Kidzdoc Reads Black Male Writers for Our Time in 2019, Chapter 3

This is a continuation of the topic Kidzdoc Reads Black Male Writers for Our Time in 2019, Chapter 2.

This topic was continued by Kidzdoc Reads Black Male Writers for Our Time in 2019, Chapter 4.

Talk 75 Books Challenge for 2019

Join LibraryThing to post.

This topic is currently marked as "dormant"—the last message is more than 90 days old. You can revive it by posting a reply.

1kidzdoc
Apr 14, 2019, 9:23 am

Kevin Young, one of The New York Times's Black Male Writers for Our Time, was born in Lincoln, Nebraska to an upper middle class family, as his father is an ophthalmologist and his mother is a PhD holding professor of chemistry. He was educated at Harvard (AB, English and American Literature) and Brown (MFA, Creative Writing), and held a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford. After teaching stints at Indiana University and the University of Georgia he was selected as a member of the faculty of the Department of English at Emory University in Atlanta, where he serves as the Charles Howard Candler Professor of English and Creative Writing. He also serves as the Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of the New York Public Library, and the poetry editor of The New Yorker. Since 2005 he has been married to Katie Tuttle, a book columnist for The Boston Globe.

Kevin Young is a prolific author of poetry and nonfiction, and his most notable works include Jelly Roll, a finalist for the 2003 National Book Award for Poetry, For the Confederate Dead, the winner of the 2007 Quill Award for Poetry, The Grey Album: On the Blackness of Blackness, the winner of the 2012 Graywolf Nonfiction Prize and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Nonfiction, and Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News, a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction.

2kidzdoc
Edited: May 8, 2019, 5:17 am

Currently reading:

The Years by Annie Ernaux
Queen of the Sea: A History of Lisbon by Barry Hatton
An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic by Daniel Mendelsohn

January:
1. Happiness by Aminatta Forna
2. The Queen of Harlem by Brian Keith Jackson
3. My Struggle: Book Three by Karl Ove Knausgaard
4. The Most Beautiful Bookstore in the World, Part 1 by Livraria Lello
5. The Most Beautiful Bookstore in the World, Part 2 by Livraria Lello

February:
6. An American Odyssey: The Life and Work of Romare Bearden by Mary Schmidt Campbell
7. Survive FBT: Skills Manual for Parents Undertaking Family Based Treatment (FBT) for Child and Adolescent Anorexia Nervosa by Maria Ganci

March:
8. Spring by Karl Ove Knausgaard
9. Heart: A History by Sandeep Jauhar
10. Hardheaded Weather by Cornelius Eady
11. Mind on Fire: A Memoir of Madness and Recovery by Arnold Thomas Fanning
12. Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man by Thomas Page McBee
13. Juice! by Ishmael Reed
14. The Face: Strangers on a Pier by Tash Aw

April:
15. Indian Instant Pot Cookbook by Urvashi Pitre
16. The Moor’s Last Stand: How Seven Centuries of Muslim Rule in Spain Came to an End by Elizabeth Drayson
17. Second Lives, Second Chances: A Surgeon's Stories of Transformation by Donald R. Laub

May:
18. The Shape of the Ruins by Juan Gabriel Vásquez
19. The Remainder by Alia Trabucco Zerán
20. Black Deutschland by Darryl Pinckney
21. Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi

7kidzdoc
Edited: May 7, 2019, 12:11 pm

2019 Man Booker International Prize Longlist:

*Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi (Oman), translated from Arabic by Marilyn Booth (Sandstone Press)
Love in the New Millennium by Can Xue (China), translated by Annelise Finegan Wasmoen (Yale University Press)
*The Years by Annie Ernaux (France), translated by Alison Strayer (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
At Dusk by Hwang Sok-yong (South Korea), translated by Sora Kim-Russell (Scribe)
Jokes for the Gunmen by Mazen Maarouf (Iceland and Palestine), translated from Arabic by Jonathan Wright (Granta)
Four Soldiers by Hubert Mingarelli (France), translated from French by Sam Taylor (Granta)
*The Pine Islands by Marion Poschmann (Germany), translated by Jen Calleja (Serpent’s Tail)
Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin (Argentina and Italy), translated from Spanish by Megan McDowell (Oneworld)
The Faculty of Dreams by Sara Stridsberg (Sweden), translated by Deborah Bragan-Turner (Quercus)
*Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk (Poland), translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
*The Shape of the Ruins by Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Colombia), translated from Spanish by Anne McLean (MacLehose Press) ✅
The Death of Murat Idrissi by Tommy Wieringa (Netherlands), translated by Sam Garrett (Scribe)
*The Remainder by Alia Trabucco Zerán (Chile and Italy), translated from Spanish by Sophie Hughes (And Other Stories) ✅

*shortlisted book

8kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 14, 2019, 10:26 am

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
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

9kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 14, 2019, 10:36 am

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
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
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
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

10kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 14, 2019, 10:34 am

2019 Wellcome Book Prize longlist:

*Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man by Thomas Page McBee ✅
Astroturf by Matthew Sperling
Educated by Tara Westover
Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi
*Heart: A History by Sandeep Jauhar ✅
*Mind on Fire by Arnold Thomas Fanning ✅
*Murmur by Will Eaves
*My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
Polio: The Odyssey of Eradication by Thomas Abraham
Sight by Jessie Greengrass
*The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein
This Really Isn’t About You by Jean Hannah Edelstein

*shortlisted book

11kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 14, 2019, 10:38 am

Books to read in April:

Black Deutschland by Darryl Pinckney (Black Male Authors for Our Time)
Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi (Wellcome Book Prize longlist)
The Moor's Last Stand: How Seven Centuries of Muslim Rule in Spain Came to an End by Elizabeth Drayson (Iberian History)
Murmur by Will Eaves (Wellcome Book Prize longlist)
Olio by Tyehimba Jess (Black Male Authors for Our Time)
Second Lives, Second Chances: A Surgeon's Stories of Transformation by Donald R. Laub (LT ER book for March)
The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman's Extraordinary Life in the Business of Death, Decay and Disaster by Sarah Krasnostein
Where the Line Bleeds by Jesmyn Ward (AAC author for April)

12kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 14, 2019, 11:11 am

13Caroline_McElwee
Apr 14, 2019, 11:18 am

>10 kidzdoc: >11 kidzdoc: The Trauma Cleaner has just landed on my mat, and I plan to squeeze it in this month too Darryl.

Happy new thread.

14katiekrug
Apr 14, 2019, 12:28 pm

Happy new one, Darryl!

15kidzdoc
Apr 14, 2019, 1:16 pm

>13 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Caroline! I look forward to your thoughts about The Trauma Cleaner; I'll probably read it the week after next, during my visit to my parents' house that begins on Saturday.

>14 katiekrug: Thanks, Katie!

16kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 14, 2019, 1:30 pm

Whew. Fortunately the line of deadly thunderstorms and tornadoes that killed at least three children in Texas and Louisiana has just passed through the city of Atlanta, without causing any severe damage, as far as I know. We're still under a tornado watch for another 40 minutes, but the skies are much brighter and we should be in the clear.

I made it to Publix and back this morning just before the rain began, and I'm now cooking Feijoada à Brasileira (fay-shoo-AH-duh a bra-seal-AY-ruh), black beans with rice and sausage that is one of the national dishes of Brasil, which is typically served with rice and collard greens, using an Instant Pot recipe that a brasileiran colleague gave to me last month. Tatiana uses turkey or chicken sausage and smoked turkey neck bones in her feijoada instead of pork sausage. The feijoada is going in the Instant Pot now, and I'm boiling ham hocks on the stove, to which I'll add collard greens in a little over an hour.

Here's a photo of feijoada à brasileira:

I'll post my photo of feijoada, rice and collard greens later this afternoon.

17msf59
Edited: Apr 14, 2019, 2:05 pm

Happy Sunday, Darryl! Happy New Thread! I would like to try some of Kevin Young's poetry. I also want to read The Shape of the Ruins. Is it pretty good so far?

>16 kidzdoc: Now, that looks awesome!! Stifles a drool...

18richardderus
Apr 14, 2019, 2:55 pm

Feijoada!! OOOOOOOOOO

Murmur was a very upsetting read for me. I need to read it again after the emotional turmoil settles before I can review it. Molly from Bellevue Lit Press sent it to me with a note to caution me about its subject, which I thought was very very kind.

Happy new thread, al-Andalusian soul.

19Berly
Apr 14, 2019, 3:06 pm

Good thing I already ate--I have to time when I read your thread just right in case you are posting more delicious food pictures or recipes. : ) Happy new thread!

20kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 14, 2019, 5:35 pm

Tatiana's Feijoada à Brasileira is ready!

Here's the recipe she gave me:

Brasilian Black Beans and Rice (Feijoada)

Ingredients:
* 1 pack of black beans
* 1 pack of smoked turkey neck bones
* 1 large turkey or chicken sausage (any sausage you like)
* 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
* 1 onion, diced

Instructions:
1. Soak black beans in water for 3-4 hours.
2. In Instant Pot, sauté onions and garlic using oil until golden.
3. Add beans (use water used for soaking) and whole sausages and neck bones.
4. Cover with water to fully cover contents.
5. After pressure cooker starts to simmer/builds pressure, cook on medium heat for 20 minutes.
6. Remove sausage and neck bones. Cut up sausage into slices and debone neck bones.
7. Add sausage and deboned neck bones to pot of beans and simmer additional 20 minutes (until beans tender).
8. Add salt to taste at the end.
9. Serve with rice and collard greens on the side.
____________________________________________

I did add the water that I soaked the beans in to the pot, but I only covered it about 3/4 of the way, so that the stew wouldn't be overly soupy, which was an excellent decision. My Instant Pot doesn't have a medium setting for pressure cooking, so I cooked the stew on high for 15 minutes. By that time the beans were creamy and tender, so I skipped the second cooking stage altogether. Since I'm Creole at heart if not by birth I added 1 tsp of powdered cayenne pepper, to give it an extra kick. Despite the limited number of ingredients the feijoada is rich and complex, and tastes fabulous. I'm cooking collard greens now, which won't be ready for at least another hour, and I'll make another batch of rice in time to have all of it together for dinner.

I've never had feijoada before, so I just asked Tatiana how it looked, and she said it was "perfect".

21jessibud2
Apr 14, 2019, 3:48 pm

Happy new thread, Darryl! Like when I used to work in an ice cream shop, I am reminded not to come here hungry (unless I can partake)...!

22richardderus
Apr 14, 2019, 4:25 pm

>20 kidzdoc: Scrummalicious! Ain't the IP a blessing? Both time and flavors saved!

23kidzdoc
Apr 14, 2019, 4:26 pm

>17 msf59: Thanks, Mark! I’ve read parts of Jelly Roll and For the Confederate Dead, but I haven’t finished either book, nor anything else by him, to my knowledge. That will change very soon.

The Shape of the Ruins is fantastic so far. I’ll resume reading it shortly.

The feijoada is very tasty! I’ll have it with rice and collard greens in the next hour or two, depending on how long the collards need to cook.

>18 richardderus: OOOOOO, indeed! I had never had feijoada until today, but I thought that I would love it, as Tatiana is a fellow foodie, and an excellent cook.

I’ve only read the free online excerpt from Murmur, but I’ll get into it next week, as it should be off for most or all of the week.

Al-Andalusan soul? Yes, I’ll take that. The Latino families I speak Spanish to assume that I’m from the Dominican Republic, though. ¡Yo soy dominicano! 🇩🇴

>19 Berly: Thanks, Kim! It’s fair to assume that I’m cooking something on Sunday afternoons if I’m not working.

>21 jessibud2: Thanks, Shelley! You’ll have to move closer to get some of this food, which I frequently share with some of my physician partners and my favorite nurses.

24kidzdoc
Apr 14, 2019, 4:29 pm

>22 richardderus: Yes, sir! I’m shocked that it only took 15 minutes to cook the feijoada, which I assume would normally require 3-4+ hours to make. I love my Instant Pot.

25katiekrug
Apr 14, 2019, 4:48 pm

Another fan of feijoada here. I'm saving that recipe to try...

26kidzdoc
Apr 14, 2019, 4:55 pm

>25 katiekrug: Nice. Am I the only person who has never had feijoada before?!

Book sale alert: The US Kindle version of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari is on sale for $3.99 today.

27SandDune
Apr 14, 2019, 5:14 pm

>20 kidzdoc: I think the likelihood of me being able to buy smoked turkey neck bones is about zero, but the recipe does look very tasty.

28kidzdoc
Apr 14, 2019, 5:33 pm

>27 SandDune: What about smoked ham hocks, Rhian? That would be an acceptable substitute in this recipe. Smoked turkey neck bones and ham hocks are very common ingredients of foods from the Deep South, and I had no trouble finding them at my local Publix supermarket this morning. My father can also easily get them in the supermarkets he frequents in suburban Philadelphia, even though the area is overwhelmingly white and decidedly non-Southern. Collard and turnip greens are, I think, far more commonly found in supermarkets south of the Mason-Dixon Line, but since I've only purchased them in Atlanta I can't say that with certainty.

I would guess that Caribbean and possibly African markets in the UK would be far more likely to have smoked turkey neck bones and ham hocks, along with collard and turnip greens, than ones that don't cater to these populations.

29FAMeulstee
Apr 14, 2019, 6:45 pm

Happy new thread, Darryl!

>16 kidzdoc: Sounds scary tornadoes passing so close...

30tangledthread
Apr 14, 2019, 6:50 pm

happy new thread!

31Familyhistorian
Apr 14, 2019, 8:58 pm

Happy new thread, Darryl. I'm another one who has never had feijoada before. Dinner before or after Naomi Wolf sounds good.

32kidzdoc
Apr 14, 2019, 10:10 pm

Here's a photo of feijoada with rice and collard greens, on a salad plate:

>29 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita. Tornadoes are an unfortunate part of living in the Deep South, although it's nowhere near as bad here as it is in Tornado Alley in the middle of the country. The line of storms had weakened considerably by the time they passed through Georgia this morning, and I'm not aware of any tornado touch downs or sightings in the state.

>30 tangledthread: Thanks, tangledthread!

>31 Familyhistorian: Thanks, Meg. Dinner it is, then!

33Sakerfalcon
Apr 15, 2019, 6:41 am

Happy new thread! Glad to see that you have time for cooking again, and I hope this is a good month for reading as well.

34kidzdoc
Apr 15, 2019, 8:44 am

>33 Sakerfalcon: Thanks, Claire! This may be an even better month for reading and cooking than I would have expected. I’m on backup call four days this week (M, T, Th, F), and this time last week it seemed certain that I would have to come in each day. Our inpatient census began to plummet on Thursday, though, and it’s now likely that I’ll be off all week, unless one of my partners call out sick. (We almost never call out sick.)

Later today I’ll create a Facebook Messenger thread to discuss meet up plans for my trip to London next month.

35drneutron
Apr 15, 2019, 9:12 am

Hey, have you read Marlon James' Black Leopard, Red Wolf? I'm about 5 chapters in and it's wonderful.

36jnwelch
Apr 15, 2019, 9:26 am

Happy New Thread, Darryl.

I echo what Jim just said about Black Leopard, Red Wolf.

I need to go back in time with Kevin Young. I've read his most recent one, Brown: Poems (very good), but not the earlier ones. Thanks for the write-up on him.

37kidzdoc
Apr 15, 2019, 9:51 am

>35 drneutron: I haven’t read Black Leopard, Red Wolf yet, Jim. I have heard good things about it, though.

>36 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe. I’m long overdue on reading Kevin Young’s Work, especially since he teaches at Emory, my medical school alma mater, which is only 15 minutes by car from where I live.

That reminds me...I need to call to reserve a ticket for Jericho Brown’s free poetry reading at the Carlos Museum, the main one on Emory’s campus, on Thursday. Brown is one of the NYT’s Black Male Writers for Our Time, as is also on the faculty of the Department of Medicine at Emory. He’ll read from his newest poetry collection The New Testament.

38richardderus
Apr 15, 2019, 10:46 am

>32 kidzdoc: How appealing! The collards look lovely and glossy and the rice grains are perceptible. I don't much care for rice that's been cooked into glop.

39figsfromthistle
Apr 15, 2019, 10:55 am

Happy new thread!

40magicians_nephew
Apr 15, 2019, 12:05 pm

>4 kidzdoc: I've heard people express surprise that "Chip" Delaney was a Black writer.

Love his work had the pleasure of meeting him once at a con donkeys year ago.

.

41ChelleBearss
Apr 15, 2019, 12:50 pm

Happy new thread!

42kidzdoc
Apr 15, 2019, 7:21 pm

Following in Katie's footsteps here are two photos I took of the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris when I spent a weekend in the City of Lights in September, 2016:

I arrived at the Île de la Cité on a Saturday morning, in what I assumed was sufficient time to join the entry line. There were already well over one hundred people ahead of me, so I decided to visit Sainte-Chapelle, another Gothic church on the island, and tour the city before I met a friend from work and her daughter for dinner that evening.

One thread of good news after today's horrific fire is that the main façade and the two main bell towers were saved from damage. I watched live coverage on France 24 in English, and French president Emmanuel Macron vowed that Notre-Dame would be rebuilt. I pray that his optimistic statement will hold true once the damage and structural assessments have been completed.

43kidzdoc
Apr 15, 2019, 7:28 pm

>38 richardderus: Thanks for your kind compliment, Richard! I use Uncle Ben's Original Parboiled Rice as my white rice of choice, and simply follow the directions on the bag. I'm with you, I hate gloppy rice. The collard greens are tender, and they're not bad, but they aren't as tasty as I would have hoped. I'll heat up more feijoada, rice and greens shortly, and see if a day in the refrigerator has made any difference.

>39 figsfromthistle: Thanks, Anita!

>40 magicians_nephew: Interesting. Why did those people think that Samuel Delaney couldn't be African-American, Jim?

>41 ChelleBearss: Thanks, Chelle! I hope that you and your little ones are finally germ free, for at least a little while.

44ronincats
Apr 15, 2019, 7:55 pm

Happy New Thread, Darryl! All kinds of greens are readily available in San Diego supermarkets.

45kidzdoc
Apr 15, 2019, 8:37 pm

>44 ronincats: Thanks, Roni! I love your city, so I'm glad that greens are easy to find there. Collard, mustard and turnip greens are readily available in the Deep South, and my local Publix Super Market had a BOGO (buy one, get one (free)) sale on 2 lb bags of shredded collard greens from Palmetto Gardens yesterday, so this was absolutely perfect, as I was planning to make feijoada yesterday anyway. These greens are precut and thoroughly prewashed, which saved quite a bit of time compared to buying whole greens, having to wash them at least four times to remove grit and other unmentionable contaminants, and cutting them into strips.

The collard greens I made yesterday taste much better today, as does the feijoada. I wasn't feeling that great yesterday, and my taste buds may have been off. These collards aren't as good as the ones my father makes, but I don't like anyone's as much as his, including ones I get in the best Atlanta restaurants, and the ones I made aren't too far off of his best efforts. I have one bag left over, and since collards don't last for long in the refrigerator I'll either make another batch soon, using the remaining turkey neck bones that I have in my freezer as a seasoning, or, more likely, freeze them and make another batch sometime next month.

46RidgewayGirl
Edited: Apr 16, 2019, 11:09 am

I've made note of the sale on collards at Publix. My son's iguana adores them and the plants we put in in the autumn are pretty picked over. And I can add them to the people meals, too.

Notre Dame burning seems almost impossible, and yet it happened. I have the memory of spending a rainy winter morning alone, wandering the rooftops and it's a sad thing to think that that experience is not open to others now (and Paris in the 1990s saw considerably fewer tourists, who stuck to visiting during the summer months. It is a reminder to fully inhabit the experiences we are privileged to have while they are occurring though.

When your reading schedule permits, push Percival Everett up the tbr. I'm reading my third novel by him and am reminded again at how brilliant and understated he is. I'm so glad he's on your list as he is definitely less well known than he deserves to be.

edited to add: I've just noticed that you've read far more Everett than I have. Never mind.

47jnwelch
Edited: Apr 16, 2019, 11:46 am

Hi, Darryl.

Why did those people think that Samuel Delaney couldn't be African-American, Jim? It was really unusual back then, would be my answer, although I didn't go back and read Jim's post.

