and I had last Friday at Mercado Simply Portuguese on the Rua São Pedro de Alcântara in the Bairro Alto, on the other side of the street from the Igreja de São Roque. We were hoping to dine at the Cervejaria Trindade, a former 13th century convent that is now the oldest beer house in Portugal, but it was completely full, so DB pointed out Mercado as an alternative. We were not disappointed.

DB had lombo de bacalhau no forno com crosta de ervas, codfish loin with herb crust:



I had polvo á Lagareiro, octopus fillet with potatoes and garlic, which is probably the best octopus I've ever tasted:



I didn't take a photo of it, but I had my first (and so far only) pastel de nata for desert, which was very tasty, and, as others have said, not overly sweet.

So great to see all the photos, Darryl! I'm so glad your time in Portugal has lived up to expectations. I would definitely return for a longer trip.

It seems that the Gulbenkian is a favorite museum of many visitors. I've spoken to a number of people who visited it over the years and remember it very vividly. It really is an extraordinary collection of significant works from so many different periods. Perhaps I'm being too cynical, but to me it felt more like a an attempt to acquire art rather than to appreciate it. Of course, that didn't minimize my pleasure in viewing it!

We did get a chance to hear some fado when we were in Porto. We happened upon a "Casa de Guitara" and listened to a concert with two guitarists and one soloist. It was excellent and I found the music to be very moving, despite the fact that I could only understand isolated words.

I hope you continue to have wonderful experiences!

I am glad that you are enjoying Lisboa! The salted cod cracked us up when we were there, as there is so much wonderful fresh seafood, but every restaurant wanted us to try their salt cod. Which was good, but I didn't need it for every meal.

Are you going to get to Sintra? I was looking at our photos, and Sintra is so lovely. If you are running short on time, I would go to Sintra and skip Belem.

polvo á Lagareiro is my new favorite dish, and I have never tasted it.

I was amazed at just how much salt cod is eaten in Portugal. If you go into a supermarket there are piles and piles of the stuff! Personally I think it’s s bit of an acquired taste: it’s OK but i’m not sure why you’d want to eat it when there’s abundant fresh cod and other seafood available.

Thanks for posting all those pictures, nice to see a bit of Portugal this way.

And on the subject of bacalau, or salted cod, you cleared up a minor question of mine. Living in Amsterdam we used to go and get a broodje bakkeljauw met zuur at Tjin's eatery, a bun of bakkeljauw, it's from Surinam. I always wondered what kind of fish it was. So now I get that bakkeljauw and bacalau must be the same thing, and have travelled across the Atlantic, from Portugal to Surinam and back to Holland again.

Have a nice time in Portugal.

Fantastic photos, Darryl! I can see that I'll have to start eating fish and seafood again if I return to Portugal. I don't imagine there is a lot of vegetarian food around (there certainly wasn't on my only previous visit).

Hi, Darryl. It looks and sounds like such a great trip you're having. Thanks for taking us along for some of it.

That "cheesecake" - how did it taste? I love the look of it.

Thank you for sharing photos of your trip, Darryl. It seems like a wonderful trip so far!

Oh my stars! Portugal looks absolutely beautiful. Thanks for sharing some of your vacation with us, Darryl. It sounds like you've had a wonderful time.

I may have to make Portugal my Europe trip this fall. I was planning on Italy, but screw that blackshirt nonsense. I kind of don't want to give them my money right now, you know?

How's it going traveller?

Happy Sunday, Darryl. It looks like you had another fantastic trip and it is always good to see the Meet Ups! Are you back home now?

Belated hello, everyone! I'm in Barcelona, on my second to last full day before I return to Atlanta on Thursday. I'll catch up here later this week and next week, but I wanted to mention, for anyone that may be going, that tickets for this year's Edinburgh International Book Festival, which runs from August 11-27, went on sale at 08:30 BST today. I joined the queue early this morning, and booked tickets to see Javier Cercas, Aminatta Forna, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Kamila Shamsie, Ben Okri, Yan Lianke, Dr Kathryn Mannix, the British palliative care physician whose book With the End in Mind: Dying, Death, and Wisdom in an Age of Denial was my favorite from this year's Wellcome Book Prize longlist, and a dozen or so other authors, along with a performance by The Last Poets, who I saw at the book festival last year. Tickets were still available for all but one of the events that I booked, but appearances by the most popular authors tend to sell out quickly.

I extended my stay in Edinburgh this weekend, so I'll arrive on the 16th but I'll now leave on the 28th. Similar to last year flissp and wandering_star will also be in Edinburgh while I'm there, and we're in the process of making plans to meet for Book Festival and Fringe events. If anyone else will be in Edinburgh for the festivals in August please let us know!

What a line-up in Edinburgh! This festival is definitely on my "someday" list. Have a good trip home.

Oh, Barcelona. Say hello for us, Darryl.

I wish we could join you at the Edinburgh Book Festival. Maybe some day.

>55 kidzdoc: I loved Vestigius's funky interior too!!! And that cheesecake does look very very cool :)
I am really enjoying keeping up with your travels on fb, and here too.

>82 kidzdoc: and already the next trip is planned! I swear, I almost feel like its me doing all your cool stuff. You tell the stories of your travels so kindly, I am not even jealous ;)

>82 kidzdoc: Since moving to the UK this year, I've had my eye on the Edinburgh festival and may try to plan a trip. Good to know other LTers will be in attendance!

Wow! What a fantastic trip you had. I loved traveling to all these great places through you photos. Hope you had a safe trip back home.

Happy Sunday, everyone! I arrived back in Atlanta on Thursday afternoon, after a long (10 hour) but uneventful and surprisingly peaceful flight (as roughly half the passengers were teenagers who were quite rowdy at the gate before we boarded), and since then I've been doing a lot of sleeping and putzing around unproductively, as I make the adjustment back to US East Coast time, which is six hours behind Central European Summer Time (CEST). Fortunately I won't go back to work until Monday afternoon, as I'll work the swing shift (5 pm to 1 am) Monday through Thursday. Our service is usually (usually) relatively calm at this time of the year, especially with the Independence Day holiday coming up next week, which should give me a chance to catch up on threads and post more photos from Lisbon, Porto and Barcelona.

I enjoyed being back in Barcelona, liked Porto, but fell head over heels in love with Lisbon. Meeting up with deebee1 twice, and Joaquim, the retired pediatrician who is a friend of Madeline's, once was very enjoyable and insightful, as both of them, along with DB's husband Nuno and Joaquim's friend Ana, gave e good information about Lisbon, Portugal as a whole, and how it is to live there. I found the Portuguese people, taken as a whole, to be much friendlier than Spaniards, although I did meet plenty of lovely people in Barcelona and have on previous visits. Lisbon is also considerably more diverse than Barcelona, with sizable populations descended from Africa, the Caribbean and Asia, as Portugal had colonies in those regions and held onto many of them for a decade or more longer than other European colonial powers did. DB knew of my thoughts of retiring abroad, and she strongly encouraged me to consider moving there, and offered any help that she could provide. Joaquim and Ana were also pleased that I was thinking of retiring there.

As a result of this trip Portugal has now moved ahead of Spain on my retirement wish list, and I'll start visiting Lisbon far more often. I had requested a week of vacation in November to attend the EFG London Jazz Festival, as I did last year, but I'll probably use that time to return to Lisbon.

I did very little reading (four books in three weeks, all of which were excellent), and only purchased one book, Kader Attia: Architecture of Memory, from the Fundació Joan Miró, the museum dedicated to the works of the great Catalan artist, when I visited it on Wednesday. Attia, a French-Algerian artist, won the biennial Joan Miró Award in 2017, and the museum had a temporary exhibition dedicated to his work, which I saw. I'm normally not impressed with the temporary exhibitions there (this was my fourth visit in the past five years), but I was deeply moved by Attia's work. This catalog is from his recent exhibition at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne that closed in January, much of which also appeared at the Fundació Joan Miró, so I'll read it this month and post images from the exhibition when I review it. This book fits perfectly with this month's Non-Fiction Challenge, so I'll post my review there as well.

Planned Reads for July:

Act of the Damned by António Lobo Antunes
The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa
Compared to What by Yesh Yonas
The Famished Road by Ben Okri
Happiness by Aminatta Forna
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay
Kader Attia: Architecture of Memory by Kader Attia
Like a Fading Shadow by Antonio Muñoz Molina
Pity and Terror: Picasso's Path to Guernica by Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofía
The Struggle for Catalonia: Rebel Politics in Spain by Raphael Minder

I'll also read the copy of a novel that a physician colleague of work wrote this spring, although I won't mention the title or anything about it here.

Catching up...

>71 vivians: Thanks, Vivian! I have many more photos from Lisbon, Belém and Porto on my Facebook timeline, some of which I'll post here as well.

I'm glad that you also enjoyed your visit to the Gulbenkian. Did you visit the Coleção Moderna as well? I only visited that building, so I'll have to visit the main collection as well.

I didn't go to any fado performances, so I'll have to be sure to do so when I return to Lisbon in November.

I didn't do much as I should have when I was in Porto, due to excessive heat on two days and thunderstorms on two others, and I never did eat out, even though Restaurante Abadia was close to my service apartment. (My host also recommended it, and said that it was one of his favorite places to dine with friends.) My apartment building was on the Rua Formosa, 1/2 block from Rua Santa Catarina and one block south of Rua de Fernandes Tomás, where the Bilhão metro station is located. I arrived on a Monday afternoon, and the following morning I visited the Mercado Temporário Bilhão, the temporary location of the Mercado do Bilhão, the city's main market, which was in the basement of La Vie mall. My service apartment had a stove, refrigerator & freezer, microwave, and supplies for cooking and dining in, so I went to the market with a plan to cook at least some meals in my apartment. I went mildly berserk at the market, though, due to the quality and selection of products and their very low prices. My last stop there was to the market's fish section, and I bought two salmon fillets, sliced and trimmed off of the body of the fish, which cost 5,00€, or roughly $5.79. That was the price for both fillets, not just one! I was openly shocked when the fishmonger told me how much they cost, and she, a friend of hers and I shared a good laugh at my surprise, and I told her that I would have willingly paid 5 euros for each fillet.

The entrance to the market:



A small section of the market's interior:



My haul:



The American travel writer Rick Steves was in Porto the same time that I was (I follow his blog and YouTube videos, which is how I found out). He visited the Mercado Temporário Bilhão the day after I did, and made a short (three minute) video, which he posted on YouTube. The friendly fishmonger who said "Olá!" to him toward the end of the video is the same woman who sold me the salmon fillets the day before.

https://youtu.be/zrWdk91DfiQ

I am thrilled you had such a lovely trip, Darryl, and very excited that you got to meet Joachim (I didn't know anything about Ana before). Maybe one day I'll get to meet him as well. My online friendship with him began with BookCrossing and continued as both of us became stewards of our own Little Free Library. Books sure do cement friendships around the world!

My friend Barbara just returned from Portugal, but she did not have time to meet up with Joachim. She loved Portugal even more this trip than she did on her first visit many years ago, She agrees with you about how friendly the people of Portugal are. She hopes to get to meet you some day (as do I). We'll just have to figure out when (and where!). :)

>72 banjo123: Thanks, Rhonda. I did have bacalhau at least twice, and I did like it, but nowhere near as much as the octopus that I had every damn day on multiple occasions. I tried bacalao for the first time last year when I visited San Sebastián, Spain, from a restaurant that supposedly specialized in it, but I didn't like it at all, so I was pleased that the Portuguese version of it was much better.

I visited Belém two Sundays ago, the day before I left Lisbon to go to Porto. I'll definitely visit Sintra later this year or in 2019.

>73 laytonwoman3rd: polvo á Lagareiro is my new favorite dish, and I have never tasted it

Right? That was amazing. Of all the fantastic seafood I had during those three weeks I think that was my favorite dish.

