Cushla's (cmt's) books: Episode 3

Currently reading the Heather Blazing by Colm Toibin, because Brooklyn was so good.

Current tram book: An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah

Thread 2 is back here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/89590.

Thread 1 is over here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/79134

January
1. Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin - 5 stars
2. So Long a Letter by Mariama Ba - 4 stars
3. A Dry White Season by Andre Brink - 5 stars

February
4. Excellent Women by Barbara Pym - 3 1/2 stars - Europe challenge
5. The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill - 3 stars
6. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery - 5 stars - Europe challenge
7. The Lost: The Search for Six of Six Million by Daniel Mendelsohn - 4 1/2 stars
8. Hot, Flat and Crowded by Tom Friedman - 4 stars

March
9. A Girl Made of Dust by Nathalie Abi-Ezzi - 3 1/2 stars
10. Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Helperin - 4 1/2 stars
11. The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen - 2 stars - Europe challenge
12. Arms of Nemesis by Steven Saylor - 4 1/2 stars
13. How Markets Fail by John Cassidy - 3 stars
14. The Greatest Trade Ever by Gregory Zuckerman - 3 1/2 stars

April
15. Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain - 5 stars - Europe challenge
16. Provincial Daughter by R M Dashwood - 3 stars -Europe challenge
17. 1984 by George Orwell - 5 stars
18. A Wall in Palestine by Rene Backmann - 4 stars
19. The Last Resort: A Zimbabwe Memoir by Douglas Rogers - 4 1/2 stars
20. The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri - 3 1/2 stars - Europe challenge

May
21. Aleta Dey by Francis Nelson Beynon - 3 1/2 stars - TIOLI May Challenge
22. March Violets by Philip Kerr - 4 stars - Europe Challenge
23. A Glass of Blessings by Barbara Pym - 3 1/2 stars
24. The Big Short by Michael Lewis - 3 stars
25. Imperium by Ryszard Kapuscinski - 4 1/2 stars
26. In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin - 4 stars
27. The Guernsey Literary and Potato-Peel Society - 3 stars
28. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell - 4 stars
29. A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson - 4 stars

June
30. Chasing Goldman Sachs by Suzanne McGee - 4 1/2 stars
31. On Travel by Charles Dickens - 4 stars
32. Mennonite in a Little Black Dress - Rhoda Janzen - 3 1/2 stars
33. The Anonymous Venetian - Donna Leon - 4 stars

July
34. The Help - Kathryn Stockett - 4 stars
35. Home Truths - David Lodge - 3 stars
36. No Signposts in the Sea - Vita Sackville-West - 4 stars
37. A Venetian Reckoning - Donna Leon - 4 stars
38. Death in a Strange Country by Donna Leon - 3 1/2 stars
39. Every Man Dies Alone or Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada - 5 stars
40. Mountains beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder - 4 stars

August
41. One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes - 3 stars
42. Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford - 4 stars
43. A Good Land by Nada Awar Jarrar - 2 1/2 stars
44. Brooklyn by Colm Toibin - 4 1/2 stars
45. Bruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker - 3 stars
46. Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin - 4 stars

September
47. The Finishing School by Muriel Spark - 2 1/2 stars - TIOLI schools challenge
48. Alexander's Bridge by Willa Cather - 3 stars - TIOLI apostrophe challenge
49. Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge - 2 stars- TIOLI title challenge
50. On the Brink by Hank Paulson - 4 1/2 stars - TIOLI money challenge
51. The Dark Vineyard by Martin Walker - 3 1/2 stars
52. The Berlin Wall by Frederick Taylor - 4 stars - TIOLI chunkster challenge

October
53. As the Earth Turns Silver by Alison Wong - 3 1/2 stars - TIOLI 21st C challenge
54. Black Diamond by Martin Walker - 4 stars - TIOLI police challenge
55. The Polish Officer by Alan Furst - 3 1/2 stars - not a TIOLI book!!
56. The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson - 4 stars - TIOLI Recommended by Stasia challenge
57. The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer - 4 1/2 stars - TIOLI Recommended by Stasia challenge

About time you got this new thread posted! I have been waiting 24 hours or so :)

Ha! Found you. But of course I'm slower off the ball than Stasia... ;-)

Suzanne, isn't it about 2.30 am in New York?!

I was waiting till I'd finished Every Man Dies Alone - I am even further behind on people's threads because I couldn't stop reading for long enough to go onto the computer. It's the best fiction I've read this year - so tense, and not in a good way because you just know that evil will prevail. I couldn't read it at night and now I'm looking for something light and happy.

I'm also thinking about a name change on here because cmt is so nondescript, and there's a user with a very similar name who seems to spend a lot of time sending people messages asking them to read his e-book. That's fine, I suppose, but I don't want people confusing us!!

Right, better make the kids breakfast (is it bad that we have one TV and 2 laptops running for 3 people...?)

#4: I have had Every Man Dies Alone in the BlackHole for a while now. I cannot wait to get my hands on it. I just saw your note on the TIOLI challenge.

I have Every Man Dies Alone coming up...... well, sometime. Hopefully, I won't die before I do get to it.

I just read about Daunt Books in London selling about 60 copies of Alone in Berlin (Every Man Dies Alone - US title) just from a prominent window display, so I also put it on my tbr list after googling Hans Fallada. I put the link to the article in the 'Interesting Articles' thread.
Looking forward to your review and go for the name change, I've often wondered about that myself as I didn't realise that I would be a social user of the site when I chose my username.

Kerry I read the article link you posted this morning (I read all the conversations after I finish a really great book!) and that bookshop is going on my list of places to visit in London next year!!

Thanks Darryl et al for putting my mind at ease regarding London arrivals. Oh! the Access Guidebooks are absolutely wonderful. I had one for a vacation to Hawaii a few years back and it was soooo helpful. I carried it constantly and added notes as I went along. Last day there I left it on a chair in the Aloha Tower and realized it too late. Hope it helped someone out.

Hi Cushla, I finally finished Cranford. I am a bit hesitant to upset all the women there, but I feel a bit proud to be a man. I know these ladies think that men are just a nuisance, loud, and disturbing a good household, but, alas, who brings peace to the village in the end? Well, yes, all have to admit - a man.
I really enjoyed reading it. Thanks for the tip. We could meet for coffee some time, so I can return the book.

Daunt Books is great, Cushla. And yes, it was about 3:30 a.m., not 2:30. What can I say? I'm a night owl -- and I don't have small children to whose schedule I must accommodate myself!

Re the name change -- WE know who you are...

Re Fallada -- I've eyed that intermittently, may have to bite.
ETA: Have just loaded it onto my Kindle...

>10 paulstalder: I say amen and give a witness to Paul's perspicacious comment!

(Europeans...that's an American protestant religious joke.)

Cushla, I didn't realize that you are reading *W&P*! I had determined to read it in the second half of the year, but I haven't started yet while I try to get through the biography of Shelley. So, maybe we can trade remarks if we both get busy.......

Cushla, here I sit with Every Man Dies Alone staring at me from my bookshelf; maybe August **sigh**

#10 Ha ha Paul, yes I suppose! Glad you enjoyed it. I can't do coffee till September - both kids home on school holidays and am hardly on here... - but then would be good. If you see anything else you want to borrow, tell me.

#13 Peggy, I read 200 pages last year. I loved it but stopped (real life, discipline, etc.) At the start of this year I said I'd finish it, and now it's August! I might try in September when I have more time. It would be really nice to swap comments.

#14 Bonnie, I am going to write a review soon... once you start it you won't be able to stop, but you need to be in the right mood for a book that gets grimmer and grimmer.

Hi Cushla, I've been following you but haven't had much to say lately. I do have Every Man Dies Alone on my wish list after Mark raved about it awhile ago. Hmmmm....I wonder what it says about me that I gravitate towards books that get "grimmer and grimmer." Books that are too lighthearted just don't seem realistic to me and my Scandinavian background.

I have also considered a name change to DonnaReads, but I've about decided that unless a lot of Donnas join LT that I'll leave my thread up with that name and continue with the same old user name. What name or names are you considering? We had great fun earlier this year helping Angela (BookAngel_a) choose her new moniker.

Hi Cushla--Sounds like you are still enjoying Europe.

I read Every Man Dies Alone last year, and loved it--except for the ending, which I thought was unrealistic and contrived. I'll be interested to read your thoughts on it.

Donna, I thought you did change to DonnaReads for a while? BookAngel_a told me who to email, so I did, but I'd guess he's busy because I haven't heard anything. Long story follows...but since you asked... I thought about the name change and looked at the cushla's that were already there. Cushla was taken. So I asked him for Cushlaandherbooks - don't know if you've heard of Dorothy Butler in the US, but she's a New Zealander who did loads of great work with children and literacy and books, and opened the Children's Bookshop in Auckland. Anyway, a long time ago she helped a wee girl called Cushla, who had Downs' Syndrome, and her parents - and wrote a book about it called Cushla and her Books. I still haven't found it anywhere, but it'll be in all the libraries back in NZ.

Then I started looking harder at the other cushla s on here. I clicked on ''cushla'' and found that she too had joined on September 24 2006, then I had a flashback to the night I found LT - I somehow mucked things up when I was trying to upgrade to paid membership, and was in a hurry to catalogue everything in sight so decided to start again. I chose cmt to get on with it, not knowing how many hours I would spend on here!! So my first membership - cushla - is sitting there with 0 books in it, and it's a free account.

But I would quite like to keep the account I've got and change the name, instead of deleting all my books from cmt etc. I've asked LTMike if he can just delete cushla and give me cushla. We'll see...

ABW, you were one of the reasons I bought Every Man Dies Alone!

'Cuhsla and her books' is (are?) in a library in Zürich, I asked them if they could send it to the WWZ library. Would you be interested to get it for four weeks (interlibrary loan)?

Thanks for offering Paul, that's really nice of you, but I'll wait till I get home! I am overloaded with books to read - too many Book Depository binges since we got here, and Bider and Tanner... and the 200 I brought with me.

Sorry you haven't gotten your new name yet...if it's been over a month, you might want to email again, like I did...very politely in a small email voice, lol!

I did that and he was very nice and changed it right away. He said he thought he HAD helped me already, but he was a bit distracted because his wife had a baby! That definitely explains things...

It would be great if you could simply be 'cushla'. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out!

Happy reading...

#18 I did something similar when I first opened an account a few years back - I think I ended up with three different free accounts with slightly different user names, because I couldn't remember what name I'd used first time. I only discovered this when a friend said he'd left a message on my profile but I didn't see it because it was on one of the dormant accounts. Had to get admin to delete the two dormant profiles/accounts - they said this happens quite a lot!

I didn't do it here, but I did it on facebook. *sigh* I don't want to call attention to myself there, so I'm simply letting the first account languish. Come to think about it, I'm letting the second account languish too. FB definitely isn't LT!

Hi, Cushla! Have you seen and used the new website, Google Translate, yet? I tried translating several newspapers, then thought, "Why don't I try LibraryThing? And it works! Well, you can be the judge of how well it works, I guess. I enjoy reading your thread, as usual.

Hallo, Cushla! Haben Sie gesehen und verwendet die neue Website, Google Translate, noch nicht? Ich habe versucht zu übersetzen mehrere Zeitungen, dann dachte: "Warum kann ich nicht versuchen LibraryThing? Und es funktioniert! Nun, man kann den Richter, wie gut es funktioniert, vermute ich. Ich lese gerne deine Threads, wie üblich.

#23: I know exactly what you mean about FB not being LT. I have not been on FB since January, I don't think.

Ha - I am on FB all the time! It's been a lifesaver since we moved here. I just hide all the rubbishy apps like Farmville and only look at friends' status updates and photos.

Bonnie, I like Google Translate and that was funny. It's always slightly off, but if I'm really stuck and in a hurry I use it, especially on boring websites.

I'm having a great day - decided I would treat myself to one more book (Paul, see, I have a problem!!) and went to Bider and Tanner to look for one of the Booker longlist titles - but they were all 30 francs, and they'll be much cheaper on Book Depository. I nearly bought The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet but the first 3 pages has such a graphic description of a breech birth that it put me off. With picture. I've had 2 babies and will happily yabber on about the details of my labour and births to anyone who asks - but it looks like a demanding read, even if that's the only gory bit. So I came home with Bruno Chief of Police, the first in the Martin Walker series that Suzanne has raved about - much better for an easy read!!

And I finally wrote my review of Book 39: Every Man Dies Alone :

Hans Fallada wrote Every Man Dies Alone in 1947, but it was translated into English only last year. The novel is based on a true story of a couple, Otto and Elise Hampel, who resisted the Nazi party. There's a really interesting afterword about Hans Fallada (Rudolf Ditzen) and the Hampels. Fallada was an alcoholic and a drug addict who ended up in an insane asylum near the end of WW2 after threatening his wife with a gun (and drinking 12 bottles of wine in 3 days). His own behaviour during the Nazi Party's time in power was a mix of collaboration and resistance.

