kidzdoc: 75 and Beyond, Take 12

Take 1
Take 2
Take 3
Take 4
Take 5
Take 6
Take 7
Take 8
Take 9
Take 10
Take 11

Books Read in 2010:



Books Purchased in 2010:



Currently reading:
The Journey of Little Gandhi by Elias Khoury
Source: Poems by Mark Doty
Criminal of Poverty: Growing Up Homeless in America by Lisa Gray-Garcia

Completed books:

July:
80. The Water Cure by Percival Everett
79. Island by Penelope Todd
78. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
77. The Vagrants by Yiyun Li
76. The Boy Next Door by Irene Sabatini
75. Landscape with Dog and Other Stories by Ersi Sotiropoulos
74. Even the Dogs by Jon McGregor
73. The Murderess by Alexandros Papadiamantis

June:
72. To Mervas by Elisabeth Rynell
71. Some Prefer Nettles by Junichiro Tanizaki
70. Troubles by J.G. Farrell
69. Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote by Ahmadou Kourouma
68. Philosophy in the Present by Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek
67. The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul by Patrick French
66. Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle
65. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
64. Selected Crônicas by Clarice Lispector
63. Medicine in Translation: Journeys with My Patients by Danielle Ofri

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

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

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

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

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

Categories and completed books in my 1010 challenge:

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

B. 2010 Booker Prize longlist and previous winners
1. The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell (1973)
2. Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle (1993)
3. Troubles by J.G. Farrell (Lost Man Booker Prize)

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

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

E. African-American/African poetry & literature
1. Matigari by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (Kenya)
2. Beneath the Lion's Gaze by Maaza Mengiste (Ethiopia)
3. Black Feeling Black Talk by Nikki Giovanni (US)
4. Black Judgement by Nikki Giovanni
5. Re: Creation by Nikki Giovanni
6. An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah (Zimbabwe)
7. The Women and the Men by Nikki Giovanni
8. Morning Haiku by Sonia Sanchez
9. Bicycles: Love Poems by Nikki Giovanni
10. Dread: Poems by Ai
11. My House by Nikki Giovanni
12. News from Home by Sefi Atta
13. Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote by Ahmadou Kourouma
14. The Water Cure by Percival Everett

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

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

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

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

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

I didn't see either World Cup semifinal this week. I was shocked to see that Spain beat Germany. Did anyone watch this match? What happened???

I'm off this weekend, so I'll definitely watch the Spain-Netherlands final on Sunday.

Congratulations to having a weekend off, Darryl!

Is it just me or did your last thread go by REALLY fast?

Enjoy watching the World Cup!

Just noticed your post about books purchased. With 123 books purchased in the first half of the year, how do you intend to limit yourself to 27 in the second half of the year? Any and all suggestions will be appreciated. :)

Pat
Darryl is a popular guy! His last threads did go by rather quickly.

--------------------

Hi Darryl. I hope you have a nice weekend. I imagine it is very hot in Atlanta. We are having record days of high temps and it is very dry. We need rain.

#4: You're right, Pat; the last thread only lasted for 12 days.

Hopefully the World Cup final will be a memorable one.

#5: I have no hope of limiting myself to 150 bought books this year. I do want to start to give away or sell some of the books I've already read or don't plan to read, so that I end the year with less books than I had at the beginning of the year.

#6: Thanks, Linda; I hope that you have a good, and cooler, weekend. I think that today is supposed to be the hottest day of the year so far, with a high temp of 99 degrees, but it's supposed to cool down by Saturday.

#3: Thanks, Stasia! I think I'm off from Saturday through Monday.

#8: Ah, well, no late night gabbing for us then - I will be working!

#2 - See, I told you not to write Spain off! They played a beautiful passing game, frequently got past Germany on the left (David Villa, Spain's star, just ran down there time and time again), and closed up in defence so that Germany hardly ever had a chance to shoot, and they also took the ball right off the Germans' feet quite a few times. The only reason they didn't get a lot more goals is that their strikers missed most of their many shots - I guess they know this is their weakness, which is why they played a really attacking game, hoping some percentage would go in - it only took one.

I'm happy now. I predicted Spain to win, and I want them to win, but I also like the Netherlands, and both teams include Liverpool players, so it's win-win either way.

>2 kidzdoc: & ff: I watched the replay last night. It was a fun game to watch. For much of the game, it just felt like Germany was stuck in second gear.

Interesting game -- and a great final match up! I'll be rooting for the Netherlands...

Only twelve posts deep? But you posted your new thread last night! Slackers.

#10-12: See, I told you not to write Spain off!

*Hangs head in shame* You were right, Janet; I didn't think that there was any way that Germany would beat Spain, given how they played against England and Argentina. In retrospect, England did not have a good squad, and Germany took advantage of a weak Argentinian defense and the team's unorthodox playing style, so I think the Germans looked better to me than they actually were.

I'll definitely root for the Netherlands, as well.

#13: I probably won't be posting much until Saturday, as I definitely won't have finish any books before the weekend.

Too bad you didn't get to watch the semi-final ... it was a good one. I suspected that Spain would beat Germany because they do have a much better team. I think Spain will trounce the Netherlands on Sunday ... :-)

Hi Darryl,

I just finished reading This Blinding Absence of Light by Tahar Ben Jelloun and one of the first things that came to mind was, "I think Darryl would like this."

If you haven't read it or looked at it, you might want to take a peek.

--Tad

#15: I fear that you may be right, Caroline.

#16: Thanks Tad, but I've already read (and enjoyed) This Blinding Absence of Light.

I just received a copy of This Blinding Absence of Light from PBS the other day. Glad to know it is a good one.

So it's Spain vs Netherlands?

Who'd'a guessed?

#19: It's not a huge surprise (except to me); in the pre-World Cup FIFA rankings Spain is the second best team in the world (after Brasil), and the Netherlands are ranked fourth (after Portugal).

I'm hoping that today's third place match between Germany and Uruguay will be televised. Germany has a young team, so I suspect that it will be one of the favorite teams to win Euro 2012 (the European football championship).

I'm over halfway through The Boy Next Door by Irene Sabatini, the winner of this year's Orange Award for New Writers, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. I'll definitely finish it today, and then start The Vagrants by Yiyun Li.

I hope you have a great weekend, Darryl!

#21: Thanks, Stasia; and the same to you! I'm off for the next three days, and I have nothing related to work hanging over my head, so I should be able to finish at least two books in that time.

#22: I knew you were off, so have a great time reading!

#20 - Those both look interesting, can't wait to see what you think of them. I'll be impressed if you manage to watch both of the last World Cup games and read both of those books. What a great plan for a weekend!

#24: I'll almost certainly finish The Boy Next Door before today's match, as it has its hooks into me. That gives me plenty of time to read it, The Vagrants, and hopefully Criminal of Poverty, which I've barely started.

Today's Guardian Review has a lovely article by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie about To Kill a Mockingbird. This article, more than anything else I've read, makes me want to read this novel ASAP.

Rereading: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Lots of hoopla over the 50th anni of TKAM. I ran across some of it on the network news, which I watch with Auntie, and thought Harper Lee had died. I confess that gave me a pang.

Wondering exactly how old Harper Lee was, I went over to Wikipedia. That quote from her letter to the Hanover County School Board was priceless.

#27: I read somewhere that Harper Lee gave her first interview in many years; I'll have to look for that.

#28: I loved that quote as well:

'Lee showed her feistiness in her 1966 letter to the editor in response to the attempts of a Richmond, Virginia area school board to ban To Kill a Mockingbird as "immoral literature":

Recently I have received echoes down this way of the Hanover County School Board's activities, and what I've heard makes me wonder if any of its members can read.

Surely it is plain to the simplest intelligence that “To Kill a Mockingbird” spells out in words of seldom more than two syllables a code of honor and conduct, Christian in its ethic, that is the heritage of all Southerners. To hear that the novel is "immoral" has made me count the years between now and 1984, for I have yet to come across a better example of doublethink.

I feel, however, that the problem is one of illiteracy, not Marxism. Therefore I enclose a small contribution to the Beadle Bumble Fund that I hope will be used to enroll the Hanover County School Board in any first grade of its choice.'

BTW, tomorrow (July 11) is the 50th anniversary of the release of To Kill a Mockingbird.

I completely missed the third place match of the World Cup (Uruguay 2-3 Germany), as I took an almost 4 hour nap this afternoon. However, I did finish The Boy Next Door, which grabbed me after the first 50 pages or so and didn't let go until the final page. I hated to see this book end, as I loved the characters and the story. I'll review it tomorrow; for now I'll give it 4-1/2 stars.

What a fantastic quote from Ms. Lee! I have at least one student write a research paper on the censorship of TKM every semester, and I always look forward to reading it. Good for her for responding; and what an intelligent response at that.

They've been showing programmes about TKAm on BBC 4 here (a digital TV channel which has various arts coverage as well as some music programmes which probably wouldn't get shown much elsewhere). I'm quite liking The Boy Next Door too, but I have a few other books I need to read too...

They've been showing programmes about TKAm on BBC 4 here (a digital TV channel which has various arts coverage as well as some music programmes which probably wouldn't get shown much elsewhere). I'm quite liking The Boy Next Door too, but I have a few other books I need to read too...

Love that Harper Lee letter. Just the right kind of snarky!

Looking forward to hear what you think about The Vagrants. Bleak, but one of my "top reads" for 2009.

>30 kidzdoc: Pity you missed the game, Darryl! It was very exciting and very entertaining, with Germany performing as we'd have expected, again.

They didn't perform with Spain - nerves, lack of experience because they are very young, I don't know what the explanation was, but that was a terrible performance on their part. Anyway, glad they upped their performance again yesterday.

Don't miss the final :)

#33: I look forward to your thoughts on The Boy Next Door; Terri (teelgee) liked it, too.

#34: The Vagrants is very good so far, but I'm only 50 pages in. "Bleak" is the proper word to describe it.

#35: Yes, I'm sorry that I missed the Uruguay-Germany match, as it seems to have been one of the most exciting of this year's World Cup. I'm all set for today's final, though.

The Sunday Styles section of today's New York Times has an interesting article about the increasing use of online videos by authors to sell their books:

The Author Takes a Star Turn

Thanks for the link to Adichie's article; it is one of the more thoughtful ones I've read about TKAM and her perspective as someone not from the US is interesting too. I was glad to see her focus on the class aspect too.

PS Never would have pegged you as a Sunday Styles reader, Darryl. Must go along with that yuppie car wash.

Book #76: The Boy Next Door by Irene Sabatini



My rating:

Winner, 2010 Orange Award for New Writers

This debut novel begins in post-independence Zimbabwe, in the city of Bulawayo. Lindiwe Bishop is a 14 year old girl who is a 'lightie', a Zimbabwean of mixed descent, whose family is the first to integrate a formerly white neighborhood in the city. Their closest neighbors are the McKenzies, including their 17 year old son Ian. The McKenzies are 'Rhodies', descendants of the original British colonialists that helped to create the state of Rhodesia, who are nonplussed to find themselves out of power after Ian Smith ceded control of the government to the country's most prominent black leaders.

A terrible crime occurs at the McKenzie home, and Ian is found guilty and jailed. The conviction is overturned, and Ian is released months later. Lindiwe's parents order her to stay away from Ian, who is still suspected of committing the crime. However, she is a naïve and lonely girl who is ostracized at school and most comfortable at home with her books, and she is both intrigued by and enamored with Ian, who is also isolated and misunderstood. A secret friendship slowly develops, and it becomes more intense as each begins to trust the other.

