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

Already???
But Richard is threatening dire things if I don't start a new thread. So here it is...

You can catch up on the last few threads here:

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

The running total of books read for this challenge is here:




And the running total for all the books I've read so far this year is here:




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 Worl by Tash Aw
Ill Fares the Land by Tony Judt
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
Mrs. Adams in Winter by Michael O'Brien
The Music Room by William Fiennes
The Last Stand by Nathaniel Philbrick
Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald
Ordinary Thunderstorms by William Boyd
In Pursuit of Silence by George Prochnik
Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick

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

Found you again!

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 **** STARTED 6/13/10, FINISHED 6/22/10
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

First visitor!

#5: Nope - I beat you, Cushla :) Check out message 3, lol.

hallooo!

Rdear is the thread police... strangely we all do as he says...
* waves at rd and considers new ballcaps to complete his outfit*

I am going to B&N this morning.. hope to remember to check :)

>8 mckait: OOO OOO a new ballcap would be wonderful! The current two (collection sadly depleted, sigh) are a little the worse for my insistence on washing them every two weeks. (I hate stinky headgear.)

But I confess...I had to look up "ballcap"...I still call 'em gimme caps.

Dire things, Suzanne? I thought you'd be amused by the idea of being born in 1940. *quick check* Why, you've left it up! How surprising!

Richard, I like the idea of being an eminence grise who looks sooo much younger than her age!!

Yes, Stasia got in there before I had even managed to finish posting my book lists! *eyes roll*.

btw, my book now has its very own FB page, for those of you who are on FB and want to become its friend -- just check out the title and you should find it.

#10: Your eyes are going to get stuck (as my mother used to say!) lol

Suzanne.. I was at the Cranberry B&N this morning, and saw your book on the table to the right of the door with NEW NON fiction...
I stood a copy ... :) and moved them to the closer to the door side... shhhhhhh

rd.. hmmm I imagine that if you call it a gimmee cap a ballcap could send a totally different picture. One I prefer not to dwell on at the minute...I would like to see a pic of you gimmee capped ..

I have one, it is denim and says the name of where I work on it. I like it a lot.. but my hair sticks wildly out the sides.. kinda scary, yet I don't care

>10 Chatterbox: I like the idea of being an eminence grise who looks sooo much younger than her age A wise, wise choice. I tell pwople I'm 50, and they nod and smile; I tell them I'm 65,, suddenly they're all over me for the secret to looking so young.

All in the packaging, eh what?

Side note: take a look at this blog for an informative view of publishing's creative energies vis-a-vis covers/jackets.

The book jacket stuff is hilarious. (Someone with too much time on their hands???) That said, apparently when someone does a photo shoot for a particular cover, once the actual cover has been chosen, the photog. then will try to resell the other images. There are a couple of historical fiction covers which are of the same model, wearing the same dress, in the same stone castle, to promote books by different authors set centuries apart!

ETA: Kath, you are evil -- but inspired!! :-)

Two more books read.

1. For my off-the-shelf challenge, The Zanzibar Chest by Aidan Hartley. It's an occasionally fascinating, occasionally chilling look at the life of an African correspondent, but Hartley is different: he was born in Kenya, the child of two colonial-era settlers who met in colonial Yemen and raised their family in Africa. He wrestles with that heritage, while watching the successor regimes to the colonial ones collapse in corruption, violence and anarchy. There are some truly deeply chilling scenes of warfare in Somalia and Rwanda, in particular, and of the life of a war correspondent and what that does to someone's humanity. It's a bit of a choppy book, as Hartley intersperses chapters of his own experiences with shorter chapters devoted to the story of one of his father's closest friends, long dead in Yemen, whose diary he finds after his own father's death in the Zanzibar chest of the title. It's not always clear why he's telling this second thread of the story, and the two narratives don't fit together well. This is not a book to read if you're looking for a sympathetic & heroic figure, but it will give you a lot of insight into the way that the 'romantic' but oppressive Africa of colonial days has morphed into something truly toxic. Hard to know how to rate this -- 3.8 stars?

2. For my overflow challenge (50-book challenge), A Room Swept White by Sophie Hannah. The latest gritty mystery by this author revolves around mothers mistakenly accused of killing their infant children, who died as cot deaths. It's one of those perenially challenging topics, and Hannah confronts it head-on. As with her other books, the story is told from multiple different points of view: principally, the documentary filmmaker who is suddenly handed the job of making a film about the miscarriages of justice (or were they miscarriages of justice??) and the police who investigate when one of the women who has ultimately been vindicated of killing her children is found dead. It would be hard for anyone to follow the narrative of the police without having read the previous books in the series -- they are a bunch of eccentric and, frankly, often not that sympathetic characters. (Usually that doesn't bother me; in this series, though, I end up rolling my eyes.) The documentary filmmaker is an intriguing character, with secrets of her own, and I would have been happy to have read the whole story from her POV. Another 3.8 stars for this one. Great plot, with a super twist at the end, but not always well executed.

I think I will pass on both of those, at least for now.

Have stuck The Zanzibar Chest onto my wishlist Suzanne - thanks.
And I found your FB book page!

I too will pass on both. I have read 2 of Sophie Hannah's books, and that was enough for me. She just doesn't do it for me. I am always so disappointed when a great idea falls flat in a book :(

AS for the other.. my plan is for light reading for now.. and not buying or borrowing anything that does not grab me immediately. My tbr is too deep and wide for that...

Suzanne.. once all of the hustle and bustle is over for this book, do you have another idea in the works.... have you answered this and I missed it? I haven't gotten yours yet, but it is firmly on the list. It is one that my husband ( who just started reading actual books this year) says he wants to read too...

Suzanne, I haven't searched through your other threads but are you a Barbara Nadel fan? Just bought one - Sure and Certain Death - at Bider and Tanner.

I like Barbara Nadel's Istanbul series - I have a few to catch up on, think I've read the first 6, and want to read the WWII series of which Sure and Certain Death is one of at least 4 now.

I met the author a few times years ago - her son worked in the crime fiction bookshop that I used to go to before it closed down, was reopened by a new owner and closed down again. We also talked to each other a bit at a crime fiction convention thousands of miles away in California. I read her books after the first time I heard her speak (a couple of years before I actually got to talk to her in person) as her enthusiasm for Istanbul came across so vividly.

Oddly, I have some Barbara Nadel books (they tend to be hard to find here; I don't think she has a US publisher) from both series, but so far they linger unread on my TBR stack... Shall have to do something about that.

ETA: Assuming I can stay awake long enough, I'm due at Bloomberg to do a radio interview (live) on the "The Hays Advantage" show starting at 2:30 p.m. Eastern.

Break a {limb of your choice} at 2:30 today!

Oooh, hope it goes well for you!

Just popping in to say hello, and I 'm so impressed by the reviews of your book. I hope to check out the interview links on your last thread when I get more time!

Books du jour!

1. #73 for this challenge was Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann. Hmmm. Read this on the recommendation of several LTers, and I can certainly understand why many people love it. It's an intriguing premise, but IMO, unevenly delivered. Some of the interlinked stories are fascinating, others left me completely cold. And while McCann does a good job of coming up with different 'voices' for his very different characters (a judge, a prostitute, a computer hacker, etc.), they vary in the degree to which they are convincing. I ended up feeling this was a very clever novel; often extremely well-written, but sometimes also over-written and too self-consciously clever. The degree to which the stories are entwined with each other and with that of the tightrope walker was too much of a stretch for me to accept. So while I appreciated this as a book, I didn't love it, and can't see re-reading it. 4.1 stars. I'd recommend it, but not nearly as enthusiastically as I would several other novels I've read this year. I think part of my problem is that I could just see McCann at his desk, chewing the end of his pen, and saying to himself, "now that I'm writing the great Irish-American novel, how should I structure this sentence?"

2. For my overflow challenge, The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. by Sandra Gulland. This is the first in a trilogy of historical novels based on the life of Josephine Bonaparte, although she doesn't become Josephine until the end of this book, which deals with her early life, including her imprisonment during the French Revolution. Not literature a la Hilary Mantel (but then, little measures up to her writing & plotting) but a "thumping good read" that I found intriguing because it deals with the part of the French Revolution that people forget about -- the years that elapsed between the end of the Terror and the rise of Napoleon. Recommended to anyone interested in the period who likes historical fiction; 3.8 stars.

