Janet's books 2010

Hi. I only just signed up, but luckily I do know what I have already read this year. Oddly, though, I haven't enjoyed that many of them all that much, so I also want to tell you about my favorite books of 2009, to help you decide whether my thread is going to be of any interest to you.

So, first, here are my favorites of last year:
Tomorrow - Graham Swift
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
Falling Man - Don DeLillo
Born on a Blue Day - Daniel Tammett
The Yiddish Policemen's Union - Michael Chabon
Then we Came to the End - Joshua Ferris
The Yacoubian Building - Alaa Al Aswany
Man Gone Down - Michael Thomas
The World of Yesterday - Stefan Zweig
Netherland - Joseph O'Neill
Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Zgozi Adichie
Ahab's Wife - Sena Jeter Naslund
The Housekeeper and the Professor - Yoko Ogawa
The Rest is Noise - Alex Ross

Some of my favorite authors include Stefan Zweig, Janet Evanovich, Andrea Camilleri, Kate Atkinson and sometimes Thomas Pynchon, plus lots of others.

Okay, my 2010 books read:

January:
1. Brooklyn - Colm Toibin
2. Dreams of Rivers and Seas - Tim Parks
3. Howard's End is on the Landing - Susan Hill
4. The Pattern in the Carpet - Margaret Drabble
5. Free Food for Millionaires - Min Jin Lee
6. The Post Office Girl - Stefan Zweig
7. Engleby - Sebastian Faulks
8. Twenty Four Hours in the Life of a Woman - Stefan Zweig
9. Mystery Man - Bateman

February:
10. Last and First Men - Olaf Stapledon
11. Beware of God - Shalom Auslander
12. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - Simon Armitage (trans.)
13. Felicia's Journey - William Trevor
14. Al Qaeda and What it Means to be Modern - John Gray
15. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
16. The Girl who Played with Fire - Stieg Larsson
17. Travels with Herodotus - Ryszard Kapuscinski
18. Miracle at Speedy Motors - Alexander McCall Smith
19. Imperium - Robert Harris

March
20. The Long March - Sun Shuyun
21. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
22. Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers - Kwame Anthony Appiah
23. A Conspiracy of Paper - David Liss
24. The Canon: The Beautiful Basics of Science - Natalie Angier
25. On Beauty - Zadie Smith
26. The Recruiting Officer - George Farquhar
27. The Blank Wall - Elisabeth Sanxay Holding
28. The New House - Lettice Cooper
29. Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
30. The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing - Richard Dawkins
31. Fine Just the Way it Is - Annie Proulx

April
32. Palace Walk - Naguib Mahfouz
33. Trust Me - Peter Leonard
34. The Complaints - Ian Rankin
35. The Heart of the World - Linda Barnes
36. The Coffee Trader - David Liss
37. U is for Undertow - Sue Grafton
38. The Rings of Saturn - W.G. Sebald
39. The Little Mountain - Elias Khoury
40. American Purgatorio - John Haskell
41. Red Dust - Ma Jian
42. China Road - Rob Gifford
43. Peace - Richard Bausch

Welcome to the group, Janet!

I am currently reading Howards End is on the Landing. Did you enjoy it? I am - but it is making my TBR list (mine is dubbed the BlackHole) grow by leaps and bounds.

Hi. Yes, I did enjoy Howards End is on the Landing, although after a while I started to think she was just showing off about how many authors she knew personally. Have you read any of her fiction? I know she has written a lot of books, and I keep seeing them in the library, but I don't feel tempted to read any of them, even after reading this memoir. Can you suggest any good ones to start with if you have read any?

I have not yet read any of Susan Hill's fiction, so I am afraid I cannot help with that.

I haven't really gotten the feeling that she is 'name-dropping', although I can see how someone could. I just think of the author's she mentions as her way of connecting on a personal level to her books. I wish I were as lucky!

I just used LT to find out! Seems like she has written some horror/ghost stories and some mysteries, and some I'm not sure about. She gets good ratings from LT members. Still not sure I will read one, though, unless I run out of the things in the pile by the bed sooner than expected!

By the way, love the "black hole" - my mom used to call hers the "someday list", I guess with the realization that "someday" wasn't going to be any time soon!

Prior to LT I had a 'Mount TBR'. It then morphed into Continent TBR, Planet TBR and finally to the BlackHole. Now, I do not ever have to change the name again. Suffice to say, this group does nothing for the size of your TBR stack - except to expand it!

Welcome Janet--It looks like we have similar reading tastes, so I will be following your thread.

Welcome! Looks like you had some good books both in '09 and this year. As Stasia mentioned, you won't find any help here in reducing your TBR pile...

Welcome Janet - I saw your post on the Intros thread. I'm also in London.

On name dropping, as a writer herself Susan Hill probably does meet a lot of other writers at events and things. I'm not a writer, just a slightly crazy reader, but I used to go to lots of crime fiction events, and hope to go to some of the UK ones at least again soon. I try not to name drop too much online but have met a few writers, most not so well known but a few are probably better known.

I have a library reservation on the Susan Hill book so might get to read it next month - once it comes through it's the only copy in that system so I will probably have to prioritise it on the basis that I'll only have it out once and not be able to renew.

Hello, all, and thanks for dropping by. Finished book number 14 today - a bit of a departure for me. It's a book by John Gray, called Al Qaeda and What it Means to be Modern.

John Gray is a philosophy professor, and I chose this book because I wanted to read a more thoughtful analysis of Al Qaeda than you usually get in the newspapers. I don't mean a more positive view, just a more historical/philosophical view, the way we look back at the terror of the French Revolution, for example. What John Gray says is that we are wrong to think Al Qaeda is backwards looking, wants to return to the Middle Ages, etc. In fact he says, they are very modern in the philosophical sense - like the modern US and Western Europe, they believe there is a single best way to live, and are trying to achieve it. In this, are they really so different from, for example, some fundamentalist Christian groups? Like Nazism and Communism, both of which were modern, and Western, Al Qaeda believe they are right to force everyone to agree with them, and to remove everyone who doesn't. The reason we (most Americans and Europeans) find it hard to regard them as modern is that we think modern=scientific progress = move towards more rational and therefore reasonable attitudes towards society. Thre is no reason why this should be true, he says, and no reason why technological progress can't be used to support less rational and less reasonable attitudes. He says such conflicts will get greater going forwards, because there are so many flashpoints around the world, which will increase as natural resources decrease. He says we have to stop imagining everyone will eventually become more "like us", and start thinking about ways to live together with people who don't want to be like us at all. A very thoughtful, if not especially optimistic, book. Also quite short, so not too hard for a non-intellectual expert to read.

Sorry for the long summay - I figured you'd stop if you weren't interested. Anyway, I don't usually read such heavy books, so don't give up on me if this isn't your sort of thing! My next book is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which I have already started and am loving so far.

Excellent review and commentary on Al Qaeda and What It Means to Be Modern, Janet. I shall add this to my wish list, and look for it later this week.

John Gray sounds interesting, our library has some books of him, so I will add them to my TBR pile. Thanks!
Anita

#10: I will see if I can locate a copy of Al Qaeda and What it Means to be Modern as well. Thanks for the review and recommendation, Janet.

Sounds interesting Janet - thanks for the great review!

I'm really glad to have generated interest in this book. I'll be very interested to see what any of you think about it as and when it reaches the tops of your piles.

Meanwhile, I finished Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - I guess it has many reviews here already, so just to see I really liked it, and have gone straight on to The Girl Who Played with Fire. Looking back at my past few years, I realise I have read a huge amount of what would loosely be called detective genre fiction. The authors I have really liked in this area are Sue Grafton, Andrea Camilleri, Alexander McCall Smith, Janet Evanovich, James Lee Burke, Jacqueline Winspear and Henning Mankell. Can anyone suggest any similar authors they have liked that I have missed?

Donna Leon and Louise Penny are two that spring immediately to mind.

If you like Sue Grafton you may already have come across some of these: Marcia Muller, Sara Paretsky, Linda Barnes, Janet Dawson. Though only Paretsky is currently published here, books by all of the others are available secondhand and libraries often get some Barnes and Muller.

Thanks! Of those, I only knew Sara Paretsky, so I will certainly look out for the others.

Hi. I finished The Girl who Played with Fire, and I liked it, but no need to write anything about it, given how many people here have alread read it!

I also read #17, Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski. This one I do want to say something about.

A friend of mine recommended this book, and although Im not usually a big fan of travel books, I thought it would be rude not to read it, as she had loved it so much. Well, I'm certainly glad I did, because this book is terrific, and I'm glad I bought it rather than borrowed it, because I can see myself reading it again. Ryszard Kaupuscinski was a Polish journalist from the 1950's until his death in 2007, starting when Poland was firmly behind the Iron Curtain, with very restricted access to the world, and throughout the period of rapid change which Eastern Europe later experienced. His dream was to learn about the world, and his job as a foreign correspondent took him to many different places.

In this book, he tells two parallel stories, one about some of the places he visited in his job - India, China, Egypt, Sudan, and the other about his readings from Herodotus, an ancient Greek historian whom Kapuscinski reads constantly when he is travelling. Herodotus was driven by a desire to understand the causes of conflict in his world - why did Greeks fight Persians, why did different tribes hate each other, who "started" it? To find out, he travelled extensively, asking people what they knew about their parts of the world. He was fascinated by the different traditions, customs, histories and ways of life of the people he met, describing them in great detail and with great respect. Kapuscinski quotes directly from Herodotus quite a lot, so we can see this for ourselves.

Of course, Kapuscinski is also fascinated by all the people he himself meets, all so different from Poles, and he is just as respectful as Herodotus. He is also very open and honest, not only describing the people, places and events he is sent to record, but also recounting his own ignorance, for example, not knowing how to get places, falling into a trap and being robbed, completely failing to realize he is being systematically prevented from completing his assignment.

He says right at the beginning of the book, in a short description of his education in war-torn, suspicious Poland, that people there were accustomed to scrutinizing everything they read to seek its hidden, political, meanings. Everything was a reference, an allegory. And so too, I think, is this book. By interleaving his stories and descriptions of the modern world with Herodotus' of the ancient one, he is showing us that the themes never change, and that the need to understand and respect all those people who are different from ourselves is still as essential as it was 2500 years ago. He also shows us that this can still be as satisfying, fascinating and pleasurable as it was then - his stories are just as thrilling, the people he meets just as interesting and individual, his sense of adventure just as strong, as it was for Herodotus.

I really loved this book, and it made me want to read not only more books by Kapuscinski, but also Herodotus' History - but that's a big book, so I'll probably just dip in and read a few bits, maybe those ones Ryszard Kapuscinski particularly talked about.

Now on to #18, a lighter read, The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith

#19: I already have Travels with Herodotus in the BlackHole or I would add it again.

Stasia, I would definitely move it up the list!

Yes, I read The Cobra's Heart by Kapuscinski last year and really liked it, but unfortunately, my local library does not have the Herodotus book. I have it out on my PBS wishlist, so hopefully I can get a copy soon.

18. The Miracle at Speedy Motors - I liked this book, because it was just like the previous 8 in the No. 1 Ladies Detective series. I know some people find them too light - they don't have much plot, it's true - and some find them somewhat condescending or even rascist - the characters are quite simplistic most of the time, but not always, but I just like them for a gentle read. They have as much plot, and as sophisticated characters as most Agatha Christie or Dorothy L. Sayers, for example, and they evoke a whole different way of life which I find quite appealing. Not sure if it was shown in the US, but there was a really nice tv adaptation of a few of the stories last year, as well as some good radio versions on the BBC. If you're new to these, though, I do think it's a series that needs to be read in order, as the characters do develop along the way. I especially like the two apprentices, Charlie and "the younger apprentice", who are finally starting to have something of a character in this latest one.

Haven't found any more Kapuscinski books yet, but there's plenty to get on with while I keep trying. I did buy 6 books this week, which may not sound much to most of you, but I have been trying to stick to libraries for the past year, and this is the most I have bought at once in a long time. It came about because I had to stay in central London for a couple of nights for various reasons, and I had time to wander around several of my favorite second hand and remainder bookshops, which I haven't been to in a long time. And there were all these books, just waiting for me.

#23: I have tried twice now to get into the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series and failed both times. I have just decided it is not for me. I am glad you are enjoying it though.

Are you looking online for the Kapuscinski books or just in brick-and-mortar stores and libraries? If you are searching online and have not tried there already, I recommend www.ABEBooks.com.

Yes, lots of my friends and my husband really dislike the No. 1 Ladies. Well, I'm not going to make a big push for them, they are just light reads, and there are plenty others of those in the world to choose from!

As for Kapuscinski, I'm only looking in libraries and second hand shops. I try to stick to this rule, and find that even if it's sometimes frustrating, it does mean my reading is a bit random and unplanned, which can make it really interesting - I have a big list of potential reads and I read whichever I come across in those two outlet types. When, if ever, this fails, I'll buy some "properly". But I might be making an exception in this case, so thanks for the tip.

#25: I'm only looking in libraries and second hand shops.

I thought you might be, but figured I would throw it out there as another option for you anyway.

