Arubabookwoman's World of Books 2015

Converses75 Books Challenge for 2015

Afegeix-te a LibraryThing per participar.

Arubabookwoman's World of Books 2015

Aquest tema està marcat com "inactiu": L'últim missatge és de fa més de 90 dies. Podeu revifar-lo enviant una resposta.

1arubabookwoman
Editat: des. 31, 2014, 11:31 pm

I'm Deborah. I've been a member of LT and the 75 group since 1-1-2009, some years more active than others. This year, I'm going to try to keep up with at least my own thread. My reading tastes are eclectic, and I have several ongoing personal reading challenges. I am going to participate in the Reading Globally quarterly topics this year (and I will be leading the third quarter Nobelists segment). I'll sporadically join in on the American Author, British Author, and Australia/New Zealand Authors challenges when there is an author/book I'm particularly interested in, and haven't read most of their books before. On an ongoing basis I often choose books from the 1001 list and other "Best Of" lists. I've been reading Zola's Rougon Maquart series for several years and maybe this will be the year I'll finish. I also read smatterings of Science Fiction, Mystery/Crime, and Historical Fiction. Lately, I've also been reading a fair amount of Nonfiction. So you'll find it all here.

I'm a retired attorney, mother of 5 children and grandmother to Boden, Teddy and Madeleine. I live in the Seattle area with my husband of 44 years; our kids are scattered: 3 sons in NYC area (along with d-I-l and grandson Teddy), daughter in Houston (with s-I-l- and grands Boden and Madeleine) and daughter in Palo Alto. We travel a lot to keep up with them. We recently returned from a riverboat cruise of the Seine from the Normandy beaches to Paris, with a stay in London. In May, we're off for a cruise of the British Isles.

I've always loved to read, and usually read between 100 and 150 books a year. I prefer longer books (tomes) to shorter books, I think because I often find it hard to transition into a new book, but once I'm in, I'm usually mesmerized.

Now I'm going to try something I've wanted to do more regularly--post some pictures to start off the thread. Let's see if it works:

http://i685.photobucket.com/albums/vv216/dejaq50/IMG_6620_zps62315a34.jpg?142005...

Hmmmm--does anyone know why it only printed the link, and not the photo????


https://www.librarything.com/pic/4673536

2arubabookwoman
Editat: nov. 14, 2015, 1:27 pm

First Quarter

JANUARY

1. The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers 178 pp (1946) 5 stars
2. When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro 336 pp (2000) 2 1/2 stars
3. Pather Panchali by Bibhutibhushan Banerji (1929) 316 pp 5 stars
4 The Maquisarde by Louise Marley 385 pp (2002) 3 stars
5. Cinnamon Kiss by Walter Mosley 325 pp 3 stars
6. The Mahe Circle by Georges Simenon 170 pp (1946) 3 stars
7. Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope 516 pp 4 1/2 stars
8. How's the Pain? by Pascal Garnier 160 pp 3 1/2 stars
9. Mysterium by Robert Charles Wilson 352 pp (1994) 2 stars

Total Pages 2738

FEBRUARY

10. My Own Medicine by Geoffrey Kurland (2002) 272 pp 2 stars
11. An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine (2014) 304 pp 3 1/2 stars
12. All Dogs Are Blue by Rodrigo Souza Leao (2008) 200 pp 4 stars
13. The Little Way of Ruthie Leming by Rod Dreher (2013) 288 pp 2 stars
14. Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope 700 pp 4 stars

Total Pages: 1764

MARCH

15. I, Dreyfus by Bernice Rubens (1999) 277 pp 3 1/2 stars
16. Augustus by John Williams (1972) 336 pp 3 1/2 stars
17. The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar (2005) 321 pp
18. Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff (2010) 372 pp
19. The Child Who by Simon Lelic (2012) 303 pp 2 stars

Total pages 1609

Total pages 1st quarter: 6111

3arubabookwoman
Editat: nov. 15, 2015, 8:27 pm

Second Quarter

APRIL

20. Garden of Last Days by Andre Dubus III 544 pp
21. Island of the Lost: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World by Joan Druett (2007) 272 pp
22. The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber (2014) 512 pp
23. The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle 200 pp? 3 1/2 stars
24. Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout 303 pp
25. Sofia Petrovna by Lydia Chukovskaya 120 pp?
26. God'll Cut You Down by John Safran (2014) 368 pp 2 1/2 stars
27. The Caveman by Jorn Lier Horst 352 pp 2 1/2 stars
28. The Summer Guest by Justin Cronin 384 pp
29. Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson 480 pp 3 1/2 stars
30. Death's Dark Abyss by Massimo Carlotto 192 pp 3 1/2 stars

3727 pp

MAY

31. Miss Hargreaves: A Novel by Frank Baker 336 pp
32. The Eichmann Trial by Deborah Lipstadt 272 pp 4 stars
33. Bomber by Len Deighton 496 pp 4 stars
34. The Unlikely Spy by Daniel Silva 752 pp 3 stars
35. Headhunters by Jo Nesbo 288 pp 3 stars
36. HHhH by Laurent Binet 336 pp 2 stars
37. Black Fridays by Michael Sears 432 pp 2 1/2 stars
38. The Open Curtain by Brian evenson 223 pp
39. The Eagle Has Landed by Jack Higgins 368 pp
40. The Dragon Man by Garry Discher 311 pp
41. Quiet Chaos by Sandro Veronesi 432 pp

4246 pp

JUNE

42. The Cold Song by Linn Ullmann 352 pp 3 stars
43. An Accident in August by Laurence Cosse 192 pp 2 stars
44. The Asylum by Johan Theorin 416 pp 3 stars
45. Alex and Me by Irene Pepperberg 232 pp 3 stars
46. Among the Thugs by Bill Buford 320 pp 3 stars
47. Alfred and Emily by Doris Lessing 288 pp 1 1/2 stars
48. Back Channel by Stephen Carter 455 pp 1/2 star
49. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy 1146 pp 5 stars

3301 pp

Total pages 2nd quarter: 11,274
Total pages to date 2015: 17,385

4arubabookwoman
Editat: nov. 24, 2015, 10:09 am

Third Quarter

JULY

50. Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner 378 pp 5 stars
51. Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic by Molly Caldwell Crosby 320 pp 1 1/2 stars
52. Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon 150 pp 2 1/2 stars
53. Summer by Edith Wharton 176 pp 4 1/2 stars
54. Angel by Elizabeth Taylor (1957) 272 pp 3 1/2 stars
55. Arturo's Island by Elsa Morante 384 pp 3 1/2 stars
56. The Atomic Times by Michael Harris 288 pp 2 1/2 stars
57. Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer 208 pp 1 star
58. And When She Was Good by Laura Lippman 336 pp 3 stars
59. Afterimage: A Brokenhearted Memoir of a Charmed life by Carla Malden 320 pp 3 stars
60. The Absent One by Jussi Adler-Olsen 432 pp 2 stars
61. Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie 656 pp 3 1/2 stars
62. The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel 288 pp 2 stars
63. Trick or Treat by Lesley Glaister 184 pp 3 1/2 stars

4392 pp

AUGUST

64. Day of the Dolphin by Robert Merle (1967) 320 pp 3 stars
65. Mad Men On the Couch: Analyzing the Minds of the Men and Women of the Hit TV Show by Stephanie Newman 193 pp 2 stars
66. Dead Man Leading by V.S. Pritchett 238 pp 2 1/2 stars
67. The Lost City of Z by David Grann 368 pp 4 1/2 stars
68. Ten Seconds from the Sun by Russell Celyn Jones 307 pp 3 stars
69. Chocky by John Wyndham 153 pp 3 stars
70. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson 544 pp 4 1/2 stars
71. The Good Nurse by Charles Graeber 320 pp 3 1/2 stars
72. The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens 303 pp 1 star
73. The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope 794 pp 4 stars
74. The Residence by Kate Andersen Brower 320 pp 3 stars
75. Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche by Haruki Murakami 373 pp 3 1/2 stars
76. The Believers by Zoe Heller 368 pp 3 stars
77. Kinder Than Solitude by Yiyun Li 352 pp 2 1/2 stars
78. Three Dollars by Elliot Perlman 384 pp 3 stars
79. The Forgiven by Lawrence Osborne 304 pp 3 1/2 pp
80. Great Works: 50 Paintings Explored by Tom Lubbock 211 pp 4 stars

5116 pp

SEPTEMBER

81. The Marauders by Tom Cooper 320 pp 3 1/2 stars
82. Do No Harm by Henry Marsh 288 pp 3 1/2 stars
83. My Father's Den by Maurice Gee 176 pp 3 1/2 stars
84. Towards the End of the Morning by Michael Frayn 240 pp 2 1/2 stars
85. Countdown City by Ben H. Winters 320 pp 3 stars
86. Seveneves by Neal Stephenson 880 pp 4 stars
87. The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert 336 pp 4 stars
88. The Year of Reading Dangerously by Andy Miller 352 pp 2 stars
89. Giraffe by J.M. Ledgard 304 pp 2 1/2 stars
90. A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson 480 pp 4 stars
91. Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King 448 pp 3 1/2 stars
92. The Unwinding by George Packer 448 pp 4 1/2 stars
93. Any Four Women Could Rob the Bank of Italy by Ann Cornelison 291 pp 1 1/2 stars

4888 pp

Third Quarter Pages Read: 14,396

YTD Pages Read: 31,781

5arubabookwoman
Editat: des. 31, 2015, 11:36 pm

Fourth Quarter

OCTOBER

94. One For the Books by Joe Queenan 256 pp 3 1/2 stars
95. Trust No One by Paul Cleave 352 pp 3 stars
96. Elizabeth Is Missing by Emma Healey 320 pp 3 stars
97. The Harder They Come by T. C. Boyle 400 pp 4 stars
98. James Miranda Barry by Patricia Duncker 384 pp 3 stars
99. Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King 464 pp 3 1/2 stars
100. Windward Heights by Maryse Conde 352 pp 4 stars
101. Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen
102. The Snowmanby Jo Nesbo

3632 pp

NOVEMBER

103. Pleasantville by Attica Locke
104 Blood Brothers by Michael Weisskopf
105. 180 More by Billy Collins
106. A Banquet of Consequences by Elizabeth George
107. Missing Mom by Joyce Carol Oates
108. Did You Ever Have a Family? by Bill Clegg
109. The Seven Good Years by Etgar Keret
110. Shots on the Bridge by Ronnie Greene
111. No Place, Louisiana by Martine Pousson

DECEMBER

112. We're Still Here Ya Bastards by Roberta Brandes Gratz
113. Guantanamo Diary by Mohamedou Ould Slahi
114. The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson
115. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
116. Practicing: A Musician's Return to Music by Glenn Kurtz
117. The Thing With Feathers by Noah Strycker
118. The German Doctor by Lucia Puenzo
119. Child of God by Cormac McCarthy
120. The Bone Clock by David Mitchell (actually read 9/15)
121. Farthing by Jo Walton
122. The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove by Christopher Moore
123. The Big Year by Mark Obmascik
124. The Gardner Heist by Ulrich Boser
125. 31 Hours by Masha Hamilton

6arubabookwoman
Editat: gen. 4, 2015, 4:16 pm

I decided to track purchases this year for the first time in hopes of curbing my habit a bit by making myself accountable. We will see how this goes.

1. John McNab by John Buchan--1/4/15 Kindle

7arubabookwoman
Editat: ag. 27, 2015, 2:50 pm

I'm trying to read a book published in every year from 1900 to date. I will copy and paste what years I did in 2014, and will continue to add years as I read them here. Unasterisked books/years were read in 2014. An asterisked book is one read this year (2015).

2014 Orfeo by Richard Powers
2013 Command and Control
2012 Gone Girl
2011 Gillespie and I
2010 Methland by Nick Reding
2009 The Island at the End of the World by Sam Taylor
2008 Goat Days
2007 Young Stalin
2006 Summer of the Apocalypse
2005 *Cinnamon Kiss
2004 Agaat
2003 Pompeii
2002 A Voyage For Madmen
2001 Fury
2000 Biohazard
1999 Cloudsplitter
1998 Dr. Neruda's Cure For Evil
1997 *Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack
1996 The Names of the Dead
1995 Shelley's Heart
1994 Edith's Diary
1993
1992 *Among the Thugs
1991 The Tax Inspector
1990
1989
1988 Prisoner's Dilemma
1987
1986
1985
1984 The Terrors of Ice and Darkness
1983 When I Was Otherwise
1982 The Sunne in Splendour
1981
1980
1979
1978 A Five Year Sentence
1977
1976 Children of Dynmouth
1975 *The Eagle Has Landed
1974 Reasons of State
1973
1972 Greenvoe
1971
1970 The Driver's Seat
1969
1968 Day of the Scorpion
1967 Journey Into the Whirlwind
1966 The Jewel in the Crown
1965
1964 Martian Time Slip by Philip K. Dick
1963 The Expendable Man
1962 The Man in the High Castle
1961
1960
1959
1958
1957 The Waiting Years by Enchi Fumiko
1956
1955
1954
1953
1952
1951 The Disappearance
1950
1949 Brat Farrar
1948
1947
1946 Independent People
1945 London Belongs To Me
1944
1943
1942
1941 Timeless land
1940 *Miss Hargreaves
1939 Rogue Male
1938
1937*Dead Man Leading
1936*Absalom, Absalom
1935
1934
1933
1932
1931
1930
1929*Pather Panchali
1928 House of Ulloa
1927
1926 Alberta and Jacob
1925
1924 Orphan Island
1917*Summer
1908 Inferno

9arubabookwoman
Editat: des. 31, 2014, 3:54 pm

Possible Reading Plans for January

American Author Challenge: Ballad of Sad Café by Carson McCullers
British Author Challenge: When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro
Australian Author Challenge: Gould's Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan

Reading Globally--Possible Indian Subcontinent Reading from my shelves
Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand
Pather Panchali by Banjeri
The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar
White Mughals by William Dalrymple

10PaulCranswick
des. 31, 2014, 11:05 pm

Deborah many of your 2014 favourites struck a chord with me.



Happy New Year from your friend in Kuala Lumpur

11arubabookwoman
Editat: des. 31, 2014, 11:37 pm



I'm STILL trying to figure out how to put pictures on my thread. I've managed to download some photos to my profile page, but when I try to get them here get the above. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

12Matke
gen. 1, 2015, 12:30 am

Happy New Year, Deborah!

I've tried and tried, in vain, to post pics to my threads. I was successful one time, but had my oldest son's guidance to get me through.

I'm glad to have rediscovered your thread!

13cushlareads
Editat: gen. 1, 2015, 12:38 am

Hi Deborah,

Happy New Year and I really hope you manage to keep this thread going because I love your choice of books, even if I seldom get through longer chunkier books these days.

Have you saved the pictures to your gallery? That's how I do it - then I just right click on each one and go "copy link location"to dump the code in. Next, I surround the code with {little triangle bracket opener} img src=" and then the copied link location and then I close it off with a {little triangle bracket closer} Sorry - having trouble getting it all showing up in this post.

Is that what you're doing? There may well be another way but that way always works for me. I can't see your gallery to do an example.

14arubabookwoman
Editat: gen. 1, 2015, 3:32 pm

Cushla--that's what I have been doing, I think: {img src = "http etc (link location)}, where {} = .

But all the pictures are on my profile page in my photo gallery if anyone wants to look.

15arubabookwoman
Editat: gen. 1, 2015, 9:57 pm

16drachenbraut23
gen. 1, 2015, 7:27 am



Hello Deborah, just returning your visit :) and wanting to wish you a wonderful 2015. I am quite excited in joining you in the Reading globally group.

The Sunne in Splendour was one of my fave books several years back. Hm, I have got The Viral Storm on my kindle, what is it about the book you didn't enjoy?

******
Would love to be able to help you with your technical difficulties, but unfortunately I am quite useless myself.

17PaulCranswick
Editat: gen. 1, 2015, 8:56 am

Well what works for me Deborah is to right click on the image and then click "copy image location"

Then go to your thread and follow the guidelines in the wiki how to page on the main group page.

18Donna828
gen. 1, 2015, 9:41 am

Deborah, here is one of the pictures you wanted. I couldn't post the one with an LT address.

Again the code is: less than sign, no space, IMG SRC = image address, no space, greater than sign.

The image was too large so I resized it by including: width=400
after the the address and before the closing sideways caret which looks like the greater than sign.

I'm sure this is clear as mud but once you get the hang of it, you will be posting pictures like a pro!



Happy New Thread AND Year!

19BLBera
gen. 1, 2015, 9:54 am

Happy New Year, Deborah. I enjoy seeing lists of favorites. Good luck with the photo posting.

20sibylline
gen. 1, 2015, 10:10 am

Happy New Year!

I thought the Ginzburg and the Trevor (on your 2014) faves were also tremendously fine reads!

21Alphawoman
gen. 1, 2015, 10:21 am

I have pulled back my purchasing in 2014!! Aggghhhh - how I love to collect books. I have haunted my local libraries in 2014.

22drneutron
gen. 1, 2015, 11:19 am

Welcome back! There's a wiki that can help you with picture posting here:

http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/Basic_HTML_/_How_to_do_Fancy_Things_i...

23SandDune
gen. 1, 2015, 12:26 pm

Happy New Year!

24cameling
gen. 1, 2015, 12:42 pm

Happy New Year, Deborah!

25cameling
gen. 1, 2015, 12:43 pm

Happy new year, Deborah!

26scaifea
gen. 1, 2015, 3:40 pm

Happy New Year, Deborah!

27arubabookwoman
Editat: gen. 1, 2015, 3:53 pm

Thank you all for the new year's wishes and welcome to my thread, Paul, Cushla, Gail, Bianca, Donna, Beth, Luci, Alphawoman, Jim, Rhian and Caroline.

Regarding the pictures kerfuffle: I think something must be wrong with my computer (I have Windows 8). I am following the instructions given in the wiki and as you all are stating above with the following exception. When I right click on the photo "copy image location" is not one of the options given. (The options are "copy" or "shortcut"), so what I have been doing is highlighting the location address in the bar at the top, right clicking on it and copying it, and then inserting that copied address in the proper location after the img etc words within the greater than/less than symbols. It seems to me that should work, but it is not. And now I see that the picture Donna made appear in her message above is no longer there so I'm not sure what's going on. Very frustrated--'cause I wanted the world to see my lovely grandchildren. Oh well--they're in my photogallery on my profile page: Boden--4, Madeleine--16 months, Teddy--20 months.

Bianca, I didn't review The Viral Storm but here are the notes I wrote in the comments in My Library:

I was prompted to read this book by the ongoing events surrounding the ebola epidemic. I expected to gain some knowledge about the evolution of viruses, as well as some reasoned analysis of the current state of our relationship with viruses, and some predictions for the future. What I got was a rambling, repetitive and disorganized account of the author's academic and professional career presented in no logical order. Every source he cites is "a colleague of mine."

Amazon reviews: The book is "overwhelmed by his ego..."
"huckster self-promotion"
"makes a fascinating topic tedious with a pedantic style"
"egocentric poorly written fluff"

28DorsVenabili
gen. 1, 2015, 5:05 pm

Starred, Deborah! I look forward to your thoughtful reviews.

And Happy New Year!


29EBT1002
gen. 1, 2015, 6:21 pm


Wishing you all the best in 2015, Deborah!

30BLBera
gen. 1, 2015, 6:41 pm

Deborah - I have a 16-month-old granddaughter as well, and she is a joy.

31cammykitty
gen. 1, 2015, 8:33 pm

I read Germinal years ago and it's one of my favorite books! You have good taste! & what a cute photo!!! You are blessed with family.

32The_Hibernator
gen. 1, 2015, 8:39 pm

Interesting notes about The Viral Storm. I'll keep it in mind. :)

Happy new year!

33banjo123
Editat: gen. 1, 2015, 9:24 pm



Happy New Year! Good luck on the picture posting---it took me a long time to get it, and I use a mac so can't help you....

34scvlad
Editat: gen. 2, 2015, 8:27 am

>1 arubabookwoman: I tried to look at your code. If I'm interpreting this right (no guarantees) you're using the wrong code. You're using an <a href> statement which is for links, not pictures. Try this:

<img src="picture address">

So if you paste this into your text: <img src="http://i685.photobucket.com/albums/vv216/dejaq50/IMG_6620_zps62315a34.jpg?142005"> you should get:

35sibylline
gen. 2, 2015, 9:17 am

Happy New Year!

36drachenbraut23
gen. 2, 2015, 9:22 am

>27 arubabookwoman: Thank you for sharing your notes with me, Deborah! I got the book because I am always interested in anything to do with "bugs". So, when I read it I will let you know what I thought about it.

37arubabookwoman
Editat: gen. 2, 2015, 3:01 pm

I'm doing something novel. Going to my own thread more than once every couple of months!

Hello to Lucy, Kerry, and Ellen.

Beth--Yes--grandkids are the best! You are so lucky to live near your granddaughter (Scout?)

Katie--I know how blessed I am. I just wish that they all lived nearer. We face time frequently, and travel a lot, but it's not the same.

Hibernator (Rachel?)--I was so disappointed in The Viral Storm, but reading the Amazon reviews noticed that many others had reactions similar to mine. I'm still very interested in the subject--do you have any recommendations?

Rhonda--I'm so frustrated about posting pictures right now I'm going to try not to think about it for the next few days (weeks)...Otherwise I might end up avoiding LT.

Scvlad--Wow--that is a BIG picture of Teddy--but he sure is cute isn't he? (He's also one big ham--he's the only grandkid who will sit still for a photo).
Thank you for taking the time to try to figure out why I am having such problems. I don't really understand the code issue. "" I think refers to the link in the first message above. I posted this following the directions on photobucket, and that was my only attempt using this, since I wanted to show the photos themselves, not links. All my other attempts (at least a dozen) I used , and got either a blank space or a small box with and x in it. So I have no clue---other than that computers have always hated me.
Anyway, I'm about to give up on photos on my thread for 2015 (which I really wanted to do, since we are going to be traveling a lot this year). I think I'm going to at least give my attempts a rest until my blood pressure/frustration level goes down a bit. :)

Bianca--Looking forward to what you think when you read
The Viral Storm. With your background, you might make more sense of it than me.

ETA

SEE WHAT I MEAN ABOUT COMPUTERS HATING ME!!!
I was having a perfectly civil conversation with scvlad about computer code, and the computer posted everything in blue. I'm typing this now to see if it has stopped.

ETA 2

I'm guessing that the computer did that because of what was in between the quotation marks at the beginning of the blue text. It included a reference to what scvlad referred to as a href between the greater than and less than signs. (message 34).

38BLBera
gen. 2, 2015, 3:15 pm

Deborah - I hear you about computers. You need a tech savvy youngster to help you out. My daughter created a cheat sheet for me that I will share with you.

Yes, Scout is my granddaughter, the apple of my eye.

39arubabookwoman
gen. 2, 2015, 3:20 pm

First book of the year, read for my sporadic participation in the American Author Challenge:

1. The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers (1946) 168 pp

A perfect portrait of what it's like to be 13. Frankie (or F. Jasmine, as she refers to herself) wants to be anywhere but where she is. Where she is is mostly in the kitchen with her young cousin John Henry and Berenice, cook and soulmate, as they while away the hot August afternoons exchanging stories and dreams. Frankie's brother is getting married in a week, and Frankie has decided that she will be leaving town forever with her brother and his new bride after the wedding. We join her as she takes a farewell walk around her town, where she puts herself in more peril than she realizes.

I am awed by how beautifully McCullers conveys Frankie's spirit--her sense of herself as worldly, yet her actual total and absolute naivete. Frankie's yearning to belong, to be a "member" of anything---ah--the memories McCullers evokes of being 13. A simply amazing book.

5 stars

40scvlad
Editat: gen. 2, 2015, 4:00 pm

Just because I'm stubborn, I'm going to see if I can coach you through this.

So the first link that you have posted in #1 actually works. It's the the form <a href="The Url Of The Site/Page Where You Have That Picture'>TEXT THAT YOU COULD HAVE INCLUDED BUT YOU PUT THE URL AGAIN</a>. That's a great way to go to a page, but will not help you embed a picture.

(Note that when you type these posts, if you type "<" you won't actually see it once you post. It's a sign for LT to try doing something fancy, which is why all your type is in blue in #37. It's trying to execute a statement. I'm making it appear with some fancy typing behind the scenes.)

