Tad's Books in 2009, Part 3

Time to break up the thread again...it's getting a bit unwieldy. Part 1 can be found here. Part 2 can be found here.

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Ratings refer to my experience reading the book in regard to its type, not to any judgment about literary merit.

= I can't believe anyone liked this.
to = Disliked, ranging from "didn't finish" to "may have skimmed some"
to = Neutral, ranging from "just fair" to "passed an afternoon"
to = Recommended, ranging from "mildly" to "strongly"
to = Favorites

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So far this year (I've given up waiting on the touchstones):

Thread #1
1. Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Høeg
2. Company of Liars by Karen Maitland
3. Roads of Destiny by O. Henry (reread)
4. Robin Hood by Paul Creswick
5. Princep's Fury by Jim Butcher
6. This Day All Gods Die by Stephen R. Donaldson
7. The Antipope by Robert Rankin
8. The Chapel of Princeton University by Richard Stillwell
9. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (reread)
10. Juan de la Rosa: Memoirs of the Last Soldier of the Independence Movement by Nataniel Aguirre
11. The Winter Queen by Boris Akunin
12. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
13. Archer's Goon by Diana Wynne Jones (reread)
14. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
15. Sweet Silver Blues by Glen Cook (reread)
16. The Barbed Coil by J. V. Jones
17. Defining the World: the extraordinary story of Dr. Johnson's dictionary by Henry Hitchings
18. Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden
19. The Coffee Trader by David Liss
20. A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson
21. The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry by Kathleen Flinn
22. The Mauritius Command by Patrick O'Brian
23. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
24. Dwight D. Eisenhower by Malcolm Charles Moos
25. Playing the Piano for Pleasure by Charles Cooke
26. Desolation Island by Patrick O'Brian
27. Sleepwalking Land by Mia Couto
28. Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie
29. The Story of D-Day: June 6, 1944 by Bruce Bliven
30. Elisha's Bones by Don Hoesel
31. Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz
32. Sharpe's Trafalgar by Bernard Cornwell
33. Among Schoolchildren by Tracy Kidder
34. Midaq Alley by Naguib Mahfouz
35. Holmes on the Range by Steve Hockensmith
36. Emmet Gowin: Changing the Earth by Jock Reynolds
37. Our Hearts Were Young and Gay by Cornelia Otis Skinner and Emily Kimbrough
38. Shyness and Dignity by Dag Solstad
39. World War Z by Max Brooks
40. Oedipus the King by Sophocles
41. The Fortune of War by Patrick O'Brian

Thread #2
42. Whatever You Do, Don't Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide by Peter Allison
43. A Cloud of Witnesses for the Royal Prerogatives of Jesus Christ: The Last Speeches and Testimonies of Those Who Have Suffered for the Truth in Scotland since the Year 1680 by Anonymous
44. The Gammage Cup by Carolyn Kendall (reread)
45. The Fish Can Sing by Halldór Laxness
46. Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
47. Grand Obsession by Perri Knize
48. White Witch, Black Curse by Kim Harrison
49. The Surgeon's Mate by Patrick O'Brian
50. The Tomb by F. Paul Wilson
51. Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories by Ghassān Kanafānī
52. Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
53. Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
54. Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
55. The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West
56. The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death: Reflections on Revenge, Germophobia and Laser Hair Removal by Laurie Notaro
57. A Talent to Annoy: Essays, Articles and Reviews, 1929-68 by Nancy Mitford
58. Persuasion by Jane Austen
59. Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith
60. Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio by Amara Lakhous
61. The Dark Frigate by Charles Boardman Hawes
62. Cyteen by C.J. Cherryh (reread)
63. Regenesis by C.J. Cherryh
64. On Liberty by John Stuart Mill
65. Just Enough Liebling by A.J. Liebling
66. We Die Alone: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance by David Howarth
67. Doghead by Morten Ramsland
68. Turn Coat by Jim Butcher
69. Forty Words for Sorrow by Giles Blunt
70. Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez
71. Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
72. Blindness by José Saramago
73. American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon by Steven Rinella
74. Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann
75. Ulysses by James Joyce

I tried this one based upon joycepa's recommendations...



: Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon

Mystery
263 pages



The most famous conductor in the world is found dead of cyanide poisoning in his dressing room during the intermission of La Traviata. This is our introduction to Guido Brunetti, a commissario of police in Venice.

I understand why so many have fun with this series—it's fast, colorful, populated with engaging characters, and managed to avoid what I thought was the inevitable ending.

I'll definitely be back for the next one in this series.

Glad to see another 'Brunetti' fan, some in the series are better than others but mostly they keep up to standard.

I'm glad you made that post...I had typed Brunelli...don't know why.

Continuing the conversation from thread 2:

I find that LT has expanded the kinds of things I read. The infectious enthusiasm of other readers has lead me to read books in translation from other parts of the world, which I likely wouldn't have stumbled across on my own (thinking of Lola recommending Pendragon Legend by Szerb here). I was stuck in a classics mode and seldom read popular lit but have really enjoyed books which have caught fire with other LTers.

There are also reviewers whose opinion of books I have come to trust, so they're starred and I always check out their readings....like the youngster whose thread this is.

tiffin

My experience is very similar to yours--I have always read a lot but generally I never read popular literature or global literature of the 20th and 21st century (I read lots of 19th century everything!). I have discovered many fine books I would never have tried without recommendations from LT. I also appreciate that y'all do the "weeding out" for me so everything I've tried that's new is at least a 3 star read and most are even better than that! LT is a great "literature filter!" :-)

One other thing I've found is several new mystery series that are quite high quality reading--I love it when I know there will be more to come when I find a great new mystery author!

Also continuing the discussion from the other thread about why we read what we do, I think there are several separate factors involved. One is personality. I have always been one to go back and re-read favorite books, all my life, while I have heard many here on LT who never re-read. I think that is mostly a personality variable. Another is age. I read much more widely in my younger years than I do now. Partly, I think that is because I am older, have read much more widely, and have a good idea of what I will enjoy and what I don't enjoy. A third is resource allocation. That is, how much stress is occurring in your life at a given time. During the school year, when I am working full time, teaching, and writing reports, I tend to read mostly within genre, stuff that I know isn't too challenging and is more an escape or relief from real life. In the summers, I read more serious science fiction, more challenging books. When I retire in a couple of years, I plan to start hunting down all the suggestions I've been recording from here to read in a giant orgasm of reading! But this happens throughout life in a cyclic fashion. Having small children, health issues, job issues, relationship issues--the more these are taking out of us, the less likely we are to explore and take risks, but when things settle down, we expand again. Certainly LT is a good stimulus in that direction!!

Okay, does any of that make sense?

: Narrow Dog to Carcassone by Terry Darlington

Memoir, Humor
323 pages



This was recommended by Amazon based upon my enjoying Emily Kimbrough's Floating Island. They both deal with trips aboard inland canal boats, but that's about it for similarity. Kimbrough's book was warm and funny. This one was simply tedious.

There were moments of humor but Darlington simply tries too hard. Every sentence tries to show you how witty he is, often in a sniggering teen-age way. He's not as funny as he thinks he is and his constant attempts to impress the reader with how broadly he can quote books, movies and songs pall. Couple this with unrelenting British slang and unexplained canal-boating terms, strong aversion to punctuation, a healthy set of prejudices, plus an extreme case of ADD when it comes to following a train of thought, and you've got a choppy, awkward book.

After a while I simply couldn't listen to him describe how everyone in England or France is a vandal, drug addict or worse, his wife telling him she shouldn't have married him, or any of them saying "we're gonna die" one more time and just started heavy skimming past all the "this guy's a dick" and "my dog is farting again".

Imo, read Kimbrough's book; give this one a pass.

ETA: I usually pay some attention to comments in Publisher's Weekly and Kirkus. In this case, I only read the former (and didn't give enough weight to some comments)—my bad. Kirkus would have had me think twice with lines like, "Unfortunately, those moments of luminosity are rare in a text more notable for overblown vacation babble, long-winded stories, grand overstatement and pompous bombast - plus some daunting British slang impenetrable to all but the most seasoned Anglophile."

I too just wasted a couple of hours of my life on a bad book. Grrrrrr
I thought it would be a light, fun read. Wrong was me.

#2: Joyce has me reading the series, too. I have only made it to the first one, though, but I have the next 6 or so. Congratulations on starting your second 75 of the year!

#8: Yikes! I hope your next read is better.

: Born with a Tooth by Joseph Boyden

Fiction, Short Stories
243 pages



Thirteen short stories, related in that they focus on Ojibwa and Cree First Nation life in Ontario. Of course I have my favorites, but each of them is beautifully written, pulling the reader in effortlessly. There's something here no matter what your mood: sadness, love, humor, tragedy, triumph and anger.

I have only read two of his books so far (Three Day Road earlier this year) and Boyden is already becoming one of my favorite writers.

Apropos of absolutely nothing, I've decided that "Penetanguishene" is my favorite place name ever.

I've driven past the sign for it hundreds of times and always loved the way it rolled off the lips. I can be counted on to say, "Look, we're passing the the sign for Penetanguishene!" and my wife can be counted on to give her husband an indulgent look, "Yes, dear."

Having it mentioned in Born with a Tooth I went and looked it up on Wikipedia: it comes from the Ojibwa for "place of the white rolling sands."