The book opens with Eva Kluge, the postie, delivering a letter to Otto and Anna Quangel, quiet, frugal working-class Berliners whose son Otto is away fighting in France. This is a book with tons of characters, all vividly showing different ways of surviving in Nazi Berlin. There's a retired judge on the ground floor of their apartment building, the Persicke family - a thoroughly nasty bunch, especially their son Baldur - on the 2nd, the Quangels on the 3rd, and Mrs Rosenthal, who's Jewish, on the 4th. The postie's scumbag husband plays a big part too. There are subplots and many more characters all over the place, but the main story is about the Quangels.

Otto is a foreman in a carpentry factory that, by the end of the book, is making coffins. He's very shy and not particularly political - he and Anna thought Hitler wasn't too bad in the 1930s - but a comment she makes to him after she reads the letter that's delivered in Chapter 1 makes him come up with a scheme to resist the Nazis. He decides to drop postcards around Berlin with anti-Hitler messages, and he quickly convinces Anna that this is worthwhile. They imagine that their postcards will cause others to resist the regime. This isn't what happens at all.

The book is extremely tense from the first page, and very easy to read. Occasionally, for a couple of sentences, I'd forget that the police are evil here, then I'd remember that this wasn't a normal crime novel. It's fascinating watching them try to figure out who's dropping the postcards - then it's just horrible knowing that they are getting closer. It really makes you wonder what you would have done if you'd been alive when Hitler was in power, because a normal life with moral integrity came at such huge risk - keeping out of trouble without supporting the regime was enough to put you in danger. Highly recommended if you want to read a book about survival in Germany in WW2, and the best fiction I've read this year (number 2 is still A Dry White Season, which has similar grim themes!). 5 stars.

#26: Great review, Cushla! If I did not already have this one in the BlackHole, I would add it for sure.

Adding Every Man Dies Alone to the wishlist: it sounds very powerful and engrossing. Thanks for that review, Cushla.

Excellent review, Cushla! I'm adding it to my wishlist, as well.

I'm interested to hear your thoughts on Mountains Beyond Mountains. I might read that for one of the categories in the Dewey Decimal Challenge.

Cushla you're killing me. I have got to read it. Soon. Very soon. Great review BTW.

Good review and I'm looking forward to reading Alone in Berlin (UK title). You'll be jealous but I just picked up a copy of Bruno Chief of Police for $1 at a Variety Club bookfair.

Hello Cushla. Imagine running into you here. LOL!~!
I just wanted to stop by and say hello. This is so much more my element.
Looks like you are reading some very interesting books this year. I have read some really good stuff this year as well, but not as much of it. R/L has a way of getting in there and knuckling your books right out of the way.
Well, see you over "there"; you know that place I was never going to go and now I live there, but unlike you, I farm the hell out of it. LOL!~!
big hugs and later dear,
belva

Great review - and I am surprised that I've never heard of it before. I'll get it with my next amazon order.

Thanks for the visits and thumbs. (I'm thinking y'all are the suspects...) (Hmm, y'all just does not sound right coming out of a Kiwi mouth, but I do like it.)

Bonnie I hope you're still alive, anyway it's usually you adding books to my pile!

Belva, thanks for stopping by and it's nice to see you on here. I hope your husband is on the mend now - sounds like it has been a very stressful time. And I'm glad you're enjoying Farmville!

Deern, I wonder if you haven't come across it because it's been available in German-speaking countries the whole time. I think there was some English language hype last year when it came out, based on the blurbs and the number of "notable 2009 book" mentions it got.

Kerry, is the Variety Club bookfair the main Auckland one? I might have to come up for it if it is when we're home - my husband's family is all in Akld and now that the kids are bigger it'll be easier to escape for weekends. I really miss the Wellington book fairs. I feel like a truffle pig at the smaller ones (like Johnsonville and Rongotai College), and the big DCM one is a highlight of my year!! (Luckily my friends do not think I am a freak, well not much.)

Carly, I didn't adore Mountains beyond Mountains but it was still a good read. There was just a bit much Tracy Kidder in the book. I think Americans might know who he is, or have a reason to be more interested in him than I did, but really I just wanted to read a straight-up bio of Paul Farmer and Partners in Health, not hear about how Kidder had a sore knee. I'll write a quick review when I've dragged the kids to the supermarket (9 more days of both of them at home with me, and counting!!)

Yes, the Variety Club bookfair is probably the largest, I haven't been to all of them though. I'll be posting a list of what I got on my thread eventually. I don't think it would be any better than what you would have in central Wellington though. There's another one - a 24hour bookfair in November at the ASB stadium in Kohimarama - not quite as good selection usually.

Thanks for the info on Mountains beyond Mountains. I'm an American but don't know who Kidder is, so I don't care much about his knees, either :)

>37 carlym:: I suspect that Kidder, his ego, his doctor, and maybe his wife are the only ones who really care about his knees! I've read almost everything by him, and his earlier books didn't have the author involvement that the last two did.

>23 LizzieD:: Peggy, I've let my FB account pretty much languish since my initial postings. I put a new picture up recently because I was so embarrassed about having the "me and Mickey Mouse" pic up so long. LT is my new FB!

Cushla, I'm going backwards in responding to your thread....it's that kind of day. I only use the "DonnaReads" name on my thread here on the 75-Book Challenge. I'm Donna828 everywhere else. I hope it's not confusing, but there don't seem to be a lot of Donna's on LT. That was a funny story about discovering the identity of your LT twin who joined on the same day and had the same name. :-)

Ya'll have a nice day.

OK, I'm four books behind here, and I'm in the middle of Brooklyn so am spending most spare minutes reading. Unless it goes downhill it is going to be getting 5 stars.

Book 40 was Mountains beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder, read for the July TIOLI "Making a Difference" Challenge. I gave it 4 stars. I read this because I'd seen lots of praise for it here, and I'm really glad I did. It's a biography of Paul Farmer, the founder of Partners in Health and generally amazing guy. While he was still at med school, he was setting up a small medical clinic in rural Haiti. The Haiti clinic made a massive difference to the local people and has hugely improved their health and standard of living. He specialised in infectious diseases, and did some groundbreaking work in multi-drug resistant TB that started in Haiti and was adopted worldwide. I especially liked the parts of the book that dealt with the fights about changing the TB protocols, and the material on dealing with the aid agencies. I loved that Farmer was such a superb doctor with individual patients, as well as looking at big picture policy issues.

I dinged this a full star for Tracy Kidder's over-involvement in the story he was telling. As I said earlier, I didn't need to know about his knee trouble, or how tired he got on the walks (although I guess he was demonstrating how staunch Famer was). It got quite annoying.

I'm going to look for some of Farmer's own books - Darryl recommends Pathologies of Power - and read it alongside Enough, the book about what's wrong with development programmes that doesn't have a touchstone, as soon as I can find either for not too much money...

#39: I am glad to hear that you are enjoying Brooklyn more than I did, Cushla. I hope it continues to be a 5 star read for you!

Stasia, I'm trying not to read any reviews of it till I'm finished but might have to sneak and look at your thread from when you read it. Sorry you didn't like it. I still have 150 pages to go but Teresa is plonked in front of Toy Story while I read!

#41: Cushla, I read it in August 2009. Don't make me try and guess which thread that might be!

Yay for Toy Story!

I also really liked Brooklyn, I think there was a lot to be gained from reading it. I think I gave it 4.5, in an effort to not give *everything* five stars. Tough love. ;)

I've just put Finding Nemo on for Cass and am feeling rather guilty... but she's majorly grumpy, its tipping with rain and I'm completely wiped (blame the bump!). Yay for Pixar and Disney.

OK, now I am FIVE books behind. Today is, thank goodness, my last day of both kids at home for a glorious 9 days. If I haven't said this on here already, nine weeks of school holidays is about 4 too many for me. The 6 year old never wants to go out, and we have the kid from downstairs here between 3 - 7 hours a day. The 3 year old still needs lots of entertaining. Book time is always findable, lurking and reading threads on here is findable, but writing anything is not!!

Book 41 was One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes. This was one of my Virago Modern Classics, and it fitted the TIOLI weather challenge, so off the bookshelf it came. I'm glad I read it and I love getting through some of my VMCs - the collecting has slowed down since we've been here, but I have 100+ still to read of the ones I own.

The novel is set on one (fine!) day in July, 1946. Laura and Stephen Marshall and their daughter Victoria are a typical middle-class English family. It's quite cleverly written - we see, mainly through Laura's eyes, what life is like at the end of WW2 across the class spectrum, through her interaction with others. Compared to the years before the war, the Marshalls are suffering. Especially Laura. She's lost The Help. No, really, she's lost the cook. Rationing is still dreadful, and the garden is a mess since the gardener got killed during the war. I don't want to belittle their problems, but I am kind of tired of reading about how terrible it was to have to cook dinner for your husband and do the housework while your 11 year old is at school. I don't mind if the book is funny, like Diary of a Provincial Lady, and I know from non-fiction how grim things were in Great Britain for many years after WW2, but this book was just a bit whingy.

Whenever I read about Great Britain in this period, I'm struck by how much stronger the class distinctions still were even in the 1950s than they were in NZ. I know they existed at home - but the landed gentry was much, much smaller, and almost everyone got by without servants, even before WW2. (And why have I read no good NZ books set in this period?!) Anyway, I gave this one 3 stars because I wanted it to be over before it was.

#45: Too bad about that one. I read a book of Panter-Downes' short stories, all set during WWII, that I really liked.

That sounds interesting - and her writing was good enough that I'm going to look for it. I think if One Fine Day had been 50 pages shorter I'd have enjoyed it more. Was it Good Evening Mrs Craven? It has great reviews on the work page - just had a look!

The intro to One Fine Day was good, as usual, and I hadn't realised that Panter-Downes wrote for the New Yorkers for a long time.

>35 cushlareads: I think "y'all" sounds perfect in your mouth or from your keyboard or whatever!

Oh good, I'll keep saying it then!!

I use LT and FB for completely different purposes. LT is a place where I can talk about books; FB is a place where I can connect with (mostly) RL friends and other contacts, without having to send each their own e-mail! Since these include a friend from elementary school in England (age 7) and from high school in Belgium, from grade 8 in Ottawa, from college, work all over the world, and they are scattered from India and Indonesia, Japan and China, to most of Western Europe and across North America, it's the only way to stay in the loop. (I also use privacy controls aggressively...)

>45 cushlareads:: OK, this is a bizarre coincidence. I read your review over lunch, and I've just received an alert from Paperbackswap that One Fine Day (which I had wishlisted) is now available!

I'm intrigued by One Fine Day but I'm not sure if I want to wishlist it or not. Like you, the whining might get on my nerves. Gasp! I don't know how people survived without a servant ((shudders)). ;)

#47: Yes, it was Good Evening, Mrs. Craven, Cushla. I hope you give it a chance some time.

>52 BookAngel_a:: I know what you mean BookAngel_a ... I collect Virago Modern Classics so that's why it was on my wishlist. I tend to snap them up rather indiscriminately. I probably won't rush to read this one, but will get to it someday.

Laura, that's so funny about your Paperbackswap alert. I feel like I'm being peevish and didn't say enough about the good things in the book (the writing was beautiful, it really did evoke England after WW2, and you could visualise the characters). The servant thing is just my thing at the moment, and probably is worse because I spend my life cleaning and cooking!!

Angela, I would wishlist it if I were you but I think you need to be in the right mood to read it.

Got another VMC in the mail today and it looks great - The Misses Mallett by E.H. Young. I'm back mooching books again and have suddenly had a lot more luck finding ones on my wishlist.

I adore E.H. Young -- I haven't read that one yet, but I've read several others. She's a wonderful author.

55- Alrighty then...I wishlisted it! :)

I'm back from Legoland, but I am abandoning all hope at catching up with proper reviews, so I am going to write some quick comments on the last few books instead (along the lines of "It was good.")

Book 42: Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford - 4 stars

This was very funny and really good! I'm going to sound a bit hypocritical after getting grumpy about Laura in One Fine Day complaining about losing her book. This book is in some ways similar, except instead of being set after WW2 it's set in the early 1930s, in upper-class instead of middle-class English society. Servants galore, unless you marry the wrong guy, which is the main plot element here. I read Mary Lovell's biography The Mitford Girls a few years ago, and think I enjoyed LIACC much more because of it. I'll read the other 2 in my 3-in-1 version (The Pursuit of Love and The Blessing soon.

I read all these Mitford novels a couple of years ago and also thought they were wonderfully entertaining reads. I had a 4-in-1 omnibus edition which also included Don't tell Alfred.

#58 I enjoyed that one when I read it too, there was a BBC drama of that some years ago which was what got me interested.

Legoland sounds fun! Will there be pictures?

You've reminded me that I started and abandoned The Pursuit of Love earlier in the year (not because there was anything wrong with it - I got distracted by something else), so I really ought to finish that one off and read Love in a Cold Climate and The Blessing too. (I've got a 3-in-1 edition, too.)

Caty, we must have the same edition! I felt like I needed a rest from Mitford because her charm might wear off if I read all 3 at once. It looks like The Pursuit of Love is a prequel to Love in a Cold Climate.

Kerry, Don't tell Alfred has just gone onto my wishlist. I didn't read too much but it looks like a sequel to LIACC? It looks excellent! I feel a Book Depository trip coming on... oh no not again. (You would think I would read the other 2 I own first, but maybe not.)

