Chatterbox's 75-Book Challenge for 2010: The Fourth Installment

Before the long-thread police come to take me away, it's time to launch #4. Happily, #3 lasted a bit longer than I had feared...

Here are the links to the first three installments:

The first installment is here
The second installment is here
The third installment is here

The running total for this challenge:




The running total for ALL the books I've read, in this and other challenges, so far this year.




Best of the 75:

Provenance: How A Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by Laney Salisbury & Aly Sujo
Passionate Minds: The Great Love Affair of the Enlightenment by David Bodanis
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor
The Cello Suites by Eric Siblin
Unlikely Allies: How a Merchant, a Playwright and a Spy Saved the American Revolution by Joel Richard Paul
The Book of William: How Shakespeare's First Folio Conquered the World by Paul Collins
If the Dead Rise Not by Philip Kerr
The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli
Map of the Invisible World by Tash Aw
Ill Fares the Land by Tony Judt
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
Mrs. Adams in Winter by Michael O'Brien

The Fiction List:

The Fiction List:

1. White Nights by Ann Cleeves ****1/2 STARTED 1/2/10, FINISHED 1/5/10
2. The Postmistress by Sarah Blake ***1/2 STARTED 1/5/10, FINISHED 1/8/10
3. The Lotus-Eaters by Tatjana Soli ****1/2 STARTED 3/22/10, FINISHED 3/24/10
4. The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald **** STARTED 3/1/10, FINISHED 3/5/10
5. The Man from Saigon by Marti Leimbach **** STARTED 3/6/10, FINISHED 3/13/10
6. Red Bones by Ann Cleeves ****1/2 STARTED 1/11/10, FINISHED 1/18/10
7. The Disappeared by M. R. Hall ***1/2 STARTED 1/8/10, FINISHED 1/10/10
8. Admission by Jean Hanff Korelitz *** STARTED 1/24/10, FINISHED 1/26/10
9. Memento Mori by Muriel Spark **** STARTED 1/14/10, FINISHED 1/15/10
10. The Master by Colm Toibin ****1/2 STARTED 2/7/10, FINISHED 2/9/10
11. The Lambs of London by Peter Ackroyd **** READ 2/26/10
12. The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor ****1/2 READ 1/22/10
13. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid ***** READ 2/6/10
14. Passion by Jude Morgan ****1/2 STARTED 1/29/10, FINISHED 2/5/10
15. The Life You Want by Emily Barr *** 1/2 READ 3/1/10
16. If the Dead Rise Not by Philip Kerr **** 1/2 STARTED 3/19/10, FINISHED 3/21/10
17. The Information Officer by Mark Mills **** 1/2 READ 2/19/10
18. Mud, Muck and Dead Things by Ann Granger **** STARTED 3/2/10, FINISHED 3/4/10
19. The Infinities by John Banville ****1/2 STARTED 2/21/10, FINISHED 2/23/10
20. Blue Lightning by Ann Cleeves **** STARTED 2/19/10, FINISHED 2/20/10
21. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde **** STARTED 2/10/10, FINISHED 2/14/10
22. Dancing Backwards by Salley Vickers **** STARTED 3/17/10, FINISHED 3/18/10
23. Money to Burn by James Grippando ***1/2 READ 2/26/10
24. The Other Family by Joanna Trollope **** STARTED 3/27/10, FINISHED 3/28/10
25. Spies of the Balkans by Alan Furst **** READ 4/26/10
26. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
27. Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier **** 1/2 STARTED 4/13/10, FINISHED 4/14/10
28. An Empty Death by Laura Wilson **** STARTED 4/15/10, FINISHED 4/18/10
29. Map of the Invisible World by Tash Aw **** 1/2 STARTED 4/2/10, FINISHED 4/7/10
30. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson **** STARTED 4/11/10, FINISHED 4/12/10
31. The Imperfectionists By Tom Rachman **** 1/2, STARTED 5/26/10, FINISHED 5/27/10
32. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver **** 1/2 STARTED 6/5/10, FINISHED 6/7/10
33. The Nearest Exit by Olen Steinhauer **** STARTED 4/27/10, FINISHED 4/29/10
34. This Body of Death by Elizabeth George **** STARTED 5/3/10, FINISHED 5/7/10
35. The Swimming Pool by Holly LeCraw ***1/2 STARTED 6/2/10, FINISHED 6/3/10
36. Excellent Women by Barbara Pym **** STARTED 5/27/10, FINISHED 5/28/10
37. The Reluctant Hero by Michael Dobbs *** 1/2 STARTED 4/17/10, FINISHED 4/19/10
38. Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald ***** STARTED 6/10/10, FINISHED 6/13/10
39. Ordinary Thunderstorms by William Boyd **** 1/2, READ 6/10/10

The Non-Fiction List:

1. Passionate Minds by David Bodanis ***** STARTED 1/16/10, FINISHED 1/18/10
2. The Morland Hours by Katherine Swift ****1/2 STARTED 1/26/10, FINISHED 1/31/10
3. The Book of William by Paul Collins ***** STARTED 1/8/10, FINISHED 1/11/10
4. The Cello Suites by Eric Siblin ***** STARTED 1/1/10, FINISHED 1/2/10
5. On Moving: A Writer's Meditation on New Houses, Old Haunts, and Finding Home Again by Louise deSalvo **** STARTED 1/22/10, FINISHED 1/23/10
6. Americans in Paris by Charles Glass ***1/2 STARTED 1/19/10, FINISHED 1/21/10
7. The Last Empress by Hannah Pakula **** STARTED 2/3/10, FINISHED 2/19/10
8. Unlikely Allies by Joel Richard Paul **** 1/2 STARTED 2/24/10, FINISHED 3/3/10
9. Not Quite Paradise by Adele Barker ***1/2 STARTED 1/28/10, FINISHED 1/29/10
10. For All the Tea in China by Sarah Rose *** 1/2 STARTED 3/13/10, FINISHED 3/16/10
11. Operation Mincemeat by Ben Macintyre **** STARTED 3/8/10, FINISHED 3/10/10
12. Anne Frank: the Book, the Life, the Afterlife by Francine Prose **** STARTED 3/19/10, FINISHED 3/20/10
13. Varsity Green by Mark Yost ****1/2 STARTED 3/16/10, FINISHED 3/17/10
14. Strange Days Indeed by Francis Wheen *** 1/2 STARTED 2/24/10, FINISHED 2/26/10
15. The Snow Tourist by Charlie English **** STARTED 2/10/10, FINISHED 2/13/10
16. The Big Short by Michael Lewis ****1/2 STARTED 4/17/10, FINISHED 4/18/10
17. How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in one question and twenty attempts at an answer by Sarah Bakewell **** 1/2, STARTED 6/9/10, FINISHED 6/13/10
18. The Woman Who Fell From the Sky by Jennifer Steil *** STARTED 6/2/10, FINISHED 6/4/10
19. Philanthrocapitalism by Matthew Bishop
20. Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India by William Dalrymple **** 1/2, STARTED 4/23/10, FINISHED 4/25/10
21. The Science of Liberty by Timothy Ferris
22. The Friendship: Wordsworth and Coleridge by Adam Sisman **** STARTED 5/26/10, FINISHED 5/30/10
23. Ill Fares the Land by Tony Judt ***** STARTED 4/29/10, FINISHED 5/4/10
24. Mrs. Adams in Winter by Michael O'Brien ****1/2 STARTED 5/20/10, FINISHED 5/22/10
25. Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw by Will Ferguson ***** STARTED 4/21/10, FINISHED 4/22/10
26. In Pursuit of Silence by George Prochnik **** 1/2, STARTED 6/6/10, FINISHED 6/8/10
27. Thucydides: the Reinvention of History by Donald Kagan **** STARTED 3/28/10, FINISHED 4/7/10
28. Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by Laney Salisbury & Aly Sujo ***** STARTED 4/12/10, FINISHED 4/14/10
29. The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull and the Battle of Little Big Horn by Nathaniel Philbrick ***** STARTED 5/31/10, FINISHED 6/2/10
30. Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick **** 1/2, STARTED 5/28/10, FINISHED 5/29/10
31. Searching for Order by Anna Pavord STARTED 6/13/10
32. The Music Room by William Fiennes **** 1/2 STARTED 6/4/10, FINISHED 6/5/10
33. A Mosque in Munich by Ian Johnson **** 1/2 STARTED 4/9/10, FINISHED 4/11/10
34. The Devil and Sherlock Holmes by David Grann**** STARTED 3/25/10, FINISHED 3/27/10
35. South from Barbary by Justin Marozzi **** STARTED 5/24/10, FINISHED 5/26/10
36. Everything is Broken by Emma Larkin **** STARTED 4/28/10, FINISHED 5/1/10

Found you again, Suz!

Hi, Suzanne! Despite your comments about your "frivolous {reading} habits" on my thread, there are a lot of good and meaty reads here!

I like the sound of the Demick you just read .... so I'm adding that to my obese wish list.

I wonder if I would like Club Dumas ... I've read The Three Musketeers multiple times and it remains one of my favorite all time books. When I read the back cover of CB at the bookstore it didn't quite grab me.

Caro, I enjoyed The Club Dumas but didn't love it, and I can't put my finger on the reason. There were parts where the narrative really grabbed me and parts when it didn't, mostly when Lucas Corso, the book hunter, is wondering whether the young woman who seems to dog his footsteps is (literally) a guardian angel or a fallen angel. What's that about??? I'll probably read The Seville Communion so I can tell Catalina I did, but after that...

Book du jour: #62 for this challenge and #170 overall is The Friendship: Wordsworth and Coleridge by Adam Sisman. I loved Sisman's first book, Boswell's Presumptuous Task, about the writing of Samuel Johnson's Life, and because I am fascinated by this period and the characters, I assumed I would like this just as much. Meh. I think Sisman needed a good editor and a sharper focus. It drags too much in some places, and in others covers whole decades with a single bound; moreover, nowhere is Sisman's own voice or view visible, so it's completely up to the reader to pull out the threads of the argument he may be trying to make. (It seemed to me that it's about the way a close intellectual friendship and efforts to build a collaborative working relationship collapsed under the weight of real life and the personalities involved.) There's a lot of fascinating biographical detail, but ultimately it reads like a two-stranded biography -- which is fine, but I was hoping for something more distinctive. Sisman is obviously a bigger fan of Coleridge's than Wordsworth's, and repeatedly cites the views of those who loved Coleridge that he squandered (or at least, never fulfilled) his potential to be one of the best thinkers (and not just the best poets) of the post-Revolutionary era. Both poets were shaped by the French Revolution and its aftermath, although I found the fact that Sisman never really emphasized the degree to which others saw them as in some way betraying their principles a bit irritating. Overall verdict: a mixed bag. A good bio, well-written, with lots of great material, and Sisman does a great job of linking their work to their lives. But it just isn't what it could have been, much like Coleridge's life. 3.8 stars.

#7: Too bad about The Friendship: Wordsworth and Coleridge. I also liked Boswell's Presumptuous Task, but I think I will skip that one.

I haven't read Club Dumas. I have read the first couple of his Captain Alatriste stories and The Fencing Master, all of which I've enjoyed.

I'll be looking for The Club Dumas, too! Thanks!

Finishing up the month with two final books, both of which can be logged under my 1010 Challenge, and qualify for for the TIOLI! (How's that for slaying multiple birds with a single stone??)

The first was Complicit by Nicci French, a suspense/thriller, the dozenth (if that isn't a word, it should be) by this husband/wife writing duo. It's one of the better ones of late, opening with Bonnie Graham at the scene of a violent death. Whose violent death, what Bonnie does and the mystery that precedes and follows it is spelled out in alternate segments entitled "before" and "after" (and helpfully provided in a different typeface...) I enjoyed this rather chilling mystery, which revolves (as always with this 'author') around the hidden dysfunctions in apparently ordinary groups of people. In this case, it's the members of a band that Bonnie assembles to play at a friend's wedding. Kept me reading until the last page, late at night. 4 stars.

