kidzdoc: 75 and Beyond, Take 8

Take 1

Take 2

Take 3

Take 4

Take 5

Take 6

Take 7

Books Read in 2010:



Books Purchased in 2010:



Currently reading:

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
Selected Cronicas by Clarice Lispector
News from Home by Sefi Atta

Completed books:

May:
60. My House by Nikki Giovanni
59. The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell
58. The Informers by Juan Gabriel Vásquez
57. Fear by Stefan Zweig
56. A Fortunate Man: The Story of a Country Doctor by John Berger
55. Five Modern Japanese Novelists by Donald Keene
54. Tranquility by Attila Bartis
53. The Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes
52. The Pen and the Sword: Conversations with Edward Said by David Barsamian
51. Season of Ash by Jorge Volpi
50. Letters from London by C.L.R. James
49. Naomi by Junichiro Tanizaki
48. Everything In This Country Must by Colum McCann
47. Piano by Jean Echenoz
46. White Masks by Elias Khoury

April:
45. Black Mamba Boy by Nadifa Mohamed
44. Spain in Our Hearts by Pablo Neruda
43. A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O'Connor
42. Dread: Poems by Ai
41. Twilight & Moonbeam Alley by Stefan Zweig
40. Bicycles: Love Poems by Nikki Giovanni
39. Three Novellas by Joseph Roth
38. The White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey
37. The Plague by Albert Camus
36. Dreams in a Time of War: A Childhood Memoir by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
35. Morning Haiku by Sonia Sanchez
34. The Women and the Men by Nikki Giovanni
33. An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah
32. Re: Creation by Nikki Giovanni

March:
31. Street of Lost Footsteps by Lyonel Trouillot
30. Albert Camus: A Life by Olivier Todd
29. School Days by Patrick Chamoiseau
28. Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa
27. Close to Jedenew by Kevin Vennemann
26. Earth and Ashes by Atiq Rahimi
25. The Surrendered by Chang-Rae Lee
24. Selected Stories by Stefan Zweig
23. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
22. The Long Song by Andrea Levy
21. Nadirs by Herta Müller

February:
20. Listen! Early Poems by Vladimir Mayakovsky
19. A Life Apart by Neel Mukherjee
18. Black Judgement by Nikki Giovanni
17. Things Seen by Annie Ernaux
16. Georg Letham: Physician and Murderer by Ernst Weiss
15. Ashes of the Amazon by Milton Hatoum
14. Black Feeling Black Talk by Nikki Giovanni
13. The Emperor by Ryszard Kapuściński
12. The Good Doctors: The Medical Committee for Human Rights and the Struggle for Social Justice in Health Care by John Dittmer
11. Wondrak and Other Stories by Stefan Zweig (Austria)

January:
10. Moscardino by Enrico Pea (Italy)
9. Beneath the Lion's Gaze by Maaza Mengiste (Ethiopia)
8. Small Island by Andrea Levy (UK)
7. Amok and Other Stories by Stefan Zweig (Austria)
6. The Making of a Tropical Disease: A Short History of Malaria by Randall M. Packard
5. The Word Book by Kanai Mieko (Japan)
4. Tormented Hope: Nine Hypochondriac Lives by Brian Dillon
3. Matigari by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (Kenya)
2. Monsieur Pain by Roberto Bolaño (Chile)
1. Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original by Robin D.G. Kelley

Categories and completed books in my 1010 challenge:

A. 2009-10 Archipelago Books
1. Moscardino by Enrico Pea (Italy)
2. Georg Letham: Physician and Murderer by Ernst Weiss
3. White Masks by Elias Khoury
4. Tranquility by Attila Bartis

B. 2010 Booker Prize longlist and previous winners
1. The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell (1973)

C. 2010 Orange Prize longlist and previous winners
1. Small Island by Andrea Levy
2. The Long Song by Andrea Levy
3. The White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey
4. Black Mamba Boy by Nadifa Mohamed

D. Medicine, public health and science
1. Tormented Hope: Nine Hypochondriac Lives by Brian Dillon
2. The Making of a Tropical Disease: A Short History of Malaria by Randall M. Packard
3. The Good Doctors: The Medical Committee for Human Rights and the Struggle for Social Justice in Health Care by John Dittmer
4. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
5. A Fortunate Man: The Story of a Country Doctor by John Berger

E. African-American/African poetry & literature
1. Matigari by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (Kenya)
2. Beneath the Lion's Gaze by Maaza Mengiste (Ethiopia)
3. Black Feeling Black Talk by Nikki Giovanni (US)
4. Black Judgement by Nikki Giovanni
5. Re: Creation by Nikki Giovanni
6. An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah (Zimbabwe)
7. The Women and the Men by Nikki Giovanni
8. Morning Haiku by Sonia Sanchez
9. Bicycles: Love Poems by Nikki Giovanni
10. Dread: Poems by Ai
11. My House by Nikki Giovanni

F. 2010 Author Theme Reads
1. Amok and Other Stories by Stefan Zweig
2. Wondrak and Other Stories by Stefan Zweig
3. Selected Stories by Stefan Zweig
4. Three Novellas by Joseph Roth
5. Twilight & Moonbeam Alley by Stefan Zweig
6. Naomi by Junichiro Tanizaki
7. Fear by Stefan Zweig

G. Southern US literature (William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, Carson McCullers, etc.)
1. A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O'Connor

H. Asian/Asian-American literature
1. The Word Book by Kanai Mieko (Japan)
2. A Life Apart by Neel Mukherjee
3. The Surrendered by Chang-Rae Lee
4. Earth and Ashes by Atiq Rahimi

I. Biography and History
1. Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original by Robin D.G. Kelley
2. The Emperor by Ryszard Kapuściński
3. Albert Camus: A Life by Olivier Todd
4. Dreams in a Time of War: A Childhood Memoir by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o

J. Latin-American & Caribbean literature
1. Monsieur Pain by Roberto Bolaño (Chile)
2. Ashes of the Amazon by Milton Hatoum (Brazil)
3. Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa
4. School Days by Patrick Chamoiseau (Martinique)
5. Street of Lost Footsteps by Lyonel Trouillot (Haiti)
6. Season of Ash by Jorge Volpi (Mexico)
7. The Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes (Mexico)
8. The Informers by Juan Gabriel Vásquez

OK, I am here again!

I just got my copy of White Masks yesterday. I am not sure when I am going to get to it, but at least I have a copy.

Good morning!! (um, night in Atlanta. Hope there aren't too many sick kids coming in.)

I don't have White Masks but I still have Gate of the Sun to read.

That was fast! Did you order it from Amazon, or directly from Archipelago Books?

Hmm...I wonder if Strand has it? If so, it would probably sell for half price. I saw The Twin and another Archipelago book in the basement when I went to NYC last month, in the half price section. Let's check...yes! List price is $22, and Strand is selling it for $11.

http://www.strandbooks.com/app/www/p/profile/?isbn=098198732x

I forgot to mention that Belletrista.com now has a Facebook page; I can't link to it at the moment, as the hospital's Internet server blocks most of the social networking sites.

Good morning, Cushla! It's 3 am in Atlanta; the time displayed in the messages on LT is Eastern Time in the US, the same as Atlanta, Philadelphia, NYC, Boston, etc.

So far so good; the ED is beginning to empty out, which it usually does after 1-2 am. Fortunately the number of hospital admissions to our service (General Pediatrics) is slowing down, which it usually does by the middle of the spring.

Gate of the Sun is a fantastic book. I'll probably read another of his books, Yalo, this month or in June.

#4: I ordered my copy from The Strand and got it for $11 just as you said, Darryl.

Hallo! Checking in unusually early (I usually doze far too long in the morning, but obviously this morning had to find out how the election was going as I conked out before much had been called last night).

...on which, yes, it's now looking like a hung parliament (currently 607/650 seats called). Cambridge is, as ever, called as Liberal (surrounded by a sea of blue), but interestingly had a 7% swing towards Conservative. The really good news to me is that, so far, neither UKIP or the BNP have won any seats. I was mortified when they ended up with seats on the EU.

The problem about a hung parliament is it slows down all decision making, so it's not ideal - and you're inevitably going to end up with mixed messages. Whatever happens, it almost certainly means some form of electoral reform...

The absolutely apalling thing (to me) is that, despite polling stations being open from 7am to 10pm, there were people turned AWAY from some of the larger polling stations (parts of London, Sheffield, Manchester...). This wasn't that people turned up late (fair enough in that case - the law says that if you don't have a ballot paper at 10pm, then you don't get to vote), it was that the queues were too long. We have a depressingly poor turnout for voting in this country surely we should be welcoming an increase in political interest with open arms! Why on earth did they not set up extra queues when they saw the turnout?! It really makes me incredibly angry.

Sorry, essay over, just had to comment to someone and I'm not at work today as I'll be driving to Wales in a bit!

Darryl, I shall go in search of the Bellistra fb page now... ;o)

I couldn't manage to stay up late, either, but my 18 year old first time voter daughter stayed up until 6:30! I woke up to find my seat (Hornsey and Wood Green) also still LibDem, with a swing to them - tribute to good local MP. Agree with all the above comments, especially happy Barking rejected the BNP so clearly.

Wow, that must have been so exciting for her - such an interesting election to vote first time. My first time voting was when Tony Blair got in. Sigh. It seemed incredibly exciting at the time...

I managed to stay awake watching the results until 4am: this morning I am regretting it, drinking gallons of coffee, and feeling thankful that I am not working today.

The queues and people being turned away is absolutely appalling management: it's not as though the people running the polling stations didn't know how many voters were eligible to vote in that particular station, and the turn-out wasn't *that* much higher than it's been in the past. I've never seen a significant queue in a polling station, and we had over 70% turnout here.

#9 1997 was my first time voting as well. I felt so ancient and jaded yesterday listening to the 18/19/20 year-old students in the university library all discussing whether they'd voted yet.

If the BBC and Guardian counts are correct, it is now mathematically impossible for the Tories to win a majority (34 seats still undecided, if they win all 34 they would only have 325 seats). As I'm typing this, I received a breaking news alert from CNN indicating that the election has resulted in a hung Parliament. It's very interesting to me, but I don't think I'd feel the same way if I was a Briton (now having flashbacks to the 2000 debacle, thinking about hanging chads, and getting goose bumps).

It sounds as though the people responsible for elections in the districts (wrong term?) should have realized that the turnout would be high, and made accomodations for those extra voters. (I can't remember what it was like here in the 2008 presidential election; I voted several days before Election Day, so there were far fewer people at the polling station in downtown Atlanta than there were on Election Day.)

Atlanta sounds similar to Cambridge; the population in the city is largely young, well-educated and liberal in comparison to the suburbs and especially the exurbs (think "Deliverance").

I finally went to sleep at 4.30am and woke up at 8.30am, it is definitely looking like Labour are going to try to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats but it is not clear whether the Lib dems are interested! Our polling station was deserted, I find it hard to believe that people can have been turned away at any polling station that was sufficiently staffed. Apparently, in Sheffield, the students were forced into a separate queue from the locals! I am currently thinking about switching off the TV because the politicians are still talking over each other and arguing. My local seat is still Labour....

I remember casting my first ballot back in 1979 in Canada, right after a minority government had collapsed. It was exciting... 1997 feels as recent as if it were yesterday; the perils of encroaching age. I was in London immediately after Blair's win (I'd been traveling in Berlin, Vienna, Prague) and it was as if the whole country had received a jolt of adrenaline. What a contrast now.

I'm up unconscionably early, and without even a morning hospital shift or an election result to justify it. Which means I should try to crawl back under the duvet for a few more hours and compensate for recent lack of sleep.

#14: All the action on LT happens during the night and wee hours, Suz. Hang out with us for a while!

My own first vote was for Jimmy Carter. At the time, even that seemed pretty exciting.

#12 - if you look at the map, especially at where the LibDem seats are, or where Labour is an island in a sea of Tory, generally speaking you can see it is the same as Atlanta/Cambridge - young/urban/educated/university/relatively well off. In Brighton, this combination even elected the first ever Green MP, which in my opinion has got to be a good thing.

#14 - you're right, 1997 was pretty much the high point in Britain, politically speaking, of the last 25 years. Hopefully, somewhere out there, some really exciting, positive, honest and hardworking politicians are doing great things locally and learning their trade, ready to jump onto the national stage next time.

Morning Darryl- You've had a busy thread! Have a good weekend!