The radio interview went very well, I think; hopefully, that augurs well for the Weekend Edition interview, which I will record on Wednesday and which will air on NPR on Sunday.

Hmm.. I think I'll pass on Zanzibar Chest Suz, but A Room Swept White sounds like it's right up my alley.

Congratulations on the radio interview. How many more radio, print and tv interviews will you have to do? Have there been any questions posed to you that you haven't expected yet?

Caro, only one person has argued that the book means that I'm not a capitalist, and started griping about free checking vanishing. I pointed out that free checking is like "commission free" foreign exchange -- what you don't pay in up-front commission, you end up paying for in some other way (i.e. the exchange rate, or the amount of risk the bank is taking to replace the lost checking income.) I did have one caller last week on the Milwaukee show who took it into v. arcane territory by asking about changes to net capital rules and FAS 157. (Don't ask...)

Tomorrow: about a dozen radio interviews in 4 hours, then a phone Q&A with a website. Weds is MSNBC and Weekend Edition. Friday, I'm doing an interview for a documentary that will air (sometime) on PBS. Monday, another radio interview. Then I'm in DC for the rest of next week.

One radio thing (an ABC affiliate and Sirius XM) scheduled for later in July. And the PR machine is still cranking on, so who knows what else will happen. I sat in Charlie Rose's green room at Bloomberg today!!

I sat in Charlie Rose's green room at Bloomberg today!! It's an omen of things to come....

I am with Richard - that is a good omen!!

I have 21 radio interviews in the next four hours... Gah!!! (They call it a "satellite radio tour"...)

Sorry you didn't like LTGWS more, but if we all loved the same books, life would be boring.

Good luck! Yikes, that is a lot. I'm glad it's all going so well, and I laughed about the talk back guy asking you such hard questions.

#20 Elkiedee, that's interesting and bodes well for the book - I saw the Istanbul ones yesterday too but thought I'd start with one of the London ones.

Wow - so many interviews - I'm amazed you have time to read anything at all!

Well, all of these last about 10 minutes!! I'm on an 8-minute break now -- not enough time to read anything, certainly...

Lots of hot tea with honey to keep the vocal cords in good working order, Suz. Good luck!

Hope the satelite tour went well.

Don't have much of a voice left... Kind of raspy. My moniker notwithstanding, I don't think I've ever talked for 5 hours straight before. With one or two exceptions, it generally went well; amazing how different the questions were & the shows/hosts were. The biggie gets recorded tomorrow: Weekend Edition; it will air on Sunday, so check your NPR station!!

I am glad to hear things went well for you today, Suz!

Books du jour: from the more or less sublime, to the downright silly.

1. Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev, for my 1010 Challenge, but also a TIOLI challenge book (in the books about fathers category). This is a deceptively slim and straightforward book about two fathers and two sons; the two fathers doting on their radical sons in 19th century Russia; the two sons uncomfortable with the weight of parental expectations and trying to find their own paths. It's also the tale of a rapidly-changing Russia. I found this a fascinating novel and one in which I expect to find fresh layers of meaning and fresh food for thought whenever I re-read it. While I think of novelists like Tolstoy and Dostoevski as unique and very Russian, Turgenev, in this novel, strikes me almost as being a Russian version of a French novelist -- say, a Russian Balzac or Flaubert, someone taking very plain plot elements and yet dealing with very fundamental human issues. An impressive novel; I read the updated Garnett translation published by the Modern Library. 4.7 stars. Recommended to anyone looking for a 'realistic' novel set in the 1850s/1860s in Russia.

2. And now to the ridiculous - Gilding Lily by Tatiana Boncompagni. A friend had suggested I read this, since I write about the antics of hedge fund managers. Allegedly, it's a kind of chick lit riff on House of Mirth by Edith Wharton; in this case, Lily Bart becomes Lily Bartholomew, but she doesn't die. Indeed, all she does is recognize the folly of trying to be a socialite. Thin fodder for a book. I don't need warm and fuzzy characters in a book, but I do need them to be convincing, and the ones in this book are implausible and stereotyped. I finished it, but only because I needed to distract myself from the pending radio interview marathon. Don't try it unless you're desperate for reading material; even chick lit fans will find a lot that is better out there. I'm very glad this was a borrowed book. 2.2 stars, for my 50-book overflow challenge.

*gasp* L...L...Lily Bart dies?!?

*flees weeping*

We agree on Let the Great World Spin ....

*wonders if rdear is reading wrong or if I am....*

eta

*hands rd a tissue *

There, there, Richard; she will live on forever in the pages of House of Mirth....

#27 : First the seat in Charlie Rose's green room ... next, the phone call from your publicist's PR cogs telling you that you're going to be interviewed by the man himself.

I like the sound of Fathers and Sons ... must add to my obese wish list.

Ooh ooh.. I always listen to Weekend Edition on NPR ... so I'll get to hear your interview. Whoohoo!

Now I've heard everything - there are many chick lit books derived from Pride and Prejudice and Austen's other novels, but one based on Edith Wharton? It sounds so preposterous I almost want to read it, but probably won't if I have to spend money.

Bantam Classics for P&P? Silly touchstones.

Can't wait to hear you on Weekend Edition on Sunday!!

How exciting for you!

Suzanne - Wondering if you are thinking of doing an LT Author Chat? Perhaps after the craziness of this initial release period.

I'm a little over halfway through the book and thinking that John Q. Public could do much, much worse at the beach.

Nancy, am certainly up for doing that, perhaps in mid-July (prime beach season!!!). I'll have to create a stand-alone author page first, however...

Oddly, I'm not really excited; a little bit numb and a lot grateful and relieved that the reactions are positive. And a bit nervous that the NY Times book review (we should have it tomorrow...) will not be good. If so, then there is still more riding on the NPR stuff.

#44 -- I would send you my copy if it weren't borrowed -- thought it's prob. not worth the postage! Some of the B&B ripoffs are at least amusing; this was just heavy handed. Good chick lit is like a great souffle -- full of air, sure, but tasty and light and kind of fluffy. Bad chick lit is a souffle that has collapsed -- not only unappetizing to look at, but tasting kind of heavy and stodgy. (How's that for an analogy??)

ETA: I have just created a page in my 'real' name and requested an LT author badge.

ETA #2: Stasia, you'll be pleased to hear my editor is happy to add a glossary to the paperback edition -- in response to your specific concerns! :-)

It's definitely not worth international postage - in my view, very little is, unless it's the recent work of a couple of Australian crime writers I just can't get hold of here. I know what you mean about bad chick lit.

Message 46: nancyewhite .. you are a genius! We take you for granted Suzanne.. having this opportunity to chat with you.. it is good to share.. just come right back home. please?

Oooh, good luck with the New York Times review tomorrow - fingers crossed.

I've been thinking that I need to add Turgenev to my Russian authors list - sounds like Fathers and Sons could be a good place to start...

>47 Chatterbox: Suzanne, is it in the NYTBR itself, so you're getting Wednesday delivery, or is a Book of the Times for today? I'll check the Times, of course, but I have my fingers crossed for the NYTBR itself...more prestige, wider reach.

It is, indeed, Richard, the NY Times Book Review -- the thingummy that is included in the massive heavyweight Sunday Times. And I'm going to go hunt for it online right now (since I don't get it automatically...)

#47: Woot! I am glad to hear about the glossary.

The Turgenev sounds very good Suzanne so I'm adding it. I listen to NPR so I hope to catch your interview.

Read the Fathers and Sons waaaay back in High School...don't remember much about that one. I was a Dostoyevsky girl...

Love the idea Gilding Lily....Edith Wharton has been one of my favorites for years..House of Mirth is no laugh-fest

I'll keep an Ear open on Sunday!!

;-}

Suz: I looked but couldn't find the review online today. :-(

I don't think they put the Sunday book review stuff up until Thursday -- that's when I think I get an e-mail preview of the Book Review from the Times.