Their improbable love is the main theme of the novel, as their relationship is tested by family disapproval; deep personal differences, goals and beliefs; the racist attitudes of white and black Zimbabweans; poverty; and the country's demise under President Robert Mugabe. Throughout the novel, I repeatedly thought that the best thing that could happen would be for the two to separate, but at the same time I wanted them to find a way to make things work out.

I absolutely loved Sabatini's portrayal of Ian, Lindiwe, and the other main characters that are featured in this wonderful novel, and I can't think of more than one or two other books I've read this year that emotionally gripped me as much as this one did. It is a grim story, but one filled with love and hope, and is most highly recommended.

In keeping with the NYT article in today's paper, I found a YouTube video in which the author talks about the book:

The Boy Next Door

#37: Never would have pegged you as a Sunday Styles reader, Darryl. Must go along with that yuppie car wash.

LOL, Rebecca! That's my least favorite section of the paper, but occasionally there is an article of interest like this one (but not the Miley Cyrus article that sits next to the one I mentioned).

Ooh, thanks for the reminder of the car wash. I must check my car's rims to see if they need a buff job.

Don't take a 4 hour nap today, Darryl ... grab your chips and beer ... and a book to read during the commercials, but today's match should be really interesting. I still think Spain will trounce Holland, but I have to root for the land of Gouda, not just because I love the cheese and their cute wooden clogs (the people's, not the cheese's) but because they're the underdog and they've played so hard to get here.

As always, you write a great review and I have no choice but to add your latest read to my obese wish list.

I'm all set, as I picked up supplies early yesterday morning (cold cuts, bread, pita chips, snack mix, and red wine (I'm not much of a beer drinker, although I do love Brooklyn Brewery's Black Chocolate Stout)). I think I'm caught up on sleep, so I should be wide awake for this afternoon's match (2:30 Eastern Time, right?). I'm rooting for the Dutch, but I'd rather see an exciting and competitive match more than anything else.

Hopefully the Phillies will continue their winning ways, and regain my attention. Otherwise I'll have to wait until college football season starts next month. Pitt and Rutgers should have good teams again this year.

Oh, I still need to review Landscape with Dog and Other Stories by Ersi Sotiropoulos. I'll do that either later today or tomorrow.

In this month's segment of the National Public Radio's series You Must Read This, the author Aimee Bender talks about Flannery O'Connor's collection of essays, Mystery and Manners. The Library of America book of O'Connor's Collected Works has some but not all of these essays, so I'll almost certainly buy this book ASAP and read it later this year.

The 'Mystery And Manners' Of Flannery O'Connor

It's over: Andrés Iniesta scored in the 116th minute, and Spain wins its first ever World Cup, 1-0 over the Netherlands. The Dutch had several good chances, but the Spaniards were the most deserving and complete team on the pitch. ¡Viva España!

Darryl - I'm catching up on threads and have to tell you I loved your review of The Boy Next Door. Sounds like a must read! I just finished The Vagrants. I had trouble putting it down. I thought it was written very well, but agree that it is bleak. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts when you are done. And thanks for the link to the Adichie article on To Kill a Mockingbird. I just started it today, in honor of the 50th anniversary.

Bah humbug... I was rooting for the Dutch.... but I agree they lost it as much as the Spanish won it.

#44: I'm glad that you liked my review of The Boy Next Door, and that you enjoyed The Vagrants. I've starred your review, and I should finish it by tomorrow. I want to get the 50th anniversary edition of To Kill a Mockingbird, and I'll pick it up tonight or tomorrow if my local Borders has a copy of it.

#45: I was originally pulling for the Dutch, but I was turned off by their brutal play, particularly the karate kick to the chest by de Jong in the first half, which should have earned him a red card. Spain deserved to win, and the Dutch can't say that they didn't have their chances, especially on Robben's two breakaway attempts.

I started to catch the football bug during my trip to London last summer, when I watched a couple of England's World Cup qualifying matches on television. This is the first time I've been caught up in the World Cup, and I'm hooked now. Sigh...I may have to pony up for a big screen TV and pay for digital cable, so that I can watch Premier League matches on ESPN.

The Phillies seem to be playing their way back into contention, after sweeping the NL Central leading Cincinnati Reds in four games (Reds? What happened to the Cardinals?). They won again today 1-0, the first time that they have won consecutive 1-0 games in nearly 100 years. Jimmy Rollins drove in the winning run in both games, and 2008 World Series MVP pitcher Cole Hamels seems to have found his groove again.

Back to The Vagrants...

It's about time the Phillies got their mojo back, isn't it? Just in time for the all-star break (which I hate, btw).

Does the All-Star break start tomorrow? That's bad timing for the Phillies. Hopefully they can carry this momentum into the second half of the season, and surge past the Braves and Mets. I am an Atlantan, but I'm all for the Fightin' Phils.

I read The Vagrants earlier this year, and really liked it too. There was such a diverse group of characters to care about. I'll be interested to read your review.

#48: Yes, the All Star game is Tuesday night, Darryl. The Futures Game was Sunday, the Home Run Derby is Monday, and the All Star game is Tuesday.

Have a wonderful Monday!

#50: Wow, I didn't realize that the All-Star Game was coming up so "quickly". It's probably the right time, but I have been completely distracted by the World Cup for the past month or so.

I hope that you have an enjoyable Monday, too! I love Mondays that I don't have to work, as it allows me to enjoy the previous Sunday without the thought of having to get ready for work the next day. I love my job, but I love my days off even more.

I'm about halfway through The Vagrants, which continues to be very good. I'll definitely finish it today. I have several novels that I'm planning to read for July: The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, The Sound and the Fury, The Lacuna, The Little Peul (for Belletrista), and Them. I'm not sure which one(s) I'll start next, though.

Darryl, I'd put in a bid for The Heart is a Lonely Hunter as you have a full day to devote to McCullers's skewed vision of the world. It merits that kind of attention.

#52: I probably will start The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, but I doubt I'll finish both it and The Vagrants today. It's definitely the most compelling book on my list. When are you planning to read it?

>53 kidzdoc: It's this week's Careful Read Book.

See, told you, Spain! :)

#54: What's a Careful Read Book? Is that like my 'Four Hankies and a Pistol' read of the week?

#55: *Hangs head in defeat. Again.*

>56 kidzdoc: No, nothing like that...I read one book per week carefully, slowly, and with pauses to reflect on it. Others I read at my natural pace, fast.

What are your criteria for picking a Careful Read book?

>58 elkiedee: Only a very few, Luci: 1) It has to grab hold of me in the first line. 2) It must be new to me. 3) I need to feel emotionally attracted to the story, whether pro or con.

A Careful Read that hooked me on the "con" side was Manhattan Transfer by John Dos Passos. First line: "The nurse, holding the basket like a bedpan, opened the door to a big dry hot room with greenish distempered walls where in the air tinctured with smells of alcohol and iodoform hung writhing a faint sourish squalling from other baskets along the wall." I don't care if I never again read about motherless children screwing up their lives, since I was so very mothered that I longed to be motherless, and Dos Passos isn't known for writing jolly little entertaiments; I wasn't disposed to pick the book up as a social document about New York City between 1900-1930 because I've read a lot about that time and place already; but the gestalt of the book overcame me, and I gave it very careful attention.

(I didn't like it much, but it deserved my attention.)

That sentence is fabulous.

Have you read Dos Passos's USA Trilogy? Is Manhattan Transfer one of the books in the trilogy?

Yes, I've read the USA trilogy...The 42nd Parallel, 1919, The Big Money...but was only 21 at the time and so was quite impressed. I doubt I'd have the patience for his stylistic trickery today.

Happy Non-working Monday-Day, Darryl. Thankfully I've already got The Vagrants on my obese wish list, so you can't add to it! nyah nyah....

#62: Brat.

*throws one of the innumerable clunky boots that have come my way from Boston back at its rightful owner*

R.I.P., Bob Sheppard.

Oh, joy!!! How very, very wonderful to visit your thread and find so many incredible comments regarding my all-time favorite book. I remember that (a few threads back) there were some thoughts/articles re. Atticus Finch who was depicted as too good, too kind, and, there was some controversy regarding IF To Kill a Mockingbird was worth all the hype....

Thus, I loved, loved, loved the wonderful Guardian Review. The writer of the article is excellent and captures not only the essence of this marvelous book, but also the nuances and the sheer brilliance of the statements made re. class distinction, racism, poverty and sheer unjust unfairness in a society wherein judgment is meted scathingly to anyone, black or white who dares to be perceived as outside the "norm."

Boo Radley, a shy man who does not venture from his house, is but one of the characters in the book who is talked about, gossiped about and deemed "crazy."

Darryl...I'm so glad you are going to read it and I anxiously await your thoughts.

opps, I forgot to mention that your review of The Boy Next Door is incredible. Thumbs up on yet another well-deserved hot review!

#64: I'm glad that you also enjoyed Adichie's lovely comments about To Kill a Mockingbird. The Guardian Review has become required reading for me every Saturday, as I've learned about many of the books I've read and enjoyed the most over the past 3 years from reviews there, such as Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell.

#65: I'm also happy that you enjoyed my review of The Boy Next Door. Terri (teelgee) liked it too, and I think at least two other 75ers will be reading it for Orange July. It's currently available in the US, BTW.

I'm almost finished with The Vagrants, which continues to be very good. I'll review it later this week, but porch_reader has already written an excellent review within the past couple of days.

Thanks for the heads up on the availability of The Boy Next Door. I'll look for a copy.

How does one obtain The Guardian Review? Do you subscribe on line?

I posted the link to the Guardian Review in message #66 (http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/guardianreview). It's the arts & entertainment section of the Saturday Guardian, one of the major British daily papers (formerly the Manchester Guardian, or Grauniad as Rachael (FlossieT) and others call it), and can be read online for free. The paper is published Monday-Saturday, and the Observer is published on Sundays; the Observer Review has some book reviews, but it's main focus is on television, theatre and fine arts.

I'll buy The Guardian and The Observer whenever I visit London, and I'll frequently buy the Saturday Guardian if I'm in NYC or SF. I do subscribe to the Guardian Weekly, an international newspaper that includes highlights from The Guardian, The Observer, Le Monde and The Washington Post. I like it far better than the typical US weekly magazines (Time, Newsweek, etc.).

Yes, now I see the link. Thanks! Originally I was so engrossed in reading the article that I neglected to note the other information.

I'm in the middle of reading The Boy Next Door too and would highly recommend it.

For our broadsheet newspapers, at the moment, the Guardian and the Observer, the Independent and the Telegraph, and Sunday versions can be read online - the Times and Sunday Times (owned by the Murdoch family) are paid for access.

#69: There are a dizzying number of newspapers available for purchase in London, at least 8-10 including the tabloid papers (Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, Sun) and the afternoon papers (Evening Standard). And that doesn't include the free papers (Metro et al.). I can't think of any major US cities that have more than two daily papers, other than NYC, and several, like Atlanta, only have one daily paper.

The Evening Standard is now a freebie as well.

My younger brother works for the Austin paper...they're dying. The ad revenues are down, the circ levels are down, and people think if it's online it should be free. Why, exactly? How are all those journalists going to be paid if we get their output free? I think we should get free web access if we subscribe to the daily paper-paper. Otherwise, we should subscribe online. But there's a culture of free free free that permeates the web, and it's not going to do us any long-term favors to continue with it.

#72: That's right; I remember getting a copy of the Evening Standard every afternoon when I took the Underground back to my hotel last summer.

