Kidzdoc's Year of Uncertainty and Opportunity, Part 3

Continuing with my theme of highlighting Black artists from Philadelphia, the following painting, titled Tribe comes from the visual artist Mikel Elam, who is "is a visual artist working primarily as a painter. His work focuses on storytelling through memory and dreams using the fragments of face and figure to convey information and ideas about world culture.

"Elam attended the University of the Arts, in Philadelphia where he received a bachelor’s degree in Studio Arts/Painting. He went on to study at the School of the Visual Arts in New York City. Elam’s work has been featured in international publications and media. With a broad creative resume beyond painting, he did freelance work in film, as well as working in the art department on several feature films, theater projects, and television commercials. Mikel also worked as an assistant to several photographers both in Philadelphia and New York. Of particular biographical note, Elam worked for five years as a traveling assistant to jazz musician Miles Davis. He also assisted Mr. Davis in achieving his visual arts aspirations as a painter."



Currently reading:

    

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
Black and British: A Forgotten History by David Olusoga

Completed Books:

January:
1. The Problem of Alzheimer's: How Science, Culture and Politics Turned a Rare Disease into a Crisis and What We Can Do About It by Dr Jason Karlawish
2. Pauli Murray's Revolutionary Life by Simki Kuznick
3. Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah
4. Autumn Rounds by Jacques Poulin

February:
5. Milongas by Edgardo Cozarinsky (DNF)
6. Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement by John Lewis
7. Passing by Nella Larsen
8. The Search Warrant by Patrick Modiano
9. The Trees by Percival Everett
10. Mom's Gone Missing: When a Parent's Changing Life Upends Yours by Susan Marshall
11. Absolute Solitude: Selected Poems by Dulce María Loynaz

March:
12. The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You by Maurice Carlos Ruffin
13. Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung
14. The Actual by Inua Ellams
15. Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision by Barbara Ransby

April:
16. Travelers by Helon Habila
17. Assembly by Natasha Brown
18. Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro
19. Heaven by Mieko Kawakami
20. A Guardian Angel Recalls by Willem Frederik Hermans

May:
21. The Field Guide to Dumb Birds of North America by Matt Kracht
22. The Caiman by Maria Eugenia Manrique

June:
23. Aftermath by Preti Taneja
24. Brotherhood by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr

July:
25. The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
26. Squirrel Hill: The Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting and the Soul of a Neighborhood by Mark Oppenheimer
27. What Goes Unsaid: A Memoir of Fathers Who Never Were by Emiliano Monge
28. My Broken Language: A Memoir by Quiara Alegría Hudes
29. Nothing Personal by James Baldwin
30. Bless the Daughter Raised By a Voice in Her Head by Warsan Shire
31. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
32. Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout (DNF)
33. Listen: How to Find the Words for Tender Conversations by Dr Kathryn Mannix
34. milk and honey by Rupi Kaur

August:
35. Don't Call Us Dead by Danez Smith
36. Alzheimer's Canyon: One Couple's Reflections on Living with Dementia by Jane Dwinell & Sky Yardley
37. Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley
38. On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed
39. The Fell by Sarah Moss
40. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
41. The South: Jim Crow and its Afterlives by Adolph L. Reed, Jr.
42. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

September:
43. Canción by Eduardo Halfon
44. Wade in the Water: Poems by Tracy K. Smith
45. The Colony by Audrey Magee
46. Treacle Walker by Alan Garner
47. Picasso's War: How Modern Art Came to America by Hugh Eakin
48. Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo (DNF)
49. Paradais by Fernanda Melchor
50. Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988-2000 by Lucille Clifton

The African Diaspora: Fiction and Poetry (2022 goal: 25 books)

The Actual by Inua Ellams
Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah
Assembly by Natasha Brown
Bless the Daughter Raised By a Voice in Her Head by Warsan Shire
Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988-2000 by Lucille Clifton
Brotherhood by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr
Don't Call Us Dead by Danez Smith
Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley
The Ones Who Say They Don’t Love You by Maurice Carlos Ruffin
Passing by Nella Larsen
Song of Solomon by Salman Rushdie
Travelers by Helon Habila
The Trees by Percival Everett
Wade in the Water: Poems by Tracy K. Smith

The African Diaspora: Nonfiction (2022 goal: 12 books)

Ella Baker & the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision by Barbara Ransby
Nothing Personal: An Essay by James Baldwin
On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed
Pauli Murray's Revolutionary Life by Simki Kuznick
The South: Jim Crow and its Afterlives by Adolph L. Reed, Jr.
Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement by John Lewis

2022 Booker Prize Longlist



Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo ✅️
Trust by Hernan Diaz
The Trees by Percival Everett ✅️
Booth by Karen Joy Fowler
Treacle Walker by Alan Garner ✅️
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan ✅️
Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet
The Colony by Audrey Magee ✅️
Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer
Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley ✅️
After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz
Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout ✅️

2022 International Booker Prize Longlist



Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung, translated from Korean by Anton Hur ✅️
After The Sun by Jonas Eika, translated from Danish by Sherilyn Nicolette Hellberg
A New Name: Septology VI-VII by Jon Fosse, translated from Swedish by Damion Searls
More Than I Love My Life by David Grossman, translated from Hebrew by Jessica Cohen
The Book of Mother by Violaine Huisman, translated from French by Leslie Camhi
Heaven by Mieko Kawakami, translated from Japanese by Samuel Bett and David Boyd ✅️
Páradais by Fernanda Melchor, translated from Spanish by Sophie Hughes ✅️
Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park, translated from Korean by Anton Hur
Happy Stories, Mostly by Norman Erikson Pasaribu, translated from Indonesian by Tiffany Tsao
Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro, translated from Spanish by Frances Riddle ✅️
Phenotypes by Paulo Scott, translated from Portuguese by Daniel Hahn
Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree, translated from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell
The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk, translated from Polish by Jennifer Croft

Dignidad Literaria: Literature and Nonfiction by Authentic Latinx Writers

Absolute Solitude: Selected Poems by Dulce María Loynaz
The Caiman by Maria Eugenia Manrique
Canción by Eduardo Halfon
Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro
Milongas by Edgardo Cozarinsky
My Broken Language: A Memoir by Quiara Alegría Hudes
Paradais by Fernanda Melchor
What Goes Unsaid: A Memoir of Fathers Who Never Were by Emiliano Monge

Faulkner, Faulkner! Part 1: I own all five editions of the Library of America collections of William Faulkner's novels, and I intend to read one of them each year, starting with William Faulkner: Novels: 1926-1929.

Soldiers’ Pay
Mosquitoes
Flags in the Dust
The Sound and the Fury

Medicine, Illness, Public Health and Science

Alzheimer's Canyon: One Couple's Reflections on Living with Dementia by Jane Dwinell & Sky Yardley
Listen: How to Find the Words for Tender Conversations by Dr Kathryn Mannix
Mom's Gone Missing: When a Parent's Changing Life Upends Yours by Susan Marshall
The Problem of Alzheimer’s: How Science, Culture and Politics Turned a Rare Disease into a Crisis and What We Can Do About It by Dr Jason Karlawish

Reading Globally Quarterly Theme Reads

Q1: Around the Indian Ocean
Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah

Q2: Outcasts and Castaways
Travelers by Helon Habila

Q3: When Alphabets Collide: Books Written in the Slavic Languages

Q4: Prize Winners in Their Own Language

Book #27: What Goes Unsaid: A Memoir of Fathers Who Never Were by Emiliano Monge, translated from the Spanish by Frank Wynne

  

My rating:

Emiliano Monge (1978-) is an award-winning writer of novels, short stories and children’s books who is one of the most highly regarded Mexican and Latin American writers of our time. His latest book to be published in English translation focuses on the lives of his paternal grandfather, Carlos Monge McKey, his father, Carlos Monge Sánchez, all of whom share one major trait: each found a way to escape from his family to pursue his own needs and desires, and in doing so neglected their responsibilities as husbands, fathers, and sons.

The book opens with a quote from the front-page headline of a newspaper published in Culiacán, the capital of the Mexican state of Sinaloa, in 1962: “MONGE, DEPRAVED RASPUTIN!” The Monge in question is the author’s paternal grandfather, who disappeared four years earlier after staging his own death, leaving behind and severely disrupting the lives of his wife and four children, until he suddenly reappears four years without a hint of penitence, as if he had left to go to a corner store a few minutes earlier. Monge describes his grandfather’s scheme, then places it in context for what is to come:

But the scene that I have just sketched is not what matters. It is simply a list of events, And events are not the story. Even facts are not the whole story. The story is an invisible current in the depths that moves all things. The true story is why my grandfather sensed—instinctively, as an animal might—that he had to leave. Just as, many years later, my father would do the same. And how, in turn, my moment came.

The author returns to his home town to interview his father, a bitter man who is wracked with illness and frailty and seems much older than his apparent age would suggest. The fictionalized conversation between the two men consists only of the father’s dialogue, and the reader is left to fill in the son’s comments. The history of the Monge family is slowly revealed, akin to separating the layers of an onion, as the son extracts details about the life of his relatives, from his reluctant father. Other chapters consist of diaries kept by the maternal grandfather, and the author’s own story of his life, and those of his parents and brothers, told in the context of México over the past 75 years.

What Goes Unsaid was an interesting view into the lives of a remarkable but not unusual Mexican family, and the often difficult and fractured relationships that men of all backgrounds have with their families, and with each other.

Is it safe to say "Hello"?

>10 kidzdoc: It is, Linda; hello!

I have to take my mother to the dentist in a few minutes and run some errands, but I'll finish setting up this thread this afternoon.

Just peaking in.

Happy new thread, Darryl!

>12 kidzdoc: I hope all went well with your mother at the dentist.

>10 kidzdoc: One wonders about the women -- the wives, mothers and daughters.

Happy new thread.

>1 kidzdoc: What a interesting painting. It certainly holds your attention.

>13 dchaikin: Hi, Dan.

>14 FAMeulstee: The trip to the dentist today was quite a shock. It was supposed to be a routine cleaning, but afterward the dentist noted extensive decay, caused by my mother's frequent use of toothpicks during meals. He showed me the X-rays, and I agreed to go ahead and allow him to do two root canals and replace hardware in another tooth, at a cost to me of just over $7500. I'm still in shock at how much this cost, and I will be doing research to find out if this dentist gouged me or not. Needless to say I'm not in a particularly good mood today.

>15 janeajones: The women in the Monge family were not the focus of this book, which is one reason I didn't rank it higher.

>16 figsfromthistle: Agreed, Anita.

I think 2 root canals with caps would be around $5000.

>18 dianeham: I have absolutely no idea what dental work costs. It seems that they can charge whatever they want to, as long as they find willing fools with enough money (*raises hand*) to pay their exorbitant fees.

>17 kidzdoc: >19 kidzdoc: Yikes.

>17 kidzdoc: I just had a root canal on a back molar and it was 1500. I have heard that the price depends on where the tooth is located (back teeth are the highest) and where you live. What kills me is that most dental ins. pay just 20% if that much, and have a yearly limit of $1000. I cant really complain because medicare has paid a heck of a lot for me esp the knee surgery . still Im paying monthly for the ins and get squat.

why would toothpicks be a problem?

My husband has always had good teeth, and imagine our surprise when we moved to Florida and at his first checkup the dentist said 8 (or 9, I forget which) of his teeth were totally decayed out. We think this was caused by his transplant or one of the treatments related to the transplant. His teeth were perfectly fine at a prior dental exam a year or so previously. So, $17,000 or so later, he has a mouthful of crowned teeth.

>17 kidzdoc: Ouch, that is a lot of money, Darryl.
Over here dentists are also rather costly.

Happy new thread, Darryl! I read and liked Olive Kitteridge and its sequel, but couldn't finish The Burgess Boys. I've been thinking of trying the Lucy Barton books, but perhaps I will skip them (or put them very far down the list) in favor of other books I'm more interested in.

I read Song of Solomon earlier this year and really liked it. I'll look forward to your thoughts.

Happy new thread, Darryl. Did you get a chance to view the film *Alive Inside*? I'd be interested in your impressions about it.

Yesterday I finished an excellent and very touching book that I received from the July LT Early Reviewers batch, Alzheimer's Canyon: One Couple's Reflections on Living with Dementia by Jane Dwinell and Sky Yardley, which was unique in that Sky, who was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease in 2016 and died five years later, was a major contributor to this work, as he chronicled his illness alongside his wife, and provided valuable insight into this horrible condition from the standpoint of a sufferer, rather than just a caregiver or clinician, as is the case for all of the other books I've read about Alzheimer's disease to date. I gave it 5 stars, and I'll write a review of it today or tomorrow.

Earlier this morning I started Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley, which was chosen for this year's Booker Prize longlist. The 20 year old Mottley is the youngest author ever to receive that honor.

>20 qebo: Yikes, indeed.

>21 cindydavid4: My mother's insurance paid $229 of the total bill of $7783, so that was far less than 20%.

Toothpicks, especially when forcefully used as my mother far too often did, can cause severe damage to tooth enamel and gums.

A dental expert weighs in on why you should never use a toothpick to clean your teeth

>22 arubabookwoman: Ouch!

>23 FAMeulstee: A lot of money indeed, Anita. As I mentioned on my Facebook thread, I clearly chose the wrong profession.

>24 bell7: Thanks, Mary! I hope to catch up with your thread, and those of other friends I still follow in the 75 Books group, later today.

I'll start Song of Solomon after I finish Nightcrawling, probably sometime this weekend.

I'll attend my first LT meet up in nearly three years tomorrow. Zoë is in Philadelphia for a conference this week, along with her husband Mark, and now that my cousin from Michigan is here and can stay with my mother I'll meet them to go to a bookshop and have dinner tomorrow night.

>25 jessibud2: Thanks, Shelley. I have not watched Alive Inside yet, but I'll try to do so next week.

Have fun at your LT meetup. I'm so jealous!

Darryl, I'm really glad you're getting a chance to go out and see friends. I hope you have a fantastic time.

That's a great painting. I bet it's really striking in person.

>17 kidzdoc: Those are close to NYC prices. Just ridiculous. Did your mother already have the procedure? And if so, how was it for her? Dental work was one of the biggest struggles as my mother got older—it's a good decision to get work done now, I think, while she still knows what's happening. And yeah, crowns are considered cosmetic, I think, and therefore not covered—any excuse for the insurance companies to get out of paying.

Have a good time with your meetup!

>26 kidzdoc: Sorry Jose and I can't make it up to your meetup this weekend, but enjoy your time together. It was so fun to see Zoe and Mark here at my home recently. We did a "Come in the house, and I'll open the window and turn on the whole house fan so that we can have a COVID-free LT meetup"...and it worked! Have fun!

My mother's insurance paid $229 of the total bill of $7783, so that was far less than 20%.

That is one of the reasons I opted out of buying dental insurance after I lost my job. It seems that all the dental plans that were not affiliated with employment that I checked had high premiums and low coverage or forced you go the "participating provider". We nevertheless have shelled out tens of thousands of dollars to dentists over the past few years...just for my husband and myself.

>27 labfs39: Thanks, Lisa. This will be only the second time I'll dine in a restaurant in nearly three years, although we'll be dining outside of Gabriella's Vietnam in South Philadelphia. As is customary for LT meet ups we'll go to a bookshop, Head House Books in Olde City, before dinner.

>28 RidgewayGirl: Thanks, Kay. I definitely miss not seeing friends, other than those who live here in Bucks County, so I'm eagerly looking forward to today's meet up.

>29 lisapeet: Right, Lisa. I'll have to find out if and where that painting is on display, along with other works by Mikel Elam.

My mother had the dental surgery earlier this week, and she did well during and afterward, with no pain or bleeding.

>30 SqueakyChu: Thanks, Madeline!

Bringing from 199 on your previous thread Darryl, you asked for my ranking of Toni Morrison novels.

As it was so long ago since I read Toni Morrison's early work I wouldn't want to rank them as I don't remember them well.

Of the middle and later works:

Beloved and Song of Solomon got 5 stars
A Mercy and Home got 4 stars
Love and God Help the Child got 3.5 stars

I've read Beloved about 4 times, and Love twice, the second time for my RL reading group years ago.

I've also dipped into some of her essays.

Many years ago I attended an 'In Conversation' where Toni was talking to A S Byatt (at the festival Hall) which was wonderful. I had a sense they were friends.

For another opinion you could ask Laura (laurelkeet) as last year (I think) she read all the novels in the order they were published, and did an online course about her work.

Have fun at your LT meetup, Darryl. Regarding Morrison's work, my favorites are Song of Solomon, Beloved, and Paradise. I've read all of her works at least once and most of them twice or more.

Ah, the dentist. My crowns were each around 1700 dollars.

Just popping in to say hi and see what you're reading, Darryl. Good stuff! (as always). XX

>32 Caroline_McElwee: where Toni was talking to A S Byatt (at the festival Hall) which was wonderful.

Oh I am so jealous; love Byatt would have loved to hear her speak (and with Toni)

>17 kidzdoc: Hi Darryl - Dentists charge a lot here in NZ, so much so that many take a holiday in Vietnam or Thailand just to get their teeth fixed.

Your LT meet-up looked great, Darryl! I'm so glad you got to go and enjoy great food and books with friends. Gabriella's looked great; I don't remember it from when I lived in Philly but we never went to Passyunk Avenue that often. Philadelphia certainly has a lot of great Vietnamese food though, so we enjoyed it often. I'm glad you had a good time!

>32 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Caroline! I'm glad to see that Song of Solomon earned 5 stars from you, especially since I'll get to it this week.

That conversation between Toni Morrison and A.S. Byatt sounds fantastic. I checked online, and I found a YouTube video from 1986 that featured the two authors:

Toni Morrison Guardian Talk 1986

You'll have to tell us if this is the same conversation that you attended. It's about 40 minutes in length, so I'll plan to watch it this week.

Good idea to check with Laura! I'll do that.

>33 BLBera: Thanks, Beth. Zoë (@_Zoe_), her husband Mark, who I hadn't met before, Katherine (@qebo) and I had a great time on Saturday; I'll post a description of our day out shortly. I used to see both of them frequently, but Zoë said that it's been five years since we last saw each other, and it's probably been longer than that since I've seen Katherine.

Thanks for your Morrison recommendations! I read and loved Beloved and I'll read Song of Solomon this week, and Sula, which I have on my Kindle, at some point. I don't own Paradise, but I doubt that I'll have any problem finding it in one of the library systems I belong to.

>34 avaland: Hi Lois! I just mentioned on my Facebook timeline that I've read 37 books so far this year, 13 in the past 5½ weeks, and there is a very good chance that this will be the first year that I'll read more books written by women than men; 20 of the books I've read so far were by female authors, with Alzheimer's Canyon written by a couple, though mostly by the wife, as her husband suffered from Alzheimer's disease. Three of the books I plan to read this week were written by women, On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed and The Fell by Sarah Moss, in addition to Song of Solomon. You deserve a lot of credit for that, along with my other LT friends!