You might like to read N.K. Jemison's intro to How Long Til Black Future Month. Actually, I think you'd like the stories, if sci-fi would sit well enough. Several address issues of race. In her intro, she talks about how hard it was for her, as a black woman, to break in, saying that there were very few black writers of sci-fi in the early 2000s. (So recent! But true as far as I know). Delaney was a notable exception.

Since then, of course, there's been a boom in sci-fi of writers of color. Which has been really cool for a lot of reasons, one of which is we're getting much more African folklore underpinning stories, rather than just European.

48katiekrug
Apr 16, 2019, 11:59 am

>43 kidzdoc: and >47 jnwelch: - I thought maybe because "Chip" is such a WASP-y nickname ;-)

49laytonwoman3rd
Apr 16, 2019, 1:28 pm

>32 kidzdoc: Doesn't that look delicious? I can occasionally find smoked turkey legs in our markets, but have never looked for necks, so I don't know whether they're available here or not. Smoked ham hocks ARE, and there are a couple in my freezer right now. Fresh collard greens have been showing up in recent years, even way up here, and they are readily available frozen.

50johnsimpson
Apr 16, 2019, 3:28 pm

Happy new thread Darryl mate.

51kidzdoc
Apr 16, 2019, 5:47 pm

>46 RidgewayGirl: Excellent, Kay. According to the Publix flyer in Sunday’s AJC (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) the sale is on until Saturday. Hmm...the flyer says that 16 oz packages of collard, turnip and kale greens are two for $5.00, but according to my receipt I paid $4.99 for each of the two 32 oz packages I purchased...which works out essentially the same (I saved two cents!!!). I normally look at the flyers and clip coupons in the Sunday AJC before I go shopping, but the paper arrived late, and after I returned from Publix and Trader Joe’s.

I never would have thought that Notre-Dame could burn the way that it did yesterday. However, the interior of one of the oldest churches in Lisbon that @deebee1 took me to last year, la Igreja de São Domingos, which was completed in the early 14th century, was almost completely gutted by a huge fire in 1959, as you can see in this photo of mine:

The church was closed for 35 years, and the damage was largely left unrepaired. You can't see any obvious fire damage from the front exterior of the church, which was largely reconstructed after the devastating 1755 earthquake that leveled most of the city:

Before yesterday my mind set about seeing sites of historical importance was that I could always go back if I couldn't or didn't want to see it the first time, as it would always be there. The fire at Notre-Dame has made me realize that this isn't necessarily a valid assumption, and I'll be more likely to visit the places I want to see on a first go round from now on. I'm tempted to make a quick day trip to Paris to see the ruins of Notre-Dame during my holiday in London next month if I have a free day.

I'm glad that you've become a fan of Percival Everett as well. According to my LT library I've read four of his books: Erasure, I Am Not Sidney Poitier, The Water Cure, and A History of the African-American People (Proposed) by Strom Thurmond, although I think that I've also read Percival Everett by Virgil Russell. I've decided to start reading books by Black Male Writers for Our Times who are new to me, so I probably won't read any of the unread books I own by Percival Everett until next year, at the earliest.

52kidzdoc
Apr 16, 2019, 5:59 pm

>47 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe; what you said about Samuel Delaney makes sense. His name doesn't automatically make you think that he is African American, as you would about Jamel Brinkley or De'Shawn Charles Winslow, and given the near complete absence of science fiction authors when he started writing this does make sense.

N.K. Jemisin is one of the black female writers who was mentioned in that NYT article, and since I've heard good things about her recently I'll plan to read something by her soon. Do you have any recommendations?

>48 katiekrug: Right, Katie! I'm hard pressed to think of any African Americans I have heard of who are nicknamed 'Chip'.

>49 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks, Linda! It will come as no surprise that I can always find smoked turkey neck bones and ham hocks in my local Publix, since it's in the heart of the Deep South. However, my father seems to have no trouble finding them in the supermarkets closest to them; our neighborhood in suburban Philadelphia is nearly completely white, but there are plenty of Asians, blacks and Latinos who live nearby and shop where we do.

>50 johnsimpson: Thanks, John!

53katiekrug
Edited: Apr 16, 2019, 6:19 pm

I just asked The Wayne, and he said he's seen turkey neck bones in the grocery stores here.

ETA: May I start calling you 'Chip'?

54kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 16, 2019, 7:06 pm

>53 katiekrug: Interesting. So, that begs the question: what recipes are people in your area, and where my parents live, making that require smoked turkey neck bones? I would assume that most, um, Yankees aren't making greens or black eyed peas (or feijoada) from scratch, as "we" Southerners do.

Yes, you may call me Chip. But, for God's sake, don't call me Chipper.

55katiekrug
Apr 16, 2019, 7:26 pm

>54 kidzdoc: - I think cuisine is becoming much less regionalized, personally. Also, in this area, I wouldn't be surprised if the Great Migration influenced what is still commonly cooked, both by African Americans and others.

56kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 16, 2019, 8:08 pm

>55 katiekrug: I agree, to a point. You're definitely right in implying that some staple foods from the Deep South are commonly prepared in homes or restaurants in other parts of the country, but I would think that many aren't. The immediate area where my parents live may be different from other suburbs in the Northeast, but I highly doubt that most people who live there have made collard (or turnip or mustard) greens, grits from scratch (and especially fish & grits), buttermilk biscuits (not the canned variety!), especially with sausage or red eye gravy, okra & tomatoes, Hoppin' John, etc. That goes double for Louisiana foods such as gumbo, jambalaya, étouffée, etc. African American families like my mothers who were part of the Great Migration (my mother and her sisters moved from Troy, Alabama to NYC in 1943) certainly brought their cuisine with them, and continued to make those foods after they moved North (or to the Midwest or West Coast). You can definitely find restaurants in major Northeastern cities, in all manner of neighborhoods, that specialize in Southern cuisine, such as Jacob's Pickles on the Upper West Side and the former Acme Restaurant on Great Jones Street in Greenwich Village, along with obvious places like Sylvia's and Red Rooster in Harlem, and chains like Denny's and others probably serve collards, grits, buttermilk biscuits and fried chicken, that people order regularly. I'd be surprised if those same people would make these foods at home, though...although I'm fully prepared to be proven wrong!

57katiekrug
Apr 16, 2019, 8:19 pm

I can't prove you wrong, and I think there is a lot of validity to your point. But I would add that I think cooking has become more of a "thing" for a wide variety of people, and they are willing to experiment at home. The Wayne makes a great gumbo, for instance, despite only having had it once in New Orleans. But he wanted to learn to make it at home, and so did. I don't think he's the norm in doing that kind of thing, but I don't think he's as much of an outlier as he would have been in the past. And the same could be said of you, Chef Chip ;-)

58kidzdoc
Apr 16, 2019, 8:40 pm

>57 katiekrug: 😂 Great point! I agree with you; more people are willing to try recipes at home that are different from ones they usually make, especially if they have had those foods in other regions of the country or abroad. Similar to your husband I also wanted to learn how to make gumbo and other Louisiana staple dishes after I lived in New Orleans for three years, and I definitely plan to learn how to cook Portuguese and Spanish cuisine.

Many of the people in my parents’ neighborhood have lived in Bucks County for their entire lives, or moved out of Philadelphia, and their willingness to make different foods other than typical American fare is almost nonexistent. Bob, my parents’ closest neighbor, an Irishman who may as well be part of our family, is a good example. He and his wife grew up in Bucks County, and although they both cook well their palates are very restricted. Bob always comes over when I’m there, especially if he sees me in the kitchen in the front of the house, and looks to see what I’m making, out of curiosity if not horror, although he rarely tries anything, and the same goes for his wife, Chris, and the Slusarcyzks and the Shortalls. Bob’s adult sons, on the other hand, don’t have to be asked twice if I or my father offer them a meal, and they cook and eat far more broadly than their parents do.

59PaulCranswick
Apr 16, 2019, 8:54 pm

Fascinating discussion on food over here Darryl.

I think Katie is right in that there is a willingness to experiment with food these days that perhaps wasn't quite the case years ago. Could have something to do with more widespread availability of ingredients but it could also be due to there being less barriers between people.

Hani does great Yorkshire puddings by the way and I'll try my hand at most things albeit with differing degrees of success.

60kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 16, 2019, 9:33 pm

>59 PaulCranswick: This has been a very interesting and enjoyable discussion, Paul!

You and Katie are both right. As people travel more, interact with classmates, friends and co-workers outside of their own groups, and try different types of restaurants their interest in other cuisines increases. Men like The Wayne, you and myself are cooking far more than most of our fathers did, and it seems to me that, for us guys, cooking tends to be more of a hobby than a necessary chore, even with our more (although far from fully) egalitarian societies, although I know more than a few couples in which the man is the primary cook of the two or the family. I would surmise that most people, male or female, who view cooking as a hobby or as an enjoyable task, as I obviously do, would be far more adventurous than those who are cooking mainly to put food on the table and feed the family, especially when small fussy eaters are involved. I enjoy chatting with the friendly young cashiers at my local Publix or the supermarket close to my parents' house, who often look at the items I'm purchasing, and ask what I'm planning to make, as many of them are eager to learn about cooking. I think it's also easier to find less common items in many US supermarkets, with smoked turkey neck bones and spices such as garam masala and Moroccan Seasoning (sumac) being readily available. Social media and the Internet also help, as you can easily search for and find recipes without purchasing a cookbook, such as the tortilla de patatas recipe I found on the Spanish Sabores Facebook timeline earlier this year. It's also far less expensive and healthier to cook at home than to dine out, which is quite important for college students and new graduates with hefty college loans (I started cooking in earnest when I was in medical school and residency, in order to save the spare money I had and borrow as little as I needed to), and with the increasing frequency of people with food allergies and gluten sensitivity it's more important and far safer for those afflicted with these conditions to make their own food, instead of trusting others to do it for them.

I nearly provoked an international incident several years ago over Sunday roast in a countryside pub when I insisted to Rhian's husband, a proud Yorkshireman, that Yorkshire pudding was nothing more than an unsweetened American popover and that it would taste great with butter and jam.

61PaulCranswick
Apr 16, 2019, 10:57 pm

>60 kidzdoc: Last paragraph - I would have been ranged alongside you with MrSandDune - two proud Yorkshiremen together!

62ronincats
Apr 16, 2019, 11:57 pm

>52 kidzdoc: I think you might do well to start with the new short story collection, Darryl. I think Jemisin's novels have just gotten better with time and would strongly push The Stone Sky, one of her Hugo winners that is outstanding, but it is the first of a trilogy (all three of which won Hugos, first time in history that's happened). But I hear that's a great collection in How Long 'til Black Future Month?: Stories.

63kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 17, 2019, 5:55 am

>61 PaulCranswick: 😂 Yes, I'm sure that you would have joined Rhian's husband in giving me a piece of your mind!

>62 ronincats: Sounds good. Thanks, Roni!

64kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 17, 2019, 6:06 am

An early Wednesday morning quiz: can you recognize the LTers in these photos? The first one was taken in NYC on either Black Friday or Boxing Day 2009, and this was the first LT group meetup I ever attended:

The second photo shows some of the LTers who attended the Philadelphia mega meet up that took place at least five years ago:

For bonus credit, identify the one non-LTer in the first photo.

65msf59
Apr 17, 2019, 6:40 am

>64 kidzdoc: Love the Meet Up photos! 2009 too? Nice. Of course, I know Caroline, Jim & Judy from the top one. (You look very serious, though). Jim, Judy & Laura from the bottom one. I NEED to do a Philly or NYC Meet Up!

Morning, Darryl. We had our own fine Meet up yesterday. I am really enjoying The Fire This Time. Have this Ward collection?

66kidzdoc
Apr 17, 2019, 6:50 am

>65 msf59: Good morning, Mark! There are two other currently active and well known 75ers that you haven't identified, one in each photo. Long time 75ers might be able to identify one or two others, and probably only those who were at the meet ups would recognize the rest, especially two in the bottom photo whose user names I'll have to look up (I keep a private list of LTers I have met on my home page).

Your meet up from yesterday sounded great. I need to make another trip to Chicago to see Debbi, Joe & Becca, Jane (who is sitting next to me in the top photo), and my closest friend from residency, who is a primary care pediatrician in the city and lives in Evanston.

I liked The Fire This Time, although some of the essays I found to be better than others.

67msf59
Apr 17, 2019, 6:57 am

>64 kidzdoc: There are definitely some familiar faces, just can't match them with their names.

I agree with you on the Ward collection.

68katiekrug
Apr 17, 2019, 7:03 am

In addition to the LTers Mark identified, I think I see Richard in the top one and Katherine in the bottom one?

69kidzdoc
Apr 17, 2019, 7:03 am

>67 msf59: Uh oh. The handsome gentleman in the far right in the top photo and the lovely lady in lavender in the front of the bottom one might be upset that you've forgotten their names. 😎

70kidzdoc
Apr 17, 2019, 7:04 am

>68 katiekrug: Right, Katie! I don't think Richard will forgive Mark for not recognizing him. Katherine was looking down, so well done for identifying her.

71lauralkeet
Edited: Apr 17, 2019, 7:44 am

Great meetup photos, Darryl. The Philly one was really fun. I visit Reading Terminal Market about once a week now, and remember the meetup fondly when I pass the spot where we had breakfast.

72SandDune
Apr 17, 2019, 7:39 am

>60 kidzdoc: I remember the Yorkshire Pudding incident: I’m surprised he ever spoke to you again! The one type of food that I rarely cook is traditional British. I do a lot of Italian (pasta dishes and soups mainly), Chinese (stir-fries), Indian, Middle-Eastern (mainly tagine type dishes) and French & Spanish stews and casseroles. Of traditional British cookery my favourites are roast dinners, pies (both sweet and savoury), and traditional puddings and cakes. I don’t enjoy cooking the first two sorts, although I’m more than happy to eat them if anyone else cooks, and I’m rather avoiding the second two at the moment because of my diet.

73jnwelch
Apr 17, 2019, 9:01 am

Hi, Darryl. Love the meetup photos. I can do pretty well, but not great, on the first, and poorly on the second. Judy and Jim probably deserve some kind of meetup award - they even made it out here not long ago for a Chicago meetup.

>52 kidzdoc: An N.K. Jemison recommendation. Hmm. Her award-winning Broken Earth trilogy is terrific, and Dr. Jim heartily recommends her The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms trilogy, which I haven't read yet. But I don't think of you as a big-time sci-fi reader. I suggest you read the stories in her new How Long Til Black Future Month. Those should work well for you. Cut the first one some slack -it's the least of them. I suspect it's the first one she got published.

74kidzdoc
Apr 17, 2019, 9:35 am

>71 lauralkeet: Thanks, Laura. I often make a side trip to Reading Terminal Market on my way back from my parents' house to PHL, as I have to change trains in Center City, and I often think about that meet up while I'm there. I'll probably stop there on Saturday afternoon, on my way to their house.

>72 SandDune: Ha! Although it was all in good fun, he defended Yorkshire pudding with great passion. To be fair, popovers are the American equivalent of Yorkshire pudding, although the ones I've had have been sweetened and are served as a side item for breakfast or brunch.

He probably won't like this poem by Ogden Nash:

Let's call Yorkshire pudding
A fortunate blunder:
It's a sort of popover
That turned and popped under.

I also remember Bryony's passionate insistence that I could not have Moroccan lamb as a main dish for Sunday roast! I'm glad that our waitress stood up for me and gave me her permission to order it.

I thoroughly enjoyed having Sunday roast with you, A. and J. last year. The meal was fabulous!

That's interesting that you don't cook much British food. As we were discussing earlier, do you think your desire to try other cuisines is related to your travels? Do you make tortilla española?

>73 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe. The one person, other than the woman sitting across from Richard, who is a friend of his and not an LTer as far as I know, is Jane (@janemarieprice) from Club Read, who is one of my favorite LTers and is sitting to my left. She moved to Chicago from Brooklyn a couple of years ago, and I hope to reconnect with her during a future visit there. Tad (@TadAD) and his wife Julie (@jrzymom) are seated to my right. I haven't seen them in quite awhile, probably not since we met up in Amsterdam in 2015 and met Anita, her husband Frank, and Connie (@Connie53) for the first time.

Thanks for the N.K. Jemisin recommendations!

75magicians_nephew
Edited: Apr 17, 2019, 3:39 pm

>43 kidzdoc: It's like people couldn't believe that "James Tiptree Jr" was a woman.

When Sci-Fi was a community of email and chat and occasional cons people didn't know what anybody looked like.

I first heard about Delaney when Harlan Ellison bought one of his stories (Was it "Aye and Gomorrah"?) for "Dangerous Visions"

Harlan discovered that Delaney was Black and I sort of got that Harlan was surprised too - that a "Hi my name is Chip" guy was Black.
("he didn't SOUND Black on the phone!")

Hey it could have been "Skipper"

76richardderus
Apr 17, 2019, 3:17 pm

My niece Vayram was there? I'd forgotten that.

Sainte-Chapelle was an excellent back-up choice for Notre Dame, which is I confess on my life-list of amazing experiences. Sainte-Chapelle, that is...Notre Dame was a slog to get through that summer of 1973, I can't remember why exactly, but I was elated to see the rose window in person.

77kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 17, 2019, 5:39 pm

>75 magicians_nephew: "he didn't SOUND Black on the phone!"

I can believe that. My father graduated with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Howard University in 1958, and one of the first interviews he was granted was at, I think, Lockheed Martin on Long Island. When he arrived the secretary that was supposed to greet him was aghast, as she and the man who was going to interview him thought that he was Jewish, based on our last name (Morris) and his lack of a discernible Negro accent. The interviewer told him that they were not hiring any "more" Negroes for engineering positions, and he was escorted from the office. He remembers that embarrassing episode vividly to this day.

>76 richardderus: Yes, I remember her being there!

My visit to the far less crowded Sainte-Chapelle that day was a good one, as I saved at least an hour or two of waiting in lines and crowds that were going to Notre-Dame. I used that time to have a leisurely visit in Shakespeare & Company and a long relaxed lunch in the bookshop's café, along with a long walk along the Left Bank before I had to head back to my hotel, located just across the street from Gare L'Est, and change clothes to meet my work colleague and her daughter for a lovely dinner that evening. I was in Paris for less than 48 hours, arriving late on a Friday night and returning in the late afternoon on a Sunday, after spending the day with a member of Club Read (@FlorenceArt), and I should have given myself more time to visit that magical city.

78kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 17, 2019, 6:06 pm

Regarding the other people in the photos, I should mention that Suzanne (@Chatterbox) was the photographer in the top one, and probably Zoë (@_Zoe_) in the second one. To me there are three rows of people, in a 3-4-4 configuration, and from back to front and left to right are Judy, Laura and Monica (@crazy4reading) in the front row; Katherine (@qebo), @tophats (the shy but sweet young woman whose name I can't remember), Julie (@jrzymom, Tad's wife) and Brenda (@brenpike, who came from Lawrence, Kansas but wasn't the person who made the longest journey) are in the second row; and Jim (@magicians_nephew), Tad (@TadAD), Bert (@bertilak) and I are in the rear. I can think of at least four other LTers who didn't join us for breakfast at Reading Terminal Market but met up with us later, so that makes at least 16 LTers who were there.

ETA: Flori is the real name of @tophats, and there were actually 18 of us who met up that weekend, all LTers. That's certainly more than the 10-12 of us who met in London a couple of years ago when Paul & Hanni were in the UK.

79justchris
Apr 17, 2019, 11:58 pm

>20 kidzdoc: Thanks for sharing! Looks delish!

I love cooking and trying all sorts of new and different things! I haven't tried much in the way of traditional British foods, though I am getting an eyeful having discovered the old TV series Pie in the Sky. The main character is a British semiretired copper who also makes a killer steak and kidney pie and opens his own locavore restaurant (before there was such a term).

>43 kidzdoc: There's an essay by Delaney about racism in the science fiction community in the Dark Matter anthology. It was eye opening for me. I didn't know that he was black until I read that essay. I have not yet read any of his novels, though I picked up a couple to check out. The other black author who broke into science fiction early on was Octavia Butler. But I can't say that I had ever heard of her or seen her books in the bookstores when I frequently browsed the shelves for new stories and authors. At least I'd seen some of Delaney's books and recognized the name years before I made an effort to pick up something from him.