It's rather snarky. Apparently the book is dry and contains no new ideas; he has no idea why anyone would read it. By Felix Salmon, of Reuters. Snarky is my editor's description, not mine. I can't have an opinion, because that's bad form among authors... :-/ But I will admit that I am very very bummed about it.

ETA: They combined it with a review of Jimmy Cayne's autobiography, so it's not a standalone review.

Book du jour: Book #74 for this challenge, Searching for Order by Anna Pavord. For me, this could have been a fascinating book, as it deals with the transmission of knowledge and the ways in which the scholars of the classical world and the Renaissance/Enlightenment era tried to impose some kind of order on an increasingly anarchic arena -- the world of plants. Descriptions of plants abounded, but for centuries there was no way for those living in different countries or regions to understand the similarities or differences between what they had in their respective fields and gardens. In brief, there was no concept of what a species was. Pavord does a great job of chronicling the series of innovators who first sought to describe and only later to categorize; a more uneven job of setting the cultural/social/political/scientific scene, but doesn't do as well in describing why this "sorting" was necessary, beyond the need for order as more new plants flooded into Europe in the wake of explorations in the Americas. She disdains the utilitarian purpose of the quest for order (i.e. if we can be sure of what it is we're using, we can use plants for medicinal purposes) at the expense of pure science, but never really comes to grips with why that pure science created a compelling need. It felt a bit like the old saying -- why does a mountaineer climb Everest? Because it's there. So ultimately this was an uneven read. There were the occasional odd little historical errors, which became annoying and mounted up as the book progressed. For instance, Charles V is described as "King of Burgundy and the Netherlands"; at the time Pavord is referring to, he was actually Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain (more important titles, surely); he was never king of Burgundy, which didn't have a king, but had a duke. She also refers to William Cecil (later an advisor to Elizabeth I) as Robert Cecil; Robert Cecil was actually his son, not yet born at the time in question. One or two of these would just be niggling; these strike me instead as careless. Still, there are many fascinating bits and pieces in this book, and its discussion of the rediscovery of classical texts will earn it a place on my shelves. I'd only recommend it to anyone who is fascinated by both scientific history and botany, however. A gardener would love this book, but Pavord's only well-known book, The Tulip is a much more compelling and better organized read. 3.8 stars.

#59: Skipping that one. The factual errors would drive me nuts. I have a problem with them in fiction books - in nonfiction, I consider them completely unacceptable.

Yes, Stasia; it's weird, almost as if she was punctilious about the stuff she really cared about (the plants) and didn't check some really straightforward facts in other parts of the book. Tiny stuff, in isolation, but...

You might really like The Tulip, though.

#61: OK, I will look for The Tulip rather than Searching for Order.

Gathering the lost feathers of 3 birds, a red candle and fouled water ( among other things) in order to work up a hex for the snark. Hope he has one of those back scratchers rd talks about. He will need it. ( * counts out 7 black pebbles*)

>59 Chatterbox: Did she self-publish this marvy? If not, it's the EDITOR who gets the full opprobrium for this. She can make mistakes, it's human and we all do; but the editor is preparing this book for the marts of commerce and has a different, higher responsibility.

"King of Burgundy"! It was no longer anything more than a geographic expression as of 1477. Bah.

>63 mckait: So Kath has the skin...my voodoo dolly and I will take care of, well, other parts.

Hope he doesn't need to pee very often. It'll hurt.

#61 "Tiny stuff, in isolation, but..." - yes, but not impressive...

True, the editor has ultimate responsibility, but every author knows that you can't rely on them for fact-checking...

All the Job's comforters are being heard from today here -- not you guys, natch, but IRL.

We're going to set up a group LT hex on the snarky editor, Suz ! Soon he'll be covered in boils, be constipated, develop 3 hernias, can't pee without screaming and gout will develop in his toes and knees.

Can we write rebuttals to the snarky review? I can be snarky right back at him!

Tks for all the moral support... It's probably best not to snark back at snarky people. I'm hoping that people reading it will be bemused by the tone, shrug, and buy the book anyway. I have my fingers crossed that the Telegraph review will be positive, and there is still the Financial Times review to come. The Bloomberg review was positive. So maybe the Times will be the outlier?

Can you see how hard I'm trying to be philosophical about this?? :-)

Being philosophical is all you can do, Suz. You cannot control what the snark writes, but you can control your interviews, promos, etc. and you know you have the support of the group members here. We will spread the word around too!

>69 Chatterbox: {{{Suzanne}}}

I know it's a completely different genre but Marilyn Stasio's crime fiction reviews in that publication are a frequent source of puzzlement and irritation to a lot of the genre readers I know.

While the New York Times obviously brings books a lot of publicity, many of those who read reviews even in "quality" papers, perhaps especially in such papers, don't assume the reviewers have the last word.

It's probably best not to snark back at snarky people. agreed.. but hexing is okay...right?

>73 mckait: Even if hexing *isn't* okay, it's already done, so heck wit' it.

that is what I was thinking :)

The "snarky" review of Chasing Goldman Sachs that will appear in the Sunday New York Times book review section is now available online:

Risk Mismanagement

Gah. Thanks....

I wouldn't mind a good debate over whether the ideas are solid or not, even if he concluded they stunk. But it's disappointing that he decided to just dismiss them. Can I hope no one will read it -- the review, I mean??

I don't think many people will be dissuaded by the review, really. There will always be some of course, but those few people who are narrow-minded enough to so easily be swayed by a single review probably aren't the kind of people you want reading your book in the first place, right? ;)

I agree with Stephen. That review isn't something many people will read...talk about dry and overlong!

As one of the 'lay readers' the reviewer mentions, I respectfully disagree with his assessment.

I'm with Stephen and Richard; I don't think that many people will read the review, and only a few of those who do will be swayed by his unsubstantiated arguments.

It is a bit amusing, because I know from discussions on this and other boards, that I am not the only one who ignores professional reviewers, in favor of "lay" reviewers. On Amazon, I will read the professional synopsis to get the drift of the book, but to find out if it is a good book, I go to those who are not being paid for their opinion.

I agree about professional v. lay readers. The only 2 books I read in the last couple of months which I didn't like were ones recommended by reviewers in the Guardian newspaper (a paper I otherwise respect a lot), whereas most of those recommended by people here on LT have been big hits.

I think porfessional reviewers, the ones I find hard to take that is, are writing for others in their world, where us normal folk (a locution I have never before had occasion to use with reference to any group of which I form a part!) write about what people who read like us want to know: WHY should I read this book instead of a zillion others?

And the review in question isn't very good anyway.

Oh my; the review sounds more like Felix Salmon trying to show what he knows about the subject as opposed to honestly presenting a review of your book.

I have only once been influenced by a professional review (for Anyone You Want Me to Be). Professional reviewers seem to be best for providing jacket blurbs, but don't often sway readership.

I'm with Stasia. This lay reader does not agree with the NYT reviewer.

(Just back from a getaway and finally got around to my copy of the early mail NYTBR.)

Thanks, folks.... Hopefully, that will be the consensus.

Richard, you hit the nail squarely on the head. What any good review should do is say clearly why -- or why not -- this book should meet a time-starved reader's shortlist. It is just irritating when a publication's opinion becomes holy writ. I'm a top-ranked Amazon reviewer and while I may roll my eyes when someone loves a book I thought was silly or a waste of time, I never think of myself as an arbiter, just one individual with certain tastes. (OK, and a dislike of writers who take short cuts with plot or characters, or who are lazy with facts and writing...)

Sigh. Rant over. Going to have a quesadilla for dinner and watch some DVDs.

It's hard to keep up with your fast moving thread, but fun! Enjoy your quesadilla, you've earned it. :)

Quesadilla was good -- yum. Now time to catch up on the list of OPB. (Other People's Books)

1. Re-read 1984 by Orwell for my 1010 Challenge (I have a dystopia category there.) The last time I read this was, well, 1984 -- I was living in Japan and remember reading it while traveling around the coast of southern Honshu -- also in the heat of summer. Curiously, the last time I read this and Brave New World, I ended up preferring the latter; this time around, I found myself preferring Orwell. Not entirely sure whether the world, my perceptions of the world, or I myself are responsible for the change. In any event, I was blown away by Orwell's bleak warning of the results of a top-down ruling system, originally written in the aftermath of WW2. "In our world," one of its designers tells Winston, "there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph and self-abasement." Orwell paints a terrifying picture of a world without hope; utterly bleak and pointless, where the "proles" simply focus on drinking and gambling (eerie parallels to our own world?) while the intellectual elite wilfully blind themselves to the absurdities of the ruling powers. A must-read. 5 stars.