My first vote was for George McGovern. I was thrilled to be voting but not, of course, with the results.

So, anyone read any good books lately? :)

I'm reading! (Season of Ash)

My first vote was in the 1980 presidential election. I voted for Anderson, the independent candidate, if I remember correctly; I don't think I voted for Carter.

Only 40 minutes to go before my shift ends. There is one kid in the ER that will almost certainly be admitted, who probably has either a septic hip (bacterial infection of the hip joint) or osteomyelitis (bacterial infection of the bone). But she needs X-rays and an Orthopaedic Surgery consultation, which probably won't be completed until well after 8 am. All in all, it was a good night, as (knock on wood) I didn't have any admissions from midnight to 8 am.

I'll try to stay awake during the day, as long as I can, so that I can become a daytime person ASAP. Thanks for the good early morning company!

I am reading a couple of dandies right now (in between several others): The Idiot and Troubles. I finished Robert Sherwood's Pulitzer Prize winning Roosevelt and Hopkins earlier this week, so things are looking good reading-wise for me.

I read quite a lot in the middle of last night with the election coverage on, it's actually quite a slow business. Janet, I've been wondering how near me you are - you're in the next door constituency - I'll resist sniping about your local MP! I'm not as unhappy at national results as I thought I might be, and wow, the Tories have LOST Enfield Council (that's a big surprise) - Enfield is to the north of Janet and me in the London suburbs, and the existing MPs there - 2 Con, 1 Labour, were all reelected. So people are either voting differently at local and national level, or there are rather odd patterns, or a bit of both.

#22 -have sent you a PM

Hello! I have you starred! My, what a busy thread!

I always love the discussions here. Never know what topic I'll find . . .

Loved the election discussions here (and the book reviews as always - Naomi sounds like one to look out for). I was initially feeling rather disappointed and depressed about the election results (although overjoyed there were no BNP seats) but the electoral reform protest in London today has made me feel excited again (I didn't go just watched on the telly).

The husband stayed up all night watching the results while I went to sleep expecting to wake up to find someone had won. Our area is a Conservative safe seat we're part of the sea of blue surrounding Cambridge.

#25: From what I've read, mainly from the websites of The Guardian and The Observer, it seems as though it will be a few more days, at best, before a coalition is announced, and a Tory-Liberal Democrat alliance is far from certain.

The Tea Party in the US seems to be attracting BNP types, although I would like to think that the majority of its members aren't as xenophobic as the BNP and other scary fringe groups.

Naomi was good, although I expect that I'll like his subsequent novels better. I'm planning to read Some Prefer Nettles, The Makioka Sisters and The Key and Diary of a Mad Old Man for the Author theme read between now and August.

My inner clock is completely screwed up, as it seems to want to stay up all night now, and sleep during the day. Thankfully I have an entire week to go back to diurnal mode.

Today's edition of The Observer, the Sunday edition of The Guardian (which is a Monday-Saturday paper) has an article about the differences in a book's covers depending on the country in which it is published in. The article's author talked to several book designers to get their impressions; one of the stated reasons is that literary fiction is an easier sell in continental Europe than in the UK or US, so the designers in the latter countries have to put an "extra spin" on the covers to distinguish them from competing titles.

Don't judge a book by its cover, particularly in France

Happy Mother's Day, everyone!

Thanks, Darryl! I hope your mom has an enjoyable day as well.

You're welcome, Stasia!

My mother is very low key about Mother's Day, her birthday, Christmas, etc. I sent her several books of poems by Lucille Clifton, and made a donation in her name to Save the Children. I'll call her this afternoon, once she & my father come back from church.

Oh, another author I hadn't heard about!!! Now, I'm going on a quest to find some of Lucille Clifton's works.

I had heard of her, but hadn't read anything by her. She died recently; my mother heard a story about her on NPR (National Public Radio, for those of you outside of the US), which she told me about a couple of weeks ago.

I bought my mother three of her books: Blessing the Boats: New and Collected Poems 1988–2000, which won the National Book Award for poetry in 2000, Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir 1969-1980, and The Book of Light.

Her page on the Poetry Foundation's web site (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=1304) has a ton of information about her, including links to nearly 20 poems, several audio recordings of her poems, and articles about her work. You might be familiar with this one, "homage to my hips":

homage to my hips

these hips are big hips
they need space to
move around in.
they don't fit into little
petty places. these hips
are free hips.
they don't like to be held back.
these hips have never been enslaved,
they go where they want to go
they do what they want to do.
these hips are mighty hips.
these hips are magic hips.
i have known them
to put a spell on a man and
spin him like a top!

Thanks! This information is great! What a wonderful poem...

Great poem! *Wanders off to read some of the other poems in the link.* Wow, there's some powerful stuff there. Distinctive and very profound.

(I'm finding all the comments about Mother's Day a bit disconcerting, because in the UK Mother's Day falls in March.)

The Observer article is intriguing: thanks for posting that link. :)

The various coalition talks are now driving me mad. Or rather, TV coverage of it all is driving me mad: every single person arriving or leaving is announced on the news channels as though it were a major development, and "discussions are continuing, nothing's changed since Friday" is the major item on every news programme, repeated ad nauseam in minute detail.

I love Lucille Clifton and especially enjoyed Blessing the Boats. Her poetry is just so honest and down to earth, making poetry out of such everyday, but really important, life matters.

#33: It doesn't seem as though much happened today during the Tory-Liberal Democrat negotiations. However, an article in The Guardian indicates that Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democratic leader, will decide by Monday night whether to allow David Cameron and the Conservatives to form a government, or enter negotiations with Gordon Brown and Labour.

If Clegg decides to talk with Labour, and Gordon Brown is encouraged to step down, who would be the most likely person that would represent the party?

Never mind answering my question; the article mentions that "the likely options are Labour's deputy leader, Harriet Harman, or foreign secretary David Miliband."

#36. *snort* Scylla or Charybdis. (But I'm not a Labour supporter.) They're the most likely, I suppose; Ed Milliband, Ed Balls and Alan Johnson have also been mentioned as possibles, but it's all just journalistic speculation at this stage.

All the reports are suggesting that something (though no-one knows what) will be decided in the next 12 hours.

Edited because grammar is useful.

What I found really strange over the weekend was the number of times "secret discussions" were reported. Errr, these discussions clearly aren't secret - we may not know the content, but they're being reported on the news.

I just finished Season of Ash by Jorge Volpi, which is my most disappointing read of the year so far. It was the literary equivalent of a baseball player who hits a long fly ball to deep center field, one that everyone in the park thinks is a home run, but one that is caught by the centerfielder on the warning track. I'll submit a more useful review tomorrow.

My next novel will be The Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes, which I'll start later tonight, after I finish The Pen and the Sword: Conversations with Edward Said by David Barsamian.

Sorry to hear about your recent read, Darryl. You have so many home runs that I guess one long fly ball out is allowed.

Archipelago Books' Facebook page features a video of Elias Khoury, as he discusses White Masks along with the book's translator, Maia Tabet:

Author Elias Khoury and translator Maia Tabet discuss "White Masks"

Book #51: Season of Ash by Jorge Volpi (413 pages)



My rating:

Read for the Reading Globally May theme read (Mexico)

Jorge Volpi (1968-) is one of the leading voices in contemporary Mexican literature, having written several novels that have received critical acclaim within and outside of Mexico. His most famous novel is In Search of Klingsor (En busca de Klingsor), the winner of two major international literary awards, which "explores the nexus between science and human nature and how they shaped the world in the aftermath of World War II." He is one of the founders of the 'Crack' literary movement in Mexico, whose members seek to revisit the roots of the Latin American literary boom of the 1960s, and go beyond magical realism and other standard forms which have characterized much of the literature from the region in recent years.

Season of Ash (No será la tierra) was originally published in Spanish in 2006. It was translated into English by Alfred Mac Adam and published by Open Letter Books in 2009.

The novel, which is separated into three acts, begins at the nuclear plant in Chernobyl in 1986, on the day of the disastrous accident. The first act follows this prelude, and we are introduced to the three main characters: Irina, a Soviet biologist; Eva, a Hungarian computer scientist; and Jennifer, an American economist. Each mourn the death of someone dear to them on the next to last day of 2000. The narrator then introduces himself, and tells us that these apparently disparate stories and characters are linked through him, and that one of them will reach a tragic end.

Volpi describes the lives of the main characters and those close to them, through historical fictional accounts of the Soviet Union and Russia from Stalin to Yeltsin, the 1929 stock market crash, financial crises in Zaire, Mexico and Russia, human rights movements in the US and abroad, and other topics. Their stories are told separately but chronologically, in a manner that was very readable, unique and interesting to me.

In the final act, Volpi links the lives of the characters through the narrator, and the novel is transformed into a detective story and a murder mystery. Unfortunately this was where Season of Ash became a major disappointment to me, as the fusion was not a successful one, and the novel ended abruptly and incompletely.

Book #52: The Pen and the Sword: Conversations with Edward Said by David Barsamian



My rating:

The Pen and the Sword is a compilation of a series of conversations that David Barsamian, a noted author and lecturer, had with Edward Said, the late Palestinian professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, public intellectual, human rights advocate, postcolonial theorist, and acclaimed author. The book was initially published in 1994, and a new edition was released in April 2010.

These conversations took place between 1987 and 1994, and are a fascinating, approachable and essential introduction into Said's thoughts on Palestine and the Occupation, Israel, the 1993 Israeli-PLO accord, postcolonialism, and the role of television, the cinema, and works of fiction and nonfiction by authors such as Camus, Conrad, Bernard Lewis and V.S. Naipaul in shaping the view of the West toward Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, and the inhabitants of occupied countries in Africa and Asia. Said discusses two of his most famous books, Orientalism and Culture and Imperialism, the failure of Yasir Arafat and the PLO leadership to successfully lobby for Palestinian rights beginning in the 1980s, and the misguided mindset and approach of U.S. foreign policy in achieving peace in the Middle East.

For me, this was a superb introduction to Said; this week I will start his biography Out of Place, which won the New Yorker Award for Nonfiction, and read Orientalism and Culture and Imperialism later this year.

That sounds great - am adding it to my wishlist now.

Season of Ash really was global - written by a Mexican, taking place in Russia with American and Hungarian characters!

Volpi's the same age as my little brother. How depressing.

> The Pen and the Sword sounds incredibly informative - I will look for it, as well! I'm excited that you're planning to read Out of Place soon. I just pulled it off the shelf a day ago, and really enjoyed the introductory pages. I hope to get back to it in the near future.

The Pen and the Sword sounds very interesting Darryl. I love the part of youyr description public intellectual. That's what I want to be!

#46: When I bought Season of Ash I had no idea the author was from Mexico. I read it now, because of the Reading Globally May theme read, but there was only a brief mention of the Mexican political and financial crisis in the 1990s, which couldn't have covered more than 20 pages. Otherwise you would have thought that it was written by a Russian author!

#48: I had started Out of Place several years ago, but put it aside for some reason. I'm definitely eager to get back to it, and I'll start reading it later today. I'm off until Saturday, so I should be able to finish it and review it by Friday.

#49: Yes, I think he can be called a public intellectual, as he was very influential during his life (he died of leukemia in 2003, which he had had for years). I have several other books by and about current and past public intellectuals that I bought last month at Book Culture, including ones by Tony Judt, Ian Buruma and C.L.R. James, going back to the discussion we had earlier this year.

Gordon Brown has just announced his decision to step down as British PM, and is now on his way to Buckingham Palace to announce his decision to the Queen, and recommend that Tory leader David Cameron be allowed to form the next government. Cameron is in Westminster, and will speak to the Queen immediately after her meeting with Brown. Brown will reportedly resign as leader of the Labour Party, resign his position as a Member of Parliament, and return to private life.

Today's Guardian Books Blog has an interesting piece about Palfest, the Palestine Festival of Literature, which recently closed. What is unique about this festival is that the participating authors tour to different cities within Palestine, instead of having the event at a fixed location, due to restrictions on movement imposed by the Israeli government. This year's participants included non-Palestinian writers such as Geoff Dyer, Hisham Mater, William Sutcliffe and Adam Foulds, and local writers such as the Orwell prize-winner Raja Shedadeh and Suad Amiry.