It's also the home of a very large prison. Say "sent up to Penetanguishene" to an Ontario denizen and we don't think of a "place of the white rolling sands".

I like two Cape Breton town names: Ecum and Secum (long vowel sound on the e). Or Punkydoodle's Corners, down near Stratford, ON.

>13 tiffin:: LOL. Well, I'll continue to just like the sound of the name and not think of the prison. I've never been there, so no mental images to ruin it. :-)

#11: Since Boyden's Three Day Road is already on the Continent, I may as well give it some company. Thanks for the recommendation, Tad.

>227 on the previous thread... do I read stuff I'm not enjoying. Yes. Why? a) I'm afraid I'll run out of books! LOL b) in my current read which I am not enjoying, I'm wondering if the author will manage to salvage it and turn it into something, but I'm not holding my breath or betting in her favor (Mitchard's The Deep End of the Ocean, promised to be 'impossible to put down' -- ha!)

And yes it was a compliment that I thought you must have been a great kid :) I think the same about my husband and just wish I could have known him then, or even just watched him play.

Hey Tad -

I was just looking at the LT Zeitgeist page and noticed that you are one of the top 25 most prolific reviews on LT, with over 800 reviews! So I thought "I must pass by his thread and congratulate him!" which is what I just did :)

Happy reading!

Oh, pshaw!

Thanks!

800 reviews! That is a lot of writing. Way to go Tad!

That's great! I wish I had the will power (and desire) to review that much.

What Stasia said.... especially with that graphic!

Sorry you didn't like Narrow Dog - I remember really enjoying that (my husband bought it for me for my birthday, admittedly along with two other books that were absolutely terrible, so it might have benefited by comparison).

I don't read much that I don't think I'll like, mainly because my TBR list is already too long and growing faster than I can read, but also because my tastes are so omnivorous that books I enjoy tend to far outweigh ones I don't.

I do pick up books that I think I "ought" to read for general educational and cultural purposes. Part of that is work-related - needing to stay culturally literate to understand the needs and interests of readers - but it is somewhere that work and personal interest have pretty strong synergies.

Thats incredible Tad. I really must learn to write good reviews. Mostly mine are..............meaningless.

not true lunacat....

Your reviews are not meaningless....

I enjoy them a lot!

Hi Tad--I'm just now finished with threads that were last updated two weeks ago, or were looooooong. So I found my way back to starring yours.

Thanks for the nod about The Return of the Soldier and glad you enjoyed the read. Very simple, stark, but extremely effective and touching--oh, I meant the book and your review as well.

Glad to hear you enjoyed Persuasion as it is one of my two favorite Austen novels. There's a fabulous film version of the story available starring Ciaran Hinds.

Blindness is another book which I might not have told anyone I liked when I first read it, but I have never forgotten it--which only proves that it was very memorable. Glad you liked it; I've another couple of Saramago's books to read, but they're proving to be slightly more difficult reads.

And I completely forgot about reading John Stuart Mill until I saw your thread--what a trimester that government class was for reading!

Rifles for Watie is one of my childhood sickbed favorites (meaning it was one I read the year I spent in bed), and it probably started my interest in things relating to the Civil War.

Finally, grrrr--I've added another couple of books to my TBR. Thanks!

>25 Prop2gether:: Hi Laurie, glad you dropped by again. It is difficult to keep up with the threads; the group has really ballooned since last year. I've ended up adopting a completely different approach that I used to use. Now I have friends from last year and threads I find really interesting from this year starred...they get read first. If there's time left over, I work my way through the backlog of unstarred threads. I've also become a bit ruthless about Xing certain types of threads that don't have much interest for me so that the Unread list is "only" a page or two per day. :-)

: The Lost Fleet: Relentless by Jack Campbell

Science Fiction
336 pages

In my comments on the fourth book in this series, I said, "If Campbell doesn't get the fleet home and turn the novels in another direction, I think they will get boring soon." Well, he didn't and they did.

I likened this series to Golden Age author E. E. "Doc" Smith in their light, good guys vs. bad guys style. However, in Smith's books, while you always knew that Kimball Kinnison would beat the bad guys by the end of the book, at least it was different bad guys and Kinnison fought them in different ways...now a space battle, now an undercover operation, now some political intrigue. Campbell, however, has determined that, since Book #1 and Book #2 were successful, he should write the same stories again in Book #3, Book #4 and Book #5!

Formula:

1) Fleet jumps into new star system on their way home and fights space battle to avoid destruction. This occupies many, many pages of descriptions about maneuvering.

2) Saboteurs in fleet almost do what Syndics failed to do. These are the most interesting parts, but usually only a couple pages long.

3) Two women in Geary's life snipe at each other; one makes cow-eyes at him (gag!); the other employs the "hide my admiration behind sarcasm" gambit.

4) Go to Step #1 and repeat at least once more.

This formula was fine for the first couple books—I love the occasional, guilty pleasure, mind-candy books. Sometimes I'm just too tired to want to try to deal with the Civil War or one of the Russian classics (my two current projects). But, come on, a little inventiveness is expected!

I don't know if I'll bother even trying the next one. The story seems to reach a turning point at the end of this volume but, at the same time, there are hints that the new direction is really just Step #1 under a new guise.

Too bad.

#27: Boy, that is disappointing. I have read the first 2 in the series although I have the other 3 (buried somewhere on my nightstand). I was hoping for more.

I'm simply stopping by to say hello.

hmm...personally I wouldn't stick with a series after a two-star book - you're a brave man tad! :)

I probably won't. The TBR stack keep gets longer.

deebee1 recommended this anthology in last year's group and I've finally gotten around to it.



: NW15: The Anthology of New Writing Vol. 15 edited by Bernardine Evaristo & Maggie Gee

Fiction, Short Stories, Essays, Poetry
307 pages

This collection of short stories, essays and poetry provides the reader with a wide-ranging variety of themes, ranging from Ursula Holden's serious essay on what it means to be a writer, through Rahat Kurd's serious and surprising story about why a Muslim woman chooses to cover her hair, to Anita Desai's haunting ghost story.

All of the pieces intrigued me; three leap to mind now that I've finished the book. The first—and I think the best in the book—was Selma Dabbagh's story, "Down the Market", of an American exchange student watching a terrorist raid carried out by Israelis on Palestinians. The second was Zoë Strachan's "The Secret Life of Dads", a very real tale about a young man connecting with his father. Finally, Adam Marak's "Batman vs. the Bull", a story of a confrontation between a young boy and a child molester, left me feeling quietly satisfied. I also loved Kate Rhodes' defiant little poem, "Four Things You Never Got to See" and Tod Hartman's riotous "Dear Dear Leader", an epistolary conversation with Kim Jong-Il.

I recommend this.

I keep seeing book #80 in my favourite warehouse sale and not picking it up.... glad to hear you'd recommend! I'll grab a copy if there are still any there in June.

I just tried the new feature Tim put in to compare your books to other libraries. I don't use Interesting Libraries or Friends that much since I poke through so many libraries, so I tried against the Top 50 Similar libraries.

I was astonished that the most commonly shared book was The Mote in God's Eye. I would have bet on a hundred books before that one! It just goes to show how counter-intuitive things can be.

Dune was #2—now that's one I would have guessed. Though it's a much lower percentage of my reading now, there's a lot of SF in my library and it wouldn't surprise me that Top 50 Similar would be SF-heavy collections and, therefore, one of the best SF books would rank highly.

ETA: I think the "Top Books" is the most useful one...showing you the top books in the most similar libraries whether you share them or not. Kind of a "what are people who read like me liking?"

Oh great computer guru, I'm asking your guidance once more....

How/where can I find the feature you mentioned above....

Thanks for your help -- as always.

Linda

Linda,

Click "Home" page tab, click "Statistics/Memes" in the upper menu, click "Connections" on the left menu.

Then just pick what you want to compare to and what results you want and it will populate.

--Tad

I love The Mote in God's Eye but am also surprised that it would come up first! hmmm LOL

ETA For top 50 shared books/books I got Dune as #1 with Mote at #20. For friends Mote was still on the list but at #60. (like anyone else cares LOL)

#35 Thanks TadAD. An interesting new feature that I did not know about.

Very interesting. My top book for 50 most interesting libraries is McCaffrey's Dragonsong, and many of the top 25 were McCaffey, Lackey and McKinley. Dune didn't come in until #125. I couldn't find The Mote in God's Eye in the top 1000, although I could have missed it when skimming, but Ringworld was 207, Lucifer's Hammer was 473, and The Gripping Hand was 884.

There are 10 books that I share with 5 of my 7 friends. The Mote in God's Eye is one of them. 3 of them are books 5, 1, and 2 of the Chronicles of Narnia, two are McCaffreys (Dragonflight and Dragonsong), two are Nortons (Year of the Unicorn and Zarthor's Bane), with Brin's Startide Rising and Card's Speaker for the Dead comprising the other two.

Fun, huh?

That is fun, Roni... now I wanna go look again! :)

ETA With seven out of 19 friends (20 names, but one is a dup, at least 4 are inactive but friends from college...), I share :
- 4 of the 7 Chronicles of Narnia (I have all 7)
- 3 of the Harry Potters (I have them all), and
- 2 of the Lord of the Rings.

How bizarre is that?