>35 cindydavid4: I think we'll all now have the chance to listen to that talk, if I found the right video!

>36 avatiakh: I had heard that also, Kerry. I was telling friends here that I had half a mind to take my mother to Portugal to get the remainder of her dental work performed there.

>37 Sakerfalcon: Thanks, Claire! It was great to see Zoë and Katherine again, especially since they are two of the American LTers that I spent the most time with before the pandemic, especially when Zoë was in graduate school at NYU.

I hadn't heard of Head House Books before. Given your comment on my Facebook timeline it's apparently been in existence for some time. I'll definitely go back there, as it only takes 40-45 minutes to get there by car.

I subscribe to Philadelphia magazine, and the most recent issue is annual the "Best Of Philly" issue. Gabriella's Vietnam, which specializes in Vietnamese street food, was listed in the magazine as the "Best Place to Show Off Philly's Restaurant Scene", and the description made it sound especially appealing:

If you want to brag about what makes our city’s dining scene so juicy in a single restaurant experience, take an out-of-town pal to this family-run Vietnamese spot. What with drinking BYO chilled wine on the summer sidewalk, a calm but cool South Philly neighborhood scene, and some of the greatest vermicelli platters and sizzling catfish you’ll eat during your years on Planet Earth, Gabriella’s Vietnam makes us feel luckier to live in Philly every time we visit.

We were not disappointed.

>38 kidzdoc: it's probably been longer than that
Hmm... Checking the meetup group... We both attended Philadelphia meetups in May 2013, August 2014, August 2015. (WHY are so many of these in August? August in Philadelphia is HORRIBLE.) The last NYC meetup we both attended was in September 2013. All of these feel more recent, but you are correct.

>38 kidzdoc: Head House Books
It was quite a busy place!

>38 kidzdoc: I will enjoy viewing that conversation Darryl, I was sure they were friends and had done a conversation before. I think it must have been 2008-10. I definitely went with some of my current RL book group, which I've been a member of for 14 or so years.

>38 kidzdoc: darryl, thank you for that link! Plan to spend some time llistening

RIP David McCullough and Olivia Newton-John.

>39 qebo: 2015 seems right, Katherine, especially since Zoë said that the last time she and I met was in 2017. The 2013 NYC meet up, IIRC, was in Jacob's Pickles in Manhattan, and for me it was notable for my accidental purchase of several large jars of pickles; I thought I had ordered six or so pickles, not six jars of them! I was too embarrassed (or stupid) to admit my mistake, so I lugged them on a subway to Penn Station, and then on a NJ Transit train to Trenton, NJ. That also seems to have been the last time that I saw Jane (@janemarieprice), another person I miss dearly, in person.

Ha! We really need to rethink these August meet ups.

I'll plan to post photos and descriptions from Saturday's meet up later this evening, or, more likely, tomorrow.

Head House Books was busy, but considerably less so than Strand Book Store, or Book Culture on W 112th St on New Year's Day, when everything in the store is (or was) 20% off.

>40 Caroline_McElwee: Ah! So that wasn't the talk you attended. I did another Google search, but I didn't find any mention of a subsequent talk between 2008 and 2010.

>41 cindydavid4: You're welcome, Cindy!

>42 kidzdoc: I didn’t know about David McCullough. I’m sad to learn that. RIP both.

>43 dchaikin: I'm ashamed to say that I have yet to read anything by David McCullough, another in the long line of great Pittsburghers. I do own a copy of 1776, so I'll get to it later this year.

I really enjoyed reading 1776

>45 torontoc: I'm glad that you enjoyed 1776, Cyrel. My copy of it is here, so I'll plan to read it before the end of the year.

>44 kidzdoc: just something else to look forward too, an author to discover. 🙂 (I was interested to learn on NPR that was originally interesting in play writing, but found himself enjoying the research. It goes a small way to explain his appeal as a writer of history.)

>47 dchaikin: That is interesting, Dan!

Glad to hear that you had such a great meetup with Zoe, Mark, and Katherine. Your get together prompted me to look up what it would be for me to take a train or bus to Philly, and it would be very reasonable so I may keep that in the back of my mind for a future trip.

>49 bell7: Sounds great, Mary! I would love to meet you in person, and show you and others my home city. I live a little more than 20 miles north of Center City, and it's an easy trip down I-295/I-95 from Langhorne, where the Sesame Place amusement park has located. (Unfortunately Sesame Place has received some unpleasant, and, IMO, largely unwarranted attention lately.)

Alternatively, it's also very easy for me to travel to NYC, as the Trenton Transit Center is a 15 minute drive from home, and I can take NJ Transit trains from there to Penn Station NY, a trip that takes roughly 75-90 minutes. There are several LTers I've met previously, namely Liz (@Eliz_M), Katie (@katiekrug) and Vivian (@vivians, one of a few members I've met in more than one country, in our case NYC and Lisbon), and others that I have not yet met but want to, particularly Lisa (@lisapeet). (I'm sure that my early morning brain is leaving out one or more people, and I ask your apology for that.) As you know, Zoë no longer lives in the city, but she and I would definitely like to get together more often in the future.

I'll definitely keep you in mind when we plan future meet ups. I'm inclined to avoid public transportation until I get a dose of the new formulation of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, which I understand will be available in October, as I know of five or six vaccinated people who have contracted COVID-19 within the past month, including my mother's hairdresser last week. Fortunately none of them required hospitalization, and all are doing well.

As mentioned previously, there was a meet up in Philadelphia on Saturday, as Katherine (@qebo), Zoë (@_Zoe_) her husband Mark and I met in Center City. Zoë was in town last week for a professional conference, and the timing worked out perfectly, as my cousin Tina from Michigan is currently visiting us, and stayed with my mother that afternoon and evening.

Our day started out with a visit to Head House Books, an independent bookstore on S 2nd St in Society Hill that I had not been to before.



The layout of the bookshop was inviting, the selection was superb, and the staff member working the cashier was very warm and friendly. I had no trouble finding six books to buy in very short order, three of which came from my wish list:



The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid: The latest novel by the author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Exit West, which is centered upon a man who awakens one morning, à la Gregor Samsa in The Metamorphosis, and finds himself transformed into a dark skinned person (quelle horreur!). In this case, though, reports of this transformation occur throughout the land, and the newly melanized individuals must adjust to this new reality, which some handle better than others. This jumped to the top of my wish list as soon as I heard about it.

Optic Nerve by María Gainza: August is Women in Translation Month, and I wanted to purchase, and read, at least one book by a female author who I wasn't familiar with. Optic Nerve fit the bill perfectly; it's narrated by an Argentinian woman who is obsessed with art, and the book features several notable artists (El Greco, Michangelo, Mark Rothko, and others) who come to life and interact with each other. Optic Nerve was chosen as one of the 100 Notable Books by The New York Times in 2019, and I'll read it in the next week or two.

The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis: In this short work, the famed lay theologian addresses the question "If God is good and all powerful, why does He allow his creatures to suffer pain?" This is a topic of great interest to me, especially from working as a pediatric hospitalist and seeing thousands of kids suffer, and a few dozen die.

Talking with Sartre: Conversations and Debates by John Gerassi: The author was a Parisian professor and public intellectual, who wrote several books about Jean-Paul Sartre and befriended the great philosopher in his later years. This book consists of conversations between the two men between 1970 and 1974. I minored in Philosophy at Rutgers and was especially interested in Existential Philosophy, and since I want to learn more about Sartre, who was largely over my head as a part time undergraduate student and full time technician in a research lab, this book will hopefully give me better insight into his thinking.

Booth by Karen Joy Fowler: This novel was chosen for this year's Booker Prize longlist, and is a work of historical fiction centered on the family of John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. I was not a fan of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, but this novel sounds particularly interesting, and I'll also read it in the next week or two.

Picasso's War: How Modern Art Came to America by Hugh Eakin: Another book that jumped to the top of my wish list as soon as I read about it, which describes how two men interested in promoting the work of Pablo Picasso in the United States did so by moving his work, particularly Guernica, out of Nazi controlled Europe and put on an exhibition of his work in the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1939-1940, Picasso: Forty Years of His Art, that catapulted Picasso, modern art, and MoMA into the public conscience. Picasso is my favorite painter and sculptor and I'm current a member of MoMA, so this book is both right up my alley, and one that I'll start reading now.

Your 6 selections all sound good and I have taken note, to see if my library has any of them. Thanks!

I look forward to having some big meetups again one day! Lately I've been too tired to plan ahead much, so I just contact the one or two people who live closest to the city I'm visiting.

But for some reason there's a strange lack of interest in visits to Syracuse! Mary, I think I actually live closer to you now than to everyone else I've managed to see this year, but I haven't had a chance to go to MA even though it's relatively convenient. Next year I really need to make a trip to see my relatives in Worcester.

>50 kidzdoc: And back atcha, Darryl—hoping the star/vaccines/events align so we can get together in NYC one of these days. And if I find myself down in Philly, I'll let you know—the big library associations hold conferences there periodically.

>51 kidzdoc: Good haul! I really enjoyed Optic Nerve—a good exploration of art criticism, metafiction, and the sometimes porous line between nonfiction and embroidery. I haven't read any of the others but they all look good.

After we left Head House Books I drove us to Gabriella's Vietnam on E Passyunk Ave, which was highlighted in this year's "Best of Philly" issue of Philadelphia Magazine as the "Best Place to Show Off Philly's Restaurant Scene." Gabriella's specializes in Vietnamese street food (there was no pho or other typical entrées in Vietnamese restaurants). Here are some of the dishes we ordered, first SAVORY CRÊPES - BÁNH XÈO MIỀN TRUNG: sizzling savory crêpes, pork, shrimp, bean sprouts, Vietnamese herbs, lettuce for wrapping:



WATER FERN DUMPLINGS - BÁNH BÈO CHÉN: rice cakes, steamed and served in individual small dishes, topped with minced shrimp, pork crackling, mung beans, fried shallot, scallion:



VERMICELLI PLATTER - BÚN ĐẬU MẮM TÔM: fried tofu, pork, rice & pork patties, blood sausage, Vietnamese herbs, kumquat & shrimp paste dipping sauce:



TAPIOCA DUMPLINGS - BÁNH BỘT LỌC: wrapped in banana leaves and steamed, slightly chewy (like mochi), shrimp, pork:



I forgot to take photos of Katherine's lemongrass tofu, and Mark's shaken beef.

The restaurant's owner, Thanh Nguyen, who was chosen as a "Rising Star" by local food critic Craig LaBan, was our server that evening, a role that she normally doesn't do. She was warm, friendly, and very funny, and our interactions with her made the superb meal that much more special.

>52 jessibud2: Thanks, Shelley! I hope that you can find these books. I'll try to get to all of them by the end of September.

>53 _Zoe_: I also miss large LT meet ups, Zoë! In the past five years the ones I've attended have all been in Europe, particularly when Joe & Debbi Welch and I vacationed in London at the same time in 2019 and spent a weekend in Amsterdam.

But for some reason there's a strange lack of interest in visits to Syracuse!

Ha! I don't know of anyone else who lives in Upstate New York, unfortunately. As you know, Syracuse is a four hour drive from Philadelphia, so that rules out a day trip there. (I guess a day trip is not entirely out of the question.)

>54 lisapeet: Right, Lisa. I think a day trip to the North Bronx later this year with my mother is still a good possibility, as she wants to see the house where she grew up in on E 222nd St, along with the apartment buildings where we lived in Jersey City after she married my father. Given the horrible experience with the hotel in early July I am concerned that she would not do well in another unfamiliar living environment, but we're close enough to NYC to make a day trip very doable.

One person who I was forgetting is Paola Sergi (@aluvalibri), who lives in Manhattan. We're in close touch via Facebook, but I don't think she's been active in LT in several years. She definitely wants to attend any NYC meet ups.

I still feel as though as I'm missing other NYC area LTers...

ETA: I'm glad that you enjoyed Optic Nerve!

>55 kidzdoc: My mouth is watering. :)

Nice book haul. I quite enjoyed Optic Nerve when I read it. It is very original.

>57 BLBera: Same here, Beth! I became very hungry after I posted those photos.

I'm glad that you also enjoyed Optic Nerve.

Zoë just posted these photos from our meet up, which were taken by her husband Mark. The first one is inside of Head House Books; Zoë is in the middle, and Katherine is on the far right:



The second photo was taken at Gabrielle's Vietnam before we started eating. You can see the stacks of books that Katherine and I bought, along with the one that Mark purchased:



ETA: I really liked Katherine's ?new hair style!

>51 kidzdoc: The Last White Man is on my WL as well Darryl, as I saw it had very good reviews recently and I enjoyed Exit West by the same author a lot.

I've picked a book by one of your recommended authors for my next book club choice: The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna. Unfortunately, I ordered it a little while ago from Waterstones who have just introduced a new computer system and their book deliveries have gone to pot. If it doesn't arrive soon I'll have to buy it on kindle.

>50 kidzdoc: ~Hint hint~ The Brooklyn Book Festival (https://brooklynbookfestival.org/) is on Sunday, October 2nd. If you're not inclined/able to travel to NYC that day, there will be virtual talks on Sept. 25th.

>59 kidzdoc: ?new hair style
Well, considering that you hadn't seen me in 7 years... Though it grew back during COVID and I've just recently begun getting it cut again.

>59 kidzdoc: I love those pictures!!! I’ll see all three of you (plus Mark!) together one of these days. To make a trip to Philly, though, I’d rather come up for the weekend.

I have to start learning to get social again, but I’m scared to go anywhere! Today an Israeli cousin’s granddaughter is coming to stay with us for three days, and we actually have to go somewhere! Eeeek! I already asked our visitor to be sure to stay masked while on Amtrak and on the Metro.

Hopefully, there will be more LT meetups for all of us in the near future. They are so much fun!!

>62 qebo: I also thought your hair looked amazing!

>62 qebo: I noticed it right away too. Nice. And I like your book haul. Is the Lem yours as well?

>63 SqueakyChu: I'm still a hermit too, Madeline. And I'm worried what the winter will bring. Like Darryl, I'm looking forward to the new covid vaccine.

And for the sake of completion:

Zoë was trying to hold a smile while Mark was oblivious.

>64 _Zoe_:, >65 labfs39: The photos don't do justice to how bedraggled I felt after walking 4 miles in humid 90 degrees... The Lem is Mark's.
>63 SqueakyChu: 4 days out and Amtrak hasn't killed me yet...

>51 kidzdoc: >55 kidzdoc: >59 kidzdoc: >66 qebo: Yay for an LT meet-up. It has been a while. Glad you all had a great time Darryl.

>66 qebo: Adorable!

>60 SandDune: Sounds good, Rhian. I enjoyed both The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Exit West, so I'm looking forward to reading The Last White Man, probably sometime next month.

I hope that you like The Hired Man. Aminatta Forna is one of my favorite authors, as I've read and greatly enjoyed The Memory of Love (5 stars) and Happiness (4½ stars), in addition to The Hired Man (4½ stars). I also own Ancestor Stones, The Devil That Danced on the Water: A Daughter's Memoir, and The Window Seat: Notes from a Life in Motion, but I haven't read them yet.

I look forward to your thoughts on The Last White Man.

>61 ELiz_M: Thanks, Liz! I don't think I'll be able to make it to the Brooklyn Book Festival, as my cousin Tina is planning to visit us from September 20-27. Oh...even more importantly, October 2 is my mother's 87th birthday, so I definitely won't go.

I don't want to take public transit (Amtrak, NJ Transit, PATH, NYC MTA, SEPTA, etc.) until two weeks after I've received the new SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, which hopefully will be available in October. Driving from here to NYC is definitely doable, though, especially on a weekend, as we only live 75 miles from Midtown Manhattan.

>62 qebo: Well, considering that you hadn't seen me in 7 years...

Exactly; that's why I typed "?new" instead of "new."

>63 SqueakyChu: A weekend trip to Philadelphia, similar to the Great Philadelphia LT Meetup several years ago, is very doable for me, as I can get from home to Center City in roughly half an hour.

I greatly miss meeting my LT, past and present, and non-LT friends in person, both in the US and abroad, and as long as reasonable precautions are taken, as they were on Saturday (masks in the bookshop, outdoor dining at the restaurant, avoidance of public transportation by using a private vehicle), then I'm willing to participate in as many as I'm able to.

>66 qebo: Great photo, Katherine!

>67 qebo: Oof. You held up quite well under those conditions, Katherine.

I hope that you're still feeling well.

>68 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Caroline. I dearly miss seeing you, Claire, Bianca, Paul Harris, Rhian, Heather, Fliss, Rachael, Margaret, Jenny, and my other LT friends who live in the UK, the Netherlands and Portugal. I probably last saw you in September 2019, the last time Joe, Debbi & I (Los Tres Americanos) were in London. Have there been any meet ups in London since then?

After my post about Head House Books I realized that I had not given a proper shout out to another great independent bookshop that I visited recently, Harriett's Bookshop on E Girard Ave in the Fishtown section of Philadelphia, where Laura (@lauralkeet) lived until she and her husband moved to Virginia. Harriett's is named after Harriet Tubman (slight misspelling there), and it is a Black female owned and operated bookshop that opened in February 2020 and has received excellent reviews, including this article in Travel + Leisure magazine late last year:

This Philadelphia Bookstore Honors Harriet Tubman's Legacy With Literature, Art, and Activism



I decided to go on Juneteenth, June 19, a day that both commemorates the official end of slavery in the United States on that date in 1865, and celebrates Black culture, including Black owned businesses. The bookshop had an especially somber atmosphere, as the middle aged woman who was working there requested that customers remain silent and respectful, in honor of the many lives lost and ruined by slavery and its aftermath.

I chose six books, which were carefully, lovingly and uniquely wrapped and stamped by the woman who worked there:



Nothing Personal: An Essay by James Baldwin: This searing essay written in 1964 by Baldwin is a searing critique of American society during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, and Baldwin's commentary about consumer culture, the country's desire for and fixation on eternal youth, the lovelessness that exists especially in American cities, and race based police brutality, and it is as relevant today as it was over a half century ago. (Review coming soon.)

On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed: A collection of essays written by this award-winning Harvard professor and historian, which covers the history of Black people in Texas, the Juneteenth holiday, and her own experience growing up in Texas in the 1960s, where she became the first Black child to integrate the elementary school in her home town. (Review coming soon.)

Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by Adrienne Maree Brown: From the book's rear cover:

Inspired by Octavia Butler's explorations of our human relationship to change, Emergent Strategy is radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help designed to shape the futures we want to live. Change is constant. The world is in a continual state of flux. It is a stream of ever-mutating, emergent patterns. Rather than steel ourselves against such change, this book invites us to feel, map, assess, and learn from the swirling patterns around us in order to better understand and influence them as they happen. This is a resolutely materialist “spirituality” based equally on science and science fiction, a visionary incantation to transform that which ultimately transforms us.

Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head: Poems by Warsan Shire: This is the first full length poetry collection by this acclaimed Somali British writer, and since I loved her chapbook Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth I nabbed this book immediately after I saw Ms Shire's name on it. This was a powerful and unforgettable collection that focuses on refugees, immigrants, and Black British women, which was highlighted by her searing poem Home, which I mentioned in my previous Club Read thread. (Review coming soon.)

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk, MD: Not all of the books in Harriett's Bookshop are written by Black women, and this best selling book was written by a Dutch born psychiatrist who is a professor in the Boston University School of Medicine. His research focuses on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), particularly in children, and this book "transforms our understanding of trauma and offers a bold new paradigm for healing."

Finding Me: A Memoir by Viola Davis: This bestselling memoir recalls the author's rise from a difficult childhood in Rhode Island to become an internationally acclaimed and award-winning actress, which she wrote in part to inspire others to honesty examine their own stories in order to gain inspiration and live more authentic lives.

>72 kidzdoc: - I bet the *misspelling* is intentional and is actually a play on Harriet T(ubman). Just a guess.

Nice haul. I want to read the Baldwin and Viola Davis's memoir. Hoping that one might come out in paper soon.

>70 kidzdoc: oh I have hired man picked up probably by a rec from LT. Now if I can find it.....

The Hired Man languishes on my TBR pile for some reason. I read Memory of Love in the last year, and was very impressed with it. So perhaps I'll get to The Hired Man soonish. A friend sent me a copy of Booth, and I'm looking forward to that. I haven't read any of Fowler's work before, so no pre-conceptions.

I finished The Fell, the latest novel by Sarah Moss, one of my other favorite authors, just before midnight, which was quite good (4 stars). I'll write a review of it this weekend.

>73 jessibud2: The webpage for Harriett's Bookshop contains this sentence: "Harriett's Bookshop, named for historical heroine Harriett Tubman, celebrates women authors, women artists, and women activists." So, it does appear to be a misspelling of her name, although I want to investigate further.

Nothing Personal is one of the Other Essays within the Library of America collection James Baldwin: Collected Essays, which also includes Notes of a Native Son, Nobody Knows My Name, The Fire Next Time, No Name in the Street, and The Devil Finds Work. If I could only bring one book with me to a desert island it would probably be this one.

>74 cindydavid4: I hope you do find The Hired Man, Cindy; it's well worth it!

>75 laytonwoman3rd: I highly enjoyed The Hired Man, only slightly less so than The Memory of Love, which was worthy of the Booker Prize in the year it was published. I did write a review of The Hired Man after I read it in 2013.

Even though I didn't like We Are Completely Beside Ourselves I'm very eager to read Booth, and I'll almost certainly start it next week, after I finish Song of Solomon this weekend.

>76 kidzdoc: yep, found it!

>77 cindydavid4: Hurrah!

Breaking News: The acclaimed author and former Emory University professor Salman Rushdie was attacked and reportedly stabbed by an assailant just prior to giving a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in Upstate New York earlier this morning. There are no reports on his condition at the moment. Sir Rushdie is one of my favorite authors, and I saw him speak in the Jimmy Carter Presidential Carter several years ago, when he read from his Booker Prize longlisted novel The Enchantress of Florence. I pray that he is not seriously injured.

>79 kidzdoc: That's horrible. Thank you for letting us know. I will look for updates throughout the day.

>80 labfs39: Thanks, Lisa. I'll be heading out with my mother for a road trip shortly, so I won't be able to check on this story until I return.

As many of you know, the late Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against Sir Rushdie after his novel The Satanic Verses was published in 1988. The fatwa is still in existence, and reportedly the person who takes out Sir Rushdie will be awarded $3.3 million.

NPR: Author Salman Rushdie was attacked on a lecture stage in New York

>79 kidzdoc: Good lord. That has to be fatwa-related... although with so much violence erupting everywhere, who knows.

>79 kidzdoc: I had a part-time job in a bookstore when Satanic Verses was published and remember the worry about whether stocking that book would be dangerous. It was not. We did sell a lot of copies and I still wonder if many of those copies, along with copies of A Brief History of Time, also a huge bestseller, still sit unread in many Scottsdale bookcases. Rushdie went into hiding for years after it's publication, didn't he?

>79 kidzdoc: I just saw it on the news, Darryl, I hope he will be alright...

Shocking news-

>82 lisapeet: guess i didnt realize the fatwa was still in place; I agree with you lisa about it being related to the stabbing. did they catch the guy?

>82 lisapeet: The man accused of attempted murder was caught by police, and he is said to be a 24 year old man, presumably of Muslim descent, who appears to be a devout Muslim and to support radical Islam and the Iranian government, which issued the fatwa in 1988 after The Satanic Verses was published.

As of now there have not been any updates on Sir Rushdie's condition for several hours; he is said to still be in surgery at UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center) Hamot, a Level II trauma center in Erie, Pennsylvania. The tidbits of information I gleaned from online news reports would seem to be favorable that Sir Rushdie will survive this attack, although I would presume that he will have a long road to recovery.

The Satanic Verses was published, I would have been a full time student at Rutgers, as I stopped working full time the previous summer in order to take classes that I needed to graduate which were not offered at night. I was doing little if any reading for pleasure at that time, and I probably was unaware of Sir Rushdie, the novel, and the controversy, especially since most if not all of my classes that semester were in Microbiology.

Ah...a news flash from The Guardian just popped up on my screen after I typed the last paragraph:

Salman Rushdie is on a ventilator, unable to speak, and may lose an eye, his agent told Reuters and the New York Times.

“The news is not good,” Andrew Wylie, Rushdie’s agent, said Friday evening. “Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged.”

That is terrible news. I read not long ago that he was stabbed in the abdomen, and I wondered how much internal damage he sustained as a result.

You're right, Kay; Sir Rushdie went into seclusion for nine years after the fatwa was issued by Ayatollah Khomeini, which is chronicled in his book Joseph Anton, one of the seven books I've read by him.

>84 FAMeulstee: Sir Rushdie appears to have been very seriously injured, but hopefully his wounds won't prove to be fatal.

>85 torontoc: Shocking, indeed, Cyrel.

>86 cindydavid4: Yes, the scant reports so far would suggest that the attacker, who was captured shortly after the attack, was inspired by the fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini.

I posted this on Joe Welch's thread a few minutes ago:

I saw Sir Rushdie speak in the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta several years ago, shortly after The Enchantress of Florence was published. He was a warm and engaging speaker, who had a good rapport with the audience in the completely filled auditorium. A friend from work and I were seated at the very top of the auditorium, as those were the only seats we could find, and shortly after we were seated former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn from Georgia apologetically passed by to get a spot two or three seats away in our row. Sir Rushdie read at least one excerpt from the novel, and I felt as though I was transformed from a middle aged adult into an elementary school student, as I was utterly captivated by his voice and cadence. I heard a low humming to my right, and when I looked over I saw Senator Nunn rocking slightly back and forth, while "mmm hmm"ing in appreciation. That was easily one of the most memorable author readings I've ever attended.

Sir Rushdie was a visiting professor at Emory University in Atlanta, where I completed my residency in Pediatrics, and he frequently gave public talks and private lectures in town. I would have to think that this appearance is the last one he will make in public, assuming that he survives this horrific attack, which is a great loss.

Darryl, I’ve never read any of Rushdie’s novels. Which are your favorites of the ones you’ve read or the one you’d recommend reading first?

I bet the idiot who did this thinks he will get the monetary *reward* promised by the ayatollah if he kills Rushdie. Instead, I hope he gets his *just reward* of a life behind bars. Fingers crossed for Rushdie's recovery.

>89 japaul22: If I would recommend one novel by Sir Rushdie it would easily be Midnight's Children, which won the 1981 Booker Prize and, later, the "Booker of Bookers" Prize as the best of all the Booker Prize winners. (For my money I would have chosen Wolf Hall as the best Booker Prize novel I've read.) I gave a full 5 stars to that novel, and these novels earned 4 stars from me: The Enchantress of Florence, Quichotte, and Shalimar the Clown. I also gave 4 stars to Joseph Anton, which is a memoir of his nine years in seclusion after the fatwa was announced by Ayatollah Khomeini.

>90 jessibud2: The Islamic Republic of Iran has already praised this attack on Salman Rushdie, and other governments, organizations and individuals who endorse radical Islam will undoubtedly view the attacker as a hero and an example of what a true Muslim must do when a fatwa by a respected Islamist is issued. That may be far more important to him than any monetary award.

>91 kidzdoc: Loved Midnights Children, learned so much about the partition and all of its consequences for the people living there.well worth reading.

Such sad news; I wonder if Rushdie thought the fowta was forgotten. Was there no security around him?

Such sad news about Salman Rushdie. I'm checking on what the library has by him when I get to work today and may add a title or two to my next fiction order.

Hope you're having a good weekend, Darryl.

>92 cindydavid4: I have no doubt that Sir Rushdie was well aware that the fatwa was still in effect, even though Iran distanced itself from it relatively recently. After he emerged from seclusion he apparently relaxed the security around him, as well as the arrangements made to protect him from attackers. I think it was in 2008 that I attended his talk at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, roughly 20 years after the release of Midnight's Children, and, IIRC, our bags weren't searched, we weren't asked for ID before we entered the auditorium, and I don't remember seeing any security detail or police presence outside or within the venue. A similar attack could easily have happened that evening.

>93 bell7: Sounds good, Mary. To my surprise I have both The Satanic Verses and Shame on my Kindle; I have the hardback edition of The Satanic Verses, which is in Atlanta, so I must have purchased it when it was on sale. Checking...yes, it was on sale when I purchased it in 2012. BTW, the US Kindle version is currently on sale for $4.99. I might start reading The Satanic Verses next week, after I finish Song of Solomon. I would be tempted to join in a group read of it, but my track record of successfully participating in group reads is quite poor.

The weather in the Delaware Valley this weekend will be absolutely spectacular. I took my mother for a long drive (35 miles) yesterday to one of our favorite restaurants in Quakertown, PA, at the upper end of Bucks County, on winding country roads, which she enjoyed. Today we'll go shopping, and possibly spend time in one of the parks alongside the Delaware River, and tomorrow I'll probably take her on a vehicular tour of the covered bridges of Bucks County, especially if I can load the directions onto the Google maps app on my cell phone.

>71 kidzdoc: I think it was further back when I last saw you Darryl, the year you mentioned, you couldn't join Joe, Debbi and I as you were double booked, then couldn't see who you were double booked with as you were unwell, if I remember rightly. I am guessing it was 2016/17 when we last got together.

>72 kidzdoc: That lovely bookshop was one of Laura's (Laurelkeet) faves when she lived in Philly.

>79 kidzdoc: I was so shocked to hear about Rushdie. So long after the fatwa was made. Poor man will have a difficult life if he survives. I saw him in 1995 I think. He was a surprise guest at an event which included Mario Vargas Llosa. At half time the audience were told there would be a special guest, but that if we had problems with being locked in the auditorium, we should leave. Security guards came in and we were locked down for the rest of the event. He was publishing The Moor's Last Sigh at the time.

>91 kidzdoc: I concur in your recommendation that Midnight's Children is the one Rushdie everyone should read. I think my second favorite is The Moor's Last Sigh, and Joseph Anton was also a favorite. There have been a few I haven't cared for, and I've yet to attempt The Satanic Verses} He certainly is a literary treasure and I hope he makes a full recovery from this horrible attack.

>95 Caroline_McElwee: Wow...I didn't think it had been that long since I last saw you, Caroline. I remember us going to see Harold Pinter's play No Man's Land with Debbi & Joe at Wyndham's Theatre in September 2016, and watching Debbi swoon at the intermission with admiration for Patrick Stewart and Ian McEwan, as well as the large group meet up in Café Also and Joseph's Bookstore on Finchley Road in Temple Fortune that same month. I would have thought that we met up in 2018 or 2019, but I could easily be wrong.

I didn't know that Harriett's Bookshop was one of Laura's favorites, although I did see when I logged into its page on LT that she had been there. Now that I know where it is and that she lived in Fishtown I can understand why she liked it. I was going to take my cousin Tina there this week, but we couldn't make it work, so I'll do so next month. (I certainly don't need any more books at this point!)

You're right; if Sir Rushdie survives he will have a difficult recovery and a more limited life, given that he apparently has been blinded in one eye and may not have full use of one of his arms. Hopefully there will be an update from the medical staff on thUPMC Hamot today.

Wow...Mario Vargas Llosa and Salman Rushdie on the same stage?! I would have been in heaven.

>96 arubabookwoman: Thanks, Deborah. I have a copy of The Moor's Last Sigh in Atlanta, so I'll be sure to bring it back with me the next time I go there. The book of the seven I've read by Sir Rushdie that I liked the least was Fury, which I gave 3 stars; the other six all earned at least 4 stars.

Sir Rushdie has a new book coming out early next year, which is titled Victory City:

The epic tale of a woman who breathes a fantastical empire into existence, only to be consumed by it over the centuries—from the transcendent imagination of Booker Prize-winning, internationally bestselling author Salman Rushdie

In the wake of an unimportant battle between two long-forgotten kingdoms in fourteenth-century southern India, a nine-year-old girl has a divine encounter that will change the course of history. After witnessing the death of her mother, the grief-stricken Pampa Kampana becomes a vessel for her namesake, the goddess Pampa, who begins to speak out of the girl’s mouth. Granting her powers beyond Pampa Kampana’s comprehension, the goddess tells her that she will be instrumental in the rise of a great city called Bisnaga—literally “victory city”—the wonder of the world.

Over the next two hundred and fifty years, Pampa Kampana’s life becomes deeply interwoven with Bisnaga’s, from its literal sowing out of a bag of magic seeds to its tragic ruination in the most human of ways: the hubris of those in power. Whispering Bisnaga and its citizens into existence, Pampa Kampana attempts to make good on the task that the goddess set for her: to give women equal agency in a patriarchal world. But all stories have a way of getting away from their creator, and Bisnaga is no exception. As years pass, rulers come and go, battles are won and lost, and allegiances shift, the very fabric of Bisnaga becomes an ever more complex tapestry—with Pampa Kampana at its center.

Brilliantly styled as a translation of an ancient epic, this is a saga of love, adventure, and myth that is in itself a testament to the power of storytelling.

>97 kidzdoc: I think the last time we got together was for dinner at the Russian Restaurant near the Old Vic, where after we saw Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead so 2017 if Mr Google is to be believed Darryl.

>99 Caroline_McElwee: Ah. I remember that get together. We had dinner at Baltic, then saw Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead at the Old Vic, which featured Daniel Radcliffe. I think I'm the only person on the planet who has seen Radcliffe perform in two plays in London (that one, and The Cripple of Inishmaan on the West End), but hasn't watched a single Harry Potter movie.

>100 kidzdoc: I also saw him in Beckett's Endgame, but I have seen a couple of the Potter films.

>1 kidzdoc:
I love the piece of art in your first post. I'm moving to a new house (after 26 years) and am getting into "real" art for my new home (very slowly, and I'll still cheris some old pieces I have). That piece is spectacular.

Interesting conversation about Salman Rushdie, and of course, very disturbing news about his attempted assignation. I see that I've read 6 of his books, and the only overlap with you is Midnight's Children. I was introduced to him at university, where I read Shame (twice) and Step Across This Line (non-fiction), and also parts of Imaginary Homelands (which I later finished). The other books I've read are The Ground Beneath Her Feet, which I liked more than most people did, and The Golden House. I went to see him speak at the University of British Columbia when he was promoting The Golden House. I think I have at least 4 more of his books in my boxes of unread books.

>101 Caroline_McElwee: Nice.

>102 Nickelini: Thanks, Joyce; I'm glad that you liked the work by Mikel Elam.

Of the books by Salman Rushdie you mentioned I own Shame, which I have on my Kindle, and Step Across This Line, which is in my flat in Atlanta. I also own but have not read The Moor's Last Sigh, The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey, Luka and the Fire of Life, and Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights, in addition to The Satanic Verses.

Book #36: Alzheimer's Canyon: One Couple's Reflections on Living with Dementia by Jane Dwinell & Sky Yardley

 

My rating:

Jane Swindell and Sky Yardley are a couple who first met in Vermont in 1984, fell in love soon afterward due to their shared interests and compatibility, and became lifelong partners the following year, spending time building and refurbishing houses in New England and New Orleans, boating in the United States and France, and working for the benefit of others within the Unitarian Universalist Church, where Dwinell was a minister, and in their community.

In the winter of 2012 Sky started developing problems with his memory and concentration, which slowly but progressively worsened over the next four years. In August 2016 he was diagnosed with “probable early stage Alzheimer’s” at the age of 66, and despite receiving appropriate care he died in 2021, with his beloved wife at his side.

Alzheimer’s Canyon begins just after Yardley receives his fateful diagnosis, and it consists primarily of posts from both Yardley and Dwinell on a blog they created entitled “Alzheimer’s Canyon” (http://alzheimerscanyon.blogspot.com/), which chronicles their individual and joint experiences with the disease, Yardley as a patient and Dwinell as a primary caregiver, and describes the deep love and devotion they share. The title refers to a series of episodes written by Yardley about a man who descends into an absurd and grotesque world which he has difficulty navigating or understanding, which is meant to reflect what he experiences as his disease progresses. Although there is useful medical information about Alzheimer’s disease and the challenges that caregivers of people with dementia face, the book stands out by providing a vivid and touching first person account of the life of a person with the disease. Yardley is unable to continue writing a little more than three years after his diagnosis, and Dwinell provides a moving description of the last months of his life, along with an epilogue about their relationship, and a list of helpful hints for couples going through that awful disease.

As a son of a mother who has moderate Alzheimer’s disease, and a father whose life was so consumed by caring for his beloved wife of 60 years that he neglected his own health and died suddenly as a result, which caused me to assume the role of primary caregiver for Mom, I found Alzheimer’s Canyon to be a very valuable and insightful read, which both broke and warmed my heart, and gave me a better sense of what my mother is experiencing. I cannot recommend it highly enough for anyone whose lives are affected by this awful and dreaded disease, and I thank Rootstock Publishing and LibraryThing for providing me with an Advance Reviewers’ Copy of this outstanding work.

>104 kidzdoc: Wonderful review, Darryl.

>105 labfs39: Thanks, Lisa. Unfortunately Alzheimer's Canyon won't be published until November 1st, so it will be awhile before anyone can purchase or borrow it.

Book #41: The South: Jim Crow and Its Afterlives by Adolph L. Reed, Jr.

 

My rating:

Dr Adolph L. Reed, Jr. is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania, a former faculty member at Yale, Northwestern, and the New School for Social Research, and a prolific writer, whose work focuses mainly on American politics, race, and inequality. He was born in the Bronx in 1947, and he and his family moved to New Orleans when he was a child, where he lived until he matriculated at the University of North Carolina in the late 1960s. He recalls his childhood spent in New Orleans and with relatives in Arkansas, and this forms the background of this book, which evaluates the institution of legal segregation and discrimination against African Americans from the post-Reconstruction period until the mid 1960s, when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 began the dismantling of the Jim Crow system that crippled the aspirations of Black people and enforced White supremacy in the Deep South for more than 75 years.