Sorry for the long radio silence. I was somewhere where I thought I'd have internet access, and it turned out not. But I did keep reading, and I'll gradually catch up here.

19. Imperium by Robert Harris

I liked this book. I had previously read the same author’s Pompeii, so I knew I liked his writing style, and I had read some of Steven Saylor’s detective stories based in the same period of Ancient Rome, so I felt like I knew quite a few of the characters already, too. The story is fascinating – how Cicero, a smart young lawyer with no family connections to help him along, rose to be one of the leaders of Rome, what he had to do to get there, and what else was going on at the time. It’s about political intrigue, corruption and compromise every bit as devious as our own, and much more blatant – I couldn’t believe that it was widely accepted that local governors could just walk in and take things from anyone they liked. Cicero comes across as a hero, although a compromised one – even he has to make trade-offs and form unpleasant alliances in order to achieve his aims.

The best bits for me were the descriptions of voting – all the voters in a big field, grouped together by tribes, waiting to vote in turn, with candidates and election agents wandering among them trying to get last minute support. There were a lot of voting opportunities, and you had to vote in person, in Rome, so deciding to move out of town either meant spending a lot of time travelling or foregoing your vote. I hadn’t realized only 400,000 men could actually vote (it increased later, one of the subplots), and they all took it very seriously, despite the obvious corruption – there were even people, illegal but everywhere, known as “bribery agents”.

I know Harris must have emphasized various things in order to make the parallels with today even clearer, but it yet again showed how the modern US and many (but not all) other societies are a lot like Rome for worse as well as for better.

The story is cracking, and well told, and I’m looking forward to reading Lustrum, the next in the series.

I'm dropping by to say hello after reading your intro -- I think I might have read it on the old thread.... anyhow, your reviews are illuminating and I have put Travels with Herodotus on my list...... or rather, the list to put it on the list.... I was interested too in your Al Quaeda review having just finished a painful book on Afghanistan. Gray's points, especially those on resources, seem .... what is the word? scarily, soberingly apt?

I've often wondered if Harris' books were any good! I really should pick one up... from the sounds of things, as mentioned in your review of Imperium, I bet I'd really enjoy them.

Hello, i'm also dropping in after reading your intro. Some of your last year/this year reads overlap with mine (haven't entered last years yet on LT myself), so it looks as if we share some tastes - and i've enjoyed reading your reviews of some other books I'd not heard of, like the one on Al Qaeda, and the Herodotus one - i'll add those to the TBR for myself I think.

If you like detective stories based in Ancient Rome I wonder if you've come across Lindsey Davis's Falco series, starting I believe with The silver pigs. They are another light read, and quite funny/lightly satirical as well, with some of the later books in particular focussing on different institutions or aspects of roman life (bankers, tourism, builders & architects) which are both informative but also deliberately prompting comparisons with similar institutions today.

This has just reminded me that her latest one or two must be out in paperback by now... some more for the list!

Hi, I'm also catching up on your thread. I'm keen to read Robert Harris, I've read a few good reviews of his books. I'm adding Travels with Herodotus to my wishlist, it sounds fascinating. Our tastes in fiction seem to be similar, though I also read quite a lot of YA and children's fiction.

I'm slowly savouring the Inspector Montalbano books after discovering him by way of the TV series, I've read 4 or 5 so far and love them. I'll suggest Robert Wilson as a crime writer, his Javier Falcon series is set in Sevilla, his Bruce Medway books are set in Africa and one of my other favourites is A Small Death in Lisbon.

Hi, thanks for stopping by, everyone. I'm glad I have been able to be a recommender rather than a recommendee for once (if either of those are even words!).

I hate to have to be negative about something I loved, but I did see an article last week in The Guardian newspaper suggesting Kapuscinski made up a lot of the stuff in his books. Maybe everyone else but me already knew that, but I was really disappointed to hear it. And conflicted - does it matter? Of course, because he is presenting it as non-fiction, as reportage, as real. But it's still exciting and illuminating to read - do things always have to be totally accurate to be "true" or "real"? I don't know. But in the spirit of honesty, here's the link if you want to see the article I mean:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/mar/06/ian-jack-ryszard-kapuscinski

dk_phoenix: I'll be interested to see if you like Imperium, I hope you do. My husband is a classicist, and he likes them - he says they are accurate enough not to drive him nuts, which badly written "ancient xxxx" books always do.

gennyt: I had heard of the Falco books, but not read any, and you have reminded me of them, so I will try The Silver Pigs, thanks.

Janet, if your Classicist husband likes them, I'd place bets that I will too! I also studied Classics in my university days, so if it's accurate and decently written, I imagine I'll find lots to like :)

Avatiakh, thanks for suggesting Robert Wilson - I'll look for him. I also love the Montalbano books - I'm pretty sure I've read them all, but I've never seen this tv series anywhere - is it only in Italian?

Welcome to our friendly, well-read, chatty group. I look forward to learning about your reading interests and following your thread.

#34 - Yes, with English subtitles. You should be able to sample it on youtube.

Janet, I saw that article in the Guardian about Kapuscinski too, and was disappointed at first. But I loved The Shadow of the Sun so much that I will still read other books by him, but will keep that in the back of my mind.

I have Imperium in a box in New Zealand (we are currently living in Switzerland and lots of my books are in storage...) but liked Pompeii and Fatherland. I read a not exactly gripping biography of Cicero last year - by Anthony Everitt, and need a rest first. I think we like quite a few of the same books! I'm another Steven Saylor fan (and have been meaning to try Lindsay Davis for ages too). I'm going to put your thread in my Bad For Wallet Watch Out category.

Thanks, avatiakh.

cmt - I got Kapuscinski's The Soccer War from the library today so, like you, I'm not holding a grudge against him!

20. The Long March by Sun Shuyun
21. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Not for the first time, my policy of randomly choosing what to read next from a “to be read” shelf yielded an interesting juxtaposition. Although these two books are very different in style, tone and purpose, they both talk about the terrible consequences of getting caught up in someone else’s burning ambitions, in the first case Mao’s, in the second Hitler’s. (Come to think of it, my last book, Imperium, was partly about this, too – maybe I am subliminally drawn to books with this theme.)

The Long March is by Sun Shuyun, a Chinese woman who grew up in China, won a scholarship to Oxford, and since then has lived between her two worlds. She decided to trace the route of the Long March, the founding campaign of Mao’s China, and to interview any survivors and witnesses she could find. The March happened in the 1930’s, so they were all really old by the time she met them (the book was published in 2005), and course there weren’t many, not only because they had died in the meantime, but because only something like 10,000 marchers survived, with more than 80% dying or disappearing en route.

The campaign was a turning point in Chinese history, a breakthrough on Mao’s way to eventual power. Her purpose in writing the book, I think, was to learn more about the human suffering, martyrdom and bravery, to supplement the official versions she, as every Chinese for decades, had learned about at school. I don’t know a lot about China, but I understand that this is the key “heroic myth” of communist China – a true story, with true heroism, but played up a little to be even more important, for the sake of national mythology – I’m sure you can think of similar events in your own country’s history.

Basically, the Communist armies (the heroes in their version) were being chased by the Nationalists, and were trapped in southern China, but escaped by marching hundreds of miles through snow, mountains, marshes and deserts. As they marched, they sang songs, wrote and distributed pamphlets (yes, they carried a printing press with them!), put on plays, recruited new volunteers, had babies (which they had to leave behind) and fought the occasional battle. Mainly, though, they starved and froze. Most wore only sandals, which soon wore out, and many had no coats – based in the hot south, they hadn’t needed them, and even though they were issued, they were often thrown away as too difficult to carry.

In itself, the March is an amazing story of courage, belief and endurance. But what Sun Shuyun found was even more interesting – lots of the stories had been embroidered or even totally fabricated, primarily to make Mao look good. For example, she was told that the 50,000 she had learned died in a famous battle had in fact mostly deserted, a high proportion of their replacements were press ganged rather than volunteering, another famous battle for a bridge had not happened at all, because the local warlord was persuaded to just let them pass, and other examples. Even more shockingly, after the March, most of the survivors never received the land, pensions, etc., they were promised, and many of those she interviewed were spending their old age in real poverty. They had also apparently been denounced during the Cultural Revolution (about which I know too little to comment), so had no social status either.

The politics are fascinating (I really don’t know what the author’s “angle” is – I just don’t know enough about China), but what really comes through is the sheer determination of these people to survive, and the real belief many of them had, and still have, that what they did was extraordinary and created a better life for their country. Sun Shuyun clearly admired and respected her subjects, and was always disappointed when she learned negative facts about them later on her journey, and she also includes some fantastic photos of them in the book.

It’s a short book, and an instructive yet entertaining one, whether you know a lot about 20th Century China or, like me, nothing at all. Recommended.

I’m not going to say much about The Book Thief, as so many have read it, and it’s hard to discuss without giving things away. It was refreshing to read a book about Nazi Germany which didn’t focus only on the suffering of Jews and other minority groups, but also talked about the suffering of Germans outside those categories, whether they supported the 3rd Reich or not. The parallel with The Long March for me was in the long period of time the affected people just had to keep surviving, trying to get by from day to day, and how this was true no matter what your politics or your reasons for being where you were. In addition to the obvious feelings of horror and anger, I felt hungry and cold the whole time I was reading this, as I did with The Long March. Anyway, I loved The Book Thief, although I hadn’t been completely sure I would, and I cried a lot at the end, which I haven’t done with a book for a while. Has anyone NOT liked this book??

I love the sound of The Long March - both my parents are academics working on China and I refused to read anything until I was about 18 or so and then I became more interested, though I still only know a little bit of Chinese history and that's mostly rather specialist and obscure.

Mao:The Unknown Story, which definitely had a political agenda and was clearly biased against Mao, also points out some of the misinformation about the Long March, in particular the fact that Mao did not walk anything like the whole distance. But it was sometimes difficult in that book to separate the author's anti-Mao emphasis from real facts, at least for someone like me who is not knowledgeable about Chinese history. This book sounds much more rooted in real people's stories.

Great reviews and comments on the books you read!

I'm glad you joined us~!

I don't like the sound of the Jung Chang book much. I didn't like Wild Swans which a lot of people loved - one of the early misery lit memoirs, perhaps. It was a good read but she just became rather irritating. I don't like self pity and she's full of it.

One memoir on China I did like was Jan Wong's Red China Blues - she is a Chinese-Canadian and was a Maoist student in Canada in the 1960s/early 70s - then she went to Beijing first as a student and then as a journalist. She's very funny. I lived there with my mum when I was 5 for a year and apparently we did meet her but I don't remember her.

I bought some other books about Mao after I read the Jung Chang because I could tell it was biased, but needless to say they've been languishing on the TBR pile.

#42 - Thanks for the compliment! I am having a great time here, and have already heard about quite a few authors and books I hadn't known before. I just hope I can keep up the pace and standard!

elkiedee - I didn't know Jung Chang had written about this as well. I haven't read Wild Swans, and I'm not really inclined to, as this isn't the first time I've heard it described as self pitying, which I can also do without. Also, it's just so big. I do want to know more about China, though. I've put off starting this new life project of "know about China" for a long time, because there's so much to know and I just don't know where to start. But now that I've read this book, maybe I'll just start from there. I'll look for Red China Blues and see where I go. I've also started going to look at the China section of the British Museum, because the objects are beautiful and are starting to give me a bit of chronology to work with. Can you recommend any other books?

I don't know if I can recommend any other books on China, it depends so much on your interests. My pet interest in the area is Chinese Trotskyism but I also like memoirs of all kinds, I just don't like the mis lit kind (mis as in misery).

Qiu Xialong has written 6 detective novels about a Shanghai policeman investigating murder in modern day Shanghai, the first is Death of a Red Heroine - he's Chinese but is now an academic in the US. Several other people, mostly American or British, have set crime novels in China.

Two books I haven't read but have on my shelves are a memoir Foreign Babes in Beijing or for a more serious read my dad wrote a book called The Tyranny of History. (I'm not name dropping or anything, I know about it because he wrote it and I do own it but haven't read it - I find the approach to history implied by the title a bit offputting).

Thanks. I guess I'll just jump around for a while and see what aspects of China most keep my attention. I like the idea of using detective stories as a hook, so I'll look for those.

Dropping by in response to your intro. The Long march sounds fascinating - I enjoy reading stories/oral history about events. Red China blues sounds good too.

I can recommend China road: a journey into the future of a rising power as well. The author, Rob Gifford, is an NPR correspondent who first went to China as a student learning Chinese. The book is written about two trips he took on a highway running from the east coast to the northwest border of China while on a five year assignment. For us non-experts on China, I thought he did a good job of setting out the historical context, and depicting the breadth of cultures China emcompasses.. One of these days I want to write up my impressions of this along with Red dust and Undress me in the temple of heaven. (Both road trip in China books, but for background Gifford's is the best of the three.)

Hi, markon, thanks for dropping by. I will definitely check out China Road.