2. Not a must-read, but at least mildly interesting, is New York by Edward Rutherfurd. Rutherfurd's books are reminiscent of James Michener's sagas, but because Michener did them first, the only real novelty value might lie in the focus he chooses and the writing style. Well, the latter isn't helpful; Rutherfurd is no better a writer than Michener, and the heavy-handed exposition is often wearing. The stories of individuals in New York over nearly four centuries (starting while the city was still New Amsterdam) are only tenuously connected; Rutherfurd too often loses the thread the might have linked them more tightly and transformed this into a more interesting book, or disposes of plot threads in a single sentence. This was a 2.8/5 book for me, for these reasons; I still found it somewhat intriguing to compare the historical landscape against which Rutherfurd sets his stories to the real landscape of today's NY. Still, I'd only recommend this (850 pages!!) to either a dedicated and undemanding reader, or someone fascinated by New York and relatively unfamiliar with its history. I'd avoided reading Rutherfurd's recent books -- I think the only one I enjoyed was his first, Sarum -- and don't think I'll be reading more. For my 50-book overflow challenge.

3. Also for the overflow challenge, a book that falls in the middle of those two extremes. Read The Midnight House by Alex Berenson, a NY Times business reporter who moonlights as a spy/thriller novelist. In past outings, his hero, John Wells, has played a role in saving the world or America from catastrophe. This time around, his job is to discover the truth behind the mysterious murders of several members of a dark ops interrogation battalion that has been disbanded. The plot is a bit too convoluted and sometimes the action feels forced, but there's enough nuance and intrigue to compensate for the fact that the plot really isn't forward-looking (i.e. not rushing to some kind of active confrontation with the bad guys.) I like the fact that Berenson has broken away from the pattern a bit, even though the result is occasionally a bit too rough. (Eg, flashbacks are occasionally puzzling.) 3.9 stars from me for this one.

Hoping to log another 5 or 6 books before the end of the month, but we'll see...

I need to get to 1984 soon. I read Animal Farm earlier this year so it is about time to get to Orwell's other classic as well. Thanks for the reminder, Suz.

Same here. I've never read 1984 or Brave New World, so I must read these. Thanks from me, too.

After your comments, I'll feel that I have to do a reread of 1984 and maybe also Brave New World, I don't think I've picked them up since the late 1970s.

I agree with you on Rutherford, I read Sarum and London but gave up on The Forest. I do have Michener's Poland lined up to read later this year as I wanted an easy read on Polish history.

My bad luck! I turned on WNYC this morning and was thrilled that it was your interview. But, alas, it was the last minute or so -- I hope the first part was as successful as the end that I heard.

I hope so, too, Rebecca -- I didn't listen! (Although I dreamed about it last night...) I did notice that the book's ranking on Amazon took a big upward leap this morning. If I get an audio clip, it will go up on the book's Facebook page.

Just found this link to the NPR interview -- off to listen to it.

I loved the NPR interview, Suzanne; you sounded great!

Fantastic NPR interview, Suz.

By the way, while I was at the checkout at Barnes & Noble in Burlington, MA this afternoon, a man in front of me was holding a copy of your book, and when his wife/girlfriend joined him, he showed her the book and said "Felix wrote another pompous review so I've got to read this book because I'm sure it's going to be great since he only ever sneers at those actually worth reading".

So snarky may actually work in your favor among some readers of the NY Book Review. ;-)

Fantastic interview is right! I enjoyed listening to you.

Thanks, all!
For real, Caro? That is utterly hilarious... I must share with editor/publicist...
Think the NPR helped; the Amazon ranking is up again today.

Your book is good. People go out of their way find good work about subjects they care about. Therefore, your book will succeed.

Two more books to add here:

1. For my 1010 Challenge, Between the Assassinations by Aravind Adiga. I found this a fascinating look at India in the years between the assassinations of Indira and Rajiv Gandhi, before the economic miracle really took hold. Set in the imagined town of Kittur, it's really a series of short stories revolving around various individuals in the town, linked by imaginary guidebook descriptions. The disconnect between the guidebook view and the characters and stories becomes more jarring with each chapter as it becomes clear just how distant the characters' hopes and dreams are from being fulfilled. It should have been depressing, but really ended up as an intriguing and worthwhile book, IMO. 4.2 stars.

2. For my overflow 50-book challenge, Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe by Sandra Gulland. It's the second book in her trilogy about the life of Josephine, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, and covers the first few years of their marriage, ending when he becomes First Consul in early 1800 and they move into the Tuileries, where she encounters the ghost of Marie Antoinette. This is actually a well-written book, in the first person, as a diary, and is definitely worth reading for any historical fiction afficionado with an interest in the period. I'm going to move right on to the third and final volume.

I've started reading the 75th book for this challenge, although it's too hefty to simply charge through.

You sounded great on NPR this morning Suzanne!

Love your syllogism, Richard -- I hope the logic holds up!! :-)

Sorry I missed the NPR interview. I will have to follow the link so I can give it a listen!

OK, I am back: nice interview, Suzanne. At least the interviewer here sounded competent, unlike the 'Morning Joe' hosts that I saw. You sounded very cool, collected and prepared!

Un-lurking just to say hi. I was also surprised to enjoy the Josephine Bonaparte books.
Between the Assassinations sounds intriguing.

ETA: I am also going to hunt down the NPR interview. Cool!

#101, Have you read The White Tiger? I was so disappointed in it that I haven't even looked at Between the Assassinations.

I liked—but didn't love—The White Tiger, which I would put at the bottom of the list of Booker Prize winners that I've read. I bought Between the Assassinations last year, mainly because it was a surprise find at my local Borders, but I haven't been inspired to read it yet. I'll put it a little higher on my TBR list, thanks to your comments.

I have the same question as Rebecca in message #106. And, if you have read The White Tiger, do you think that Between the Assassinations is a better book?

#97 love that story :)

just trying to catch up :)

>107 kidzdoc:: I would put at the bottom of the list of Booker Prize winners that I've read.
You ain't seen nothin' yet, Darryl. Try In a Free State, The Old Devils, or G. While I wasn't wild about The White Tiger, those three are truly the worst of the worst Bookers!

>109 lauralkeet: Laura, I meant to drop into your thread to say how much I liked your review of the Olmi book, Beside the Sea! I wouldn't pick the book up ordinarily, but your review made it irresistable.

I seem to be reading books back-to-front, by which I mean shunning writers' first, acclaimed books and going directly to Book B. For instance, I read Audrey Niffenegger's second book first; ditto for Elizabeth Kostova. So I can't opine on The White Tiger. I vaguely recall that word of mouth on it was not that good, but not why. And I think my father had recommended Adiga to me as a writer, but not whether it was because of this book or the first one. Sorry, not much help!!

A lot of people liked The White Tiger a lot, Suzanne, just not me (and apparently Darryl wasn't too enthused either). While I appreciated the look at a side of/place in India I had not previously read about, I found the tone obnoxious and the story, although darkly humorous, a little too unrelievedly depressing, plus some of the characters seemed pretty schematic.

I thought The White Tiger was plain, old-fashioned bad.

I didn't think the characters in Between the Assassinations were schematic; ultimately, the collective message of their varied stories/experiences was depressing. But I felt that was appropriate in this book, which so clearly tried to juxtapose the exterior view of India with the pedestrian realities and the struggles of people to break free in some way of petty tyrannies of poverty, caste, religion, status, etc. etc. No one really manages to do it, but it's the struggle that makes for the story. In one of the segments, one of Ardiga's characters once dreamed of writing short stories like Maupassant, that would highlight the plight of India's poor. An editor points out to him that all of Maupassant's characters desperately WANT something -- those wants are the nexus around which the story is built. I wondered, after reading that, whether someone had told Ardiga the same thing, as those "wants" or cravings are def. at the heart of many of these stories.