Heather, no photos because we went crazy with photos of Legoland on our first trip back in April. But if you look on my profile page and click through there are 11 pics of it, including one of me doing a very scary boat trip down a waterslide.

I was going to post a review of A Good Land but I have a 6 year old here with Lego instructions... the boat from Lego agents, in case any of you care! I will try to be back later.

I did see a film/TV film version of Love in a Cold Climate recently, which piqued my curiosity. Must take a look at the books... and seek out a book on the Mitford clan themselves!

#63: Suzanne, there is a good book out about the Mitfords called The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family that you might try.

Suzanne, I think the Mary Lovell one is called The Sisters in the US and I really really liked it. It's one of the books I read when Fletch was a few weeks old, and I had hours of time to read while I was up in the night feeding him - I got through Stalingrad as well. With Teresa, it was John Keegan's WW2 tome and Parting the Waters... Funny how some books have such strong associations with where you were when you read them.

Oops, been caught.

Yes, I'm pretty sure I read it after LIACC and before The Blessing. I read all four books in about 4 days, and loved them all.

...but I have a 6 year old here with Lego instructions... the boat from Lego agents, in case any of you care!

Oh, *I* care. I know the exact boat. Mr Bear is preparing his wishlist for his birthday (late Nov) and Xmas, so I've had many a Lego catalogue shoved under my nose over the past few weeks. Currently he's obsessing over the Harry Potter Lego, and the Lego board games (we've got two - Creationary and Minotaurus - and both are fun, although maybe a bit too old for a six year old as yet).

ETA: Read Love in a Cold Climate many years ago, and enjoyed it. It's due for a re-read one day rsn!

One of my two nephews is a Lego addict, and delicately suggested to my mother that she might buy a $500 set for his birthday next month. If that's too expensive, he added, she could also consider a $270 set, which also would be acceptable... *eyes roll*

*laugh* We had to institute a rule one year that he wasn't allowed to request anything bigger than himself from Santa, as he was asking for Lego sets that were almost too big for him to even carry.

Mr Bear was talking to a friend, and said friend told him that Santa can't carry electronic equipment or games because it might get broken in the sleigh. Brilliant!

This is what I'm thinking of getting them as well as the ubiquitous Lego purchase (and Miss Boo needs a bike): http://www.crazyforts.com/home.html - I think they might just LOVE it.

#69: I want the 'igloo' fort thing! Those look so fun. Maybe for my grandkids for Christmas. . .

Suzanne, I am terrified that my kids will grow up without understanding the idea of a budget constraint. Since we've been over here they have got so much more stuff - especially Lego. But Fletch knows not to even ask!!! 270 US is humongous!!! He gets 5 francs a week, and he has to save it up. He's getting the idea, but we still have tears when I say "no" or "save your money then" to stuff sometimes. We discovered Swiss Ebay last week, and I was so excited - 7 bionicles for 10 francs. (Sorry, meaningless unless you are a bionicle freak, but one was worth 40 francs new!) They are also discovering that I am happy to buy them books and now he'll ask to go onto Book Depository!

He knows he gets one biggish set for Christmas, and at the moment it's (Wookie!) a Space Police one, but that's around 100 francs and might be too big...

Wookie, that igloo fort thing is great. If I were still at home, I'd be suggesting our toy library buy it (aaaah toy library I miss you.) Mr Bear has read the HP books now, right? I want to save them a bit longer. We have one of the games, but he's still too young for it.

Anyway. Books. Book 43 - A Good Land by Nada Awar Jarrar - was a bit disappointing, and the second slightly disappointing book written by a woman and set in Lebanon this year. The other one was A Girl made of Dust, which was better than this one but still didn't stick with me for long after I'd finished. I read this one for the TIOLI 'no e' challenge - it was an impulse buy earlier this year. It's set in Beirut a few years ago. I'm still glad I read it, but I found myself wanting to finish it after about 100 pages - so it gets 2 1/2 stars.

The story is set in an apartment block in Beirut. The main character, and the narrator for most of the story, is Layla, who spent her early childhood in Beirut but emigrated to Australia with her parents during the civil war. She moves back and teaches English Lit at university. Upstairs lives Margot, an elderly woman who's lived in Beirut for a long time. (Don't read the back cover - it gives a bit much away). Kamal is a Palestinian writer.

I think my main problem was that I didn't find the voice of Layla, the main character, all that realistic. She was very close to Margo, but they seemed to have an awful lot of deep and meaningful conversations. Maybe I just don't have enough deep and meaningful conversations with my friends? I opened the book at a random page and found this:

'I feel that with Margo I am encountering truths that would otherwise have eluded me, depths of being which I might not have been able to reach on my own. In accepting the people and circumstances around her, she shows me the way of compassion, and in being so steadfast, she gives me courage(...) "At times, you seem almost like a child to me, Margo", I say. 'It's almost as if at some point in your life, you simply gave up being certain about anything at all.' I hesitate, suddenly unsure. 'But perhaps I have been unable to fully understand you".

There's quite a bit of this. But there are also some great descriptions of Beirut, and how beautiful it is, and a real sense of what it must be like to live there. For about the 3rd time this year, I found myself wanting to reread From Beirut to Jerusalem.

#62 Found the photos - you have very cute kids!

My son always goes to his grandma's when he wants legos over $100. There is no way I'm going to buy a set that will be put together in a few days, if that, and I have to dust for 5 yrs, if that!

I'm so glad my children are adults (I have no grandchildren yet so that may well be different). $270 for Legos????? Wow! I remember buying them probably 25 years ago but not for that kind of money.

I am terrified that my kids will grow up without understanding the idea of a budget constraint

Well if only more parents worried about that. I think you're the exception Cushla. Most children I come in contact with are used to asking and getting, no question what price.

I know the feeling Cushla - I already worry about it and Cassie is only 2! The problem is my hubby is the worlds worst budgeter. Sigh...

On the plus side, despite the cost I cannot wait for her to get into Lego - My sis and I LOVED it as kids, though mainly blocks rather than specific sets. Hubby still has some - which I had been trying to get rid of. I've totally taken that back now that I found his Batman set is worth at least £150 secondhand (originally about £30)!

I would note that my 44-year-old brother, and father of the juvenile Lego addicts, still has many of his original Legos -- they just aren't as cool as the new sets being created today!

We buy most of the big Lego sets on lay-by, which works better than saving up for us. Mr Bear gets to choose his set, we explain how long it'll take to get given his allowance, and then we lay-by it, and have a weekly (or thereabouts) trip to pay another bit off.

Choosing is agony though, it's like pulling teeth. He can never make up his mind! We just started a new lay-by for a set just the other day, I think we ended up with some Star Wars Lego (not the wampa cave on the ice planet Hoth, which was *my* favourite choice).

Miss Boo also gets to choose some Lego, but she usually goes for a smaller set. With ponies, if she can.

When the big chains have their big sales on Lego, my husband also goes through and lay-bys all the sets *he* wants. Lego addiction never fades, a fair amount of our Lego is from his childhood...

#75> BekkaJo, yep! Once they're no longer in stock, the value goes through the roof! We have a very nice friend who gave us his Batmobile in Lego because Mr Bear got fixated on Batman after the Lego was no longer available. (He's selling the rest on eBay.)

Cushla, Mr Bear has not read much of Harry Potter. We're several chapters into the second book (he watched the first one as a movie), but time to read a chapter can be difficult to find what with me working fulltime, school, homework and his fairly early bedtime (he's a pumpkin at 8pm, but it's hard to get everything squeezed in before 8pm as it is!). He mostly knows Mr Potter et al through Lego. Of course.

Heather, I'm glad you liked the photos!

Bekka, it is really so cool when they get into it - we started to get hours of independent imaginative play at around 4, after years of me feeling like Chief Entertainment Director. I wasn't into it as a kid, but my brother was like Suzanne's, and he's got all the sets of Technical stuff for his kids now. And Lynda, no dusting here - a lot of them get rebuilt into other things and spend much of their time in boxes of sorted coloured pieces (spot the obsessed mother...but it means he builds more stuff, which is worth it.)

Bonnie, it's really nice of you to say that, because it sometimes feels like I'm fighting a great wall of want-want-want. And if you looked at how much stuff he's got even with us battling you might still think he's spoiled...

It's quiet here. Fletch is back at school today, hooray! So I'm going to try to get up to date here before something happens in the living room...

Book 44 was Brooklyn, and I loved it - nearly gave it 5 stars. I'd seen lots of talk about it on here, and a real life friend in NZ had also recommended it highly. I was expecting a harder read, but it was very straightforward . Eilis Lacey is a young woman living in a small town in Ireland in the 1950s. It's the story of her move to New York. If you haven't read it, avoid the back cover (I seem to say this about every second book I read!!) because it gives too much away. I think one of the reasons I loved it is that she reminded me a bit of me leaving NZ to go to grad school in the US when I was 23 - I wasn't as unworldly and the world has opened up so much since 1950, but I could relate to her homesickness a little bit and there were times when I felt like the kid from the small country on the other side of the world.

I thought Colm Toibin did a great job of writing from a woman's point of view and I will be looking for his other books.

Ooh - has anyone else looked at the new Controversial Books feature? It's cool!! (Go to your profile, then Statistics/Memes, then Controversial books down the side - on top of Vous et nul autre). It shows your bokos ranked by the standard deviation of the rating. My top one is Solstice by Joyce Carol Oates, which is somewhere in a box in New Zealand. But it might be an interesting TIOLI Challenge for next month - a lot of my top titles on this list are books I've been sitting on for years.

My top 10 are:

Solstice by Joyce Carol Oates
The Stone of Light: Nefer the Silent by Christian Jacq
Grantchester Grind: A Porterhouse Chronicle by Tom Sharpe
Ramses: The Battle Of Kadesh by Christian Jacq
Day by A. L. Kennedy
Twelve Bar Blues by Patrick Neate
Ramses: Under The Western Acacia by Christian Jacq
The Iraq War by John Keegan
The Debut by Anita Brookner
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

Eek, how terrible that of the top 10 all are TBR except for The Da Vinci Code!!! (And I didn't know I'd bought 3 of the Christian Jacq books. ) Anyone read any of the other ones?

My top one is from my tbr list The Stranger by Max Frei, a Russian scifi that I want to read. My top 10 includes 5 children's books, a really good graphic war memoir We are on our own, along with nonfiction Supernatureand Women who love too much. No. 11 is Fungus the Bogeyman and no.12 is Tender morsels both I consider to be excellent, though Tender Morsels isn't enjoyed by all.
Going by my list I wouldn't call the books controversial, more an acquired taste perhaps. I really don't understand how We are on our own got there.

Yep, there was some discussion about "divergent" or "controversial" on the Talk thread (where I just spent 10 minutes!) I see Clarice Bean on your list too (down a bit further) - Teresa keeps seeing her on the flap of the Charlie and Lola books but I think she won't get any of the jokes for a few years yet.

We are on our own looks good - the 3 members who gave it 1 or 1/2 a star will be doing it... just put it onto my wishlist (am sure Wgtn library will have it. 16 months to wait!)

Yes - divergent ratings would sum it up. Looking further down my list I see that The Penguin Book of Japanese Verse is not liked by all!

I liked We are on our own enough to buy my own copy. Oooh, Clarice Bean is a real character but definitely for older readers, I love the Charlie and Lola books especially the one about the library book. Judy Moody is another of my favourites.

Charlie and Lola are brilliant. We got out Whoops! But it wasn't me! from the library the other week and I spent a long time with Miss Boo in my lap spelling out the moral of the story: don't play with your big brother's toys without asking, and definitely don't lie if you do so.

Two very important lessons that I hope she learns! Soon!!!

Glad you enjoyed Brooklyn, I thought it was excellent. It's a straightforward story, but there is so much depth to it, with the implications of what she does (or does not) do. I've got his The Master somewhere (about Henry James), must read that one rsn too.

I read The Master early this year. What was impressive is the extent to which he was able to "channel" Henry James's voice (I say this despite the fact that I'm not a James fan!) Must read Brooklyn, especially since I live here... He has a new book of short stories due out in the new year.

Loved The Master ... came across Brooklyn in a bookshop last week but held off buying it since I already had an armful. Would still like to read it at some point.

OK, I'm going to look for The Master. But I haven't read any Henry James (yet). Should I read a Henry James first? Which one? And I have his The Sign of the Cross: Travels in Catholic Europe in a box at home.

In other exciting news, I got a voucher for 20 francs (enough for a book! yay) from my favourite bookshop here, Bider and Tanner. That was good. But they printed on the letter how much I've spent - 641 francs so far this year!! And I hate to think how much at Book Depository... probably more. I'm telling myself a chunk of it was for the kids. Yowser.

Oh, I love those book vouchers you get for spending money in bookshops. I've got one going at the bookshop near me at work, and another one at the bookshop near home. They're seriously dangerous!!

I've only read two James books: Portrait of a Lady and Turn of the Screw (and I started The Aspern Papers). From memory, they were rather difficult reads. I've been meaning to re-read Portrait or try one of his others for some time now, but they're not high priority.