For the second link you have in #1, you're trying to embed a picture, so you should NOT use the form I gave just above. You tried to use the <img src="PICTURE URL"> in #37 but I think it didn't work because you accidentally embedded it in the <a href> and because you didn't include a real URL - LT is trying to embed the picture but it couldn't and that's why you've got the broken link symbol.

That second link you tried to embed in #1 is the address for the picture. However you got it, you did it right. Try putting THAT into the <img src="PICTURE URL"> statement and it should work. It'll be big, but figure that out first and then we'll figure out resizing.

Sorry if this sounds pedantic or patronizing or something; I have a hunch I've just made things worse.

Good luck!

41Trifolia
gen. 3, 2015, 12:53 am

Hi Deborah, I'm looking forward to following your thread, with or without the pictures (although pictures are really easy to do and always brighten up the thread, especially with a handsome grandson like you have). I noticed a few of my personal favourites in your list of the best, so I'll look into the other ones. Your thread is a goldmine!

42DorsVenabili
gen. 3, 2015, 6:50 pm

>39 arubabookwoman: This sounds wonderful! I chose to read The Ballad of the Sad Cafe instead, but I'll read this one at some point. I feel like McCullers did a wonderful job of conveying that youthful spirit in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter as well. Sounds like a similar character, maybe?

43LizzieD
gen. 3, 2015, 7:28 pm

Happy New Year, Deborah, and much luck with the computer and the pictures! I will not throw my ignorance into that equation. At any rate, I hope that you get the problem solved quickly. Grandchild Teddy is precious!
I look forward to a year of your reading and talking about it!

44evilmoose
gen. 3, 2015, 10:19 pm

Heya Deborah, happy reading in 2015, and good luck sorting out the images issue!

45PaulCranswick
gen. 3, 2015, 10:31 pm

>40 scvlad: Hahaha Steve it does look complicated doesn't it? It is surprisingly easy though when you can do it - bit like riding a bike.

Have a wonderful weekend, Deborah, and it is great to see you over 40 posts already. xx

46maggie1944
gen. 4, 2015, 12:47 pm

My empathy is with you. I've succeeded in the past with photograph posting, but previous methods are not working for me, and so, for now, I'm giving up until I have some uninterrupted time to focus on doing posting photographs. Meanwhile, I'll read.

47LauraBrook
gen. 4, 2015, 3:14 pm

Happy New Year, Deborah!

48markon
gen. 8, 2015, 12:58 am

Happy New Year Deborah! I hope you get the photo posting thing worked out, but it's late here & I'm too tired to try to figure it out.

49scvlad
gen. 9, 2015, 11:28 am

Deborah, have I scared you off? I'm sorry! I promise not to pester you about posting pictures anymore. Just come back to us!

50arubabookwoman
gen. 9, 2015, 1:40 pm

Scvlad (Steven?)--no you didn't scare me away at all--I am so appreciative that you are willing to take the time to help me! At first I just wanted to take a few days to let my frustrations ease away, and also to have some uninterrupted time to work on this. Then, a few days ago, my computer broke. I am visiting LT on my iPad, which I don't particularly like to type on, and which I dread to even think about using to learn how to put pictures on. I won't relate my tales of woe and the number of visits to the Apple Store to try to get my music on to the iPad. It may be a few weeks before the computer issue is resolved (repair v. New computer), but if you don really mind, I may request your assistance then. Again--it's so nice of you to offer.

51arubabookwoman
gen. 9, 2015, 1:58 pm

And hello as well to Monica, Peggy, Megan, Karen, Laura, Keri, Paul, and Ardene.
Keri--you're right. I found the character Frankie to be very similar to Mick in The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter. I wonder how autobiographical they are.

I've finished two more books, the ok/good When We Were Orphans and the sublime Pather Panchali. Reviews to follow. I've also been reading along in the third volume of Caro's bio of LBJ, The Master of the Senate. I found the first 100 pages or so slow-going, as Caro worked his way through the history of the Senate, but it is picking up now that LBJ has made his appearance. Now to pick out my next fiction read.

52scvlad
gen. 9, 2015, 7:52 pm

>50 arubabookwoman: I've certainly had my share of computer issues so you have my sympathies. No matter how nice it is to read on an iPad it's simply not as nice to type on. I'm impressed that you even wrote the responses above on it! When you get your computer back I'm happy to try to help if I can but also happy to just let it go. And yes, it's Steve.

53xieouyang
gen. 9, 2015, 7:59 pm

Hi Deborah, good to see you posting actively again. I always take great pleasure in your reviews- they are always very intelligently written.

Do you have the whole Rougon-Macquart seeries? I've been wanting to buy the set (really haven't looked too far), but I remember you making a comment that some editions are heavily bowdlerized.

54brenzi
gen. 9, 2015, 8:25 pm

Hi Deborah, I'm sorry you're having so much trouble posting your photos but I don't think I have anything to add that would help. I also have Windows 8 but I've been able to post photos fairly successfully, mostly following Donna's instructions.

Your review of A Member of the Wedding has me thinking I should read it sooner rather than later, especially since it's sitting on my shelf.

Off to check out your grandkids on your profile page. (Boden is adorable, if that's whose picture I see above.)

55cammykitty
gen. 9, 2015, 10:02 pm

Nice review of A Member of the Wedding. Paul was reviewing McCullers earlier this year. I'm thinking I really need to pull out that book of her short stories that I have.

56DorsVenabili
gen. 10, 2015, 6:34 pm

>51 arubabookwoman: Oooh! I look forward to reading about the sublime Pather Panchali! I've not heard of that one, but it looks interesting.

57maggie1944
gen. 14, 2015, 8:05 am

I love Robt. Caro's books but I have hit spots which were slow going, too. But in total I'm completely enjoying them; except when they sit on the shelf. I have the most recent one with a book mark in it, sitting on some shelf somewhere but I don't see a time any time soon when I'll be able to get back to it. That makes me sad, but I'm just so busy.

Life.

58connie53
gen. 18, 2015, 2:16 am

Hi Deborah. A very belated Happy New Year!
I starred your thread and hope to visit regularly to seen what you have been up to and what you have read.

Happy Sunday!

59Matke
gen. 18, 2015, 2:17 pm

Just dropping by to hope that the following week is a good one for you--and those dreadful computer issues get resolved.

Boy, those Caro books look...intimidating. So much information! But my brother loved them as much as you and Karen seem to. Maybe one day...

60Oregonreader
gen. 25, 2015, 12:20 am

Hi Deborah, Glad I found your thread. I appreciate your frustration with posting pictures. I have never been able to do it but it's on my list to master this year! Interesting books on your list. I've read all the Caros and thought Master of the Senate was the most interesting.

61arubabookwoman
gen. 25, 2015, 10:42 pm

I'm going to plug on with book comments, even though I am still without computer. I'm trying to copy and paste on iPad.

2. When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro (2000) 336 pp

I have read most of Ishiguro's books, but the only one I loved and have no hesitation in recommending to anyone is The Remains of the Day. Unfortunately When We Were Orphans is another of his books I didn't really connect with.

When the novel opens, Christopher Banks is about 10, and enjoying an idyllic childhood in early 20th century Shanghai. I enjoyed the descriptions of his boyhood escapades with his Japanese friend from next door, and the lives of the ex-pat community in this exotic city. There is an undercurrent of darkness, however, as Christopher's father works for a British firm importing opium and Christopher's mother is active in a group opposing opium. Christopher's world is abruptly changed when first his father and then his mother disappear. Despite intensive police investigation, no clues are found. An oddly unemotional Christopher is sent to England to live with a distant aunt.

We next meet Christopher when he is a young adult making his way in London society, and hoping to become a great and world-renowned detective. It was at this point that the book began to grate on me--it seemed aimless, meandering and illogical. One thing that particularly bothered me was that Christopher, a 30-something bachelor, basically on a whim and on the spur of the moment adopts and becomes the guardian of a 13 year old girl.

Despite the fact that more than 25 years have passed without any clue about the disappearance of his parents, Christopher believes, based on his study of various vague documents, that his parents are still alive, and that he knows precisely where they are. He heads for Shanghai--it is 1937, and the Japanese have surrounded the city. Here is where I really began to dislike the book. Christopher begins a nightmarish, hallucinatory odyssey through the ruins of Shanghai, trying to get to the place he thinks his parents are being held. Here's a sample of the writing, as Christopher, stumbling through the ruins of Shanghai, comes across a Chinese army officer and asks for some guides (sorry for the long quote):

"' Particularly with all this fighting going on, my parents shouldn't be left in that house a moment longer than necessary. May I suggest we take these men here with us? Then if Japanese soldiers set upon us, we'd be much the stronger.'
'As the commanding officer here, I cannot possibly sanction such an idea, Mr. Banks. If these men leave their position, the headquarters would become entirely vulnerable. Besides, I will be putting the men's lives at needless risk.'
I gave a sigh of exasperation. 'I must say, Lieutenant, it was pretty sloppy work on the part of your men to have allowed the Japanese in behind your line. If all your people had been doing their jobs properly, I'm sure such a thing would never have arisen.'
'My men have fought with commendable bravery, Mr. Banks. It is hardly their fault that your mission is, for the time being, inconvenienced.'
'What do you mean by that, Lieutenant? What are you implying?'
'Please calm yourself, Mr. Banks. I am merely pointing out it is not the fault of my men if ...'
'Then whose fault is it, sir? I realize what you're implying! Oh yes! I know you've been thinking it for some time now. I was wondering when you'd finally come out with it.'
'Sir, I have no idea what...'
'I know full well what you've been thinking all this time, Lieutenant. You believe this is all my fault, all this, all of it, all this terrible suffering, this destruction here, I could see it in your face when we were walking through it all just now. But that's because you know nothing, practically nothing, sir, concerning this matter. You may well know a thing or two about fighting, but let me tell you it's quite another thing to solve a complicated case of this kind. You obviously haven't the slightest idea of what's involved. Such things take time, sir. A case like this one, it requires great delicacy. I suppose you imagine you can just rush at it with bayonets and rifles, do you? It's taken time, I accept that, but that's in the very nature of a case like this. But I don't know why I bother to say all this. What would you understand about it, a simple soldier?'
'Mr. Banks, there is no need for us to quarrel. I have only the most sincere good wishes for your success. I am simply telling you what is possible...'
'I'm getting less and less interested in your idea of what is and isn't possible, Lieutenant. If I may say so, you're hardly a good advertisement for the Chinese army. Do I take it you're now going back on your word? That you're unwilling to accompany me beyond this point? I take it that's so. I'm to be left to carry out this difficult task by myself. Very well, I shall do so! I shall raid the house single-handed!'
'I think, sir, you should calm yourself before saying anything more.'
'And one more thing, sir! You can safely assume I will no longer be mentioning you by name at the Jessfield Park celebration. At least if I do, it will not be in a complimentary light...'"

(The celebration in Jessfield Park has been planned for when Christopher returns triumphantly with his parents.)

The long passage quoted typifies the encounters Christopher has during his nightmarish journey through wartime Shanhai, during which time he also meets and accompanies, among others, his childhood Japanese friend, now a Japanese soldier.

After I finished the book, I could see that as a novel, at least in symbolic and surreal terms, it works. I'm able to recognize that to be successful, a novel doesn't have to be logical, make sense, or feel real. I guess the problem is that my personal preferences don't include the hallucinatory or surreal.

2 1/2 stars

62arubabookwoman
gen. 25, 2015, 10:46 pm

The next book is one I read for the Reading Globally Indian Subcontinent segment. All I can say is I recommend everyone should read this book. I loved it!

3. Pather Panchali by Bibhutibhushan Banerji (1929) 316 pp

This Bengali classic, basis for the famous movie of the same name, is the portrayal of the day-to-day life in an impoverished village at the turn of the 20th century as seen through the eyes of a young boy, Opu, and his adored older sister Durga.

In the forward to the edition I read, the translator states:

"Tagore... Presents village life nostalgically as an ideal condition which the modern age is fast losing. In Pather Panchali the village is not idealized; it is not explained or commented on; it is presented as it is, objectively at times, but more often subjectively, by the people who live in it, and more particularly by the two children. There is little formal description. It is not necessary to describe the things one lives with every day; one knows them, as the reader comes to know the village of Nishchindipur, through familiarity."

The novel is episodic; sometimes just an hour has elapsed between chapters, sometimes years. I was fascinated to learn, reading between the lines, what it meant to be of the Brahmin caste in India at that time. Opu's family is Brahmin, but very poor. Their father is a scholar, and earns small amounts infrequently providing his services at religious or other ceremonial events. Most of the time, the family is hungry, and their ramshackle dwelling is falling apart around them. Nevertheless, their Brahmin status gives them certain privileges and status. Again, the poverty and circumstances of Opu's life are just givens--this is not a social document, just the life of one small boy.

Here's a taste of the tone of the book. Opu has been reading in one of his father's ancient volumes a description of the properties of mercury:

"If you put some Mercury in a vulture's egg and leave it in the sun for a few days, and then hold it in the mouth, you can fly high in the sky.
"Opu could not believe his eyes. He read the passage again and again.....
"Astonishing! It was so easy to fly and yet nobody knew about it. Perhaps nobody had a copy of this book except his father. Or it might be that all this time nobody's eye except his own had lighted on this particular place in the book.
"He thrust his nose in the book again and smelt it. That same old smell. It never occurred to him to question the truth of what was written in such a book."

Highly recommended. 5 stars

63arubabookwoman
gen. 25, 2015, 10:48 pm

A bit of "feminist sci fi":

4. The Maquisarde by Louise Marley (2002) 385 pp

This novel is set in the future, when the world is divided by the Line of Partition, with the "haves" on the "civilized" side of the line (mostly North America and Europe) and the rest of the world on the other side. A large corporate entity, InCo, runs the privileged countries, and allows no interaction, including aid, to the underprivileged parts of the world.
Edriel, a talented musician, lives in Paris on the "good" side of the line largely oblivious to the inequities of the world until the day her husband and daughter are killed by an alleged terrorist attack. She soon comes to believe that in fact InCo, rather than terrorists, are responsible for their deaths, and vows revenge.
She joins a resistance group known as the Chain, and here's where the novel parts ways with more typical futuristic good guys v. bad guys shoot-em-up. The Chain devotes its efforts to rescuing children in peril on the wrong side of the Line, bringing them to its headquarters in a former space hotel orbiting Earth. The children are trained as leaders and then returned to their former countries.
Edriel goes along with these rescues, while planning her own revenge against InCo. The focus of the book is actually Edriel's inner journey to the realization that violent revenge is not the answer. I liked that the focus of the book was not, as in so many books like this, on death and destruction, but on rebirth and rebuilding.
I also labeled this as "feminist" because nearly all members of the Chain are female (one major exception being the leader, Papa, a brilliant scientist suffering a crippling disease. He runs the operation from the space hotel where the lack of gravity eases the debilitating pain he suffers.).
I don't think this would be a book for someone who doesn't like sci-fi, but if you are an occasional reader of the genre, you might enjoy this. I've read another book by Louise Marley which I also enjoyed The Glass Harmonica, which involves time travel (and music--for the glass harmonica of course. Marley is a classically trained musician.).

3 stars

64arubabookwoman
gen. 25, 2015, 10:50 pm

Mystery:

5. Cinnamon Kiss by Walter Mosley (2005) 325 pp

I don't usually follow detective series, and this is the first Easy Rawlins novel I've read, although it is apparently the 10th in the series. Easy Rawlins is a black private detective in LA in the 1960's. This is a book to read for its evocation of time and place. It's 1966, and the Watts riots have barely died down. The plot brings Easy up to San Francisco, so there are also some great portrayals of the Haight-Ashbury of the time.
Maybe it's, sadly, really not all that different now. I was particularly struck by this scene in which Easy and a companion are approached by two cops at a phone booth (no cell phones then):

"I couldn't help but think about the Cold War going on inside the borders of the United States. The police were on one side and Raymond and his breed were on the other.
"I came out of the phone booth with my hands in clear sight.
"My job was to make these cops feel that Raymond and I had a legitimate reason to be there at that phone booth on that street corner. Most Americans wouldn't understand why two well-dressed men would have to explain why they were standing on a public street."

Recommended.
3 stars

65arubabookwoman
gen. 25, 2015, 10:52 pm

6. The Mahe Circle by Georges Simenon (1944) 160 pp

I've never read any of Simenon's Maigret mysteries, but have read and enjoyed several of his non-Maigret mysteries. The Mahe Circle is not a crime novel, but a novel that belongs on the shelf next to Camus and Sartre

Dr. Mahe is a country doctor. He lives with his mother, wife and two children, and one year decides to take his family to a different place for their summer vacation. It is while on vacation on the island of Porquerolles that he begins to question his life, and realizes that he has been thoughtlessly leading a life that had been chosen for him. He begins obsessing over events that occurred on the island and people he encountered there, and dreams of escaping his conventional life. Can this come to a good end?

Recommended.

3 stars

66arubabookwoman
Editat: gen. 25, 2015, 11:48 pm

Steve--I will no doubt be in touch with you after I get my computer back if I continue to be unable to post photos. Thank you for your offer to help.

Manuel--It's good to see you here. I enjoy following your reading. I do have all the Rougon Macquart books, but not as a set, just individual books acquired here and there. I think it was Rebecca who mentioned that some of the translations are heavily bowdlerized, and I think she meant the couple of them that don't have recent (I.e. 20th century) translations. One of the ones I read did not have a recent translation (I will have to check which one this is), but I still enjoyed it very much.

Hi Bonnie--glad to see you here. I'll be trying with the photos again as soon as I get my computer back. Grandkids are a great incentive for picture-posting I'm sure you'll agree. The photo above is actually Teddy, b. April 2013. Believe it our not, Boden is now 4 (and spends his time being a superhero). He's the guy working in the garden in my profile pictures and with his grandpa. I hope your treatment is going well and that you feel good.

Clammykitty--I think I just really connected with The Member of the Wedding because I have such vivid memories of the long hot summer afternoons when I was 12 or 13.

Hi Kerri--Let me know if after reading my comments above the "sublime" Pather Panchali still sounds like your thing.

Karen--Caro is an amazing writer, isn't he? Such insight. I only hope he lives to complete the series--knock on wood. I'm into real reading mode now with Master of the Senate, the only problem being that LBJ is such a despicable character sometimes I don't want to be around him any more, and have to stop reading.

Hi Connie--Thanks for stopping by!

Gail--Nice to see you. The Caro books do look intimidating, but I take them one at a time (and read them on my Kindle so I can't see how big they are). I've learned so much from them. For example, in the first one I feel that I got a better understanding of what it was like to live through the Dust Bowl than I did from reading Timothy Eagan's The Worst Hard Time.

Hi Jan--glad to see that you started a thread this year, and thanks for stopping by. What I'm liking about Master of the Senate is how much information there is about how the Senate "really" works. It's also interesting that the dysfunction we see today (including filibusters, single senator holds, etc) was apparently always there.

67arubabookwoman
gen. 26, 2015, 12:06 am

In addition to the 1000+ page Master of the Senate, I decided to reread War and Peace at about 50 pp per day. I'm now on p. 750, and loving it. I last read it when I was a teenager, and I feel sure I skimmed much of the war pages. This time I'm also really enjoying the war passages, and feel able to follow the descriptions of the battle maneuvers. Right now I'm in the midst of the Battle of Borodino, and I hope to finish by the end of the month.

I read on someone's thread that there was going to be a group read of The Eustace Diamonds in February, and someone commented they needed to read Phineas Finn before then. Since 2015 is the 200th anniversary of Trollope's birth, I thought I would also like to participate in the February group read, so I decided to read Phineas Finn. I'm 3/4's through with Phineas Finn and have just learned that it is the second, not the first in the series, so I will also have to read Can You Forgive Her? before the group read. Which is ok since I'm really liking Phineas Finn.

We are heading down to California Thursday to visit daughter Mia. She wanted to go to Monterrey and Big Sur, so we will be staying in Monterrey. We are going whale watching Friday. We will only be spending one day in SF, but I hope to get to City Lights. I might not get anything, though, because I think they only sell new books, and I usually buy used books, not to mention the fact that I've already bought 20+ books this month!

Happy reading!

68scvlad
gen. 26, 2015, 3:18 pm

>66 arubabookwoman: At your service should you wish it.

69Matke
gen. 26, 2015, 4:00 pm

Whoa--nice road trip, Deborah! Sounds very intriguing. I was in SF for Christmas, and the city is surely amazing.

Maybe that's what I should do--read the Caro books on kindle. Their immenseness won't intimidate--and it won't tire out my arms, either.

It will be wonderful to have you with us for Eustace Diamonds. I love Trollope and am looking forward to this group read. I didn't realize that this an anniversary year for him. Hmmm...now I must get to The Way We Live Now, an independent novel by him. Many consider it his masterpiece, but it's quite dark in outlook.

The Ishiguro sounds awful. On the other hand Pather Panchali sounds delightful!

70BLBera
gen. 26, 2015, 4:45 pm

I've just added several books to my list. I will look for Pather Panchali for sure. I'm impressed that you have done all the comments on your iPad? I have no patience for the teeny keyboard on the tablets.

71DorsVenabili
gen. 27, 2015, 2:29 pm

>61 arubabookwoman: I have read most of Ishiguro's books, but the only one I loved and have no hesitation in recommending to anyone is The Remains of the Day.
Oh, no! That is such a sad state of affairs with you and Ishiguro. I'm really looking forward to The Remains of the Day. I've only read Never Let Me Go and I actually quite loved it.

>63 arubabookwoman: This sounds quite interesting, so I'll put it on the wishlist.

>64 arubabookwoman: I have the first of this series as an audiobook. I really should check it out. Perhaps next.

>66 arubabookwoman: Yes. Actually, Pather Panchali does sound like my thing, so I'll plop it on the wishlist as well. Thank you!

72brenzi
gen. 27, 2015, 9:13 pm

Hi Deborah. I see you're doing a lot of good reading as usual. I'm not a big Ishiguro fan. I loved The Remains of the Day, didn't much care for Never Let Me Go and thought When We Were Orphans was meh.

I do hope you join us for The Eustace Diamonds. I started my Trollope adventure withe Liz a couple of years ago and it's been the highlight of my reading the last couple of years. I love everything I've read. And she spreads them out so that it's not too much at once because the books are all quite long.

Panther Panchali just landed on my teetering tower.

73maggie1944
feb. 1, 2015, 8:01 am

I am working my way through catching up on a few threads this morning, just before I need to get dressed, and "on with the day". I am in awe of your reading capacities. I'm lucky if I get through a book or two each month, but that still makes me a happy reader.

I need to find some time to pick up the last Caro book I started as it is sitting with a book mark about 1/3 of the way through it. I don't feel LBJ was such a horrible person, just very very much a product of his time and place. Texas is famous for having politics which appear to have very little commerce with the concept of ethics. (I hope I do not insult any LT Texans with that comment, it is just an observation)

74drachenbraut23
Editat: feb. 1, 2015, 8:17 am

Happy Sunday, Deborah!

Lots of interesting reading this month. I enjoyed your thoughts on When we were Orphans by Ishiguro and I have to say that the only ones I ever recommend are also his The Remains of the Day and Never Let me go which I also loved.

75Matke
feb. 1, 2015, 9:45 am

A good Sunday morning to you, Deborah, and best wishes for an excellent week.

76arubabookwoman
feb. 3, 2015, 6:38 pm

Well I didn't quite finish War and Peace this month, although if I had followed my 50 pp per day I would have. I didn't bring the book with me on our trip to CA to visit Mia. I am reading a very old, falling apart (disintegrating) volume from my inlaws house, and I didn't want to be seen in public with it. :) My three final books in January were:

7. Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope

This is the second volume in the Palliser Series. I read it because I saw a comment on someone's thread that they were reading Phineas Finn to prepare for the February group read of The Eustace Diamonds. Since I thought maybe I might want to join that group read, I decided to read Phineas Finn, not realizing I should have read Can You Forgive Her? first. Having finished Phineas, I am now going back to read Can You Forgive Her?. I did not find myself aware of any blatant gaps in background while reading Phineas without having read CYFG first, so we shall see. I do think I will try to finish CYFG before I start The Eustace Diamonds.

I quite enjoyed Phineas, a likeable chap, as most of the people who came into contact with him seemed to agree. I did fear for his character at times, as he wavered between his love of sweet Mary Flood at home in Ireland, and the wealthy heiress who could solve all his financial problems, and provide the necessary income for him to stay in Parliament. I will say that I allowed myself not to fret too much about my lack of understanding of some of the parliamentary maneuvering and some of the arcane political issues. I was quite impressed at how intelligently portrayed the female characters were.

I'm going to call this my first Trollope. In a Victorian novel course I took in college, we read The Warden and Barchester Towers, and I was quite put off by the religious controversies that were the subject of those books, and never read another Trollope after that, although I quite like Victorian novels. I believe now that I will finish the Palliser Series and then go back and start the Barchester Series again.

Highly recommended

4 1/2 stars

77arubabookwoman
feb. 3, 2015, 6:49 pm

8. How's the Pain by Pascal Garnier

I'd describe this short French novel as "comic noir". Simon is a "vermin" exterminator on one last job before he retires when he meets Bernard, a gullible young man at loose ends. Because of his ill health, Simon hires Bernard as his driver, and soon finds himself also encumbered with a pretty young woman with a squalling baby who were rescued by Bernard. And Bernard discovers that Simon's definition of "vermin" is not what he initially thought.

This is a clever, offbeat and quirky novel, and I enjoyed it very much. Amazon says that Garnier has been compared to Simenon.
Recommended.

3 1/2 stars

78arubabookwoman
feb. 3, 2015, 6:56 pm

9. Mysterium by Robert Charles Wilson

An accident at a mysterious government research facility transports a small Michigan town into a parallel universe, where the country is ruled by religious fanatics who don't quite know what to do about the "miraculous" appearance of the town. The country is at war with "New Spain", so the powers-that-be decide to use the information from the town library to built an atom bomb.

This was just a so-so read. Nothing particularly wrong, but nothing particularly compelling either.

2 stars

79arubabookwoman
feb. 3, 2015, 7:23 pm

Well, we just got back from a lovely time in CA. Most of the time we spent in Monterrey and surrounding areas. On Friday, we went whale watching--it's migration season for the grey whales. We were fortunate enough to see quite a few whales, as well as several species of dolphins, sea lions, and other marine life. We also took a drive down to Big Sur, saw Pebble Beach and walked around Carmel. I have to say that this whole area is one of the most beautiful places on earth. If I can I will make an effort one of these days to post some pictures.
We spent a day and a half in San Francisco too, where I spent a lovely few hours at City Lights Bookstore. I was last at City Lights in 1969 when I visited my now husband while he was going to summer school at Stanford. The store was quite small then, and Ferlinghetti himself was sitting in the back. I still have the two books of his poetry I purchased at the store then. This time I bought:

Khirbet Khizeh by S. Yizhar--from the back of the book: "It's 1948 and the Arab villagers of Khirbet Khizeh are about to be violently expelled from their homes. A young Israeli soldier on duty that day finds himself battling on two fronts: with the villagers and, ultimately, with his own conscience."

The Case of Sergeant Grischa by Arnold Zweig--"The story of a simple Russian peasant caught on the Eastern Front in World War I, this classic novel was first published to wide acclaim in English in 1928. It is a devastating indictment of military brutality and a horrifying tale of an individual caught in the cots of a remorseless machine."

The Atlas by William Vollmann--"Set in locales from Phnom Penh to Sarajevo, Mogadishu to New York, and provocatively combining autobiography with invention, fantasy with reportage, these stories examine poverty, violence, and loss even as they celebrate the beauty of the landscape...."

The Dog King by Christoph Ransmayr--"...an audacious feat of speculative fiction and a provocative exploration of the interstices between memory, history and myth. The setting is a town called Moor, in whose stone quarry thousands of prisoners were brutally killed during the last war. Now the war is over, and the victors have sentenced Moor to return to the Dark Ages, stripping it of factories and railroads and condemning its inhabitants to relive their guilty past forever." This German novel has been compared to Gunter Grass's The Tin Drum.

A Void by Georges Perec--"...a metaphysical whodunit, a story chock-full of plots and subplots, of trails in pursuit of trails, all of which afford Perec occasion to display his virtuosity as a verbal magician, acrobat, and sad-eyed clown. It is also an outrageous verbal stunt: a 300 page novel that never once employs the letter "e"."

I was relatively restrained in my buying by the fact that City Lights sells only new books. I am more used to used book prices.

80arubabookwoman
Editat: feb. 3, 2015, 7:39 pm

My stats for January:

Books Read: 9
Pages Read: 2,738

Authors: 7 male, 2 Female
New to Me Authors: 2

Countries: US--4; UK--2; India--1; France--2

Years: Pre-1900--1; 1900-1949--3; 1950-1999--1; 2000+--4

For British Author Challenge--1
For American Author Challenge--1
Reading Globally--Indian Subcontinent--1

Plans for February:

Finish War and Peace--only about 150 pp to go
Finish Master of the Senate
Read Gould's Book of Fish, which I meant to read in Jan. for the Australian Author Challenge
Read some more books re the Indian Subcontinent--I have many, many on my shelves
Finish Can You Forgive Her? and read The Eustace Diamonds
Read The Season of the Jew by Maurice Shadbolt for the New Zealand Author Challenge

81arubabookwoman
feb. 3, 2015, 7:45 pm

Steven--not up to pictures yet (though I'd love to put some up that I took of Big Sur and Monterrey), but I'll let you know.

Gail--Hello, and thanks for visiting. See my comments about Trollope above.

Beth--Hi--I hope you're able to find Pather Panchali.

Kerry--I didn't like Never Let Me Go that much--or maybe it was that it was so hyped, and I found it quite ordinary.

Bonnie--I signed in for The Eustace Diamonds, but I'm going to try to read Can You Forgive Her? before piping in.

Hi Karen--I have to disagree (at least right now) about LBJ being a horrible person. I'm at the point where he has just destroyed the life of a good man for his own selfish political goals. I do recognize that in later life LBJ accomplished some major good things.

Pretty sad ending to the game Sunday wasn't it?

Hi Bianca--Thanks for the comments.

83lyzard
feb. 3, 2015, 9:56 pm

I'm glad you'll be joining us for The Eustace Diamonds, Deborah. Have you read John Macnab before? I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

84BLBera
feb. 3, 2015, 11:41 pm

Hi Deborah - It sounds like you had a nice vacation. Great book haul and great Jan. reading.

85maggie1944
feb. 4, 2015, 8:20 am

Deborah, I agree we can disagree re: LBJ. Humans are so complex, and I think politicians are particularly difficult to really understand from the perspective of years later. I note that Theodore Roosevelt is much admire, these days, and yet I find him very hard to tolerate because of his egoism, and racism, and his ability to be the bully in all things.

Yes, the Seahawks' finish of a fine season was a disappointment, but does not diminish my appreciation of them as a team. So many interesting people on that team.

I hope your week is going well. I'm way busy and am only posting here for a few minutes each morning. Maybe more later today, but I'm not sure.

86markon
feb. 4, 2015, 4:26 pm

Sounds like you had a great vacation.

Intrigued by your book choices at City Lights, especially Khirbet Khizeh & The Atlas.

87charl08
feb. 4, 2015, 5:28 pm

>7 arubabookwoman: Really like the idea of reading a book published each year. Might snag this idea for next year!

88sibylline
feb. 8, 2015, 10:04 am

Robert Charles Wilson is an interesting writer, isn't he, because he chooses to write stories that seem to stand somewhere on the edge of the miraculous and the unbelievably mundane - almost like he plays down reactions - shows how people work hard to avoid dealing with things that don't fit. Maybe more interesting to think about than to actually read, some of the time!

89connie53
feb. 11, 2015, 1:34 pm

The vacation sounds great and a very nice book haul!

90avatiakh
feb. 12, 2015, 12:43 am

>79 arubabookwoman: I read Khirbet Khizehlast year, it is quite an interesting read. Enjoyed your comments about Phineas Finn, will eventually read me some Trollope.

91Matke
feb. 12, 2015, 1:12 am

Hi, Deborah!

So far Phineas Finn has been my least favorite Trollope. I'm loving Eustace Diamonds though. It's odd, but while the book is quite dark overall, the tone is light and friendly. The characters are for the most part quite different from those in his other books.

Looking over your purchases, I see you're in for a treat with Montana 1948. I read that 2 or 3 years ago and loved it.

And a book bullet: Patricia Brent, Spinster. That seems interesting.

92DorsVenabili
feb. 13, 2015, 10:08 am

>82 arubabookwoman: Wow! What a book haul. You found In My Father's Den! And Silences - I'll get to this one soon. I love Tillie Olsen.

I was recently thinking that I may try to read Man's Fate this year. I tried a while back and just could not keep the complicated conflict details straight. I feel like I need a little background summary before I try it again.

93LauraBrook
feb. 16, 2015, 7:03 pm

Excellent book haul - sounds like a successful vacation!

94arubabookwoman
Editat: març 2, 2015, 2:41 pm

Well, here we are in March already! Just back from 10 days in Texas and Louisiana (Houston and St. Francisville). It was great to see Boden and Madeleine. Also we drove my mother over to St. Francisville to visit her brother and sister (my aunt and uncles). My aunt Eleanor and her husband live on my grandparents' farm, (in a new house they built), so it was very nostalgic for me, since during my childhood we spent a month or so every other year on the farm on vacation from Aruba. Then during the 18 years I lived in NO, I spent many, many weekends and holidays on the farm. Unlike my family who remain on the farm, however, I am definitely not a country person, a thought reinforced in me as I observed my cousin and her children taking care of chickens, horses and a cow. (And I should point out that this is not a "real" farm--these are only the children's 4-H projects).

One funny story from Houston: We had Boden for a special day spent just with grandparents, and we were taking him to see a movie. As we drove to the theater we passed a building with the sign "Koch Industries." I am politically far left, and despise the Koch Brothers so I said, "Oh, look--there's the building for the evil people who are trying to destroy the earth." I must have forgotten what a 4 year old's imagination is, because Boden became quite upset about "these evil people trying to destroy the earth"---he wanted his mommy, he didn't want to be near bad people. I had quite some time dialing that back.

>83 lyzard: Lyz--I finally managed to finish Can You Forgive Her?, but only on the last day of February, so I will only be joining The Eustace Diamonds group read after its demise. I will be perusing the thread for sure, though, as soon as I get to The Eustace Diamonds (probably sooner than later).
I haven't read John MacNab (or any John Buchan for that Matter), but I'm looking forward to it.

>84 BLBera: Beth--Yes it was a great vacation (in January to CA) (and now in Feb. to TX and LA). I hadn't realized how close in age Scout and Madeleine are until I saw on your thread that Scout had just celebrated her 1 1/2 birthday. Madeleine, too, was 18 months in February (Feb. 20). We were lucky enough to be there, but her pragmatic mother held no particular celebration. (Her mother, my daughter, is a developmental pediatrician, and takes everything in stride.)

>85 maggie1944: Hi Karen--Hope you are not working too hard to be enjoying our beautiful weather this past weekend. I seem to have set aside Master of the Senate--February was in fact a terrible reading month for me. Hope to get back to it soon, before I forget everything I've read so far.

>86 markon: Ardene--I've had Khirbit Khizeh on my wishlist forever, so I'm glad I found it. I also like William Vollman a lot, which is why I picked up The Atlas.

>87 charl08: Charl--Thanks for visiting. I'm enjoying your thread as well. According to LT, our libraries share a fair number of books in common.

>88 sibylline: Hi Lucy--I think I've read most, but not all, of Wilson's books, and I usually like his stories. This one was just meh, though.

>89 connie53: Hi Connie--Thanks for visiting.

>90 avatiakh: Kerry, Welcome. I guess you're glad to be home from your extended travels. I'm glad to hear Khirbet Khizeh is a worthwhile read. While in Texas, I picked up another book on similar issues (I think), The Hilltop by Assaf Gavron- --Did I read about this book on your thread? I think that's where I heard about it.

>91 Matke: Hi Gail--I think I actually liked Phineas Finn better than Can You Forgive Her? However, that may have been the result of reading Trollope in too concentrated doses, one after the other. I will get to The Eustace Diamonds after a short break, and will read the Group Read thread then.
I'm looking forward to Montana 1948.

>92 DorsVenabili: Hi Kerry (in Chicagoland)--My Father's Den wasn't hard to find--it was on Kindle, and for quite a reasonable price. It will be much more difficult to find the time to read it. :)

>93 LauraBrook: Hi Laura--Yes, visiting Mia in CA was a lovely vacation. And we've just returned from another lovely vacation visiting daughter, s-I-l and grands in TX. However, much as I enjoy these vacations, I'd much rather my kids all lived here so I could see them without taking vacations.

Well, on to report on my February reading, which was AWFUL. Could that have anything to do with the fact that I downloaded a Sudoku game onto my Kindle? :)

95catarina1
març 2, 2015, 2:52 pm

>94 arubabookwoman: Deborah - glad you had a nice vacation and visit with the family. I know what you me about the Koch Bros. David Koch contributes a lot to PBS and to a variety of cultural venues, like Lincoln Center in NYC. Every time I see his name, I cringe.

96arubabookwoman
març 2, 2015, 3:02 pm

As noted, February was a dismal reading month for me. I only read 5 books, and met almost none of the goals set forth for February in >80 arubabookwoman: above: e.g. I did not finish Master of the Senate, I did not finish War and Peace, I did not read Gould's Book of Fish, I did not read Season of the Jew, I did not read any books from the Indian subcontinent. I did finish Can You Forgive Her?, but not until the 28th, so I did not read or participate in the group read for The Eustace Diamonds

Therefore, in honor of the above, there will be no goals for March!

10. My Own Medicine: A Doctor's Life As A Patient by Geoffrey Kurland

I purchased this memoir by a doctor who was diagnosed with cancer shortly after my husband's own diagnosis in 2013, and am only now getting around to reading some of numerous books on similar subjects I purchased around that time. This book was published in the early 2000's, some 20 or so years after Kurland's diagnosis and treatment, so I can only assume that things have improved sufficiently since then that some of the extreme reactions he had to some of his treatments can now be avoided or at least substantially eased.

I don't think that this is a particularly useful or relevant book for anyone with an interest in the subject. As noted, the treatment information is probably way outdated. Also, Kurland has access to the most advanced treatment methods (of the time), yet there is no discussion of access to medicine, costs of treatment, battles with insurance companies, etc.--all things I am sure most patients today are interested in.

The fact that the medical portions of the memoir are outdated could be overcome, perhaps, if Kurland was a better writer. Unfortunately, I found his writing somewhat trite, and I was very disappointed in his characterizations of the people who loved him. His girlfriend, for example, remains a cardboard character. Although his mother's character is sometimes more vividly portrayed, she is still somewhat of a caricature, as the quintessential Jewish mother offering chicken soup as a cure-all. I also didn't connect with the author's obsession with running, although I guess this was something by which he measured his recovery.

Just not the book for me.

2 stars

97arubabookwoman
Editat: març 2, 2015, 3:31 pm

11. An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine

This book seems to be much beloved on LT of late. I enjoyed it as a good character study of a book-besotted irascible older woman set against the backdrop of wartime Beirut.

72 year old Aaliya, retired from her job in a bookstore, has spent the last 40 or so years translating a major work of contemporary literature into Arabic each year. As the book opens, she is in the process of choosing a book for her next translation, which according to her own tradition she begins on January 1. She is considering Bolano's 2666, but is concerned that she will be unable to complete a translation of that lengthy work in the time she has left.

Over the course of the book she reminisces on her life, her one and only friendship with Hanah, her failed early marriage, and above all, her life in books. I enjoyed getting to know her, although at times I was annoyed at her failure, despite her loneliness, to accept the friendship of the three women who live in her building, who she calls "the witches". Nevertheless, she is a character I won't soon forget.

This book was a finalist for the National Book Award.

3 1/2 stars

One note about this book. This year I want to work more on my art, so I've joined Audible, and intend to listen to audio books while working. I used to listen to many audio books during my commute while I was working, but have not listened in a while.

I listened to this book, rather than reading it, and although the narrator was excellent, I think this is a book that is better read, rather than listened to. First, there are the foreign names and other references which I have no idea how to spell from listening to the audio. (I looked up the spelling of Aaliya on the Amazon book page). The other thing is that there are many references to books and authors, and I would have preferred to have these in print in front of me rather than hearing the names and titles whiz by.

I'm thinking maybe audio books, for me at least, should be for my crime and mystery or science fiction reads??? I was also planning to listen to 19th century tomes, and I think those, which are mostly plot-dominated, would also be appropriate for listening.

What do you all think? Aside from getting a good narrator, what kinds of books do you think are good for listening to rather than reading?

98arubabookwoman
Editat: març 2, 2015, 4:13 pm

12. All Dogs Are Blue by Rodrigo Souza Leao

This autobiographical Brazilian novel is the story of life in an insane asylum. The author, a schizophrenic who was in and out of psychiatric institutions from the time he was a teenager, died in his early 40's shortly before this book was published. His prose is vibrant, poetic, and inventive, and I was immersed in this short but complex novel. I could never figure out whether he writes so well because of his schizophrenia, or in spite of it.

Sample:

I hate mirrors. Mirrors are just good for showing how we deteriorate with age. The first thing I broke at home was the mirror. I didn't even care about the seven years of bad luck. Then I went for the booze, and seized with undeniable madness I started throwing the whiskey bottles to the floor one by one. It turned into a dangerous place. A sea of glass shards. Some things didn't break, like the glass top of the big table in the lounge, which proved to be indestructible. A table decoration was also unbreakable. There were things that melted away at the slightest touch, that self-destructed when I stroked them, and others that remained steadfast. My father came and asked me to stop. I didn't stop. My little niece was screaming. My brother was screaming. My mother was screaming. My sister was screaming. Our cleaning lady was screaming.

No Not That.

Yes that. I'm breaking it and I'm going to break more. I'm breaking. I'm breaking. Breaking.

The police arrived and handcuffed me.

They took me to Pinel, the public psychiatric hospital.

Why did you break everything?

I broke everything because I'm made of shards. When the shards invite me to, I wreak havoc.

Highly recommended.
4 stars

100avatiakh
març 2, 2015, 5:15 pm

>94 arubabookwoman: Yes, I read The hilltop late last year and while I didn't like any of the characters I liked the book a lot.
I'm currently reading The House of Strife as my omnibus edition has the books in chronological order and Season of the Jew is #3.

Regarding audiobooks, I love listening to epic scifi, those books can run up to 24-26 hours. I also enjoy listening to classics on audio, it is an easy way to catch up on all the ones I keep meaning to read, The Count of Monte Cristo, Don Quixote, Middlemarch were all good.
I don't mind listening to nonfiction, though you have to choose fairly carefully. Keith Richard's Life was a great listen.

101BLBera
març 2, 2015, 6:44 pm

Hi Deborah - I haven't listened to audiobooks for a while, but mysteries worked well for me overall. Anything with a lot of descriptive detail lost me. Nice comments on An Unnecessary Woman; I would like to read that soon.

And, hooray for no plans!

102markon
març 4, 2015, 12:30 pm

Good question on audiobooks. I used to listen to them on my commute, and got through some interesting non fiction that way.

Now I'm listening at night before I go to sleep, and I'm not quite sure how to pick. I recently listened to Hyperion by Dan Simmons which worked really well (until I got about 1/2 way through, and then I was so interested I carried it in the car & listened in the kitchen until I was done.)

I've recently tried Three soldiers by John dos Passos and a Modern Scholar lecture: The art of reading by Joseph Luzzi and they both put me to sleep.

I've got Tana French's The secret place now, and I'm having trouble keeping the characters straight while listening - a hard copy is on its way to me at the library, so I may have to read it rather than listen.

103kidzdoc
març 5, 2015, 10:33 am

I can sympathize with your disappointing reading month, Deborah, as I only read four books in February, due mainly to a busy month at work.

I also own My Own Medicine: A Doctor's Life As A Patient, but I haven't read it yet. Geoff Kurland is/was a pediatric pulmonologist at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, and I spent a week in his clinic when I was a medical student at Pitt. I remember him being a very personable and caring physician, and I can vividly remember him roughly 20 years later. I'm sorry to hear that his book wasn't a good one.

All Dogs Are Blue sounds excellent. I'll add it to my wish list.

104charl08
març 7, 2015, 12:10 pm

> All dogs are blue has captured my imagination. I would love to go to Brazil (not that I think this is a travel book!)

105sibylline
març 11, 2015, 8:42 am

I do find I often have to get a copy of the book I'm listening to - or look it up on-line if it's a classic to figure out how to spell places and names - to look at maps, to look up facts (historical fiction drives me bats that way) but I do some of that when reading regular books too. I think my listen of Ulysses went very differently than it would have even fifteen or twenty years ago. I've absorbed so much about Irish culture since starting fourteen years ago to play the music. I've even learned some Gaelic and I know where all the counties are and so on. I'd always like irish folklore so I haven't had to learn that so much, but it all added up. Still, I had to look things up constantly - particularly maps of Dublin! I listen in the car mostly so it was quite a challenge to remember what I wanted to look up!

I totally enjoyed your summary of February!

106arubabookwoman
març 21, 2015, 4:42 pm

Thank you all for the audiobooks comments!

>100 avatiakh: Kerry--I bought Season of the Jew to read first because (according to Amazon at least) it was published first, so I thought it was the first book in the trilogy. It's the last?? Hmm--I wonder what I should do.
Using audiobooks to catch up on my classics (by which I mean 18th and 19th century novels, not the ancient Greeks) is a good plan. I agree thatsome memoirs/biographies could be good on audio. (I read Keith Richards's book last year and enjoyed it), but I don't think I would do well listening to some of the other nonfiction I like (science, history, political).

>101 BLBera: Beth--I think mysteries (provided they're not too complicated) would work well too.

>102 markon: Ardene--Welcome! It's good to see you here. Science fiction sounds like something else I could listen to on audio.
What about Three Soldiers and The Art of Reading put you to sleep? Were they boring? I think I read Three Soldiers years ago and enjoyed it. (At least if it's part of the USA Trilogy, which maybe it isn't after all. I'll have to check)

>103 kidzdoc: Daryl--At least you had work as an excuse. I had no excuse (well travel).
I did get the impression from reading My Own Medicine that Dr. Kurland is an excellent doctor and a very good person, so I'm glad to hear he is also so in real life. But I don't think he was that good of a writer, although he is a competent writer. I don't know how to explain this--his writing is grammatically correct, it's logical, it tells the story, etc., but it doesn't sparkle or come to life. Also (I'm guessing) that a lot of the medicine and science is out-dated. One example---he describes having his bone marrow drawn as an excruciatingly painful procedure. My husband had this done and to him there was very little discomfort and it felt entirely routine. And of course there have been amazing advances in cancer treatments since the time he describes, even if only in the medicines to ease some of the side effects of the treatments. But I don't want to discourage you from reading the book.
Somehow I thought All Dogs Are Blue would grab you. And now that I think about it I guess you could describe it as a medical memoir in which the writing sparkles.

>104 charl08: Welcome to my thread. If you do read All Dogs Are Blue, I hope you like it.

>105 sibylline: Lucy--Wow! Listening to Ulysses must have been an amazing experience. Now that I think of it, Joyce's stream of consciousness style read aloud must be very musical (as I think a lot of Irish prose read aloud must be). I read Ulysses in a British Novel Class at college, but haven't attempted a reread since then. I'm wondering if listening to Ulysses is a bit like listening to Faulkner. A lot of people find Faulkner's style difficult to read, but when you listen (at least to some of his work), it sounds like an old guy sitting in a rocking chair on his porch telling stories, and one story leads to another until a whole world has been created.

Anyway, for my Audible credits for January and February I bought Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie and North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. So one "classic" (with a narrator I've seen highly recommended on LT) and one "memoirish" type of novel.

I've still got to make comments on my last two books for February, The Little Way of Ruthie Leming and Can You Forgive Her?, but here's my February stats:

5 books, 3 fiction, 1 nonfiction, 1 nonfiction/fiction combo
1 19th century
4 21st century
0 20th century

2 USA
1 Great Britain
1 Lebanon
1 Brazil

5 Male authors 0 Female authors
5 new-to-me authors

107maggie1944
març 21, 2015, 4:52 pm

Deborah, did you see that the Meet-Up for Portland's Powell's has been rescheduled for April 25. Is that a date you might be able to make, and join us?

109connie53
març 22, 2015, 1:31 pm

You had a super month buying books, Deborah!

110avatiakh
març 22, 2015, 3:58 pm

>106 arubabookwoman: - Deborah, don't panic, my omnibus edition puts the books in chronological order but each book is actually a stand alone read. I was quite confused when opening the omnibus and so did some internet sleuthing.