The Palfest book festival puts Palestinian writers on the map

The festival has a page on Facebook, and this short YouTube video features authors reading passages on the closing night:

PalFest 2010: Closing Night

David Cameron is now the British Prime Minister, after the Queen asked him to form a new government and after he was able to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. Contrary to previous reports, Gordon Brown will not stand down from his seat on Parliament, although he will resign as leader of the Labour Party. I found the UK election and formation of government to be absolutely fascinating; I wonder if something like this could happen in the US, especially if an independent third party (Tea Party? Green Party?) fielded a viable candidate.

Warning political rant thread hijack here, sorry Darryl, please feel free to skip.

An important point here, and it has been obscured here in some reporting of the elections, is that we don't elect the Prime Minister directly - each party has its own method of electing the party leader who would be the one to become Prime Minister if that party wins the election. When I vote, I don't vote for a party leader but for the candidates in my constituency.

When Brown became leader, I hoped there would be a contest - I would have voted for at least one of the two people who tried to get support to stand against him. Ironically, if John McDonnell or Michael Meacher (both Labour MPs) had managed to get the support for a leadership contest, they would have done Gordon Brown a huge favour, no way they would have won (sadly) but Brown would have been elected...

I'm not looking forward to this next government - I work in the public sector as does Mike - I just hope it makes a lot of people who voted Lib Dem reconsider - a lot of them didn't think they were helping to elect the Tories. I hope my mum makes a really good recovery and then stays well for years before any NHS cuts kick in. And as for the kids' schools.... aaarrrrrgh!

#52: Right. I learned that you only vote for your Member of Parliament (correct?). Did you cast any other votes, say for local issues, as we do in the US? I assume that you have votes at other times of the year, for local politicians (e.g., mayor, like Boris Johnson of London).

It's a shame that you couldn't vote for the leader of the party that you support or belong to. From what I've read, there may have been a different outcome if Labour Party supporters were allowed to vote for their party's leader.

This election seems somewhat reminiscent of the 2000 presidential election in the US, in which those who voted for Ralph Nader siphoned off votes that would have probably gone to Al Gore*, which allowed George W. Bush to become president, by "winning" the key state of Florida (which he may not have actually won).

*Admittedly, this is a controversial opinion, which isn't shared by everyone.

As always, I find interesting books and stimulating conversations when I visit your thread Darryl.

Season of Ash will be a birthday present for a dear friend/neighbor. I think she will like this book.

Linda, I think that many readers would enjoy Season of Ash, so I'm glad that my mixed review didn't dissuade you too much. The first 300-350 pages were very well done, but he just wasn't able to "stick the landing", IMO. If he had, this would have been at least a 4-1/2 star book for me.

Even though my rating is only mediocre, I was impressed enough by the book that I will look for his other novel that has been translated into English, In Search of Klingsor.

This year we actually had local council elections on at the same time - in London's 32 boroughs all the seats were up for election, as they were in some cities, in others only a third of the seats are contested each year. This had some interesting results - the Labour Party won back control of 8 boroughs from other parties or No Overall Control, including the councils that Mike and I work for. In others like the area where we live, I thought the Council might go Lib Dem, but Labour actually increased their majority.

Having both elections on the same day means that the local elections get a much higher turnout than usual, but I think a lot of people voted in this general election who decided not to bother in 2005.

The US election of 2000 was a farrago. I am firmly of the opinion that it was clumsily, deliberately, shamefully stolen. But then the 2004 election...! That's all on us. We got the government we deserved in that disaster.

What irks me is that the Obama administration is charged with expensively fixing the previous administration's idiotic policies, and will get the blame for the economic pain that this entails.

If anyone wants a refresher course in "Why COnservatism is Wrong," watch the UK over the next year, and follow the amendment patterns in the US healthcare bill. "Conservative" *should* mean desiring to preserve the best; instead, as applied to politicians, it means "desiring to preserve the status quo."

I won't go into more personal realms. It's not my thread.

My thread is your thread, Sir Richard, as long as you don't mention Miracle Whip or Sarah Palin in positive terms.

Totally agree with you on the 2000 and 2004 elections. Interesting how the Republicans said little when Bush Lite was being so fiscally irresponsible, but shriek like preteens whenever Obama announces any progressive policy proposals.

Very interesting that Cameron-Clegg announced a proposal to make each term of Parliament five years in length. A bit self serving, perhaps, but it would help to ensure the stability of Parliament, now and in the future. What do the Britons here think of this?

The Republicans will certainly do their best to gut the healthcare bill. We're having a bit of a political brouhaha in Georgia, as our Democratic Attorney General has refused to file a lawsuit against the health care bill that was requested by our Republican governor.

>58 kidzdoc: No fears on Palin or *ugh* Miracle Whip *shudder*.

How commonsensical of the Georgia AG to refuse to spend taxpayer dollars fighting something that the Repulsivecans have already rendered ineffective.

It's a gloomy day outside, I wonder if that's part of the reason I see so little hope....

That's the AG's argument, that the state shouldn't waste taxpayer dollars on a frivolous lawsuit. The Bubbas here are up in arms about it, though, and they dominate the state outside of Atlanta, so they'll fight this piece of "socialist" legislation even if they do more harm to the state's bottom line.

The right-wingers in the media are certainly taking the low road on Kagan, Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court (surprise, surprise). She's been accused of being a "radical leftist red-diaper doper baby"(???), called ugly, and accused of being homosexual (WTH does that have to do with her ability to be a competent Supreme Court judge?). Back on Planet Earth, the NewsHour on PBS had an excellent segment on her on the day of the announcement, with a panel that included a federal judge and a conservative law professor at Harvard, who spoke highly of her despite their philosophical differences.

>60 kidzdoc: Keeping in mind that I'm queer as a three-dollar bill, the homosexual question is valid for a Supreme Court justice: Can someone who, by his/er very sexual nature, violates the laws of many states, sit in judgment calmly and dispassionately on cases involving that lawbreaking behavior?

I stress that I can think of nothing more idiotic than legislating behavior between consenting adults, but I *can* see this argument as valid. I answer that question posed above, "Yes, s/he could in principle." But the issue's moot...so far as the NYC gossip mill has it, she's not a lesbian, and the community here would *know* that!

How many of those selfsame Bubbas do you imagine get farm subsidies? What could be more socialistic than that? How many of their parents are on Medicare and Social Security? Are they agitating for those highly socialistic programs to go away? No. It benefits *them* so it's okay. Just like conservatives everywhere: "I've got mine, screw you." Or, "Someone said I would get mine if I *believe* I will, so nobody mess with it til I get mine!" Newsflash: ***IT'S NOT YOURS***IT'S NOT YOURS***IT'S NOT YOURS***

I began to rebut your point, to say that a dispassionate judge could rule fairly in this manner, regardless of their sexual orientation, but I can also see that this argument does have some (limited) validity. I need to this about this a bit more, though...

I'm sure that a bunch of these Bubbas get farm subsidies, and I know that a lot of the folks in rural Georgia that vote Republican receive public support, such as public insurance for themselves (Medicare) or their kids (either Medicaid or PeachCare, Georgia's state Children's Health Insurance Program). Can you say "double standard"?

#60 I may be paranoid, but "radical leftist red-diaper doper baby" sounds like code for "New York Jew." What gets me is when they say she isn't qualified because she's never been a judge: former Chief Justice William Rehnquist, as Republican as they come, had never been a judge.

I think you're right on both points, Rebecca. I think that her lack of judicial experience (which, as you mention, is not a valid argument) will be the main point Republicans will use to oppose her nomination.

I am very impressed by Kagan from what I've seen and read so far, but I'm sure that the right wing dirt diggers will uncover some "controversial" information about her in the near future.

Regarding fixed 5 year terms, I'm not impressed. I thought the Lib Dems were calling for fixed 4 year ones, and both parties have been calling for a general election to take place for ages.

I always thought the Lib Dems had no principles and I'm still shocked to be right about that!

I'd be less annoyed by the fixed terms if they'd gone for a 4 year term - it's the fact that the fixed term is the maximum allowed at the moment... can we really be stuck with this for 5 years?

I just read that the proposal for fixed terms does allow for dissolution of Parliament if 55% or more of the members of the House of Commons vote in favor.

Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition deal: full text

I'm working on an article for the upcoming issue of Belletrista, on women authors that have been selected as finalists or winners of literary awards, and I found an article in the Guardian about the winner of this year's Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, which is awarded by the Poetry Foundation to a "iving U.S. poet whose lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordinary recognition." This year's surprise winner is 90 year old Eleanor Ross Taylor, a North Carolinian whose poems were out of print until LSU Press published her book Captive Voices, a compilation of her work from 1960-2008.

Little-known 90-year-old wins $100,000 poetry award

This month's edition of Poetry magazine includes 10 of these poems, including this one from the Poetry Foundation's web site:

To a Young Writer

If you like love and fame
Shop early, get your shots
Don't spit, and pass with care—
Avoid it at all costs
Death, breakdown, despair;
They'll fall on you,
Flock-peck to pieces wounded mouse:
I always thought so—
You know he lacked the drive
It had to come—
Dear friends consign you
To sanatorium, prison, and the pall.
No, keep your chair,
Tuck your wits in,
Say finally
I did outdure them all

Just adding my two cents, or maybe my tuppence, on the election.

I agree, Libdems have no principles. It's a shame, because their campaign made a lot of people, especially young people, more interested in politics than they had been, and now they'll just all feel let down and become cynical. I have to admit I toyed with Libdemmery, hoping against hope they might do some good, but now I can honestly say I will never vote for them again for anything.

I also echo the worries about public services - I am currently getting major support from the NHS, and will be doing for at least another year, so I am pretty nervous about that side of things. I am thankful that my kids are almost finished with school, although sad for all the kids still coming through.

I think fixed terms aren't a bad idea, though, as they stop the ruling party waiting for a temporary high in the polls and calling a snap election.

Finally, I'm just hoping people will find ways to keep good local things going even if/when budgets do get cut. We're not always as good as that here as we should be, since we believe the government SHOULD be involved, then get upset when they aren't, rather than just finding another way.

> 68 Great poem, thanks for posting that. (and I'm not much of a poetry reader.)

Why do the Lib Dems have no principles? They had the most sensible platform of the three parties, and under a PR voting system they might have stood a chance at forming a government. As it is a coalition is the only way forward.

I've put aside The Death of Artemio Cruz by Carlos Fuentes about halfway through. It was a tedious read, written in 1962 about a powerful and corrupt Mexican landowner and congressman, who flashes back in a stream-of-consciousness manner to his past. It was difficult to determine who was speaking, to whom they were speaking, and when the conversation was taking place (1959? 1924? 1919?). In that way in was similar to other novels during the Latin American Boom, such as Conversation in the Cathedral by Mario Vargas Llosa, but it wasn't nearly as interesting to me.

Call me crazy, but I think I'll start another book by Carlos Fuentes, The Crystal Frontier, a novel of nine stories that was written in 1996.

Ugh, The Crystal Frontier isn't doing it for me, either. I picked up a couple of books, and I've decided to read Tranquility by Attila Bartis, for my Archipelago Books challenge.

As un-PC as this is, I go on record here as a holder of the firm opinion that Carlos Fuentes's books are pretty much all a waste of time. Dull, pseudo-intellectual and ponderously self-satisfied efforts at ax-grinding. Pah.

I can't say I disagree with you, from what I've read of him so far! I think I've read several of his books, namely Inez, The Eagle's Throne, and now half of The Death of Artemio Cruz, and none of them has resonated with me. Artemio Cruz is supposed to be one of his best books, but it pales in comparison to almost anything I've read by Mario Vargas Llosa. Oh well, another Nobel Prize winner goes to the "discard" pile (along with Elfriede Jelinek and Herta Müller).

I just read a great piece in the London Review of Books blog about the "Reagan Legacy", which was written by August Kleinzahler of The New Yorker:

For the America Dream

Well, I bought the massive Terra Nostra by Fuentes, based on an enthusiastic recommendation in the Reading Globally Theme Read on Mexico thread, and am hoping to start it this weekend, although I doubt I'll finish it in May. Of course, based on your comments Darryl and Richard, I may find it a total waste of time and money.

According to BBC News, the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize was awarded to the French writer Philippe Claudel for his novel Brodeck's Report:

Philippe Claudel wins foreign fiction award

Brodeck's Report (for some reason my copy is titled Brodeck is the most recent book I finished. I was very impressed with it, and would highly recommend it. Short review/comments are on my thread.

>76 rebeccanyc: Rebeccanyc, I predict you won't find it a complete waste of time, but might regret the money...it's got a certain fascination, watching this guy blither and blather to the adulatory internal audience he plays to.