I loved Brooklyn too Cushla. And I picked up The Master last week. I haven't read any James either but I do have What Maisie Knew on my shelf. I know that's one of his later books but I'm going to read it before I read The Master although I don't know if it matters.

I'm not a Henry James fan, Cushla, but I did make it through The American without getting too bogged down earlier this year, and the other one of his that I enjoyed -- relatively speaking -- was Washington Square. If you've read Brooklyn, then you might want to dip into some James before tackling The Master, just to get a sense of how/why the style changes. I've also got The Sign of the Cross: Travels in Catholic Europe sitting here on one of my TBR stalagmites in the living room...

#81 + #84 Cassie discovered Charlie and Lola lately and loves them. Too much sometimes! I keep having to forceably return them to the library. Plus when I was ill a few weeks ago and not doing her bedtime story her Daddy was forced to read her the same Charlie and Lola (one about Snow being the favouritest thing) for about 5 nights in a row. He's such a push over!

#88 I read Turn of the Screw at Uni - I don't remember it being too bad. It's reasonably short as well! I do have a stack of Henry James to read though and the fact that I haven't touched them may say something about how how much I really enjoyed the Screw...

I loved The Master, but did not care for Brooklyn nearly as much as you did, Cushla. I have never read any Henry James either, but did not find any problems with reading Toibin's book.

Edited for typo

I did not read James before reading The Master. I did read a bit via DailyLit just to get a sense of his style, but I don't think that's essential. Now, having read the book I definitely plan to read some James soonish.

James does have some shorter works--Turn of the Screw, Daisy Miller, and The Aspern Papers, among others. The Portrait of a Lady is long but one of my favorite books.

Cushla- I'm a fan of Brooklyn and I plan on reading more of his work. I have The Blackwater Lightship waiting in the stacks!

OK, I see some Henry James in my future...thanks for all the ideas. I think I have Washington Square in a box in storage. It sat on the shelves for years and never screamed to be read.

My next 2 books were both mysteries and both LT recommendations. Book 45 was Bruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker, and Book 46 was Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin.

I gave Bruno 3 stars and was a bit disappointed - I just found it a little slow moving, and the writing didn't wow me - but I really liked a lot of the characters, especially Bruno, and the food writing was GREAT. It's set in St Denis, in the south west of France near Sarlat, and we had a lovely few days there a few years ago eating almost nothing but duck. Yet again, there is a MASSIVE spoiler on the back of the book - the worst I've seen in a while. It more or less tells you the murderer, or at least narrows it down to a small group. As it was, it was pretty easy to guess where the plot was going. Who writes these back of the book covers?!

Anyway, I liked it enough to buy the rest of the series! Thanks Suzanne - I think this was mainly your rec.

I liked Mistress of the Art of Death quite a lot and gave it 4 stars. In case you've had your head under a blanket for the last few years, or haven't been hanging out on LT for long, it's set in England in the 1170s and won the C W Peters historical crime award a few years back. I suppose you'd call Adelia, the main character, a pathologist - women were allowed to be doctors in Salerno back then. She gets summoned to Cambridge, England with Mansur, her Muslim servant and Simon of Naples, a private investigator, to investigate some very very very very nasty killings of young children. The local Jewish community has been blamed, and are all locked away in a castle to protect them from the rest of the townspeople. I liked the ending a lot.

I could stomach the details of the murders - just - and learnt lots of history along the way. I agree with a lot of the comments on here that Adelia really did feel a bit too modern for the time period though. If you've read the Outlander books, at least Claire has an excuse for being modern - she has gone back in time. That doesn't work as well here.

I'll be looking for the next 2 in the series soon.

Cushla, I think/hope you'll find that the mystery part of the Bruno series gets a lot better in the next two books -- and remains interwoven with the life of the town, which is a big part of the charm of the series. I think I ended up reading it more for that, than I did for the mystery!

Ariana Franklin, the author of the Adelia series, has also written a number of other novels under the name of Diana Norman. I quite like the Adelia series, although I think the first book is the best. The second has a really bizarre and slightly gross scene at the murder (you'll know it when you see it!) and my medievalist friends inform me there are lots of tiny historical errors. Happily, they are the kind that unless you're a geek, you won't pick up on and they don't spoil the basic plot.

I agree with Suz that the first book is best in the Adelia series. I was disappointed in the second book, although I thought the third book a return to the form of the first. I have not yet read book four.

I just finished http://www.librarything.com/work/7636753 (brooklyn) and only gave it 3.5. I have very high standards and I have only one or two "5's" in my list. It was a good read but I think that Eilis coped out and just accepted her fate in the end. It seens like the author maybe will have a sequel... not that I know that.... but he left it open

Stasia and Suz, I will try to get through the 2nd in the Adelia series quickly. I'm not all that surprised that there were historical errors - it did feel like she was telling us how much she knew, which makes it feel like it's been especially learnt for the bookwriting. I had the same kind of feeling in People of the Book.

Bergs, it's nice to have a new visitor! I also felt like the ending let it down, but loved the rest so much that I ended up at 4 1/2 stars (but my star ratings depend how I feel on the day...). Spoiler ahead! Spoiler ahead! I didn't like the shop owner linking it all up - it was a bit too neat. (I'm trying not to give anything away here.) And yep, I feel like there might be a sequel but I would really like that.

I actually compared it ( Brooklyn) to 'tis ( true story though) which I found so much better. BTW it was my 53rd book this year does that count for anything

Haven't read 'tis yet. Are you going to start a thread in here? It's a nice group and it sounds like you will easily get to 75!

What do I need to do list all 53? In what manner? I can't even get the book name in properly see msg 99

#98 I actually preferred the second Mistress Of The Art Of Death book, although that could be (a) because I really didn't like the gruesomeness of the first one - oddly I found the gruesomeness of the second rather less disturbing! - and (b) because I am increasingly interested in Eleanor of Aquitaine. I also loved the image of the snow-bound Oxfordshire. I have to resist buying the third in the series every day when I walk past the bookshop on my way home...

#103 All you have to do is to start a thread like this one. Go into the 75 Books Challenge group, click on Join, then click on Start a new topic (e.g. Bergs' Books). Nobody cares about the numbers really, it's just for fun.

To get the titles working, use a square bracket before and after e.g. {'tis} only with and instead of { and }.

WanderingStar, I am really getting itchy Book Depository fingers. I'm resisting!!

Seeing I found my way here I better say something.

The Last Resort: A Zimbabwe Memoir
have you read when the crocodile eats the sun, its so depressing and living right next door (I'm in South Africa) it makes it all the worse.

Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell was recently run here as a BBC Tv series. Very sweet, if thats the term. Also sweet was A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson , an easy read. Looks like you into Africa.

No I haven't read When the crocodile eats the sun, but I'll look out for it - thanks! And I enjoyed A Guide to the Birds of East Africa.

I added my 53 of 75 ... now what. Also some of the touchstones brought up the wrong work even brooklyn... see it says "brooklyn follies"

Now you just add to it as you read more, and maybe post some comments about your favourites etc. People will come in and visit.

The touchstones aren't perfect - you'll see at the side next to The Brooklyn Folloes there's a blue ''Others". Click on that and you can choose the right one. It's not perfect but I still think it's pretty good!!

>96 cushlareads: Hi Cushla
It seems that we were the same book at the same time! I also finished Die Totenleserin on the weekend, in German

Paul, that's funny. I had a quick look for the 2nd in the series yesterday but will need to order it from Book Depository. I'm off to your thread to see if you liked it too...

Have been AWOL because of the school year starting, plus I cranked through my first book for September yesterday: The Finishing School by Muriel Spark. (Book 47. Geez, I'd better get reading a bit faster!).

I loved The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie last year but did not love this. I read it because it was short. It's set near Lausanne, and its main theme is jealousy. It's a very bad sign that I can't remember the name of some of the main characters a day after I've read it, but 2 of them run a finishing school where not much gets learnt. The 3rd main character, Chris, is a student and budding author. The guy who runs the school is also trying to write a novel, but with less success. He becomes extremely jealous of Chris.

Others have loved this book but not me. I gave it 2 1/2 stars.

I'm reading 3 more TIOLIs at once:

-Postwar by Tony Judt, which is wonderful but too heavy to hold in bed, and I find myself dropping it after about 3 pages. At that rate it'll take a year to read...(For the chunkster challenge.)

-Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge, which I am liking quite a lot now that I've figured out who is who. (For the title challenge.)

-Alexander's Bridge by Willa Cather, for the apostrophe challenge.

The Aeneid is languishing in a pile.

We have family here this week, which is lovely, but means not too much reading time.

Edited to fix up touchstones. Alexander's Bridge is definitely not Tatiana and Alexander!

"It's a very bad sign that I can't remember the name of some of the main characters a day after I've read it"

This is interesting. I can remember themes, ideas, and plots from books I've read but I rarely remember names. The names just seem to disappear into the ether. I wonder if I've trained my reading brain to ignore names or at least lightly skip over them. A for instance- right now I'm thinking about War and Peace. I remember the themes, moods, and overall feel for the book but the only name coming to mind is Natasha. Weird. Maybe the name storage part of my brain had something dropped on it when I was young. OK, I do remember the name of Huckleberry Finn so there is some functionality in the names from books location, but not much.

HI There. I lost your thread for a while but found it this morning.

Your list of books is incredible. Amid the 3-4 star ratings I found a 5 star notation with Every Man Dies Alone. Cariola noted this one as a great book and now with your recommendation, I'll move it up toward the top of the tbr pile.

Happy Thursday to you.

CUshla, I know you're safe in Switzerland, but have you any family or friends affected by the South Island quake? I certainly hope not!

It's a very bad sign that I can't remember the name of some of the main characters a day after I've read it

I can't remember the names of characters while I'm reading a book, and before I joined LT and was talking/hearing about specific book titles so much, half the time I couldn't tell you the name of the book I was reading either. Alzheimers, here I come!

Have a great time with your family, Cushla!

VG and Bonnie, I'm really glad it's not me with the names!

Linda, thanks for visiting. I found your 11th thread last night (strewth, 11!) and didn't realise how much pain you're in. You would never guess from your posts on here. I hope you have a nice weekend.

And Richard thanks for the kind wishes - I have a couple of friends in Christchurch, who're ok, but no family now. I know it well though, because Dad grew up there and till this year my grandfather was still there. He died in January and I said to Dad last night what a relief that he didn't have to experience the earthquake. Wellington, where I live, is the city that's right on the eqrthquake fault line and we're always talking about a big one coming, so it was a huge shock to see Christchurch get hit instead. It's amazing that there are no serious injuries reported.

Back later with a book update.

I just heard about the earthquake and I am relieved to read that your family and friends are okay.

Thanks Deern! (I am *sure* I posted that early this morning, but LT ate it.)

I've just done the book quiz that's doing the rounds on here - saw it on Rebecca's thread first:

1. The last book you gave five-stars to. Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada
2. The last book you were unable to finish. See answer to q6. Juliet, Naked. Haven't got past the first few chapters, but the main character is too much of a loser to keep reading.
3. The last book you bought. Restless by William Boyd, because my brother-in-law told me it's fantastic.
4. The last book that made you cry. Every Man Dies Alone. And before that No Signposts in the Sea.
5. The last book you borrowed. Half the Sky, from the Basel library, and it went back before I read it (but will be coming home again soon).
6. The last book you received as a gift. Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby from my husband for my birthday. I have just asked him if that really was the last time he bought me a book, and pointed out that yesterday was my half birthday, and maybe 6 months is long enough!
7. The last book you found disturbing. Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin
8. The last book you read that made you laugh. Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford
9. The last book you really felt you got lost in (the good kind of lost): Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain
10. The last book you reread. Nothing for myself - Captain Underpants and the Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space by Dav Pilkey.

#118: I like your answers, Cushla. I really need to go back and read the Vera Brittain book again.

Cushla, All the Captain Underpants books are wildly popular with boys of a certain age at our school but when we first ordered them, probably 12 years ago, some teachers and parents were offended by the title. That didn't last long once they saw how those little boys ate them up. Hmmm, that doesn't sound quite right. You know what I mean though. ;-)

Back when we lived in England there was a day when the children were supposed to come to school dressed as a literary figure. One of the boys came as Captain Underpants, which somehow didn't match the head teacher (aka principal)'s vision of "literary figure" !!

Oh, Captain Underpants is big with the boys at our school too! Mr Bear seems immune to his charms, however. (Now, maybe if he carried a light sabre...)

My girls read the Captain Underpants books when they were about 6 -7. Good to hear they're still big with the younger ones. Actually, we still own them and I must look at moving them on to other young readers.

Nice to see other Captain Underpants fans. Tania, our son is just not into Star Wars. Bionicles yes, Star Wars no. I've just bought some Bionicle books for him.

Laura, when we had "dress as a book character" at school in Wellington last year I made our son a Captain Underpants outfit - I used the pink cape we have for hair cuts, painted red with black spots all over it, and a pair of undies over his trousers. It was one of my Good Mother moments!

Bonnie, I am often staggered by what offends parents...

Have any of you or your kids read the Grk books? I've just ordered the first one from Book Depository after listening to a great interview with the author on the Guardian Books podcast a few weeks ago. (Grk is a dog... I laughed so hard when Josh Lacey said he was named after a bottle of wine from, I think, the Czech Republic.)

