Cushla's (cmt's) 75 Book Challenge for 2010

This is Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 is over here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/89590

I'm back for more next year. I don't expect to get to 75, but I'll have fun trying!

I expect my reading will change quite a lot in 2010 because we will be in Switzerland from January 1. I'm going to try to read the books I'm taking with me, and I'm going to try to buy from the local independents (apparently they do have English books.)

War and Peace is coming with us, and I **will** finish it in 2010...

I also want to get reading in German, so look out for some German chicklit on my thread!

Books read in 2010
January
1. Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin - 5 stars
2. So Long a Letter by Mariama Ba - 4 stars
3. A Dry White Season by Andre Brink - 5 stars

February
4. Excellent Women by Barbara Pym - 3 1/2 stars
5. The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill - 3 stars
6. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery - 5 stars
7. The Lost: The Search for Six of Six Million by Daniel Mendelsohn - 4 1/2 stars
8. Hot, Flat and Crowded by Tom Friedman - 4 stars

March
9. A Girl Made of Dust by Nathalie Abi-Ezzi - 3 1/2 stars
10. Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Helperin - 4 1/2 stars
11. The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen - 2 stars
12. Arms of Nemesis by Steven Saylor - 4 1/2 stars
13. How Markets Fail by John Cassidy - 3 stars
14. The Greatest Trade Ever by Gregory Zuckerman - 3 1/2 stars

April
15. Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain - 5 stars
16. Provincial Daughter by R M Dashwood - 3 stars
17. 1984 by George Orwell - 5 stars
18. A Wall in Palestine by Rene Backmann - 4 stars

Fiction: 10. Non-fiction: 8
Women authors: 7 Male authors 11
German language: 0
War and Peace progress: 200 pages read, many to go...

Currently reading: Ich bin dann mal weg: meine Reise auf dem Jakobsweg by Hape Kerkeling and March Violets by Philip Kerr.

Welcome back!

* starred! *

I also want to get reading in German, so look out for some German chicklit on my thread!

Oh, goody! I said I was going to read something in German this year which was ridiculous since it's been 40+ years since my four years of high school German, but maybe if you find a real chicklit book in which the author mostly uses the same thousand words over and over again, I'll be able to manage it.

Glad to see you back, Cushla!

Waving hello!

I'm along for the ride with you Cushla. I have my doubts about reaching 75 too but the people along for the journey are oh so nice.

Got you starred.

Starred!

I'm not making it to 75 this year, either, but the fun is in the trying. Welcome back!

Starred!

Thanks for starring me.

Now I have to figure out what book to take on the aeroplane... please nobody suggest W&P!

Starring you, too Cushla. What about Wives and Daughters for the plane? (I just said that because I am reading it right now and enjoying it alot).

I've got you starred as well, Cushla. It's nice making a new friend, and I will enjoy hearing about your trip to Switzerland. Is this a permanent move? I suggest you take a few of your children's favorite books on the plane to keep the little guys happy. Safe travels.

Hi Donna! No, just for 2 years. We're taking 1 kid each, and I get our little one. (They wind each other up. People without kids think we are strange for doing it this way, but the thought of the kids fighting in the plane stresses me out more than taking one on my own!)

So there will be lots of Charlie and Lola, and Gruffalo, and hopefully no Spot or Felicity Wishes (there are some benefits to moving - some of my un-favourites are mysteriously vanishing...). And lots of DVDs, and hopefully some sleep!

Karen - I think that's in a box! Is it hard work? It needs to be fluff, or gripping. I'm thinking Henning Mankell, or The God Delusion, but I will change my mind lots in the next week! (that's half the fun.)

Well - it is a pleasure read for me, Cushla, although I have seen the BBC adaptation so the characters are well worn with me. I think it depends what a comfort read is - The God Delusion I loved but need a less tired brain. When I last went to NZ (14 hours) I read Persuasion (again) for distraction.

Aha, I found you! Got you starred!

Oh, Cushla! I see you finished the book by Meir Shalev on the Reading Globally thread but I didn't read what you said about the story itself. I want it to be a surprise for me when I read it. I *love* that author's writing.

By all means, read The Blue Mountain. It's an older book, but it's a wonderful, joyous story about a group of "chalutzim", the immigrants/pioneers who came to build and settle a kibbutz in Israel. It helps that Shalev wrote about the general area in which my own family settled on a kibbutz back in 1936.

Are you planning to read any more Israeli authors this coming year? If so, I'll be following your thread even more closely.

Cushla, since you're heading for Switzerland anyway, what about reading The Black Spider? Not very long, very atmospheric, and available in both German and English editions most places.

German chick lit sounds fun! Make sure you report back on it!

Got you starred! My rec for your plane ride is The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt.

My husband discovered the books stashed in my bags (I had settled on A Place of Greater Safety as the main one, but also had a Lonely Planet Switzerland and Paris, a German textbook, and Hot Crowded and something else... hang on, Hot, Flat and Crowded by Tom Friedman. He suggested rather firmly that I should check whether I could manage my 2 carry-ons, 2 suitcases and Teresa, and he was quite right, so the books have nearly all gone!

Now I'm down to the Friedman, which will be really good I think.

He goes a day before me so he has no way to stop me at the airport though!

I'm sorry, Cushla, but I am laughing, so laughing about your choice! Only an economics professor would choose Friedman as your easy read on the flight you're going on--well, actually, it's done now! Hope all's well!

Ha, Bonnie, you're right!

Have arrived. No internet yet, or phone, or can opener, or coffee or any description except Nescafe Latte Macchiato (not bad for instant!). Basel is going to be fantastic but I am looking forward to having 5 minutes of peace soon, when Fletch starts school.

Got through all of 20 pages of reading on the flight... and nothing since. But I've found 3 bookshops already.'

will have a mega-thread-catch up soon. At starbucks, time about to run out. Hope everyone is well!

Three bookshops = contentment

Nescafe = torture

Sprog starting school = priceless!

Glad you and yours are all arrived safely, Cushla, and already scouting out the (book) territory.

Three bookshops? I'm jealous!

Cushla, glad to hear you made it safely! (Bother your husband for springing your inflight reading treasure trove!) I understand travelling with the kids separately - I've not done that before, but I can see the need. And it's something I will seriously suggest next time we do any travel. "Winding each other up" is an understatement with my kids!

Love how you've found the bookshops already. :)

Good to hear you are on terra firma again, Cush. Well done finding 3 bookshops already!

Love your priorities -- identify bookshops before unpacking! Reminds me of moving to Brussels as a teenager, and the panic attack until I had identified a library with books in English (the British Council) and a bookstore (a loong way away...)

I hear Basel is nice but like many Swiss cities, terribly well organized. (Don't vacuum on Sundays if you life in an apartment building... and don't put things on your balcony that might blow off and injure someone if there is a hurricane... so said a friend of mine who lived in Geneva for a few years.)

How did you like Friedman? I confess, I would have stuck with Mantel...

All good wishes for a wonderful two years in Switzerland.

Thanks for starring me, I'll be watching your list as well.

You made it! Hurrah! Sorry about the only-20-pages, but hurrah for 3 bookshops. Good luck with the unpacking.

Good grief - I forgot I haven't been back to my own thread in 2 weeks. I've been busy using my LT time to catch up on everyone else's (slowly).

Thanks for all the good wishes everyone. It is really nice having you out there when I know about 6 people here, 3 of whom are my family :) We are settling in well- big kid started school on Monday (Richard I loved your visa ad) and seems happy. I am adjusting to the uptightness of the school but it's going to take a while (it's not swiss - it's an international school) . Lots of sizzle, uncleaer how much sausage....

I have naughtily started book 2 for the year before I finish book 1 - the Tom friedman. I've read 450 pages of Hot Flat and Crowded out of 475, so you'd think I'd get on with it, but no, I had to go and buy Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin. For an ex-banker it's like chicklit, or maybe banking porn (a new subgenre?) - I can't put it down. It's all about the collapse of Lehman and who said what to whom. The excessive consumption and attitudes are taking me back to life in New York when I was working there.

#29 Suzanne, I am sick of Friedman's long-windedness, repetition and name dropping, but the book itself is having a huge impact on me. I keep turning off all the lights and telling my husband he has to read it.

Banking porn. I like it. You might get credited for the coining of that label. There are a couple I'm thinking about trying. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis and The End of Wall Street by Roger Lowenstein.

ETA one more. The Greatest Trade Ever by Gregory Zuckerman.

Banking porn ROFL

Banking porn! I read The Greatest Ever Bank Robbery and had to swear off this genre because I was hoarse from screaming imprecations at long-gone "regulators" and miscreants of every stripe. I didn't have the dog then, or I think she'd've died of fright.

>33 cushlareads: - I have Hot, Flat, and Crowded on my bookshelf and just have to work up the motivation to jump in. I'll be more likely to stick with it despite the repetitiveness now that I know it had an impact on you - although maybe I'll make my peace with a little skimming.

Hope that you are settled in and unpacked!

Thanks for the recommendations on other banking books. I'll look for them - I will probably buy In Fed we Trust some time soon too.

Porch_reader, I hope you like Hot Flat and Crowded!

Book 1: Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin - 5 stars

I've been wanting to read this since I saw a good review of it in the Economist, and had considered getting it from Book Depository while we were still in NZ but was being Mostly Very Good. Sorkin is a New York Times reporter and founder of DealBook, a financial news email that I try to keep up with. It was in what is fast becoming my favourite Basel bookshop for English books, Bider & Tanner, and by the time I'd got off the tram home I knew that poor Tom Friedman was about to get bumped from my "first book of 2010" slot.

Sorkin has written a gripping account of a big chunk of the financial crisis, from the sale of Bear Stearns to JP Morgan in March 2008 to the passing of the TARP legislation and the US government's direct investment of the TARP funds into the major banks. If you're looking for an analytical book on the crisis, this isn't it, but if you want to feel like you're in the room with the increasingly desperate bankers and regulators, this is the book for you. There's a cast of characters at the start of the book, but he told the story so clearly that I didn't need it. I thought it was as good as Barbarians at the Gate and better than Liar's Poker. Sorkin does a pretty good job at avoiding jargon, but if you don't have an interest in financial markets it might be a slog.

I nearly dinged this half a star for some sloppy editing, but I loved it so much that I didn't.

#37: Thanks for the recommendation, Cushla. I will look for that one.

Sounds like a good one Cushla, hopefully, it will help make some sense out of this whole mess. Wishlisted.

i've been looking for a good read on this issue...your review just clinched the choice for me! and since you mentioned The Barbarians at the Gate which I enjoyed very much when i read it some years ago, then i need to get Too Big to Fail soon!

#37 If you're looking for an analytical book on the crisis, this isn't it

But if you are, I highly recommend How Markets Fail by John Cassidy. In an extremely readable style, Cassidy, who is also a journalists, takes the reader through various economic theories and then applies them to the current situation.

Rebecca, I'll look for How Markets Fail. Sounds good.

And now for something completely different... and no it's not Hot Flat and Unfinished.

Book 2: So Long a Letter by Mariama Ba - 4 stars

I found this book on Book Mooch last year after recommendations here on LT from akeela and urania. I think this is the first novel that I've read set in Africa by an African novelist, and I really liked it. I can't tell when the original French edition was published, but the English translation appeared in 1981, the year that Ba died. It was Ba's first novel, and won the Noma Award for Publishing. It's a short book but Ba packs in a great deal about Senegalese society and attitudes to women after indenpendence, and has made me want to read more African fiction (I *still* haven't read Half of a Yellow Sun but it is coming on the boat, so maybe this will be the year.)

The spoilers here are the same ones you'll find on the back of the book, but don't read the next paragraph if you'd rather not know anything. Ramatoulaye is in mourning for her husband, Modou Fall. She writes to her friend since childhood, Aissatou, looking back on their lives and their marriages. Both were school teachers, intelligent and well educated. Their marriages were happy. Then, a few years apart, Mawdo (Aissatou's husband) and Modou take second wives, in both cases with manipulation from older women out to get revenge or improve their status. Five years later, Modou dies - my favourite scene in the novel comes when his brother pays a visit to Ramatoulaye.