>74 SandDune: I didn't go to any supermarkets in Portugal, and I didn't see any bacalhau in the markets I visited in Lisbon and Porto, although there was plenty of fresh fish. DB and I did pass by an old shop in the Chiado that sold bacalhau, though, not long before we met up with Vivian and Connie to have dinner:



The book I finished on the flight from Barcelona to Atlanta on Thursday, The Portuguese: A Modern History by Barry Hatton, compared precooked bacalhau to slabs of cardboard. I agree with him.

>75 EllaTim: You're welcome, EllaTim. More photos are forthcoming!

Bacalhau is also a staple food in the Caribbean, although it's just called saltfish there. I found this on Wikipedia just now:

In Middle English dried and salted cod was called haberdine. Dried cod and the dishes made from it are known by many names around the world, many of them derived from the root bacal-, itself of unknown origin. Explorer John Cabot reported that it was the name used by the inhabitants of Newfoundland. Some of these are: bacalhau (salgado) (Portuguese), bacalao salado (Spanish), bakailao (Basque), bacallà salat i assecat or bacallà salat (Catalan), μπακαλιάρος, bakaliáros (Greek), Kabeljau (German), cabillaud (French), baccalà (Italian), bakalar (Croatian), bakkeljauw (Dutch), makayabu (Central and East Africa), kapakala (Finnish). Other names include ráktoguolli/goikeguolli (Sami), klipfisk/klippfisk/clipfish (Scandinavian), stokvis/klipvis (Dutch), saltfiskur (Icelandic), morue (French), saltfish (Anglophone Caribbean), bakaljaw (Maltese), "labardan" (Russian).

>76 Sakerfalcon: Thanks, Claire! Yes, you probably would have to resume eating seafood in order to have a decent meal, at least in traditional Portuguese restaurants. The aforementioned book I read about Portugal mentioned that the salads served in the country are quite meager, and I also found that to be the case.

>77 jnwelch: You're welcome, Joe. I would highly recommend a trip to Portugal to you and Debbi!

The cheesecake had a nice creamy texture, although different from a traditional New York cheesecake, and it was a bit tangy, as I remember. I loved it.

>78 SqueakyChu: You're welcome, Madeline! Thanks again for introducing me to Joaquim. We're now friends on Facebook, so we'll be able to keep in touch.

>79 libraryperilous: You're welcome, Diana! I'm glad that you liked my photos, and even happier that you're considering a visit to Portugal in the autumn. Portugal has a stable and progressive center-left government, according to DB, and it is very welcoming of immigrants, although few of the ones coming from Africa and the Middle East are choosing to live there. DB said that it's because their families and countrymen are mainly living in other European countries, not because they are not made to feel welcome there.

>80 Caroline_McElwee: Hi, Caroline!

>81 msf59: Happy belated Sunday, Mark!

>83 vivians: Last year was the first time I attended the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Vivian, and it was easily the best book festival I've ever attended. I was able to get tickets for all of the events that I wanted to. IIRC I have tickets for 17 events in the two weeks that I'll be in Edinburgh, and now I'll need to start paying atttention to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe performances. So far Margaret (wandering_star) and I will see two performances together, and Fliss (flissp) and I have agreed to see one, although we'll wait for awhile to determine what date is best for both of us. We'll undoubtedly see more things together, as we did last year.

>84 jnwelch: I have no doubt that you and Debbi would love the festivals in Edinburgh, Joe. (IIRC you've been to the Scottish capital before, right?) Fliss had been trying for years to get me to go, but it took Margaret's gentle added pressure last year to convince me. I'm thoroughly hooked now, and I'll plan to go as often as I can, preferably every year.

Barcelona wanted to know why you chose Portland over her, and she thinks that she is far more attractive than London is. You have some making up to do to get back in her good graces.

>85 LovingLit: On a first reading I misintepreted your comment about Vestigius, Megan. I thought that you had been there as well, and I was going to ask your opinion of it. *insert dunce cap emoji here*

and already the next trip is planned! I swear, I almost feel like its me doing all your cool stuff. You tell the stories of your travels so kindly, I am not even jealous ;)

Ha! I'll make you a deal, Megan. If you pay a visit to England or Portugal while I'm there I promise to visit you and Alex in NZ. A friend of mine at work visited NZ last month, and her pictures were highly appealing (I almost typed appalling there).

>86 rosylibrarian: Nice, Marie! Let me know if you decide to go to Edinburgh next month; if so, I can put you in touch with Margaret and Fliss.

>87 Berly: Thanks, Kim! More beautiful photos are forthcoming.

>91 SqueakyChu: Thanks, Madeline! I spent a lovely afternoon with Joaquim and his friend Ana, which was unfortunately cut short due to back spasms that I experienced when we went to the Lisbon Book Festival. He brought Ana, who is a physical therapist, along with him, mainly to help him be able to understand me. He was recently filled with a cochlear implant, and had a hard time understanding me, especially being an English speaker with almost no knowledge of Portuguese, although he had difficulty understanding Ana when she spoke to him in Portuguese. We met in the park (Parque Quinta das Conchas e dos Liases) where his Little Free Library is located, which was close to the Quinta das Conchas metro station, then had a very nice lunch in a traditional Portuguese restaurant nearby. He drove the three of us to the Parque Eduardo VII, where the book festival was taking place, which was when my back started to give me trouble, probably from all the walking that DB and I did the previous day. We sat and had a snack for awhile, to let my back recover, but when I tried walking again it didn't take long for the spasms to return, so I bid them an early goodbye. He had several books for me to bring to you, which he put in the trunk of his car, but since I left prematurely I didn't retrieve them. He did give me a copy of The Piano Cemetery by José Luis Peixoto, who we saw at the book festival signing books, so I'll send that to you; please send me a PM with your address if you would like to have it.

I'll post photos of the meet up with Joaquim and Ana later today.

I'll keep in touch with Joaquim, and hopefully we'll be able to meet at least once when I return to Lisbon in November.

I'm glad that your friend Barbara also enjoyed her stay in Portugal. Maybe we can all meet there! Joaquim spoke very highly of you, and I know that he would love to see you in person.

Glad to see you are home and had a great trip. Enjoy the last of your time off before returning to work.

>98 ChelleBearss: Thanks, Chelle!

Your food haul in >90 kidzdoc: looks delicious Darryl.

>97 kidzdoc: So sorry about the difficulty in communications between Joachim and you. I knew he was hard of hearing but didn't know he had a cochlear implant. Since I'm hard of hearing and often in a situations in which I can't clearly understand conversation, I can empathize with him. I'm not really familiar with cochlear implants since the only person I know who has had one is my sister-in-law in Honduras. I think she does well with it although I'm not sure how long it takes to get used to it.

Too bad about the back spasms, both for the pain you had to endure and for how it cut your day short.

I'll PM you my address but wasn't that book a gift for you? If so, please do keep it. I spoke with Barbara today and, when she told me how much it costs to check luggage on airplanes now, I was horrified that Joachim gave you any books at all...for you or me! LOL! Joachim and I are both BookCrossers, though, so we compulsively foist BookCrossing-registered books off onto others. Haha! Between BookCrossing and my Little Free Library. I'm sure I have a back stock of easily 600 books here in my house.

Barbara is interested in talking to you about your trip to Portugal. I am going to try to get her to join LibraryThing so she can chat with you on your LT thread and send you a private message here if she wants. She does not do Facebook at all.

Glad you had a great trip!

>100 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Caroline.

>101 SqueakyChu: I think that Joaquim was more frustrated than anyone else about his difficulty in communication, with both Ana and myself, due to his difficulty in adapting to his new cochlear implant. His English was fine, as was Ana's, but I do tend to speak softly at times and often have to remind myself to speak louder, especially while outdoors or someplace where there are other competing sounds. My father suffers from tinnitus, so I definitely have to speak louder around him. Despite that I had a lovely afternoon with the two of them, as we hit it off well, and I felt badly that my back spasms kept me from spending more time with them. I spent the rest of that day and all of the following one in my hotel room to allow it to heal, and it continued to trouble me for several more days, which unfortunately limited my activities in Lisbon.

Now that Joaquim and I are connected on Facebook I will be sure to keep in touch with him, and I'll definitely plan to meet him again when I return to Lisbon, presumably in November. I packed too many clothes, and books, for this trip, which limited the amount of things I could bring back home, including gifts for my mother and her sisters. I'll pack more lightly in November, and allow room to bring back books from Joaquim for you, and holiday gifts for my family. I only purchased one book, a Portuguese flag for my office, and two scarves and several bracelets for my mother that were foisted on me while I was waiting to enter the Mosteiro de Jerónimos in Belém (more on that, including photos, later this week).

Now is a good time to post photos of our meet up, starting with a photo of Ana and Joaquim standing next to the Conchas Little Free Library in the Parque Quinta das Conchas that he built and maintains:



After we met in the park we walked to O Arranhó, a neighborhood restaurant that served traditional Portuguese fare:



I had caldo verde (green broth), a soup that contains "cabbage" (what we would call collard greens), potatoes, and one slice of chouriço:



I also had lombo de porco no forno, a slice of pork loin cooked in the oven, served with rice, potatoes and a simple salad:



Ana had alheira, a sausage that dates back to the 15th century (not this particular sausage, though). In the late 1400s the Jewish and Muslim residents of Portugal were forced to leave the country, convert to Christianity, or face death. The Jews who stayed, the conversos or "New Christians", had to adopt Christian beliefs, including the consumption of pork. Instead of eating that meat, though, they created a sausage that was made of chicken and sometimes other game, known as alheira, which was meant to resemble pork sausage.



Joaquim had bacalhau:



After our very nice lunch Joaquim drove us to the Lisbon Book Festival, held in the Parque Eduardo VII, which is named after King Edward VII of Great Britain, who visited Lisbon in 1902 to strengthen relationships between the two countries:



We saw the author José Luis Peixoto at the festival, signing books. The queue was quite long, though, and although Joaquim insisted on getting the book of Peixoto's that he gave me, The Piano Cemetery, I asked him not to bother, both because that isn't very important to me, and mainly because my back was killing me!



Looking south from Parque Eduardo VII, which sits on a steep hill, down toward the Baixa and the Chiado neighborhoods, the Rio Tejo and the towns and mountains south of the river. At the bottom of the park was a banner that read "Obrigado. Boas Leituras!" I misunderstood Ana when she translated it for me, as I thought she said "Thank you. Good riddance!" rather than "Thank you. Good readings!



Now that you mention it, Madeline, you're right; The Piano Cemetery was a gift from Joaquim to me! He had several more books for both of us, which he left in the trunk of his car, as we had intended to go back to the car after we left the festival so that he could drop me off at my hotel, which was a few blocks south of base of the park. Fortunately there was a metro station at the park's base, and I only had to travel one stop to reach the station adjacent to my hotel. What if I read The Piano Cemetery later this month or next month, and then mail it to you?

I'm a Gold Medallion member in Delta's frequent flyer program, so I can check two bags up to 70 lb each, and carry an additional one on the plane, free of charge. I did have to buy a ticket that allowed me to check one bag on Vueling Airlines, a low cost carrier based in Barcelona, when I flew from Porto to Barcelona. Normally I carry one suitcase and a rucksack whenever I travel to Europe, and wash clothes in my hotel, as I learned from Rick Steves and from Bianca when we vacationed together in Spain two years ago. I've gotten better over the years, but I still tend to bring too many clothes, and far too many books.

I'd be happy to chat with Barbara about Portugal. I'll send you my email address in a PM as well.

>102 The_Hibernator: Thanks, Rachel!

>103 kidzdoc: Wow, Darryl! Thank you for posting the pictures and all the information about the day you spent with Joachim and Ana. I sent your email address to Barbara and hope she gets a chance to write to you about her trip to Portugal. She also went to Madeira and the Azores this trip. She took mostly pictures of clouds (which she loves). In one city in Portugal, she and her two friends went for a toboggan ride down a narrow street. She said that experience was very frightening!