#73: I completely agree with you, Richard. Ad revenues aren't enough, and quality daily papers are too important and valuable to lose to the demand for free online access. I've been a daily subscriber to the NYT for the past 10 years; I did subscribe to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for almost 10 years, until it changed owners (right-wingers). I wouldn't mind paying for access to The Guardian, as I look at the Books section on a daily basis.

I think that every city I've lived in has seen a major paper go out of business (Philadelphia Bulletin, Pittsburgh Press) or become combined with another paper (the Journal used to be the morning paper here, and the Constitution was the afternoon one).

#73, Here, here, Richard. Print papers were paid for by advertising, but the Internet advertising model can't support a newspaper website. Frankly, I'm concerned -- I don't want the news universe to spin apart into competing bloggers each advancing their point of view and supporting it with selective information. That would be a throwback to the 18th Century, not a step forward...

Hmm. Maybe I should resume my subscription to the AJC (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) and support the local paper. Although it's editorial staff has shifted toward the right (which I didn't like), it hasn't entered the scary realm of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin...yet. Maybe I'll subscribe to the Sunday paper, as a compromise.

What I've said to every journalist who'll listen is that the MTWThFS paper should be online only, and the Sunday Behemoth, with its oodles of ads and flyers and sections, should be the dead-tree one. It's not just the NY Times that has a massive Sunday paper, though they do it better than almost everyone else.

>76 Chatterbox: Reading The American Aurora was a major education for me. Ew! I also read The AP with horrified fascination. What a truly amazing thing the modern newspaper is! I open my Times every day with a tiny blissful sigh, sure I'm going to be furious, disgusted, thrilled, consoled, and scared witless several times...sometimes in the same article.

I finally finished The Vagrants; I'd also highly recommend it to Caroline and everyone else. I'll give it four stars, and review it later this week.

Up next: The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=108UxfghrB8&feature=related

For your late night listening pleasure.

#80: I love it! Thanks, Linda; I need to listen to more of Dvořák. His New World Symphony is one of my favorites. I'll have to look for Rusalka in the very near future.

*sigh* Darryl, when you highly recommend a book, you know I'm just compelled to actually go out and get a copy asap! And since B&N was on my to-do list for this evening ........ *sigh ... where is my wallet?*

#82: What books are you taking with you tomorrow, Caroline? Have a safe and enjoyable trip!

Clara Claiborne Park died earlier this month, which was reported in today's New York Times. She was a lecturer at Williams College in Massachusetts, and the author of the 1967 book The Siege: A Family's Journey Into the World of an Autistic Child, which described the early life of her daughter Jessy, who was diagnosed with autism after years of misdiagnoses by doctors. Her subsequent book about Jessy, Exiting Nirvana: A Daughter's Life with Autism, was published in 2001, and describes Jessy's life as an adult; she has worked in the mail room at Williams since her late teens or early twenties. I read "Exiting Nirvana" when it came out, and "The Siege" soon afterward; both books are fantastic, both in the description of the life of an autistic child and its effects on the family, and the poor job that the medical profession did in not helping Jessy and her family and in laying blame on her mother for her condition, due to erroneous beliefs about its cause. They are both among my favorite books on medicine and childhood illness. I was saddened to learn of her death, and would highly recommend both books to everyone.

Sorry; I meant to post the link to the obituary in the NYT for Clara Claiborne Park in the previous message. Here it is:

Clara Claiborne Park, 86, Dies; Wrote About Autistic Child

Darryl, thanks to your thread I have succumbed to two temptations today:
- Having discovered The Boy Next Door is available at my library, I resolved to read it next month. Your review convinced me this book is not to be missed!

- Thanks to all the newspaper-related talk, today I subscribed to the New York Times home delivery for Friday-Sunday. Coincidentally, my husband and I were just chatting this weekend about how much we miss the Sunday Crossword, which we used to work online. When we moved into our house 6 years ago, we were dismayed to find we could not get the Times delivered. (Would someone please treat Richard's hyperventilation at this point? Thank you.) Every so often I would check to see whether the situation had changed. Well, I had forgotten all about it but today I checked again, et voila! I can now look forward to the "Sunday Behemoth". I'm psyched.

But no way, no how, am I going to do that crazy car wash thing you do.

#85: Great! I look forward to your comments on The Boy Next Door; I think you'll like it.

I'm glad to hear that you're subscribing to the NYT. I imagine that you'll receive the New Jersey edition of the Sunday paper instead of the national edition; the NJ edition (which I can get in Bucks County when I visit my parents) is considerably larger, with more articles about NYC and events in New Jersey.

Sadly, the Sunday NYT, especially the national edition, isn't a behemoth any longer. I used to get it and the Sunday Star-Ledger, the NJ paper from Newark, when I lived and worked in NYC, and both papers were massive.

Are you saying that your car isn't good enough to be pampered? I'll bet that there are plenty of gourmet car washes along the Main Line.

Darryl, many thanks for posting the link to Mrs. Park's obit.

>86 kidzdoc:: I'll bet that there are plenty of gourmet car washes along the Main Line. No doubt there are, but I'm an hour from there. Where I live (near the borders of PA, MD, and DE), the people are only just beginning to outnumber the cows. We're not nearly so hoity-toity :)

That's right, you live in Delaware County, not with the "hoity-toity" types in Montgomery County. My folks live in Middletown Township, in a neighborhood that is solidly middle-class but not snooty like some of the towns in upper Bucks County. I seriously doubt that there are any gourmet car washes there!

Woo! I've received seven books over the past two days, from various sources:

The Deportees and Other Stories by Roddy Doyle: a collection of short stories about native Dubliners and new immigrants from abroad.

Pereira Declares by Antonio Tabucchi: this has been on my wish list for awhile, but I hadn't been able to find it in any US bookstore.

All That Follows by Jim Crace: an LT Early Reviewer book from March.

How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School by the National Research Council: recommended by a professor of medicine at Emory who runs a course on how to help the medical faculty become better teachers. It's mainly for work, but it seems to have broad applicability, so I'll review it here, as well.

The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna: a book that has been mentioned as a possible finalist for this year's Booker Prize.

Chef by Jaspreet Singh: another book mentioned as a possible Booker Prize finalist, an LT Early Reviewer copy from June.

Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport by Deborah Oppenhimer: received from a dear friend and fellow LTer.

I've received three LT ER books in the past two weeks, and I have two books to review for the next issue of Belletrista, so I'll probably put aside some of my planned reads for a month or so.

Nice haul, Darryl.

Thanks, Rebecca. I'll add to the piles in two weeks, as I'll be going to San Francisco for a week. I'll visit my parents in the Philadelphia area for a week starting on Tuesday, but I probably won't make it to the NYC bookstores then.

>89 kidzdoc:: Actually, Chester County. Delaware County is further east, near the airport.

(I love Google)

Ah! Wrong again. Nothing new there...

Several of us had a good laugh at work this afternoon, as we watched and took photos of a baby who was falling asleep in his hospital crib while standing up:







Yes, he was caught by one of the nurses before he slid off of the rail!

Oh, how dear. What a darling, darling baby! I would not accomplish any work because I'd want to hold him all day and rock him to sleep.

What a doll! Oh, I want to smooch his cheeks. Children are such a delight sometimes.

>94 kidzdoc: That kid'll be the life of the party one day! Doesn't want to risk missing a single thing. Good lad.

Awww ... sweet.

#94: That is one talent I wish I had!

Just trying to get caught up after being away for a few days Darryl. Great review of The Boy Next Door which I'll add to the teetering tower; regretting that i passed up a used copy of The Vagrants the other day in Seattle. Gah!

#95: Very often the nurses will babysit a young child whose parents are not in the room or are out of the hospital (e.g., working mothers). I think they enjoy this aspect of their jobs more than anything else, as long as they aren't busy taking care of their other patients. And I've definitely held some babies I've taken care of while I write my progress notes on the computer.

#99: If I'm tired enough I can fall asleep for a few seconds while riding a subway or commuter train while standing and holding a rail or strap, especially if it is a slow moving, gently rocking train like the cut-and-cover lines of the London Underground (Circle and District lines) or the New Jersey Transit or Amtrak trains leaving NYC Penn Station.

#100: I still haven't reviewed The Vagrants, but I'd definitely recommend it.

#101: I have a difficult enough time sleeping when I am in a bed! Sleeping standing up is just not going to happen for me :)

#102: When I worked in NYC and moved back in with my parents before med school, I used to love taking one of the Amtrak Clocker trains at the end of the work day, which were express trains that ran between NYC and Philadelphia. As the train left NYC Penn Station it would slowly merge with the other trains heading south through the tunnel under the Hudson River (one track in each direction), and slowly rock back and forth until it reached the tunnel's entrance. This took about 5-10 minutes, but many times I and many of the other daily commuters would be dead to the world before the train entered the tunnel! In the pre-cell phone era the train cars would be extremely quiet, as 3/4 or so of the passengers would be asleep, and the others would be reading a newspaper or book or doing work. It's much more difficult to sleep on the trains now due to the barrage of people having LOUD conversations on their cell phones. I think that the Amtrak trains on the Northeast Corridor line (Boston-NYC-Philadelphia-Washington) have one or more "quiet cars" where cell phone conversations are prohibited.

#103: I vote for the 'quiet car' every time :)

#104: Noise cancelling headphones are also good.

#104: I wonder if those would work for me sleeping in bed? My earplugs just do not cut it.

Mine are the over the ear type, instead of the earplug ones that Shure and others produce. I don't think either variety would work well if you were lying down, but they are fine for sitting upright on a long cross-country or an international flight.

Have you tried the clock alarms with soothing noises (e.g., ocean waves)?

#107: I have a ceiling fan that produces white noise for me. My problem is very loud neighbors, lol.

>103 kidzdoc:: I worked in NYC for a number of years and actually loved the train commute. My wife (girlfriend at that time) and I had a regular bridge game in the morning and the evening ride back out was a time to read. Commuting now by car is so much more stressful, even with audio books to relieve it a bit.

Oh, the baby is sooo cute! How do you fall asleep standing up? lol. The Boy Next Door was already on my wishlist, but it has now moved up a few notches on the tbr pile. I'm adding The Vagrants to the list as well even without a review from you. I know it would make me want to read it anyway.

*sigh* Darryl, I am officially a member of the unnamed club. To whom do I pay my dues?

If I'm a passenger in any moving vehicle, I will fall asleep regardless of the amount of noise around me. I have thus saved having to buy noisecancellation headsets for my plane trips or even train rides. When I'm in hotels by myself, I tend to fall asleep with the tv on. When I was younger and used to go to clubs with my friends every weekend, their favorite tease was that if i sat down for more than 15 minutes, even with the loud music and flashing strobe lights all around me, I'd fall asleep in my seat. Once they left me sleeping, went for a bite, then came back and woke me up to go home!

#110: I think that the club should be named the "Throw a Clunky Boot at Darryl Club". Caroline (cameling) is the President for Life of the US branch, and Jenny (lunacat) heads the UK division. Dues are payable to Caroline; however, since she is out of the country, you can send the $750 annual dues directly to me.

#111: I'm like you, I can easily fall asleep in any moving vehicle -- including one that I'm driving. I've only had one car accident in 30+ years that was my fault, and that occurred soon after I graduated from Rutgers, as I drove home at 4 am from my girlfriend's house. I fell asleep while driving my car on U.S. 1 South, just south of Princeton. I woke up after the car hit the concrete barrier, and I remember trying to control the car. The next thing I knew, I was in the back of the car, which was upside down in the southbound lanes, and a guy was helping me out of the car. Fade to black...the next thing I remember was a NJ state trooper asking me if I was okay, and asking me what had happened. I'm not much of a drinker, and I hadn't had anything stronger than iced tea (non-Long Island variety) that day, so I wasn't tested for alcohol, and was only charged with a minor vehicular offense, as no other cars were involved in the incident. The officer took me to a local hospital, and I was discharged home from the ER, with a concussion (and a huge goose egg on my forehead), and a few scattered bumps and bruises.