I gave this four stars because I felt like near the end, Ba tried to pack a bit much in - the story of what was happening with her kids felt like an add-on. But this was a minor gripe.

#42: I read that one last year because of Akeela's recommendation too, Cushla. I thought it was very good - I put it on my memorable reads list for the year. I am glad you enjoyed it.

Great start to the year, Cushla! Glad you both enjoyed it.

Glad that you arrived safely and are settling in. Your first two books ar winners!

All good wishes are sent to you Cushla.

cushla, is my understanding right that you have a copy of Half of the Yellow Sun and it is in transit? i'm asking because if you don't have it, i'll be happy to send you mine (it's not one of those i'm keen on keeping) through a friend who lives in zurich but who's with me these days on holiday. he can post it for me. do let me know till Friday.

Deebee, yes I have it and it's on its way. I have about 200 books coming in a couple of weeks, yay! Thanks for offering though, that is so nice of you.

Hi Linda, Stasia and Akeela! Akeela where are you hanging out? Club Read? I haven't seen your thread lately...

Cushla, I'm glad that you are getting settled into your new life in such a beautiful country. I know you will feel at home when your books arrive. Just think, it will be like having 200 old friends coming to live with you, but they won't take up too much room -- and you won't have to cook for them!

Hi Cushla - finally posting here. I see you gave 5 stars to A Dry White Season, I tried his The Blue Door last year but couldn't get interested.
Good to hear that you are settling in ok - do you have an apartment or a house?

Hi Kerry and Donna!

Donna, the trouble with the 200 old friends is that the libraries and book shops here are making me find new friends at an alarming rate. I can't get over how good the independents are here (and that's for English books not German ones!) and I have much less willpower than I did at home.

Kerry - I haven't written a review of A Dry White Season yet because I'm still thinking about the book, but am going to look for more by him when I have the stomach for it - was The Blue Door about apartheid too?

We're in an apartment, but in an enormous house-like structure with 10 in it, not a tower block. I'm enjoying having less floor area to clean but I really miss being able to send the kids outside, and our big vege garden.

I think The Blue Door was a scifi about an alternate life, the idea just didn't grab me so I returned it to the library. Looks like A Dry white Season is quite different.
It would take some getting used to, family living in an apartment, especially after having a garden.

>51 avatiakh:: "It would take some getting used to..."

Hey, but those new friends will be a help there!

Book 3: A Dry White Season by Andre Brink - 5 stars

I've joined 2 libraries in Basel - the big one in town, with a really good selection of English books, and the little one in Reinach where we are living. The Reinach one has probably 400 English books, and the limited choice is going to get me reading some classics and books I'd have passed over at home.

**some spoilers, about what you'd find on the back of the book. **

A Dry White Season is not a fluffy book, so don't pick it up unless you are in the mood for some disturbing content. I lay awake in the middle of the night wondering if I'd have been like the main character's wife. It's that kind of book.

Brink, who's an Afrikaner, wrote A Dry White Season in 1979. It was banned by the South African government and you'll see why within the first chapter.

Ben du Toit is an Afrikaner living a normal white middle-class life - he teaches history and geography, has a wife who feels she deserved a more ambitious go getting-husband, and has 3 kids - two grown-up daughters and a teenage son. He's pretty comfortable about the society he lives in, and has seldom felt the need to rock the boat. But from the start of the book you can see that he's generous and has a stubborn streak, and because of the book's structure you know from the first page how the story will end. The school cleaner, Gordon Ngubene, can't afford the school fees for his son Jonathan, so Ben pays them and the two men becomne friends. Jonathan ends up in jail in one of the Soweto riots, then gets killed while he's in jail. Gordon sets out to find out what happened, and Ben tries to help. He's sure that the justice system will do its job. His life unwinds from there, as his belief system first gets threatened then destroyed.

Brink uses a clever structure for the book. It starts off with a chapter from an old school friend of Ben's, who explains how they had lost touch till recently, till Ben calls him to meet him secretly. Brink can then switch from the school friend's narrative to Ben's, to file reports and court documents, so that the whole story feels very immediate.

The characters are really well described, even the minor ones, so you get a sweeping picture of attitudes to apartheid and to changing the system. Susan, Ben's wife, is horrified when black people start coming to their house. And the Afrikaner church comes out of it looking pretty terrible. The liberal Afrikaner movement looks bad in hindsight for wanting to change the system from within, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

I've just found a Guardian review of Brink's memoirs, and am off to add A Fork in the Road and his other books to my wishlist.
Here's the link:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jan/31/fork-in-the-road-review
Ooh, and an interview with him in 2004: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2004/aug/14/fiction.politics

#53: I already have that one in the BlackHole. Jennifer (jmaloney) just finished reading it too.

Glad you rated A Dry White Season so well, Cushla! I read and enjoyed it many moons ago. At the time I read quite a few of Brink's books, in Afrikaans, and they were pretty good. Not sure I could read it right now though because, like most South Africans, I want to move beyond apartheid and look ahead.

Wow Cushla - even with a move across the world, you continue to read up a storm. Thanks for the interesting reviews.

I think that the biggest difference between Northern and Southern Hemisphere living is the outdoors for kids (I hate to generalize and perhaps it is more city vs country life instead). Here in Vancouver, if you want to take your kids outside, you usually take them to the park. So it is more of a performance, but also a way to socialize and find other kids (and adults).

Hope you are settling in to your new life!

Just back to clarify my earlier comment regarding apartheid. It is still such a real part of all our lives (in South Africa); and it affected each of us in very real ways. So it's not something I'm dismissing lightly. I acknowledge it wholeheratedly. I just dont feel like reading about it right now, I guess. I would much rather look forward.

Also, Cushla, your review reminded me of another huge favorite of mine: Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton. If you haven't read it yet, please do! I think you will enjoy it and find it worthy.

Hi hi hi!
Akeela, I didn't think you were dismissing it lightly and I can totally understand not wanting to read about it now. Do you have any suggestions on more modern SA books that are less focused on apartheid and racism? Do they even exist yet? (Showing my ignorance here, and I haven't read anything by Coetzee yet so maybe his books are in this category.) I have Cry the Beloved Country but I think it might be in storage at home - I can't remember if it made the final boat boxes... it is short so it might have!

Whenever I read books like A Dry White Season I find myself wondering how I would cope and what I'd have done. I went over the border to Germany this morning and found myself in a bookshop (not sure how), and was thinking how much WW2 and Nazism has left behind here - there were several new and fascinating looking books on the war, the Holocaust, etc. (Petermc, if you're lurking, they were in German and I did not buy them!)

Karen, I am looking forward to wanting to stay in the playground - the kids found one at the weekend covered in snow and it was SO cold, but we stayed 20 minutes... eek kids are squawking and giggling, back later. Giggling is usually bad!!

One book about apartheid in South Africa that I read and absolutely loved was Skinner's Drift by Lisa Fugard. It's about a journalist who returns home after ten years out of the country to face her family's violent past. This was her debut novel and I'm waiting for her second effort impatiently.

Lovely review, Cushla! I have to read this one of these days.

That sounds excellent, Cushla. I've heard of the book but didn't know what it was about. Also, I really enjoy discovering old classics so I'm looking forward to reading about your finds on the Reinach library shelves!

Added A Dry White Season to my wish list. Thanks, Cushla!

Barbara Trapido has written a memoir in the form of a novel called Frankie and Stankie - that is, she acknowledges it's autobiographical but has chosen to present it as a novel. She grew up in South Africa in a white English speaking family and left in the early 1960s because she and her husband didn't like the apartheid regime (the legal framework for apartheid was brought in the late 1950s).

Cushla

I hope you are settling in and enjoying your new environment. I enjoyed your description of A Dry White Season. It sounds fascinating (and disturbing.)

Cushla, glad you've found a good bookstore! I struggled with that in Belgium. On the other hand, I did graduate from an international school, and there was a lot of sausage as well as sizzle, thankfully...

I gave Sorkin's book 4.5 to 4 stars, because it was a great compilation of everything that had been in his (and his colleagues') stories during the crisis; while a lot of the detail was fascinating, some of it was extraneous. If you can find it, do try Greg Zuckerman's book about John Paulson and the tiny handful of folks who made money by shorting the whole subprime nonsense -- it was brilliant. I'd also be glad to send you an ARC of mine when I have 'em -- will send you details via PM. Cassidy's book, as recommended by Rebecca, is also excellent. Keep an eye out for a new book by Roger Lowenstein, too -- he wrote the excellent When Genius Failed. Sorkin's ideal of a great business book is Barbarians at the Gate, which is reflected in the kind of book he wrote; I admit to preferring Roger's book, but the two are both classics of different types.

I'm going to have to go in quest of Mariama Ba, now. I've long been curious about literature from French West Africa!! And A Dry White Season is excellent. Now that you're in Europe, you might want to try his The Wall of the Plague which is set in Europe, but explores similar themes.

Thanks for visiting and I have just added four books from all your posts to my wishlist, argh! Elkiedee, I really liked Trapido's Temples of Delight years ago so will be looking for Frankie and Stankie.

Suzanne, I saw Cassidy's book at Bider & Tanner yesterday but at 60 francs (60USD, more or less) for a hardback I need to look on Book Depository. (Hmmm, it's 29% off - and only 20 euros so I have just ordered it! )

I love all Barbara Trapido's novels - Frankie and Stankie is obviously very different from the others but they're all great.

Cushla, avoid Book Depository pre-orders, though. They have a nasty habit of 'bait and switch'; when the book is published, suddenly it's not available at the price they had told you. Of course, you can buy it for a much higher price from them directly, or a more moderate but still higher price via Amazon (and pay Amazon shipping...) This has hit about 1/3 of my pre-orders with them, and I won't deal with them any more. Aphrohead has a more limited selection (few pre-orders available) but they are more reliable and also offer free shipping, if you ever want an alternative.

Have you thought about a Kindle yet?

Huh - interesting. I haven't tried pre-ordering with them and now I won't. Last year I made it through nearly the whole year without any, er... many new books. I bought Nixonland from Book Depository but that was about it.

And no I am not thinking about a kindle!!! I am sticking my head in the ground and my fingers in my ears... la la la la la (plus, I tend to be a late adopter and wait for the prices to fall - just got an ipod in November.)

Huh?! Okay, that message has vanished completely.

>58 cushlareads: Cushla, I was saying: If the Paton book does not materialise from your boxes, please let me know. I will happily send you mine.

I was also saying that, um, I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't been very faithful to South African lit, pretty much since I started reading. But since our publishing ouput has increased so drastically recently, perhaps it's time for me to fix that...

A couple of titles came back to me this morning. I loved The Whale Caller by Zakes Mda last year, and The Pickup by Nadine Gordimer was pretty good, too.

Thanks akeela! I think The Pickup is in the Reinach library. Something by Gordimer is, anyway...

akeela

Some of the messages I posted yesterday mysteriously vanished as well. I think Tim is working on the site.

the Whale Caller sounds wonderful.

I have just got an Iphone and have already downloaded about 10 free classics. It solves the problem of carting books about to fill in those moments of grabbed time. Surprisingly good. I am thinking maybe I will save my coffers up, bypass the Kindle and move to the Ipad in a year.

iPad/iPhone vs Kindle -- depends on whether you can read for long periods of time on a backlit screen. Since I can't, I'm a Kindle person. (it's a bit more book-shaped and book-like than an iPad, too...)

I will probably buy a tablet when they've got a bit cheaper and are onto the second round. 2 laptops and a desktop are enough in the apartment!

I'm 3 books behind already, so here's the start of a catch up before I blab about my kid-free trip to Paris at the weekend (3 bookshops and 7 books)!