If there is ever another meet-up in Philadelphia, Jose, Barbara and I would consider driving up from Maryland. I'll keep my eyes peeled on LT for any future happenings.

You don't have to send me The Piano Cemetery, but if you decide to send it to me, I'll try to read it and would be most appreciative to you and Joachim.

It would really be fun to meet Joachim one day...except that we both can't hear well. We'll have to sit together and text each other! Haha!

>104 SqueakyChu: You're welcome, Madeline. I'll look for an email from Barbara in the near future.

I didn't make it to the Philadelphia LT meet up that took place earlier this year, but I hope to go to the next one. Hopefully you'll be able to come to it as well.

I'll still plan to send The Piano Cemetery to you, after I finish reading it.

Hopefully by the time you and Joaquim meet you'll both be able to communicate with each other verbally!

>105 kidzdoc: Well, I speak Spanish so I'll be able to fudge my way with Portuguese, plus I'm pretty good with one-on-one communication out-of-doors. It's inside noisy restaurants that I basically give up. I simply stop talking...and start eating. Ha!

>106 SqueakyChu: Yep. I don't want to minimize your difficulties, but I also struggle with holding conversations in noisy restaurants, and I usually do the same thing. I'd much rather have a leisurely meal filled with rich conversation.

The Portuguese spoken in Portugal is quite different from Brasilian Portuguese. There is a sizable Brasilian community in metro Atlanta, and roughly two or three times a year I care for a child whose parents emigrated from that country. Frequently the mothers speak little English, but we're able to communicate in a mixture of Spanish (spoken by me and the mother) and Portuguese (spoken by the mother). I can understand most of what the mothers are saying, both the Spanish and Portuguese words. I couldn't understand much of the Portuguese that was spoken to me in Portugal, though, and other than obrigado (thank you) the phrase I seemingly used most commonly was Desculpe. Eu não falo português. (I'm sorry. I don't speak Portuguese.)

As often happens when I travel abroad I'm asked for directions, especially when I ride on the metro. The first time that happened in Lisbon was when I was waiting for a Blue Line train in São Sebastião station on the day I arrived. A woman approached me, and asked me for directions in Portuguese. I didn't know that term yet, so I arched my eyebrows and widened my eyes, which made the woman laugh and say in English, "You don't speak Portuguese, right?"

I posted this on a Club Read thread about best second quarter books, so I thought I would post it here as well.

I didn't read as many books as I would have liked, but there were several outstanding reads:

With the End in Mind: Dying, Death and Wisdom in an Age of Denial by Dr Kathryn Mannix: A superb book by a British palliative care physician, who describes several notable patients she cared for at the end of their lives and the lessons she learned from them. These insights were beneficial to me as a hospital based physician, but more so as the son of elderly parents who are approaching the end of their lives.

The Impostor by Javier Cercas: The Spanish author's latest novel to be translated into English, which is a biographical novel about a notorious Catalan named Enric Marco, who gained fame when he claimed to be a survivor of a German concentration camp, but fell into disgrace once his ruse was uncovered. Cercas used original research and personal interviews to uncover Marco's life and motives, and he compares him to both a modern day Don Quixote, and a Spanish Everyman, whose life is built on lies and mistruths.

City of Ulysses by Teolinda Gersão: This novel by a celebrated Portuguese author is narrated by an internationally recognized artist from Lisbon, who has been asked by the city's major modern art museum to have his work displayed as a tribute to the Portuguese capital. He realizes that his proposed name and theme for the project is intricately linked to a fellow artist and former lover, and he describes their life together, while paying tribute to his beloved city. Gersão isn't well known in the English speaking world, but if this book is reflective of her work then she deserves far greater recognition than she has received.

The Portuguese: A Modern History by Barry Hatton: I read this insightful and well written book during and after my visit to Portugal last month, and found it to be extremely helpful in helping me understand this beautiful country and its wonderful people. It's an objective read by an expatriate who is married to a Portuguese woman and has lived in the country for decades, who provides a knowledgeable outsider's view of his homeland.

I have tickets to see Kathryn Mannix and Javier Cercas speak at the Edinburgh International Book Festival next month. Dr Mannix and I have exchanged several messages on Goodreads, so I hope to meet her in person after her talk.

Book #34: Act of the Damned by António Lobo Antunes

  

My rating:

This irreverent and almost indescribably wacky novel is initially set in September 1975 in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, less than 18 months after the Carnation Revolution spelled the end of the fascist Estado Novo, the beginning of a democratic government, and the end of colonial rule and civil wars in Angola, Mozambique and elsewhere, as wealthy conservative families saw their worth plummet. The motley cast of characters consist of the younger relatives and in laws of a dying wealthy patriarch who lives in the Alentejo, as they seek to claim his substantial inheritance before they flee to Spain, which was still under the dictatorial rule of Francisco Franco. The novel consists of narratives from different family members, and from them the decadence and depravity of each of them is revealed, with frequent references to infidelity, incest and other immoral behaviors. The characters are absurdly funny but neither believable nor worthy of sympathy, and because I could not relate to any of them I struggled my way through this novel, even though I'm a fan of Antunes's work.

Loved reading about your trip and looking at the pictures, Darryl, it is so nice how books can bring people together!

Thanks for sharing all the photos and stories from your trip, Darryl! Really spectacular and I'm glad you had such a good time.

>110 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita! You're right, it is wonderful to share a love of books with others, even if we don't read the same things. What is remarkable is that we all seem to get on very well when we first meet in person, and almost always our conversations are very rich ones, as if we've known each other for awhile.

>111 streamsong: You're welcome, Janet! I have more photos that I plan to post, from Lisboa, Belém, Porto and Barcelona. I'll do so in peacemeal fashion over the next couple of weeks.

City of Ulysses sounds lovely.

>112 kidzdoc: Very nice way to put it.

>112 kidzdoc: Thanks, Diana. Many of my non-LT friends and family members are amazed when I tell them about the people I've met and continue to see in the US and especially Europe. A frequent response before and after transatlantic trips, especially from the nurses, is a wistful sigh, followed by the comment "I wish I had friends in Europe!" I worked nights (5 pm to 1 am) this week and saw only a few of my partners, physician colleagues and the nurses I'm most friendly with, so I haven't seen most of the people I work with in nearly two months (May 18 was my last day shift). I'll work the next eight or nine work days, so I'll catch up with nearly everyone then.

One nice effect of my frequent travels to Europe over the plast dozen years is that I've encouraged a sizable number of people at work to do the same thing, along with other travelers. One of my partners and her girlfriend recently returned from a two week holiday in Spain (they were in Barcelona the week before I was), and I'll see one of the newly married nurses in Edinburgh next month, as our stays there overlap by a few days. I'm friends on Facebook with well over a hundred people I work with, and undoubtedly many of them will ask me about Portugal, as my partners did this past week.

City of Ulysses and its author, Teolinda Gersão, deserve a proper review and recognition. One of the members of Club Read recently wrote a positive review of one of her other novels that have been translated into English, and I'll buy and read it soon. Two or three years ago I led a quarterly theme read in the Reading Globally group on Iberian literature, although at that time my focus was on Spain rather than Portugal. I'll now start to read all of the remaining translated books written by Portuguese authors, and write detailed reviews of them for Reading Globally, which I'll post here, of course. DB pointed out books written by several notable Portuguese authors whose works have not yet been translated into English when we first met at Livraria Bertrand do Chiado last month. According to her , Portuguese literature is far more likely to be translated into French first, and then Spanish, as it's far easier to do so in those languages than it is in English. She also said that works of some Portuguese authors don't come across well in English, and she correctly predicted that I wouldn't get on well with Gonçalo M. Tavares.

It looks like you had a wonderful trip, Darryl. Maybe so wonderful that you might have trouble figuring out where you want to retire. The photos are great. I know what you mean about having friends in far away places. Meeting online over common interests is a great way to get to know other people so you feel like you know them when you meet them in person. I found this even in the dark days when everything was done by email as I am a genealogist as well as an LTer. Genealogists are usually at the forefront in the use of new communication methods.

>115 Familyhistorian: Thanks, Meg. On the contrary, this trip has made it very clear, at least at the moment, where I would like to retire: Portugal. It's far more diverse than Spain is, and, from what I've seen, its people are far more accepting of people from different backgrounds, including ones from their own country (e.g., Castilians are largely disdainful of Catalunyans and Vascos, nonetheless people from other countries and continents), they are more relaxed and welcoming, and the cost of living, at least outside of the most chic neighborhoods in Lisbon, is a small fraction of what it would cost to live in the US or UK. It also helps that I now have two friends who live in metropolitan Lisbon, who I plan to visit and consult with frequently. At the moment I plan to return to Lisbon in November, and meet up with DB and Joaquim again, and, per DB's suggestion, I'll spend the month of June in Lisbon, in order to take an intensive Portuguese course run by one of the city's universities. At present there is an 80 lesson course, consisting of four lessons per day Monday through Friday for four weeks, which costs 219€ ($256) per week, which is quite reasonable. I'll ideally try to decide where I would like to move to by 2020 or 2021, and look to buy property shortly afterward, with a goal of retirement no later than 2026.

Speaking of photos I do have more to post, especially from Porto and Barcelona. I work from Mon to Wed, and I'll attend this year's Pediatric Hospital Medicine conference, which conveniently is being held here in Atlanta, from Thursday to Sunday, and I'll spend a week with my parents starting on Monday, so I'll wait until I'm in Philadelphia to catch up on photo posting, and everyone's threads.

Last week was a relatively easy one, although I was rounding with the traditional teaching team and spent a good portion of most afternoons teaching the July interns and medical and physician assistant students, while fitting in an hour or so of watching World Cup and Wimbledon matches. I didn't get any significant reading done, and I probably won't until I visit my parents, as I need to do quite a bit of cooking and cleaning today.

Today is, of course, the World Cup final between France and Croatia, and the Wimbledon gentleman's final between Novak Djokovic and Kevin Anderson. A physician colleague and good friend of mine posted these images on her Facebook timeline yesterday, which indicate the team that the citizens of the world's countries will support in today's World Cup final:

Oops, almost forgot. This year's Booker Prize longlist will be revealed on Wednesday. I just created a speculation thread in the Booker Prize group (https://www.librarything.com/topic/293640#), and I'll post the longlisted books there and here after the announcement, depending on the time of day. Hopefully the revelation will take place midday in London, so that I can do so before I have to round on patients on Wednesday.

>116 kidzdoc: I'm so happy that you did have a chance to meet and get to be friends with Joachim. I'll be following your future travels to Portugal with interest and look forward to seeing more of your pictures, Darryl.

I won't be able to watch the World Cup game today, but I am rooting for Croatia because my mom grew up in Yugoslavia. I did get to see them beat England (Sorry, England fans!). That was a very exciting game (for me, anyway).

At least yesterday I got to watch (on television) DC United beat Vancouver (3 to 1) at Audi Field, a new 20,000 seat stadium built just for soccer. This is a big thing for DC, but certainly not comparable to Atlanta United with its 70,000+ fans in attendance at their fairly new stadium. For me, I was happy that we achieved a sell-out crowd and played well. I hope DC United doesn't end up in last place again this year. My team is off to a good start. I did not like the last few minutes of the game, though. That was not because Vancouver scored, but it was because DC United was no longer playing; they were just fooling around and wasting time. If I were coach Ben Olsen, I'd have some very harsh words for my team about that. I'll also be rooting for Atlanta United (unless they play DC). :D

Hi Darryl, fascinated to read your plans about potential retirement to Portugal. I shall look forward to watching those evolve. It is still a place I have yet to visit, though I do have an ex-colleague who returned home to live there.

I know it wasn't a fave of yours, but I'm delighted to see The English Patient won the Golden Booker. It is a favourite of mine. Looking forward to this year's Booker Long List.

