Rebeccanyc Reads from the TBR . . . Or Does She? Volume IV

Currently Reading

 

Read in December
88. Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado*
87. The Liar's Wife: Four Novellas by Mary Gordon
86. The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel
85. The Girl with the Golden Eyes and Other Stories by Honoré de Balzac
84. The Murder of Harriet Krohn by Karin Fossum
83. The Discovery of America by the Turks by Jorge Amado
82. The Amsterdam Cops by Janwillem van de Wetering

Read in November
81. Flaw by Magdalena Tulli
80. Black Seconds by Karin Fossum
79. The War of the Saints by Jorge Amado*
78. He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope*
77. Shadows of Carcosa: Tales of Cosmic Horror edited by D. Thin
76. A Beam of Light by Andrea Camilleri

Read in October
75. The Perfidious Parrot by Janwillem van de Wetering
74. Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar
73. The Indian Bride by Karin Fossum
72. The Beckoning Ice by Joan Druett
71. Deadly Shoals by Joan Druett (started in September)

Read in September
70. The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta by Mario Vargas Llosa
69. Run Afoul by Joan Druett
68. Shark island by Joan Druett
67. The Duke's Children by Anthony Trollope
66. A Watery Grave by Joan Druett
65. The Man of My Life by Manuel Vásquez Montalban
64. Island of the Lost: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World by Joan Druett*
63. When the Devil Holds the Candle by Karin Fossum

Read in August
62, The Lights of Pointe-Noire by Alain Mabanckou*

Discussed on Previous Threads (touchstones not loading properly; will try again later)

Read in August
61. Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo
60. He Who Fears the Wolf by Karin Fossum
59. The Prank: The Best of Young Chekhov by Anton Chekhov
58. The Harp and the Shadow by Alejo Carpentier*
57. Let Me Tell You: New Stories, Essays, and Other Writings by Shirley Jackson
56. Eva's Eye by Karin Fossum
55. The Prime Minister by Anthony Trollope
54. Don't Look Back by Karin Fossum
53. Deception by Denise Mina (in the UK, this is Sanctum) (started in July)

Read in July
52. Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands by Jorge Amado*
51. Desert by J.M.G. Le Clézio
50. Believing the Lie by Elizabeth George
49. The invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares
48. The Buddha's Return by Gaito Gazdanov
47. Russian Magic Tales from Pushkin to Platonov edited by Robert Chandler (started in May)
46. Hit Me by Lawrence Block
45. Hit and Run by Lawrence Block
44. Phineas Redux by Anthony Trollope (started in June)

Read in June
43. Hit Parade by Lawrence Block
42. Hit List by Lawrence Block
41. Hit Man by Lawrence Block
40. Just a Corpse at Twilight by Janwillem van de Wetering
39. Juan the Landless by Juan Goytisolo
38. Dark City Lights: New York Stories edited by Lawrence Block
37. The Buenos Aires Quintet by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán
36. La Débâcle by Émile Zola (started in May)

Read in May
35. Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky
34. Tyrant Banderas by Ramón del Valle-Inclán*
33. The Earth by Émile Zola*
32. Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession by Janet Malcolm
31. The Dead Mountaineer's Inn by Boris Strugatsky and Arkady Strugatsky*
30. The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm* (started in April)

Read in April
29. Voyage along the Horizon by Javier Marías
28. The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession by Allison Hoover Bartlett
27. The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope
26. The Suitcase by Sergei Dovlatov*
25. An Olympic Death by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán
24. Thus Were Their Faces by Silvina Ocampo (started in March)
23. Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen by Mary Norris*
22. Tristana by Benito Pérez Galdós
21. Game of Mirrors by Andrea Camilleri
20. The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes by Anonymous
19. The Wrong Side of Paris by Honoré de Balzac* (started in March)

Read in March
18. Pushkin Hills by Sergei Dovlatov*
17. The Discreet Hero by Mario Vargas Llosa
16. The Hollow-Eyed Angel by Janwillem van de Wetering
15. Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope
14. Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller
13. Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai*
12. Hard Rain by Janwillem van de Wetering

Read in February
11. The Three Leaps of Wang Lun by Alfred Döblin*
10. Russian Short Stories from Pushkin to Buida edited by Robert Chandler*
9. The Rattle-Rat by Janwillem ven de Wetering
8. The Manuscript Found in Saragossa by Jan Potocki*

Read in January
7. Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope
6. The Streetbird by Janwillem van de Wetering
5. My Kind of Girl by Buddhadeva Bose
4. The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope*
3. Honeydew by Edith Pearlman*
2. The Mind-Murders by Janwillem van de Wetering
1. Orient Express (Stamboul Train) by Graham Greene

List by Country of Books Read (Nationality of Author)

Africa
Congo
The Lights of Pointe-Noire by Alain Mabanckou

Asia
India
Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai
My Kind of Girl by Buddhadeva Bose

Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania
The Beckoning Ice by Joan Druett
Deadly Shoals by Joan Druett
Run Afoul by Joan Druett
Shark island by Joan Druett
A Watery Grave by Joan Druett
island of the Lost by joan Druett

Europe
England & the UK
The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel
He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope
Shadows of Carcosa: Tales of Cosmic Horror edited by D. Thin
The Duke's Children by Anthony Trollope
The Prime Minister by Anthony Trollope
Deception by Denise Mina (in the UK, this is Sanctum)
Phineas Redux by Anthony Trollope
The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope
Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope
Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller
Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope
The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
Orient Express by Graham Greene(Stamboul Train) by Graham Greene

France
The Girl with the Golden Eyes and Other Stories by Honoré de Balzac
Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo
Desert by J.M.G. Le Clézio
La Débâcle by Émile Zola
The Earth by Émile Zola
The Wrong Side of Paris by Honoré de Balzac

Germany
The Three Leaps of Wang Lun by Alfred Doblin

Italy
A Beam of Light by Andrea Camilleri
Game of Mirrors by Andrea Camilleri

Poland
Flaw by Magdalena Tulli
The Manuscript Found in Saragossa by Jan Potocki

The Netherlands
The Amsterdam Cops by Janwillem van de Wetering
The Perfidious Parrot by Janwillem van de Wetering
Just a Corpse at Twilight by Janwillem van de Wetering
The Hollow-Eyed Angel by Janwillem van de Wetering
Hard Rain by Janwillem van de Wetering
The Rattle-Rat by Janwillem van de Wetering
The Streetbird by Janwillem van de Wetering
The Mind-Murders by Janwillem van de Wetering

Norway
The Murder of Harriet Krohn by Karin Fossum
Black Seconds by Karin Fossum
The Indian Bride by Karin Fossum
When the Devil Holds the Candle by Karin Fossum
He Who Fears the Wolf by Karin Fossum
Eva's Eye by Karin Fossum
Don't Look Back by Karin Fossum

Russia
The Prank: The Best of Young Chekhov by Anton Chekhov
The Buddha's Return by Gaito Gazdanov
Russian Magic Tales from Pushkin to Platonov edited by Robert Chandler
Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky
The Dead Mountaineer's Inn by Boris Strugatsky and Arkady Strugatsky
The Suitcase by Sergei Dovlatov
Pushkin Hills by Sergei Dovlatov
Russian Short Stories from Pushkin to Buida edited by Robert Chandler

Spain
Juan the Landless by Juan Goytisolo
The Buenos Aires Quintet by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán
Tyrant Banderas by Ramón del Valle-Inclán
Voyage along the Horizon by Javier Marías
An Olympic Death by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán
Tristana by Benito Pérez Galdós
The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes by Anonymous

South and Central America and the Caribbean
Argentina
Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar
The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares
Thus Were Their Faces by Silvina Ocampo

Brazil
Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado
The Discovery of America by the Turks by Jorge Amado
The War of the Saints by Jorge Amado
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands by Jorge Amado

Cuba
The Harp and the Shadow by Alejo Carpentier

Peru
The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta by Mario Vargas Llosa
The Discreet Hero by Mario Vargas Llosa