Book 4 - Excellent Women by Barbara Pym - 3 1/2 stars

This was the first book I've read by Barbara Pym (another Basel library find). I'd never heard of her till I joined LT and started collecting VMCs, but I may yet join her cult. The main character, Mildred Lathbury, is a spinster (I loathe that word and its connotations of frumpiness, but it does suit her) in London soon after WW2. She lives in a bedsit and has a life full of quiet activity - lots of church work, some good friends, and equilibrium of a sort- until some new neighbours move in to the top flat. The neighbours shake everything up, and the vicar and his sister take in a boarder. Pym describes the relationships between the characters beautifully, and the impact of apparently tiny things - I really liked Mildred's wry voice.

I really enjoyed Excellent Women but at the end I felt like I didn't want to give it 4 stars on my wildly inconsistent rating scale. I think it's because I usually like books with a bigger scope - I gave it 3 1/2. But a week later, Mildred is still under my skin, I have a strange feeling that I will try to read all Pym's books now, and I bought A Glass Of Blessings at the weekend!

Oh hooray, another Pym convert!

That Barbara Pym is a wily one - she sneaks up behind you and gets under your skin when you aren't expecting it, lol...

Read Quartet in Autumn and I dare you not to give it at least a 4--maybe even a 4 1/2. :)

Sigh. Have finally succumbed & requested Quartet in Autumn from PBS for my TBR tower...

Oh, but my favorite Pym so far is No Fond Return of Love--THAT is a must read.

Another Pymster! Another Pymster! Woot!

Oh oh....dangerous thread. I, too, have recently read Excellent Women, cushla, and had much the same reaction as you did. It looks like we have a couple of MUST reads listed ^^ to look for. I enjoyed Pym's quiet restful style of writing. And yes, those characters did get under my skin.

I guess I'm going to have to try Barbara Pym again; I just remember feeling a bit too anxious for myself as well as for her main characters when I read a couple of her books, but arubabookwoman pointed out that I was confusing her with Anita Brookner (e.g. Hotel du Lac) so will give her another go.

Well I guess I will try Pym too with all these endorsements. Hmmm Quartet in Autumn or Excellent Women or No Fond Return of Love? Which will it be?

85: I think Barbara Pym is one of the least anxiety-causing authors I have ever read, so I hope you give her another try!

#86: I have read the first two, but not the third, so I cannot help there. I really liked both Quartet in Autumn and Excellent Women.

Despite all the high acclaim here, I'm not getting the impression that you are a huge 'Pymit' yet, Cushla - 3 and 1/2 stars is not too enthusiastic?

No Fond Return of Love was the first one I read, and it hooked me on Pym. I enjoyed it MUCH more than Quartet in Autumn; it displays much more of her gentle humor. I need to reread Excellent Women; for some reason, I got bogged down in it about 2/3 through, but everyone says it is wonderful.

Karen's right - I have one foot in the fan club but am not quite raving. I liked the writing a lot, enough to want to read her other novels. I was hooked after the first page. The thing that is still bugging me is that I like my women characters stroppier and with more obvious spine. Mildred's words were stroppy, in her diary, but her actions didn't match.

**minor spoiler ahead, and one for Hotel du Lac at the end of this para as well**. When the Napiers split up, and Reginald got her to organise all his furniture, I really wanted her to say "no,Reginald, I have better things to do with my life, I'm not your slave and I'm washing my hair tomorrow morning/helping at the vicarage/making a cake for the cake stall so I can't sort out your furniture", or some genteel version of "get stuffed mate". The same thing happened several times in the book - too much doing what other people expected of her. It's not a very literary reason to ding a book to 3 1/12 stars, but her wussiness is still annoying me 2 weeks later. In Hotel du Lac, which I loved, the main character got it together by the end of the book!

I can also recommend No Fond Return of Love. The female lead character seems to have no spine at some points, but she surprised me at her courage in the end.

>91 cushlareads:: LOL! Thanks, Cushla! I'm going to have to find Excellent Women and find my own quote to explain why I felt anxious about my own life when I read that book.

Cushla, I was in a used bookshop this morning and lo and behold, there was a copy of A Dry White Season. I would never have noticed it were it not for your comments here. Of course it's now mine, mine, mine. Thank you!!

Laura, I'm so glad you found A Dry White Season!

I will be back soooooooooon with comments on the last 2 books I read but both the kids are home (school holidays and Fasnacht - a wonderful end of winter festival with parades full of piccolos, drums and scary looking puppets). If I can park both the kids in front of the TV & Lego website I might even finish reading The Lost: a Search for Six of Six Million today.

#76 Chatterbox, a real life friend is showing my her Kindle next week. She clutched my arm when she told me she had one and said "it will change your life". Uh oh. I feel a splurge coming on. But I don't think they work in NZ yet. Also, I bought The Cello Suites for my husband from Amazon and he's just emailed me to say he read it on the plane to HK and loved it! Thanks!

How long are you in Switzerland for, Cushla? I would imagine that even if they don't work in NZ now, by the time you get back, they may well. Also, you can maintain a Swiss address and download via your PC.

(Sorry, you're not going to wiggle out of this one... :-D)

I found The Lost: a Search for Six of the Six Million fascinating, if not flawless. One day I'm going to write a book about our fascination with knowing our roots, and that helped me understand the nature of this compulsion -- the Holocause, along with the slave trade, are two of the biggest "brick walls" for those researching their family history.

good luck with the kid-parking...

2 years, and no wiggling likely!! I am getting keener (although relative benefits lower here - books are so cheap compared to in NZ, and Amazon free shipping makes it easier to buy just a few at a time.) Yep, I think they'll be ok within a few years too, but it is a factor.

Have just finished The Lost - wow. (Stupid touchstone!) Still gathering my thoughts on it. On my mother's side, we know our family history really well - well I don't, but it is all documented and I am slowly getting fascinated. My great-reat-great? grandmother operated NZ's first lighthouse on her own with young children after her husband died. But on my Dad's side, I don't even know very much about my grandparents' chlidhood. The Lost has got me thinking that I should investigate a bit harder.

Going to read something lighter next!

I think you will love The Cello Suites, Cushla, if you are a fan of the Bach Suites and Casals (which I am).

Ditto on the Hotel du Lac, which I also loved. I was glad to see it win the Booker prize back then, although I know many do not understand why it won. The characterization is superb.

How is your sojourn in Switerland going? Supremely green at the gills about that. Are you settling in and do you have the opportunity to travel much through Europe? When I win the Lottery, I am settling in the South of France!!!

(Right now I am basking in the sun in Kapiti, ready to take the train to Wellington and fly home to Vancouver.) Summer has revitalized me completely - to be quickly destroyed by air travel in the next 24 hours!)

Cushla--are you planning to ski while in Switzerland? I had a ski holiday last week, and between that and the Olympics, I have skiing on the brain these days. And that's the first thing I think about Switzerland--in winter, everyone walks out their door and straps on the skis. It's the same mentality that says we in Canada all live in igloos, and Australians all have kangeroos hopping through their gardens. :-)

I've managed to get a bargain copy of The Lost - Mendelsohn on trademe so will be able to read it soon. Looking forward to it. My husband has been researching his family tree since we visited Poland 2 years ago and has had great success thanks to a greatuncle who wrote a couple of books about the Jewish communities around Krakow. Luckily he can access them online through the New York Public Library.

I have The Cello Suites on my tbr pile so good to hear more positive feedback on it.

#97 Cushla - Good luck on the finding your roots :)

I've been working on mine for years (on my father's side), but further research will necessitate another trip to the UK (mainly to fill in the details). So far, I've managed to trace my direct paternal family line back to 1300. But, I must confess, I've been lucky. Much of my work had been done for me by Burke's Peerage and Gentry and Debretts Peerage and Baronetage; and extensive family archives (diaries, correspondence, wills, etc...), held in British museums, have been invaluable.

Census records have also been very useful and can be accessed through websites like Ancestry. Sites like this one also enable like-minded individuals to get together, sometimes revealing a treasure trove of information through common ancestral links. After all, we're all related if we go back far enough (or so they say)!

The internet has made everything so much more accessible (e.g. newspaper archives, old books, etc...), and software helps immeasurably in making the whole task easier to manage. I use Family Tree Maker, but there are many programmes out there, with a host of powerful features, at very reasonable prices (about USD30.00). Here is a comparative review which is useful for comparing the more popular products.

ETA: Links to software

I'm dithering about whether to do book #2 about philanthropy or genealogy... Sigh. Well, at least it won't be more Wall Street.

And Cushla, with a Kindle, you'll never have to dither about which book to take on a long plane ride. You can take a library... :-)

Thanks for popping in even when the hostess has vanished! I can't believe it's taking me 6 days to write on my own thread. We've had midterm break here, and having both kids at home has kept me busy. I've sneaked some reading in but whenever I try to type more than 1 line I get interrupted or asked "Mum can I have my computer time" (5 y.o. gets an hour a day).

Karen, hope you had a good trip back and are safely home. Is it still really cold in BC? I loved Hotel du Lac.

Peter, thanks for those links. I will play around with them and am going to get Mum to help a bit (heaven knows when this little project will get going, but maybe in a few months. At this stage I can't go past my grandparents on Dad's side! That is so cool that you can go right back to the 1300s.

Suzanne, I am really looking forward to your book coming out!! But I can understand why you're sick of Wall Street and want to write about something else. Have you seen the Guardian's article about rules for writing from 28 authors? Some of them are really funny. I'm in the middle of How Markets Fail and loathed the first 100 pages - perhaps an instinctive reaction to an attack on my tribe, but he is way too heavy handed in his attack on economics for my liking and quite inaccurate. Very few economists make out that everyone is perfectly rational or ignore externalities - even in a basic intro course they get plenty of attention. I just think he gets the balance of what most economists say all wrong, and focuses almost entirely on macro, and loopy macro at that (yes real business cycle models are still taught, but generally with the conclusion that the evidence is not good - same for Ricardian equivalence. Very few academics are telling economics students that thsoe models are good descriptions of reality, but they can stillteach us things. And this in one of the US PhD programs that he attacks as teaching utopian economics. I had Bob Shiller teach me 1st year grad macro (at 8 am), and he was a lovely brilliant man,but a shocking teacher and set a really nasty midterm that I will never forget. And Cassidy presents a very one sided view of the literature on the efficient markets hypothesis, at least in the first part of the book. At one stage I was sitting at the table reading and muttering to my husband about how much I was not liking the book, and contemplating giving it 2 stars, but now he's up to about 3 because I am enjoying the behavioural economics stuff. But just when he was rising in my estimation he went and mixed up debtors and creditors. Anyway, I will keep going and stop being grumpy about it (I am not his target audience!). I should finish it today and might start Lords of Finance after that.

Anyway, the quick Switzerland update - we are really happy that we're here. It's so great being in a European city and close to the rest of Europe as well. We're quite constrained with travelling because of the kids, but are planning on heading to Germany and Legoland in April when it's school holidays. Our son is allergic to nuts, eggs and dairy, and that makes travelling harder work than usual, but we're getting pretty good at it. And the 3 yo is 3 and a stroppy 3 at that. So we're going to take turns to do weekends away on our own quite often.

Joyce, we are going to take the kids skiing but won't manage it this winter (it is 14 today and has suddenly got really spring-y!) We did go ice skating, which was heaps of fun and Fletch ***loved it**. I have seen a few people on the trams with skis, and a bobsled last night (I think), and you can buy wooden sleds at all the supermarkets.

I had a wonderful weekend in Paris 2 weeks ago and had tons of book stuff to say, but now it's all a bit old. It was great going without the kids and I did 4 museums, 3 bookshops and oodles of croissants and coffee and a bit of red wine. Bliss. I found Shakespeare and Co - I read Time was Soft There/Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs by Jeremy Mercer last year, and enjoyed it, but even then I was grossed out by the squalor and total lack of hygiene (and I am by no means a neat freak). The shop weas like that. Yes, it was cool to see the typewriter etc, but it was grotty. And it had a "right on" groovy-man feel to it that I would have loved in my 20s but now just felt a bit much. But I did buy a few books there... The General of the Dead Army by Ismail Kadare, A Glass of Blessings by Barbara Pym, The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell, and Our Spoons came from Woolworths by Barbara Comyns. So it's a great bookshop, but just a bit too hyped.