I am stalled in the middle of Master Georgie for the TIOLI Title Challenge. It's my tram book, and I am in no danger of missing my stop. This is the second Beryl Bainbridge book I've tried, and I will finish this one...but what is all the fuss?!

I don't usually jump on here late at night, but I've just finished Master Georgie and I think it's going to get my Clunker of 2010 award. Bleeeeeeeuuuuuuuugh. Some time tomorrow I will think of a more eloquent explanation. I gave it 2 stars, but might knock it to 1 later.

It makes the last book I finished, the perfectly enjoyable but nothing special Alexander's Bridge, glow in comparison.

I really need to read something very good and quick now - my last 3 have been well below average. The Tony Judt book is great but is going slowly...

Edited for a missing comma.

I hope you find a good book to read next. I'm having to catch up on some library books, I know they are all good reads but I'm having to choose by due date which makes me a little grumpy.
My son loved the Captain Underpants books too - we probably still have a few hidden away somewhere that I need to move on.

Sorry you have had so many poor reads in a row, Cushla. I hope you run into something good soon!

Thanks guys! I've spent the day doing German exercises - very soothing...

Hallo Cushla. Du bist fleissig. Kommst Du gut voran?
I read your book Cushla and her books now. Thanks for mentioning it. Dry style but interesting content.

Hi Paul! Nicht so fleissig heute - also, nicht mit dem Deutsch. Zu viele Haushaltaufgaben zu machen!! (Das stimmt nicht - wie sagt man housework?!)
Am Donnerstag naechster Woche fahre ich nach Berlin fuer 4 Tage, und ich freue mich sehr darauf! Danach geht alles ein bisschen ruhiger und er waer gut, mit dir wieder Kaffee zu trinken. Gut, dass Cushla and her books interessant war. Dorothy Butler hat eine beruehmte Kinderbuchhandlung in Auckland, die ich toll finde.

Luckily I am out of the reading doldrums. Book 50 was the extremely interesting On the Brink by Hank Paulson, US Treasury Secretary at the time of the financial crisis. I gave it 4 1/2 stars on the basis that I was carrying it round the house and reading it while I walked to school. I think that might be a new star guideline for me... It covered pretty similar ground to Andrew ross Sorkin's book Too Big to Fail, but had more on the changes to TARP after it got approved, and more about the political process of getting the legislation through, fighting about how much money would get released then, etc.

I know plenty of people will disagree with me, but I think overall Paulson and Geithner did a very good job at containing the fallout and I think his years of banking experience were a huge positive for the US. I think they did a less wonderful job at communicating the consequences if Citi or AIG had gone under, though. I find US politics fascinating, but cannot believe how dysfunctional the House and Senate have got and how impossible it is to get anything done. New Zealand has the opposite problem, and has just passed some really dodgy legislation concerning earthquake clean-up that gives the government extremely broad powers.

New Zealand's central bank governor has just published his own book on the crisis, imaginatively titled Crisis, and I've ordered it from Book Depository. Hopefully it'll be as good.

I'm in the middle of Dark Vineyard, the second Bruno Chief of Police mystery, and Suzanne was right - it is better than the first and I'm really enjoying it. And The Finkler Question arrived in the mail today.

Hooray for being out of the reading doldrums!

Yes, I second that, especially coming out of the reading doldrums myself recently.

Interesting what you say about the dodgy earthquake legislation, I knew they had done something to help quicken the clean-up and rebuilding process and the government response has generally been received as immediate, thorough and very helpful, but reading into the thing, there is huge potential for loopholes to be found and people to take advantage of the situation. Let's hope they're across that side of things as well.

I am glad you are back to good readings. We have Paulson's book here.

Haushaltaufgaben: HaushaltSaufgaben wäre richtig, aber Haushalt reicht.

Enjoy Berlin and call me when your back.

Hooray for getting out of the reading doldrums Cushla! And hooray for doing it with a great read.

Hi Bonnie and Stasia, thanks for stopping by!

#133 Paul, will do. Glad my guess was nearly right.

#132 Kiwinyx, I saw your post about the stalker, and I really hope the police find out who it is and prosecute them. I would be totally freaked out.

On the earthquake legislation, my worry isn't with people taking advantage of the situation, but with the massive executive power it gives the Minister (Gerry Brownlee) - one of my friends wrote a blog link about it:
http://www.laws179.co.nz/2010/09/canterbury-earthquake-response-and.html
and there's a very funny satire of the new legislation here:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1009/S00120/scoop-satire-the-christchurch-dialo...

I've finished another good book - The Dark Vineyard, by Martin Walker. I gave it 3 1/2 stars, half a star more than the first one in the series. Bruno Courreges, the Chief of Police in St Denis, has to deal with arson and more. In the first book Walker did a lot of setting up all the characters, which made it drag a bit, but it paid off in this one and I'll be buying the 3rd one next time I'm in town. The luuuurrrrve connections are a bit much at times though!

I have several Berlin-related books that I feel like I should read in the next week before I go there : The Berlin Wall by Frederick Taylor, Berlin: The Downfall by Antony Beevor, Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood, and the next 4 Phillip Kerr mysteries, which are set there. I don't like my chances!! They are all next to the bed, but I want to finish Postwar first. I'm going to do a 4 hour Third Reich walking tour while I'm there, and have got tickets to the Berlin Philharmonic, so I'm very very excited! It's not Simon Rattle conducting, but it should still be great.

Sounds like you have some good times coming up, Cushla. I will be interested in hearing about the walking tour especially.

The third Bruno Courreges mystery is all about truffles, Cusha! I know these aren't PD James style mysteries, but I love the mixture of whimsy and atmosphere, with just the right amount of charm for me. A real sense of place.

Look forward to your thoughts on the Third Reich Walking tour... The last time I was in Berlin was in 1997 -- imagine there have been many changes and that what can be seen is very different.

I would love to be on that Berlin walking tour! It sounds like great fun. Hope the weather is good. Be sure and wear your most comfortable walking shoes. Is this a family thing?

So glad you are out of your reading slump. Life is so much better when we have a good book in hand. Sorry I've been such a stranger here. I've been in lurk mode on quite a few threads lately for some reason.

Donna, hi! I've been in lurk mode too. It seems to happen when I'm reading books I don't love.

I'm taking my running shoes for the walking tour. I'd better not miss it now! No, it's not a family trip - my husband is staying home with the kids while I go, and I'm meeting a friend of ours and his father from home. (They are German, so even better). I'm going to have 3 nights out in a row - it'll be the first time in 7 years!

#139: I'm going to have 3 nights out in a row - it'll be the first time in 7 years!

I know how that goes. I hope you enjoy your time, Cushla!!

Hi Cushla, I hope you will have a great time in Berlin.
I have been there only twice, in 1989 (just a few months before the wall came down) and in 1996. It was a strange feeling on my second visit, because the first time the wall had been omnipresent and now there is just a line left on the streets showing where it once has been. It's amazing to see that where once has been the 'Todesstreifen' (death strip?) is now the busiest part of the city. I guess nowhere else you will get such a feeling for the German history in the 1900s.

The walking tour sounds very interesting, I might do that on my next visit. Just a few weeks ago I saw a documentary on TV about a partly subterranean town called 'Germania' Hitler had planned to build! There are some remains of the first streets under the Tiergarten. I wonder if they will mention it on the tour.

I want to hear all about the 'walking tour' when you get back. I got some money for my birthday, and I'm not going to buy another car until next year, so I'm thinking about taking a trip to Germany with a stopover in NYC to see my son.

Enjoy *three* nights out in a row - sounds brilliant!

Thanks for all the good wishes for Berlin. I'm so excited! Deern, it must have been very strange to be there before and after the wall. I'll let you know about the walking tour. To be honest I have just been reading my Lonely Planet and there is so much to do - I am kind of wondering if I'd be better off doing as much as I can of it on my own instead of 4+ hours of walking tour. I'm also thinking about going out to Sachsenhausen, one of the concentration camps, instead. I'll play it by ear. I'm not sure how much time will be spent in bars and cafes...

Bonnie, a trip to Germany for you sounds like a wonderful plan. Any ideas where?

I'm reading. One of my. Berlin. Books. The Berlin Wall by Frederick Taylor. Somebody teach this guy about subordinate clauses. And verbs. Please. Example... "Unlike those of Erich Honecker." And he translates mayor as High Burgomaster, which makes Germany sound like an enormous masonic lodge! And it's all VERY EXCITING. But the content - East German politics from the end of the war till the wall came down - is fascinating, and I have 2 days to cram in 450 pages.

You lucky duck, cushla! Enjoy your visit to Germany. It's nice to see you're taking advantage of your location to see so many countries and interesting sites!

It sounds like you are going to have a fabulous trip Cushla. Now if I could only figure out a way to tag along with my sis (Bonnie) I would be all set:)

Have a great time in Berlin, Cushla! I'll also be interested in learning more about the city from you.

Berlin here comes trouble! Enjoy yourself!

I promise detailed reports about everything I eat (oh and read - Suzanne, I am taking the Philip Kerr 2nd and 3rd books). My German teacher insists that I have at least one Currywurst...

Edited to add some links to the first two nights out:

http://www.berliner-philharmoniker.de/en/concerts/kalender/programme-details/kon...

http://www.deutscheoperberlin.de/?page=spielplandetail&id_event_date=6914193

The 3rd is a German political cabaret, which is apparently excellent, but I might need my friend to translate everything for me, or else lots of wine first. Or both.

Eek, I just looked at the opera and it's 3 hours 15 minutes. Oh my goodness. Might need to get my book out.

Ooh, I like the opera! (That's not one I've seen, I hope it's a good one!)

When I was in Vienna (many, many years ago) I queued (straight off the overnight train from Venice) for standing tickets to the opera there. Got to see Beethoven's "Fidelio", which was very nice. Apart from the standing, and the lack of sleep the previous night.

The things I did when I was young! Now I'd demand a good night's sleep before even thinking of queuing, and then bloody well pay for a *seat*. :)

ETA: currywurst sounds to me like it might be an acquired taste. :)

Pelleas and Melisande could easily be worse, and there are a few wonderful arias...well, one anyway, Melisande yowling her heart out from the top of the tower in day 23...I mean, I mean, Act 3!...but Debussy's tunesmithing is wunderbar.

Have a great trip Cushla, it sounds amazing, especially those 3 nights out.

Is it a sign of addiction that instead of visiting a worthy Berlin art institution I am sitting in Dunkin Donuts drinking bad coffee and logging into Librarything?! (Yes.) Have had a fantastic time, survived the opera, loved the other 2 nights out and feel like I've been donked on the head with a shelf of history books. Will post something coherent tomorrow when I'm home about the highlights, but now I have 4 days of threads to catch up on!

Have also been very good in bookshops. Only went into one real one, and didn't buy anything, maybe because I had just bought 3 scarves, 2 handbags, a coat and a dress. But then this morning at the Berlin Wall memorial centre I bought a novel called Grenzland by Michael Dullau. (touchstone's not working - translates as Border Land, and is a novel about some border guards in the 1980s. It promises to be a barrel of laughs and it's in German...)

Richard, there was no tower in P&M but there was real water - 60,000 litres of it, and a boat!

Oh yeah, and I missed my 3 year thingaversary on Friday!

#154 Happy 3 year thingaversary! You know this means you get to buy yourself 3 books in celebration?

Yay three years on LT and you get to but three books guilt free! Sweet:)

Happy Thingaversary, Cushla!

Happy Thingaversary, I had my third a couple of weeks ago and also missed it. Sounds like you've had a great look around Berlin.

Cushla and Kerry, lucky you, there's no expiration date for buying your Thingaversary books! There's a link on my profile, so that you can find the thread when you're ready to post. :-)

I confess to having enjoyed Pelleas & Melisande more as a recording than live... Even with my all-time fave mezzo in a title role. Which is saying something... But Richard is right, the music is lovely. It's just not a "typical" opera. More like "Debussy does vocal music" in a stage setting?

I'll be interested to hear what you think about the concert -- it's an intriguing blend of works. Don't hear much of that Beethoven symphony, or CPE Bach, unless it's a specialist ensemble.

Happy thingaversary!! Mine is looming...

Happy thingaversary! (Just went and checked my profile and found out mine's still some months away.)

Bonnie, brilliant idea about celebrating thingaversaries! I'm so in!

Happy thingaversary Cushla!

Happy Thingaversary and safe travels!

I'm home - have been for 4 days - and I have finally caught up on all the usual jobs enough to sit down on here. (Except housework, but that never ends, so I will forget it till next week). The trip report is coming after the book review.

On Tuesday I finished my book on the Berlin Wall by Frederick Taylor - at last. It might have been badly written and really irritating, but it still enriched my trip to Berlin hugely, and for that alone I'm giving it 4 stars! At 668 pages, it counts for Suzanne's TIOLI chunkster challenge. I bought this book several years ago in Wellington, not knowing that I'd get the chance to see Berlin soon - I had always been interested in the period and bought Stasiland by Anna Funder and The File by Timothy Garton Ash around the same time. All 3 books were very moving, but I thought Timothy Garton Ash's was by far the best written and most thoughtful.