I'm furiously writing down titles of books about China. Maybe that will be my theme for next year. I don't do many goals as other people do, but this year I'm trying to read books by Faulkner. My husband travels to China twice a year and really wants me to go with him sometime. I'm waiting for his offer to upgrade to first class. It's the 20-hour travel time from here in Missouri that is holding me back!

I'm also going to be looking for books by Robert Harris at our upcoming library book sale. I've often thought they looked interesting, and just needed a little nudge from someone.

>39 JanetinLondon:: I've recommended The Book Thief to quite a few people, and so far, no one has been disappointed. There aren't that many books that have such a wide range of appeal.

#43 I really enjoyed Red China Blues too - can't remember the detail but I know it was good! Am enjoying getting ideas for other China books.

Last year Mo Zhi Hong, a Chinese New Zealander, was at our writers and readers festival as his debut novel Year of the Shanghai Shark won the regional section of the Commonwealth Prize. He recommended Ma Jian's Red Dust & The noodle maker as great reads about China. I haven't read any of these book yet but they are all on my tbr list.
Xinran's books sound interesting too, I went to a talk she gave a couple of weeks ago.

I also enjoyed The Book Thief and love his YA books as well.

I loved your review of The Long March; I'll look for it next month.

I'll be the dissenter on Wild Swans. I oved it and found it lyrical and informative.

I have read a couple of good novels this year reflecting life during and after the cultural revolution. I have Beijing Coma, which I've heard good things about, on my shelf And I've written down the several suggestions here, as I'd like to read more non-fiction/history about China.

Wow. I'm thrilled to have generated such a good discussion about China. I don't usually read thematically, but I think I'll just have to break that rule and read a bunch of these as soon as I can. Please keep the recommendations coming.

A nonfiction book that I read a couple of years ago and enjoyed is Peter Hessler's River town : two years on the Yangtze. You might try that one too, Janet.

Thanks, Stasia, I will look for that one, too.

Hessler has a new book out too, but I have not yet had a chance to read it (my local library does not have it). The new one is Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present.

While I've been trying to find some of these books on China, I've been reading away at the pile on the shelf. So, I'm going to change the topic for a while, but feel free to keep talking about China!

22. The next book I read was Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers by Kwame Anthony Appiah

I was really looking forward to reading this book. I am very interested in the question of what we owe others and how we should live together, and I have seen Appiah speak intelligently on chat shows, so I thought I might learn a lot. In the end, the book was interesting, and I think worth reading, but it just didn’t give me as much new to think about as I was expecting, and didn’t feel like a coherent argument.

Appiah, a philosophy professor at Princeton, wants us to think about what it means to have obligations to others in a world where most people are strangers. He argues that our obligations go beyond those closest to us, extending not to everyone, but to everyone we know of. This suggests that we do have obligations to support specific charity projects in the third world, for example, but not necessarily to randomly support unspecified projects. I’m not sure I agree with this, or that I’ve fully understood it. He also accepts that we have greater obligations to those we are closer to, either physically or in terms of kinship, religion, race, whatever. Again, not sure why. Easier to understand, he argues almost all of us could be doing more to help the development of the rest of the world – this is easy to work out mathematically, as economists do know how much is needed to, say, access clean water everywhere, and there is a big shortfall.

What was a bit clearer for me, and a newer idea for me, was his argument that what we owe others isn’t just to give more money if we can, but also to try to understand them so that we can live better with them, with less conflict. I agree with this, and it was interesting reading about the different ways of organising families and societies that he talked about. More and more I feel that more simple respect for others’ differences would help us out of a lot of the messes we are in. I just couldn’t see how this followed from the premise of being obliged to all people.

However, although I wound up confused, the book was interesting and fairly easy to read. It was also short. More importantly, it did give me a few things to think about, and made me feel a little bit intellectual for a while at least, which is always a good result. Recommended if you are interested in this subject, but not if you are just starting to think about it and want some clear help and guidance along the way.

Nice review of Cosmopolitanism, Janet. I've had this one for awhile, and haven't gotten around to it yet.

23. A Conspiracy of Paper by David Liss

My sister bought this book for me. I had never heard of David Liss, and I didn’t like the look of the cover – too much like some other pseudo-historical books I don’t like, such as Chocolat, or all those ones about tulip speculation or similar. But she bought it, so I read it. And I really liked it.

Benjamin Weaver, the hero, lives on the fringes of the criminal world of London in the 18th century. Although born into a fairly wealthy trading family, he rejected his family and went off to be first a boxer and then, when injury ended his career, a minor criminal, committing a few muggings, house robberies, and so on, although you get the sense his heart was never in it. When the story opens, he is using his underworld knowledge in a more positive way, staying on the right side of the law, helping victims recover stolen property, finding missing persons and generally enabling polite society to deal with less polite society when it has to. He is asked to help recover some missing papers, and, separately, to investigate two suspicious deaths, and that is the start of a long and somewhat complicated plot involving corrupt dealings in the early days of the stock market. The corruption is linked to the South Sea bubble, a real stock market hype and crash, and a few of the characters are apparently historically accurate (although I had never heard of them).

There is a secondary plot, revolving around Benjamin’s relationship with his family. He and they are Jewish, and Jews at that time had an uneasy if tolerated position in society. His uncle is always worried that Benjamin will do something to make the Jews look bad or to give the establishment an excuse to treat them badly. On the other hand, one of the major villains is also Jewish, and goes to the same synagogue as the uncle. Many of the non-Jewish characters are very rude to the Jews throughout the book. Although this isn’t the main plot, and I think the story could have worked without it, it does add a very interesting dimension, making Benjamin an outsider in more ways than one.

There are also a few love stories and other side events to keep the plot moving along nicely. It adds up to a very good read even if you don’t care about financial fraud.

Hi All!

I just joined the 75 Book Challenge Group, and was reading the last few entries on the Intro thread, when I popped over here - and I'm glad I did!

I was trolling around bookdepository.com, looking for new authors (like I need any help in that department), came across Howards End is on the Landing, thought it sounded interesting, and it somehow wound up in my shopping basket and on my shelves a short time later. Funny how that happens, isn't it?!? Anyway, I'm so glad to see a little discussion about the book, and about Susan Hill's other books too. She seems to be pretty much unknown here in the US (from what I can tell), which means none of her books are in my library system. Guess I'll have to save my pennies and treat myself to another tome of hers to see what her fiction books are like.

Thanks for the interesting reviews, JanetinLondon - and hope you're enjoying LibraryThing!

Hi, Laura,

Thanks for stopping by, and welcome to the group. Have you started Howards End is on the Landing yet? I haven't read any of her fiction, but I think one of the most famous is The Woman in Black, which was also made into a play, at least here in London.

No, I haven't started Howards End is on the Landing yet - I'm kind of waiting for the perfect time to read it. Really, that just leads to it sitting on my shelf for a year or two, so to break my bad habit, I'll be picking it up in the next few days. Once I read my real-life bookclub book for this Friday (and I should probably start reading it soon, seeing as it's Tuesday) I'll start HEiotL. I forgot all about The Woman in Black! I have heard of it, but know nothing about it. Maybe I'll check the local theaters and see if it will be performed in my neck of the woods. Thanks very much!

Hi Janet
Now I have found your thread I can use it to improve my reading habits.
I've ordered The Book Thief from the library but they said it is out with a Book Club.
I wish - but I suppose I'd better not go on, it would be promoting!
oldstick.

Thanks for the compliment! I hope I don't mislead you too often. By the way, if you don't want to wait for the library, I'm sure you can find The Book Thief second hand pretty easily - I see it in almost every second hand shop I stop into. I'm sure there must be some great second hand shops down your way?

Great! A conversation at last. I have not yet got into the habit of using second hand shops although we do have a good one locally. I have given them books before but usually get books to keep from Charity shops - real miser aren't I?
oldstick.

No, charity shops are the best place to buy books, in my opinion. I only buy from them, or second hand, or get from libraries. Nothing against new books, just it's more fun to wander around the more random selection in second hand/charity.

24. The Canon: The Beautiful Basics of Science by Natalie Angier

I am not a scientist. But I am an educated person who thinks she should know more than she does. I have also been helping my daughters with their GCSE and A-level science exams, and realizing how much things have developed since I last looked at a science book (in the ‘70’s!) and also how interesting a lot of it is. This book, by a science writer at the New York Times, claimed to review the basic fundamentals of each area of science, and to introduce the latest thinking, in a clear and simple way, for the general reader who has forgotten what they ever learned in high school. Sounded like just the thing for me.

It was patchy, I have to say. Some chapters were good, and I understood most of what she was saying. Some were less good, and I couldn’t follow the arguments from point A to point B. Luckily, she was really good on astronomy and geology, the ones I find most interesting, and the ones that have probably moved forward the most since I was in school. The biology bits were less good –or maybe I just understood them less well.

The big problem for me, though, was her style. I know she is on a mission to make science “not boring”, but after a while her jokey approach gets a bit old. For example:

“What distinguishes a fundamental force of nature from the more familiar, frightening forces of nature, like hurricanes, earthquakes, Donald Trump’s hairpiece?”

Possibly funny once, but not a hundred times. I felt she thought I wouldn’t keep reading without her “humor”, but if someone picks up this book, they want to know about science, and they will read it.

Still, if you, like me, wish you remembered a bit more about science, and wonder what’s new, this is a pretty good place to find out.

I have found Natalie Angier's style disappointing in extended book form -- I suspect her forte is the short journal essay...... it just reads better and works in that format.

Not sure if I've posted before -- but I've starred you and read your posts regularly....

#69: OK, I think I will be skipping that one. Sorry it was not a better read for you, Janet. I hope your next book is better.

#70 - Sibyx, thanks for stopping by. Have I been on your thread? What is it called? I think you're right about Angier. If I just saw an essay by her in the Sunday newspaper I'd probably read it and enjoy it, but a whole book full of them was just too much.

#71 - Thanks, Stasia. I'm be back onto fiction for the next few, so I think there's a better chance.

Janet - I don't know if you have visited me or not. It is WhatisaSibyx and it would take me an hour to make that a link...... Best to look a bit at my overall library rather than go by what I am reading at the moment. A great many things are going on, so I am, for the most part, avoiding reading anything that requires serious attention. We are moving - which means turning our house into a 'showcase'. ICK. The realtor walked through the other day, pointing at things, "out" "has to go" "this needs to disappear" "No more than one thing on any windowsill" "too many books and clutter around the bed" etcetera....... If I was a Disney cartoon I would have been drooping, drooping, drooooooping, until I was flat on the floor. I can vicariously read seriously by looking at your posts. Lucy/Sibyx

Oh, moving, how horrible. I have successfully avoided this for 18 years - every time we thought we should move I just couldn't face it so we haven't! So it's a deal - you can read vicariously via my thread (and lots of others I'm sure) and I can "enjoy" moving vicariously! Good luck with it.

I've emptied out two big houses full of stuff, one my mother one my mother-in-law, and helped set them up for being 'seen' -- one sold in a day the other took a year, but we weren't living in them, so it wasn't like this.
The idea is doing it in stages. We moved a bunch of stuff in February and now we are going to put a lot of stuff in storage and the rest (except for what we haul ourselves over the next three months) will stay to make the house look nice until someone buys it. The boxes come today. We've lived, off and on, in this house for 24 years and we are moving 'back' to Vermont where we lived all the time before (and where we have been building a house for the last seven years......)

The mothers were both voracious readers and loved huge art books along with everything else.... They aren't catalogued in here yet.... I hope to do that before we leave because they will stay here until the house is sold and then go into storage until we are ready for them and it would be nice to know what is there. LT could be a huge help then.

I'm out of control here, so I'll stop. Suffice it to say, my reading is going a bit slowly.....

I really envy you being able to keep your mother's and mother in law's books. When my mother died, my brothers and sister and I had to clear the house in a week and leave it empty for the realtor. None of us lived within hundreds of miles - I am in a different country altogether - , so it was too hard to just take away all the books, not to mention how stressed for time we all were. So we wound up just trawling the shelves for a few books which had meant something special to each of us, and gave the rest away to a charity shop or a prison library - I can't remember which (we had a big argument about the merits or otherwise of giving prisoners books - we didn't see eye to eye). Most of her books were nothing special, but still, I've always regretted that I had no way to keep them, at least for a while, and none of the siblings were interested enough to make the effort.

I am so behind in posting reviews and comments on my books - I can read a lot faster than I can write! I'm only now commenting on books I read in mid March - you can see what I've read since on my first post in this thread, if you want to queue jump and ask what I thought of any of those.

Meanwhile, my next book after Natalie Angier's science essays was On Beauty, which I chose because I hadn't particularly enjoyed the Angier and thought I'd go for something I was a lot more likely to enjoy. However.....

25. On Beauty by Zadie Smith

I very much wanted to like this book. I liked White Teeth. I like Zadie Smith’s newspaper articles, and I like her when she’s on chat shows. My friends all liked this book. I’m the same age as the main female character, my children are the same ages as hers, I live in North London, I went to a fancy college near Boston and I know a lot of academics, so I’m familiar with a lot of what she writes about. But I just didn’t like it as much as I had hoped. Maybe my expectations were too high.