>52 kidzdoc: N. K. Jemison is definitely an author to check out. She's definitely made waves winning three Hugos in a row. Plus, she's been the target of some pretty vicious harassment as a highly visible and vocal author of color in the science fiction genre. Her acceptance speech last year was a thing of beauty. And so was her dress.

80kidzdoc
Apr 18, 2019, 8:45 am

>79 justchris: You're welcome, Chris! Feijoada, especially in the Instant Pot, is easy to make, and this is now probably my favorite bean & rice recipe.

I'm with you; I love to try new recipes, especially if they are foods that I've not had before or can't easily find locally. (Having said that, I need to look for more Afghani, Moroccan, Portuguese and Turkish recipes.) There aren't many truly British foods that I'm eager to try, but I would like to learn from Rupert, Rachael's husband, how he made his rack of English (not New Zealand) lamb that he served for Sunday roast in their temporary house in Cambridge two years ago, which was fantastic. I may get that opportunity when I see them, and Fliss, next month.

I hadn't heard of the word locavore before, so I just looked it up. I like the concept of buying goods locally, and since there are several farmers' markets close to me, especially the one in Piedmont Park, the largest park in the city, that I can walk to, I'll start shopping there and preferentially buy as much produce as I can there. Oh...*smacks forehead*...I somehow forgot that I already do buy a good amount of my fruits and vegetables from Eat Right Atlanta Food Co-Op, which comes to the hospital I work at on Wednesdays. I could make a more dedicated effort to buy locally, even though it won't be as convenient as going to Publix, Whole Foods Market or Trader Joe's, and only buy things there that I can't get at local farmers' markets. Thanks for mentioning that, Chris!

I still haven't read anything by Samuel Delaney or Octavia Butler, although my new focus on contemporary African American authors should mean that I do so sooner rather than later.

Thanks for posting that YouTube video of N.K. Jemisin's 2018 Hugo Award acceptance speech; that was great! I definitely want to read her books now, and I'll look for them this afternoon, at a new black bookshop that opened Intown late last year. The bookshop isn't far from where I live, and, better yet, it's on the same street (Auburn Avenue, where the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park and Ebenezer Baptist Church, where "Daddy" King preached when young Martin was growing up) where the barber shop I go to is located, and since I need a haircut I can kill two birds with one stone. It's run by a young and very attractive African American woman and is open Thursdays through Sundays, so I'm happy to finally go and support her bookshop. I'll report back later today.

81richardderus
Apr 18, 2019, 10:08 am

You might find Carlo Petrini's Slow Food Revolution interesting, Darryl. The whole slow & local movement gets codified in it. Being poor...I have $3.14 to spend on each of my meals...I can't afford fresh produce very often, but the principle appeals to me on so many levels.

82The_Hibernator
Apr 18, 2019, 10:23 am

Hi Darryl! I love Octavia Butler and N. K. Jemisin. I hope you do too. I also just bought Black Leopard, Red Wolf, by Marlon James, and hope to read that soon. Have you read it?

83torontoc
Apr 18, 2019, 11:44 am

Oh, Moroccan!!! Try Claudia Roden's book Arabesque - the chicken pie in pastry, the meat cigars, and chicken with honey and dates- made them all along with some great salads.

84johnsimpson
Apr 18, 2019, 3:32 pm

Hi Darryl, sorry we are not able to meet up with you in May down in London, unfortunately wrong time with a few bills and Karen's birthday to sort out, hopefully we will see you with Joe and Debbi in September. Hope all is well with you mate and send love and hugs from both of us.

85SandDune
Apr 18, 2019, 3:41 pm

>80 kidzdoc: There aren't many truly British foods that I'm eager to try What, nothing Darryl?

86justchris
Apr 18, 2019, 11:31 pm

>80 kidzdoc: I could use more Afgani, Turkish, and especially Moroccan recipes too (since I have a lovely large tagine I hardly ever use). Maybe Portuguese too, though since Spain is such a hobby interest of mine, I've accumulated quite a few Spanish cookbooks and feel like I should branch out more from the Iberian Peninsula.

>83 torontoc: I saw Arabesque and almost got it but was put off by the price tag. Maybe I'll find a more affordable copy someday...I have Roden's The Food of Spain.

Last year, I picked up A Taste of Serendib from the author at WisCon. She also was teaching people her favorite curry blend to the point of breaking her electric grinder. I haven't tried any recipes in it yet, but Sri Lankan cooking looks just as tasty as every other cuisine I've tried. And just a few months ago, I picked up Sweet Middle East. Yum!

So many cookbooks, not nearly enough time in the kitchen!

Yeah, I live in a foodie city, so "locavore" turns up in local conversations, restaurant reviews, etc. Sounds like you have lots of options and opportunities. That's great! I've been a CSA member for the last few years. But I am expecting to move later this year and not sure I want to deal with complications of picking up a box of produce in the midst of it all. Plus, I am trying to support more local businesses run by people of color, there are few to no options in terms of local CSA shares, and the CSA I've been supporting is a very nice white family farm. I live in a very white area. I like the idea of farmers markets but rarely manage to go to them. Right now, the closest one to where I live is too big and crowded and directly conflicts with my tai chi classes.

I hope the visit to the new bookstore is very rewarding. I actually encountered N. K. Jemison as a blogger. I eventually realized she was part of the science fiction community, and then that she was an author. So I know her first for her social justice work. I look forward to reading her novels.

87kidzdoc
Apr 19, 2019, 7:08 am

Happy Friday, everyone! I have a couple of things to update here, even though I've been in another awful book funk for the past week, but I'll catch up on posts first.

>81 richardderus: Thanks, Richard. I hadn't heard of Slow Food Revolution, but I'll keep an eye out for it.

Your point about the cost of eating healthy is a very good one, and it reminds me of the excellent points that Morphy brought up a couple of years ago, and the comment by @vancouverdeb about the low cost of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese to explain why she had it so often as a child (along with it apparently being a Canadian thing). Buying fresh produce is expensive, and access to supermarkets, farmers' markets and local co-operatives can be challenging if one lacks a car or doesn't live in the "right" neighborhoods, which is certainly the case in Atlanta. There was an election for a representative to the city council on Tuesday, to replace the former member who died earlier this year, and the winning candidate spoke on our local NPR station about the importance of bringing quality supermarkets that sell wholesome and affordable food to poor and working class communities in his district.

>82 The_Hibernator: Hi, Rachel! I'm glad that you're a fan of Octavia Butler and N.K. Jemisin. I don't own and haven't read Black Leopard, Red Wolf yet, but I'm inclined to do so, as I loved Marlon James's Booker Prize winning novel A Brief History of Seven Killings.

>83 torontoc: Thanks for your recommendation of Arabesque, Cyrel! I'll look for it.

88kidzdoc
Apr 19, 2019, 8:05 am

A line of strong thunderstorms with very heavy rain has passed through Atlanta within the past hour, and tornado warnings were issued for the counties just outside of the city. Hopefully there were no touch downs. We're under a flash food warning until early afternoon, as it's still raining and will do so for a while, so I'll postpone if not cancel a few errands I had planned to run this morning. I'm on backup call again today, but we're five or six patients before the number needed to call in an extra rounder (i.e., me), and unless someone calls out sick I'll be off again today, as I have been all week. I still have to remain available until at least 5 pm, though.

I just heard that three people were killed by these storms in Mississippi and Alabama, and 22,000 households in metro Atlanta are currently without power. Hopefully there will be no more loss of life.

>84 johnsimpson: I'm sorry that I won't get to see you and Karen next month, John, but I hope that we can meet up in September.

>85 SandDune: Rhian, In that comment about British food I meant that there aren't many British foods that I want to try making, not eating. I've had some superb British food in pubs, restaurants and in the homes of you and the Beales (Rachael & Rupert), but, unlike cuisines from other countries and cultures, I can't think of many things British that I'm eager to try my hand at, especially since I've still never made a true dessert (as you know I'm more of a savoury than a sweet person). I'm not opposed to trying to make British cuisine that appeals to me, though, but my tastes tend to lean toward Mediterranean, Iberian, North African and Louisianan. For that matter, traditional foods from middle America, such as green bean casserole, stuffed cabbage and steaks, are even less appealing to me.

>86 justchris: Nice, Chris! I don't have any Spanish or Portuguese cookbooks...yet. DB (@deebee1 from Club Read) pointed out a beautiful Portuguese cookbook in Livraria Bertrand, the oldest continuously operating bookshop in the world, when we met in Lisbon last year, which was huge and heavy. I didn't buy it then, as I figured that I could buy it from Amazon; wrong. I'll be sure to get it uring my next visit to the city, hopefully later this year.

Hmm...I could make caldo verde, the classic Portuguese soup, with the collard greens and potatoes I have left over. I'll probably do that next week, after I return from visiting my parents, or maybe even try it while I'm there.

I've acquired quite a few cookbooks in the past year or so, and I need to explore them more thoroughly, especially Ottolenghi Simple and Rose Water & Orange Blossoms by the Lebanese-American writer Maureen Abood. I also find the NYT Recipes app to be a great source of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisine, as I've tried and loved several recipes by Melissa Clark and Martha Rose Shulman.

Atlanta has stepped up its game in recent years, and has now become one of the best cities for food in the Deep South, with innovative restaurants, food trucks and food courts. Later this year the formerly blasé food court in an office building barely more than a stone's throw from where I live will re-open as a entirely new concept, with unique restaurants, stands and shops by local chefs. I may never cook again...

89EllaTim
Apr 19, 2019, 8:08 am

Hi Darryl! Lots of interesting talk going on here, as usual.

We are eating more and more international food here as well. Including growing foods that are now very familiar, but we didn't have when I was a child. No pumpkins for example, can you imagine, such a tasty and easy to grow vegetable? But I ate my first one in my twenties. Now I grow them myself each year.

Sorry for the book funk!

I have been too tired to do much reading as well, and to visit threads here. Saw your posts about the Notre Dame on Facebook, what a shock.

90kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 19, 2019, 9:41 am

>89 EllaTim: Hi, Ella! It's good to see you here...although not as good as when we met in Amsterdam for the first time last September.

I'm glad that you're broadening your culinary tastes. There is so much good food (and literature) from around the world, and I love trying new cuisines within and outside of the US, which have provided me with an immeasurable amount of pleasure. My frequent trips to London have exposed me to many different ethnic foods that I had never or rarely experienced before, especially Afghani, Israeli, Lebanese, Moroccan and Turkish. I also loved my visits to Restaurant Desa in de Pijp when Claire, her sister and I spent a week in Amsterdam in 2016; we ate there once, and I returned a second time after they returned to London. My visits to other Dutch cities and other European countries have opened my eyes as well.

I love most squashes, including pumpkins, and I keep meaning to try pumpkin soup and to include more of these vegetables in my diet, especially butternut squash and spaghetti squash.

I have a lot on my mind at the present time, which makes it more difficult to concentrate on or devote time reading to books. Now that spring is here I should do much better for the next several months.

The fire at the Cathédrale de Notre-Dame was a huge shock, but the massive amount of donations by the wealthy was nearly equally as surprising, and quite distasteful and disturbing. The ultra rich are clearly willing to donate vast sums of money to causes they choose to support, but it's disheartening that they won't give to far more deserving organizations and peoples, especially those who are starving oppressed in developing countries. I had originally planned to donate a sizable sum to the rebuilding of Notre-Dame, but I'll only give a token donation, and give to other, less well funded, causes that are more deserving of my support, such as the three historically black churches in St Landry Parish, Louisiana which were intentionally burned to the ground by a trump worshipping white supremacist earlier this year. I did submit a donation to help rebuild those churches, and nearly 2 million dollars has been rasied so far.

Notre Dame fundraising efforts inspire people to donate nearly $2 million to rebuild burned Louisiana churches

Disappointingly, but not surprisingly, our POTUS and his supposedly Christian VP haven't said a peep about the Louisiana church burnings, presumably because they don't want to alienate their core supporters.

91thornton37814
Apr 19, 2019, 9:55 am

I will present at a conference in Washington, DC late this summer. I look forward to sampling a variety of ethnic cuisines. I see lots of ethnic restaurants in the vicinity of the conference location (the Omni Shoreham). Since I'm flying, I'll rely on public transportation or my own two feet to get around. If anyone knows of some great restaurants up to a moderate price level that fit the bill nearby, please let me know.

92katiekrug
Apr 19, 2019, 10:14 am

>91 thornton37814: - Lori, there is (or used to be) a great Middle Eastern restaurant near there called Mama Ayesha's. It may even be within walking distance; if not, it would be a quick cab/Uber ride away. I liked to get a variety of mezza and make a meal out of that.

93kidzdoc
Apr 19, 2019, 10:30 am

I did go to For Keeps! yesterday, the bookshop on Auburn Avenue in downtown Atlanta that sells secondhand and rare books by authors from the African diaspora. In addition to the shop's owner, Rosa Duffy, a local visual artist, there were four other people there when I entered. Rosa greeted me warmly as I entered, and after perusing the shelves I bought three books:

Biko by Donald Woods: This is a 1987 reprint of the biography of Steve Biko, the young anti-apartheid activist who was brutally tortured and murdered by South African police in September, 1977, during my senior year of high school. His death was widely reported in the US, and this was the first time that I, and presumably millions of Americans, became aware of the brutal apartheid system in that country. Donald Woods was a close friend of Steve Biko, and this edition, released nine years after it was originally published in 1978, was timed to coincide with the movie about Biko by Richard Attenborough.

Manchild in the Promised Land by Claude Brown: I read this autobiographical best selling novel in my teens, which describes the author's seemingly impossible rise out of crushing poverty in a broken home in Harlem in the 1940s and 1950s, after he received a bachelor's degree at Howard University, my father's alma mater, in 1965, and his admittance to law school at Stanford and Rutgers (my undergraduate alma mater), before he decided to become a lecturer and writer after the success of this book.

If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin: I purchased a copy of the first UK edition of this book, although it wasn't cheap!

I spoke with the very sweet and passionate owner for a few minutes, and received her permission to take photos of the bookshop, as she wants her customers to spread the word about it. In the first photo Rosa is the light skinned woman in the far left. The second two photos show the rare books posted along either of the most longitudinal walls of the shop, and the last photo is one of my modest book haul.

The opening of For Keeps! has been widely reported in the local media, beginning this past November, but until today I didn't realize that the Atlanta correspondent for The New York Times had written an article about it in February:

Where Books Meet Black Mecca

I greatly enjoyed my first visit to For Keeps!, and Rosa made me feel at home as soon as I entered the bookshop, and since it's only two miles from where I live and on the same street as the barbershop where I go every other week I'll return there often.

94kidzdoc
Apr 19, 2019, 10:43 am

I also tried a new recipe yesterday, Swordfish Amandine, a modification of the classic New Orleans recipe Trout Amandine, which is served in most of the finer restaurants in the city. The recipe from Louisiana Cookin' calls for it to be served with garlic-thyme asparagus, and since I love that vegetable I made it as well:

Trout Amandine

Ingredients:

4 (5- to 6-ounce) skinless trout fillets
2½ teaspoons kosher salt, divided
2 teaspoons sugar
⅓ cup all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon Creole seasoning*
4 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
½ cup unsalted butter, cubed and softened
¼ cup sliced almonds
¼ cup packed fresh parsley, finely chopped
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1½ teaspoons fresh lemon juice
Garlic-Thyme Asparagus (recipe follows)
Lemon wedges, to serve

Instructions:

*Sprinkle trout with 2 teaspoons salt and sugar; let stand for 5 minutes. Rinse trout under cold water; thoroughly pat dry.
*On a large plate, combine flour and Creole seasoning. Dredge trout in flour mixture, shaking off excess.
*In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons oil over high heat. Add 2 trout fillets, skinned side up; cook until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Carefully turn fillets; cook until fish flakes easily with a fork, 1 to 2 minutes more. Transfer trout to desired serving plates. Wipe skillet clean; repeat with remaining 2 tablespoons oil and remaining 2 fillets.
*Wipe skillet clean; reduce heat to medium. Add butter and almonds; cook, stirring frequently, until almonds are toasted and butter solids turn a medium-brown color and have a nutty aroma, 7 to 12 minutes. Add parsley, thyme, lemon juice, and remaining ½ teaspoon salt. Remove from heat; discard thyme. *Spoon sauce over fish. Serve immediately with Garlic-Thyme Asparagus and lemon wedges.

Garlic-Thyme Asparagus

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound medium asparagus, trimmed and halved crosswise
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

Instructions:
In a large skillet, heat butter over medium heat. Add garlic; cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add asparagus; cook, stirring frequently, until crisp-tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Sprinkle with thyme, salt, and pepper. Serve immediately.
________________________________________

I've had two frozen swordish steaks from Publix in my freezer for several months, after I bought them on sale earlier this year, which is why I used that fish instead of trout. Because of their thickness I cooked them for a total of three minutes longer on a medium high heat, and as usual I used olive oil instead of vegetable oil, along with cilantro in place of parsley. I halved the recipe for both the fish and the asparagus. I had never cooked swordfish before but these tasted great, and the amandine sauce provided an extra boost to the fish. I liked the way the asparagus turned out, and I may use this as my go to way to make them. This recipe didn't take long to cook, certainly no more than an hour, which makes it ideal for an after work weeknight supper. Highly recommended!

95Caroline_McElwee
Apr 19, 2019, 12:23 pm

>93 kidzdoc: Great bookshop Darryl. I have two of the three books you purchased. It's years since I read Biko, have you seen the film they made of it 'Cry Freedom'?

If Beale Street Could Talk is on my reread pile this year, and I really enjoyed the film they made of that too. As I type, I remember you are not big on movies. A theatre man instead.

96richardderus
Apr 19, 2019, 12:43 pm

>93 kidzdoc: What a lovely space! I'm so glad y'all have a decent bookstore dedicated to African American culture.

97RidgewayGirl
Apr 19, 2019, 12:51 pm

>88 kidzdoc: I was out driving in those storms this morning! I had volunteered for a book distribution in Atlanta (for Dunbar Elementary), but the driving conditions eventually got so bad that I turned around and came home.

>93 kidzdoc: You are becoming spoiled for choices in independent bookstores in Atlanta! I've added it to my list and will get there someday.

98kidzdoc
Apr 19, 2019, 1:58 pm

>95 Caroline_McElwee: I'm glad to see another indie bookshop open Intown, and I hope that it survives and thrives.

I haven't seen 'Cry Freedom', but I may have to, after I read Biko.

I'd like to see the movie based on If Beale Street Could Talk, but I'd like to read the book first. Then again, I did see the National Theatre performance of The Amen Corner by James Baldwin before I read the book (have I read the book?!).

>96 richardderus: Same here, Richard! There is, or at least was, another black bookshop located in the West End near the Atlanta University Center, where Spellman College, Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University, all HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities), are located, but I'm ashamed to say that I haven't visited it yet. I'll make it my business to go there very soon, possibly the week after next.

>97 RidgewayGirl: I'm glad that you decided to turn around and not face those severe storms, Kay. Several people I work with wrote posts on Facebook about their hideous drives to the hospital this morning.

Mmm...Atlanta is getting better in terms of indie bookshops, but it's still far behind other major cities. As more well educated people move Intown there will be an increased desire for places to buy books other than Barnes & Noble, so I'm hopeful that more places will open in the coming years.

99Caroline_McElwee
Apr 19, 2019, 3:33 pm

>98 kidzdoc: that as a great production of Amen Corner Darryl.

100richardderus
Apr 19, 2019, 5:21 pm

>98 kidzdoc: Patronage matters a very great deal. Walking in is a great thing; spending money greater; greatest of all, telling people about it. Are these venues on Yelp?

101kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 19, 2019, 5:39 pm

>99 Caroline_McElwee: Agreed, Caroline. We saw it together, right?

>100 richardderus: Excellent point, Richard. I did mention For Keeps! on my Instagram and Facebook pages, along with a private Facebook group run by one of my partners, who is a prominent travel blogger of Jamaican descent, to help spread the word amongst her African American and black female friends in and outside of Atlanta. I just looked, and there is a page for the bookshop on Yelp, with only one review (5 stars), along with nine 5 star reviews on Google. I'll post my photos on both platforms, and any others I can think of, this weekend.