Yes, I was wearing a seatbelt. It apparently broke at some point during the accident. I decided at that point that God had some future plan for me, as I easily could have been killed or seriously injured. I no longer drive at night for any significant distances (more than an hour or so), although I did tempt fate as a med student, and drove from the Cleveland airport to Pittsburgh in a driving snowstorm in the middle of the night (stupid!).

>112 kidzdoc:: That's a lucky one, Darryl. Flipping the car is no minor thing.

I had one of those. Woke up a split second before going into a stone wall at 3:00 a.m. near my house. Walked the three doors down to my house and called the police. I wasn't charged with anything. Car was ruined and I had to rebuild a bit of the stone wall, but I was fortunate otherwise.

I'm extremely careful about driving when tired now as I realize I don't have a strong inhibitions against nodding off.

ETA: My most humorous (?) accident was about 25 years ago. My car developed engine trouble and I pulled over to the side of the road next to some Jersey barriers, put on my flashers, and settled into wait (pre cell phone days). I fell asleep and was, apparently, asleep for an hour or so when, BANG, I woke up and my car was on top of the Jersey barrier.

The woman who rear-ended me, more than a bit drunk, said she thought the flashing lights indicated an exit lane, so she tried to go between them.

#113: Lucky...or blessed.

I'm with you, I'm very cautious about driving when I'm tired, even on the drive home from work (~11 miles). I'll often take a nap before I leave and/or make a cup of coffee, especially if it's late at night. (I finished my shift at work about 40 minutes ago, but heavy T-storms are in nearby Marietta, so I think I'll make some coffee before I leave.)

The woman who rear-ended me, more than a bit drunk, said she thought the flashing lights indicated an exit lane, so she tried to go between them.

Great driver!

The last accident I was involved in was in the spring of 1998, when a woman rear-ended me and trashed my beloved Honda CR-X on Peachtree Street, the main street in Atlanta, in Midtown in the middle of a sunny afternoon. I had stopped behind another car that was making a left-hand turn, and she plowed into my rear, crushing my car between hers and the one in front of me. She was a typical ATL ditzoid (not meant to be sexist, as there are plenty of male ATL ditzoids), and initially said that the reason that she didn't see me was that my brake lights weren't working (which, of course, is a legitimate reason to rear end someone in the middle of a sunny spring afternoon). I stepped on my brake pedal, and of course my brake lights flashed red (what was left of them). Unlike your driver, this woman was fully sober.

I am very good at driving while tired. My husband, on the other hand, scares me to death when driving even after a full night's sleep. I have been with him when he has slept all night long and within 15 minutes of getting in the car will fall asleep at the wheel. I have driven on 2 hours of sleep numerous times and never fallen asleep at the wheel. I do not get it, but that is the way it is.

I get sleepy driving long distances regardless of time of day unless I have music cranked up extremely loudly ... I'll stay awake, but might go deaf if I had to do long distance driving on a regular basis.

and by the way, the Booting Darryl Club dues should not be sent to Darryl, despite his pathetic attempt at embezzling said funds for his own nefarious purposes .. namely, to purchase more books to tempt us all with. For even posting that suggestion, a thigh high leather stiletto boot has been hurled at you.

I agree completely about the dues not going to Darryl!

Some nasty accidents there. :(

I've been lucky in the 14 years I've been driving that I've only been involved in two accidents, both very minor and neither involving any injury to anyone. The second time, I benefited from being very lazy and sitting in a queue on the clutch rather than the brakes, so when I was read-ended the car just shot forward a few feet and the only damage was one broken bracket on the exhaust that the garage didn't even charge to fix. The front of the car that hit me was like a concertina.

I don't tend to get sleepy driving, but I now have a built-in alarm to stop me driving too long anyway. Ever since I broke my foot, it starts aching after about 1 to 1½ hours' motorway driving non-stop, and I have to take a break.

ETA units. (To quote my physics teacher - 1 to 1½ what? Cream cakes?!) D'oh.

#116, 117: Rats. Foiled again. However, the stiletto boot you flung at me landed harmlessly in the Pacific Ocean.

Did I mention that I'll be in San Francisco in less than two weeks? Several trips to City Lights and the purchase of untold books that will be added to Caroline's wish list are in order (heh heh).

I haven't done much reading so far this week, but I hope to finish The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Monday.

I'm turning green with envy. I would have loved to go to Bouchercon in San Francisco, my favourite US city, this autumn, but I don't think it's going to happen.

#120: Sorry Luci, I only meant to antagonize Caroline. I had never heard of Bouchercon, so I had to investigate. Let me know if you do go, as I'll be in San Francisco again for the first half of October (American Academy of Pediatrics annual conference at the beginning of the month, San Francisco Jazz Festival and visiting friends during and after the conference).

I'm with you; SF is definitely my favorite US city. I go there every July and/or August, to get away from the heat in Atlanta.

I'm off to Ottawa in two weeks (and Toronto), not San Francisco. But Ottawa should be cooler than NYC, at any rate... (and definitely fresher air!)

I'm not sure we should be subsidizing Darryl's book habit by sending ANY dues to him. Especially since he proceeds to generate additional costs for the rest of us by inciting us to buy the same books. tsk tsk tsk.

Stasia, the noise reduction headphones are great for listening to music (although prob not for true audiophiles) and for traveling in noisy vehicles. Alas, they would be uncomfortable to sleep in, and I don't find they help block out that much street noise when I'm working. (It just gets harder to hear the phone!!) That said, I wouldn't get on a plane without my (replacement) Bose headphones...

#122: Ottawa and Toronto sound like fun; I'd love to hear what you do there (unless it involves hip dislocating dance moves), and any bookstores that are especially interesting. I'm still hoping to travel to Canada with my parents, and I just found out that I have an extended break in mid-September. Hopefully they've received their passports.

Did your lost Bose headphones ever turn up? I assume not, given what you just said.

Darryl, plans are to see friends and family -- my father is in Guelph (and has a fave bookstore there!) near Toronto. Then going to Ottawa for a family reunion (my mother's side). Will report back on the bookstores! Several independents have vanished from Toronto over the last decade or so, however. I used to work at The World's Biggest Bookstore, just north of the Eaton Center in Toronto. It's a former two-story bowling alley! The selection is vast (it's a good place to pick up UK books in North America), although as part of a chain, it doesn't have that eclectic feel to it.

Nope, the earphones didn't turn up. It was one of those cases where every lost property office was telling me it was the responsibility of another one, leaving me in limbo. Bah humbug. Thank heavens for the book advance (which paid for replacements).

Darryl
I'm away from your thread for a few days and return to see posts re. car accidents, membership dues.... and traveling.

As always, I so enjoy visiting here.

I'm very glad that you and all others who were in car accidents are ok. What would LT be without you all?

#122: Too bad about the headphones. I was hoping. Oh well.

*Stiletto boot has a boomerang heel and has whanged its way back, thumping Darryl smartly on his butt.*

Duly warned of your impending book-buying spree at City Lights, I shall shore up my obese wish list in preparation for a hefty upload of titles in the coming weeks.

#124: Have a great time, Suzanne! I look forward to your reports.

#125: Hi, Linda! I'm glad to see you here, and I hope that you're feeling better.

#126: Same here. Bose headphones aren't cheap!

#127: I'm not surprised that the boot hit that sizable target.

Caroline, do you take photos on your trips? I think I'll take photos of my favorite spots of my usual destinations, especially in SF, and post some of them here and on Facebook (I'm not very active on FB, but my BlackBerry allows me to easily upload photos, such as the ones I took of the sleeping baby earlier this week).

>122 Chatterbox:: Off to Toronto and Ottawa in two weeks? We'll be up near North Bay at that time. If you think you'll swing near there, PM me for a phone number and stop by for drinks or water-skiiing or whatever.

Oh how exciting to know that Tad and Darryl might get together...Please have someone take a photo and then post in our your threads. Happy Travels to you!

#130: Actually, that would be Tad and Suzanne. I'll be in San Francisco in two weeks, and I'm flying to Philadelphia on Tuesday to visit my parents.

Oh, Tad, much as I'd love to swing by North Bay, that isn't going to happen on this trip... Family stuff, and connecting with friends. I'm hoping to get a half-day to myself in Ottawa, but...

Darryl...

I hope you have a lovely time with your parents.

#133: Thanks, Linda. It should be a relaxing and low-key trip. Well, that's always the case, but I probably won't go to Center City Philadelphia or NYC during this brief trip. I did something to my hip, nothing too bad (and nothing like what Suzanne went through), but I want to rest it as much as possible, as I'll be walking all around SF in a week and a half. I've also picked up a viral infection, probably coxsackie virus, with a sore throat and a dozen or so small ulcers on my posterior pharynx with lots of redness. Again, nothing worth mentioning, but it will be nice to stay at home (and, yes, my parents house will forever be "home") and take it easy.

We will spend Sunday afternoon over my cousin's house in central New Jersey, as my cuter than cute nephew is having a birthday party (his fifth) that afternoon.

For those of you with young kids: coxsackie virus is the cause of herpangina, which can cause fever, sore throat, difficulty swallowing, and a mild cough:



(Not my oropharynx, but mine looks just like this.)

Treatment: supportive care, like any other viral illness, drink plenty of liquids, and "Magic Mouthwash" for younger kids (equal parts of Maalox, Mylanta and Benadryl, 1-2 tsp every 4-6 hours). Older kids and old pediatricians can take sore throat lozenges, as well.

Get some rest, Darryl. I hope you feel better soon.

Thanks, Stasia; I feel fine, except for a moderately sore throat. I've had this before, as this virus is very contagious, so I was expecting to see this once I looked at my oropharynx tonight. And this is nothing in comparison to the illnesses that the kids I admitted to the hospital this weekend had.

True, but as you have to take care of those sick children, you need to be feeling your best!

Illness is a regular job hazard for doctors, nurses and others who take care of sick kids, and we generally only take a sick day if we're really sick or disabled. The last time I took a sick day was in '07, after I was hospitalized with atrial fibrillation, a common type of arrhythmia (abnormal heart rhythm), and that was only because the head of my group refused to let me come back to work the day after I was discharged. Other than that I don't think I've taken a sick day in the past six or seven years.

That sounds remarkably like me. Unless I am dying, I do not take off sick time either. I am trying to figure out how I can fit knee surgery into my 3 days off so I do not miss any work :)

I used to wish more people with contagious flus & colds stayed home until they weren't contagious any more... (but now I work in a home office, I find I get sick less often...)

My own sore throat, which has been nagging me for a month, has largely cleared up in the three days since I got the A/C replaced. I'm beginning to wonder if there weren't some nasty bugs stuck in the old one where I couldn't get to them.

I imagine that it's far worse being a pediatrician seeing only sick kids, when kids already seem to be miniature disease vectors! My sis in law (who is a doc) says she was rarely sick a day in her life until she had children, who merrily pick up every bug within a 10 mile radius.

Darryl

Please take it easy and get better!

Ick. I have several more ulcers this morning, but the redness has improved. I'll probably feel much better later today or tomorrow. Fortunately I'm off from work until a night call next Tuesday night, and then off again for a week and a half.