Actually, what is most bizarre is that the Harry Potter books AREN'T in my list in the top 20 or so, because they certainly come out highest in all my groups! I'll have to go look where LOTR came out.

: Cooking with Fernet Branca by James Hamilton-Patterson

Humorous Fiction
281 pages

urania1 billed this as "pee-in-your-pants" funny. She was quite right.

Gerald, ghostwriter for stars, innovative (serious understatement there!) cook lives in delightful seclusion on a Tuscan mountaintop. Moving in next door is Marta, composer of film scores, émigré from the former Soviet republic of Voyde. Both are articulate and intelligent, though a bit idiosyncratic, people—both are convinced the other is a barely literate, bibulous cretin. The resulting comedy of manners had me laughing the entire way through.

Plus, for those who are on the adventurous side of the culinary world, you get the recipes for such delights as Garlic and Fernet Branca Ice Cream, Otter with Lobster Sauce, Iced Fish Cake, and many others.

I could use some humor in my life right now as yearbook deadlines loom and students are about to graduate, leaving entire pages unfinished.....
I'm heading to the library tomorrow to see if I can get a copy of Cooking with Fernet Branca...

Well that sounds like fun! ...though I am far from being an adventurous cook... lol.

: Conspirator by C. J. Cherryh

Science Fiction
370 pages

This is the start of the fourth triad in the Foreigner series, and appears to be starting up a whole new chapter on the larger story line. For those who have been following the series, it seems this will be focused on Bren and Cajeiri, rather than Bren and Tabini. Toby and Barb are prominent characters in this book, as well, and it's nice to see some humans returning to the story line.

As I've noted on some of the recent books in this series, we're now quite familiar with the atevi and the story places less emphasis on the differences between them and humans and the books are becoming more event-oriented. I miss the former a bit but, in all fairness, after nine previous volumes, to keep harping on it would probably have bored me. As might be expected from a new plot line taking shape, this book doesn't really resolve much and, though there are some assassination attempts, the excitement doesn't really reach the crescendo we can expect in the coming books as the various plots come to a head.

It seems like this will be another good sub-series in a series that is having surprising legs to it after 10 volumes.

Ooh I'd better get crackin'! I'm not through the third set yet... of course, I don't have all of them either LOL

Although I am late to the party, I would like to commend you Tad on passing on all the latest info about the updated features here on LT. Thanks for all the good help you give those of us who suffer from non-technilogicalitis (like me)!

I love that word--non-technilogicalitis--it needs to be added to the next edition of Merck's Manual.

#44 I'm also a fan of Cooking with Fernet Branca - have you ever drunk the stuff? I read the sequel Amazing Disgrace which is pretty good as well. Another humorous read on living the Tuscany lifestyle is Tuscany for beginners - not in the league of Fernet Branca but still funny.

>51 avatiakh:: No, I've never tried it. Actually, I had never even heard of it before this book. I had thought it was a person's name like "Cooking with Julia Child".

#52: I thought the same thing - I did not realize that Fernet Branca was something to drink!

I've decided that cyberpunk authors are right and there are such things as mental viruses.

An acquaintance gave me a short story to read he had written. It was fairly bad. The basic premise was pretty far-fetched, if you ask me. The author couldn't decide what he wanted the story to be about and ended up trying to have it be two contradictory things and thereby failing at both. The characterizations were shallow. The dialog was OK, though a bit unbelievable at a few critical moments.

However...

...I have been brooding over this story for days thinking of all the things I wanted to say to the woman in the story. Then I slap myself and say, "it's just a story, Tad, she's not a real person!" An hour later, I'm thinking, "doesn't she realize that...blah, blah, blah!!!"

The only explanation I can give is: a) mental instability on my part (always possible), b) mental viruses.

It's like getting a tune you hate stuck in your head!

Argh! :-)

#54: I'm laughing and nodding at the same time. Brain worms. The safe thing to do would be to hop to it and read something wonderful right away. The dangerous thing to do would be to ask the author wtf he was doing having the character do this or think that because didn't he know that she should....blah blah blah.

>55 tiffin:: There's no way I'm telling him the reality of what I'm thinking. I did make some constructive comments about putting a little more depth to his characters so we can understand why they behave in the unusual ways they do...but that's it.

What I really wanted to do was sit down and write "Part V" (his story had Part I to IV) telling what happened several years later when the chickens came home to roost. I guess copyright law frowns on that sort of thing, however.

ok, now I'm REALLY laughing! "Chapter V" is going to be my expression from now on for that thing you wish you could say/do and simply can't.

>57 tiffin:: LOL...a secret code! "The first part wasn't so bad, but I really wanted to Chapter V that ending."

Hmmm... maybe you could tell him you were inspired by his story and give it to him as a present :)

Continuing my commuting books...



: Sharpe's Prey: the expedition to Copenhagen, 1807 by Bernard Cornwell

Historical Fiction
288 pages in paperback

This is the fifth (chronologically...they were published in a different order) in Cornwell's series about Richard Sharpe, a soldier in the British infantry during the Napoleonic Wars. As the subtitle says, this episode occurs during the British invasion of Copenhagen in 1807, a seldom-remembered event. Denmark possesses the second most powerful navy in existence after Trafalgar destroyed the French fleet. The Danes are neutral in the wars and have taken their fleet and moored it up in Copenhagen's harbor, refusing to allow either side to use it.

As our story opens, the French have just concluded the Treaty of Tilsit with Russia, one whose provisions states that the Russians will turn a blind eye toward a French move to seize the Danish fleet. The British cannot afford to allow this and demand that Denmark moor the fleet in England for safe-keeping. The Danes refuse. In response, the British attack Copenhagen, shelling—tactics that presage the horrors of warfare a century later—the civilian population of the city with thousands of explosive and incendiary rounds in order to break the Danish will and force them to yield the ships.

Richard Sharpe is sent into this volatile situation in advance on a mission as a bodyguard for Captain Lavisser, who has orders to follow up on intelligence that the Danish Crown Prince is amenable to a bribe. Of course, the reader is aware from an opening scene that this intelligence was faked by Lavisser himself who is a French agent and intends to abscond with the £43,000 in gold while opening the city to the French. What follows is an exciting ride through intrigues, betrayals and battles. This book packs a bit more punch than the previous, where Sharpe's actions were somewhat constrained by being at sea.

The overall tone of the book is not as up-beat as some of the earlier stories. When Sharpe enters the book, we learn immediately that Grace died in childbirth and Sharpe is left rudderless: he cannot deal with her absence; he had spent his fortune on property for the family they were starting, only to lose it to her family's lawyers afterwards; he does not fit in as an officer because of his background and sees no future in the Army. The subplot of this story is Sharpe coming to terms with all of this, emerging at the end still sad, but able to let Grace go and throw himself back into life an infanty officer. In addition to Sharpe's personal troubles, new layers (darker layers) are added to his personality as he watches, appalled, the slaughter of the helpless Danes, full of contempt for those who make strategic policy.

A good read.

One of these days I will get back to reading the Sharpe series! I am only up to book 3, though.

: Death in a Strange Country by Donna Leon

Mystery
290 pages

An America soldier is found floating in a Venetian canal, murdered. Commissario Brunetti is called in and soon finds himself involved in a case extending from Venice to the American military base at Vincenza—complicated by government cover-ups, shadowy Mafia presence and insurance scams.

This is the second in the series and I enjoyed it even more than the first. The plot is reasonable...more a "why did the murder occur?" than a "who did the murder?" story. It moves along swiftly and logically. Ms. Leon continues to flesh out her characters, mostly by providing us further glimpses into Brunetti's family, from the son starting to emerge from the Land of Teenage Angst to the father-in-law who moves in the powerful world of the movers and shakers that start to take notice of Brunetti's efforts.

The best part of the story is that it doesn't have a pat solution. Once the reader understands all that is going on, any complete solution would have been simply too neat, though many mystery authors would have tried. Instead, though the reader is left with a very satisfying resolution to some of the immediate problems, Donna Leon makes no secret of her stance on some of the larger issues involving big business and government, and the reader is left sharing some of Brunetti's cynical perception that he has done nothing to solve the real problems...only moved them somewhere else.

I recommend this series for mystery fans.

I'm looking forward to starting this series. I bought Death at la Fenice a couple of weeks ago. It looks like it will be a good series. I plan to do some "serious" summer mystery reading the next 3 months! :-) Usually about 1/3 of my reading each year is mysteries--I'm way behind this year!

Somehow, I think it's appropriate that yesterday's reading was mostly Battle Cry of Freedom. Memorial Day had its start in response to the Civil War.

I always find myself thinking of Columbus, Mississippi—the first town known to have commemorated both the Confederate and Union dead in its cemeteries.

All wars are sad, but there's something particularly poignant when reading about brothers literally fighting brothers.

TadAD,

I was glad to see these reviews. You haven't been posting to your thread as much lately.

Reading your review of #83 I think I want to try these books. I looked back at your reviews of the previous one and they seem pretty good and it looks like the series is not falling off the way so many of them do. Plus it looks like there are lots of them. I like to have an author's series to read over a summer one right after the other so this will be perfect.

Thanks.

Hi CanadaPile,

It's good to see you again.