USA and Canada
US Fiction
The Liar's Wife: Four Novellas by Mary Gordon
Shadows of Carcosa: Tales of Cosmic Horror edited by D. Thin
Let Me Tell You: New Stories, Essays, and Other Writings by Shirley Jackson
Believing the Lie by Elizabeth George
Hit Me by Lawrence Block
Hit and Run by Lawrence Block
Hit Parade by Lawrence Block
Hit List by Lawrence Block
Hit Man by Lawrence Block
Dark City Lights: New York Stories edited by Lawrence Block
Honeydew by Edith Pearlman

US Nonfiction
Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession by Janet Malcolm
The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm
The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession by Allison Hoover Bartlett

List by Time Written of Books Read (touchstones not loading properly; will try again later)

21st Century
The Liar's Wife: Four Novellas by Mary Gordon
The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel
The Murder of Harriet Krohn by Karin Fossum
Flaw by Magdalena Tulli
Black Seconds by Karin Fossum
A Beam of Light by Andrea Camilleri
The Indian Bride by Karin Fossum
The Beckoning Ice by Joan Druett
Deadly Shoals by Joan Druett
Run Afoul by Joan Druett
Shark island by Joan Druett
A Watery Grave by Joan Druett
The Lights of Pointe-Noire by Alain Mabanckou
Deception by Denise Mina (in the UK, this is Sanctum)
Believing the Lie by Elizabeth George
Hit Me by Lawrence Block
Hit and Run by Lawrence Block
Hit Parade by Lawrence Block
Dark City Lights: New York Stories edited by Lawrence Block
The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession by Allison Hoover Bartlett
Game of Mirrors by Andrea Camilleri
The Discreet Hero by Mario Vargas Llosa
Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller
Honeydew by Edith Pearlman

20th Century
Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado
The Discovery of America by the Turks by Jorge Amado
The Amsterdam Cops by Janwillem van de Wetering
The War of the Saints by Jorge Amado
Shadows of Carcosa: Tales of Cosmic Horror edited by D. Thin
The Perfidious Parrot by Janwillem van de Wetering
Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar
The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta by Mario Vargas Llosa
When the Devil Holds the Candle by Karin Fossum
He Who Fears the Wolf by Karin Fossum
The Harp and the Shadow by Alejo Carpentier
Let Me Tell You: New Stories, Essays, and Other Writings by Shirley Jackson
Eva's Eye by Karin Fossum
Don't Look Back by Karin Fossum
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands by Jorge Amado
Desert by J.M.G. Le Clézio
The invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares
The Buddha's Return by Gaito Gazdanov
Russian Magic Tales from Pushkin to Platonov edited by Robert Chandler
Hit Parade by Lawrence Block
Hit List by Lawrence Block
Hit Man by Lawrence Block
Just a Corpse at Twilight by Janwillem van de Wetering
Juan the Landless by Juan Goytisolo
The Buenos Aires Quintet by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán
Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky
Tyrant Banderas by Ramón del Valle-Inclán
Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession by Janet Malcolm
The Dead Mountaineer's Inn by Boris Strugatsky and Arkady Strugatsky
The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm
Voyage along the Horizon by Javier Marías
The Suitcase by Sergei Dovlatov
An Olympic Death by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán
Thus Were Their Faces by Silvina Ocampo
Pushkin Hills by Sergei Dovlatov
Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai
The Three Leaps of Wang Lun by Alfred Doblin
All the Janwillem van de Weterings
Russian Short Stories from Pushkin to Buida edited by Robert Chandler (some stories)
My Kind of Girl by Buddhadeva Bose
Orient Express by Graham Greene

19th Century
The Girl with the Golden Eyes and Other Stories by Honoré de Balzac
He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope
Shadows of Carcosa: Tales of Cosmic Horror edited by D. Thin
The Duke's Children by Anthony Trollope
Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo
The Prank: The Best of Young Chekhov by Anton Chekhov
The Prime Minister by Anthony Trollope
Russian Magic Tales from Pushkin to Platonov edited by Robert Chandler
Phineas Redux by Anthony Trollope
La Débâcle by Émile Zola
The Earth by Émile Zola
The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope
Tristana by Benito Pérez Galdós
The Wrong Side of Paris by Honoré de Balzac
Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope
Russian Short Stories from Pushkin to Buida edited by Robert Chandler (some stories)
The Manuscript Found in Saragossa by Jan Potocki
Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope
The Way We Were by Anthony Trollope

16th Century
The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes by Anonymous

Books Recommended by Others
(Idea for this stolen from Deebee's thread)

Carried Over from Previous Years
The Recognitions by William Gaddis Recommended by EnriqueFreeque
Arabian Sands and The Marsh Arabs by Wilfred Thesiger Recommended by Linda92007
The Exile Book of Yiddish Women Writers and Found Treasures edited by Frieda Johles Forman Recommended by Cyrel/torontoc
Mao's Last Revolution by Roderick MacFarquhar and Michael Schoenhals Recommended by Edwin
In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language by Joel Hoffman Recommended by Jonathan
A Natural History of Latin by Tore Janson Recommended by Jonathan
Story of a Secret State by Jan Karski Recommended by Lisa
The Medusa Frequency by Russell Hoban Recommended by Suzanne/Poquette
The Dream of Scipio by Iain Pears Recommended by Suzanne/poquette

New Recommendations for 2015
By Night the Mountain Burns by Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel Recommended by SassyLassy
The Fortunes of Africa by Martin Meredith Recommended by AnnieMod
Books Burn Badly by Manuel Rivas Recommended by charl08
Outlaws by J

Project TBR Explanation and List (from previous thread)

Well, in two days, on July 14, it will be my 9th Thingaversary. In thinking about this, not only have I reflected on the enormous difference LT has made in my life, from "meeting" other booklovers to reading books I would otherwise not have tried or even heard of, but I've also realized how enormous my TBR has grown. So, as I noted above, I've decided not to buy new books for my Thingaversary, as has become the tradition, but to look through my TBR (virtually) and identify 10 books that have been on my TBR for more than a year that I will try to read over the remainder of the year. I am calling this Project TBR.

Needless to say, this wasn't easy! I have 636 books in my Hope To Read Soon Collection, and this mostly includes books acquired since I joined LT; there are many more unread books on my shelves that predate LT. From these 636 books, I put 164 into a Project TBR Possibilities, based on a feeling that I would like to read these sooner, rather than later. This was still too many, so I struggled and put 51 in a Project TBR collection, based on feeling that I would read these sooner sooner. Of course, this was still too many, so I narrowed it down to these ten titles, with some runners-up, all subject of course to how I feel at the moment that I need to choose a new book. My "rule" is that I can substitute any book for any other one, as long as it has been on my TBR for over a year. (Nearly all of these titles are by authors I might not have read if it weren't for LT, and some are direct LT recommendations.)

Project TBR
✓Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands or ✓War of the Saints or ✓Discovery of America by the Turks by Jorge Amado
Collected Tales by Nikolai Gogol
✓The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares
✓The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta or The Bad Girl by Mario Vargas Llosa
✓Flaw by Magdalena Tulli
Reasons of State or ✓The Harp and the Shadow by Alejo Carpentier
Cousin Bette by Honore de Balzac
Heart of a Dog or Diaboliad Other Stories by Mikhail Bulgakov
Satantango or The Melancholy of Resistance or Seiobo There Below by Laszlo Krasznahorkai
✓Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo

Runners-Up
Why Translation Matters by Edith Grossman
The Obscene Bird of Night by Jose Donoso
Palinuro of Mexico by Fernando del Paso
✓Island of the Lost by Joan Druett
Therese Raquin by Emile Zola
The Third Tower by Antal Szerb
The Land Breakers by John Ehle (on TBR since last December, so not a year
the Heart of Midlothian by Walter Scott (ditto)

Substitutes
✓Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar
✓The Girl with the Golden Eyes and Other Stories by Honoré de Balzac

I've not included in this list TBR books that I'll read for the Reading Globally theme read on Nobel laureates who didn't write in English, and of course I've not included books I'll pick up on the spur of the moment. But I am committed to making a (small) dent in my TBR in the second half of this year.

Continuing on about Notre Dame de Paris - enjoyed your review, and I ended up liking the architectural digressions as well (and the goat). I never actually saw the Disney movie, but we played the music from it for the school band, so sometimes I would unfortunately have Disney music going in my head when I was reading.