On my book pile for the next couple of weeks are Madeleine Albright's Fascism: A Warning and The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton, who I first read about in Bryan Stephenson's wonderful book Just Mercy.

Glad you will get some time with your parents, and glad they are doing better at the moment.

BTW, is this the first year in a while that you won't get to London?

>116 kidzdoc: This sounds wonderful, and the way you write about it, it also sounds absolutely "right" if you know what I mean. I've never been to Portugal, I always heard it's beautiful. Stupid flights...

>117 kidzdoc: I'll do my best to ignore the Booker this year though I'd like to read the candidates over the next 12 months, the LL especially has given me some great reads in the past. I just don't want any reading pressure right now.
The English Patient was the only one on the Golden SL I hadn't read, so I finally watched the movie in early June and quite hated it. Great actors, but not a single character I cared about. If it's true to the book, I'll avoid that for a while longer.

But back to Portugal - did I mention that it sounds and feels totally right? :)))

Your plans for Edinburgh sound wonderful - it looks like my friend's availability there and the book festival aren't going to work out for me, which is sad, but just one of those things! Love the Portugal pictures - I can completely see why retiring there would be so attractive.

Woo! I finished my last day of hospital service yesterday, and I'm now free from clinical duty until August 1st. Today is the first day of this year's Pediatric Hospital Medicine conference, which is conveniently being held in downtown Atlanta, about two miles south from where I live. Very little is happening today, with only opening remarks and one educational session this afternoon, so I'll wait until tomorrow to go. The conference ends on Sunday morning, and on Monday I'll fly to Philadelphia to spend a week with my parents before I fly back to Atlanta the following Monday night.

>117 kidzdoc: Apparently I misread the date of this year's Booker Prize longlist announcement. I thought that it was on th 18th, but it's actually this coming Tuesday, July 24th. I'll be at my parents' house that day, so I'll be able to post the longlisted books here, and create threads in the Booker Prize group.

>118 SqueakyChu: Same here, Madeline! I'm glad that I met Joaquim and his friend Ana, and I'm grateful that you put me in touch with him. I look forward to seeing him and DB again, probably in November, but definitely next June, when I plan to spend the entire month in Lisbon.

I only watched highlights from the World Cup final, as I was running errands that morning and afternoon. I'll probably watch the match in its entirety next week, provided that I can figure out how to do so.

Congratulations to DC United on its most recent win! Did Wayne Rooney play in that match? I think that Atlanta United and DC United are playing soon, possibly this weekend.

>119 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Caroline. Literally everyone I work with has asked about my trip to Portugal, as few of them who travel to Europe have gone there. The husband of a good friend of mine at work had recently proposed that they retire to Portugal, so she was especially interested in my nascent plans.

I think I'll have to give The English Patient another try. I'm a fan of Ondaatje's work, but that book didn't resonate with me the first time around, although I'm not quite sure why.

Madeline Albright's book is in the center of my radar screen, and I suspect that I'll buy and read it soon.

On Sunday I received confirmation that my September vacation request was fulfilled, so I booked hotel and flight reservations to London. I'll arrive on the 6th, and stay until the 21st. I'll start making plans next week, after I arrive at my parents' house.

I had originally planned to return to London in November for the jazz festival, but I suspect that I'll use that week to make a return visit to Lisbon instead.

>120 Deern: I do know what you mean, Nathalie, and I completely agree with you! Lisbon does feel right to me, but considering that I only spent 1-1/2 weeks there I can't say that it's enough time to make such a big decision, sort of like going out on a first date with someone and deciding that this is the person you want to marry. That's why it will be important for me to learn as much as I can about Lisbon and Portugal as soon as possible, visit often, and talk with DB, Nuno, Joaquim, Ana and others about the city. I'll also have to start finding out what is required for a US citizen who chooses to live abroad permanently, and for a person who decides to emigrate to Portugal.

I was about to ask what you meant by "stupid flights', but IIRC you don't like to fly, so I'll assume that's what you meant. It would be a very long train trip from northern Italy to Lisbon, as I think the train trip from Lisbon to Barcelona was in the neighborhood of 12-14 hours, as the long proposed high speed rail line from Lisbon to Madrid hasn't been started yet.

I haven't decided how much time I'll put into this year's Booker Prize longlist, although as the administrator of the group on LT I feel at least somewhat of an obligation to make at least some effort. I'm pleased that one of my favorite public intellectuals, Kwame Anthony Appiah of Princeton, was chosen as this year's chair of judges, so I'm optimistic that this year's longlist will be a good one.

Ha! You did mention that Portugal feels totally right...and it does. I talked a lot about Spain as a future retirement home the past few years, but I didn't mention the trepidation I felt about my interactions with far too many people there, many of whom I found to be cold, distant and rather judgmental, although I also met plenty of warm and delightful people there as well. Even though I didn't do as much as I had planned to in Barcelona going there after I visited Portugal confirmed my suspicions, as I was less comfortable there than I was in Lisbon and Porto, where I found people eager and easy to talk with, not including the new friends I made.

>121 charl08: Sorry to hear that you won't be able to attend the Edinburgh International Book Festival this year, Charlotte.

I'll post more pictures from Portugal next week.

>122 kidzdoc: Wayne Rooney did play in that game, but he didn’t start. He assisted with one goal, I believe. Hey! I want to catch that DC/Atlanta game, but it’s tough to figure out whom to root for. I like both teams.

I just started watching DC United games now that the World Cup is over and just realized that my team is not doing very well at all. Well, at least they won the first game I saw them play this year.

>123 SqueakyChu: I'll miss the match, as I'll be at the conference. Although I appreciate your support for Atlanta United, please root for your local team when they play! Atlantans are notorious for cheering for popular and successful out of town players and teams, which is why they have a reputation for being fair weather fans. Philadelphians, on the other hand, would never cheer en masse for the opposition, and although they will boo the heck out of the home team and its players they wouldn't switch to the other side.

>124 kidzdoc: I will root for DC United although I have lots of respect for Atlanta United. I hate when fans boo at a game. That is so disrespectful.

>116 kidzdoc: It would be good to live somewhere in Europe especially if you still want to explore the area, Darryl. It is so close to travel to different interesting countries there.

>125 SqueakyChu: I will root for DC United although I have lots of respect for Atlanta United.

Good. I hope that the Five Stripes beat the tar out of DC United! ;-)

I hate when fans boo at a game. That is so disrespectful.

Hmm. I can accept booing of the visiting or home team or its members, provided that it doesn't extend to personal attacks, such as the frequent racist comments made toward opposing players of color by fans in Fenway Park or in many National Hockey League arenas. Fans pay very good money to attend a sporting event, especially compared to when we were kids, and IMO they have a right to express their opinion if a player doesn't perform well, especially if he or she isn't giving a good effort, as long as the player is shown a degree of personal respect.

>126 Familyhistorian: Exactly, Meg. Oddly enough I spend much more time socially with my European friends than my work colleagues here in Atlanta, or LT and non-LT friends in other cities. After 6-1/2 months I've gone out to dinner with friends in Atlanta exactly once, although I will do more with them this weekend and next month. I'll be closer to my British, Dutch, French and German friends, and if I retire to Lisbon I'll undoubtedly meet up with my new Portuguese friends on a regular basis, and they will be far closer, which will make it much easier to make frequent trips to Amsterdam, London and Paris. I'll also be able to visit other European cities and countries, given the short flight times and low airline ticket prices, while still being able to return to the United States (or whatever is left of it after trump is finally removed from office).

>127 kidzdoc: I hope that the Five Stripes beat the tar out of DC United!
Hahahahaha! They probably will.

Nope. Booing, to me, is wrong. It's unsportsmanlike.

or whatever is left of it after trump is finally removed from office

Sadly, you have that right!

>128 SqueakyChu: I can accept and respect your position on booing, Madeline. I've booed the opposition at collegiate and professional sporting events, but I can't think of a time that I've booed a player on the team that I supported. I haven't attended many sporting events in the past two decades, though, probably only two Atlanta Braves baseball games, one Atlanta Hawks basketball game and one Atlanta United match since I left Pittsburgh in 1997. I will go to my first minor league baseball game next week, though, as my brother and I will see the Trenton Thunder play the Portland Sea Dogs on Thursday night.

Interesting retirement plans, Darryl. BTW there is a country called Switzerland which is nice to be visited, too.
Happy weekend.

>130 Ameise1: Yes, Zürich is on my list of places to visit, Barbara!

I hope that you enjoy your weekend as well.

>131 kidzdoc: We are at the final preparation for our trip to Poland. On Monday it starts.

Glad to hear that Zürich is on your list. But don't forget all the lovely places in the Swiss mountains.

>132 Ameise1: Have a great holiday in Poland, Barbara! I look forward to seeing your Facebook and LT photos and descriptions.

Hi Darryl, if you do settle in Portugal Karen said it would be very easy for us to come and visit you, lol. Hope you are having a good weekend mate. Love and hugs from both of us.

>134 johnsimpson: Haha! Tell Karen that she and you have an open invitiation to visit. If I do retire there I don't think I'll be lacking for company, based on comments from my friends and coworkers in Atlanta, more than a few of whom have suggested that my retirement home have at least one guest room.

ETA: I'll catch up on others' threads either tomorrow or Tuesday, after I arrive at my parents' house. The mother of our neighbors who lived across the street from us died earlier this week, and her funeral was held on Saturday. She was like a second mother to me when I was in high school, and I want to pay my respects to her daughters, who I remain very close to.

>135 kidzdoc: Sorry to read your neighbor died, Darryl, my condolences to her daughters.

>136 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita. I'll see the eldest daughter this afternoon, before she drives back to Indiana.

Condolences on the loss of your "second mother", Darryl. So many of us had one of those...

Condolences mate.

Hi Darryl. I haven't visited in awhile. Thanks for all these lovely images throughout your thread.

I am sorry to learn that rebecca passed away. The other day, I was sorting through a box of items and came upon the card that Pat's sister sent to me letting me know that Pat died a month apart from the death of her husband. We think of these LT souls and remember them fondly.

All good wishes to you!

>138 laytonwoman3rd:, >139 johnsimpson: Thanks, Linda and John. She was in poor mental and physical health for the past few years, so her death was not unexpected. However, as her eldest daughter said earlier today, when she picked me up from the suburban train station close to my parents' house, it was still shocking and hard to swallow. My parents and brother attended her funeral service, and my father said that it was the most moving and inspirational one he had ever attended. The Fergusons are a deeply spiritual and God loving family, as the eldest daughter is a Methodist minister, the middle daughter is married to one, and her eldest daughter just became one. Fortunately I was able to spend an hour with Helen Claire, the eldest daughter, before she had to go to PHL to catch a flight back to Indiana, and I'll see Cheryl, the middle daughter, in a day or two.

>140 Whisper1: Good to see you here, Linda! I'm glad that you liked the photos, and I'll post more here in the next few days.

I was also thinking about Pat Howard (phebj) this weekend, with sadness and a tiny amount of anger and frustration. You may remember that we had made plans to meet in Paris in 2014; I was going to travel by train (Eurostar) from London, then take a SNCF (French) train from there to Barcelona. Unfortunately the railway union whose members work for SNCF called a strike on the day she flew to Paris, the day before I was going to travel there, and although I could have arrived without difficulty the long distance train I took was sure to be cancelled (and it was). As a result I flew from London to Barcelona, skipped what would have been my first trip to Paris, and missed seeing Pat. We vowed to meet there in the future. Unfortunately, as you know, her cancer returned with a vengeance, and she succumbed to it the following year.