ETA: I should do the same thing for the barbershop I frequent, which is also located on Auburn Avenue. My longtime barber, who is a good friend, recently purchased the shop, so any additional business I can send his way would be appreciated, I'm sure.

102benitastrnad
Apr 19, 2019, 6:15 pm

I think it is important to tell others about the good places that we shop. It is getting harder and harder for brick and mortar stores to compete with online shopping and if a store has given me a good experience I want to tell others about it so that they can share in those experiences. We are social creatures and many of us are collectors so good shops help us to create community's where we can meet and greet our compatriots and share our various enthusiasms.

103kidzdoc
Apr 19, 2019, 6:22 pm

>102 benitastrnad: I agree completely, Benita. That's why I shared photos and the story of my visit to For Keeps! on Instagram and Facebook yesterday. I didn't think about doing so on Yelp, though.

Fortunately for my barber there is no fear of competition with online head cutters!

104Sakerfalcon
Apr 20, 2019, 4:43 am

I'm so glad you had time to visit For Keeps; it sounds like a terrific place and a business that deserves to be successful. Although I do buy books online, I will never stop buying in brick and mortar bookshops because I don't want to live in a world where they don't exist. It's worth every extra penny to have that freedom of wandering in, browsing, and handling the books before making my selection. And of course, many happy meet ups have occurred in bookshops too!

I'm very much looking forward to your visit to London, Darryl. When I get back to work on Tuesday I'll look at the annual leave calendar and see about booking a day off in the week beginning May 20th. It'll almost certainly be near the end of the week as I'll have just come back from several days of leave when Lucy and I are in Vienna. It would be great if we can all agree on a day for those of us who want to see the Much exhibition. In face, I'll post something to this effect on the facebook thread.

Wishing you a very Happy Easter and a great time with your parents.

105laytonwoman3rd
Apr 20, 2019, 10:15 am

Love the food discussions on your thread, Darryl. This PA country girl routinely serves grits (no, NOT the instant kind), jambalaya, and buttermilk biscuits at my kitchen table. The first two from living in Louisiana for three years early in my married life, the latter because that's what my grandma taught me to make. They might not be exactly like the southern version, but they go really well with fried chicken and gravy. We also ate a lot of fresh greens--mostly spinach and beet tops-- growing up, because everybody had a small garden or a neighbor or family member who shared from theirs.

106EBT1002
Apr 20, 2019, 8:00 pm

Hi Darryl. For Keeps! sounds like a wonderful bookshop. I love the way books are displayed. Next time I am in Atlanta I will seek it out. It looks like a somewhat dangerous shop to visit based on your purchases....

I love the old meet-up photos and I do recognize a few LTers (Judy, Jim, Laura, Caroline? and you, of course, and I agree with Mark that you look very serious in that top photo). What fun!

107weird_O
Apr 21, 2019, 12:32 am

This is shameless, though well-meaning. Stop by my thread for a review of The Mueller Report. (See! It already has a touchstone.) No, it isn't my review; haven't read the whole thing yet.

108Ameise1
Apr 21, 2019, 3:17 am

Happy Easter weekend, Darryl.

109kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 21, 2019, 7:28 am

Happy Easter, everyone! I'm in my parents' house just north of Philadelphia, and will stay with them until Thursday afternoon. Later this morning my brother will come over, and we'll have a traditional Easter Sunday breakfast of bagels and tortillas españolas, then have dinner with a friend of my parents.

I finally got some good reading in on yesterday's flight from Atlanta to Philadelphia, as I generally do my best reading on planes and long distance trains, and am now 1/5 of the way through The Shape of the Ruins by Juan Gabriel Vásquez, which continues to be superb. I hope to finish it during or before Thursday's flight back to Atlanta, although it's over 500 pages in length.

>104 Sakerfalcon: Happy Easter, Claire! I hope that you have a good day with your family as well. For Keeps! is a welcome addition to the small but growing family of Intown indie bookshops, which is in a good location, as it will fill a niche for those of us looking for out of print books by authors who are from or are writing about the African diaspora.

It looks as though we are in agreement about meeting up on Thursday May 23rd to see the Edvard Munch exhibition at the British Museum. I'm free for the rest of the work week so far, except for Naomi Wolf's talk at Logan Hall in Bloomsbury that Monday evening.

Have a great time in Vienna with Lucy! That city is high on a list of European cities I hope to visit in the near future.

>105 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks, Linda. I don't think to cook grits as often as you would think, and when I do I generally use premixed bags of garlic cheddar cheese grits from Savor the Flavor, a small company in Sumter, South Carolina that ships their products. I'll often add Gulf shrimp to my grits, unless I'm having them for breakfast or unless I'm having them with fish. I've only made buttermilk biscuits from scratch once, but they turned out much better than I thought that they would, and I want to learn how to make a standard sausage gravy and a red eye gravy to serve over them. I generally get my fix of fried chicken on Wednesdays, as the Doctors' Lounge in the hospital where I work always serves them that day, and whoever makes them does a fabulous job, as they are as good as any I've ever had. I love green leafy vegetables, and I'll cook them far more often in the future, especially collards and beet greens, along with asparagus and Brussels sprouts...but not broccoli. I'm eager to get my hands on freshly picked tomatoes this summer, so that I can make tomato pie and fresh salads with them.

>106 EBT1002: Hi, Ellen! For Keeps! is definitely a keeper (bad pun alert). You'll have to let me know when you're next in Atlanta. A great time to come here would be for the Decatur Book Festival over Labor Day weekend; five of us met up for it last year, and it was easily one of the most enjoyable weekends I've had since I moved to Atlanta in 1997.

I have a good number of LT meetup photos in my photo folder, but there are many more in my Facebook photo albums that I haven't added there yet. I'll work on that this summer.

>107 weird_O: Thanks, Bill. I'll take a look at that review later today.

>108 Ameise1: Ah, the elusive long eared Easter chicken! Thanks for finding one and sharing it with me, Barbara.

It's time to make tortillas. I'll check back in later today.

110The_Hibernator
Apr 21, 2019, 7:30 am

Happy Easter Darryl!

111kidzdoc
Apr 21, 2019, 9:40 am

Thanks, Rachel! I pray that you and your family have a blessed Easter as well.

112justchris
Apr 21, 2019, 8:35 pm

>88 kidzdoc: I just watched Martha Bakes. She made spotted dick and Eccles cakes. Now there's some British cooking I could get behind. You might not have much of a sweet tooth, Darryl, but I sure do. But I hardly ever bake anymore with all my dietary issues. The pudding sounds lovely, though.

>105 laytonwoman3rd: I didn't grow up with grits, jambalya, or buttermilk biscuits, but I sure have learned to love them. I made some shrimp and grits for a friend, and it was so tasty! I want to make more and have been looking up dairy-free variations since the dairy no longer agrees with me. I loved the version I made with cheddar, but that's a no-go long term.

113kidzdoc
Apr 22, 2019, 7:27 am

>112 justchris: Nice. I would pass on the spotted dick, which I think would be too sweet for me, but the Eccles cake looks very good. I'd much rather have a plate of Spanish olives with goat's or sheep's cheeses with wine, though.

Shrimp (or fish) and grits is one of the foods of the gods.

114richardderus
Apr 22, 2019, 2:47 pm

Shrimp scampi served on a bed of bitter greens with a side of lemon-zested jack-cheese grits. Cold cava in flutes.
O.
M.
G.

115Familyhistorian
Apr 22, 2019, 4:53 pm

For Keeps looks like an interesting book shop. I find that indie book stores need all the help they can get. They have a hard time here but maybe that is because most of the books are English and our population tends to be both diverse and wed to their tech devices.

Hope you are enjoying your Philadelphia visit, Darryl, and that your parents are doing well.

116kidzdoc
Apr 22, 2019, 5:56 pm

>114 richardderus:

>115 Familyhistorian: That's interesting, Meg. For Keeps! should do well, as in addition to being on Auburn Avenue, one of the most historically important streets in Atlanta, it's also a stone's throw away from Georgia State University, which has 33,000 students in its downtown campus, and the new Downtown Streetcar makes a stop on Auburn Avenue on the other side of the street no more than 100 feet away.

It's been a good visit so far. I'll leave on Thursday, but I'll spend nearly the entire month of June with them.

117katiekrug
Apr 22, 2019, 9:52 pm

Hi Darryl - hope you're having a good visit with your parents. I wanted to let you know I made the asparagus with garlic and thyme recipe that you shared, and it was great. A definite keeper!

118justchris
Apr 22, 2019, 10:45 pm

>114 richardderus: Nom! Nom! Nom!

119kidzdoc
Apr 23, 2019, 10:12 am

Happy World Book Day, everyone! What will you be reading today?

I mentioned on Facebook last night that I had what I thought was a good reading day, as I read just over 100 pages in Juan Gabriel Vásquez's latest novel The Shape of the Ruins, which has been shortlisted for this year's Man Booker International Prize. My father is an even more avid and voracious reader than I am, and in essentially one sitting he read Simple Genius by David Baldacci, which has 420 pages. Yes, I'm a slacker...

>117 katiekrug: Excellent, Katie! I'm glad that you tried and liked the garlic-thyme asparagus. As you said, that recipe is a keeper.

>118 justchris: Right, Chris! I'll have to give that a try.

120richardderus
Apr 23, 2019, 11:13 am

>118 justchris: Heh...maybe opening my own restaurant wouldn't have been such a bad idea.

>119 kidzdoc: Happy St. George's Day!

121kidzdoc
Apr 23, 2019, 2:00 pm

>120 richardderus: Feliç dia de Sant Jordi!

122benitastrnad
Edited: Apr 23, 2019, 2:21 pm

Just in case you don't know this - my comfort area is food and cooking. I just finished reading Seventh Daughter: My Culinary Journey from Beijing to San Francisco by well known Chinese restaurateur Cecilia Chiang. I happened to be watching the PBS channel titled "Create TV" (this is a PBS channel that airs old episodes of shows produced for, and distributed by, PBS) and they showed one episode of a 6 part series done for San Francisco PBS about Cecilia Chiang. It was fascinating watching her cook and work with other famous Chefs of the Bay Area. At the time this show was produced she was in her late 80's. She is now 98 and still living in the San Francisco area. Her son, Philip Chiang, is a co-founder of the restaurant chain P. F. Chang's.

This book is part memoir and part cookbook. Chiang has a co-author, and the this co-author has selected and written the story of Chiang's life. These memoirs are interspersed with recipes from Chiang's famous Mandarin Resturant. This format works very well. The recipes are interesting, but what I was really interested in was the story of this woman's life. The memoir reads like a novel - almost like a Lisa See novel come to life. This is not an objective look at history or culture. It is the story of one woman's life and her point-of-view about how events affected her and her family. It is also the immigrant story of a filthy rich Asian who comes to America and makes good. I am not saying that Chiang didn't work hard and that she doesn't deserve her fame and success. I am saying that she came to the U. S. not intending to immigrate - but she did, eventually. Not intending to open a business - but she did. Not intending to live apart from her husband and raising her children in the U. S. - but she did. I am saying that she is not your typical immigrant. She came to the U. S. with all the advantages, and none of the detriments we tend to think of when we think immigrant, (she even knew English, Russian, and Japanese) and made good use of them by finding something that she loved doing in a place she liked, and making it a success. It should be noted that she already had a restaurant in post-war Tokyo that was successful and her husband was the filthy rich Asian, but she didn't even have to ask for a loan to put on the $10,000.00 lease payment for her first restaurant in San Francisco on Polk Street in 1967. She did have to get a loan when she opened the new Mandarin in Ghiradelli Square in 1974, and she talks about how hard it was to get the large sum of money she needed. It was mostly because she was a woman and by that time was on her own.

This is a relatively rare book. I had to place an Inter-Library Loan request for it. I had thought of purchasing it, but it is priced at $60.00 on Amazon and used copies of it are still in the $25.00 range, so I decided to see what it was before I made a purchase. I won't be adding this one to my list of books that I own, but I did enjoy reading it. This book will be on my best of the year list, because so far it has been the best memoir I have read this year. I highly recommend it if you like culinary reading.

123richardderus
Apr 23, 2019, 4:19 pm

>122 benitastrnad: OMIGOSH the Mandarin! Wow. My father and stepmother took me there on my 16th birthday! What a joint. Scrummy food, amazing atmosphere. *happy sigh* I love food memories.

124kidzdoc
Apr 25, 2019, 11:31 am

>122 benitastrnad: Thanks for letting me know about The Seventh Daughter, Benita. I'll look for it at one of my local libraries.

>123 richardderus: Nice, Richard! I hadn't heard of that restaurant.

I'm cooking lunch for my parents, and will leave for the airport to return to Atlanta early this afternoon, as I have to work a five day stretch that starts on Friday.

125kidzdoc
May 1, 2019, 8:06 am

Happy May Day and International Workers' Day, everyone! I'm now finished an unexpectedly busy five day work stretch, which felt nearly twice as long, as I worked for at least 11 hours each day. Fortunately April is behind me, as my May schedule is much lighter, and my vacation free month from work follows in June. Not counting my backup shifts I may only end up working eight days over the next two months, as I'm well over my work hours for the year so far.

I'm off for the remainder of the week, which makes me happy. Even better, I noticed yesterday that I'm off on Monday and Tuesday as well. The best day of any work week is No Work Monday, so I did an internal jig when I saw that.

April was a very disappointing reading month, but I should be very productive in both May and June. I'll finish The Shape of the Ruins by Juan Gábriel Vásquez today, and I intended to finish the other five books from this year's Man Booker International Prize longlist by the 21st, the day of the award ceremony. I won't finish the Wellcome Book Prize shortlist in time, as the winner will be announced this evening, but I do plan to read The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Kranostein this month, as I'd like to discuss it with Fliss when she, Rachael & I meet in Cambridge in three weeks.

I saw on Facebook that this month's selection for the PBS NewsHour-New York Times book club, Now Read This, is An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic by Daniel Mendelsohn, which sounded very interesting. The US Kindle version is on sale today for $4.99, so I'll start reading it soon.

I haven't done well with my Black Male Authors for Our Time theme so far this year, so I plan read at least three books this month and next, at least.

Planned Reads for May:

An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic by Daniel Mendelsohn
Black Deutschland by Darryl Pinckney
Book of Hours by Kevin Young
Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
Olio by Tyehimba Joss
The Pine Islands by Marion Poschmann
Queen of the Sea: A History of Lisbon by Barry Hatton
The Remainder by Alia Trabucco Zerán
The Shape of the Ruins by Juan Gábriel Vásquez
The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein
The Years by Annie Ernaux

126banjo123
May 1, 2019, 12:18 pm

Happy reading, and happy days off, Darryl! I am interested to see how you like The Shape of Ruins; I keep meaning to read more by Gabriel Vasquez.

And I can recommend Mendelsohs's book, but I think his The Lost: Six of Six Million was even better.

127richardderus
May 1, 2019, 1:51 pm

Happy Beltane (you forgot the wiccans)!

128FAMeulstee
Edited: May 1, 2019, 4:58 pm

Happy May Day, Darryl!
I have also The Pine Islands listed for May.

129EllaTim
May 1, 2019, 6:39 pm

Happy days off, Darryl. Enjoy, after working 11 hours a day!

130kidzdoc
May 2, 2019, 3:54 am

>126 banjo123: Thanks, Rhonda! I loved The Shape of the Ruins, which I finished last night, and it's definitely the best of the four novels I've read by Juan Gábriel Vásquez so far. I'll give it 4-1/2 stars, and write a review of it today or tomorrow.

>127 richardderus: Obrigado, senhor. Beltane? Wiccans?! *off to consult Professor Google*

>128 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita! I'll probably read The Pine Islands last, as it's the only MBIP longlisted title that's on my Kindle. I think I'll read The Remainder by Alia Trabucco Zerán next.

>129 EllaTim: Thanks, Ella! It was a busy five day stretch but it wasn't a painful one, as all of the patients and parents that I cared for were absolutely lovely, which included at least a dozen adorable babies and an equally cute eight year old girl and her three rambunctious sisters. It's hard to have a bad day when you're surrounded by cute kids.

131msf59
Edited: May 2, 2019, 7:42 am

Sweet Thursday, Darryl. I have Dear Darkness at hand. I think this might be my first Young collection. It looks like I will also be requesting The Shape of the Ruins, since you enjoyed it so much, plus I was impressed by The Sound of Things Falling.

132kidzdoc
May 2, 2019, 8:51 am

>131 msf59: Sweet Thursday indeed, Mark! I also own Dear Darkness, so I'll probably get to it later this year. The Shape of the Ruins dragged in a couple of places and could have been a bit shorter IMO, but overall it was a superb read.

133richardderus
May 2, 2019, 9:26 am

>132 kidzdoc: I loved The Sound of Things Falling, if you'll recall, but had that same critique. Wordiness is endemic to his writing. It doesn't feel...overstuffed...to me, just like a more fluid narratorial head-turning motion would've elided a few unnecessary details.

I'm bettin' you've got The Blues Walked In and Autobiography of a Wound all queued up from Pitt's press.

134kidzdoc
May 2, 2019, 9:48 am

>133 richardderus: Exactly. Vásquez is a superb storyteller, whose books I'll continue to faithfully read, but he still falls a step behind Mario Vargas Llosa and Javier Cercas in my list of favorite living Hispanic authors, as their writing is more taut and less wordy. Having said that The Shape of the Ruins is his best novel (although I have yet to read Reputations), he sticks the landing despite a couple of dead spots in the middle, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it chosen as the winner of this year's Man Booker International Prize.

Yep. The Blues Walked In and Autobiography of a Wound are on my radar screen.

135kidzdoc
Edited: May 2, 2019, 10:05 am

I forgot to mention that Murmur by Will Eaves was chosen as the winner of this year's Wellcome Book Prize last night. I had meant to read it last month, so I'll get to it later this month if I have time, or, more likely, in June.

136streamsong
Edited: May 2, 2019, 1:37 pm

Hi Darryl - I see you have An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic on your May reading list. I've just started it as it is the May selection for the PBS/NYT book club.

I'm definitely deficient in reading South American authors, although I have read Reputations as my sole Vasquez. I enjoyed it, and while I didn't mention it in my review, I thought he dropped the ball a bit with his portrayal of how a woman, just finding out she was victimized as a child, would act.

137Caroline_McElwee
May 2, 2019, 11:38 am

>135 kidzdoc: I shall look out for that.

138jnwelch
May 2, 2019, 2:55 pm

I'll look forward to your thoughts on Murmur, Darryl. Great news about London in September!

I just finished An Elegant Defense by Matt Richtel, about our immune system. I wish I could be more enthusiastic. He wore me out! It's a fascinating subject, and he's good at making it understandable, but I wish he had simplified it even more. The interaction of all the acronyms that are hard to remember, along with the complexity of the immune system, make this a tough go for the neophyte. You might have a much easier time of it. What doctors and researchers are finding out, particularly (for me) about autoimmune diseases, is amazing.

Huh, it's an ER book, and I need to review it. That may the review right there!

139BLBera
May 2, 2019, 4:56 pm

Well, I've managed to miss almost an entire thread. Love all the food talk. Happy old thread, Darryl. :)

140kidzdoc
Edited: May 2, 2019, 8:34 pm

>136 streamsong: Right, Janet. I purchased the Kindle version of An Odyssey yesterday after I saw that it was the May selection for the Now Read This book club. I'll get started on it soon.

Reputations is the only novel written by Juan Gabriel Vásquez that has been published into English that I haven't read yet. I'll look for it when I go book shopping in London later this month.

>137 Caroline_McElwee: Sounds good, Caroline.

>138 jnwelch: Will do re: Murmur, Joe. I'll definitely read it in June, if not later this month.

Since my mother is doing much better than she was in January I feel more comfortable traveling abroad than I originally did, especially since I plan to spend two or three weeks with them in June. I think I'll also plan a two week trip to Portugal, probably in October or November, especially since Marianne (@michigantrumpet) was just there and Barbara (@Ameise1) is in Porto now.