The main couple, Kiki and Howard, were reasonably realistic, and the story of their long marriage, with its ups and downs, highs and lows, felt real and was described quite movingly. But all the other characters just seemed one-dimensional stereotypes – the repressed religious college student, the sexually predatory co-ed, the stiff upper lip English woman, the larger than life visiting professor, the secret poetic genius living on the street, etc., etc. I couldn’t identify with any of them, their stories often seemed implausible, and I just didn’t care what happened to them. A lot is made of Smith’s good ear for dialogue, and I did find that the characters sounded natural, it’s just that what they said wasn’t natural.

I have read that this book is related to Howard’s End. I haven’t read that, so maybe I would have enjoyed this more if I had. I actually found it reminded me more of the “campus comedy” novels of people like David Lodge, which are amusing but slight. I expected more.

All in all, something of a disappointment. But I certainly haven’t given up on Zadie Smith – her next book will probably be fantastic.

I don't think you would have enjoyed On Beauty more if you had read Howard's End first. For me, because I loved Howard's End, I think I was more annoyed by On Beauty, which Smith intended as a tribute to HE, than I would have been if I hadn't read HE.

Well put Rebecca. It never crossed my mind that On Beauty was a riff on Howard's End! I get it, now that I know, but ..... I'm sort of un-stunned. It's a good premise though -- how dangerous it is to try to 'help' since motivations for that are so suspect. I learned that from HE and have always kept it in mind when I am overcome with the impulse to interfere....

Janet -- With everything topsy-turvy, LT is my reward for getting 'things done' -- so don't mind if some of my posts go on a bit. I love this: " I did find that the characters sounded natural, it’s just that what they said wasn’t natural." Shouldn't make sense but it does!

Today I tackle my 'music' corner. A hell-hole of CD's, books, music books, various instruments and, worst of all recording devices of many kinds and so many inscrutable cords and microphones and oddments I want to cry. The realtor was most definite about that all but maybe ten percent (basically the instruments, a few CD's, one device.....) going away.
I spent half a day cleaning it up a month ago and still she sneered.

Lucy, bear in mind that your potential buyers are likely to be people like you, just younger, whereas your realtor probably isn't. So you might not need to be as super tidy as she wants :)

Rebecca, that's a comforting thought, thanks. I never wanted to read Howard's End, but maybe I should, since lots of people said they liked it better than On Beauty.

That is largely so -- however we have an unusual set up -- PARKING -- and a big garden, both rare in this neighborhood (and I mean, almost non-existent, esp. the big garden). We bought before the neighborhood was solid and so, this realtor thinks we might, even in this market, make a killing. She thinks it might attract retirees from the affluent 'burbs who want the city experience without the city hassles...... I'll do anything to attract that kind of buyer...... It's interesting. Those kinds of buyers will rip out bathrooms and redo kitchens, so we can leave them as is, no frills, but we're to pare it down so that they can easily 'imagine' themselves in it..... The art books will stay, of course, to give the place a little class!

Howard's End is, I think, in my top ten (now up to eleven) by men..... if it isn't it should be.

>81 sibylline:: I'm about 10 years too young, Lucy, but hubby and I often talk about getting the "city experience without the city hassles" once we are empty nesters. It's either that or a log cabin in the country. We're rather conflicted on this subject :)

What you need is a "buddy". My sister and I have talked about this for years - between us we buy both, then take turns in each. Not sure we will really do it, but it's a nice thought. Could be a niche for a new website here maybe?

>83 JanetinLondon:: ooh, that's a great idea!
And by the way, hello Janet. Found your thread via Lucy's. Having lived in the UK (Cambs) for 4 years, I was intrigued to find someone in seemingly similar circumstances.

Hi, Laura, thanks for stopping by. How did you like living in Cambridge? We thought about moving there a couple of years ago, but didn't for various reasons, and I've always thought it was a really nice area.

Janet, we lived about 12 mi. south -- near M11 junction 10 / Duxford -- and spent a lot of time in Saffron Walden for weekend shopping, etc. We enjoyed going into Cambridge for various things touristy & mundane, and of course for Panto at Christmas. It was a fabulous experience. My daughters attended a wonderful small village primary school and we were the only Americans around for miles. That was nice. :)

Late morning spent wandering around fabric stores under realtor orders to find a)something gauzy for the 'powder room' window and b) fabric to use as a skirt around a cabinet under the sink in aforementioned room. I suppose interior decorators love these shops the way I love a bookstore, but I end up flummoxed. The realtor says that the buyer makes up his/her mind totally on the first floor..... luckily our home office is the last room they'll see and she's letting us more or less leave it be.

Notice I did at least offer a book-related parallel.....

Wow, the only ones, huh? That's amazing - in my part of London you can't walk down the street for 5 minutes without hearing an American accent, and we're not even in one of those fancy expat areas. It's what you'd call a "cosmopolitan" neighborhood - when my children were in primary school we were told the kids there spoke more than 30 different languages at home and were from more than 40 different countries. I guess I am a contributor to that, even though I've been here for more than 30 years!

Lucy, don't the realtors worry they are making the sellers like their houses so much they change their minds about selling? :)

It is kind crazy -- you do all these things you were putting off forever! Our house is in good shape so almost all the things are superficial --

Such nice weather today, I haven't read a single page. I spent the morning watching my younger daughter play football (soccer) and the afternoon watching my husband do the gardening (I like to watch, not join in!). This might mean I can catch up my comments on books I've already read.

26. The Recruiting Officer by George Farquhar

Strictly speaking this isn’t a book, but a play. I read it because my 18 year old daughter just got a part in a local amateur production – her first part outside of school plays – so I thought I should have a look at it.

The Recruiting Officer was written in 1706 and is typical of what think of when we think about Restoration comedies – mistaken identities, false lovers, silly characters from the countryside, double entendres, foiled constables, and girls dressing as boys to be with their soldiers (this is my daughter’s part). It is very funny, although as with most old plays, it’s hard to read it as funny – you need to imagine it on stage. Needless to say, it all ends happily ever after, with lovers reconciled, unfairly enlisted soldiers released, fortunes restored and so on. If the only pre-20th century plays you’ve ever read or seen are by Shakespeare, this would be a good other one to try – fairly straightforward and quite short.

27. The Blank Wall by Elizabeth Sanxay Holding

This is the first book I have read purely on the basis of a recommendation on LT – thanks, David (dcozy), I liked it a lot.

The main character is Lucia Holley, a mother living with her two teenagers and her father while her husband is away in the navy during WWII. Her daughter has become involved with an “unsuitable young man”, and Lucia tries to dissuade them from continuing their relationship. This is the starting point for a series of events which I can’t discuss too much without ruining it for those who want to read it, but it involves murder, blackmail, and deception.

What I found interesting was Lucia’s amazement at how “normal” everyday life still seemed to be, despite the very not normal things that were happening. She can’t believe everyone doesn’t see all her surreptitious actions written on her face. When they do begin to think she’s being a bit odd, they jump to completely the wrong conclusions – and they don’t like it, because to them she is just so ordinary and normal (which I suspect is even more important in wartime than otherwise). She herself starts to get better at understanding other people – her children, her maid, the various shady characters she has to deal with - and realizing they may have their own agendas and thoughts, rather than just focussing on herself and assuming that everyone is the same.

Events do get a bit surreal, and some characters are harder to believe than others, but I thought the portrait of an ordinary woman being drawn into extraordinary events one step at a time was good and it kept my attention. I think there’s also a secondary theme – setting the book during the war means that Lucia has to deal with things that her husband would surely have handled if he had been there, and I think some of the things wouldn’t even have happened at all if it hadn’t been wartime. Although she is not happy about what happens, I think she does surprise herself by how well she deals with it all.

I should also say that this book was a Persephone edition, in beautiful plain grey covers which just made me want to pick it straight off the shelf – my next review is going to be of a book which I chose exactly for that reason.

Nice review - I haven't read anything by her, but have been bitten by the Virago bug and think the Persephone bug is in the same family!

#93 - thanks, Cushla :)

This is the first book I have read purely on the basis of a recommendation on LT
I suspect that will happen more and more, Janet. It's one of the nicest side effects of this site! Like Cushla, I've been bitten by the Virago bug. I've only eyed Persephones from afar. Probably a good thing, at least for my pocketbook!

#95 - Luckily, I haven't yet read all the books from my TBR list in my local libraries or I would definitely be worried about how beautiful both these series are!

28. The New House by Lettice Cooper

While I was checking out my last book, The Blank Wall, at the library, I happened to notice this one, also a Persephone edition, and since they look so beautiful, I decided to take this one as well, even though I had never heard of the author.

The whole book takes place on a single day in the 1930’s, as Rhoda, a single woman in her thirties, and her mother, Natalie, move out of their old family home, following the death of Tom, Natalie’s husband. The house is being torn down to make way for a new housing estate, and the two women are moving, with their maid, Ivy, to a smaller house on the other side of town, as they can no longer afford a big house.

The theme of the book is change – social change and individual change, and how people feel about it and react to it. A wide range of thoughts and feelings are triggered by the move, not only for the two women, but for Rhoda’s brother and sister and their partners, and her maiden aunt as well. Different chapters reveal different characters’ feelings and thoughts as they go about their daily business – organizing the moving, going to work, having dinner, taking a child to a birthday party, buying a hat, etc. Some love change, some just accept it, and some actively hate it.

Each character has some regrets – things they didn’t do, or did do and wish they hadn’t, and each thinks back to their youth, when the world seemed a simpler place. Their regrets relate mainly to marriages rejected or accepted, to chances not taken to move away from home, and to problems caused by not getting the right balance between selfishness and selflessness. Most of them feel somewhat constrained by the choices they have made.

I felt I understood every one of these characters. Each is portrayed clearly, in their own thoughts and also by other characters’ thoughts and conversations about them. Each is capable of understanding his or her own flaws and others’ points of view, even though each believes their own ways to be best. This makes them much more interesting than if they had only thought and talked about themselves. Some are portrayed as very selfish – expecting relatives to cater to their every whim, or actively stopping others pursuing their own dreams. Others are extremely selfless, to the point where it embarrasses and upsets their relatives (and makes readers want to give them a really hard shake). The genius of the book is that even the most selfish characters have regrets and uncertainties, and they don’t always act entirely selfishly. This makes them seem very real.

The introduction to the book makes clear that the characters are based on Cooper’s own family and experiences – she is Rhoda, and she didn’t make her own decision about whether to leave home until after this book was written, almost as if she was testing out her own ambivalent feelings. This makes me feel that although I really liked this book, I don’t want to read any of her others, as it could be that this was her one big story. However, I’d be happy to hear from other LT-ers that this is not the case – which others have you particularly liked?

Cooper is a marvelous writer -- was published extensively in the Virago editions. You might, at some time, want to check out the Viragos, both the books and the group here on LT.

Yes, I'll do that, thanks. How're you doing?

#96: I have never heard of Lettice Cooper. I will check my local library and see what they have of hers.

I'm good -- I wrote this to a friend yesterday: Today I tackled the infamous 'phone shelf' - a cess pit of scraps of paper, old batteries, broken bits of china, broken pencils, things that were supposed to be mailed a month ago, phone books, coins, ribbons I mean to re-use, lactaid, motrin, tylenol, old empty pill bottles, candle stubs, bus tokens, NJ turnpike tokens (now so defunct we can't get the money back) --- and I have not even scratched the surface of what-all was there. What I did was cheat. Below the phone shelf is where I kept things like paper napkins, place mats etc. and I removed all those and PACKED them in boxes, or at least, put them in the living room which is my staging area and then I put everything (sorted and the worst of it thrown away) into the now empty drawers.

Today I'm thinking of attacking the booze cabinet. It's monumental because we absorbed both the liquor cabinets of my mother and mother-in-law and neither of us really drink much. Toward the end
my mother would buy a bottle of sherry or whiskey every time she went by a liquor store as far as my bro and I could figure out. We poured so much down the drain! But I don't want to put bottles with an inch left into storage, so I guess I'll have to do something about that!

Then I'll go work in my Education of Henry Adams.... I'm reading it with a couple of LT friends. A book that was in my TBR shelf for something like 25 years.... And it's so good, I can't imagine why I put it off!

Hoping all is well with you. L

I don't believe it - something new for Stasia! :) You are in for a treat.

I have been hearing quite a lot about Henry Adams recently - like you, I have had it on my TBR list for pretty much my whole life - maybe this is the time to read it.

Good luck with all that clearing up - it gets a lot harder as the weather gets nicer, doesn't it?

Check out our thread if you like -- I have no idea how to make it appear for you the way the magicians do, but if you look through the thread names, it should be near the top since we are nattering away constantly. Spontaneous Read: The Education of Henry Adams. We could have a contest about who has had it longest on their TBR shelf. I weigh in around '87, but Peg says its been on her shelf since '78. We aren't that far along yet -- just starting Ch 7-8.

#101: Unfortunately, my local library does not seem to have anything fictional by Cooper, just a couple of biographies.

#102 - There's a link to the Henry Adams thread on the group page along with all the other group reads.