Just following you over. Notre Dame de Paris is one of those books I have and have been "meaning to read" forever, it seems. Perhaps in retirement I will get to the French novelists, of whom have no experience at all. I did have a vague idea of the plot before reading your review, but it seems there is much more to gain from reading this novel than the mere story.

62. The Lights of Pointe-Noire by Alain Mabanckou



I have enjoyed Alain Mabanckou's novels, so I snapped up this memoir as soon as I learned about it. The source of this memoir is his return, 26 years after he left for France, to the town in Congo where he grew up, Pointe-Noire, because he has been invited to talk at what is still called the French Cultural Center.

The first part of the memoir, called First Week (he is there for about two weeks), centers on his memories of his childhood, mediated through encounters with relatives from his extended family. I really liked this section and the way Mabanckou seamlessly switches back and forth between the past and the present. Although he was the only child of his mother (two older sisters had died as infants), his stepfather had been previously married (in fact, he continued to see this woman while he was with Mabanckou's mother, a practice apparently accepted by all), so he had lots of stepsisters and stepbrothers and various cousins. Their families had migrated from villages in the interior to this coastal town.

The second part, called Last Week, is more focused on institutions, people, and neighborhoods and how they changed over the intervening years. For example, the movie theater where he and his friends spent countless hours had become a church, and although the pastor and parishioners wanted to kick him out, the owner was still glad to see him again. Another example is his philosophy teacher who was required, under the communist regime, to teach Marx and Engels, but who gave them short shrift and focused instead on classical and other real philosophers. And another is the library at the French Cultural Center, which surely gave young Alain his love of literature, even though he thought you had to start with the authors whose names began with "A" and work your way through the alphabet.

This memoir is loving, if pointed (everyone he met wanted money from him), insightful and charming. It is enhanced by black and white photographs of the people Mabanckou met in Pointe-Noire. Surely "the lights" of Pointe-Noire are its people.

>7 DieFledermaus: >8 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks, DieF and Linda, for stopping by. I've been reading a lot of French novelists, mostly 19th century, over the past few years, Linda, and my favorite is Zola, but I like Balzac, Dumas, and Hugo too (although not everything I've read by him).

>9 rebeccanyc: It isn't the first time you've told us about Alain Mabanckou I think, but strangely enough he isn't in my wishlist yet. I think I will remedy that, but maybe start with Verre cassé (Broken Glass). Or not. This memoir sounds very good.

I've got The Lights of Pointe Noire in the pile from the library.

Thanks for the nudge to get on and read it!

>11 FlorenceArt: I enjoyed Broken Glass, although probably not as much as Memoirs of a Porcupine.

I have missed almost all of your threads from the year, but am starting anew to try and keep up with all of your wonderful reading and reviews. I enjoyed learning about your TBR project. I need to do something similar, as my TBR is out of control (as is my wishlist). Fortunately, I have not purchased many books of late, although I have not been reading much, so the ratio remains the same.

I enjoyed Gogol's collected stories and even wrote a paper about magical realism and one of the stories featuring a flying pig, if I remember correctly. Desert by Le Clézio remains on my read-sooner-than-later table...

Nice review of The Lights of Pointe-Noire, Rebecca. I have it and Letter to Jimmy on my Kindle, and I plan to read both books later this year.

>14 labfs39: Thanks, Lisa. It's nice to see you here. I loved Dead Souls, so I'm definitely up for more Gogol.

>15 kidzdoc: Thanks, Darryl. I know you're another Mabanckou fan. I hadn't heard of Letter to Jimmy, so thanks for letting me know about it.

63. When the Devil Holds the Candle by Karin Fossum



This was an exceedingly disturbing novel, the fourth in the Inspector Sejer series. Andreas and Zipp are two young men with time on their hands, who drift into purse snatching to pay for beer and taunting girls and children for the fun of it. Andreas is the leader and he has secrets; Zipp is very much the follower. Irma Funder is an unstable, "crazy" woman of 60 or so, who steadfastly maintains she is normal. Fossum has an uncanny ability to get inside Irma's head as she muses incessantly. When Andreas and Zipp collide with Irma, tragic consequences result. Andreas has disappeared as the novel opens, and the reader gradually learns what happens, as do, eventually, Inspector Sejer and his young sidekick (who I like more and more) Jacob Skarre. It is all very unsettling and creepy (and the reader learns even more unsettling things at the end). (As a side note, Sejer and Sara have gotten together and she is busy trying to shake up his very settled life with a lot of fun, as she sees it.)

>17 rebeccanyc: They really are a lot of fun to read, Rebecca...although creepy is an apt description.

Yes, Colleen, and I owe my introduction to Fossum to you, as well as the other book I'm reading, Island of the Lost, although I think Chris might have mentioned it on LT before you.

Yes, Chris read it first, and told me I would love it, which I did.

>20 NanaCC: Colleen, a friend who I just showed Island of the Lost to noticed on the back cover that Joan Druett also wrote a series of maritime mysteries! So I've just ordered the first of them, A Watery Grave.

>21 rebeccanyc: Oh, that is interesting. I read the kindle version, so would not have noticed that. I'll have to look.

Project TBR: Book #5 (on TBR since 8/5/13)

64. Island of the Lost: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World by Joan Druett



I owe reading this wonderful book to one current Club Reader and one former Club Reader, Colleen (NanaCC) and Chris (cabegley), and Colleen's excellent review is one the book page.

In prose that's completely and compellingly readable, Druett tells the tale of two shipwrecks, within a few months of each other, on remote, stormy Auckland Island, south of New Zealand, that had very different fates. The Grafton ran aground first, in early January 1864 (which was the equivalent of July in the southern hemisphere), and the five crew members were able to get to shore on the southern end of the island and save the ship's boat and various other items from the wreck Four months later, in early May (the equivalent of November), the Invercauld was shipwrecked on the northern end of the island; it had a much bigger crew and 19 of them survived. But there their stories took very different turns.

The international Grafton crew stuck together, built a shelter, kept busy, had good leadership in the captain (Musgrave) and the mate (Raynal) who had previously worked in Australia's gold fields and was incredibly ingenious in making necessary items out of seemingly nothing. They evolved into a more democratic kind of arrangement, electing the captain as leader, and at night taught each other about things they each wanted to learn (reading and writing for the seamen, other languages for the officers, and more). Some of the things Raynal was able to make amazed me, including soap and a forge and bellows. Of course, the group suffered greatly. The weather was generally appallingly terrible, and the sea lions they relied on for the bulk of their food were not always available. They had hopes of being rescued because they had extracted a promise from the men who sent them on this journey to send a search party if they failed to come back in four months; winter intervened but their hopes rose in the spring, only to be dashed. They finally saved themselves, through a completely remarkable effort that I will not describe because it deserves to be read.

The crew of the Invercauld, on the other hand, did not stick together, had no leadership, quarreled with each other, hinted that cannibalism would be the way out, and largely died of starvation and accidents. The only hard-working and determined person was, apparently, a seaman, Holding, who could not get the captain and mate to cooperate with him when he tried to find food and create shelter; indeed they decided that since they were officers they should live separately from him. They were the only three survivors and were rescued by a passing ship. But Druett points out that

"It must be added, however, that while Musgrave's moral strength and Raynal's ingenuity played a large part in the survival of the Grafton group, they were fortunate in that they were stranded in the early summer when the sea lions were gathering to pup, and that they were able to cannibalize the wreck to make a sturdy house. Though they were just novice sealers, they were mentally prepared to kill the animals, which the survivors from the Invercauld were not." p. 280

In the course of this book, which almost reads like a novel, Druett explains and explores many topics, including sealing and its unintended impact, attempts by various groups to live on Auckland and other islands, life in the gold fields, how to build a good shelter, how a forge works, and much more. All of this is worked into the story. At the end, in an Author's Note, she discusses how we know all this. It turns out that many of the men worked their diaries into books (that may have embellished the facts; interestingly, Musgrave's and Raynal's books differ in some points, as do Holding's and those published by the captain of the Invercauld. Druett explains how she decided what to put in her book.

I couldn't put this book down. It made me think of Cherry-Garrard's The Worst Journey in the World in which resourcefulness and determination and sticking together almost overcome horrific weather and events.