Betty (@bragan from Club Read) also read An Elegant Defense, and her review convinced me that I shouldn't read it. I worked in a immunology lab in the four years after I received my bachelor's degree and before I started medical school, and I suspect that I would be quickly bored by anything written for the layperson, which is the impression I have of this book. If I see it in a bookshop I may flip through it, to see if it appeals to me.

>139 BLBera: Thanks, Beth!

141weird_O
May 2, 2019, 11:38 pm

>140 kidzdoc: My daughter gave me Reputations by Juan Gabriel Vasquez for Christmas 2017, and I read it last November. I liked it, thought it good, but it's the only work of his that I've read.

142kidzdoc
May 3, 2019, 9:19 am

>141 weird_O: Nice, Bill. I'll probably buy Reputations when I go book shopping in London later this month, but I'll definitely buy two other books right away, Lord of the Dead (El monarca de las sombras) by Javier Cercas, which hasn't been published stateside in English translation yet, and Spring by Ali Smith, although I need to read Winter first.

143richardderus
May 3, 2019, 10:00 am

>142 kidzdoc: I'd strongly advise hunting up Soldiers of Salamis while in London. I got a copy from a friend. Spanish Civil War scars run as deep as US Civil War scars do, something we don't pay much attention to...their version of the Confederacy won their Civil War, and Catalonia has been seething ever since.

144kidzdoc
May 3, 2019, 10:39 am

>143 richardderus: Thanks, Richard. Soldiers of Salamis is probably the first book I read by Javier Cercas, and, now that I've visited Spain several times and learned more (but not enough) about the Spanish Civil War, I'd love to give it a second go soon, perhaps as early as this summer.

I agree with you; similar to our Civil War, the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath continue to be felt throughout the country, most notably in Catalunya, but also in the Valle de los Caídos (Valley of the Fallen), the monument that Franco built to honor the ~500,000 people who died in the war, both Republicans and Nationalists, but has become a shrine for those who supported and continue to support the fascist regime, as Franco's tomb is located there. Spain, taken as a whole, prefers to deny or cover up the least desirable aspects of its history, particularly the Civil War, the Franco dictatorship, and the nearly 800 year rule of at least part of Hispania by the Moors, whereas Portugal seems to be much more accepting of its sordid past, especially the fascist Estado Novo and colonialism, which didn't end until the Portuguese finally left Macau in 1999.

I plan to read several novels by noted authors from Portugal and its former colonies this summer, and look for more books about Portuguese history, especially the Portuguese Empire.

145kidzdoc
May 4, 2019, 8:17 am

Happy Saturday, everyone! I finished a second book from this year's Man Booker International Prize longlist, The Remainder by the Chilean author Alia Trabucco Zerán, which was surrealistic, dreamy and very enjoyable, a solid 4 star read and an impresive début novel. I'll start Celestial Bodies, another MBIP shortlisted book, by Jokha Alharti today, which I should finish tomorrow, and I'll get started on Queen of the Sea: A History of Lisbon by Barry Hatton. We're supposed to get lots of thunderstorms today, so I'll probably stay indoors and go grocery shopping tomorrow, and write a couple of reviews while I'm at it.

I gave up on Black Deutschland by Darryl Pinckney early this morning after 75 pages, as I found it to be intensely boring, especially in comparison to the two superb MBIP shortlisted novels I just read.

146richardderus
May 4, 2019, 11:04 am

>144 kidzdoc: Their wounds aren't any better healed than ours are, are they. Sad how much people can hate each other over fixable issues.

I haven't had brilliant luck with Pinckney's writing. It always seems too mannered for the subjects he's writing about.

147connie53
May 4, 2019, 12:58 pm

>144 kidzdoc: Have you read Het ijzig hart by Almudena Grandes, Darryl? I read it several years ago and was blown away by it. It's one of the books we have in common and is about the Spanish Civil war, Franco and WOII.

148streamsong
May 4, 2019, 2:52 pm

>140 kidzdoc: That's what I did, too, Darryl. I don't have a Kindle, but do have the Kindle app on my phone and computer. It's a bit inconvenient, but I'm enjoying An Odyssey. What a privilege for the author to be able to connect with his father in that way before his father passed away. I think I'll probably read The Odyssey to go along with it.

I've ordered Celestial Bodies but it has not yet arrived.

149kidzdoc
May 5, 2019, 7:59 am

Saturday ended up being a lost day, after I was hit with a gastrointestinal bug that came on suddenly but seems to be all but completely gone. I'm not yet back to full speed, as my stomach and intestines are still inflamed, so I'll stay inside again today and curl up with some good books.

I started reading Queen of the Sea: A History of Lisbon by Barry Hatton yesterday, and I loved this portion of the Introduction:

Lisbon—one of the European Union's smaller capitals in a largely unsung country on the bloc's fringe—is closer to Africa than the EU Brussels headquarters, and not only in a geographical sense. Foreign university students call Portugal the "Morocco of Europe", and they mean it as a compliment. In its scale, Lisbon is down-to-earth, charming and close. While more celebrated cities can be haughty, unpretentious Lisbon opens its doors. It is part of the city's charm. Walking through some of the older parts of the city can feel like wandering through a kasbah. Lisbon is a mood, and that cannot be captured in a travel brochure or photographs on a website.

Exactly!

>146 richardderus: Right, Richard. Spaniards don't seem to like or get on well with residents from other autonomous regions. One of my partners is from Madrid, and although he and his family love Barcelona he doesn't like interacting with Catalunyans. He looks Spanish, and so people he interacts with want to speak to him in Catalan. When he tells them that he doesn't speak Catalan, only Castilian Spanish (the form that is commonly taught and spoken in central Spain and in the Americas) they generally ask where he's from, and when he says "Madrid" the friendliness of those people quickly fades. On the other hand, those same people are thrilled that I, a non-Spaniard, can hold a conversation in Castilian with minimal difficulty (limited by my relative lack of vocabulary in comparison to Spaniards), and I'm frequently complimented on my Spanish, especially when they learn that I'm not from Cuba or the Dominican Republic, as they thought (I'm frequently told by Latino families I meet in the hospital that I speak their language without an American accent, and several people in Spain have asked me, "¿Usted está dominicano?"). So, according to my madrileño partner I'm probably treated better as a Castilian speaking non-Spaniard in Catalunya than he is as a Castilian speaking non-Catalunyan Spaniard, which has everything to do with the way the Catalans were treated under Franco's rule and the current situation in Spain.

Lisbon, on the other hand, is far more diverse and welcoming than any place I've visited in Spain, which was very obvious when I traveled from Porto to Barcelona last June. I've met plenty of friendly people throughout Spain, but in general I feel out of place there, and constantly judged or frowned at, especially in comparison to Portugal, the UK and the Netherlands. I love Spain; Spaniards, not so much.

>147 connie53: Thanks for reminding me about The Frozen Heart, Connie. I haven't read it yet, mainly due to its size (800 pages), but I'd like to get to it soon.

>148 streamsong: I'm glad that you're enjoying An Odyssey, Janet. I'll probably get started on it early next week. I'll probably also download the new translation of The Odyssey and get to it over the summer, as I've never read it.

150richardderus
May 5, 2019, 10:49 am

Lisbon is the place to retire...or Porto, San Francisco with sunshine...because the Portuguese aren't as divided as the Spanish. Plus the food is glorious.

151kidzdoc
May 5, 2019, 11:09 am

>150 richardderus: Right. I'm pretty set on retiring to Portugal, after last year's visit and encouragement from DB (@deebee1), who lives in Almada, just across the Tagus River from Lisboa, and Joaquim, an online friend of Madeline's, a retired pediatrician who lives in Lisboa. I'll need to do more research and make more visits in the next couple of years, and learn Portuguese, as I had originally planned to do next month by taking an Intensive Portuguese course there. It would be easier to live in or just outside Lisboa, but I wouldn't rule out Porto, or even Coimbra, which I need to visit.

152weird_O
May 5, 2019, 12:38 pm

>142 kidzdoc: Oooo, Ali Smith. Charlotte introduced Smith to me by gifting me a copy of Autumn (plus some other top notch books) as my secret Santa. I too have to read Winter. But Ali Smith is someone I'll read more of.

153connie53
May 5, 2019, 3:08 pm

>149 kidzdoc: Good plan, Darryl.

154kidzdoc
May 6, 2019, 10:58 am

>152 weird_O: I enjoyed Autumn, and I was fortunate to get a ticket to see Ali Smith's talk at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2017, in which she read from the first chaapter of Winter, which she had submitted to her pubiisher that week. I'll definitely buy a copy of Spring next week (I leave for London on the 15th), and read both books this summer.

I found out today that a new book, titled Lisbon Tales, will be published by Oxford University Press in the UK this Friday. It consists of short stories by well and lesser known Portuguese authors, including Eça de Queirós, Fernando Pessoa, José Saramago, and Teolinda Gersão, whose novel City of Ulysses I read and loved last year. There are far fewer books by Portuguese authors other than heavy hitters like Pessoa, Saramago and António Lobo Antunes that are translated into English as compared to Spanish authors, so I'll also buy this book next week and look forward to learning more about Portuguese authors who are new to me.

>153 connie53: I'll see if I can get to The Frozen Heart this summer, Connie. It was recommended by The Guardian as one of the best novels about Spain, which is why I bought it before my first trip to Barcelona five years ago.

155SqueakyChu
May 6, 2019, 12:22 pm

>154 kidzdoc: I just acquired a copy of The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis by José Saramago. Have you read it? If so, what did you think of it. The only other book I read by this author was Blindness.

156kidzdoc
Edited: May 7, 2019, 8:23 am

Book #18: The Shape of the Ruins by Juan Gabriel Vásquez, translated by Anne McLean

Shortlist, 2019 Man Booker International Prize

My rating:

There are two ways to view or contemplate what we call history: one is the accidental vision, for which history is the fateful product of an infinite chain of irrational acts, unpredictable contingencies, and random events (life as unremitting chaos that we human beings try desperately to organize); and the other is the conspiratorial vision, a scenario of shadows and invisible hands and eyes that spy and voices that whisper in corners, a theater in which everything happens for a reason, where accidents don’t exist and much less coincidences, and where the causes of events are silenced for reasons nobody knows.

What you call history is no more than the winning story, Vásquez. Someone made that story win, and not any of the others, and that’s why we believe it today.

There are truths that don’t happen in those places, truths that nobody writes down because they’re invisible. There are millions of things that happen in special places, and I repeat: they are places that are not within the reach of historians or journalists. They are not invented places, Vásquez, they are not fictions, they are very real: as real as anything told in the newspapers. But they don’t survive. They stay there, without anybody to tell them. And that’s unfair. It’s unfair and it’s sad.

This historical novel by the award winning Colombian author begins with the arrest of Carlos Carballo, a shadowy man caught breaking into a glass case containing the suit worn by Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, the leader of the Colombian Liberal Party, when he was assassinated in the capital of Bogotá on April 9, 1948. Gaitán was the leader of the country's socialist movement, a leading candidate to become the president of Colombia in the upcoming election, and a charismatic politician who was beloved by his poor and working class countrymen, although he was reviled by conservatives, especially those who supported Francisco Franco's fascist government in Spain, and by the Catholic Church. He was shot in broad daylight by a young Nazi sympathzer, who, like Lee Harvey Oswald, was officially determined to be the sole assassin, despite evidence suggesting that others may have been involved in a plot to murder him. Gaitán later died of his wounds, and his death led to massive riots in the capital with the deaths of as many as 5,000 people in a 10 hour period, which became known as El Bogotazo, and La Violencia, the subsequent decade long civil war between the Liberal and Conservative Parties that claimed the lives of an estimated 200,000 Colombians, which continues to affect the country to this day.

Carballo was introduced to the novel's narrator, a young writer named Juan Gabriel Vásquez, who recently moved back to Bogotá from Barcelona with his pregnant wife, by a mutual friend. Carballo has devoted his adult life to uncovering the source behind the murder of Gaitán and General Rafael Uribe Uribe, another popular and influential Colombian socialist politician, who was reportedly killed by two craftsmen in Bogotá in 1914 that were suspected, though never definitively proven, of being sponsored by high ranking conservative politicians and religious officials. Carballo doggedly pursues the young Vásquez in an effort to get him to write a book about the unsuccessful independent investigation into Uribe's murder by a young lawyer, Marco Tulio Andoza, and to draw a link between that crime and the assassination of Gaitán. Vásquez and their mutual friend view Carballo as a half cocked conspiracy theorist, whose motives for his tireless pursuit of these apparently solved murder cases are unclear to them. Eventually Vásquez is coerced into taking Carballo's bait, and he learns more about the two assassinations, while he secretly learns more about Carballo's past and his reasons for being so interested in them.

Most of the novel is spent in descriptions of the two victims, their place in the country's 20th century history, the murderers, and those who favored, if not supported and benefitted from, their deeds. A revelation by Carballo at the end of the novel provides a sense of closure, and we learn why he was so devoted to uncovering the truth behind the murder of Gaitán.

The Shape of the Ruins is written in a similar fashion as the recent novel The Impostor by Javier Cercas, in which Cercas serves as the narrator and writes about a controversial figure in post-World War II Spain. Vásquez's scope is more broad, as much of his country's history in the past century can be linked to these two murders, and a more detailed explanation is required to inform the reader about his less well known homeland. This novel dragged in spots, at least for me, and it could arguably have been a bit shorter, but overall it was a superb book that was highly educational and entertaining, and it's my favorite of the four novels I've read by Vásquez so far. The Shape of the Ruins is an excellent choice for this year's Man Booker International Prize longlist, and is highly recommended to anyone interested in the literature and history of South America.

157kidzdoc
May 6, 2019, 1:32 pm

>155 SqueakyChu: I haven't read The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, Madeline, although I've owned it for well over a decade. It's set in Lisbon, so I should try to get to it soon.

158jessibud2
Edited: May 6, 2019, 5:28 pm

>156 kidzdoc: - Hi Darryl. I could have sworn I posted this link for you awhile ago but looking back, I can't find it so maybe I only intended to. Even though his book doesn't look like my cuppa, I actually really love listening to author interviews, including this one and on CBC radio, we have a terrific program called Writers & Company. Host Eleanor Wachtel is a great interviewer and now that you are finished this book, you might enjoy the interview even more:

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/writersandcompany/juan-gabriel-v-squez-on-how-colombia-...

You should also explore the site; she has interviewed a very wide variety of authors from all over the world.

Here is the site's home page: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/writersandcompany

159kidzdoc
May 6, 2019, 3:59 pm

>158 jessibud2: You did post that link, Shelley, but I forgot to listen to that interview, so I thank you for the reminder! I love listening to author interviews, so I'll look at her site more closely.

Hmm...that reminds me...there is, or was, a fabulous interviewer on KCRW in Santa Monica, CA whose podcasts I once subscribed to, but stopped listening to, for some reason. Checking..yes. His name is Michael Silverblatt, and his 30 minute weekly show is called Bookworm (https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/bookworm). It's still on the air; the subject of his latest interview is Atlanta's own Tayari Jones, who talks about her latest novel, An American Marriage.

160kidzdoc
Edited: May 6, 2019, 5:09 pm

Shamelessly stolen from Kay (@RidgewayGirl) from Club Read:

I'm in a near constant state of leichtlesbucheifersucht and stapelschuldgefühl.

161richardderus
May 6, 2019, 5:29 pm

Stapelschuldgefühl is dummkopferie! Acquiring a new book is an act of hope, a commitment to living life, a boost to the economy and a vote of confidence in Kultur.

162Caroline_McElwee
May 6, 2019, 5:35 pm

>161 richardderus: I'm taking on your mantra Richard.

163kidzdoc
Edited: May 6, 2019, 5:41 pm

>161 richardderus:, >162 Caroline_McElwee: True, but that doesn't assuage my guilt when I see the massive stacks of unread books I have at hand. If I could convert my home into a bookshop it would be my all time favorite, or no worse than second after City Lights.

164connie53
May 7, 2019, 1:51 am

>160 kidzdoc: I am suffering of buchendschmerz a lot. And stealing the picture too!

165kidzdoc
May 7, 2019, 7:20 am

>165 kidzdoc: Agreed!

166RidgewayGirl
May 7, 2019, 8:52 am

>163 kidzdoc: Yes, but would you be fine with people leaving with your carefully chosen and yet unread books? If so, I can be in Atlanta in just a few hours...

167kidzdoc
May 7, 2019, 9:00 am

Book #19: The Remainder by Alia Trabucco Zerán, translated from the Spanish by Sophie Hughes

Shortlist, 2019 Man Booker International Prize

My rating:

This darkly comic story about three children of ex-militants who opposed the regime of the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is set in the capital of Santiago, a city in a valley surrounded by volcanoes that is encased in ash, a fitting metaphor for the political and social fallout during the last days of the regime and the years that followed. The novel opens in December 1989 during a party hosted by Consuelo, one of the former militants who has changed her identity and her name to remain hidden in public view, and her husband, as their friends gather to watch the coverage of the election that would remove Pinochet from power and restore Chile to a democracy that ended with the assassination of Salvador Allende in 1973. Iquela is the teenage daughter of Consuelo, and she is tasked with welcoming Paloma, the moody and defiant daughter of Consuelo's exiled militant in arms, who has come from Germany with her parents to witness this momentous event. The girls bond over cigarettes and alcohol, and Iquela is fascinated by Paloma's European style and self confidence.

The story then fast forwards to modern day Santiago—which is still covered in ash. Paloma's mother has just died in Germany, and Paloma arrives in Santiago in advance of her mother's coffin, as she intends to bury her in her homeland. Paloma arrives safely, but the plane carrying her mother is diverted to Argentina, due to a heavy ash cloud that covers the capital and prevents flights from landing. The two women enlist the help of Felipe, Iquela's disturbed adopted brother and the son of ex-militants who were disappeared during the Pinochet regime, in a half baked and surreal road trip to claim Paloma's mother and bring her back to Santiago.

The three main characters are meant to represent the post-Pinochet generation, who were only children when he was deposed in 1990 but continue to be affected by his regime, and the sacrifices that their parents made during that time for them. Consuelo repeatedly tells her daughter, "I did this all for you", and Iquela is trapped by a daily sense of duty to her mother, and is seemingly more of a post-adolescent who has not yet matured into an independent adult 25 years after Pinochet's downfall. The story is told in alternating chapters, in which Iquela and Felipe are narrators, while Paloma is cast as a secondary character despite being the center of this account.

The Remainder is a very enjoyable and impressive début novel, which is another worthy selection for this year's Man Booker International Prize shortlist.

168kidzdoc
May 7, 2019, 9:30 am

>166 RidgewayGirl: Um. Umm...

*cancels trip to London*

169richardderus
May 7, 2019, 9:34 am

>162 Caroline_McElwee: Welcome to it. Pass it on!

>167 kidzdoc: Oh hell.

*trudges off to Ammy*

170kidzdoc
May 7, 2019, 9:58 am

>169 richardderus: Uh oh. Am I now a contributor to your stapelschuldgefühl?

171richardderus
Edited: May 7, 2019, 10:07 am

172kidzdoc
May 7, 2019, 10:14 am

>171 richardderus: Aw! Poor little guy...

173richardderus
May 7, 2019, 10:28 am

It was that or the harpoon one...both express my innermost thoughts.

*glower*

174kidzdoc
Edited: May 7, 2019, 11:16 am

Book #20: Black Deutschland by Darryl Pinckney

My rating: 😴😴 (DNF)

A young African American man from an upper middle class family in Chicago moves to West Berlin in the early 1980s to stay with his fellow bougie cousin, a former classical pianist who has married a German man and lives a life of contented leisure. He is hired by an up and coming German architect, and is brought on more for his race than his talent, as he works to overcome alcohol and drug addiction and to become an established writer. He enjoys the party scene in West Berlin and mingles with bored, and boring, young Germans, Europeans and Americans, and engage in inane discussions about their tired existences.

Ugh. This novel bored me from the beginning, and I gave up after 68 dreadful pages. I may give it another go in the future, but not anytime soon.