Speaking of bad Booker winners, has anyone read The Gathering by Anne Enright? Dreadful.

Loved the NPR interview Suzanne.

Haven't tackled that one, yet -- it's sitting on a TBR mountain somewhere.

It's officially too hot & muggy to pack my suitcase, so instead of doing so, I'll report that another book has been finished. Susan Isaacs has a lock on the cracking-wise Jewish New York heroine crime-solving genre, and she does it with aplomb. Just finished As Husbands Go, and it's quite good. As husbands go, Susie's is gone -- dead, in an apartment belonging to a hooker, killed with a pair of scissors, leaving Susie with the dreadful inlaws and triplet sons. Now, Isaacs will never win any awards for innovative plots or fully-developed characters, but her books are great summer reads. My favorite is After All These Years, which this reminds me of somewhat. I'll have to go back and re-read that sometime soon. 4.1 stars, for my overflow challenge.

#99 : yup, Suz ... for real. I thought that was funny too ... and also cool. I wanted to tap him on the shoulder and tell him that the author would get a kick out of what I overheard, but then I didn't want to jinx the sale .... you never know with some people. ;-) So I just chuckled to myself and couldn't wait to get home so I could share the story with you.

Posting a few more gems by my fave Canadian poet, as per poetry discussion chez Tiffin. The following are from poems by Al Purdy.

Poem for Eda

She wears glases
and has a slightly intellectual expression
as if she'd intended to read a book

-- then decided against it.

For Robert Kennedy

There are public men
become large as mountains or the endless forests
in the love men bear them
and when they die it as if a great emptiness became
solid things turn misty and hard to hold onto
and the stunned heart clutches at dear remembrance
retraces its steps back somewhere in the past
when nothing changed and the high sun hangs motionless
friends remain fixed there and dogs bite gently
it is always morning it is always evening it is always noon

And there are men newspapers never heard of
but loved for no reason or every reason
like my ugly grandfather who was
260 pounds of scarred lumberjack
hellraiser and backwoods farmer..."

Poem

You are ill and so I lead you away
And put you to bed in the dark room
-- you lie breathing softly and I hold your hand
feeling the fingertips relax as sleep comes

You will not sleep more than a few hours
and the illness is less serious than my anger or cruelty
and the dark bedroom is like a foretaste of other darknesses
to come later which all of us must endure alone
but here I am permitted to be with you

After a while in sleep your fingers clutch tightly
and I know that whatever may be happening
the fear coiled in dreams or the bright trespass of pain
there is nothing at all I can do except hold your hand
and not go away.

>109 lauralkeet:: thank you, Richard!

Lovely poems. I like the first one best, the second one is true, and the third one breaks my heart.

The third one was the first of Purdy's that I ever read, nearly 30 years ago. Still love it; v. poignant.

>118 Chatterbox: ...but we were discussing *awful* poetry, and those are good poems! That last one particularly. It was nice to come here and see those, since I'd never heard of Al Purdy before.

Thank you for the morning poetry. Just lovely.

Reposting the ones that I posted on Tiffin's thread. These are just excerpts:

A.Y. Jackson for instance
83 years old
halfway up a mountain
standing in a patch of snow
to paint a picture that says
"Look here
You've never seen this country
it's not the way you thought it was
Look again"
And boozy traders
lost in a dream of money
crews of homesick seamen
moored to a China-vision
hunting the North West Passage
they didn't see it either
The colours I mean
For they're not bright Gauguin
or blazing Vincent
not even Breughel's "Hunters in the Snow"
where you can get lost
and found in five minutes
-- but the original color-matrix
that after a giant's heartbeat
lighted the maple forest
in the country south..."

(A.Y. Jackson was a member of Canada's "Group of Seven" painters -- check them out...)

or, on the topic of walking back to a camp from a Viking site in Newfoundland in the pouring rain...

"...I think sourly that drowning
on land is a helluva slow way to die.
I walk faster than my wife,
then have to stop and wait for her;
"It isn't much farther,"
I say encouragingly
and note that our married life
is about to end in violence
judging from her expressionless expression.
...
at which point I've forgotten
all about the rain,
trying to manufacture
a verbal comfort station,
a waterproof two-seater."

On the FLQ crisis of 1970:
(This occurred when a group of radical Quebec separatists kidnapped a politician and murdered him, and held a British politician hostage; PM Trudeau suspended civil liberties briefly as part of the effort to rescue the two men and find the kidnappers.)

"Crowds gather on Parliament Hill
for the same reason as myself
and stand close to the heart of things
perhaps if some were not before
they have become Canadians
as if it were not beneath them
gathered here to mourn for something
we did not know was valuable
the death of innocence
mocked at by foreign writers
the willingness to pretend
our illusions were real
gone now
Soon we shall have refugees escaping the country
expatriates of the spirit and the body politic
and men in prison raving about justice
defectors beyond the reach
of what we had supposed was freedom..."

#115 - Yes, I agree, I also disliked The Gathering. I just couldn't see what the big fuss was about. I felt bad disliking it so much, as my husband bought it for me for Christmas, and some friends (who are Irish and always like Irish-related books) recommended it really highly. If it weren't for those two things, I wouldn't even have finished it.

Now in Washington DC for some meetings and a radio show (not TV, phew) late Friday night, then the Gipsy Kings at Wolf Trap on Saturday with a buddy from my high school in Belgium!

Finished another book last night, And Thereby Hangs a Tale by Jeffrey Archer. Another collection of short stories that are mildly amusing and entertaining, requiring very little thought. A borrowed book, happily, as it's probably not worth investing in. Still, I have a residual fondness for Archer's ability to coyly conceal key plot twists until the final second. So I'll give it 3 stars for entertaining me on a hot, stuffy New York evening.

My publisher sent me a MS to look at that he's thinking of acquiring -- I thought it was going to be a proposal but it's actually an entire rough draft of a book! -- for my comments. So my reading my fall off a bit in the next few days. Still, considering that I have just hit a total of 213 books so far in 2010 and 41 for the month of June, I ain't doing so badly...

Ooo, the Gipsy Kings! How cool!

And that's one clever publisher...convince the author to do editorial assistanting as part of the price of acquiring her book! ;-P

Richard, I prefer to delude myself that he is in search of my unquestioned expertise...
(oh no, just realized my head expanded to a size that this hotel room will not accomodate...)

OK, need good vibes from all. The Financial Times review of the magnum opus comes out tomorrow... After the Times stuff, it needs to be a good/decent one...

I know it doesn't help you much in the royalties line, Suzanne, but you might like to know that my library system has 3 copies of your book, and all are checked out and on reserve! Congratulations!

Oh, it does help -- my self-confidence, at least!! (True, I'll admit to hoping that some of those on the reserve list get fed up and decide to buy a copy, but word of mouth still sells books...) Thanks, Terri!

Fingers and toes crossed!

FT reviewers are notoriously eager to get general readers into financial topics. It's a lock.

energy on the way~~~~~~

Apparently it's up on their website and it's mixed. Haven't forced myself to open the link yet... *eyes roll*

*sending good vibes* as you prepare to read the FT reviews.

>130 tloeffler:: same with our library system in Chester County, PA -- 3 copies all checked out!

I'm making a friend read it; have ordered him to call me and read it to me when he has finished...

ETA: Ok, his hard-headed analysis is that it's far better than the NYT. I pulled it up and read it, the only bit I struggle/quibble with is that the reviewer calls Michael Lewis et al "more original" and the structure irritating. Meh.

Here's the link. You'll have to register (free) to read it:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/67e21ed4-8471-11df-9cbb-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss

#138: his hard-headed analysis is that it's far better than the NYT

Woot!! Great news, Suz.

Did a radio spot on the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC this morning re hedge funds & taxation (!!) You can probably listen on www.wnyc.org or download it (free) on iTunes as a podcast...

I adore Brian Lehrer! Don't get to listen to him much, alas, and sorry I missed him today (especially since being at the dentist was the reason I missed him). Will check out link.

It must be excruciating to wait for reviews, and then find out what they say ! yikes! Hang in there.. you really know how good it is, and people will be hearing so too..

I have an MP3 recording that I can e-mail, but not post, of the Lehrer segment, Rebecca, so if you can't find it, send me a PM with your e-mail and I'll forward it.