>23 rebeccanyc: Ooh, I love this sort of book. I'll probably get it from the library soon.

>23 rebeccanyc: I'm so glad that you liked this book, Rebecca. I also found that I couldn't put it down when I read it, but I'm always afraid of "overselling".

Great review.

I do love a good shipwreck, so two are even better. I remember NanaCC reviewing it and now here it another great review.
Hmmm, it must be time for another seafaring book....

A very enticing review. Only my own TBR goals prevent me from adding it to the wishlist.

Great review R. Colleen's review stuck in my head too, well, vaguely, as some really intense book about shipwrecks somewhere isolated in the South Pacific. Anyway, fun to read your take.

Thanks, all! It was a really fun and compelling book.

Excellent review. I'll pick up a copy of this for my husband, who will enjoy the ingenuity aspect.

I've had this book on my wishlist since Colleen's review; thank you for reminding me to get to it!

Enjoyed your review of Island of the Lost I am thinking that this may be a good book club choice.

Thanks!

The Druett is very very tempting!!! From yr. last thread I've put Fossum into the WL for my spousal unit who likes those gritty mysteries and . . I had one other comment about something from the last thread - the Carpentier, yes, that is tempting too.

>34 sibylline: I thought the Druett might appeal to you, Lucy! Thanks for stopping by.

65. The Man of My Life by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán



This is without doubt both the most depressing and the most philosophical Pepe Carvalho mystery I've read. The novel opens with Pepe back in Barcelona (from his trip to Argentina) and the reappearance of Charo, who had vanished for seven years to Andorra as the kept woman of one of her former clients (he has paid for her to open a cosmetics store in Barcelona); she calls Pepe "the man of my life." But she is not the only one who will do so. Pepe has just acquired a fax machine, thanks to his office assistant Biscuter, and he receives endless and mysterious faxes from a woman who seemingly knows about all his cases; who she is, and the role she played in his life (and will play), is revealed about half way through the book. Pepe is supposedly investigating the murder of a young man who was involved in one of many cults, a satanic one in fact, and this investigation takes Pepe into the world of religion and cults and, lo and behold, many are politically connected and involved in, or against, the idea of statehood for Catalonia and other "stateless nations." Oh, it's the turn of the millennium too! Not much happens for stretches in the book as Pepe explores idea after idea, but the book was enjoyable and ultimately shocking.

With this book I've completed (I think) the Montalbáns that have been translated into English. I've read them mostly in order, but I hope more are translated.

>36 rebeccanyc:. How many of these mysteries have been translated into English? It looks like there are a lot in the series.

>37 NanaCC: In order, they are Tattoo (2), The Angst-Ridden Executive (3), Southern Seas (4), Murder in the Central Committee (5), Off Side (14), An Olympic Death (16), The Buenos Aires Quintet (20), and this one, The Man of My Life (21). There are 23 in all, so most haven't been translated.

Casting back a couple threads, to a book you reviewed in May, I think, Roadside Picnic...I thought at the time that it sounded like my husband's kind of book, so I bought it for his June birthday. He just started it over the Labor Day weekend, and it has him hooked. So thank you, from him and from me!

Linda, I'm so glad that worked out! It was kind of an unusual read for me, since I'm not a science fiction reader, but I was so entranced by The Dead Mountaineer's Inn that I wanted to read the Strugatsky brothers' most famous book.

66. A Watery Grave by Joan Druett



When I saw on the back cover of Druett's wonderful Island of the Lost that she had written a "maritime mystery series," I knew I had to snap up at least the first one. This first one is more maritime than mystery, but I enjoyed it and will keep reading even though a lot of the seafaring lingo goes right by me. The series features Wiki Coffin, half Maori but raised in the US since he was 12 by his American captain father. He ran off to sea himself as a teenager, and now finds himself as the "linguister" on the US Exploring Expedition that, in the early 1830s, offered scientists of various kinds the opportunity to explore the oceans of the world. Right before the expedition sets off, Wiki is wrongfully arrested for the murder of a woman whose husband is to be one of the astronomers on the trip; the sheriff then deputizes Wiki (because he's impressed by his reasoning and investigative skills) to continue the investigation on the ships that make up the expedition. Danger stalks the ships, not least because the murderer wants to get rid of the people who were in on the plot, and Wiki has to contend with people who consider him less than them because of his half-Maori background. Some of the most interesting parts of this books dealt with Wiki's interactions with other seamen from the South Pacific. In the end, Wiki wins over a captain who had been tyrannical and prejudiced and, with much excitement, solves the mystery and saves the day.

>41 rebeccanyc: Interesting to see a mystery from Druett. I read Island of the Lost on my Kindle, so didn't have the 'back cover'. Will you continue this series?

>42Yes, Colleen. In fact, I've already ordered them, including two out-of-print titles from ABE Books. I like the Wiki character and the idea of a scientific expedition.

>23 rebeccanyc: - Great review of Island of the Lost, Rebecca - some of the stuff they made does sound almost Gilligan's Island-esque. For some reason, I have a mild prejudice against ship-based books, but this one sounds pretty interesting.

Island of the Lost seems to fit right in with the book I just finished reading The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton which is set in the NZ gold fields during the same time period. It would be interesting to look at another perspective.

>44 DieFledermaus: I'd never read many ship-based books before this, DieF.

>45 janeajones: Interestingly, Jane, the mate, Raynal, had worked in the gold fields and Druett attributes some of his ingenuity and democratic leanings to that experience. It also was bad for his health. I've had The Luminaries for some years, but it's such a tome I can't take it on the subway.

Rebecca, it is long, and I may have been daunted by it in book form, but I started reading it on my kindle when we were on a road trip and couldn't put it down.

Another fan of The Luminaries. Although what a brick!

67. The Duke's Children by Anthony Trollope



I was discouraged when one of my favorite Trollope characters, Lady Glencora, dies unexpectedly in the first chapter of this, the last of the Palliser series. But gradually I warmed to the story of the Duke's challenges in the mostly unfamiliar role of shepherding his almost-grown children to full adulthood.

Lord Silverbridge, the eldest, has been expelled from Oxford for a prank, is involved with an unsavory character who co-owns a race horse with him, and espouses conservative politics and seeks to get elected to Parliament from the local district as a conservative (his father, who had been the prime minister, had always been a liberal). His father wants him to settle down and get married, and is relieved when he mentions his intention to marry Lady Mabel Grex. But she turns him down (although she actually comes to want to marry him), and Silverbridge falls in love with an American girl, Isabel Bocassen, whose father is studying at the British Library.

Lady Mary, the next child, has fallen in love with Silverbridge's closest friend, Francis (Frank) Treager, who is completely unsuitable, according to the Duke's way of thinking, because he has no money and no title. Much of the novel is devoted to Mary's pining away for Treager and her "obstinate" refusal to consider any other suitor. Gerald, the youngest, gets kicked out of Cambridge, runs up a huge gambling debt, and ultimately is admitted to Oxford. He gets the shortest shrift, the novel basically being about Silverbridge and Mary.

Of course, as in any Trollope novel, there are subplots, but this book, of all that I've read so far, makes least use of them. The book is basically about how the Duke comes to accept his children's marriage choices, influenced by several others including the always delightful Mrs. Finn, largely because he comes to realize that he wants to see them happy. But it is also about the difference between English and American attitudes towards marriage, the role of women and the need for poor women to marry someone with money even if they love someone poor, horse racing, and hunting.

I am sorry to leave the Pallisers; next up the Barsetshires.

68. Shark Island by Joan Druett



As i continue the Wiki Coffin series, I continue to be intrigued by the character of Wiki and the insight into Pacific island customs. The plotting is mixed up with a lot of ship and sea lingo that mostly goes right by me, although I'm sure I'm subconsciously absorbing a lot of it. In this novel, Wiki and the crew of the Swallow, part of the 1830s US Exploring Expedition, encounter a ship that has run aground on Shark Island, formerly the site of a prison, and another that has sprung a leak trying to get to the one that had run aground. Soon the captain of the leaking ship is killed, followed by a crew member from the Swallow; the captain's wife has been aboard the ship and it turns out that Wiki knows her from his time living with his American father in Connecticut. Now Wiki, and his friend George Rochester, must investigate before the killer kills again.