I'm glad that I met Rebecca (rebeccanyc) once, on New Year's Day for the annual book sale at Book Culture in Manhattan, the day that I bought more books than on any other one (roughly 50, as I recall). I also regret not meeting Janet (JanetinLondon), an American expatriate who lost her battle with leukemia several years ago. We made plans to get together two or three times, but once she was admitted to University Hospital London after receiving a bone marrow transplant, another time I was sick and didn't dare pass my infection onto her, as she was severely immunocompromised. One of those times I was staying in the Hotel Russell on Russell Square in Bloomsbury, close to the British Museum and not far from the hospital, and we virtually waved at each other online and vowed to meet the next time I was in town. Unfortunately there was no next time, as she died shortly afterward.

This year's Booker Prize longlist was announced at roughly midnight British Summer Time, or 7 pm on the East Coast in the US:

Snap by Belinda Bauer (UK)
Milkman by Anna Burns (UK)
Sabrina by Nick Drnaso (USA)
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan (Canada)
In Our Mad And Furious City by Guy Gunaratne (UK)
Everything Under by Daisy Johnson (UK)
The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner (USA)
The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh (UK)
Warlight by Michael Ondaatje (Canada)
The Overstory by Richard Powers (USA)
The Long Take by Robin Robertson (UK)
Normal People by Sally Rooney (Ireland)
From A Low And Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan (Ireland)

The shortlist will be revealed on September 20, and the winner will be announced on October 16. I haven't read any of these books, so I'll get started next month; I'll probably read Warlight first.

I'm just in the middle of listening to From A Low and Quiet Sea. It's very moving and beautifully written (as are all his novels). Looking forward to seeing you on Saturday!

>144 katiekrug: - I'm reading that one right now, too, Vivian!

Hi Darryl :)

Thanks for the list, Darryl. There are only 2 on it that had made it onto my wishlist already, so I must explore the rest. I have yet to read anything by Edugyan, although I have Half-Blood Blues around here somewhere. This kind of list always makes me want to hire a cook and housekeeper, turn off the phones and hide for weeks with my books.

I just got notice from the library that they are holding From a Low Quiet Sea for me. I've already read Warlight and The Overstory and liked both of them, but not sure about them as Booker contenders.

I purchased the Kindle editions of five books earlier this morning: Snap, Milkman, The Overstory, Warlight, and From a Low and Quiet Sea. I'll attempt to read all of them next month.

>143 vivians: I'm glad that you're enjoying From a Low and Quiet Sea, Vivian. I've only read one of Donal Ryan's books, namely The Spinning Heart, which I was only lukewarm about. I suspect that I'll enjoy his newest book much more.

See you on Saturday!

>144 katiekrug: Excellent! I look forward to your and Vivian's thoughts about it.

>145 laytonwoman3rd: You're welcome, Linda. I liked but didn't love Half Blood Blues, but I'm looking forward to reading Washington Black.

This kind of list always makes me want to hire a cook and housekeeper, turn off the phones and hide for weeks with my books.

Exactly! Fortunately I won't work many days in August (8) and September (9), so I should have time to read the longlist in its entirety.

>146 tangledthread: I'll probably read those three books first, so I'll be interested to see if our thoughts about them match.

Hi Darryl, just catching up with you. It looks like you had a fabulous trip (as usual lol). I hadn’t heard that Pat (phebj) had passed away and a month apart from her husband. So tragic. I always enjoyed her comments on LT. I had heard about Rebecca and that was very sad also. Her reviews were always so cogent.

I’ve only read Warlight from the Booker list but I hope to get to The Overstory, The Mars Room and the Donal Ryan book because unlike you I loved The Spinning Heart. Also, although I knew it would happen sooner or later but what do you think of a graphic novel making the list? (Sabrina) no touchstone

Hey, Darryl! Thanks for supplying the Booker list. I definitely want to read Warlight, The Overstory & The Mars Room. Not familiar with the other authors. Anyone else on there, I should take notice with?

Looks like you will have your work cut out for you reading the long list, Darryl. I saw that Edugyan will be at the Vancouver Writer's Festival this year and wondered what book she was promoting.

>142 kidzdoc: Rumours of my demise are premature at best Doc!

A pretty unfamiliar list to me I must say and only the Ondaatje is in the stores here. Interesting that the list includes a crime novel and a graphic novel too. Not sure that the fuddy duddy inside me really approves of that!

Nice to see you posting more than me mate.

>148 brenzi: Hi, Bonnie! Yes, the trip to Portugal was fabulous, and I look forward to returning there in November. I'll spend much more time there in the next couple of years, and make a firm decision on whether to retire there or not in the next five to eight years, which at the moment seems more likely than not. At the moment metropolitan Lisbon would be my preferred place to relocate to, because of the capital's cosmopolitan nature, diverse and international population, and most importantly because I now have friends I met last month who live there. I would consider other major cities, but Coimbra is two hours away by train, and Porto is nearly three hours away.

I think it's been at least three years since Pat died, as we learned when Linda (Whisper1) broke the sad news to us. I called Rebecca my "book sister", as our tastes in books and authors lined up as well as anyone else on LibraryThing. We were certainly amongst the biggest fans of Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Mario Vargas Llosa and Alain Mabanckou, and both of us were overjoyed when Vargas Llosa was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

I'll probably read Warlight during the second week of August; I'm scheduled to work three backup shifts that week, just before I leave for Edinburgh on the 11th, but hopefully I won't be needed and can get some reading done.

Most people liked The Spinning Heart better than I did, IIRC. I look forward to reading From a Low and Quiet Sea, as its main topic of three different men united by recent losses is highly interesting to me. I'll probably read it after I finish From a Low and Quiet Sea.

I'm pleased to see Sabrina make the longlist, but I'm also not surprised, as one of this year's Booker Prize judges, Leanne Shapton, is a graphic novelist. I'll look for it when we go book shopping on Saturday.

>149 msf59: Happy Birthday, Mark! I'm also looking forward to reading Warlight and The Overstory, at least. The only longlisted authors who I've read before other than Michael Ondaatje are Esi Edugyan (Half Blood Blues) and Donal Ryan, as I mentioned just above. Their books seem especially interesting, so I'll try to read both of them before the shortlist is announced. Ideally I would get to all 13 books by the time of the prize ceremony in mid-October, but realistically I want to finish the shortlist in time.

>150 Familyhistorian: Right, Meg. It will help that I'll work no more than 17 and possibly only 12 days in August and September, so I'll have vastly more time to read than if the longlist was announced during our busy season at work from mid autumn to early spring. IIRC 10 of the 13 longlisted books are currently available in the US, in electronic and/or print editions; I'll confirm this later today.

I saw that five or six authors will appear at next month's Edinburgh International Book Festival, but I don't have tickets to see any of them. I'll check the dates of their talks later this week, and see if I can attend at least one or two of them. I have tickets for 17 author events already, so I don't want to overbook my schedule, so that I can see plenty of Edinburgh International Festival and Edinburgh Festival Fringe performances, especially since Fliss, Margaret and a friend from work will also be there then.

>151 PaulCranswick: Cranswick...Cranswick...dang, that name sounds familiar. Oh, wait...you're Hani's husband, right? Good to meet you! 😎

Great to see you, mate! I've read your new thread but haven't posted a comment yet, so I'll do so as soon as I finish this message.

I'm not convinced that I'll love this year's longlist, but I'm willing to have my boundaries expanded, so I'll give it a fair shot.

I'm posting more than you?! OMG...I think it's safe to say that The End Is Near.

Hi, Darryl. Just checking in.

I'm working with a group to create a Portugal in the U.S., preferably somewhere near Chicago. It's quite a challenge, but we're all very dedicated.

Sorry to hear about your second mom Darryl, but it sounds like it may have been a release, which doesn't always make it easier at the time for those left behind.

I've read Warlight and am over half through The Overstory. The latter, certainly worthy of the Booker. The former also very good.

Enjoy your time with your parents Darryl.

I'm sorry for your loss, Darryl.

>154 jnwelch: TYIA, Joe. As it is, Chicago would be on my current shortlist of places to retire to in the US, behind Philadelphia and ahead of central New Jersey. Atlanta is getting too expensive and too crowded, and worst of all it's filled with utterly despicable far right wing politicians, such as the ones I posted about on Facebook yesterday. Living in any of those three places, especially central NJ, would cost far more than Portugal or Spain, though, and I wouldn't be close to my/our friends in the UK and the Netherlands.

>155 Caroline_McElwee: Hmm. Based on the conversations I've had with her daughters and my parents so far I would not say that anyone thought that Mrs Ferguson's death was a release for her. She came very close to dying late last year, but rallied before Christmas, and she was doing much better in the first half of 2018, as she recognized her children and my parents, was in good spirits, and was healthier and in no pain, discomfort or distress until just before her death. Everyone was pleased by her improvement, especially after she came back from the brink of death, so her recent passing was a tough pill to swallow, whereas it would have been expected and more easy to accept had it happened last winter.

I'm glad that you also liked Warlight and The Overstory.

>156 libraryperilous: Thanks, Diana.

Edited to correct numerous grammatical errors.

>157 kidzdoc: :-) Hard to argue with that, Darryl. We'll try to address the expense issue in creating the new near-Chicago Portugal, but we may not be able to overcome that part about our UK and Dutch friends.

>158 jnwelch: Someone needs to work on my airplane averse mother's proposed project, a super high speed rail system that connects North America with Western Europe.

>157 kidzdoc: that's hard then Darryl. My thoughts are with her family and friends.

How are your parents? Who's cooking tonight?

>160 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Caroline.

My brother and I went to a minor league baseball game in Trenton, New Jersey yesterday, so the two of us had a traditional meal of a hot dog, fries and a beer at the game. I don't know what my parents had for dinner.

>159 kidzdoc: Ha! We must meet your mother. She shares our "big idea" approach, and I'm all in favor of her intercontinental railroad project.

>162 jnwelch: You would love my mother, and my father. They are ten times more adorable than I am.

Big day tomorrow, as Katie mentioned on her thread. At least four LTers, and hopefully a fifth, will meet for brunch in NYC tomorrow. Katie and I will see a matinee at the Public Theater, possibly visit MoMA, tool around Manhattan, have an early dinner, then see a second play at the New York Theatre Workshop before we head back to New Jersey on separate trains. I'm looking forward to it, especially since this will be the first time Katie and I have met in person. Vivian will also be there, and she'll be added to the short list of people I've met in different countries, as I first met her in Lisbon last month.

I'll check back in later, as I'm about to make lunch (avocado chicken salad) for my parents, one of the daughters of my second mother who died earlier this month, and another close neighbor.

>163 kidzdoc: That meetup sounds great! Can't wait to hear more.

P.S. I'll tell Debbi about your adorable parents. I don't think she'll believe the "10 times more" part.

>164 jnwelch: Right! I'm looking forward to finally meeting Katie for the first time (woo!), along with Liz (Eliz_M) from Club Read, and seeing Vivian again. Hopefully Paola (aluvalibri) will be able to join us for brunch as well. She's not very active on LT anymore, as least as far as I know, but we've remained close friends on Facebook. Having the four of them, along with Judy and Jim, of course, will encourage me to visit NYC more often. My parents live 15 minutes away from Trenton station in New Jersey, and there is frequent Amtrak and NJ Transit service into Penn Station New York (as compared to Penn Station Newark) from there, a trip that takes 1 hr 15 min to 1 hr 30 min. (Ah, as I was typing this Paola told me that she won't be able to join us.)

Ha! You guys get to see my adorable side, versus the crabby side when I'm crazy busy and stressed out at work. Bianca will also confirm that I'm not always adorable. 😒

>142 kidzdoc: That's a great list and surprisingly I've heard of a few of those and even have two already on my TBR!

Have fun in NYC today!

Have a great meet-up Darryl.

>166 ChelleBearss: Great, Chelle! Which books do you have in your TBR list?

>166 ChelleBearss:, >167 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Chelle and Caroline.

Morning, Darryl. Happy Sunday. I hope the workload has been kind to you.

I highly recommend Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup. It almost reads like a horror story. How a young woman hoodwinked so many people is truly mind-blowing. Honestly, I think she should go to jail.