I have had The Education of Henry Adams on my shelves since about 1972 or 1973, but that's because I read it in college, so it's not a TBR. It's buried too deep for me to get it out and see exactly when I got it. Don't think I'll reread it now, though; I've got too many books I've never read on my TBR.

#104 - Found it, thanks. If I can get hold of a copy quickly I can catch up, otherwise I'll read it later and follow the thread as I go.

29. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

Yes, I have read a SF/Fantasy novel. Those of you who are allergic to this genre, please don’t run away – let me explain.

When I was in college – in the ‘70’s – I knew a lot of boys who loved this stuff, talked about it non-stop, went to Tolkien society meetings, wrote notes in Elvish, even dressed up as Vikings for one of their exams – you all know what kind of boys I mean, and some of you ARE these boys. Anyway, to avoid feeling completely out of touch with an obviously important part of their lives, I asked them to compile a list of the best 10 SF books for me. I read all 10, and I liked some of them. These were real classics, such as The Left Hand of Darkness, Ringworld, Foundation, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, etc. Then I stopped reading SF pretty much altogether, with only a few efforts over the years when I saw a really good review.

When I joined LT, I saw so many SF/Fantasy-heavy threads. For the most part I ignored them. Then I saw one which listed some of those old classics as favorites. So I thought I’d ask this guy what was as good that I’d missed in those 30 years. His name is moonshine max, and he kindly recommended a few for me. Just as I did in the ‘70’s, I’m going to have a look, challenging my prejudices and trying to stay in touch with a genre that gives so much pleasure to so many people.

So, for my first foray, I read Ender’s Game. If you think you can automatically dismiss this whole genre, I urge you to read this book before you finally decide. No silly names, no made up languages, no wizards or prophecies or quests, no magic powers, and NO SONGS. Just a good story, well told.

Ender starts as a little boy who’s been identified as especially clever and talented and is sent to undergo special training at an elite academy. He progresses quickly, and is clearly seen as the best of the best. What I like is that Card shows you him being clever, dealing with situations, making decisions, relating to people, rather than just telling you how clever he is. His training sessions are some of the most interesting parts of the book. Okay, so the academy is training an elite military force to defend Earth against an expected alien invasion, there’s a supercomputer that creates battle scenarios for them to practice in, they have zero-gravity, and some of their weapons are futuristic, but honestly, these don’t grate at all. The story has a real human dimension – Ender misses his family, has to make new friends, learns to deal with ever changing circumstances. The alien invasion is not a simple black and white issue. The leaders of the academy have to deal with politics as well as military problems, and they are concerned about the impact their advanced training is having on Ender. There are real things to think about, not just a story of outer space and heroes (although to be honest that element of the story is really good, too).

This is the first in a series, and I think I might even try a few more, as well as checking out the rest of my “recommended reading”. Thanks, Max!

#107: I really liked Ender's Game when I read it a couple of years ago. I may have to go back and do a re-read.

Uh, I was kind of one of those girls writing in Sindarin,( it wasn't ALL boys). I also was a pure SF reader as a teen never noticing what hopeless sexists most of those 50's-60's practitioners were, really just bug-eyed at the thought of space travel -- I left it all behind for decades of serious grown-up reading but now I have returned to it all with a vengeance: the freedom to invent, to play with ideas -- there's nothing else quite like it out there, and now the women (both writers and characters) have improved immensely that is even better! For seven or eight years I've also been reading some fantasy although there is a lot that doesn't work for me -- I read fantasy as riffs around the same elements, various archetypes really, dragons, heroes, lost items, talismans etc -- the task for the writer is to bring something authentic to the genre and I'm fascinated by the 'rules' that seem to operate just under the surface.

#110 - Lucy, I wasn't trying to be sexist, sorry if it seemed that way - it's just that I myself didn't know any girls like that at the time. I didn't realize you also read fantasy now (although I do look at your thread, maybe I don't focus on the SF ones) - do you have any suggestions for me?

Janet, I like the thought of "challenging my prejudices" (msg. 107) too. I am so afraid of turning into a book snob by dismissing genres that other readers like. SF and Fantasy are two of those areas where I am weak; Ender's Game might be a good place to start.

I may need a support group to break out of my shell of "serious grown-up reading." (msg. 110) Thanks, Lucy, for giving me a name for my preference in reading.

Oh no! No worries! I was unusual, and didn't I know it! I mean, I liked Lord Dunsany and Rider Haggard, and John Buchan and H.G. Wells and Hal Clement, Clarke and Asimov ..... and how weird is that! And it was a shock when I realized that I was LEFT OUT of a lot of these books I had loved -- at least as a player, that I (as female) was mainly ornamental..... It took me awhile to want to come back to either genre. Tolkien I could forgive, for at least there was Eowyn (and hobbits are.....?) But the fact is, many women who had that reaction began writing or were already writing by then and some of the best stuff now is by women, both genres.

I suspect that many folks just don't and won't like fantasy -- One of my best best friends for life, says of LoTR: "Tramp tramp tramp, Fight fight fight. Ugh."

So who do I think is good? Hmm. Others will hurl themselves in, but it's a huge field and there are some who straddle literature and fantasy -- the single most astonishing book I've ever read of that kind is by John Cowper Powys Porius -- there is an essay about him by Margaret Drabble that is very good, I just found it the other day as I'm reading Wolf Solent - the second Powys I've tackled (you don't read them, you live them) and felt a need to read more about Powys and look at photos of towns in Dorsetshire and Wessex and stumbled onto the Drabble. I'm not recommending Powys exactly, it takes a certain kind of willingness to throw yourself off a cliff -- but next time you are in a bookstore, take a gander.

Here are some I am fond of:
World Makers: LeGuin's Earthsea books, Lois Bujold's Chalion books (three of them), Phillip Pullman's series, and George Martin's brutal but fascinating never-ending series, Daniel Abraham, Anne McCaffery's early dragon books, Robin Hobb (I like the ship series best).

Archetypal/folklore/faerie based, often very dark: Robert Holdstock (very strange stuff), Charles de Lint (he writes so prolifically that his work grabs me less than in the beginning), Sylvia Townsend Warner's Kingdoms of Elfin, I know there are lots more....

Taking fairytales et al to a new level: Gregory Maguire -- these are extremely enjoyable.... de Lint fits into this category as well.....

Magicians: Susanna Clarke - also dips into faeirie -- she knows her stuff.

Uncategorizable: Richard Grant -- he is on my list of underappreciated writers..... he and de Lint share some ground, but Grant is funnier.

If you look through my fantasy holdings -- anything with four or more stars might be worth a look. I think I've rated fantasy on a sliding scale, so a three or three and 1/2 means that only a dedicated fantasy reader would like them -- Eddings writes way too much and blahs on, for example. Editing in the F/SF genre is almost non-existent.

My fantasy and sf library is not fully on yet either because of my living in two places -- most of that stuff is up in Vermont already and so I have to wait, who knows how long, as much stuff is in boxes in a storage unit, ugh!

This is very off the top of my head, and who know who and what I have left out -- and it's all recent, I'm not putting in any of the older stuff I used to read, that is such an acquired taste! But I will say, that fantasy is a genre that sort of builds on itself -- the more you read, the more you get these variations, appreciate the subtle differences between a dragon in this story or that one -- or a clever idea or a new approach to magic. For ex -- my main and almost only objection to Harry Potter is the violation of the basic rule of magic that it is TIRING -- it is hard work -- and those kids just use too much of it too easily with too few consequences -- on the other hand, those are Rowling's choices to make and her terms of engagement. OK I need to get on with my day! Yours is well on the way but mine is just beginning.... or not beginning!

Those are some great suggestions, thanks. That's my reading sorted out for the rest of the year then..... :). Hope you have a productive day.

I'll do anything, as you can see, to avoid packing. I'm supposed to be starting my bedroom and closets and clothing to day.... having more or less 'done' the downstairs. A caveat is that none of this stuff is 'literature' really, with the exception of Powys -- the rest, including the strangeness of Holdstock, the brilliance of Warner and the integrity of Leguin -- all of it is primarily meant to be fun and entertaining..... more like variations on a known melody -- the good writers offer insights and even some wisdom .....but if you aren't having fun, there is no point to it. So I may not have solved your reading future at all!

I'm running out of avoidance tactics..... ugh. You were most helpful!

You're the first person I've come across to mention Powys in a long time. I have most of his books, which I read or attempted to read in the late 80s. It is strange stuff indeed - but thanks for reminding me, I might need to take another look...

> 116 I came across this essay on Powys by Margaret Drabble -- here

If I was to read any Powys I would read Porius. No question in my mind that it is a seriously 'great' piece of writing. But I have a feeling as Wolf settles in my mind, the 'reverberations' will last. Witold Gombrowicz came to my mind this morning as someone else who can describe the experience of being a person observing some tiny natural event or occurence so minutely that it all begins to shine supernaturally.... very different writer in every other way. But Wolf Solent does not step over the line into the fantastic in the same way Porius does.

Thanks for posting that link. I am totally fascinated by Powys now and am going to look for Porius this week.

Meanwhile, I was trying to catch up with the group read of The Education of Henry Adams, but I have failed - I can see its appeal, but I'm just not enjoying it enough to push my other book - W. G. Sebald's The Rings of Saturn - onto the back burner any longer. So I'm afraid it's going back to the library for now, with only 12 chapters read. Maybe when I have more time without a huge pile sitting at the side of the bed (whenever that might be!)

Twelve chapters is pretty darned far! I haven't read that Sebald....and want to.... I look forward to your assessment.... so many books, so little time. If I wasn't moving, and if I hadn't just decided it was TIME to move the book that's been on that shelf the longest, I wasn't going to resurrect it on my Vermont TBR shelf.... I wouldn't be reading it either. Lab and Liz are very noble to be reading it with me.

oh -- and I wanted to mention the intro to Wolf Solent in my copy was by Robertson Davies -- I read it two or three times while reading the novel.... Also, what a hilarious but accurate observation Drabble makes about all that tea-drinking!

#117: I checked out that link, thanks. All of I have to say is Powys sounds weird. I can lay my hands on Wolf Solent at the local library, but not Porius unfortunately.

#121 - Same here. But I'm going to keep looking for Porius first, in second hand shops.

#119 - Just finished the Sebald and it was terrific - a book I can definitely see myself coming back to just to read interesting sections. I'll eventually write a review, but I am way behind on doing that.

I have only read one of Sebald's books, The Emigrants, because unfortunately it is the only one my local library has. I am adding The Rings of Saturn to the BlackHole in the hope that maybe one day the library will acquire it!

I have A Glastonbury Romance on my TBR shelf--has anyone read it?

#124 - Sadly, I haven't begun my Powys journey yet - hadn't even heard of that one.

I'm thinking I'll read that one next -- but not for one or two years!

I'm trying to catch up on the posts. There are some great discussions going on here!

#127 - Thanks for stopping by, Linda. I have been following your travels and books with envy these last few weeks.

While searching (so far in vain) for the many books recommended to me in recent posts, I have finished The Rings of Saturn and Little Mountain and started American Purgatorio, and also tried to catch up with reviews/comments on other recent reads:

30. The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing, edited by Richard Dawkins

After my slightly disappointing experience with Natalie Angier’s essays, I still wanted to improve my knowledge, so I got this book from the library, thinking it would be more of the same – essays on different aspects of science. However, it turned out to be a completely different sort of book – short extracts from books and articles by scientists themselves, more often about their lives or thoughts than about the actual science. All the famous names are represented – Einstein, Oppenheimer, Crick & Watson, etc., as well as quite a few I had never heard of.

I guess Dawkins’ aim was to show the breadth of thinking of the scientists, and to highlight the quality of their writing, to encourage people to read and engage with them more often. Most of the extracts were interesting enough, but reading hundreds of them one after the other is probably not the best way to approach them. If I owned this book, it would be nice to dip into it every now and then, but as it was a library book I had to read it all within a few weeks. Given its size and price, I don’t know how many people, particularly non-scientists, would actually buy their own copies, and this need to read it quickly must restrict the extent to which Dawkins’ aim can be achieved. Maybe a better approach would be to read a bit on each library visit, and hope no one wants to borrow it! Still, for the sheer breadth and quality of the extracts, I would recommend this book.

Somebody puts out a 'best science essays of the year' type book -- I always buy it when I come across it..... It always makes for very good reading and is up to date which is also helpful.

31. Fine Just the Way it Is by Annie Proulx

I generally like Annie Proulx’s stories – they are short, with all the virtues of short stories, but they are long enough to let the characters as well as the plots develop enough to be interesting. But I found this collection a mixed bag. On the one hand, some depressing tales of inevitable failures – well drawn, and great to read even though you know they are going to end very badly. On the other hand, some (to my mind) extremely silly and self-indulgent stories about the devil and his right hand man, what they get up to in hell and how they interfere in daily life. I found these embarrassing – I feel if Proulx weren’t already such a successful writer with a large following there’s no way these stories would have been published. Since this was a library book I only felt insulted, but if I had paid for it I would have felt a bit more annoyed and how much of this “padding” was included. Still, the good stories are good, so worth reading, if not buying

I hope your next book is more engaging.