Yes, Kath, knowing a review is coming is utter torture. I have zero control over how someone else perceives the book. Feedback from real readers has been great (unless everyone is lying, which is implausible), but I'm about 1.75/3 on the reviews -- not what I had hoped, certainly.

Went to Politics & Prose in DC to sign stock today, and depleted their stocks of (other people's) books! Their staff is great -- fascinating recommendations, including some stuff I'd never heard of and that I might otherwise never have tried.

Here's the loot (which I will have to schlep back to NY...):

The Sultan's Shadow by Christiane Bird (non-fiction; history; about Oman.
The Passage by Justin Cronin (recommended to me)
Little Bee by Chris Cleave (ditto)
Chef by Jaspreet Singh (which patrons tell them is great)
The Invention of Everything Else by Samantha Hunt (their nomination for overlooked novel of the year, and a magical realism book for those who don't like magical realism)
Bruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker (recommended as a great mystery, a former Guardian correspondent whose mystery is really about characters and issues, just the kind I like.)
The Flight of the Intellectuals by Paul Berman (I just stumbled over this; have a lot of respect for this guy & his sharp mind)
The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas (highly recommended Australian novel by the staff; about the ramifications of a man who slaps a child who isn't his own at a suburban BBQ)

Oh, and I now qualify for an author's discount at the store!!

#143: Congrats on the haul - and the author's discount!

Cool about the author's discount! And thanks, but I found the interview on the WNYC web site.

Hmph... I'm not feeling sorry for you hauling all that loot back to NYC, Suz .... then again, if you don't feel like it, you know there are willing souls here who would be more than thrilled to take them off your hands.. ;-)

Just catching up on your thread. It's interesting to hear at first hand all about the rollercoaster ride of pressures and perks (author discounts!) of publishing a book. I found it stressful enough handing over my thesis for examination, to be judged by just 2 examiners - can't imagine how exposed it must feel to be open to criticism of all kinds from anyone who chooses to read your book. Loved the story at #97 - hopefully many of those who read professional reviews also realise that professional reviewers have their own hangups and attitude problems!

And thank you for the poems.

I see a problem here. If these bookstore signings continue, Suzanne will spend all of her earnings from the sale of Chasing Goldman Sachs by buying new books from the bookstore. I'm thinking this isn't a good idea.

Hmmmm. Good point!

#148: I'm thinking this isn't a good idea.

Especially if she buys books she is going to recommend to the rest of us, who will be drooling all over their keyboards!

Uh oh... that's true ....... and a really dangerous activity to encourage. Suz... stop book signings immediately if you care about your friends!!

Bunch of party poopers, you are!!

Look at it this way -- I'm not doing anything I wouldn't be doing anyway (i.e. buying books). This way, I just get to do so at a discount! No problem... ;-)

As for the drool, Caro, that's what those nice little handtowels are for. Keep one beside the 'puter! :-D

Oh well, if you were going to be buying books anyway, that is an entirely different story :)

(although I still do not need more book recommendations . . .)

Well I bought your book today--for whatever financial support that helps your book-buying habit. :). Hope to read it soon. I'm a tax attorney, but some of this derivatives stuff tends to go over my head.

Can't wait to see what you think about The Slap. I read it last month and was very annoyed with it.

Hi, Suzanne, just got your book, thanks. It looks good, and it's even inscribed! Will start reading it tonight (after the football!).

I hope you get to Flight of the Intellectuals soon, because I'm interested to know what you think of it - there is only one rating on LT so far, and no reviews. I'm intrigued, but don't want to commit without some confirmation by someone whose views I respect.

Of course it's inscribed, Janet! :-) (That is what one does with author copies...)
And yes, do wait until post-football...

#154, I thank you, my publishers thank you and my agent thanks you! It all eats into the advance, which brings me closer to the day when I earn royalties.

Stasia, your Black Hole is the size of many countries' gross domestic product!!!

Author's discount...that makes it all worthwhile, right? Nice Haul!

And, for the record, I bought one of the first copies sold for my husband's birthday later this month. He's a slow reader so it may be awhile before I can share his opinion with you. I may have to sneak a peek or two during the day when he's at work!

#156: Stasia, your Black Hole is the size of many countries' gross domestic product!!!

Yeah, and it is unfortunate I cannot afford all of the books in it!

For the record, I signed stock in a Barnes & Noble (Union Station) and Borders (on L and 18th) in DC here today -- and did not buy a single book!! OK, I confess to buying a skirt and a top on sale...

Suzanne

These are exciting times for you. Congratulations!

Wow, my hourlong radio gig turned into an hour and 45 minutes -- the host kept me on air for most of the second hour. I have no voice left. Hopefully every Westwood One listener tuned into the Jim Bohannon show between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. promptly placed an Amazon order!!

#161: Wow! That sounds terrific, Suz! I hope everyone stuck with it for the whole time and is ordering multiple books to send to everyone they know.

>161 Chatterbox: THAT is high praise indeed! Still got the crossable bits crossed.

wow! that seems like high praise to me... but I can see why they would want you to stay on air. I like what I have been able to hear. You have something to say and say simply and without fanfare. I can see how everyone else would like listening to you too!

As for the outfit.. good thing.. going on air naked might send the wrong message re: your book.

#161: That's great news, Suzanne! And I'm even more pleased that you showed restraint at your two subsequent book signings.

going on air naked might send the wrong message re: your book.

But think of what it would do for book sales!

Darryl, it would terrify anyone who caught a glimpse. Trust me on this!

Still no voice... Off to stay with a high school buddy who now lives in VA; we're going to see Gipsy Kings at Wolf Trap tonight. It's always nice when you realize that a friend you made as a teenager is still someone you'd choose to be a friend today. Helps that he's almost as crazy as I am, of course.

At some point, I'll have to update what I've been reading!!

Sigh, boogied and shimmied too hard at the Gipsy Kings and threw my hip out so badly that I'm now flying back to New York to take advantage of the wheelchairs...
Kind of buggered up the muscle that keeps my leg connected to my pelvis...

edited to fix the spelling...

and not to note that it was a GREAT concert!

#167: Ouch!! I hope you recuperate soon, Suz.

Ouch, indeed! I hope that this is a temporary thing, and that it doesn't affect your book signings and interviews.

Ow! Hope you're better soon. You sure it wasn't from the book schlepping?

A true sign of a good concert is when you wake up the next day with aches and pains, sometimes bruises as well, and you're slightly deaf. Sounds like you had a great time, Suz. And I'm sure the wheelchair was handy since you were probably tired from all that shimmying and boogieing... ;-)

But i hope you feel better soon and your hip reattaches itself sufficiently so you can saunter in for additional book signings and interviews.

Happy happy 4th!

Cushla, definitely NOT from book stuff. Literally, I was moving my hips and FELT something go very badly wrong in my right hip, or rather, the joint where my leg joins my pelvis. Now, If I put any weight on that leg, it's v.v. painful. If I just sit or lie, it just feels bruised all the way around the leg at that same point. I was terribly afraid I had dislocated it. Still painful today. Glad I shifted plans to the plane...

This sounds potentially serious. Are you still in DC? Can your friend take you to an ER today?

Eee, that really sounds awful and worth a wait in the ER.

I've just looked up the Paul Berman book and have added it to the wishlist.

Am still in DC, Darryl, but flying home tonight. If it had been worse today, would have gone to an ER, but it really just feels badly bruised, only on the inside, if you know what I mean. If it doesn't get better, will def see doc, but I don't want to fork over $5k to be told, just wait and it will get better. Bought a walking stick/cane, which helps, and spent most of the day in the car, or in restaurant, or generally not walking/standing. So it should be fine eventually.

ouch ouch ouch! sorry to hear that..

Ouch, sounds painful Suzanne. I hope you're right and it's just a bruise.

Bringing my reading list up to date: Not that much to report (dismayingly little, in fact) and all for my 50-book overflow challenge. I'm about halfway through the final book for this challenge, though it will probably take me another day or two to finish that.

1. The Last Great Dance on Earth by Sandra Gulland brings the trilogy based on the life of Empress Josephine to a conclusion, in her divorce and ultimately, her death. The ending felt a bit rushed, compared to the rest of these books, but it's still a very good series for historical fiction fans -- Recommended. 4 stars.