Brodeck's Report is available in the US, as Brodeck. It's a novel that takes place after WW2 in a village on the Franco-German border; according to a review in the Guardian last year, "{u}ncertainty is a major theme of Claudel's novel, which is both fable-like and documentary in style. While it is concerned with difference and intolerance as abstract, universal themes, Brodeck's Report is also a historical novel about a camp survivor (Brodeck) and the effect of Nazism on a specific place, assumed to be a German dialect-speaking part of Alsace Lorraine."

On the edge of the unknown: Giles Foden enjoys filling in the gaps of an excellent French novel about difference and intolerance

Darryl, thanks for posting about Brodeck winning the prize - and Deborah, I really liked your review of it and have just added it to my wishlist.

At first I thought the Guardian review had a huge spoiler in it, but after reading Deborah's review I see that the novel opens with what I thought was the spoiler. Phew!

I have been wanting to read some books set in Alsace because we're right next to it, and it's a fascinating part of France with its flip flopping between France and Germany. The language divide is so sharp - I drove over the border a few weeks ago, and suddenly the locals in the butcher and bakery spoke no German at all. (And the croissants had more butter in them!)

Hope your next books are better.

You're welcome, Cushla. And kudos to Deborah for being ahead of the curve on the winning title!

There is an excellent article about the book and author in today's Independent. Claudel is also an award-winning film director, as well as a screenwriter and university professor. He has written 14 novels, including Grey Souls (apparently titled "By a Slow River" in the US; ???), the only other novel of his to be translated into English, which won the Prix Renaudot, a major French literary award, in 2003.


Philippe Claudel wins Independent Foreign Fiction Prize

Oops, the grits are done! Back soon...

Note to self: do not read LT posts and cook grits at the same time. They were good, but a bit lumpy.

Mr.Durick says that Brodeck will be published in paperback in the US on July 13. The Borders I pass on the way from work has the hardback edition, but this time I think I'll wait for the paperback.

I will go to Borders this afternoon to pick up Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend by Larry Tye; the author is giving a talk at the Carter Presidential Library this evening, and I've signed up for it.

I saw an interesting piece on The NewsHour on PBS on Wednesday, about a book titled The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates, which I'm also planning to get soon. This is from the author's Facebook page:

In December 2000, the Baltimore Sun ran a small piece about Wes Moore, a local student who had just received a Rhodes Scholarship. The same paper also ran a series of articles about four young men who had allegedly killed a police officer in a spectacularly botched armed robbery. The police were still hunting for two of the suspects who had gone on the lam, a pair of brothers. One was named Wes Moore.

Wes just couldn’t shake off the unsettling coincidence, or the inkling that the two shared much more than space in the same newspaper. After following the story of the robbery, the manhunt, and the trial to its conclusion, he wrote a letter to the other Wes, now a convicted murderer serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. His letter tentatively asked the questions that had been haunting him: Who are you? How did this happen?

That letter led to a correspondence and relationship that have lasted for several years. Over dozens of letters and prison visits, Wes discovered that the other Wes had had a life not unlike his own: Both had grown up in similar neighborhoods and had had difficult childhoods, both were fatherless; they’d hung out on similar corners with similar crews, and both had run into trouble with the police. At each stage of their young lives they had come across similar moments of decision, yet their choices would lead them to astonishingly different destinies.

Told in alternating dramatic narratives that take readers from heart-wrenching losses to moments of surprising redemption, The Other Wes Moore tells the story of a generation of boys trying to find their way in a hostile world.

This is a link to the NewsHour story, including the video and its transcript:

Author Wes Moore's Book Explores His Own Alternate Reality

What an incredible story. I'll read the book!

>83 kidzdoc: I have no idea what I'd do if one of the five or six men who share my name in all the world turned to a life of crime. Well, more criminal than my father the sharpie. It HAD to be weird, since their connection is so close and yet they never knew or knew of each other!

What an intriguing book. Wishlisted with thanks!

The Books on the Nightstand podcast had a bit about this book also Darryl. It looks very intriguing.

I just finished reading Tranquility by the Romanian author Attila Bartis, an Archipelago Book which won the Best Translated Book Award from the University of Rochester in 2009. I'll write a proper review this weekend, but it was narrated by a thirtysomething author who lives with his shut-in mother in a very twisted and Oedipal relationship, and falls in love with a young woman with a secret and troubled past. It was a very dark and disturbing story, but it was very readable and compelling. I'll give it 4 stars for now, and I may add an extra star after I think about it a bit more.

I plan to finish Five Modern Japanese Novelists by Donald Keene today, and I'll start and hopefully finish the novella Fear by Stefan Zweig, which I received from Amazon yesterday.

#83: I actually learned of that book through - of all places - Reader's Digest, which had an article about it. Thanks for the reminder, Darryl!

ETA: I refuse to consider the consequences to the world at large if there is another Stasia Doster running around somewhere :)

There are several people named Darryl Morris, other than yours truly, including the proper spelling of my first name. The character from the WB TV show "Charmed" is named Darryl Morris, and even has a Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darryl_Morris).

The other "famous" one I'm aware of was the manager of a rapper, MC Breed, who recently died of kidney failure. The rapper moved to Atlanta, and became ill while he was here. The only reason I know about this (since I'm not a fan of hip hop) is because the manager's name appeared in several articles in the local paper, and several people at work teasingly asked if I had a side gig (http://hiphopnews.yuku.com/topic/799).

And, LinkedIn has 17 people named Darryl Morris in its database; this doesn't include me (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Darryl/Morris/).

Oh, I almost forgot about Darryl Morris, the guitarist (http://www.darrylmorris.com).

Many more of us are in hiding, awaiting the signal to rise up and take over the government. Darryl Morrises of the country, unite!

Darryl- I've been hearing quite a bit about The Other Wes Moore. It sounds very interesting. One, I'll have to watch out for!

I share a name with an indie rock star and a Las Vegas megagazillionaire.

I keep hoping that some Swiss bank will accidentally make a large, untraceable, and inexplicable deposit in my bank account. But with my luck, some mob flunky will rub me out by mistake. I don't go to Vegas.

I read my first Philippe Claudel this year for the 1010 Challenge -- in English, it's Grey Souls. Dunno if I posted about it here, but I def. had comments on that thread (1010). Intriguing...

There's some kind of weight lifter or body builder who shares my name. There's also a registered Republican. (I'm an independent.) I have no idea if they are the same people, but it makes for some interesting discussions when people believe they know my political views.

>92 Chatterbox:: There's some kind of weight lifter or body builder who shares my name. There's also a registered Republican.
Arnold Schwarzenegger? :)

#93: LOL!

Yesterday was a good reading day. I finished three books: Tranquility by Attila Bartis (4 stars), Five Modern Japanese Novelists by Donald Keene (4 stars), and A Fortunate Man: The Story of a Country Doctor by John Berger (4-1/2 to 5 stars; I plan to re-read sections of this more carefully next week). It's back to work for the next five days, but I should be able to finish the novella Fear by Stefan Zweig, and start on Norwegian Wood for the group read.

#94: Wow! Some good reading there, Darryl.

Thanks, Stasia. I had been in a book rut, as I spent three days trying to slog through 140 pages of The Death of Artemio Cruz before casting it aside. But once I started Tranquility I couldn't put it down, and the other two books just kept the momentum going.

I'll write up reviews of these books over the next few days, but a few comments for now before I have to get ready for work :

Five Modern Japanese Novelists is a short introduction to five 20th century Japanese authors whom the author befriended during his years in Japan: Junichiro Tanizaki, Yasunari Kawabata (the first winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature from Japan), Yukio Mishima, Kobo Abe and Ryutaro Shiba. Keene provides brief biographies, interesting personal recollections, and short analyses of their major works. This would be a good book for someone who is unfamiliar with these authors, but those seeking in depth analyses of their works should seek out other scholarly works by Keene, who has translated several books by Japanese authors into English, written over two dozen books on Japanese literature and culture, and taught Japanese literature for over 50 years at Columbia University.

I think that can stand as a review; I may have some additional comments later this week.

Mmm, no. I won't write much about A Fortunate Man, but for now I'd refer you to kiwidoc's excellent review of the book. It is definitely one of my favorite books of the year, and I will have a lot to say about it later this week.

#96: I hate book ruts, so I am glad you had a great reading day to make up for it. I have put all 3 books in the BlackHole.

The shortlist for this year's James Tait Black Memorial Awards, the oldest and one of the most prestigious literary awards in the UK, was announced yesterday:

The five shortlisted works for the £10,000 fiction prize are:

* Strangers by Anita Brookner
* The Children’s Book by A.S Byatt
* Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro
* The Selected Works of T.S Spivet by Reif Larsen
* Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

The five books competing for the £10,000 biography prize are:

* Cheever: A life by Blake Bailey
* William Golding: The Man Who Wrote Lord of the Flies by John Carey
* Muriel Spark: The Biography by Martin Stannard
* A Different Drummer: The Life of Kenneth MacMillan by Jann Parry
* The English Opium Eater: A Biography of Thomas De Quincey by Robert Morrison

More info: Book prize shortlist revealed

#98: I am not at all familiar with this prize, Darryl, so please forgive my ignorance. Is the prize limited to British authors?

From the awards web site at the University of Edinburgh:

"In accordance with the wishes of the founder, eligible works of fiction and biographies are those written in English, and first published or co-published in the UK during the calendar year of the award.

The nationality of the writer is irrelevant. Both prizes may go to the same author, but neither to the same author a second time."

The last American winner of the fiction award was Cormac McCarthy for The Road. The awards were initially given in 1919, and previous winners include D.H. Lawrence, E.M. Forster, J.B. Priestley, Salman Rushdie, and Zadie Smith, to name a few.

Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Tait_Black_Memorial_Prize

Thanks, Darryl!

I edited my initial post about the awards; they are the oldest awards in the UK, not the world; the Nobel Prize for Literature goes back to the early 1900s, I think. (Yes, the first award was given in 1901.)

#93, not unless he's really female...

That prize has identified some v. good bios in the past, I recall. I think I have noticed its fiction winners less, for some reason.

I know I can always find great information and conversation on your thread, Darryl. Quick question though .... with your busy schedule, how do you keep up with all these different award nominations?

Hi Caroline! It's good to hear from you. Actually, its pretty easy for me to keep up with these award nominations, using Google Alerts. Whenever there is a news story on certain topics, e.g., "orange prize for fiction", "nobel prize in literature", "man booker prize", and about 5-6 more, I receive an e-mail from Google. This morning I received a Google News alert for "man booker prize", which pulled up an article from BookTrader.info that announced that the shortlists for the James Tait Black Memorial Awards had been announced. This came up because Wolf Hall, last year's Booker Prize winner, was selected for the shortlist for the fiction award. Otherwise I wouldn't have known about the shortlist.

My other main source for awards is the Guardian Books page, which I look at every day. There is an "Awards & Prizes" section (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/books+culture/awardsandprizes), but generally the main Books page (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books) lists the finalists and winners of the major UK literary awards.

BTW, how was your trip? Are you back home?

I'm just getting back from work (~10:30 pm). It was moderately busy, but I did manage to finish Fear another compelling novella by Stefan Zweig (4 stars). I'll review it later this week.

I'll plan to resume reading Norwegian Wood tomorrow, and start The Informers by Juan Gabriel Vásquez.

Well I'm using you as my awards alert, Darryl, since you do such a great job of sharing the wealth. ;-)

My trip was on the whole good, thank you for asking. Good in the sense that the majority of my meetings were very productive and good in that I got to spend some time catching up with friends I hadn't seen in a long while who, coincidentally were in town at the same time. Having said that, I am very glad to finally be back home after having done 4 weeks of back to back travel. I'm looking forward to staying home for a little while, a month at the very least, although I may take a short vacation at the end of May ...one that doesn't require me getting on a plane.

I wanted to get on the Norwegian Wood group read but I forgot to bring the book with me when I left so now I'm so behind ... I still want to read it, but I'll have to do it on my own sans group.

I'm glad to hear that you were able to have some fun during your business trip, Caroline. Spending time with old friends is priceless.

I still haven't started Norwegian Wood, but I'm off for four days starting on Thursday, and I plan to catch up with the group by the weekend.

I've just listened to an interesting edition of the Guardian Books Podcast from last month, which features interviews of Damon Galgut, a South African author who I want to become more familiar with, and Helen Simpson, who read from their latest books, In a Strange Room and In Flight Entertainment, respectively, and discussions of the London Book Fair, which focused on authors from South Africa, and the Orange Prize shortlist.