175torontoc
May 7, 2019, 10:47 am

Life is too short for bad books- go on to a good one! ( my advice)

176Morphidae
May 7, 2019, 10:51 am

I was a child of the states (born in CA, raised in NY & FL) but my mama and grandma were Southern. Therefore, I was Southern. I grew up on grits, greens, hushpuppies, fried everything (not so much chicken pieces as various dredged meats - chicken cutlets, country fried steak, catfish), pork ribs. And I miss much of it here in Minnesota. I was SHOCKED the first time I went out to breakfast *mumblemumble* decades ago and I didn't get grits with my meal. "Where are my grits?" "What are grits?" All I could do was look at the woman in disbelief. And just forget about knowing how to make decent ribs. Ribs are supposed to be meaty and juicy and dripping with sauce. Not dried up sticks.

>160 kidzdoc: There needs to be a word for the opposite of leichtlesbucheifersucht. And not envy but a mixture of embarrassment and wilfulness felt while enjoying light, fun books while others are reading long, worthwhile ones.

177kidzdoc
May 7, 2019, 11:45 am

>175 torontoc: Absolutely, Cyrel. Black Deutschland may have suffered from being read after I finished two superb Man Booker International Prize shortlisted novels, and my eagerness to finish the MBIP shortlist by May 21st. The reviews of it on LT, Goodreads and Amazon were not encouraging, though; if they had been I may have been willing to stick it out until the end.

>176 Morphidae: My mother was born in Troy, Alabama, and moved to NYC with her mother and two sisters while my grandfather was in the US Army during World War II. As a result, we also ate a variety of Southern foods, including all greens, grits and fried chicken, though not many other fried foods, as my mother was a trained dietician. I'm certainly no fan of Midwestern cuisine (although I'm sure that you can find plenty of great restaurants in Minneapolis and other large and diverse cities, and the food in Chicago and Madison is commendable), and I would shudder at the thought of trying grits or ribs in a small town restaurant.

I imagine that Kay, Bianca or someone else who is German or lived in that country could provide a good definition for the opposite of leichtlesbucheifersucht.

178kidzdoc
Edited: May 7, 2019, 1:07 pm

I just created a thread in the Booker Prize group dedicated to this year's Man Booker International Prize, which changed its format in 2016 from a biennial award given to an author's body of work to a prize given to the best work of fiction that was translated into English and was published in the UK, and replaced the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/306761

I intend to read the entire six book shortlist by May 21st, the date of the award ceremony.

179Morphidae
May 7, 2019, 2:23 pm

>177 kidzdoc: My mom was born in Savannah, GA and her mother's family is from the Carolinas. Hmm, by coincidence, it reminds me that mom's father's family was from Pennsylvania, mostly around Pittsburgh.

180jnwelch
Edited: May 7, 2019, 3:15 pm

Hi, Darryl.

I’m glad you’re taking a break from giving me trouble on Facebook.😄

Good reviews of The Shape of the Ruins and The Remainder. I’m particularly intrigued by the first, as our DIL is Columbian/Mexican, and I think her NF book is going to be about the era of La Violencia. Onto the WL it goes.

>160 kidzdoc:. Like!

181kidzdoc
Edited: May 7, 2019, 3:58 pm

>173 richardderus: I'm glad that I didn't see the harpoon image. That one is almost enough to convince me to stop eating octopus. Almost.

>179 Morphidae: Nice family diversity, Morphy. My mother maternal and paternal relatives are from the Deep South, as far as my mother has been able to trace it, and there is definitely Native American and all but certainly Caucasian blood, as my mother's older sister can pass for white. My father's mother is from Virginia, but his father has the most interesting background of all my relatives. He was born to an Irishwoman in 1901, who fell in love with a fellow crew member on a steamship that sailed from Liverpool (IIRC) to NYC, who hailed from India. They jumped ship after it reached NYC, jumped ship, and moved to NYC, where she gave birth to my grandfather. My father (David) remembers his Irish grandmother, who nicknamed him "Little Nicodemus" when he was a baby, and he has been called Nick or Nicky by relatives and close friends from JC and NYC since then. I don't think I've ever heard my mother, her sisters, his late siblings or my cousins call him by his real given name.

>180 jnwelch: 😂 Right, Joe. It's been at least two hours since I last harassed you on Facebook. I'm getting soft...

I suppose I could put you in touch with Jon Popler, my dear friend and fellow physician, who is a pediatric pulmonologist at Children's and torments me online and off more than I do you. If you both ganged up on me I would quickly raise a white flag in surrender, especially if you got his son to join in:

I'm glad that you liked those book reviews. I'd be curious if Adriana has read anything by Juan Gabriel Vásquez, and, if so, what her opinion of him is. I'm a much bigger fan of him than his late countryman, Gabriel García Márquez. You'll have to let us know when her nonfiction book is published.

182richardderus
May 7, 2019, 5:02 pm

I just realized that I did you an enormous disservice by taking octopus off the yummy table! I am so sorry. Here, let me make it up to you.

Some garlic-roasted broccoli with pistachios and soy-pickled raisins. Delectably vegan for your new lifestyle!

183katiekrug
May 7, 2019, 5:04 pm

>182 richardderus: - Oh, lord. Broccoli on Darryl's thread.

HI DARRYL!

184richardderus
May 7, 2019, 5:13 pm

>183 katiekrug: ...and pipe those raisins! Heh. Bet he'll blow a gasket gettin' to porcelain god!

185kidzdoc
May 7, 2019, 5:21 pm

>182 richardderus: That actually looks much more appealing than that poor octopus struggling for his life. I'll take it, even if I have to premedicate myself with Zofran and Pepto-Bismol.

>183 katiekrug: Katie, dahling! Smooches for letting me know that you stopped by.

>184 richardderus: I did my fair share of hurling on Saturday, after that brief but nasty case of acute gastroenteritis. Maybe I'll stick with chicken broth and crackers in place of octopus and broccoli...

186msf59
May 7, 2019, 6:05 pm

>160 kidzdoc: LOVE IT!

Hey, Darryl. I hope the week is off to a good start with you. I am enjoying both Dear Darkness and Say Nothing, so all good here, despite the chilly and damp weather. Ugh!

187kidzdoc
May 7, 2019, 6:24 pm

>186 msf59: Hi, Mark! The week has been good so far, as I've been off work since Wednesday and there is at least a fair chance that I'll be off tomorrow, unless the inpatient census is so high that an additional hospitalist (namely me) is called in. I'll work Thursday through Sunday (sorry, Mom), be on backup call on Monday and Tuesday, and leave for London next Wednesday.

188msf59
May 7, 2019, 8:47 pm

A London trip coming up? Sweet? You will be in your element.

189kidzdoc
May 7, 2019, 9:37 pm

>188 msf59: Right! As usual there will be plenty of meet ups, large and small.

190PaulCranswick
May 7, 2019, 10:00 pm

>182 richardderus: Funny, I don't like squid but I do like octopus. I am a fan of korean food and they make a spicy octopus usually with noodles that is excellent. A bit like this:

191kidzdoc
May 7, 2019, 10:59 pm

>190 PaulCranswick: Yum!

192Berly
May 7, 2019, 11:51 pm

>187 kidzdoc: Darryl--Hope you DO get tomorrow off and, as per usual, I am glad I ate BEFORE I visited your thread. : ) Sorry the last book wasn't great, but I approve of using the DNF judiciously. You and Joe should really behave on FB, except that wouldn't be as much fun would it?

193kidzdoc
May 8, 2019, 8:41 am

>192 Berly: No such luck; I was called in today, after the night team had a terrible shift. I'm on until at least Sunday, but hopefully I'll be off on Monday and Tuesday.

194richardderus
May 8, 2019, 10:43 am

>190 PaulCranswick: I adore spicy Korean octonoodle surprise. I'm happy to eat squid and octopus and pretty much all seafood as long as I can plan the meal ahead. I need to double up on gout meds for a few days before indulging or the price isn't worth paying.

>193 kidzdoc: Boo hiss for the change, but good on ya for always doing your bit.

195ChelleBearss
May 8, 2019, 11:04 am

Hope your work week goes easy!

196Morphidae
Edited: May 8, 2019, 2:00 pm

>181 kidzdoc: I don’t know how I didn’t end up a bigoted, racist jerk. My mother and her family weren’t vocal about it but certain things just “weren’t done.” And that goes for “white trash,” too. My father and his family were worse. Much worse. Not quite white supremacists but various races were always called by their worst epithets. And jokes always had to do with race, disability, or sex.

Anyway, the reason this all came to mind was that my father’s family was REALLY into genealogy. They even had a book published way back when (privately I’m sure.) What was cool (though didn’t help their holier & whiter than thou) was that they traced my paternal line all the way back to Jamestown in the 1600s.

My maternal line traces back to 1800s England and Ireland. I’ve done the research on those but don’t have the backup. It gets expensive!

>190 PaulCranswick: I will eat nothing with suckers (or tentacles.) Yuck Ptooey.

197Familyhistorian
May 11, 2019, 10:08 am

Looking forward to seeing Naomi Wolfe, Darryl. Hope your trip to London goes smoothly.

198bell7
May 11, 2019, 3:59 pm

Sorry your last read was less than stellar, Darryl, and hope you have a really great book coming up to make up for it.

199kidzdoc
May 15, 2019, 7:59 am

Whew. I finished a tough seven day work stretch yesterday, and promptly crashed after I got home. I'm now off for nearly two weeks, and I leave for London this afternoon. I don't think I'll have any trouble falling asleep on the flight!

I think I'll try to finish the Man Booker International Prize shortlist by Tuesday, when the winning book will be announced, so I'll bring my paperback copies The Years by Annie Ernaux and Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk with me; I have The Pine Islands by Marion Poschmann on my Kindle. I'll also bring Queen of the Sea: A History of Lisbon by Barry Hatton, which has been an informative and very interesting read so far.

>194 richardderus: I wouldn't turn that down, but I would much rather have freshly caught octopus grilled in olive oil.

>195 ChelleBearss: Thanks, Chelle. That didn't happen, but it's now behind me. I'll only work for the last four weeks of the month, and not again until the beginning of July, so I'm happy.

200kidzdoc
May 15, 2019, 8:04 am

>196 Morphidae: I'm glad that you rejected your parents' racist beliefs, Morphy.

>197 Familyhistorian: Same here, Meg! If you haven't left I hope that you have a smooth and safe flight.

>198 bell7: Thanks, Mary. Queen of the Sea is very good so far, and I have high hopes for the other MBIP shortlisted books.

201kidzdoc
May 15, 2019, 11:24 am

A slight change in plans: I feel like death warmed over this morning, so I'll leave for London on Friday.

202vivians
May 15, 2019, 11:32 am

Hope you have a wonderful trip, Darryl! Enjoy the meet-ups, the bookshops and hope you get some rest as well.

203RidgewayGirl
May 15, 2019, 11:41 am

Get well soon, Darryl. The bookstores of London are counting on you!

The Years is an excellent choice for a travel book, but it would also serve well as recuperation book. The short segments and the way it depicts life in France is fascinating. It's the generation before mine being depicted and I'm spending time looking up unfamiliar names and events as I read, but these aren't necessary digressions, just curiosity on my part.

204Morphidae
May 15, 2019, 1:30 pm

Sorry you are feeling logy but I’m positive you’ll be raring to go by Friday. Take good care of yourself!

205richardderus
May 15, 2019, 4:02 pm

Doc...I don't want to alarm you...I posted two 5-star reviews of poetry collections today...now, sit down slowly! Head between your knees...breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth!

206kidzdoc
Edited: May 16, 2019, 1:29 am

>202 vivians: Thanks, Vivian. It was a very costly change, but I'm glad that I have all day tomorrow to run some errands that I would have had to rush to finish today. I foolishly assumed that I wouldn't be called in to work yesterday and Monday, as we hadn't needed a backup doctor for a couple of weeks until I had to come in last Wednesday, so I didn't have the time off to do what I should have done when I was actually off the week before. I only had to cancel one plan, a day out with Bianca on Friday, but we'll meet for dinner on Saturday, and I'll see her during a sizable LT group meet up on Thursday to see the Edvard Munch exhibition at the British Museum and have lunch afterward.

>203 RidgewayGirl: Thanks, Kay! I have at least five books on my "must buy" list, and after I talk with Rachael when she, her husband Rupert, Fliss and I meet for Sunday roast in Cambridge I'll undoubtedly have a few more to add to it.

I'm glad to hear that you liked The Years. I'll definitely bring it with me, although I'm now not certain that I'll finish it by Tuesday.

>204 Morphidae: Thanks, Morphy!

>205 richardderus: OMGOMGOMG.

Richard, Richard are you okay?
*checks for pulse and respiration: nothing*
Someone call 911! I need a defibrillator STAT!
*begins chest compressions and rescue breaths*
*applies defibrillator pads*
Everybody clear!!!
ZAPPP!!!

207richardderus
Edited: May 15, 2019, 5:47 pm

>206 kidzdoc: Hur hur hur, I thought you'd be a bit...surprised.
*scratched scorched chest hairs*
Those things hurt!

208libraryperilous
May 15, 2019, 6:41 pm

>2 kidzdoc: The cover of Queen of the Sea is gorgeous.

>201 kidzdoc: I hope you feel better soon, and enjoy your trip. I'll be in London this fall. It's such a fantastic city.

209FAMeulstee
May 15, 2019, 6:42 pm

>176 Morphidae: >177 kidzdoc: I know a little German (did rather well in Berlin), but can't help creating a good word for the opposite of leichtlesbucheifersucht.

>201 kidzdoc: Enjoy London, Darryl!

210kidzdoc
Edited: May 16, 2019, 10:39 am

Happy Thursday, everyone! I'm feeling much better today after a mostly lazy and pleasantly non-productive day. I have plenty of errands to accomplish before I have to leave early afternoon tomorrow (I'll fly from Atlanta to Boston, then from Boston to Heathrow, as that was the only flight on Delta from the US to London that had an empty exit row bulkhead window seat, the two seats on Delta's Airbus 330 long distance planes with unlimited leg room that allow those passengers to get up at any time without disturbing their seat mates in the middle of the night. It's worth it to me to nab one of those two seats, even if it means taking a connecting flight from JFK, BOS, DTW, CVG or elsewhere instead of one of Delta's three direct flights from ATL to LHR, and I wouldn't have switched flights yesterday if one of those seats wasn't available on a flight leaving today or tomorrow.

>207 richardderus: Whew. I'm glad that the defibrillation was successful and that you're now back into a normal sinus rhythm...at least for the time being. If you post a 5 star review about a bodice ripper or something written by a trump devotee or an evangelical Christian I'm calling the coroner.

>208 libraryperilous: Good to see you, Diana!

The cover of the UK edition Queen of the Sea, which I bought at the main branch of Daunt Books on Marylebone High Street in London, consists of images of paper versions of azulejos, the stunningly beautiful tiles that are seen throughout Portugal, both in Lisboa but especially in Porto, including the waiting room of the Estaçao de São Bento, one of the city's major train stations, which is graced by azulejos on all four sides that depict the history of Portugal, such as the one in this photo that I took last year:

When I visited São Bento last June there were far more tourists taking photos of the azulejos than passengers taking trains there. I look forward to spending more time in Porto on future visits to Portugal, and I'll almost certainly return to Lisboa this autumn.

London is amazing. What's even better for me is having more than a dozen LT friends, and siblings or friends of LTers, who live in England who I see on a regular basis, some of whom I spend more time with outside of work than anyone other than my immediate family. I've created a Microsoft Word file of my favorite restaurants in London, which has exceeded 30 places (in comparison, I'm not sure that I've dined in more than 20 restaurants in Atlanta that I would recommend, even though I've lived here since 1997). I'd be happy to share it with you (or anyone else), if you'd like.

>209 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita! I'll meet LTers on at least seven of the eight days that I'll be in London, so I'll be in good company. I hope that I can meet you & Frank in London (or Lisboa!) in the near future.

P.S. I loved seeing your photos from Berlin on Facebook. A visit there is high on my bucket list.

211kidzdoc
May 16, 2019, 11:44 am

One of my medical school classmates posted this on her Facebook timeline earlier this morning, after the (female) governor of Alabama signed the most restrictive abortion law in the United States, which restricts all abortions, including those of fetuses who were created due to rape or incest, unless the life of the mother is at risk:

Written by some women in Alabama. Read all the way to the end to see how truly awful this is.

Alabama

1. You cannot have an abortion in this state even though it is a U.S. constitutional right;

2. You cannot have an abortion in this state if you have been raped or are the victim of incest;

3. The infant mortality rate in this state is almost twice the national average;

4. This state does not track maternal mortality;

5. The woman/girl and baby are not entitled to prenatal care;

6. There is no right to health care for mother or baby, this is especially the case for mental health services;

7. The adoption rate in this state is (on the high end) 16%;

8. Adopted children are not entitled to any services by virtue of being adopted and adoptive parents in this state are not entitled to any services;

9. SB266 (currently pending) requires a presumption that shared custody is in the best interest of a child, making domestic violence victims, or victims of rape or incest to prove by clear and convincing evidence that it is not;

10. A custodial parent cannot move out of this state with a baby if the non-custodial parent objects;

11. The state budget is in the red and regularly raids the education trust fund for general budget needs;

12. This state will now spend millions of dollars taking this case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Separately, this state has pending legislation to make sexual assault victims pay for the attacker's court costs and lawyers fees if acquitted and go to jail for unproven claims.

Which means that this may well be a state where an 11 year old girl can be raped and forced to carry a baby to term without any real hope of safety or healthcare or any other care from this state and cannot get away from her attacker and take her baby and leave the state and where she can be put in jail and indebted to her rapist while he raises the baby.

This is not a pro-life state by any measure that matters.

It’s not about abortion. It was never about abortion. It is about controlling women, pure and simple. Leave your religion out of my healthcare, please. Politicians do not understand the shades of gray in EVERY medical decision we make.

Kay Ivey, the governor of Alabama, said in a tweet after she signed the bill into law that "this legislation stands as a powerful testament to Alabamians’ deeply held belief that every life is precious & that every life is a sacred gift from God." On the other hand, Ivey refused to grant clemency to Michael Brandon Samra, who was convicted and sentenced to death for killing his friend's father, girlfriend and her two children in 1997 because his friend's father wouldn't let the two of them use his pickup truck. He is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 6 PM today.

I'm not the brightest bulb in the box, so if someone could explain to me how the refusal to overturn Samra's impending execution is consistent with Ivey's statement that "every life is a sacred gift from God" I would appreciate it.

212jessibud2
May 16, 2019, 12:00 pm

>211 kidzdoc: - This is appalling. And maybe it's just me, but it feels like more and more people with the power to do otherwise, are leaning in this direction. Nothing, absolutely nothing, makes sense any more.

213kidzdoc
Edited: May 16, 2019, 12:38 pm

>212 jessibud2: Exactly. After 100+ years of mostly steady societal progress the United States is in a rapid downward spiral back to the 1910s, when women, nigras, and other undesirables knew their places and knew what happened to those who stepped out of bounds. What is especially astonishing is that a woman signed this legislation into law. I have completely lost faith in the future of this sick "democracy", and, as I've said ad nauseum, I'm ready to retire and move abroad.

214richardderus
May 16, 2019, 2:16 pm

>211 kidzdoc: I'm not the brightest bulb in the box, so if someone could explain to me how the refusal to overturn Samra's impending execution is consistent with Ivey's statement that "every life is a sacred gift from God" I would appreciate it.

Leaving aside the snort-inducing false modesty, the reason she refuses to commute the sentence is that his life is forfeit because he took the lives of others. Life is a sacred gift from gawd and your misuse of it entitles gawd's chosen people to kill you because they damned well want to, and in as awful a manner as they can dream up. The Old Testament is chock-a-block with the harrowing, disquieting, and just plain vicious things their gawd got up to herself, so why should they listen to some brown-skinned peasant Jew mouthing hippie platitudes when there's torture to be inflicted, death to be dealt, cruelty to enjoy?

215kidzdoc
Edited: May 17, 2019, 5:56 am

>214 richardderus: Exactly. I won't shed any tears when Mr Samra is executed a little over two hours from now (his accomplice, the son of the man who refused to let the boys borrow the pickup truck, was only 16 at the time of the murders, and that kept him from being sent to Death Row). However, if you truly value the sanctity of life you should preserve and support it above all else: eliminate the death penalty; provide adequate support and housing for women and their children; ensure that poor children receive an adequate education; make college affordable for the students attending colleges and universities in the state; ensure that everyone who works a full time job earns an hourly wage adequate for them to support themelves; treat everyone fairly, regardless of age, gender, race, religion, or socioeconomic background. We can't have that, though, certainly not in the Deep South: that's socialism!