Yesterday's LT meet up in NYC was very enjoyable and a rousing success, save for one mistake. Katie (katiekrug), her friend Eileen, Liz (Eliz_M) from Club Read, Vivian (vivians) and I met at The Smile, a cozy restaurant on Bond Street near its intersection with Lafayette Street in Manhattan's NoHo (North of Houston) neighborhood, close to Greenwich Village. We had a very enjoyable and tasty brunch there; we didn't take photos of the food, but Eileen took this photo of the four of us just after we left the restaurant (from left to right, Vivian, Liz, Katie and me):



After brunch, Katie, Liz and I walked a few blocks north on Lafayette St to Astor Place in the East Village, where we chatted while sitting at a café table until it was time for Katie and I to see the play Cyprus Avenue by David Ireland at The Public Theater, which was very good (review coming soon).

After the play Katie and I went to Strand Book Store, where I bought five books:

Lonely Planet Portuguese Phrasebook & Dictionary
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors & Asha Bandele
The Golden House by Salman Rushdie
The Hospital by Ahmed Bouanani
Spring by Karl Ove Knausgaard

Katie also gifted me a copy of Everyday People by Stewart O'Nan after we discussed the book earlier in the afternoon.



We then headed back south on Lafayette Street, as we had tickets to see The House That Will Not Stand by Marcus Gardley at the New York Theatre Workshop in the East Village. We had drinks at Lafayette Grand Café & Bakery, as it looked appealing. After we looked at the menu we decided to have a pre-theatre dinner there as well, which was very good.

Roasted beets, goat cheese, watermelon, marcona almond and basil:



Black macaroni, lobster, cuttlefish, spicy tomato, roasted garlic



Dry Aged Duck, fennel panisse, sour cherry, foie gras sauce:



Katie and I were having a wonderful conversation over dinner and wine, so much so that we completely lost track of time. When our waiter brought out the duck I checked my mobile phone, and noticed that it was 7:55 pm; the play that we were going to see started at 8 pm! Since it was too late to make the play, even if we left that minute, we finished our meal, continued our conversation, and left shortly after 10 pm. We took a 6th Avenue subway back to Penn Station, arriving in just enough time for us to catch NJ Transit trains back to New Jersey.

As always, LT meet ups are highly enjoyable, and this was definitely one of the best ones. We'll do this again in the near future, probably when I see my parents in October.

>169 msf59: Happy Sunday, Mark! I've been off and visiting my parents in suburban Philadelphia all week, so my workload has been zero.

I'm glad that you enjoyed Bad Blood. I and many of my fellow physicians followed Theranos and its founder, Elizabeth Holmes, starting shortly after the company announced its revolutionary technique to run a number of tests from a single drop of blood, and up to its spectacular downfall. She was recently indicted by a grand jury for fraud, and if she is convicted a jail sentence is a strong possibility. I looked for this book yesterday but didn't see it; I'll definitely read it, though. Thanks for mentioning it!

>170 kidzdoc: Thanks for sharing pictures of your meetup. It sounds like fun!

>172 SqueakyChu: You're welcome, Madeline. We had a great time, and Katie and I completely hit it off, as I thought that we would. I've gotten away from meeting LTers in NYC, especially after Zoë moved out of the city, but I'm now inspired to resume going there at least once every time I visit my parents. Judy and Jim were out of town, unfortunately, but hopefully we can get together with them as well, especially since they are also theatre buffs.

*grumble* Once again an opportunity to meet the famous Dr Darryl missed... 😀 Looks like a great time!

>173 kidzdoc: Yay! But you haven't said if you found your pimm's cup; inquiring minds want to know.

>174 drneutron: Thanks, Jim. We had a splendid time, and we'll undoubtedly do this again in the near future.

Maybe we could plan a Baltimore meet up on a future visit to my parents? I could take an Amtrak train there, as the journey time is only slightly longer than it is to NYC. That would give me an opportunity to finally meet Madeline as well.

>175 ELiz_M: Hi, Liz! It was great to meet you yesterday, and I look forward to seeing you in the future. Lafayette Grand Café did not make Pimms cups or pitchers, so we had cocktails instead. Katie had Marché Vert (Herb Infused Vodka, Cucumber, Dolin Vermouth, Green Chartreuse, Lime & Demerara), I had a Pisco Sour and a Sazerac, and we both had wine. And wine. And wine. And...

>176 kidzdoc: Anytime after August 11. 😀 I've got a launch that day.

>177 drneutron: Sounds good. I'll probably come back here in October, and again during the holidays in either November or in December/January.

Speaking of meet ups, Kay (RidgewayGirl) from Club Read will come to Atlanta for the AJC Decatur Book Festival in Decatur, GA, which is just east of Atlanta and runs from August 31 to September 2. I'm off all three days, so I imagine that we'll meet every day. If anyone else is interested or happens to be going to it (which is unlikely, as Atlanta is nearly bereft of active LTers), please let one of us know.

>170 kidzdoc: - Excellent re-cap, Darryl! Thanks for doing that so I don't have to :) I've just linked to it on my thread.

That dinner was amazing - not just the food but the great conversation. And almost 5 hours - whoo!

Look forward to seeing you again soon...

>174 drneutron: Jim, what do you say we force Darryl to head south of Philly instead of north of Philly? We could meet at the Maryland/Pennsylvania border!

>176 kidzdoc: We usually have a nice group when we do the MD/DC/VA meetups. Baltimore would be perfect place because Barbara lives just southwest of the city and she wants to be included. We probably could entice Katherine to come from Lancaster and Deborah to come down from Philly. Nora would definitely want to be included. Great idea! Perhaps we coud do something centered around the Baltimore Book Festival although I don't know the dates for this year. That will happen at HarborPlace this year, I think.

Baltimore Book Festival - Sept 28-30. The actual schedule has not appeared yet but the list of some of the authors, I recall, looked interesting.

I think we can keep him entertained in B’more for the day. 😀

>170 kidzdoc: Looks like the meet-up was great, Darryl, and if you missed the play because of dinner and conversation it sounds like you and Katie had a great time.

Looks like there are other folks trying to entice you their way.

Love all the meetup talk here Darryl, sounds like a good time had by all. I've not read any of your haul pictured, so that's rather dangerous for the wishlist...

>179 katiekrug: You're welcome, Katie! I had a blast with you, Eileen, Liz and Vivian, and I look forward to doing it again later this year.

As you mentioned we should also look into a(nother) meet up in Philadelphia.

>180 SqueakyChu:, >181 SqueakyChu: I'm happy to go to Baltimore or Washington for a meet up. I would strongly prefer to travel by train than drive, though, unless I have my SUV. Normally I use my mother's car to drive short distances when I visit them, as I did when I drove to Trenton, NJ on Saturday and traveled by train to NYC. Driving to Maryland or DC would be a much longer journey, though, and although her car is in decent shape and is fine for short trips I wouldn't want to spend two hours or more each way in it.

>182 catarina1: Unfortunately I'll be working those days, as I'll have just come back from a two week trip to London the week before. I might be able to get together in October, but I won't know for certain until my group's work schedule for that month is published.

>183 drneutron: I have no doubt about that, Jim! I have visited Baltimore at least twice, to attend Orioles games with an old friend of mine, who is a diehard Minnesota Twins fan. We went to games at Memorial Stadium in the last season of its existence, and to Camden Yards in its inaugural season, when it was the first of the new retro baseball parks that was built.

>184 Familyhistorian: Right, Meg. All of us could have chatted for longer over brunch, and despite talking for five hours over drinks and dinner Katie and I agreed that the conversation could have lasted much longer.

>185 charl08: Thanks, Charlotte. The meet up was great, and I look forward to seeing Fliss and Margaret in Edinburgh and Kay in Atlanta next month, and plenty more LTers in London and probably the Netherlands in September, at least.

All of those books I bought were high on my wish list, and Katie's description of Everyday People made me eager to read it soon.

Glad you had such a great meetup, Darryl! The food, company and books all sound wonderful!

>180 SqueakyChu: I understand the not wanting to drive long distances. I defer to my husband to do this. He would be willing to drive me up to Philly for a meetup he said. We'd bring Barbara.

>168 kidzdoc: Washington Black by Esi Edugyan & The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner (and possibly Warlight by Michael Ondaatje)
I read Half Blood Blues by Edugyan and really enjoyed it.

Looks like another great meet-up!

Another excellent LT meet-up. The food looks very good, a match for the conversation!

Hi Darryl - so great to see you on Saturday! Sounds like the rest of the day was wonderful too.

>188 Sakerfalcon: Thanks, Claire! I need to touch base with you, Bianca and others about plans for my trip to London in September.

>189 SqueakyChu: Sounds good. You could also take Amtrak to 30th Street Station, which is just west of Center City Philadelphia; it's easy to get to Center City from there on public or private transportation if you make a one day trip or choose to stay in a hotel downtown.

>190 ChelleBearss: I'm definitely looking forward to reading Washington Black and Warlight. I'll hold off on The Mars Room for the time being until I read compelling reviews of it, or if it's chosen for the shortlist.

>191 laytonwoman3rd: We'll have to meet up somewhere, maybe Philadelphia and NYC, and have a sumptuous seafood meal, Linda!

>192 vivians: Obrigado, senhora! It was great to see you again, too.

Another great LT meetup Darryl, glad it was such a success.

>195 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Caroline.

I'm back in Atlanta, after a mostly relaxing and enjoyable flight from Philadelphia, except for the incident when one of the flight attendants dropped a tray with a loud bang, which momentarily scared the crap out of me, my seat mate, and others who happened to be sleeping at that moment.

I mentioned on Katie's thread that I had purchased a book bag from Strand Book Store that had a rather spicy quote on it. Strand offers dozens of items with its well known insignia on it, including many book bags. I had to get this one, though!

  

Truth!

Ohmigawd, I'm SO offended. How dare you, sir?!?!

>198 katiekrug: Oops. Sorry, ma'am.

I just fessed up on your thread.

Sorrynotsorry you mean ;-)

>200 katiekrug: Exactly. 😎

Planned reads for August (which will undoubtedly change after I arrive in Edinburgh on the 16th):

The Blind Spot: An Essay on the Novel by Javier Cercas
Deepstep Come Shining by C.D. Wright
From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan
Known and Strange Things: Essays by Teju Cole
Milkman by Anna Burns
The Overstory by Richard Powers
Snap by Belinda Bauer
Taller When Prone: Poems by Les Murray
Warlight by Michael Ondaatje

>197 kidzdoc: ~grin~ I know my Strand accessories!

>202 kidzdoc: If I read new books, I would read The Overstory -- Powers writing can be challenging, but oh so stunning.

>197 kidzdoc: I'm nervous on planes anyway. I can't imagine what that must have been like for you! Glad it was food-related, though! :)

Hahahaha! I agree with John Waters. What I can't believe is how many of my friends simply don't read at all or they choose the least demanding books to read. Maybe it's just that they decide on a genre they like and never read anything else at all throughout their adulthood.

I am also surprised that my grown kids, two of whom used to read all the time, don't read much at all. Well, I take that back; one now reads mainly manga (but sometimes in Japanese!). Ironically my younger son, who read only Goosebumps books in his youth (and maybe an auto manual or two), now reads all the time to his five-year-old (and will also be reading to his 6-month-old daughter soon).