>49 rebeccanyc: Great review of The Duke's Children. I'll start this series next year. I'm looking forward to The Pallisers.

>50 rebeccanyc: Will you continue with this series, Rebecca? I think I will need to try it.

Thanks, Colleen, and yes. I had to order two of the titles from ABE Books because they're apparently out of print.

I can only agree that it is the worst when Trollope kills off a favorite character. In my case, my favorite character in The Warden dies before Barchester Towers even begins.

69. Run Afoul by Joan Druett



This Wiki Coffin mystery finds him more on land, in Rio, than at sea, and he encounters his American father (a sea captain) and, indeed, saves him from a murder charge. The story starts with Wiki sent to the main ship of the Exploring Expeditions (against his will) and having to room initially with a scientist on who falls ill -- and suspects he's been poisoned (and others think he's been poisoned too, when he dies). Then the ship he was supposed to be on "runs afoul" of his father's ship. Various complications ensue, including inquests and romance, and Wiki develops a new relationship with his father who has complicated relationships himself with some members of Rio society. The scientists are sent on a land expedition, and there is quite a coincidence at the end. As before, the character of Wiki and the others and the setting, whether it be on sea or on land, make this series for me.

70. The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta by Mario Vargas Llosa



This is a complex book, as much about storytelling as it is about the ostensible subject, the unsuccessful revolutionary Alejandro Mayta. Each chapter starts with a writer, who says he went to Catholic school with Mayta and has been interested in him ever since, interviewing someone who knew Mayta, but then switching, in typical Vargas Llosa style, back and forth without attribution between Mayta's life and the interviews. (The main action of the novel took place in the late 50s, the interviews 25 years later.) The writer assures everyone he talks to that he is making up the life of Mayta, that it will be fiction, and that he won't use their names. (Of course he does.)

It turns out that Mayta, as described by the writer, started caring about the poor early on and even limited his food so he could experience what they experienced. He later joined a very small offshoot of a very small communist party -- the Revolutionary Worker's Party (Trotskyist), or RWP(T) -- which only seems to have seven members. At a birthday party for a relative, he meets a lieutenant, Vallejos, who appears to be involved in a revolutionary plot in the Andes where he works running a jail in the town of Jauja. Mayta is entranced by the possibility of action, rather than talk, but fails to convince the other members of his party; in fact, they suggest that Vallejos might be an informer. And, it turns out, Mayta is gay, and that ultimately gets him kicked out of the RWP(T), although they state it is for more high-minded revolutionary reasons. Inevitably, Mayta goes to Jauja, the plot of course fails (but why?), and it is a mystery what happened to both Vallejos and Mayta until the very end of the novel. Through this plot, Vargas Llosa satirizes much "revolutionary" activity.

But this plot summary is infinitely more straightforward than the novel. Not only is it occasionally hard to figure out who is talking and what is happening, but part of the novel is about how the writer does his interviewing and what he makes up and what is real. At the end, the "truth" about Mayta is revealed. But is it true? The reader doesn't know.

I am a Vargas Llosa fan, but this wasn't one of my favorites of his.

TBR Note: This book has been on my TBR shelves since January 2010, but I'm not counting it for Project TBR since I read it for the Reading Globally theme read on Nobel Laureates who didn't write in English.

But this plot summary is infinitely more straightforward than the novel.

That comment doesn't encourage me. But sounds like an interesting challenge, although maybe not an entirely rewarding one.

But all (well almost all) of Vargas Llosa is like that. And his best is well worth reading.

Well then...I'll just need to start with a rewarding one. I was mainly commenting on how complicated the plot already seemed before that sentence.

The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta is on my TBR (but not planned for any time soon). The subject matter interests me, but I'll be forewarned to expect a challenging style.

This was my first and favourite Vargas Llosa book, and your review makes me think I should reread it to find out why that is so. I try to reread one or two of my favourites each year, but so far I've only managed Kidnapped.

>58 dchaikin: >59 StevenTX: >60 SassyLassy: My favorite Vargas Llosa is one of the earliest I read (and that makes me think, Sassy, that maybe we always like best one of the early ones we read), The War of the End of the World, which even more than The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta switches back and forth between people speaking and time. I've read almost everything by Vargas Llosa, so I have a lot of other favorites too.

Interesting that you try to reread favorites, Sassy. Although I have some books I've reread, I generally subscribe to the too many books, too little time principle.

>61 rebeccanyc: I know what you mean about the "too many books, too little time" principle, but then there is what I would call the gourmet or just plain dessert principle; if I had triple layer devil's food cake once and really liked it, I would have it again in the future, even though there are all kinds of wonderful foods out there just waiting to be tried! That's how I justify it anyway.
Then there's the "you can never step in the same river twice" idea, which I also use. If you have favourite books, you will always get something more and usually something different out of them on each reading.
I do balk momentarily though when I start a reread on a long book, thinking of your principle and wondering what I am giving up.

I'm with Rebecca. Way too many things to read to bother with rereading. Food is entirely different, that's not even apples and oranges, that's apples and the boxes they come in!

>61 rebeccanyc: I reread less than I did before LT, since now I am spoiled for choice, but there's something about both an old favorite, or about retackling a challenging book -- for those there is always something more to be taken from it and it's often better the second time around.

And that in no way hinders my ability to read all the books.

>62 SassyLassy: >63 .Monkey.: >64 RidgewayGirl: Interesting conversation. Just to be clear, I have reread books, including War and Peace (a total of three times) and Anna Karenina, and had different reactions to both when I read them in my 40s and 50s compared to when I read them as a teenager. And there are some old comfort reads that I reread every couple of years, including Cold Comfort Farm and The Straight and Narrow Path. But I agree with Kay that since joining LT my TBR has grown astronomically. Hence Project TBR.

71. Deadly Shoals by Joan Druett



Continuing my mad dash through the Wiki Coffin mysteries, this is number four (one more to go, which I've already started). Like the previous one, much of this one takes place on land, in southern Patagonia. Gauchos play a role, as do potential revolutionaries. The mystery starts with a ship captain who has a had a ship stolen from him. This leads to the discovery of a body buried in a salt source, with its skull picked over by vultures, and eventually another murder. What makes this series for me is a combination of Wiki's character and the very well researched settings.

>65 rebeccanyc: I have reread the very rare book, usually only when a sequel/new series title comes out that I quite enjoyed and it's been a long time since I read the earlier one (which is part of why I wait generally for series to finish before reading them! lol). I could literally count the number I have ever reread. There's nothing wrong with people making their own choice to do it, but for me, there are already countless titles I will never have the time to get to, so going backwards, unless it is a fast read, is just not something I want to waste my time doing. And yes I said "waste," as for me that is how I see it. I do plan to go reread the Night Watch series now that I have the last book, but I'm waiting so I can savor it, since I love them so. XD

Looking forward to your review of Hopscotch, on my TBR since the South American quarterly read.

Thanks, Sassy. It is slow going but enjoyable. Slow going because it is so dense and because I'm reading it at home (not on the subway).

72. The Beckoning Ice by Joan Druett



Well, I've reached the end of the Wiki Coffin series, and this one had quite the melodramatic ending, yet one which makes me hope Druett continues the series. This book finds the US Exploring Expedition nearing Antarctica, and the captain of the whole expedition getting a little overwrought. Mysteries abound, and some are serious . . . so serious they could be murder. Wiki gets beat up and is in danger throughout the novel. Unlike the other books in this series, this one was published by a company called Old Salt Press, which helpfully included a glossary of seafaring terminology, although I didn't discover it until I got to the end of the book; there are also drawings of different types of sailing ships. I am sorry to reach the end of the series, as I enjoy the character of Wiki and the insight into Maori customs. Does Druett have more Wiki Coffin mysteries up her sleeve? Unfortunately, the link to her website didn't work, so I couldn't get more information from that.

>70 rebeccanyc: Not that I want to get hooked on a series, but this one does look interesting and the number of books isn't overwhelming...

>71 qebo: Sorry (not!) to tempt you , Katherine .. .

On Saturday, I'm traveling to Arizona to see relatives. Two flights each way and a long layover translate into lots of reading time. So what will I bring?