Then I finally read Still Life by Louise Penny. I have to say, I didn't fall in love with the book or the characters; I thought the plot was excellent, but spoiled by uneven characterizations and writing, including some bits that had me rolling my eyes bemusedly. For instance, I was surprised that Gamache would use a community meeting as a way to show his own thinking about the method of the murder, and the young policewoman was utterly unconvincing as a character (as was the way Gamache dealt with her; I kept comparing their relationship to the Lynley/Barbara Havers relationship in Elizabeth George's books, and thinking to myself how the latter showed what Penny could have done.) Part of the problem I had with this was choppy writing; another part was the rapidly shifting point of view among characters; part was the way I felt I had been dumped into a story already underway, i.e. the way Penny introduced the characters (or rather, failed to do so in a gradual way.) Nothing major, but enough minor irritations that this isn't a book I could love or really immerse myself in. It did get better in the final half or third, and the plot was v. good, complex but convincing. 3.8 stars; I got the second in the series from Paperback Swap, so I'll check that out to see if I like it more, but as of now, at least, I'm not hooked, sadly.

>11 Chatterbox: Suzanne, keep plugging...the beauty of the series is an upward curve. The first is most certainly the least skilled.

I should know better than to hit the "submit" button twice.

I was bracing myself for you to hunt me down and punish me for heresy, Richard... :-)

The second book is here; I probably won't get to it immediately though. I started reading the new book by Nathaniel Philbrick, The Last Stand, and it's excellent. I've signed up for a bunch of TIOLI books, so I'll be reading The Poisonwood Bible, Fathers and Sons, Austerlitz and the book about Montaigne by Sarah Bakewell this month, plus my usual cluster of mindless/escapist fluff (like the Lauren Willig books, which I'll probably finish this month.)

Total reading for May: 34 books, bringing the year's total to 172, so far. I probably read about half as much as Stasia!

I agree with Richard that the Three Pines series gets better but I was hooked from Book One so I'm sorry you didn't really succumb to the charms of Louise Penny Suzanne.

Ooh...can't wait for your review of The Last Stand, Suz. I really enjoyed Nathaniel Philbrick's other books, so if this is anywhere as well written as the others, I know I'll like this as well.

I am with Richard in saying that Still Life is definitely the weakest book in the series.

I already have The Last Stand in the BlackHole, but I look forward to seeing what you think of it, Suz.

The Philbrick book is turning out very well; I ended up reading far more than I intended (and thus getting less sleep) simply because it was so hard to put it down at the end of a chapter...

The Booklist review for Chasing Goldman Sachs:

Chasing Goldman Sachs: How the Masters of the Universe Melted Down Wall Street . . . and Why They'll Take Us to the Brink Again.
McGee, Suzanne (Author)
Jun 2010. 416 p. Crown, hardcover, $27.00. (9780307460110). 332.660973.
Business journalist McGee paints Wall Street as a utility with capital flowing through the system like an electric power grid, noting why it almost failed. She describes the pressure on the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008 to bail out Wall Street firms, why Wall Street was called an “abstraction,” and how Wall Street morphed from an intermediary (raising capital) into a casino. Goldman Sachs was the master of its universe, generating average return on equity of 25.4 percent in the decade before the financial crisis, compared with 15 percent annually for four other firms during the same period. Other firms’ CEOs chased Goldman Sachs, considering it their model for boosting their own personal wealth and keeping shareholders happy. The author reports, “When left to their own devices, financial services firms . . . will focus almost monomaniacally on what is in their own best interest, seeking out ways to earn higher returns and recruit top talent by paying the most lavish bonuses and offering the most enticing
perks. . . . They cannot help themselves.” Excellent book.
— Mary Whaley

Gotta admit, I love the last sentence.

FYI Suzanne:

I've finished my second read of Chasing Goldman Sachs and posted my review. It's also on my thread...post #145. I'd've posted it to Amazon but I can't yet; Powell's has it up, though.

Read it. You *should* be scared as you do!

I love the last sentence too!!! Hope you're celebrating. Actually you're almost certainly not yet, but you will be in 14 days.

And well deserved too! Congratulations, Suzanne!

Awesome review. Best of luck with the sales. I'm planning on buying it for DH's July birthday as he lives and breathes anything about Wall Street.

Richard, I'm blushing. Literally...
(Thanks for covering up your real feelings so effectively!!)
Reviews can't be posted on Amazon until publication date, as per usual. I'll be doing "Morning Joe" on MSNBC that morning.

Congratulations Suzanne. I hope the great reviews translate into lots of sales :)

At this point, I'm just hoping the great reviews continue, and I don't run into a real curmudgeon, Bonnie... (Richard simply being a marshmallow disguised as a curmudgeon!)

Congrats, Suz!

I lurk around mostly, but I think this is a moment to come forward and say, Congratulations!! I admire you for tackling this whole subject of financial greediness.

#27 -- Thanks! Amusingly, I'm going to be writing a column tonight on the difference between "good greed" and "bad greed". That's after I finish the (overdue) article I'm writing now, and before I report and write another story, and .... Well, you get the picture.

One idea for the title of this book was Greed Street. My publisher didn't like it, and I think his judgment has paid dividends, although I wouldn't have agreed with that a year ago!

Good reviews, Suz ... and I love that last line too. I'm with Bonnie... I hope the great sales follow these reviews.

Hey do you think you'll go on a book tour?

No one has mentioned one. I gather there needs to be something more to do than simply sit in a bookstore and sign copies for them to, and I quote, "send me out on the road." I'd like to hit Washington, Boston and San Francisco, and mebbe Chicago, but the publicist right now is focusing on radio, TV, etc. and all the stuff that she says actually sells books...!!

Definitely make sure you hit Boston and we can make a party out of it. Book tours don't sell books? Every time I've gone to a signing session with authors on tour, it seems like they make out like bandits because most people buy a copy or two of their books

I dunno; I can't figure it out, either! But Boston & Washington are easily within reach, and if I have to organize it myself, I will; just probably not until next month when I'm released from indentured servitude -- erm, sorry, meant to say when the publisher-organized fiesta winds down.

Oh I bet the radio and tv interviews do yield more sales. Just think of the size of the audience they reach compared to a signing at a bookstore. I think you've got a smart agent.

Congratulations on the book--I can't wait to read it.

De-lurking in the vein of Sibyx to say congratulations! :)

Congrats! And definitely let us know if you do any signings. If you're in DC or Baltimore, I'd love to come.

ETA: I just checked my public library. They're ordering a bunch of copies!

I'm def going to shoot for Washington and Boston, at least; more likely July than June, though.
(My mother checked the Toronto Library, which has ordered a bunch too. This will make Random House v.v.v. happy...)

OK, moving the discussion over to other people's books...

Finished The Deception of the Emerald Ring, the third in the Pink Carnation 'mystery' series by Lauren Willig. Again, completely mindless, brainless entertainment -- what is nice about these books is that they are very silly and yet at the same time written by someone with a brain and a knowledge of the period about which she is writing -- a refreshing combination. I'm now halfway through the series; have borrowed #6, so I'll prob steamroll my way through the next three in the coming week or two. 3.3 stars, for my 50-book overflow challenge.

Will probably wrap up the Philbrick book tonight, too, and post on it tomorrow. It just gets better and better...

Also de-lurking to offer my congratulations!!! :D

Congratulations, Suzanne!

Just wanted to chime in that I too found Still Life to be a little choppy...but I was still hooked.
I rejoiced greatly in books 2 and 3 as more of Gamache's 'back story' was filled in. I was tired of being in the dark.

Greetings, de-lurkers!

My book update: there will be a NY Times Sunday book review in the issue dated June 27 (online the previous Wednesday). The Financial Times is reviewing, ditto BusinessWeek, and I'll be doing an online Q&A with Newsweek and a video interview online for them. Some more stuff, most of which I can't remember. But -- no book tour, at this point. Simply not cost effective when compared to the impact of major media. I'm pushing for stuff, but it won't happen soon.

Meanwhile, in my reading world vs my writing world:

Finished The Last Stand by Nathaniel Philbrick, about Custer & Sitting Bull's confrontation at Little Bighorn. It's a simply wonderful book -- chronicles the buildup to the battle, provides a riveting and un-put-downable account of the last stand itself, and frames it all in a remarkably unbiased book that balances the narrative between white and Sioux sources and perspectives. Custer's Last Stand became, ultimately, the long-drawn out and tragic last stand of both Sitting Bull (14 years later) and his Lakota Sioux. Philbrick raises important issues and questions, notably the question of why Sitting Bull and Custer -- both of whom had a track record of negotiating as well as battling -- failed to try to resolve the dispute peaceably and what that failure has meant for their heirs, to this day. Also beautifully/elegantly written - a winner. 5 stars. For this challenge.

And for my overflow challenge, The Confession of Katherine Howard by Suzannah Dunn. Dunn is a wildly uneven writer, and her last historical novel was dreadful, IMO. This one was a very pleasant surprise, focusing on Catherine Howard (Henry VIII's fifth wife, one of the beheaded ones) and told through the eyes of one of the young women who lived with her in the Duchess of Norfolk's notoriously immoral household before she married the king. Dunn creates an imaginary love triangle involving Catherine, her friend and Francis Dereham, and executes it well despite her odd style (she writes dialogue for her characters that makes them sound like 20th century chicks, including phrases like, "hey, kids". Frankly, I think that's just silly, and some will find it downright annoying. But there's a very intriguing plot at the core of this book, and I liked it. It should appeal to anyone who read Philippa Gregory's The Boleyn Inheritance. Recommended to HF fans. 3.5 stars.

I will have to get my hands on a copy of The Last Stand soon!

Congrats on the Sunday Book Review!!!

Wow on the high profile book reviews. I guess they don't see a book tour as part of marketing serious non-fiction rather than novels and celebrity memoirs.

Even novels don't always get book tours. One of my friends is the author of April and Oliver and her experience was that you need to be somewhat established to get major marketing dollars. Even though her book is doing well in the reviews, it's her first novel and she had to do a lot of the marketing herself virally on blogs, etc.

Exactly what they said. There are some books that work for signings, and others where it doesn't. Lifestyle, fiction, memoir, etc. But what I found/still find a bit odd is that when I said I'd cover my own transportation and other costs, they didn't even seem keen to set things up with the bookstores in a couple of key cities. I'm not suggesting dashing off in the first weeks of publication, just trying to find a way to drum up more momentum. Especially since a big part of this audience could come from DC (policy wonks) and 'middle America'. Oh well...

I should have a clearer idea Friday of the marketing schedule, radios, blogs, etc.

I agree about the part about your book doing well in DC. You should try to get in at the Borders at 18th and L on a week day (NOT the weekend). You will have lobbyist galore I would think. You should also hit Politics and Prose. At both sites their book signings are pretty big. Hope you get to hit a few spots.

I'm looking forward to your NY Times review Suzanne. That's got to be a huge plus. I know that when Tinkers won the Pulitzer, the Times was embarrassed that they hadn't even reviewed it so if they're reviewing yours I imagine that's a big deal :)

Adding The Last Stand to my pile.

I don't know how it works with non-fiction but my impression in the mystery world is that a lot of the authors fix up what they do themselves to some extent.

W00T! The New York Times Book Review still carries more weight than personal appearances, no doubt, but some in DC would make sense to me.

#49 -- That is very true of the fiction world as a whole, I think, unless it's a book with a lot of buzz. It's a weird line to walk -- I don't want to annoy by publicists by trying to do something independently of them (it implies they are inept), and yet I agree that I need to do some readings. I'll give it a few more weeks.

Hilarious anecdote du jour: My author's copies arrived today. Or rather, two boxes were delivered, and one was stolen from outside my front door before I could get to them. Either Goldman hired a literary hit-person to abduct them, or there are some very disappointed thieves in Brooklyn.

Book du jour: #64 for this challenge, The Swimming Pool by Holly LeCraw, a novel about which I'm very ambivalent. On the one hand, the writing is excellent and the plot intriguing. On the other... Well, it felt like a bunch of short stories all crammed together to make up a novel. There was soooo much going on -- a murder years in the past, a plot line about post partum depression, two love affairs, one in the past and one in the present, etc. etc. Ultimately, I didn't connect to any of the characters and found my attention wandering, despite the dramatic material in the book -- a bad sign. I think part of the problem was that there was too much happening and it was all so intense. Added to which was the author's emphasis on language and emotion at the expense of convincing characters. It's a well-conceived book that while it's ostensibly about love affairs, is really about the greatest love affair of all, that of a parent for a child. But what is well conceived isn't always well-executed, and in this case that has nothing to do with the writer's ability but more with the nature of the talent not meshing well with the nature of the project. 3.5 stars.