That is disappointing indeed -- Proulx hasn't yet written a novel I didn't love.

#131: OK, I am skipping that one. I am not a fan of short stories to begin with, so I feel no remorse whatsoever in passing that one over.

I hope you enjoy your next book more, Janet!

#133 - I know, me too. I wish she would find time (or desire) for another novel and put aside short stories for a while.

I was just alerted (by Becky/labwriter) to another Proulx --Accordion Crimes about her move from VT to Wyoming, essays more like, -- I missed that one entirely. But as I am moving, I think I have to find it right away!
Hope your next book is a success! I have succumbed to the LT temptation of reading several books at once..... I used to do that, then stopped, but I don't know why..... as long as they are all sufficiently different, why not?

Edited to get those book parantheses right, I can't keep them straight!

#136 - Yes, I have that one, too. But I still think The Shipping News is her best book, better than any of the short stories.

I occasionally do read more than one book at a time, but usually because one is too big to carry and read on public transport. I get confused enough keeping the plot of one story straight without trying to read more than one!

Yes -- I would never read two somewhat similar novels at a time, say contemporary domestic, or Victorian or mysteries or sf....but I know I won't mix up Henry the A. with fairy tales by Walter de la Mare or a history of camels crossing half the US in 1857...... If I do, I am in beeeg trouble!

Janet:

I'm really glad you enjoyed Ender's Game so much. It is one of my favourite books in the world, ever. I, surprisingly, have never read The Left Hand of Darkness, though it is in my reading pile. I hope to find that as enjoyable as the one's I recommended to you.

Really enjoying the thread! Starred :)

32. Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz

For my next book I read Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz. I had seen it mentioned several times on LT, plus a very good friend of mine recently told me it was one of her favorite books. So I was really pleased to see my library had a copy.

Simply, it is the story of a well-off family in Cairo at the end of World War I – father, mother and five children ranging in age from around 10 or 11 to early twenties. Their lives follow quite proscribed patterns, particularly the women’s, and each is more or less frustrated because of this. The characters felt very real to me, although their world is completely different from mine. Each develops during the story, as they come to terms with their tyrannical, traditional husband/father, their own wishes, and the changing society around them. It is the first book of a trilogy, so I’m sure their lives and their society develop even further in the subsequent books.

I liked this book and felt it really gave me an insight into a very different way of life. I think, though, that readers need to be careful not to think this is reflective of current Egyptian society. The only other book I have read set in Cairo is The Yacoubian Building, set much more recently, and things are certainly different in that book, although it doesn’t deal with quite the same sector of society. I don’t know, but I imagine, that things are different now, just as European and American society has changed a lot in that time.

I’m very much looking forward to the rest of the trilogy, although my library system doesn’t have either of them and so far I haven’t found them in any of the second hand shops I frequent. I’ll wait a while before I get desperate and actually spend real money on them – lots of other things to read in the meantime.

I'm a big Naguib Mahfouz fan -- I picked the first one up just being a diligent open-minded reader, and loved it. I am so glad you do too.

#140: I have had that one in the BlackHole for a while now. I really need to get to it soon. Glad to see that you enjoyed it, Janet.

Oh Janet, I am a late-comer to science fiction but love the newer writers with the passion of a convert. I'll get back to you with my list when I have time to think and refine. Mahfouz remains in the foothills of Mt. Bookpile, but I'll move it higher since I see that Lucy is a fan. (Mt. Bookpile consists physically of Everest and K2 in the bedroom, Aconcagua where the reading couch is, Mitchell in the kitchen, McKinley in the bathroom ----- you get the idea.)
And thank you for your friendly welcome to this group!

#143 - I will certainly look forward to your list!

>140 JanetinLondon:: Midaq Alley was one of my favorites of a couple years ago, so I'd like to try some other Mahfouz at some point.

#145 - I see you wrote a nice review of it last year! I also see he wrote quite a lot, which I hadn't realized, so it looks like I am in for a lot of treats.

peggy -- you are too funny!

I always start a Mahfouz cautiously, and I am always totally absorbed.

Okay, I'm a latecomer, but you have such interesting conversations here--gotta star you. I'm one of those women who have always read science fiction and fantasy since first encountering it at the beginning of my teens. You can check my library for things that sound interesting, too. I'm looking forward to Lizzie's list--it was a mention of that on another thread that led me to your thread.

Coming over here to thank you for congratulating us for finishing our Education! If you've been FOLLOWING us you deserve Champagne even more than we do! If you ever do want to try it -- apparently there are a couple of nicely annotated versions -- Becky noted them towards the end..... I have a little of that let-down now what? that always happens after a big project of any kind ..... BTW the realtor announced our house was getting 'crisp'.......

#148 - thank you, Roni, I am flattered. And I will take a look at your library, too. :)

#149 - more congratulations on your new-found crispness! Is that "crisp" as in dollar bills or what?

>149 sibylline: crisp as in you can see the edges and contours of the furniture and rooms. No longer occluded by slovenly detritus of actual living people.....

(>151 sibylline: - and all you have to do now is keep it that way for ---- months? How? Do you pretend you're something other than actual living people?)
Janet, here is the beginning of my list. I suspect I'll refine it as I think more!
*Hard Science Fiction*
Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds - the first of a series that you have to read because it's first although I think the next books are better
Cyteen by C.J. Cherryh
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Anathem by Neal Stephenson --- this one starts out almost like a fantasy but changes as you read
(The Stephensons are tomes that require some commitment; you might want to save them for later.)
The Stone Canal by Ken MacLeod - 2nd in the series, but I haven't been able to get the first one
*Space Opera*
On Basilisk Station by David Weber - just fun. If you can't read the military hardware and battles, skip 'em!
Deep Six by Jack McDevitt - any of the first 3 or 4 in this series are fun
A Deepness in the Sky - Vernor Vinge
*Near Future*
The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
(I had something else I meant to put here, but I've lost the list.....)
*Feminist Science Fiction*
Grass by Sheri S. Tepper
The Fresco by SST
Gate to Women's Country by SST
Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon
And that's what I think so far!

Gorgeous list! And quite a few I haven't read -- I used to read hard SF but then I didn't for over twenty years and I have a lot of catching up to do! Janet -- I've read only three or four of these. so if you like, let me know if when you want to take one on, I'll read it with you.

What a great list, thanks. I'm worried I might start reading more SF than anything else this year - well, why not?

Lucy, thanks for the offer. It all depends on what I can find in the library or second hand - I resist buying new books as much as possible. So, when I find one, especially a big one, I'll let you know, and if it's a good time for you we can read together.

#152 I've saved that list as I don't really know anything about recent SF - it's good to have some suggestions for where to start. Look forward to hearing how you get on, Janet, once you manage to find some of these.

I read 12 books in April, bringing the total to 43 for the year. None were SF, but I suspect that's about to change! One very disappointing, two slightly disappointing, the rest at least "pretty good", some very good indeed. The three best were W.G. Sebald's The Rings of Saturn (the best by a long way), Richard Bausch's Peace, and Naguib Mahfouz's Palace Walk. I haven't posted any comments on the first two of these yet, because I'm a bit behind (I can read faster than I can write!), but I hope to do so in the next few days.

Oh, ain't it the truth, Janet; ain't it the truth! "Read faster than I can write" and buy faster than I can read!
Edited to spell....

I'll echo both of those!

and maybe "type faster than I can spell"? :)

33. Trust Me by Peter Leonard
34. The Complaints by Ian Rankin
35. Heart of the World by Linda Barnes

My next library visit turned up three “crime” novels. It was interesting to read three in a row and see just how wide ranging this genre can be in terms of style.

The first book was Trust Me by Peter Leonard. I didn’t realize he was the son of Elmore Leonard until after I read it, but I could have guessed. I have only read one Elmore Leonard book, Swag, which I liked, and this had many of the same elements –lots of short snappy dialogue, characters living in condos, a slightly improbable get-rich scheme and many more or less incompetent minor criminals. So far, so okay (but only okay), But it also had a few too many narrow escapes and unlikely car chases for my liking. In common with many books in this genre (and both the other two also had this), every street of every car journey is name checked. This might work if it’s a big city, where a reasonable number of readers might feel they recognize some of the names. But this is a suburb of Detroit, where the writer lives, and I thought he was doing this just to impress his children’s friends. I also didn’t find the characters sympathetic, and didn’t care who wound up with the money. I’m afraid I can’t really recommend this one.

The second one was The Complaints by Ian Rankin, a much more established and accomplished author, and it showed. The story focuses primarily on Malcolm Cox, a senior member of an internal investigation team within the Edinburgh police force. He gets involved in an investigation which quickly turns into a very complicated (in a good way) plot involving property developers, wheeling dealing politicians, corrupt police, child pornography and maybe some other things I’ve forgotten. The story revolves around his attempts to figure it all out, to decide whom to trust or not, and to make sure the good guys, including himself, win. It’s really well written, with much more realistic dialogue and interesting and sympathetic characters, and you really are routing for Malcolm to sort it all out. I would recommend this whether or not you are a fan of his earlier Inspector Rebus series.

The final book of the three was Heart of the World by Linda Barnes, a new author for me. This one is written mainly in the first person, from the point of view of Carlotta Carlyle, a private investigator living in Cambridge, Mass. Paolina, a teenage friend of hers, disappears, and Carlotta sets out to find her. This teenager is the illegitimate child of a Colombian drugs baron, so much of the story takes place in Colombia. Carlotta has friends and lovers both within the police and inside the world of organized crime, and both are involved in helping in her search. The story was fast paced and exciting, and many of the characters are well drawn and sympathetic, but the whole thing just didn’t hang together for me. Too many elements are just too implausible – would this woman really have a relationship with a gangster, would he really be so lovable, would some of the Colombian drug barons really have such generous ulterior motives, would the streetwise teenager really have been naïve enough to get into the situation she is in, not to mention the spiritual element, which feels just wrong. I know this kind of book is meant to be escapist, but it was a bit too much so for me. I also know it is part of a series, so it could be that following these characters from the beginning would have made this a more satisfying read, but I’m not sure I will bother to do that.

Still, one out of three, not bad in my opinion.

Janet, I thought your latest 3 reviews were interesting.

I love Ian Rankin's work and bought the last two Rebus novels in hardback - I think I saved the last but one to read when I started maternity leave and before Danny arrived 3 years ago. I was waiting for The Complaints in paperback but maybe I'll see if I can borrow a copy.

Linda Barnes is one of my favourite authors but this last but one entry in the Carlotta Carlyle series was a bit strange - if you come across an earlier book it might be worth giving a try - the plot is crazy. I found the whole plot very far-fetched, though would say that Carlotta has already had an on-off relationship back home with a man from a gangster family, which has broken up because he had to take over responsibility for the family business. That sounds mad, but it's much better done in the earlier books than in this one.

I have liked Linda Barnes too but haven't read the book in question. I like Rankin even better, but I'm not to The Complaints either. Read, Lizzie, read!
I added a Vernor Vinge to my very idiosycratic scifi list and have no idea how I left him out to begin with. It also occurs to me that I seem to favor very l-o-n-g books.

Well, ok, you've convinced me to give Linda Barnes another chance - I'll see if I can find an earlier one.

Lizzie, I like long books, too, don't worry!

Right, one parting shot from me before I go off to follow the election results. Although I suspect it's going to be along night, so I may sneak back over here occasionally for some light relief.

36. The Coffee Trader by David Liss

Several people have been discussing The Coffee Trader here recently. I did read it a couple of weeks ago, before some of the so-so comments, which I do agree with. Here is my review:

The Coffee Trader is the story of Miguel Lienzo, a Portuguese Jew living in Amsterdam in the 17th century. Miguel makes his living by trading on the stock market, then in its infancy. He was formerly very successful but, shortly before the book begins, he lost his entire fortune when he bet the wrong way on the price of sugar. He is now heavily in debt and reduced to living in his uncongenial brother’s damp basement.

Miguel has now become the equivalent of what the 20th century would call a Day Trader, hanging around listening to market gossip, piecing together short term deals here and there and hoping that when the reckoning is done – once a month in those days – he will have reduced rather than added to his huge debts. His trading difficulties are made worse by the restrictions placed on Jewish traders, not by the Dutch government but by the religious leaders of the Jewish community, who are trying to ensure the continued toleration of the majority community by avoiding too much financial conflict. Jews are allowed to trade with non-Jews, but not to partner with them, and not to deal on their behalf, and all their financial transactions are supposed to remain within the Jewish community. Miguel has never really adhered to these rules, although he does have to be careful not to be too blatant, or he will be expelled from the community.

At the beginning of the story, a Dutch acquaintance of his offers him a partnership in trying to corner the market in coffee, then a new commodity in Europe. They hatch a plan to ensure they can buy a lot of coffee cheaply, then sell it for a higher price and make a fortune. Those who understand stock markets will grasp easily how they hope to do this, and will know whether it is legal or not. I had no idea on both scores, but it didn’t take away from my enjoyment.