Yeah, I know. I still try to post on the threads of a rotating number of other people each day, but I'm finding it hard to be motivated about my own. It doesn't seem to be read by more than a handful of people—I guess I just don't have that much to say that others find useful in their book selections so I always seem to find it more worthwhile to just go read something. :-D

Regarding the Sharpe books: I'm definitely enjoying them. Sharpe's character is just great and the action is first-rate. The real test will probably come when I get to Sharpe's Eagle. It was the first one he wrote, though the 8th chronologically, and starts the portion of the series where the writing is older. Was he as good a writer then as he is now? I don't know. If it really falls off at that point, I'm not sure what I'll do.

I'm hoping not, however. :-)

ETA: Have you ever tried Patrick O'Brian's books?

I'm always here appreciating your posts, even when I haven't anything to add to them! I know how you feel, though. I have felt the same way on my thread. But I suspect that as many threads as we are all monitoring, and even though I am only monitoring starred threads, that is over 150, that many of us only respond when we have something specific to say. Also, you've been primarily over in mysteries this year, where I have less familiarity.That said, it is always a great pleasure when someone responds to what we write, so I will try to be better at that.

I too know how you feel, but there's a reason for folks not coming to mine, as I'm not reading anything noteworthy. I faithfully read your thread, Tad. Grateful for you! -- S

Ditto on what ronincats said! I don't tend to read the same kinds of books that you do, but I still I have several TadAD recommendations on my Books-to-Look-At list (e.g., Born With a Tooth, NW15) and I keep coming back to your thread because I'm interested in what you have to say. For example, I thought a lot about your "chapter 5" dilemma and got a big laugh out of your conversation with Tiffin, but am hesitant to start a long conversation on someone else's thread. Even though I might be perceived as a chatty person by some LT-ers, I actually lurk on many more threads--yours included. Oops! I've been found out! :-)

I'm a lurker as well - I still read everyone's thread, even if I don't comment. I've added both Joseph Boyden books to my TBR, because of your thread!

Add me to the list of lurkers! I don't comment on everyone's thread, but I do read them. So don't stop posting, obviously more people visit than you know. You've added to my TBR pile several times.

I'm here!!!

I read as many threads as I can each day, but often I don't have anything to add...

I know how you feel though, sometimes I hear an echo in my own thread :)

#67 - Another lurker here *hand up*

I read your thread every time I see something new there, Tad - and Peter - it's just that sometimes I don't have a darn thing to say. I use mine as a record of my reading so that I can look back on the year and see how it went. I'm always faintly surprised when people respond. And pleased.

Hey, Tad, I do read your thread and I always look at your comments on the other threads, too.

Peter, don't discontinue your thread either!

I can't always post a comment, due to time limitations, but I'm taking notes! :)

Tad, I think I've actually read more of you recommendations this year than anyone's. I'm always eager to see what you've been reading. Don't get all pouty on us, now. We would miss you if you were gone (although my TBR list would be considerably shorter...).

Hello and thank you again for all the computer assistance you provide to us!

Hi Tad! I drop by often even though our reading tastes are dissimilar. I enjoy the friendly banter but often don't have time to write. I've just discovered this new continuing thread, by the way, and starred it.

I'm another lurker, infrequent commenter and have your thread starred. I think most of us are finding the number of interesting threads overwhelming to keep up with. Your reviews have helped me make a number of choices for my future reading and I'll be tackling the Sharpe series once I finish my 999 challenge.

I read your thread, Tad! Even when I do not post, I still enjoy your comments and reviews.

It doesn't seem to be read by more than a handful of people—I guess I just don't have that much to say that others find useful in their book selections so I always seem to find it more worthwhile to just go read something.

This made me laugh as I so nearly wrote something very similar on my own thread yesterday... count me as yet another who always checks your thread. I don't tend to comment unless I've either read the book in question and felt particularly strongly about it, or hadn't come across it and now really want to read it. But as roni says, "it's always a great pleasure when someone responds to what we write". Guess I've also been aware of how hard I find it keeping up with threads this year and don't want to add "clutter".

#82: I agree with Rachael. I check your thread regularly, but only comment on books that I am most interested in.

ditto.

Double ditto.

*lurklurk*

I'm a lurker as well! You have great reviews!

Thanks all, I guess I was mistaken.

>68 ronincats:: Roni, yes, my reading has moved away from SF and Fantasy quite a bit. I would love to have them mixed in there but I'm just not seeing the volume of new, good books in those genres anymore. Maybe I'm just poking in the wrong places but everything seems like either a Tolkien wannabee, or a Martin wannabee, or a Jordan wannabee, or a Hamilton/Harris/Armstrong clone, or...

>73 mckait:: Kath, yeah, I saw your similar feelings on your thread.

>74 petermc: & 82: Peter and Rachael, I read both your threads. Btw, Peter, your resemblance to Bill Murray is astonishing. You even wear the same bathrobe! ;-)

75: Tui, I use "My Books" as my record (I keep it sorted on Date Read) because I like to see them in a list rather than having to scroll through a whole message thread. I knew you stopped by here, though—you're the co-founder of the "Chapter V" gang! :-)

Whew! I'm glad that's cleared up! :)

I read as well but i'm a lurker. I recently commented on the same thing on my thread and more people have popped up, so I guess more people read regularlyon a lot of the threads than comment.

Can you imagine if we ALL commented all the time - the madness would never end! :P Plus we probably wouldn't get any reading done, thus negating the reason for our threads in the first place...

#91

Isn't that the secret aim of us commenting anyway? Trying to trip our fellow readers up so they cannot read nearly so much. This a) would reduce our TBR piles and b) make us feel better about our own rate of reading.

Wait..........this isn't why other people comment? Oh.........

I lurk. So far this year I've added the following to my wishlist as a direct result of things you've said:

A Guide to the Birds of East Africa
Haroun and the Sea of Stories
The Fish Can Sing
Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio
The Return of the Soldier

Only alcottacre and avaland are tied for the number of books they are responsible for piling on!

I check your thread regularly--just don't comment much. I'm always impressed by how well-written your reviews are.

I am another lurker who has enjoyed your computer assistance and your reviews.

I lurk like a fiend too. Have had you starred for months and months and months. And I know there has to be a thing or two you've written about that have wound up on my wishlist. Rest assured - you are not shouting into the void.

Caut = lurker

edited because LT didn't like the arrow she had there originally

See everyone in a week. I'm off to sunny London (yes, the weather channel tells me it's actually sunny over there right now, unlike rainy NJ).

I'm not taking a computer so, unless I can kick my wife off her work computer in the evenings, I'll be going cold-turkey on LT. Hmmm, I wonder if there is a Twelve Step program for it? "Hi, my name is Tad. I'm a compulsive LibraryThinger. It's been two days since I last read Stasia's thread."

My suitcase weighs a ton because the roll of the dice has me in the middle of several very fat books right now. Oh well.

Enjoy London!

Have a wonderful trip, Tad!

(I will forgive you for not reading my thread for 2 days, I guess, lol)

Have FUN!

Have a great time, Tad! I hope that you find some good books to purchase while you're there.

I like the flying Routemaster, girlunderglass.

Mind the gap!

I'm currently reading The Winter Queen due to your recommendation.

Regarding Sharpe, if I recall Sharpe's Eagle was one of the better ones. I don't think the quality has fallen off in any of the books. It has been almost three years but I wait for Sharpe and Harper to march again.

I'm envious! Enjoy :)

My dream is to go to London and visit the Tate Museum where the Waterhouse painting The Lady of Shallot is located.

I hope you have a wonderful time!

Can't wait to see the reviews on your weighty traveling companions. Have a jolly good time!

Damn, you won't read this til you get back. Have a great time in London! Always so thrilled to think of LT people being in my vague neck of the woods. I wonder if you'll go to 'my' bookshop (which stocked additional copies of Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong after I ordered one based on your recommendation!!).

PS and it is really sunny here too at the moment!

Just catching up on posts so I'm coming in late here, but, I too am a lurker on your thread Tad. Off the top of my head I know I've added two books from here onto my wish list. Plus... you are already on your third thread. To someone like me with only around 100 posts total you are like Mr Popularity or something.
Hope you're enjoying London. It's my second favorite city -- after NYC of course.

LOL Vi -- Fav cities? Paris and SF might bump either NYC or London for me. But I did love London and I do love NY! This summer we'll be adding Budapest, Prague, Athens, Sofia and Istanbul to my list of cities so the list may change... :)

When you arive back you will find that I have also returned from vacation. And I have to add my name to your faithful readers but not so faithful posters list. Indeed, the book I just wrote down to add to my look out list is one of your suggestions that was echoed by SgtBigG. So, no feeling sorry for yourself. Your reviews and thoughts are ones that I get my attention, along with a long list of others......see above. Hope London was fun!

I too am a lurker and read your thread. Maybe not as frequently as I would like but I do.

I hope your trip was wonderful.

>#111 Suslyn, Prague and Budapest -- I'm so jealous!! They are both high on my list of hoped for travel destinations. Sydney is the place I most want to go next -- time and money are big factors though. I keep going to places that are closer first.

I hope it works out! Living in Romania, it seems really stupid not to take a peek 'in the neighborhood' :)

I hope you are having a wonderful time ~

Well, not sure why I hauled so many pounds of books on that trip! Other than finishing up one on the flight over, I didn't crack a book the entire trip. We were just too busy and I'd drop into bed each night exhausted. I tried to read on the flight back, but the eyes kept closing. :-)

Very little reading for a while now.