Book #37: Guernica: The Biography of a Twentieth-Century Icon by Gijs van Hensbergen



My rating:

This superb book about Pablo Picasso's most famous painting begins with his annual summer visit to Spain with his family in 1934, the year that would be the last he would spend in his homeland. That fall an uprising by left wing miners in Asturias was brutally repressed by General Francisco Franco, with the resultant death of approximately 4,000 miners and their supporters. Continued clashes between the Nationalists and the Republicans led to civil war in Spain beginning in July 1936, and early the following year the Nationalists led by Franco was making inroads into Northern Spain, although his troops met with strong resistance in the País Vasco (Basque Country). Franco enlisted the support of Hitler's Luftwaffe, which conducted a terror bombing raid on the city of Guernica (or Gernika in Euskera, the Basque language), the spiritual center of the Basque Country, on Monday April 26, 1937, the traditional market day when roughly 10,000 residents and visitors would shop in open markets throughout the city. The bombing campaign, which was designed to break the spirit of the Euskadi resistance, left over 1,600 people dead, and after news and photos of the tragedy reached Paris Picasso quickly drew sketches and completed his masterpiece painting, in a period of only five weeks, doing so in time to have it displayed in the Spanish Pavilion at the Paris Exposition that summer.



This book next describes the painting's impact during World War II, within Europe and in the United States after it was transported there for safe keeping shortly before German troops invaded France. At the same time, the author describes Picasso's political activities and artistic work in France during the war years, and his decision to become a member of the French Communist Party after the war ended, which caused the US government to bar him from entry during the Red Scare and anti-communist hysteria during the 1950s, when his great work continued to be displayed there.

Guernica's impact on major postwar artists is also discussed at length in this book, along with the political situation in Spain and the US, followed by its return to Spain in 1981 once the country had instituted a stable democracy, and its installation into its permanent home in 1992 at the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid, where I saw it for the first time last summer.

Guernica is a superb and comprehensive exploration of Picasso's greatest and most influential painting, which I would recommend to anyone interested in Picasso and his work, especially those of us who are fortunate to have seen it. I'll attend a talk at the Edinburgh International Book Festival next month which will feature two authors that have written new books about Guernica and Picasso's political activism, and I'll undoubtedly pick up and read those books as well.

>203 ELiz_M: Ha! I used to go to Strand all the time when I worked in NYC, from 1989-93, and it remains my favorite bookstore on the East Coast, with Book Culture (NYC) and the Harvard Coop not far behind. I saw that bag in the basement of the bookshop, and after Katie gave me permission I went back and bought it.

I own one other book by Richard Powers, namely Orfeo, which was chosen for the Booker Prize longlist in 2014. I'll read it next week before I leave, or the following one, when I'm in Edinburgh, as I have it on my Kindle.

>204 SqueakyChu: I'm very comfortable in the air, Madeline, as long as I have a roomy seat and a not roomy seat mate. I was upgraded to a first class seat and sat next to a quiet Argentinian man who mostly slept during the flight, so it was ideal except for that brief scare. I do my best reading on flights, especially long transatlantic and transcontinental ones, and trains, and I frequently fall asleep on planes, especially when they taxi from the gate to the runway.

Nearly all of my physician friends are at least moderate readers, but plenty of my non-physician mates and family members never or hardly ever read. My father has always read a lot, but my brother never touches a book, and my mother was never a big reader, although she strongly encouraged my brother and I to do so.

>204 SqueakyChu:, >206 kidzdoc: - It's funny about that, isn't it? Both my parents were big readers so it's no surprise that I was reading at age 4 and have never stopped. But my brother could probably count on one hand the number of books he has read. We grew up in the same house with the same parents. Go figure. I have to say, most of the friends I am closest to are also readers and the first thing I notice when I go into someone's house, is whether there are books around. I don't think I'm this bad:

Other People's Bookshelves

but, who knows, maybe I am.... ;-)

>197 kidzdoc: I love that bag! Now the question is, will you carry it in public?

>205 kidzdoc: Excellent review Darryl, and I just added this to my "gift ideas for Chris" list. As you know we saw the painting at the Reina Sofia last month, and our trip has sparked interest in the Spanish Civil War period, so this would be a nice addition to his library.

>207 jessibud2: I confess to being judgy about other people's bookshelves. There, I said it. 😀

>205 kidzdoc: Great review, Darryl. Applied my thumb, I did.

>197 kidzdoc: LOL! This immediately made me think of his movie Pink Flamingos, which was . . . an unforgettable experience. Yeah, that's it. :-)

>208 lauralkeet: - I can confirm that Darryl did carry the bag in public. It may, however, cause greater consternation in Atlanta than it did in New York...

>209 jnwelch: Pink Flamingos, which was . . . an unforgettable experience

Really.

I remember sitting in the movie theater with my head covered so I wouldn't have to see what happened, but then I would peek out every now and then. I was there with a girl friend. Both of the guys we were with walked out of the movie before it was over. My friend and I stayed through the end. :D

>207 jessibud2: I love that cartoon, Shelley! I don't always look at bookshelves whenever I visit someone's home, and didn't do so last year when Rachael (FlossieT) and her husband Rupert invited Fliss (flissp) and I to Sunday roast in their temporary home in Cambridge last year. Fliss has invited us to dinner, also in Cambridge, when I return to London in September, and I'll undoubtedly peruse her shelves while I'm there.

>208 lauralkeet: The short answer is "yes", Laura; the cashier at Strand put my books in the bag and I carried it that afternoon and evening. I did make sure that the side with the quote wasn't visible when I took a NJ Transit train back to Trenton and placed it on the seat next to me, as there were plenty of kids with parents on board even though the train arrived at its final destination after midnight. It's a nice bag, so I'll use it, and my Daunt Books bags, regularly, although I'll avoid doing so if I expect that there will be children around, and I definitely won't take it to work! ("Mommy? What does that bag say? Why is the doctor we saw earlier carrying it?!")

I'm glad that you liked my review of Guernica, and I would definitely recommend it to Chris. I'll almost certainly buy a copy of Guernica: Painting the End of the World by James Attlee when I see him speak in Edinburgh next month; his book was published in the UK this past October.

Add me to the list of the judgmental. I'll cut some slack to friends who have young children, though.

>209 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe.

No. Oh no you didn't. I thought that I had successfully purged that movie from my memory. Excuse me while I run to CVS to pick up a gallon bottle of Pepto-Bismol.

Pink Flamingos came out on 1988, which is roughly the same time that I stopped watching movies in the cinema. Coincidence?

>210 katiekrug: Not many people who live ITP (Inside the Perimeter) and especially in my home of Midtown Atlanta would blink if I sported that bag. I would probably be arrested if I carried it OTP (Outside the Perimeter), though.



>211 SqueakyChu: Ha! I saw that movie with several male friends, who were engineers I used to work with when I was a chemical engineering technician by day and a student at Rutgers at night. IIRC I got up to leave at least once, but they insisted that I stay until the end. Some friends they were.

I should have mentioned that my parents are both doing much better than when I last saw them two months ago. My father is driving again after his license was returned to him last month when he was cleared by Neurology after not having a seizure for over six months. It still remains unclear that a seizure was the cause of his collapse last November, so he'll continue to take an anti-epileptic medication for at least two years and be weaned off of it if he has no other events. My mother's blood pressure is under good control, her memory has definitely improved, and her anxiety and night terrors have dramatically declined.

>213 kidzdoc: Okay. I'll admit it. I saw the movie with my friend Barbara, my husband, and Barbara's former boyfriend. At least someday in the future you'll get to meet three of the four more people who once saw Pink Flamingoes. Hahaha!

>214 kidzdoc: Great news about your parents!

That's one film I had never heard of before this thread and after a little googling, I am very happy about that fact. Sheesh!

Great news about your parents, Darryl!

>197 kidzdoc: Like the bag, Darryl!

>205 kidzdoc: Added to my library wishlist.

>214 kidzdoc: So good to read your parents are doing better!

>214 kidzdoc: that's great news, Darryl.

>216 jessibud2: same here!

I finally won an LT Early Reviewers book this month, Green Smoothie Recipe Book by Stephanie Shaw. I've been intending to incorporate smoothies into my diet, so I'll read this as soon as I get it, and start trying some of the recipes within it.

>215 SqueakyChu: I'll be happy to meet you, your husband and Barbara, Madeline. I'll be even happier if we don't discuss Pink Flamingos. 😎

>216 jessibud2: Sheesh, indeed. If you want to see a tamer film by John Waters I would recommend Hairspray instead.

>216 jessibud2:, >217 FAMeulstee:, >218 lauralkeet: Thanks for your kind comments about my parents!

>217 FAMeulstee: Given our shared taste in modern art I would highly recommend Guernica to you, Anita. I'll remember to bring the bag if I travel to Amsterdam in September.

>218 lauralkeet: I can say that I saw Pink Flamingos. I wish I hadn't, though.

I've never seen, or heard of, Pink Flamingos, and I'm perfectly happy with that. I don't watch a lot of movies anyway, and this doesn't sound like one that would be worth the effort (I didn't even Google it, I'm just accepting the judgements on this thread).

My parents both read (past and present tense), and I was able to read to myself very early. So was my sister - until she went to kindergarten and was informed by the teacher that kindergarten-age children can't read. She accepted that judgement, and it took me _years_ of pushing books on her to convince her that reading was something a) worthwhile and b) that she could do. Not helped by the fact that she's dyslexic and figured that out around her first year in college... My youngest sister is less of a reader than the rest of us, but more of a reader than the average American - she probably doesn't read more than 40-50 books a year. I think - though I haven't lived with her in quite a while, I could be wrong about that (wrong on the low side, though - she may read much more than that).

And all of us have switched, not entirely but heavily, to ebooks - for reasons of larger fonts, easier availability (now where did I put that book? This shelf, that box, oh bah I'll read it on my phone), and easier storage (see: shelf, box, etc). In my tracking I find that I read 2:1 or 3:1 ebooks to paper books, over the last couple years. Someone could certainly judge me by my bookshelves, but they'd be judging my reference books mostly - still lots of fiction on the shelf, but outnumbered by craft books, science books, etc. The ones that are a pain to read in e-, because you want to flip back and forth and compare things and...

>214 kidzdoc: Glad to hear the good news about your parents, Darryl, and that you had a good visit with them. I'm especially glad to hear of your mother's improvements since her surgery - it really does sound as though that was the root of many of her problems. My dad has taken a sudden turn for the worse, with his Alzheimer's becoming much more severe. He was hospitalized for a while recently after his delusions made him violent. He's at home again now and seems calmer, but my mother is having to start looking into care homes because sooner or later she won't be able to cope with him at home. Growing old is no fun at all. Thank goodness for good friends and books!

>170 kidzdoc: Thank you for the great pictures, another wonderful meetup!

>205 kidzdoc: Great review! I never saw the original, but there was a Picasso expo some years ago in Milan with a copy and much extra information. I'll carefully WL the book.

>214 kidzdoc: that's wonderful news!! :))))

And I'd love to have one of those bags. Okay, 80% of the people here wouldn't kow what it says anyway. Years ago a German bookshop sold bags with "Ich lese!" which I thought were more embarrassing, as they implied "I !! read (and you most probably don't so I'm smarter than you)".

>197 kidzdoc: I love that bag!!

Glad to see that your parents are doing better. That must be such a relief for you when you had to go home, knowing that they are doing well.

>221 Sakerfalcon: Sorry to hear about your dad's decline Claire. I hope that your mum can find the right place to support him, and somewhere easy for her to be able to visit. No, older age is not for wusses.

I'm so glad your parents are doing better. Always great to visit and find things going well.

Oh, and re >197 kidzdoc: If only this advice had been handed out and heeded much more often, the world would be so much better for it.

Right, Hairspray was A-OK. Should we throw a Pepto-Bismol party and re-watch Pink Flamingos together? How about Never? Does Never work for you?

I've always liked that Waters quote, and I personally have reading as a shared value for any romantic relationship I bother to enter. But there are lots of other forms of art to which people gravitate instead. Or no art forms (although I would argue that sports are a form of art, and lots of people love at least one sport).

I do judge men I am dating on their favorite books, especially a select few titles I use as red flags. Like, if you tell me its A Separate Peace I'm going to nope out faster than The Flash on his way to a crime scene.

>221 Sakerfalcon: I'm sorry to hear this, Claire.