Damon Galgut, Helen Simpson, the London Book Fair and the Orange prize

The conversation between Damon Galgut and Claire Armitstead, the literary editor of the Guardian, was particularly interesting. The book is a "novel" in three parts, separate episodes in the life of the narrator, who is the author. The episodes were published separately in the Paris Review (Summer 05, Winter 08, Summer 09); I definitely have the latter two issues in which these novellas (or narratives, or travelogues) appear, and I'll read and review them this week, as they sound quite interesting. Once I find the Summer 05 issue, I'll have the entire contents of the book, and will review it in its entirety.

ETA: I do have the Summer 05 issue of The Paris Review (I recognized its cover and remembered reading the Salman Rushdie interview), so I actually "own" this book. I'll add it to my library, and read and review it this coming week.

Satchel is already on my list. (A nearby library has it.) I hope you enjoy the author's talk!

The Other Wes Moore sounds interesting; I think I'll keep an eye out for it!

I really like Helen Simpson's work, I'm sorry to have missed this podcast. I'll have to start getting those ones.

#110: You can still listen to this podcast, at the link I posted, or download it via iTunes. The Helen Simpson reading was at the end of the podcast.

#109: Unfortunately I didn't go to that author reading, and I won't be able to make the Wes Moore reading either. I think that there are several other interesting author talks in Atlanta in the coming weeks, so I'll have to keep an eye out for them.

I should get to Norwegian Wood myself over the weekend I think. I'm going to Montreal for a short vacation, driving up from Boston and deliberately with no fixed plans on what to do, I foresee some lazing in bed with good reading time in the mornings.

Re same name people doing things, one Christmas quite a few years ago, I bought a Christmas tin at Eaton's to give shortbread in. Got it home and was startled to see my name on the painting on the lid. Ended up moving to just a few miles from where she lives but have never met.

>113 tiffin:: I just had a similar situation like that last week! Many years ago there was a woman with the same name working for the same company that I do. Her surname is different by one letter, and her middle initial is different, but basically we have the same name. We used to get each other's mail, etc. and laugh about it. One day I received flowers with a card, "hope you are feeling better soon," and was puzzled until I realized it was for her. We never met face-to-face, and she left the company a long time ago. So ... fast forward about 20 years.

Last week I went to my local library to pick up a book I'd requested. The librarian came out with two books. On closer inspection she realized that one book was ... you guessed it ... for this other Laura. I had no idea she lived anywhere near me (I've moved twice since our earlier days). Well, that was just freaky. Now I wonder if I've ever seen her, and not known it?

Once there was a mix-up with my hotel rewards program, and I got 6,000 points for someone else's stay at Disneyland. When I saw it, I contacted the hotel chain (and had the points removed from my account); I wanted to double-check what happened, and make sure there wasn't any identity theft going on.

It was definitely just someone else with the same name. They had obviously looked her up by her name instead of by her rewards account number when they posted -- and didn't check to make sure that they had the right person!

(I always wondered if they ever put the points on the RIGHT person's account!)

Troubles by J.G. Farrell was announced as the winner of the Lost Man Booker Prize today, which was awarded for the best novel of 1970:

Troubles wins Lost Man Booker Prize

starred and almost read ....

>116 kidzdoc:: I was hoping Troubles would win just to give me the nudge to read it along with The Siege of Krishnapur which has been languishing on my TBR towers for quite some time.

I ordered Troubles from Amazon this afternoon (along with The President by Miguel Ángel Asturias). I bought The Vivisector by Patrick White on Monday, which was also on the Lost Man Booker Prize shortlist.

I'm curious to know if anyone has read any of the other books on the shortlist:

The Birds on the Trees by Nina Bawden
The Bay of Noon by Shirley Hazzard
Fire From Heaven by Mary Renault
The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark

#116: Woot! I read the winner! lol

Farrell also won the Booker Prize in 1973 for The Siege of Krishnapur, the second novel in his Empire Trilogy; the first is Troubles, and the third is The Singapore Grip. All of the titles are currently available as New York Review Books classics.

Unfortunately Farrell died in 1979 at the age of 44 due to a boating accident, one year after The Singapore Grip was published. If this win is counted as a true Booker Prize, Farrell would join J.M. Coetzee and Peter Carey as the only writers to win the award twice.

Darryl, I'm relying on you to read those first and then review them so that I'll know if I should read them. Since you persist in adding to my obese wish list, I might as well make sure they're really good ones. :-)

I've read the three Farrell books, and they are all excellent. My favorite is The Seige of Krishnapur, followed by The Singapore Grip. I don't think Troubles is any less well-written--I was just more interested in the subject matter of those books--the Sepoy mutiny, and the fall of Singapore to the Japanese--than the subject of Troubles.

I'm glad that Troubles won - I listened to the Guardian books podcast about the prize a few weeks ago, and it made me want to go and buy it straight away (I have been very good though and it's just sitting in my book Depository shopping cart...).

Haven't read any of the others, but I really liked Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

On the funny names front (even if everyone else has finished the conversation), there are 2 others with my name in Wellington, which is so weird because growing up nobody was called Cushla. My last name usually has a p in it, and both my stunt doubles do. One is also in economics and people have said nice things to me about her work till I've explained, and the other one used to be the movie reviewer for a community newspaper.

#122: Will do, Caroline. I see that my local Borders has The Singapore Grip, so I'll pick it up within the next few days. I've heard enough good things about all of these books to make me want to read them ASAP; I'm very tempted to start The Siege of Krishnapur once I finish my current book...although I did read the introduction to The Vivisector written by J.M. Coetzee in the front of the book, and I want to read it ASAP, too. I'm off for the next four days, so I might be able to read both books by Sunday.

#123: Thanks, Deborah. Once I pick up The Singapore Grip and after Troubles arrive I'll have all three of his books, and I'll probably want to read all of them this year.

#124: I have that Guardian Books podcast on my laptop (dated 4/9/10), so I'll listen to it this morning.

Where does your name come from and what does it mean, Cushla?

Darryl, it's Irish and I think Macushla means "my darling". Mum and Dad both liked it...I'm not Irish (well maybe a tiny bit). So random!

#123, Interesting perspective, because I liked the subject of The Singapore Grip more than the book itself, which I thought the weakest of the three books of the Empire trilogy, since the fall of Singapore was something I knew nothing about. And I liked Troubles better than The Siege of Krishnapur, even though I've read a lot of books that involve the Irish and the English, because I thought it packed so much into a shorter space.

Nice. Thanks, Cushla!

The Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize is an annual award of £10,000 for a distinguished work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry, evoking the spirit of a place. It is awarded by The Royal Society of Literature, which was founded by King George IV in 1820, to ‘reward literary merit and excite literary talent’.

The shortlist was announced in today's Guardian:

Madeleine Bunting: The Plot (Granta)
William Fiennes: The Music Room (Picador)
Daniyal Mueenuddin: In Other Rooms, Other Wonders (Bloomsbury)
Kachi A. Ozumba: The Shadow of a Smile (Alma Books)
Iain Sinclair: Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire (Hamish Hamilton)
Ian Thomson: The Dead Yard: Tales of Modern Jamaica (Faber)

The winner will be announced on May 24th.

I have the Mueenuddin, and the Sinclair is high on my wish list (I almost ordered it from The Book Depository last week, but I'll wait until I go back to London this year to purchase it). All of the others are quite interesting; the Guardian article briefly describes each book.

Ondaatje prize shortlist wanders from Pakistan to Hackney

I just finished to the Guardian Books podcast that Cushla referred to in message 124, which is available here. I agree; I want to drop everything and start reading Troubles straight away! The other shortlisted books are also compelling.

>126 cushlareads:: just one more thing I've learned from this thread. Thanks for asking, Darryl ... and thanks for enlightening us, Cushla!

I received two books from The Book Depository today:

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell: A love story between a Dutch book-keeper and a Japanese woman, set in 18th century Japan, which has received glowing reviews in the UK (and here on LT) and seems very likely to be selected for the 2010 Booker Prize longlist, based on comments on the 2010 Man Booker Prize Speculation Thread.

Beirut39: New Writing from the Arab World: A newly published collection of pieces from 39 Arab writers, all aged 39 or under. Ceri (cerievans) mentioned this book in her recent Belletrista article about last month's International PEN "Free the Word!" Festival in London, and Akeela described the 2009 Beirut39 festival in Lebanon in her article in issue 3 of Belletrista last year.

OK, way behind again it seems and missed the rest of the election conversations, which is a shame.

#52, Ellie, I've been wanting to comment on the same thing re electing parties rather than the PM. Good thing too - I couldn't have brought myself to vote for David Cameron, Gorden Brown or Nick Clegg. I'm very glad each party elects their own leader (provided they do actually elect them, hem) - I'm hoping MPs will have a more intimate knowledge of each candidate's abilities than I do... One of the big arguments against the televised debates over here was that it would turn the election into a personality contest rather than focus on the issues. Of course, I think it already was to a certain extent etc etc...

Anyway, much to my surprise, I'm actually feeling surprisingly positive about the coalition. To be honest, I was having a really hard time deciding how to vote this year, so a coalition seems better than the completely Tory government I assumed we'd end up with. At the end of the day, some form of Labour/Liberal mish-mash wasn't really realistic as they still wouldn't have had enough seats - we would have ended up with a far less cohesive government made up of all sorts of dribs and drabs. Sadly, I think universal cuts were inevitable no matter which government we end up with, but at least they're currently saying there will be no cuts to the NHS.

#71 "Why do the Lib Dems have no principles?" - I want to ask that too!

#33 Caty, me too with the Mother's day thing!

#43 Season of Ash sounds fascinating, but I think I've read too many books with irritatingly abrupt ends recently to add it to the list. It may yet make it to my wishlist though...

I took so long to write that post, that you've posted something else in between!

Darryl, I'll be extremely interested in your thoughts on The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet - I very nearly bought it the other day, but decided to be cheapskate and wait for paperback as I've got a huge pile of books on the go at the moment anyway. I've really enjoyed all of David Mitchell's books to date, particularly Black Swan Green

I'll probably read The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet next month, Fliss. The reviews of it have been superb, and I'd like to read two or more novels that are likely 2010 Booker Prize contenders by the time the longlist is announced, to get a head start on the Booker Dozen. Another book that, from what I've read, seems like a good possibility to make the longlist is Even the Dogs by Jon McGregor, which I'll pick up this weekend at my local Borders. I already have Solar by Ian McEwan, and I'll likely pick up Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey and Pregnant Widow by Martin Amis in the next month or two.

Hi. I would love to hear your thoughts on Solar. The physics part of the novel was interesting. I finished it a few days ago, but I'm still not certain if I liked it or not.

Will do, Dawn. I probably won't get to it until the summer, as my copy is at my parents' house in PA. I'll read it sooner if it makes the Booker Prize longlist, which should be announced in mid July; otherwise I'll read it later this summer. I've enjoyed almost all of McEwan's books, including his recent ones, Saturday and On Chesil Beach, so I suspect that I'll like Solar, as well.

>137 kidzdoc: I wouldn't make book on that just yet, Darryl....

Right. I understand that Solar is very different from his last two books, so I'm far from convinced that I'll like it. If I was reasonably certain that I would like it I would have brought it home with me, and I probably would have read it by now.

Solar will automatically be reviewed by this year's Booker Prize judges, as he is a former winner.

Speaking of Booker Prize longlisted novels, has anyone read The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid? I read the article in the New York Times about the Pakistani man that recently planted the bomb in Times Square, and the similarities between this man's story and that of the narrator in this novel are eerie.

Parrot and Olivier in America should head your TBRs just now...The Divine Miss procured me one and it's wonderful! Annoying that I have to give it back.

Thanks! I'll put Parrot and Olivier in America on my "Must Buy" list. I still haven't read anything by Peter Carey (or David Mitchell), although I have two of his books, Bliss and His Illegal Self, so this will be a good place to start.

Oh, how I envy you...I fell in love with The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith and it's been a satisfying love affair since. His Illegal Self is one I haven't read, so I'm off to pick one up. Well, not immediately, since to the best of my knowledge there are no 24-hr bookstores in real life.

Shame, that.

Yep, I'm not aware of any 24 hour bookstores in the US. City Lights stays open until midnight, but that is the latest closing of any bookstore that I'm aware of.

I also need to get to Carey's Booker Prize winning novels, Oscar and Lucinda and True History of the Kelly Gang. One of these days...

There definitely need to be 24 hour bookstores for those of us who are night owls!

The True History of the Kelly Gang is, to date, the only the only Peter Carey I've read (although I've got Oscar and Lucinda lined up and Bliss right at the top of my what-to-read-after-the-library-books pile), however, I thought it was just brilliant when I read it. Been a while, so I'm not sure I can be more lucid - it may have been just that I found the story absolutely fascinating, but I'm sure it was more than that... Highly recommended anyway...

My experience of Lib Dems at local government level is that they're very good at saying what people want to hear. I've also seen them in coalition with the Tories in the reverse of the current situation - Lib Dems largest party in Council, Tories smallest apart from the Greens - they basically implemented Tory policies, freezing Council Tax and increasing charges for services to make up in a way which hit anyone above minimum benefits (welfare) levels with care needs or young children very hard - home care, meals on wheels, after school clubs. This is in an area with great disparities between rich and poor, with some very wealthy celebrities in multi million pound houses and also some more ordinary affluent people. I predict national policies such as the Council Tax freeze will be achieved in the same way - many not very well off people will foot the bill or lose the services.

*waves* and saunters away to read my mindless drivel .. not even attempting to reach the intellectual level maintained herein.

Loved every book by David Mitchell that I read-all of them so far except for the latest-Looking forward to it's release in Canada.

I have The Reluctant Fundamentalist on my shelf and hop to get to it this summer because I've heard it's very good. I hadn't heard about the connection to the Times Square incident Darryl.

Black Swan Green is the only David Mitchell I've read but I loved it and would like to read more.

>139 kidzdoc:: wow Darryl, I've read The Reluctant Fundamentalist but didn't make the connection. Eerie is right.

#144: I agree; I'd love to be able to go to a 24 hour bookstore, on nights when I had to stay awake or couldn't sleep. I read about one in Shanghai, but it closed recently, due to a lack of customers.

#145: Thanks, Fliss. I'll probably pick up Parrot and Olivier in America this weekend or next week; Borders has a 33% off coupon this weekend, so I'll use it to buy either it or Even the Dogs by Jon McGregor.

#146: Do you think Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats will gain or suffer in the eyes of the public after this coalition? I sure it's too early to tell, but it seems as though the Lib Dems have angered many of their supporters. I haven't heard or read much about the coalition in the past week or so.

#147: Hi, Kath! You deserve generous helpings of "mind drivel' after the school year you've had. I'm glad to hear that you have a long break ahead of you.

#148: Apparently The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet will be published in the US and Canada at the end of June. I like the cover art of the UK edition, which lacks a dust cover, similar to the UK edition of The Long Song by Andrea Levy and the US edition of Zeitoun by Dave Eggers. The US edition of the Mitchell is very loud and shrieks at you like a hungry baby with a wet diaper:



#149: There isn't a formal connection between the Times Square wannabe bomber and The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and I doubt that Faisal Shahzad was aware of the book. However, when I read an article about him in the NYT, the parallels between Shahzad and Changez, the narrator of the book, were striking: both were young, well educated Pakistani men who found success in finance in the US, then became disillusioned with life in America and became Muslim fundamentalists.

I wondered if I was the only one who saw this connection; however, there is a story from NPR last week about these same similarities:

Real Life Terror Reflects An Author's Imagination

BTW, I "enjoyed" The Reluctant Fundamentalist, which was on the Booker Prize shortlist in 2007.

I've read all of David Mitchell's novels. He is one of my favorite contemporary authors. I like his more experimental novels, like Cloud Atlas better than his more conventional fiction like Black Swan Green, but both are very good. I got an ER copy of Jacob de Zoet (I guess because I have so many of Mitchell's books in my library) so I will be reading it soon, and will have to do a "real" review.

I was blown away by The Reluctant Fundamentalist when I read it a few years ago. I think everyone interested in the politics of terrorism should read it.

It's hard to know. I think they've annoyed some of their voters, but as for supporters, it depends on what they consider most important. Apparently some have joind the Labour Party but the Lib Dems have also claimed some new members in the last week.

Book #58: The Informers by Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Colombia)



My rating: (4.2/5.0)

Independent Foreign Fiction Prize shortlist (2009)
Warwick Prize for Writing longlist (2009)
IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize longlist (2010)

In 1988 the Colombian journalist Gabriel Santoro published his first book, a biography of Sara Guterman, a longtime family friend of Jewish descent who fled Nazi Germany along with her parents in the mid 1930s. He is surprised to read a scathing review of the book in a national newspaper, which demeans both the book and its author. However, the most shocking revelation is that the anonymous author of this review is his father, Gabriel Sr., a respected law professor in Bogotá, who refuses to reveal his motivations for writing this review.

Gabriel Jr. turns to Sara, and he discovers a forgotten and hidden history of the Colombian government's treatment of its citizens and visitors of German, Italian and Japanese descent during World War II. Sara's family owns a hotel that caters to Europeans, particularly Germans, who are divided between Nazi sympathizers, Jewish emigres, and opponents of National Socialism. Colombian citizens are encouraged to report Germans who are suspected of supporting their government, and hundreds were blacklisted and stripped of their livelihood and wealth, often based on hearsay and personal vendettas.

As Gabriel learns more about these blacklists and the effect a treacherous act had upon his father and Sara, we are treated to a rich history about mid-20th century Colombian society and the effect that World War II had upon its citizens, which continue to affect the country today.

The Informers is a well constructed novel, as Vásquez, through Gabriel Jr., methodically peels away layers of his family's and country's history to uncover harsh and unflattering truths. All of the major characters are memorable and well drawn, and the narration is deliberate but compelling. I definitely recommend this novel, and I look forward to his next one, The Secret History of Costaguana, which will be published in the UK next month.

#154: That one looks like one I would enjoy and woot! my local library even has it. I have put it on hold already. Thanks for the review and recommendation, Darryl.

The Informers sounds really good and i'll be looking out for it.
I read Peter Carey's My Life as a Fake last year and while I liked the style I didn't much love the story, but am keen to read his Oscar and Lucinda after FlossieT wrote such positive comments about it. I have David Mitchell's Black Swan Green lined up for later in the year.

I...will...resist...nnno...more...serious...booksss...aaaaaargh *Wishlist Singularity Achieved*Darryl better be happy*

I posted this to my Club Read thread, in response to a comment about The Informers:

It was interesting to learn about that portion of Colombian history; like you, my knowledge was limited to the period covered in Living to Tell the Tale {pre-World War II Colombia}. Vásquez briefly mentions the 1948 assassination of Jorge Gaitán, a populist leader who would likely have become president that year. The resulting riots in Bogotá over the next day led to the deaths of 3,000 to 5,000 people, nearly destroyed the city, and marked the beginning of La Violencia, a prolonged conflict between Liberal Party and Conservative Party members that led to the deaths of as many as 200,000 over the next 15 years. I'm definitely eager to learn more about La Violencia, and I'll look for any books that cover this period.

I found this description of Vásquez's latest book from the Bloomsbury web site:

London, 1903. Joseph Conrad is struggling with his new novel (‘I am placing it in South America in a Republic I call Costaguana’). Progress is slow and the great writer needs help from a native of the Caribbean coast of South America. José Altamirano, Colombian at birth, just arrived in London answers the great writer’s advertisement and tells him his life story. José has been witness to the most horrible things that a person or a country could suffer, and drags with him not just a guilty conscience but a story that has almost destroyed him.

But when Nostromo is published the following year José is outraged by what he reads: ‘You’ve eliminated me from my own life. You, Joseph Conrad, have robbed me.’ I waved the Weekly in the air again, and then threw it down on his desk. ‘Here,’ I whispered, my back to the thief, ‘I do not exist.’

The Secret History of Costaguana, the second novel by Juan Gabriel Vásquez to be published in English, is José Altamirano’s riposte to Joseph Conrad. It is a big novel, tragic and despairing, comic and insightful by turns, told by a bumptious narrator with a score to settle. It is Latin America’s post-modern answer to Europe’s modernist vision. It is a superb, joyful, thoughtful and rumbustious novel that will establish Juan Gabriel Vásquez’s reputation as one of the leading novelists of his generation.

Book #57: Fear by Stefan Zweig



My rating: (4.3/5.0)

Irene is a young and attractive woman of the cultured class in early 20th century Vienna, whose husband is a successful and respected trial lawyer. Irene is materially content but bored, as servants care for her children and govern the house, and she spends her days in the company of her all too similar friends. She is lured into an affair with a promising young pianist, which gives her life spark and an alternative sense of purpose.

As she leaves her lover's apartment one day, Irene is accosted by a raffish woman, who accuses her of stealing her man. The woman threatens and bullies her, and Irene gives her all the money she has, to avoid a public scene. She attempts to hide indoors for several days to escape the mysterious woman, but the shock and concern of her husband, children and servants cause her to become more claustrophobic and distraught. Irene experiences a brief sense of relief, believing that the woman does not know who she is or where she lives, until she turns up outside of Irene's building, demanding even more money.

At that point Irene's world begins to simultaneously crumble and shrink, as she knows that disclosure of her affair would lead to ruin for her husband's career and end her life of comfort. As the woman's demands become more frequent and as her family becomes more suspicious of her unusual behavior, Irene devises a plan to escape her tormentor, for good.

Fear is a gripping psychological thriller, which left me short of breath and on the edge of my chair, as Zweig masterfully portrays Irene's increasing despair and irrationality. Highly recommended!

#159: *sigh* I know you do this to me deliberately, Darryl. Add books that my local library will never have to my BlackHole. What did I ever do to you?

>160 alcottacre: I. Am. Speechless.

***YOU*** dare accuse someone of cruel and unusual wishlist-fattening?!? ***YOU*** of the 9,000,000-item Sunday buffet of books?!?

BTW, Darryl, I was wondering the same thing...what'd I do to you, anyway? Now I have to read Zweig, and I really don't want to.

you caved!

>162 mckait: Well, I sorta HAD to, didn't I? That review makes the book sound good, despite all the hype resistance measures I've taken. Damn! Blast!

I thought you would be able to resist..

Do you really want me to list the Sins of Stasia? Let's see. You torment me with sleepless Saturday nights, waiting for the Sunday List of Despair (for my wish list). You root for Penn State (ack). (Wasn't there another Cardinal Sin that you violated recently?) And, worst of all, you (yes, you), send your horrible Texas weather eastward to us, instead of diverting it to more deserving states like Oklahoma and Arizona.

I will now compare my library (a.k.a. City Lights-Atlanta) with the selections in your local library, and only read books that it doesn't have. So there.

Darryl and Richard
I'm trying to curb adding more to the tbr pile, but I am going to add Fear by Stefan Zweig and Parrot and Oliver in America.

Happy Saturday to all!

>164 mckait: I am weak...please to forgive....

>165 kidzdoc: Now look in the mirror, and use my voice for the accusations, and there you have it.

I didn't mean to torment Richard, though. It's a quick read (I almost forgot to breathe while reading it!), and I'll bet that you can find it at Rebecca's favorite NYC bookstore, Crawford Doyle, on your next trip into the city.

Hey, I don't even have to go there to get it! My library system has the book already. One thing about living in the richest county in the state: We got amenities.

Nice. But wait...aren't you on LI? Which county? For some reason I thought that Westchester was the richest county in the state (but I'm a Georgia boy now, so what do I know?).

No...Nassau is the richest in the state, because it's small and because the really, really rich live here. Westchester's more upper middle than upper crust. Old Westbury and Oyster Bay...'nuff said.

Ah...that makes sense.

Happy Saturday to you too, Linda!

#168, In fact, I bought Fear by Stefan Zweig at C-D, as I do so many other books, but it isn't on the new books display table any more. If they don't have it in stock, they would be happy to order it for you, I'm sure.

ETA Now that I know it is such a quick read, maybe I will interrupt the tomes I'm reading to fit it in.

>173 rebeccanyc: rebeccanyc, I **refuse** to go into Crawford-Doyle. No nix nyet nein nuh-uh. The Divine Miss whimpers and complains enough about the Strand, I don't want to develop a new addiction to a bookstore, thank you! I'd like to strive towards a peaceful, conflict-free life.

Likewise Book Culture. BookBook. *hyperventilates* Give me strength, O Infinite Spirit!