But I stumbled on 2 other wonderful bookshops - one was I Love My Blender, in the Marais (in case anyone is visiting) near the Musee d'art et d'histoire du Judaisme. It had about half French books and half English, and the English books was like "greatest hits of my LT friends' bookshelves". I came out with The Lost, probably because I'd just been to the Jewish museum, which I highly recommend if you ahve done the big museums of Paris enough. I read People of the Book last year and it was wonderful to be able to see a copy of the haggadah of Sarajevo. The 3rd bookshop was near St Paul metro (still in the marais, where I stayed) and called The Red Wheelbarrow - all English books, and a fantastic selection. I had no room in my bag by then and just bought Life and Fate, which I started on the train home but need to devote some real time to.

I think this is my longest post ever, so you get a chocolate fish if you are lurking and have read this far.

I will pass on the chocolate fish, Cushla, but I made it through :)

oh good! Otherwise I will have to work out how to post graphics...

Posting graphics is not difficult. If I can do it, anyone can!

I've enjoyed your post - I've travelled quite a bit with young children, though none had the allergy problem. I can see that travelling alone for a weekend break would be a great solution.
I was in London a couple of years ago with my 11 & 14 yr old and they loved going all over on the buses but refused to enter bookshops, museums or art galleries unless I put a time limit on it. They did have a ball later on in Wales visiting the ruins of old abbeys and castles.

The last couple of times I have been to Paris I have stayed on the same street as The Red Wheelbarrow - I love that area. Very jealous!

#103 Really glad that you're enjoying Switzerland. I'm sure spring will be stunning over there.

Enjoy reading about your travels in Europe even if we have long stretches of nothing. I live vicariously thru you. OK, where are we going next!?

Karen, hope you had a good trip back and are safely home. Is it still really cold in BC?

As the other BC resident here, I'll answer that for Karen. "Still really cold in BC" are words that didn't apply this winter--we didn't have much of one, despite hosting the Olympics. It's been record-breaking mild for most of the winter, and currently rhododendrons, magnolias and cherry trees are in full bloom. I'll take it over snow, any day.

Loving to hear all about your Swiss experiences!

Joyce I feel a bit dumb for not remembering that about your winter! Doh, it's been in the papers everywhere. Amazing about the magnolias though. I think they are my favourite big flowering tree.

BekkaJo, we have snow drops and crocuses appearing already. The change in temperature has been really fast.

Lynda, glad you're enjoying it. I will report on my next trip, but it will proabbly be to the supermarket!

Cushla--please don't feel dumb! I'm sorry to do that to you. There has been so much press this winter about the bad weather in the eastern half of North America, with "snowmaggedon" and all. I can see why "cold" is at the top of mind when you think of us over here. It sounds like we're both having about the same temperatures--have they warned you to expect a cold snap, or are they considering winter to be over? I don't know much about Switzerland, so I'm enjoying learning from you.

@113: Here in the Midwest, we still have lots of snow cover, but air temps have been mild much of the last week. We've also gotten new snow in the same period. So I am not quite sure when to expect the snowdrops and other flowers to begin blooming and to give up on skiing for the season...it sounds like it may be a fabulous spring for morels, cool and wet.

>66 cushlareads:/67 I LOVE Barbara Trapido. She's got a new novel coming out this year, the first since Frankie and Stankie - can't wait. As Luci says, Frankie & Stankie is quite different to all the others, but still a good 'un.

>77 cushlareads: I still haven't read any Barbara Pym, though I would very much like to. She came up, strangely, during the 'international writing day' I went to at Foyles yesterday; during the panel discussion at the end, the chair asked the panellists if they could think of anyone who was truly untranslatable. Tim Parks picked Barbara Pym, on the grounds that her books depend on such incredibly detailed culturally-specific references; he said he thought that "part of her success in America was because people completely misunderstood the books", enjoying what they thought was gentle British comedy and not tuning in to the more satirical strand to things.

>95 cushlareads: Drat. Have just realised that I picked up a copy of The Cello Suites to give to my father-in-law for his birthday last Monday and totally forgot to give it to him (we have him other stuff too). Does that mean it's mine now, she says hopefully?

>103 cushlareads: I'll take a chocolate fish, thanks, since it's from Switzerland - although I probably ought to finish my glass of Cava first. Don't think Cava and chocolate are happy partners.

Ooh, and speaking of Paris, I now want to press enthusiastically on you a copy of Adam Gopnik's Paris to the Moon. I've come across 2 or 3 people that really didn't like it, but I thought it was FAB: Paris through an American expat's eyes, and one with small children at that. Loved it. It was on my TBR list for nearly 8 years before I managed to get hold of a copy, and it was worth the wait.

What street is the Red Wheelbarrow on? I may have to check it out. Altho if all goes as planned, a trip later this year may combine London& Paris, so I could stock up on books in the former... Love the Marais, but I usually stay in the 6th, somewhere btwn Odeon & the Luxembourg.

I'm afraid my book isn't exactly kind to the tribe either, Cushla, though I'm not using an economics analysis. Rather a look at policy -- is it appropriate to fail to balance fiduciary duty to shareholders with some kind of fiduciary duty to the system? Bankers behaved entirely rationally, according to the rules of the road, but rationality became irrational. Dealing with externalities is going to be a big issue for economics going forward, I suspect, esp. given the ongoing debate about climate change. It's like the poster child for externalities... As for behavioral economics, yeah, that's always fun to read about, but I'm surprised to hear it's the highlight of that book! After all, once you understand the core of the argument, ultimately, how much new stuff is there to say? It's one central argument, with lots of examples.

Anyway, glad you're fully stocked with books!! Happy reading...

I'm so envious of you spending week-ends exploring different nooks of Europe. Have fun. (As if anyone had to tell you that!)

Cushla

Happy Birthday to you!

Many happy returns of the day, Cushla!

Happy birthday!! Joyeux anniversaire! OK, I know you're in German territory, but I don't do Schweizerdeutsch...

Thank you!!

Two books so far (and about to turn the computer off to read one - Game Change from my ILs, bless them (and Amazon.de) and Juliet, Naked from my husband. Can't put Game Change down. Both are recs from LT friends' threads!

Ah, books for your birthday. The perfect gift! Enjoy the rest of your day and your new books.

Just popping in to say Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Cushla.

I'll be interested to see what you think of Game Change when you have finished it. It's always nice to get opinions from people from outside the US on their perceptions of our political races and systems.

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag, Cushla!

Best Wishes for a wonderful 39th birthday, Cushla! Show Basel how you celebrate a birthday!!!!

Happy birthday, Cushla! I've only just caught up on about six weeks worth of postings here (where did they all come from??) but it sounds like you're having a ball. Colour me envious. :)

Happy Birthday from New Zealand.

A now slightly belated Happy Birthday from the Channel Islands!

Belated Happy Birthday, Cushla!

Happy Birthday from the Land of the Rising Sun :)

Belated Happy Birthday to you, Cushla.

Sorry to arrive late, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY week! I think you need some Swiss chocolate and that liquor that has fruit grown in the bottle (do you know what I'm talking about? Some Swiss people I used to know had them).

Belated Happy Birthday, Cushla!!

Awww, so lovely to read all your messages. Especially while I'm away from home. Thanks.

The birthday is ongoing, with breakfast in bed (eaten by daughter, but never mind) and a sleep in till 8.10 this morning. But now it's back to unpacking our 112 boxes of crap - I was so busy sorting things out for the move that we've brought all kinds of junk, and I thought I'd been ruthless. This morning's discovery: 2 almost empty boxes of tissues. Wonderful. But we also brought lots of NZ and Australian wine, which is easing the pain of unpacking.

I also have a really sore hand from too much typing (mostly on FB replying to birthday messages) so am not meant to be on here, but am trusting the kids to keep my secret. (OH is at IKEA buying bookcases and storage and no doubt more stuff we didn't know we needed.)

#133 Joyce I have no clue about the fruit-in-bottle liquor but will report in a drunken haze soon!

Rachael, I read some of Gopnik's Paris to the Moon when he serialized it on Slaet, I think - or maybe it was just columns from Paris - anyway I loved it, and had forgotten it. I have Through the Children's Gate but didn't get into it.

#116 Suzanne, the externalities thing from Cassidy's book is the thing that's annoyed me the most. His "utopian economics" is a straw man - I know very few economists who look at the world that way. Many interesting policy problems have externalities in them somewhere, and for me, Cassidy's tone is too far along at the "most economists suck" end of the spectrum - whereas I'd say that the most creative solutions to environmental problems, in the US and elsewhere, have come from economics - eg tradable permits for acid rain, incentive based environmental regulation instead of badly enforced command and control regulations. I was finding the behavioural stuff less inflammatory and very readable.

Anyway I have to go and read Game Change - 300 pages left to go and I want to finish it this weekend.

>135 cushlareads: Bits of Paris to the Moon appeared as columns in the New Yorker, which was how I came across the book - he may have sold bits of it to Slate as well of course! I've got Through the Children's Gate as well - bought in fit of enthusiasm after finishing Paris, and still unread. Will have to give it a go sometime, though maybe at a quieter time to have a fair run at it, since you say you found it hard to get into.

I think I bought it when Teresa was a baby, and I was **very** tired then. So yes, maybe wait!

Only 112 boxes?? That's fairly good. When I moved to London (and back again 18 months later), I had more than 200 boxes, including 85 containing nothing but books! When I got there, I realized that my (company-employed & paid) movers had been so efficient they had packed a stack of bricks in the hall of the brownstone that belonged to my mover. To this day, there are probably some New York bricks hanging around a closet in St. John's Wood...

I think the way to look at the economics conundrum is thusly: never disregard economics, and never forget to question what economic models may have neglected. Above all, let logic/common sense rule.

Incidentally, have you read The Quants by Scott Patterson? I'm about to do so; if you're interested, will pass it on to you when I'm done.

I enjoy a lot of Gopnik's writing, but had heard that Through the Children's Gate is so-so; more self-centered in a bad way. Paris to the Moon was one of the best expat-eyes views of Paris I've read since Hemingway, although Gopnik is nowhere near Hemingway in terms of literary heft. The whole "I'm a foreigner, and here's my view of this strange and exotic place" genre is hard to do well, and Gopnik nailed it with Paris. Not so much with NYC, alas. The other book about Paris that I adore is The Flaneur by Edmund White -- a little gem.

haha... Suzanne...that's priceless! I wonder what the movers had been thinking when they packed the bricks.

One wonders whether they were thinking at all...

If they were, I suspect they just assumed I was extremely eccentric! (D'uh...)

Sorry to be late to the party Cushla. Belated happy birthday. I'll be interested in your take on Game Change.

Belated Happy Birthday, Cushla. It must be a different style of birthday celebrating in the Northern Hemisphere. I went from a winter to a summer birthday by moving continents.

Lovely to read about your trip to Paris, etc. Envious of your European experience. Are you staying long?

That's so funny about the bricks Suzanne. I am sitting here surrounded by mess and it's driving me crazy - and our son's bedroom has Lego ALL OVER THE FLOOR (as well as boxes of junk). I'm about to go and sort it out but need a little LT break first.

Karen, we're here till the end of next year, so it'll be 2 years all up. I'm trying to be polite in a public forum, but I am finding some things here quite hard. The low point of my birthday was getting yelled at on the tram when Teresa was trying to paint the window with her umbrella. The tolerance of some of the older people here for kids is astonishingly low, and the looks they give are amazing. She wasn't making a noise, or doing anything objectionable that I (or 2 other Swiss women) could tell, but it doesn't matter. I am finding taking both the kids on the trams very stressful. The trams are so efficient and fast though, and I haven't got up the nerve to drive yet! (wrong side of the road, trams, and drivers who seem to honk a lot more than in NZ.)