>220 jjmcgaffey: Oh, wow. And I thought my KG teacher trying to make me use my right hand because "Satan" was bad.

>226 jnwelch: I'm free on the Twelfth of Never if anyone else is.

(I've only seen Cry-Baby. I don't remember liking it.)

Hi, Darryl. Glad you made it back to Atlanta safe and sound. Sorry, I completely missed the NYC Meet Up. Glad to hear you had a stellar time. I am very fortunate to have met Katie in person and can see why you would totally lose track of time.

Good luck with that August reading.

Something to take into consideration with your thinking of Portugal or Spain for retirement Darryl, their temperatures are likely to consistently be higher going forward.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-45044079

We complain when we hit 30-33c (unusual for us, but we've had about a month of it so far, with more predicted for the week ahead), but Portugal and Spain have 10c higher.

>230 Caroline_McElwee: I saw today that Spain is predicted to soon reach a temperature of 118 degrees F!!!!!

I saw today that warnings have been put out for South Western Spain and South East Portugal for record high temperatures with the European record set in 1977 in Greece of 48.1C under threat. Both Portuguese and Spanish records are under threat over the next few days, could be a very warm environment for you Darryl in the future mate.

I found you! I have spent a very nice hour reading up on your travels. You are correct about meeting great people on LT. I love reading about your adventures so keep posting.

One work of fiction about Portugal that I recommend is Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier. It is translated from German into English and was quite a hit in Europe about 10 years ago. It is full of wonderful descriptions of some of the neighborhoods in Lisbon.

>224 Caroline_McElwee:, >227 libraryperilous: Thank you both for your kind words. It is so good to have friends and books at this time!

>233 benitastrnad: I loved that book. So much so that I bought my own copy before finishing the one I borrowed from the library.

>221 Sakerfalcon: Sorry your mother has to deal with this, Claire. It is a heartbreaking decision to make, when the time comes she is no longer able to cope...

Woo! I've finished my last work shift of the week, and with luck I may not work again until September 24th. I'm the backup doctor for my group this coming Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, which means I would come in only if someone called out sick or if our inpatient census was greater than 65. We didn't need backup this week, so there's a good chance I won't be called in (fingers crossed). After next week I have two more backup shifts on September 3rd and 4th, and I'm not scheduled for a regular shift until September 24th.

I haven't done much reading this week, but today I hope to finish a book that a physician colleague wrote Where Pain Fears to Pass, which was published as an e-book last week. Once I finish it I'll get started on this year's Booker Prize longlist by reading Warlight by Michael Ondaatje.

Thanks for keeping my thread warm, y'all! Catching up...

>220 jjmcgaffey: If I had to choose one movie I wish I hadn't seen Pink Flamingos would be it.

That's terrible that your sister was turned off of reading, but a teacher no less! I suspect that 40-50 books a year is well above the number of books an average American reads in a year, and there are plenty of LTers, particularly in Club Read, who don't read more than that. Checking...according to a recent study by the Pew Research Center the mean average of books read in a year by Americans is 12, but the median number of books read is only 4. Essentially every member of LT who comes from the US is skewing the curve, some more than others!

Katie and I were talking last Saturday about choosing e-books over print versions. That's something I'll be doing more of in the future, along with a brisk diuresis of the ones I currently own, now that I'm seriously thinking of retiring abroad in the next 5-8 years.

>221 Sakerfalcon: Oh, no! I'm very sorry to hear about your father's decline, Claire, and the burden that it has placed on your mother, and undoubtedly you and your sister. I'll pray for all of you, and please let me know if there is anything I can do.

>222 Deern: You're welcome, Nathalie! I'll have plenty of LT meet ups this month and next, in Edinburgh, Atlanta, England and, almost certainly, the Netherlands.

Oof...I can barely keep my eyes open. I'll finishing catching up late today or tomorrow.

>237 kidzdoc: Whew! I hope it works out that you don't have to work until 9/24... that will give you lots of time for reading!

>214 kidzdoc: Excellent news! My FIL has had his motorized wheelchair taken away from him after he ran over an attendant's foot and injured her. He had been warned that he needed to be more careful, "drive" more slowly through the C&R (Convalescence & Rehab) center where he is now living (he's 96 years old and has Parkinson's disease). Apparently the attendant need to adjust something in preparation for his access to the bathroom and she said "don't move." And he moved. I know he was just trying to adjust his location in anticipation of leaving the chair for the toilet, but....

And now I'm in the same boat as you, that I can barely keep my eyes open. Time for sleep.

ETA: I was only able to pick up one book from the long list on my quick visit to Powell's today, From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan, but at least it's a start.

>223 ChelleBearss: Thanks, Chelle! I haven't taken the bag anywhere since I returned to Atlanta last Monday, but I did take photos of its back and front, posted them to Instagram, and shown the photos to friends at work, all of whom found it quite funny.

Yes, I am massively relieved that my parents are doing so well. I'll almost certainly see them again in October, and for whichever of the three end of year holidays that I won't have to work.

>224 Caroline_McElwee: Agreed, Caroline. Old age can be tough, for both the person experiencing it and those around them.

>225 laytonwoman3rd: If only this advice had been handed out and heeded much more often, the world would be so much better for it.

Truth! A couple of co-workers said that the Strand bookbag should be handed out to every college graduate.

>226 jnwelch: Never will I watch Pink Flamingos again, not even if you paid me.

>227 libraryperilous: I hadn't seen that quote before Katie and I went to Strand Book Store last weekend. I agree with you; my "life partner", a phrase that the mother of one of my dearest friends made memorable, won't need to be an avid reader (although that would help), but she should enjoy reading, even if our tastes in books are very different. She should also enjoy the arts, not hate jazz or sports, like to try a wide variety of foods (no fussy eaters!), have broad interests and several friends (men and women) separate from mine, enjoy traveling, and not hate flying. That's not too much to ask, right?

Ha! I've heard of A Separate Peace but I haven't read it and don't own it. If a woman was interested in solely romance novels, thrillers, sci-fi, etc. that wouldn't be a deal breaker for me, as long as she liked to read.

>228 libraryperilous: Good. Maybe we can have an "Anything But Pink Flamingos" party instead. I haven't seen Cry-Baby, but I'm guessing that I'm not missing anything.

>229 msf59: Thanks, Mark. The NYC meet up was not well publicized, but there will undoubtedly be others in the near future. My parents live close to Trenton, the state capital of New Jersey, and from there I can easily take NJ Transit or Amtrak trains that arrive at Penn Station NYC in a little over an hour. I used to make that commute every day when I worked at NYU Medical Center after I received my BA and before I started medical school, so that trip is a very familiar and easy one.

August should be a stellar reading month, especially since I may be off from work for the rest of the month. I won't work today unless someone calls out sick, and Tuesday would seem to be promising as well, as we discharged at least two dozen kids this weekend.

>230 Caroline_McElwee: I suspect that temperatures are going to be higher everywhere going forward, and not just in the Iberian Peninsula! I'll be sure to rent or, more likely, purchase a place that has good air conditioning.

30-33 C is completely normal for Atlanta from late spring to early fall, although it rarely gets above 35 C. Philadelphia had a run of 38-40 C days earlier this summer, and it was roughly 35-36 C in Chicago this weekend, so we Americans are not unfamiliar with such weather, although I prefer the temperatures in Lisbon that were present for the first few days of my trip, which were in the 18-21 C range.

>231 SqueakyChu: Central and southern Spain can be brutal in the summer, Madeline. It routinely exceeds 35 C (95 F) in cities like Madrid, Sevilla and Granada, and on one day two years ago when Bianca and I were in Granada the temperature reached 42 C (107 F), which was hotter than usual for late June but not unheard of there.

>232 johnsimpson: I haven't seen what yesterday's temperature was in Lisbon, but the all time record high temperature was sent in the capital on Saturday afternoon, when it reached 44 C (111 F). It was considerably warmer in the interior of Portugal, though. Lisbon is bordered by the River Tagus (Rio Tejo), which forms a wide estuary that empties into the Atlantic Ocean a few miles downstream, so temperatures there tend to be cooler than in most of the rest of the country. Fortunately a cool down will begin to take place today, and temperatures are supposed to return to the mid to upper 20s C starting on Tuesday.

People who live in the desert Southwest, especially in cities like Phoenix and Las Vegas, are probably wondering what all the fuss is about. According to Wikipedia Phoenix has an average of 18 days of 110 F or higher temperatures, and 107 days that reach or exceed 100 F, with seven 110 F days and 74 100 F days in Vegas.

>233 benitastrnad: Hi, Benita! I'm glad that you enjoyed reading about my travels. I'll post more photos from Portugal and Spain in my new thread later today or tomorrow.

I did buy a copy of Night Train to Lisbon, after deebee1 and others recommended it to me, and I'll read it soon, probably in the fall. I'm glad that you liked it as well.

ETA: I'm wrong. The book that deebee1 recommended was A Small Death in Lisbon. I purchased a hardback copy of Night Train to Lisbon several years ago, but I haven't read it yet.

>234 Sakerfalcon: Sorry that I didn't look at my thread until Sunday, Claire. As you said, friends (and books) are important in difficult times. I'll be in touch by PM later today.

>235 calm: Hi, calm! I'm glad that you also enjoyed Night Train to Lisbon.

>236 FAMeulstee: Right, Anita.

>238 EBT1002: Same here, Ellen. I just checked the hospital's EMR (electronic medical record) system, and there were only 47 kids on the General Pediatrics inpatient service at 4 am, with only three patients in the ED that don't have dispositions (admission or discharge orders). I would have to come in if our census exceeded 65 patients, and there is absolutely no way that there will be 19 admissions to our service in four hours! I conceivably could still be called in if one of my partners couldn't come in, but those are rare occurrences in my group.

Yikes. I'm sorry that your FIL lost his "driving" privileges, and that the attendant was injured.

I've been awake since 9:30 pm, and it won't be good if I have to work today! I really should get some sleep in, even if I'm not called in.

I bought the electronic edition of From a Low and Quiet Sea last month, so I'll read it soon.

Wow, off work until September! That's great! Hope you enjoy your reading time and travels!

>244 ChelleBearss: Thanks, Chelle! I'm off today, unless one of my partners who is already at the hospital suddenly becomes ill, and based on our low census this morning (49) tomorrow is promising as well. I'm also on backup call on Friday, and it's certainly possible that I'll be needed. That will be my last shift until September 3rd, so there's a good chance yesterday was my last shift for the month.

I'll make breakfast, create a new thread, then catch up on sleep.

Hi, Darryl. Enjoy the day off, and maybe tomorrow. "Last shift of the month" - wouldn't that be great!

Okay at this point I have read The Overstory, Warlight, From a Low and Quiet Sea, and am halfway through Snap. The only thing I can say is: Wow, these books are very different from one another. The writing in all of them is top notch. Story and character development vary in strength. It's surprising to me that they are all on the long list.

My primary reaction at the end of Low and Quiet Sea was "really?! This is where you choose to end it?" Donal Ryan's writing reminds me a bit of William Trevor and maybe a little bit of Sebastian Barry. Maybe it's an Irish thing?

>246 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe. I fell asleep shortly after I posted the previous message, woke up mid afternoon, tried a new pasta recipe, Cacio e Pepe, which I'll mention on my new thread, and fell asleep again from 6 PM to 9:30 PM. I'll check our EMR around midnight to look at the inpatient census; hopefully there won't be an explosion of admissions tonight and early tomorrow.

>247 tangledthread::Well done, tangledthread! I'm glad that you enjoyed the writing in the four Booker Prize longlisted books you've read so far. I'll get started on the longlist tomorrow, and I'll read From a Low and Quiet Sea soon, probably later this week.

It's not that I'm a "super" reader.... I read Warlight & Overstory before the list came out.

>249 tangledthread:. Ah. You've still read two more longlisted titles than I have. I'll start From a Low and Quiet Sea today.