: Purity of Blood by Arturo Pérez-Reverte translated by Margaret Sayers Peden

Historical Fiction
267 pages



This is the second in Pérez-Reverte's series about Diego Alatriste, a sword-for-hire in 17th century Spain. Moving from the intrigues with England of the first book, this story brings the characters up against the Spanish Inquisition, as Alatriste and Iñigo are betrayed in an attempt to extract a young girl from a convent. These are not sugar-coated historical romances. The author has no hesitation over populating the story with fanatic priests who will torture major characters, with corrupt political figures who do not scruple to burn innocents at the stake in order to score a political "point" over an opponent. Nor does he attempt to make his main characters more sympathetic by imbuing them with 21st century mentalities.

The plot line of the book is not overly strong. Nothing unexpected happens to surprise the reader. However, the pacing is well done and the book is a quick and pleasant read. In the balance, I'd have to say I enjoyed this slightly less than Captain Alatriste, but will not hesitate to read the third. As with the first book, fans of Dumas' musketeer books will likely enjoy this one, though I continue in my belief that the books are not as similar as many make out—the persective of gallant, somewhat naïve d'Artagnan gives us a far different world than that of the cynical, brutal, somewhat amoral Alatriste.

Hi! Did you enjoy your trip?

>106 Whisper1:: Linda, I went to the Tate Britain on Wednesday to see the collection of Turner paintings and the Moore sculptures. Thinking of you, I walked over to the mid-19th century rooms before I left. This was after I made no headway in convincing the very affable guard that Turner's Venice Quay, Ducal Palace, would really look better in my family room than "lost" amidst hundreds of other Turner works, nor that his Figures in a Building simply demanded a richer setting...such as my dining room...than the stark white wall upon which it was hung. Very unwilling to consider proper setting of great art, these Brits!

I'm not a huge consumer of the Pre-Raphaelites (I guess that's pretty obvious given I am a fan of Turner), but I did enjoy walking around and looking at them. I was particularly struck by how photographic Millais' Ophelia looked. The detail was amazing and the colors were much more intense that they appear on Web pictures, sort of a Cibachrome blast on the eye. Waterhouse's The Lady of Shallot was not on display. Perhaps it's being cleaned or is located at one of the other branches?

ETA: >119 Whisper1:: You posted while I was writing this. Yes, I enjoyed it a lot, though I'm pretty tired. There wasn't enough time to do everything I wanted. I never got to the British Museum, for instance, but I had a good time.

You're back! What else did you see in London? I was there last summer, and didn't make it to the Tate Britain, but I did spend a lot of time in the National Gallery, which I loved. It was strange, because I was there in mid-June, but I was one of about 10 people in the entire gallery - so I basically always had the rooms to myself!

>121 Cait86:: Well, my week looked something like this:

We were pretty tired Saturday from the trip and jet lag (I hate eastward flights!). Plus, it was our anniversary, so we took it easy, went out to an early dinner, then crashed.

Sunday we went in and played tourist: Trafalgar Square, a boat tour on the Thames (very pleasant and relaxing), a ride on the London Eye (fantastic...I'd do it again in a heartbeat), Tower Bridge (wonderful to see from the boat but nothing much gained by going to it since the view from the Eye was better). Fatigue got to us and we ended up at St. Stephen's Pub for some wonderful steak and ale pie.

The rest of the week Julie was working, so I just trotted about.

Monday I took the train down to Portsmouth to see Nelson's Victory and tour through the Naval Museum. I really enjoyed this trip...it gave a lot of color and understanding to the Patrick O'Brian books that I'm reading. I also got to see the restoration work being done on Henry VIII's ship Mary Rose. I'm glad I did as that exhibit is supposed to close in September until 2012 or later. The train trip was great. We happened to hit on (the only?) sunny week for our trip and the views over the countryside toward the various castle ruins and cathedrals were beautiful. Dinner at a great Spanish tapas restaurant in Croydon (where Julie was meeting work folks) was really good.

Tuesday I went to The Tower of London and ended up spending 3½ hours there having a grand ol' time. Then I went over to St. Paul's...meh...didn't really enjoy that one, so I headed down and visited the College of Arms (interesting) and then wandered the back alleys of The City for a while and then finished with a visit to the Old Bailey (interesting but not riveting).

Wednesday was the visit to Tate Britain in the morning, where I spent more time than I expected. I didn't realize how extensive their JMW Turner exhibit was. In addition to the Turner and Moore stuff I explicitly went to see, I had a little thrill. I've been a fan of Bossanyi's stained glass ever since I saw his two wonderful windows in Washington's National Cathedral. I walked in and, right off the atrium, was a panel he did for the Tate. I took one look at it and somehow knew it was his. :-) It was the only stained glass I saw in the museum. Pure serendipity there! Then I headed to Westminster Abbey (everything that St. Paul's wasn't...I really enjoyed it). Julie got out early and we had dinner in Soho, then a number (large number) of drinks :-) and then just wandered around that area. I loved it up there...I wouldn't mind living there if I ever moved to England.

Thursday I got to experience the M25 in all its awfulness as we tried to get to Heathrow.

A fun, though hectic, trip.

Did you visit any book shops? If you were in Soho, I would guess that you were on Charing Cross Road, where Foyles is located. It also has a nice jazz cafe, Ray's, I think on the third floor, with free concerts.

TAD: Glad you had a great time. London is one of my favorite places to go. To bad you diod not make it to the British Museum. It is amazing. You could spend a couple days there and still not get through the whole thing. Seeing the Mary Rose must have been pretty neat. I would like to see that some time. Maybe in 2012, since I know I am not going to London this year.

Sounds like a great trip! Isn't Westminster Abbey amazing! So many important people buried there, and the church itself is just beautiful. Definitely very different from St. Paul's - though I did love climbing to the top of St. Paul's, the view was great. I didn't ride the London Eye, so it is nice to hear a favourable review of it.

I could live in London too! It is such an amazing city. :)

>123 kidzdoc:: Darryl, I did hit Foyles. I also stopped in at Forbidden Planet because, though I read very little of it anymore, I still consider myself a science fiction junky and it was just a short walk. I got a biography of Nelson by C. S. Forester down in The Bosun's Bookshop in Portsmouth that looks like it might be fun.

I didn't know about Ray's. I'm not that much of an aficionado of jazz—I like it, I'm just not very knowledgeable. We did stop in for two or three drinks at Ronnie Scott's in Soho. They have a jam session every Wednesday night and we saw it and walked in.

>124 jmaloney17:: The Mary Rose exhibit was pretty interesting. They've got it in a temporary building right now while they're doing the preservation. Once that's complete, they're going to build a museum up around it. Basically, you walk in and there's this huge, sealed room with glass walls. It's really dark but, as your eyes adjust, you realize the entire half of the ship is sitting in front of you being bathed in ethylene glycol solution. All five decks of the starboard side of the ship are intact, so it's pretty amazing. I hear that they occasionally turn on the lights in that room but I think the ghostly view was better, somehow. They said a couple more years of letting the wax penetrate the wood and then they'll start the long process of letting her dry out. Should be quite spectacular when it's all done.

>125 Cait86:: Cait, I couldn't go all the way up in St. Paul's. The Gold Room was closed for structural repairs, so they only let you up as far as the Whispering Gallery. I would have liked to have gone all the way up (though my knees would have dissented); when we were in Florence we got to go up to the top of the Duomo and it was pretty awe-inspiring. But, in the end, I really preferred Westminster. My taste is toward the high Gothic rather than that late-Renaissance style Wren favored. And, quite frankly, there is something wonderfully moving about sitting and looking at the tomb of a man who was king at the time of Hastings, plus many of his successors.

Florence is gorgeous! I really loved climbing to the top of the many cathedrals I saw last summer. Definitely the best was St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. The view was amazing, but the climb was loooong. Near the top, there is a very tight spiral staircase. On one side there is a railing, but the other side just has a rope hanging from the ceiling to hang on to! Scary!!

Tad, I loved Westminster too. The organist started playing while we were there and I nearly burst into tears, it was so beautiful. I found it fascinating that Mary was buried under Elizabeth! Glad you had such a good time - I would love to have a small apartment there for a year and just explore.

Hi.
So nice to hear from you!!!!! Thanks for your description of the Tate Museum.....I really appreciate it.
I also enjoy the art of Turner.
Another friend recently visited the Tate museum and he also learned that The Lady of Shallot was transported to another museum for a display of Pre-Raphaelite art.

I'm glad you enjoyed your trip. Thanks again for your post.
I hope you got some rest. It sounds like you had a whirlwind of activity!

I'm glad you enjoyed yourself. Isn't the Tower of London intriguing? Its one of my favourite tourist attractions in London. As well as the London Eye, which is everything it is cracked up to be.

I hope that you will get to come back soon and see more of what you want to.

: The Wedding Officer by Anthony Capella

General Fiction
420 pages



This book was a bit of a surprise to me. Reading his first novel, The Food of Love, what you got was a romantic comedy based upon the Cyrano theme: fun-filled, light, and full of sensuous descriptions of food. I expected the same from this book based upon its description.

It's 1944, and Captain James Gould arrives in Naples, assigned to discourage marriages between British soldiers and their gorgeous Italian girlfriends...Once a masterful cook in her father's restaurant, Livia Pertini is the Allied officers' new chef.