The content in Taylor's book is so gripping that I forgave him his sentences without verbs, bizarre translations (High Burgomaster for mayor, then mayor in other places) and melodrama. And I did not really need to know that Lyndon Johnson ate oatmeal and melon for breakfast the day he was in Berlin.

Despite these flaws, Taylor presents a good overview of what happened in Germany and especially Berlin at the end of WW2. The East German regime was repressive from the start and funnily enough the East German people did not fall in love with communism and the SED (Communist party). After 1949, when the German Democratic Repulic was created out of the Soviet zone, it became very difficult to get out, except through West Berlin - if you could get to the airport there, you could get on a plane and leave, and thousands did. Berlin was divided into 4 sectors in 1945, and there was more-or-less free flow of Berliners among the sectors. If you lived in the Russian sector, you could work in the other 3 sectors and earn West German marks, or send your kids to school there - not without heavy criticism and accusations of being a traitor, but you could do it.

By 1961, the East German government was desperate to stop the flow of emigrants, and finally got the go-ahead from Stalin to put a barrier up around West Berlin, so that it was completely closed in. This happened in secret and overnight. (I read this bit as the plane was coming in to land at Tegel airport, which made it very exciting!) Taylor goes on to describe the repression, the escape attempts, diplomatic negotiations, West and East German politics, and what happened at the end.

There is heaps of fascinating detail in the book - I filled it with sticky notes and then visited some of the streets at the weekend. The main Berliner Mauer Gedenkstaette is in Bernauerstrasse, one of the streets that was divided by the wall.

If you're thinking about a trip to East Germany, or interested in the period, I would read this book with The File.

OK, now the Berlin trip report before I go to school... I might have to finish this next week! It's a wonderful city, and I could imagine living there one day if we get the chance. It reminded me a lot of New York, with little neighbourhoods that have their own personality. It was also really easy to get around on the public transport, really cheap to eat out compared to Basel, and the coffee was excellent! And my hotel looked out onto the Spree, and had an excellent bar with a long long list of whiskies and cocktails that went as high as 150 Euros (I stuck to the whisky). I was there at the same time as a German friend from home who's visiting us next week, and that made the trip a lot more fun. He has more appetite for 3 1/2 hour opera than me though.

I confess to not doing the 4 hour walking tour, or any of the art museums. I was walking for 6-8 hours every day though, so saw a lot - but it is a vast city and things that look nearby on maps are miles apart! I am planning on going back next year before we go home, and will do the Pergamon and the Portrait Gallery and some of the other excellent museums then. But this time, I just did the historical stuff (and the concerts at night). It was quite overwhelming by the end, and I barely scratched the surface.

On Friday I got up early and went for a run down to the Reichstag - it is enormous, and was very strange to see it in real life after seeing it in lots of books. I didn't go up it but should have, because it was a stunning day and the next 2 were not. Next time. After that I ran down to the memorial for the murdered Jews of Europe, which is made up of hundreds of tall stones and on wavy ground. Of course, I did not take my camera. There's a museum underneath the memorial which is meant to be excellent, but I didn't make it there this time. After that I got lost, got stared at by quite a few old German ladies because by this stage it was 8 am and I was out in my running gear, and found a coffee and got the tram back to the hotel.

Then I set out for the main sights in the Historische Mitte and walked down to Checkpoint Charlie along Friedrichstrasse. I thought about going to the Mauermuseum, but it looked quite slick and touristy. And I found myself in lots of clothes shops spending money - the effect of no kids and no jobs to get done in town! By lunchtime I had a bad case of walking feet - so bad that I went into Dusselman, a lovely bookshop with a fabulous English section, and sat down for 15 minutes looking at German textbooks and not buying anything at all. I can't remember the last time that happened to me.

After lunch (soup, then a very good espresso and piece of gooey cake) we set off for Lichtenberg to find the Stasi Museum. It's about 20 minutes on the tram from the middle of the city, so we were well and truly in East Berlin, and it really felt like it- lots of older buildings, and just...different. We got a bit lost but in the end found the building. It's in the place that used to be the Stasi headquarters and the office of Erich Mielke, the head of the Stasi for many years. It even smelled bad. We had about 2 hours there and it was chilling seeing the level of surveillance and the lengths to which they went to investigate almost everyone. I think about 3% of the population were informers, which is roughly 10 times the rate of informing in Nazi Germany. There were some listening devices that were out of James Bond, like handbags and ties with cameras, and a sample of the personal smells of suspects, and instructions on how to catch a person's smell and bottle it (special chair, suspect needed to sit for X minutes in the same place, etc).

Right, going to be late for school, back later!

Glad you are safely back home, Cushla!

Sounds like a wonderful trip, Cushla, I visited Berlin back in 1980. We hitchhiked on the motorway from West Germany and got a ride all the way. Loved the city back then and would love to visit it now.
For a touch of New Zealand in Berlin you might like to read some of Nigel Cox's work, he was Head of Communication and Interpretation at the Jewish Museum Berlin from 2000 - 2005. I have his book of essays Phone Home Berlin and here's a link to one of his Berlin essays in Sport magazine.

Kerry, it's very cool that you can say you hitchhiked through East Germany! My mother visited Berlin in 1965 and has a smilar story about camping in East Germany at the edge of the road. Thanks for the rec and the essay link. I remember a lot of publicity about Nigel Cox when he died but I haven't read any of his work. I've added Phone Home Berlin to my wishlist.

Suzanne, the Berlin Philharmonic concert was mostly fantastic. I know classical music much better than opera, and as expected I loved the Beethoven symphony (the 2nd) and the CPE Bach, which I didn't know. The Bach orchestral suite didn't do much for me - I love Bach but the more contrapuntal stuff more than the orchestral suites, which don't seem to go anywhere. The other highlight was the champagne and pretzels stuffed with butter. I'm not a pretzel fan but this was really really good. It was as if the butter had been injected, because it wasn't cut in half, and I don't know how they did it.

The kids are watching Saturday morning TV so I will carpe diem and tell you about the other highlights... on Saturday I spent nearly 3 hours doing the Topography of Terror museum, which is a silly name for the Gestapo headquarters. Highly recommended, but the most moving of the 3 (there was a special exhibition of photos from the Jewish Ghetto in Lodz).

On Sunday I was trying to get to a big flea market to buy presents for the kids, but had to change tram at Nordbahnhof. It turned out that Nordbahnhof was one of the subway stations that'd been turned into a ghost station from 1961-1989, where the underground crossed from West to East and back to West and the train didn't stop. There was a good photo exhibition about what happened to the subway etc (that sounds boring now, but it was very interesting last weekend!) After several escapes by underground train guards hurling themselves through tunnels, safety hatches, etc to get to the west (and one commandeering a train with his family on board and driving it west through a boarded up tunnel), the East German government started locking the guards into bunkers while they were on duty. So they could watch for escapers, but they were locked in, and it was only after 10 or 20 years that they even had an emergency exit put into the bunker for them.

Anyway, on top of Nordbahnhof was Bernauerstrasse, and the excellent memorial to the Berlin Wall - a big chunk of it, lots of panels explaining who had died, and a very good and quiet museum (no tour buses in sight). I spent another few hours there. The Stasimuseum was all in German, but the other ones were in English and German everywhere.

OK, I'm getting MUUUUUUUUUUUUM Youtube Spiderman Mum!

Sounds like you had a really interesting weekend anyway! Quite jealous now :)

Cushla - I'm pretty sure that it was a closed highway that gave West Germans road access into Berlin. I remember being a little nervous as there were a couple of checkpoints on the way. So long ago that I can't remember that many details.
I haven't read anything by Nigel Cox either, but was also swayed by the publicity to look out for his work, I think he used to own or work at Unity Books in Wellington.
I'm concentrating on reading about Prague this month - still doing catchup reading from my trip in 2008! We spent a lot of time in Spain which spurred my interest in the Spanish Civil War years but I need to move on to East Europe. We might be travelling to Poland, the Krakow area, next year for genealogy research.

A few days ago I brought an older movie, The Man from La Mancha, home from the library and was astonished when all three of my teenagers sat glued to the screen - it's a musical about Cervantes and Don Quixote. My children constantly amaze me!

Cushla

Thanks for all the fascinating historical information re. Germany and the Berlin wall.

My partner lived in Germany for a number of years. He went back ten years ago.

He is obsessed in telling me about the cleanliness of Germany compared to the US. Whenever he sees someone litter, I know his favorite phrase is about to be said -- "Now, you DON'T see that in Germany!

I'm glad you are back safe and sound.

Sounds like a fascinating trip, Cushla! It is one that I don't see happening anytime soon, so thanks for sharing your experiences in Berlin. Glad your home safe, sound and reunited with your kiddo's.

Thanks for reading!! (But I figure someone out there in LTland will go to Berlin one day...)

Linda, that story is really funny because compared to Basel and Switzerland I found Berlin a bit grubby! (I would still like to live there though - we loved New York and it felt a bit like it, and it was nice to be somewhere a bit more multi-cultural.) But he's right, I can't imagine seeing anyone litter. I think I'm going local. I got into Zurich airport and was so happy to be home in super-clean, efficient, on time, not-warm-and-cuddly-but-very-easy-to-live-in Switzerland.

Thanks for sharing your travel stories with us, Cushla! I'm glad to hear that you had a good time, and I've added a couple of them to my favorite messages collection for future reference.

Cool travelogue, Cushla, but *plaintively* don't you have any pictures?

HOW could they do P&M without a tower...? It's a central moment! She "lets her hair down" quite literally for Pelleas. Huh.

Photos coming, mostly of grim Berlin monuments, and one of my hearty German breakfast. But not till tomorrow when I figure out how to get them off the camera.

She let her hair down off the boat onto him! Way less dramatic. But the boat and the real lake were fascinating.

That sounds...well...anticlimactic, to put it mildly...we substitute an archetypal metaphor for conquering the castle of Luuuv with a good hair-washing.

Is it just me, or is that...lacking, somehow?

Wow history, geography, travelogue all rolled into one; gotta love this thread Cushla. I'm glad you had such a great time. I've never been to Berlin but would love to get their one day.

Great trip review, it sounds like an amazing time. There is so much history in the European countries, I can't wait to go back. Berlin does sound like a must now.

</i>Thanks for reading!! (But I figure someone out there in LTland will go to Berlin one day...)

...me! me! :-) But I would be interested anyway, even if I wasn't planning on going there, because that's how I have done most of my traveling--via my cozy chair and a book.

Bonnie, I love good travel writing too. I've found a book on Poland that I want to get through before next year - A Country in the Moon by Michael Moran. Now I just have to read it.

I finished As the Earth Turns Silver by Alison Wong and gave it 3 1/2 stars. I liked it, but didn't love it, and I can't put my finger on why. Wong won the NZ Post fiction award for this book earlier this year. If you like historical fiction, I recommend it.

It's set in Wellington in the early 1900s. Katherine McKechnie lives in Wellington with her 2 children and unlikable husband, who **spoilers follow** dies. She falls in love with a Chinese immigrant, Chung Yung, who with his brother runs a fruit and vege shop in Newtown. They try to keep their relationship a secret. (I had to suspend disbelief about their regular meetings at the Basin Reserve in the middle of the night - Wellington's weather is just not good enough to make that credible!)

**spoilers over now**

There was a lot that I really liked about this book - the characters were very believable, and the detail about Wellington streets and characters was vivid. There was a bit too much of this though - maybe she tried to cram too much in to the story. And the minor characters were also really well written. The Chinese community was treated abominably by the government and many of the locals.

For the Kiwis reading this, I am tempted to send Paul Henry a copy of As the Earth Turns Silver for Christmas. He belongs back in the early 1900s. I have spent 3 days now working myself into a lather and emailing everyone under the sun!

For everyone else, Paul Henry hosts our government owned and funded TV station's main morning talk show. On Monday he did an interview with our Prime Minister asking if the next governor-general was going to look like or be a ''real New Zealander'' - the current one is about as upstanding a New Zealander as has lived, but he happens to be of Indian descent. Henry is a disgrace and this is the latest in a long line of racist comments.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/video.cfm?c_id=1&gal_objectid=10678344&amp...

**off soapbox now!**

Paul Henry sounds like an idiot.

Hi Cushla, it took me a while until I found the time to read your wonderful Berlin report. It sounds like you had an amzing time. Now I feel like taking another Berlin trip soon... thanks for all the suggestions. I must see Bernauerstrasse and the Stasimuseum next time.

Compared to any place in Switzerland Berlin certainly looks grubby. It's not the cleanliest place in Germany, but anyway - no country tops Switzerland in that respect. We Germans always feel a bit overwhelmed when we go there, it's almost unreal in its perfection (but we love it!).

I remember the motorway leading from Western Germany to Berlin. There were two checkpoints. Stops were only possible on special gas stations. I travelled there with my school in 1989, each of us had his/her fixed seat and we were not allowed to switch seats during the transit through East Germany. The list with our names was handed to the control people at each checkpoint and they compared the names by seat with the passports. On our way back we had one student less (she had taken the plane due to a family emergency). The control guy at the first check point didn't notice it and checked her name, so the guy at the second check point thought she had left the coach somewhere during the transit. We were stuck for hours at the border until everything was clarified - and that was 3 months before the wall fell.