The book begins in the early 2000s, as Dr Reed returns to the South after having left it during the beginning of the Ronald Reagan presidency, and marvels at how the region has changed dramatically in two decades, yet remained the same in many ways. Blacks were now in positions of power in politics, medicine and other professions, but the old order and many of its customs still persisted.

For me the most interesting part of the book was his description of growing up in New Orleans in the 1950s and 1960s, when schools, neighborhoods, public accommodations and places of business were segregated to varying degrees. As a child of the middle class in a large, diverse and relatively tolerant Southern city he and his family were protected from the worst aspects of Jim Crow, although segregation and discrimination were still constantly present until the mid 1960s, and still persisted until at least the early 1970s in smaller towns in Arkansas and Louisiana. He subsequently describes harrowing experiences as a passenger on public transportation in the mid 1960s, when legal segregation had ended but local practices of discrimination against African Americans persisted, and his life as an undergraduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the late 1960s and early 1970s, a time when Black student enrollment at UNC was relatively small but increasing rapidly, and fear of Black men on campus by White women and resultant false reports of crimes committed by them were on the rise. He was involved with the Civil Rights and anti-war movements as an undergraduate student, which he continued when he and his wife moved to Fayetteville, North Carolina, followed by Atlanta, where he earned his PhD at Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University).

In later chapters Dr Reed discusses the cultural changes that took place in the South, the dissolution of the importance of Black skin color as a marker of status, along with the phenomenon of “passing,” as some of the lightest skinned African Americans passed as White in order to obtain jobs and participate freely in other activities that were shut off to them as Blacks under Jim Crow, the dismantling of public monuments in New Orleans which honored the Confederacy such as the Robert E. Lee Monument that was visible every time I took the St Charles streetcar from the Tulane University campus to the Central Business District when I was a student there in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and the resurgence of White supremacy, pride in the Confederacy and overt racism during the Trump administration.

I’ve spent nearly half of my life in the Deep South, three years in New Orleans and nearly 25 years in Atlanta, and in both cities I was able to attend universities (Tulane and Emory), live in neighborhoods, and work, as a hospital-based pediatrician, in places that would have been impossible for me as an African American during my childhood, which is a testament to the monumental changes that have taken place. On the other hand there is a backlash that is currently underway in many cities and states, as politicians are making it more difficult for Blacks to vote, books by African American authors are being banned by school districts, and the teaching of American history, the Civil Rights Movement and racism is being restricted by those who want to protect their children from learning the truth about the pervasive effects of discrimination in the past as well as the present day.

The South: Jim Crow and Its Afterlives is a superb contribution to African American history, and it would be of great interest to anyone who lived in the Deep South in general or New Orleans in particular during and after the Jim Crow era.

>94 kidzdoc: I love Pennsylvania's covered bridges! My friends Susan and Eddie, with whom I stay in Fort Washington, have taken me for many drives in the country to see some of them, though looking through my photos the only ones I can identify are Cabin Run and Pool Forge. I hope you have a very pleasant tour with your mom; if you have fine weather it will be idyllic!

I was relieved to see the report in the Guardian about Rushdie's progress, which I shared with you on Facebook, saying that he was talking and joking with the hospital staff. He clearly has a long road to recovery, but it sounds as though his spirit is undiminished.

Alzheimer's canyon sounds like a very good read. As you've noted before, it's unusual to get the perspective of the Alzheimer's patient themselves, which alone would recommend the book. I probably won't be able to read it myself but I'll certainly recommend it to anyone I know who wishes to better understand the disease.

Thanks, Claire! I haven't taken my mother on that tour of Bucks County's covered bridges yet, but I'll probably do so one day next week. I would like to be able to create a route from one bridge to the next on Google Maps first, so that I can use my cellphone to dictate the route to me as I drive, as my mother is no longer able to read printed maps. If that proves difficult or impossible I may wait until next month, when my cousin Tina from Michigan pays us a visit.

Thanks again for sharing The Guardian article about Sir Rushdie’s condition with me. There have been dozens of articles written about him since then, but I have yet to find out that provides a medical update, so hopefully that means that he is continuing to improve. Given how much I enjoyed attending his talk at The Carter Center in Atlanta after The Enchantress of Florence was published it would be a shame if that talk was his last public appearance, although it's more than understandable if he decides to retire from public speaking.

The attempted assassin failed miserably in his attack, as he did not kill Sir Rushdie, the sales of The Satanic Verses have skyrocketed in the past two weeks, and many of us who own copies of The Satanic Verses but haven't read it yet are now doing so. I'm on page 100 of 564, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far.

Sky Yardley's first hand contribution to Alzheimer's Canyon elevated my rating of the book to 5 stars. Six of the 10 of us who won copies of it have read, rated and/or reviewed it so far, and it currently has an average rating of 4.75 stars, so I'm not alone in my high opinion of it. The author of The Problem of Alzheimer's and the director of the Penn Memory Center, Dr Jason Karlawish, is now following me on Twitter after I complimented him on his book earlier this year and he subsequently read my review of it, which he liked, so hopefully he'll read this review and promote the book after it's published in November.

>104 kidzdoc: That sounds like a good one, Darryl. I'll have to see if my library's nonfiction purchaser is planning on getting it.

Glad to see you're enjoying The Satanic Verses. We must have had it as part of the library collection in the past, but had deleted it and only had Midnight's Children in our collection when I looked. I figured demand at the library would go up after the attack, and purchased it, but it's on backorder. I hope that the interest in his work will continue not just in the immediate aftermath.

>110 bell7: Thanks, Mary. That's a good idea; I should recommend Alzheimer's Canyon to my local library as well. I'll have to see if there is any way I can post this review to it, or the county library system, online.

I read an article within the past week which mentioned that most if not all online print editions of The Satanic Verses were sold out in the US and UK, but publishers of the book in both countries were rushing to make more copies available by early next month. My hardback copy of it is back in Atlanta, but fortunately I did purchase the Kindle version of it — which is currently selling for $4.99 — several years ago, as all of the copies in the Bucks County Public Library and Free Library of Philadelphia systems are on loan.

ETA: I'll also have to see if there is a group read of The Satanic Verses being hosted anywhere on LibraryThing. I intend to finish it by the end of the month.

>109 kidzdoc: The attempted assassin failed miserably in his attack, as he did not kill Sir Rushdie, the sales of The Satanic Verses have skyrocketed in the past two weeks, and many of us who own copies of The Satanic Verses but haven't read it yet are now doing so. I'm on page 100 of 564, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far.
I'm on page 98 and enjoying it too! (But I'm stopping for a while because 4(!) library holds have come through, so I need to read those first.)

>112 Dilara86: Whoa...that makes sense! I only have one library book on hand at the moment, Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo from this year's Booker Prize longlist, although I'm waiting on a copy of The Colony by Audrey Magee, another longlisted book.

>113 kidzdoc: Looking forward to your review of Glory. I've been meaning to read NoViolet Bulawayo, but haven't managed to yet...

>114 Dilara86: Will do. I wasn't all that fond of her earlier novel, We Need New Names, but Glory seems like a much better book.

>104 kidzdoc: "The South: Jim Crow and Its Afterlives is a superb contribution to African American history, and it would be of great interest to anyone who lived in New Orleans in general or the Deep South in particular during and after the Jim Crow era."

So noted. Thanks.

>116 rocketjk: Oops. That sentence should be the other way around: the Deep South in general, or New Orleans in particular.

These six books were chosen for this year's Booker Prize shortlist:

Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo
The Trees by Percival Everett
Treacle Walker by Alan Garner
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout

I loved The Trees, greatly enjoyed Small Things Like These, and disliked Oh William!, which I could only manage barely 100 pages of before I gave up in disgust. I'm reading Glory now, I bought a copy of The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida last month, and I've just purchased a copy of Treacle Walker from the Book Depository.

>118 kidzdoc: Well, at least this year 2 of the books I did read made it into the short list (One did not ("Case Study") but that is much better than my usual record....).

I am really curious to see what people think of "Treacle Walker". It is an unusual book, maddening in places - with things falling into some order only in its last chapter. At the end I liked it but I was ready to give it up multiple times (and it is a short book). Whimsical is probably a good way to describe it (with a heavy dose of "what the hell?" in between).

If someone decides to skip it, you may want to read this review: http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/the-critic-and-the-clue-tracking-alan-gar... There are spoilers so if you plan to read the book, read this one after that...

I seem to have 3 of the other 4 already here so I guess they need to float higher on my list...

>119 AnnieMod: I read Treacle Walker over the weekend and it wasn't for me. I usually like Garner but this was too weird (WTH describes it well).

>118 kidzdoc: I also loved The Trees and rather liked Oh William! (but surprised to see it short-listed). I am about to start Glory and have the others in transit or on hold.

>118 kidzdoc: Oh I actually own one -- Small Things Like These. That's the one I'll read then. Eventually, when I find it (after moving) ;-)

How’s Glory? I have a love-hate relationship. 30% in I was in deep hate. Currently I’m enjoying it, so on the love side, but it’s painfully sad.

>122 dchaikin: I didn’t get very far and gave up. Maybe I need to try again.

I was happy to see Small Things Like These on the shortlist, both because it was beautifully written and because novellas receive far too little attention. I'm also happy about Oh! William, even if several of you failed to fall for its charms. But The Trees is the best book of the lot (caveat: I have only read three of the shortlist) and deserves to win.

I have The Trees and Small Things Like These, but probably won't get to either before the Booker is announced. The Everett is definitely toward the top of my nebulous list, though.

>119 AnnieMod: Interesting comments about Treacle Walker, Annie. It will probably be two weeks or more until I receive it, so I'll probably read it next month, before the prize ceremony on October 17th. Even though it didn't make the shortlist I'll read The Colony by Audrey Magee, both because it was highly rated both on LibraryThing and Goodreads, and because I have to return it to the library the Saturday after next.

I'll wait to read the review of Treacle Walker until after I finish the book.

>120 Yells: Yikes. I haven't read and don't own anything by Alan Garner, so I'm completely unfamiliar with him. I'm glad that Treacle Walker is short, but I won't hesitate to give up on it as I did Oh William! if it isn't for me.

I continued to find Lucy Barton an insufferable and entitled bore who I absolutely could not relate to. I disliked Oh William! even more than I did My Name Is Lucy Barton, as I at least finished that book. I gave up, and nearly threw my Kindle against a wall after I read page 106, which described the first time Lucy went to bed with a new lover:

We went to bed and he was very kind but then he said “I’m shooting into Mommy! I’m shooting into Mommy!” and this frightened me almost beyond reason. After that I had to take two tranquilizers I had in my pocketbook and then I fell asleep next to him and slept through the night with my head near his chest.

Every time he said that.

For three months, we were together on Saturday nights.

How utterly sickening. I wanted to disinfect my Kindle after I read that.

>121 Nickelini: I thought that Small Things Like These was a small gem, Joyce. Even though I've only read four longlisted books so far I suspect that it would have still made my personal shortlist. Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley was very good, but I'm not disappointed that it didn't make it to the next round, as I would have if The Trees and Small Things Like These weren't selected.

>122 dchaikin:, >123 dianeham: I haven't gotten far into Glory yet, as I just started it yesterday...and I've had a so far horrible day with my mother, on a rainy day when I expected to get a lot more reading done; even worse, I'm completely out of vodka and gin, which actually may be a good thing. I'm enjoying it so far, though, and I'll definitely finish it this week, as I have to return it to the library on Saturday.

>124 RidgewayGirl: I agree with your assessment of Small Things Like These. I was one of the few people who absolutely loved another novella which won the Booker Prize, The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. I read it in a single afternoon while I sat in a quiet café in London on a very rainy day when I had no plans to meet other LTers, and that created an idyllic atmosphere for the book.

The Trees is clearly my favorite longlisted novel so far, but I'll wait until I read Glory and The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida before I anoint it my favorite shortlisted novel, and The Colony before choosing it as the best book from the longlist.

The less said about Oh William! the better, IMO. I'm glad that some people I respect thought much more highly about it than I did.

>125 lisapeet: Those are my two favorite novels from the longlist so far, Lisa; I hope that you enjoy them as much as I did.

>126 kidzdoc: Having no intention of reading either Lucy Barton or Oh William!, I peeked under your spoiler cut, and I'm with you. I'd have thrown the book (I don't do e-reads, so my Kindle would be safe) somewhere. I have to admit I've given up seeking books out simply because they are Booker candidates, or even winners. Too many let-downs in recent years.

>126 kidzdoc: Alan Garner was the author of some of my favourite books from childhood (he’s been around a very long time), but I haven’t read any of his adult fiction as yet.

>129 SandDune: Likewise, Rhian! I did read Treacle walker and totally agree with >119 AnnieMod: It has Garner's usual use of dialect, sense of place, and a strong seam of myth running through it, but it's a very fragmented narrative that leaves you to fill in the gaps, sometimes erroneously. I assumed that Joe had a mother, if not a father, and it was over half way through the book before I realised no, he is completely alone. I suspect it will bear more fruit upon rereading.

>128 laytonwoman3rd: I nearly gave up on Oh William! after a few pages, after Strout's patently false and misleading description of the night terrors that William was having; it doesn't help that my mother's biggest problem is night terrors, which wake me up practically every night and can be highly distressing to her, and worrisome to me, especially when she tries to get up and walk when she isn't fully awake; I could easily envision her sustaining a very nasty fall, especially one which could break her hip. I suppose that all of us take umbrage when an author gets something badly wrong, whether it's medical or other specialized information, location (e.g., placing Yankee Stadium in Queens instead of the Bronx), time (a character checking her cell phone in the early 1980s), etc. I thought her misrepresentation of night terrors was very lazy on her part, and even though I approached the novel with an open mind Strout quickly got off on the wrong foot in my view.

I've now lowered my overly lofty rating of Oh William! to 1 star, and I won't read anything else by Strout ever again. It isn't the worst Booker longlisted novel I've read, but it's awfully close.

I have to admit I've given up seeking books out simply because they are Booker candidates, or even winners.

I don't blame you, Linda. There have been some absolute duds in recent years, none worse IMO than The Sellout by Paul Beatty, the winner of the 2016 Booker Prize. As I and others have mentioned over the past few years, the quality of the prize took a sharp nosedive when the previous managers decided to allow non-Commonwealth authors to be eligible for the award, which opened the door for overhyped (by their publishers) and, at best, mediocre American writers and their novels to gain a rather large foothold into what at least was the most prestigious literary award for a single novel. Most of the Booker longlisted novels I have disliked the most were written by Americans: To Rise Again at a Decent Hour; We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (which I refer to as We Are All Completely Full of Ourselves); My Name Is Lucy Barton; and, No One Is Talking About This (which should have been called No One Cares About This).

OTOH, reading the Booker Prize longlists has introduced me to several outstanding novels that I probably wouldn't have read otherwise, including The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, The Glass Room by Simon Mawer, and The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt. The tastes of the judges align with mine more often than not, though, and even though each year's longlist contains at least one book that I find to be a dud, far more of them end up being amongst my favorite novels of the year or at least a surprisingly enjoyable book, such as Small Things Like These.

>129 SandDune:, >130 Sakerfalcon: I'm a bit more curious to read Treacle Walker, based on your comments about Alan Garner and this book.

The Booker list is an oddly flawed hit and miss thing. I am entertained that of the five Booker list novels you list as having disliked the most, I’ve read two and enjoyed them both. 🙂 Last year my least favorite was Great Circle. This year I’m only on my second, and I didn’t like the first one, Booth. I think a lot of readers like both these books.

I disliked oh william tho I did finish it . She has a new Lucy Barton book that I might just miss (liked the first one, the othes, meh)

Ive never read Garner; where should I start?

>131 kidzdoc:, >132 dchaikin: I didn't read We are All Completely Beside Ourselves, because the title and description screamed "MFA" to me. I am currently reading Booth, and I have to say I don't find anything particularly "wrong" with it, but it isn't lighting any fires in my soul either.

>134 laytonwoman3rd: I liked Beside Ourselves, although I don’t see it as a Booker longlist kind of book. Maybe. I hope you get into Booth. I only was able to get into it near the end.

>135 dchaikin: I am well over 2/3 through Booth, and I'm liking it fine. I never questioned whether I'd keep reading. Just not finding it prize-worthy or even particularly praise-worthy.

>131 kidzdoc: I unexpectedly loved We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves but loathed My Name is Lucy Barton. A curious thing about personal tastes.

> 136 I got about halfway through Booth on audio, then it got returned to the library. I liked the beginning better than the middle. I'd like to finish it, but other things are clamoring for my attention.

>129 SandDune:, >130 Sakerfalcon: I enjoyed Alan Garner's fantasy fiction and the Stone Book Quartet for kids. The only thing I've read from his adult work is Boneland, which I liked. He's a good writer, but I don't think his fiction is for everyone.

How boring it would be if we all agreed on which books were good. I'm going to hold off on the Garner, just because I have a low tolerance for that brand of experimental lit (although Subdivision by J. Robert Lennon won me over in the end, it was an effort to get to the pay-off). I'm still going to read Nightcrawling from the longlist. And I'll wait to see who wins.

It is interesting how much where and when we encounter a book shapes how we respond to it.

>131 kidzdoc: I've now lowered my overly lofty rating of Oh William! to 1 star

I was just skimming through your thread and had to say thanks for the laugh!

Here I am, a month late to your new thread. Just skimmed my way through and enjoyed your reviews. Hope all is well.

Hopelessly behind, but hoping to keep up from here. : )

Earlier this morning I finished what will very likely be my favorite novel of 2022, The Colony by Audrey Magee, which is set on a remote island off the coast of Ireland in 1979, during the height of the Troubles. During that summer the villagers are visited by two men, an English painter who visits for the first time in order to paint the landscape, and a young French linguist making a repeat journey to chronicle the Gaelic language spoken there, which he views as a dying language and culture that must be honored and preserved. Each man has his own misguided ideas about the villagers, and each has an ulterior motive: to gain fame if not fortune from taking advantage of the islanders. The men develop an instant dislike for each other, and their presence, both individually and as a pair, upsets the unstable balance of the community, along their way of life, as Northern Ireland is rocked by sectarian violence and random killings. The island setting was evocative, the characters were richly portrayed, and the story was compelling, from the first page to the last. I woke up at 4:30 am to finish it, as I had a little more than 50 pages to go and cared so much about the main characters that I had to know what happened to them. I am gobsmacked that this wasn't chosen for the Booker Prize shortlist, and even though I also loved The Trees by Percival Everett, which was shortlisted, and very much want it to get the award, it definitely falls a step behind Audrey Magee's masterful and haunting novel, which will stay with me for a long time. I'll write a more thoughtful review of it later this week.

I've now finished five of the 13 Booker longlisted novels, and this is my rank order at the moment:

1. The Colony by Audrey Magee
2. The Trees by Percival Everett
3. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
4. Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley
13. Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout (I seriously doubt that I'll dislike a longlisted novel more than this one)

My current shortlist rankings:

1. The Trees by Percival Everett
2. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
6. Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout

I purchased a copy of Treacle Walker by Alan Garner from The Book Depository, which I received on Monday, and since it's a short novel (152 pp) with large print I should finish it today. I'll resume reading Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo, which I had barely started but enjoyed, next week; I put it aside because I don't have to return it to the library for another two weeks, whereas I have to return The Colony by Saturday. I also have the copy of The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka that I purchased from The Book Depository on hand, so I'll definitely finish this year's Booker Prize shortlist well in advance of the award ceremony on October 17th.

>132 dchaikin: The Booker list is an oddly flawed hit and miss thing.

I agree, Dan. Some books don't resonate with me at all, and I'm astonished that they are longlisted or shortlisted, but I'm sure that some other readers would say the same thing about the books I rave about.

I'm admittedly not a fan of contemporary American literature, with the exception of a few favorite American born authors, particularly Percival Everett, Jesmyn Ward and Colson Whitehead, and a smattering of others who were born abroad but now live here, such as Jamaica Kincaid, Colum McCann, Ha Jin, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Edwidge Danticat.

I did purchase a copy of Booth by Karen Joy Fowler last month, mainly because of the book's main character, as I did not enjoy her previous longlisted novel, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. I'll probably read it in November or December, as I still hope to complete the Booker Prize longlist by the end of the year.

>133 cindydavid4: Elizabeth Strout is just not an author for me, and I would only read any of her future books if it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and maybe not even then.

I've never read Garner; where should I start?

Treacle Walker is the first book by Garner I've ever read; hopefully someone else can answer that question.

>134 laytonwoman3rd: I didn't read We are All Completely Beside Ourselves, because the title and description screamed "MFA" to me.

Exactly!! I think that's my biggest problem with contemporary American literature. Much of it, IMO, is formulaic, and crafted to sell thousands of books and reach a certain demographic, instead of writing that comes from the soul. I'm sure that not every author who earned an MFA degree writes in that fashion, but it seems to me that a lot of them do.

I am currently reading Booth, and I have to say I don't find anything particularly "wrong" with it, but it isn't lighting any fires in my soul either.

I was afraid of that, given others' comments about it. Despite being an interesting topic, I suspect that I'll be disappointed by Booth, as Fowler is yet another American author that I don't connect well with. In the future I'll borrow a book like this if I can, instead of purchasing it.

>135 dchaikin: I'll have to check out your review of Booth, Dan.

>136 laytonwoman3rd: I'll visit your thread to find out what your final thoughts are about Booth, Linda.

>137 qebo: I unexpectedly loved We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves but loathed My Name is Lucy Barton. A curious thing about personal tastes.

Curious indeed, Katherine. I don't have to necessarily like a novel's main characters, but they should be ones that are well crafted and believable, which I think is a major problem I have with much of contemporary American literature, including those two novels.

>138 markon: Given everyone's comments about Booth, and how many other books I want to read ASAP, I wouldn't be surprised if I also don't finish it, even if I do pick it up before the end of the year.

Thanks for those recommendations about books by Alan Garner to read, Ardene.

>139 RidgewayGirl: How boring it would be if we all agreed on which books were good.

Absolutely, Kay! Two of my favorite former LTers, Rachael (@FlossieT) and Fliss (@flissp), both of whom live in Cambridge, and I would frequently meet in a pub in town whenever I was in London, and we would talk for hours about what we had read and enjoyed since the last time we met. Rachael and I ganged up on Fliss when we talked about Bodies of Light by Sarah Moss, which the two of us loved but Fliss was lukewarm about, and on another occasion the two of them let me have it after I disliked a prominent (maybe Booker longlisted) novel by an American author that they raved about, all in good fun. Sigh...I miss seeing the two of them.

I'm going to hold off on the Garner, just because I have a low tolerance for that brand of experimental lit

I'm curious to see how well I like Treacle Walker, which I expect to finish no later than tomorrow. That type of literature is hit or miss for me, and I hope that my adoration of The Colony doesn't cause me to judge Treacle Walker too harshly.

I'm still going to read Nightcrawling from the longlist. And I'll wait to see who wins.

Nightcrawling was a very impressive work by such a young writer, the youngest ever to have a novel longlisted for the Booker Prize, and it was deserving of that honor, IMO.

So far I am enjoying this year's longlist, although I haven't gotten as far as I had hoped to by now.

It is interesting how much where and when we encounter a book shapes how we respond to it.

Agreed. In a way it's not fair to read a book (or see a movie or play, dine in a restaurant, etc.) after finishing one that is exceptionally good. Let's see...I read Oh William! after I finished Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan, which I greatly enjoyed. However, I don't think I would have liked Strout's novel in any case, for the reasons I mentioned.

>140 SqueakyChu: You're welcome, Madeline!

>141 tangledthread: Hi, Stephanie! I'm taking each day as it comes, as some are better than others.

>142 Berly: Hi, Kim!

>143 kidzdoc: I have the first three books on your long list, and may stop there if I do decide to read through. Of course, by the time my reading queue is freed up, the prize will probably have been awarded. But I never let timeliness get in the way of good reading...

>145 kidzdoc: I haven't caught up on my reviews, but I felt the same about Nightcrawling it is remarkable story from someone so young. I like that literary awards have longlists that make room for titles like this one. I don't read enough from the booker to say if it was worthy of the shortlist. Then again I often think a lot of what makes the shortlist are not exactly anything to rave about.

I just finished The Colony and gave it a rare 5-stars. I was really surprised that it got cut. I agree with you about Nightcrawling - very impressive for someone so young.

As for the shortlist, I've read Treacle Walker (meh, interesting but not my cup of tea), The Trees (loved it) and Oh William! (I definitely enjoyed it more than you). I have Glory out of the library but I am having a lot of trouble getting into it. Nothing against the author, it sounds like a fantastic book, but I think it takes a little more concentration than my mind is capable of giving these days. I will probably switch to The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida as it just arrived in the mail, and then give Glory another go.

>144 kidzdoc: “I'm admittedly not a fan of contemporary American literature

What is wrong with American authors? Like you, I noticed many of the newer books I like are by authors born somewhere outside the US, but currently living in the US. Which may speak to the broadening of the expat experience. But it seems odd to me. Maybe Lois should put this as an avid reader question.

>148 Yells: unfortunately Glory got worse for me before it got better. Listening, i was all in at 10%, and was ready to bail at 30%. Someone in Litsy encouraged me to keep listening and it does get better near the middle, enough I was able to finish with strongly divergent feelings - love/hate kind of thing. I haven’t reviewed it yet.

>146 lisapeet: The Colony and The Trees will undoubtedly finish amongst my 10 (and probably top 5) favorite novels of 2022; Small Things Like These will likely be in the second 10.

>147 stretch: I like that literary awards have longlists that make room for titles like this one.

Exactly, Kevin. The best thing about literary awards like the Booker Prize, the Pulitzer Prizes and the National Book Awards is that they highlight worthy books by talented authors who might not otherwise gain much attention, as they are published by smaller presses, and are not well known or highly regarded. I learned about dozens of authors whose books I might not have read or heard about without prize longlists, several of whom are now amongst my favorites. The Sri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilaka comes to mind, both because I loved his Booker shortlisted novel Chinaman, but also because I'll read his latest novel, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, within the next week or two.

Speaking of literary prizes, the longlists for this year's National Book Awards are being announced this week. I'll probably list the titles in all five (six?) categories after they have all been released, presumably sometime tomorrow.

>148 Yells: I did see that you also loved The Colony, Danielle. I don't understand why it didn't make the shortlist; hopefully it's eligible for another major literary prize, e.g. The Women's Prize for Fiction.

It's entirely possible that I decide to read The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida ahead of Glory, but I do want to get to both books ASAP. The book of the month for the Literary Fiction by People of Color group in Goodreads in October is The Sentence by Louise Erdrich, so I'll start reading it early next month.

>149 dchaikin: What is wrong with American authors? Like you, I noticed many of the newer books I like are by authors born somewhere outside the US, but currently living in the US.

Right, Dan. I'll have to come up with a list of my top 10 or 20 favorite contemporary American authors, but I'm sure that all but one or two, at the most, will be either authors of color born here, or emigrants to this country. I'm not sure I completely understand why that is; is it that books by White American born novelists hold little or no interest for me? I'm far fonder of literature written by contemporary White British and Irish authors than White American ones, with The Colony, Small Things Like These, and The Fell by Sarah Moss being the latest examples. Offhand the only novel by a White American I've enjoyed recently is Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, which I found very inventive, rather than the trite and formulaic American novels I've suffered through recently. Why did The Colony make my heart race, and cause me to wake up early this morning wanting to finish it before breakfast, but Oh William! made me want to throw my Kindle out of my bedroom window? Is it the writing, or is it me? Or both? Why do I love American nonfiction and poetry, but not American literature?

I also think this would make a great avid reader question (hello, Lois?).

I look forward to your thoughts about Glory, Dan. Given comments from you, Danielle and others I think I'll put it aside for another week (as I can borrow it for an additional week from the library if I'd like), and start The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida early next week.

>151 kidzdoc: I'm far fonder of literature written by contemporary White British and Irish authors than White American ones

Interesting. My favorite genre has always been literary fiction, but then when I examine the books I've mostly liked, they seem to be mostly by foreign authors or immigrant Americans. I'll have to go back and see about this more closely.

>152 SqueakyChu: I'll be interested to learn what you find out about your own reading patterns, Madeline; I'll also explore the books I've read by White American novelists to see if I'm right in my opinion, or just blowing smoke. I absolutely adore the writings of Carson McCullers and Flannery O'Connor, but no contemporary American author is in the same league as them. That reminds me...I'm supposed to be reading the first four novels by William Faulkner in my Library of America collection Novels: 1926-1929, namely Soldiers' Pay, Mosquitoes, Flags in the Dust, and The Sound and the Fury, so I'll start doing so later this month or early in October.

Speaking of Rachael (@FlossieT), as I did in >145 kidzdoc:, she just wrote a superb article in the current issue of the London Review of Books, in which she described her experiences walking in the two mile long queue of mourners who paid their last respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey:

In the Queue

>153 kidzdoc: So this made me curious. In the past ten years I've rated 51 books published in the 20xx's four stars or higher.
29 (57%) were written by non-American authors
22 (43%) were written by American authors

Approximately 14 were written by white American authors (I didn't research each author to confirm how they self-identify so I might have mis-assigned race for one/some of the American authors).

You've read catalogued most of my 14 -- M. Robinson, G. Saunders, P. Roth, P. Auster, R. Kushner (I've only read Flamethrowers and liked much more than you did her Mars Room), L. Ellmann, R. Powers

I love weird fiction and will often rate higher books that I feel are innovative or unique, such as Building Stories, Subdivision, Ancillary Justice.

So the only author/book I will recommend is A Manual for Cleaning Women, a masterful collection of short stories, many focusing on ordinary moments in the life of the urban poor.

>151 kidzdoc: There's not a lot of contemporary American authors among my favorites either, but may I suggest Richard Powers, and in particular The Time of Our Singing? Highly recommended. (Along with Faulkner).

ETA--Liz's in >155 ELiz_M: appeared after I posted my comments in the paragraph above--I concur in her recommendation of A Manual for Cleaning Women.

>153 kidzdoc: A quick review of the literary fiction I read so far this year. I read 14 novels, only four of which were written by Americans. One was by A.J. Finn, a new-to-me mystery writer whose book was recommended to me by my husband. I read two books by Richard Powers because after I read the first book (which someone left in my Little Free Library) I was eager to read anything else by him! I also read one book by Julie Otsuka who is American but the books I've read by her have to do with the Japanese population in the U.S.

I read two book by Israeli authors, plus one book each by authors of the following nationalities: Turkish, Haitian, Swedish, German, Canadian, (Asian) Indian, Nigerian, and Japanese.

I guess I was right about "they seem to be mostly by foreign authors or immigrant Americans". :D

Book by authors of other cultures are simply more interesting for me to read. Why not read to learn instead of reading about things I already know?

My current read is by an American...Carson McCullers. :D

>156 arubabookwoman: Wow! I hadn't posted yet and am astounded to see that you also chose to read Richard Powers. His writing is amazing. I will read anything he writes despite his being American! :D I read Bewilderment and The Echo Maker. The Time of Our Singing was already on my wish list. :)

>155 ELiz_M: so maybe it’s more impression than reality

>156 arubabookwoman: >157 SqueakyChu: I read Richard Powers for the first time this year because of the 2021 Booker longlist. I enjoyed it. I also liked Patricia Lockwood’s book on that list (but don’t tell Darryl). And I’ve enjoyed Siri Hustvedt and Anne Patchett.

>155 ELiz_M: And I just realized that Darryl's member view shows the average rating of books, not _his_ rating so some of what I wrote does not apply....

>155 ELiz_M: I've taken a hit with Subdivision! I love weird fiction and this sounds terrific!

>149 dchaikin:, >151 kidzdoc: This is a fascinating question and I'm enjoying everyone's answers. I read relatively little "literary" fiction in general and rarely from the UK or US. Like Darryl I'm a fan of Sarah Moss, and on the US side I've enjoyed Kevin Wilson and Joyce Carol Oates (the latter not all the time; her work varies hugely in theme and appeal to me). I read and enjoy a fair amount of Japanese and Korean fiction, the plots of which might not appeal to me were they written by Western authors and set in Western countries. But then I also like a lot of Australian, NZ and Canadian writing. So maybe part of my preference is for some level of escapism or to experience different places? My reaction to reading the plot summaries of so many contemporary British novels is "why would I want to read that, it sounds like the sort of thing I overhear on the bus!"

I finished Treacle Walker by Alan Garner, another novel shortlisted for this year's Booker Prize, this morning, and I honestly don't know how to rate it. It was a short work of fantasy, which probably had less words than Small Things Like These, and while I enjoyed it far more than Oh William! it's not a book I understood well, or one that will stay with me for very long. I'll split the difference between my opinions of it being Booker Prize worthy and an enjoyable read, and give it 2½ stars.

My current Booker Prize longlist and shortlist rankings:

Longlist:
1. The Colony by Audrey Magee
2. The Trees by Percival Everett
3. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
4. Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley
5. Treacle Walker by Alan Garner
13. Oh William! by Elizabeth Stroud

Shortlist:
1. The Trees by Percival Everett
2. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
3. Treacle Walker by Alan Garner
6. Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout

I'll return this afternoon to reply to the great comments posted by everyone last night, as I have to exercise with Mom, then take her for a nice long drive.

"no contemporary American author is in the same league as them" Surely Colson Whitehead is worthy of that company. I would also submit that Jon Clinch is a powerful contender, as is Barbara Kingsolver (her socio/politcal obviousness can put people off, but many of the greats seem to have a "message").

>149 dchaikin: What is wrong with American authors?
I put a lot of blame on the (for now) Big Five publishing industry. Yes, they have some good imprints that publish good literary work, work in translation, work from marginalized voices. But they're mostly oriented to their own bottom line, which means big sales for large swaths of the U.S., celebrity book clubs, etc. It dumbs stuff down a lot, even if you're a genre reader to begin with.

Hey Darryl, I've been following along with the discussion on your thread for some time but haven't commented in awhile. I've been pondering what you said about American authors and awards. For my own reading, I tend to pay little attention to literary awards because they don't often highlight the types of books I enjoy reading: strong characterization, writing that's not clunky (this can run the gamut from moves the plot along to more poetic language, but generally once it's too clever and ALL about the writing with no plot, you've lost me once again), and enough of a plot to keep me interested in what's happening to the characters. I don't like anything... well, too much about the writing, if that makes sense, and I wonder if it's similar to your reaction to "MFA" type books.

I do tend to read a lot of books published in the last five years. I also read a bunch of genre books - fantasy, historical fiction, science fiction - and I do pay attention to awards like the Nebula and Hugo. I went through the books I've read this year that I categorized as General Fiction and written for adults. There were 17 titles (out of 90 in total), and ten of these were either first published outside of the U.S., or written by immigrants (whether to the U.S. or other countries). My favorite of the bunch was probably True Biz, written by a Deaf author about characters in a Deaf school, and though it was a Reese's Book Club pick, it probably won't win any awards. That's... kind of a fascinating way of breaking down my reading, actually, and I never thought of it before the discussion here. Anyway, all that to say though we read very differently from each other in genre, I wonder if in some way we aren't looking for similar things when we're reading, at least when it comes to more literary fiction.

By the way, in my reading up on new books at work today, I came across the Glass Bell longlist, an award that's given out by an independent book seller in the UK. I haven't read any of them (yet), but a few are on my TBR list and several look intriguing. I wonder what you think of these titles?

The longlists for this year's National Book Awards have been published.