Bonnie, I am loving Game Change and have 60 pages left. (I'm up to Sarah Palin). I'm a US elections junkie from way back - on my first trip to DC I managed to sit in on a bit of Warren Christopher's confirmation hearing, back in the day where you could just waltz in with a backpack and a passport check - I bet that's tougher now. But I missed a lot of the early stuff in the 2008 campaign. The main thing that's hitting me is the unbelievable amount of money spent on campaigning in the US - I will try to find the comparable figures for NZ. I knew it was high, but not how high. The other story that was new to me is all the John Edwards/Rielle Hunter stuff. Don't know how I missed that, but I did!!

Right, back to Lego.

PS Suzanne - the Red Wheelbarrow is at 22 rue St Paul and has a good website that I've just found: http://www.theredwheelbarrow.com . I see it's in the Lonely Planet - that'll teach me to have the 1998 edition. And no, I haven't read The Quants and would love to!

Yes Cushla, politics here in the US is pretty much One Life to Live with a splash of Peyton Place thrown in for good measure. I am a total political junkie (rarely miss the Sunday morning talking heads) but I'd heard Game Change was a slanted view of the election, so that's why I haven't read it yet and am looking forward to your thoughts.

Bonnie, if you're a podcast person (and a raving Democrat) do you listen to Slate Political Gabfest? I love it. The apartment has become much cleaner since I started subscribing to it... very good for housework.

It's hard to judge how biased it is because I missed the real thing, but it make McCain look like a buffoon - well, at least a very disorganised leader with not much clue how to run a campaign. I hadn't expected that - I liked quite a bit of what I saw of him, early on in the campaign. Have got 10 pages left and am reading while I'm stirring the curry.

Well, this Bonnie loved it too, but then I am a "raving Democrat." Can't believe you missed Edwards getting caught and lying about it. Still can't believe his assistant who was willing to confess to being the father of the baby--no matter the reason. Don't think I'll bother with that book! Have you read any biographies of McCain? I think if you do, you'll see some patterns there that did not bode well for a successful campaign. Scary to think of either of these last two becoming President.

Can't believe you missed Edwards getting caught and lying about it. Still can't believe his assistant who was willing to confess to being the father of the baby--no matter the reason.

OMG! It *is* Peyton Place!!

I've been tempted to pick up a copy of Game Change for my better half's birthday - he's a raving Democrat and would probably love it. (Only, you know, we don't have Democrat/Republican split down here. But if we did, he'd be a raving Democrat.)

Wookie it could be one of those lovely "it's really for you, really really" presents. And I should have clarified above that I am a raving Democrat too.

Bonnie, that part of the book was so gross. No, I haven't read any McCain biographies and am not in a hurry.

I am so way behind on reviwing books that I am going to stick the comments as I go, which is pretty much what my reviews are anyway.

I'm reading very slowly at the moment because we have been struck by a tummy lurgy. I finished Game Change and gave it 4 1/2 stars (and I will come back and write a quik review, I will I will).

Now I'm 2/3 of the way through my first Elizabeth Bowen, The Last September, and I am OVER IT! I started out loving her writing and still do - she describes Ireland in the early 1920s really beautifully and the first night I was reading it I thought I might have found a new favourite author. But the characters are all so very unlikable. Perhaps they will turn charming in the last 100 pages...

I've also decided to start listing books I read to Fletcher (nearly 6)- not as part of my 75 goal, but because I like reading about good kids' books on other threads like verdelambton's. I'll label them K...

Book 1K: Astrosaurs - The Riddle of the Raptors by Steve Cole - 5 stars

I am struggling to buy this series of books quickly enough. This is the first in the 16 book series, and we all loved it. Teggs is a stegosaurus who leads his crew of astrosaurs on missions to save the herbivore dinosaurs (the carnivores appear but are usually the baddies!) When the meteor struck Earth, the dinosaurs escaped in space ships. They're labelled 7+, but I think that's a bit old - even Teresa (3) likes them.

Book 2K: The Tin Man (Robo-Runners) by Damian Harvey - 5 stars

We're reading Astrosaurs (above) at night and the Robo-runners series on the tram. Crank, Al and Torch are robots who're about to be sent to the recyling plant. They spend the book trying to escape the very nasty Tin Man (and of course they succeed! ) Much scarier than Astrosaurs and I'd say for agesd 5+.

I googled Damian Harvey and realised he's written lots of great kids' readers that I'd had out of the library at home.

I'm going to have to seek out the Astrosaurs for my nephews...

#151 Suzanne, I hope they like them too!

OK, having said I was not doing reviews, I can't stop. The book I just finished is annoying me so much that I have to tell somebody!

Book 11 - The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen - 2 stars

After about 20 pages of this book I thought I'd found a new favourite author. Thie novel is set in Ireland at the time of the Troubles (early 1920s). It's centred around an aristocratic Anglo-Irish family who live at Danielstown, and Bowen writes beautifully about the countryside and Ireland. I fell asleep at that point but woke up wanting to keep reading.

That changed pretty quickly, because I kept waiting to find a character whom I liked. I waited for 300 pages and I wish I'd quit while I was still impressed with the prose. Somebody please, please tell me that Elizabeth Bowen gets better, or that I have missed the point, but I just **did not care** what happened to Lois, Gerald, Marda, Francie, Hugo, Laurence, the Naylors, Lizzie, David, or anybody else.

*spoilers, not huge ones, but some.*

Our heroine is about 18, the orphaned niece of the subtly unpleasant Lady Naylor. She lives at Danielstown, a very very big house, and is waiting for something to happen to her (probably for a husband to appear). A likely prospect does just that - Gerald, who's a subaltern in the English Army, over to put down the local resistance. Lois is not too sure about Gerald to start with but he seems to give her something to think about. Gerald has no money and no family. He's also a bit drippy. Lots more happens with Lois and Gerald, and Lady Naylor shows herself to be a conniving old so-and-so.

Laurence is Lois's cousin, also orphaned but on Sir Richard Naylor's side of the family. He at least had some personality, but it was an unpleasant one. Sir Richard was ok, but hardly says anything.

Hugo and Francie Montmorency visit the Naylors for a long long long time. Hugo was once in love with Lois's mum Laura, but is now married to Francie, who is fragile (and seemed nice enough). They spend their lives visiting - their stuff is in storage.

Marda, the next visitor, upsets everyone - Hugo falls in love with her (not clear why), but she is about to marry an English man. Nobody believes that she will, but she does. I think I was meant to like Marda, but I really did not. Lois is infatuated with her, possibly because she at least was not a wet blanket.

Lizzie is Lois's friend, who talks another subaltern into getting engaged, then cannot tell anyone for ages. L

This book had such great potential for me - I love books like this but I have to like at least one of the characters. I do feel like I might have missed some huge literary thing here, because I just read without really knowing much about How To Read a Novel, but that has done me pretty well for several decades... Her writing has the potential to be wonderful. There were some funny, really cutting scenes concerning English attitudes to the locals, and the background about the English in Ireland was interesting, but nowhere near enough for me to want to read this book.

Not recommended (but note that numerous other LT friends have really, really liked this - wanderingstar gave it 5* and Aruba gave it 4.)

My feelings about Elizabeth Bowen are exactly like yours! I've read Eva Trout and Heat of the Day, and figured I just hadn't read the right books. She really seems like a writer I'd love . . . but so far I don't, and I feel like I'm missing the piece of the puzzle that will put it all together for me. I'm going to keep trying though. And I agree with you that the weakness seems to be the characters (and in my case, I think the dialogue). If I ever figure her out, I'll let you know!

I was about to leave you a message to say I'd finished it because I saw your comment on the monthly author theme reads thread -I giggled when I read your comment last night.

Yes, the dialogue seems weird. There were little things I just didn't get but I didn't care enough to try very hard, or ask for help.

Do you know if she's a Virago author? She seems like she might be.

I will skip both those ones you've read till I have shrunk the TBR pile...

oops think dinner is about to burn. Bad mama.

I do enjoy her books, but more as social commentary than as "thumping good reads". If you didn't like this one, I'd def. hold off on reading the others, and try one when you are curious a year or two from now. I'd say they're still worth reading; that said, I read her novels in my 20s; I'm now in my 40s and they linger unread on the shelves. I liked them enough not to dump them; but have no urge to re-read them, either.

I got a copy of Bowen's The House in Paris as she was one of the writers that Susan Hill wrote about in Howards End is on the Landing. I haven't read it yet but hope to in the next few months.

>154 cushlareads:: Do you know if she's a Virago author? She seems like she might be.
There are no Virago Modern Classics by Bowen. She could have be published in one of their other series (e.g.; Virago Travellers), but not VMCs.

I picked up Bowen's A World of Love for the monthly author reads - haven't actually started reading it though. I'm sorry you didn't like it, I hope I have better luck!

Sorry you didn't like The Last September. Unfortunately, at this point, I can't remember enough about it to explain why I gave it a 4. I know I read several of her other books many years ago and they all have they same "feel" about them, so if you didn't like this one, you probably won't like her others.

Hope you're feeling better.

I'm catching up with you afer doing Disney for the past week. I'm not surprised at the low tolerance the Swiss people have for children. I find Europeans in general to exude a coolness in public, but seem to be warmhearted if they know you, although my personal experience is more with Germans and Brits. We did so much walking in the small town my daughter lived in about 9 years ago in England, and I was amazed how we could be in such close proximity with people and they wouldn't make eye contact. I'm a "good morning" to you sort of person!

I opted out of reading Elizabeth Bowen for the Monthly Authors Group as I don't own any of her books. I'll be reading The Moonstone byWilkie Collins with the group next month if they'll let me back in after several month's absence.

I'm catching up on my own thread again - I seem to get time to sit down about once a week!

OK, having read all your comments about Elizabeth Bowen I'm going to hold off on reading any more by her till I've got through a few hundred unread books. Maybe she's just not for me. Wookie, Joyce and Kerry, I hope you both have more luck! (wookie I know you are Tania, but Wookie is too funny.)

Donna, I think things are turning on the "attitudes to kids" front, and I'm suddenly feeling much happier here (I was mostly happy before, but still up and down). I'm getting used to the stares and I've started ignoring the silly comments - we had head shaking and "no no no" this morning from an older woman when Teresa was walking on some very walkable seats at an empty tram stop, and I just giggled and let her keep doing it - the earth didn't stop. And we're starting to make some real live Swiss friends, slowly. The weather is helping my mood enormously - the parks and playgrounds are great!

I finished 2 books at the weekend, and had better hurry up if I want to have a hope of getting to 75 this year!

Book 12: Arms of Nemesis by Steven Saylor - 4 1/2 stars

This is the second in Saylor's Gordianus the Finder series, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you like mysteries and books set in ancient Rome, these are a treat - if my kids do Latin when they're older I'll have them reading these. (Actually they're a bit racy for 13 year olds in places, so maybe not till they're nearly finished high school.) Saylor works in tons of Roman history, and from what I can tell his research is excellent. They are well written, exciting, and quick to read.

In this one, Gordianus goes to the luxury holiday home centre of the Roman Empire, Puteoli (near Naples and Mt Vesuvius), to figure out who's killed Lucius Licinus, Crassus's cousin and the manager of his enormous estate. If he can't prove that it wasn't 2 of Lucius's slaves, Crassus is going to kill all the slaves at the end of the funeral games to show that he's tough on slave rebellion, because he's trying to get a commission to rescue Rome from Spartacus's slave revolt.

I've been reading these out of order but it hasn't mattered much - I started with Last Seen in Massilia, which is the 6th or 7th.

Stasia, I have a feeling I offered to send you this one at least a year ago - if you still want it let me know and I will post it off soon!

#161: Yes, you did, Cushla, but I think the postage costs from Switzerland to the States would be cost prohibitive for you :)

Don't worry about that - it's closer than from NZ! Leave me your address on my profile and I'll mail it off.

#163: I sent you a PM. Thanks again!

@161: The Saylor books sounds fabulous. I'm making note to self. I hope in a few weeks you'll look back and remember, oh yeah, there was some adjustment when we first arrived, because you'll have settled in and be so comfortable.