#165: I guarantee there will be nothing on this week's list that you like, just like last week, so that is two week's in a row. I will not be responsible if you do not sleep tonight!

Wait a second, where is Jenny's clunky boot? I am sending it soaring your way . . .



#161: Richard, how would you know? You ignore all the blue writing on my thread. You told me so yourself!

>175 alcottacre: The painful memories of *hours* spent on Amazon, sniveling hopelessly as I clicked on book after book after book culled from your Lists of Wicked Temptation, die hard...and that was before we got Wishlisting here, when it became easier and therefore more dangerous to read your lists...I HAD to come up with a survival strategy!

#174: Do not, under any circumstances, go to Book Culture, unless you are suffering from extreme book deprivation.

#176: Well then, you cannot blame the size of your wishlist on me, when you are not even reading my thread! It is all you own fault!!

I've never heard of Book Culture! Oh, my. I plan to head into NY this summer to visit the Metropolitan Art Museum and the Frick Museum, looks like I'll need to plan an additional trip. I've never even been to The Strand....

#175: You can't fool me. I bet that you checked my LT library before you decided what to read this week, so that you would be sure to add something to my wish list tomorrow.

#179: Book Culture is an independent bookstore affiliated with Columbia University, located on 112th St between Broadway and Amsterdam Ave. A second branch opened recently at Broadway & 114th St; I haven't gone there yet, but I think that the 112th St location has a larger selection of academic books (textbooks for Columbia students and books by Columbia and other university presses), whereas the B'way & 114th St location has a more extensive selection of newer fiction and nonfiction. The second floor of Book Culture (112th St) has a fabulous fiction and poetry selection, including used books in good condition.

The neighborhood is quite nice; Tom's Restaurant, of Seinfeld fame, is on 112th & B'way, and the campus of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, one of the most impressive and well known churches, is on Amsterdam between 110th and 113th (or 114th) Sts. It's very easy to get to Book Culture, as the 1 train (Broadway Local) stops at 110th & B'way.

Strand Book Store is on 12th & B'way, close to Union Square.

Darryl- I loved both the Vásquez & Zweig reviews! I just got back from the library and they didn't have a single Zweig book! Come on! I'll have to do a library search!

Darryl, have you ever gone to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine/Paul Winter concert -- Misa Gia -- at the annual blessing of the animals celebration?

http://video.yahoo.com/watch/5732881/15016916

It is an incredible experience!!!

I've never attended any of the Paul Winter solstice concert, nor the Sunday afternoon jazz vespers there (hangs head in shame). That will probably change very soon, though. I went with a good friend to Book Culture last month, and we passed by the cathedral, including the People's Garden next to it. (That reminds me, I should upload photos that I took that day to Facebook; I'll post them here afterward.) My friend, who lives in Manhattan, usually goes to one or two solstice concerts every year, and she also likes jazz, so we made tentative plans to attend a music event there in the near future.

Mark, the Zweig books not published by New York Review Books may be tough to come by in US bookshops and libraries. Except for Chess Story and The Post-Office Girl, all of the other Zweig books I have are published by Pushkin Press, which is based in London. I've only seen its books in bookstores in London and NYC (at Book Culture), but Amazon does sell at least some of its titles.

24-hour book stores ... mmmmm ... *salivates*

#181 Strand Book store - 18 miles of bookshelves?! I think I'm living on the wrong continent. *sob*

(I've wishlisted the Zweig book: it sounds intriguing.)

But I thought rich people fiddled their taxes or is it just here that the wealthiest seem to pay less tax than anyone else (including local property taxes)?

Great reviews Darryl. I'm hoping to get another Zweig in before too long and Fear looks really good. (Touchstone not working.)

#180: Darryl, I have never looked at your library. I best get over there and do it!

#185: I've often wondered about that claim ("18 Miles of Books"). Strand does have a massive book collection, with impossibly high book shelves that are densely packed, but 18 miles? Strand is NOT recommended for the claustrophobic reader.

#186: Rich people are the same here; they pay less taxes than they should.

#187: On one hand it's great that Pushkin Press has reissued Zweig's works for a new audience. However, his books aren't widely available in the US, and they are a bit overpriced; my copy of Wondrak and Other Stories, which is 123 pages long, costs $15.95! I'd love to see New York Review Books publish one or two books that contain all of his short stories and novellas for a reasonable price.

#188: Danger, danger! (waves arms wildly, a la the Robot in "Lost in Space")

#189: Yeah, danger to me, Will Robinson!

#189, NYRB has a web page where you can recommend a book you think they should publish. However, since they have not yet taken my suggestion for Honor Tracy's The Straight and Narrow Path, which I think would be perfect for them, I don't know how well this works!

#191: I went to the NYRB web page and suggested The Straight and Narrow Path too, Rebecca. Maybe if several of us do they will take the hint!

That's great, Stasia! I probably suggested it two years ago, so I'm afraid it may have already been discarded. I did mention it again recently in the Titles You'd Like to See in Print thread> in the NYRB group here on LT; I think an editor from NYRB participates in that group.

#193: I will have to check out that thread as well. It will be interesting to see what suggestions have been made. Also, if any have come to fruition.

#191: Thanks, Rebecca! I'll do that later today.

I hope to finish The Siege of Krishnapur today. I nearly forgot that I need to review a book for Belletrista, News from Home by Sefi Atta, by the end of the month, so that will be next on my list. Troubles should arrive by the middle of the week, so I'll either read that or The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell after the Atta.

>191 rebeccanyc:, 192 I post herewith my letter in support of rebeccanyc's and stasia's request:

Please consider adding Honor Tracy's 1956 satire, "The Straight and Narrow Path", to your distinguished series.

Tracy was a journalist, an Irish Catholic working for the Sunday Times of London, when she set Ireland on its ear by publishing a small story that poked gentle enough fun at a country town's dictatorial old canon. Being the 1950s, Irish clergy were unaccustomed to having even mild fun poked at them, and the canon in question filed a lawsuit against the paper. The paper settled the case, apologized, and then was successfully sued by Tracy herself for demeaning her journalistic capabilities.

On these factual bones, Tracy grafted a sharp, witty, and very pointed satire of life in Ireland, the life of a journalist, and the role that knee-jerk nationalism plays in most brouhahas between colonials and their colonizers forever after.

The story remains fresh, although the characters are now (sadly? happily?) obsolescent. The humor is timeless because it draws from the eternal well of stories...misunderstandings, malice and bloody-mindedness meet and joust, hijinks ensue.

I hope you'll consider this title for your series.

#196: I love it, Richard! Thanks.

Richard..I am most impressed by the depth of your knowledge base.

Darryl, your reference to the robot in Lost in Space made me smile.

I flashed back to a memory of my then two year old sister with my mother's favorite bathroom towel fastened around her neck with a big pin she confiscated from the kitchen junk drawer, jumping from chair to chair, arms flapping in the air as she, with the squeaky voice called out danga, danga, .

My very uptight mother was not at home and would have had a fit if she knew what happened when she was not there! Jumping on chairs was definitely NOT allowed! Oh, we had great rebellious fun those days.

LOL! That's a great story, Linda. My cousins and classmates and I all play acted "Lost in Space" when we were young kids, too. Everyone I knew watched that show, the first time around on CBS in the mid 1960s, or in reruns once we came home from school.

Here's a cool YouTube video, for old times' sake:

Lost In Space Clips, Robot and Dr. Smith

rd is a first cousin to

Cait (Cait86) just wrote a superb review of The Rehearsal, the debut novel by Eleanor Catton that was longlisted for this year's Orange Prize, which I thought I'd share with you guys. It's from her thread on Club Read:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/85828#1984182

I finished two books this evening: The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell, which was excellent, and My House, the fourth collection of poetry by Nikki Giovanni. I'll review both books later this week.

OOO I'm Data's evil brother Lore! What's the chance of my being the ancestor of an android?

I already had The Informers on my wish list but The Secret History of Costaguana looks very interesting too. Has it been published yet? I have Nostromo on my TBR shelf--perhaps its a good idea to read that first?

#202: Looking forward to your review of The Siege of Krishnapur, Darryl!

The Secret History of Costaguana will be published on June 7 in the UK by Bloomsbury; I can't find anything that mentions if or when it will be published in the US. Mac (blackdogbooks) wrote a wonderful review of Nostromo earlier this month, and I had added it to my wish list, but it's a tome, at 544 pages. I had wondered if I should read Nostromo first, as well. I think I'll wait for a review of The Secret History of Costaguana before I decide, and I'll post a link to the review when it comes out, hopefully within the next 2-3 weeks.

ETA: I'll probably write my review of The Siege of Krishnapur tomorrow, since I go back to work today.

#206: The Secret History of Costaguana looks very good. Oops - just ordered it from the Book Depository. I just won't tell my hubby.

Wow, it's only $12.74 from the Book Depository (48% off)? Okay, I'm ordering it now, as well. Thanks, Stasia!

#208: The price was what got me too, Darryl. A new hardcover for that much?! I could not pass it up.

I haven't found any reviews of The Secret History of Costaguana yet, but I did find a web page from the University of Warwick, in which a PhD student interviews the author about this book and The Informers:

Juan Gabriel Vásquez

Ooops. I have to order it too.

Gotta read The Rehearsal.

Darryl, I have read The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and thought it was brilliant.

I tried reading Farrell eons ago, when I was in my late teens or early 20s. Time to try again.

I found The Reluctant Fundamentalist elegantly written and thought-provoking.

Looking forward to your comments on My House by Nikki Giovanni.

I apologize in advance for this lengthy, but hopefully coherent, review!

Book #57: The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell



My rating: (4.8/5.0)

The Siege of Krishnapur is the second novel in Farrell's Empire Trilogy, which was awarded the Booker Prize in 1973. The book is based in part on written accounts of the Siege of Lucknow, which occurred during the First War of Indian Independence, also known as the Indian Mutiny, which took place in northern India in 1857. During that period India was governed by the East India Company, a British company not affiliated with the British Crown, which mainly engaged in trade with India and China, including the forceful trade of opium with China that led to the two Opium Wars between the United Kingdom and China.

The novel begins in Krishnapur, a fictional town based on the northern Indian town of Lucknow, in Utter Pradesh. The Company governs the country ruthlessly and with little regard for the "natives", and employs an army of sepoys, Indian soldiers that help to maintain the status quo. The sepoys are poorly paid and maltreated, with little regard to their customs and beliefs, and they eventually rebel against their British masters, which begins with the slaughter of hundreds of unarmed British civilians in a neighboring town. Word quickly reaches Krishnapur, but the leadership, run by a doddering and marginally competent general, initially downplays the seriousness of this situation. In a short time the rebellion reaches Krishnapur; the British citizens flee to the apparent safety of the Residency, the compound that serves as the seat of local government, which is run by the Collector and the Magistrate.

The mutineers attack the Residency in successive but ill-timed waves, which are repelled by the Brits with increasing difficulty. Months pass by, with no relief from army units in neighboring and the occupants of the Residency slowly succumb to musket fire, cholera and other illnesses, starvation, and incompetent medical care. The survivors begin to lose hope, as their food supplies and ammunition dwindle away while the sepoys prepare for a final assault on the Residency.

This sounds like a grim tale, but Farrell spins a tale of comic genius and biting satire. The narration is simply divine, with some of the most beautifully crafted sentences and richest descriptions that I've ever read. The book is laugh out loud funny throughout, as Farrell portrays the Brits as clueless but lovable dumb asses, who are petty, selfish and all too human. A typical passage describes Vokins, the manservant to the Collector, as he tells his master about the advance of the mutineers in town:

The trouble was that Vokins, as he made his solemn journeys from the door to the Collector's ear, did not understand that many of these messages were redundant (for, after all, once a cantonment has been set alight the number of bungalows blazing, more or less, is a matter of relative indifference). Vokins thought they were cumulative and progressive. Vokins lacked the broader view. He tended only to see the prospect of the Death of Vokins. Although some of the Collector's guests might have been hard put to it to think of what a man of Vokins's class had to lose, to Vokins it was very clear what he had to lose: namely his life. He was not at all anxious to leave his skin on the Indian plains; he wanted to take it back to the slums of Soho or whereever it came from.