111arubabookwoman
Editat: març 23, 2015, 4:15 pm

>107 maggie1944: Thanks for letting me know Karen. I am planning on attending. My sister has moved across the border from Portland in WA, and I'll combine going to the meetup with a visit to her.

>109 connie53: Hi Connie--I actually left off a few, which I'll be editing >108 arubabookwoman: to add.

>110 avatiakh: Thanks Kerry--I'll just read the one I have first then (Season of the Jew).

Now to finish with brief comments on the last two books I read in February:

13. The Little Way of Ruthie Leming by Rod Dreher

As noted above, while down South on vacation in February, we drove with my mother over to St. Francisville Louisiana so she could visit her brother, sister and brother-in-law. My mother's family has deep roots in St. Francisville, which is in the heart of Louisiana plantation country. It's a very small town, where everyone knows everyone else, and everyone is described by their family roots (i.e. "she's a Percy, but her mother is a Daniel and she married a Butler, etc, etc. (these are family names)). I read the description of The Little Way of Ruthie Leming as being the memoir of a man who escapes the small town he grew up, but moves back after he sees how the town came together to help his family when his sister Ruthie became ill with cancer. When I saw the town in the book was St. Francisville, I had to buy it, and my recent trip back prompted me to read it. I should say that I don't know anyone in St. Francisville other than my relatives, but I spent a lot of time visiting my grandparents on their farm there as a child, and when I lived in N.O. I also frequently visited my grandparents.

Unfortunately, I didn't really connect with the book, and I found there were no insights helpful to me. I also don't think it is a very honest book. I wasn't aware before reading the book, but the author is an extremely conservative blogger (at "The American Conservative")--not my politics. According to one Amazon reviewer, he "espouses some pretty radical right wing (and thoroughly self-righteous) thinking. Picture Sarah Palin or Rush Limbaugh with better vocabulary." I didn't particularly note any blatant radical right wing commentary in the book, but it was thoroughly infused with religion, and with self-righteousness. To a great extent, the author's analysis of his spiritual/religious journey outweighed what I thought the book was going to be about--what it's like to live in a small southern town after having experienced the wider world.

There are benefits of small town life, to be sure, but there are also negatives. One of the benefits of living in a small town is the sense of belonging to a community, and I think that was one thing the author was seeking when he decided to move back to St. Francisville. However, in the community, everyone knows you and you know everyone, and that can be a negative as well as a benefit.

I found the book to be devoid of any analysis of the negatives of small town life. This is particularly strange since the author left St. Francisville as a teenager when for some reason not fully explained he suddenly found himself an ostracized outsider at his high school, the person picked on, when previously he had been a popular member of one of the various cliques. ("leaving behind {t}he intolerance, the social conformity, the cliquishness, the bullying.") He also gives several examples of situations where his sister Ruthie had mocked him for some of his more "urban" habits during his visits home. (And not always in a kindly way--in one instance by refusing to eat a special meal he prepared because it was "some uppity French soup that they had never heard of" prepared with "New York attitudes."). This closed-mindedness is another negative he could have explored, but did not.

I also thought there would be at least some discussion of race relations, which are still very tender in the area. As a youth, he states "We went to the same school, but lived in different worlds." Any other (rare) mention of race relations is similarly superficial.

Small towns are places where if you fit in, life can be good. I was hoping this would be a book about someone who returns to a small town with expanded horizons and was able to make it work. It wasn't.

2 stars

112arubabookwoman
març 23, 2015, 4:31 pm

14. Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope

I perhaps didn't wait long enough after finishing Phineas Finn before starting Can You Forgive Her?, so I was maybe "Trolloped Out", because it took me quite a while to get into this book. I limped along each evening, falling asleep after 10 or 15 pages for the first 150 to 200 pages, until it finally picked up for me.

I continue to be amazed at Trollope's enlightened attitude toward his female characters, his awareness of the rights they give up by marrying, his willingness to recognize their intellect.

I did note that I was very interested in Lady Glencora's story, which figures prominently in this book. She appears as a minor character in Phineas Finn, and had I been more aware of her back story, I might have enjoyed her more.

Good quote:

"I don not know that she was at all points a lady, but had Fate so willed it she would have been a thorough gentleman."

113Oregonreader
març 26, 2015, 6:39 pm

Great commentary on The Little Way of Ruth Leming. You give a very clear idea of what to expect with the book. I'm definitely unlikely to read it.

114Matke
març 26, 2015, 8:51 pm

A couple of great reviews here, Deborah.

All Dogs Are Blue is going on the WL; thanks for taking the point on The Little Way.

I grew up in what I thought was a small town and found it pretty confining in many ways. Later I realized that it's a small city, and now I live in a small southern town. Not crazy about it, but not hating it either. Of course it's not quite as important to me now that everyone knows what I think about everything. :>)

115arubabookwoman
abr. 2, 2015, 4:07 pm

Ugh. March was another poor reading month for me. I finished only 5 books. I did, however, start the following:

The Summer Guest by Justin Cronin (p. 80)
Terminal Beach by J.G. Ballard (p. 52)
Sofia Petrovna by Lydia Chukovskaya (p. 32)
The Serpent and the Rope by Raja Rao (p. 153)
I, Claudius by Robert Graves (p. 90)

I think I'm going to abandon The Serpent and the Rope. I am not enjoying it at all, and because I haven't wanted to read it, it's partly the reason I've picked up and started so many other books.

I'm also not going to go on with I, Claudius. This is a reread of a book I read years ago and loved. I picked it up again only because I completed Augustus by John Edward Williams and Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff, and since all three books deal with roughly the same historical period I wanted to compare. It was interesting to read the different viewpoints of the same historical events and characters--each of the authors cast them in such different lights and with such different writing styles. I may get back to reread the rest of I, Claudius at some point, but for now there is so much else to read.

I'll probably continue with the other three books I've started.

I continue to be stalled on War and Peace. I read all but the last 150 or so pages in January. Since then, I've read a page or two here and there, but am having trouble getting into it again. I enjoyed the "war" and "battle" passages through-out, but now I'm stuck in a lot of "Monday-morning quarterbacking" as Tolstoy seems to be going over and over again various analyses as to why Napoleon was ultimately defeated on his retreat from Moscow. I'm just going to have to buckle down and finish it in April.

For some reason I haven't picked up Master of the Senate since January, even though I was thoroughly enjoying it. Must get back to it.

The two books I'm most engaged with now, and will likely finish in the next couple of days are The Garden of Last Days by Andre Dubus III and Island of the Lost: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World by Joan Druett

Well, I'm going to try to comment on my March reads before I do a final summary for March.

116arubabookwoman
abr. 2, 2015, 4:12 pm

>113 Oregonreader: Jan--Good decision!
Will you be at the April 25 LT meetup at Powells?

>114 Matke: Gail--Thanks. I think you'll like All Dogs Are Blue. Where I grew up in Aruba, was very small too. Everyone knew everyone, etc. I also think I got the feel of a small town from visiting my grandparents in St. Francisville. What I think would be particularly hard would be to move into a small town as an outsider--were you from the small town you live in now? If not, did it take a while for you to fill like you were welcome? I'm thinking small towns could be pretty insular.

117arubabookwoman
Editat: abr. 2, 2015, 4:33 pm

15. I, Dreyfus by Bernice Rubens

Bernice Rubens is an, I think, underrated 20th century British novelist. I've enjoyed several of her books. In this book, we meet Alfred Dreyfus former headmaster of a prestigious British public school now convicted of a heinous crime and writing his version of the events that led to his imprisonment. From the beginning we are aware that the book concerns anti-Semitism, and the reference to the Dreyfus case of the early 20th century is deliberate. In her author's note, Rubens states, "This novel makes no attempt to update the Dreyfus story Rather it is concerned with the Dreyfus syndrome, which alas needs no updating." I won't say more about the plot, since Rubens is a master of plotting, and the unfolding of the story and the reveals along the way are part of the pleasure of reading the book.

I will say that as I was reading the book, I sometimes felt that the anti-Semitism (and alleged fears of being exposed as Jewish) were overstated and could not be real. (In the context of "normal" people--I'm not referring to extremists/terrorists). Then, shortly after I finished the book, a candidate for governor in Missouri committed suicide apparently over what he felt were unfair allegations that he had a Jewish background. So yes, I guess this is still a very real issue. In any event, this is a book that will stay with me.

Recommended.

3 1/2 stars

118arubabookwoman
abr. 2, 2015, 5:13 pm

16. Augustus by John Williams) 1972 336 pp

This fictional account of the life of the Emperor Augustus won the National Book Award in 1973. The book relates the story of Augustus from when as a callow youth he was named by his great-uncle Julius Caesar as successor, through his battles for supremacy with Mark Anthony, through his long rule into old age and death. The novel is an epistolary novel, and Augustus's life is presented from multiple points of view in letters, diary entries, histories and documents "written" by numerous individuals, real and fictional, who crossed paths with Augustus.

The introduction to the novel states that Williams was inspired to write the novel after he heard the story of Julia, Augustus's daughter. Augustus exiled and imprisoned her after she broke the laws against adultery that he had enacted. (In the novel, Williams attributes to Augustus a noble cause for these actions). The introduction goes on to state:

"This fascinated Williams and he started to read about it. Discovering that Julia had been effectively written out of the histories, the more he read, the more he was engaged by what he describes as 'ambivalence between the public necessity and the private want or need' which is at the novel's core."

I found the epistolary style to be somewhat distancing from the character of Augustus. However, I can understand Williams's choice. In the introduction to the novel he is quoted as saying:

"I didn't think I could handle it in a straight narrative style without making it sound like a Cecil B. DeMille movie or a historical romance. And I didn't want it to sound historical. Those people were very real and contemporaneous to me. I wanted a kind of immediacy to it...."

And I think he succeeded.

Recommended

3 1/2 stars

119arubabookwoman
abr. 2, 2015, 5:24 pm

A couple of further comments about Augustus. As noted, it first inspired me to read Cleopatra: A Life, a nonfictional biography which I've had on the shelf for a few years, and then to reread the beginning of I, Claudius. Claudius's grandmother Livia was Augustus's wife through much of his life. In I, Claudius she is an evil, conniving, murderous manipulator. In Augustus, while she is certainly ambitious on behalf of her sons, she comes across as rather sedate. The contrast between the narrative styles of I, Claudius and Augustus could not be greater either. I, Claudius is dramatic, humorous, overblown, larger than life, and Augustus is for the most part factual and subdued.

I think Williams is more known on LT for his book Stoner, which is receiving a lot of love on LT recently. (I haven't read it yet, but intend to soon). Again from the introduction, an interviewer once asked Williams about the apparent great difference in subject matter between Stoner and Augustus. Williams stated, "I was dealing with governance in both instances and individual responsibilities, and enmities and friendships."

I liked this statement: "Except in scale, the machinations for power are about the same in a university as in the Roman Empire or Washington."

Any professors care to comment? Certainly there are a number of novels set in academia that support that statement.

120BLBera
abr. 2, 2015, 6:32 pm

Deborah - I recently read my first Rubens and loved it - Nine Lives. I will definitely look for more by her. I am a little surprised that she isn't better known.

I will look for Augustus, too. I've had Cleopatra: A Life on my shelf for some time now, and I like the idea of pairing books from similar historical times to get different perspectives.

121sibylline
abr. 5, 2015, 11:32 am

Another recommendation for Bernice Rubens! I have her on my WL will add this one.

122maggie1944
abr. 6, 2015, 6:47 am

The John Williams book sounds very interesting. If I were not deeply imbedded in the process of "down sizing" in anticipation of some day moving into a studio apartment in a retirement community, I would buy it and put it into the bulging TBR bookcases.

I am hoping I'll be able to make the Portland party on the 25th but I'm feeling quite financially challenged and unless I made oodles of money at Instacart I may have to pass. Sigh.

123Oregonreader
abr. 6, 2015, 12:15 pm

>116 arubabookwoman: Yes, I'll definitely be at the meet up. I'm really looking forward to it. I normally never go to the downtown Powells. Parking is too difficult so I go to the one at Cedar Hills. It's a rare treat for me to visit the original. There's nothing like it.

124arubabookwoman
maig 21, 2015, 2:59 am

Hello all. I haven't checked in for a while. I'm on a boat anchored off the Scilly Isles, off the coast of England. We bought some computer time so I could check my email, but then hotmail wouldn't let me sign in to my account without a code, which they would only send to my home phone number, obviously impossible to get here. So I decided to check into LT.
Yesterday we were at Guernsey. I had initially thought we were going to Jersey and that I would have an LT meetup in the Channel Islands with Bekka, but we went to Guernsey, so I waved south. The day before we were in St. Malo France where we toured the amazing Mont St. Michel.
I'll have to report on my March, April and May reading after we return June 2. The voyage continues northward from Cornwall, to Wales, Scotland, the Hebrides, and St. Kilda's--anyone read Island of Wings? I'm very excited to go to this remote, uninhabited island. We end up in Dublin.

Probably won't be able to check in again til we're back in the US.

125maggie1944
maig 21, 2015, 7:47 am

Ah, (said the recipient of vicarious thrills) that sounds wonderful. I do wish I could be a bird on the shoulder.

We are having a lovely spring with lots of sunny, sometimes even close to "hot" days. And life goes on as usual otherwise in the lovely Pac NW.

126SuziQoregon
maig 21, 2015, 12:04 pm

What a wonderful trip - have fun!!

127Familyhistorian
maig 21, 2015, 3:13 pm

>124 arubabookwoman: Sounds like a wonderful trip. I hope to visit a few of those places myself this fall but my routes will be mainly on land.

128charl08
maig 22, 2015, 3:23 am

Sounds lovely. Hope the weather treats you well.

129BLBera
maig 22, 2015, 2:38 pm

What a wonderful trip. Safe travels. I hope we get to see some pictures.

130sibylline
maig 31, 2015, 10:20 am

Thrilling trip! Glad to hear from you and more when you get back.

131arubabookwoman
juny 12, 2015, 5:44 pm

Well, I've been MIA quite a while. Since we returned from our trip, insofar as LT is concerned, I've been quite busy researching Nobel Prize winners for literature. Reading Globally will be concentrating on reading literature laureates who wrote in languages other than English for the third quarter, and I am leading this theme read. I'm fascinated by the research I'm doing, and surprised to discover that there are quite a few laureates I have absolutely no interest in reading. :) I have started a thread in the Reading Globally group, but it is not open yet for comments. I'll post a link in my thread here when it is open in case anyone wants to read about this subject.

I loved our trip. We were on a smaller boat, and so were able to visit smaller islands, including some uninhabited ones. As we moved northward into the Hebrides, the weather got colder, windier and some of the islands were bleak, but I absolutely loved it. St. Kildas was atmospheric, and we learned we were lucky to be able to get ashore (in zodiacs), as often the waves and weather make landings impossible. As I wandered among the ruins it was so easy to imagine how difficult life was for the islanders.

It was sunny and bright when we were on Iona, and I was also very moved visiting St. Columba's Abbey--the belief is that the Book of Kells had its beginnings here. I bought some yarn spun from the wool of some sheep there, but not sure what I will make yet. Unfortunately, I was sick for several days after I posted from the Scilly Islands (not seasick--an attack of diverticulitis from some seed cakes I ate at teatime), so I missed our stops at Cornwall and Wales. I was so bummed out, but I guess that means we just have to go back. I took hundreds of photos of course, but unfortunately I still am flummoxed by trying to post photos here. I might at some point when I have more time manage to post some on my profile page.

Re reading, on the trip I mostly read quick and easy mysteries/thrillers etc. Shortly before we left for the trip I watched an HBO special which was a dramatization of the Wansee Conference, after which I wanted to learn more about Eichmann. So I read The Eichmann Trial by Deborah E. Lipstadt. (Numbers for all reviews will be the numbers of the order I read the books set forth in messages 2-4 above:

32. The Eichmann Trial by Deborah E. Lipstadt

This is a book about the capture of Eichmann and his trial and conviction in Jerusalem. It was a fascinating analysis of the legal issues raised by his capture (and kidnapping from Argentina back to Israel), and issues such as how and by whom Nazi war criminals could be tried--Israel was not in existence when the crimes were committed and the crimes were committed elsewhere, for example, so on what basis could Israel claim jurisdiction? Then there were decisions to be made as to how broad the evidence to be presented should be--should the evidence be limited to only instances of specific actions or deeds of Eichmann, or was testimony from Holocaust victims and camp survivors who may not have had any personal connection with Eichmann relevant?

A significant portion of the book revisits some of the analysis and conclusions reached by Hannah Arendt in her seminal book Eichmann in Jerusalem, and arguably one should have read Arendt's book before reading Lipstadt's (I haven't). Lipstadt posits that Arendt's acceptance of Eichmann's claim that he was a small cog in a very big wheel ("the banality of evil"), "mistakenly ignores the central role that historical anti-Semitism played in the role of the Holocaust." Lipstadt delineates the evidence that she believes clearly established that Eichmann was "a man who considered the Nazi leaders to be his 'idols' and who was fully committed to their goals." In addition, Arendt argued that the Nazi actions were crimes against humanity, with the Jews being victims as members of humanity, and under this theory, Arendt believed that the testimony of the survivors was irrelevant. Lipstadt's thesis is that the crimes of the Holocaust were directed against the Jews as Jews per se, and resulted from historical anti-Semitism. In Lipstadt's view, the testimony of the survivors was essential, and in fact may be the most important element of the trial.

Lipstadt's purpose in writing the book was to examine the legacy of the Eichmann trial, and a large part of that legacy was created by Arendt's work and the controversy it created. (There were some who argued that Arendt's book "exonerated" Eichmann). I think Lipstadt's book did a good job of analyzing the issues involved in the trial itself, fairly explained the issues raised by Arendt's book, and logically defended her own conclusions regarding all of these matters. I'm not sure whether I'll read Arendt's book at these late date (50 years after the fact), but I'm glad I read Lipstadt's.

4 stars

132SandDune
juny 13, 2015, 2:44 am

So glad you enjoyed your cruise. I love the Scottish Islands: although we've never made it to St.Kilda we've had several holidays in both the Inner and Outer Hebrides as well as the Orkney Islands. We haven't been to that part of the world for a while but we're off to Skye this summer.

133banjo123
juny 13, 2015, 6:05 pm

I am looking forward to your Reading Globally thread!

134SuziQoregon
juny 15, 2015, 4:55 pm

Glad you loved your trip despite some not so good moments.

135arubabookwoman
jul. 29, 2015, 5:04 pm

Slinking in here to say sorry I've been MIA, and hello and thank you for visiting to my kind visitors.
I got into a reading funk after our return from our trip, started a number of books which failed to engage, and then decided to read from my TBR shelves "A" books--that is, books whose titles start with the letter A. So, since mid-June here are the "A" books I've read:

43. An Accident in August by Laurence Cosse (2003)

After the accident that killed Princess Diana, there were reports that a slow-moving white car might have been grazed by the car Diana was riding in, causing it to swerve and crash. This book creates a fictional driver for that car. Louise (Lou) is driving home from work that night when her white Fiat is side-swiped by Diana's car. For some reason, although she sees the crash in her rearview mirror, Lou keeps driving. Not until the next day does she see on the news the identity of the victims of that car crash. Not wanting to be known as "the girl who caused Diana's death", she decides not to come forward (there is no mention at first of the possible involvement of another car), and quickly arranges for repairs to her car. Unfortunately, Lou makes a series of increasingly more stupid decisions, and as a reader, I kept wanting to tell her to shape up and do the right thing. I felt some of Lou's decisions resulted in the book becoming rather unrealistic, although I thought its premise was initially a good one.

2 stars

136arubabookwoman
jul. 29, 2015, 5:18 pm

44. The Asylum by Johan Theorin

This novel is narrated from the point of view of Jan, a young man who is a child care worker. He is seeking employment at a nursery school which is part of a mental institution in which are housed some of Sweden's most violent insane criminals. While the nursery school is not located on the grounds of the institution, it is connected to the institution by an underground tunnel leading to a basement with an elevator up into the premises of the institution. The nursery school/day care is attended by children of the inmates, and they are brought to visit their parents through this tunnel.

From the beginning, we can see that Jan is a competent and caring caregiver. However, from the beginning we can also see that there are some questionable events in his past. We know he is interested in the job at the nursery because of his obsession with a singer who is reportedly an inmate at the institution. We also know that there was an incident in his past when a child under his care went missing. As he begins work, we also learn that some of his coworkers have hidden reasons of their own for working at the nursery school.

This was an interesting read, and well-written, but I wouldn't call it top-notch Scandi-crime. It was competently plotted, although perhaps a little long, and internally cohesive (it all made sense in the end). It just wasn't compelling.

3 stars

137arubabookwoman
jul. 29, 2015, 5:27 pm

45. Alex and Me by Irene M. Pepperberg

This is a memoir about the author's 30+ year relationship with an African grey parrot named Alex. The author is a scientist, and wanted to study the cognitive processes of animals. (ALEX initially stood for Avian Language Experiment, but Pepperberg later referred to her work as the Avian Learning Experiment). This was a delightful read, and Alex was a wonderful character. As Pepperberg states, "Alex taught me that we live in a world populated by conscious creatures....We are a part of nature, not apart from nature. The 'separateness' notion was a dangerous illusion that gave us permission to exploit every aspect of the natural world...without consequences."

Recommended

3 stars

138arubabookwoman
jul. 29, 2015, 5:42 pm

46. Among the Thugs by Bill Buford

I've had this book on my shelf for years, but picked it up now (for reasons in addition to its title starting with "A") because Buford, at the time the editor of Granta, was a good friend of Salman Rushdie, and is mentioned frequently in Rushdie's memoir Joseph Anton, which reawakened my curiosity.

This is a book of immersion journalism. After witnessing an act of random football (soccer) violence, Buford decided to investigate the phenomenon of football hooliganism in England in the early 1990's. It had gotten so bad that many British fan clubs were "banned" from travel to the Continent to attend matches, as violence and mayhem seemed to accompany these fans everywhere. The book describes how Buford insinuated himself into Manchester United's "firm" or fan club, becoming known to many of its members, his travels with the club to games and matches in Great Britain and on the Continent, and indeed his own participation in the vandalism, riots and violence that accompanied the group wherever it traveled. The book is at its best when it describes the feeling and emotions of mob mentality; it is not so good when it tries to intellectually explain the roots and causes of mob violence.

I'm not particularly a football (US football or UK "soccer") fan, but I have often wondered at the propensity for violence in sports. This book is a glimpse into that world.

Recommended

3 stars

139arubabookwoman
jul. 29, 2015, 5:50 pm

47. Alfred and Emily by Doris Lessing

This is a two part book. The first part consists of a novella in which Lessing reimagines lives for her parents in which they could be happy. Her father becomes a man who is not wounded in World War I and is a satisfied and comfortable farmer in England. Her mother marries her first love, who does not die in World War I. He dies young, and her mother becomes a wealthy educational reformer. The second part of the book consists of random musings by Lessing on her parents and their actual lives on the farm in Africa on which Lessing grew up. This part of the book felt very disjointed and somewhat meaningless to me. In fact, overall, I'm not sure what Lessing's purpose was. I could see these thoughts as a series of daydreams, random free associations, the memories of an old person. However, I'm not sure these musings (including even I suppose the novella making up the first part of the book) are worthy of publication.

1 1/2 stars

140arubabookwoman
jul. 29, 2015, 5:58 pm

50. Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner (1936)

I can't help myself--whenever I pick up a novel by Faulkner I get immediately drawn in and can't put it down. So, even though I've read Absalom, Absalom twice before, it started with A, I picked it up, and.....

This is the story of the tragedy of Thomas Sutpen, told by Quentin Compton, who hears it from Miss Rosa, and also from his father, who heard it from his grandfather.....etc, etc. Very Southern gothic, very tragic. If you've never read Faulkner, you have to give him a try, although this is not the easiest book to read.

5 stars

141arubabookwoman
jul. 29, 2015, 6:49 pm

51. Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic by Molly Caldwell Crosby

Alongside the 1918 flu pandemic, there was another epidemic, and epidemic of sleeping sickness. Over a period of years, it affected more than 5 million people, killing about one-third of its victims during its acute phase and leaving about one-third more to die inch by inch, minute by minute over a period of years. Since the epidemic ended in the 1930's, it has reappeared only sporadically around the world. However, we still do not know what causes the disease, nor do we know how to treat it. We also do not know whether or when it may recur in its epidemic form.

This could have been a very good and informative work on an important topic. However, it is instead disjointed and full of irrelevancies. Crosby has organized the book around "case studies" of victims of the disease (one of them being the wife of J. P. Morgan), and research and findings about the disease are presented in a haphazard manner, with earlier conclusions later being repudiated and vice versa. I ended up not being clear on where our knowledge of this disease stands today.

My main complaint about the book, though, is that it is full of entirely extraneous and irrelevant material, and becomes more of a social history than a scientific book. For example, describing one of the doctors walking through Penn Station on the way to see a patient in 1925, she goes into a description of the magazine covers on the newsstand: Ladies Home Journal--color picture of a bride and groom; Good Housekeeping--mother reading to her daughter; Field and Stream--man and woman on a picnic beside a stream; Saturday Evening Post--a Norman Rockwell drawing; she even notes a brand-new weekly--the New Yorker. A few pages later, the NYC skyline is sighted: it has "inspired many." "In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald (blah, blah, blah)""; "Ezra Pound described (blah, blah, blah)"; "Ayn Rand saw (blah, blah blah)"; "And Frank Lloyd Wright (blah, blah, blah)". I could give pages of examples like these. They really grated on me.

A couple of interesting speculations on her part jumped out at me. Woodrow Wilson in Europe shortly after the end of World War I suffered a case of flu, and apparently experienced major personality changes as well as a mental decline and physical handicaps afterwards which were kept secret from the public, which she speculates may have been the result of the sleeping sickness. (And which ultimately led to changes in the disability laws regarding the presidency.) She also speculates that some of Hitler's aberrant personality traits may have been the result of sleeping sickness, as he too suffered from a case of the flu around the time of World War I. (There are some intriguing studies mentioned regarding the connection between influenza and this form of sleeping sickness, but whether the connection is merely coincidental or meaningful is never fully clarified).

Apparently, Oliver Saks's book Awakenings covers this same topic, and in a much more cohesive way. I have placed it on my Kindle, and who knows--it starts with "A"-- it might be up next.

1 1/2 stars

142arubabookwoman
jul. 29, 2015, 6:58 pm

54. Angel by Elizabeth Taylor 1957

Elizabeth Taylor is one of my favorite underrated authors, and my favorite of hers is Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont. I liked this NYRB reissue a lot, although it wasn't quite up to Mrs. Palfrey.

Angelica Deverell, becomes a best-selling author in her teens--she's so bad she's good, tasteless and ignorant. We follow her from her childhood poverty, through her early successes, bringing her fabulous wealth, through to her old age, when her fortunes have declined and she is no longer in style. Through-out it all, she lives a life of humorous, but at the same time sad, self-deception.

Hilary Mantel, who wrote the introduction to the NYRB version, described Angel as a "high priestess of schlock", and said, "Angel is a book in which an accomplished, deft and somewhat underrated writer has a great deal of fun at the expense of a crass, graceless and wildly overpaid one."

Recommended

3 1/2 stars

143arubabookwoman
jul. 29, 2015, 7:06 pm

55. Arturo's Island by Elsa Morante

On the island of Procida off the coast of Naples, 14 year old Arturo leads an Edenic existence. His mother died when he is born, and his father disappears onto the mainland for weeks, sometimes months at a time, leaving Arturo free to explore the wonders of his island, coming and going as he pleases. Until the day his father steps off the ferry with a new wife and step-mother for Arturo, that is. Nunziata is just a couple of years older than Arturo, and with her arrival his world is up-ended.

This is basically an unusual and enchanting coming of age novel, as Arturo must learn to navigate his way to maturity.

Recommended

3 1/2 stars

144arubabookwoman
Editat: set. 5, 2015, 3:40 pm

56. The Atomic Times: My H-Bomb Year at the Pacific Proving Ground by Michael Harris

I have conflicted feelings about this book. I expected a great deal more information than it contained. In fact, for almost the first half of the book there was very little information about the nuclear tests--it was sort of a non-fictional Catch-22--a memoir of the absurdities of the life of an enlisted man in the military, albeit a life spent on an island only a mile long (most of it consisting of the airstrip), with no trees and with MPs whose primary function appears to have been to make sure no homosexual activity took place.

Once the H-tests started happening, the information again was purely anecdotal, and again heavily weighted toward illustrating the absurdities of the military. However, many of the events described underscore the fact that authorities either knew very little about the effects of the tests that were being conducted, or else acted with callous disregard for human life and the environment. For example, the soldiers were informed that they must never look at an explosion, or risk being blinded. Initially, they were told that they were required to wear protective googles which would be provided. Then, they were told the googles were not going to be provided (and they didn't really need them anyway) because it was more important that the colonel have new furniture for his house (so as not to be embarrassed in front of the VIPs who would be observing the test). (Apparently the army could not provide both the goggles and the furniture in the time available before the test). In any event, all the VIPs and military brass had goggles and other protective clothing during the tests.

On another occasion, after being constantly told how careful the government was regarding weather patterns and the siting for the explosions so that there would never be any fallout on the island they were on, "mistakes were made", and shortly after a test, the PA system began repeatedly blaring for everyone to go indoors and shut the windows. Unfortunately, none of the windows would shut, as they were all rusted open. Also, the men were constantly told it was safe to swim in the lagoon, yet a piece of coral from the lagoon placed near a potted plant caused the plant to wither and die.

So, the book was an unusual memoir of a year in an unusual place during an unusual time. It just wasn't very factually informative.

2 1/2 stars

ETA--Why didn't anyone tell me I typed "googles" for "goggles", not once, but twice??!. :) I'm leaving it as is, just pointing out I finally noticed that!

145arubabookwoman
Editat: set. 5, 2015, 3:42 pm

57. Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

This sounded like a good SF book: a group of female scientists, an anthropologist, a surveyor, a psychologist and a biologist (the narrator) are sent to explore the mysterious Area X. Eleven previous expeditions to Area X have ended in tragedy, with some of the explorers committing mass suicide, some turning on each other and killing each other (so that future expeditions are sent without weapons) and some dying mysteriously of cancer within short weeks of their unexpected return home. However, this turned into more of a horror story, rather than science fiction, and also turned out to be a trilogy (The Southern Reach trilogy). I probably won't read further. I read one Amazon review which described the book as being full of a "sense of confusion and hopelessness", and stated that there are no more answers from reading all three books than merely the first chapter of the first book. I don't mind hopelessness; I do mind confusion and inexplicability. So I can't recommend this book.

1 star

146arubabookwoman
jul. 29, 2015, 8:24 pm

58. And When She Was Good by Laura Lippman

This is a stand-alone psychological thriller from crime writer Laura Lippman. Heloise is a suburban Madame (posing as a lobbyist). We learn her life story--an abusive childhood from which she ran away to become a street prostitute, and her subsequent "rescue" by a wealthy pimp. The pimp is now serving a long jail sentence, but before going away set her up in her business. In her respectable suburb, she is known merely as a young widow, raising her son. She is leading a comfortable life, but when a Madame in nearby suburb turns up murdered, Heloise begins questioning her life. She is also concerned that her young son is becoming old enough to ask questions about her life. She decides she wants to leave the life and go "legit". However, this proves harder than she expected.

This is an interesting crime novel, with lots of information on the business of prostitution.

3 stars

147arubabookwoman
jul. 29, 2015, 8:29 pm

59. AfterImage: A Broken-hearted Memoir of a Charmed Life by Carla Malden

This is a "medical" memoir. Carla Malden, screenwriter daughter of actor Karl Malden, describes her husband's 11 month battle with colon cancer, and the year following his death as she attempted to come to grips with the fact that despite doing everything right, the battle was lost. This was a very sad book.

3 stars

148arubabookwoman
Editat: jul. 29, 2015, 9:26 pm

60. The Absent One by Jussi Adler-Olsen

THERE ARE SPOILERS BELOW:

I like police procedurals, and I liked the first novel in the Department Q series. But I didn't like this book, the second in the series. The plot is improbable, and the "bad guys", a group of friends who had attended boarding school together, are just so terribly, terribly awful they didn't seem real. They were complete sadistic sociopaths, but were also well-respected and famous in their respective fields. They began acting out while still in school, and the book is full of detailed descriptions of violence they inflicted on both people and animals. Kimmie, the one female in the group, is now a homeless person, and she is being sought by both the police and by the "bad guys", since she has evidence that can incriminate them. Kimmie, is also is an unbelievable character. She hears voices, and is made at times to appear schizophrenic or otherwise mentally ill, but she is also extremely cunning and intelligent and constantly outwitting her pursuers.

The story really deteriorates at the end. The bad guys are holding a fox hunt, to be attended by leaders of industry and government. When Carl and Assad (the police) arrive to arrest them, they overpower Carl and Assad and decide to kill them. Then, despite the fact that Carl escapes into the woods where the hunt is to be held, they hold the hunt anyway. The bad guy on whose estate the hunt is being held has a complete zoo available for him to choose from for hunting and other escapades (he likes to regularly torture and kill animals), so to make the hunt extra fun, he had obtained a rabid fox to be hunted. They put Assad in a cage with a hungry hyena, and release the fox into the woods. They hope (a hope realized) that one of the hunters will get too close and be bitten. That happens. It is all pretty stupid, and also disgusting.

Not recommended.

1 1/2 stars

149arubabookwoman
jul. 29, 2015, 9:59 pm

62. The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel

This is a light and fluffy account of what it was like to be an astronaut's wife. (There are apparently no other books on the subject). The original seven Mercury astronauts were generally military test pilots, and their wives were used to living in drab base housing, struggling to make ends meet on a military salary. When their husbands were chosen for the space program, the wives were thrust into the spotlight. They were suddenly treated like royalty--tea with Jackie--and found their incomes amply supplemented with Life Magazine payments and freebies, including cars, houses, clothes etc. They were also expected to be perfect, and have perfect children. They were advised by NASA to always feed their husbands a good breakfast, and to ensure that their husbands were not subjected to stress of any kind when they were at home. For their part, the wives had to grin and bear their husbands' philandering and to stifle their fear that every doorbell ring meant news of a husband's firey death. If they struggled with the "blues", they could not seek help, because anything other than a perfect marriage hurt an astronaut's chances of being chosen for a mission.

After the initial Mercury series, as more astronauts are named, the 9 Gemini astronauts and the Apollo astronauts, the book becomes less interesting. The wives do not come across a individuals, and the information and analysis the book provides barely skims the surface of what I wanted to know. What the book does is tell us very little about a whole lot of people. It was interesting revisiting the major events of the space program, but again only scant and superficial information, usually only a few brief sentences, is provided about even the major occurrences.

Overall, the book was a fluffy read, and to some extent I would say it took a somewhat mocking tone about the social mores of the 50's and early 60's to which many of these wives adhered, and that bothered me. I can't really say I was satisfied with the book, and I'll have to wait for a more incisive writer for a better understanding of what it was really like to be an astronaut's wife in anything other than a superficial sense. Until then, I guess I'll just have to reread The Right Stuff.

2 stars

150arubabookwoman
jul. 29, 2015, 10:06 pm

The other books I read in June and July ( the "non-A" books) are:

42. The Cold Song by Linn Ullmann
48. Back Channel by Stephen L. Carter
49. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (finally finished)
52. Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
53. Summer by Edith Wharton
61. Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie

Maybe I'll get to these tomorrow.

151arubabookwoman
jul. 29, 2015, 10:09 pm

BTW, here is the link to the Reading Globally thread for Nobel Prize Literature Laureates writing in a language other than English. I've provided some interesting information about the lives and works of these writers.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/191967

152charl08
jul. 30, 2015, 5:04 am

So much interesting reading here, but I just wanted to quickly comment on >138 arubabookwoman: - I'm not particularly interested in football either, but I really enjoyed (if that's the word) Tim Parks book about travelling with an Italian group of fans, known as extreme in their commitment to the team (Verona) - despite their being pretty hopeless on the pitch: A Season with Verona. I've never read anything by Buford, and Rushdie's memoir you mentioned also sounds worth a look for me.

153scaifea
jul. 30, 2015, 7:12 am

Wow, no wonder you haven't been visiting here lately - you've been too busy reading! Nice list!

154kidzdoc
jul. 30, 2015, 8:41 am

Hi, Deborah! On one hand I look forward to your bursts of excellent reviews, but I know that I'll invariably add at least a couple of books to my wish list or move books I already own higher on my TBR list.

I'll only add one book to my wish list this time: Among the Thugs, as I'm becoming progressively more interested in English Premier League football (and a budding Arsenal fan). I did buy A Season with Verona after Charlotte's recommendation, so I'll read it first.

I own the entire Library of America collection of Faulkner's novels, so your glowing review of Absalom, Absalom! will make me want to get to it soon.

I enjoyed Joseph Anton, so I look forward to your comments about it.

Thanks again for your fabulous work in setting up the current Reading Globally thread! I've only (re-)read The Stranger so far, but I'll participate much more in August and September, starting with The Discreet Hero, the latest novel by Mario Vargas Llosa.

155arubabookwoman
jul. 30, 2015, 4:04 pm

I just got a notification that The Atomic Times which I reviewed above is now available for kindle on Amazon for free, if anyone is interested. Don't know how long the offer lasts.

>152 charl08: Thanks Charlotte--I'll keep A Season with Verona in mind? Were those fans also violent?

>153 scaifea: Thanks Amber. I can't believe you have time to visit my lowly thread! I can only keep up with about every third or fourth thread of yours.

>Hi Darryl--Well my WL/TBR shelves certainly owe a major debt to your threads. Let me know when you get to Faulkner, though I will say if you've not read him before Absalom, Absalom might not be the place to start. I really liked Joseph Anton too--I truly wasn't aware of how long Rushdie had to stay in hiding, and don't recall hearing about some of the attacks on his editors/publishers, including I believe one in Japan who was killed. Rushdie is one of those authors I'd probably read anything by--I loved The Moor's Last Sigh and Midnight's Children, and liked a couple of other books by him I've read.

156scaifea
jul. 31, 2015, 6:44 am

>155 arubabookwoman: Ha! Lowly, nothing! You're perspective is off, methinks: my threads are merely a dime a dozen, whereas yours are much more precious... I try to read most all of the threads, although I don't comment on all of them - I do a lot of lurking.

157kidzdoc
jul. 31, 2015, 8:05 am

>155 arubabookwoman: I'll probably read Faulkner in order, over the space of several years. The Library of America collection (http://www.loa.org/faulkner) consists of five books, so I'll try to read one of them a year, starting with Novels 1926-1929.

Rushdie is a visiting professor at Emory and comes to Atlanta for 1-2 months every year, to teach students and give public lectures. I missed seeing him last year, and I'll have to see if he has already been here this year (I suspect that he has). Based on Steven's review (StevenTX) I'll buy a copy of Two Years, Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights when it comes out in September.

I was sorry to see that you weren't keen on Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic. I liked her second book The American Plague, which was about the 1878 yellow fever epidemic in Memphis.

158SuziQoregon
jul. 31, 2015, 4:34 pm

Wow - great review-a-thon here! Lots of great reviews. I almost picked up The Atomic Times yesterday when I got my ebook sales newsletter - I read enough reviews to decide no and after reading your review I'm glad I did.

I enjoy the Department Q books but for me they really seem to alternate back and forth in quality. I loved the first and third better than the second and fourth.

159SandDune
jul. 31, 2015, 5:53 pm

>132 SandDune: I was less than impressed with Alfred and Emily as well. A slightly odd book.

160maggie1944
ag. 4, 2015, 9:02 am

I am here to lurk for a couple of minutes, and just say "hi". Your reading is broad and fascinating to me, but just now I'm not adding any new books. Gotta move my household to a new digs, picking up keys today.

161arubabookwoman
ag. 7, 2015, 4:48 pm

Let me try to do my last reviews for June and July (the "non-A" books) before I say hello to visitors:

42. The Cold Song by Linn Ullmann

One might believe this to be a typical Scandi-crime book since it's ostensibly about the disappearance of a young woman one summer, and the discovery of her (murdered) body two years later. However, it's much more than that. Linn Ullmann, writing from constantly shifting points of view, covers many complex characters over many years. I view it as primarily a novel about mothers and daughters. There's Milla, the girl who disappeared while working as a nanny for Siri and John's children. Milla's mother is a photographer, and for many years throughout her childhood Milla was her subject. Now an adult, Milla's relationship with her mother is ambivalent, and she's resentful of having been taken advantage of as a child.

When Milla disappears, she along with Siri, John, and their children are spending the summer at the summer house Siri shares with her mother Jenny. Siri and Jenny's relationship is also a clouded one, tragically affected by the death of Siri's brother many years before when they were children. And then there's Siri's relationship with her daughters, the older, and difficult Alma, and the sunny, easy Liv.

A good solid book, albeit not a great one.

3 stars

162arubabookwoman
ag. 7, 2015, 5:30 pm

52. Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon

I picked this book up because I'm constantly hearing in artist's groups I'm in discussions about "copying"--a lot of contemporary quilt artists, for example, feel quite proprietary about techniques they use or their "style" of creating their work. On the other hand, my study of art history has indicated to me that artists have always "stolen" from one another (in fact I have a book about all the different "copying" Picasso and Matisse did, including to each other). Artists have always done it, but nowadays everyone who is not avidly proprietary seems deathly afraid of committing plagiarism. I'm in the deathly afraid camp--I don't consciously copy, but I'm constantly absorbing ideas, and this may be considered by some to be "stealing", although it always involves pondering, incorporating, changing, mixing up, evaluating, and turning on its head etc., etc., what I've taken.

That's the thesis of this slim book: Nothing is original. Everything came from something else. What the artist has to decide is what is worth stealing. Artists collect ideas and mash them together. Jim Jarmusch said, "Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic."

This book is not particularly comprehensive or challenging--I may be too old for the target audience, which seems to be people born after 1990 who are more used to reading twitters and phone texts than an intellectual essay. It's written in a sort of checklist format, with many of its points covered in one mere short sentence or even an graphic illustration. It covers 10 general "tips", the first being to steal like an artist, for "unlocking" your creativity. Although it's a brief book, and somewhat shallow, it makes some decent points, and was a quick, entertaining read.

I particularly liked this description of the artistic process (when he presented in the form of a graphic V):

(Moving steeply down from the top left-hand): "This is the best idea EVER" to "Ok, this is harder than I thought" to "This is gonna take some work" to "This sucks--and it's boring" to (Deep in the Valley of the V) "Dark night of the soul" (and ascending up the other side) to "It will be good to finish because I'll learn something for next time" and ending with "It's done and it sucks, but not as bad as I thought."

2 stars

163arubabookwoman
ag. 7, 2015, 5:47 pm

53. Summer by Edith Wharton

Trolling the threads of LT recently I saw a review referencing the "devastating" ending of Edith Wharton's Summer. This compelled me to pull the book from my shelf. I thought I had read it before, but as I read it I had no memory of the characters or events it describes. And devastating, indeed, the ending is.

This is the story of Charity Royall, a young woman living in a small country town. When Lucius Harney, an architect from the city, comes to town, she falls in love. This book has been described as Wharton's most sexually explicit novel, and it created a huge scandal when it was published in 1917. We can experience with Charity the joy of her first experiences, but know that at that time and place an educated, sophisticated, wealthy man from the city is not going to marry an uneducated, poor, unsophisticated country girl, no matter how beautiful. And we know, as Wharton shows us time and again, that at that time the options for women were extremely limited--especially for a "tainted" woman.

In the Reading Globally Nobel Prize Writers thread, there was a long discussion about the dearth of female literature nobelists (only 13 of 111 literature laureates have been women). Wharton certainly must be counted among the writers the Nobel committee overlooked.

Highly recommended.

4 1/2 stars

164arubabookwoman
ag. 7, 2015, 6:23 pm

61. Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie

Rushdie's memoir primarily covers the fatwa years. However, he includes quite a bit of information about his childhood and formative years, including his time at an English boarding school. Reading about how he got his first book published, how Midnight's Children came to be written, his writing process, where he gets his ideas, the stylistic and technical choices he makes in his writing and all other sorts of literary matters was quite fascinating, and this was the part of the book I liked best.

I also enjoyed most of the rest of the book about the fatwa years, but felt that it went on just a bit too long. Of course, Rushdie may have just been seeking to create in the reader the feeling of the tedium of those years. I had forgotten just how long they were--more than 10 years in hiding. I had also forgotten just how violent they were--one of Rushdie's translators was murdered, and two other of his publisher/translators were stabbed or shot. And many died or were injured in riots protesting the book around the world.

At first Rushdie had to scramble to find a new place to stay every few weeks, then he later was allowed to stay in one place for a few months. After a few years he was able to move into a home he purchased and basically reconstructed to include the most up to day security and protection devices and reinforcements. During the entire fatwa time he and his wife of the moment lived with a cadre of security guards 24 hours a day. (Wherever he lived, there had to be room to accommodate these guards, who ate, slept and lived on the premises with Rushdie.) He was also being constantly reminded (in the press), about the enormous cost of his protection to the taxpayers, the implication being that some people, Margaret Thatcher for example, are worth being protected, and others, a nasty writer like himself for example, are not.

In addition to going on a bit long about the day-to-day tedium of being under protection (i.e. the repeated battles to be able to go out to dinner, or visit friends or go to a book signing; the lengthy battle to insist that a paper back version of The Satanic Verses be published), the book is a bit gossipy. In some cases I found it interesting to read about Rushdie's famous friends. For example, reading about Bill Buford caused me to read Buford's book. But in some cases, it felt to me like Rushdie was score-keeping, as if he divided writers into those who supported him and those who did not. One person who comes off extremely poorly in the book is Marianne Wiggins, his wife at the time the fatwa was declared. In Rushdie's version of events she is a simply awful human being, and at times seemed almost mentally ill. (I really liked her book John Dollar, so I wonder what her version of events would be.) Rushdie himself doesn't always come of as the most likeable character--shortly after Marianne leaves he takes up with Elizabeth, and they seem deliriously happy (or as happy as they can be in the circumstances), but shortly after his and Elizabeth's son is born he begins an affair with a beautiful Indian actress, and there's much discussion/whining about the ensuing divorce proceedings and about Elizabeth's trying to get her hands on his money.

Well I better stop before I tell the whole story--all 650+ pages of it. Rushdie in my view is an excellent writer, and despite its flaws, this book is well-worth reading.

3 1/2 stars

165arubabookwoman
ag. 7, 2015, 6:33 pm

64. Trick or Treat by Lesley Glaister

This is a compact psychological thriller about Olive and Nell, who have lived their entire lives separated by one house, but who can't stand one another and have ignored each other for years. Olive was once a beauty, and lived her life unconventionally, refusing to marry her life-long lover Arthur. Now she is morbidly obese and senile, and is cared for by Arthur as he would care for a child. Nell, on the other hand, is trim, and keeps a perfect house. She does have a few problems though, like her fortyish son Rodney, who has just returned from "away" where he was sent for "indiscretions" unnamed, but of which he must have been cured since he's back, right?

As the novel opens, a hugely pregnant woman and her three children have moved into the house in between Olive and Nell. Wolfe, the eight year old youngest child, sensitive and lonely, invites Nell and Rodney and Olive and Arthur to his Guy Fawkes party. For the rest of the book, impending tragedy looms, and it ultimately occurs. Just not the one I was expecting.

This was a wicked good book. For fans of Shirley Jackson.

3 1/2 stars

166arubabookwoman
ag. 7, 2015, 6:51 pm

I've been on a reading binge in August so far. I've read:

64. Day of the Dolphin by Robert Merle (1967)
65. Mad Men On the Couch: Analyzing the Minds of the Men and Women of the Hit TV Show by Stephanie Newman
66. Dead Man Leading by V.S. Pritchett
67. The Lost City of Z by David Grann
68. Ten Seconds from the Sun by Russell Celyn Jones
69. Chocky by John Wyndham

Will review these (hopefully) at some later point.

>156 scaifea: Amber--I'm a lurker too for the most part. I have a hard time keeping up with the faster moving threads like yours, and probably get to read only every other one. I do enjoy reading about Charlie, and the new puppy, and your sewing adventures.

>157 kidzdoc: Darryl--I'll be looking for Rushdie's new book as well. You should try to see him sometime when he's in Atlanta. I've heard he's a very entertaining speaker.

>158 SuziQoregon: Suzi--Well, maybe I should give the third Department Q book a try. I hated the second one so much I wasn't going to.

>159 SandDune: Rhian--I find Lessing very uneven. Some magnificent work, and then something like Alfred and Emily.

>160 maggie1944: Hi Karen--Are you enjoying the cooler weather? I'm waiting to see if some of my very sickly-looking brown plants come back. Good luck on the move. We'll have to get together one day at the Cross Roads Half Price Books now that you're closer.

167BLBera
ag. 8, 2015, 8:01 am

Hi Deborah - You have are on a binge! Joseph Anton sounds good. I do want to reread Summer; I love Wharton and it's been awhile since I've revisited her.
I'll be interested in your comments on Chocky.

I agree about Lessing. I'm never sure what I'll get with her.

168maggie1944
ag. 8, 2015, 7:35 pm

Whew, I think I can give myself book credit for reading your reviews. Good stuff. I am anxious to get moved, and settled, so I can get back to some long afternoons of reading.

I'm full on into the middle of moving. A very few things have been moved, the carpet removed and vinyl flooring installed, and right this minute my car is sitting full to the top with boxes which I will move tomorrow. A friend is coming with her pickup truck and will move some of the smaller furniture. Wednesday some of the larger, heavier stuff will be moved, and then Saturday I'm hoping we will be able to finish up. I don't have as much help as I've had on other occasions so it is a bit slow slogging. But I know it will be done, and then, I'll be able to hang out at Crossroads all the time..... I think.

Connecting at Half Price Books will be good fun.

169avatiakh
ag. 25, 2015, 5:08 am

>131 arubabookwoman: Wow, it's been a while since I visited your thread. I had thought I was keeping up to date. Your trip away sounds so interesting. I'm interested in your Lipstadt review, it sounds like a better read than the Arendt book so I'll add it to my 'to read' list. I watched the 2012 German film 'Hannah Arendt' a few months ago and recommend it as a possible substitute to Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem.

170charl08
ag. 25, 2015, 6:28 am

Oh, I thought that was a very powerful film. Fascinating subject.

171PaulCranswick
ag. 27, 2015, 5:33 am

Deborah, I loved your review of Joseph Anton. I have Rushdie as one of the two authors next month for the BAC challenge. Two of his earlier novels Midnight's Children and Shame are right up there with the best novels of the post war period in my humble opinion so I am looking forward to reading Grimus next month which was his first novel,

I hope that I am sort of back on LT for good this time. xx

172Familyhistorian
ag. 28, 2015, 1:29 pm

>171 PaulCranswick: I hope that I am sort of back on LT for good this time. xx That sounds a bit hesitant, Paul. Once bitten twice shy? (Well, actually from the sounds of your posts it was more than once bitten!)

173arubabookwoman
ag. 28, 2015, 2:11 pm

>167 BLBera: Hi Beth--I'd love to take the time some day to read/reread all of Wharton's work. I think I like her books not set in NY society better than her main books--Summer, Ethan Frome and The Children come to mind, but it's been I while since I read most of her works--as in not since the 1980"s!

>168 maggie1944: Karen--the more I read about your new place on your thread, the more ideal it seems!

>169 avatiakh: Kerry--I'll look for the film. Hopefully it's on Netflix. BTW, my youngest son is going to Israel in December with Birthright Israel. Do you have that program in NZ? It's a 2 week all expenses paid trip to Israel for people under age 27 or so who can show a Jewish ancestor. My younger daughter went last year, and my middle son went several years ago. My middle son discovered the program, as he is quite good at discovering "freebies." I should tell the story of his 2 day European trip someday.

>170 charl08: Charlotte--It's good to know that you also recommend the film!

>171 PaulCranswick: Paul--I'm so glad you took the time to stop by, and so pleased that you are easing your way back into full-time LT participation again! Knocking on wood that there are no further evil incidents lurking out there to preoccupy you. I think Rushdie is a wonderful writer, and I've loved almost everything I've read by him, especially Midnight's Children and The Moor's Last Sigh. The only book of his I've read and not cared for was Fury, and in that case it still featured Rushdie's wonderful writing--I just didn't care for the story, which featured a lot of middle-aged male angst. I haven't read any of his books that sounded "fairy tale-ish", as this seems to be a genre, along with fantasy and horror I don't usually care for. I may change that someday.

>172 Familyhistorian: Hi Meg--Hopefully the hesitancy is not warranted! Thanks for commenting.

I'm going to try to do some August reviews. My reading binge for August has been continuing unabated, despite the interruption of a lovely visit from the grands Boden and Madeleine, and I've thus far completed 13 books in August, with the possibility of finishing a couple more before month's end. First though, I wanted to go back and comment on a book I read right after I read The Eichmann Trial. I wanted to comment on it because my reaction to it is contrary to the reaction of most LTers who have read it and loved it.

174Familyhistorian
ag. 28, 2015, 2:30 pm

>173 arubabookwoman: The treads have been pretty slow this summer, Deborah, and part of that has been because of the absence of some of our most prolific posters. Everything will probably be back to normal (or as normal as it gets on LT) when September rolls around - just when I will have trouble keeping up as I will be traveling *sigh*.

175arubabookwoman
ag. 28, 2015, 2:33 pm

36. HHhH by Laurent Binet

This is historical fiction about the assassination of Heinrich Heydrich (the main proponent for the Final Solution at the Wansee Conference). While it is a novel about Heydrich, his assassination, and his assassins, it is also a novel about writing a novel, specifically writing historical fiction. And that is the part I did not like. The constant authorial intrusions and interruptions bothered me terribly. (Or rather, perhaps, the intrusions of a fictional narrator who is writing a novel of historical fiction--in either case my complaint is the same). This may be merely a personal preference of mine, as I've had this same reaction to at least one other book like this. (However, in August I read The Lost City of Z, in which the author inserts into the history of the Amazonian explorations of Percy Fawcett his own adventures in researching the story and ultimately following in Fawcett's footsteps, and I found that in The Lost City of Z, the authorial intrusions worked perfectly--the book would not have been as good without them.)

I can objectively see that this is a very clever book, and perhaps a good novel in the metafictional sense. Binet calls the book an "infra-novel" in which the creative artist's struggle comes to the foreground. However, to give you a sense of how it grated on me, I can do no better than quote the following excerpt from an Amazon review:

"Imagine, if you will, picking up Tolstoy's War and Peace, and being confronted with passages like, 'And so Napoleon decided to invade Russia. Or at least that's what I think he decided. I wasn't there, so I can't exactly read his mind. All I can do is tell you that he did invade Russia, which is the story I'm going to write about. But it's hard to concentrate on that story just now because I'm equally fascinated with the lovely, blonde, 20 year old stenographer I just haired, and she's a tremendous distraction.'"

2 stars

176BLBera
ag. 28, 2015, 2:51 pm

Hi Deborah - I can't wait to see what else you've been reading. I enjoyed your comments on HHhH, but I love the metafictional style, so I might try this. Although the quote from the Amazon review was grating.

My favorite Wharton is still The Age of Innocence although I like some of her short stories a lot also.

177arubabookwoman
ag. 28, 2015, 3:06 pm

Now that I've got that off my chest, on to some August books. (And why the first touchstone to come up when I type this book is Pride and Prejudice, I'll never know):

64. The Day of the Dolphin by Robert Merle

I tracked this book down and read it because it's on the 1001 List, one of the few spy thrillers to make the list. I was curious as to why it earned that honor. It's the story of a research program, funded by the government, to teach dolphins to talk--not merely to "communicate"--with humans. When the program proves successful, evil elements from the government abscond with the dolphins to force them to do evil deeds.

There's a lot of information about dolphins in this book, but since it was written in the 1970's I'm sure a lot of the information is outdated. In particular, I believe it is now thought that dolphins are not as intelligent as was once believed, although they are certainly intelligent. And, while I don't know one way or the other for sure, I can't believe that dolphins would have the anatomical capability to "speak" in grammatical English. (And since the novel was written in French, I'm not sure why the dolphins were taught English, rather than French, or even Esperanto :)., although the research facility was in the US.)

Nevertheless, I enjoyed this book. It is written in a strange stream of consciousness style, with a constant shifting of the point of view character. And the characters were well-developed, including some rather strange individuals, some at the training facility, and some in the government. I guess one of the whole points was how wonderful, innocent and good dolphins are--in this book dolphins in the wild looked on humans as somewhat Godlike--and how horrible it was for them to awaken to the evil that lurks in the heart of man.

3 stars

178arubabookwoman
Editat: ag. 28, 2015, 3:44 pm

Hi Beth--We cross-posted. I have to say I generally love metafiction too. For example, I loved The New York Trilogy, as well as many other such works I can't think of right offhand. However, it didn't work for me in a book trying to convey, and from which I expected, some historically accurate information. However, I think you should still read it, despite my dislike--it was a 4 or 5 star read for many LTers whose opinions I highly respect. And as I said, looking at it objectively I could see it was an excellent novel.

179arubabookwoman
ag. 28, 2015, 3:29 pm

65. Mad Men on the Couch by Stephanie Newman

This is a book I mostly skimmed, rather than studied, and it is perhaps another book in which my objective in reading it was probably at cross purposes with the author's objective in writing it.

I came to the TV show Mad Men late--in fact I've watched the entire series during the first half of this year. My husband was watching the series, and, being in the same room while it was on, I joined him in about the 5th season. I then went back and watched the first four seasons. I enjoyed the show, particularly as a reminder of what living through those times was like. I had truly forgotten how hard it was for women starting in a "man's" profession back then, and how entitled many men felt to belittle women. I was one of 6 women in my law school class of about 200, and I had male students question my right to take a "man's place" in the class, since I would not have to support a family.(!) Some of the professors were also less than supportive of female students. What a change 5 years after I graduated, and I went back to the school to recruit--the class was about 40% women. But I digress....

Anyway, I think I was expecting a light-hearted, witty, and fun look at the Mad Men characters, and I found the book rather heavy-handed. It begins with a fair amount of discussion of psychoanalytic theory which was somewhat academic and dry. When the author begins discussing the characters, their decisions and quirks, she does so through the lens of serious psychoanalysis, which on the one hand I found obvious and simplistic, and on the other hand found presented in a dry, academic way. The book took itself far too seriously. I also found it somewhat repetitious, since it frequently discussed individual incidents from the point of view of multiple characters.

FYI, it covers only the first four seasons.

For serious fans of the show only.

2 stars

180arubabookwoman
ag. 28, 2015, 3:41 pm

>174 Familyhistorian: Meg--Missed your post above when I cross-posted. Maybe it's because posting is so slow I sometimes begin to feel like I'm catching up??

Where are you traveling to?

181Familyhistorian
ag. 28, 2015, 3:56 pm

>180 arubabookwoman: I had the same thought when I was able to catch up with LT a few times in a row. I don't remember that happening often!

I will be leaving right after Labour Day to go to Scotland and England. For part of the trip I am traveling with a genealogy group and part of the trip I am going to places on my own. I am supposed to be coming up with my research plans right now but I am playing hooky by hanging out on LT.

Your comments on attending law school in the era of Mad Men struck a chord with me. I remember the mind set that men would have to support a family so women's education wasn't as important. It was just on the cusp of change when I attended university but still the attitude was that women wouldn't have to support a family. Funny really when I think back because for the majority of the time that I was married I was the main family bread winner - good thing I didn't buy into that way of thinking!

182arubabookwoman
ag. 28, 2015, 4:04 pm

66. Dead Man Leading by V.S. Pritchett

Years ago I read Pritchett's Collected Stories, which I loved although I don't usually "get" short stories. I hadn't realized he had written a novel, so when I saw this available for cheap on Kindle, I grabbed it. As a bonus, its plot revolves around Amazonian exploration, which I like reading about. Harry Johnson is the son of a missionary who disappeared into the jungle 17 years previously. He has had some previous experience of the Amazon when he and a friend set off upriver to join an older man on a planned exploration. While seeking an answer to what happened to his father was not the stated purpose of the exploration, that is what the expedition turns into.

Until I read my next book (see review for The Lost City of Z coming up), I thought Pritchett's description of the hardships suffered by the explorers--the heat, the insects, the disease, the deprivations, the hostile Indians, etc.--were magnificent, and so very graphic. And they are good--in a "You are there!" kind of way. However, I found some of the plotting didn't make sense, particularly Harry's fear that he may have gotten his girlfriend back in England pregnant (she is the stepdaughter of the expedition leader), and his preoccupation with her failure to write him.

I'm not sure whether this book is in any way based on Percy Fawcett, the explorer who is featured in The Lost City of Z, but after Fawcett's disappearance, Fawcett's surviving son (his older son disappeared with his father) launched an expedition to find him, and since this book was written in the 1930's I'm sure the Fawcett story at least influenced Pritchett.

However, if you only choose to read one book of Amazonian exploration, it shouldn't be this one--pick up The Lost City of Z instead.

2 1/2 stars

183arubabookwoman
ag. 28, 2015, 4:31 pm

184sibylline
set. 5, 2015, 9:00 am

Your trip sounds marvelous, although I am very sorry about the diverticulitis. What a bad time for it!

So much to respond to here as far as yr. reading goes:
-Read an extended essay by Pepperberg about Alex in the New Yorker. That was probably enough, I'm guessing, but perhaps not.
-In some ways Angel made more of an impression on me than Palfrey, although it was more enjoyable. All her books are memorable.
-Now I have to find out more about sleeping sickness.
-I am so so glad you totally get what a great book Summer is - I think it was so shocking at the time that it sort of disappeared and wasn't mentioned and by the time it surfaced again it seemed dated. But I have always thought it her most radical work.
-Heavens, I remember enjoying The Day of the Dolphin way back when it came out!
-Interesting that Pritchett wrote a novel on this -- he must have known of Fawcett. I've read mostly Pritchett's short stories (some of the best that exist) and his literary essays (also very fine) but no novels at all!

185arubabookwoman
set. 11, 2015, 4:24 pm

>184 sibylline: Hi Lucy--I think the New Yorker article would suffice for the story of Alex.

Re Wharton radicalness--Have your ever read The Children by Wharton? I read it several years ago, and it reminded me of Lolita, in some of its themes at least, although told in a much more genteel and discreet way. It is another of my favorites by her.

Re Pritchett--yeah, I read many (maybe most) of his short stories years ago, and had been unaware that he had written any novels. I'm not sure whether Dead Man Leading is a singularity, or whether there are any more.

And now, resuming where I so abruptly disappeared a number of days ago, I'll try to resume August reviews. In my defense, son Brandon and his GF Liat were visiting from NYC. They have now departed for Napa Valley and SF for further vacation, and will spend a few days at the tail end in Palo Alto with daughter Mia. Mia is currently in Levico Italy at a genetics conference where she has presented a paper on some of her research into yeast genetics, but will be returning to Palo Alto in a few days in time to meet with Brandon and Liat (who planned their SF are sojourn without checking first to see if Mia was going to be there--luckily she'll catch up with them at the end of their stay.)

186arubabookwoman
set. 11, 2015, 4:48 pm

67. Lost City of Z by David Gann

British explorer Percival Fawcett, his son Jack, and Jack's friend Raleigh disappeared into the Amazon jungle in 1925. Fawcett had spent several years on expeditions in search of a fabled lost ancient city, and the story of his adventures is fascinating and makes compelling reading. Dozens of subsequent expeditions were launched to search for Fawcett, all of them unsuccessful, and the stories of some of these expeditions also make for fascinating reading. It's estimated that up to 100 people may have themselves disappeared and/or died on such search expeditions.

Into this mix drops David Gann, Brooklyn boy, non-outdoorsy, non-athlete, dare I say "nature-phobe", who becomes fascinated with Fawcett's story, and decides to follow in his footsteps and solve both the mystery of his disappearance and find the Lost City of Z. The story of Gann's investigation of the life of Fawcett and ultimately his own Amazonian journey is as fascinating as Fawcett's own story, and is an essential component of this excellent book. He visits the British National Geographic Society (where he is initially dismissed as a "Fawcett Freak") to view maps and read Fawcett's original reports. He interviews Fawcett's descendants and views his diaries. I was extremely amused by his visit to an REI-like emporium:

"There were rainbow-colored tents and banana-hued kayaks and mauve mountain bikes and neon snowboards dangling from the ceiling and walls. Whole aisles were devoted to insect repellants, freeze-dried foods, lip balms and sun screens. A separate section existed for footwear....There was an area for 'adrenaline socks' and one for Techwick 'skivvies.' Racks held magazines like 'Hooked on the Outdoors' and 'Backpacker: The Outdoors at Your Doorstep,' which had articles titled 'Survive a Bear Attack' and 'America's Last Wild Places: 31 Ways to Find Solitude, Adventure---and Yourself.' Wherever I turned there were customers, or 'gear heads.' It was as if the fewer the opportunities for genuine exploration, the greater the means were for anyone to attempt it...."

I also liked the description of one "gizmo" after another--including a Swiss army knife with a computer flash drive to store photos and music. What a contrast with the "gizmos" available to Fawcett. And I do not mean to belittle the majesty and remaining mystery of the Amazon, which even today the Brazilian government estimates is home to more than 60 Indian tribes that have never been contacted by outsiders.

Highly Recommended. 4 stars

187avatiakh
Editat: set. 11, 2015, 6:30 pm

>173 arubabookwoman: Yes, we have birthright here, I think it combines with Australia. We saw some birthright groups while catching buses in Tel Aviv, they were all using the public transport as well and looked to be having lots of fun. From what I understand each group has a different experience depending on who their tour leader is. I hope she enjoys her trip.

I've just listened to and loved Yehuda Avner's The Prime Ministers, a wonderful memoir.

188arubabookwoman
set. 11, 2015, 7:53 pm

>187 avatiakh: Kerry--The two kids that have already gone--Brandon and Mia--loved it. My youngest wasn't going to apply, since he is somewhat of a timid soul and was concerned about traveling to a "region in conflict", but they convinced him that it was well worth it. What they both enjoyed is that there is a lot of contact and discussion with Israelis and Arabs on both sides of many issues. I'll look for Avner's memoir.

68. Ten Seconds From the Sun by Russell Celyn Jones

This is a novel of the genre I call psychological thrillers--think for example Ruth Rendell. Ray, a river pilot on the Thames, leads an ostensibly content life--good marriage, healthy and happy children, nice home and job. But Ray harbors a deep, dark secret from his past, something his wife, family and friends know nothing about, and one day that secret rears its ugly head. From then on, Ray makes some pretty poor decisions, digging a deeper and deeper hole for himself. To a certain extent it annoys me when characters in books do this--make decisions that are clearly going to end badly. I find myself wondering whether such a character, who has, as Ray, been painted as intelligent and decent, would realistically have made such decisions, or whether my own biases and belief that the decisions are wrong cause me to question the author's ability to develop realistic characters.

Putting this quibble aside, this book explores the interesting theme of whether there are some deeds, including in this instance deeds committed as a child, that can never be atoned for. (This was a theme in another book I read a few years ago that I think is a better book than this one, Boy A by Jonathan Trigell.)

I also enjoyed the background of river navigation on the Thames aspect of this book.

3 stars

189arubabookwoman
set. 11, 2015, 8:02 pm

69. Chocky by John Wyndham

This is classic science fiction written in a simple style. Matthew is about 11 years old when he develops what his parents Mary and David believe to be an imaginary friend. They are a bit concerned; after all, 11 years old is a bit old for such a development, but hope that it will soon be outgrown. They become more concerned when Matthew begins asking his science and math teacher obscure questions on subjects he really has no reason to know about, and begins performing actions that he previously was unable to do (swimming, painting artistically pleasing pictures). When asked Matthew claims that "Chocky" helped him. His parents consult a psychiatrist, and are appalled when he suggests that they consider the possibility that Chocky is real.

This is a short, engaging read. It's a "think" novel, not an action novel. While it's the story of alien contact, it's not scary or menacing, but rather actually a quite comfortable read.

3 stars

190arubabookwoman
Editat: set. 12, 2015, 9:44 pm

70. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

I must be the last person on LT to read this book, even though I purchased it shortly after it was published. I'm kicking myself for putting it off so long. I loved it and wanted it to never end.

Briefly, it's the story of Ursula Todd, born on a snowy night in February 1910. And dying. And being born again on a snowy night in February 1910, and dying, and living her life over and over again, and dying over and over again, until, as she comes to believe, she finally gets it right. (Although, to be sure, she doesn't fully comprehend or remember what she is going through--just occasional feelings of deja vu, or precognition).

Much of the book--many, many of Ursula's lives--are so very dark, since much of her life is lived in the shadow of the rise of Hitler, and during the Blitz in London, but Atkinson is such a good writer I loved reading them all. (Although much of her life, especially her earlier years contrariwise seemed very idyllic, lounging in the Edwardian garden at the family home.) The plots, characters, settings were all so real and convincing, I was totally immersed and living the lives along with Ursula. (I do have to say the one life I didn't care for was the one where she passed WW II in Germany, the wife of a German, and in a position of acquaintanceship with Eva Braun such that she on occasion came into contact with Hitler.)

I loved Atkinson's first several books, especially her first, Behind the Scenes At the Museum, but didn't care for the first Jackson Brodie (?) book and so did not continue to read the series. I'm glad that she has dropped that series for the moment, and I will go on to read A God in Ruins, which I don't yet own. But I'm wondering whether I should give her detective series another chance.

BTW I heard a podcast (either on the BBC or the Guardian) in which she was requested to bring to the interview three objects related to the book (in this case A God in Ruins. One of the objects was the silver angel that dangled above the pram when used by both Ursula and Teddy, so it is mentioned in both books, and is an actual trinket highly prized by Atkinson in her own life.

Highly Recommended 4 1/2 stars

191arubabookwoman
set. 11, 2015, 8:55 pm

71. The Good Nurse by Charles Graeber

This is a true crime book about the serial murderer Charlie Cullen. No one, not even Charlie Cullen himself, knows how many patients he murdered, but he is believed to have killed upwards of 300 people before he was finally arrested in 2003. When he first began his spree, he would inject particular patients (or inject into their IV drips). He began with insulin, resulting in insulin spikes which if untreated (or even when treated, since with these frail patients treatment was frequently unsuccessful) would kill the patient. Later he began using other drugs, including digoxin. He subsequently began to randomly inject numerous saline IV bags in the storage room with these poisons, so that it was the "luck of the draw" as to which patients would receive the poisoned drips. Often the poisoned drips would be administered when Cullen was not even at the hospital, making detection even more difficult. Many of these patients were already seriously ill, so usually, at least in the beginning foul play was not suspected.

Even so, early on there were instances in which questions were raised about Cullen. A relative of one patient questioned Cullen about an injection Cullen gave the patient which didn't seem to appear in any doctor's orders. The patient died, but the hospital convinced the relative that the death was natural and convinced the relative not to demand an autopsy. It soon appeared that the hospitals at which Cullen worked were almost covering up for him. At each hospital when the suspicious deaths began to mount, and the evidence appeared to point to Cullen, he would be let go (usually by just issuing a "Do Not Hire" order, since in most cases he was working on contract). Horrifically, the hospitals did not report their suspicions to the State Nursing Board or to any other hospitals, even when other hospitals called for references after Cullen applied for a new job. Cullen was able to continue his murderous spree for 16 years in 9 separate facilities, as he moved from hospital to hospital. (And this is not to mention Cullen's numerous suicide attempts and mental breakdowns--in between stints as a nurse, he spent months in in-patient psychiatric hospitals, none of which seemed to bother the employing hospitals; they were just glad to have a nurse who was willing to work overtime and weekends.)

Even after the police were involved, and detectives were investigating, the hospitals still tried to cover up Cullen's actions. It took the detectives months to learn that records were available through which they could view Cullen's medication requests--the hospital had told the detectives that such records were not available for more than a few months. This aspect of Cullen's story is the most chilling for me. Rather than risk their own liability for Cullen's actions, each hospital appeared to sweep everything under the rug, and let Cullen move onto another hospital and kill more patients!!!

What I took away from this book is that every patient in every hospital should have a family member or friend with them at all times, to double check everything that is being done to the patient and every medication being administered.

Highly recommended 3 1/2 stars

192arubabookwoman
set. 11, 2015, 9:33 pm

72. The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens

Assigned to write a short biographical piece for a college class, Joe interviews Carl, a Vietnam War veteran currently residing in a nursing home. It turns out that Carl is also a convicted murderer, who has only recently been released from prison since he is suffering from terminal cancer and is expected to die soon. As he listens to Carl, Joe becomes convinced that Carl was wrongly convicted, and decides to clear Carl's name and find the true murderer.

This book got rave reviews on Amazon. It won an Edgar for the Best First Novel, and was a finalist/winner of several other literary awards. I was expecting much from it, and I was mightily disappointed. The novel reads like a YA novel. The characters lack complexity and nuance, and are cardboard thin. The plot is predictable and full of holes--Carl's conviction for example rested upon a teenager's diary entry, written in an easily solved Code which was wrongly interpreted by the prosecutor but which could have been correctly interpreted had the prosecutor interviewed an obvious witness. The ending is right out of a fairy tale--not only is the correct murderer found and Carl's good name vindicated, but Joe gets the girl AND he gets a huge reward (which he didn't even know about), so that all his money problems are solved, and he can stay in school and take care of his autistic brother, and so on... happily ever after.

As I looked through the Amazon reviews again I see that there are some fairly negative ones, including some like me whose high expectations were disappointed. I saw several which compared the "gee whiz" attitude of this book to a Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys mystery (although one said that comparison did a disservice to the Hardy Boys). The one that most reflected my own view was a one sentence review that simply stated, "I thought it was written by one of my seventh graders."

Skip this. 1 star

193arubabookwoman
set. 11, 2015, 9:41 pm

72. The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope

I continued to enjoy Trollope's Palliser novels in August with the delightfully devious Lizzie Eustace, who insists that her late husband gave her as her own property the Eustace family diamonds, so that they are not a part of his estate. Her assertion creates all sorts of problems, including the fact that her fiancé finds her assertions distasteful and dishonorable enough that he no longer feels able to honor his pledge. I mostly enjoyed this, although I found it went on rather a bit long about some things. I did specifically enjoy learning the arcane bits of English common law about what does and what does not constitute an "heirloom" (the Crown jewels--possibly yes; the Eustace diamonds--definitely no), and what a widow can claim as her "paraphernalia" after the death of her husband. On to Phineas Redux

4 stars

194sibylline
oct. 9, 2015, 8:54 am

Golly that does sound chilling - about Cullen - not unlike the Catholic priests moving pederast to another parish!

I loved Life After Life and the next one not so much, but many others did. That is fascinating about the silver trinket! I'm not that surprised really.

So far I haven't read a Wyndham I didn't like, so I will have to find Chocky!

Loved the son planning a trip without checking . . . .

195catarina1
oct. 9, 2015, 5:44 pm

Deborah
Thanks so much for all the information about Van Gogh. I have bookmarked the site. It will be valuable info for my "dream" trip. It sounds like you had a wonderful boat trip on the Seine. Those are many of the places where I want to go. Was it an organized group trip or did you put it together on your own?

196arubabookwoman
oct. 19, 2015, 2:42 pm

I should try to finish at least my August books, but first:

>194 sibylline: Lucy--I never thought of it that way, but you're quite right--the church protecting itself rather than the children and the hospitals protecting themselves rather than the patients.

The podcast in which Kate Atkinson mentioned the silver hare is an interesting one. Each session the host interviews an author who is asked to bring along 4 (I think) things that relate to the books he's written or are important to him.

I finally read A God in Ruins in September, and I liked it very much also, but maybe not quite so much as Life After Life. However, I think I of them as very much as providing the arc for one book, and believe that they definitely require reading together. In Life After Life we get an in-depth look at the idyllic pre-war life, and then the life of a civilian during the war, whereas A God in Ruins concentrates on the deprivations after the war and the issues of old age, as well as the experiences of the military during war. I do have to say I was very interested in Teddy's bomber experiences. Earlier this year I read a fascinating fictional account of one day of the war, one bombing run, as experienced by both sides--Bomber by Len Deighton. This was not as well-written in the literary sense as Atkinson, but extremely realistic and informative.

>194 sibylline:--This is the same son who on a whim while penniless in college took a two day trip from Seattle to Amsterdam with a bunch of friends with no money in his pocket and came out ahead. (It didn't involve drugs--just getting bumped in Copenhagen on the way back).

>195 catarina1: I just spent a frustrating few hours (with no success) trying to upload some pictures of our time in Auvers sur Oise. It was so interesting to see the City Hall, the Church at Auvers, the steps to the church, the wheatfields, etc. in real life (with posters of van Gogh's paintings nearby to compare to the real thing--very little had changed). We also saw his grave, which was beautiful and peaceful, with Theo buried next to him. This was a planned tour, and if we had gone before November we would also have gone to Monet's garden, among the other things I mentioned on your thread. (I had been really interested in the Bayeux tapestry.) It was through Grand Circle Travel, a river boat cruise, the Seine from Normandy to Paris.

197arubabookwoman
oct. 19, 2015, 3:09 pm

Now on to August:

74. The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House by Kate Andersen Brower

This is a charming behind the scenes look at life in the White House from roughly the Eisenhower era through the Obamas, as seen through the eyes of those who keep it running--the maids, butlers, cooks, plumbers, florists, electricians etc. Most of these people have held their jobs for years, and these jobs seem to be passed around among family members and friends, so not surprisingly most of the anecdotes (and this is an anecdotal book) are positive--with a few exceptions. No one would be surprised to learn that Hillary was pretty mad at Bill over Monica and that he spent more than one night on the couch. And the staff memories of the White House after Jackie returned from Dallas in November 1963 are brutally tear-inducing.

But there are also lots of funny stories--LBJ's insistence on super-powered water pressure for his showers and his battles with the plumbers over this, for instance. Other petty demands include Nancy Reagan's last minute choice of a dessert for a state dinner that required the chef to work day and night.

One fascinating factoid: On each Inauguration Day between late morning when the old first family leaves and late afternoon when the new first family appears, the staff must entirely move out and clear away all the old family's stuff and move in and set up the new family's stuff, so that when the new first family arrives they can rest and relax after the day's ceremonies before moving on to the inaugural balls.

Recommended for the voyeur in us all.

3 stars

198arubabookwoman
oct. 19, 2015, 3:54 pm

75. Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack by Haruki Murakami

In March 1995, five members of the religious cult Aum released sarin gas in 5 different cars an several Tokyo subway lines. Overall, (miraculously only) 12 people died, and thousands were injured, many very seriously. Author Haruki Murakami was living abroad at this time, and later read a letter from a woman whose husband was injured in the attacks. He couldn't get the letter out of his head, and when he returned to Japan a few years later he began interviewing survivors of the attack (and in one case relatives of a deceased victim). This book presents, primarily verbatim, transcripts of about 60 of those interviews, as Murakami attempts to make sense of the attack and the reaction to it, and to ponder on what it means to be Japanese.

In the course of the interviews, the victims, including ordinary workers on the way to their offices as well as subway workers, reflect on what happened, how they reacted, and what they observed of others' reactions. What struck me was how long it took for anyone to realize how serious the situation was. The perpetrators had the sarin (in liquid form in plastic) wrapped in newspaper, which they placed on the floor of a subway car. As they exited, they stabbed the sarin package with a specially sharpened umbrella tip to break the package and release the sarin. Passengers noticed fumes and some would leave the car at the next stop, but passengers at the next stop would see a car with empty seats and get in the contaminated car to continue to the next stop. This occurred despite there sometimes remaining on board people who were obviously very ill or even unconscious. Sometimes at a stop, a subway worker would come on board, remove an unconscious passenger, "mop" up the "spill", and the car would proceed on. Even passengers who felt ill with symptoms such as difficulty seeing (a "feeling" of blackness descending) or difficulty breathing would proceed to work, often walking past people collapsed on the subway platforms or sidewalks, only seeking help when they totally collapsed or when they heard news reports at work about what had happened. One passenger described the scene: "People foaming at the mouth....half of the roadway was absolute hell. But on the other side people were walking to work as usual....It was as if we were a world apart. Nobody stopped. They all thought, 'Nothing to do with me.'"

The volume I read contained an added section of later interviews Murakami did with members and former members of the cult which carried out the attack. These members all claimed to have been unaware that the attack was planned, but many of them admit that had the leader ordered them to carry out these attacks they are not sure they would have been able to resist such an order.

This book is very different than Murakami's fiction (although I guess you could say the general theme of the Japanese character and the ennui and alienation of today's youth apply in both cases). Murakami acknowledges his debt to the oral histories of Studs Terkel. A fascinating read.

3 1/2 stars

199arubabookwoman
oct. 19, 2015, 4:15 pm

76. The Believers by Zoe Heller

This is a novel about a dysfunctional family, and it's also, perhaps, a satire. Lots of people don't like it because almost all the characters are unlikeable--some in fact are hugely unlikeable. The novel centers on the family of Joel Litvinoff, an womanizing activist lawyer who makes his living defending terrorists--present-day Muslims and Black Panther-like individuals in the past. As the novel opens, Joel suffers a stroke, and he lies in a coma for most of the rest of the book.

Joel's wife Audrey appears to live to support Joel, entirely burying her own wants and desires to the needs of Joel. In fact, as Heller cleverly shows us, Audrey is one of the most self-centered and mean characters to appear in the pages of a contemporary novel. Joel and Audrey have three children. Rosa has just returned from a Marxist fling in Cuba and is flirting with becoming a Hasidic Jew, much to the dismay of her atheist parents. Karla, an overweight "marshmallow" of a social worker married to a union organizer, bears the brunt of Audrey's snide remarks. Adopted son Lenny, a drug addict unable to hold a job, is adored by Audrey.

I think the fact that the characters are so unlikeable is what makes this book likeable. Here's a quote:

"{Audrey} was always congratulating herself on her audacious honesty, her willingness to express what everyone else was thinking. But no one...actually shared Audrey's ugly view of the world. It was not the truth of her observations that made people laugh, but their unfairness, their surreal cruelty."

3 stars

200arubabookwoman
oct. 19, 2015, 4:48 pm

77. Kinder Than Solitude by Yiyun Li

First let me say I loved Yiyun Li's The Vagrants. Kinder Than Solitude--not so much.

The focus here is on four individuals and on an incident that occurred 30 years before the novel opens, at a time when the individuals were in their teens, and which left one of them in a vegetative state. After the incident, Moran and Ruyu left China for the US. Boyand has stayed behind in Peking and become a successful businessman. He has kept in touch with the family of Shaoai, the woman in the vegetative state. Over the years, Boyand periodically emails Moran and Ruyu the status of Shaoai, but otherwise there has been no contact between the three. Boyand is not even aware if Moran and Ruyu receive or read the emails. As the novel opens, Shaoai has just died, and Boyand has dutifully notified Moran and Ruyu. The novel proceeds alternating between the contemporary time, the time of the teen friendship of Moran, Ruyu and Boyand, and the lives of the three survivors over the years since the incident.

Yiyun Li says the book is about characters who have to make sense of a death. I never really connected with the book, and it was not one I looked forward to picking up each night.

2 1/2 stars

201arubabookwoman
oct. 19, 2015, 5:40 pm

78. Three Dollars by Elliot Perlman

This is the story of how Eddie Harnovey ended up at age 38 with a wife, a 6 year old daughter, a university education and work experience in chemical engineering, but with no job and only $3 in his pocket. Even though the book was written in the 1990's it feels absolutely up-to-date and timely in terms of the ever-increasing, cut-to-the bone expense practices of today's corporations, together with a big dose of the difficulties of holding onto one's ideals as one makes a way through a world of post-Reagan/post-Thatcher economic practices.

The novel begins "Every nine and a half years I see Amanda....", and each time Eddie sees Amanda he has only $3 in his pocket. Eddie and Amanda are best friends, until at the end of Eddie's 9th summer, when Amanda is yanked from his life for no reason he can discern. We follow Eddie through his university training, his marriage, and his career in a government bureaucracy similar to the US's EPA (the book is set in Melbourne), in which he must approve/disapprove mining plans, and through his touching trials of fatherhood.

I've liked the other books by Elliot Perlman better--Seven Types of Ambiguity and The Street Sweeper, but Perlman is an excellent writer, and I'd probably try anything by him. This is not quite up to his best, but it's still quite worthwhile, and I recommend it.

3 stars

202arubabookwoman
oct. 19, 2015, 5:58 pm

79. The Forgiven by Lawrence Osborne

David and Jo Henniger, wealthy Brits, are on their way to a weekend house party in the remote desert of Morocco when their car strikes and kills a young Arab boy. Unsure what to do, they put the boy's body in their car and continue to the party. Their hosts, owners of the "castle" and surrounding guest houses in the desert, while also foreigners, are more familiar with Moroccan ways and notify the police of the incident, but assure David and Jo that all will be quietly taken care of. The party, meanwhile goes on--seemingly a 24 hour per day, 3 day bash. However, a few hours later, the dead boy's father and other family members show up at the gate demanding justice.

Talk about culture clash--the abstemious religious Muslim staff and the hedonistic jet-setters partying like the world is about to end. This is a book of extreme contrasts, and a revealing look into worlds I know little about--both that of the jet setters and that of the Berber desert people who earn their living excavating fossils in the hostile desert. This is a morally complex book, and one I won't soon forget, right down to the stunning ending.

3 1/2 stars

203arubabookwoman
Editat: oct. 19, 2015, 7:34 pm

80. Great Works: 50 Paintings Explored by Tom Lubbock

I came across Tom Lubbock when I read a reference on LT to the book The Iceberg: A Memoir by his wife Marion Coutts, about her life after his death. Clicking through Amazon, I found that Tom Lubbock had also written a memoir, Until Further Notice I Am Alive, and clicking onward I found that Lubbock was primarily an art critic/writer. As I clicked through his books, I landed on this one, and the striking cover made me covet the book--so much so that I bought it and read it.

The book contains 50 short essays on paintings which were originally published in The Independent. There is no rhyme nor reason to the paintings chosen, no particular school to study, no point to make, no "I'm here to teach you", just paintings that struck Lubbock's fancy, and his unique observations about each painting.

Here's an example to give you a taste of what the essays are like, from the very first painting, "Boy Lighting Candle" by El Greco. Lubbock begins by asking us to imagine a kitchen sink with the tap flowing, but so slowly that when we look at it we are at first not even aware of the flow of the water. Then he asks us to imagine a man falling against the backdrop of a cliff--somewhat Wiley Coyote--so you keep imagining the end to come, the big crash at the end, but no, the man keeps falling and falling and falling.....Finally Lubbock asks you to imagine a man on a stationary bicycle, pedaling and pedaling away, but getting nowhere. Then you notice a cable which is attached to a dynamo, and you realize the man pedaling the bike is creating the light that lets you see the image of him pedaling. Lubbock then applies these apparently random images by asking you to imagine these three effects in a single picture--El Greco's "Boy Lighting Candle" We see a boy blowing on embers: movement that is invisible, like the water in the tap. We await an imminent climax--the candle bursting into flame--as we await the falling man's impending crash at the bottom of the cliff (which never comes). And the whole image is lit by the ember--but what will happen when the boy stops blowing, the light will fade away, and we will no longer see the image, as with the man pedaling the bike.

I thought the way Lubbock brought us into the picture was brilliant. His approach to the other paintings is similar, but all in a way unique to the paintings themselves. I was enthralled. This is not an academic book, it's a book about thinking about painting, and you learn by seeing how one brilliant person thought about painting.

Highly recommended.

4 stars

204arubabookwoman
Editat: oct. 19, 2015, 6:44 pm

That completes August. I will try to complete at least some of September before I leave Friday for Houston where I will attend the International Quilt Festival, and of course visit Madeleine and Boden, plus their parents and my mother.

Here's what I read in September, a preview of what is to come:

81. The Marauders by Tom Cooper
82. Do No Harm by Henry Marsh
83. My Father's Den by Maurice Gee
84. Towards the End of the Morning by Michael Frayn
85. Countdown City by Ben H. Winters
86. Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
87. The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
88. The Year of Reading Dangerously by Andy Miller
89. Giraffe by J.M. Ledgard
90. A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson
91. Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King
92. The Unwinding by George Packer
93. Any Four Women Could Rob the Bank of Italy by Ann Cornelison

205BLBera
oct. 19, 2015, 6:55 pm

Hi Deborah - I enjoyed your comments about the Atkinson books. The other one that jumped at me was the Osborne. I'll have to check to see if I can find a copy.

I'll look forward to your September comments; some of these authors are not familiar. I've had my eye on The Sixth Extinction - I'll watch for your comments.

206charl08
Editat: oct. 20, 2015, 2:43 am

>203 arubabookwoman: Lovely review. I started Coutts' book but it was too close to home for me and I returned it to the library largely unread. This sounds like a wonderful book about art and I am on the hunt for a gift for an arty friend, so this would be ideal.

207arubabookwoman
nov. 22, 2015, 6:36 pm

>205 BLBera: Beth--I think you'll like The Forgiven. The Sixth Extinction is also great--see below.

>206 charl08: Charlotte--If you do get it, I hope your arty friend likes it.

Now to try to blitz through my September reviews. Please excuse the low quality--I just want to get these done.

81. The Marauders by Tom Cooper

This novel portrays life in a small (fictional) south Louisiana town, not yet recovered from the devastation of Katrina, now struck with the ravages of the BP oil spill. Jeanette is a shrimping town, and the shrimpers are barely hanging on. Not only is shrimp scarce, but no one wants to eat Gulf shrimp due to fears of chemical contamination. There are lots of characters, oddball and otherwise, but the novel centers on Wes Trench, a young man who blames his father for the death of his mother in Katrina and who is now struggling with whether to follow in his father's footsteps in the shrimp fishing industry, and Gus Lindquist, a one-armed shrimper who hopes to discover the fabled lost treasure of the pirate Jean Lafitte. The problem is that in searching for the treasure in the deep bayous and cheniers, he keeps getting closer and closer to the clandestine marijuana crop of the threatening Toup twins, who don't want any interference with their activities. Two small-time ex-cons from New Orleans, ostensibly in Jeanette to help with the cleanup, are also seeking a fabled treasure--not pirate treasure, but the Toups' crop. Then there's the BP "front man", originally from Jeanette, but now assigned the task of getting the shrimpers (including his own mother) to waive their legal rights against BP.

I enjoyed this story of a way of life in jeopardy. I've seen it compared to works by Carl Hiassen and Elmore Leonard. Maybe, but in my view, although there are some oddball characters (accompanied by a fairly good dose of humor), this is much more serious.

3 1/2 stars

208arubabookwoman
Editat: nov. 22, 2015, 7:14 pm

82. Do No Harm by Henry Marsh

"I often have to cut into the brain, and it is something I hate doing," is the opening sentence in this engaging memoir. Each chapter is titled after a disease of the brain, a few I was familiar with: Trauma, Infarct, Medullablastoma, (which I was familiar with since my niece suffered this when she was 6--she is now 25 and in good health, although for Marsh's patient the cancer recurred when the patient was in his 40's), but most of which I hadn't heard of, i.e. Akinetic Mutism, Neurotmesis, Empyema, Astrocytoma, Oligodendroglioma, etc. etc. Don't those mysterious words just make you salivate to read this book? (Just kidding). However, despite these esoteric chapter titles, Marsh's stories of his experiences in neurosurgery are highly engaging and eminently readable.

Marsh states that frequently the most difficult part of brain surgery is deciding whether or not to operate, since the risks are usually great, benefits may be nominal, and mistakes, even when death is avoided, can be devastating. In Marsh's view, mistakes are "unacceptable, but inevitable," and he does not shy away from including in his stories his mistakes as well as his success stories.

In addition to his stories about his patients, his stories about the state of the science of the medicine of the brain, and the stories about his personal life, I also enjoyed his wry sense of humor, mostly in regard to his dealings with the British health bureaucracy.

3 1/2 stars

209arubabookwoman
nov. 22, 2015, 7:31 pm

83. In My Father's Den by Maurice Gee

After living away for many years, Paul Prior has returned to the small New Zealand town he grew up in to teach at the local school. He takes particular interest in Celia, one of his students, and lends her books and helps her with her studies outside of class time. Not surprisingly, when Celia is murdered, Paul becomes the prime suspect. Despite this bare bones plot summary, this is not really a crime novel. Gee writes beautifully, and moves back and forth over time--as the novel considers Paul's difficult childhood, how he deals with the accusation and suspicions of the town, his current relationship with his more successful brother.

Recommended.

3 1/2 stars

210arubabookwoman
nov. 22, 2015, 7:37 pm

84. Towards the End of Morning by Michael Frayn

I believe this is Frayn's first novel, and it shows. I loved his novel Spies, and very much liked Headlong, the two other books I have read by him. This book sounded intriguing, so I picked it up. It's set in the crossword and nature notes department of a Fleet Street newspaper, and is reportedly somewhat autobiographical. I enjoyed the characters and some of the humor, but for the most part I found this very dated. It just didn't resonate with me.

2 1/2 stars

211arubabookwoman
nov. 22, 2015, 7:57 pm

85. Countdown City by Ben H. Winters

When Detective Henry Palace returns in this second volume of The Last Policeman Trilogy, there are only 77 days left until the asteroid is due to hit Earth. Henry is no longer employed by the police department, and the few police who are left take a pretty laissez faire attitude in a society where money has no value, and shortages of necessary goods and services prevail.

Henry's old babysitter turns up one day seeking his help in finding her husband Brett, who has disappeared. She is sure that he would never "go bucketlist" or otherwise desert her to face the end alone, and fears he has come to some harm. Although hundreds of people are disappearing everyday (including many who commit suicide), Henry believes her and takes the case.

What was more interesting than the mystery to be solved (as was also the case for me with the first volume) is the creation of the world at the end--the reflections on what it means to face the end of the world. As Henry searches for Brett we experience with him the difficulties of retaining his humanity when all around people are losing theirs.

I guess I'm going to have to read the final volume to see if the world really does end.

3 stars

212arubabookwoman
nov. 23, 2015, 1:13 pm

86. Seveneves by Neal Stephenson

If you were a character in this book, and you happened to look up on a typical evening at precisely the moment it occurred, you would have seen the moon break up, disintegrated into thousands of fragments, some large, some small. At first the scientists of the world occupy themselves with trying to discover the why of this event. However, within a few days they determine that the more important question is what the effect of this event will be, and it is quickly determined that in about two years all life on Earth will be destroyed by a raging bombardment of meteorites (bolides) from the moon debris. Thus begins this fascinating and exciting book.

The (longer) first part of this book concerns itself with what happens during those two years, as heroic efforts are made to ensure that some remnant of humanity, as well as other forms of life on Earth will survive this apocalyptic event. Efforts are directed at survival in space. The international space station ("Issy") is enlarged, and dozens of "arklets" are built to "swarm" around Issy. Genetic information on all forms of life is sent into space. Potential survivors are chosen to occupy the arklets.

The first part of the book also details the immediate aftermath of the destruction of life on Earth, and what happens to the few thousand survivors of humanity. Unfortunately, the cataclysm hasn't quelled humankind's propensity for conflict, and, to make a long story short, at the end of the first part what remains of humanity are the seven "Eves" of the title.

The second part of the book fast-forwards 5000 years. Earth has been undergoing a terraforming process for a couple of thousand years, and it is now habitable. All humans are divided into races or groups determined by the Eve from whom they descended--Dinans from Dinah, Ivans from Ivy, Teklans from Tekla, and so forth. Each of the races has retained the distinct characteristics, physical and mental, of the seven women, each very different, we got to know in the first part. Most of humanity lives in a vast "ring" of cities orbiting the Earth. Very few live on Earth--mostly scientists who are documenting the development of new eco-systems. However, recently signs have appeared that perhaps some pockets of humans who remained on Earth survived.

I loved this book. It was a perfect blend of hard science, exciting plot, and interesting characters. Despite the plethora of detail I never found myself skimming or bored. (Well, okay, a few times the discussions of orbital mechanics went on a bit much for me.) This book has it all--apocalypse, epigenetics, terraforming, asteroid mining, robotics etc. etc.

I had only one major quibble that picked at the back of my brain while reading the second part. After 5000 years all seven races remain rigidly separate, and every person is identifiable almost immediately as belonging to that particular race. It bugged me that there had been no intermingling of the races over 5000 years.

As a side note I have to point out that in the second part I loved one particular character named Sonar Tax Law. I would have loved her regardless of her personality because my daughter Sonia's nickname as a child was Sonar, and because as an attorney I practiced exclusively Tax Law.

Highly recommended.

4 stars

213arubabookwoman
nov. 23, 2015, 1:59 pm

87. The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert

The Pulitzer Prize winner reports on a mass extinction that is ongoing before our very eyes. Over the past 500 million years there have been five mass extinctions, when diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Kolbert's thesis is there's a sixth extinction going on now. However, this time the extinction is caused by us.

The book begins by going through the past 5 extinctions. Then the book "travels" the world to look at the myriad ways in which humans are causing this catastrophe--from acidification of the oceans to clear-cutting of forests to transferring invasive species around the globe (deliberately or inadvertently). Kolbert presents the facts without political rhetoric. Here are some of the facts I want to remember from this book:

--There's always a ongoing "background extinction rate" which is different than a "mass extinction," which is what is going on now. (A mass extinction is an event that eliminates a significant portion of the world's biota in a geologically insignificant amount of time.)

--Amphibians are the most endangered class of animals today, with an extinction rate 45,000 times the background rate.

--It is estimated that 1/3 of all corals, 1/3 of all sharks, 1/4 of all mammals, 1/5 of all reptiles, and 1/6 of all birds are headed for extinction.

--The temperature change estimated for the coming century is roughly the same as the temperature changes during past ice ages; however, the rate of change is at least ten times faster than in the past.

--During past eras of climate change, some species survived by "migrating" to a more amenable area of habitat or were otherwise able to adapt. Now, species will have to "migrate" or adapt ten times faster than in the past.

There is something called the "Species Area Relationship" (SAR), which posits that the larger the area you survey, the greater the number of species you will find. Using the SAR and the rate of temperature change these various estimates of extinction rates were made:

--Assuming all species are inert (so failure to adapt or migrate would mean that habitable area of a species would shrink): 1. If warming held to a minimum, between 22% and 31% if species would be extinct by 2050; 2. If warming was maximal, 38% to 52% of species would disappear.

--Assuming species were highly mobile/adaptable, with minimal warming 9%-13% would be extinct by 2050 and with maximal warming 21%-32% would be extinct.

Along the way Kolbert travels the world and visits with scientists of all specialties, including the scientists at the Great Barrier Reef, scientists studying tree migration in the Andes, caves in North America and jungles in Central America were bats and frogs respectively are dying in droves, and much, much more.

Highly recommended.

4 stars


214arubabookwoman
nov. 23, 2015, 2:21 pm

88. The Year of Reading Dangerously by Andy Miller

I didn't care for this literary memoir. Andy Miller works in the literary field as an editor, but felt that he had gotten away from reading--his busy life with a job, a small child, a house etc. leaving no time for reading. He decides to embark on a reading program (52 books in a year) of books he felt he should read, wanted to read or had lied about reading. He called these the List of Betterment, and it included the sublime (Middlemarch) and the disgraceful (The Da Vinci Code).

Here's what I didn't like:

1. Everyone's busy. Not an excuse for not reading. Especially since he commuted several times a week to London on the train (1+ hours each way). Apparently he needed a "special" place to read--sometimes he traveled to London to go somewhere (like the British Museum) to read. I like the British Museum as much as the next person, but I wouldn't feel the need go there specifically to read if I lived in Kent.

2. The book is more of a memoir than a discussion of the merits of specific books. His life is not all that interesting, and his thoughts on the books he reads aren't particularly sparkling. One Amazon reviewer said, "It's clear that his literary and musical tastes were arrested in adolescence."

3. And that's another thing--his music references. I never heard of most of the bands/songs he discusses, and they play a prominent part in the book.(One of the books he reads is "Krautrocksampler: One Head's Guide to the Great Kosmisch Musik--1968 Onwards."

I can safely say "Avoid This." Unless, of course, you are a fan of Kosmisch Musik.

2 stars

215arubabookwoman
nov. 23, 2015, 3:34 pm

89. Giraffe by J.M. Ledgard

In May 1975 the largest herd of captive giraffes (about 49 giraffes, including 23 who were pregnant) were massacred in a small Czech town, apparently senselessly. The author, a British journalist, discovered the fact of the massacre, and chose to write this book, a novel, to explain the event, rather than a more appropriate in my view nonfiction account.

This book tells the story of the giraffes from their capture in Africa, their ocean voyage to Europe, their travels to the small Czech zoo via riverboat and train, their lives in the zoo through to their final gruesome deaths. Ledgard uses several different narrators, including a couple of sections narrated by one of the giraffes. Also narrating individual sections of the novel are Emil, a haemodynamicist (a biologist studying vertical blood flow), Amina, a factory worker who visits the zoo and loves giraffes, Tadeus, a virologist, and Jiri a sharpshooter.

What was jarring to me in this book was that the author used the horrifying story of the giraffe massacre to present a morality tale of the evils of communism. I was constantly removed from the story of the giraffes on the many occasions when Ledgard used one or another of his characters to comment on the failures or evils of communism. I found this particularly bothersome since the author is not Czech, or otherwise a victim of a communist regime, so it made the book feel even more like a polemic.

Of course the entire book did not sound like a polemic. For the most part it is written rather dreamily in poetic language. (In fact one of the main narrators, Amina, is a sleepwalker, clearly intended as a metaphor for the plight of most people under communism). And there is no question that the slaughter of the giraffes is described graphically and in gruesome detail. Faint-hearted animal lovers should avoid this section of the book at all costs.

I'm glad I read the book, and I think the story of the giraffes is an important one. I just wish the book had been presented as non-fiction, or at the least that the author had not attempted to use the book as an anti-Communist propaganda tool. (POSSIBLE SPOILER--For the record, it's clear that the giraffes would have been killed regardless of the political regime under which they resided--they were suffering foot and mouth disease.)

Cautiously recommended.

2 1/2 stars

216arubabookwoman
nov. 23, 2015, 3:46 pm

90. A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson

I've discussed this book on my thread in relation to Life After Life, to which it is a companion, and have noted that I think the two books need to be read together, as in my view they comprise a complete view of the World War II experience of the British. Unlike Ursula in Life After Life, Teddy lives only one life. Atkinson is a master storyteller, and she bounces us seamlessly around Teddy's life, the life of his wife Nancy, his child Viola, and his grandchildren Sunny and Bertie. As the novel states of Teddy, "Part of him never adjusted to having a future," since as an RAF pilot he never expected to survive the war. Yet, when the book ended with Teddy on his death bed, in his 90's, I wanted more.

Highly recommended.

4 1/2 stars

217arubabookwoman
nov. 23, 2015, 4:02 pm

91. Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

I don't like horror novels, and many of Stephen King's novels fill that genre so I don't read them. However, I've enjoyed many of his books which don't include horror elements (although they usually involve science fictional elements). This book is a straight-forward crime novel, and it won a 2015 Edgar for the best first novel (not sure what that means since obviously King has written many, many other novels).

The novel begins as a line is forming in the predawn hours for a job fair. Suddenly, a lone driver in a large Mercedes deliberately plows through the line, killing 8 people and wounding 15. Later the abandoned Mercedes is found with a clown mask on the front seat. The driver is never caught.

Fast forward several months to retired cop Bill Hodges, who regrets the failure to catch the Mercedes killer. He's also at loose ends, not sure what to do with himself now that he's retired, and contemplating suicide when he receives a letter from an individual claiming to be the Mercedes killer. The letter taunts Hodges and threatens more crimes. Hodges can't resist responding (rather than turning the letter over to authorities), and the cat and mouse game is on.

This is quite a good mystery. The pov character alternates between Hodges and Mr. Mercedes, a suitably creepy murderer. There are lots of other characters to love and hate and plenty of plot twists and turns. King is apparently turning this into a series, and there is already a second novel featuring Hodges as the crime solver.

Highly recommended.

3 1/2 stars

218arubabookwoman
nov. 23, 2015, 4:31 pm

92. The Unwinding by George Packer

This National Book Award winner tells the story of the US over the last 30 years or so--and it's the way of telling it that makes the book unique. Packer uses the lives of several people as examples of what has happened. These include Tammy Thomas, factory worker/community organizer in Youngstown, Dean Price, son of a North Carolina tobacco farmer, now biofuel manufacturer/advocate, Jeff Connaughton, a D.C. insider, on again/off again lobbyist/Biden aide, and Peter Thiel, a Valley venture capitalist billionaire. Their stories over the last thirty years are told in episodic, roughly chronological chapters. Interspersed with their stories are the stories of a dozen or so public figures, including Oprah, Newt Gingrich, Elizabeth Warren, Jay-Z, Colin Powell, Sam Walton, Raymond Carver, Robert Rubin, and so on. There's also a long series of narratives devoted to the city of Tampa, which Packer uses to illustrate the real estate bubble and burst. There are also excerpts from newspaper headlines, advertisements and song lyrics, a la Dos Passos's USA Trilogy.

I loved this book. There are no authorial intrusions, and each of the individuals profiled. Each story is independent, and there are varying political biases, but all share a common theme: things are falling apart.

Highly recommended:

4 1/2 stars

+

219arubabookwoman
nov. 23, 2015, 4:44 pm

93. Any Four Women Could Rob The Bank of Italy by Ann Cornelisen

After being waved through road-blocks because it apparently does not occur to the Italian police that females could be criminals, several female friends and acquaintances (six not four) decide to rob the mail train. I found this to be an intriguing premise, but it is very poorly executed. All the characters (ex-pats living in Italy) sound the same, and I had difficulty telling them apart. The descriptions of how the characters perpetrated the crime were confusing, and also confusing was how they returned the money afterwards. This is one to avoid.

1 1/2 stars

221BLBera
nov. 23, 2015, 5:11 pm

Deborah - Thanks so much for the great comments. The Sixth Extinction is definitely on my list. I've not read any Stephenson, but it sounds like I might enjoy him.

I think I picked up the Miller memoir on my ereader, and it sounds like it will be an easy one to skip. Seriously, you commute and don't have time to read??

And I love Atkinson; both Life After Life and A God in Ruins were wonderful.

I haven't read the new Boyle yet, so I'll watch for your comments. (No pressure).

222charl08
nov. 23, 2015, 8:01 pm

Look forward to your comments on James Miranda Barry. A favourite of mine.

223maggie1944
nov. 24, 2015, 10:17 am

I used riding the ferry and waiting in line for the ferry as prime reading times! (Years ago). It can be a great time, so sad he did not figure it out😝

224arubabookwoman
des. 1, 2015, 11:48 pm

I have a dilemma--any advice?

My son (age 25) just purchased for my husband and me for Christmas a 2 year subscription to kindle unlimited. He got it on special, but I'm sure he paid at least $100. When kindle unlimited first came out, I had looked into it and saw that the book choices were not very good. My son read "unlimited reading" in the come-on, and I'm sure interpreted that as "unlimited books." I just spent a few hours checking every book on my 600+ wishlist, and although well more than half had kindle editions, only one was in the kindle unlimited program. My questions:

1. Do you know anything about the kindle unlimited program, and are there enough good books in the program to justify the expense?

2. If not, do you think I should tell my son, so he can see if he can get his money back? He was so proud of thinking of this brilliant gift, but I don't want him to waste his money, and I don't think he would want to either.

I'd appreciate any feedback. Thanks.

225maggie1944
des. 3, 2015, 5:52 pm

ok, you asked for advice. I think this falls into the category of "the gift I do not want", but the feelings of all involved is really the important thing. So accept the gift with good grace, hope you might, going forward, find some books you could enjoy even if they are not really good books. Your son has done his best, and really this is not a "teachable moment" to show him how he did not research the books all that well. He thought it sounded like a great deal.

I also thought it sounded like a great deal. I love my Kindle, but I did do the research and I agree with you that the unlimited reading is missing good literature. Remember your pleasure at the little gifts your son gave you when he was in preschool. He did his best then, and he may have done his best this time, too. Smile, and say thank you, and hope you'll find something from time to time that you wil read.

226connie53
Editat: des. 6, 2015, 1:51 pm

>225 maggie1944: I think that is very good advice.

>224 arubabookwoman: Maybe you and your husband find new writers this way. You have access to them and it's for free. You can try them out without buying a book and get disappointed by it.

227maggie1944
des. 6, 2015, 12:42 pm

Connie, the Kindle was not going to me. And I have no husband to search for books with me. Ha ha ha. Have to do it all by myself and the help of all the LT friends who do such good work praising all the books they love. I do have a Kindle and I love it.

228connie53
des. 6, 2015, 1:51 pm

229qebo
des. 18, 2015, 6:20 pm

>213 arubabookwoman: Your memory is better than mine. Thanks for documenting details.
>215 arubabookwoman: Well the title and your first sentence caught my eye. Too bad about the rest.

230arubabookwoman
des. 20, 2015, 2:57 pm

GRRRRR!!!! Microsoft did something to my computer this week (Windows 10) and it keeps freezing, and I just lost a whole long post.

>221 BLBera: Beth--I think you would like Stephenson, esp. SevenEves. That was my first Stephenson, and I've since purchased Reamde, another 1000+ pager, for the TBR shelf.

>222 charl08: Charlotte, hopefully I'll get to James Miranda Barry today, but if not, I enjoyed it.

>223 maggie1944: Karen--I also used my commute time as prime reading time, so I had a hard time understanding why this guy did not.

>224 arubabookwoman:; >225 maggie1944: Karen and Connie--Thank you for your advice. My husband and I gave a lot of thought about what to do, and we finally decided that our son, who works hard for and is very careful with his money, would prefer to know that Kindle Unlimited was not what he thought it was. He read Amazon's advert, "unlimited reading" to mean "unlimited books", and when we told him that of the 600+ books on my wishlist, only 2 were on Kindle Unlimited he was concerned, and was totally okay with my suggestion that he ask for a refund.

Getting a refund from Amazon was a different story however. When my son asked for a refund they told him it was their policy not to give refund for Kindle Unlimited (even though it had not been used), although they cancelled it as of 12/17. When my son told me this I put on my lawyer language, and two supervisory levels later, Amazon agreed to issue something called a "promotional credit," which according to them means that it can be applied to the cost of Amazon purchases, but not to purchases from third party Amazon sellers, and not to sales tax or shipping costs.

I can't believe Amazon made it so difficult to get a refund for Kindle Unlimited. My husband works closely with someone who is a neighbor of Jeff Bezos, and I was about to tell the person I was talking to that I was going to call Jeff Bezos personally if I couldn't get them to change their "nonrefund" policy for Kindle Unlimited, but luckily it didn't come to that.

Anyway, on to reviews!

231arubabookwoman
des. 20, 2015, 3:13 pm

94. One For the Books by Joe Queenan

I enjoyed this collection of essays about books and the reading life. Did you know that the average American reads about 4 books a year and finds this "more than sufficient"? There was much discussion about why we read, and Queenan states that, "no matter what they may tell themselves most book lovers do not read primarily to obtain information or to while away the time or to better themselves or even, in the words of C.S. Lewis, to know that they are not alone. They read to escape to a more exciting rewarding world." Hmmm--I'm not sure I agree--What about you?

Other remarks of his that struck me related to how we read as we get older. After turning 64, Queenan states that he now only buys about 20 books a year, and that he is relying on his 1374 unread books to get him through the rest of his life. (He reads between 100 and 200 books a year). He states that as we age, "Life becomes a zero-sum affair, where every second spent reading mediocre books is time that could be spent reading great ones." Somewhat more depressingly, he also states that any book you read after age 60 "could be your last."

Unlike others in the "professional" book world, Queenan loves amateur reviewers like those on Amazon, because they are "fearless" when it comes to trashing high-profile authors with whom mainstream reviewers would hesitate mixing it up. However, he is not fond of public libraries, because "the wheat and the chaff are intermingled," and they are "filled with books I have made a deliberate point of never reading."

Beyond being full of witty thoughts about reading and books, One for the Books, is also full of some good reading recommendations, some I had heard of, but many that were more erudite.

Recommended.
3 1/2 stars

232arubabookwoman
des. 20, 2015, 3:26 pm

95. Trust No One by Paul Cleave

This is a psychological thriller with a protagonist suffering from early onset Alzheimers. Jerry Grey wrote brutal murder mysteries under the pen name Henry Cutter before his career was ended by this devastating diagnosis. He now lives in a group home, and has some clear days, although most days pass in a fog and he is unable to remember what happened. His daughter refuses to visit him, and his wife seems to have left the scene. Lately, he has taken to escaping the home and going "wandering." When he comes into awareness, he is in a police station, confessing to committing some brutal crimes. Fortunately, these confessions are similar to crimes he invented during his career as a murder mystery writer, and the police don't believe him and return him to his group home. Until one day, when some vicious murders begin occurring during the times Jerry is wandering and is unable to recall where he was or what he was doing.

This was a decent mystery read, and I'll read more by Christchurch author Cleave.

Recommended.

3 stars

233arubabookwoman
des. 20, 2015, 3:35 pm

We have a pattern going--here's another mystery with an Alzheimers-stricken protagonist:

96. Elizabeth Is Missing by Emma Healey

While ostensibly a psychological thriller/murder mystery, this is actually mostly a book about aging in its focus on the day-to-day life of an elderly woman suffering from worsening dementia.

Maud is losing her memory, but frequently thinks of her best friend Elizabeth and the wonderful times they have had. It occurs to her that it has been ages since she has seen Elizabeth, and she becomes convinced that Elizabeth is missing. Maud begins a quest to find Elizabeth--going to her home, where she never answers the doorbell, writing notes to herself to keep herself on track, reporting Elizabeth missing to the police, seeking help from Elizabeth's rather nasty son--but no one believes her that Elizabeth is missing.

All of this is entwined with a missing person's case from Maud's youth, 70 years ago when her own sister went missing and was never found.

I enjoyed this book for the most part, particularly its emphasis on certain uncomfortable aspects of aging. I found the ending a little too contrived however. Nevertheless, I recommend the book if it sounds like your kind of thing.

3 stars

234arubabookwoman
Editat: des. 20, 2015, 3:52 pm

97. The Harder They Come by T.C. Boyle

As this book opens, Sten and his wife Carolee are on a shore excursion from their Central American cruise. They are at a nature preserve in the jungle when a band of robbers demands that the group of travelers from the ship turn over their valuables. Something in Sten cracks, and he reverts to his training as a Marine in the Vietnam war. He grabs the leader of the robbers, the one with the gun, in a choke hold, and the other robbers flee. When it ends, the robber is dead, and Sten becomes an unlikely (and uncomfortable) hero.

After this prologue, the book is set in Mendocino California, where Sten is a retired school principal, and it focuses on Sten, his mentally disturbed son Adam, and Adam's much older lover Sarah, who has some pretty crazy ideas herself. Adam sees himself as a "mountain man," like John Colter, a historical figure. Sarah is an extreme libertarian, and ignores some of Adam's more schizophrenic behaviors. Sten and Carolee have suffered the anguish of trying to help Adam for years (unsuccessfully), and are now at the end of their rope. Tied in to the tragedy of these characters are issues relating to illegal immigration, drug use, the violence, particularly gun violence that seems endemic in American culture, the Homeland Security paranoia Americans seem to currently suffer, and other issues of our present day culture.

I liked this book a lot. However, while the prologue provided insight into Sten's character, I'm not sure that it added much to the issues that were the focus of the book, and I'm puzzled as to why Boyle included it. Apparently, it was based on a true event that occurred several years ago.

Recommended

4 stars

235arubabookwoman
des. 20, 2015, 3:58 pm

98. James Miranda Barry by Patricia Duncker

This is a novel of biographical historical fiction. It is based on the true story of a brilliant female physician who lived as a man under the name James Barry. The novel traces her/his life over the decades and on three continents (Europe, Africa and the Americas). There was a lot of focus on the issue of "why" did she become a he. James began cross-dressing as a child, and was encouraged to live as a man by her/his mother and her/his mother's lover, since at the time life for a woman was generally a life without choices. As a historical figure, he was known as a brilliant and excellent doctor.

Recommended.

3 stars

236connie53
des. 20, 2015, 4:14 pm

>230 arubabookwoman: I can see where the GRRRR is coming from. The story is just to silly!

**mumble** I need a lawyers language too **/mumble**

237arubabookwoman
Editat: des. 20, 2015, 4:40 pm

99. The Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King

This is an important book (it won the 2013 Pulitzer for Nonfiction), and I'm going to recommend it because of the importance of its subject matter. It tells an eye-opening and thrilling story. However, it does so in a confusing and convoluted way. I found it to be, for the most part, extremely disorganized and poorly written, and I couldn't believe that it had won a Pulitzer. I nearly gave up on it many times during the first 100 or so pages. After that it flowed better, but oh how I wish it was more competently written.

In 1949, in Groveland Florida a 17 year old white girl claimed to have been raped by 4 black men, and Sheriff Willis McCall went into action. Four innocent young men were blamed (one of whom was already in police custody for another matter at the time the rape allegedly occurred, but never mind). In short order, three of the young men were arrested and the fourth was killed "resisting arrest."

Riots were instigated by the KKK, and much of the black area of town was burned down. The three arrestees were brutally beaten and tortured, and two of them confessed to the rape; one refused to confess.

At the time the Groveland events were unfolding, future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall was an attorney for the NAACP deeply involved in the case that became the landmark school desegregation case, Brown v. Board of Education. Nevertheless, he signed on to defend the "Groveland Boys," as they were known. Marshall expected to lose the case at the trial level. The NAACP strategy at the time was to get these types of cases overturned at the appellate level, and that's how this case proceeded. The three surviving Groveland Boys were convicted at the trial level; two received the death penalty but one was given "only" a life sentence. Since at the time there was no guarantee that if the case were retried, the defendant who had initially received the life sentence would not then be sentenced to death, that defendant did not appeal.

The convictions of the other two defendants were overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. A few years later, when their cases were to be retried on remand, Sheriff McCall was transporting the two defendants, chained together, from the state penitentiary to the courthouse. McCall made it look like they were trying to escape and shot them both in cold blood. One of the defendants died, but the other lived. While the sheriff was investigated for this blatant act of murder, he was never charged or convicted. Thurgood Marshall called the failure to charge Sheriff McCall, "the worst case of injustice and whitewashing I have come across." McCall continued to be reelected as Groveland's sheriff until 1972, when he was indicted and suspended from office for kicking to death a mentally retarded black prisoner in his cell.

The now one remaining Groveland Boy was convicted on retrial and again sentenced to death. This time the Supreme Court did not overturn the conviction, and the last part of the book is an exciting page turner as we follow the legal maneuverings to attempt to save the final defendant from execution.

Although I've heard of other similar cases that occurred in the first half of the 20th century, I had never heard of the Groveland case. And, although the case went to the Supreme Court more than once, it is rarely mentioned in civil rights histories, law texts, or apparently even in biographies of Thurgood Marshall. At the time it was ongoing, the case itself and the various coverups generated little attention or outrage other than in the black newspapers. Perhaps I'm naïve, but this case shed so much light for me on how evil and corrupt the justice system was (and perhaps still is). It also shed light on how courageous the civil rights workers and lawyers were as they took on these cases, and other types of civil rights issues. (In fact the NAACP rep for the Groveland area died when his house was firebombed on Christmas day before the trial of the Groveland boys. The perpetrators were never found--and there is some suspicion that the sheriff may have had some type of involvement. Langston Hughes wrote a poem about the event: "The Ballad of Harry Moore.")

Again, although this book was for the most part not well-written, I'm going to highly recommend it.

3 1/2 stars

238arubabookwoman
des. 20, 2015, 4:45 pm

100. Windward Heights by Maryse Conde

This is a reimagining of Bronte's Wuthering Heights set on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. The Caribbean setting was wonderfully evoked, and Cathy and Rayze' (Heathcliff) were also wonderfully real. This version goes well beyond Bronte's issues of wealth and class, and also considers race and slavery as important factors in the story. I found this to be a complex and involving read.

4 stars

239arubabookwoman
des. 20, 2015, 5:42 pm

Will try to be back within a few days to finish up November reviews. I want to be all caught up by 12/28, when we are leaving for 10 days to NYC. We are going to visit our brand new grandson, born 12/4. Our 4th grandchild (I had none when I joined LT), 3rd grandson, named after my husband. I can't wait to hold him.

240BLBera
des. 20, 2015, 8:17 pm

Hi Deborah - You got me with the Boyle, Condé and Queenan. Lots of good reading here.

241PaulCranswick
des. 24, 2015, 12:49 pm



Have a lovely holiday, Deborah

242catarina1
des. 24, 2015, 1:03 pm

Wishing you a happy Christmas and a year full of wonderful reading.

243maggie1944
gen. 9, 2016, 8:24 pm

Excellent reviews, and if I did not have so many, so many, TBR books already I'd be adding them to my library, but at 71 I just can't see adding more books to piles of books I may not get to as it is.

Sigh.

Happy New Year. And I hope you are reading some good books. And that your trip to NY was excellent. Babies are just so darn much fun, aren't they?