I probably won't have finished Hopscotch, but I may leave it at home, because it's so dense it doesn't really lend itself to travel reading.

Some books I'm choosing from.

A Karin Fossum mystery: The Indian Bride (also titled Calling Out for You) is next up.
A nonseries Trollope, He Knew He Was Right
The War of the Saints by Jorge Amado
The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol
Cousin Bette by Balzac

Obviously, I don't need to bring all of these (several are very long), and in the time between now and Saturday I will undoubtedly change my mind a lot . . .

Hope you get some good reading in on your travels!

>70 rebeccanyc: Now you really have me chomping at the bit to get this series.

Enjoy your travels. That Fossum is a good one (at least that is the way I'm remembering it).

I enjoyed The Indian Bride quite a bit - it was my introduction to Fossum.

Enjoy your time in AZ. I hope the weather is perfect.

>73 charl08: >74 NanaCC: >75 RidgewayGirl: Thanks for the good wishes and the encouragement!

>72 rebeccanyc: I know it was a rhetorical question, but I'd go with the Amado and the Fossum, since both are quite gripping and fend off distractions in transit. The Trollope might be a good one for while you are there; Cousin Bette might not hold up to interruptions.

This is Thanksgiving weekend in Canada, a time of year I always thought made more sense in harvest terms than the end of November, and there always seems to be wonderful weather for it. Enjoy your weekend and pick up more books.

>77 SassyLassy: Thanks, Sassy, for the advice. I'm definitely taking the Fossum, and probably will end up taking Hopscotch too, because I'm so deeply into it now. I'll probably take the Amado and the Trollope too, but don't want to start the Trollope until I finish Hopscotch because they're both long and require concentration.

I love the sound of the Druett series - I've got a couple of sailing nuts on my xmas list ( three, one of whom I live with)!! I'll likely read them myself too.

Got back last night. Finished The Indian Bride and Hopscotch. Very busy until the weekend, so I will have to catch up and post reviews then.

73. The Indian Bride by Karin Fossum



In this Inspector Sejer mystery, the reader knows -- or at least suspects strongly -- who the killer is from the very first pages. What the reader doesn't know is who the killer killed, or why. That gradually emerges, with the tale of a salesman of agricultural equipment (who some think is a little slow but is really devoted and responsible) who develops the idea, based on a book his sister gives him, that he is destined to find a wife in India. And so he does, with the Indian bride to follow him back to Norway. On the day that she is to arrive, he has to go to the hospital because his sister has been in a car crash, and he sends the one taxi driver in town to pick her up at the distant airport. But the taxi driver can't find her there, and she never gets to the salesman's house. The tale of what happened, and how Inspector Sejer and his assistant Jabob Skarre find out, involves many characters and a variety of twists and turns. One important plot point is left up in the air at the end of the book, and I suppose I will have to read the next mystery in the series to find out (but I would have anyway).

Project TBR: Book #6 (on TBR since 11/14/06, sales slip from a now defunct bookstore in book)

74. Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar



By turns poetic, philosophic, satiric, funny, boring -- and ultimately baffling -- this novel is one of the most famous in South American literature. It is famous partly for its structure, as it can be read in two ways per the "Table of Instructions" at the front of the book. One is to read the first 56 chapters in order (comprising "From the Other Side" and "From This Side," referring to the protagonist's time in Paris and his return to Argentina). The other is to read it "hopscotching" around, according to the author's instructions. This mode of reading it (which I followed) still has the first 56 chapters in order, but interspersed among them are chapters, out of order, from the third section, which is entitled "From Diverse Sides (Expendable Chapters). These chapters provide quotations from books and other items, including quotations from a fictional(?) writer named Morelli, which sort of comment on the "plot" chapters, and occasionally add narrative themselves.

Why make the reader do this? I think I caught a hint of the reason in one of the "expendable chapters" with a "quotation" from Morelli:

"It would seem that the usual novel misses its mark because it limits the reader to its own ambit. . . . To attempt on the other hand a text that would not clutch the reader but which would oblige him to become an accomplice as it whispers to him underneath the conventional exposition other more esoteric directions. . . .

A third possibility: that of making him an accomplice of the reader, a traveling companion. Simultaneaize him, provided that the reading will abolish reader's time and substitute author's time. That the reader would be able to become a coparticipant and cosufferer of the experience which the novelist is passing, at the same moment and the same form." pp. 396-397

The plot part of the book involves the intellectual Horacio Oliveira, an Argentinian who is living in Paris with a Uruguayan woman, called La Maga by him, who has a small boy who is ill. Horacio hangs out with a group of other intellectuals known as "the Club," who mostly drink to excess and listen to jazz records. Ultimately La Maga disappears (after her son dies), and Horacio has several unusual experiences while looking for her (some funny or at least satiric), before moving back to Argentina. In Argentina, he hangs out with an old friend Traveler and his wife(?) Talita, as well as living with a woman known as Gekrepten who has been waiting patently for him to return. Traveler and Talita work at a circus, and persuade the owner to take on Horacio; later the circus owner sells the circus and buys a mental institution and the three go to work there. It is there that hopscotch becomes literal. Throughout all this, there are a variety of secondary characters who interact with Horacio, and Horacio becomes convinced that La Maga is there in Argentina among them.

The reader, or this one anyway, is interested in what happens to Horacio. But the plot is only the framework on which the philosophical and literary investigations are hung. I must confess a lot of these went right by me, even as I admired Cortázar's writing and the translator's (Gregory Rabassa) ability to translate wordplay, of which there is a lot. Part of the reason that a lot went by me was because in places i would have had to go Wikipedia or Google Translate multiple times in a paragraph, and I made the decision, after doing this for a while, that I would just skip it and understand what I could from context because otherwise I would lose the thread of the book. And part of the reason is that Cortázar plays with the reader, especially in a chapter in which he tells two different stories in alternate lines of text. It took me a while to catch on to what he was doing, because the chapter didn't make any kind of sense, and then I had to read the two stories in alternate lines, which was very tiring.

I am definitely glad I read this book, not least because it has been on my TBR for almost a decade, and I have been wondering about it all that time. My eyes did glaze over in parts, and I couldn't figure out what it was all about, except maybe how an author can write a book that is different.

>81 rebeccanyc: I'm glad you are enjoying this series, Rebecca. I'm always worried when I recommend something.

>82 rebeccanyc: sales slip from a now defunct bookstore in book
That's always so sad when that happens. It makes me think I didn't buy enough there. I have the same habit of leaving the slip (and the bookmark) in the book.

That is a challenging review of Hopscotch. It makes me glad I didn't read it for my alphabet project, or I probably still be back around the letter E, but it does make me want to read it.

Would you recommend starting at the beginning with Karin Fossum? I probably would anyway as that's how I read, but I ask just in case I have difficulty finding her earlier works, as I have with Denise Mina.

edited punctuation

Well done for reading and describing Hopscotch. A book that I had not heard of until I read your review. It sounds intriguing, a book that you might want to spend some time with if you really like it.

>84 SassyLassy: There are so many bookstores that are no more in NYC, but happily one opened relatively near me in the past year. This book came from the second incarnation of a wonderful bookstore, Cloliseum Books, that closed in its original location, relocated, and was nowhere near as good in its new location.

And also for >85 baswood:. Hopscotch is definitely a challenging book. I was patient with it, but it probably would have rewarded more patience and looking things up. I did appreciate what Cortazar was trying to do, and enjoyed some of the philosophical and literary excursions.

ETA >84 SassyLassy: I didn't answer your question about Fossum. I would definitely begin at the beginning because the character and life of Inspector Sejer develop as the series progresses. The second in the series, Don't Look Back, was the first one translated into English, but now the first one Eva's Eye is available too. I owe my introduction to this series to Colleen (NanaCC).

>82 rebeccanyc: Excellent review! I was surprised you were bringing this on vacation, as I had tried to read it many years ago and found that i didn't have the patience/energy required. I do hope to read it someday, though.

I enjoyed your review of Hopscotch. I read it several years ago and started by reading the chapters consecutively (the short version). After reading about a fourth of the novel I started over and read the whole book according to the chart that added supplementary chapters. That gave me a feel for the difference without having to read the entire novel twice.

I enjoyed reading your review of Hopscotch, although it is not one I'll be adding to the wishlist. If it made your eyes glaze over, I'm sure it would do me in, especially these days when I have little sustained reading time. I hope you had a nice vacation to Arizona.

>87 ELiz_M: >88 StevenTX: >89 labfs39: Thanks, Eliz, Steven, and Lisa. It's interesting to read about your experiences with Hopscotch. I wouldn't have had the patience for it years ago -- and I'm not sure I had the patience now, but at least I've read it!

>82 rebeccanyc: Fascinating review of Hopscotch, not a book I had heard of. I feel sure there are many authors who would benefit from a policy of optional chapters.

Re the book slip. I am always fascinated by this kind of paperwork in a book, although I am not so organised to use the slip with purchase details myself. I recently came across someone's car tax paperwork used as a bookmark in a library book. My favourite one was a 1950s ad for a play that turned up in an old book I ordered up from the National Library of Scotland. I tried my best to persuade the staff they should make an exhibition of the things readers found!

>82 rebeccanyc: Interesting review of Hopscotch. Not sure I want to read it though. Maybe some day.

Great review of Hopscotch, Rebecca, and a well earned thumb from me. Oddly enough it isn't in my LT library, although my copy of it is identical to yours. I'll move it a bit higher on my TBR list, based on your comments about it.

Thanks, Charlotte, Florence, and Darryl. Charlotte, I don't always leave the sales slips in the books I buy but in this case I did. And often they're so faded I can't read them (how they fade if they're enclosed in a book is a mystery to me), but when they're readable they're so interesting. And very funny about optional chapters; i heartily agree!

>95 charl08: Sorry for all the typos. Maybe I should try voice dictation!

I think you might have scared me off if Hopscotch...but then I hadn't heard of it before so I guess that balances out somehow. Anyway, I'm glad you read it and I' glad you gave us the review.

75. The Perfidious Parrot by Janwillem van de Wetering


(not my cover, but close to it)

This Gjipstra/de Gier mystery finds the detectives retired from the police force, but operating, for tax purposes, a private detection agency as they have ill-gotten gains from a previous investigation which the commisaris (my favorite character) is investing for them. They are blackmailed by a father and son team and wind up on a yacht in the Caribbean investigating the theft of oil from a tanker destined to sell (illegally) oil to Cuba. A variety of complications ensue, including de Gier getting arrested in Key West, the comissaris traveling to Aruba, Grijpstra getting seasick, former US special forces in various guises, insurance scams, and much more. This is the last Grijpstra/de Gier I have, i.e., the last in the series, although I do have a book of short stories about the detectives.

I just like saying the title of this book, The Perfidious Parrot, The Perfidious Parrot, The Perfidious Parrot....

>98 labfs39: I know! It's the name of a seedy bar where some of the action takes place.

>97 rebeccanyc: I'll add this to the wishlist. I did enjoy the books I read in this series.

>97 rebeccanyc: you've already put this series on my wishlist. I may start it next year. And the best part is that it has quite a few books in the series. :)

>100 charl08: >101 NanaCC: It's best to read this series in order, because the characters develop and things happen to them along the way.

>98 labfs39: Parrotting your post.

>99 rebeccanyc: What a great name for a seedy bar. It has to be on the waterfront.

I have some bookmarks from my favorite Burlington bookstore that I treasure still. Wit and Wisdom. How I miss it. Bought my first Virago there in the early 80's at the recommendation of one of the staff. They were the most amazing readers! Always right up to the cutting edge.

As for the Cortazar. I have such mixed feelings about these "architected" books. Is there a moment when the cleverness simply becomes unwieldy? Pointless? Even comical in its effort to out-do some other clever idea. I can't help but wonder. Well, if some folks like it, fine. I guess that's the bottom line. My gut feeling is that the great novels mix it up, don't rely too much on any one aspect.

76. A Beam of Light by Andrea Camilleri



What can I say about the latest Inspector Montalbano mystery to be translated into English, except that it's as delightful as the whole series, if ultimately a little darker. Montalbano has a new lover, who he's obsessed with (and vice versa), but what to do about Livia? And there are several interwoven puzzles for him to figure out, including two arms dealers who may be the Tunisians who live on a farm (and their accomplice who is, at the end, tragically revealed), a young man shot and burned in his car who is the former boyfriend of a lovely young woman married to an older man, the disappearance of a large sum of money, the role of the best friend of the lovely young woman, art schemes, and of course the Mafia. As usual, food and the Sicilian landscape and culture play starring roles. There are several more Montalbanos that have yet to be translated, and I eagerly await them.

>105 rebeccanyc: I love that there are so many of these. I've only read the first, and really enjoyed it.

I've never read any of the books, but I've started watching the tv series Il Giovane Montalbano (The Young Montalbano). A friend tells me it was subtitled and aired on the BBC at least relatively recently. I know there's another series of the regular/older Montalbano but I haven't looked into that one at all.

>107 ursula: Oh the older one is worth it IMHO even if only for the credits which roll over Sicily in a manner worthy of an 80s show, but with spectacular scenery. Plus Montalbano is always swimming, so you get lots of shots of the beaches.

>81 rebeccanyc: I'm still playing catch-up on threads. I just realized I have The Indian Bride by Possum on my shelves. Your review reminded me to get to it soon.

>106 NanaCC: Colleen, you're in for a treat when you decide to devote yourself to the series.

>107 ursula: >108 charl08: I haven't been able to find the videos on Neflix . . . and Amazon wants me to buy them . . .

77. Shadows of Carcosa: Tales of Cosmic Horror edited by D. Thin



Well, this was an NYRB, and I started it on Halloween . . . but I guess "cosmic horror" isn't for me. I just wasn't horrified, and mostly I was bored. There is a lot of description in all of these tales, and very often they are "told" to others, which drags them out more. Where there was dialogue, I was more interested, and I enjoyed parts of some of the stories.

One of the narrators, in Vernon Blackwood's story, "The Willows" says of the willow trees, "They moved of their own will as though alive, and they touched, by some incalculable method, my own keen sense of the horrible." These stories didn't touch mine.

>111 rebeccanyc: Cool cover though.

>111 rebeccanyc: Perhaps it was a bit Thin

>105 rebeccanyc: Camilleri continues to amaze, Rebecca. Montalbano is a philandering rascal and still we love him and sympathise for him viz his moody girlfriend. The author is as old as the Queen of England and I honestly don't know how he maintains the verve to keep us all so well entertained.

I have had a fairly tough year life wise but wanted to come and seek you out because I have so missed your book reviews. xx

>112 qebo: Yes, I thought so too.

>113 baswood: Very funny, Barry.

>114 PaulCranswick: Thanks for stopping by, Paul. I have been shamefully neglectful of your threads (they fly by so fast!) and am sorry to learn you've had a tough year "life wise." Hope it improves!

78. He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope



This is the story of a marriage tormented by pathological jealousy, and also of several courtships, often with difficulties not of the couple's own making, that promise (or do they?) happier marriages.

In the main story line, the man who knew he was right, Louis Trevelyan, falls in love with Emily Rowley when he travels to the Mandarin Islands (a made-up British colony in the Caribbean), the daughter of its governor. They marry in England, but when Colonel Osborne, an old friend of Emily's father who has known her since she was a child, comes calling, Louis turns jealous. He is sure something is going on and wants Emily to apologize and say she won't see the colonel any more, or correspond with him, but Emily, who knows nothing has happened, refuses to apologize for something she hasn't done. Ultimately, they quarrel to such a degree that they can no longer live together, and Trevelyan arranges with his friend Hugh Stanbury that Emily and the son they now have and her sister Nora who has been staying with them take a house in the country with Stanbury's mother and sisters. But Trevelyan can't leave it at that. He hires a former policeman, Bozzle, to find out whether Emily is still seeing or corresponding with Osborne (who, partly, is trying to arrange for her parents to come from the Mandarins to talk to a government committee he serves on). Later, after complications arise, including a visit from Osborne, the sisters and the son go to live with their aunt and uncle, a parson, on the outskirts of London in a decidedly unfashionable neighborhood (and who have the unlikely name of Outhouse). Louis Trevelyan gets more and more obsessed with getting Emily to apologize.