Farrell also weaves several topics within the novel, including the role of science and religion in Western society, the purpose and responsibilities of colonists toward their Indian subjects, mid-19th century medicine, including the pathogenesis and proper treatment of cholera and other illnesses that affect the besieged colonists, and the role of women in British society. The biggest flaw in the book, which Farrell acknowledged after he wrote it, is that the Indians are almost invisible in this novel. Only one Indian is portrayed in any detail, the Anglophilic son of the Maharajah, who plays only a minor role. However, as I mentioned about a book that I read last year, the highest praise I can give The Siege of Krishnapur is that I wouldn't mind reading it again right away, and I'm sure that I will in the very near future — after I read Troubles and The Singapore Grip, the other novels in the Empire Trilogy.

#215: I have got to get my hands on that one, especially as I liked Troubles so much.

I used my Borders coupon to purchase Even the Dogs by Jon McGregor, a novel of broken people at the edges of society in contemporary Britain, which has received great reviews in the UK and is being mentioned as a possible contender for this year's Booker Prize. I also received Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote by Ahmadou Kourouma from The Book Depository, which is a novel about a fictitious African dictator that I plan to read for next month's Reading Globally theme read (Dictators and Dictatorships).

I started reading The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell, another book that is being touted as a Booker Prize contender, and it is really good so far.

#217: I cannot wait to see what you think of the Mitchell book. I read his Cloud Atlas last year and really liked it, and the reviews I have seen of his new book look very good.

I think you'll have an easy time finding The Siege of Krishnapur, Stasia. It definitely is one of the best British novels I've read, and I am very eager to start Troubles, which I should receive by mail later this week.

Off to bed...

#219: Yes, I did find a copy, so it will be shortly winging its way to my home!

I hope you enjoy Troubles (although that sounds rather bad actually!)

#213 Hi Darryl, I just caught up with your thread the other day. I loved your review of The Siege of Krishnapur and have wishlisted it (as well as given the review a thumbs-up) but I saw that it's number two of the trilogy. Do you, or Stasia, think it makes any difference if you read them out of order?

Pat

Thumbs up from me for your excellent review of the Siege of Krishnapur. The book is now on my tbr list.

I've had The Siege of Krishnapur on my pile for ages but have yet to read it. I need to do that. Excellent review BTW.

#221, phebj, It doesn't make any difference in which order you read them, because the three books are linked by theme (examining the impact of the British empire), not by characters or time.

I'm looking forward to reading the Empire Trilogy after the great reviews I've seen. Since my library does not have Troubles, but has the other two, I also wondered if the order makes any difference. It does not sound as if it would.

I think it's a trilogy linked only by the idea of empire, not by story line or even characters. If I recall correctly, the stories are set in different parts of the British empire, at very different chronological points in time and designed to illustrate different aspects/consequences of empire-building.

>215 kidzdoc:: ...the highest praise I can give The Siege of Krishnapur is that I wouldn't mind reading it again right away, and I'm sure that I will in the very near future.

Wow, Darryl, that is high praise indeed. I own this one, but I want to read Troubles first -- I'm kind of persnickety (a kinder word than "anal") about reading things in order. This trilogy looks like excellent summer reading.

Even though Troubles (1970) was written before The Siege of Krishnapur (1973) and The Singapore Grip (1978), I decided to read them in the order that the action took place. The Siege of Krishnapur is set in 1857, Troubles occurs after World War I in Ireland, and The Singapore Grip is set in the late 1930s.

Ahhhh, now that order makes sense to me. Thanks for the additional information.

I've also read The Informers this year. I liked it, although not quite as well as you, mainly because I didn't find the characters quite as compelling and memorable as you did. Enjoyed your review, though!

As to Vásquez's new book, it's interesting to see him offering a "riposte to Nostromo." Conrad, I'm pretty sure, never visited South America, and I don't think the story has ever been considered to be any sort of realistic look at South American life or history. Maybe that's Vásquez's point though: that a European writer would have no compunction about inventing such a long, at least on the surface "historical," novel about a place he'd never been to the detriment (as Vásquez evidently feels) of the people of that place. Still, of all the "major" Conrad novels, it's probably the one least read, due to its length and the fact that, with around 150 pages at the beginning of pure exposition, it's pretty hard to get into. For a modern audience, it's almost like he's drawing attention to something negative that most people, left to their own devices, would never be exposed to in the first place. Obviously, it's a more than a little premature of me to wonder about the motivations behind Vásquez's new book, which I really know so little about. Those are just my initial reactions, though.

Phew - caught up!

#159 Great review of Fear - Stefan Zweig ...and onto the wishlist it goes...

Darryl- Another great review on The Siege of Krishnapur! Once again, I'm not familiar with the author or the books. I must live in a cave or something! Well, they're on the list now!

Thanks, Mark — and everyone else! No, you are certainly not living in a cave regarding Farrell, particularly on this side of the pond. The only reason I had heard of him was because The Siege of Krishnapur won the Booker Prize in 1973, which caused me to buy it three years ago. I hadn't heard of Troubles until the Lost Man Booker Prize shortlist was announced earlier this year, and it sounds as though many literate Brits were unfamiliar with this book as well (what say ye, literate Brits?). Fortunately all three books in the Empire Trilogy are available from New York Review Books, so you shouldn't have too hard of a time finding them in a good bookstore or library, or online.

Not sure I count as particularly literate, particuarly as I'm always behind the times on what's hot, but I'd never heard of Troubles either...

I think that Troubles is the least known of his books. I was certainly familiar with the other two in the series, but Troubles only rings a bell vaguely. I knew that he had written an Ireland "chapter" in his empire saga, but couldn't have told you the title before this.

I think Stasia mentioned the book Troubles and I added this one to the tbr pile.

Well, I had heard of and read all three of the Farrell books. But maybe that's because I'm only an honorary Brit and made a big effort in the late '70's and '80's when I first arrived to catch up/stay up to date on the new/hot writers. What a nice treat in store for all of you who haven't read them all yet.

#235, I am surprised that Troubles is the least well known of the three, since I liked it the best. I can see that The Siege of Krishnapur would be better known, since it won the Booker, but I'm surprised that Troubles is less well known than The Singapore Grip, which I thought the weakest of the three. But maybe because Ireland is less exotic than India or Singapore.

#230: Thanks, Jerry. You're right, I think that the characters in The Informers did resonate more deeply with me.

Interesting comments about Conrad, Nostromo and Vásquez. Reading Conrad is pretty low on my list, and I highly doubt that I'll read Nostromo, unless it is necessary to appreciate Vásquez's new novel.

Troubles came today, along with The President by the Nobel Prize winning author Miguel Ángel Asturias, which is one of the classic dictator novels, one I'll also read for next month's Reading Globally monthly theme read. I also received The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas, the winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Fiction last year, which is set in contemporary multicultural Australia.

Has anyone read any of J.G. Farrell's earlier novels, the ones he wrote before those in the Empire Trilogy?

#239> "Reading Conrad is pretty low on my list . . . "

If you liked The Informers, however, I would highly recommend to you Conrad's The Secret Agent and Under Western Eyes. The former, especially.

Thanks, Jerry; I'll add The Secret Agent to my wish list. I do have a book that contains The Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharer, which I'll get to...sometime.

Darryl, I'm just swooning from the 119 posts that appeared on your thread while I was on vacation ..... although I have to say they've been highly entertaining as always. I loved your review of The Siege of Krishnapur and *surprise, surprise ... or not, really*, it's swung it's way over to my obese wish list.

Caught. Up.

Just caught up here, and really enjoyed your review. I finally went to click the button for Troubles on Book Depository yesterday and it's out of stock!!!! Aaargh. That'll teach me to wait for something to get hyped. I bet everyone in the UK is buying it at the moment.

#244: I noticed that Troubles is out of stock at Amazon US, presumably because of overseas sales; I doubt that many Americans had heard about the Lost Man Booker Prize.

#242: Thanks, Caroline; I think that you'll enjoy it. I'll almost certainly read Troubles early next month.

#243: Hi, Tui!

#245: Success!! There were 2 copies in stock at my favourite bookshop here, so one came home with me. Now I just have to read it...

You could go back to the bookshop, buy the remaining copy, and sell it on eBay for a small fortune. ;-)

>247 kidzdoc: Hmmmm I've got one on its way from B&N. Did you say small fortune??

Darryl, in case you missed this, here is an article from today's New York Times about the increasing role of hospitalists.

Thanks, Rebecca; I did read that article in today's paper (I'm a daily subscriber), and forwarded it to my partners this morning. The article is a pretty accurate description of what hospitalists do, although we do a lot more than the article would suggest. We very frequently take care of kids with chronic illnesses, who have multiple specialists (e.g., Neurology, Gastroenterology, Pulmonology, Orthopaedic Surgery), and we help coordinate their care so that all the specialists and therapists are on the same page and the information is communicated to the family (and vice versa). We serve as consultants to primary care pediatricians and family practitioners, to help them with difficult diagnoses and to get their patients outpatient care through our very large and complex medical system (three hospitals and at least a dozen outpatient centers in metro Atlanta). Many of us are leaders or members of hospital committees that are geared toward incorporating evidence-based medicine, implementing tools and pathways to streamline medical care, and decreasing length of patient stays and cost to the insurance companies and the families of the patients. Teaching is also a large part of what we do; we're on the faculty of the two schools of medicine in Atlanta, Emory and Morehouse, and this week I'm conducting hospital rounds with residents and medical students from Morehouse and a family practice resident from Atlanta Medical Center. We are all active members of the Society of Hospital Medicine, and the Section of Hospital Medicine of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and participate in meetings and online discussions via the pediatric hospitalist LISTSERV about inpatient care.

I could go on, but that's probably more info than anyone cares to know!

I just had lunch with the cutie pie in my profile photo, after she went to her regular appointment in our Spina Bifida Clinic this morning. I finally gave her the Paddington Bear that I bought for her in London last year. Her mother & I took photos of her and her cousin, including an absolutely hilarious video of her dancing on her crutches. I'll transfer these photos from my BlackBerry to Facebook later today, and post them here, along with a link to the video (if I can figure out how to do that sans Facebook).

Back to work...

Here are two of the photos of my favorite patient, including one with her cousin, from earlier today:



More photos soon...

I love these Darryl!

Have you heard this? Have you any thoughts?

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/23689958/detail.html

I just looked at the video from WTAE, and the story indicates that the practitioners were using the same syringe to give Botox injections for spasticity at Children's (Hospital of Pittsburgh) for multiple patients, although they would use different needles (which screw on to the end of the syringe). My first reaction was WTH??? That certainly isn't standard procedure, and would put subsequent patients at risk for infection, if a drop of blood from the first patient got mixed into the hub of the syringe or the Botox suspension. That's a REALLY BAD IDEA.

Darryl, it was great to hear all you do. Having spent more time in hospitals with family members than I would like (although I assume everyone feels that way), I've been struck by how often one doctor or nurse doesn't seem to know what another has said or done. The idea of a hospitalist who can coordinate the care of multiple specialists seems like such a good idea not just for kids but for everyone, perhaps especially also for the elderly, who often also have multiple specialists. In my father's case, he had a gerontologist who referred him to specialists, but wonderful as she was, she did not seem to coordinate care and I often had to tell one doctor what another had said. What you are doing is so important and so valuable to the families as well as the patients. Perhaps by your teaching you can help spread the word.

This is actually what I miss most about Canadian healthcare -- the concept of the family doctor, the GP, who tends to play that coordinating role. Here everything is specialist-driven, and I need specialists for this and that -- v. frustrating!!

Great job, however demanding -- and great pics!!! (love paddington bear... marmalade forever!!)

'Yeah.. I was shocked, too. Stuff happens.. and for it to happen at Children's? sad.
>:-/

> 251 Adorable pics!!! Thank you for sharing those. What a treasure!!

#254: Thanks, Rebecca. I assume that there are gerontologists who are hospitalists, as hospitalized senior citizens are much more likely to need coordination of care, and most internists aren't as good as gerontologists in taking care of senior citizens. I'm sorry to hear that your father's gerontologist wasn't willing or able to coordinate his care.

#255: Right, Suzanne. Specialists are good in their particular field, but most (even the great ones I work with every day) aren't as good in coordination of care. While I was posting my earlier comments here this afternoon I was making phone calls to specialists and primary care docs in my office.

Mmm, marmalade...

#256: That is really shocking, I agree, especially at Children's! I spent at least 6-8 months at Children's during my last two years of medical school, and I have the highest affection and respect for the staff there. So, this news is both surprising and quite sad.

#257: Thanks, Sher! I've posted several other photos that Brianah's mother and I took on our smartphones onto my profile page.

New thread here!