It shouldn't be forgotten that Georgia's new governor recently signed a similarly restrictive abortion bill into law, which will take effect on January 1st, barring action by a higher court. Abortions will be prohibited after six weeks of gestational age, when a fetal heartbeat can be detected on an ultrasound, a time that most women are unaware that they are pregnant, but abortions in the case of proven rape or incest will be permitted up to 20 weeks of gestational age, the current practice in the state.

I just looked at the breakdown of Georgia who successfully cast ballots in last November's gubernatorial election between Brian Kemp and Stacey Abrams: 56% of women voted for Abrams, but only 29% of white women did so, as compared to 92% of nonwhite women. If only 40% of white women had voted for her instead of her gun totin', immigrant hatin', trump lovin' ignorant redneck opponent, Georgia would have made history by having the first African American governor in the post-Reconstruction Deep South. Sigh...maybe one day before I leave this earth white women in the US will collectively vote for the interests of their fellow women and their daughters, rather than their own narrow racial prejudices; I won't hold my breath waiting for that to happen, though.

216Familyhistorian
May 16, 2019, 5:06 pm

>211 kidzdoc: That's scary legislation, Darryl.

Have a pleasant trip on Friday. I just arrived in London today from Dublin.

217kidzdoc
May 16, 2019, 5:47 pm

>211 kidzdoc: Very much so, Meg. If there is any good news, it is that the new laws in Alabama, Georgia and elsewhere will be challenged in the higher courts, and very likely the Supreme Court, and the likelihood that either will be enacted on January 1st is close to zero. However, these laws were written to challenge Roe v Wade, which would seem to be at a greater risk of being overturned in the next year or two than at any time since the ruling was handed down in 1973.

I'm glad that you arrived in London safely, and I look forward to meeting you on Monday!

218jnwelch
May 16, 2019, 6:26 pm

Have fun, Darryl! How great that you're going to get to see Meg!

219richardderus
May 16, 2019, 6:33 pm

>217 kidzdoc: What's terrifying is that, since Kavanaugh was approved for the Supreme Court seat, the chance that these idiot laws will survive the legal process is no longer close to zero.

220jessibud2
May 16, 2019, 6:56 pm

Safe travels tomorrow, Darryl. Say hi to Meg for me!

221kidzdoc
Edited: May 17, 2019, 9:37 am

>218 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe! I'll arrive in London on Saturday morning, and leave the following Sunday afternoon. I'll meet up with LTers on at least seven of the eight full days that I'll be there, starting with an early dinner with Bianca at Niche, a gluten-free restaurant on Roseberry Street in Islington close to The Gate, where, IIRC, you & Debbi dined last year, and Bianca & I subsequently had dinner before we saw the English National Ballet perform at Sadler's Wells. I'll travel to Cambridge on Sunday to have Sunday roast with Rachael, her husband Rupert (a physician, academic researcher, and outstanding cook), and Fliss, and I'll likely see one or two exhibitions at either Tate Modern or Tate Britain on Monday before I meet Meg to attend Naomi Wolf's talk at Logan Hall on the campus of University College London, who will speak about her new book Outrages: Sex, Censorship and the Criminalization of Love. I'll see at least two plays while I'm there, the one based on Deborah Levy's excellent novel Small Island at the National Theatre on Tuesday, and 'The Firm' at the Hampstead Theatre next Saturday afternoon with Fliss. There must always be one large group meet up, and that will happen next Thursday when Bianca, Claire, ~~Fliss,~~ Genny, Heather, Rhian and I will see the Edvard Munch exhibition at the British Museum, and join Julie Mintern (who I haven't met), Luci and Claire's friend Lucy, who you met last year, for lunch afterward. I'll likely see Claire and her sister Karen on Wednesday, and hopefully have dinner with Claire and Caroline on Friday.

In comparison I don't think I've gone out to a restaurant or done anything socially with anyone in Atlanta since a group of LTers met up on Labor Day weekend to attend the Decatur Book Festival, save for a weekday lunch with a former friend from residency in October. Getting anyone here to do anything together is like pulling teeth.

>219 richardderus: Exactly. Alabama's law is probably too extreme, but the one passed by Georgia has a good chance of being acceptable to the current Supreme Court, IMO.

222kidzdoc
May 16, 2019, 7:18 pm

>220 jessibud2: Thanks, Shelley; will do!

223benitastrnad
May 16, 2019, 9:47 pm

Sounds like you are going to have a great time in London. Please post a few pictures here on LT, or at least post, when you have time. Someday I hope to coordinate with you and attend one of these meet ups in London.

I will be traveling to Kansas a week from today. My mother is getting out of Rehab and will be returning home after 8 weeks in hospital and rehabilitation therapy for her broken leg. My sister took care of the home safety inspection yesterday, and the house passed with flying colors. We still have to rebuild the outside deck of the house and plan to do that this fall, but the replacement of the front stoop and porch will aid entrance and exiting for her. Inside we had installed a safety bathtub 5 years ago, along with different commodes so we are good to go in that department. My sister will stay with Mom until I get there and then for a few days around June 1st. Sister Three will be there for two solid weeks after her school ends for the summer. We hope that by that time Mom will be functioning and we will have all the social services in place so that she can stay at home for awhile yet.

I will be attending the ALA conference and meetup in Washington D.C. in June. I doubt we will have as many LTers as you will have in London, but I hope to come close.

224lauralkeet
May 17, 2019, 4:26 am

Have a great trip, Darryl. I haven't forgotten about meeting up when you are next in Philly and will be in touch with you about that next week, once I'm home from vacation.

225Caroline_McElwee
May 17, 2019, 7:39 am

>211 kidzdoc: that is certainly something else Darryl. Shame all the sane women in the state can't relocate to a sane state.

226jnwelch
May 17, 2019, 9:04 am

Sounds like you have a great trip planned, buddy. Please say hi to Bianca, Claire and Rhian for us. I hope we get to meet your other LTers one of these days. Yes, we loved The Gate - we ate there with Caroline, among others.

227kidzdoc
May 17, 2019, 9:55 am

>223 benitastrnad: Will do, Benita. Have a safe and enjoyable trip to Kansas next week, and to the ALA conference in Washington next month.

>224 lauralkeet: Thanks, Laura. I'll probably drive to Philadelphia on Jun 10/11, and return to Atlanta on June 25/26, to beat the holiday traffic. I hope that the remainder of your vacation in France continues to be great.

>225 Caroline_McElwee: Those sane women will likely have to move outside of the Deep South. Georgia, to the east, and Mississippi, to the west, enacted stricter abortion laws, and Louisiana will likely do so next week. I doubt that Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee will be far behind.

>226 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe. I'll be sure to say hi to Bianca, Claire and Rhian; I'm disappointed that you didn't show any love to Heather, though. Have you met Genny? I'm looking forward to finally meeting Julie!

228RidgewayGirl
May 17, 2019, 10:07 am

>211 kidzdoc: I agree completely. That several other states are in the process of enacting similar bills is terrifying. Georgia's includes the provision that it is illegal for a woman to leave the state to obtain an abortion. SC has a bill in process that will reach the state senate early next year. The impact on maternal health as OB-GYNs leave these states cannot be over-emphasized.

Enjoy your well-earned trip to London so much. But don't forget that the Decatur Book Festival is coming up!

229libraryperilous
May 17, 2019, 1:25 pm

Thanks, Darryl, for the information on the azulejos. Just gorgeous! I'm hopeful that my fall trip will include Spain and Portugal. I'll DM you closer to the trip for some London restaurant recommendations. I know very little about the food scene in London, so that will be a nice treat. I hope you have a rad trip. It's super cool that you know so many LTers.

re: Alabama (and Missouri, and Georgia, and and and): These are absolute human and civil rights disasters. I have only empty rage left. Feminists have tried to explain for decades that not making abortion access a bright line would lead to all kinds of bad legislation on a variety of topics. If you give right-wingers an inch on any one issue, they will take miles on all issues. No one listened to us. And liberal to left pundits still are claiming Roe likely "only" will be overturned. As if 1) that's acceptable or 2) that's the most likely outcome. Jesus, dudes, have you seen the Roberts Court's rulings on any topic?

Meanwhile, what passes for the Left in the US doesn't care, and Democrats are running back to the "safe, legal, and rare" talking point. Activists have worked so hard over the last decade to make that talking point a relic, and we're using it again. It's disheartening. And I'll spare everyone my rant on how sooooo many liberal to left men are flunking their ally test right now. (Not you, Darryl!) Some people continue to learn all the wrong lessons from the 2016 disaster and the 2018 midterms. That, too, is disheartening. And no, their preferred dude presidential candidate doesn't get it either—whichever one it is.

230jessibud2
Edited: May 17, 2019, 1:38 pm

Someone on another forum I visit posted this today: https://thenib.com/end-of-the-roe

Very true and so scary. trump has given permission with his whole attitude and personality and demeanor these last few years, to turn back the clock of progress hundreds of years. At this rate, pretty soon, women won't be able to vote.

231Berly
May 17, 2019, 2:38 pm

Hi Darryl--I am so depressed and outraged by the whole Alabama thing and all the other states headed in that direction. Very happy to be living in Porltand. But I know I can't just sit back and watch, because these hateful decisions are growing. My bookclub spent half our meeting talking about all this crap.

Anyhow on the bright side, you are off to England and I wish you lots of fun and friends!! And books!

232richardderus
May 17, 2019, 6:09 pm

Have a lovely time in London. Don't let the freak afternoon hailstorms and forty-celsius nights bother you. Satan agreed to make your trip more...interesting...for me.

233avatiakh
May 18, 2019, 2:35 am

Bon Voyage Darryl. I've spent the past two days at our local writers festival, very happy.

234connie53
May 18, 2019, 3:12 am

>211 kidzdoc: This is truly a criminal thing to me. I'm used to the Dutch way and I really don't understand this.

By now you will have settled in London and enjoying your trip. Have fun and see lots of beautiful places, Darryl.

235kidzdoc
Edited: May 21, 2019, 9:05 pm

Happy Saturday from somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. I'm on a flight from Atlanta to London, after my original itinerary (Atlanta-Boston-London) had to be changed due to the late departure of the ATL-BOS flight; I had a tight connection, and would have missed the BOS-LHR flight. Fortunately I was able to get a bulkhead seat on an ATL-LHR flight on Delta, although my suitcase is on a BOS-LHR flight that should arrive before mine does. The great thing about living in the city with the world's busiest airport is that there are multiple flights to most major cities on Delta, with at least five ATL-LHR direct flights and many more connecting journeys. We're currently approaching the western coast of Ireland, and will land at Heathrow in a little more than an hour.

I'll catch up as much as I can before we land.

>228 RidgewayGirl: Right, Kay. Is Georgia going to send bounty hunters with bloodhounds to follow the tracks of the state's pregnant women, similar to those who tracked down escaped slaves?! Under its new law Alabama is threatening to jail any physicians who perform abortions to jail terms lasting as much as 99 years, which is almost as bad as a death sentence.

Yes, I plan to go to the Decatur Book Festival this year. Thanks for the reminder; I need to ask for that weekend off from work.

236kidzdoc
Edited: May 18, 2019, 5:00 am

>229 libraryperilous: You're welcome, Diana. As you can probably imagine no photo does justice to seeing azulejos in person. I hope that you're able to visit Spain and Portugal later this year; I need to think about when I want to return to Lisbon this autumn.

I'd be happy to send you my list of favorite London restaurants. I suspect that I'll have one more to add after I meet Bianca for an early dinner this afternoon.

I completely agree with you about the moral disasters that Deep South states, particularly Georgia, have turned into. I'm more hopeful that Democrats will eventually regain the governor's mansion, although getting majorities in the state House and Senate seems all but impossible, given that Georgia has 159 counties, most of which contain small towns and rural areas that view metro Atlanta as Sodom. If I were to stay in the United States after I retire I'll definitely move out of the Deep South.

I'm greatly encouraged by the three most prominent badasses that are part of the new wave of outspoken activists: Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and, of course, AOC. The middle of the road, older and compromising group of politicians need to step aside.

The flight is on its initial descent to London, so I'll finish catching up later today or tomorrow.

237ChelleBearss
May 18, 2019, 10:18 am

Have a great trip!

238Familyhistorian
May 18, 2019, 11:13 am

I hope the rest of your trip went smoothly and you are settling in, Darryl.

239libraryperilous
May 18, 2019, 1:33 pm

>236 kidzdoc: Happy landings!

Fingers crossed for a European trip, not just a jaunt to London. I'm keen to go to Girona and have been since I read a couple of Caroline Roe's Isaac of Girona historical mysteries.

I'm hopeful that the better POTUS candidates—the ones who aren't demagoguing and/or pandering to Trump voters—will rise after the debates or by the time primary elections roll around. There are lots of great policy ideas! There were in 2016 as well. HRC's disability platform, in particular, was transformative. Most voters don't vote on policy—not even voters who say they do—but that's no reason to avoid coming up with amazing policy planks. I'm glad to see Warren, Castro, and a couple of others delivering in that department.

240kidzdoc
Edited: May 18, 2019, 5:36 pm

I did arrive safely at LHR this morning. Unfortunately my luggage, which was originally slated to be on the last Virgin Atlantic flight from BOS to LHR, was instead put on the first VA flight that left this morning, which didn't arrive at LHR until just before 8 pm British Summer Time. As a result I had to cancel dinner with Bianca this afternoon. I'm currently in touch with the delivery service that reunites passengers with their "lost" luggage, and if all goes well it will be delivered to me within the next two hours. Bianca & I have made plans to have breakfast on Wednesday, though.

>230 jessibud2: That cartoon is sadly spot on, Shelley. I don't see how Roe v Wade is going to survive this latest challenge, thanks to the shift in the Supreme Court by the addition of two conservative ideologues nominated by trump.

The most disturbing thing to me is that this didn't have to happen. White men will, of course, vote overwhelmingly to preserve white male privilege, so that's a given. People of color overwhelmingly voted for candidates who supported the rights of women and people of color. The majority of white women voted for...white men, and those who supported policies that denied women their rights, along with people of color, immigrants, and religious minorities. I realize that I'm beating a dead horse and am undoubtedly very tiresome in my endless tirades, but I remain completely baffled by what happened in the 2016 presidential election and since then, and I have yet to read anything that helps me understand why this phenomenon keeps happening, and what can be done about it. Maybe the US will have to become the Republic of Gilead before the majority of these wrongheaded women wake up...although it will likely be too late at that point.

>231 Berly: Unfortunately Portland doesn't have a good reputation in the eyes of many people of color, especially African Americans, and, if I'm being honest, I'm not eager to pay it a visit, given what I've read. I need to touch base with a dear friend of mine, a (Caucasian) medical school classmate and fellow pediatrician who lives there. She's very liberal, and since she is also from New Jersey (she also received her bachelor's degree from Rutgers) she'll be able to give me an outsider's view of the city, the people who live there, and the state of Oregon. I have an open invitation to visit and would love to see her, so I may get there one day after all. I do hope that my fears of visiting your fine city are all for naught, but given the current climate of the US I sadly have my doubts about anyplace that is unfamiliar to me.

>232 richardderus: Ahah! I knew that there was a force behind my travel woes yesterday and today. You must also have known that my apartment building in London doesn't have A/C, although that is rarely needed here. If I succumb from heat stroke I promise to haunt you from now to eternity.

241kidzdoc
May 18, 2019, 5:36 pm

>233 avatiakh: Thanks, Kerry! Writers' festivals are great, and a group of us had a blast at last year's Decatur Book Festival, located in a lovely town immediately east of Atlanta.

>234 connie53: There is a lot about the United States that I don't understand, and this country increasingly no longer feels like home or a place that I can recognize or embrace as my own.

>237 ChelleBearss: Thanks, Chelle!

>238 Familyhistorian: Thanks, Meg. I did have a nice long nap after I arrived in my apartment, as I didn't sleep well on the flight; I was in a comfortable bulkhead seat, but I had an aisle seat instead of my usual window one, so whenever anyone nudged me on their way to or from the toilets I woke up. As soon as my luggage arrives, hopefully within the next hour, I'll crash.

>239 libraryperilous: Thanks, Diana!

Ooh, Girona! I spent a half day there in 2016, and absolutely loved it. I took a high speed Renfe train from Barcelona to Figueres, where I spent the morning at the Salvador Dalí museum in his home town, then took a short (15 minute) trip on an SNCF train headed back to Barcelona and got off in Girona. I spent most of my time in the old town, including visits to the city's two major churches, and to the Jewish history museum, set in the last of the three synagogues that were built before the Jews were expelled or forced to convert to Christianity. It was built in 1433, IIRC, and it is a stunning building on its own. I highly recommend going there!

Now that the 2020 election season is upon us I need to find out more about the numerous presidential candidates and their positions. I'll start doing that next month. If you run across any interesting articles or web sites I would love to hear about them, and I'll gladly share anything that I find.

242Caroline_McElwee
May 18, 2019, 5:43 pm

Glad you landed safely Darryl, and hope you have been reunited with your luggage. Get a good night's kip, as your itinerary is, as ever, full.

243kidzdoc
May 18, 2019, 6:03 pm

>242 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Caroline. I'm still waiting...

244richardderus
May 18, 2019, 6:15 pm

>240 kidzdoc: *smirk* Ol' Satan really doin me proud, as my mamaw used to say. C'mon nighttime highs in the 40s! (Celsius)

245kidzdoc
Edited: May 19, 2019, 8:23 am

>244 richardderus: Satan is definitely on your side, sir. I received a phone call at 2 am today, as I was in a deep sleep, from the driver of the lost luggage delivery service, 2-1/2 hours after he was supposed to have been there. In barely understandable English, especially at 2 am, he informed me that he had tried to make a delivery, but no one responded to his calls or text (lying sack of 🤬). He said that he would be there in two minutes. As I was putting on my clothes he called again, and with a tone of annoyance asked where I was. I was royally pissed off at that point, told him very angrily that I would be there in a minute, and that I needed to put clothes on because I had grown tired of waiting for him and went to sleep, and reminded him that it was two effing am. I gave him a solid piece of my mind when I met him, and may possibly have woken up my neighbors as I yelled at him (I may have called him an incompetent moron). Needless to say the sorry assed delivery company, Delta, and the 💩heads at Virgin Atlantic who took my bag off of Friday night's flight and started this nonsense will be hearing from me, and if this is the way that Virgin Atlantic operates they won't get one 🤬 dime from me.

I will also send a letter of complaint to Tim, our fearless leader, and ask that Richard be severely reprimanded for masterminding this fiasco.

Umm...happy Sunday, everyone! At least I have my luggage, and I'll leave here in about an hour to travel to Cambridge, to have Sunday roast with Rachael, Rupert and Fliss. I'll start a new thread later today, if I'm half coherent, or tomorrow morning.

Coffee. Need coffee...😣

246kidzdoc
May 19, 2019, 5:14 am

Apparently this happened on the south bank of the Thames yesterday. Thanks, Richard! 😡

247Caroline_McElwee
Edited: May 19, 2019, 8:52 am

>245 kidzdoc: The only time an airline had to return luggage to me, it returned after midnight, so I feel your pain.

At least Rachael, ~~Richard~~ Rupert and Fliss will be a balm to you Darryl.

248kidzdoc
Edited: May 19, 2019, 8:30 am

>247 Caroline_McElwee: I had this happen at least one before, when I visited my best friends in Madison, Wisconsin and my bag somehow got lost en route from Atlanta. The luggage arrived very late, just before or just after midnight as well.

Rachael, Fliss and Chef Dr Rupert, who is making Sunday roast for us, will be a collective balm; not Richard!!! 🤬

249richardderus
May 19, 2019, 1:16 pm

>248 kidzdoc: I wonder if the overcooked-meat package was included with the clotted creams, burnt sugar, and wasp-infested fruits curse. Can't remember.

250Familyhistorian
May 19, 2019, 2:34 pm

I thought that my luggage went missing on the flight over from Dublin on Aer Lingus but at the last minute after all other luggage from the flight had been picked up and I was wondering what to do it all of a sudden appeared. *phew* I am, however, getting very tired of the clothes packed in my one wee bag as I have had the same selection for the last two weeks so having to shop for new duds might not have been that much of a chore.