2. The Book of Spies by Gayle Lynds. The premise behind this is intriguing -- that some 800 books that were once part of the Byzantine monarchy's library left Constantinople before it was overrun by the Ottomans in 1453, and are now owned by a consortium of wealthy men, aka the book club. When one of the books goes missing (the book of spies), it ignites a whole series of adventures by real-life spies and novice spies, racing around the globe to find the library and save the world. This is the quintessential summer thriller book -- involving and engaging enough, as long as you can suspend your disbelief about the improbable plot twists. Think the Bourne movies, and you'll know what this is like. Still entertaining, especially in the heat of summer. 3.4 stars for me; I'm probably being a bit generous. This was an ARC from the Vine program.

3. A Perfect Proposal by Katie Fforde. Fforde used to write fun and entertaining chick lit; this is more like a romance novel, and not terribly creative or fun. English girl is swept off her feet by older American lawyer; classic St. George saves maiden in distress plot. The good thing? Fforde has written better novels, which I'll remind myself to re-read, and this book qualifies for the TIOLI Walla Walla challenge...

4. Potsdam Station by David Downing. This is the fourth in a series of books revolving around the life and adventures of John Russell, an English journalist who made his home in Berlin in the 1920s, married/divorced and father of a son, and lover of a German movie actress. (The predecessors are, in order, Zoo Station, Silesian Station and Stettin Station; the latter has just been released in the US and I got Potsdam Station from the UK. These are 'thumping good reads'; Russell is a classic reluctant hero, an ordinary man trying to balance the demands of his life and his conscience in Nazi Germany. This book is slightly different from the others, as the action is all focused around the imminent collapse of the Nazi regime in April 1945, nearly three years after Russell had to flee Berlin. Now he's trying to save the lives of his son (who has been called up to serve in the defense of the city) and Effi, his girlfriend, who has been living underground and helping to run an escape line for Jews since Russell's flight. The narrative jumps from Russell to Effi and to Paul, Russell's son; Downing does a great job of conveying the sense of imminent danger and the plight of civilians trapped in the midst of two warring armies, each ready to accuse a stray civilian of espionage, sabotage, etc. Not literary at all, just a classic suspenseful read. Great summer reading, though you'll only appreciate them if you start with Zoo Station and read them in order. 4.2 stars. (I think the middle two books are the best.)

>178 Chatterbox: #2 qualifies for the TIOLI Book about Books category, too. Just sayin'.

#175 - $5k, really? *whispers the words national health very softly under her breath*.
Hope you feel better soon.

Janet, yup. You can yell it to the sky, if you want, as far as I'm concerned!!
Feeling better, but slowly.

Ooh err.. I don't like the idea of you dislocating your hip ... I'm sure it's really painful. If you need a cane in order to walk more comfortably, I do think you need to get it seen to sooner rather than later. Then again, the cane may win you some sympathy votes with the check in agent and score you a more comfortable seat on the plane back. I hesitate to mention a hot massage but in the right hands, maybe they could kinda 'click' you back?

I'm going to add Book of Spies to my obese wish list .. I'm a big Bourne fan.

Caro, I flew home the evening of the 4th, and while the wheelchair did help me manage to get home, it didn't get me a better seat or better treatment, sadly! Still, made it back... The hip did click back almost immediately, so what is left is the pain of the muscles around it and the leg, which the ER doc said will wear off with time and rest. It's getting slowly but perceptibly better. The more rest I have the better.

Book du jour: Instruments of Darkness by Imogen Robertson. This is a historical mystery that I'm not sure has been released in the US yet, but if it hasn't it's well worth seeking out from Amazon.co.uk or Book Depository. Set in 1780, against the background of scientific experiments and the Gordon anti-Catholic riots in London, and with a plot element tied to the US Revolutionary War, this is a pretty solid mystery revolving around two dead men. The first is found near Thornleigh Hall in Sussex; the second is a music printer in London, who leaves behind two orphaned children. The link between them becomes clear to the reader relatively rapidly (this is one of the only disappointing elements of the book), but the investigation by a local 'natural philosopher' and the wife of a sea-faring commander is intriguing and the portrait of late Georgian society at once compelling and chilling. There's a suspenseful chase scene across London at night in the middle of the riots; a plot element involving panthers; mysterious lockets and a series of deaths in the past. There are a few bumpy parts here. (Oh, how I wish that an English novelist could at least have gotten the title of the earl she has created correct!!! An Earl of Sussex would have been known as Lord Sussex, NOT Lord Thornleigh; his children would bear the family name with the exception of his heir, who would have a title as viscount. And yet she calls the earl "Lord Thornleigh" throughout...) Still, the portrayal of the more complex world of Enlightenment science and growing importance of individuals like her 'hero', Gabriel Crowther, the natural philosopher, in the world of that time, is particularly intriguing. I've already ordered the second book in this series, which came out in the UK in April, The Anatomy of Murder.

I'm tentatively adding The Book of Spies as I'm a Bourne fan too. The David Downing books sound good as well.

I ended up really enjoy the Downing books, particularly the middle two. I liked the dilemmas that Russell faces, caught between pragmatism and idealism and the competing demands of those he loves.

I've just put The Instruments of Darkness onto the WL, and I will also look for the David Downing ones. I borrowed Zoo Station from Wgtn library last year and really liked the first few chapters, but didn't finish it because real life overtook books.

#183: I already bought that one from The Book Depository. One of these days I will actually get to it!

I am glad to hear that you are mending. I have had my toe pop out and back in. The pain was excruciating, so I can't imagine what it feels like if it is a hip~

The Downing book sounds good..

Glad to hear you liked Instruments of Darkness as I bought the paperback on special offer a few months ago.

Sorry to hear about hurting yourself and the painful cost of doing so.

Suzanne ma petite ange, I lovehate you for bringing a book I can't buy to my attention. You're a lousecuddlebunny!

And here is an article on the book from The Telegraph, in case I can interest you in how she accomplished this feat of career reinvention.

BTW...Viking is doing the book in the USA per the Headline website, and paid a solid six figures for it, yay! It appears nowhere on the Penguin USA website, though, which I find odd.

Richard thanks for that article link - I really enjoyed it.

Finally! Book #75 for this challenge, and book #219 for the year to date!!

The Science of Liberty by Timothy Ferris. This was an interesting book to finish this challenge with, as I found myself loudly debating the author even as I read. (it's frustrating to debate with an inanimate object, alas...) Ferris has written eloquently about astronomy in Seeing in the Dark and this book proves he's an excellent historian of ideas. But for me, this book's chief value lay in the questions it provoked, rather than the arguments and answers it put forth. Ferris's main goal is to prove that science and liberal (in the classical meaning of the word, i.e. liberal democracies) ideas are inherently linked, but to make his case he tends to ride roughshod over some evidence to the contrary (even as he accuses others of doing the same!) He makes sweeping statements without foundation (i.e. that by the 19th century, science had opened up opportunities for everyone, regardless of their father's status in life. Well, not really -- if you happened to be female, for instance, you couldn't get the education you'd need.) He asserts that "as the world has become more liberal it has also become more peaceful", an assertion with which I would quibble, and that rising wealth levels are inherently good. The latter is particularly troublesome, as Ferris discounts the importance of wealth gaps within societies and his own point that gains in wealth past a certain threshold don't increase happiness. Some of his evidence is downright wonky or out of date. He points to Ireland as an example of science breeding success in economic terms -- whoops... He puts countries that call themselves democracies into the same camp as countries that ARE democracies. In discussing religion/atheism and violence, he cites the fact that religious faith is far higher within prisons that in the general population of society. Whoops again. He forgets that among those in prison, religion serves as a refuge or an escape; he has succumbed to seeking out evidence to support his theories, without questioning the data, a scientific no-no. Nonetheless, this is an intriguing book, which is of particular interest in dealing with the history of the relationship between scientific discovery and political 'liberty'. (There are two excellent chapters, one focusing on the American Revolution; the other on the French.) Above all, even when I disagreed with Ferris's rather deterministic arguments, I still found them provocative and intriguing and they made me think. 4 stars; recommended to anyone interested in political thought, intellectual history, etc. Others may find it heavy going; I often got bogged down.