You can guess where it goes from there.

However, though the book is still humorous and generally light reading...and is certainly filled with sensuous descriptions of food...Capella adds a bit more roundness to this work by including the darker aspects of Italy 1944: the complete destruction of a country caused by both retreating Germans and advancing Allies; 40,000 Neapolitan women (out of the estimated 90,000 women in Naples) working as prostitutes to avoid starvation; the Allied plan to kidnap those prostitutes who had syphilis and forcibly relocate them behind German lines in order to infect the enemy soldiers; the list goes on. Some, perhaps, will not like these darker notes in their romantic comedy, but I thought it made the book a richer. Instead of hearing a single note throughout the entire story, one reactions shift back and forth, providing more contrast.

Perhaps I felt that Laura and Bruno in his first book had slightly more chemistry than Livia and James do in this one, but it's a minor flaw in the overall work which I would certainly classify as a very pleasant summer read. Definitely R-rated if you're planning on giving it to someone without reading it first.

Sorry to skip back over your review - which is great - to more parochial (for me) stuff but - I had no idea about the Mary Rose. I was obsessed with that ship as a child after it was featured in Blue Peter - now I have to find an excuse to go visit my uncle before September.

It looks like you had a great trip! I love London, with a hicks-from-the-sticks sort of starry-eyed wonder: I work there a couple of days a week but the glamour still hasn't really worn off. It's a fabulous city.

>128 tiffin: tiffin, I have actually sung evensong in Westminster Abbey once or twice (a friend organises a scratch choir that occasionally is invited to fill in while the regulars are on holiday) - it's such a wonderful space.

Flossie, I absolutely love London and would go back in a heartbeat. Lucky you to have sung in Westminster (evensong too, which can be just magical). I wanted to burst into song but thought I might get shown the door. I'll probably get sentenced for heresy for saying this but I prefer London to Paris. Paris is a Grande Dame, very sure of herself and elegant, but London has a touch of hoyden about her, a hint of knees up Mother Brown which I just love. Perhaps it's the Thames vs. the Seine but London has an energy to it.

Sorry Tad...thread back!

#132 - I can only imagine how amazing the experience of singing in Westminster Abbey must be! Wow!

I'm caught up with your thread now--I really enjoyed "hearing" about your trip and so glad you made it to The Tate. Thanks for the pictures you shared--It's one of my favorite art galleries and now I want to go hunt up the catalogue I bought there!

Hope you've readjusted to "ordinary" time--:-)

#133 tiffin

I prefer London to Paris, too. Although I adore the Musee d'Orsey. My idea of a great vacation is to spend a weekend in Paris to see what I'm most fond of and spend a week (or more!) in London. I've done it once and hope to have another chance to do it again someday.

135: hmmm I love both Paris and London. I think it is true what they say that Paris is the more romantic of the two, and great to just take long strolls in. But London has all the lovely used bookshops, and cute pubs and amazing parks and mouth-watering clothes stores and generally it is THE place to be if you feel like spending money :) (if you have the money to spend)

ooh and I don't know about Tate Britain but I ♥ Tate Modern!!!

>120 TadAD: Turner is, I think, my favorite artist. Have you seen his Annunciation? It's the the Philadelphia Museum of Art -- I could stare at it for hours. Oh wait, I have! (warning -- it looks quite insipid on the site: http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/104384.html) Glad you had a great trip and thanks for sharing. I'm especially glad that you were so busy with the wonderful sites that you didn't have time to read. :) Nice change ... for a very short time! LOL

Eliza

Now I have to go back to London. I haven't been to Tate Modern. Tad--did you get there?

Susan--thanks for the link. It's beautiful. I'd love to see it in person. When gas prices become more reasonable hubby and I hope to take a trip across country (he retires next month) and I'd love to visit Philadelphia again--it has been over 20 years since I was last there.

My daughter has to get one poem liked by each member of her family for a school project, then write about her reactions to them.

Thinking she wouldn't have fun with my favorite Robert Service and Rudyard Kipling, I picked something quite different. I blush that it isn't 'manly' but, yet, I've liked it ever since I first read it 30 years ago.

Love Song: I and Thou
by Alan Dugan

Nothing is plumb, level or square:
the studs are bowed, the joists
are shaky by nature, no piece fits
any other piece without a gap
or pinch, and bent nails
dance all over the surfacing
like maggots. By Christ
I am no carpenter. I built
the roof for myself, the walls
for myself, the floors
for myself, and got
hung up in it myself. I
danced with a purple thumb
at this house-warming, drunk
with my prime whiskey: rage.
Oh I spat rage's nails
into the frame-up of my work:
It held. It settled plumb.
level, solid, square and true
for that one great moment. Then
it screamed and went on through,
skewing as wrong the other way.
God damned it. This is hell,
but I planned it I sawed it
I nailed it and I
will live in it until it kills me.
I can nail my left palm
to the left-hand cross-piece but
I can't do everything myself.
I need a hand to nail the right,
a help, a love, a you, a wife.

I think it IS manly. Certainly few women would develop that metaphor of construction to hold the concept. I like it!

*roarrrrr*



mouahaha

Smart ass!

Actually, maybe that's my uncle...

:) actually I like the poem - I think it's quite sweet (as well as unbelievably, unbearably, jawdroppingly manly - ha!)

: Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee

Drama



A movie that makes my Top 100 list—reading the script of the play was almost as good.

For those who have never had the fun of watching Spencer Tracy and Fredric March thunder at each other in black and white (my apologies, but I cannot countenance any of the three TV remakes *smile*), this is a story based upon the events of Scopes v. State of Tennessee, testing whether it was legal to prohibit the teaching of evolution in schools.

The broad strokes of the story line are close enough to the original trial that many folks simply refer to the main characters as Darrow and Bryant, instead of Henry Drummond and Matthew Harrison Brady. The details and dialogue, however, are punched up for better drama. And, quite simply, once we get to the courtroom, there is plenty of drama. Brady stands firm on his certainty that the Word has been revealed and he has interpreted it correctly. Drummond, faced with an unambiguous law, hostile crowd, and unsympathetic judge and jury, pursues his guerilla warfare, little by little picking apart his opponent's position.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed reading the play. You can sit and reflect about the events and arguments, or simply re-read the delightful sallies of Drummond's one-liner wit:

"If, in the beginning, there were just Cain and Abel, and Adam and Eve, where did this extra woman come from? ... You figure somebody else pulled another creation over in the next county somewhere?"

One of my favorite aspects of the play is the deliberate ambiguity as to whether Drummond is an exponent of secular or religious Humanism. Though the trial's official verdict is against evolution (as it was in reality), there is no doubt in the reader's mind which side won this battle. Had it ended with Drummond striding out the moral victor, it would still have been good. But, I think it was better that it ended with the realization that Drummond fought, not against the Bible, but for the right of a man to think.

"In a child's ability to master the multiplication table, there is more holiness than all your shouted hosannas and holy of holies."

Tad

You are batting a thousand with me today. The poem was wonderful--and a new poet for me. I hope I can find more from him. My husband and i have been married many years--I would love to get that poem for a valentine! My third reading of it brought tears to my eyes.--and it is very "manly"--strong and true.

Inherit the Wind is a favorite of mine, play and movie! You are into "powerful" stuff today.

Tad
ditto what Carolyn said!

And, message 137, Susan. I live about an hour and 1/2 from the Philadelphia Art Museum. It really is a gem!

This link will send you to a painting that I stand in front of a gape each time I visit the museum.

http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/102792.html?mulR=24483

#147: I completely agree with Whisper; the Philadelphia Museum of Art is absolutely fabulous, and definitely one of the best in the US. There are also several other excellent museums in the city, and the city is a great place to spend a weekend or a week, including families with children.

Whisper, my parents live in Bucks County, so I can easily get to Center City Philadelphia via a SEPTA commuter train.

: Cromartie v. the God Shiva: Acting Through the Government of India by Rumer Godden

Fiction
168 pages



This basic plot of this little mystery/romance struck me as quite unique: a Canadian art dealer, Mr. Cromartie, is suing the God Shiva. Cromartie wants to sell a statue of Shiva he obtained under questionably circumstances. The Indian government takes the position that Shiva is a living god who is jealous of his statues and therefore, they act in his interest.

From there the story becomes a bit of a mystery as the barrister assigned to the case, Michael, tries to figure out how the statue came to be in Cromartie's possession. It is also a bit of a romance as Michael becomes interested in a tour guide he meets, Artemis.

Despite the intriguing premise, this wasn't my favorite of Rumer Godden's stories. It all felt a little abrupt and under-developed, particularly the romance aspect. The mystery portion of the story wasn't very mysterious.

I continue to find Godden's writing style pleasant and will read more of her works, hoping for more like In This House of Brede, An Episode of Sparrows or The Dark Horse, but this one was just mildly entertaining.

: Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama

Autobiography
480 pages



I approached this book with a desire to learn more about what formed and makes up the man who is President, a man who is clearly intelligent, driven, articulate and whose message is one of inclusion and unity. I was only partially successful in this quest. The book definitely shows the intelligence and the articulate nature of the man, but less is revealed of him than I expected.