I hope you made it in time for Sunday roast, Darryl.

251banjo123
May 19, 2019, 6:50 pm

Happy Travels, Darryl!

Oregon has quite a racist history, and Portland is pretty white over-all, and so I think it can be hard for African-Americans to move here. But I think that you would enjoy coming here for a visit, it is a beautiful state, and Portland has great food and progressive politics. Plus Powell's and your friend, and a bunch of awesome LT'ers.

252kidzdoc
May 20, 2019, 8:26 am

Happy Monday, everyone! I had an absolutely perfect* day in Cambridge with Rachael (@FlossieT), her husband Rupert, their two youngest children, both teenagers, and Fliss (@flissp). Rupert made another first-rate Sunday roast, consisting of English lamb chops prepared with Mediterranean spices, cauliflower roasted in olive oil and sumac, roasted new potatoes, and a cucumber and mint salad. The meal was preceded by cheeses, meats, olives and champagne, followed by cheeses, biscuits, and the pastéis de nata I brought from a Portuguese bakery on Bayswater Road in Notting Hill that I'll pass every day. We went through two or three bottles of wine, and ended the evening with a serving of Rupert's "lethal" whiskey and other digestifs. As always we had a stimulating, unflagging and immensely enjoyable conversation about everything, and we only stopped chatting at 10 pm, eight hours later, because I had to get back to Cambridge station to take a return train to London King's Cross before the Underground stopped running. It's hard to explain how much I love meeting up with the three of them, and the disappointment that I think it's safe to say we all feel when we have to break up the party, as we're only able to meet up like this in Cambridge once or twice a year.

I arrived at my apartment at midnight, completely knackered, went to bed a little after 1 am, after I talked to my parents on the phone, and slept nearly nonstop until noon. That was probably the best night of sleep I've had all year!

*It would have been a completely perfect day except that I missed the direct (express) train from King's Cross to Cambridge (I blame Richard), had to take a later connecting service through Stevenage, and arrived half an hour late as a result.

I'm just finishing lunch (reheated tomato & basil spaghetti from the M&S in Heathrow Terminal 3, which was tastier than I expected, pain au chocolat, also from Marks & Spencer, a glass of port, and coffee). I'll meet Rachael for tea at the London Review Cake Shop, located within the London Review Bookshop, in about two hours, buy books, and meet Meg there for an early dinner before we attend Naomi Wolf's talk this evening. My only plan for tomorrow is seeing the play based on Deborah Levy's book Small Island at the National Theatre, so I'll create a new thread tomorrow morning or early afternoon.

Even though this seven day vacation has just started it already feels too short, thanks to my dear LT and non-LT friends who live in the UK. I may need to come back here in July or August, and I'll definitely do so in September.

253kidzdoc
Edited: May 20, 2019, 9:07 am

>249 richardderus: I think that your aim was off by one or two houses, Richard. Rupert made a perfect Sunday roast, as usual, with no help from Rachael (who is a pretty darned good cook herself). I'm eager to try Fliss's cooking, as it sounds like she can throw down in the kitchen as well, and that will likely happen in September.

>250 Familyhistorian: I'm bringing progressively fewer clothes each time I travel to Europe, and am alternating between two pairs of slacks, two sports coats, and a few mock turtlenecks and dress shirts. I like to dress a bit more formally—and not look like an American tourist—when I'm in London and other major European cities, as you'll see later today. I assume that's also why people, especially in London, frequently come to me to ask for directions, which happened on Saturday afternoon at Earl's Court on my way from Heathrow to Notting Hill. The European couple who came to me were a bit surprised that I wasn't English, but were pleased that an American was able to give them proper directions to their destination, in a connecting Underground station that is one of the more difficult ones to navigate.

>251 banjo123: Thanks, Rhonda!

That's what I've heard from African American friends and read about; Portland is one of the whitest major cities in America, and Oregon has a longstanding history of racism and is a historical home for white supremacists. I would never consider moving there, but a short visit, in the company of people I know, would be a consideration, especially once I found out more about the city, and where I should—and shouldn't—go.

254richardderus
May 20, 2019, 9:52 am

Oh how lovely. A pleasant evening with friends. No overcooked anything, no sudden aneurysms, no venomous vipers erupting from the loo.

Why, anyone would think this *wasn't* a cursed holiday. How lovely.

255benitastrnad
May 20, 2019, 11:04 am

I have also had my travails with lost luggage. In my case it was Berlin, and the cause was an airport workers strike. I went to Dresden and then on Berlin and for two days to Lubek with no luggage except for the spare change of underwear I always pack in my backpack. I also was without a heavy coat - and it was March. However, the weather was nice and I managed. I will say that I did lots of walking just to keep warm one day, but I got along. When I got to my fancy hotel in Berlin - my luggage was there waiting for me. Most important was my coat! I was happy! It was a great trip.

256benitastrnad
May 20, 2019, 11:06 am

>239 libraryperilous:
BB (Book Bullet) on those Isaac of Girona mysteries. Hadn't heard of them. Added them to my wishlist.

257jnwelch
May 20, 2019, 1:46 pm

>277 And say hi to Heather! You had such a darn long list of LTers that I goofed. Nope, haven't met Genny yet. Did it work out for you and Bianca to get together (sorry if I missed it above). What a shame about the travel difficulties and your luggage, but I'm glad it had a happy ending.

258kidzdoc
May 21, 2019, 3:43 am

Happy Tuesday, everyone! I had another nice day yesterday, starting with a visit to the London Review Bookshop, one of my two favorite bookstores in the capital. Rachael works nearby and we met for a short but meaningful conversation over tea on the outdoor patio of the London Review Cake Shop. Naturally, before we met, I bought a few books:

Medieval Bodies: Life, Death and Art in the Middle Ages by Jack Hartnell: This book, published by the nearby Wellcome Collection, was one of the London Review Bookshop's books of the week, and is the only one that wasn't on my list of books to buy during this trip. The author is an art historian at the University of East Anglia, and his book explores the different ways in which people in the Medieval Era experienced, thought about and portrayed their own and other people's bodies:

"In literature and politics, hearts and heads became powerful metaphors that shaped governance and society in ways that are still visible today. This striking and unusual history brings together medicine, art, poetry, music, politics, cultural and social history, and philosophy to reveal what life was really like for the men and women who lived and died during the Middle Ages."

This book looks fascinating, and will definitely be one I'll read this summer.

Lord of All the Dead (El monarca de las sombras) by Javier Cercas: The acclaimed Spanish author turns his gaze onto a long dead relative, his great uncle Manuel Mena, who chose to align with the falangists, the conservative party that supported Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War, at the age of 17, joined Franco's Nationalist Army, and died in battle two years later. This death was deeply traumatic to his family, given that they were living in Catalunya and supported the left wing Spanish Second Republic, along with most Catalunyans, especially Cercas's mother, who deeply admired her uncle as a child, and affected Cercas's own childhood and adult life. I'll definitely read this next month, as Cercas has become my favorite living novelist.

Spring by Ali Smith: I wanted to buy the UK edition of this book, as it matches my copies of Autumn and Winter.

Little Boy by Lawrence Ferlinghetti: This autobiographical novel by the famed Beat Poet and co-founder of City Lights Book Store in San Francisco, my favorite bookshop, was published on March 24th, his 100th birthday.

Outrages: Sex, Censorship and the Criminalization of Love by Naomi Wolf: The latest book by the famed third wave feminist and public intellectual was released yesterday, to coincide with last night's talk.

Meg joined me for a quick dinner of quiche and salad at the Cake Shop before we made a short walk to Logan Hall on the campus of University College London to attend the conversation about Outrages, which featured Naomi Wolf and Erica Wagner, an American writer who lives in London and was the long time literary editor of The Times of London. Her latest book is Chief Engineer: The Man Who Built the Brooklyn Bridge.

I didn't think I would be allowed to take a photograph of Wolf and Wagner during the talk, so I took this one beforehand, and by the time I thought about doing so at the conclusion it was too late to do so.

Outrages is centered on the life of the English poet and critic John Addington Symonds (1840-1893), who Wolf described as the first modern advocate of male love as a normal behavior and choice, who first recognized his homosexuality when he fell in love with a man while he was a student at Oxford. He wrote about homoeroticism in Greek literature, and was inspired by Walt Whitman's great but controversial poetry collection Leaves of Grass. In the book Wolf discusses the Obscene Publications Act of 1857, in which authors could have their works seized and destroyed and could face prosecution if anyone found their works to be morally offensive. The book describes the aftermath of this act and subsequent ones in the UK and the US, and their societies' actions to legalize what is normal and "deviant", which continues to the present. It was a very interesting talk with superb questions by the audience afterward, and I look forward to reading this book over the summer.

Today will be the only full day that I won't meet any LTers, and the only thing on my calendar is this evening's performance of the play based on Small Island at the National Theatre. I'm still quite sleepy, so I'll stay inside until mid afternoon, which will give me time to start a new thread.

259kidzdoc
May 21, 2019, 3:56 am

>254 richardderus: No, sir. None of those things have happened...yet. I haven't seen a drop of rain, either.

>255 benitastrnad: Berlin is high on my list of European cities to visit, hopefully within the next couple of years.

>257 jnwelch: Will do, Joe! Heather will undoubtedly appreciate not being accidentally overlooked.

I wasn't able to meet Bianca for dinner on Saturday, but we will have a chance to catch up over breakfast tomorrow. I'll also meet Claire for the first time on this trip on Wednesday, as we'll have lunch in Marylebone, and I'll see both of them on Thursday during the group meet up at the British Museum.

260Familyhistorian
May 21, 2019, 4:19 am

It was great to finally meet you, Darryl. I enjoyed the Naomi Wolf talk but wished I had showed up in time to explore the London Review Bookshop more fully. Maybe later in my trip when I have more time. Have a relaxing day, I'm off to my course in a few minutes.

261kidzdoc
May 21, 2019, 7:39 am

>260 Familyhistorian: It was great to have met you too, Meg! Thanks for coming to Naomi Wolf's talk with me. I hope that you do return to the London Review Bookshop, especially if you visit the nearby British Museum. Enjoy the remainder of your stay in London!

262kidzdoc
May 21, 2019, 9:06 am

New thread here!

263richardderus
May 21, 2019, 10:52 am

>259 kidzdoc: *grumble* I was gypped! Who knew Satan would renege on our contract. Well, it turns out your soul (the one I promised him, mine's long gone) is safe. Ish.

264kidzdoc
May 21, 2019, 11:56 am

>263 richardderus: If there is one thing that you can count on it's that Satan never honors any contractual agreements. Sorry, bro.

This topic was continued by Kidzdoc Reads Black Male Writers for Our Time in 2019, Chapter 4.

Kidzdoc Reads Black Male Writers for Our Time in 2019, Chapter 3

Talk 75 Books Challenge for 2019

1kidzdocApr 14, 2019, 9:23 am

2kidzdocEdited: May 8, 2019, 5:17 am

3kidzdocEdited: Apr 14, 2019, 9:50 am

4kidzdocEdited: Apr 14, 2019, 9:53 am

5kidzdocEdited: Apr 14, 2019, 10:07 am

6kidzdocEdited: Apr 14, 2019, 10:08 am

7kidzdocEdited: May 7, 2019, 12:11 pm

8kidzdocEdited: Apr 14, 2019, 10:26 am

9kidzdocEdited: Apr 14, 2019, 10:36 am

10kidzdocEdited: Apr 14, 2019, 10:34 am

11kidzdocEdited: Apr 14, 2019, 10:38 am

12kidzdocEdited: Apr 14, 2019, 11:11 am

13Caroline_McElweeApr 14, 2019, 11:18 am

14katiekrugApr 14, 2019, 12:28 pm

15kidzdocApr 14, 2019, 1:16 pm

16kidzdocEdited: Apr 14, 2019, 1:30 pm

17msf59Edited: Apr 14, 2019, 2:05 pm

18richardderusApr 14, 2019, 2:55 pm

19BerlyApr 14, 2019, 3:06 pm

20kidzdocEdited: Apr 14, 2019, 5:35 pm

21jessibud2Apr 14, 2019, 3:48 pm

22richardderusApr 14, 2019, 4:25 pm

23kidzdocApr 14, 2019, 4:26 pm

24kidzdocApr 14, 2019, 4:29 pm

25katiekrugApr 14, 2019, 4:48 pm

26kidzdocApr 14, 2019, 4:55 pm

27SandDuneApr 14, 2019, 5:14 pm

28kidzdocApr 14, 2019, 5:33 pm

29FAMeulsteeApr 14, 2019, 6:45 pm

30tangledthreadApr 14, 2019, 6:50 pm

31FamilyhistorianApr 14, 2019, 8:58 pm

32kidzdocApr 14, 2019, 10:10 pm

33SakerfalconApr 15, 2019, 6:41 am

34kidzdocApr 15, 2019, 8:44 am

35drneutronApr 15, 2019, 9:12 am

36jnwelchApr 15, 2019, 9:26 am

37kidzdocApr 15, 2019, 9:51 am

38richardderusApr 15, 2019, 10:46 am

39figsfromthistleApr 15, 2019, 10:55 am

40magicians_nephewApr 15, 2019, 12:05 pm

41ChelleBearssApr 15, 2019, 12:50 pm

42kidzdocApr 15, 2019, 7:21 pm

43kidzdocApr 15, 2019, 7:28 pm

44ronincatsApr 15, 2019, 7:55 pm

45kidzdocApr 15, 2019, 8:37 pm

46RidgewayGirlEdited: Apr 16, 2019, 11:09 am

47jnwelchEdited: Apr 16, 2019, 11:46 am

48katiekrugApr 16, 2019, 11:59 am

49laytonwoman3rdApr 16, 2019, 1:28 pm

50johnsimpsonApr 16, 2019, 3:28 pm

51kidzdocApr 16, 2019, 5:47 pm

52kidzdocApr 16, 2019, 5:59 pm

53katiekrugEdited: Apr 16, 2019, 6:19 pm

54kidzdocEdited: Apr 16, 2019, 7:06 pm

55katiekrugApr 16, 2019, 7:26 pm

56kidzdocEdited: Apr 16, 2019, 8:08 pm

57katiekrugApr 16, 2019, 8:19 pm

58kidzdocApr 16, 2019, 8:40 pm

59PaulCranswickApr 16, 2019, 8:54 pm

60kidzdocEdited: Apr 16, 2019, 9:33 pm

61PaulCranswickApr 16, 2019, 10:57 pm

62ronincatsApr 16, 2019, 11:57 pm

63kidzdocEdited: Apr 17, 2019, 5:55 am

64kidzdocEdited: Apr 17, 2019, 6:06 am

65msf59Apr 17, 2019, 6:40 am

66kidzdocApr 17, 2019, 6:50 am

67msf59Apr 17, 2019, 6:57 am

68katiekrugApr 17, 2019, 7:03 am

69kidzdocApr 17, 2019, 7:03 am

70kidzdocApr 17, 2019, 7:04 am

71lauralkeetEdited: Apr 17, 2019, 7:44 am

72SandDuneApr 17, 2019, 7:39 am

73jnwelchApr 17, 2019, 9:01 am

74kidzdocApr 17, 2019, 9:35 am

75magicians_nephewEdited: Apr 17, 2019, 3:39 pm

76richardderusApr 17, 2019, 3:17 pm

77kidzdocEdited: Apr 17, 2019, 5:39 pm

78kidzdocEdited: Apr 17, 2019, 6:06 pm

1kidzdoc
Apr 14, 2019, 9:23 am

2kidzdoc
Edited: May 8, 2019, 5:17 am

3kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 14, 2019, 9:50 am

4kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 14, 2019, 9:53 am

5kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 14, 2019, 10:07 am

6kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 14, 2019, 10:08 am

7kidzdoc
Edited: May 7, 2019, 12:11 pm

8kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 14, 2019, 10:26 am

9kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 14, 2019, 10:36 am

10kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 14, 2019, 10:34 am

11kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 14, 2019, 10:38 am

12kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 14, 2019, 11:11 am

13Caroline_McElwee
Apr 14, 2019, 11:18 am

14katiekrug
Apr 14, 2019, 12:28 pm

15kidzdoc
Apr 14, 2019, 1:16 pm

16kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 14, 2019, 1:30 pm

17msf59
Edited: Apr 14, 2019, 2:05 pm

18richardderus
Apr 14, 2019, 2:55 pm

19Berly
Apr 14, 2019, 3:06 pm

20kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 14, 2019, 5:35 pm

21jessibud2
Apr 14, 2019, 3:48 pm

22richardderus
Apr 14, 2019, 4:25 pm

23kidzdoc
Apr 14, 2019, 4:26 pm

24kidzdoc
Apr 14, 2019, 4:29 pm

25katiekrug
Apr 14, 2019, 4:48 pm

26kidzdoc
Apr 14, 2019, 4:55 pm

27SandDune
Apr 14, 2019, 5:14 pm

28kidzdoc
Apr 14, 2019, 5:33 pm

29FAMeulstee
Apr 14, 2019, 6:45 pm

30tangledthread
Apr 14, 2019, 6:50 pm

31Familyhistorian
Apr 14, 2019, 8:58 pm

32kidzdoc
Apr 14, 2019, 10:10 pm

33Sakerfalcon
Apr 15, 2019, 6:41 am

34kidzdoc
Apr 15, 2019, 8:44 am

35drneutron
Apr 15, 2019, 9:12 am

36jnwelch
Apr 15, 2019, 9:26 am

37kidzdoc
Apr 15, 2019, 9:51 am

38richardderus
Apr 15, 2019, 10:46 am

39figsfromthistle
Apr 15, 2019, 10:55 am

40magicians_nephew
Apr 15, 2019, 12:05 pm

41ChelleBearss
Apr 15, 2019, 12:50 pm

42kidzdoc
Apr 15, 2019, 7:21 pm

43kidzdoc
Apr 15, 2019, 7:28 pm

44ronincats
Apr 15, 2019, 7:55 pm

45kidzdoc
Apr 15, 2019, 8:37 pm

46RidgewayGirl
Edited: Apr 16, 2019, 11:09 am

47jnwelch
Edited: Apr 16, 2019, 11:46 am

48katiekrug
Apr 16, 2019, 11:59 am

49laytonwoman3rd
Apr 16, 2019, 1:28 pm

50johnsimpson
Apr 16, 2019, 3:28 pm

51kidzdoc
Apr 16, 2019, 5:47 pm

52kidzdoc
Apr 16, 2019, 5:59 pm

53katiekrug
Edited: Apr 16, 2019, 6:19 pm

54kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 16, 2019, 7:06 pm

55katiekrug
Apr 16, 2019, 7:26 pm

56kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 16, 2019, 8:08 pm

57katiekrug
Apr 16, 2019, 8:19 pm

58kidzdoc
Apr 16, 2019, 8:40 pm

59PaulCranswick
Apr 16, 2019, 8:54 pm

60kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 16, 2019, 9:33 pm

61PaulCranswick
Apr 16, 2019, 10:57 pm

62ronincats
Apr 16, 2019, 11:57 pm

63kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 17, 2019, 5:55 am

64kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 17, 2019, 6:06 am

65msf59
Apr 17, 2019, 6:40 am

66kidzdoc
Apr 17, 2019, 6:50 am

67msf59
Apr 17, 2019, 6:57 am

68katiekrug
Apr 17, 2019, 7:03 am

69kidzdoc
Apr 17, 2019, 7:03 am

70kidzdoc
Apr 17, 2019, 7:04 am

71lauralkeet
Edited: Apr 17, 2019, 7:44 am

72SandDune
Apr 17, 2019, 7:39 am

73jnwelch
Apr 17, 2019, 9:01 am

74kidzdoc
Apr 17, 2019, 9:35 am

75magicians_nephew
Edited: Apr 17, 2019, 3:39 pm

76richardderus
Apr 17, 2019, 3:17 pm

77kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 17, 2019, 5:39 pm

78kidzdoc
Edited: Apr 17, 2019, 6:06 pm

79justchris
Apr 17, 2019, 11:58 pm

80kidzdoc
Apr 18, 2019, 8:45 am