#140: Is three days enough time to have the knee surgery and make an adequate recovery? I would think that sitting behind a desk, standing, or walking would be torture within a couple of days after a knee operation.

#141: If I or any of my partners stayed home every time we picked up a bug at work, we'd need an extra doctor practically every day, and probably twice as many doctors in the fall and winter!

My worst illnesses seem to have come from my friends' kids in Wisconsin during my fall and winter visits there. I would almost always come down with an infection that was far worse than anything I would normally pick up in the hospital.

#142: Hi, Linda! I'll have plenty of time to rest and recuperate. I hope that you're feeling better, too.

I finally transferred the photo that Brianah's mother took a couple of months ago, after I gave her the Paddington Bear I picked up in London. It shows Brianah sleeping soundly with Paddington; her mother says that she sleeps with him every night.

Love that picture, Darryl! Thanks for sharing it.

Hope you're better -- I lost track of yr thread and confess to skimming to catch up -- but I noticed that your are reading an Ellison presently. He was friends with Shirley Jackson and pops up at Bennington and in their house frequently. (I just finished the bio.)

#144: You're welcome, Stasia. She is an amazing kid, full of life and blessedwith love from family, friends and neighbors, and anyone who is fortunate enough to meet her.

#145: Pops? As in your pops? Stanley Hyman, right?

Did you finish the Rampersad biography? I read that one as well, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Hope you feel better soon, Darryl.

Sorry you're under the weather, Darryl. Hope you feel better soon.

#147, 148: Thanks, Rebecca and Caty, I'm feeling much better now, as my oropharynx is much less sore than it was this morning.

I'm not sure what an oropharynx is, but I'm glad it's better... :-)

The oropharynx is the area behind the tonsils and uvula (the piece of tissue that hangs down from the top of the soft palate) which extends to the larynx. It's still quite red and raw in there, and I still have at least a half dozen sizable ulcers, but it's improving slowly.

I just finished The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, which completely blew me away. It's easily a five star read, and one of my top two or three books of the year. I'll put down some thoughts about it later in the week, but I think it should be required reading for all high school and college students, and I'd recommend it to everyone.

Next up: The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, continuing the Southern Gothic theme.

This is an excerpt of the review of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter written by Rose Feld, which appeared in the June 16, 1940 issue of The New York Times, which describes my feelings about the novel far better than I can:

No matter what the age of its author, "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" would be a remarkable book. When one reads that Carson McCullers is a girl of 22 it becomes more than that. Maturity does not cover the quality of her work. It is something beyond that, somthing more akin to the vocation of pain to which a great poet is born. Reading her, one feels this girl is wrapped in knowledge which has roots beyond the span of her life and her experience. How else can she so surely plumb the hearts of characters as strange and, under the force of her creative shaping, as real as she presents—two deaf mutes, a ranting, rebellious drunkard, a Negro torn from his faith and lost in his frustrated dream of equality, a restaurant owner bewildered by his emotions, a girl of 13 caught between the world of people and the world of shadows.

Carson McCullers is a full-fledged novelist whatever her age. She writes with a sweep and certainty that are overwhelming. "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" is a first novel. One anticipates the second with something like fear. So high is the standard she has set. It doesn't seem possible that she can reach it again.

Darryl - I read it last year and it was one of my top reads and one I would definitely reread which I don't do too often. Thanks for sharing the NYT extract.

You're welcome, Kerry. I'll definitely read it again, and I think it would be ideal for a group read, since it covers so many topics: poverty, Marxism, fascism, capitalism, loneliness, racism, segregation, the US South, love, etc.

I'm pretty certain that this is the best debut novel I've ever read. Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor is excellent, but not as good as McCullers's first effort.

>154 kidzdoc: Don't forget failure.

I can't think of a better debut novel after hours of trying. It's an excellent book. And she was TWENTY-TWO when it came out! Awe inspiring.

# 152, 153, 155--Well you guys have convinced me that I must read The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. I see this book all the time in book stores but haven't gotten around to buying it yet. Onto the "Buy" list it goes.

Adding The Heart is a Lonely Hunter to the wishlist. Glad you're feeling better.

Darryl: Go here!

I'm now at my parents' home in suburban Philadelphia, after a (fortunately) uneventful flight from Atlanta. The trip takes only 1 hr 15 min wheels up to wheels down, so it seems more like a commuter train trip rather than an airplane journey. I'll be here until Monday afternoon.

#155: I'm absolutely stunned that she was only 22 when she wrote this! Fortunately the Library of America edition I have includes all five of her novels, and I'll probably read most if not all of the others by the end of the year.

Has anyone read The Sound and the Fury? I'm about 40 pages into it, and I'm thoroughly confused by the story and characters, although I do like the writing. I may put it aside for awhile, and come back to it later this month or in August. I have at least half a dozen books in my room that I left behind from my mega-haul from Book Culture (NYC) in April that I'm eager to read (e.g., Solar by Ian McEwan, The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk, and The Journey of Little Gandhi by Elias Khoury), along with two other novels I need to read by month's end for the upcoming issue of Belletrista, so I'm not hurting for books to read.

#156, 157: Buy The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter and read it ASAP! It's probably my second favorite book of the year, after Troubles.

#158: Thanks, bro! I posted a reply on your thread.

Darryl, I read The Sound and the Fury 20+ years ago so I am pretty sure I am no longer conversant about the book. My favorite Faulkner is Absalom, Absalom! - I hope you get to that one some time too, although again, it has been 20+ years since I read it.

Have you read The Feast of the Goat yet? I started it today. Very good stuff.

>159 kidzdoc:: I think you're pretty much supposed to be confused at that point in the novel. I haven't looked at it since about 1975 but Benjy had mental problems and I remember that whole section containing jumps in time and logic with no clue to the reader that they were occurring.

I read The Sound and the Fury in high school, which was even longer ago than when Tad read, and I don't remember it at all except that I loved it and was very impressed by the multiple perspectives. I haven't read it again because I was afraid I might not like it as much, but I probably would just have a whole new way of enjoying it.

#161: Yes; the members of Le Salon du Soüthern Gothique will be reading Absalom, Absalom! in November. The group is reading The Sound and the Fury this month and Sanctuary in September; two other Faulkner novels were read earlier this year, Light in August in January (which I haven't read yet), and As I Lay Dying in April (I read this in '07 or '08). I now have all five or six Library of America editions of Faulkner's works, which I believe include all of his novels.

#162, 163: Thank you very much, Tad and Rebecca! Okay, I'll stick with it then.

#160 I walked into a local used bookstore this afternoon and there was a copy of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, so I now own it. Not sure how soon I will get to reading it. I have 4 books going at the moment that I'm hoping to finish by the end of the month for the TIOLI challenge. Hopefully, it will be an August read for me.

Enjoy your vacation!

#160 I will not look it up at The Book Depository.
I will not look it up at The Book Depository.
I will not look it up at The Book Depository.
I will not look it up ...

...ah, heck. It's half price.

*click, click ... click*

If my bank manager comes after me, I'll send her to you.

#165: Excellent! I look forward to your comments about it. It's a shame that she and her fellow Georgian, Flannery O'Connor, died so young (at 50 and 39 years, respectively), due to chronic illness.

#166: Uh oh; it looks like the Booting Darryl Club has another member.

I've read The Sound and the Fury three times. The first time was in my English 101 course in college, and it really helped to be guided through it, since it is difficult to follow. This may be heresy, but you might want to look at something like Cliff notes so that you can get an outline of what's going on in each section. Then you can really get into Faulkner's language, and "the how" of his story-telling. I've gotten a lot out of it each time I've read it. Absalom, Absalom, although difficult, is much easier to read because it is fairly straight forward (although with Faulkner's long meandering sentences, and plenty of digressions).

#168: That's a great idea, Deborah. I think I'll do just that, and I bet that the Borders near my parents' house has Cliff Notes or some other guide to The Sound and the Fury; if not, I'm sure I can find a book in Berkeley or San Francisco next week.

That being said, I'll put aside The Sound and the Fury for the moment and start Island by Penelope Todd of New Zealand, one of the two books I'll read and review for the next issue of Belletrista.

Ooh! After I responded to a question about local author events in the Atlanta Bibliophiles group, I remembered that the biannual Richard Ellmann Lectures in Modern Literature at Emory University would take place this fall. It consists of three lectures given over three days by a prominent on author. I saw two of the lectures by Mario Vargas Llosa in 2006, but I missed the lectures by Umberto Eco in 2008. This year's featured author is Margaret Atwood, and I should be in town (and hopefully not on call, although I'll almost certainly have to work those days) for her lectures.

So, I'll start reading her novels in the near future, starting with The Blind Assassin and Oryx and Crake, and possibly The Year of the Flood. I'd appreciate any other recommendations of books of hers that I should consider reading.

Darryl, re "Peggy" Atwood, you'll want to read one of her early books, such as Lady Oracle. That gives a picture of Toronto in the 1950s, the kind of world she was reacting to. She looks back on that world in Cat's Eye. If you read The Robber Bride, you'll get some "insights" into Barbara Amiel, Canadian femme fatale and spouse of Conrad Black (in fictional terms at least). Edible Woman was her first novel, or as an alternative, Surfacing; The Handmaid's Tale her big breakthrough. Those would definitely be on my list. A shortish read is her early book on Canadian fiction, which is fascinating -- Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature.

My list would read something like this:

Lady Oracle or Cat's Eye
Surfacing
The Handmaid's Tale
Oryx and Crake or The Year of the Flood
The Robber Bride
The Blind Assassin

And of her nonfiction, depending on whether she's talking about literature or contemporary society, the above-noted book on CanLit or Payback, her newish book about debt.

She is probably the most un-Canadian yet ultra-Canadian person I know... if that makes sense! By which I mean incredibly individualistic and pursuing her own path, yet so much a part of the country/society at the same time.

Suzanne's list sounds pretty good to me, though I never liked The Robber Bride much. Cat's Eye is probably my favourite. Maybe a collection of her short stories.

Another Kings Cross bargain/secondhand bookshop is Judd Street books - though it moved to Marchmont Street (not very far away) a few years ago - I picked up a collection of her non-fiction including some essays and reviews there a couple of months ago: Writing with Intent. I haven't yet looked at it, perhaps I should try and fit it in to next month's reading.

I just picked up Cat's Eye free because I have appointed myself the person at our little local library who looks at gift books and tidies the book sale shelf. That was my loot from yesterday's workout! I am more pleased than a cat with a bowl of sardines.

I liked Atwood's Alias Grace. The author had a part in a hockey musical film( I kid you not) but it was cut. The film opens the Fall Toronto International Film Festival this Sept.

#171: Thanks, Suzanne! That's a great list, and I'll copy it once I start buying books by Atwood. Hopefully I can read three or four of her books by the time the Ellmann Lectures take place. I think I'll start with Cat's Eye, The Blind Assassin and Oryx and Crake.

#172: Thanks for the recommendation of Judd Books, Luci; I've bookmarked the shop's web site for future reference.

#173: I look forward to your comments on Cat's Eye, Lucy. Good move on your new library assignment!

#174: The London Review of Books blog had an entry this past spring, which featured a CBC piece where Atwood gives tips on how to be a good hockey goaltender:

Mama Gets Nasty

I'm guessing that she's quite the hockey fan.

There's a chance my parents and I will be in Toronto during the International Film Festival. They received their US passports in the mail on Monday, and were excited when I proposed a trip to Canada in mid September. I'll be the travel agent and tour guide, and we'll probably take the train from NYC to Montreal on Sep 11, spend at least a couple of days there, and then go to Quebec City and/or Toronto (train? rental car?). I'll have to leave by Sep 21, as I return to work the following day; if we go to Toronto, my parents can take Amtrak from there to NYC (I'll probably fly directly from there to Atlanta). I'd love to get recommendations on hotels, things to do, etc. in those three cities, or points in between. Alternatively, we could spend the entire time in Montreal, and visit the other cities on another trip.