Thanks for sharing your Berlin adventures with us, Cushla. Someday.... I could kick myself for not being more insistent when we were in Hamburg in 2006. So close!

I too always remember Germany as being a pristine country when I lived there many, many years ago. Maybe the big cities are like cities everywhere? I wanted to go to Berlin as a young married woman in the late 60's, but my husband was prohibited because of his military staus. We did get to see quite a bit of other parts of Germany, France, and The Netherlands while we were there.

Yes, the highway to W. Berlin was a closed one. Sports teams from my high school were always taken off the bus before starting down it, and told to go and pee or whatever because once on it, they couldn't stop for anything other than an accident. I never did it; my father was a diplomat, and even a school trip was seen as risky.

So I finally got to Berlin in '97 and really enjoyed it. Stayed with a friend who was working there, and although there weren't as many museums, etc. (and no Reichstag) at the time, there was a lot to see. At that point, the Wall Museum wasn't that slick, and was definitely fascinating.

The opera sounds as if it was entertaining, and I'm pea-green with envy re the symphony. Reminder for me to look out schedules and buy myself some tix. After all, it's not as if I live in a cultural wasteland...

Really interesting reading your stories about getting into West Berlin. And Donna, I hope you get there one day soon! I haven't been to Hamburg (yet).

I've finished my TIOLI Police Challenge book - Black Diamond, the 3rd Bruno Courreges mystery by Martin Walker, and they are getting better and better. I gave this one 4 stars and am now definitely a fan. This one had lots about truffles, and an interesting plot about Vietnamese and Chinese gangs, and illegal immigration. But Bruno's love life was as interesting as the crime bits.

**spoiler... for the 7 others who have read this on LT...** Pamela?! I haven't liked her much since the first book.

Now I'm reading an Alan Furst novel (The Polish Officer) that I have out of the library. And last night our friend who is visiting us (the German Kiwi I went to Berlin with) gave me a beautiful present that, if I read it this year and I will try to, might mean I get to about 60 books all year. It's Thomas Mann's Der Zauberberg (The Magic Mountain), in German, and it's 984 pages long. Gulp!! My reading German is getting quite good now, but it will still be slower than it would be in English. And my husband got a short book of interviews with Alfred Brendel, also in German, which looks excellent.

Lol, about Paul Henry. I used to watch TV3's Sunshine and enjoyed how 'young and silly' the banter was in the morning, but then it was dropped due to budget costs so have been forced back to dreary TV1's Breakfast and Paul Henry. Not only his racist, out of date political views, it is how he regards women that I hate hate hate. I'm usually inclined to just turn up for the news and business updates and forget about the hosts inbetween.
As the Earth Turns Silver - I liked this more than you, but I'm not from Wellington. I did find that she was perhaps a tad earnest in her writing but forgave that as I liked the main characters especially Yung and his 'back story' so much.
Good luck with The Magic Mountain, I made it to the halfway point before succumbing.

It's been great to read everyone's comments on the highway to Berlin - I was relying on my unreliable memory, it was so long ago. All I remember is that I was quite nervous for the whole trip. I had to doublecheck with my husband and we did go over to East Berlin through Checkpoint Charlie but only stayed for a few hours because we got so paranoid about being allowed back into West Berlin.

Wow, the Magic Mountain in Deutsch?? Now, that would be one hell of a group read... I do want to read that novel; started it and only got about 100 pages in. I did really like it, and with the passage of time, have no idea why I didn't finish!

So glad you're now a Bruno Courreges junkie -- misery (that all 3 books have now been finished) loves company. Can't wait for #4. I'm sooo grateful to the Politics & Prose person in DC who recommended it.

One of my finest books (in an aesthetic way) is my Franklin Library edition of The Magic Mountain. I just hope that the inside is as pleasing as the outside. Oh, and I will be reading the English version when I get around to it. ;-)

ETA: I really liked Buddenbrooks when I read it on my Hamburg trip...although I got some strange comments from my travel companions who were reading more typical airplane fare.

Hi Cushla, finally, finally stopping by after you dropped in and said hi in my 11 in 11 thread. After having a skim through your reading I think I'll be picking up quite a few recommendations from you.
Thanks for the review of As The Earth Turns Silver, and Avatiakh also. I have this as a possibility for my 11 in 11, but I think I will definitely have to go out and get it.
Re: Paul Henry, couldn't agree more with the comments made. I just hope this time TVNZ fire him. Twice now TVNZ have excused his behaviour with the line 'he's only saying what many are thinking', which annoys me beyond words for various reasons and is insulting to boot.

Edited to fix spelling.

Couldn't agree more about Paul Henry, so pleased he resigned but TVNZ needs a major shake-up as they didn't fire him. I suspect he was hired for the shock value and encouraged to be risky to get the ratings. A resignation and a golden handshake payout speaks volumes and I think they were worried about potential lawsuits if they did try to fire him so sorted it quietly. Prime and Maori TV are my channels of choice.

SouthernKiwi, thanks for visiting!

Kiwinyx and Kerry, I'm really glad Paul Henry's gone. I haven't got off my butt to email politicians or advertisers for a long time (and xtra thought John Key's reply was spam, which was pretty funny!). We had no TV when we were in NZ, so I never watched him, but I've seen quite a few clips since we've been here.

Donna, let me know if you decide to start the Magic Mountain soon! I haven't yet. I feel like I need some Cliff's Notes or something in English so that I can just concentrate on the German. The kids are home all day with school holidays (10 days) at the moment so I'm snatching pages of reading in between refereeing fights over everything - I'm not even going to try it till they're back at school.

I finished my Alan Furst book, The Polish Officer and gave it 3 1/2 stars. I think I preferred The World at Night but liked this enough to keep reading his other ones. The main character, Alex de Milja, joins the Polish secret service at the start of WW2. A lot of the book's set in France, and I liked that part the most. Furst is really good at bringing out the history without hammering it. I find his writing very bloky though - women don't feature much.

Now I'm 100 pages into The Finkler Question. I'm not loving it. Julian Treslove, the main character, is really irritating me! It might get better though - but right now I keep comparing it to the incredible Wolf Hall, winner of last year's Booker, and going HUH?? Was this the best there was this year? It's quite funny, and an easy read, which is what I was looking for this week. I haven't read any of the other reviews on here, but I know that Stasia, Darryl and Suzanne all loved it, so perhaps I will get more into it soon...

Sorry you are not caring for The Finkler Question, Cushla. I hope you enjoy it more in the end, if you decide to stick it out until then.

I'm going to try The Finkler Question later this year. The Polish Officer is on my Mt TBR, I've loaded the audiobook onto my iPod and will be listening to it next.
I'm glad Paul Henry is gone, but I do think there's more to the story than just him.TVNZ seem to have let standards slip in favour of ratings. We watch very little regular TV now.

Stasia, I'm definitely going to keep going with it.

Kerry, will be keen to see what you think of The Finkler Question. And I agree with you about TVNZ - in fact TVNZ's response to the Paul Henry stuff, that he was just saying what NZers were thinking, was almost worse than Henry's original comments!

I'll be reading The Finkler Question next month; it's on its way from The Book Depository as I write. Like you Cushla, I'm encouraged by Darryl, Stasia and Suzanne's opinions, but I've also read some reviews that give me pause. Still, I'm glad to hear it's an easy read.

I was interested to see that you weren't overwhelmed by Alan Furst. I read The Spies of Warsaw and, although it was okay, I wasn't induced to run out and purchase another of his books. I know people that have really enjoyed them: perhaps some of his others are better?

I think the Booker winners are not necessarily the best book nominated, IMO. Wolf Hall is exceptional (although not everyone loved it as much as I did). Often those left on the shortlists are better reads. I am actually looking forward to The Finkler Question to see for myself.

I think several of the Booker nominees this year were controversial, or had "unlikeable" main characters. The Slap was definitely a case in point, but IMO that didn't stop it from being a v. good, compelling book. The people in it were real, warts and all. Same with Finkler. Sometimes the idiosyncracies and looks deep inside a character's psyche make them "live" in a way, especially when done by a really excellent writer. When only a journeyman writer tries it, the characters are two dimensional and tedious. Room is another book that was controversial; I remember some people questioning the character of the mother in there. But in all cases, the people convinced me they were real. In the books I didn't like as much, such as February or Parrot and Olivier in America, either the characters felt like caricatures, or cardboard figures who were just devices to carry the author's ideas and literary flourishes.

#196 Lisa, I think my 3 1/2 star rating for Alan Furst is inconsistent - every time I see one of his books I want to buy it. I'm not making much sense. The 2 I've read haven't been amazing - I think The World at Night was slightly better. I really love the historical detail,and think he does a great job at describing France. But in the one I've just read, by the end I just wanted it to be over, and in the first one, there was a plot twist that was a bit too hard to believe. And the books feel like they're written for guys, in a way that John le Carre's Smiley series are not.

Good news on the Finkler Question... I'm really really liking it now, and zapped through 150 pages yesterday (I have 40 to go).

#199: Good news on the Finkler Question... I'm really really liking it now

Good! I was half in love with Libor by the end of the book :)

I think I'll get The Finkler Question for my Kindle next month as a treat if I manage to finish The Inheritance of Loss in October.

I remember that a while ago you read the Mitford novels or at least some of them. I now bought Love in a cold climate for my Kindle but somehow ended up with a collection that also holds The Pursuit of Love and The Blessing. Do you know if those are all stand-alone stories or is it a series of which I should better read all and in the given order?

I read Love in a Cold Climate first, but it's the second in my book. I think The Pursuit of Love is the first... hang on, I will go and look....I didn't read the whole intro beforehand, because it almost certainly has spoilers.

OK, The Pursuit of Love is the first in my book of 3 and it definitely has some of the same characters. I suspect that's where I should have started! Someone else will come and tell us any minute now... YOO HOO Stasia?

I would love to be able to help, Cushla, but I have never read any of Nancy Mitford's books!

BTW - I went and checked both books' entries here on LT, and there is no indication that they are part of a series.

Thanks Stasia! (I think you would like LIACC.) That's weird though, because the characters definitely overlap.

Deern, perhaps I should read In Pursuit of Love to figure it out...

#204: Oh, I have Mitford's books in the BlackHole already. One of these days I will actually get to them!

Thank you! I was planning to read LIACC for the 1001 list, but starting with the Pursuit of Love shouldn't hurt, I just saw on amazon that both books are quite short.

I read The Nancy Mitford Omnibus a couple of years ago and loved every story. It's not imperative to read them in order but the same characters do pop up in different books so this is the 'correct' order. The Pursuit of Love, Love in a Cold Climate, Don't Tell Alfred, The Blessing. Don't tell Alfred is fun, as Fanny's husband is unexpectedly made Ambassador to France and their time in France is 'slightly' chaotic.

#199 Hmm, maybe I should give Furst another chance then. I'll add The World at Night for the next time I'm in the mood for the genre.

I can't wait to get The Finkler Question. I'm on the list at the library, along with a million other people. I think I may have to break down and buy it! Or better yet, my birthday is coming up. I'll just give some no so subtle hints. :-)

Wow cushla, I'm really intrigued by your comments regarding the Finkler Question. Amazing how the book pulled you in and changed your mind. I've got to keep an eye out for that one.

Book 56: The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson - 4 stars

Why I bought it : it was on the longlist for the Booker Prize, and it sounded interesting and readable when I listened to the Guardian Books Podcast about the longlisted books. Then Darryl really liked it, and it was sitting there at Bider and Tanner.

Why I read it now : it won the Booker Prize last week.

Sam, Libor and Julian are old friends. Sam and Julian were at school together, and Libor taught them European history. Sam and Libor are Jewish, and they all live in North London. Libor's wife Malkie and Sam's wife Tyler have recently died, and the book opens when the 3 men have just had dinner together at Libor's apartment. Julian, the main character, is walking home when he gets mugged. He doesn't hear exactly what the mugger says, but trying to figure out what he thinks was said and what it might mean changes his life. (I'm trying to avoid spoilers here, so this sounds a bit strained!)

It took me a long time to really get into this book. I could tell that it was going to be funny from the start, but then it looked like Julian, the main character, was going to irritate me for 307 pages. He's a pessimist, good-looking in an unstriking way, obssessed with tragic endings, and longs to be the centre of attention. He had a job at the BBC, lost it, had a string of arts administration jobs and a string of girlfriends, and now works as a celebrity double. But he got better - and Jacobson's characters are all so well written that you feel like you really know them. By the end of the book, not just the 3 main characters but their wives and partners and exes and kids were almost real. That's probably the biggest similarity to last year's Booker winner, Wolf Hall, which I adored (and probably explains my initial grumpiness - this book was always going to have trouble matching that one.)

Sam did philosophy at university and became rich and famous by writing high-falutin' self-help books. He has a TV shows, a fancy house overlooking Hampstead Heath, and 2 kids. His marriage to Tyler was less than blissful. He's really anti-Israel, and during the book he sets up a group called the ASHamed Jews. Libor was a famous show business journalist, devoted to Malkie and devastated by her recent death.