W00t! Suzanne crosses the Rubicon!!

YAY CONGRATULATIONS WHEEE

Congratulations on hitting the 75 mark for your challenge.

Ignoring the blips on not addressing the Earl in the proper fashion, I am adding Instruments of Darkness to my obese wish list. It sounds too good to ignore.

Echoing congratulations on hitting the target - and I too will look out for Instruments of Darkness after reading your description of it - thanks for that.

Yes, definitely worth reading Instruments of Darkness; I'm still pondering the characters, I find, and wondering exactly how long it will take for book #2 in the series to arrive from the UK (rather than fretting about how much I just paid for it!!)

Glad to hear you're feeling better Suzanne. Congrats on reaching 75 already. Instruments of Darkness is added to the teetering tower.

#219 for the year to date!

you have read 219 since Jan 1??!!!
but 75 just for this challenge. I am confused..
( I am beginning to think it is my natural state)

Kath, I've read 219 books so far this year. When I started this challenge, I'd already set up the 1010 challenge and the off-the-shelf challenge as well, and in this one, I identified a bunch of books I wanted to read or felt I should read ahead of time. So, of the 219, 75 are for this challenge, about 65 or so are for my 1010 challenge, and the rest ended up being for the off-the-shelf challenge or stuck in an "overflow" category.

Still confused, I bet... So am I....

Well, congratulations anyway on reaching some kind of goal! And between it all you even wrote a book!
Obviously I will never be you when I grow up...

Terri -- trust me, you don't want to be me!! And why grow up at all? I have no plans to do so...

Just finished a book for my off-the-shelf challenge (#220 overall), Strange Meeting by Susan Hill. The title is from one of Wilfred Owen's incredibly moving war poems from WW1, and the story is that of two young men who meet in the trenches smack in the middle of the war -- how they transform each others' lives. Having worked for two summers at a WW1 battlefield, taking people on tours through the tunnels and trenches, and speaking to some of the veterans (this was in the late 70s, when there still were some around), this was particularly poignant. Is it a good novel? Well, it grew on me. At first, I found the writing too staccato; the themes too obvious. Ultimately, it was the bond between Hilliard and Barton that drove the narrative, and pulled me into it. It's really a story about people, with the trauma of war as the backdrop. I'm giving it 4.1 stars. Not great, but certainly worth a read. But I keep believing that it's hard to write good prose about WW1, particularly in comparison with the astonishing poetry produced by Owen, Sassoon, etc.

Suz
I'm sorry to hear that you are in pain. I hope you are better soon!

Good luck with all your interviews and your book. I imagine these are exciting, but exhausting times.

Congratulations on meeting your goal. Hope the hitch in your get-along gets unhitched soon.

Argh, some nincompoop rang my front doorbell at 6:30 this morning. After 3 hours (perhaps) of sleep, I was in no condition to realize that anyone doing this kind of stuff had no legitimate business with me, so staggered downstairs to open the door. By the time I got back to bed (well, the sofa, in the air-conditioned living room) I was too awake to get back to sleep, but too tired to think. Oh, how I hate heat waves.

Griping aside, maybe I can get my brain to start working well enough that I can do some more reading?? Just got the new Dr. Siri mystery by Colin Cotterill, Love Songs From a Shallow Grave, about which I am VERY excited. Though I probably will enjoy it more when I'm wide awake.

confusion? nah.. I just wiped out everything you said except that you ahve read over 200 books since Jan 1.

wow!

Hi suz. Congratulations on hitting 75 (err, and 200+? =D), and I hope your hip is feeling better!

Thanks Stephen! Went out without the cane/walking stick today, which makes me feel less geriatric. Am planning to meet up with another friend from high school tomorrow, so want to be able to cope with walking, etc.

Book du jour: Rules of Betrayal by Christopher Reich, for my "overflow" challenge. (I'm about to open a new thread with a new 75-book challenge, but can't be bothered right now!) Reich is uneven -- when he's good, his thrillers are excellent (see The Runner and The Devil's Banker) but when he's bad, he's just pedestrian. This book is the third in a series featuring female spy Emma Ransom and her doctor husband Jonathan Ransom, who goes from being a hapless and unwitting pawn in various spy games to being a participant in them, often against his will. This is by far the best of the three so far (the ending, which has a few intriguing twists, opens the door to more), and it's a good summer read for those who enjoy a well-plotted thriller. This time, the Ransoms are, in their very different ways and not working in harmony, out to save the world from a rogue nuke falling into the hands of the bad guys. Predictable stuff, but Reich keeps the pace fast and the plot just this side of convincing, and it came pretty close to unputdownable. The catch? You'll have to read Rules of Deception and Rules of Vengeance first, or the characters won't make complete sense to you -- this book is written for the author's fans, who have already been following the twists and turns of the Ransoms' adventures. This was an ARC from Amazon Vine; the book should be out in the next week or two. 4 stars.

(I'm about to open a new thread with a new 75-book challenge, but can't be bothered right now!)

...but why? This thread only has 208 posts in it! No need to get all antsy and stuff, makin' threads as ain't needed.

Do my eyes deceive? Richard advocating NOT making a new thread? *I'm telling Stasia*

Because, dear Richard, I am going to start a new 75-book challenge. A new challenge deserves a new thread of its very own. Especially since I'm only 40 posts or so away from having the thread police descend on me anyway...

ye goddess woman ! you are a reading machine!!!!

Bet you'd still look cool swinging a cane if you needed to use it when you meet your friend

aha, Caro, but then the invitations to go skiing and sailing would go up in smoke! *poof*

Glad that you're feeling better.

Congrats on reaching your goal! I'm amazed at the way you do challenges! I have a 1010 and an Off The Shelf, but those books count toward my 75. In fact, everything I read counts toward my 75 . . . well, except for the threads and magazine articles . . . and cereal boxes . . .

Hey, Suz. Just waving as I head through the threads!

Glad to hear that the hip is improving!!

Did too much walking last night -- ouch ouch ouch this morning. Still hobbling around.

But I acquired new A/Cs to beat the heat! They will be installed on Thursday.

I'm glad to hear that you're improving overall, and I hope that the current pain is a temporary one.

Congrats on reaching your goal!

The advantage of being so far behind (111 messages to read) is that I didn't have to wait to hear that your hip is much better. Glad for that. I just got The Invention of Everything Else from the library this week, myself. I like your/their description of it, since I'm one of those people who doesn't like magical realism all that much. Love those exceptions!

Don't know if I'm on the right thread - no new messages all week?

I finished your book. It was enlightening for me - I now know quite a bit more about how things work on Wall Street. I like your comparison to a utility. That makes some sense. I also liked the glimpse into the history of money and trading.
I have a theory about some of your less enthusiastic reviews. For the most part, impressively, you don't take sides. You are able to maintain a fairly balanced stance throughout. Perhaps you are just not controversial enough, don't get the pulse rates of the reviewers high enough. If only there was a sex scandal or something... (just kidding).

I think this is the link you need

http://www.librarything.com/topic/94692

221 -- Ugh, thanks -- knew I had forgotten something -- the link to a new page... sigh.

220 -- Tks for the comments. Amusingly, some of the potential blurbees (people who'd provide blurbs for the jacket) thought the book was too "socialist" and controversial. Sigh. I suspect what it is is that there isn't a story about individual people here. Most of the books that have been cited as "the best" about Wall Street tell the story through the people; I'm trying to do it through the ideas/concepts, which is harder. That's something important to consider for the next book (which will have nothing to do with finance...)

I do find it fascinating that some reviewers can't figure out who the audience is, whereas the readers seem to have no problem with this whatsoever...

Just a quick comment here - then I will hie me to the current thread.

I don't know you well, or your political leanings. I am quite conservative. I was not bothered by your discussion of government regulation. I felt it was quite well balanced with a nod to the reluctance of the businesses to be regulated. Just my opinion. Obviously neither side has a good answer yet. I would hope it could be sought without falling into the trap of "socialist" or "conservative" name calling. Regardless of our political leanings, we do require a money system that functions.

See how much I've learned? (: