Cushla's (cmt's) books: Episode 4

Welcome to thread 4, in which I try to read 18 books by the end of the year....eek!

Update: just in time!! 7.30 pm on Dec 31.

Thread 3 is here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/95336
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
58. the Heather Blazing by Colm Toibin - 5 stars

November
59. Finest Years: Winston as Warlord 1940-1945 by Max Hastings - 4 1/2 stars - TIOLI history challenge
60. Making Globalization Work by Joseph Stiglitz - 4 stars - TIOLI Nobel Prize winner
61. Der Minister-Praesident by Joachim Zelter - 5 stars
62. Acqua Alta by Donna Leon - 4 stars
63. A Week at the Airport by Alain de Botton - 3 1/2 stars - TIOLI 2nd half of decade with 5 words challenge
64. Fighting France by Edith Wharton - 3 stars - TIOLI remembrance challenge

December
65. Running the Books: Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian by Avi Steinberg - 4 1/2 stars
66. The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi - 4 stars
67. The Wild Geese by Bridget Boland - 4 stars
68. Brief Lives: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe by Andrew Piper - 3 stars (just)
69. What I talk about when I talk about running by Haruki Murakami - 4 stars
70. The Cello Suites by Eric Siblin - 4 stars
71. The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa - 5 stars!!!
72. Death by a Thousand Cuts: The Fight over Taxing Inherited Wealth by Michael Graetz and Ian Shapiro - 4 1/2 stars
73. Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo - 2 1/2 .
74. In an Uncertain World by Robert Rubin - 3 1/2
75. The Story of Everything by Neal Layton

I got here FIRST! Hurrah!!!1

#1: 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

I must admit that I am flattered you thought so highly of those two books, Cushla!

Found you! Congrats on thread three. :-)

Hi Cushla, found and starred you. I need to come back and look at your list of books and their ratings. I didn't realize you had already read Too Big to Fail and given it 5 stars!

I've heard some really good things about Septembers of Shiraz, Cushla .. and your rating has convinced me I should get moving on acquiring my copy when I come back from my trip.

Cushla, I just went through your list of books read this year and added two to my wishlist which I had never even heard of: A Dry White Season by Andre Brink and The Last Resort: A Memoir of Zimbabwe by Douglas Rogers. Thanks for the recommendations!

Hi, Cushla. Congratulations on Thread 4 and still counting!

Thanks for all the visits! Pat, both those books were excellent. The Last Resort just got reviewed in the Economist, so maybe it's just been published in the US.

I've learnt how to do photos!! (I knew once, but I forgot.)

Yesterday we took the kids to this AMAZING castle, theoretically an hour from here but really 2 once we'd got lost twice and needed petrol so got off the motorway then couldn't find the on ramp... It's called Chateau Hohlandsbourg, and it's over in Alsace. It was the seat of the Habsburg Empire in the 1300s, then it got destroyed.

So, anyone got any good books on the Habsburgs for me? I know NOOOOOTTTHHHIIINGG! But I am going to read A Distant Mirror soon, because I'm sure the castles in that book are similar.

Location, Cushla? I'm bemused and curious. The walls look almost Moroccan, esp. in the first pic, but the vegetation isn't. Definitely medieval -- 12th century?

ETA: Well, that's eerie! I was about 100 years out, it's 13th c.

Habsburgs are frustrating, IMO. The basic tome is still that of Andrew Wheatcroft; if you're interested in the post-Napoleon era, A.J.P. Taylor has a book. But neither are terribly readable; they're OK, but not vivid. You might actually find more available in German, especially if you happen to make a jaunt to Vienna. I seem to recall seeing a bunch of German-language books about the Hapsburgs (not just Sissi) there in the window of a bookstore in the Graben, just off Kartnerstrasse.

Sorry, location is... um. Near Colmar. Such a gorgeous part of France! Yep, it was built in 1279. There was lots of interesting detail about what happened when, but we spent the whole time running around playing Robin Hood (and finding the bar). It shuts in a few weeks, and we had the place to ourselves, which was really cool.

http://www.chateau-hohlandsbourg.com

Simultaneous bi-continental posting! See above message addition for answers to your Hapsburg query...

just finding you again . . . Hello!

Thanks for posting the pictures, Cushla!

>13 cushlareads:: near Colmar ... ooh! I've been to Colmar! The company I work for has a facility in Cernay, which I visited several times while I was based overseas. I remember going to Colmar at least once for dinner, it was a lovely town. I wish I'd known about Chateau Hohlandsbourg. It looks gorgeous.

Neat looking castle, Cushla. Thanks for posting the pictures and the link. I loved seeing the long view of it perched up on top of a mountain and surrounded by a stone wall.

My library doesn't have The Last Resort: A Zimbabwe Memoir yet but Amazon has a new paperback for $10.80 and I have the "free" two day shipping so I'm going to order it today. (It got 46 five star reviews out of a total of 51 reviews posted--sounds excellent.)

Bee-you-ti-ful castle! I have fond memories of living in Germany as a much younger woman and exploring the castles my young husband and I found in our wanderings. Back then (late 1960's) one could just drive up, get out, and look to our heart's content. Maybe it's still that way?

I know no books on the Habsburgs but the photos are stunning.

Hi Cushla! I like Barbara Tuchman and enjoyed A Distant Mirror a lot, despite a bit of a stretch trying to involve the life of one nobleman so much. What I remember most are the plague sections. As always, I will look forward to hearing what you think!

Glad everyone liked the photos. Joyce, nice to see you and I have lost your thread! I will go and look now... I got nearly caught up on LT last week too. But this week the kids are back to school so I am being good and doing tons of German homework (today, an essay about the cafes of Wellington, which is making me miss home a lot!).

Laura, you are ahead of me with Colmar - we have yet to go there, even though it is meant to be stunning and everyone raves. We have been to the motorway on ramp there, but will be back soon.

Donna, it is still a bit like that with just rocking up to the castles. It cost us all of 8 Euros to go round, and it was almost deserted. I guess it's busy in the middle of summer, but it's about to shut for winter.

Thanks for the book recs. Lisa, I will give The Distant Mirror a go...but I suspect my desire to hit 75 means not till next year. It will be hard enough without tomes. (And I started one yesterday!) I know it's not about the number, but I really would like to get there.

I finished Book 58 - The Heather Blazing by Colm Toibin yesterday and gave it my first 5 stars since Every Man Died Alone. I bought it last week because Brooklyn was so good, and I liked this one even more. It's a quieter book, and some of the reviews say that not much happens and that it's slow.

The main character is Eamon Redmond, a judge in Ireland. I liked it from the first page, where Toibin shows him getting ready for court on the last day of the court year, before he and his wife Carmel go down to Cush, where their holiday home is. (How could I not give it 5 stars when most of the book is set in a place called Cush?!). He grew up there with his father - his mother died when he was a baby. The story moves back and forward between the present and his childhood. There was lots in here about being Catholic and Irish, and even though I am now ex-Catholic and not very Irish, I recognised tons from my Dunedin childhood. The nuns who taught me were Presentation sisters, and the Christian Brothers order who feature in the book taught my brother. The card-playing and church services brought back a lot of memories too. So if you have any Catholic or Irish in you, I strongly recommend this one. Or if you just like beautiful, sad writing. I am not telling you anything about the plot, except that it's the story of what happens to him and his family, and it's very moving (translated: I was in tears near the end).

Uh oh, my 20 minutes of house cleaning before my parents arrive from NZ this afternoon just vanished!!

#22: Although I did not care for Toibin's Brooklyn nearly as much as you did, Cushla, I am willing to give him another try because I did love The Master. I will give The Heather Blazing a shot. Thanks for the recommendation!

Hi Cushla
I am glad I found you again... I wasn't able to read everything so I have surely missed out on some things.

Colmar: go there, we have been there (with our Koreans), went on board of a little street train (?) and got an introductory tour through the city. We also went to see the Isenheimer Altar, marvellous.

Habsburg: a short trip to the castle of Habsburg (built around 1020), near Brugg (on the way to Zürich you can see the castle from the motorway). It's not a big castle, but there is a tower with steep stairs leading up there (fun for our kids). http://www.schlosshabsburg.ch/

That is a gorgeous castle!

OK, I now own The Heather Blazing. Sigh. So much for book-free week pledge. Will have to try again starting next month.

Yay! I already own The Heather Blazing, so I'll move it higher on my TBR list.

A 5 star rating is pretty hard to resist. I'm putting The Heather Blazing on my wishlist.

What Pat said.

What Bonnie and Pat said. I just picked up a copy of Brooklyn last week and will get to it soon. Loved The Master.

Have fun with your parents' visit. The kids must be so excited! Yay for grandparents. ;-)

I agree, 5 stars is too hard to ignore. On to the list it goes.

Eeeeeek I hope you all like it! Health warning: there's a 1 star review on LT, so it is not uniformly loved.

Suzanne I am having a bad book buying week too. Again. I just joined a thing here called Centrepoint (expat centre), which has a great English library, but it is all being moved to the public library. I knew that was happening, but not that it was happening NOW. Great. So yesterday I went in, left without a book in my bag, so I had to go to Bergli. Bergli is Basel's English language bookshop, and I hardly ever go there because it seems much dearer than my favourite store, Bider und Tanner, and B&T's English book selection is superb too. But it's a nice shop. I came out with Masters and Commanders by Andrew Roberts, because I don't have enough non-fiction in the apartment that is waiting to be read, ha ha, and Empire by Niall Ferguson.

Then I got home and found another book present from my husband - he has got onto some email list that he won't tell me about with reviews, and this is the second book in a week: running the books: the adventures of an accidental prison librarian by Avi Steinberg.

So now I am sitting here reading to catch up...

I know far too much about Roberts as a person to read any of his books again, so you'll have to let me know how you like it. (Oddly, I'd put Niall Ferguson in the same category; tremendously aspirational public intellectual, someone who has never apparently experienced a moment of self doubt.) Andrew's eldest child, Henry, in the proud possessor of one of the rare handful of quilts ever completed by yours truly. I don't think that marriage lasted past child #2, however!

Yikes!! I know too many bankers like that. Niall Ferguson comes over like that even in the first chapter. I'm holding my nose a bit. But it's interesting so far (the bit I read on the tram...)

And also, yesterday I met somebody who knows Paul Farmer - she studied at Harvard Public Health with him!! Very cool and unexpected (she's an Aussie mum at school.)

Coffee time here, so that I stop starting sentences with the very stylish "and also"...

I'm afraid I'd avoid Niall Ferguson and Andrew Roberts on principle, especially Ferguson, the Tories' favourite historian.

Well, if you'd avoid Ferguson, you'd DEF run like crazy to avoid Andrew. He's ultra-right, and a bit of an unabashed snob. The intellectual snob I can deal with; the elitist snob, not so much. His views on the Boer War are ... interesting ...

Ferguson, however self-important, is a very fluid writer, which really helps. I don't know when he sleeps, however, to keep churning the books out at this rate!

I have so much non fiction (including history) that I really want to read before I try either of these two.

Well, I'm just trying to play catch-up here and it's not easy. The castle pictures are beautiful, Cushla, and I also loved The Septembers of Shiraz. I'm off to check out The Heather Blazing...

I'm still here, but am enjoying Finest Years so much that I have got behind on threads (especially my own) again.

I might try to squeeze Empire in soon. I've also been eyeing Ferguson's The Ascent of Money in the library, but I have enough books here!! Luci, I quite like some conservative authors... bear in mind that The Economist and the Financial Times are 2 of my favourite newspapers!

I don't usually like committing myself to books ahead of time but I've just gone a bit mad with the November TIOLI challenges, and most of my books are WW1 or WW2 books. I've listed tons and will probably try to go for shared reads where possible - so far I've put these into the wiki:

Challenge 1 (alphabetical order): nothing, because I will wait till a good un-planned book happens to hit the right letter then pop it into the wiki...

Challenge 2: (French translation): Brodeck's Report by Philippe Claudel (WW2)

Challenge 3: z - nothing yet, because the only thing I have is Simon Schama's enormous Citizens and I am not in the mood for it.

Challenge 4 - Nobel winner - probably something by Krugman or Stiglitz, depending on what's in the library

Challenge 5 - HP - nothing

Challenge 6 - Day by A.L. Kennedy - didn't think I had anything but there it was! (WW2)

Challenge 7 - WW1 or WW2 setting - Fighting France by Edith Wharton, because this is an ERC from I am too embarrassed to say when. I have plenty of others that will fit here if I'm not WW1 and WW2'd out already.

Challenge 8 - Out of print then republished - I have lots of VMCs that might fit here

Challenge 9 - Stasia's recommendation - will wait a while to see what is being shared

Challenge 10 - History book - Finest Years because I won't finish it till November (WW2)

Challenge 11 - sequel by a woman - Testament of Experience by Vera Brittain (WW1-WW2)

Challenge 12 - first name, last name - maybe Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann, if it jumps into my arms (I'ev owned it 6 months already!)

Challenge 13 - Heaven/hell - have just seen this one!

Challenge 14 - Hurston/Wright award - Someone Knows my Name by Lawrence Hill.

Since I am a 6 or at best 7 book a month reader, there is no way I'll do all these, but I really like the challenges this month.

I loved Brodeck's Report, so I hope you read that one this month so I can see what you think of it.

Impressive list, Cushla ... I was doing quite well on my TIOLI challenges until about the middle of the year when work just zoomed out of control. I'm so way behind. :-(

I also hope you like Brodeck's Report, Cushla. I haven't read it but want to. I loved Claudel's By a Slow River.

Cushla, I am doing the book buying ban too. We have to stick together, something like Book Buyers Anonymous :)

I've put heaps of books into the TIOLI challenge as well, reading them is definitely another matter though. I'm slogging through my last NZ author for the year though Richard has suggested that Janet Frame book and it does sound pretty good.

I don't quite understand how TIOLI works. I tried reading the description online, but still don't get it. Can you help? The categories sound fun.

#45 - each month squeakychu starts a new TIOLI (take it or leave it) thread, here's the current November one. The various challenges for the month are listed in the first post and if you want to read what books are listed or add a book you click on one of the three wiki pages listed there. It's quite fun, each month several of the same books are picked up by several people and become shared reads. Most of us are using it to read from our tbr pile. You list your book in the appropriate challenge and add the 'reading' and 'completed' tags as appropriate. The goal is to finish at least 1 book in the challenge by midnight 30 November. The challenge has the 'leave it' component which means there is no guilt attached to removing unread books at whatever stage even if they are shared reads. My only fixed goal each month is to at least read one book for the main challenge (challenge #1), which squeakychu sets each month when she sets up the thread.
If you need any more help or info, just post your query on the current TIOLI thread.

Thank you, that helps!

#46 - Well, it seemed pretty clear in your post, but when I followed the links I have to say it's all over my head. Maybe you had to be there from the beginning. I have enough challenges to keep me going--I don't need a new one anyway. But it looks like lots of people are having fun.

#48: Here's Madeline's explanation which she links to in the November thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/80417

It is quite simple - there is a main challenge (#1) and then other 75ers post alternative challenges. At present there seem to be between 10-18 challenges each month and you just decide what you want to read that fits one of the challenges. The fun aspect is finally finding a reason to read an older inhabitant from your tbr shelves/towers/pile/mountain.

eta: One of Madeline's reasons for starting the tioli was to try and build a sense of community in the group as there are so many members here and also creating discussion around the shared reads.

#49 - Thanks. Maybe it was the A-Z read that confused me! Anyway, I found the War theme read, which I was already doing on my own and I posted there.

One last question, is the challenge for books that you begin AND finish within November? I have one that would work but I started in October and finished in November. Thanks again for the help.

I think that just finishing it in November is fine. At least, I'm finishing up some that I started in previous months for previous challenges... Frankly, I don't think anyone's going to get too bent out of shape -- it's fun, no prizes awarded!

Hey Cushla - lots of banking books this year... I'm encouraged that you liked The Finkler Question. I have to confess to having no desire whatsoever to read it, but I have just joined, simultaneously, two book groups, one of whom has selected it as their December read, so I guess I'm going to have to... Also interested you weren't wild about the Alison Wong; I've got a proof copy that I haven't managed to get to yet, but recently saw a really scathing review of it (Guardian, maybe?) which has kind of put me off trying. Will have to go and find your notes on an earlier thread.

I am slogging through The Finkler Question now and just reread your review, which has given me strength to read the second half ...

Yikes, I am missing my own party! I have been trying to read instead of post, and real life has been crazy - no dramas, just everyday stuff like school and German homework and visitors.

Lisa and Joyce, it looks Kerry and Suzanne have answered your TIOLI questions. I love it because it makes me get excited about books that have been sitting on the shelves for ages with no reason, especially for some of the funnier themes (like a few months ago there was a challenge to find a book with no 'e' in the title or author. I get all carried away and add things to the wiki, and I don't get them all read but it doesn't matter. it has also made me find lots of new people on here whose threads I now follow.

Not much book news here except that a) I am not buying any till January 1 - EEEKKK!!! So no Book Depository, or trips to bider and Tanner. I will have to stop getting off the tram at its stop, because it is right there. {Edited to add that I have forgotten what b) was meant to be, and obviously need coffee.}

Rachael, it is nice to see you back on here. Hope you like the FQ. The first few chapters had me wondering what the fuss was about and it was a slog. And I think my 3 1/2 for Alison Wong's book was on the harsh side. I liked it enough that I'm glad I've read it. My husband is Chinese, and it was really good to read the historical bits - so I don't know why it didn't all come together for a 4 or even higher rating for me. I am still not very skilled at knowing why i am reacting to a book how I am!

Laura, I found the second half of The Finkler Question much easier and stopped wanting to squawk at the main character to get over himself. I hope you start liking it soon.

Deborah and Pat, Brodeck's Report might be next up I think. I bought it in London because of you Deborah, way back in June.

Right, now I am off back to the last 150 pages of the Churchill book. (It is 7.14 am... surely I can finish it today.) At this rate I will read about 4 books all month!!

Just checking in, Cushla! I am anxious to see your review of the Churchill book. Nothing like a little pressure, right?

Hi Stasia! The short version: it's very good, just dense. I think you'd really like it. I'm learning a lot about relationships among the Allies, and it's not a pretty picture! It's a much easier read than John Keegan's history of WW2, which I read last year or in 2008 and which felt like a real slog in places.

How's your book ban going?

ok now I am going back to the dishes and the kids...and then the book.

#57: I have not bought any books since I started the ban. November 30th though, I will be. I forgot about the Joplin meet up when I signed on for the book ban!

Good news about the Churchill book. As he is one of my heroes, I look forward to your review of it.

> 51

Re: TIOLI...

All books *finished* (start date is irrelevant) in November are considered a completed read in TIOLI. Would love to have you join us, Lisa!

Books unfinished at the end of November may be transferred to a December TIOLI challenge *only* if there is a challenge which fits it! However, challengers do have the option of creating one challenge within the first week of the new month so the option is always there to "fit" a challenge to your (as yet) unfinished book.

Tricky, eh? :)

#59 TIOLI is going to be fun, now that I'm finally catching on! I've finished two books this month, and both fit into categories: The Coldest Winter in the history category and Walk the Dark Streets in the WWII category. Don't think The Finkler Question is going to make it in though.

Don't think The Finkler Question is going to make it in though.

Oh, well!

:)

I finished my 600 page book on Churchill!! Am delighted - it was very good (4 1/2 stars) but long, and Max Hastings hammered some of his points a few too many times. Recommended if you like non-fiction about WW2, and you don't need much background knowledge to enjoy it. I'll write a review but probably not till Thursday - oodles of German homework to do.

Have started a much easier read (really): Joseph Stiglitz's Making Globalization work for the Nobel Prize winner TIOLI challenge. It needs to get better. 50 pages in, it's a bit too broad-brush and the writing is a little clunky. I think that'll change when he gets into the nuts and bolts of what is wrong with development and aid policies. And it's only 292 pages!

Rachael, I quite liked the Alison Wong book - think I gave it 4* - she does make the classic historical novel mistake of ladling in historical detail rather than building it up, but it's sort of interesting historical detail.

http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=As_the_Earth_Turns_Silver_by...

Yikes! 600 pages about Churchill? Couldn't you just tell us all the best bits? ;-)

Kudos to you for finishing the Churchill book, Cushla!

Awesome effort with the Churchill book. It is just based on the WW2 period or does it cover his whole life?

Bonnie, I will try to squeeze it into 10 lines to spare you 600 pages! (But not yet).

Stasia, thanks - it is such a good feeling to finish a chunky dense book.

KiwiNyx, the Churchill book is just from 1940-1945, so about 100 pages per year! I have the Martin Jenkins biography in storage in NZ, and might tackle it when we get home.

I popped in to confess that I have fallen off the no-book-buying wagon. But I had to. There was a secondhand book fair at school that I couldn't go past - 2 francs per book, and I came home with 5:

Through a Glass Darkly - another Donna Leon
One good turn by Kate Atkinson, so now I have to read Case Histories a bit sooner
Dead Lagoon by Michael Dibdin, which I thought I had heard of on here (it's an Aurelio Zen mystery...anyone want to enlighten me? Looked good for 2 francs anyway)

Best of all, I found 2 Viragoes - I am so excited! I haven't seen any here, and there are no second hand bookshops to hunt for them. One is Zoe by Geraldine Jewsbury and the other is Family History by Vita Sackville West.

Right, now I will get back on the no book wagon... I lasted 2 weeks, and I have kept myself out of Bider and Tanner very well so far, so I'm going to try to keep going.

It hardly seems like falling off the wagon at 2 francs per book. Plus you were helping your kids' school. More like leaning off the wagon to pick up something interesting from the road. (How do you like that analogy!)

I knew I could count on my LT friends to rationalise it!! Thanks. (And yes, all the money goes to Learning Support.)

The books were a by-product of your generous donation?

I agree here, your contribution was merely a charitable donation to the school and absolutely within reason. In fact, I think it would've been rude not to buy anything so you maintained politeness as well.

OK, I'll go and help them a bit more tomorrow then...

#72: Good!

:) How kind of you to be such a sport!

Just popping in to say I'm now reading another of your 5-star books, which I would not have known about except for your review: A Dry White Season. I just started it today.

It's the least you can do for your kids' school!

Laura, I'm glad you're reading it - and I'm more confident that you'll like that one than The Finkler Question!

>67 cushlareads: You would have been crazy to pass up those books! Especially the Kate Atkinson!

A Dry White Season is, indeed, fab. I need to go back and read some more Brink.

And yes, at least you're staying away from overpriced imported books in Bider & Tanner!

Yes but they are sooooooooooo nice ;)

Home with 6 more, including the Donna Leon I needed (#5) before I can crank into the other ones I have. But am off to Germany to buy thermal underwear for the kids (and other exciting things), so will add them later.

Thank you my enablers!!

Cool about getting the Donna Leon book you needed, Cushla!

I have finally had enough of a break from Max Hastings' Churchill book, Winston's War to write a review. It was excellent, but long - 576 pages long. (The touchstone is going to the right book, but over here it is called Finest Years: Winston as Warlord 1940-1945. It's the same book.)

Anyone who, like me, has Churchill on their list of People in History They Would Like to Have Dinner With would get a lot out of this book. It's really well written, has good photos and maps, and strikes a good balance between material on Churchill himself and the war.

Hastings clearly admires Churchill hugely but that doesn't stop him being very critical of many of his decisions and behaviour - but he repeatedly makes the point that in a war, mistakes are inevitable. It covers the period from 1940 -1945, and shows how fraught the alliance between Britain, the Commonwealth, the US and Russia was. It sets out the often grubby motivation for military objectives, the way Britain's military contribution dwindled in the last few years of the war, and how little power Birtain had within the alliance by the end - and how convinced Churchill was that he could use his huge personality to increase that power. In general, the German army comes across as a much more effective fighting machine than the Jolly Good Old Chap Brits, though there are exceptions.

Hastings is scathing about some British attitudes (not of the ordinary soldiers, but of their generals). He's also critical of the role played by SOE, the division that was responsible for stirring up resistance within Europe, and of local resistance in most countries. Roosevelt is much less likable than I'd expected, and very distant from his military chiefs, Stalin comes across as ruthless, cunning and evil, and Churchill is so complicated I can't sum him up into a few sentences. There is lots in here about the role of the media, and changing attitudes of the British public to Churchill and the war.

As the title suggests, it's heavily focused on Churchill and many of the sources are from his staff, but of course there is a lot of discussion about military operations. You don't need to know detail about battles and fronts in WW2, but it will make the book much easier if you do. There are about 100 pages on every year of the war. I found the parts about the Russian front, Poland, and France much faster to read than the chapters on the Aegean and the North African campaigns, because of previous reading - but it's all pretty readable.

So if you have a spare 10 days in your reading, and like history books, this one is well worth the effort. 5 stars.

#82: Churchill is one of my personal heroes. I am going to have to get a copy of the Hastings book! Thanks for the review and recommendation, Cushla.

ETA: Just found out that in the States Finest Years is known as Winston's War. My local library has it, so I am excited about that!

Stasia I think you would really like this one, and I'm happy to add something to the Black Hole!!

#84: Have you read Carlo D'Este's Warlord, Cushla? I read that one earlier this year. It sounds like the two books are similar.

No but it looks interesting too - did it have much material on his Boer War and WW1 activity? I have 2 other books here that look at WW2 and the Allied powers - Andrew Roberts' Masters and Commanders (2008) and Jonathan Fenby's Alliance (2006). And in a box in NZ I have Roy Jenkins' biography of Churchill, which is REALLY long and I got bogged down with his early life. I'll probably read the Andrew Roberts book in the next few months - it has more on Alan Brooke and George Marshall, who both featured qutie a bit in Hastings' book - it had very good reviews in the NYT and The Economist.

#86: More than half of the book dwells on WWII, but his service in the Boer War and days with the Admiralty in WWI are also discussed, just not at length as the WWII section is.

OK, I'm adding it to the WL now! Thanks.

No problem. I am going to hunt for the Roberts and Fenby books, so prid quo pro.

I finished up book 60 last night for the TIOLI Nobel Prize challenge - Joseph Stiglitz's Making Globalization Work. I got this one out of the Basel library and actually read it before it is due back!!

A bit of background on Stiglitz first: he won the Nobel in economics in 2001 for his work on the economics of asymmetric information - situations where the people involved in a transaction have different information, e.g. the market for used cars. He has had a hugely successful but very controversial career, starting out as an academic economist - he won the JB Clark medal for the most promising young economist in 1979 - then moving into policy. He was Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers during Bill Clinton's first term in office, then moved to be Chief Economist at the World Bank. While he was there, he was extremely critical of the "one size fits all" approach used by the International Monetary Fund (and the US Treasury Department) to deal with economic crises in developing countries. He was fired (or resigned under pressure) in 2000. He's now at Columbia.

Anyway. Making Globalization Work is his book about how globalization as it is currently managed is failing to improve the lives of many people in many countries, especially developing countries. The start of the book annoyed me, but once he got past the slogans and into some grittier policy it well and truly exceeded my expectations. There is a lot of very thought-provoking and disturbing material here, especially in his criticisms of the WTO (although he does say that the Uruguay Round's start at an international rule of law for trade is a big step forwards), climate change, too much developing country debt, and the US dollar's (now dwindling) status as a de facto reserve currency. The book was written in 2006, and he really picked what was coming in 2008 and described the problems with great prescience.

If you haven't taken an economics course but are interested, this is still a worthwhile read, but some of it may be hard to follow - especially the bits on debt servicing and the global reserve system. If you *have* done an economics course or 2, these are the best bits. If I were still lecturing, I would be recommending this book to all students taking econ at sophomore level or above, or to bright first years who are curious (sadly, not all of them fit this description). I did not agree with all of it but I did agree with much more than I expected, and have come away with a long reading list.

I gave it 4 stars.

I think the Economics in that one would be way over my head so I will give that one a pass.

Stasia, I might go back and edit my post - the trade part and the criticisms of institutional structures and governance definitely do not need any econ to get the point. But you probably have enough in the Black Hole already so it's a question of whether you would enjoy it! (But SOMEBODY over your way needs to make some more noise about the cotton subsidies in the US...and many other things... so actually I think all Americans should read at least the first half of the book!!)

OK, I will read the first half of the book then :)

ETA: Well, I would if my local library had it any way, but it does not. It does have a couple of Stiglitz's other books though. Have you read anything else by him, Cushla?

No but they will have similar themes. If they have Globalization and its Discontents I would try that one first.

#94: It looks as though the local public library has 2 of his books, Freefall and The Roaring Nineties. The local college library has Globalization and its Discontents though.

Pat (phebj) has read Freefall and gave it 3 stars. I would pick one of the other ones.

I will try and get hold of Globalization and its Discontents after the Thanksgiving holiday. I can only get one book from the local college at a time, and already have one checked out that I have not read yet.

Cool! My library has both Globalization and its Discontents and Making Globalization Work. The reviews and summaries seem to indicate that the second is a follow-on to the first. Should they be read in order to understand his arguments?

Hi, Cusha. I've added the Churchill book to my wishlist. I might take the Stiglitz book out of the library. I found Freefall to be good but not great and it didn't have an index so anytime I wanted to check something it was hopeless. I think he writes well, is generally informative for the layman and I tend to agree with him, but Freefall was often too academic and dry for me. He did get a bit into global debt and currency issues in Freefall but it was over my head. But then no one would ever accuse me of having even a minor grasp on global economics.

Great reviews. I'm off to add my thumb to both!

Hi Dr N! I didn't read the first Stiglitz book first - the arguments in the one I read are designed to stand on their own.

Pat, I might look for Freefall, but I have a couple of other books on the financial mess I want to read first, including the second half of This Time is Different by Reinhart and Rogoff. The first half was excellent, like 5 stars excellent, but I got out of the groove and now I have forgotten all the data, so I think I'll be going back to the start.

I'm having a break from non-fiction first though and have started Brodeck's Report for the TIOLI translated from French challenge.

Hi Cushla, I took a quick look at This Time is Different but it looks a little too scholarly for me. I'll wait for your review before I look for it at the library.

I'm really interested to see what you think of Brodeck's Report. I remember enjoying Claudel's By a Slow River and have always wanted to read more by him.

You should check out Freefall. You have a different knowledge base and would probably like it better than I did. The only way I can read finance books is if I'm entertained in the process and I don't get too lost. If it feels like a textbook, I have flashbacks to struggling to understand things like economics and statistics in college.

Freefall was OK, but it still felt academic to me. I have a copy here available on loan if anyone wants to read it and can't find it. Globalization and its Discontents is one of the standard critical looks at the subject and is something I think every should read. It's quite coherent, and I actually failed to pass my final exams the first time I took a college economics class, so while I know about the financial world, I'm easily scared off by jargon, charts, etc. Sounds like Making Globalization Work is a book I need to hunt down...

Yay - I found your thread again (why do those stars get lost?)!

Funny coincidence about the book buying ban. When I returned from Germany on Saturday with a bag full of books I declared those would be my last purchases for 2010. About 2 hours later I was browsing amazon and reading the Kindle sample for Silk (it has just 4 letters - would fit into the TIOLI!).
But I resisted and only 'bought' some free classics. That wasn't really buying, was it?

#103: But I resisted and only 'bought' some free classics. That wasn't really buying, was it?

Nathalie, if something is free, I do not know how you can buy it :) At least that is what I am telling myself when I download free stuff to my Nook.

> 103

But I resisted

I remember doing a book-buying ban once. I hated it. What I found was that it took all the joy out of book browsing.

Good luck with the BBB you and others are doing. It's not for me, though.

Making Globalisation Work is one I've been looking at requesting from the library recently, I find that kind of book quite fascinating and your review cements what I thought.

I haven't been here for a bit- so, catching up.

Good write-up on Stiglitz. He's not the most engaging writer but he thinks deep.

If there comes a point in your life when your inner policy wonk needs a read about knock-down drag-out American politics, The Climate War by Eric Pooley, might fit the bill. I'm enjoying it, anyway.

Hi VG, thanks for visiting!

I've added that one to my wishlist. I have another one to read very soon for my inner policy wonk though (funny, the more time I spend here as a stay at home mum the more my IPW needs feeding) - Death by a Thousand Cuts: The Fight over Taxing Inherited Wealth by Michael Graetz and Ian Shapiro. Lookds excellent, and Shapiro was in pol sci at Yale while I was doing econ there, and had a really good reputation. Hopefully it will be an antidote for all the cookies and need to bake for the kids' school parties and gifts. (Boy, can you tell I have an attitude problem compared to the other mommies?)

I'm way behind on the threads and spending a little bit of time each day to catch up.

The Churchill book sounds fascinating!

all good wishes

It's so nice to see you back here and on all the threads Linda - great to hear you're recovering slowly but surely.

108: I want to read that book, because I remember how frustrating it was to watch how the repeal of the estate tax was being sold back in 2001. (e.g., families were going to lose their farms was one of their mantras). And it puzzles me how the same people who want to reduce our budget deficit, and reduce their taxes, reconcile that with wanting to maintain the tax cuts for a minority of the richest 1-2% at the expense of the middle-class majority. Do the authors talk about these issues?

Inner policy wonk vs cookies -- LOL!

Still, if a book about estate tax can be interesting, that one sounds as if it is. I confess that calling it a "death tax" was one of the most irritating pieces of political hyperbole/demagogery I have run across. And it's not just the middle-class who are suffering, but the bottom tier, whose access to services (like libraries!!) has evaporated as resources diminish. It's like Marie Antoinette -- let them eat cake -- an utter and complete obliviousness to real life on the part of policymakers. Who have to have the kind of wealth, directly or indirectly, to get elected that would benefit from repeal of the estate tax.

Besides, there are sooo many ways around those taxes. I do empathize with people hit by them, to the degree that the uncertainty makes planning impossible. They should be able to plan effectively, and the way the whole debate has been handled is reprehensible on all counts. OK, rant over!

The debate over inheritance tax has been pretty ludicrous here in the UK too.

Hi Cushla, finally catching up on some threads while away on my reading week. I haven't yet started on The Finkler Question - plenty more on the pile to get to first. And your thread is adding other ideas to my wishlist: I want to read something sensible about globalisation and the Stiglitz looks like a good starting point.

Hi Cushla, I'm with Linda and Genny playing catch-up on your thread. You have been doing some serious reading lately. Churchill, globalization, and now tax cuts! Yikes, I just saw where you studied econ at Yale. Can we still be friends if I tell you I am reading the Louise Penny books about murder in Threee Pines?

I didn't realize you had lived in the US, you cosmopolitan girl you. When were you at Yale?

Cushla, I saw the authors of All the Devils Are Here on Charlie Rose--very interesting! I meant to ask you if you want to read that book? It seems right up your alley.

Add me to the list of people trying to catch up with your thread; some amazing reading going on here. I'm going to add the Churchill book because I love history; taxes and economics, not so much.

Good morning! (it's 5.50 am and I have been awake for 2 hours.... argh, perhaps should not have got up and made coffee.)

#114 Genny, I think you would get a lot out of the Sitglitz book.

#118 Bonnie, thanks for visiting! I hope you like the Churchill book.

Lisa, I lived in the US twice - once for grad school (early 90s) and then worked in NYC from 2000-2002. We **loved** New York, and one day I would like to live there again, but not till the kids have grown up. (And I am very jealous of the NY meet up thread with all the discussion of brunch places!)

My IPW has gone into hiding and I am going to read something fluffy next. The tax cuts book is probably going to get bumped by Donna Leon, plus it is a better book to take to a 4 year old birthday party in the hope of some reading time (party is at one of those playland places). I don't want to look like a freak...

Bonnie, the tax cuts book doesn't cover the very latest stuff because it was published in 2006. And thanks for reminding me about All the Devils are Here - I do want to read it, but not in a huge hurry because I have 2 vaguely related ones to read first. I liked Bethany Maclean's Enron book a lot, but this one sounds like it might cover similar ground to lots of the other ones (esp. Suzanne's book!).

Donna, you know I like reading mysteries as well as econ books!! I am NOT going near the 3 Pines ones till I've got through some of the unfinished series. Like Donna Leon. And Andrea Camilleri.

Anyway. I came in here to announce that a) I am back not buying any books and b) I had a slight lapse, um, last Sunday, when I went to the Basel BuchMesse, which I guess is the Swiss equivalent of the Frankfurt Book Fair. It helped that everything was in German, but even so, I came home with a walking guide for around Basel, a mystery series (oops) set in Basel, and a book that was shortlisted for the German Book Prize this year. Drum roll please... I have AT LAST finished a book in German!!!!!! (And the touch stone doesn't work.)

Book 61: Der Minister-Praesident by Joachim Zelter

Der Minister-Praesident was a 5 star book, funny and sad. I couldn't put it down for the last 50 pages. Claus Urspring is the President of one of Germany's states (who's also in the Cabinet, hence his title of der Minister-Praesident). He has had a bad car crash. He has been in a coma and when the book opens he's in the hospital recovering. He sees the world as if he's a pre-schooler, and can't even recognise his wife or remember the name of the political party he's in, but his minder, Julius Maerz, is utterly determined that this will not stop him winning the election in 12 weeks. (It helped a lot that I have quite a few friends who can be a bit obsessed with winning elections.)

Maerz drives the doctors crazy, but figures out that Urspring's speeches can all be pieced together with words and phrases that are digitally edited by Hannah, a sound technologist. Urspring has lost his strong Schwabian accent, and now speaks accent-free high German, and that's no good either - he has to get his accent back. Urspring can't walk, but Maerz figures out that he can ride a bike, so he manipulates the election campaign appearances to have Urspring cycling everywhere. **spoiler, so Paul and Nathalie and any other German readers, do not read any further, just go and buy the book!!** Der Minister-Praesident goes along with everything for the first 3/4 of the book, then gets led astray. He and Hannah go for an early morning bike ride to find a swimming pool and get lost. Totally lost. You have to suspend disbelief at this point, but it is worth it for a really wonderful story that feels like you're reading about 2 kids who've run away from home. They end up in Switzerland.

If this gets translated into English, I recommend it highly and I'll be re-reading it. I read it without a dictionary, so at times missed some phrases and felt like I was reading through a fog.

Congratulations on completing the book in German, that's really a great achievement. I'm glad that you got the opportunity to find some good books at the book fair regardless of the book ban. Are you still planning to go to Hay next year?

Hi Kerry! Yes - subject to visitors here (3 lots already scheduled for May). I think Hay *and* Poland might be pushing my luck because my husband will need to use up annual leave while I'm gone, which means less time for a family holiday over summer. Hay will win. And I'd get a day or so in London too, hopefully!

I might lift my own book buying ban just for this one, Cushla. It sounds too good to be missed. I'll put it on my watchlist.

Hi, Cushla. Congratulations from me too on finishing a book in German. It sounds really good so I hope it does get translated. Is it a new book?

So, you've been talking about "high German" and I'm wondering, because this time you said "accent-free" HG. Is that the equivalent to, say American English as spoken by newscasters and such as opposed to, say, a southern accent, or a NJ accent? (And, those of you from the South or NJ, don't hate me, I'm just using the often commented-on accents--we all have accents, I know.)

#124: Hmph. I'm doubly insulted, as I was born in New Jersey and live in the south.

Does that mean you sound like those people on the Jersey shore program but with a southern accent Darryl? Can't get my mind around that;-)

Ack! Now both Bonnies are ganging up on me. No, those are South Jersey people, who are very different from those who live in North Jersey or Central Jersey. When I was an undergraduate student at Rutgers you could tell the South Jersey people apart, especially the big-haired girls who chewed gum like cows (or that creepy chick from Jersey Shore, Snooki or whatever the hell her name is).

It's also interesting to see the often distinct cultural and linguistic variations within many states in the US. In every state I've lived (New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Louisiana) there are at least three or four very distinct subcultures, such as the Pennsylvania Amish, people from Philadelphia or Pittsburgh, and Louisiana Cajuns.

I try to say "y'all", but it comes out with a bit of a New Jersey/NYC drawl. ;-)

#123 Pat, it was published earlier this year.

The accent discussion is funny - Darryl I LOVE Southern accents, and I love all the regional variation in the US.

Bonnie, I thought I knew the answer to your question, more or less, but I've just wikipedia'd to check and now I can see a whole new subject I want to read about!! I hope you have had a coffee before you read my essay:

High German without an accent is the kind of German that you were taught in school and I thought it's how people in central Germany sound (e.g. Berlin, around there). But now I'm seeing all this stuff about the Vowel Shift and I'm not sure where is considered 'accent-free'. Paul or Nathalie might know... when I was in Berlin it certainly sounded accent-free, but anything would compared to Basel.

The Schwabian dialect, and Swiss German, are both Alemannic languages (or languages - I think there is debate about this.) Swabian is spoken around Stuttgart and in Baden-Wuerttemberg. It's hard for other German speakers to understand (when our German NZ friend was here recently, he was telling me about his grandmother who's Swabian and how he couldn't speak a word of it. That's how I feel about Swiss German, although I am starting to undertstand bits and pieces!).

Over here the kids learn both Swiss German and high German in schools so when I speak in high German they very nicely speak high German back.

Good morning Cushla, you just answered a question I have been discussing last night with my neighbour and her children - whether children in Switzerland learn and speak both forms at school or are forced to speak high German, because that is what they have to use for writing.
I guess it must be terribly difficult to learn reading and writing if the spoken language deviates so much from the written language.

Accent free high German is normally spoken in the Hannover region. Most of us others speak high German now in our daily lives, but often you can still hear where people are coming from. In my case the 'ch' might give me away - as a Hesse (Frankfurt region) I have a tendency to pronounce it as 'sch'. I'll never be able to say the word 'tschechisch' (Czek) correctly.

Morning Cushla. I am now all caught up with your thread and I've wishlisted Winston's War after your excellent review.

Hi Heather - thanks for visiting! I am SO behind on your thread but I am in catch-up mode now. Hope you like the Churchill book.

Nathalie, thanks for explaining the accent-free high German thing. I have a friend moving to Hannover next year so she has picked the best city to be a beginner in!

I think the Swiss kids speak local Swiss German at primary school. I see Basel dialect written sometimes, e.g. for Fasnacht parade song words and in advertising, and I can make out quite a few of the words - but some vocab is so different. Carrot is something like "Ruebli""! My kids are in the international school system, so I'm not an expert on this stuff... they get 4 hours of baby German a week (which is starting to produce a few words at last.)

Congratulations on finishing the german book, I'll have to wait for the english translation I think as it does sound good.

Add me to the list of people hoping and waiting for an English translation of the Zelter book. It sounds very entertaining.

(Finding the discussion of dialects and accents interesting!)

Hi Cushla

I wasn't here for some time (wedding of my daughter, travels around Switzerland with our relatives from the USA and Korea), now I wanted to catch up and saw that I missed quite a lot.

The WWZ library has Stiglitz's book Die Chancen der Globalisierung, but I am hesitant to read to much economics (it usually goes over my head), but you encouraged others to read the first half - I probably just do that.
Do you know Alternative globalizations by Hamed Hosseini? We just got that book in. He is lecturer in sociology at the University of Newcastle, Australia. I had a look at some parts of the book and I didn't understand a thing.

Swiss German: Obviously we all speak it here, but every canton, city, valley have their own dialect. But we never learn it in school. There are grammar books for different dialects. What we learn is 'High German' or 'Written German'. Whenever a foreigner addresses us in German we answer automatically in High German. Ans saying that people speak accent-free is arguable: They are recognizably from Hannover so they have a dialect... we have a lot of discussions here about that.

Cushla: congratulations to having finished a German book! Great. I put Der Ministerpräsident : ein Roman on my wishlist. I guess the touch stone doesn't like umlaute.

Also loving the accent/dialect talk - and congratulations on completing a whole book in German. What's the next one going to be?!

I hope the Zelter book gets translated, but I'm not sure it will - there is so much really interesting German material that doesn't make it into English, and I find it very frustrating that I am still too slow to read German all the time for relaxation.

Paul, you are right about no accent - I would never say that a Brit had no accent, I'd say he or she had an English one/a Northern one/a posh one. What I really meant was that the German we got taught in school was probably closest to a Hannover one.

Genny, the next one should be The Magic Mountain but I can see the pigs flying over the apartment while I type. Probably one called Accabadora, an Italian novel that's been translated into German and one that my German teacher really liked and has lent me. It's set in Sardinia - very un-German... but it's only 170 pages and the German looks straightforward.

I've finished 2 more books: Acqua Alta by Donna Leon (4 stars), and A Week at the Airport by Alain de Botton (3 1/2).

Acqua Alta was the 5th in the Brunetti series and I really enjoyed it (although there was less of his wife and kids this time). The opera singer from the first book, Flavia, and her partner Brett, have big parts in this one, and it was very tense near the end.

**spoiler question for people who have read it** Did anyone wonder about the very end, where they question Brett dropping the bowl?? I kept suspecting her the whole way through the book! **

A Week at the Airport is the first book I've read by Alain de Botton. The owners of Heathrow's Terminal 5 paid de Botton to spend a week at the airport and write this book. I enjoyed it, especially the descriptions of some of the bits of the airport you never see (like the foreign exchange counter), and he is really good at observing people and commenting wryly on them. But it felt a bit like 100 pages of Facebook updates sponsored by the airport, so I couldn't bring myself to give it more than 3 1/2 stars.

Accabadora sounds like a more manageable prospect than The Magic Mountain!

Too bad about A Week at the Airport. In concept, it sounded like it might have made an excellent book.

Yeah, and I did like it - but when I look at books I give 4 or more stars to, it just didn't stack up. It was a nice way to spend a few hours though, so if the library has it it's worth getting out. I was in the mood for something not depressing - New Zealand has just had a terrible mining accident with 29 people killed, and last week I found I couldn't keep going with sad books (I have put Brodeck down for a few weeks) and needed short easy reads.

Genny, I got given a beautiful copy of The Magic Mountain so I am going to tackle it next year, and try to read a bit every day...but yes it is going to be a big project for someone who hasn't read any Thomas Mann before!

Such a lovely picture!

Thanks, she's my book worm girl!! It would be better if it were her own bed instead of ours though... one day she will sleep in her own bed all night. Maybe.

I finished Book 64 for the TIOLI read a book about war challenge. I am embarrassed to say that this was an ERC I received in May (where is my rock to hide under?). It took me 2 goes to read it, and even this time I did not enjoy it much. The book was Fighting France: From Dunkerque to Belfort by Edith Wharton and I gave it 3 stars.

My enjoyment of this book suffered because some of the most moving books I have read have been about WW1 - All Quiet on the Western Front, Regeneration, and then in April this year Testament of Youth. This one felt much more distant and privileged, and that coloured my reading so much that I gave up when I tried it in May just after I'd finished Testament of Youth. It's not a bad book, it's just that I think most people would get more out of a book about people rather than places.

Hesperus Press republished Fighting France as part of their series of re-discovered books. Wharton wrote a series of essays in 1915 (early in the war, and it shows) for Scribner's Magazine in which she travels along the French front. She was accompanying Walter Barry, or Berry, but I think Barry - the book has it both ways - who was President of the American Chamber of Commerce. So they got to see a lot, and the writing is beautiful in places, but she tries to show the impact of the war through lots of descriptions of scenery.

The book badly needed a map. If you're a fan of Wharton, this is probably worth reading, but I would not recommend it to most readers.

I'm not applying for any more early review books, because 2 of the 3 Hesperus ones I've received have been disappointing, and I hate having to finish the book and write lukewarm reviews when I've had a free book, but I will... (the 3rd is coming up soon.)

Cushla, I have to ask, is your sweet little daughter by any chance reading one of the Little Miss or Little Mr. books? I remember my kids just loving those when they were veryyoung; still have a pile of them around here somewhere.

Bonnie, yes - Mr Worry, and she loves them. Our favourite trip out here is into town to Bider & Tanner to buy one, then a hot chocolate and coffee at the cafe next door. (They have a big stand of Mr Men and Little Miss books.)

Cushla, loved the picture of your little bookworm! Sorry about the ER book. I'm very ambivalent about the program because I hate having to finish a book that I may not want to.

Our bedtime routine here is that Mike reads them both a couple of stories in Danny's room, then Conor and I toddle through into our room where his cot still is. He's started to pick up books and chuck them into his cot. I lift him in and he sits looking at a book while I read one of mine and drink tea. It's mimicry as he's not even 2, but he does look so funny "reading" his books.

> 145 Cute photo! Brewing a book worm there I see. Sounds like a great outing to buy a Mr Men book and get a cuppa.

>147 elkiedee: I like the sound of that bedtime routine! You get to read a book of your own??!!? My little 2 year old has started to "read" his books out loud, he always starts with "One day......". It always makes me chuckle.

The Little Miss/Mr Men books are great aren't they! Cass loves them - she has a couple in the car, but her reading of them mainly involves going along the back page adn pointing out the ones she knows :)

#148 My girl does that too! It's one day... then any other words she remembers - like from the Enormous turnip, if she's 'reading' alone, all I hear is 'pulled an pulled an pulled'. So sweet.

Your daughter is beautiful! And so engrossed in her book.

Love the picture of Teresa, Cushla! Thanks for posting it.

This is such a lovely picture of your 'book worm girl', Cushla! :)

A lovely picture indeed. Do you get the books matching to the duvet colors or the other way round?

Aw thanks, everyone. She is a sweetie. Mostly.

Paul, I hadn't even noticed that about the colours! Ha, we love IKEA - where else can you get a duvet cover for 25 francs?

Well I have finished 2 books in one day (and the apartment is the worse for it...).

Book 65 was Running the Books: the Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian by Avi Steinberg.

Steinberg is in his mid-20s and has just graduated from Harvard with a BA in I'm guessing English lit - anyway, humanities of some kind. His background is interesting and the story is as much about him as about his job and the Boston prison system he ends up working in. He grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family and his act of teenage rebellion was to become extremely religious - he spent his summers studying the Torah and went to a very intense camp in the West Bank. The book starts when he's at a wedding and is trying to avoid his former rabbis, who want to know what he's going to do with his life - because at some stage he leaves the yeshiva and goes to Harvard and is a very un-observant Jew. He applies for a job as the librarian and creative writing teacher in Boston's South Bay prison. He works there for 2 years, and the picture he paints is pretty gruesome.

There are some really funny bits in the book but overall it's pretty sad and scary in places. He really describes the prisoners who are his library regulars well, like CC Too Sweet, the former pimp who's trying to write his memoirs, and Chudney, who wants to become a TV chef. There's a whole world of street culture and jail culture that I knew nothing about - 'kites'(notes left in library books), 'sky writing' where the male and female prisoners use torches to send messages from window to window, and 'feeders'- prison workers who bring food in for the prisoners, for a range of motives. And the ferocity with which the rules are enforced, the tension between unionised and non-unionised workers, and the hierarchy within the staff was awful to read about. Highly recommended to nearly everyone.

I gave it 4 1/2 stars (maybe a bit less - nooooo don't tell me I am about to start using decimals) and recommend it to pretty much everyone - I dinged it a star because I felt like he went on a bit much in places, especially near the end, but overall it is really well written. There are some great longer reviews on here already, so go and have a look.

Next book coming in a few minutes. Stay tuned!

Great review. I've added it to my wishlist. Thanks!

#54: I already have that one in the BlackHole due to Tina's recent review. I hope my local library gets a copy in soon!

Great review, Cushla. I'm been hearing good things about this book. I don't think it's on my WL yet so I better check that. I'll be back to check for the next review.

And one more for the wishlist... Great review!
I'll get the Kindle sample and try not to buy it before January (though I have broken my book buying ban already more than once... it's just too tempting getting something for me as well when shopping for books as Christmas gifts)

I read Running the Books last month and had similar impressions about it! I had a tough time getting into it at first, but after page 75 or so, I found myself very invested in how the library worked, the prison system, and so forth.

*sob* can't...keep...up...an...*entire thread*...behind *wail*

>160 richardderus: its a hard slog but someones gotta do it!

I hope you all like Running the Books. And Richard, I think I am about 15 threads behind on your reading, so you're doing pretty well here!

Book 66 was The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi, which I bought early this year after quite a few very good LT reviews. It also won the Prix Goncourt in 2008. (This is the English translation from the French.) I picked it up for the TIOLI short book challenge yesterday and took it on a quick tram ride, then came home and had to finish it - and that's the main reason I've given it 4 stars. I didn't enjoy it, because the subject matter is really disturbing, and I don't know that I found the ending credible (or understood it exactly), but I had to keep reading.

A woman somewhere in Afghanistan talks to her husband, who's been in a coma for 2 1/2 weeks when the book starts. The book takes place inside the house where he's lying. She talks to him about her life and their 10 year marriage, and tells him secrets she's kept for years.

The writing is very direct and choppy, e.g. "So they return, she and her two children. She leaves them in the passage. Opens the door, abruptly. Her man is still there. Same position. Same rhythm to his breath. As for her, she is very pale. Paler even than him."

I don't want to give away any of the content, except to say that you will be very happy not to be a woman in Afghanistan when you finish the book, for many reasons.

Wow--sounds pretty powerful. I'll have to read it when I am feeling fortified. Added to wishlist. Thanks for the review.

I think this one will be a "take out of the library" book.

#163, #164 - Read it when you've just read some fluff.

For the Kiwis out there, I was wondering if we might try reviving the NZThingamabrians group - it has almost nothing happening in it! When I first joined LT it was about the first group I posted in before I ventured out into the bigger groups, and I wondered if we tried a '" What are you reading this month"" thread. What do you think? Any brilliant ideas? (I would have done this as a message, but I couldn't work out how to do one to multiple users.)

Sounds good Cushla, I'd visit it. Could even try a group read! (or is that getting ahead of our small numbered selves!?)

Megan I was thinking about that as well, but I wondered if we get a bit of momentum (or at least posts!!!) going first. Any ideas for a book? Whatever NZ fiction you pick, I am guaranteed not to have read it. {blushes at pathetic reading of own country material}

OK, I'm going to go and start a thread over there, now that I won't feel like a TOTAL LOSER when nobody posts on it! (But first I have to sort out the kids. I can hear fighting over Super Mario Wii...)

I'm in, I've read a few NZ books lately.

OK, I've started the thread. I'll also post a wee message in the last chatty thread on there (from ages ago) so people see it.

My internet connection is playing up and I just can't access and/or post on some threads, including that one! I'll try again in the morning.

I think I spotted The Patience Stone on Amazon Vine earlier this year and had marked it as potentially intriguing... Must muse further about this, tho!

Are you going to read Mann in German?? I still have to read it in English! Maybe we should do a group read next year?

>139 cushlareads:, 171: Genny, I got given a beautiful copy of The Magic Mountain so I am going to tackle it next year, and try to read a bit every day...but yes it is going to be a big project for someone who hasn't read any Thomas Mann before!

I'd love to join you and Suzanne in a group read of The Magic Mountain. I loved Buddenbrooks when I read it a few years ago on our trip to Germany. I'll be reading in English! Any German I had was lost many years ago.

>140 cushlareads:: I love to see pictures of children reading. It gives me hope! She's a doll. Our youngest son crept into our bed most nights until he was 6 or 7. We were worn down so badly by the other two children that we just moved over and made room for him. He seems perfectly normal now at the age of 35!

Cushla, since I got a lovely, generous birthday gift of some NZ fiction from Kerry, may I join in a Kiwimabrarians' group read (should y'all happen to choose one of my new books *coughPotikicough*? I am about as far away from NZ as it's physically possible to get, but I sometimes wonder if I wasn't kidnapped by fairies (!) from thence...after all, my favorite movie "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" was made by a Kiwi and is cited as a very Kiwi kind of humor...can I, huh, can I?!?

Cushla, Running the Books sounds similar to True Notebooks. Mark Salzman was drafted into teaching writing to teenage offenders who were frequently awaiting trial for crimes that were more than likely going to get them life in prison.

I'd be quite interested in joining in if you happen to pick something I have access to. My mum's parents were from New Zealand.

Eek, I can't keep up!! And there were 10 messages on the Nz thread this morning, so I am not feeling silly any more.

Bonnie, I have added True Notebooks to my wishlist - it has great reviews and best of all, some of them say it's inspiring! Running the Books was many good things but overall it was more depressing than inspiring. I'd love to think the NZ criminal justice system is more effective, but I think I'm deluded, and I just don't see it.

If we do a group read in the NZThingamabrians group, of course it would be great if you joined in, Lucy and Richard. And Potiki sounds like a possibility (she says, eyeing it on her bookshelf). Or we could just read it at the same time in here Richard.

I'm giggling that you like the Rocky Horror Picture Show - when I was in 3rd Form (Grade 8 or so) it was a really Big Deal and everyone knew how to do the Time Warp. And later on there was a stage show version in which a former prime minister played... um... Frankensomebody? Anyway he got to wear drag. It was all very interesting.

Donna, it is good to know that your son eventually got out of your bed and into his own, even if it took till he was 6 or 7...

Suzanne, yep I am - gulp - going to read the Magic Mountain in German. I had a bit of a dig on the internet yesterday and was hoping to see a free English translation - I'll be needing to look up 5-10 words per page, I think. Didn't find anything. I haven't done a thorough look on Lt yet, either. The German scares me less than the prospect that it is over my head in any language, but it looks like it'll be ok. I would really love to do a group read for it though because I'll need a lot of encouraging to get through it! So when should we start? Donna? How about after the holidays?

(I really am insane, because I also want to get War and Peace read early in the new year, and am considering moving out of the 75 group next year because there's no way I'll get close, but I think even having a target steers me off longer books. But I think I will stay, because I would miss everyone in the group and people do lose you when you go elsewhere.)

OK this is the longest post ever. I have to go and finish The Wild Geese, which I am really enjoying. It's a Virago Modern Classic and it has an animal on the front (a horse, not a goose), and the most villainous villain I've encountered this year.

#176: am considering moving out of the 75 group next year

Cushla! You are not allowed to leave. End of discussion. Do not make me come over there. . .

Hi Cushla, I read The Magic Mountain last year after having failed on the first try years ago. I am very impressed that you are going to tackle this thing in German. I don't know if I'll be ready for a complete reread early next year but if you set up a group read I might be joining you. And tell me if I can be of any help with the language.

The language in the book is beautiful, German at its very best I'd say. However, it's not all colloquial German, there are many old expressions and phrasings which are not easy for a German to understand, especially once the philosophical disputes are starting which tend to be long and tiring. But then there are many wonderful sections making up for it.

(and I agree with Stasia - don't even think about leaving the group!)

Hi Cushla

you brought me in this group and now you want to leave? Bitte verlass' mich nicht...

I could join in the Zauberberg reading. I read it ages ago (in school) and never touched it again. I didn't like it, but that's maybe because I didn't like the teacher. Would be my first group read after school.

>177 alcottacre: What Stasia said times two. *stabby stabby hot death glare* Your (too infrequent, but that's a cavil) posts are among my pleasures in this wonderful place. One does not, if one is possessed of a healthy desire to avoid suffering, get between me and my pleasures. *repeat stabby stabby hot death glare*

Don't worry about number of books read, but don't leave the group, please!

Think of how many books over 75 Stasia reads. We don't throw her out! 75 is just a numbah... Don't go! *hanging onto your pantleg and being dragged along as you walk*

Sigh, Cushla is an ex-Wall Street type; we'll have to forgive her fixation on numbers...
That said, roughly what Richard said...

If we start on Mann in Feb, I'll be better able to keep up. I'll have to deal with book revisions until mid January. Maybe we could spell it out over a few months? As people seem to have done with Virgil & Herodotus?

#182: Are you considering it? Let me duck before you start chunking boots my way :)

>179 paulstalder: My book circle read The Magic Mountain years ago, Paul, and I wasn't in love with it. It was just too long. Since the English-to-German translation ratio is 1:1.625, I ***shudder*** to imagine what the book itself would weigh in German!

Richard that is the most tactful I've ever heard you be about a book you didn't like. Are you feeling ok?

February, and slowly, would be great - and Paul it would be terrific to have you reading too (and Nathalie as a consultant!).

Thanks for the encouragement. Suzanne I think you have met too many bankers, and you are right that I can't help thinking about the numbers. Most of the year I don't, but in December I do when I feel like am nearly at 75.

Have just finished The Wild Geese - book 67 - and it was a rollicking good read (and I gave it 4 stars). Most of the Virago Modern Classics that I read are good, but I am better at collecting them than reading them. This one is set in Ireland in the 1730s and 1740s. Maurice and Brandan Kinross are brothers who live at Rossmore, a big farming estate that has been in their family for generations. They're Catholic, so are not allowed to own land. Instead, their Protestant cousins hold the title, but this is a legal fiction and everyone knows it. The boys get smuggled to France to get educated, and Maurice joins one of the Irish Regiments in the French King's army.

I learnt a fair bit of Irish history along the way, and the story would make a good movie (and Bridget Boland later became a script writer, and wrote the script for a version of War and Peace). Recommended if you like historical fiction.

>186 cushlareads: I suspect it's old age creeping up on little elephant feet.

BTW...Martha Ostenso's book is the one being pimped via your touchstone, and it's about Canada, so I suspect there's a disconnect somewhere.

Argh, I forgot, have fixed it now.

Now I've wishlisted the correct book. TY dear Cushla.

Oh, I do want to read The Wild Geese; when I started reading history and saw Irish and Scots names popping up in the 18th century and into the Napoleonic wars, in the armies of France, Portugal, Spain, the Habsburg Empire, etc., I became intensely curious about this group. Edvard Grieg, the Norwegian composer, was descended from a Battle of Culloden refugee; he's actually a Greig, I learned on the radio a little while ago, and related to the Clan Macgregor. Go figure...

And yes, I have def. met far too many bankers...

Cushla, True Notebooks was a great book, but the very discouraging aspect of that book was how very poorly these young men were represented in our court system. Yes, most of them were accused of murder, but it was also criminal how little to no time their attorneys spent on their cases.

I admire your ability to read Magic Mountain in German. I just bought Winnie the Pooh in German and I still have to look up plenty of words.

I've had The Wild Geese for ever, think I had it in my old bedroom before I went to university so that would be more than 23 years.... that would qualify it for a challenge if I can get to it this month. Thanks for your review Cushla.

Please don't leave the group, Cushla! I (and I'm sure the rest of us) don't care if you read 75 books or 5 books next year.

Cushla, if it really mattered how many books you read they would have kicked me out. I'm not going to hit 75 this year either, just as i didn't last year. But someday I will. I think.

I also would never want you to leave Cushla and certainly not for the reason of the number of books you may or may not read. Quantity is not important at all.

"Please don't go. We'll eat you up. We love you so!" -Sendak

Yes, if you leave, I will sic some bankers on you. *evil chortle*

The. Number. Doesn't. Matter. (Especially when you read chunksters like Judt's tome and propose to read Mann in German, for God's sake!)

I'm just going to drop in with a wail 'Don't leave us!.

Quality not quantity. And we think you are quality. Okay that sounded appallingly middle England to me. Sorry.

But that aside we would have to chase you round LT...

It's ok, I'm going to stay put because almost all my LT friends are in here, and just set myself a goal that has nothing to do with 75 books, and maybe a goal for tomes instead. (So far the line up is W&P, Thomas Mann, and the Tony Judt one that I never finished because something got me sidetracked.) I probably won't be able to help numbering them though. And thanks for all your lovely comments. Bekka and Lisa get the prize for the funniest.

Suzanne, the only other book I've read that talks about Culloden is Diana Gabaldon's Outlander, so I spent quite a bit of The Wild Geese trying to work out how they fitted together (it became obvious near the end). I forgot to say that the book is an epistolary novel, and it worked really well here. It's pretty tragic that the only bit of English history (before this century) that I really know is from Henry 8 to Oliver Cromwell, because we spent half a year on it in my final year of history at school. Any later than that and I'm struggling.

I'm declaring my book ban officially over, and I am back in overpriced Swiss bookshops handing over my Maestro card. I might run out of books if we get snowed in. And I have NINE HOURS of train reading time at the weekend, without husband or kids! I came home with Andre Brink's biography, A Fork in the Road, and Edmund White's memoir City Boy about New York in the 1960s and 70s. I loved White's The Farewell Symphony when I read it years ago, so hope this one is good.

I finished book 68 and don't go jumping onto Amazon to buy this one. Brief Lives: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe by Andrew Piper was another ER book that sounded good at the time. I'm giving it 2 stars.

This was a short - 105 pages - biography of Goethe. I found it overly flippant and very boring, which is quite a combination. It needed to be either a much longer biography with some structure and depth, or a shorter essay. It felt like the author had taken some lecture notes and quickly turned them into a book. I haven't read anything by Goethe, so maybe I'm the wrong audience, but I don't think so, and my tolerance for turgid biography is quite high. Not recommended, especially for about 20 francs in the shops here.

Glad you have "seen the light" and will be staying. I've just wishlisted The Farewell Symphony.

It's ok, I'm going to stay put because almost all my LT friends are in here, and just set myself a goal that has nothing to do with 75 books, and maybe a goal for tomes instead. (So far the line up is W&P, Thomas Mann, and the Tony Judt one that I never finished because something got me sidetracked.) I probably won't be able to help numbering them though.

I've decided to do a tome read next year too! Keep in touch if you want to compare notes or need support--I'll be over at the ClubRead 2011 group.

(and where are you going that will take 9 hours by train?)

Glad you will be sticking around to tell us about the tomes (and the Swiss adventures!)
You can have a free pass on the book ban (she said generously) due to lack of English-language library resources in Switzerland... Especially in view of a potential book famine, albeit localized.
Too bad about the Goethe. I suspect that series is aimed at the people who think vaguely to themselves, "hmm, should read about Goethe and Heine cuz I know I need to know something about them to bluff my way through a dinner party sometime". They may work for that audience, but I often find biographies tough sledding at the best of times, and doubt I'd enjoy the kind that you described.

Woo!

Re 2011 I'm trying to work up enthusiasm to read some of my shelf bound tomes as well (the old prennials - War and Peace and Ulysses...) but I think it depends on how bad the baby-brain ends up being.

At the moment its already quite bad - I still haven't forgiven myself for the weekend when I popped my daughter into her car seat and drove off. About 10 minutes later I glanced back and said very sternly 'Cassie, put your arm back in the strap' she looked down and then patted around most disconcertedly and said 'Mummy its not here'. Cue me pulling in asap and actually putting her seatbelt on.

Maybe War and Peace would be a stretch... I thnk 75 will be a BIG stretch next year!

At the age of 48, I am reconciling myself to the fact that I will never read Ulysses. I don't think cultural literacy requires me to drive myself insane. I do, however, still want to acquire enough Russian to read War & Peace in the original. (My grandfather's copy is on my shelves -- he taught himself to read some Russian, along with a lot of Italian and German, in his spare time, a continuing reproach to my laziness. There is a reason that I dedicated my own first book to him...)

>204 Chatterbox:: At the age of 48, I am reconciling myself to the fact that I will never read Ulysses. I don't think cultural literacy requires me to drive myself insane.
Amen, sister. I'm the same age and of the same opinion. I admire your goal to read W&P in Russian, but I think I'll try Tintin in French. :)

Morphing into tycoon tyrant mode- " Do realize how fast the end of Q4 is approaching? Imagine how measly your bonus is gonna be if you don't make your number. This ain't a damn NGO! You wanna know how many applications we have coming in from starving MBAs, quants, and the like? The number is sacrosanct and cannot be ignored or excused away!!!!!"

};->~

VG, am laughing aloud. I am writing a column about year-end Wall Street bonuses this week...

My Company has recently been bought by a large American bank... some weird things going on.

Plus I really hate James Joyce, but at the moment I would rather read Ulysses than go to work. Hmmm... maybe that's not just at the moment! Capital markets terminations and evil lawyers? The joy!

Besides I'm at 28 years old and obsessed (ish) with finishing the 1,001 before I die - so Ulysses'll have to be done at some point. :)

*quiet voice from corner* I actually liked Ulysses?

I doubt I will read Ulysses in full either, but am willing to try at some future point. Next year, it is all about the Proust though.

>209 labfs39: LISA!! Leave the 75er community IMMEDIATELY!!!!!!!!! Pack up and go, see ya, don't let the screen door hit'cha, all that jazz.

***EXECRABLE*** book.

#209, 211: Now, now, now, I'll have to read Ulysses to make up my mind, but given the fact that my reading-tastes are quite similar to Lisa's, I'm afraid Lisa and I wil have to start a shadow 75'ers group (but you're welcome to join Richard :-))

#211 Now that's the Richard we all know and love. Glad to see you're feeling better, dear. ;-)

I read it in college as part of a two trimester Ulysses course my freshman year: Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, Plato, Sappho, Apuleius, Dante (entire Divine Comedy, not the light version), oh, I don't remember all. But Ulysses was the crowning touch. Perhaps I had gained enough discipline at that point that I could chug through without too much damage, or perhaps I was caught up in the glow of college elitism (what is more elitist than talking about Ulysses at impromptu "salons"). Or maybe I'm just weird, a definite possibility! I remember keeping a list of all the different languages used in the text. If only I had read it when it was digitized and you could search on words and passages, and I had know about The Bloomsday Book! What fun I could have had then!

#212 Ooooh, a shadow group. Can I be Agent 99?

I've been missing the party in my own thread - spent the whole morning Christmas shopping and haven't read a page of book all day, because I also bought a new Wii game - ummmm do I confess this one? It's the Michael Jackson Experience and you have to copy all the dance moves. It's so much fun and I can eat more pastries with the calories I burn.

Lisa, was that a first year 'Great Books' course? It sounds great (although I too have no desire to read Ulysses). And Richard, it's good to hear you back to normal.

Joyce I would love to compare notes on tomes - I follow qutie a few threads in Club Read and will make sure I come and find you when the 2011 group is up and running. I'm keen to see what you're going to pick. And I'm off to Duesseldorf for the weekend to see 2 friends and do the Christmas markets.

VG, that was really funny! But not that accurate for investment banking, where I was (as opposed to trading). It was done so much more smoothly...ugh, I don't miss those days much.

Bekka I have done the car seat belt thing once. Got halfway down our street when a little voice said MUM I don't have my seatbelt on. Oops...

I'm reading a great book - a rec from Suzanne early this year, and one that my husband then accidentally bought me - Eric Siblin's The Cello Suites. Hopefully will finish it soon.

Ha ha dancing to MJ- oh to be a fly on the wall!

Chiming in with Lisa and giving Richard and all the rest of ya a big ol' raspberry.

"PFFFFFT!!"

Joyce I would love to compare notes on tomes - I follow qutie a few threads in Club Read and will make sure I come and find you when the 2011 group is up and running. I'm keen to see what you're going to pick

I can tell you some that I have planned. They may not all be "tomes" exactly, but they're books that I own and have avoided because they felt too big. I think in some cases the edition I have is just big. Anyway, I plan to start off each month by reading one of these big books, and if I can fit anything else in the month, that's just bonus. For January I have The Blind Assassin (Margaret Atwood) lined up, followed by Dickens Nicholas Nickleby in February. A bunch of us here on LT are talking about reading 100 Years of Solitude in July. I'm also hoping to get to Dracula next October. And somewhere I'd like to fit in The Island of the Day Before by Umberto Eco. We will see what actually happens. I'll let you know my ClubRead thread once that group is up and running.

I've also been avoiding my bigger tomes this year. I had a Historical and Epic category in my 1010 challenge and I ended up only reading two books and switched to a New in 2010 category, which shows I read like a magpie, attracted to anything new and shiny. Next year I'll be pushing myself to start and finish Les Miserables in the first couple of months of the year, this year's effort lasted only 40 pages.

Cushla - my son has wii sport/fitness set up in our garage. I haven't tried it apart from an initial fitness test but he's having fun on it. I love the pastry/chocolate shops over there, I can understand a need for the Michael Jackson dance moves!

I am quite enjoying the mental picture of Cushla doing a moon walk or re-enacting the Thriller video. (yes, I'm dating myself here)

I love big books best. I usually find it very hard to get into a new book, so the longer the book, the better. The shorter the book, the more difficult it is for me. When I browse for books, I generally avoid books with less than 200 pages, and go for the ones that are 400+ pages.

Laura, the Thriller track on the Michael Jackson thing is my favourite!

Joyce, I will probably give myself a target for big books in next year's thread and have a total target of something really really low, like 40 books for the year.

I spent the weekend at the Christmas markets in Cologne and Duesseldorf and had a fantastic time with 2 friends from home. And I found a really good bookshop in Duesseldorf, so had to buy 3 books (so much cheaper than here). I came home with The Bad Girl by Mario Vargas Llosa, just to try something by him, The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa, and What I talk about when I talk about running by Haruki Murakami. I read the Murakami book on the train home and really liked it (4 stars, and book 68). It's a memoir about running, writing novels, and his life and it's made me think I will give him another go. The only book of his I've read is South of the Border, West of the Sun and I didn't love it.

#221: Murakami's nonfiction book was what lead me to try some of his fiction works, Cushla. I do hope you will give him another try.

Hi Cushla, South of the Border, West of the Sun was also the weakest of the 4 Murakamis I read last year, though they were all similar in a certain way - mysterious plots, often with open ended story threads. The running book is still on my watchlist, I wasn't sure what to expect there. I'll probably read it in 2011.

Maybe I should get this wii game... it can't get any more embarrassing than my one pathetic try last weekend at 'we sing Robbie Williams'. I must have got the worst rating ever, and that on the easiest song. In future I will only sing in my car with the windows closed. The dance game might at least burn off some of those pre-Christmas calories.

*wandering through and waving hello*

Hi Cushla.

What are the Christmas markets like? I have a friend who is doing a boat tour (maybe it's a barge tour?) of the Rhine for 10 days which stops at all the Christmas markets. Her husband didn't pick up on the Christmas Market part until it was too late. Apparently he hates shopping.

I actually really liked South of the Border, West of the Sun which I read with a book club. After that I read The Wind Up Bird Chronicle which often made me feel like I was on psychedelic drugs but most of the time I liked it. I think I'll give his nonfiction a try next.

#221: I must get Murakami's running book. I hope you like The Housekeeper and the Professor -- it was one of my favorites this year.

Ditto what swynn said on Housekeeper and the Professor.

*drive-by hug*

Why is it that when I have just read 2 great books to write about, real life stops me from sitting at the computer for more than 30 seconds?

I finished books 70 and 71 and I might get to 75 books! We go away for a week on Saturday, so I will be internet free till Christmas Day. I'm already way behind on catching up with threads and will be getting even worse!

Book 70 was the very enjoyable The Cello Suites by Eric Siblin. This was a recommendation from Suzanne way back in January, when I'd just started following her thread. there are 3 stories here: a memoir of Bach, focusing on the cello suites, the story of how Pablo Casals came to find them and become a classical music superstar, and Siblin's own reaction to the music.

I love Bach's cello suites and have Rostropovitch's recording of them, but am off to find Casals' somewhere on the internet now. I gave this 4 stars not more because I felt like it dragged a bit near the end, and I found the part where he goes to the Bach weekend to sing along a bit silly - on the one hand, good on him for trying, but on the other, it felt a bit far fetched (he hardly reads music). I loved the thread about Pablo Casals, but was a bit icked out by how he married his 18 year old student when he was 80. (Sorry if any of you out there have partners who are 60 years younger than you...)

Then the next book was The Housekeeper and the Professor. I bought this one from subliminal LT voices in the bookshop - I came home and found on Monday that I'd just read about it in Bonnie's best books of 2010 list on her thread, and lots of other reviews on here during the year. I LOVED this book! There are 75 reviews on here already, and lots of hype. Lots of maths, lots of lovely writing about how beautiful math is, and lots to dwell on about ageing and memory. And 3 fantastically written main characters.

If you liked The Elegance of the Hedgehog (already a rec for this book from someone else) I think you'll like this one. I've already given it away, to my German teacher as part of her Christmas present.

Hi Cushla, seems that you are on the last lap (or what thy call it).

Thanks for th hint about The housekeeper and the professor, I'll try to get next year, I think.

I am back to work tomorrow. So, it looks that we'll have to meet next year (or between Christmas and New Year's Eve, because I'll be working then). The lurgy I had was called Stirnhöhlenentzündung by the doctor (sinusitis?). So all my vacuum places in my head were filled with pus? mucus? spit? - whatever is there. It's almost gone, now.

I wish you a good holiday and relaxing internet free days

I loved The Housekeeper and the Professor and will check into The Cello Suites. A week without internet actually sounds good to me at this time of year. I hope you and your family are going someplace fun. Duh, you're in Europe where every destination is desirable to one who lives in Missouri, USA!!!

Cushla, have some good old-fashioned family fun time...and make some Christmas memories to tell us about.

Hi Cushla

I was going to add The Housekeeper and the Professor to the tbr pile, but note that Darryl (Kidzdoc) previously recommended it. Thanks for the comments that entice me to move it up to the top of the list.

Hi Cushla, I'm hoping to get to some Murakami next year. I have Norwegian Wood on my shelf so I'll probably start there. Loved both The Housekeeper and the Professor and The Elegance of the Hedgehog.

Have a wonderful Christmas. God Christmas in picturesque Switzerland?? That must be a picture postcard.

#229: I already have both those in the BlackHole. Whew! Dodged those book bullets.

Have a wonderful Christmas with your family, Cushla!

Happy Christmas!

The Housekeeper and the Professor is already on my Kindle; I remember seeing a lot of Amazon Vine reviewers describe it as their favorite Vine book ever, so I nabbed it. It is, of course, on my TBR mountain...

Glad you enjoyed The Cello Suites. It is rather rare to find good writing about music (as opposed to good music.)

Paul, that bug not only has an utterly unpronounceable name, but sounds dire. Feel better.

Only just read you will be without internet for a few days - I wish you a very Happy Christmas!

I already sent the free sample of The Housekeeper and the Professor to my Kindle, it sounds very promising.

I'm still here (and am done with school Christmas parties - now onto packing and wrapping presents!)

Nathalie, was that Sing star or something? Robbie Williams song sound great in the car but the kids tell me not to sing... charming.

And thanks everyone for the Christmas wishes. I hope you all have a lovely holiday if it's one you celebrate. We will definitely be getting a white Christmas, because we're going to a ski area called Haslital in the Berner Oberland for a week, and staying in a holiday village there. So cross your fingers for lots of snow!

#225 Pat, the Christmas markets were wonderful but I don't know how a guy who doesn't like shopping would find them - one maybe but not lots and lots. Hopefully he likes eating and drinking - if so, he'll have a blast because the food is the best kind of rich fatty German food. And the gluehwein really warms you up. I think when we were in Duesseldorf and out in the evening it'd have been about -5 or lower (um, that's about 21 F). There are lots of craft-y things, Christmas tree decorations, etc.

Paul I'm glad you're feeling better. The kids are off till Jan 10th, but I'll be free after that (and not flat out with silly end of year jobs!).

Suz, I think The Cello Suites was the first book I saw on your threads, so that leaves only about 100 on the TBR pile thanks to you.

Right, I am off to read a few more pages of Dead Aid, which has the advantage of being Very Short.

#237: no, it's called 'We sing - Robbie Williams' and it's for the wii. Interesting fact: I recently bought the DVD with all the videos of the 'greatest hits' which has an FSK rating of 16+ due to coarse language in some of the songs. Now the wii game not only offers the same videos, I think it also gives the complete texts and it's free without age restriction (FSK = 0).

Both my parents have really good singing voices, my dad has been singing in a choir for many years. I don't know what went wrong in my case :(

I miss German Christmas markets. The one we have here is nice but it's aimed at the visitors from Italy. The food is quite different and most people are drinking beer - in the cold!

One of the things I miss from living in Southampton is the great German christmas market - probably in no way authentic, but it alwasy had a great atmosphere. Plus they did fabulous big mugs of mulled wine. MMMmmmmm...

Shouldn't complain - our Fete de Noue is really lovely this year. Plus awesome mulled cider and the best chocolate brownies I've ever come across. I love Christmas fairs!

wow, skiing for Christmas, sounds great. Cant imagine it though as here it was 33 degrees yesterday. Sweltering! Ive been busy trying to bake our traditional family Christmas biscuits. Yummo- cant wait to have them all basketed up and be handing them out on the big day! Have a great trip!

Sounds like you have a wonderful Christmas lined up, Cushla. Enjoy and safe travels.

Cushla - we're going skiing for Christmas too! We leave for Whistler tomorrow and come back Christmas Eve. I've never gone on a ski holiday at this time of year, and I'm really excited to see the village all lit up with lights, and the falling snow. Yippee! I think of you as I'm shushing down the slopes (at least I hope I'll be shushing, and not struggling!). Are you a good skier? I'm not at all, but I enjoy it. My family takes off to find the most daring runs, and I look for the safest.

The Berner Oberland is one of my favorite places in the world. Have a wonderful time!

Merry Christmas Cushla! Swoosh, swoosh down those ski slopes!

Enjoy a great Christmas, Cusla.

Merry Christmas Cushla!

Have a Happy Christmas, Cushla!

Enjoy your Swiss Christmas

Hope you're having a great Christmas, Cushla!

Merry Christmas to you!

Merry Christmas, Cushla!

Happy Christmas, Cushla!

Thanks for all the Christmas greetings, and merry Christmas (and happy Boxing Day) back to all of you! (I am 8 days behind on threads...)

We had a fantastic time up in the mountains. I'll post a couple of photos soon. In the end there was no Michelin-man swooshy skiing, because on Sunday morning we had a very grumpy (read: VERY VERY GRUMPY) few hours of my husband and I trying to manage our skis and the kids. We quickly figured out that unless we took ours back we would be having the holiday from hell. After that we had a brilliant time and the kids LOVED learning to ski, and we all had lots of fun.

I read a whole book too while I was drinking my gluehwein and eating bratwurst in the snow - Death By a Thousand Cuts: the fight over taxing inherited wealth by Marc Graetz and Ian Shapiro, about the fight to repeal the estate tax in the US. It was excellent - either 4.5 or 5 stars - and very thought-provoking. I'll do a review later, because it deserves one, but I am surrounded by Christmas mess and laundry!

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The top photo shows the view from our holiday apartment, which was in a Reka holiday village. I had my doubts but it was fantastic - indoor hot pool, very few people there, and a stunning location. And no compulsion to do the group activities!

The second one is me with my book and sausage and gluehwein, while the kids were at their lesson.

The third one is Teresa skiing - she was so proud of herself. And you can see how quiet the skifield was. I think Swiss kids were still in school last week.

On Friday, there was 15-20 cm of snow, but the bus to the gondola was not even 1 minute late - and there was gazillions of snow ploughs out. The Swiss really live up to their caricatures sometimes!

I am glad to hear that it all worked out in the end and your family had a good time, Cushla!

Bratwurst, gluehwein and a good book - and happy children - sounds like an excellent holiday! Glad you had a good time.

Happy St. Stephen's Day! Or Boxing Day! Whichever you prefer, Cushla, may it be a happy, happy occasion.

While you're schussing down the slopes, we're bracing for a blizzard...a foot of snow and high winds! I'm shooing the straggling overnigters out the door for fear they'll become over-weekers. I'd go mad.

Glad to hear you had a good time although it's a shame you and your husband didn't get to do any skiing - maybe next time?

Look at the blue skies and sunshine in your photos! I'm so envious: it's still cloudy and drizzly here, and will be until July 5th... Glad your vacation went well, but sorry you didn't get to spend more time on skies. Looking forward to your review of Death by a Thousand Cuts. It was interesting around here because Bill Gates, Sr. was vocally in favor.

Edited to fix touchstone.

Thanks for the pictures, Cushla. Love those jagged mountain peaks and your daughter's pink ski suit. You look pretty happy with your book. I'll be eager to read your review. What exactly is gluehwein?

I hope those of you on the East Coast of the US are ok and not snowed in (and Richard I hope you got rid of your visitors in time!)

Heather, Tim and I will try to do some skiing lessons when we're back in NZ, when the kids are bigger. But we will be slower to get it than they were!

Pat, gleuhwein is red wine boiled up with spices in it - and delicious. It's served at all the Christmas markets here, and anywhere it's cold.

And I've finally reviewed Book 72 - Death by a Thousand Cuts ... 5 stars!!

A book about repeal of the estate tax... I can hear groaning noises coming out of the laptop from you. "Where does she find these deadly (ha ha) boring books??"" Death by a Thousand Cuts is NOT an economics book. And it's not even all about tax - it's about politics and how the repeal of the estate tax went from being a crazy idea to being supported by many, many Americans and by members of both political parties in the US Senate and Congress until in 2001 it was passed as part of Bush's package of tax cuts, to take full effect in 2011.

I've given it 5 stars, because I got so much out of it and couldn't put it down (and had to keep reading bits out to my husband). For some people though it'd be a 1 or 2 star book, because it displays its biases so openly - the authors are firmly opposed to the repeal of the estate tax. I'm still not sure what I think - New Zealand does not have an estate tax, and we just did a big tax review this year - but I have a long list of further reading to do. I don't like the idea of intergenerational inherited wealth, but I do think there are significant problems with the deadweight loss from an estate tax - i.e. the resources that get put into finding ways to avoid it. So I'm still on the fence about whether it's something we should be doing at home (neither political party in NZ is talking about it).

I don't know what the LT recommender will say on this book, but here's my quiz to see if you will like it:

1. Do your friends think you are obssessed with US politics?

2. Do you find yourself reading articles about the Tea Party when you could be doing housework?

3. Do you look forward to Friday morning because the latest Slate Political Gabfest podcast will be out?
(If you answered "what's that?", you will probably still like this book. If you answered "Isn't Slate that leftie current events website?" then you might want to skip this book.)

4. When you followed the US healthcare debate, did you wonder exactly how the reconciliation process worked?

For once, this book didn't come from a LT recommendation or from a bookshop trip - I found it on Amazon when I was looking at financial crisis books. It was written in 2005, 4 years after Bush's tax cut bill was passed. I'd love to see an updated epilogue to see what they think of the latest tax cuts deal finalised last week. What is most fascinating about the move for total repeal of the estate tax is that many of the supporters of full repeal would have been better off accepting a deal from the Democrats to increase the level at which the estate tax kicks in (used to be 55% of the estate for estates worth over US$600,000), reducing the level, and some exemptions, rather than waiting 10 years to get complete repeal.

The first half of the book discusses how the coalition to get the estate tax repealed got started. I'm going to google some of the names in here to see what they're up to now, but I'd be happy to bet that many are now active Tea Partiers. The second half starts when Bush gets elected as President and repeal makes it onto Congress's list of priorities. There is tons in here about US politics in the 90s and names you've forgotten about - Gingrich, Bob Packwood, Jim Jeffords, Bill Frist - and some that are still around (e.g. Max Baucus). There's also a lot about the role of think tanks (lots on Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute), the importance of labelling (the tax was called the death tax, and this had an impact early on in warping people's perceptions about who would be eligible).

And Lisa - interesting that you mentioned Bill Gates Sr, because there is a fair bit about people who opposed repeal, and he gets a fair bit of coverage. They're pretty critical of how un-seriously the threat of repeal was taken at first, and argue that opponents like Gates and Buffett didn't throw much money at it - and also that they were easy targets for the repeal coalition, because they have so so so much money.

#262:

1. Do your friends think you are obssessed with US politics? No, my friends know I am obsessed with books.

2. Do you find yourself reading articles about the Tea Party when you could be doing housework? No, the only Tea Parties at my house are me and Catey enjoying a cuppa. I do not do housework.

3. Do you look forward to Friday morning because the latest Slate Political Gabfest podcast will be out?
(If you answered "what's that?", you will probably still like this book. If you answered "Isn't Slate that leftie current events website?" then you might want to skip this book.) Never heard of such a thing.

4. When you followed the US healthcare debate, did you wonder exactly how the reconciliation process worked? I did not follow the US healthcare debate. I hate politics.

Somehow, it does not sound like a book for me :)

OK, that review was so long that I could have finished my next book by now. And I finished Dead Aid last night, which will prompt another ranty review, but because I gave her book 2 stars not 5. I have 2 books left to get to 75!

You can do it, Cushla! Use kids books if you have to :)

Cushla, I am having a wonderful time spending Christmas in the alps while hijacking in your coat pocket. But come on, you could have shared some sausage and gluehwein! Seriously, glad to see you're all having a wonderful holiday and even finding time to read! It all sounds perfect!

"Where does she find these deadly (ha ha) boring books??"

I have to say that was close to what I was thinking at the beginning of your review but by the end you had intrigued me enough to see if my library has Death by a Thousand Cuts. Great review, Cushla, and good luck with getting to 75. I agree with Stasia--use kid's books.

Hi Cushla,
great review - but I am not so much into US politics (well, I still checked if we have it here in the library, but no, we ain't)

And good pictures. A, I like sceneries like that, all and everything snowed in and the quietness when noone's around. Glühwein is great, my daughter is good in spicing it up - I bring the wine and she spices it. Really enjoyable.

Your time in the snow sounds idyllic, the reading sounds ...um.... interesting but not for me. I hope your Christmas celebrations were fun.

I love the pictures, Cushla ... looks like you're all having a wonderful time. The last time I was in Switzerland, I loved the crisp mountain air.

Great review of Death by a Thousand Cuts! I think I'll wait six months and see if that revised edition comes out, because I would love to see their analysis of the repeal. Not surprised that Bill Sr. didn't throw much money at the campaign, he tends to save it for local Pacific Northwest projects, I think. Bill Jr. didn't say a word, but started getting other billionaires to sign the "giving pledge" stating that they will give away at least 50% of their wealth. Many, like Gates Jr., have vowed to give away almost all (and this was not inherited wealth). Some complain that this is because of tax breaks or that it doesn't count for much because the families determine where the money goes. Whatever. Looking forward to seeing your take on Dead Aid. Another book that I "need" to read, but keep putting off because it feels more like work. I'm such a slacker...

Considering that half of your books were economic tomes, history tomes, or in another language! I think 75 books or no, you had an amazing year of reading! I am in awe! Read your kids a couple of books tonight and call it good. *big hug*

(Said as if I didn't have my own LT foibles. For instance, I didn't count audiobooks in the 75 this year, but have a separate list for them, because I didn't actually "read them with my eyes". I admit it, I'm a nut!)

Hi Cushla, I like the idea of spiced wine. I may experiment with it on my own. Your pictures are wonderful. So glad the kiddie slopes weren't crowded so your kids could have lots of room and not have to worry about being run over. I love your snow picnic. We used to do that on sunny days when I was a teenager in Michigan, except we would build a bonfire and roast our own hot dogs and marshmallows.

I also failed your book quiz so will have to pass on your latest. Cool idea, though. Do you have plans for a New Year's Eve celebration? Is that a big holiday in Switzerland?

Great photos Cushla. Everyone looks so very happy.

And, congratulations on a wonderful review of Death by a Thousand Cuts.

Yay skiing! Didja know that if you teach your kids to ski they'll want to go skiing like every year? Or several times a year? I went a couple of times during the holidays. Meager snow all the way to the middle of December. Summit depth was only 22 inches (55cm). Then, 94 inches (239 cm) of fresh snow in 10 days! Epic skiing once they did avalanche control.

http://www.wolfcreekski.com/wolf-creek-snow-report.php
One of my favorite not so well known ski mountains.

1. Do your friends think you are obssessed with US politics? It's just so deliciously messily convoluted and dysfunctional.

2. Do you find yourself reading articles about the Tea Party when you could be doing housework? That's what house cleaning services are for. And pizza delivery.

3. Do you look forward to Friday morning because the latest Slate Political Gabfest podcast will be out? I don't catch this every week. More like once in awhile.
(If you answered "what's that?", you will probably still like this book. If you answered "Isn't Slate that leftie current events website?" then you might want to skip this book.)

4. When you followed the US healthcare debate, did you wonder exactly how the reconciliation process worked? Ugly ugly process that resulted in a rather ugly ungainly bill. Come on, nobody can claim insurance companies don't like mandatory insurance coverage. Actually, the fights coming up in 2011 over the healthcare bill might be as disgustingly entertaining as the 2010 healthcare reform battles were. Legal and political challenges out the ying-yang.