We do get pictures of his childhood in Hawaii and Indonesia, and his youthful years in Chicago. These are told with refreshing candor: no "I didn't inhale"-type evasions about having lived the typical and normal life of an American youth in the 70s and 80s, no real attempts to hide the aimless periods, the screw-ups of adolescence. During these episodes, there is a real glimpse into what went into forming the man we see today.

However, a major portion of the book is also simply recounting of events, with little or no sense of how they affected or shaped him other than his presence during their occurrence. We sit through extensive discussions of his organizing efforts in Chicago, plus his contact with many churches during that period, but are given no clue as to whether these experiences affected him: did he find himself becoming more religious spending this time with pastors he respected? Or, perhaps, less religious as he saw the political side of big-congregation churches? Did the results of organizing lead him to believe that these are effective efforts, or did his decision to leave it and go to law school reflect discouragement? The last third of the book tells of his first visit to Kenya, his father's birthplace, and his encounters with his father's family. We get many anecdotes about meeting the various members but, in the context of this book, it was like me describing my family reunion to someone else—ultimately of little interest to outsiders.

Perhaps the most significant disconnect for me was the subtitle of this work. To be fair, trying to understand his relationship with the man he barely knew is an issue in this book. However, having been raised by his mother and maternal grandparents, I do not think the book satisfies the natural curiousity of why these three people aren't an even bigger source of his dreams, and why a story of race is focused solely on the black side of his heritage.

All-in-all, it was a pleasant enough read but, ultimately, not completely satisfying.

Tad

I really want to read a biography of Obama--but it looks like I should wait for a more in depth one. That may take a while to appear.

Have you read In This House of Brede? I have this on my list to read this year. If I like it I will come back for more Rumer Godden suggestions.

#147 Linda

Thanks for the link to the picture. It's wonderful. I instantly thought of Othello--one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. I can see why you love it!

>151 MusicMom41:: Yep, it was my first Rumer Godden book. I really enjoyed it.

I notice a new format for the reviews. What's the reason for this change? I have to warn you, I don't like change. But if you can justify yourself, I'll probably live with it.

My wife raved about In this House of Brede and I have started collecting other Godden anywhere I find them for her, though I have not yet read any.

>153 blackdogbooks:: I don't know...just trying something new, I guess. Some people have made comments that they don't read long reviews on the threads. Lots of comments above about overwhelm on the amount of reading with the group this year.

Just musing on the dynamics of the group this year.

HI
I just checked your home page and see the photo of your dog with a bandaged leg. Did I miss something, ie a post regarding a surgery? Is the dog ok?

>155 Whisper1:: Linda, did you post this on the right thread? I don't have a picture of a dog with a bandage.

oh man...I'm having a foggy moment. I'm sorry Tad. I meant to post this on blackdogbooks thread...

geezzz...I'm too young for alzheimers...

sorry!

Linda, at your age it's only Partial-heimers! :-D

Tad

There are many of us who really look forward to your insightful reviews and don't consider them too long. They are helpful--which is why you found out you had many more "lurkers" than "posters" on your thread. Please--"if it ain't broke don't tamper with it!"

#159: What Carolyn said, Tad!

>151 MusicMom41: Carolyn I'm actually reading Othello at the moment! My edition is a big, heavily annotated one and I need to read it for my Shakespeare exam. (as well as "As You Like It" and "The Merchant of Venice") It's a real pain to get through it what with all the footnotes, explanations, vocabulary notes and hundreds of words that you THINK you know what they mean until you're told that that's not what mr. Shakespeare means by them...but I'm still enjoying it. It's like an exercise for the brain - I feel I'm teaching myself skills (being able to go from the page I'm reading to the footnote and back again has become automatized by now, I do it without even knowing I'm doing it). :)

I call those texts "eyeball aerobics" books, GunderG.

good info here TaD Thanks !

musicmom...

I have read In This House of Brede and loved it! It is now on my keeper shelf :)

I haven't read any of her others, so I too, look forward to tips on her books from TaD. I have looked at her others, but none of them called out to me ...

162: :))))

>159 MusicMom41:: MM, the reviews are still there, just under a link. :-) A couple people have mentioned that they don't have time for longer posts and someone on the site, I don't remember who, said they automatically skip any review that's more than a few lines.

But, hey, it got me a Hot Review 'cause people were looking at the review, not a copy of it!! *smile* I'm just kidding. I don't have them turned on for my Home page because I'm just the teensiest bit cynical about them.

I was just experimenting to see if it made the thread easier in the 549-member overload. I can do it the old way if it bothers people.

>163 mckait:: mckait, I've liked the other books of hers that I've tried. My comments from last year on The Dark Horse are here, for what they're worth. The Kitchen Madonna was a novella...it's out of print now but, if you see it in a second hand store, I recommend giving it a try. I read An Episode of Sparrows long ago and liked it at the time.

I've got Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy on hold at the library now and will get to it in the next few weeks.

Sorry, TadAD, I wonder if this was all my fault...
I remember one time I mentioned that my brain tended to space out on longer reviews...but that was when I was very new on LT.
I've noticed that in the last couple of months I've been savoring the comments on the threads more, and I've also been writing longer and longer reviews myself!
So if it was my comment - I rescind the remark!
Angela

I love it when LT-ers have just a few sentences with a link to a longer review if I want to read more, so I like the new format! :-) I'm going to get organized some day and figure out how to do the same. Looks beautiful, TadAD!

Thanks TaD.. I have made note of your comments :-}

: Dressed for Death by Donna Leon

Mystery
278 pages



Another pleasant adventure with Commissario Guido Brunetti. A nearby town calls Brunetti in to investigate the corpse of what is apparently a transvestite found lying near the industrial district, a common hangout for the sex trade.

I enjoyed this one even more than the last (Death in a Strange Country). The story felt more like a mystery, whereas the last one felt a bit more like a political treatise. This is not to say that Leon doesn't provide some commentary on social issues in this episode. In this one, she turns her attention to the condition of prostitutes, particularly male prostitutes, and transvestites in Italy. As usual, there is a fair degree of cynicism about Italian authorities and social conventions as Brunetti works to resolve the case in spite of them.

Three books in and this series is still one I recommend—they are getting better as they go.

: The River Between by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o

Fiction
152 pages



This is the story of a valley in Kenya, the ridge of Kameno on one side and the Makuyu ridge on the other. On Kamenu lived the members of Gikuyu who believed strongly in traditional practices; on Makuyu lived the members who had converted to Christianity and embraced the ways of the white settlers. And these two viewpoints were coming into increasing conflict.

Between the ridges lay the river Honia, the source of life. More figuratively, between the ridges was the young man Waiyaki, raised traditionally but educated in white schools, charismatic and a natural leader among his people, and a man who believes that only in unity can their society survive and retain its own identity in the colonial world.

I found this a story of overwhelming sadness for, as seems to happen so often, Waiyaki finds that there are no neutrals, that "anyone not my friend is my enemy." The forces of envy, jealousy and corruption on one side, the forces of religious bigotry on the other, all conspire to leave him no place where he can place his feet.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about this story was the moderate position Thiong'o took toward this tension in his country. I think it must be hard not to take a side—are the problems of tribal society the fault of white incursion? Or, are they the result a mindset that rejects education and growth in favor of rigid adherence to tradition? Yet, he chooses neither, having Waiyaki voice concerns about both.

On one hand, the early events of the story lead Waiyaki and the reader to question traditional practices such as female circumcision: a young girl whom we are encouraged to like dies as a result of infection. Yet, Thiong'o stops short of using common, harsher epithets such as female genital mutilation, and Waiyaki ends up neither asserting its necessity to a traditional society nor condemning it.

Similarly, white influence is viewed with moderation. The patriarchal attitude of the European invaders is seen as damaging: "If the white man's religion made you abandon a custom and then did not give you something of equal value, you became lost. An attempt at resolution of the conflict would only kill you..." Yet, the benefits of education and science are written clearly through the story.

In fact, as Waiyaki makes his own way alone through his divided community, he recognizes that rejection of all change would lead to cultural death, yet that change cannot be forced or hurried, that "Patience and, above all, education, were needed."

Highly recommended.

I like your description of The River Between. I've added it to my list.

And, chiming in on reviews, I really like yours and I follow your thread religiously.

Tad

Thanks for telling me where I can find your complete review. I prefer not to have to go to another site to get the review--it just takes more time which I'm rather short of right now--but for you I will make an exception. :-)

That was a great review of The River Between. I'm revamping my Africa category to read more African writers rather than western writers writing about Africa. I'm going to add this one to the list I'm compiling. My library doesn't have it so I will buy it. Luckily Amazon has a good deal on it.

I am torn about the new format. You are right that it makes it easier for folks to give you a thumbs up and get a hot review because they don't have to take the extra time and effort to hit the link and then click the thumb. You're bound to get more hot reviews this way. And I usually write my review on the book's page first anyway and then copy and paste. So, it owuld make more sense for me to just post a link, like you've done, back to the book's page rather than the copy it and paste it all method.

But I feel MM1's pain, as I don't like ot have to link to somewhere else to read someone's review. Just a personal thing, I know others don't mind at all. Some folks don't even give a line or two with basic thoughts like you've done and I mutter curses following links to other blogs and websites just to read a review.

I am tempted to do something similar but I really like keeping my reviews on a thread where people get used to following my overall reading at one place.