#165 Chris, I really hope you like them! Thanks for your good wishes on our move too. The weather is helping so much - it's almost as warm now as Wellington ever gets, because its 22 today and no wind at all.

Two very quick reviews on two books about the financial crisis:

Book 13: How Markets Fail by John Cassidy - 3 stars

I gave this 3 stars, nearly 2 1/2, because Cassidy's tone really rubbed me up the wrong way. He spent a big chunk of the book presenting the discipline of economics in an extreme light, and he didn't need to to make his main point - that there were real problems with the banking and financial system that got the world into the mess it is. It just didn't represent a realistic summary of the subject. Any economics major these days will spend a great deal of time working on information asymmetry and externalities, and a good first year student should be able to talk about market failure. The second half of the book was quite good though.

Book 14. The Greatest Trade Ever: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of How John Paulson defied Wall Street and Made History by Gregory Zuckerman - 3/12 stars.

An enjoyable fast read about the guy who bought credit default insurance on subprime assets. Nowhere near as good (for me) as Too Big To Fail, but worth reading if you are interested in more detail about how overheated the housing market got and how long it took people to catch on. If it had been easier for retail investors to do these trades, and the markets had been more liquid, the bubble might have popped a bit sooner.

It also reminded me how many fruitcakes and obsessive personalities are running round Wall Street. I'm glad I saw it for myself (pre-kids and 8 years ago) but I'm so glad I quit. John Paulson came over as a pretty nice guy in this book, but it's hard to stay normal when you have that much money.

For a seminar in college I read Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises by Charles Kindleberger, which I recall being a book for the non-economist on the same topic as How Markets Fail. I came away from the class thinking I would rather put my money under the mattress than invest in the stock market!

The Greatest Trade Ever looks pretty interesting--I think I'll add it to the TBR list.

Carly, I hope you like it. The Kindleberger book is another one I'd like to read. I have a feeling he also wrote quite a bit of stuf about higher education - I think he was Harvard president or something high up in admin there...

I have This Time is Different by Reinhart and Rogoff to read soon and am looking forward to it, but need a wee break from financial crises now!

I'm still a big fan of stocks over the mattress! And I think that the efficient markets hypothesis has a great deal to offer, most of the time, but not all the time.

I think it was the information about how analysts pick stocks and the percentage of the time they are right vs. random choice (not something that was in the Kindleberger book) that got me. Nonetheless I have properly put money in a 401(k) and do not keep my money under the mattress :)

Phew! Yep, that's why I generally believe the EMH - index funds generally outperform analyst picks after fees are accounted for. You're lucky having some many index tracking shares in the US. (Sorry, will stop being boring, but I taught corp finance before we moved over here and love it!)

And now John Paulson has joined the ultra-big hedge fund club, meaning that he's probably going to be less nimble and lose his alpha edge going forward. Ho hum. Carlym, FYI, I used to be one of the people at the WSJ that would throw darts (literally) at a list of stocks plastered to our wall for the monthly pros vs darts competitions. I'll have to go back and look to see what the ultimate conclusion was over many years of those. I think the pros might have edged out the darts, but it was a near-run thing.

Cushla, I agree with you on index funds, but I worry about the proliferation of ETFs. How much can one slice and dice the market? Plus, now they're doing weird tweaks to the structures that I think will end in tears. But they can market the stuff, because so few people understand what is going on... I can't believe that markets are efficient, but nor do I believe that any manager can routinely capture alpha without taking weird and bizarre risks. Something that still isn't looked at enough is risk-adjusted returns for mutual funds, ETFs, etc.

Separately, I'm really looking forward to Roger Lowenstein's new book, The End of Wall Street. He has the ability to knock Sorkin's book out of the park -- much more gravitas, and a brain 10x the size. Sorkin's book is a great chronicle, but doesn't really go beyond that. Haven't read the Michael Lewis tome yet; he gets the big fuss, but Lowenstein has the intellect to really dig deep, as well as the sources. (Hey, he got Buffett to talk to him...)

Suzanne, I thought his book *was* out? I thought I read a review somewhere. Must be dreaming. I'll definitely buy that one - I haven't read his LTCM book yet but have been meaning to for about 10 years.

We are off to Germany this morning for 5 days and I'm going to have LT withdrawal - no internet at the holiday house we're renting (chosen for its distance to that must-see German cultural attraction called Legoland). Am very excited about our trip and can't wait to see our son's face when we get to the park.

Now I have to figure out what books to take - there is a chance I might get some reading in!

Have a great trip, Cushla!

Thanks Stasia!

Before I run away to pack (everyone still asleep here), here are my top 5 books for the 1st quarter:

1. A Dry White Season by Andre Brink
2. Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin
3. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
4. The Lost by Daniel Mendelsohn
5. Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Helperin

I need to hurry up to get near 75 though!

So you're going to be without internet service too, huh? Chuckle! Bet you find an internet cafe before I do! 'Course I'm not really going anywhere. Anyway, have a great time in Germany and bring back brochures, 'cas someday I'm going to get there! :-)

Thanks Bonnie! Seriously, we will be lucky to do anything very German - but I'm dragging the kids to Neuschwanstein on the way home. (Shouldn't be hard.) I'll put a couple of photos up once I work out how. Have a lovely weekend!

>173 cushlareads:, Cushla, Michael Lewis's book is just out; Roger's is due out next week. There may well have been a few interviews/reviews already.

Oooh, wedding cake castles!! :-)

Now, if you had a Kindle, the book packing would be so much simpler...

ETA: My first trip to Germany was at the age of 7. We went via the Netherlands and Denmark, and I had bought and read Anne Frank's diary by the time we queued up in the long customs/immigration line (which still existed back then...) to enter Germany. At which point, I had a screaming fit because I didn't want to go to the country that had killed Anne Frank. My father still remembers because he had to pull out of the very very long line until I calmed down, meaning that we didn't get to our destination until very late that night! Decades ago, now... But thus began my decades of being influenced by the books I read.

>178 Chatterbox:: that's a great story !

Bring me back one of those 'oh so cool' Lego Mindstorm kits.

I'm trying to decide between The Big Short and The Greatest Trade Ever. I think they cover similar areas but I don't think I want to read both of them.

Just want to say I hope you love Legoland. I am jealous. I live in London, and my kids went to the Legoland here every year until they got too old, and I really miss it - it was the highlight of our summers.

Cushla,

Have a great time. Legoland sounds like great fun.

We're back! Legoland was fantastic and we all loved it. I'll try to put a photo in here (there's one on my profile page). We had 4 days in the park and did everything except the roller coasters, and I even managed a very big water slide in a boat. Gulp. I am a real wuss and it took me two goes...

Janet that made me smile reading about your kids going to the one in the UK. I hope Fletcher (our nearly 6 year old) remembers it when we go home.

Suzanne, I hope your father told that story at your 21st. I suspect our 3 year old might grow up to do something similar... her stroppiness knows no bounds at the moment!

VG, we went to the mindstorms workshop and Fletch built a Technics thing (while I read Testament of Youth)! The advanced things are really cool.

I finished Testament of Youth while we were there, mostly while we sat in the adventure playground, and will write a review next week. It was fantastic - it ranks up there with All Quiet on the Western Front and Regneration for my favourite WW1 book. It was funny reading it in Germany. We were staying next door to a cemetery, and I could see lots of gravestones of survivors of both wars. What a colossal waste of life.

Glad to see you back, Cushla!

Testament of Youth is an excellent WWI book. I read it many years ago - probably time for me to return to it.

I am off to check the picture on your profile page.

Hi Stasia! I have 250 posts on your thread to read.... I shouldn't go away for 5 days!

Have put some pics up now. I had no idea how easy it was to add a few extra photos to LT.

#185: I have another thread started now, so you are actually 250+ posts behind :)

I am off to look at the new pictures.

ETA: I love the picture of Fletcher putting together the Legos - he looks so intense about it. And the one of Teresa in the car - she looks like she want to run someone over!

>183 cushlareads:: If Testament of Youth compares so favorably with All Quiet on the Western Front and Regeneration, then it's one I simply MUST read !! I thought it was a VMC but I guess not?

#187: Laura, the copy I have is definitely not a VMC, but it could be available from Virago, I just do not know.

Cushla, I love your pictures of Legoland! That is a wonderful new feature on LT, isn't it? Simple to do, plus it's fun to look at others' pics.

My trip to the original LL in Billund, Denmark a few years ago was a complete bust. We got there in the afternoon and had to attend a business meeting after which the park was closed for the rest of our visit! Our hotel cost a small fortune to boot. The good news is that my husband got the account to make and sell LL backpacks in the U.S. and we got to learn about the background of the company. We also enjoyed walking around the park after hours and being awed by all the Lego creations. But I wanted to ride the rides! I'm glad you and your family had so much fun.

Hi Cushla, I am self-basting in papaw-mist when I look at your photos! Adorable sprogs you got there, lady.

WAAAY upthread you mentioned your absence of sympathy with Elizabeth Bowen's characters. Uh huh! May I suggest giving Rumer Godden a shot? I've just picked up her novel China Court, a sprawling multi-generation saga of the inhabitants of the eponymous English manor-house that manages not to be precious or tedious, and is full to bursting with sympathetic and interesting characters.

And I feel compelled to add that In This House of Brede is getting a lot of play in several threads, all of it yodeling praise and admiration.

Hey Stasia...is Godden a Virago Modern Classics author? If not, recommend her at the next editorial board meeting you go to!

#190: My knowledge of VMCs books is limited to the 1 I have read, so I do not think they are going to invite me to any of their board meetings, Richard!

So am I responsible for China Court, Richard? I do hope so, I was promoting it to Tad, I think, as Godden's most-overlooked novel, and in a class with some of her best-known books. I join the yodel chorus.

Welcome back, Cushla! I was just beginning to wonder when you'd be back in our ranks...

I loved Testimony of Youth and absolutely MUST re-read it soon. I'll put that on my mental wish list for later in the summer, when I'm done with my other planned reading and need something thought-provoking. WW1 is, to me, THE landmark event of the 20th century -- it put an end to the old world and created a new, more volatile & unstable and often uncomfortable one, in which we still live. (I spent 2 summers working at WW1 battlefield when I was in high school...) My edition is, I'm pretty sure, a Virago, but dunno about VMC. It's about 20 or 25 years old, however.

I also just downloaded a short novel by Rebecca West onto my Kindle for only $3. (Gotta love the kindle pricing...) It's called The Return of the Soldier and I'm hoping to read that soon.

>188 alcottacre:: Sorry, wasn't clear in my post. The LT VMC group uses this handy Virago Collection Tracker, a spreadsheet in Google Docs. I had checked that before posting, and was disappointed not to see it there. Virago does publish books that are not Virago Modern Classics, so there may still be a Virago edition.

>190 richardderus:: Richard, per the same spreadsheet, Rumer Godden is not a Virago Modern Classics author.

I also just downloaded a short novel by Rebecca West onto my Kindle for only $3. (Gotta love the kindle pricing...) It's called The Return of the Soldier and I'm hoping to read that soon.

Great book! Return of the Soldier was one of my top reads last year, and I'd say probably one of my top reads of the past decade. Enjoy! (and it comes in a Virago edition too, although mine was Penguin Classics).

>191 alcottacre: Ha! Stasia, the Reader Who Never Sleeps, has read Everything and now goes all girlishly modest. I snort in derision.

>192 Chatterbox: Oh dear, Suzanne, I had *Tad* down in the notes as my inspiration! But it was on his thread that I pinged a target-acquired tone for China Court. It was my mother's favorite Godden book. To you the laurels, and my thanks for bringing it back to my attention.

>193 lauralkeet: Laura, that is one cool spreadsheet! Thanks for the link. I wonder how they add authors to the VVMC collection?

#195: I was not being girlishly modest. I was being truthful!

Oh Cushla I love the pic of you on the roller coaster or whatever the ride is. You look about how I would on any kind of ride.LOL.

I'm adding Testament of Youth based on nothing more than WWI and "fantastic". I'm not waiting for your review although I will read it.

>192 Chatterbox:: Return of the Soldier was one of my absolute top reads last year. I must make a note to find something else of hers to try.

ETA: The Judge is available for free over on Project Gutenberg. The one review here on LT says it isn't her best work but...hey...the price makes it easy to try it and see.

I also enjoyed The Return of the Soldier. I found The Judge to be more of a slog; I set it aside for several months but kept thinking about it so I eventually finished it. But if it were free ... well, why not read it?

Thanks for the nice comments about the kids - yes they are very cute. Mostly. Sometimes. (Right now they are adorable because I am not getting interrupted!)

Bonnie, I was freaking out on that ride. I am a real wimp and decided when we arrived I would Feel the Fear and Do It Anyawy, or whatever that silly book was, and drove my husband mad for 2 days saying "ok now I'm going to do it. No I'm not. Later on." I'd expected just a slide, but there was a tunnel, dark, a cave, and a backwards half-size slide all before the huge one. And the 5 year old kid in front of me just didn't get why I was a wreck!!

Donna, that's neat about getting the account for the Legoland backpacks but sorry you missed out on the rides.

Richard, I've read a lot of good comments over in the VMC group about Godden and will look for her. China Court and In this House of Brede both sound like I'd enjoy them.

My copy of Testament of Youth is a Fontana. Brittain wrote 29 novels and I'm gonig to look for them (probably not till we're home though - lots of great new bookshops here but no second hand ones with English books). I read The Return of the Soldier last year and liked it, but less than most other people on here seem to. Laura, I remember you finding The Judge a slog last year - I didn't bring it with us because of you!

>199 lauralkeet:: Laura,

Hmmm, sorry to hear that. I'd really like to find something else of hers that was consistent with The Return of the Soldier.

Given you liked the latter, you might try James Hilton's Random Harvest. It has a somewhat similar setting and I liked it just as much. I've recommended it to a couple of people here and, as far as I've noticed, they all seem to enjoy it.

One of my favorite James Hilton books is Knight Without Armor. It's a quirky story of a man who ends up completely losing his identity (not his memory, just his identity) in Russia, and how he survives almost by sheer happenstance. It's set in the final days of the Tsarist rule and the early years of Bolshevism (the Civil War). Tremendously imaginative.

It's interesting to realize how many very prolific writers are so little known today. Vera Brittain? Would anyone mention her as a writer of the interwar years? Woolf, Joyce, Lawrence, Hemingway, yes, but Brittain? Sic transit gloria mundi...

#202: I admit, I have never heard of Knight Without Armor. I will look for it though.

>202 Chatterbox:: Vera Brittain? Would anyone mention her as a writer of the interwar years?

No, I wouldn't...since I've never heard of her. ;-) Do you like her work?

I've been thinking about that same question of writers who were well-known and prolific and then fade from consciousness. I've been reading some of D. E. Stevenson's books...she wrote 40+ books that were best-sellers on both sides of the Atlantic and, yet, now is relatively obscure. Emily Kimbrough is another at whom I peck away, who was very popular once but, now, most people just say, "Who?"

It's extends even to individual books. There are some that were everywhere at one point and, now, people say, "Never heard of it." I remember back in the 70s reading Waltari's The Egyptian. There probably wasn't a secondhand bookstore in America that didn't have two or three copies. Now someone (Stasia?) mentioned that she just read it and there was a chorus of, "Never heard of it."

Makes me wonder what other gems are lying out there, unknown and unread (by me). It pleases me no end when I find and like one of these, giving me a real sense of discovery. I've even started tagging "Books that Time Forgot".

#204: Yes, I was the one who mentioned The Egyptian and recommended it to everyone (although deebee is the one who turned me on to it).

One of the reasons I started reading through the books in Writer's Choice, Tad, is exactly what you are talking about - rediscovering books that time has forgotten. I have found some dandies there.

Tad, how funny... I haven't heard of either D.E. Stevenson or Emily Kimbrough, thus proving your point... I have heard of and read The Egyptian, but that was because my grandfather had a copy (he taught himself to read Egyptian hieroglyphics after he retired -- really...)

Excellent idea for a tag; I shall have to copy it! I worry that Rumer Godden is bound that way as the only books of hers that are being republished are the overtly religious ones (like In This House of Brede), leaving other v. good novels like China Court, Greengage Summer and Thursday's Children to wilt on the vine.

It's not that these are bad books -- perhaps they are just too much of their time and don't resonate? Re Brittain, while I've read all her "Testament" books (including Testament of Friendship, Testament of Experience and Testament of a Generation), I've only read one of her novels, Honourable Estate, which is kind of a classic "woman trapped in marriage" novel, set before and after WW1. Good, but not a classic. I generally prefer Winifred Holtby's novels, like Land of Green Ginger. Another author who is now obscure is Ann Bridge, although Capuchin Classics has just re-released Peking Picnic.

>206 Chatterbox:: Suzanne,

I agree that Ms. Godden seems to be headed that way. In the 2008 version of this group, I mentioned that I had just read The Dark Horse and The Kitchen Madonna because I loved In This House of Brede and was surprised at how many people hadn't heard of her. It's what got me started thinking about this whole phenomenon. Even though Brede is still being published, I don't think it is being read as much as it once was.

Part of it probably is books being "of their time". However, I suspect that it's also a by-product of our ADD culture. A lot of these are contemplative books in the sense that they paint a picture of a way of life and invite you to enter it and look around—they aren't non-stop action books that reach out, grab you by the throat, and drag you in. I think of Marshall McLuhan's concept of "hot" and "cool" media, where "hot" media require less effort on the part of the participant to be immersed. He was speaking of inter-media...TV is hot, books are cool...but I think it might be applied intra-media where modern best sellers are "hot" compared to those 50 or 100 years ago.

>207 TadAD:, do you think that there might also be a compulsion to pursue the "new, new thing" on the part of readers? They want dynamism, action, etc.?

I do suspect that it's also partly because people assume that writers of 50-80 years ago have little to tell us. They aren't aged enough to become "classics", and yet they aren't of the Internet era. If people read about the 20s/30s/40s/50s, it seems they would rather do it through the eyes of writers producing books today, who are looking back on that timeframe with 20/20 hindsight.

That said, Capuchin Classics is bringing out some very interesting/eclectic older books of this era. I've bought & will read this year The Napoleon of Notting Hill by G.K. Chesterton, I've seen Green Dolphin Country by Elizabeth Goudge (another writer who hasn't been widely read since the 60s, probably). There's also The Hireling by L.P. Hartley, and The Unbearable Bassington by Saki. Definitely a publisher on which to keep a keen eye, IMO.

Green Dolphin Country is not one of my favorites by Goudge, but I'd certainly be interested in new copies of my many favorites!! Especially since I can't find my copies of A City of Bells, Sister of the Angels, and The Blue Hills.

I agree that Ms. Godden seems to be headed that way. In the 2008 version of this group, I mentioned that I had just read The Dark Horse and The Kitchen Madonna because I loved In This House of Brede and was surprised at how many people hadn't heard of her.

I agree. The first time I heard of her was when Demi Moore and Bruce Willis named their daughter after her. Not that I ever followed them, but everyone in my office at the time was aghast that they'd name their daughter Rumer. It made sense when you learned that it wasn't just some strange celebrity Moon Unit/Dandelion naming thing, but actually a literary reference. But now I know who she is, and have several of her books high on my TBR pile.

I have to say that Willis/Moore's name choices for their daughters are the only things that make me think there is more to them than the prototypical Hollywood starlet/action hero. Isn't another named Tallulah, and one named Scout, after the girl in To Kill a Mockingbird?

#211: Yes, there are.

OK, you guys have just added tons of books to my wishlist because I've heard of very few of them. It's one of the reasons I like Virago Modern Classics and have got quite addicted to collecting them. I'd never heard of many of the authors - Suzanne, I read the VMC edition of Peking Picnic last year. I'm about to google Capuchin Classics.

I have South Riding here by Winifred Holtby but don't have any of her other books.

I've finally written a quick review of Testament of Youth, which is the tail wagging the dog after all your comments already, but at least it is done (unlike the dishes).

Book 15: Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain - 5 stars

Vera Brittain was 18 when World War 1 began. By the time it was finished, she had grown old from losing people she loved, from the futility of the war, and from years of slogging her guts out as a VAD (voluntary aid detachment) nurse in hospitals in England, Malta, and France. Testament of Youth is her autobiography until 1925, and it was fantastic but very sad. It's also on the 1001 books list, always a bonus...

Brittain grew up in Buxton, Derbyshire, and loathed the place. She describes vividly everyday life, expectations, and the narrow scope of life as a middle-class girl then woman. Her battle with her father to go to Oxford was one of my favourite parts of the book, and her desperation to get to university and escape "provincial young lady-hood" made me want to give the book to some of the less inspiring students I've taught! Eventually, she gets to Oxford, and by that time she and Edward's best friend Roland have fallen in love. Then the war begins. Vera does a year at Oxford but leaves to go nursing and feel like she is doing something useful. Roland, Edward, and two other close friends of theirs and Vera's, all end up at the front. From that point, reading every chapter was tense as I waited to see who would die next. The terrible feeling of waiting is one of Brittain's themes.

After the war, Brittain goes back to Oxford and is one of the first women to graduate with a degree. As a war survivor, she feels unwelcome and out of place, but she gradually settles in. She makes friends with Winifred Holtby, moves to London and starts writing and speaking for the League of Nations Union. The book gets happier for the last 200 pages, but still full of a sense of loss.

Highly recommended if you're interested in WW1 or like memoirs.

#213: Nice review of Testament of Youth. I admit I did not know it was on the 1001 books list, although I read it before that particular book was published, I believe. It is most definitely worth the read.

>206 Chatterbox:-10 re Rumer Godden, there is also a children's book: The Diddakoi about a gypsy girl which I loved as a child - anyone else know that one? She also wrote Black Narcissus which I have not read, but have several times seen the wonderfully melodramatic film by Powell and Pressberger made of that novel.

Rose Macaulay. Compton MacKenzie. Jessamyn West. Lion Feuchtwanger. Norman Douglas. Erskine Caldwell. All good midcentury writers, sadly underknown today to the bulk of the reading public.

What about Rumer's sister Jon Godden? Not as adept a writer, it's true, but a quality one nonetheless.

Capuchin Classics looks like the kind of publsihing venture I was sort of hoping GoogleBooks would turn into...a PoD publisher of the long-forgotten and quite possibly "unworthy" by mandarin standards.

I don't want a Kindle or its technosisters, but I **do** want a Xerox DocuTech. The ability to grab a file and make my own printed book from it gives me little frissons of delight.

#216: Now that Xerox thing sounds so cool to me! Imagine how many books that I cannot get at my local library I could just print out for myself. What a dream!

>217 alcottacre: No kidding! I have wanted one since the 90s.

#218: I had never heard of the thing until you mentioned it. How many thousands do they want for it? I could sell my house cheap. No, that would not work, where would I put the books? Hmmm.

>216 richardderus: -- Richard, Capuchin isn't PoD, as far as I know; it seems to be a "regular" publisher; its editions have been spotted for sale in Barnes & Noble and its website also says nothing about being PoD.

>220 Chatterbox: Hmmm...I suspect they are PoD the same way S&S and Random House are, they keep titles in print and available by reprinting low-demand books via PoD. I bought from Amazon a copy of The Wasp Factory that had been PoD'd by its publisher, and several older titles since have been as well. It makes sense to take advantage of this technology for good books one doesn't want to see die but that don't have enough sales to make a regular print run economical.

Stasia...I don't think the house would bring enough, loveycuddles....

Maybe we could form a cooperative for the Xerox gizmo??

>222 Chatterbox: Hmmm

A used one, perhaps....

Hmmm

#221: Rats. I had a feeling that was going to be a problem.

#222: I am in!

> 215: Genny
Yes, I know The Diddakoi, I even own it and have read :-)

Testament of Youth isn't a VMC but has been published by Virago, though I have a Fontana edition which I got secondhand in my teens, and I think that must have had quite a big print run. Much less read are Testament of Friendship which is about Winifred Holtby who had died quite young of a nasty illness and Testament of Experience. Some of Vera Brittain's novels have been reprinted as VMCs - I saw one in the library the other day and plan to go back and look for it when it reopens on 26 April after refurbishment. Winifred Holtby's novels were reprinted in Virago years ago and I have most of them in the older dark green editions - a copy of Poor Caroline is hopefully on its way to me in the post. South Riding is the best known and I remember loving it when I read it (a long time ago), and it's also the one which was available from Fontana (a much more bestseller paperback publisher in its day than Virago), though I replaced my copy.

Virago Modern Classics are mostly fiction (but not all) and are usually reissues of novels that went out of print, mostly by dead authors, though that's not always the case. May of Margaret Atwood and Nina Bawden's books are VMCs here and they are still alive, and I don't think they'd gone out of print first, although some are just published by Virago - I'm not sure how that works. Also Pat Barker I think! Barbara Comyns and Margaret Laurence were published in the UK in VMC before they died.

I don't know what's in print at the moment, but I think Rumer Godden's children's and YA books are better known here or have been in the past (the 1970s?) than her adult novels, religious or otherwise.

Elkiedee, in New Zealand Rumer Godden was wellknown as a children's author. My Testament of Youth is the Fontana (white) copy as well - found it secondhand somewhere in Wellington last year.

My Testament of Experience is a Virago, but not a VMC, and I can't remember who published ToF because it's in a box in New Zealand. I found Testament of Experience for $1 at the big secondhand book fair last year! I'm a VMC freak. They're quite easy to find in New Zealand second hand bookshops, but just hard enough that it's still a challenge.

The Capuchin website looks very enticing. And their delivery over here's not bad either...

Book 16 - Provincial Daughter by R. M. Dashwood - 3 stars

I read the Diary of a Provincial Lady series near the end of last year, when I was looking after our kids in New Zealand without my husband and getting ready to move over here. I loved them - it was like Bridget Jones with 2 kids in England at the time of World War 2. Someone wise on here said yesterday (maybe Bonnie? Stasia? ok who have I just insulted by forgetting your thread already...?) that how much they like a book depends on their mood at the time. I'd read a little bit every night and count my blessings that modern life was so much easier, except that I didn't have the French nanny and the housekeeper.

The Provincial Daughter is written in the same style, by E.M. Delafield's daughter, in the 1950s and was very kindly sent to me by CDVicarage from the Virago Modern Classics group. It wasn't as funny or touching - I'm still glad I read it, but the anecdotes weren't as good and I didn't warm to the author as much as I did to her Mum. If you liked the Provincial Lady series, it's probably worth reading this to satisfy your curiosity, but I would definitely read those books first.

#228: I have said several times that I am very much of a moody reader. For all I know, Bonnie has said it too :)

I think I will skip Provincial Daughter. I will see if I can find the Diary of a Provincial Lady though.

Stasia I think you'll like it. My VMC is quite a new one, so hopefully it won't be too hard to find in your library system.

Book 17 - 1984 by George Orwell - 5 stars

Another book from the Reinach library - and like A Dry White Season, also from there, this one was a great book. Their English book collection is forcing me to read more classics (or at least borrow them!) I must be one of the few New Zealanders who hasn't been forced to read 1984 in English at school, because I'm pretty sure it was on the syllabus for years. (I didn't do English past 15, so I also missed Brave New World and Tess of the d'Urbervilles!

I'm not going to do a review because there are hundreds already on LT. I found the book very disturbing and had trouble sleeping peacefully the night I finished it. I'll look for more Orwell but not till I've recovered from this one!

#230: I checked and none of my local libraries has it, so I will just have to scout around for a copy.

Ooooo, I have 1984 and Animal Farm on my Tipping Tower of Tomes, now I'm looking forward to reading both even more.

#232: I read Animal Farm earlier this year and found it still has a lot to say even after all these years. I hope you like it when you have a chance to read it, Lynda.

Lynda, have something light and fluffy to read while you're in the middle of 1984! I put it down for weeks and nearly stopped because it was so grim, but I couldn't.

Book 18 - A Wall in Palestine by Rene Backmann - 4 stars

If you want a detailed look at the impact of the Israeli wall (or "security barrier", depending on who's talking about it), this book is good. Rene Backmann is a reporter at Le Nouvel Observateur. It was published in France in 2006, then translated into English last year, but was obviously updated at the same time. It really could have done with a good editing and an outline of the book's structure - I felt like a blindfolded donkey being led by the nose, but kept going and learnt a lot about the wall and Israeli politics. Some good maps help. If this is your very first book about Israel, you might struggle with the detail. There's a chronology at the end, but if you've never heard of the Green Line and don't know roughly what happened with the British Mandate, the 1948 war and the 1967 war then it will be a slow read. Either From Beirut to Jerusalem, if Tom Friedman has updated it lately, or even Exodus by Leon Uris would do. (I would love some other references for good books on the development of the Middle East.)

There's a lot of discussion in the book about the Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Backmann's main point is that, even if the Israeli government had legitimately wanted to build a security barrier because of terrorism, they broke a heck of a lot of laws by plonking it away from the Green Line and caused immense suffering. The barrier has had a massive impact on the lives of the Palestinians, especially those whose land has ended up on the other side. Since I finished the book I've found it much easier to understand detailed newspaper coverage of what's going on at the moment with the US and Israel's fight over the extension of settlements.

I'm glad I read it and gave it 4 stars. I enjoyed Sharon and my Mother-in-Law: Ramallah Diaries more though (covered in my 2009 thread... link on my profile page.) That touchstone is going to a spam book. Here's the link:

http://www.librarything.com/work/41547

Backmann does not cover the intifada, except as a response to Israel's actions. The problems within the Palestinian Authority are mentioned but not really emphasised. I feel like reading something now by a staunchly pro-Israel journalist to see the counter-argument, if there is one. Any recommendations welcome! But it's hard to see how the Israeli government can be re-painted in a glowing light, based on what's in this book.

I do not think I have enough background in Israeli history for the Backmann book, but I am going to check out the Friedman book you recommended, Cushla. Thanks!

Adding a Wall in Palestine--thanks! I think our news tends to be Pro-Israel much of the time, so don't necessarily think I need to balance this one out. I so want Israel to succeed as a country, but it's important to read about the realities from both sides.

You've got to read Animal Farm, Cushla! It's scary, but more funny-scary than 1984.

#237: I read Animal Farm earlier this year. I have not read 1984 yet though.

Oops! I meant to be talking to Cushla--fixed that.

It's OK, I just thought you misunderstood my message up the thread a bit.

Definitely want to read A Wall in Palestine. Like Bonnie, I think we got a lot of Israeli news, less on the Palestinian side, perhaps because it's that much harder for an American journalist to cover? (Americans are universally viewed as being pro-Israeli when we travel in the Middle East, as I've found in Jordan, Syria and even Morocco, tho the latter isn't strictly the Middle East.)

I read 1984 back in 1984! I was on a trip through southern Japan, and missed the train station to get off at because I was so immersed in it. Alas, my Japanese wasn't up to the task of explaining why I didn't have the right ticket when I eventually got off!!

But makes for a great story, Chatterbox!

--> 235

Nice review of A Wall in Palestine. I try my hardest not to read any books about Israeli/Palestinian politics. I find them too depressing. I will read novels or graphic novels about the political situation there, though.

In addition, I would like to recommend a movie. It's an Israeli flick about how both sides view "the wall". See if you can find that movie. It's called Lemon Tree.

I also highly recommend reading works by the Israeli Arab author Sayed Kashua for an interesting look in novels at what it means to be an Arab within Israel's borders.

A Wall in Palestine is now safely on my Kindle.

I'm way behind on the threads and trying to send at least an hour each day to catch up.

Cushla...I love the photos! Your children are adorable!

There are so many great books mentioned here on your thread since I last visited. I recently bought a lot of books, and I have seven to rad from the library..I'm trying ever so hard to contain myself from adding more to the list...

Cushla, Were your terrific pictures taken at a Legoland? My son has so many Star Wars Lego models in his room there is barely room for him : o

Good God shades of high school: 1984 (which was still in the future when I was in high school, Animal Farm and Brave New World bring back such memories of Mrs. Mallum and tenth grade English! I haven't thought about those books for years. Maybe a reread??

Bonnie

To Kill A Mockingbird is right at the top of my all-time favorite books, primarily because my 11th grade English teacher taught in such a wonderful, exciting way.

#246> My son (and his father) have a whole Lego *room*. We booted the two kids into sharing a room so we could have a spare room: I was hoping for a bookshelf, a comfy reading chair, the spare bed for when my MIL visits, plus storage space for all the*stuff*.

I shouldn't have let the blokes of the house do the heavy lifting. No comfy chair, no shelves, every surface covered with Lego. And the storage space is filled with boxes of Lego.

*sigh*

Cushla, I started 1984 some weeks ago, and put it down because it was so bleak. I'll get back into it, but not right now... (It's a re-read, I originally read it back in 1984!)

1984- the best last sentence in a book, ever. So short and simple. So chilling.

#243 - I second the recommendation for the film Lemon Tree - this is one of the best films I have seen in years. If you look for it on imdb.com or a DVD site, be careful not to confuse it with a couple of films call THE Lemon Tree. This one stars Hiam Abbass; she is really brilliant and has won quite a few awards for it. She was also in The Visitor, as well as some films less known in Europe/the US.

Cushla, I've got an ARC of my opus maximus to send you, if you want to PM me your address...

Hi there. I just read all 251 posts, more or less, and must say it was quite fascinating. I'm certainly jealous of the travels so many of you have enjoyed!

I just wanted to jump in and say that The Lost was indeed a moving and inspiring book. Sadly I lent my copy out and it hasn't returned home. Also, I once saw a musical version of Animal Farm in Chicago and it was so cleverly done. Who would ever have thought, "Hey kids, let's do a musical! Let's do Animal Farm!".

Hi there. I just read all 251 posts, more or less, and must say it was quite fascinating. I'm certainly jealous of the travels so many of you have enjoyed!

I just wanted to jump in and say that The Lost was indeed a moving and inspiring book. Sadly I lent my copy out and it hasn't returned home. Also, I once saw a musical version of Animal Farm in Chicago and it was so cleverly done. Who would ever have thought, "Hey kids, let's do a musical! Let's do Animal Farm!".

Oh man, I am behind on my own thread!

#254 PetHairMagnet, I love your username and thanks for popping in. I was wondering why you didn't have a 75BC or 1010 challenge thread but I see that you've been a member here for 4 days - WATCH OUT! You too will soon be wasting your life, er I mean having a wonderful time.

Janet and Squeaky, I'll look for The Lemon Tree but I confess I am hopeless with movies - I think I've seen 2 since 2004. (Super Size Me, and An Inconvenient Truth. Both such happy films...). And thanks for the Israeli novelist rec, Madeline - I thought you and Kerry would help! (but she is away in Argentina.) I haven't read any Amos Oz yet, either. I'm sure one of you guys recommended him to me a few months back.

Bonnie and Bonnie, I will read Animal Farm... I promise. Soon.

#250 VG, I have sent it back to the library but will have to Google!

Lynda, yes - the photos are taken at Legoland in Germany. It was wonderful. Our apartment is overrun with Lego too, but I try to keep it in our son's bedroom most of the time. When I pick him up from school I have to take a container of Lego in the car. It's crazy, but I love how much imagination he uses.

Wookie, I can't remember if I said, but I put 1984 down for weeks because of the bleakness - I think if it hadn't been due back at the library and I'd owned it, I wouldn't have got through it, but I'd got through 150 pages already.

Right I am off to the zoo to see the flamingoes!

#255: Have a lovely time at the zoo! I still like to go even at my advanced age, lol.

New thread is over here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/89590