There is lots in here about grieving, getting older, wondering what you've done with your life, and being male and either unable to stick to one woman or embarrassed that that's what you've have decided to do. But the main theme of the book is Jewishness, and that was the part that got me back to really liking it. If you don't know the difference between Reform and Orthodox Jews, have never heard of seder or Passover or any of the high holy days, and have no interest in Israel and middle east politics, this might not be the book for you. I can think of plenty of friends who would not get into this book because they would find it hard going without a bit of background. If you liked The Chosen, you would probably like this book.

4 stars - but it's growing on me now that I have finished it!

#210: 4 stars - but it's growing on me now that I have finished it!

Good!

In other exciting (seriously) book news, I won a copy of Robert Skidelsky's bio of John Maynard Keynes on Twitter yesterday. That's the 2nd book I've won on Twitter from a publisher!

Cool beans, Cushla!

4 stars - but it's growing on me now that I have finished it!

Incredible Cushla! That's something I don't hear very often. That effect probably helped him with the Booker judges.

>210 cushlareads:: fabulous review, Cushla. I can't wait to read it ... soon, soon !

Good morning, visitors! I really hope you like it too. Laura, it's so great that you've read all of the Booker winners now.

Am just back from a trip to town with just 1 of the kids. The bookshop here is bad for our bank account. I came home with 3 kids' books, a new German textbook, an old Colm Toibin (the Heather Blazing) and a history of modern Germany - Germany 1945 by Richard Bessel. I do not need them, and I am a member of 2 perfectly decent English libraries here, and buy stuff on Book Depository. I am restrained in the lovely Swiss bakeries, but not in here!

I don't envy you getting all your new purchases back to NZ! I love to travel, but that's always the worst part--getting my books home. Guess it could be worse. How much time to you have left before The Return?

I won the Selected Letters of Charlotte Bronte from Oxford World Classics in a Twitter competition - they have one every Friday.

Wow, I may actually have to sign up for Twitter if they are giving away books! Oh wait, I have too many books already; that's good, because I tend to be wordy and would have difficulty tweeting (if that's the correct lingo it will be a miracle)!

I am eagerly awaiting for the library to get The Finkler Question. It doesn't bother me knowing that it may take awhile to get into a book if I know that the payoff is worth it. I enjoy books about Judaism and remember loving The Chosen years ago so it should be a good fit for me. Thanks for your thoughtful review, Cushla.

Thumb on the review Cushla. My library hasn't even ordered it yet and it's already out in pb here so I think next week I'll stop at B&N and pick it up.

I love it when I plunk down my stars on a book and then it keeps growing on me. Those are usually the ones that land on my Top 10 lists.

Lisa, part of the reason for my lack of discipline is that we don't pay for our stuff to be shipped home. A few more books won't hurt... We have just over a year left here - home by next Christmas. And I get rid of quite a few books on Bookmooch, as long as they're not too big. I keep books that meet the "do I want the kids to be able to read this when they are older?" test, books that are special to me, and non-fiction unless it is bad.

Luci, I follow Oxford World Classics but haven't noticed their competitions. Will have to have a look. Donna, your sentence about tweeting was perfect... go on! You will get lots of followers! And the beauty of Twitter is that you *don't* need to tweet - you can just follow. I don't tweet much, because I'm not good at being witty in 140 characters. But if you follow booky people it is still lots of fun.

Bonnie, thanks for the thumb and I hope you like the book when you get to it!

Also, you can follow authors which can be quite entertaining. A bit bizarre when they follow you back but I think I've driven them away, my number of followers is dropping now. Susan Hill and I are at opposite ends of the political spectrum.

I'm also getting review books from WH Smith though so far two have not really been my taste and one is a book I already own, while she/he sends out some great sounding books to everyone else.

>221 cushlareads:: ...we don't pay for our stuff to be shipped home.

It only makes good economic sense that you buy as many books as you can while in Europe if they're cheaper there.

Finally caught up on your thread - a couple of months' worth of messages. Loved reading about your Berlin trip. I've visited several German cities but never Berlin - perhaps one day...

Looking forward to The Finkler Question - thanks for letting me mooch it from you.

Really liked your review of The Finkler Question, Cushla!

I enjoyed your thoughtful review of The Finkler Question, Cushla, and I'm glad that you enjoyed it after all.

Great review Cushla, another book for the pile for me.

I had to do a doubletake above when I found out you could win books on twitter. What a dilemma. I love being the only one I know not on Twitter but free books are so tempting...

Hi there, Im with Donna (219) in everything posted there! Cant tweet - but should I learn? - loved The Chosen - will wait at library for The Finkler Question. It makes it so much easier when someone says it for you!

Against all my doubts I got registered on twitter today. I had to anyway for professional reasons (really!). Now where are those book competitions? :-)

I read through 150 pages of The Inheritance of Loss yesterday, finally finished it, which was the condition for allowing myself to order The Finkler Question. Great review!

Thanks for all the nice comments on the review.

Bonnie, I like your reasoning on having to buy books - they are cheaper here than in NZ. The problem is, they're even cheaper on Book Depository and I can use that in either country! But in NZ I buy mostly second-hand, or go to Wellington's excellent library.

OK, LT friends, now I can't find you all on twitter - Deern I just went looking but it can be a bit hard to find people. I'm on there as cushlat and I had my settings set to private, but I've unprivated them again. The only weird thing is that if you google your name, you get all your tweets. Forever. And you'll get followed by plenty of spammers, but I just block them.

I just made myself a 'follower' (whatever that means)... I registered with my real name as I might need it for business. That's nathaliedeusser, but it's no secret anyway. To be honest I don't really know what twitter is about. Our advertising agency told me it might be a good idea to register my company on both facebook and twitter, so I should get used to both and better soon. :-(

Cushla- Good review of The Finkler Question. I've added it to the List!

Cushla, I enjoyed your review of The Finkler Question and noticed that Bonnie said it was available in the US in paperback. I may have to make a trip to the bookstore to look for it. The conversation of about Twitter is interesting--something I've never considered as book-related.

Ooooh, now that would be tempting! Living in a place where books are cheaper and not having to pay shipping. My only remaining question is, how big is your house in NZ? ;-)

Great news about Finkler in pb. I'm going out today and getting it!

Lisa, my husband built lots of bookcases when we bought our house in NZ but they were nearly full when we left - eek!

When we were looking at houses a few years ago, the agent showed us a very chi-chi one (far too House and Garden like for me, especially with 2 kids...). My first comment was ''But do the bookcases go?" - there was no way you could squeeze any in. She gave me a strange look and said "How many books do you have?!"" and I kind of knew she was not the right real estate agent for us... and mumbled ""Um. A few.'"

Deern (I am so used to calling you that that i can't switch to Nathalie just yet), and other Twitter newbies, on Fridays on Twitter there is a thread called #fridayreads. If you want to see what tons of people are reading, just search (in the little twitter search box) on #fridayreads. And post what you're reading, including the hashtag (#) #fridayreads. It's a good way to find other booky people to follow. And if you want to follow your favourite bookshops or publishers, you could just go into my follower list and poach them from there.

I finished Book 57: The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer .

I bought this one because Stasia and Terri both really liked it, and lots of other LT friends, and it was excellent - I gave it 4 1/2 stars.

It's the story of the Amin family, a Jewish Iranian family, in 1980-81, soon after the Shah had been deposed by Ayatollah Khomeini. (It's funny, the Shah is one of the first current event things I can remember seeing on TV and I was 8 when it happened in 1979. I had no idea what was going on but it made an impression seeing the Ayatollah on TV.) Isaac is thrown into prison in the first chapter of the book. Each chapter is told by a different family member, which helps spread out the material about the brutality of the new regime. The Amin family is wealthy and not religious. Shirin, the 9 year old daughter, is friends with Leila, whose Dad is a revolutionary guard. Parniz is the 18 year old son who's been sent to New York to study to get out of the draft for the Iran-Iraq war, and escape the regime, and Farnaz is the mother who's used to a very easy life (and a not particularly fulfilling marriage).

It's a very tense book, for obvious reasons, and I couldn't put it down for the last 150 pages. It's Sofer's first novel, and I'll be looking out for her next one - this one was partly autobiographical and I'm about to google her. Recommended if you like Middle East books.

#235: Glad you liked 'Shiraz,' Cushla!

Thanks for liking it first - it's another book I bought just because of you and LT!

#237: I forget who recommended it to me or I would tell you to go thank him or her :)

#235: Just keep calling me Deern (btw that's 'girl' in northern German dialect), it's shorter anyway. Or feel free to shorten the Nathalie in any way you like.

I just ordered the free amazon sample of 'Shiraz' for my Kindle. I'll have a look at it later today. I was also born in 1971 and like you I do remember the takeover by the Ayatollah as one of the first important news events on TV, along with the hostage-taking in the US ambassy. Full TV coverage, as far as that was possible back then with 2 channels...
The hostages were later flewn out to the big US army hospital at Wiesbaden, that's the place where I went to school, so that left quite an impression.

I must read The Septembers of Shiraz - my mum was going to give me her copy but couldn't find it so I made a library reservation.

You can also follow some authors if that appeals to you. The only one I'm following who I'd consider a favourite is Ian Rankin. Last night Susan Hill replied to one of my tweets, I'm still trying to find out what she has to say about Nadine Dorries, a Conservative MP (politician) here who has apparently admitted that 70% of her blog about constituency work is fiction....

Luci, I un-followed Ian Rankin after he made some snotty comments about kids being in cafes! And it's slowing me down on picking up any of his books (that, and the fact that I DO NOT need another crime series to get addicted to...)

Ha, that'll be interesting to see what Susan Hill says. I follow a couple of NZ authors but that's about it.

>235 cushlareads:: oh, I loved Septembers of Shiraz, too. I'm so glad you did.

And I also wanted to let you know that last night I started Testament of Youth, a read inspired by your glowing praises earlier this year (and I can't believe yours is still the most recent review!). Only 40 pages in but just know I'm going to love it. Thanks so much.

Nice review of Septembers of Shiraz, Cushla; I'll probably read it next year.

Ooohhh, Septembers of Shiraz sounds right up my alley. Thanks for the review and recommendation!

As regards bookshelves, we have 14, most floor to ceiling, and I am double stacking. Since five of them are new, it's kind of disappointing. My hubbie keeps saying we need to move to a house with a library. My daughter wants to raise the roof and add a floor. At least they are supportive of my (reading) habit!

Septembers of Shiraz is languishing on my shelves. I'm hoping to get to it and a bunch of other Orange prize winners (or longlisters) in Orange January.

I own Septembers of Shiraz but haven't read it yet. Glad you liked it.

I remember when we were selling our house. Two of the rooms had built-in floor-to-ceiling bookshelves filled with books. Our realtor suggested we remove all the books because some people didn't like them. I was dumbfounded by that comment. We actually ended up following her advice since we were going to have to remove all the books anyhow. Our house sold on the first day and the person who bought it ripped out all the bookshelves!

Wishlisted Septembers of Shiraz, thanks, it looks very good.

It's interesting what we first remember... For me, it was a combination of Vietnam and Watergate, along with Patty Hearst's kidnapping. I was in high school in Europe when Khomeini came to power, and one of my classmates was an Iranian whose parents were still in Teheran and didn't get out. A friend of my mother's was the wife of an Iranian diplomat; her husband was recalled to Teheran and disappeared. He had told her not to go with him, so she and the children were safe and ended up making their home in Paris. I think that event, then the invasion of Afghanistan by the USSR, were the first two global events that I reacted to as kind of an adult, at 17. Although early that same year, I also remember a weird and now obscure chain of events that at the time had everyone alarmed about WW3 -- Vietnam invaded Cambodia; China, an ally of Cambodia, invaded Vietnam; and Russia, as an ally of Vietnam's, sent warships down from Siberian ports to just off the territorial waters of China. Nobody knew what would happen next...

Although I was only four or five at the time, I remember learning words to Vietnam era songs ("Fighting soldiers from sky, fearless men who jump and die..."). I was, of course, completely ignorant of the meaning. The first international event I really remember was probably the Iranian hostage crisis. And then there was the "where were you when you heard Kennedy had died" question, that was for me "where were you when you heard about the Challenger". Also Gorbachev and perestroika.

#246: Our house sold on the first day and the person who bought it ripped out all the bookshelves!

Which just goes to prove that some people are idiots!

Re Kennedy -- it was odd, I was alive, and yet too young to have any vivid memory.
Re Challenger -- I was an adult, home sick with a bad cold, and turned on the radio.
The demise of the Berlin Wall -- that is something that I don't think I can ever forget. Growing up in Europe, that was so omnipresent. I just knew that there was this whole part of the continent that I likely would never see, or at least never be able to travel freely in, and it was only a few hours away. And to have it happen overnight? Wow. I admit I cried watching the CNN coverage.

Thread cop - new thread is coming, after I've drunk my coffee and made playdough animals. Edited to add: it's OVER HERE:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/101012

Suzanne, that is horrible about your classmate and your mother's friend.

My weird WW3 story was something to do with Libya and the US flying into its airspace in 1985 or 1986. I clearly remember sitting in class thinking there might be a nuclear bomb going off somewhere and being terrified. I am off to google it...

Pat, I do not get people who rip out bookcases!!