I received a tweet from National Book Awards about an article that appeared in yesterday's Guardian. Texas is using reading courses for people convicted of nonviolent crimes as an alternative to long prison sentences, with good results:

Novel approach: reading courses as an alternative to prison

Thanks for that link, Darryl. Interesting idea and it sounds like it works for most people as long as they know how to read. Hope it catches on.

OK, some ideas...

From Montreal to Toronto, the train line runs through Kingston, Ontario. I'd spend a day/night there -- it's a small town, home to Canada's first prime minister, a center to see the Thousand Islands, right on Lake Ontario, with small parks and old limestone mansions (as well as my alma mater...) It would be a nice contrast to two big cities.

In Toronto -- the film festival is a marvel, although it can involve standing in lines for long periods of time. There's a good website, and you might want to start planning the logistics of that now. Ditto for hotels, which can often be booked up completely during the film festival. There are some bed & breakfast places -- look for B&B in an area called "The Annex", which is just west and north of the University of Toronto. The Holiday Inn on Bloor St. W. is usually affordable and it's very central -- just two blocks or so to a subway, walking distance to the Royal Ontario Museum and the Yonge/Bloor shopping hub.

You'll want to make time to see Harbourfront and walk along the lake. The museum is a good stop, as is the Art Gallery of Ontario. If you can rent a car, I would DEFINITELY drive up to visit the McMichael Collection, about 45 minutes out of Toronto. (big collection of Group of 7 paintings and Inuit sculpture, and set in a great rural setting.) Go to a Chinatown restaurant for dim sum. See if there are any walking tours through Toronto's ravines.

I'm probably a bad person to ask, as I don't tend to sightsee in Toronto, but those would be some ideas.

Montreal is interesting, but frankly I'd say that you could spend a week and see the highlights of Toronto and Montreal without getting too exhausted. Neither are big sprawling cities like London, and the highlights are relatively central. 10 days would give you a LOT of time, and you could squeeze in some side trips. If you opted not to go to Toronto, I'd combine Montreal with Quebec City, which is more interesting in some ways.

#177: You're welcome, Pat. As you mentioned, it only applies to a minority of offenders, those convicted of nonviolent offenses who can read adequately.

#178: Thanks, Suzanne! It will be interesting and challenging to plan this trip, due to my parents' age (Mom will turn 75 in October, and Dad will turn 76 in December). They are in relatively good health and are pretty mobile, but they certainly wouldn't be up for standing in long lines or long walking tours. I'll probably explore a number of options, but mainly focus on what they want to do, who wants to do what, and when they want to do it; I can return at my own leisure, and see and do the things I want on subsequent trips (i.e., it's all about them!).

Except for visiting me on occasion in Atlanta, they rarely take vacations, as my mother is afraid to fly, and my father is always busy doing something helpful around the house, volunteering, or otherwise helping someone else (I get tired just watching him in action!). So, this is really their vacation, not mine.

The "novel idea" is indeed novel! Can't imagine Texas giving up its addiction to killing people.

The train trip sounds like a really great idea Darryl. The only train I can ride here in the Midwest is when I go to Chicago, but it's a short trip. Otherwise it's always planes with all their stress and troubles, but I try to use trains wherever I'm in Europe.

*peeks in and waves*
Greetings kidzdoc!

You've been reading some good books as usual. I've been looking forward to The Boy Next door and Wise Blood.

Glad you're better from that yucky virus.

#180: I was also surprised to read that this program was taking place in Texas.

#181: I love long train rides, but I'm not a big fan of Amtrak. I used to ride the train in med school from Pittsburgh to Trenton, NJ (the closest major rail station to my parents' house), and the trains were often delayed, and when I was an (unsuccessful) undergraduate student at Tulane I took the Southern Crescent from New Orleans to Trenton. That train is the only one that services Atlanta anymore, one train in either direction every day.

It's sad that long distance passenger rail service in the US has become almost nonexistent outside of the Northeast and certain other parts of the country (Chicago, LA). Atlanta's original name was Terminus, as it was the terminal station of a major rail road, and several dozen passenger rail trains served the city daily until the 1950s.

#182: Good to see you, browngirl! I hope that you're doing well. Unfortunately this virus still has its claws in me, as I now have developed laryngitis and possibly an early viral bronchitis. Fortunately I'm off this week and visiting my parents, and I had no plans to do anything this week, due to the hot and muggy weather. So, this week is better than any other one for me to be sick (as long as I don't pass anything onto my parents or my mother's sister, who is also visiting this week).

I'm still reading "Island" by the New Zealand author Penelope Todd, for the upcoming issue of Belletrista, which I started on Wednesday. It's very good, but I usually don't read very much when I visit my parents and close relatives. I should finish it by the weekend, though.

OOO I can't wait to hear what you think of the Penelope Todd! I hear very interesting things about that book.

Rail travel...blame WWII. There were oodles of trained pilots, no need for an Air Force that could bomb cities flat anymore, and surplus planes that could be retrofitted with pressurization for travelers. (That ended up not being feasible, but it wasn't a terrible idea.) Plus the railroads were rotten, evil, rotten, mean, rotten SOBs (read The Octopus sometime!), so something to do dirt to them was politically popular. (Backfire: The money was always in freight. The railroads were *more* profitable after they stopped serving real people on their tracks.)

I *love* train travel. If I *need* to be somewhere, I'll fly reluctantly and moaning the whole way. But I'd prefer to drive, take a train, or stay home, in that order, before consenting to fly somewhere.

I once wrote a story called "Greetings from Terminus!" about an Atlanta that failed spectacularly to rise from the Civil War burning. One Mr. Rhett Butler Jr. tries to revive the city by making it into a theme park in the Confederate States. Pretty crummy story, I must admit, but I was 12 when I wrote it and my English teacher thought I was too clever by half and gave me a C+.

Popping in to say hello, Darryl. I love train travel ... that's one thing I miss about living in the UK. When I lived there, I used to take the train to visit friends in Wales, Scotland, Leeds, Manchester, Hull, Brighton, Cambridge and Oxford really often. I love the changing scenery out of train windows ... definitely more interesting than air travel.

#184: "Island" is very good so far. It's set in an island, presumably close to the coast of New Zealand in the late 19th or early 20th century, which serves as a quarantine facility for recent arrivals by ship and a hospital for those with communicable diseases (lep rosy, TB, etc.). The main characters are a boy of mixed Anglo and Maori(?) descent who swims to the island to be with his mother, who contracted TB on the mainland and was sent there; a beautiful young nurse; and the Matron, an older nurse who runs the facility under the guidance of Doctor ____, who has yet to make an appearance. I'm a third of the way through, and I'll at least give my impression of it once I'm done. I received it from an LTer (timjones) who lives in Wellington; it doesn't seem to be available in the US or UK.

Thanks for that interesting info about the railroads. I have a romanticized view of train travel in the early and mid 20th century, which probably only applied for the wealthiest of passengers (and certainly not for blacks in that time period, particularly in the segregated South). Several of my older male relatives, particularly one great-uncle, worked for the railroads as Pullman porters, and I wanted more than anything else to drive a bus, subway or passenger train when I was a kid (I finally gave up on that dream about 8 months ago).

I like the convenience of being able to fly almost anywhere from the world's busiest airport (ATL) whenever I want, and in a short period of time. One of these days I'll take the Southern Crescent from Atlanta to Trenton, but only if I have a very long break, as I would waste two days on the train. The last time I took the Southern Crescent, from Trenton to Montgomery, Alabama for a family reunion with my mother and her two sisters, the train broke down twice in the middle of a hot Alabama July afternoon, so I'm not eager to repeat that experience again.

#185: Hi, Caroline! I agree with you, I love the scenery on long train rides, and I can read on a train or subway with ease. I'll probably take several train trips during my next trip to London, which will likely be in November, along with the upcoming NYC-Montreal ride with my parents in September.

Woah Darryl ... you're starting to travel almost as much as I am! ;-) Lucky you.. .i haven't had a long train journey in a while. I want to do the East Orient Express from Beijing to Nepal one of these days. Some friends of mine have been on it, and they had a great time barring a few language challenges.

Do let me know if you go on the East Orient Express, Caroline! I had promised my mother a trip on the American Orient Express a few years ago, but I understand that this service was discontinued a couple of years ago. My mother and her youngest sister both hate flying and love train travel, and we were talking today about a possible future get together in San Francisco; they would take the train, and I (and, presumably, my father) would fly to SFO ahead of time. The trip from NYC to Richmond, CA takes nearly 3-1/2 days, which is way too long for me!

I received two near tomes in the mail from Amazon this afternoon: Pedigree by the Belgian author Georges Simenon, which was just released by New York Review Books. It was written in 1948, and is partly biographical, describing his childhood in Liège, the town where a good friend of mine grew up in. I also received Red Earth and Pouring Rain by Vikram Chandra, which Caroline recommended earlier this week (the reincarnated flying monkey book). I bought it because it sounded interesting, but also to try to get on her good side for a change.

#187: I'm curious to know how many airline miles you earn in a year, Caroline. I'm sure that you're on the highest level of whatever frequent flier club(s) you belong to, and are escorted through the airport properly:



I'm still grateful for free peanuts.

Hi Darryl - I've read several of Penelope Todd's YA novels, "Island" is her first adult novel. She created fascinating and disturbing characters in her Watermark trilogy.

#190: Yes, I read that "Island" was Todd's first adult novel. I'll definitely consider reading one or more of her YA books in 2011.

Darryl, I'll ask my mother for some ideas. She's in Toronto, in her 70s, and due to heart condition, isn't extremely enthusiastic about long walks or lines. But she's also very engaged in what is going on. What kinds of stuff are yr parents interested in?

#192: My mother is more similar to me in many ways; she likes museums, plays, architecture, etc. a bit more than my father does. My father enjoys these things, just not as much. He did say that he was interested in checking out the electronics and appliances in Canada as compared to the US (he is a retired electrical engineer who is very knowledgeable about computer hardware and electronics). I'm not sure if my father has been to Toronto or not; if he has, it's been many years. My mother & I went to Montreal for Expo '67; I don't know if she's been to Canada since then (I think she has, before passports were necessary) or if she's ever been to Toronto.

Going back a ways, Darryl, to "we'll probably take the train from NYC to Montreal."

Have you done any research on the experience? If you have, or if someone else here has first-hand experience, then ignore me for sure!! However, if not...

My wife decided to take the train from NYC to Florence, South Carolina on Amtrak. We'd done a lot of train travel in other countries and enjoyed it but this trip was definitely not enjoyable for her and the kids. The NYC to Washington part was great but, beyond that, it was a smelly, uncomfortable ride. The toilets had overflowed, the dining car was out of anything edible, etc. She said she'll never take that route again.

I just did a quick Google search and the experience may be the same to Montreal. For example, someone who took the very run you're contemplating wrote:

Few experiences can be analogous to a visit to the train lavatory after a 4 hour ride but let me try to describe the occurrence. If you have ever been to Delhi in the summer, say after the Ganges has flooded what is supposed to be the sewage treatment center, you might recognize the aroma. Perhaps you could relate the experience of trying to urinate and hold your breath. David Blaine has nothing on me. I thought that maybe the stench was an isolated incident but having visited the Amtrak Privy shortly after the departure from Montreal on the return trip; apparently rest room maintenance has gone the way of other deferred maintenance items like vacuuming the cars and emptying the garbage. I think there might be some consideration for changing the blue tinted mess in the toilet bowl more than once every Presidential administration. Hell Amtrak changes CEO’s once every six months so what’s wrong with cleaning the bathrooms with each new executive?