The story consists of Miguel finding out about this new coffee – there are several amusing scenes of people encountering it for the first time, not knowing how to prepare or drink it, surprised at its bitter taste and impressed by its stimulant properties – and interacting with various characters either trying to find out what he is doing, offering to help him, or warning him off, as well as with some characters from his past dealings. He doesn’t always know whom to trust, and he doesn’t always make the right decisions. The story is as much about trust and integrity and their role in this new kind of business dealing (then as now, very limited if you want to be successful) as it is about coffee and the stock market.

It is a good story and I enjoyed it. But I found the characters mainly very weak and one-dimensional. Miguel’s brother Daniel = spiteful, the head of the Jewish community = insincere, his business partner = enigmatic, etc. None of them felt real to me, and I couldn’t understand the motivations for many of their actions. If you are happy to read a story driven mainly by plot, with little realistic character development, you are likely to enjoy this book. But if you prefer to follow characters on a journey of self-discovery, enlightenment, growth, etc., this is probably not for you.

Thanks for the review. That one is already on my TBR, but I won't be rushing to get hold of it, on the strength of those and some other comments.

About to start watching election results myself...

37. U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton

I have read all of Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone books, in order. I started when she had only written three or four, so I’ve usually had to wait for each one to appear. It’s always been a little treat in my reading year. Kinsey and the other characters are like family friends or relatives I only get the chance to visit on occasional trips back to my childhood home. Because the timescale of the series is less than the elapsed real time, and because they take place in the ‘80’s, things haven’t moved on in their lives between books as much as they have in mine, which means I pick up where I left off, which is comforting, and makes me forget just how many years really have gone by since A is for Alibi.

The stories haven’t all been equally good, and somewhere in the middle – I forget which one – I suspected she had a helper write one of them. But this one is very good. Kinsey is investigating an old unsolved crime, and chapters go back and forth between when it happened and the book’s present. As usual, though, the crime is only part of the story, and there’s quite a bit about Kinsey’s family, which has been developing throughout the latter part of the series and stands in contrast/comparison to the families involved in the old crime.

If you have been following this series, you will enjoy this one a lot. If you haven’t, you really should start at the beginning.

#32. You have reminded me that I have owned Palace Walk for years and have not yet read it. I think that I will have to bump it up the pile. Thanks.

#167 - Thanks for stopping by. The thing is, I think it's one of those books where you need to be sure you have the others in the trilogy before you start. I didn't do that, and am now frustratingly waiting until I can hold of them (a friend has promised to lend them to me, but I don't see her very often). Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading it. I'll forward to your thoughts on it.

I tried to read The Coffee Trader but just couldn't get into it.

38. The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald

This is one of the best books I have read in a very long time. I don’t really know how to describe it, and I can’t remember ever reading anything quite like it. It’s ostensibly Sebald’s thoughts and adventures as he wanders along the Suffolk coast in eastern England. But I imagine it’s more often the thoughts the walk, or numerous walks in the same area, bring up in him later, because if he was really thinking in such rambling ways as he walked he wouldn’t remember it clearly enough to write it all down so well. It’s like a series of mini-essays on interesting topics.

Each chapter starts with a description of where he is, and perhaps some anecdote about that place – something historical, or how things have changed, or someone he knows there. But soon enough he is off on a tangent, discussing topics from St Mark the Evangelist to VE Day, and back again. These are without exception entertaining, interesting and educational, and terrifically well written (and/or translated – I can’t read German well enough to check).

Often, we got so far from the original topic that I couldn’t imagine how it had happened, so I went back to look. He is a real master of the transition. Here’s an example. He’s been looking at out the dark sea at night, and it reminds of a dream he once had. After describing the dream, he muses on how events in dreams seem so real, yet so unreal at the same time. Then he writes:

“Just as these things have always been beyond my understanding, so too I found it impossible to believe, as I sat on Gunhill in Southwold that evening, that just one year earlier I had been looking across to England from a beach in Holland.”

and then he’s off, describing some events from that earlier trip.

I have no talent for writing at all, but if I were a writer, I’d want to write like this. The book made me want to know more, on any subject, really, to talk to and listen to others about what they know, and to get out and walk more, but not along that Suffolk coast, which did not come across as particularly enticing, I have to say.

There was one slightly odd aspect to this book – the photos. I don’t know if it was for cost reasons, or because it was thought to somehow add to the atmosphere, but all the photos were a soft, grainy black and white, and often I had no idea what they were supposed to show. I’d love to be enlightened by anyone with a thought about this.

Lovely review, Janet!

Thanks :)

Ditto that and I've made a note to get it.

#170: I have had that one in the BlackHole for a while now. I really must get my hands on a copy.

If you have not read Sebald's The Emigrants I would recommend that one to you.

Great review Janet - he's one of those authors I've meant to read but never have. Have you read Austerlitz or any of his others? Stasia, I have added The Emigrants to my wishlist too.

#175: Unfortunately for me, Cushla, The Emigrants is the only Sebald book my local library has. I hope you enjoy it!

I've read Austerlitz which was good but not as amazing as I thought it was going to be from the excerpt in the NYer... but I am eager to try The Rings of Saturn.

Janet -- have you noticed your review of Saturn has made the 'hot review' list? Nice work!

Thank you all for the nice comments, and for the thumbs-up - I am so honored to have achieved "hot review" status.

Since I came on LT, I have become a much better reader, really noticing things such as how a book is written, and really considering why it is I like or don't like it. This is entirely due to the intelligent comments made by so many of the people here. I didn't study literature in college, so although I consider myself reasonably intelligent and pretty well educated, I just never thought about books in this way before. Seems like you are all very good teachers, thank you very much!

Oh, and yes, I have read The Emigrants, but not Austerlitz, although I do have that one on the shelf. I might be feeling a Sebald reading-fest coming upon me.

Since I came on LT, I have become a much better reader...

Well said, Janet. That goes for me, as well.

Congratulations! I'm warmed by your Hot-ness.....and I've added Sebald to my "want" list.

Thanks!

#179: Me, too! If you look at my book journals pre-LT and post-LT, the difference is amazing.

My TBR list has grown exponentially since I joined LT. After reading your thread, I'm moving up The Book Thief, The Shipping News and Ender's Game. Thanks for reviews!

Dawn, those are all good ones, alright. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

#170 - Thanks for the review of The Rings of Saturn - it's been vaguely on my radar for a while, but I shall look out for it more actively after your enthusiastic review.

You're welcome - I hope you enjoy it.

This is one of the best books I have read in a very long time. I don’t really know how to describe it, and I can’t remember ever reading anything quite like it.

How very true! I find that the books that grab me and haunt are those that I really don't know how to describe.

Thanks for your excellent review. The book is now on my list.

This sounds fascinating, adding The Rings of Saturn to my list.

Ditto. I'll definitely look for this one. Nice review, Janet!

Thanks for all the nice comments, guys.

I looked at other reviews of The Rings of Saturn today and I see that several thoughtful reviewers felt the book was about change, the transitory nature of time, places and events, and the role of memory in keeping both real and imaginary things "alive". There was some comment about the pictures there, too, saying they were helping Sebald keep hold of his memories, and that the fuzzy/grainy nature of them was partly for that reason, as that is how memories are. Also some comments that the story is narrated by a narrator who may or may not be Sebald - that never occurred to me!

It's a tricky decision - write your own review first, and maybe find other people's reviews spark off better thoughts than your first ones, or read theirs first and maybe find it harder to decide what you think yourself. I think I'll stick to writing my own first, although I know I will always think "now why didn't I think of that" when I go to read the others later.

>190 JanetinLondon:: I know I will always think "now why didn't I think of that" when I go to read the others later.
yeah, that happens to me a lot, too. 99% of the time I write my own review first. I don't like to read other reviews until after I've read the book, and then I want to be sure the review reflects my own thoughts. I've made an exception to this rule on occasions when I just don't "get" the book and want to see what might be eluding me, or when the book is just dreadful and I'm curious whether others felt the same way. Sometimes reading dreadful reviews of a dreadful book help me get through it.

>190 JanetinLondon:: Like Laura (Msg. 191), I write my review first. But then I read the other reviews before I post it because I hate using the same words or quote as someone else. That happened to me once when I ended a review with a quote from the book.

I tend to read the other reviews first so that I know whether I have anything different to add to the mix. Most of the time somebody else has nailed my little point already, and I'm saved the time and trouble. Sometimes, I feel the zealot's need to correct (!) something already posted.

Excellent review, Janet. I too am looking for the Sebald book.

I read Sebald's Austerlitz last year and thought it was excellent, so The Rings of Saturn is definitely on my wants list.

So, no consensus on the "when to read other reviews" question, although some interesting thoughts on it. Still not sure what I will do. It probably depends on the book, as Linda says, but also I see the sense of not embarrassing myself by saying exactly what someone else just said, so maybe the "write it first, but read others before posting" is a good way to go. That could, of course, mean I wind up posting nothing, if other people have had the same and/or better ideas, but that probably wouldn't happen all the time.

Peg nails it! Write then verify. My big resolve too is to write less. I am way too windy. Sometimes, too, it's worth writing a review just to fix a book in my mind..... but then maybe it isn't necessary to post it? But then, why not?

thanks for stopping by Janet -- great timing, we were cross-reading!

I tend to write the review then check before posting too. But I'm not very consistent. About anything!

I do not write reviews, so I have no input whatsoever to give you, Janet :)

Well, Stasia, it's lovely to hear from you all the same :)

I usually write it first and try not to look at the stars others have given till I've made up my mind!

I write the review before I look at any reviews that have already been written because I'm sure I'd get someone else's ideas in my head and forget that they're not mine. For me, writing the review allows me to delve into the story much more intensely, and then the story seems to stay with me longer.

Okay, so, I thought I'd try out this idea of writing the review then looking at others. In fact, I have a few reviews queued up, so I'd already done the writing part. But I was totally thwarted when I got to the "reading others" part, as it turned out no one had written a review on LT yet! So, here it is:

39. Little Mountain by Elias Khoury

This book takes place mainly in Beirut, during the Lebanese Civil War in the 1970’s. It does not have a typical “plot”, but rather it describes a series of incidents involving the narrator. These include some memories of his youth, before the war, some of his experiences during the war, both as a soldier and a civilian, and an encounter with an old acquaintance later on (I think), in Paris.

The main interest and real power of the book, though, comes from the style rather than from the content alone. The style changes in response to the situation the narrator is in, internally as well as external. So, in the earliest section, describing his youth and the area of Beirut he lived in, the descriptions are coherent. This is followed by repeated and slightly varying descriptions of soldiers searching his house looking for him after he had already, the reader infers, left to join a rebel group. The next section describes scenes from the war itself – running through streets, firing and being fired at, hiding in a church, comrades being injured and killed. This section is more chaotic, reflecting the chaos of war and also his confused and stressed thinking, and the remaining sections get more and more disjointed, with seemingly random thoughts, memories, hallucinations mixed together with straightforward descriptions.

But nothing in his world is straightforward anymore, and the book reflects that. Whenever the narrator tries to do something “normal” – go out to find bread, or water, or drive some friends home from a café, or park his car, or talk about the war with his friend in Paris, images and memories intervene, distorting the narrative and distancing the reader from events just as the narrator’s mind is distanced. I sometimes found it too surreal, and had difficulty understanding the allusions, but sometimes the style worked wonderfully to portray the sense of confusion and dislocation. One particularly strong short section describes the terror of walking with his wife and four small children down the four or five flights of stairs from his apartment to a shelter in the basement, in pitch dark, with shells exploding around them. Another conveys through a series of conversations and descriptions his incomprehension when his car, parked outside his house, is destroyed in the fighting – he just can’t believe no one will fix it, or pay for it, or even consider it an important event.

My knowledge of the politics of Lebanon in the ‘70’s, and of Lebanese culture in general, is very limited, so I am undoubtedly missing a lot of references that more knowledgeable readers will pick up. On the simpler level of describing how it feels to live in the middle of chaos, as an active participant or a bystander, I really did get it. The writing shows you the disintegration rather than just telling you it happened, and this is a great achievement.

Highly recommended.

That would be one to post even in the event that there were 20 reviews. Thanks, Janet!

Great review and sounds like an interesting read.

The great thing about being the first review, is that it is an opportunity with a good book to give it some air-time.

>202 brenzi: I with you there! I need all the help I can get fixing things in my mind.

What a great review, and I'd like to read this one. Was it from the library or your own?

Doing the Bookbag reviews tends to mean I write a lot of first reviews, although some are paperback editions of hardbacks which have been reviewed before but not on the Bookbag, or UK editions of books which have already been published in the US.

If available, I do sometimes look at other reviews to clarify my thoughts, but I look for professional reviews or ones on blogs. The reviewers in this group (and others like the Virago group) are great, but too many LT reviews are less useful.

Nice review; I have Little Mountain, and will probably read it within the next couple of months.

#203: I just received Khoury's White Masks a week or so ago. Now I know which of his to read after that one. Great review, Janet.

Hi Janet:

I just wanted to say I'm glad you liked the Holding. (As you can see, I'm a bit behind in my LT reading.

Best,

David

Thanks you, everyone for the nice comments.

#207 - I don't remember whether it was mine or from the library (I actually read it a month ago). I'll check tonight and let you know. If it's mine, you're welcome to borrow it.