Good review on The Last Stand, Suz ... I'm definitely adding this to my obese wish list and I think I'll get a copy for a friend as well - I think his birthday's coming up and he's a big history and Philbrick fan too.

I wonder what the thieves thought they were stealing .. and why only 1 box? why didn't they steal both boxes, I wonder. Gosh Suz ... your books are going to be sold on the black market and it's only just been released! Talk about HOT property!

LOL, Caro! I suspect the boxes were too heavy... I wonder if it's the same guys that tried to make off with a neighbor's wedding gifts two years ago? That time, I chased this big dude down and got two of the three boxes back (along with a kick in the ribs and several scrapes). I tell you, Brooklyn is one dangerous place to live... :-)

Wow, the NY Times Sunday Book section? That's big!! Congrats.

Any word on Publishers Weekly?

Publicist hasn't heard from PW. But Library Journal is going to do something. Other reviews: The Financial Times, Daily Telegraph, Bloomberg News, Worth magazine. Online review: Forbes.com. TV: Morning Joe, Bloomberg. Online video: Yahoo Tech Ticker, Forbes.com, TheStreet.com. Excerpts in various places. Which reminds me, I have to re-read the book and come up with 4 ideas for excerpts...

I'll have to ask one of our research librarians to keep an eye out for reviews.

Are you doing a tour?

Nope, no tour -- at least, nothing planned yet. (see the above discussion re tours & signing)

Suz, I think Brooklyn is certainly a dangerous place to live ....for thieves because you live there, and are willing and able to chase them down.



If I ever move to NYC, I want to be your neighbor.

Caroline, LOL! (I also found out today that someone used my Visa to order $818 worth of stuff from Walmart.com -- suddenly I feel very warm and fuzzy about Walmart, given the prowess of their fraud people, who alerted me before the evildoers had a chance to wreak more havoc.) What a day....

Still, managed to finish a second book this evening. Wish I could say it was a winner...

#65 for this challenge is The Woman who Fell From the Sky by Jennifer Steil. It was an ARC from Amazon's Vine program, and I think it's going to be one that I don't end up reviewing. I keep borrowing, requesting or buying these books about people going to fascinating places and then being disappointed by the book itself, which is always about "me, me, me" (i.e. the author) rather than the place or the people they encounter. That was particularly true of this book, in which our intrepid heroine ventures off to Yemen to inculcate local reporters in what is meant by real journalism. Now, a former editor of mine went to Kazakhstan years ago on a Fulbright to do something similar, and came back with fascinating stories. Jennifer Steil's are rather banal observations, when she's not discussing her squabbles with her boss, qat-chewing by Yemeni men, her own feelings (ad nauseam). She comes across as a combination of naive and self-important, and since she IS the book, the book was a struggle to finish. Sigh. The purple prose in the last 20 pages as she falls in love with the (then-married) new British ambassador to Yemen was worthy of the most OTT Harlequin, to boot. I don't need a narrator or book character to be admirable or sympathetic, but I need them to be interesting and self-aware. Steil may be both in reality, but the book didn't come across that way. I'm giving it 3 stars, but only because of the too-occasional but still intriguing insights into Yemen. Not really recommended, and I wish publishers would give up on this "American woman goes to (name of exotic place) and (self-actualizes/falls in love/changes the world), then writes about it." Very few actually work. One of the exceptions is a book I've mentioned before, Emma Larkin's first work, Finding George Orwell in Burma. I'll try to come up with some other examples that click for me. The trick seems to be to have some truly extraordinary experience or family background (Rian Malan's book about growing up in apartheid South Africa is a case in point -- My Traitor's Heart) or to be an extraordinarily skilled writer, like Ann Patchett transforming what could have been a banal story about a troubled friendship into a beautiful book in Truth and Beauty.

#59: Sorry to hear about the problem with your Visa card, Suz. I hope it gets straightened out quickly.

The Woman Who Fell from the Sky sounds like it could have been very good. Too bad about that one.

Wow, again, on the FT and the NYT.

And many thanks for warning me off The Woman who Fell from the Sky. It just might have turned into an impulse buy at Bider and Tanner, but not now. Your debit and credit ledger to my TBR mountain just improved by one.

Need to wait for the wows to see if the reviews are positive... Pls keep fingers and toes firmly crossed for the next month...
No guarantee that everyone is going to be as warm and fuzzy about it as Richard, esp. in light of the flurry of financial books. But I did hear that NPR (National Public Radio) will be interviewing me for "Weekend Edition", which is v. good.
Btw, I can spare two (2) more ARCs now that I have my reader copies (or at least, now that I have half of them!!) So if anyone else wants one, now is the time to shoot me a PM and let me know. Nope, not the complete hardcover, but 95% of the material in the uncorrected proofs.
I'm finding it very difficult to identify clumps of 1,000 words in the book that are (a) interesting (b) fresh and (c) consecutive to offer up as excerpts. Gah.

I am sure you will come up with something, Suz. Hang in there!

That's great about Walmart but a drag about your card. All the anti-fraud folks seem to be much more on the ball these days; when someone used "my" Mastercard in Florida at about the same time I used it in NYC , the bank caught it right away and sent me a new card so that I got it the next day.

Yes, they have gotten so alert that if you go somewhere or plan to do something out of your usual orbit, you have to call and tell them what you are planning or they'll block the purchase...... I think it's a good thing.

It's a bummer that your books got stolen, but it's definitely funny imagining a couple of thieves opening up a box to find a bunch of books. Have you thought about checking the pawn shops around the area?

Walmart wants me to get a police report for the credit card, so I'll probably go by my precinct and file two police reports simultaneously for two completely separate things that happened on the same day! They'll think I'm an ambulatory disaster area or something... I admit, I'm VERY pleased about Walmart. I never shop there (there isn't one in NYC) and am thoroughly impressed by their proactive antifraud stuff. I'm very cautious about where I use my card after a similar thing a few years ago, so I'm wondering where/how it happened. I did get a note from Gmail that someone had accessed my e-mail in California (when I was in NYC), and promptly changed that password, so I'm wondering about security generally.

I spent a lot of time thinking about how someone got my Mastercard info since I mostly use it in the same stores where I more or less know the people and/or think they're trustworthy (this is mostly for bookstores, so I hope I'm not delusional on this point). It is not the card I use for the internet, and I don't usually use it for restaurants (which I'm told are the most dangerous in that they take the card away from you to run it). I came to no conclusions, but have gone back to paying cash at the grocery store, for what it's worth.

But how can the police in Brooklyn give you a report fro a crime that happened someplace else??? Isn't this something Walmart or the Visa provider should file?

Rebecca, apparently I'm the "victim" and thus resident here. It's basically just to prove that there was a crime, so that Walmart can then do some investigating and deliver any results to the cops. Besides, the theft of the books was here.

I'm figuring that this must be a result of my St Croix trip. I'm pretty much a cash society these days, but used my card in St Croix for hotels, etc. I never use it in restaurants, as that is when they can most easily "clone" it. Most of the time it's used to pay for online book purchases and other such stuff, from a tiny handful of vendors.

Must admit, I'm still chuckling at the probable reaction of the book thieves to discovering just what it is that they have pilfered.

Suz - I had someone steal my Visa account number and go on a spending spree in Malaysia - racked up about $2000 in charges. Thankfully, Visa were really great when I discovered all these fraudulent charges on my statement and called them. They took the charges off when I told them I hadn't even been out of the country during the time the charges were made (mostly at restaurants and hotels) and since I was looking at the card, I certainly hadn't misplaced it.

I can only suspect that my card was cloned during a trip to Malaysia a few months before the fraudulent activities took place.

*wondering what the thieves will do with the books when they open the box*

and people wonder why some of us still cherish what passes for privacy these days...!

Book du jour: After a "bleah" memoir, I read a lovely one, The Music Room by William Fiennes. The author grows up as a young boy in a home occupied by his ancestors going back to the 13th century; in this memoir, he moves from discussing his world -- playing on the battlements, selling tickets to open admission to the castle that is also his home, swimming in and skating on the moat -- to life with his brother, 11 years older, whose epilepsy has irrevocably damaged his brain and left him with a high IQ but no impulse control, short-term memory, etc. Every so often, Fiennes segues into brief sidebars that deal with the human understanding of the brain, of epilepsy, of brain damage, even as he explores, more subtly, the growing recognition that Richard isn't just badly-behaved but damaged. It's one of the most beautifully-written books I've read this year, with a poignant and elegiac tone. The narrative is slow, almost an adagio and it isn't until I'd been reading for a while that I realized I had been swept up in it. There are lots of delightful interludes in the book, about the young William watching the film crews that descend on them periodically to film dramas in an authentic Elizabethan residence, or helping his father and brother find the right Christmas tree on their property. Best of all, it's a slim book; no surplus words, rambling anecdotes, etc. And it's the best kind of memoir -- the narrator isn't a hero in his own imagination. Highly recommended; #66 for this challenge.

I've started reading The Poisonwood Bible, but I'll probably do a lot of mindless reading this weekend to keep the stress low. :-)

*edited to fix touchstone again...*

>71 Chatterbox: Oh, that sounds poignant. Adulthood demands so much of children, doesn't it? I shall flee its precincts like it's printed with cat dander.

#71 That sounds like one for my list - though your touchstone takes me to a different book that doesn't look at all enticing.

#71: I will look for that one, Suz. Thanks for the recommendation.

>71 Chatterbox:: I read Fiennes' The Snow Geese a while back and absolutely loved it. It was one of my top books of the year -- beautifully written, a slow adagio, just as you described The Music Room.

Books du jour, both for my 50-book overflow challenge.

Finished the fourth in the "Pink Carnation" historical mystery/romance series, The Seduction of the Crimson Rose. It's easily my favorite of this amusing, if ultra-frothy series -- while I'm not typically a romance reader, I do find the tongue-in-cheek nature of these books appealing and am reading my way through them. In this one, the hero and heroine (who are less saccharine characters than those of previous novels, and are full of human flaws, which makes them more "real") battle the real Black Tulip. An example of the whimsical nature of the author's style: the Black Tulip, about to be foiled by agents of the Pink Carnation, says softly "I cannot afford any interference from jumped up floral arrangements." It's interspersed with a less amusing series of chapters set in the modern day. Recommended only to those with a taste for romance (albeit historically accurate) and whimsy. Dunno why I'm enjoying these, but I am. 3.5 stars.

Also finished Damaged by Alex Kava. This is the upcoming 8th book (I think) in Kava's series featuring FBI agent Maggie O'Dell. The suspense is muted, and the mystery's solution is pretty prosaic; it's all set against the backdrop of a hurricane swooping in on Pensacola. Got this as an ARC from Amazon Vine; glad I didn't fork out real money for it. Possibly amusing enough to read on a beach, but only if it's a library book. 2.8 stars; nothing truly bad or execrable; it just never catches fire.

#76: I think I will skip both of those. I tried the first book in the "Pink Carnation" series and did not really enjoy it and never bothered with the others.

I have never read anything by Alex Kava and am not in the mood to start another series at the moment. From the sounds of Damaged, I do not think I am missing much.

Thanks for the heads up on Damaged, Suz .. I think I'll pass on this one. I read A Necessary Evil and didn't much enjoy it.

I liked several of her earlier books, but the last three or four have been "read and forget" books. Not stinkers, usually, but just bare-bones efforts. But then, this weekend is "read and forget" time!!

A few more mindless entertainment books, to distract me from the vicissitudes of the week ahead:

1. The Temptation of the Night Jasmine by Lauren Willig. Book #5 in this series, and it's back to excessively romantic and coy heroines, which makes it less entertaining than the last volume (in which the hero and heroine were swapping quips a la Beatrice and Benedict). I'm giving it 3 stars, because it proved distracting & entertaining enough, but will probably wait several days before finally reading the (borrowed) final volume. Glad I got all of these books from Paperbackswap. For my 50-book overflow challenge.

2. Got an ARC of Supreme Justice by Philip Margolin from Amazon Vine. Glad I didn't pay money for it, although it's probably a good summer read for anyone looking for a conspiracy thriller that doesn't demand too much attention/brainpower. Margolin's books are amusing to read while you're doing so, but I've actually forgotten the plots of previous ones! This one involves a plot that involves supreme court justices and a death penalty case and the government smuggling drugs and all kinds of other stuff. 2.8 stars, for the 50-book overflow challenge.

3. Finally finished The White Queen by Philippa Gregory, after two failed attempts. (Third time lucky!) I have quite enjoyed most of Gregory's historical novels (not the Wideacre books, but The Other Boleyn Girl, etc.), but this one irritated me in several ways. Firstly, there are some historical inaccuracies, notably having Elizabeth Woodville's mother convicted of witchcraft. (It never happened, although Gregory, in her author's note, claims it did.) Secondly, repetitive florid writing in the name of producing a work of ART. (gag -- pretentious stuff.) Finally, lots of overwrought imagery and ominous forebodings that are excessively transparent, especially since most of the people who will read this book know the history. The only natural audience for this books are readers who are newcomers to historical fiction and don't know "what happens next" to Edward IV, Elizabeth Woodville and their children and grandchildren. There are plenty of other, better, books about what we now call the Wars of the Roses: recently, I read the impressive A Secret Alchemy by Emma Darwin, which covers much of the same ground and is marvelous. Read this for the off-the-shelf challenge, as I do want to read Gregory's next book, The Red Queen, due out in August and focusing on Margaret Beaufort, a very intriguing historical character who was the mother of Henry VII and grandmother of Henry VIII. I've heard from those who have managed to get ARCs of the second book that it's much better than this one was. Still, Elizabeth Woodville's story improves about 2/3 of the way through, so it emerges with a 3.1 rating.

The good news is that I'm finding The Poisonwood Bible intriguing and disturbing if not always precisely enjoyable, and am really liking a book that I bought on Friday on a whim, about noise/silence/sounds -- it's fascinating.

#80: Skipping all of those. I cannot stand Philippa Gregory - read one and vowed never to read another.

I do not think I have ever read anything by Philip Margolin and it sounds like I am not really missing anything.

I read The Poisonwood Bible several years ago and enjoyed it. I have since read several of Kingsolver's nonfiction books and have recently brought home The Bean Trees from the library. I do hope you continue to like her!

I think "like" is the wrong verb to use with Kingsolver. Appreciate, yes. Relish her prose, yes. I'm finding the book disturbing and sometimes jarring.

What I like about some of Philippa Gregory's books is that she CAN have an ability to look at a story/historical issue with fresh eyes, and prod one to think differently about it. But she's very uneven, and takes herself faaaarrrr to seriously as a 'historian'. She's a novelist, who bends facts and fails to acknowledge as much. I'd rather deal with a Lauren Willig, who is just as well informed, doesn't take herself too seriously and cheerfully admits the occasional 'fact twist'. (Although there are surprisingly few, and no major gaffes of the kind that Gregory occasionally commits.)

Still, all three helped me pass a hot, sticky, overcast and otherwise yucky day indoors without losing what little sanity remains to me. Which was their intended role!

#82: all three helped me pass a hot, sticky, overcast and otherwise yucky day indoors without losing what little sanity remains to me. Which was their intended role!

I think all of us need books like that! I am glad those 3 worked for you in that regard.

I used to enjoy Philip Margolin but decided after last year's Fugitive to not bother anymore. Feel much the same way about Linda Fairstein as well. Got spoilt by all those European crime thrillers that I've been discovering and Rebus of course.

A friend of mine is addicted to Rebus...

I vowed never to buy another Linda Fairstein novel again, ditto Patricia Cornwell. The former I'll still read, but not spend money on. I wouldn't have bought the Margolin book, either -- that's one of the things Vine is good for!! (That, and exposing me to books that I might otherwise miss out on, such as The Last War by Ana Menendez, The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman and The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist, all of which were big winners. Not to mention (speaking of European crime writers...) Stieg Larsson. I ended up reading the first book in that trilogy because I was offered the second, and figured I should read them in order. I'll be re-reading the second two over the summer, I think!

#85: My local library does not have either the Menendez or Holmqvist books, but it does have The Imperfectionists, so I am looking forward to reading that one.

I am re-reading the first two books of the Larsson trilogy over the summer before I read book 3 for the first time.

#86 -- my recommendation is to read straight from where book #2 ends and into book #3; they make up almost one seamless, giant book in terms of plot, really.

#87: OK, I will keep that in mind. Thanks, Suz.

Hallo! I'll be looking for your comments on The Poisonwood Bible.

I liked The Poisonwood Bible a lot when I read it quite a few years ago, particularly the different voices and what I learned about African culture. But on reflection, I might not enjoy it as much now, because Kingsolver can be a little on the didactic side (although I think less so in this book than in others) -- and of course now I've read a lot more books by African authors.

>90 rebeccanyc:: same here, Rebecca -- I read The Poisonwood Bible more than 10 years ago. I loved it, but like you I was in a very different place regarding my knowledge of Africa and African literature. Still, I'd recommend it.

>87 Chatterbox: and 88 I agree with you completely Suzanne, the second and third books of the trilogy could have been just one book, they flow together so easily.

I also loved Poisonwood Bible when I read it about 9 or 10 years ago.

Finished The Poisonwood Bible this evening. It's a remarkable book, but I still can't say whether I "liked" it. Appreciated, even relished it in parts, but it's also profoundly discomfiting, and not just in the obvious themes or messages. As one of the sisters says early in the novel, "I trod on Africa without a thought, straight from our family’s divinely inspired beginning to our terrible end." The first two-thirds covers the family's experiences; when the narratives diverge, the story remains intriguing, but started to feel too long-winded. I'd have been happier to have just had a single roundup rather than the ongoing saga that had less of a focus and didn't really surprise me that much. I agree that some of Kingsolver's points are made in a heavy-handed manner, as when Adah makes a comparison between the assumptions of the Americans/"whites" and those of the Africans. "Might those pagan babies send us to hell for living too far from a jungle? Because we have not tasted the sacrament of palm nuts? Or. Might the tall, thin man rise up and declare: We don’t like Ike. So sorry, but Ike should perhaps be killed now with a poisoned arrow. Oh, the magazines would have something to say about that all right. What sort of man would wish to murder the president of another land? None but a barbarian." (NB for those who haven't read the book -- this is the context of the murder of Patrice Lumumba, the independent Congo's first elected head of state.) I know people who have traveled to Congo, and it's one place that I truly fear being, not just because of the violence of the wars, but because of the way progress has reversed -- when the Belgians arrived, they stripped away the self-sufficiency of the local tribes and left them nothing lasting in their place. (for a non-fiction account of this, check out Tim Butcher's excellent book Blood River: The terrifying journey through the world's most dangerous country, which I read last year.) The writing was certainly a high point of Kingsolver's book, and I'm awed by her ability to capture and convey the personalities of the four different sisters through language alone (including Rachel's malapropisms...) As Leah muses, "Way back then, while Rachel could pull words out of thin air to mean what she pleased, and Ruth May was inventing her own, Adah and I were trying to puzzle out how everything you thought you knew means something different in Africa." Ultimately, this is a book about arrogance, about people who make assumptions about others, and about how some of those find ways to acknowledge their errors while others never will. Thought-provoking and fascinating: 4.5 stars and book #67 for this challenge.

. . . Off to see if the local library has Blood River. . .

Also on the subject of the Congo, and also something I read a long time ago and found fascinating and horrifying: King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild.

#95: I have had that one in the BlackHole for at least 5 years now. The local college library has it, so I just need to get it requested. Thanks for the reminder, Rebecca.

Great review, Suzanne! I hadn't wanted to read The Poisonwood Bible before, but I do now.

Thanks for reminding me about King Leopold's Ghost, Rebecca. Hmm...I thought it had it, but it isn't in my LT library.

While we're on the subject of horrifying African events, I can also recommend We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch, about the Rwandan genocide.

Rebecca, yes, absolutely -- the Hochschild book is deeply impressive and deeply chilling. (One of the odd things I discovered in investigating my family tree is that we are probably related to Sir Roger Casement, who helped uncover the evildoing of the Belgian regime in the Congo -- before being hung for treason by the Brits as a result of his support for Irish independence...) Hochschild's follow-up book, Bury the Chains is nearly as good; it covers the early years of the abolition movement (Wilberforce, et al.) Stasia, I think you'll find Blood River chilling & sad but def. worth reading. It's a combination of travel, history and current affairs.

OK, off to the dentist...

Good grief -- coincidence or...

Just went to me e-mail inbox and found a note from a childhood friend of mine, who now runs a non-profit revolving around practical conflict resolution strategies. She just got back from 10 days in the Congo. I'm going to post some of what she says below:

"The simmering conflict in the DR Congo today is very complex with many players with diverse, or unknown, agendas. Since the war ended in 2003, the country has been considered stable and the ongoing violence in the eastern provinces has been gradually diminishing. Over the past 6 to 8 weeks, however, there have been outbursts of violence not only in the eastern region, but also in areas of the country that had been considered stable and peaceful.

"The prospects for the next 12-24 months are alarming. It appears highly likely that the conflict in the DR Congo will spiral out of control, and possibly draw in its neighbours, Rwanda and Sudan.

"There are two looming changes that account for this bleak outlook. At the insistence of President Joseph Kabila, the UN will withdraw 2000 peacekeepers in the next few weeks, prior to the DR Congo's June 30 celebration of its 50th Anniversary of Independence. A full pull out of the MONUC peacekeepers is to be completed in 2011. (MONUC is the largest peacekeeping mission in the world with about 20,000 members). It is almost impossible to imagine how the Congolese army alone can maintain peace, especially when the army itself has been blamed for many incidents of violence against civilians, looting, rape, and minerals trafficking.

"The second potentially destabilizing factor is the planned return of tens of thousands of people who became internally displaced in the Congo or refugees in Rwanda as a result of the war. Such post-conflict resettlements are typically filled with tension."

A stark reminder of one of the subsidiary points made by Kingsolver: that we so often forget what happens to people we see as "other", in regions that we don't know and can't understand. It also makes it easier to impose our world view on their lives (as the Price family does in the novel.)

I saw many videos about the atrocities currently happening in various parts of Africa at the church conference I attended over the week end.

I loved (well, you know what I mean) The Poisonwood Bible and am very interested in reading Blood River. Thanks for calling it to our attention. The more we know about what's happening in "other" regions, the more we can explore ways to help.

OMG. That is a frightening report from your friend. Is anyone in the UN or any of the NGOs speaking out about this?

That reminds me; I need to reorder The Assassination of Lumumba by Ludo De Witte, as I haven't seen my copy of it in several years.

Stopping by to say Hello!

Congratulations, for one, one the publication of your book. Anyone who writes an entire book...and gets it published....is on my Awesome list...not in the teenage sense..in the sense that I am in awe of your perseverance. I have a small stack of manuscripts that will never see the light of day. Most of them are Purely Awful. Yurk!

Regarding The Poisonwood Bible. I've read it three times, and each time have come away with something different. I love the book for its unevenness...and too, it made me go back to read the actual History of the Congo during the years in which the story was set. I grew up during those years..but, sometimes, hindsight is clearer

;-}

#98: I read that one several years ago and you are right, it is definitely horrifying.

This is all horrifying stuff. It may be time for me to reread Poisonwood Bible.

#102, I will have to look for The Assassination of Lumumba as it sounds interesting -- I seem to remember reading something about his assassination but I don't think it was this book, maybe it was a movie??

#93 I loved The Poisonwood Bible, I think it was one of the first books I read about Africa and has kicked off a whole related series of reading. I think your review made me want to reread it! And thanks for the Blood River recommendation.

I've just started Conrad's Heart of Darkness which is set in the Congo sometime in the late 19th century which I'm finding very interesting. King Leopold's Ghost is another book that looked interesting.

I can't remember whether I have congratulated you on your book yet so congratulations! If I can order a copy from the UK I will :-)

I haven't read The Poisonwood Bible because I didn't think it sounded very interesting, but your review is making me reconsider. I know I have a copy sitting somewhere in my TBR Tower because someone gave it to me one year ... so I'll just have to go dig it out one of these days.

Rebecca, there was a film about Lumumba. I think it might have come out in 2000 or 2001? In any event, I remember reading that they couldn't actually shoot it in Congo itself, because of the violence there...

Book du jour: In Pursuit of Silence by George Prochnik. One of those fascinating books that is impossible to categorize. I'm a noise-phobe, but not as much so as Prochnik (I'd like to screen out the drunken idiots who hang out on the street corner in the middle of the night, and the two-year-old running amok upstairs, and the new next-door neighbor's TV, but really quite like the sound of birds, wind in the trees, etc.). This is a "who knew?" book, one in which the author sets out to explore noise, sound and silence, both philosophically and practically: his quest takes him from soundproof rooms and a Trappist abbey to a convention held by the folks who rig up their cars to blast music (or at least, sound) at 160 decibels or more. Yeah, those guys... He touches on the science of hearing; what it might mean for the way the next generation processes information and even thinks that they spend so much of their time listening to certain kinds of sounds on headphones, and what we lose (as well as gain) by shutting out noise/sound. "We talk a great deal about the dangers of loud noise," Prochnik muses at one point. In contrast, he points out, "We are almost silent about the benefits of silence." That's his epiphany, in a way. This is one of those intriguing books that will fascinate anyone who doesn't mind following an author through a subject from soup to nuts, and is the kind who is prone to put down a book every few dozen pages to muse over what he or she has just read. In other words, it was right up my alley. 4.5 stars, and #68 for this challenge.

I'm finding myself enjoying The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova a great deal. It's exactly what I wanted to read over the weekend when I ended up reading froth -- fascinating, intriguing, well-written but not 'Literature' about which one is required to ruminate or which one needs to analyze. A thumping good read. Will probably finish it later tonight, since the dental stuff seems to have gone well enough that it didn't trigger a migraine. Actually, since Salt Lake City, I've been faring remarkably well on the headache front. *runs around, frantically touching every piece of wood in a 20-foot radius*

#109: In Pursuit of Silence sounds very interesting. I will have to look for that one.

I will knock on everything wood I can find too, Suz, in hoping all your headaches have gone forever!!

Like Caroline I also haven't yet read The Poisonwood Bible but have had a copy on my tbr for several years. I'm going to make sure I read it this year.

The Poisonwood Bible , I read it in 2001.. on the way to Wales..
( had to leave it there, as I bought other books ) and I thought it was wonderful, heartbreaking and touching...

phew! found and caught up on your thread!

Earlier, I was looking at a new book about law firms on Amazon. Masters of the Game.

Anyway, I was just back onto Amazon and it told me that I would also like Chasing Goldman Sachs.

Nice review of In Pursuit of Silence, Suzanne; I'll have to look for this one.

Um...can you be a noise-phobe and live in Brooklyn?

Darryl, it's extremely counterproductive, I admit. There's probably a causal relationship...

#113, Linda, glad to know the Amazon feature is working so well!!!

Hi Suzanne - I wanted to stop by and congratulate you on your book. I keep reading such good things about it and can't wait to read it myself. And now I see an upcoming Sunday NYT review! How exciting! Congratulations again!

And just adding, I loved The Poisonwood Bible when I read it several years ago but I did find it very unsettling. I keep meaning to reread it.

Thanks Joanne! I'm in between excited and terrified...

Finished The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova today. How much did I like this book? So much that I downloaded it onto my Kindle so that I could keep a copy and re-read it in the future... OK, it's not great literature, but it's a compelling tale. Yes, it's long, at 550 pages, but it's well enough paced that I never even felt tempted to peek at what happens next -- I was just following the narrative, which deals with the mental breakdown of an artist who attempts to assassinate (so to speak) a painting in the National Gallery in Washington, DC. The story is told primarily through the eyes of his psychiatrist, Andrew Marlow, but also in flashbacks via his ex-wife and his girlfriend, and the reasons for his actions are gradually revealed through Marlow's explorations into the artist's background and a series of letters written in 19th century Paris. A few thematic elements are handled clumsily, and there are some really eye-rolling coincidences (the hero in the 19th century is named Olivier; the painter is Robert Oliver -- duh, yes, I've got it...) but this is a thumping good read. Recommended as a good summer book for those who want meatier fare than the brainless fluff that passes as beach books these days. 4.4 stars, for my 1010 Challenge. (Now I'll definitely read The Historian, which everyone else seems to prefer to this -- I wonder if it will be a repeat of Audrey Niffenegger, when I ended up preferring her new book to The Time-Traveler's Wife?)

Yeah.. I can never remember the name of that book either.. and I didn't like it much..I have not yet read The Historian, either, but I have it. .. Someday...

oh goody - I've got The Swan Thieves in my TBR Tower already. Nice review there, Suz. Bumping it up a step or two in the Tower.

It's definitely an introspective/character-driven book, Kath, which I like as long as it's convincing enough. This one "clicked" for me, perhaps because there's a lot about art, and a lot about history, and a decent chunk about Paris. Enough to make me want to sprint off to JFK and hop on a plane and have breakfast tomorrow in the Place Odeon in the 6eme...

(edited to make this post coherent... sigh.)

Good to hear that you enjoyed The Swan Thieves as it's on my tbr pile. I went to an author event with Kostova earlier this year and heard her talk about the book and how it came about. Most people wanted to ask questions about The Historian. She lived in East Europe as a child as her father taught over there or something so she knows those locations really well. She also went back there as an adult and married a Bulgarian. With the success of The Historian she was able to establish the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation which supports contemporary Bulgarian writers and promotes translation of their works to English as well as sending writers to Bulgaria to for writing seminars. I came away impressed by her earnestness.
I enjoyed The Historian and am looking forward to The Swan Thieves.

I already had The Swan Thieves in the BlackHole, but I am bumping it up thanks to your review. Thanks, Suz!

I read Poisonwood Bible shortly after it came out with my RL book club. One of the women in the club had been raised in an extremely strict fundamentalist, evangelical family. We spent a lot of time discussing those aspects of the book. I don't remember much about it otherwise.

I don't think I will tackle it too soon, but glad to hear a good opinion of it for a change !

I am the one (bad) person who loathed The Historian...mainly, because of all the Hype which predeced...double-page Ads in Publishers Weekly...constant interviews on NPR...I waited, a long while, and started to read the damned thing...Twas good for about 1/3...then, I couldn't suspend my disbelief. I'm sorry, it read as if Kostova was writing the story "as she made it up"....too many improbabilities...and the ending sucked, IMHO...Mush (not Polenta)

.........but, I have heard interesting things about The Swan Thieves

might try to acquire both to do a compare/contrast
;-}

All the hype is the biggest reason I haven't read The Historian; well, that and the fact that I can live without supernatural/witchy plot elements because that is the fad du jour. It will be interesting to compare them; I read the one people seem to see as not quite as good first, and liked it, as I did with Niffenegger (I also avoided The Time-Traveler's Wife because of the hype!). Lower expectations are probably helpful for all kinds of books!

I'll update my reading later. Battling a sore throat which I hope doesn't presage anything bigger, and that I hope will vanish and stay vanished. (Dr. Darryl has given me some great advice!)

Exactly! I've avoided The Time-Traveler's Wife like the plague...but have heard good things about Her Fearful Symmetry...What woman's symmetry is not fearful?

Oh Yurk
J

>125 jdthloue:: You're not alone in your dislike of The Historian. A friend and I read it together, only to be dismayed at our own loathing of the book... and I think 'loathe' is putting it mildly. I could sit here all day and recount why, but since we have those around who loved the book, I'll just leave it at "agreeing to disagree" with them :) Different books for different people, is all I have to say! Haha.

>128 dk_phoenix:: perhaps, we should "talk"...away from here??

A quick book update...

Have been battling some kind of 'lurgy, which I can't afford to have four days from book launch and a big speaking schedule. After 36 hours of post-nasal drip and coughing, my voice sounds like that of a crow.

Still, I have been doing some reading.

1. Heresy by S.J. Parris (aka Stephanie Merritt). This is a mystery set in Elizabethan England, with a former monk named Giordano Bruno at the center of the puzzle, trying to find his way through it. I admit that I'd hoped for more from this novel, although it was mostly well written. Bruno is a fascinating historical figure; he ran afoul of the Inquisition and went on the run until they caught up with him eventually. The title was also promising; I was hoping for a novel that was as much about the ideas of what various religious groups considered to be heresy as it was about murder and mayhem. Parris instead focused only on the latter, and what resulted was a good enough historical mystery that never transcended the genre. Bruno is a de facto agent for Walsingham, who ends up in the middle of a nest of Catholics at Oxford, who may or may not be responsible for the deaths of two of the college fellows. Good, but not utterly gripping. 3.9 stars, recommended to fans of the genre. For my 1010 challenge.

2. An even more plain vanilla procedural mystery came next -- Murder on Waverly Place by Victoria Thompson. This is the latest in a series of mysteries set in late 19th century New York City featuring a widowed midwife who has left her privileged background, and a police officer of the time. This plot revolves around spiritualism -- no real surprises here, although the outcome wasn't certain to me; the plot was a great "locked room" kind of mystery that suggests no one could have done it and yet the victim is dead. Missing were any of the character details and personal experiences of Sarah and Malloy that have made the past books interesting and there's no forward momentum in the characters here. 3.2 stars. Don't bother unless you've been reading the series; the first books in this series are definitely the best.

3. Finally, #69 for this challenge was Ordinary Thunderstorms by William Boyd. True, this wasn't as good as his previous book, Restless, which won the Costa Novel of the year when it was published. But it's still a fascinating novel, with lots of twists and turns. At heart, it's a mystery, but it's more about character: after a chance encounter in an Italian restaurant following a job interview in London, climatologist Adam Kindred goes "underground" to escape both the police who want to arrest him for a murder and some other people who want him dead. It's the story of how Adam transforms himself into some other kind of person (in the process, the reader gets a sense of the myriad kinds of experiences of the invisible in our cities, but in a matter of fact rather than a preachy way), but it's also the story, told through the eyes of the CEO who has stumbled into trouble that led to the murder, a young policewoman who monitors crime on the Thames and the hitman trying to track down Kindred, of the conspiracy that led to the original crime. Ultimately, while I kept reading feverishly to find out what happens next, it wasn't in the same way that I'd read a typical suspense book, but rather because I wanted to find out what would happen to each of these characters, all of whom are drawn with a skilful and empathetic hand. Highly recommended; 4.3 stars.

I'm a William Boyd fan too Suzanne and found this book somewhere in the middle of his books, not nearly as good as Restless but better (for me) than Any Human Heart which I just couldn't get into the rhythm of. His "hiding in plain sight" was a little unbelievable to me.

I agree that I found that idea incredible, but then it also made me think to myself, well, I don't know what IS possible. We just lead our lives without thinking of people like this who do find ways to slip between the cracks. The kind of incredible bit for me was that someone who had never done this before could do it.

A quick update on the book publicity stuff:

There will be two national TV things on June 15, which is the release date. For morning people, the first is at 7:45 to 8 a.m. Eastern, on the "Morning Joe" show on MSNBC. The other, also, an MSNBC show, is scheduled for sometime between 4 and 5. I'll be doing something for Bloomberg television that week, but timing is up in the air. There will be online interviews on TheStreet.com and Forbes.com. Re radio, I'll be doing "Weekend Edition" on NPR, scheduled to air sometime the weekend of June 26/27 -- will let ya'll know when I know. I'll be doing a bunch of radio on the 17th and the 22nd, but I don't know what yet, or whether it will be live or pre-recorded. It's what they call a "radio tour", where I shut myself in a conference room and do an interview every 5/10/15 minutes for three or four hours.

Will post more book updates tomorrow... My reaction to stress seems to be to lose my voice and do a lot of reading. Terribly irrational.

#133: My reaction to stress seems to be to lose my voice and do a lot of reading. Terribly irrational.

Sounds completely rational to me, Suz!

Good luck with the shows :)

I bought Ordinary Thunderstorms on special offer last week, so I'm glad to know it was good. I heard quite a lot of Restless serialised on the radio and want to read that properly too.

Hope you make a rapid recovery.

PLease do ot get stressed before the interviews... not everyone knows ASL..

:P

It could be worse, Suz .. your allergic reaction to stress could be to break out in hives and throw up. ;-p

But I'm sure you'll do very well, charm the interviewers and come out smelling like fresh roses ... and be rewarded with fantastic reviews. Hey if it makes you feel more at ease, maybe you can think of the interviewers as one of us on LT just sitting down having a chat with you

LTers don't like to score points... but good advice anyway, Caro! *sneeze*

Kath, I don't know ASL either, so we'd all be in deep trouble. Anyway, seems as if the mystery bug has morphed into a bog standard cold. Stocked up on DayQuil and NyQuil, and will cut my schedule to the bones tomorrow. (Return DVDs, buy cat litter).

Yo! Suzanne

I know ASL!

J

not meaning to be "snotty"..i really do know ASL..long story boring(?)

Whoops, nearly forgot to update my reading.

1. For my 1010 challenge, finished The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry. Beautiful writing, but the plot was too over-the-top for me, capped off by an improbable final twist. Set in Ireland (partly in Roscommon, next door to where my ancestors came from and an area I know), it's twin narratives, of Roseanne, aged 100, who has been immured in an asylum for most of her life, and the doctor who, after decades, finally bestirs himself to discover why, as the building is about to be destroyed and a decision must be made about Roseanne's future. A damning indictment of the religious establishment of Ireland throughout most of the 20th century, and it offers some interesting food for thought about what makes a narrator "reliable". A decent read, but not stunning or startlingly good, IMO. 3.9 stars.

2. Also finished The Inheritance by Simon Tolkien. I was supposed to get this from the ER program in Feb, but it seems none of us ever received it. By the time it came out, I wanted to read it, and downloaded it onto Kindle. Should have opted for the library itself. Actually, it's not all that bad, just not nearly as good as it could have been. A crime is committed in the waning days of WW2; 15 years later, another crime is committed in the English countryside. Like Tolkien's previous novel, the heart of this story is the criminal trial, but there are too many inexplicable decisions made by the characters to move the plot forward. It's suspenseful enough when a last-ditch attempt is made to stop the wrong man paying the ultimate price for murder, but I had figured out the real culprit's identity about 1/3 of the way into the book, so that was no real shock. Adequately entertaining, but no more than that. 3.3 stars. For my 50-book overflow challenge.

#140: I have had The Secret Scripture in the BlackHole for a while now, but think that The Inheritance will not be joining it.

Feel better soon, Suz!

I have The Secret Scripture , and have not yet gotten to it. I hope to sometimes this year..

I am looking forward to your Morning Joe :)

Suzanne

Congratulations on your book and the well deserved accolades coming your way!

Thanks for the great review/comments regarding The Swan Thieves. I've added it to the ever-growing TBR pile.

Books du jour; including two that I read for the TIOLI challenges and that turned out to be extraordinarily good.

1. #70 for this challenge was Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald, which qualifies as my title beginning with an A for the TIOLI challenge. Where to begin? I've heard people describe this as a Holocaust novel, but that seems to me to misrepresent the nature of the book, which isn't about the Holocaust per se, and isn't even clearly a novel. Indeed, Sebald leaves it up to the reader to decide whether what he, in the first person, is recounting is fact, fiction or lies somewhere in between. It's all about the narrator's encounters with a figure named Austerlitz, first met in a railway station in Antwerp in the 1960s, and how Austerlitz unfolds his own life story -- indeed, the process of the discovery of his own life story -- to the narrator. He is dispatched on a Kindertransport train to England before his fifth birthday in 1939; within a decade, he has completely lost any memories of his early years and it comes as a shock when his schoolmaster informs him of his real name: Jacques Austerlitz. There are layers upon layers of meaning in this book that are hard to explain; Austerlitz's fascination with places, particularly railway stations and the fact that a chance observation at a railway station leads him back into his own past and his memories. Ultimately, this is a book about memory and identity, but it's a long and digressive one, and the digressions are part of its unique charm and fascination. (There are also a total of about five paragraph or section breaks in the whole book; sentences occasionally run on for pages, in much the same way that our internal monologues in our brains runs on constantly paying little heed to grammatical rules & regulations.) A fascinating and wonderful book; five stars.

2. #71 for this challenge is How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell. I ended up picking this as my TIOLI "problem" book, because I figured that if anything is a problem, it's the existential question that Bakewell examines in the first part of the title, and tries to address/answer in the book by looking at the life of Michel de Montaigne and his famous/voluminous "Essays". The 20 attempts at an answer include "Wake from the sleep of habit", "Be ordinary and imperfect" and "Survive love and loss". This is no self-help book (a genre I loathe) but rather a thoughtful literary/historical examination of Montaigne, the time in which he lived and worked, and what lessons others have drawn from his unique combination of wit, attentiveness to small details, compassion and bluntness in the centuries that have elapsed since his death in 1592. (For all you Stefan Zweig fans out there, Bakewell devotes a few pages to how Zweig spent some of his final years before his suicide in examining and writing about Montaigne.) It's a great introduction to some of the history of ideas in the late Renaissance and the centuries that followed. She links Montaigne to his classical predecessors, arguing that while he sought out the works of Seneca and Lucretius and drew on them for ideas about what it meant to live and to live well, so later generations have turned to Montaigne to ask that same question. (Bakewell cites Virginia Woolf's comments about a chain of scholarly minds, which she describes as "a series of self-interested individuals puzzling over their own lives, yet doing it cooperatively. All share a quality that can simply be thought of as 'humanity': the experience of being a thinking, feeling being who must get on with an ordinary human life". I'd recommend this strongly to anyone with an interest in literary history, ideas, etc. etc. It can be readily picked up and put down, though I'd recommend reading the chapters sequentially, as Bakewell has structured them carefully to create a "flow" of ideas and avoid a jarring, episodic structure. I ordered this book from the UK, but it will be published in the US sometime this autumn, I believe. 4.7 stars.

3. OK, after all those big thoughts, long complex sentences, etc., I needed something thoroughly whimsical. So I turned to the final volume in the Pink Carnation series (for my overflow challenge), The Betrayal of the Blood Lily. I enjoyed the Indian setting of this, and the fact that the heroine is more of an anti-heroine, with a few obnoxious personality traits to leaven the romantic fluff, but either the novelty is wearing off or it didn't click as well as the previous books; it felt less fresh and had more of the conventional romantic cliches, and fewer tongue-in-cheek comments. Oh well, it was a borrowed book, and brings me to the end (so far) of this series. I wouldn't have spent money to own it, but it's an amusing read for poolside/beach. 3 stars.

That double "THUD" you hear is the sound of two weighty books that have been added to my wish list. I thought that I had Austerlitz, but the Sebald I have is Campo Santo, his collection of essays (needless to say, I haven't read this yet). So, Austerlitz and How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer are now on my Amazon wish list. Nice reviews, Suzanne!

The Bakewell book on Montaigne sounds interesting. Thanks for that review, Suzanne.

Suz

You are almost at goal! Congratulations!

In honor of the World Cup, I suggest that we play the following video whenever anyone reaches the 75 books mark:

Soccer Announcer Goal

It would be nice to hit 200 total books and complete this challenge with the same book -- and to do it this month! We'll see... I did finish my 50-book challenge today, and probably will start another one for "overflow" books (including re-reads, mystery series & such like stuff.)

Just got an e-mail from a former Goldman Sachs banker who loved my book & thought it was spot-on. This is good news venturing into the week ahead... And I'm sneezing and coughing less; makeup hopefully will deal with the red nose!

Have become immersed in an off-the-shelf challenge book, The Zanzibar Chest by Aidan Hartley.

You are burning your way to a great book year!

Glad to hear you are feeling better...
and congrats on the banker!

I've added the Montaigne -- delighted to know about it --- I've been very slowly reading the Essays in a huge volume I bought in France last time I was there. Going at such a glacial pace that I 'm not admitting that I am currently reading it..... this might be just what I need to get re-enthused.

I hope your interviews are all smooth sailing!

Excellent reviews as always, Suz. I'm glad you are sneezing less and if make up doesn't quite cover up the red nose, add a bit more blush to your cheeks and go for the 'i've been out in the sun all weekend' look. ;-)

Adding the The Secret Scripture and the Montaigne to my obese wish list.

Adding the Montaigne to the BlackHole. I was just talking to Mary the other day about re-reading his essays next year as a year long project. I guess I will read that book as well.

I already had both Austerlitz and How to Live on my list, so am glad to see such ringing endorsements of both. My library does have the Bakewell, but it is never on the shelf - guess I will have to reserve it.

Good morning Suzanne,

I'm adding Austerlitz to the pile because I thought it was already there and have wanted to read Sebald for awhile.

hah! Stasia, I like your solution to a red nose :)

>148 kidzdoc:: GOOOOOOOOOOAAL! Great idea, Darryl. In addition, we'd all have to blow our horns at the same time.

Thank goodness your cold is better, Suzanne. Scratchy throats and red noses do not bode well for those press interviews. Good luck on your upcoming busy schedule!

I'm glad to see that being a successful writer has not interfered with all the interesting reading that you do. I think you must rival Stasia in the no-sleep department! Madly looking for my copy of Austerlitz. I've been dragging my feet on that one for some reason.

Hi Suzanne! I'm now ignoring all the pretty blue words in your thread, like Stasia's, because you're a menace to the happiness of my marriage. I want them all.

The Divine Miss and I will be watching 'Morning Joe' tomorrow, comme d'habitude, and jeering cheering you on!

I'm glad to hear that you're feeling better, Suzanne. Hopefully there will be a video clip of Morning Joe that I can watch. We'll all be with you tomorrow!

Hi all, thanks for the good wishes...
Just recorded something for Forbes.com, which won't be up on their site for a few days, I'm told. Tomorrow a.m. I'll be heading off to Bloomberg television after the Morning Joe thing, and I'll be on at either 8:45 a.m. or 9:20 a.m. -- depending on the oil spill news. The oil spill news has booted me from the Dylan Rattigan show in the later afternoon; that will be rescheduled for later, probably next week. Will keep you all posted...

Meanwhile, v. good review on Bloomberg's site -- hopefully this link will work??
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601094&sid=aT8lW9rXYJDo

The day I don't read, Donna, is the day that I will have to turn up my toes and die.

I want to see you on Charlie Rose, Suzanne! Any chance? I love his long interviews.

They're trying, Bonnie! I'm supposed to come up with some ideas of who I could be on a panel with, in case he'd be more interested that way. In my free time... :-)

#161: I had the same thought earlier today; definitely let us know if you appear on his show!

Whooohooo.... that's a great review, Suz. I knew you'd breeze through it without a hiccup.

We watch Charlie Rose every night and if we have to miss it, we Tivo it. You definitely have to let us know if you're going to be on his show.

OK, that's three people who all want you to be on Charlie Rose. I'm going to go to his site online and request it. Anyone care to join me? Email: charlierose@pbs.org

LOL, my publicist is gonna LOVE you guys!! :-)

Just found out I'll be doing a taped thing for a CBC TV show, The Lang & O'Leary Exchange. It'll be done on Thursday; I'll post the air date.

THere have you it, Suz .... Charlie is going to be inundated with emails from us demanding he invites you onto his show.

I sent my email, Suzanne, along with the link to the Bloomberg article. I'm being sincere when I say the article made me want to read your book. I already have my opinions, though--like, for example, I don't think it's anything new that those on Wall Street are working more for themselves rather their clients. I can believe that it's gotten worse, though. It's still amazes me how a rule/new law that's supposed to improve the system (e.g., deregulating fixed prices for trades which allowed competition and should be good) ended up hurting us (if I'm understanding the article correctly). Gotta go read your book to get smarter, 'cas knowledge is power, right?

Rose duly emailed...with a suggestion that he invite Blankfein to discuss with you the possibility of sending signed copies of Chasing Goldman Sachs to the entire workforce.

Really liked the review. He did a good job of scratching his head snidely...dismissing "Joe Public" as a beach-read-addicted ignoramus. To me this means that the smart readers of America are about to hit the stores. But his analysis was cogent.

I have things crossed for good luck that haven't seen each other in years.

McGee v. Blankfein -- a prizefight? Hmmm... :-)

ETA: The publicist is delighted by the e-mail campaign. Every bit helps, sez she...