Full text here and admittedly from 2008.

This whole thing is very discouraging to me as I love train travel abroad and have always planned to tootle around America that way some day. Now, I may restrict myself to trains provided by our northern cousins such as the Toronto-Vancouver Canadian. It's too bad...I come from a very "railroading" family. My great-grandfather and cousin were engineers. My sister and her husband work for Union Pacific. My uncle was a conductor.

Sigh. Yes, we had a similarly dismal experience in 1990, when we took Amtrak's Southern Crescent from Trenton to Montgomery, AL and from Atlanta back to Trenton two weeks later. I was hoping, probably naively, that the northbound trip on the Adirondack would be a better trip than the one on the Crescent, as my trips on the Pennsylvanian from Trenton to Pittsburgh were enjoyable (except for the frequently late arrival and departure times). The only other realistic option would be for us to drive from PA to Canada, as my mother would be stressed out for weeks if we told her that she had to fly (and that is the last thing I want to do, as it's mainly her vacation!).

I will investigate this journey (and the proposed trip back from Toronto to NYC) in the coming days. Thanks for the heads up.

I haven't done the NYC/Toronto leg in 20 years, but it's not going to be the Acela, that's for sure. Bear in mind, too, that it means crossing a border. On the Toronto leg, you have to get out and Buffalo and walk through immigration/customs. As a passenger, I would imagine that driving would be far more comfortable. But it's a long trip; I'd do it with an overnight stop somewhere.

I will check in with my mother on the artsy stuff and my brother on the electronics stuff. Is your father looking at going shopping?? I know my brother prefers to snap up electronics stuff here. (He is always ripping apart computers...) Will also purloin some tourist brochures while there & mine them for info.

Re museums & stuff, I love the Gardiner, which is a ceramics museum immediately opposite the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum). That and the McMichael are my two faves.

I don't remember getting out of the train from NYC to Toronto and walking through customs in 2004. I'll have to ask Mike about it, in case I've forgotten.

Finally just catching up on your thread, Darryl. I vote for Cat's Eye, but I bet ten bucks that it won't be your favorite. I've read almost all of her books except the most recent ones. I read Robber Bride last year, which I liked, but it felt dated in a ways that all her others don't, so I think you're on the right track with the ones you've chosen.

But Ooh! Ugh! Those train stories. :-( I was thinking of taking the train down to Portland next weekend, since I don't have a car right now, but now I think I'll try a zipcar.

Darryl, I hope you feel better soon! Bronchitis is nothing to mess around with.

I am also a train lover, although I have actually only done one trip that way - Dallas to Milwaukee about 10 years ago, but I loved it.

#196, 197: I checked several travel sites (e.g., Trip Advisor, Rail Passage, etc.) about the border crossing procedure in either direction. From what I gather, trains entering Canada are stopped soon after leaving the US, and Canadian customs agents board the train and interview passengers onboard. Those whose merit further screening can be removed from the train and interviewed in a nearby facility. The same seems to hold for trains entering the US from Canada.

Any additional information would be greatly appreciated.

The middle portion of "Island" by Penelope Todd has been quite disappointing, as it has degenerated into a well-written romance novel. I'll skim through it at double speed, so that I can say that I've finished it. Unless it improves soon I probably won't review it for Belletrista, since I wouldn't be able to recommend it (currently 3 stars, and dropping fast).

I'll submit reviews for The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter and Landscape with Dog and Other Stories within the next couple of days.

#198: Uh oh; why do you say that Cat's Eye won't be my favorite, Bonnie? Is it a novel that the average male reader wouldn't appreciate?

The Adirondack, Amtrak's NYC-Montreal service, is supposed to be one of the most scenic train routes in the country (with the possible exception of the train that travels along the California coast). I'm expecting horrible food and restrooms, particularly during the second half of the trip, and my parents are used to long distance train travel, having taken the Southern Crescent from Atlanta to Trenton, NJ two years ago (which is a much longer trip than the ride from NYC to Montreal).

#199: Thanks Stasia, I'm definitely feeling better today. I took a dose of Nyquil about half an hour ago, so I should be dropping off to sleep pretty sooooooooooooonnnn.......zzz.

Oh, I love trains (or the idea of trains, it's been a while).

Just a suggestion, if you're still looking for Atwood suggestions, Darryl, The Handmaid's Tale is a classic.

#200 - Shame about Island, I had it out from the library a while back but didn't try it so will be interested in your final verdict.

I finished Island, and it was very disappointing, especially compared to The Boy Next Door and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. I would retract my comment that it's a well-written romance novel, as the characters and settings were thinly drawn. I'll give it two stars, and I'll let someone else review it for Belletrista.

I'm not sure what to read next, as I have a lot of books to choose from. I think I'll try The Journey of Little Gandhi by Elias Khoury first.

#204: Sorry that Island was such a disappointment, Darryl.

I hope you are feeling better today!

#205: I am feeling better today, thanks for asking. It will be another indoor day, as it's supposed to hit 99 degrees today with a heat index of nearly 110 degrees in the Philadelphia area. I am having a mild asthma flare up, so the last thing I need to do is go outside.

I just noticed that another LTer reviewed Island today, and she had the same impression as I did.

I don't have any experience with long-distance trains but, generally, a couple times a year I take trains from NYC to Boston, Washington, or Philadelphia. They are generally OK, but not fabulous. I won't spring for the Acela because I just can't see spending that much more money to get there less than half an hour sooner, no matter what they say about "a more comfortable seat." Incidentally, one time when we went to Boston all the Acelas seemed to have problems and we got there right on time on the regular train (well,the one that you reserve but don't get an assigned seat).

#206: It sounds like it needs to be an indoor day for you!

I went to add Island to my 'Do Not Read' list on Goodreads, but evidently there are no copies listed on it, so I cannot at this point.

I just took the train from Toronto to Ottawa and I was impressed. My niece went first class a few months ago and that is supposed to be great!
The area around the Holiday Inn( my brother has stayed there) on Bloor St. near St. George St. is a good one. Further west on Bloor- ( about 4 blocks) restaurants, and two good bookstores- Book City and BMV. Further east from the Holiday Inn- The Royal Ontario Museum, the Gardiner Ceramics Museum, the Japan Foundation, and the renovated Royal Conservatory of Music- with great concerts. I think that the newly redone Art Gallery of Ontario is worth a visit. Let me know when you have your final travel plans- I can recommend specific restaurants. There is also an all night arts festival in Sept- Nuit Blanche- I'm not sure whether it takes place during your visit. The film festival is a bit of a problem with lines- I agree. Some times certain theatres are better for "not that much standing"- I would recommend the Scotiabank Theatres on Richmond St.

>204 kidzdoc: Oh no! The murmurings I heard said that Todd's bopok was evocative and atmospheric. *sigh* Oh well.

#207: I'm with you, Rebecca; I can't see myself springing for the extra money for the Acela train. I would like to ride it once, though.

I enjoy almost all train travel, even short commuter train or subway rides.

After breakfast I spoke with my parents about the Canada trip, and we've decided that it would be best for me to fly to Montreal from Atlanta a day or two in advance of their arrival. So, I'll fly there on Sep 11, and they'll take the train to Montreal the following day.

Hope you're soon recovered from the various icky bugs and the asthma, Darryl. Shame about Island.

I quite like train travel, but I think the longest journey I've done was about 7 hours including changes, which was fine to do on a pretty regular basis. No doubt that's a very short trip compared to some of the journeys people are talking about here.

#208: I couldn't find Island on GoodReads either; it hasn't been published in the US or UK yet.

#209: Thanks for that very helpful info, Cyrel! We'll have to decide whether to drive or take the train from Montreal to Toronto. I'll definitely look at that Holiday Inn that you mentioned, and probably suggest that we stay there.

#210: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet was evocative and atmospheric; Island doesn't come anywhere close in comparison.

#211: The longest train ride I've taken was from New Orleans to Trenton, New Jersey (between NYC and Philadelphia), which takes about 28 hours. The train ride from NYC to Montreal that my parents will take is a little over 11 hours, but approximately 2 hours of that trip is spent at a station just past the Canadian border.

You can wave in my general direction as you are chugging up the track between Montpelier and Burlington..... (train usually stops at Essex Junction) -- Doesn't the train stop now and you take a bus or some strange thing from Saint Albans? We used to take this great overnight train, sleeper, to NY now and then. That's all over with. But the day train is good because you get to see everything. What a great trip you are planning!

Book #78: The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers



My rating:

First, a little background: Carson McCullers was given the name Eula Carson Smith when she was born in Columbus, Georgia in 1917. She was a promising pianist, a good student and a voracious reader as a child, and she intended to study piano at Juillard. However, she lost the money her family gave her for tuition to attend Juillard during her travel from Savannah to New York in 1934. She took on a series of odd jobs for the two years that she lived in NYC, while studying literature at Columbia and NYU. She decided to become a writer in 1936, after the successful publication of an autobiographical work, and began to write her debut novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, that same year. She returned home to Georgia, married Reeves McCullers in 1937, and moved with him to Charlotte, North Carolina.

McCullers contracted rheumatic fever at the age of 15, which was misdiagnosed and untreated by doctors in Columbus. As a result, she suffered a series of strokes that began in her mid 20s, which led to paralysis of the left side of her body at the age of 31, and her ultimate death in 1967, due to a massive cerebral hemorrhage. Her adult life was characterized by chronic pain, alcoholism, and depression; however, she persevered through it all, as she wrote five novels and maintained an active social life despite her disability.

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, McCullers's debut novel, was completed in 1939 and published in 1940. The setting is a small Southern mill town in the late 1930s that is beset by poverty and extreme socioeconomic differences, with poor whites working and living nearby poorer black residents, as wealthy whites lived far above both groups.

The central character, John Singer, is a deaf mute that works in a watch factory and lives in a rooming house in town. His roommate is another deaf mute, a portly Greek who Singer adores as a dear friend despite their obvious differences. The Greek leaves town, and Singer begins to frequent a local 24 hour restaurant, where he meets the owner (Biff Brannon), an introspective man who observes the characters that frequent the absurdly named New York Café; a traveling itinerant worker (Jake Blount), who seeks to unite poor working men against wealthy capitalists; and a spirited teenage girl, Mick Kelly, a tomboy who fervently desires to becomes a successful concert pianist. He also meets and befriends Dr. Benedict Copeland, a black doctor who ministers to the poor black residents of the city while suffering from the torments of racism and the failure of his children to reach the lofty goals he has set for them.

Despite his limited ability to communicate, Singer is loved and deeply respected by these characters and others that he meets in town, due to his sensitivity and impartiality. However, he is a deeply lonely man who longs for the company and understanding of his troubled friend. The other characters are also lonely and misunderstood, as they can communicate with and make their feelings and desires known through “conversations” with Singer, yet they are unable to relate to anyone else around them.

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is an astonishing achievement for any writer, but McCullers’s tender age makes this novel that much more remarkable. The characters are amongst the most memorable and affecting of any book that I’ve ever read, and McCullers covers a variety of topics with deep insight and sensitivity, including racism, poverty, capitalism, socialism, loneliness, and the misfit in society. I cannot praise or recommend this book highly enough, and I look forward to reading it again in the near future.