Fiction:
When We Were Sisters by Fatimah Asghar (One World)
Shutter by Ramona Emerson (Soho Crime)
If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery (MCD)
The Rabbit Hutch by Tessa Gunty (Knopf)
The Birdcatcher by Gayl Jones (Beacon)
The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories by Jamil Jan Kochai (Viking)
All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews (Viking)
Nobody Gets Out Alive by Leigh Newman (Scribner)
Maria, Maria: & Other Stories by Marytza K. Rubio (Liveright)
The Town of Babylon by Alejandro Varela (Astra House)

Nonfiction:
Bright Unbearable Reality: Essays by Anna Badkhen (NYRB)
Ted Kennedy: A Life by John A. Farrell (Penguin)
Uncommon Measure: A Journey Through Music, Performance, and the Science of Time by Natalie Hodges (Bellevue)
Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands by Kelly Lytle Hernández (Norton)
The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness by Meghan O’Rourke (Riverhead)
South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry (Ecco)
Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus by David Quammen (Simon & Schuster)
The Man Who Could Move Clouds: A Memoir by Ingrid Rojas Contreras (Doubleday)
His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa (Viking)
Lost & Found: A Memoir by Kathryn Schulz (Random House)

Poetry:
Golden Ax by Rio Cortez (Penguin)
Look at This Blue by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke (Coffee House)
Still Life by Jay Hopler (McSweeney’s)
Punks: New & Selected Poems by John Keene (The Song Cave)
Balladz by Sharon Olds (Knopf)
Best Barbarian by Roger Reeves (Norton)
Mummy Eaters by Sherry Shenoda (University of Nebraska)
Duende by Quincy Troupe (Seven Stories)
As She Appears by Shelley Wong (YesYes)
The Rupture Tense by Jenny Xie (Graywolf)

Translated Literature:
Ibn Arabi's Small Death by Mohammed Hasan Alwan and translated from the Arabic by William M. Hutchins (Center for Middle Eastern Studies at University of Texas-Austin)
A New Name: Septology VI-VII by Jon Fosse and translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls (Transit)
Seasons of Purgatory by Shahriar Mandanipour and translated from the Persian by Sara Khalili (Bellevue)
Kibogo by Scholastique Mukasonga and translated from the French by Mark Polizzotti (Archipelago)
Jawbone by Mónica Ojeda and translated from the Spanish by Sarah Booker (Coffee House)
The Employees by Olga Ravn and translated from the Danish by Martin Aitken (New Directions)
Seven Empty Houses by Samanta Schweblin and translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell (Riverhead)
Where You Come from by Saša Stanišić and translated from the German by Damion Searls (Tin House)
Scattered All Over the Earth by Yoko Tawada and translated from the Japanese by Margaret Mitsutani (New Directions)
The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk and translated from the Polish by Jennifer Croft (Riverhead)

Young People’s Literature:
The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill (Algonquin)
The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen by Isaac Blum (Philomel)
A Thousand Steps into Night by Traci Chee (Clarion)
Swim Team by Johnnie Christmas (HarperAlley)
Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix by Anna-Marie McLemore (Feiwel and Friends)
The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes (HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray)
Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice by Tommie Smith, Derrick Barnes, and Dawud Anyabwile (Norton Young Readers)
All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir (Razorbill)
Lotus Bloom and the Afro Revolution by Sherri Winston (Bloomsbury)
Maizy Chen’s Last Chance by Lisa Yee (Random House)

Interesting conversation about reading writers from the USA. I read very few American books, and if I do, it's usually a memoir related to an area of interest. I checked my library, and in the past 5 years I've read 3 contemporary novels written by American authors: The Vanishing Half, 2020, which is written by an African American woman and I read it for book club; Portofino, 1992 (is that contemporary?), written by a white man, but one who grew up in Europe and it's a somewhat autobiographical novel based on his childhood in Europe; and When Life Gives You Lululemons, 2018, which I never would have read but it was a gift from my daughter and it was fun.

I agree that there is a CR topic for our question thread in this.

>155 ELiz_M: Thanks for your compilation, Liz. I'll have to do a deep dive into the books I've read since, say, 2010, to see what I come up with. That will be a project for the weekend, or sometime next week.

Thanks for recommending A Manual for Cleaning Women; I've added it to my online wish list in my local library system, for future reference. More importantly, thanks to you and others for reading between the lines of my posts from yesterday, and recommending novels and short story collections by American authors that I should read. That was an unspoken goal of mine.

Weird fiction is mostly miss for me, but I have read some fabulous books that fit that category, mostly by South American authors: The Obscene Bird of Night by José Donoso, Autonauts of the Cosmoroute by Julio Cortázar, and The Book of Chameleons by José Eduardo Agualusa come to mind immediately.

>156 arubabookwoman: Thanks for that great recommendation, Deborah! The Time of Our Singing sounds right up my alley, and I placed a hold on a copy of it from our county library system. It's en route to the library my mother and I belong to, and hopefully it will arrive tomorrow.

I fully expect that I am going to love William Faulkner's novels, based on the one I did read, As I Lay Dying, and because I'm a huge fan of Southern Gothic literature, with Carson McCullers and Flannery O'Connor being two of my five favorite American authors of fiction. I have all five volumes of The Library of America's collection of his novels, 20 in all, I think, and I intend to read one volume each year for the next five years.

I'm glad that you also recommended A Manual for Cleaning Women. That also sounds right up my alley, and I'll probably borrow it from the library after I finish the books I have or soon will borrow, Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo, and The Time of Our Singing.

>157 SqueakyChu: Thanks for sharing your breakdown of the books you've read so far this year, Madeline. I've read 46 books so far this year, including 24 novels, 7 by American writers, and 17 by non-Americans, including four from the UK, two from Argentina, two from Ireland, and one each from Canada, Tanzania, France, South Korea, Nigeria, Japan, the Netherlands, Senegal, and Guatemala. Of the seven American works of fiction, six by African American authors, and one by a White American, namely Oh William!, which I loathed.

Books by authors of other cultures are simply more interesting for me to read. Why not read to learn instead of reading about things I already know?

That is definitely part of the reason I prefer literature by non-Americans. My travels to Europe and the influences of my past and current LT friends are also major factors in what I like and choose to read.

My current read is by an American...Carson McCullers. :D

Yes!! I love her!! (For anyone not familiar with her, she was a White woman born in Georgia in 1917, and is one of the masters of Southern Gothic literature. Her début novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, is nothing short of astonishing, and it's the best début novel I've read so far.

I think my love and complete adoration for the works of Carson McCullers and Flannery O'Connor is, hopefully, proof that I'm not prejudiced against contemporary White American authors of fiction; it's just that the ones I've read so far have had little or nothing of worth to say in their books, IMO.

I own three books by Richard Powers: Bewilderment, which I didn't like when I read it last year, but I suspect that I read it during a difficult time, probably when my late father's health started to spiral downhill, and as a result I didn't give it a fair chance; Orfeo; and The Overstory, neither of which I've read yet. I look forward to reading The Time of Our Singing next month, and I do hope that I end up loving Richard Powers's works.

>158 dchaikin: I also liked Patricia Lockwood’s book on that list (but don’t tell Darryl).

Oh no, you didn't. And I thought that we were friends...

And I’ve enjoyed Siri Hustvedt and Anne Patchett.

I own The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt, but I haven't read it yet, and I read and liked State of Wonder by Ann Patchett. I would certainly be willing to read more of their works. Thanks, Dan; you have redeemed yourself.

Now that I think about it, I loved Great House by Nicole Krauss, which I wrote a glowing review about in 2013.

>159 ELiz_M: Ah. Thanks for that clarification, Liz.

>163 lisapeet: I put a lot of blame on the (for now) Big Five publishing industry.

You might have a point there. I do occasional book reviews for a local indie press, Santa Fe Writers Project* (sfwp.com), and their works are almost always excellent.

* This press has an interesting story for me. I won a book from LT Early Reviewer years ago. When I met the founder of SFWP, Andrew Gifford, I found out the the book I reviewed for LT had been written by his uncle! We chatted, became friends, and somehow I ended up getting his ARCs which I love to share with my Bookcrossing group now. :D

>157 SqueakyChu: Of the seven American works of fiction, six by African American authors, and one by a White American, namely Oh William!, which I loathed.

LOL! Stick to the Africa-American authors!

I think my love and complete adoration for the works of Carson McCullers and Flannery O'Connor...

I've yet to read a book by Flannery O'Connor even though I keep saving her books!

>160 Sakerfalcon: Thanks for your input, Claire. Surprisingly I own only one of the 58 books that Joyce Carol Oates has written, Black Girl/White Girl, which I haven't read yet, and I haven't heard of Kevin Wilson before, even though he is a son of the South. Which of his books would you recommend?

So maybe part of my preference is for some level of escapism or to experience different places?

I'll agree with that, to a degree. However, books set in the United States are still of great interest to me, especially works of non-fiction, but also a novel like Booth by Karen Joy Fowler, which is about the murderer of President Lincoln and his family.

>162 laytonwoman3rd: "no contemporary American author is in the same league as them" Surely Colson Whitehead is worthy of that company.

Not in my opinion, or at least not yet, Linda. My four favorite American authors of fiction, in current order, are James Baldwin, Carson McCullers, Flannery O'Connor, and Toni Morrison; the list is sharply demarcated after that, and I fully expect that William Faulkner will be in my top five before long. Colson Whitehead might be in the next five, along with Jesmyn Ward and Edwidge Danticat, but they aren't anywhere close to those five giants.

Thanks for mentioning Jon Clinch, as he is completely unfamiliar to me, and Barbara Kingsolver, especially since I loved the only book of hers I've read so far, The Lacuna.

>163 lisapeet: What is wrong with American authors?
I put a lot of blame on the (for now) Big Five publishing industry.

I completely agree. They seem to be overly focused on quantity (of books sold) over quality, although I would hope that things are getting better in that regard. I'm grateful for small US publishers such as Archipelago Books (although they only publish books in translation) and Bellevue Literary Press, whose books are of vastly greater literary merit, IMO.

>164 bell7: Hi, Mary! Thanks for your comments, and especially the one word you used which hit the nail on the head for me: clever. I think that's a great description of my view of contemporary American literature, which seems to originate from MFA programs, and this is also a major reason why I'm not fond of it. Jonathan Franzen, the Great American Novelist, comes to mind immediately. There was a time when American literature wasn't so clever or formulaic, just as there was a time when all R&B and pop singers didn't all sound the same. (Yes, I think I've just stamped myself as an old fogie.)

though we read very differently from each other in genre, I wonder if in some way we aren't looking for similar things when we're reading, at least when it comes to more literary fiction.

Yes! You're absolutely right. The British label books they especially love as cracking good reads, which is not limited to genre, and I think that's what is missing in much of contemporary American literature.

Thanks for mentioning the Glass Bell Award. That's a prize that I had not heard of before, and I'm completely unfamiliar with Goldsboro Books, even though it's on a side street close to Charing Cross Road in Covent Garden, an area that I'm moderately familiar with. I'll take a closer look at this year's longlisted titles soon, but I did see that The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr., which I own and plan to get to before the end of the year, was included.

>166 Nickelini: I read very few American books, and if I do, it's usually a memoir related to an area of interest.

Good point, Joyce. I have thoroughly enjoyed the memoirs by American authors I've read recently, including Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement by my late congressman, John Lewis, Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir by Natasha Trethewey, and My Broken Language: A Memoir by Quiara Alegría Hudes, which each earned at least 4½ stars from me.

Hi Darryl. I'm just popping in to add my enthusiastic agreement regarding A Manual for Cleaning Women. It's one of the best books I read last year. Also, I note that you have Louise Erdrich's The Sentence lined up for reading, but, unless I missed it, no one has mentioned her in the conversation of contemporary American novelists. Have Paul Beatty or James McBride been mentioned? I also thought An American Marriage by Tayari Jones was very good.

Looking through my reading lists over the past few years, I don't find much in the way of contemporary American writers to recommend here otherwise. I thought Deni Ellis Béchard's novel, White, about race identity in Africa, was very good. He was born in Canada, though. Wikipedia identifies him as "Canadian-American," so I don't know if that counts. George Dawes Green's first novel, The Caveman's Valentine, was quite good (published way back in 1994), I thought, and I see that he's published four novels all told, including this year's The Kingdoms of Savannah, but I don't know anything about it, although the short LT description makes it look interesting. It has 14 LT reviews and an average rating of 4.1, for whatever that's worth.

And that's pretty much it for me, in terms of novels written by still living American authors that I feel are worth recommending here. I do read a lot of non-fiction, however, and also less contemporary fiction than most folks here, I guess, so that narrows down the field for me.

eta: I just thought of another contemporary American author I recommend: Paul Auster.

>171 rocketjk: I read a Paul Auster novel last year and thought it was terrific ( The Book of Illusions)

>167 kidzdoc: glad we’re still friends 🙂

American writers are now third on my 2022 list, mainly because of Robert Jordan and David Eddings, as I finished two fantasy series this year: The Wheel of Time and The Belgariad (both 5 books).
Of the others I liked John Irving (Hotel New Hampshire), and E. Annie Proulx (The Shipping News). My favorite was James Baldwin (If Beale Street Could Talk).
Other American writers I have enjoyed in the past are John Steinbeck, and Richard Powers. I haven't read any Faulkner yet.

Always nice to have a good excuse to check my stats for the year, I am reading mostly European books in Dutch translation.
Number of books per country: The Netherlands: 62; UK: 37; USA: 26; France: 19; Italy: 14; Sweden: 14; Norway: 7; Australia, Spain and Germany: 6; Austria, Belgium and Russia: 5; Poland and Turkey: 3; China, Hungary, Iceland and Japan: 2; Afghanistan, Croatia, Danmark, Greece, India, Ireland, Israel, Peru, Portugal, Slovakia, Switserland, and Suriname: 1.

The best fiction books I have read this year are Fado Alexandrino, and The Island of Second Sight.

Another fan of A Manual for Cleaning Women here. Mine was a library copy and I feel like I read it too quickly—that it's a good collection to sample a story or two at a time—so I may end up getting a copy of my own to reread at some point.

Octavia Butler? Madeline Miller?

>172 dchaikin: I've read a few of Auster's novels, but The Book of Illusions is the one I've read most recently and I, too, thought it was excellent.

>174 lisapeet: I agree with your assessment that A Manual for Cleaning Women is most effectively read a story or two at a time. I read it that way, and each time I stepped back into Berlin's acutely rendered, bittersweet world, I felt like it was a journey very much worth taking, even when the subject matter was frustrating and/or sad.

>164 bell7: I taught children who are deaf or HOH for 35 years, would loveto read True Biz. Do you have a connection with the Deaf community? seems the controversies never go away and actually become more complex as time goes by. Will be interested in reading that!

>167 kidzdoc: cant wait to hear what you think of time of our singing!

Most of my life Ive read American or English lit, with translated works now and again popping up. Its in the last 5 years or so that Ive read more translated works and now I find myself bored with the books that our modern lit book group is choosing tho I did manage to sneak in wrong end of the telescope for November, my month.

Oh and I have Blazing World and for some reason haven't read it. thanks for the reminder

>162 laytonwoman3rd: "no contemporary American author is in the same league as them

I saw this quote out of context and not sure who the 'them' is here. Clarify pls?

>177 cindydavid4: not a personal connection, but I started out in college with a Deaf studies concentration and took ASL some 20 years ago. At the age of 20, I was too afraid of messing up to become an interpreter. But I love the language and have an interest in the community. Well worth a read, I think!

>170 kidzdoc: I'll be interested in your thoughts on The Prophet, Darryl, that's one on my TBR list. I've never read anything by Jonathan Franzen and can't say I really want to, either.

>179 bell7: what got you interested in Deaf Studies? oh I could never be an interpreter; you have to be so focused not to lose the thread of whats going on. People think because I teach then I should interpret. A dear friend of mine asked me to be the interpreter at her wedding and was very upset that I bowed out. "but you are always signing" yes, to my students. Trying to keep track of it all in front of an audience, um nol

>167 kidzdoc: The Overstory is excellent and well worth your time. I know there are always more books to read but I thought Bewilderment was good even if it never reached the heights of The Overstory and worth a retry in my opinion.

I've been enjoying this discussion about American contemporary authors! I don't have many White male contemporary authors that I am drawn to, of any country of origin, and I would say at least 80% of contemporary fiction that I read is written by women. Off the top of my head, these are American authors I've recently enjoyed and recommend.

Eowyn Ivey
Marilynne Robinson
Barbara Kingsolver
Ann Patchett
Madeline Miller
Siri Hustvedt
Ottessa Moshfegh
Yaa Gyasi
Rebecca Makkai

I also read a healthy amount of classics and am content to read new books either for entertainment or to expand my current world view. That may be why I rarely read novels by white American men. I pretty much know their story already. ;-)

You have a great discussion going here, Darryl. Regarding the Booker list - I was surprised that The Colony did not make the shortlist. It's one of my favorite reads this year. I loved Small Things Like These and that is my current favorite. I was underwhelmed by Oh! William; I think Strout should be done with Lucy Barton.

Regarding American writers: Jennifer has some good ones on her list. I will read anything by Kingsolver and Hustvedt. Other authors I admire are Michael Chabon, Louise Erdrich, and Jennifer Egan.

Wow! Thanks for this amazing response, y'all! I'm thoroughly enjoying this discussion, and very pleased that no one has gotten their knickers in a twist — including me.

>168 SqueakyChu: I do occasional book reviews for a local indie press, Santa Fe Writers Project* (sfwp.com), and their works are almost always excellent.

That's great, Madeline. I'm convinced that small presses, and independent bookshops, will save us from mass commercialization and the Big Five's tendency to overly promote mediocre but popular fiction writers.

>169 SqueakyChu: LOL! Stick to the African-American authors!

Umm...no. I don't want to limit my reading of contemporary American literature in that way, and a major goal of my series of posts was to get recommendations from this thoughtful and well read group, which has happened.

I've yet to read a book by Flannery O'Connor even though I keep saving her books!

O'Connor is probably my favorite American writer of short stories, and her collection A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories is absolutely brilliant. I also loved her début novel, Wise Blood.

On a side note, I just picked another 1½ lb of figs from one of our three trees, considerably less than the 2 lb 10.8 oz of figs I harvested last Thursday but still a lot, which makes a total of 6½ lb of fruit in the past 9 days, and there are probably more than 100 green and light brown unripe figs in various stages of development; the other two green fig trees have only produced two or three figs all summer. I bought a pack of 16 6 oz Mason jars from Amazon earlier this week, and since I already have about three pounds of figs in my refrigerator I'll make another batch of Fig Jam with Rosemary today or tomorrow.

The first batch of jam I made on Monday turned out great:





Here's the recipe, from Yewande Komolafe of NYT Cooking:

Ingredients: (Yield: 3 to 4 cups)

2 pounds fresh ripe figs, stemmed and chopped (about 6 cups)
4 large sprigs fresh rosemary (wrapped and tied in cheesecloth)
2 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons lemon zest (from about 4 lemons)
¼ cup lemon juice (from 1 to 2 lemons), plus more to taste
½ teaspoon kosher salt (Diamond Crystal), plus more to taste

Preparation:

Step 1: Place the figs in a 4-quart heavy-bottomed pot. Pour in 1½ cups water and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the figs soften and the liquid begins to thicken, about 10 minutes.

Step 2: Add the rosemary and sugar, and stir until the sugar dissolves. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring frequently, until the syrup thickens, the figs are mostly broken down and the jam goes from a rapid boil to slow bubbles, about 25 minutes. Remove and discard the rosemary.

Step 3: Stir in the lemon zest and juice and kosher salt. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for another minute for a runnier jam or up to 8 minutes if you prefer a thicker jam. Taste and adjust with more lemon juice and salt as needed. (Adding lemon juice will thin the jam, but it does thicken as it cools.) The jam should be sweet and tart with a hint of fresh rosemary.

Step 4: Transfer to sterilized jars and can, or cool to room temperature, then store in the refrigerator for up to 4 weeks.
_______________________________________

I've learned to read the Comments following each recipe, and the reader who received the most likes said that she only used 1¼ cups of sugar, as her figs are "sugar bombs". The same is true of ours, and I followed her lead, which I'm very glad I did, as the jam would have been sickeningly sweet if I used 2 cups of sugar. I also followed the reader's suggestion to cook the figs for 20 minutes in Step 1; otherwise I followed the recipe exactly. I had never made jam before, but I was very pleased by the taste of my first attempt.

Jealous of your beautiful figs. We planted a cutting a couple years ago, and this summer it was hammered by our lovely Houston weather topped with a (80-miles-from-the-Gulf) drought. It’s still green, sprouting some new leaves, but no figs.