Book du jour (I'm concentrating on mindless reading now, to help me brace for the media madness):

Pray for Silence by Linda Castillo is a decent read for the beach (unlike my own, according to Bloomberg!!) -- a suspense thriller that works better and is more plausible than Castillo's first book in this series introducing Amish-born cop Kate Burkholder. The book kicks off with a bang -- the murder of an entire Amish family -- and a mystery that involves the heart of the Amish way of life and one young girl's resistance to it. Okay, it's formula fiction, but the setting is interesting enough for me to give it 3.3 stars. It's forgettable, but still an entertaining read for those who like some chills with their thrillers. For my (next) overflow challenge.

#170: I will keep Pray for Silence in mind for when I am in the mood for something like that.

Good luck with all your upcoming interviews!

Watching the clock so I won't miss the 7:45 interview . . .

I am going to miss it, Rebecca, so you will have to let me know how it was!

ETA: If it comes on here at 6:45, I will be able to see it. I have MSNBC up now, so I hoping it does.

Stasia, it is a little creepy sometimes how you seem to follow me around the threads, especially my own! But I'm not complaining.

#174: I am not really following you know. It is just that you are posting and I consider it good manners to post back :)

I'm trying to watch now! b I don't **do** internet TV... but now I do.

Woot! There she is!!

It's not going!!

OK, that is so totally not fair! 5 minutes? That was it?

#165: I sent off my request too.

Way too short, Suzanne!! But you were great, and you looked great, and great to hear you!

But why was MSNBC having cable problems (at least on my set) while you were on?

ETA #175, And you have lovely manners, Stasia.

No cable problems on my end with MSNBC, but I agree - way too short!

I watched you Suzanne! You were so good! You looked and sounded so good... it was lik you do this tv thing every day. You had answers, with no hesitation and could have been even more enlightening if they had let you.. lol

well done and I am writing charlie rose too..
I have never watched it ( where and when is his show found??)

Congratulations Suz!!!

#182: Kath, I think Charlie Rose's show only airs on PBS (which I do not get.)

Someone correct me if I am wrong please.

One down -- am now in the Bloomberg green room, checking e-mail and stuff. 9:45 is the air time here. Tks for watching, all! Yes, that was an odd format, 4 on 1!!!

MSNBC always has that format...The Divine Miss calls it the Guest Gang-Bang...I'm pleased you got that much time uninterrupted reaching an audience of around a million buyers already interested in the topic!

Poise-R-Us, Suzanne, and lookin' good.

I missed it on Internet TV, but I assume that there'll be a video clip, which I'll watch later today or tomorrow. Congratulations, Suzanne!

Oh, forgot about Bloomberg -- have to figure out which channel it is!

I missed the Bloomberg one since I was out. Sorry Suz. Will try and catch whatever the next one is. Just keep us up to date!

Just watched the Bloomberg show...I liked it a lot better, because it was you and the pretty hostess, and she at least gave a good impression of having read and processed the talking points.

Scarf was pretty, too.

You did a great job of tying your book to the oil fiasco with the culture of "not believing the worst will happen because it hasn't in living memory"...your publicist should be in ecstasies of pleasure over these appearances.

...another of those whose previous thread I am going to have to catch up on at a later date... Hallo again!

WOOO! for the excellent reviews! Good luck/well done with the radio spots, hope they go well for you.

#59 Following your review on The Woman Who Fell From the Sky, I shall be adding Finding George Orwell in Burma to the wishlist instead! ;o)

#65 "Yes, they have gotten so alert that if you go somewhere or plan to do something out of your usual orbit, you have to call and tell them what you are planning or they'll block the purchase...... I think it's a good thing." - it is indeed, but it's still a pain in the arse when you are woken up at 4am in Chicago due to an automated phone call from the UK ;o)

Re the card thing, what a pain - but good to know places like Walmart are so on the ball and efficient. I have to say that this time round in the US, it did cross my mind how easy it would have been for someone to use my cards if they nicked them before I noticed it - most of the places I used them only required the card to be swiped - no signature or pin number. I was very surprised. Not that chip-and-pin is the answer to everything, but at least it's an extra level of security.

#71 The Music Room sounds wonderful. Definitely on the list.

I very thoroughly enjoyed The Historian until the end, which was a bit of a let down, so I shall have to investigate The Swan Thieves.

I've only read one William Boyd - Armadillo, but I remember becoming completely absorbed. Maybe it's time to investigate a new one...

...How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer also being added to the wishlist. Sigh.

Richard, how funny -- because Betty @ Bloomberg made zero contact with me until she started asking me questions, not even to say hello in the commercial break!! And she hadn't read the book, I think, but that's OK -- the questions were reasonable, and I wasn't too tired then. (I am now...)

TheStreet.com will have a podcast on iTunes later today, the Dow Jones FINS interview that I did last week has now been posted. http://online.wsj.com/video/an-interview-with-chasing-goldman-sachs-author/F2551...
There will be some stuff going up on the Yahoo Tech Ticker site later today/tomorrow.

Signed approx 127 copies of "da book" at 2 Borders outlook -- just their stock. Very excited; the one on Park Ave in Midtown has a big display in their window, and the Wall Street/Broadway one has a display right by the entrance.

Very drained. Tomorrow is a lunch speech, then a phone interview with Wall Street Cheat Sheet. Then Thursday 4 hours of radio interviews and a taping with a CBC show (I think).

I love getting these behind-the-scene insights. Interesting to see how it all works.

I think I've made a few sales around the office, after talking about your book today. Seems like "everyone" wants to read it. Not sure that they'll all buy it but they intend to look for it.

The Morning Joe video is up:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789/#37703290

Great job!

Thanks for posting, Darryl. Am still in catch up mode here. Actually, after waking at 3:30 (a.m.), I think it's nap time...

Sleep tight! You deserve it.

Watched all the links I could find and thought you did a great job - well done!

Have a great nap, Suz! You have had a long day.

Great job, BTW.

Suz .. you were great in the interview. So poised and no sign of a hoarse throat from your allergies either. You looked great, and sounded great.

Okay, I've finally been able to watch the "Morning Joe" segment, on my BlackBerry (my Broadband service has been wonky today). You did a great job in responding to the questions, especially since you weren't given time to fully respond to the questions and explore the issues in greater depth. I'd love to see you on "Charlie Rose" or on a segment of the "NewsHour", in a one-on-one format.

Good response to Mika's silly comment about men vs women on Wall Street!

I apologize in advance if these questions are overly basic or irrelevant; I have NO business background or acumen!

In the opening part of the interview, you mentioned the Société Générale incident. How does such a respected firm allow a "kid" to operate unsupervised, and cause such damage to a respected firm? I assume this has to do with your comment about these firms focusing more on short-term (bad) greed than long-term (good) greed. Are different countries also enacting legislation or other controls to keep these episodes from occurring again? Since these incidents are occurring in different countries, might the solution come from legislation on an international scale, or from a change in culture in international business back toward long-term goals?

Oh! My copy of Chasing Goldman Sachs came today, according to Amazon. Yay! I'll pick it up from the mail center in a bit.

Darryl -- the SocGen case is interesting, because what the guy is claiming in his defense is that his bosses were tacitly encouraging him (and aware of) his aggressive efforts to land big results by taking outsize risks. In other words, that his was really the first case in what it became clear later that year was a systemic loss of control/poor risk management.

Re risk controls, you're right -- this is the Achilles heel of all reform efforts. To work, there needs to be some kind of coordination, and such as exists tends to be voluntary and ad hoc, for instance, conferences between securities regulators, etc. There's no agency that could pass international rules, although an international group has drawn up the global rules for dealing with derivatives (they produced what is known as Basel II and are now working on a follow up.) The only thing that will work, long-term, is some kind of change in the banking DNA, which can't happen overnight. We'll never have, and don't want, altruistic bankers -- we need them to be greedy, but long-term greedy -- but we can have bankers who stop for even a millisecond and ask whether what they're about to do is rational.

Thankfully, I was warned about the Morning Joe format in advance, and I was still fresh then. Here's the podcast from the afternoon, when I was getting more tired: HTTP://WWW.THESTREET.COM/PODCASTS/REAL-STORY.HTML.

One more note -- apparently the Bloomberg review was the fourth most read story on Bloomberg yesterday. And I don't know enough people personally for that to be the reason! Scary...

Also, when we spotted the window display of books at Borders on Park Ave this a.m., it was as two guys glanced at it and walked by. "That's the new Goldman Sachs book,", one informed the other -- and then they tried to go indoors and buy it (but the store was still closed...) I felt like saying, nope, that's the new Wall Street book -- and then hugging them and giving them free copies. But -- I am Canadian, and raised partly in London, after all!! :-)

That must have been a great feeling !

Well I'm really late getting to this party but congratulations on your interviews Suzanne and I'll keep trying to get these links to work. Grrr.

Hi Suzanne, I watched the Morning Joe segment and you did great - congrats! It's not my favorite show and that Mika makes me crazy (and well, so does Joe, frankly). But I just wanted to say I liked your response to her ridiculously sexist comment.

How about a Daily Show appearance?! Charlie Rose would be great, too!

#204, the publicist is going for both, Joanne. Fingers crossed. Jon Stewart would be great; he is SO on the ball, although I'm not sure I could keep up with him in terms of banter.

Chiming in to say that you were very good -- they were like the weasels in The Wind in the Willows all darting and dash and teeth and claws but you were the calm and brave Water Rat and more than equal to dispatching and correcting them! Kudos!

>205 Chatterbox: - As it happens, I'm watching The Daily Show right now and he's interviewing Betty White. She seems to be handling him OK. ;)

Seriously, I think he's pretty even handed unless someone's obviously BSing him. I think a really difficult interviewer would be Stephen Colbert in his Colbert Report persona.

But heck, honestly, I'd be a wreck anywhere so I admire your ability to get out there and promote your book!

Great interviews! You are so cool, calm and collected (and smart)! I'm picking up your book soon.

I wish I had cable and could have watched the interview! Sounds like you're doing a fantastic job of marketing yourself/the book so far :) But oh, how tiring! Here in Canada I'm not sure we have your book on the shelves, but I'll be checking next time I'm in a bookstore...!

Jon Stewart is a sympathetic interviewer - Colbert, on the other hand would be scary.

>209 dk_phoenix:: I don't have cable either--just go to the link...uh, where is it, Suzanne? I just clicked on the Morning Joe one last night. (I know I'm not crazy, I know I'm not crazy...)

>211 bonniebooks: Bonnie, it's in post #193 above.

I saw the Morning Joe interview. That woman, grrrrrr.

Anyway, am reading the book and enjoying it. Understandable even to a business/finance dunce like me.

OK I finally got to see the Morning Joe interview, well, I'm not sure interview is the right word. They seemed more interested in their own views than yours. You did a yeoman's job though Suzanne. I would have melted under pressure I'm sure.

The book should be on shelves in Canada as well -- it is def. being distributed there, and I'm doing a "hit" for the CBC tomorrow late afternoon, for the Lang O'Leary Exchange, which should air tomorrow evening nationwide in Canada. (It will be taped, not live, but a remote interview...)

Finished a lunch speech gig, now waiting for a phone interview with "Wall Street Cheat Sheet". Tomorrow is my mammoth 4-hour radio "satellite tour", where I sit in an office and talk to one radio station after another...

Yes, Stewart would be great, although I'm not as articulate or as snappy as he is. Agree re Colbert; that show is more about him doing his shtick.

ETA: Would any of you who e-mailed C. Rose let me know what response you got, if any? (Publicist request; she is following up on this.) Just shoot me a PM... tks...

I looked for the Bloomberg interview...what a crazy website...and couldn't find it. Damn and blast! Betty Thingummy did an actual interview with you, and I'd like to have that available for the Charlie Rose Show folks. Though they're part of the Bloomberg empire, now I think on it, so can just go clonk Betty in the hall and ask her for it.

Plus I followed up my suggestion of pairing you with Lloyd Blankfein with a suggestion that you debate Andrew Ross Sorkin of the Times. His column yesterday was about Goldman Sachs, and he sounded a little like he was on their side...he quotes Herr Immelt as saying something on the lines of "people need to drop the populism and grow up"...I about had an aneurysm!

I haven't gotten a response--even looked in my junk mail!

no response for me yet either...

nor me either! So much for being a member of WGBH!