Hi, Darryl. I just saw your review of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter on my home page and thumbed it. I must say, this is really an excellent review. I love the background you gave on McCullers life and I'm now looking forward to reading this even more than I was. Great job.

That's a wonderful review of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Darryl.

The copy I ordered dropped through my letterbox this morning, and I'm going to try to get to it very soon.

Thanks, Pat and Caty. It's my favorite book of the year so far, just ahead of Troubles, The Siege of Krishnapur, and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.

The Booker Prize longlist will be announced in three days; I can't wait!

The longest train ride I ever did was Vancouver to Toronto -- 4 days and three nights! I was 18; had just seen off my parents to Tokyo and was going back to start second year of university. I did get to travel in what was called a "roomette" -- a tiny little room with an oversized seat, private toilet and a sink. At night, the conductor came and turned the seat into a single bed. There was a dining car (proper one) and a cafe car. I LOVED it. They had the bubble roof cars, from which I saw the Rockies at dawn and sunset on the prairies. I could meet people, or just hunker down in my private world in my roomette.

Alas, I don't think they do this much any more... Or at least, it's just for tourists. You can still travel like this in much of Europe, though.

Today's Guardian Review includes an enticing review of The Elephant's Journey by José Saramago, written by Ursula Le Guin. After I read the review I immediately ordered a copy from The Book Depository, as it doesn't come out in the US until September. I'll read it next month for my August TIOLI challenge, 'Read a Novel by a Nobel Prize Winning Author', in honor of Mr Saramago.

The Elephant's Journey by José Saramago

Darryl, great review of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. I have to say I read part of it many years ago and could not get into it. I will need to try again especially if you rated it higher than Troubles. And of course you reminded me that I have The Siege of Krishnapur on my shelf along with about a million other books). **sigh**

#219/221 Thanks for the heads up about the Booker prize announcement and the link to the new Saramago book. I'm planning to read Blindness for a group read that Mark is doing in September but I also own copies of All the Names and Balthasar and Bilmunda that I haven't read. Maybe I'll try and squeeze one of those in in August. Always good to have a challenge to read a book for.

#220 That train ride sounds great, Suzanne, and what a great thing to do on your own at 18. Love the word "roomette."

#222: Thanks, Bonnie. Richard also rated The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter quite highly when he reviewed it today (4.99/5.00). I didn't think any book this year would top Troubles, but I was mistaken.

#223: I'll post the Booker Prize longlist as soon as I see the list, presumably on Tuesday afternoon Eastern Time in the US. I've eager to see which books I've read will make the longlist, and which ones I'll need to order from the US or UK. BTW, the shortlist will be announced on Sep 7, and the winner will be announced on Oct 12.

I also took my first solo long distance train ride when I was 18, when I traveled from New Orleans to Trenton, NJ on the Southern Crescent in the middle of my sophomore year at Tulane. That trip was especially pleasant, as I spent most of the time with a cute freshman student at the U. of Southern Mississippi who was also traveling to Trenton. We exchanged local and campus addresses and phone numbers, but we were both had significant others, and I never heard from her or saw her after that.

Long distance train rides - I travelled from China to Vietnam when I was 6, with my mum, 2 day journey - we were ignored on the train until my mum went through to the buffet car and the train split, leaving us moving in opposite directions. Two Chinese guys who had ignored us did stop me jumping out after my mum at that point and they learned from my wails in Chinese, which I don't remember ever speaking, that we were English not Russian, after that everyone was much friendlier.

I travelled as part of a group holiday to Genoa, Italy when I was 14, and we had sleeper compartments.

I went to Vienna at 21 en route to Brno in what's now the Czech Republic - my return journey a few months later was on a bus.

In North America, as well as NYC-Toronto, Toronto-Montreal (sleeper) and Montreal-NYC, I've done the Coast Starlight from LA to Oakland - loved the train journey, the drawback is the dodgy locations around the stations as the trains depart and arrive at some odd hours. At least Grand Central Station in NYC is near some affordable and ok if basic tourist hotels - we stayed in one with a Korean restaurant where we could see Macys from the entrance - it was popular with young Asian women coming in with bulging shopping bags.

>221 kidzdoc: I discovered Jose Saramago fairly recently, but I quickly became a huge fan. I was so saddened by his passing. I love the photo included with the Le Guin review: yes, the more important the dog, the better the book.

>216 kidzdoc:: Loved the book and your review of it. The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter is one I can read over and over and enjoy it each time. I think it's due for another read very soon!

It's hard to believe that it's Booker time again. I always look forward to seeing the longlist, although I'm usually amazed at the number of books on it that I'm not familiar with after all the time I spend on LT and other book sites.

#226: I became a fan of Saramago after I stumbled upon Blindness, which was on sale at my local Borders. I noticed earlier today that I have 14 of his books, which is probably the most I have by any single author. I was shocked and saddened to learn of his passing, particularly because I thought that his health had improved compared to this time last year.

#227: Thanks, Donna. I've only followed the Booker Prize since 2007, but I've noticed that only a few of the longlisted novels are available in the US at the time of the announcement, and some of the novels haven't been published in the UK, as the books eligible for the prize can be published as late as Sep 30th of the year of the award. Several of the novels that have been mentioned for this year's longlist are currently available in the US; I'll be shocked if The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet doesn't make the longlist, and it seems that Solar, Parrot and Olivier in America, and Even the Dogs (all currently available here) are also strong possibilities for the Booker Dozen.

It's been a very long time since I read (and adored) The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Thanks for the lovely review and the reminder that I should start thinking about a reread.

Book #80: The Water Cure by Percival Everett



My rating:

Ishmael Kidder is an African-American romance novelist who lives in isolation on a mountain in New Mexico, in separation from his ex-wife Charlotte and 11 year old daughter Lane who live in L.A. Lane is brutally murdered, and the police locate the killer. Somehow Kidder kidnaps the suspect, who denies that he is guilty of the crime, and takes him back to his home, where he seeks his revenge by torturing him using "the water cure", or waterboarding, the technique reportedly used by the CIA to extract confessions from captured Al-Qaeda suspects during the Bush administration. Kidder recounts his tale, as a victim and torturer, and weaves in a variety of somewhat related topics, including the use of torture, Western philosophy as it relates to the responsibility of the individual and society in treatment of others, mathematics, and his former life and relationship with his ex-wife and daughter.

I found The Water Cure to be an ambitious but ultimately unsuccessful novel, as the interspersed topics were a distraction from the main story. However, Everett is clearly a gifted writer, and I will continue to seek and read his novels.

#230: OK, skipping that one. I hope your next read is a better one for you, Darryl.

Also hope you are feeling better today!

Thanks, Stasia. I'm trying to read some of the shorter and less demanding books I have at my parents' house, and I thought The Water Cure would be a good choice. I might have enjoyed it more if I had read it very carefully, and researched Everett's references on the Western philosophers and mathematical theorems that he mentioned throughout the book, but that would have been too much work, especially in the company of my family.

I am feeling better today, and I'm hoping to go to my nephew's fifth birthday party later this afternoon. However, it's still oppressively hot and humid here (forecast high temperature of 96 degrees, with a heat index of 105 degrees), not the best weather to be in during an asthma flare up, so it may be better to stay inside or not go at all.

I am sorry it looks as if you will miss your nephew's birthday party, but staying inside sounds like the best option for you.

Based upon your comments, I've moved The Heart is Lonely Hunter upward in my spreadsheet of "all those books you should have read in school."

So many interesting reads Darryl, you must have an amazing library in your home!

Isn't asthma a real pain in the neck! For me it's not so much the heat that sets it off, it's cold weather, which naturally, is the majority of the year in Ohio. Hope you made the party, and perhaps even able to help blow out the candles.

#233: My mother told me that the party will take place in a park, where there will be a cookout with lots of smoky fumes, so I definitely won't be going.

#234: Yes, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter will be added to my "Why didn't we read this in high school?" list.

#235: Most of my asthma attacks are set off by URIs (upper respiratory infections) or environmental allergens, especially cats and grass pollens. Fortunately I'm not allergic to the flora in Atlanta, otherwise I'd be wheezy and miserable in the spring and fall.

#236: Too bad for you missing the birthday party. Guess you will just have to cozy up to a good book instead.

#237: Yes. I'm undecided about what to read (after I finish the Sunday New York Times and Philadelphia Inquirer). I may go with Solar by Ian McEwan or The Journey of Little Gandhi by Elias Khoury.

#238: I will be especially interested in seeing what you think of Solar should you choose to read that one since I have seen somewhat mixed reviews of it.

#239: I enjoyed McEwan's two most recent novels, On Chesil Beach and Saturday, which also received mixed reviews here, so I think I'll probably like Solar.

#239: I also enjoyed Saturday. On Chesil Beach was, for me, just OK.

#189 : LOL ... if only I were escorted in style, Darryl. I generally travel about 150,000 miles a year, and I donate 3/4 of my miles to Make A Wish Foundation for the kids if they need to fly to get to various locations.

My brother is reading Journey of Little Gandhi now and he's enjoying it.

#242: That's very sweet of you to do that, Caroline. I'll look into doing that, too; I do need to earn 25,000 Member Qualification Miles to maintain my Silver Elite status on Delta, but I'd be interested in donating any miles above that amount to the Make A Wish Foundation, as several of the kids I've taken care of in the hospital took advantage of this program.

I'll read Journey of Little Gandhi sometime in the near future, since it seems to require close attention, something I can't easily do while I'm here.

When is your next trip? I'm flying to San Francisco on Thursday.

I was supposed to head out to Australia next week, but my meeting has been rescheduled, so I get to stay home for the month of August - which is great because now some friends can come visit and I'll be here.

But come September and I'll be heading out to India and Hong Kong.

Darryl

Please take care of yourself. As you know, asthma is dangerous. A few years ago Will had a horrific attack and we barely made it to the hospital (only ten minutes away.) It was scary!

#245: I didn't go to the party, and I'm especially glad, since we're now under a severe thunderstorm warning. The worst is yet to come. How is it there? (I'm using my netbook on battery power, BTW.)

>246 kidzdoc:: Darryl, it passed through my area around 2:45 - 3:00. The Phillies are still on a rain delay so it must have hit you by now? It was pretty wild for a while; one nice effect is a drop in temperature.

There was an incredible downpour a few hours ago, now the sun is shining.

Pouring rain here. The thunderstorm woke me up in the middle of the night. Maybe there's another one working its way up the coast?

We had strong wind gusts and moderate rain at about 3:30, followed by heavier rain about half an hour later. It's been raining lightly for the past half hour, but it looks as though we're due for heavier rain shortly. I'm glad that my flight back to Atlanta isn't until tomorrow.

The rain is now out of PA, and the Phillies-Rockies game is back on. The Phillies just took a 4-3 lead after scoring two runs in the bottom of the 7th, and hopefully we can hold on to the lead for the win.

New thread here.

>194 TadAD: - Well, that answers that question. I'm going to Montreal in March, and was trying to decide between the train (cheaper, and I'm afraid to fly) and flying. I've flown before, so I think I'll just face my fear and skip the misery.

Hello Doc! Just popping in to say hello. Thanks for the "Novel Approach" article.

Hi, Luxx! I'll be flying to Montreal, and my parents will take the train, so I'll let you know about both routes to the city.

Excellent! I'd appreciate the feedback. I hope both modes go smoothly.

Great review of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. I'm moving it up on my list. Thumb!

I thumbed you too for your review of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter as well as your description of the author. Will add it to my wish list. Thanks for the Booker list, too, btw. Immediately requested some of them at the library.