I'm checking in.... you've been very quiet. Reading I hope. Lu/Sib

Yeah, have spent the past couple of very sunny days sitting in the garden, reading, and getting all my laundry dry. win-win-win.

Plus, yesterday was my older daughter's "leavers' ceremony" at school - they don't do high school graduation here, because some kids leave after year 11 and some stay until the end of year 13 (depending how academic they are - years 12 and 13 are like college prep, and if you're not going to college you're better off in some other program). At her school they all stay until year 13, so it is pretty similar to a graduation. It was very nice.

Will post something later.

Right, after a few lazy days sitting in the garden, I am ready to engage again!

40. American Purgatorio by John Haskell

In the beginning, this seemed like it was going to be a pretty standard (in a good way) “road trip” story. The narrator tells us that he was in a gas station with his wife, went inside to pay, and when he came out she and the car were gone. He has absolutely no idea why she would abandon him. So, I thought, it will be about his coming to terms with it and learning things about himself. Then he goes home and sees a road map with a number of cities circled. He thinks she must be travelling that route, so he gets a car and starts to drive along it himself, imagining he will find her somehow.

As he travels, he has various amusing and interesting adventures and encounters, as usual for this type of story. (According to other reviews I looked at, these are a meditation on the seven deadly sins, but I have to admit I never saw that). He also keeps returning in his thoughts to the gas station scene and seeing/remembering/inventing more details and different possibilities. Was she kidnapped? Was there some sort of accident? This is well done, and very intriguing – is he really remembering more/better, or is he becoming more unhinged? It’s not at all clear.

I don’t want to say more, as it’s very easy to spoil it. By the end, he comes to a resolution of all his questions, which some might find satisfying, but I found extremely unconvincing. I know books don’t have to end the way I want or expect them to, and stories don’t always have to make sense, but this ending was really disappointing. It’s a shame, because I had been enjoying it a lot up until then. I wouldn’t want to put you off, because you might love the ending, and anyway, a lot of the rest of it is a really good read.

Janet American Purgatorio sounds interesting. Thanks for the great review/comments.

Sorry, have just not been feeling very communicative this week. But I have been reading. And in fact, a very interesting coincidence occurred. Some time back, I mentioned my college friends who gave me a list of fantasy/sci fi books to read, and explained that I was now asking for a new list. Several people gave me suggestions. This week, on Face Book (which I hardly ever look at), one of those college friends quoted from a book he was reading - something I have never seen him do before. The book was Anathem, recommended to me by Peggy (in message 152). I told him I was on the lookout for that book myself. He then suggested I start with another Stephenson, Cryptonomicon, ALSO on my suggested list. Then, it got even spookier - another old college friend, whom I have not seen in more than 20 years, commented on his post and suggested I should read a couple of other books, in particular Gate to Women's Country, also, you guessed it, on the suggestions list. Then today, a box turned up with that and a couple of other books from this old friend. So this must be fate, and I will read Gate to Women's Country very soon, a book I thought would be really hard to find, then move on to Cryptonomicon when I have time - and Lucy (sibyx) , I haven't forgotten your offer to read it with me - I will certainly need help, as I see it is nearly 1200 pages long! Maybe in the later part of the summer.

Cryptonomicon is the really long one ..... hmmmm maybe Gate to Women's Country would be better to tackle first? I have that one -- my spouse has the other one, but it might be in a box at present and hard to locate.

There do seem to be currents pushing you a certain way at the moment!

WOW!!!!
I'm a real Sheri S. Tepper fan, did I mention? Her writing is uneven, but Gate to Women's Country, while not my favorite, is a wonderful place to start. I won't offer to reread it with you since I did that only a few years ago, but I will be eager to hear your experience.

Cryptonomicon is one of the books I mean to get to this summer. It may take me the entire summer to read it!

The spouse thinks I would like Crypto- I love the title. I don't know why I haven't gotten to it. Oh yes, I think I do know why. It's like that Charles Addams cartoon of the cushion factory where cushions are piled up to the ceiling because one little old lady is sewing on all the buttons by hand-- Forster says something great to that effect -- that the only problem with books is that you have to read them one word at a time.....

Okay, I have a few other books to finish off first - I have "rules" - library books first, then books belonging to other people, then gifts, (then books I just bought and might not want to keep, then everything else on the shelves) - that keeps the numbers in the house down just a bit. So, I have two more library books, then one belonging to a friend, then I can read Gate to Women's Country - I will let you know when I am ready to start.

Only problem is it's almost the World Cup and that will seriously reduce my reading time (I am a World Cup fanatic). Plus I want to do the Group Read of the Aeneid and not sure I can do two at once (unlike so many here, I nearly always stick to one book at a time). Plus I will be in the hospital starting June 16th for probably 6 weeks - my two other recent hospital stays actually meant I read MORE, since nothing else to do there, but not sure how this one will pan out. I will do my best.

Just realized I have casually thrown in that hospital thing. Sorry. Don't think most of you know anything about this. I am being treated for lymphoma, and have been waiting/preparing for around a year to have a stem cell transplant to hopefully "cure" it, and this is what is happening in June.

Janet I will await your command -- when you are ready, we will read. I suspect we will not be reading the Aeneid at any galloping rate, at least I hope not. It might be possible to have a heavy and a light read, as your energy levels might go up and down a bit? In any event, I will be honored to read with you during what I hope will indeed prove to be the cure. Lucy

Good luck in June, Janet! I hope all goes well and that reading gets done!

Fingers crossed for you, Janet.

Janet, all the best for the stem cell transplant. I have bought my copy of the Aeneid (couldn't help it!) but I will definitely be keen to read slowly and at whatever pace you feel like going. (And if that's not at all, that's fine too!) Will you have LT access in hospital?

I really liked your review of Elias Khoury's book. I have yet to see a bad review of his work - I own Gate of the Sun and have it here, but still haven't got to it. I recently bought another book set in Beirut during the civil war - A Good Land by Nada Awar Jarrar. It looks like a more straightforward read than Khoury.

Lucy, Stasia, Laura, Cushla, thank you all very much for your good wishes.

I am going to try to keep up with whatever pace the main readers of The Aeneid set - it will give me at least one goal a day! And Gate to Women's Country isn't all that long, so I should be able to read that in parallel, I think. Let's see how it goes.

I should have LT access in the hospital, although it's via mobile broadband on my laptop, with small bandwidth, and the last time I was in it was very patchy, often cutting out for no reason at all, sometimes only for a few seconds, sometimes for hours. I will, of course, have a stack of books for when it does go down (although I will also be watching three football matches a day for the first few weeks).

Meanwhile, I have just started reading Three Cups of Tea, which so many people have raved about. So far, I really like it.

#221 - I like your "rules" Janet. But the library is a big place full of free books and it is only five minutes walk away. Oh the dilemma. I may never get to the other piles of books cos the library pile never diminishes. And LibraryThing is the devil's work with all these wishlists :)

I know, Kirsty, that's exactly the problem. I never come back from the library empty handed, and I go every week. Sigh. Just have to learn to read faster, I guess.

My thoughts and prayers are with you, Janet.

I hope things go well for you, Janet.

Adding my good wishes for your spell in hospital - hope that the football, the books and the (intermittent) LT connection help speed the time away and that the treatment goes well.

Good luck and I hope for a successful treatment for you Janet.

#216 I also have Cryptonomicon on my TBR pile, let me know if/when you all start reading it - maybe it will inspire me to start too!

Adding my good wishes for your hospital stay to everyone else's, hope the transplant is successful and does all the doctors hope it will do.

Thank you all so much for your good wishes. I will certainly be checking in on all your threads even if I don't have much time/energy to post. And Heather, I will try to remember to let you know about Cryptonomicon - I'm thinking later, like August, when I am at home sitting around recovering.

Janet--Adding my best wishes for your hospital stay and successful treatment.

Janet
I send prayers and all good wishes to you.

Also best wishes from me, I really hope all goes well.

Adding my prayers and good wishes for a successful treatment to all the others.

Once again, thank you for all the kind words. I feel very supported by your thoughts. When I am in the hospital feeling especially fed up, I am going to come back to this section of my thread and remind myself that people out there care about me, even some I've never met (yet).

Janet - I'm just catching up on threads, and I want to add my good wishes to all the rest. I'll be sending healing thoughts your way.

I'm hoping to start Stones into Schools, Greg Mortenson's 2nd book, this month. I loved Three Cups of Tea and hope you enjoy it too.

Janet, I'll add my best wishes to the rest. I'm glad you will have internet access while in the hospital. I'm sure that reading uplifting books like Three Cups of Tea will be good medicine.

Which hospital will you be in? Let me know if I can be of any help with books (you can post on my profile page and I can give you my email in a private message).

Just realized I haven't posted any actual book reviews in over a week. At this rate I'll never catch up. I haven't even added my May reads to my first posting. Well, here's a review, and I'll update the list later.

41. Red Dust by Ma Jian
42. China Road by Rob Gifford

After I read The Long March back in March, I asked for suggestions for other books about China. I got quite a few. So far, I have managed to find and read two of these, and in a happy coincidence, picked both up on the same library trip.

Both of these books were fascinating, educational and enjoyable. The first, Red Dust, takes place in the '80's and was written by a young Chinese writer and mover in intellectual circles who, having fallen foul of the latest program of denunciation, decided to escape Beijing and travel around the country, a journey which lasted some three years. He describes a country in transition, where every town still has a party/public hostel he can stay in, many still have “town criers” to read out the news, he is often to challenged to produce his papers proving his right to travel (he has forged letters ordering him to interview various people) and pictures of Mao still abound although he has been dead for a number of years, but where signs of new economic activity are also starting to emerge.

He visits friends of friends of friends, mainly artists, writers, editors and similar, and learns a lot about different regions and peoples, which is his main aim. He encounters much hospitality, but also hostility, suspicion and indifference. It is something of a spiritual journey for him as well, and he seeks out shrines and other holy places, often making gruelling journeys across deserts and up mountains. He travels mainly by foot.

The book describes people and places way off the beaten track, and as Ma is not an outsider – or at least, not as much of an outsider as a westerner would be – he can show the “real” stories, good and bad. I felt I learned a lot, although even as I was reading it I realized it was probably already out of date, except for the geography (maybe even that). Ma also learned a lot, and although he clearly respected and liked many of the people he met, he also found he could not live there, and left for Hong Kong not long after his epic journey.

The second book, China Road, was written by a British journalist who was about to leave China after some years, and who spoke fluent Mandarin. It takes place 20 years later, and although he was specifically seeking places and places that were on the threshold of change, reading the two back to back made it very clear how much had already changed. Remote villages were now connected to towns and cities by highways. More and more children were leaving small western towns to be educated in the big cities of the east. Everyone was a pragmatist and an entrepreneur, and virtually no one regretted the changes. He travelled mainly by road, in buses and taxis, never by foot that I can remember. He, too, met a lot of interesting, if not always likeable, people, and again, I learned a lot.

Gifford argued that China had chosen once before, in the early twentieth century, to abandon their culture to save their nation, and that this was what was happening again now. Traditional culture, morality and ways of living were vanishing, and most people seemed not to mind, happily accepting the trade-off. To maintain the stability of the country, Gifford says, the huge growth rate needs to continue, so that everyone, even the poor, can feel they could at least potentially benefit. For this reason, unrestrained growth is the government’s overriding priority. This does seem to explain why China seems to care so little about heritage, the environment, sustainable development more generally, or even industrial safety – they are just not at a point where they are able or willing to let anything get in the way of growth. He likens it to industrial cities such as Pittsburgh a hundred years ago.

I have never been to China, so I can’t really comment on the accuracy or fairness of this view. But while both these books make it seem a very fascinating place, Gifford’s makes me think I would not like it very much, except at a superficial tourist/sightseeing level. I expect everything has changed even more since he wrote this, and it seems like China now bears no relationship to what I had always imagined – culture, grace, arts, history, eastern spirituality, etc. It’s good to have a more realistic picture of an important modern society, but it did make me sad that there seems no other path to economic “success” than shedding all the old values.

Thank you for both of those reviews, Janet - I have China on my mind again as I've just picked up a book that has been languishing in my shelves for awhile, When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne 1405-1433 -- and what you wrote about the ability of Chinese 'to abandon their culture to save their nation' struck me. It seems as though as a country they have a history of abrupt changes (such as when they destroyed their navy and turned inward just after this period of expansion). Had they not withdrawn then they likely would have become a dominant force all over the globe.

I wanted to add my good wishes to you, Janet, for your hospital stay and treatment. I'm not a daily reader of the threads, so I'm behind the curve. I hope you enjoy the Aeneid group read. I'm not joining that one as I'm trying to keep the group reads to a minimum because I find they're a lot of work and take time away from other projects. But I will be happily (quietly) lurking, having so much enjoyed our other group reads.

Janet
Yours is not an easy road to travel. Please keep us posted regarding how you are feeling, both emotionally and physically. I am so sorry you are going through all this.

I have noticed that people start new threads around this point, so it is
here
Hope to see you there.