>173 blackdogbooks:: LOL, you didn't read my answer...it wasn't to get Hot Reviews.

It was for people like amwmsw04, etc. who have said they don't read long reviews, and people like bonniebooks.

Lord, I was just trying something to make it easier for people in a hurry when my review was longer. If it's such a problem, I won't do it. My apologies.

Tad

A suggestion to make everybody happy--

Post the entire review on your thread then add:

Bottom Line: The bold will be easy to find for those who want the brief comment and the rest of us can read the entire review without having to go elsewhere.

Of course--you can always do what you you darn well please and tell us all to "go fly a kite!" :-D

Edited to add: Just don't give up on us! We really do like to read your stuff. :-)

: The Tale of Despereaux: Junior Novelization by Jamie Michalak

Children's
219 pages



I read this at the request of my 7-year-old after she finished it—how can one pass on that request?

It's an short read—maybe an hour or so—but, unfortunately, it has been simplified far too much to be really enjoyable to an adult. Perhaps, after some time passes, I'll pick up DiCamillo's original Newbery book and give it a try.

Tad, I started posting a link to my reviews too, with a sentence or two lead in. It was to try to keep my thread from being so darn long because I do blether on in the reviews. I don't link to a blog or external site but to the LT reviews. Like you, I'm now torn because some people don't read the long ones while others say they don't like links! I think I'm going to take MM's advice and do what I darn well please. hehe

#170: I am adding The River Between to Planet TBR. I loved Thiong'o's Wizard of the Crow when I read it earlier this year and he is an author I definitely want to read. Thanks for the recommendation, Tad.

Personally I hate hate hate links. If I've starred someone's thread I will probably (90% of the time, unless I'm really busy) read all of their reviews. But if I have to go somewhere else to read them I will only click on it if it's a book that I'm really interested in. Once I have read the review however, I will go to give it a thumbs up if I liked it - and of course that is easier if there is a link to the review rather than if I have to find it myself. So I would say the best thing is to have both the entire review on the thread AND a link to your review on LT so people can give you a thumbs-up easier. Just a personal opinion of course. But I do think if everyone only put links on their threads instead of reviews the 75 challenge would be a little pointless because a) links don't generate conversations, reviews do and b) it would be much easier to follow a person's reviews and comment on them through their profile (add to Interesting Libraries or Private Watch List) than through here so the group would lose its reason for existence.

I completely agree with girlunderglass.

There, is everyone happy?

For the record, I pretty much disagree with girlunderglass' conclusions; the evidence doesn't support them. Some of the people who use only links or one-liner reviews have the most active conversations on their threads, and vice-versa.

Second, Following someone's reviews via their profile is terrible—LT forces the conversations to be one-sided, so you have to have two windows open to track them. This group would still have a reason to exist.

Okay, first of all, I did read your answer and I know you didn't change to generate Hot Reviews. That's not your style! I was just noting that it had that effect.

Secondly, as you've told other folks hundreds of times, this is your thread, do what you want to with it!!! No apologies. I know I am going to read your reviews wherever they pop up.

I'm happy for you to just keep reading and posting, in any fashion. I jsut wanted to noodle through the format questions because you tend to give that a lot of thought.

comment moved to my thread to give Tad his thread back for book discussions! ;)

I think that someone genuinely interested in a book from the one or two lines I give about it would have no problem with following the link to the review
You're right and that's exactly what I was saying though - if it's a book that interests me I will click on it but if I've never heard of it I will probably not. And I'm sure I'm not the only one. Of course you're right and it's a personal choice - many times a personal choice dictated by the time we have at our disposition. But if someone , say, wants to promote a slightly less-known book that they loved I would say that the best thing is to have the review in both places, because there are people that will not click on the link but would read the review if it was on a challenge thread. Now because I'm replying specifically to you I have to say that I do read most of your reviews, even though they are in intro/link format, because I love them. But I will admit that if the review is of a book e.g. in a genre I'm not interested in or if the information in the intro doesn't draw me in, I will not click to read it. Which is a shame because I might miss out on something great. But there you go - there isn't enough time to read every single review...

On the other hand if the whole review is on the thread and I'm reading the thread I will almost always read it even if it's a YA book for example (a genre I don't usually like). I read them just because it's easier to read the whole thread through than skim or skip. And sometimes I've chanced upon some books that sound great and even if they are not what I usually go for I will give them a chance.

Confession over.

threadjacking again, Tad, apologies but:

It's all ok, as far as I'm concerned, GunderG. Each to what they can manage. Happily, there are no rules, just choices.

Well, TadaD, once again you've created lots of conversation on your thread! LOL! Which reminds me of the old adage, "Be careful what you pray for!" ;-)

Regarding The River Between, thanks for the review. I'm trying to decide whether I want to read it as I am already arguing with the idea that "moderation" is good or OK when it comes to thinking/talking about practices such as the mutilation of female genitalia. I remember having a heated discussion in a Women Studies class about the practice in one clan/tribe of fathers having sex with their daughters right before they "give" them over to their new husbands. Or that, in many parts of Africa, widows have to have sex with their husband's brothers--or some designated man in the village--within a few days of their husband's death or they'll bring misfortune onto the whole village. The professor's point was that it was important to respect other people's culture and traditions and use our feelings and thoughts to question our own traditions and practices--which I think is an important point, and one of the reasons I read books like The River Between, but I also can't help but think that some behaviors, no matter how long standing, or broad-spread, or the reasoning behind them, are just BAD!

>187 bonniebooks:: I didn't start it...blame Mac.

I understand your point about whether moderation is a good thing or a bad thing. In fact, I find myself asking the same question. I gave myself two answers:

First, how good am I at divorcing myself from my cultural biases when it comes to deciding good and bad? I think I can be fairly reasonable about it, but I don't know that I'm not deluding myself. Is there a valid mindset that is so outside my 'norm' that I cannot adopt it?

For example, in The River Between, one of the fathers is the voice of Christianity in the novel and, by extension, the voice of Euro-centric civilization. Of course, he is opposed to FGM. One of his daughters rebels and goes through it voluntarily. Her reason is that she feels she cannot become a woman of her tribe, nor fully experience her culture, without doing it.

Now, I'm certainly opposed to this practice. And, I don't think that any amount of looking at the situation will cause me to reconsider that viewpoint—I'm pretty opposed to mutilation. Yet, this was a voluntary action, not forced as it was in a book like Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Infidel. So, I find myself seeing that another viewpoint exists...even though I'm incapable of really understanding it.

And, as a side note, I then find myself asking why I'm perfectly OK with people getting tattoos and (some!!) piercings. Cultural bias that says certain mutilations are OK while others are not?

My second answer to myself is that I think there's more to be gained from balanced examination of an issue, as Thiong'o does, than by stridency on either side. If I reject reading a 'moderate' viewpoint, then I'm saying that I will only listen to one set of voices. From there, it's a short step to "I already know everything" and from there another hop to the cultural imperialism that started the whole thing.

Anyway, Bonnie, I definitely empathize with your struggle.

And I'm glad you wanted to talk about the book. :-)

--Tad

Edit to fix touchstone.

#188

Excellent exposition on "keeping an open mind" which can apply not only to cultural differences but to all kinds of differences including political and religious ones. Once you stop being able to listen to those who differ with your views you stop growing. There is nothing wrong with having strong opinions--as long as you realize and honor the strong opinions others have that don't coincide with yours.

Tad, would you like me to remove my post above re links or not? It maybe should be on my own thread, not clogging up yours - or just plain deleted.

>190 tiffin:: LOL, no. I don't mind other people posting on my thread...threadjacking (as you put it) is fine.

Sometimes I wish we talked more about the books...but that's in addition to the other postings, not in place of them.

Tad, I forgot comment about your review of The River Between, which was great. I haven't read this book and don't have it, but I'll rectify that soon. Thanks!

Yes, yes.....blame me. Though I never start controversy on my own thread, just Tad's!

Re: The River Between - I often wonder what other cultures who practice FGM could think about many of the procedures available in Western cultures. From clitoral/vaginal piercings, vaginal/labial rejuvenation surgery and surgical vagina tightening procedures - all of these have been marketed as enhancing sexual pleasure or aesthetics. Of course, I am against anything that is forced upon young girls like FGM can be. But if its done voluntarily by a mentally healthy, un-coerced adult, I don't know if I can see much difference between most FGM procedures and those legally available surgical procedures I mentioned above.

As a side note about reviews: I'm not really going to jump into that debate, but since this thread seems to have an informal poll about how people read reviews, I'll say my habits are exactly aligned with GirlUnderGlass's in post #185. But I'm finding it interesting to read the habits of others and might consider altering my own thread.

>194 Cauterize:: I'm glad you stuck to iterating the female variety of those types of procedures...the male ones make me squirm a bit. :-)

: Lube Jobs: A Woman's Guide to Great Maintenance Sex by Debra and Don Macleod

Non-fiction, Sexuality
288 pages



Smirk if you wish...

...but most guys probably wish their partner would read this...

...and, though the specific scenarios are geared toward what men might like, most women might wish their guy would read this for the commentary on how jobs, kids, the house, the general business of life on both sides can cast a pall over a relationship.

Fun and funny, yet serious, too.

I look at LT a lot on the iPhone and this thread is starting to be slow to load, so starting a new one.

Part 4 starts here.