>171 rocketjk: Thanks for recommending A Manual for Cleaning Women, Jerry. I'll probably borrow it from my local library before the end of the year, as I may get started on this year's National Book Award for Fiction longlist after I finish the Booker Prize shortlist.

I've only read one of Louise Erdrich's novels so far, The Plague of Doves, which I enjoyed. I'll definitely read The Sentence next month, for the October read of the Literary Fiction by Authors of Color group in Goodreads, and I'll almost certainly seek out more of her work. I loathed The Sellout by Paul Beatty, the worst winner of the Booker Prize since I've followed the award, so I'm not encouraged to read anything else by him. I do like what little I've read by James McBride so far, namely...wait a minute...have I read anything by him? My LT library says no, although I do own copies of The Good Lord Bird and Deacon King Kong. I'm pretty sure that I brought my copies of both books with me from Atlanta, and I'll try to get to one of them, probably Deacon King Kong, before the end of the year. I really need to get to An American Marriage; Tayari Jones is from Atlanta, and I attended her talk about the book at the Decatur Book Festival just outside of Atlanta several years ago, along with Kay (@RidgewayGirl) and her friend Patti, which was very good.

Thanks for those additional author recommendations. I plan to compile their names, and use this as a reading goal for next year, "American Novelists Recommended by Members of Club Read."

>172 dchaikin: Thanks, Dan. I was surprised to see that I own five books by Paul Auster, only one of which I've read so far, The Brooklyn Follies. I also have The Invention of Solitude, Man in the Dark, The New York Trilogy, and 4 3 2 1.

>173 FAMeulstee: Thanks, Anita! I have enjoyed several of John Irving's novels, which I probably read in the 1980s and certainly well before I joined LibraryThing, as my LT library doesn't list any of his books. I think I read Hotel New Hampshire, but I'm not sure. I'm glad to see that you're also fond of Richard Powers; the copy of The Time of Our Singing I requested from my local library system is "In Transit" to the branch that my mother and I belong to, so hopefully it will arrive later today so that I can pick it up.

That's a great breakdown of your reading for the year so far. I'm pleased that Fado Alexandrino is one of your favorites, as António Lobo Antunes is one of my favorite writers, and I own a copy of that novel.

>174 lisapeet: I'll definitely have to read A Manual for Cleaning Women soon! Thanks, Lisa.

>175 labfs39: Octavia Butler? Madeline Miller?

Great recommendations, Lisa. I haven't read anything by Octavia Butler yet, and I'm shocked that I don't own anything by her yet. I'm sure that at least one of the library systems I'm a member of (Bucks Country Free Libraries, Free Library of Philadelphia, Fulton County Public Libraries (Atlanta)) will have plenty of her works. I loved The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, and even though my LT library says otherwise, I'm all but certain that I also own a copy of Circe.

>176 rocketjk: I'll be sure to read A Manual for Cleaning Women and The Book of Illusions next year.

>177 cindydavid4: Nice, Cindy!

>178 cindydavid4: Will do! I'll probably read The Time of Our Singing next month.

Most of my life Ive read American or English lit, with translated works now and again popping up. Its in the last 5 years or so that Ive read more translated works and now I find myself bored with the books that our modern lit book group is choosing

I share your sentiment on translated literature vs American literature, Cindy. That comparison will be part of my deep dive into my reading during the 2010s and 2020s, but I also want to look at fiction and short story collections written in English by writers outside of the United States.

>162 laytonwoman3rd: laytonwoman3rd: "no contemporary American author is in the same league as them

I saw this quote out of context and not sure who the 'them' is here. Clarify pls?

Them is James Baldwin, Carson McCullers, Flannery O'Connor and Toni Morrison, my four favorite American writers.

>179 bell7: Well done on study ASL, Mary. That was something I wanted to do, and I seem to remember taking or sitting in on an introductory class at some point in the distant past, but not being able to continue due to a busy schedule.

I'll definitely let you know what I think about The Prophets.

I was turned off by Jonathan Franzen after the mega hype he was given in advance of his novel Freedom in 2010; you may remember that he appeared on the front cover of TIME that year, with the headline Great American Novelist. I did read Freedom, as I bought into the hype, and I was thoroughly disappointed by it. That may have been the beginning of my progressive disillusionment with contemporary American literature, as it coincided with the beginnings of my travels to Europe, and the increase in the literature I was reading from abroad.

>181 Oberon: Thanks, Erik. I do want to read The Overstory, and give Bewilderment a fair chance.

>182 japaul22: Thanks for those recommendations, Jennifer! I think I own at least one book by each of them, except for Eowyn Ivey.

I don't have many White male contemporary authors that I am drawn to, of any country of origin, and I would say at least 80% of contemporary fiction that I read is written by women.

I'm certainly reading a lot more books by women authors, thanks in large part to the influence of past and current members of LT, most notably Lois, the late Rebecca, my past "book sister", and Rachael (@FlossieT), who has become my current "book sister", as she has an uncanny sense for recommending books to me that I end up loving; Bodies of Light by Sarah Moss, The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, and Life After Life by Kate Atkinson come to mind immediately. There is a very good chance that this will be the first year I'll read more books by women than men; at the moment 25 of the 46 books I've read were written by women, and I've read just as many works of fiction by women (12) than men, although only two of the seven American novels I've read were written by men. I'm not trying to do that intentionally, but I'm very pleased that it has turned out that way so far.

ETA: I've only read two contemporary novels by White male authors that I liked, Autumn Rounds by Jacques Poulin (Canada), and The Search Warrant by Patrick Modiano (France), and I am a fan of the works of Ian McEwan, J.M.G. Le Clézio, and J.M. Coetzee.

>183 BLBera: Thanks, Beth. I completely agree with you about The Colony; it's certainly the best novel I've read this year, and I'm not sure I enjoyed a contemporary work of fiction in the past couple of years more than it. I'll definitely want to read her previous novel, The Undertaking, in the not too distant future. Small Things Like These was also superb, and although I want The Trees to win the Booker Prize I would not be at all upset if Claire Keegan's novella came out on top.

I'm glad that I'm not the only one who was disappointed by Oh William!.

Thanks for those recommendations. I want to read Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon, since I lived in that city for four years during medical school, and I'll have to give Jennifer Egan a try.

>185 dchaikin: You're in good company, Dan; quite a few of my non-LT friends are also jealous of my massive fig harvest. I didn't think this was going to be a good year for them, due to our excessive heat and relative dearth of rain, but the tree on the side of our house has gone absolutely bonkers, whereas the two on the side of the shed in our backyard have done literally nothing. This doesn't happen every year; IIRC this is the first time since 2017 that we've experienced Fig Madness.

I hope that your fig tree does better next year.

>184 kidzdoc: Gorgeous figs! Do you go through the whole canning process? I used to can when I had more time and was more ambitious... I probably should do it again, if only to have pickled beets in the house (for a few minutes until I eat them all).

>181 Oberon: I just listened to a good episode of the Ezra Klein show with Richard Powers talking about The Overstory and Bewilderment, and even though those are both on my pile that conversation (and this one) bumped them up a few virtual feet.

>186 kidzdoc: "I loathed The Sellout by Paul Beatty, the worst winner of the Booker Prize since I've followed the award, so I'm not encouraged to read anything else by him. I do like what little I've read by James McBride so far, namely...wait a minute...have I read anything by him? My LT library says no, although I do own copies of The Good Lord Bird and Deacon King Kong. I'm pretty sure that I brought my copies of both books with me from Atlanta, and I'll try to get to one of them, probably Deacon King Kong, before the end of the year."

I'd love to read your more detailed reactions to The Sellout. I won't ask you to repeat them here, but do you have a review posted on a prior thread of yours that you could point me to? Or is your review on the book's Reviews section?

Regarding McBride, I have yet to read any of his novels, though my wife's book group read Deacon King Kong recently and she loved it. If you are looking into his work, however, I strongly recommend his family memoir, The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother. That work has quite a lot of emotional value to me. My mother, who was a literature major in college, played a huge role in ensuring my love for reading at an early age. When I became an adult, she frequently recommended books to me, and I almost always enjoyed them. The Color of Water was the last book she recommended to me. Neither of us realized that she would soon be hobbled by dementia that would make it impossible for her to concentrate on any sort of reading. I know you can relate to that. But, at any rate, my personal story aside, it is a fabulous memoir. Possibly the most resonant I've ever read.

>178 cindydavid4: See >153 kidzdoc: above.

got it, thanks!

>189 lisapeet: Thanks, Lisa. This is the first time that I've made jam or canned fruit, so I'm quite the novice. I had a nice conversation with one of my closest neighbors yesterday morning, who does can fruits and vegetables, and she told me how I should prepare the next batch of fig jam that I make.

>190 rocketjk: Sorry, Jerry; I thought that I had written a scathing review of The Sellout, but I didn't. I don't remember it well enough to comment in detail, but I remember gritting my teeth on numerous occasions while reading it. I do own two other novels by Paul Beatty, Slumberland and The White Boy Shuffle, but I haven't read either one yet.

I started reading The Color of Water years ago, probably during my third or fourth year of medical school, when I had very little time to read for pleasure, and I'm sure that I didn't finish it. My copy of it is probably still in Atlanta.

>193 kidzdoc: Well before I started to seek out books by African Americans to read, I read The Color of Water because James McBride's mom was Jewish. I was in my reading Jewish/Israeli books phase. :) I remember that the author was doing the circuit of Jewish book festivals. :) Anyway, I read that book back in 2000 (before LT!). Wow! That was a while ago! In the review I wrote at the time, I called his book "candid" and heartwarming".

I listened to The Color of Water as an audiobook. and I was mesmerized. I am blanking on the name of the narrator; google tells me it's someone called JD Jackson but that is not who narrated the version I heard. The narrator I heard was an actor who starred in as a doctor in a tv medical drama. Anyhow, his voice was perfect for this book and it was one of those where I didn't want to get out of the car!

>195 jessibud2: I think Andre Braugher did an audio version of The Color of Water, but I don't remember him playing a doctor...a police detective, but not a doctor.

>193 kidzdoc: oh we read Color of Water in our book group and I remember being rather uncomfortable with it. Dont remember why now,but whatever it was put me off enough that I sort of forgot about it.
Should check again and see what my problem was

>196 laytonwoman3rd: = That's him! Thank you. I hate when I can't remember something! I didn't watch much tv back then but I may have caught a few episodes. I remember him being a single father of 3, and juggling that with his professional career. I thought doctor but you are probably right. My memory is flawed. In any case, he had a voice I could listen to reading the phone book! :-)

When I first moved to Alabama I made a batch of fig jam and it was delicious. Some friends of mine had a tree in their yard and hated it because the fruit attracted "bugs." I loved the fruit and the results. These friends have moved on and so I don't have access to the tree anymore. However, I found figs at the Publix grocery store two weeks ago and made a fantastic fig salad from an America's Test Kitchen recipe. It would have been even better if the figs were just a bit firmer than they were. Fully ripe figs don't hold their shape in a salad as well, but boy of boy was that salad delicious.

I finished Picasso's War: How Modern Art Came to America, late last night, and it was compelling and very educational, definitely a 5 star read. Next up is Black and British: A Forgotten History by David Olusoga, a book I've been meaning to read for a while, which I intend to finish by the end of the month; I'll also watch the four part BBC Two series that is based on the book. I'll resume reading Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo, and start The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, the final book from this year's Booker Prize shortlist I haven't read, after I finish Glory.

>194 SqueakyChu:, >195 jessibud2:, >196 laytonwoman3rd:, >197 cindydavid4:, >198 jessibud2: Thanks for all the love for The Color of Water. I'll plan to borrow and read it next year.

>199 benitastrnad: Sounds good, Benita.

>184 kidzdoc: figs....jam....swoon

Also, you might be interested in this from Pitt:
https://pittsburgh.imodules.com/controls/email_marketing/view_in_browser.aspx?

>201 tangledthread: I made another batch of Fig Jam with Rosemary yesterday and, in the process, learned how to (hopefully) properly can them. My cousin Tina from Michigan, who is visiting us this week, will get two jars, I gave one to my best friend from high school yesterday, and we'll keep the other one.

I couldn't open that link from Pitt.

>202 kidzdoc: It sounds as if you're still having such fun with your figs. My husband brought home some figs from a neighbor's tree, but not enough to make jam. Those figs are so beautiful. They are bright green on the outside and bright red on the inside. If I sit them on the counter for a few days, they become very sweet. I have no room to plant a fig tree. I asked my older son who loves near us if we could plant a fig tree on his property. He said no. :D

I'm still gathering pawpaws, but there are very few still attached to the tree. I harvest them from the ground to be sure they are ripe eough. However, last night some creature stole the largest bunch of pawpaws from the tree and absconded with them, leaving me only the branch to which they were attached! :( There is one bunch left high in the tree. There are also two down low which I boxed up in a plastic clamshell to keep scoundrel animals away from them. :D

Pawpaws are a precious commodity here. I went foraging in the neighborhood park, but people and animals have completely stripped all the pawpaw trees of all their fruit. They are as precious as gold here. I have the pulp from thsoe I've harvested in the freezer to use for pawpaw bread or for pawpaw ice cream.

>203 SqueakyChu: Boo!! on your son for refusing to let you plant a fig tree on his property!

I don't think I've ever seen or eaten pawpaws, or seen a pawpaw tree.

cue Jungle Book the orginal disney movie. Love that song the bare necessities

>205 cindydavid4: Ah...right!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dhSdnDb3tk

I grew up in a row house in Philadelphia. An Italian man, Luigi Mancini, up the street grew a fig tree in his tiny backyard. He loved that fig tree. He wrapped it in the winter to keep it safe from the elements.

Here in Northern California, we have delicious figs in season. We have a small potted tree on our deck, in fact, which will probably be ready for transplanting soon. My wonderful wife, Stephanie, made a batch of fig jam (not from that tree, though, as the fruit's not quite edible, yet) a few years back. She used some of that last night for the traditional Rosh Hashana meal she prepared for us, putting the fig jam into the delicious crumble she baked for dessert. Yum! (We also had a yummy pot roast, plus a tsimmis* of locally grown turnips, carrots and onions. The non-traditional flavor was a wonderful gazpacho blended with tomatoes and cucumber from our garden.)

* Basically a vegetable stew, with about as many variations as there are grains of sand. Steph baked hers in with the pot roast.

Here's the fig dessert!

>208 rocketjk: We had figs for Rosh Hashana, too, last night. The figs were from a neighbor's tree. Figs always remind me of Israeli fruit (along with dates and pomegranates).

This year was a Rosh Hashana challenge as my husband is on a low sodium diet. The tradtional matzo ball soup was so bland, I'll probably try another soup next year. It was embarrassing to serve. No more brisket either (due to diet restrictions - high cholesterol and gout) so we were down to roast chicken (which was wonderful) as we cant' take the sodium out of kosher chicken (which is brined to kasher it). :D I made a bean salad with most green and purple beans from our CSA box...but a few from our own garden. My freind brought a roasted root veggies platter. My four-year-old granddaughter was trying to identify those vegetables but she drew the line at the beets. "No, beets!" She complained. She did enjoy the pomegranates, though, slying putting the seeds she spit out on my wooden table as she watched her brother doing something else.

To my chagrin, my husband doesn't like any tzimmes as he does not like sweet vegetables which I adore. Heh! The root vegetables my friend brought had been made with honey. Plus I used a whole cup of honey in my annual chocolate chip honey cake. :D He ate the cake with gusto!

Do you think I could keep a fig tree in a pot forever or would it eventually need to be planted? We have not enough sun for a large fig tree as we have several towering trees covering our tiny yard here in Maryland.

Shana tova u'metukah! (Happy and sweet New Year!)

"Do you think I could keep a fig tree in a pot forever or would it eventually need to be planted? We have not enough sun for a large fig tree as we have several towering trees covering our tiny yard here in Maryland."

My wife is the horticulture expert in our house, so I'm not sure, but a quick online search of "potted fig tree" came up with this website. They don't specify, exactly, but the implication here is that a fig tree can be maintain in the pot indefinitely. Others here may have better info, though.

https://pottedfig.com/fig-care/

Sounds like you had a wonderful holiday meal, limitations notwithstanding. And, by the way, I can't eat beets, either. I've never gotten over the aversion to them that stemmed from my mother's forcing me to eat canned beats, a.k.a. shoe leather, when I was a lad.

>207 dianeham: the island of missing trees read for the Asian challenge talks about protecting the tree like that.

>208 rocketjk: L'shana Tova!

>209 SqueakyChu: mmmmm tzimmes!!! And luchen kugel and honey cake and round challa (withot the raisins!) and definitely mazha ball soup. tho this year because I was having sugery that week, we met up in the morning for a pre holiday brunch, with most of the usual food

being on restricted diet myself, I do understand Im chomping at the bit for a hamburger, pizza, gyro...3 more weeks.

Shana tova u'metukah! (Happy and sweet New Year!)and to you and yours, to everyone celebrating!

>213 cindydavid4: >214 cindydavid4: Shana tova, Cindy! I wait for Break-the-Fast to serve lokshen kugel (noodle pudding). My round challah had raisins. The problem with the ones I made this year is that they weren't baked all the way through, and the rest of the family started eating the raw part. I was horrified. They loved it and lived through that experience. LOL! Hope all went well with your surgery.

Psst...Darryl, there are so many more Jewish foods you need to make! :D

hee we always had both kinds of challah to meet the taste bud needs of everyone. When I was a kid, we used to break the fast with bagels, lox and cream cheese as well as white fish and other deli delights.

We still use my moms settlement cookbook for these recipes tho have had to make some changes to make them somewhat more healthy. Still delish

>215 SqueakyChu: I always bake andes mint brownies for family gatherings. This time I hadn't cooked them enough and everyone said they liked these the best! go figure

the surgery is a success and much less painful than I thought it would be; down to one dose a day of the liquid tylenol so I might be able to switch to the regular kind soon (Darry, sorry for hijacking your post!)

Whoa! My thread has exploded in the past 24 hours!

>207 dianeham: That's nice about your neighbor in Philadelphia, Diane. My neighbor and I trim our three fig trees significantly in late autumn, although this past year we didn't wrap them. The two trees in our backyard flourished in the sense that they produced beautiful leaves and plenty of small green figs, but only a couple of them have matured so far, but the tree on the side of our house, which produces brown figs, has gone absolutely bonkers, and has probably produced more figs this year than it ever has. I'll go outside shortly, and take photos of the trees, as I haven't harvested ripe figs in several days.

>208 rocketjk: Shanah Tovah, Jerry! I'm glad that it's the height of fig season in Northern California. Your Rosh Hashanah meal sounds fabulous! I've never had tzimmes before, so I'll have to find a recipe and give it a try sometime. I cooked several main dishes last week, namely ratatouille, crawfish étouffée, and a new favorite, rigatoni arrabbiata with burrata and sautéed shrimp, along with another batch of fig jam with rosemary, and we ordered take out from my favorite restaurant in the Delaware Valley on Sunday, so I may not cook anything until next week.