You were cool as a cucumber, Suzanne, and you had a great scarf on! Good thinking about "taking the Fifth" with that airhead remark about women.

As others have said, it is so cool to know a little about what goes on behind the scenes in book promotion. I wish you all the best. You're off to a flying start!

I've been lurking here but just wanted to offer my congratulations and echo what others have said, about how well you came off in the Morning Joe piece!

Thanks for all the support & nice comments -- it is GREATLY appreciated!

Now, on to what I've been reading!! It's a very mixed bag...

#72 for this challenge was Philanthrocapitalism by Matthew Bishop. This was an unusual kind of book for me, because it ended up being a 3.5 star read, but I think another reader would find it more interesting than I did. I write a lot about philanthropy myself, and the heart of this book is really the various stories of the big new self-made billionaire donors. These are intriguing, as is the thinking/philosophy behind it, but it's a story I know well and there are few fresh insights or personalities for me here. There were, however, some gaps. Some aren't the problem of Bishop and his co-author; the book was published in 2008, and so couldn't have been expected to address whether the crisis that reached its height that year will transform the degree to which the world is willing to accept that hedge fund billionaires can or should adopt business strategies to solving major global problems. That's a question that it will take a decade to answer, but today it's a hole in the book. Another is more significant: one of the biggest weaknesses in philanthropy is the difficulty in measuring impact, and the ways to control unintended consequences. For instance, for all the obsession with digging wells for clean water in Africa, there are few philanthropic dollars flowing to the construction of equally-needed sewage systems or even irrigation projects -- they just don't have as much "buzz". These hard questions are touched on only in passing in what is generally a very admiring look at the activities of the likes of Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and George Soros. What may make this a 4-star read for others are some insights into some lesser-known figures, as well as the historical context (Andrew Carnegie, etc.) Most helpful for someone who is interested but not knowledgeable, and it's a well-written book.

2. I had much more fun reading La memoire des flammes by Armand Cabasson. It's the third of a series of mysteries featuring the redoubtable Quentin Margont, an officer in Napoleon's army. (The first two have been translated into English and I'm assuming the third will follow.) This was a particularly good one as Margont is in Paris in 1814, commanded to infiltrate a group of royalist conspirators who may be attempting to stab Napoleon's regime in the back even as the Emperor makes a last-ditch attempt to fight off the invaders from every other European nation, and save the capital. The tension is incredible; the danger from within and without moves closer by the minute, as the Allies encircle Paris and a conspirator seeks personal revenge on Napoleon himself. Great twists. Recommended to historical mystery buffs; I see it's available from Amazon in English under the title of Memory of Flames, although there appears to be no Touchstone listing for it. 4.5 stars, for my 1010 Challenge.

3. For my overflow challenge, read a rather good English chick lit book, Take a Chance on Me by Jill Mansell. Nothing at all novel about the plot, which involves the usual collection of female friends and relatives all facing different kinds of crises (esp. relationship ones) and resolving them. But well written and lively. After countless books, this author continues to entertain without flagging. (Her books are published in the US by Sourcebooks.) Only for chick lit readers. 4 stars.

4. Not for anyone: I don't know why I still read Mary Higgins Clark, but I picked this up from the library out of nostalgia and to fit another book into a TIOLI challenge (an author with three names). But The Shadow of Your Smile is dreadful -- stilted, dated writing (dialogue feels as if it came from the 1940s or 1950s) and an overly-complex plot with cookie-cutter characters and heavy handed plot developments. In the words of a friend of mine, a real "wallbanger". (as in, one throws it at the wall, and puts a dent in the latter...) 1.5 stars; finished more out of horrified fascination and lack of alternative reading material with me in my bag than anything else.

I have never read anything by Mary Higgins Clark and it does not sound like I need to start! I hope your next read is better for you, Suz.

I will have to see if I can find the Cabasson books. They sound very good.

I'm way, way, way behind on all threads because of the work situation and not particularly au fait on what everyone is doing. I vaguely knew you had a book coming out about something...but there was this confusion about doing something with genealogy? Didn't I read posts about that? Am I going senile? Whatever.

Anyway...the point being that, now that I have caught up and realize what is going on, I realize I actually have a copy of your book on my Kindle already. I picked it up after reading Stiglitz' Freefall and becoming interested in learning more about the whole thing. There was just no reason (in my mind) to connect you Suzanne with the author Suzanne.

:-D

222/223: Yea, I read my first Mary Higgins Clark earlier this year (Nighttime is My Time) and wasn't all that impressed with it. =/

I have read Mary Higgens Clark.. I couldn't enjoy a steady diet of her, but a fluffy take my mind of stress read? That works for me. Same with BArbara MIchaels who I belive is the better writer of the two.

finished more out of horrified fascination and lack of alternative reading material with me in my bag than anything else.


LOL. I am surprised to hear you say you still read Mary Higgins Clark. I would have never guessed.

#227, Well, I won't be any more...

OK, the CBC thing will air tonight, on Newsworld, at 7 p.m. Eastern. That's Lang & O'Leary. Will try and post a link later, when I have one. Nationwide, for all the Canadians. Bracing for a bunch of radio stuff. 12:30 in LA, 12:45 on WCBS in NYC, 1:10 in Sacramento, 1:30 in San Francisco, 2:30 in Fresno, 2:40 in Washington DC, 3 p.m. in Milwaukee (the hour-long thing.) Then off to the studio...

*pants desperately to keep up with Suzanne's doin's*

Wow. That sounds like an excellent push! I shall cross things that haven't seen each other in years for your bestsellerdom to come soon!

I am reading Julia Child's My Life in France and when she said "Seeing one's inadequate English frozen into type was a lesson in humility" I immediately thought of you and your having to read and re-read your book repeatedly. I know you are going to have as much success with yours as she did with hers, Suz!

Just wanted to let you know that the Barnes & Noble at 83rd & Broadway has Chasing Goldman Sachs VERY prominently displayed. It is on the new nonfiction table that is right there when you enter the store, and it is in the middle on the top section of the display so it is the first thing someone will notice. Good work on your publisher's part!

Hey there. Chiming in a bit late. I watched your Morning Joe interview. You did a very nice job. That kind of banter can be difficult because you don't want to joke around and say something people can take out of context. You handled it very well.

One thing to think about...Next time you are on tv in a panel like that, you may want to adjust your chair so the seat is higher. Particularly when you are in a situation where you are at a table and they will take long shots of you. Since you are on the shorter side, visually you can look unimportant (and we at LT all know you are very important). I am on the short side too, so our media trainer at work suggested that to me.
Most tv interviews will just be head shots so you should not have to worry too much about it, just keep it in mind if you get that shot at Charlie Rose.

Definitely -- tks for the tip! Alas, on Morning Joe, they just usher you to the table, and tell you to sit still -- no chair adjusting permitted! I'd almost rather perch on a stool, as I did at Bloomberg... Some chairs aren't adjustable, I've found. I'm actually NOT looking at the video clips -- I'll freeze up and be unable to do any more TV if I do. Did the CBC spot, and Dylan Rattigan on MSNBC has been rescheduled for next Weds, after I tape Weekend Edition for NPR.

Rebecca, thanks for reporting the sighting!!! We took pics of the display in a midtown Borders. Mebbe should drop by B&N and offer to sign some of those books... :-)

Report from Atlanta: Chasing Goldman Sachs was prominently displayed amongst the new hardcover titles near the front entrance of the Borders in Buckhead this evening.

yay!!!!!!!!!!

Let me just say, for the record, that you guys are the best cheering section/support network/promotional network I could ever hope to have stumbled across in my wildest dreams. You'll go into the acknowledgments on the paperback edition, but I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU now...

(before I collapse in exhaustion on my 'day off' -- which must be spent cleaning, organizing, returning horribly overdue DVDs and other suchlike stuff...)

>236 Chatterbox: Shucks, Suzanne, we have to pull together for our own, don't we? All's I did was write one little email.

Not too bad of an email, if I say so myself, but just one.

I am going to have to go to the local Books A Million and Borders and check on the displays. I will keep you posted on how things look down Texas way, Suz.

I'll have reports from Bider and Tanner and Thalia here next week - both have great NF sections. Glad you have a day off!

Hi, Suzanne,
A lurker jumping in here. Is your book being published in the UK? All this discussion has made me really interested in it, but I'd rather buy it here than order from the US, if that's going to be possible.
thanks, and congratulations,
Janet

Janet, while I resemble Suzanne only in the broadest outlines...two eyes, a nose, etc etc...I am pleased to report that amazon.co.uk will offer the book for a mere fourteen pounds seventy-nine beginning 15 July!

Great, thanks, Richard - I guess I should have checked there before asking a silly question.

I picked up my copy from the library in Howard County, Maryland, yesterday. I got on the list early, so snagged one of the first copies. Looks like there's a bit of a waiting list now. Eventually want to pick up my own copy, but am holding out for a book signing in my area...8^}

Or I can just mail you one, Janet... :-) PM me your snail mail address. They haven't yet sold the UK rights, so it's interesting that Amazon is selling it. Unless Crown/Random House has forgotten to tell me something...

Dr. N -- will be in the DC area week after next, but still not sure about signings. Politics & Prose is waaay booked up, and the publicist wants me to hit media vs bookstores. But would be delighted to grab a coffee & wield a pen when I'm in town.

Woke up with my first large-ish migraine since I was in Salt Lake City this morning. Probably not a surprise, but I'm glad it didn't hit last week!!

Crown is publishing it themselves in the UK, or so that link informs us.

It could be American-edition copies imported to the UK, but that's usually indicated somehow. Time for a call to the sub-rights department, after the migraine that is.

Richard, I suspect the former -- the cover is the same one. And I'm pretty sure they would have told me about a UK deal. I do know that I'll have a review coming out in the Telegraph there, but not when. Will post. Next week I'll know what's in the NY Times review -- gulp.

I'm about 20% done with the Kindle version, and thus far have been able to understand everything I've read which means you've done well indeed.

I'll report on display prominence from my local B&N and Borders sometime this weekend. I love the idea of this little group of LTers running around on your behalf.

#247 I guess they'd probably notice if we went to bookstores and moved the book so that it was prominently displayed (if it were not already so displayed), wouldn't they?

I am 55% done in the Kindle edition. Read a bit while cooling my heels in the doctor's waiting room this morning.

I am going to the Borders at L & 18th in DC after work, so I will take a look there for you.

If I go by the other bookstores in my area this weekend, I will look there too.

I plan to read it as well.. it is on the list.. believe me, this is not one I will pass up. Everyone says how easy it is to understand, and having followed the nighmare of the economy on the news over the last years, I have hope :)

#241, 246 I saw it on amazon.co.uk too yesterday when I went to see if/when it would be available here. I was wondering how they manage to sell it at a discounted price already - and how long before a paperback is due out?

Genny, the hardcover came out three days ago, so the paperback won't be out for almost a year... Sorry about that!

ETA: the price the publishers charge booksellers is significantly less than the cover price. The difference is their margin; online retailers like Amazon can really cut that to the bone, as can folks like Target or Wal-Mart. (Or Tesco/Asda in the UK)

I guessed it might be a while! I will have to be patient, or a little extravagant.

Barnes and Noble in suburban Pittsburgh has about 10 copies on the front of the New Non-fiction table as you walk in the door. I'm reading it on the Kindle so it was very nice to hold it in my hands for a few minutes.

Genny, if it's on sale in the UK however that takes place, can you ask your library?

I'd really love to read this - perhaps I'll borrow from Janet. Does Crown have a UK office/publicity I could contact? - I'll talk to Sue at the Bookbag about reviewing it there?

Elkie, I'll talk to Crown about this on Monday. They're a division of Random House, so there is some kind of UK office; also, if you/Sue are interested in reviewing, I'm very sure they'll pop a copy or two into the mail for you. (There's a big stash of them in my publicist's office for that very purpose...)

Ahem...message count alert...you have exceeded the recommended dosage of 250 messages and need to start thread #5, or I will leave your author profile with its current me-inserted birth year.

Such a bully, Richard... How am I going to keep up with my OWN life and reading if I have to keep moving threads???

Nonetheless, here's the new one here. Come visit, everyone...

Thanks Suzanne, the Bookbag reviews books for various Random House imprints - they send lots - and they even sent me a replacement review copy when one got lost in the post.