Re: Death by a Thousand Cuts- Does it cover the land rich, cash poor cases of inheritance? Where farm or ranch acreage has skyrocketed in value in a generation or two? Great review by the way.

Wow! My post is going to be longer than your long post. 75! The number gods are going to be placated. ;)

Ummm, went to give you a thumb on Death, no reviews listed at all. Please do add yours!

ETA: Make sure you add to the right book, touchstone keeps taking me first to some other scary sounding book.

I'm ambivalent about reading Death by a Thousand Cuts (though I eventually will--thanks for reminding me) because it still drives me crazy to be reminded of how easily the Republican Party bamboozled so many Americans into thinking it was to their advantage to have the Estate Tax repealed. And, you're right, calling it a "death tax" and scaring people into thinking that it meant that farmers were going to lose their farms was really effective. But their talking points were only effective if people weren't willing to listen to 2 seconds of facts about who was paying estate tax. Aaargh!

Thanks everyone for visiting! Lynda, don't eat too much bratwurst while you're in my coat pocket, or you'll get stuck there - I have put on 2 kg since December with all the winter food!! More snow coming here today, supposedly, but nothing like what New York is getting.

Donna, I don't think New Year is a huge deal here. And there are no public holidays - at home we get 2 at Christmas and 2 at New Year. So my husband's back to work already!! (just like in the US).

#263 Stasia, I guess this one really isn't for you!! Never mind, it's not like you're going to run out of books to read.

Lisa, I've added the review now and will fix the touchstone again.

VG, your skiing place looks great. And yep, we know that the kids are going to want to go again... It's ok in Nz, but a good 4 hour drive, so much more effort than here. But we are quite keen to learn now that we've seen them really doing it. We'll see - the next chance they'll get for it won't be till 2012 when we are back.

Bonnie, one of the most interesting things about the book is how the coalition came to include qutie a few Democrats - and how behind the Democratic party apparatus was in realising. There were some really interesting anecdotes about black entrepreneurs (like the guy who set up Black Entertainment TV) getting very involved in the repeal movement. But yes, it made me realise that I often assume that people will listen to the detailed policy before being influenced either way, and that just isn't true.

VG, there is lots in the book about small businesses and farms, and examples of people in the repeal coalition who thought their farm was at risk. It's one of the areas where I want to read more. I'm not convinced a sensible farmer (and heaven knows to do well out of farming, you need to understand plenty of legal stuff) couldn't take out appropriate life insurance policies or slowly gift the farm into a trust. It's not like you don't know you're going to have a tax liability. (This is one of the reasons I can't see this flying politically in NZ - many many farmers - but they are pretty good at estate planning!!) The vast majority of people who're liable though have plenty of liquid assets (eg stock portfolios). I don't know what the annual exemption is for gift tax in the US though - in NZ you can gift $27,000 per person per year without paying gift duties. There's a book of papers by Joel Slemrod, a good tax economist at Brookings, that I'd like to read. (That one definitely will not get added to many wishlists...)

Note to the thread police, who seem to be on holiday in Long Island... I really don't want to start a new thread, ok? pleeeease?

The Thread Policeman is over in the 2011 group at present, Cushla. Maybe he will not notice.

Nope, an amnesty is in effect until 2011 threads are up and running. Seems a waste to make new 2010 threads *now*.

Besides, I'm moving too slowly from the 5kg I packed on eating my own cooking this Xmas to catch thread violators. The Hungarian apple-nut cake, while extraordinarily delicious, isn't a dietetic food. Oh dear me no.

The dessertophobic Divine Miss has actually *asked me to make it again*! That's two, count 'em TWO, desserts she wants more of!! (The other was prune whip, go figure.)

Yum to the Hungarian cake!!!! No risk of me making it though, we haven't had nuts in the house for a long time now - our son's allergic.

Thanks for the, um, what's the word, get out of jail card. (need 3rd coffee.)

*pssst* if you ever tell anyone I said this I'll swear you're a big fat liar but the cake is good with flax seeds too

Well then, Cushla, you're safe from the moist, dense, spicy richness! No, needn't trouble yourself over the meltingly soft apple tartness contrasted with the cake's cinnamony smoothness. Such a relief to you, I'm certain.

>277 cushlareads: And there are no public holidays
Ah well, ... I got 2 days on Christmas and 2 days on New Year (Friday and Saturday) in both my jobs

I think I try to answer your book quest as well:
1. Do your friends think you are obssessed with US politics? No obsession, but a slight interest in sometimes funny talk and strange relations among the acting parts.

2. Do you find yourself reading articles about the Tea Party when you could be doing housework? I like tea parties, I go there if I am invited but don't read about them.

3. Do you look forward to Friday morning because the latest Slate Political Gabfest podcast will be out? I prefer doing housework than reading podcasts.

4. When you followed the US healthcare debate, did you wonder exactly how the reconciliation process worked? Well, I wondered why the USA didn't have healthcare at all. We have it here since my grandparents. So everybody gets treated in the hospitals and then the insurance pays most of the bills.

Ha, I like your answers to the quiz.

On the holidays thing, I was just comparing it to NZ, where even if the holiday is on a Saturday (eg Christmas this year) and you don't usually work on Saturdays, you get the Monday off. Same for Dec 26 and Jan 1 and 2. It works well in NZ where it's the middle of summer and most people take lots of holiday then. I don't really get what you mean about the taxes.

>272 Donna828:: I like the idea of spiced wine. I may experiment with it on my own.
Great idea, Donna! I'm sure some Googling would turn up a good recipe. Also it appears you can buy it in the US. I have a German friend who gave me a bottle this year, and she bought it here. The label says "Wintertraum Glühwein" and it looks all German-Christmassy.

This link has a gluehwein recipe, and some lovely pictures of the Christmas markets (the author is an expat from Zuerich, I think.) I didn't see the kids dressed up as angels at the Basel markets, but they were there in Cologne and looked like they might need some mulled wine to warm them up!

http://www.justhungry.com/2006/12/recipe_gluhwein_mulled_wine_fo.html

mmm ... thanks Cushla!

>285 cushlareads:: Thanks, Cushla, for that fabulous link. I loved the two Christmas Angels on their McDonald's break! I want to go to a Christmas market! I saved the recipe but appreciate knowing that there is a bottled version available stateside. Thanks, Laura, for a good backup plan.

277- Sounds like US is similar to NZ. Individuals can gift $13,000 per year, per giftee, filing married can gift $26,000. There's a million dollar lifetime exclusion thingy also. If you gifted four people $15,000 this year then you use $6,000 of your lifetime exclusion. You can gift a spouse or certain organizations. Yep, of course you can gift to political interests.

The last big tax overhaul in the US was in 1986. There's talk of another one in the air now. We'll see. Even more political battles. The US tax code is a byzantine labyrinth where only the detail oriented fear to tread.

One of the areas I was aware of with regards to skyrocketing land valuations was Orange County, California. There were many factors at play but the end result was the disappearance of most of the orange and lemon groves. It's more like Condo County now. I still feel a sense of loss when visiting that area. Ah well, there's nothing like nostalgic pish posh in my dotage.

Thanks for the pictures of the Christmas markets, Cushla. They look wonderful. My friends get back from their tour at the end of the week and I'm eager to find out how it went. (Donna, I have a friend and her husband who signed up for a boat tour of the Rhine which turned out to be called "Christmas Market Tour of the Rhineland." Her husband hates shopping and didn't focus on the name of the tour until 3 days before they were supposed to leave.)

Cushla, my library doesn't have Death by a Thousand Cuts but I looked at it on Amazon and read a few pages. I thought it looked great so I just may be using a gift certificate to buy myself a copy!

Pat, I really hope your friend's husband likes eating to make up for all his shopping! And I'm so glad somebody is going to read Death by a Thousand Cuts.

VG, I really like tax detail. I briefly considered switching from economics to tax after I had the kids, but don't want to have to start over again...and I know what you mean about the orange groves.

Paul, I know about the tax status, just don't see its relevance since they have all the other Swiss holidays the same. Also, I tend to keep my husband's job private when I'm out wandering round the internet in a public forum (his threshold for privacy is much higher than mine), and I'm not sure he'll be thrilled to see it through this thread! So maybe we could edit those bits out? Thanks!

>291 cushlareads: I edited the above messages - I just wanted to tease, no offense intended, please excuse, ich habe nicht gross nachgedacht.

It's ok!! I knew that, and it's not people on here, it's just the wonders of Google and weirdos out there. Thanks heaps!

Well--as a tax attorney I followed the estate tax manueverings with interest while they were ongoing. The book sounds interesting, but now that I'm retired I'm not sure that I want to revisit in detail. Politically, I'm dismayed by the repeal, and I seriously doubt that any intelligent changes will be made in two years when the latest provision is set to expire.

Catching up -- wow, lot of reading there, even without the Dead Aid review!

Testimonial in favor of Richard's cake -- I tried to fool myself into believing that all food consumed at Christmas has negative calories, but nope... my scales tell me I was deluding myself. The scales now reside in the garbage. Although given the amount of snow out there, it may be a week before our garbage is picked up again!

Re the estate taxes -- there are so many clever estate planning people out there, all eager and ready to tell people who have things like family farms (or even vacation properties) how to avoid any unintended consequences of an estate tax. Plus, there are these amazing trusts -- dynasty trusts, generation-skipping trusts -- so that as long as you plan when you accumulate your wealth, your estate will only pay on what you haven't sheltered -- i.e. what you were preserving for your personal needs, which now no longer exist since you're dead. Most people with estates of $1 million or more have done all this anyway.

Not sure I'll read the book as it might make my blood pressure boil.

You gained weight from all the zero-calorie, artificially sweetened and lo-fat crud I put on the table this holiday? How? **I** have lost 6lb!

Not sure I'll read the book as it might make my blood pressure boil.

Seconded. Greed and rapaciousness make me angrier than anyone should be at non-genocidal crimes.

Lovely pictures, Cushla!
"Death by..." sounds interesting but I am not (yet) into US politics. Still trying to get used to the Italian version which you could also call 'interesting' (I guess there are many other less neutral expressions you could apply).

One really nice thing about Italy: the Christmas season officially ends on January 6th which is a holiday and till then the Christmas markets are open (in Germany they usually close on the 22nd or 23rd of December and no matter how festive you might feel around New Year, you won't get a bratwurst or gluehwein anymore).

I'm afraid I'm another who'll be skipping this Cushla - I get enough tax/trusts and corporate greed at work :)

Oh and all you people distressed by xmas weight? Try being at the end of your pregnancy... I am too terrified to go near my scales at the moment!

Nathalie, I think it'd take me a while to get used to Italian politics too! And that is lovely about the Christmas markets still going.

Bekka you at least have a reason to be getting rounder... how many weeks have you got to go?

Right, I am going back to the kids and book 74 , Robert Rubin's memoir, which is good, and much better than Dead Aid - Lisa, I will do a review soon but it might help you to shove it down your TBR pile in favour of something better argued!

About 6 1/2 - it's gone so fast! Still have far too m uch to get dorted - plus I don't stop work till the end of Jan :/

Fair enough. I've got lots of good things waiting tottering on the pile!

All good wishes for a wonderful New Year Cushla.

Found it! Yes?
Just in time for a Happy New Year greeting from down here.. :)

Wow... this is an amazing thread; looking forward to next year's ?? I can't seem to find if you have one for 2011 already; I will keep an eye on your profile page for it. *stalking* I don't know why you are worried - you read heaps! this year.

Was it nice having a truly 'white' Christmas? Looks beautiful. It was wet and cold (for us) here, and so much of the country is severely flooded (worst EVER) while the west is baking hot. *sigh*. What's new.

xx

Cushla, I really enjoy the books you read, plus the conversations on your thread, so I'll be following you into 2011. Here's a LINK to my 2011 thread in Club Read if you want to keep chatting. Happy New Year!

Book 74 is finished, AT LAST! (5 hours to go). It was Robert Rubin's In an Uncertain World: Tough Choices from Wall Street to Washington and it was a 3 1/2 star memoir, very good in parts but a bit turgid in others (and my tolerance for economics turgidity is high....)

Book 75 will be completed about 8.30 when I read it to the kids...

Edited to fix the touchstone.

Cancel that, Book 75 was just finished and it is a beaut: The Story of Everything: From the Big Bang till Now by Neal Layton, a fantastic pop up book about evolution that's a family favourite. It has lines like "Yeah man, sun sea and sand" from the fish evolving into an amphibian.

Happy new year everyone, and see you in the 2011 group!

Happy new year Cushla and congratulations on 75 books!

Happy New Year Cushla and great that you made 75 books. I love popup books - such great paper engineering.
BTW: that touchstone for Robert Rubin goes to a Billy Graham book.

Congrats!

Congratulations on reaching 75 just in time for the end of the year, thanks to the pop-up evolving fish (which sound fun!). Happy New Year and see you over in 2011!

Congratulations on 75 books, Cushla, and Happy 2011!

Yeee ha! 75 books -- I knew you could do it, Cushla!!!
Happy 2011!

What a way to finish the old year! Congratulations, Cushla! Happy 2011!!!

Congratulations, Cushla! I'll see you over on your 2011 thread, have a great New Year!

Congratulations on reaching 75!!

I think the book on inheritance tax sounds vaguely interesting though I probably wouldn't read that in preference to one on UK politics.