That fig crumble looks delightful! That reminds me...I don't think I posted a photo and the recipe of the fig oat bars I made last week. I'll do so shortly, along with the rigatoni arrabbiata.

>209 SqueakyChu: Shanah Tovah, Madeline! I'm glad that you also enjoyed figs on Sunday. That's tough to have to make significant adjustments to what you cook for your husband, and I commend you for doing so. I'm glad that I only have to dial down the hot spices (cayenne pepper, hot sauce, etc.) for my mother, as I'm not willing to leave out what I consider to be essential ingredients, especially onions, when I cook. Our good neighbor is intolerant to onions, and my late father had a problem eating foods with large slices of onion, but whenever I left it out the dishes tasted intolerably bland.

Mmm...matzo ball soup. I'll definitely make a batch soon, using the Mexicanized version with chicken thighs, mushrooms, cilantro and jalapeño peppers that I've been making for several years. I received an email from NYT Cooking earlier this morning which included a link to the staff's favorite soups, so I'll start making some of them next month.

16 Soups Our Food Staff Cooks on Repeat

Do you think I could keep a fig tree in a pot forever or would it eventually need to be planted?

I have no idea! Our fig trees are huge, even when trimmed, so there is no way they would fit inside the house.

>210 rocketjk: Thanks for answering the fig tree question, Jerry.

Beets are definitely not to everyone's liking! My good friend Joe Welch (@jnwelch) from the 75 Books club also despises them. I love beets, and I even liked canned beets as a child, but I still hate yellow turnips. The only vegetables I won't eat, in addition to turnips, are broccoli, which doesn't agree with my gastrointestinal tract, and mirlitons. I love broccolini, though, as I can digest it without difficulty.

>215 SqueakyChu: Psst...Darryl, there are so many more Jewish foods you need to make!

Right, Madeline! I've only made matzo ball soup and an Indian version of shakshuka, Indian Spiced Tomato and Egg Casserole, so far.

>217 cindydavid4: I'm glad that your surgery was successful, Cindy.

Hi Darryl! Great discussions going on here!

I remember that Mom received fresh figs from a California friend back when I was a child. I'll have to see if I can find some in stores - I suspect they will be $$$$$ here in Montana. A fig tree in a pot is an interesting idea, even if it only produced a few figs a year.

>218 kidzdoc: Here's the tsimmis my wife made. You see it here not quite in it's native environment, as my wife cooked it together with the pot roast so the juices would combine. Here, the tsimmis has been moved into it's own bowl, as the leftovers of the pot roast have been frozen so that we can use them to break our fast after Yom Kippur. So it doesn't look quite as good there as it actually is. Carrots, turnips and onions, all from a local farm stand.

These are the Four Ingredient Oat Bars I made on Friday, using the Fig Jam with Rosemary I made the day before:



Four Ingredient Oat Bars

Ingredients:
2 medium ripe bananas, peeled and sliced
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1½ cups rolled oats
3/4 cup thick preserves of choice

Instructions:
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• Line an 8-inch square rimmed baking pan with parchment paper.
• To make the dough, put the bananas and the vanilla extract in a large bowl and mash into a chunky purée, using a potato masher.
• Add the oats and stir with a large spoon to thoroughly combine.
• Press half of the dough mixture into the prepared pan in an even layer.
• Spread the preserves in an even layer, over the dough.
• Top with the remaining dough, patting it down gently, into an even layer.
• Bake for 22 to 25 minutes, or until the edges are golden.
• Put the pan on a wire rack and let cool 15 minutes.
• Cut the “cake” into 9 bars, using a serrated knife, wiping the knife clean often.
• Carefully lift the bars out of the pan, and set them on the wire rack.
• Let the bars cool for 10 to 20 minutes before serving.
• Wrapped tightly and refrigerated, leftover bars will keep up to 2 days (they can last considerably longer than that!).

This is the Rigatoni Arrabbiata with Burrata and Sautéed Shrimp that I made for lunch on Saturday:



Rigatoni Arrabbiata with Burrata

Ingredients:
1 lb (454 g) rigatoni
2 (28 oz) cans peeled San Marzano tomatoes, whole
1/4 cup (60 ml) extra virgin olive oil
1 small yellow onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 tbsp red pepper flakes, plus more to taste
16 basil leaves, torn
1 tsp fine sea salt, plus more to taste
8 oz (226 g) burrata cheese

Instructions:
• Place the tomatoes in a large bowl and crush them with your hands until only small chunks are left. Set aside.
• In a large dutch oven or pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat.
• Add the onion, stirring occasionally until translucent. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes, stirring until fragrant (a few seconds).
• Add the tomatoes to the pot, stir, and bring to a simmer.
• Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 45 minutes. This helps to thicken the sauce and allows the flavors to blend together. Stir occasionally.
• About 15-20 minutes before the sauce is done, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta until al dente according to package instructions.
• Before draining, reserve 1/4 cup pasta water. Drain.
• Add the basil, salt, and 1-2 tbsp pasta water to the sauce. If it’s too thick, add a bit more pasta water.
• Add the rigatoni and toss until coated with the arrabbiata sauce.
• Let the pasta cook into the sauce on low heat for 1-3 minutes.
• Top with fresh basil, crushed red pepper flakes, and burrata cheese. Enjoy!

Notes:
• If you like your sauce a bit thicker, simmer it longer than 45 minutes.
• If you’re adding extra vegetables, cook them with the onion and garlic. For spinach, toss it in with the basil and stir until wilted.

>220 streamsong: I hope that you're able to find figs locally, Janet.

>221 rocketjk: Your wife's tsimmis looks good, Jerry!

Now I'm hungry all of a sudden. I'll heat up a bowl of the Cajun salmon alfredo I bought from my favorite Delaware Valley restaurant on Sunday.

>223 kidzdoc: Beautiful! You've come a long way with your culinary arts, Darryl.

>225 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks, Linda! I'm very pleased with how the rigatoni turned out. I'm still learning to cook and experimenting with new recipes, which lately are coming from my friends' Facebook timelines, as was the case with these last two.

>222 kidzdoc: & >223 kidzdoc: Recipes copied, pasted and saved! Thanks.

>227 rocketjk: You're welcome, Jerry!

>224 kidzdoc: what is your favorite Delaware valley restaurant?

>216 cindydavid4: We do the lox and bagels thing as well to break the fast and would NEVER skip the whitefish salad. That's what makes the meal! :D

>217 cindydavid4: Would you share your andes mint brownies recipe?

>218 kidzdoc: Thank you so much, Darryl, for teh Rosh Hashana greetings. It's been a lovely holiday so far. On day one of Rosh Hashana, my friend Barbara came to visit. Today was the first time I attended synagogue in real life since the onset of pandemic. Attendance was sparse, but it was good to be there.

whenever I left it out the dishes tasted intolerably bland.

I feel the same way about salt and matzo ball soup. I'm either going to have to add more than permitted salt or figure out a different soup to make traditional for Rosh Hashana. :(

I can't get the NYT recipes as I'm not a subscriber. I do get The Washington Post recipes! :D Jose always forwards the recipes he likes there to me, and I adapt them to his diet. :D

What are mirlitons?

Ask your mom for what Jewish recipes to try. That's right up her alley! Let us know what she says!

>221 rocketjk: Oooh! The tsimmes looks good, Jerry. Our break-the-fast meal is always dairy, though...never meat!

>222 kidzdoc: >223 kidzdoc: Nice!

>224 kidzdoc: Now I'm hungry all of a sudden.

Me, too! I wonder why? :D

I'm glad you're having fun creating delicious things to eat. Pattie and I (and another friend) are heading into the rain for the miniature version of the Decatur Book Festival this weekend. We will raise a glass to you even as we miss your company.

>230 SqueakyChu: well its suppossed to be a secret ;) the family of my teacher aid put together a recipe book entitled Our Families Secret Recipes. This recipe was the first one I saw, and made it for them. Afterwards the brownies were expected at any school event or family get together for 35 years! No longer a secret!

Need :brownie mix or your fav brownie recipe, A bag of andes mint chocolate chips or a box of the bars

Set the oven for 350

Use any brownie recipe or mix and make as directed. Set oven for 350. pour it into a 9X9 pan for about 30 min. remove the pan and set it on rack. Open a package of Andes mints chips, or a box of the Andes mini bars* and put them on top of the browies. let them melt and Spread them like frosting. Wait until the pan is completly cooled. Cut them then put them in ther frige for abot 15 min. Cut them again remove and serve. Makes about 16. they can be eaten as is, or add strawberries and/or vanilla ice cream. You can also try them with the new peppermint chocolate mints! Enjoy!!

*remove wrapping first!

>232 cindydavid4: Thanks!

I'm giving up on Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo, which was chosen for this year's Booker Prize shortlist. I found it grating and annoyingly repetitive ("Jidada with a -da and another -da" and "tholokuthi" repeated ad nauseum), and once I realized ~110 pages in that I was dreading having to read another 300 pages of it I knew it was time to cut bait and move on to something else.

My current Booker Prize shortlist ranking:
1. The Trees by Percival Everett
2. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
3. Treacle Walker by Alan Garner
5. Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo*
6. Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout*

I'll start reading The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka, the only shortlisted book I haven't yet read, this weekend, and the only question will be whether it supplants The Trees on the top of my list.

My current Booker Prize longlist ranking:
1. The Colony by Audrey Magee
2. The Trees by Percival Everett
3. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
4. Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley
5. Treacle Walker by Alan Garner
12. Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo*
13. Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout*

* Books I DNF automatically get placed at the bottom of the list.

I should have no trouble meeting my goals of finishing the shortlist by the time of the award ceremony on October 17th, and finishing the longlist by the end of the year.

September is Hispanic Heritage Month, so I intend to read two books by the end of Friday, Paradais by Fernanda Melchor from México, which was chosen for this year's International Booker Prize longlist, and Optic Nerve by the Argentinian author María Gainza. At the moment I've read 48 books, 25 by women authors, 22 written by men, and one written by a married female/male couple, so there remains a very good chance that this will be the first year that I'll read more books by women than men.

October reading plans (subject to change):
Black and British: A Forgotten History by David Olusoga
Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by Adrienne Maree Brown
Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith
Out of Darkness, Shining Light by Petina Gappah
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich (the Literary Fiction by People of Color group in Goodreads chose this as their book of the month)
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
Trust by Hernan Diaz

I'll be interested to read how well you enjoy Trust, Darryl. I was only so-so on Diaz's novel, In the Distance.

>229 dianeham: what is your favorite Delaware valley restaurant?

That would be Soul D'Lysh in Quakertown, a new upscale soul food restaurant which is the first Black owned business to open in that Upper Bucks County city in at least 30 years (my congressman, Brian Fitzpatrick, presented the owner, Allysha Holmes, with a plaque and an American flag to commemorate her accomplishment). Soul D'Lysh started out as a very popular food truck serving students at Temple University, and earlier this year she was able to purchase the building that houses her restaurant. It has been featured in several news articles, including one in our local paper, the Bucks County Courier Times, which is how I first learned about it this spring, and this recent story on WPVI (6abc), Philadelphia's ABC affiliate:

Soul D'Lysh making history as first Black-owned restaurant in Quakertown in 3 decades

I've discovered other newish restaurants in and around Philadelphia this year that I've become very fond of, namely the Shawarma House on Bustleton Pike in Feasterville, just north of NE Philadelphia, South Philly Barbacoa on S 9th Street in the Italian Market (its owner, Cristina Martínez, won a James Beard Award this year as the best chef in the Mid-Atlantic region), MyThai Kitchen in Trevose, and Gabriella's Vietnam on Passyunk Avenue in South Philadelphia, which was named the "2022 Place To Show Off Philly's Restaurant Scene" in this year's 'Best of Philly' issue of Philadelphia Magazine, and it was the only Philadelphia restaurant chosen as one of the 50 Best Restaurants in America by the NYT earlier this month.

>230 SqueakyChu: I'm glad that you had a lovely Rosh Hashanah, Madeline.

The mirliton (or chayote) is a gourd cultivated in Central America which is often served in Louisiana during the holidays, especially Thanksgiving.



My mother has moderate Alzheimer's disease, so she doesn't remember anything she cooked, including matzo ball soup or any other Jewish foods. As it turns out I was talking with my best friend from high school, who comes over twice a week to bathe my mother and help around the house, about making another batch of the Mexicanized version of chicken matzo ball soup I've made for the past several years, as I showed Cheryl an article from the NYT titled 16 Soups Our Food Staff Cooks on Repeat. Cheryl told my mother that she loved her matzo ball soup, but Mom didn't remember that she used to make it, especially when my brother and I were kids and fell ill with viral infections ("Jewish penicillin"). Mom was a registered dietician who received a degree from the New York Institute of Dietetics in 1955, and before she married my father she worked in Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, and Jewish Memorial Hospital in Upper Manhattan, so she knew how to cook several Jewish dishes. I'll have to look through her recipe boxes to see if I can find other Jewish foods that she used to make.

>231 RidgewayGirl: Have a great time at this weekend's Decatur Book Festival, Kay! Please say hello to Pattie for me. I hope that Hurricane Ian doesn't alter your plans.

>232 cindydavid4: Thanks for sharing your recipe with us, Cindy!

>235 rocketjk: Will do, Jerry. I haven't read and don't own any other books by Hernan Diaz.

>234 kidzdoc: Glad I'm not the only one who bailed on Glory. I got it from the library twice and just couldn't get into it. You made it further than I did!

>238 Yells: Right, Danielle. I couldn't read more than 5-10 pages of Glory at a time, even when my mother was sleeping and I had no other distractions, and I found myself finding up something else to read or do. I wasn't very fond of her previous novel, We Need New Names, so I suspect that NoViolet Bulawayo, similar to Elizabeth Strout, isn't an author for me.

>236 kidzdoc: I’ve heard of chayotes, but never heard them called mirlitons. Jose said I had them in his family’s soups!! :D

I knew about your mom’s being a dietitian and thought she’d remember at least something from that time. Since she sadly doesn’t, do go through her collected recipes. One thing I’m sorry about is that neither my mom nor my dad (who had been a cook in the Army) ever cooked from recipes so I have nothing of theirs to use for cooking (although I do a good adaptation of my dad’s German potato salad). Should you find some Jewish recipes in your mom’s collection, please share them with us. Sadly I can’t share my dad’s potato salad recipe because it has a lot of ingredients, none of which I measure. By the way, the low salt version of it doesn’t taste very good. An FYI: my dad died of congestive heart failure at age 67. He had not liked following a low salt diet after his two heart attacks . :(

My daughter and son-in-law are now in Portugal for a week on vacation. Joaquim invited them to lunch, but I don’t know if they will follow through with this. I started learning Portuguese on DuoLingo. It’s so much harder than Spanish because it’s not always pronounced the way words are spelled.

>234 kidzdoc: Your Life on Mars touchstone pointed to the British tv show by that name. The American version with Harvey Keitel was much better. But I know you meant the poetry book by Tracy K. Smith.

And thanks for all the restaurant info.

>240 SqueakyChu: I had never heard of or had mirlitons until I made the mistake of choosing to have Thanksgiving dinner with one of my aunts in New Orleans, instead of her sister, who also lived in New Orleans and was the best cook in our family. The aunt I chose didn't cook as she said she would, and instead went to a friend's house, who was clearly displeased that I and my aunt's sons visited her home. She gave us a plate of mirlitons, which I hated, so I left abruptly, took public transit to my favorite aunt's house, and had an almost infinitely more enjoyable Thanksgiving meal with her.

I'll look through my mother's recipe boxes this weekend, as it will likely be a washout due to remnants from Hurricane Ian, and let you know what Jewish recipes I find.

I hope that your son and DIL have a great time in Portugal.

>241 dianeham: Thanks, Diane. I have corrected that touchstone.

>236 kidzdoc: Ha! My plans were derailed, but not by Ian, just covid. So instead of a book festival with friends, I've got my bed with a cat or two. So far, just like a very mild flu.

>243 RidgewayGirl: Oh, no! I'm very sorry that you were stricken with COVID-19 and had to cancel your plans, Kay. I hope that you make a rapid and complete recovery.

My mother and I received our Moderna bivalent SARS-CoV-2 and influenza vaccines on September 8th. We were both given the FluZone high dose quadrivalent vaccine, even though I don't think I was eligible for it, as I'm not yet 65 yo. Mom did fine, but I was feeling ill most of the following day, with low grade fevers for several hours, chills, nausea, decreased appetite, muscle and joint aches, and moderate swelling and redness over the SARS-CoV-2 injection site. I was pleased to have these symptoms, though, as they were indicative that my immune system mounted a very robust response to what it perceived were co-infections with those viruses, and I feel more comfortable going out in public than I did before I was vaccinated, although I'll continue to wear a KN95 mask and take recommended public health measures.

Good morning, Darryl! I copied both of the recipes you shared and emailed them to my work email so I could print them out. Both sound delicious. I have never heard of burrata cheese - any tips on where to get it?

I'm glad you and your mom were able to get the bivalent vaccines! I got mine (and a flu shot, though I doubt it was the high dose one) around the same time. Oddly enough, I had my severest reaction to the very first Covid shot, but have had less of a reaction to each subsequent booster.

Hope you have a good day!

I finished Paradais by Fernanda Melchor earlier this morning, which was very good; I gave it 4 stars. I also enjoyed her previous novel Hurricane Season, which was also chosen as a finalist for the International Booker Prize, so I'll look for more of her works in the future.

I'll wait to read more books from both longlists, but at this point this looks to be another year that I'll enjoy the books chosen for the International Booker Prize longlist considerably more than the Booker Prize longlist.

>245 bell7: Good morning, Mary! I found burrata in the cheese section of my local supermarket (GIANT), next to the mozzarella cheeses, as they are fairly similar to each other. I hope that you try and like both recipes.

My most significant post-vaccination reactions were to the second and fifth SARS-CoV-2 shots; I only had minimal symptoms after the first shot, and the first two booster jabs. Actually the worst reaction I had was to the second Shingrix (shingles) vaccine last year; it kicked my tail for at least two days.

>234 kidzdoc: >238 Yells: >239 kidzdoc: completely understand with Glory. I was ready to give up at ~30% through, but someone in Litsy encouraged me. Near the halfway mark a new character is introduced, Destiny. And it’s not satire. Destiny represents the experience of the Zimbabwe public and the suffering and scars from time under Robert Mugabe. She makes the book much better and much more powerful. But, Darryl is probably 50 or 100 pages from getting to her. It’s painful up to then. Since i was using an audiobook, my tolerance for was much higher. (Even if I don’t like something, I still get to wherever I’m driving, so it’s not entirely lost time)

I reviewed glory on Litsy but not on LT yet. https://www.litsy.com/web/post/2469157

>247 dchaikin: Thanks, Dan; that's great to know about Glory. I may give it another go later this year, especially if it wins the Booker Prize.

New thread here!