Meanwhile, there are, in true Trollopian fashion, a whole variety of subplots. Nora, Emily's sister, has turned down the very rich Mr. Glascock (who will become Lord Peterborough when his father dies) because she is in love with the much poorer Hugh Stanbury, who writes for a "penny" paper. One of Hugh's sisters, Dorothy, goes to live with her very difficult aunt Stanbury who has previously had taken up Hugh and thrown him away when he went to work for the paper. During the visit, her aunt cooks up a scheme to marry Dorothy to the local minister, Mr. Gibson, but Dorothy turns him down because she doesn't love him. She ultimately falls in love with Brooke Burgess; the Burgesses were the source of Aunt Stanbury's fortune. She has quarreled with the Burgess who lives in the town she lives in but has determined to leave the money she got from the Burgesses to Brooke. But will she approve of Dorothy marrying Brooke when she has decided no Stanbury will get her money? Mr. Gibson, the minister, becomes embroiled in a soap opera with two local sisters, and Mr. Glascock goes to Italy where he meets the nieces of the American ambassador, one of whom he falls in love with. And that's just some of the subplots in this 800+-page tome.

Back to the main plot of Emily and Trevelyan, when Emily's parents ultimately arrive in England, Trevelyan hatches a plot to kidnap his son (he had been threatening, and even tried, to get the son away from Emily earlier) and then hightails it with the son, a toddler, to Italy where he for a time connects with Glascock. He is getting physically and emotionally sicker and sicker and winds up in some out-of-the-way village, on top of a very steep hill. Emily and Nora and their parents follow him, to try to get the son back.

The main plot and the subplots all ultimately resolve themselves, as is typical of Trollope. He apparently did not like this book, ostensibly because he didn't make Trevelyan, the man who knew he was right, sympathetic enough. I disagree that he ought to be sympathetic, although I understand why Trollope wanted him to be, and I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, as much for the very rich subplots as for the main one.

I do have so many Trollope's to read. Pallisers next though.

Another great Trollope review.

I've been wanting to read Trollope for a while, but have zero idea where to start! Any suggestions?

>117 NanaCC: As you know, Colleen, I started with the Pallisers and have the Barsetshire to look forward to.

>118 baswood: Thanks, Barry.

>119 .Monkey.: Well, some would say you should start with the Barsetshire novels (the first one is The Warden). i started with a nonseries novel, The Way We Live Now, and loved it, and then moved on to the Palliser novels because politics appealed more to me than the church. The first Palliser novel is Can You Forgive Her?. You can't go wrong wherever you begin, but if you're starting with a series you should start with the first one.

Great review. Oh my, you are all massively convincing me to get into Trollope sooner rather than later.

Thanks; I think I will see if I can locate a copy of The Warden, I like starting earlier in an author's work, especially if there's a lot, and since that's also supposed to be so great, it sounds like a good beginning. :))

>122 .Monkey.: Monkey, you will find a tutored thread led by lyzard(Liz) on the work page for The Warden. It was extremely helpful navigating the church politics in that first book. The book is excellent, and sets up several of the characters for later books. After that one, I found the remainder of the series smooth sailing.

Ah cool, thanks for the tip. :)

>119 .Monkey.: I'm with Monkey in not knowing where to start with Trollope. The other night I was rewatching an episode from the first season of "Downton Abbey" where they were discussing fox hunting, and one of the characters said "it's like living in a Trollope novel." I think that's where I'd like to start--a Trollope novel with fox hunting.

There is a non-fiction work by Trollope called Hunting Sketches which I have read - and, I cheated, looked it up, apparently the stand-alone novel called The American Senator covers the sport somehow or other. I haven't read that one.

I grew up in a horse-mad area of Western NY state, was in Pony Club and, believe it or not, fox-hunted into my early twenties. My sister is presently an MFH. I hesitate, always, to admit any of this to anyone, it is so anachronistic as to be bizarre to most people. I didn't know that, of course, as a young person, but I do now. That particular hunt more resembles an Irish fox hunt, not posh people poncing about on shiny horses, but rugged wild country, lots of "just folks" - farmers, travel agents, gas-station owners . . . riding tough mounts, and mud. Lots and lots of mud! You really have to be able to ride well to enjoy it.

>126 sibylline: That's very cool and sounds like so much fun. Careening madly across fields in England on a horse and jumping over fences and ditches was always a dream of mine. Sadly, it's one that will only happen through the screen and in novels, as I haven't been on a horse for way too many years and the physicality required is now far beyond my abilities.

Oh, and thanks for the recommendations. I tried to do a search the other day, but either LT was having problems or I don't know what, because I only got really glitchy results.

Fox hunting features in several of the Palliser novels, as Trollope was himself an avid fox hunter. Alas, several people come to grief jumping over fences and/or ditches, so it isn't quite as romantic as it sounds.

I tended to tune out the fox-hunting scenes so I can't remember which Palliser novels included them.

ETA There was also a dispute, which went on for several novels, between an avid supporter of fox hunting and a landowner who didn't maintain his property in way that was conducive to fox hunting.

I lived for a few years in rural Oxfordshire, up on an old path called the Ridgeway. The hunt came past our house a few times a year. I'm aware of the arguments against fox hunting and I agree with all of them but, oh, it is a sight to see.

The best fox hunting scene on film I know of, of course, is in Tom Jones the MOVIE.

I will say that it is one of those sports that can, for weeks and even months on end, be frustrating, you plod along, the hounds misbehave, the conditions are wrong, people do stupid things so you lose the field (the pack of riders following the hunstpeople and hounds), you do something stupid or lose your glasses or something and have to go home . . . it can be horrible weather too . . . but once in awhile you are rewarded with a perfect experience, at one with everything. I had to work quite hard to be just a decent rider; I don't have a natural seat nor am I naturally brave, but I was stubborn and determined. I'd say over a fifteen year period I had a truly great time maybe four or five times? Plenty of decent days with good moments, but magic only once a great while.

As for the controversy - urk - I guess it's moot here in the USA. Chasing a fox with (very stupid) hounds and clumsy clots on horseback, seems pretty tame, rilly, compared to the things that go on. Land conservation-wise it is an extremely beneficial sport- requiring vast tracts of land, a mix of meadow, field and forest - tended but not over-tended, and a very healthy mix of wildlife. Miles of trails too that people can use for walking as the hunt moves around all the time,( you don't hunt the same "covert" --pronounced cover-- don't ask me why) too often and isn't active all year round anyway. In Colorado and some other western states there are hunts that chase coyote on horseback. Don't know what they wear.

As many of you know, I have been administering the Reading Globally group (as well as Club Read) for several years. I have passed the baton for that group too, and our own SassyLassy has stepped up to administer it.

For those of you who like to read globally, she has started a thread where you can suggest our theme reads for 2016, http://www.librarything.com/topic/205764. If you have ideas for theme reads, please come on over and suggest them.

>131 rebeccanyc: I hope you'll still be posting as a reader next year on the CR thread Rebecca.

>132 AlisonY: Absolutely, Alison. I just don't have the time to keep administering either this group or RG. I'm so grateful that .Monkey here and SassyLassy there are willing to take over.

>133 rebeccanyc: well pleased to hear it! :)

Project TBR: Book #7 (on TBR since 4/17/14)

79. The War of the Saints by Jorge Amado



In this expansive and digressive book, Amado takes on the church, candomblé, politics, the police, sex, race, class, journalism, and a lot more. He does this through two interlinked plots and a lot of digressions.

The first plot involves the director of the Museum of Sacred Art in Bahia (who is also a priest) who has arranged an exhibit of statues of saints; the highlight of the show is to be a statue of Saint Barbara of the Thunder which he has had transported by boat from a parish further up a river. But then things go awry. At the boat dock, Saint Barbara (who is also thought of as Yansan, in the way that the former African slaves in Bahia, and elsewhere, combined Christian saints with African gods), turns into a living being and walks up the ramp and into the city. Of course, the police and the church higher-ups, when notified, think the statue has been stolen, and cook up elaborate plots of renegade and "communist" priests selling statues of saints and other church property to fund their nefarious activities.

The other plot is the reason Saint Barbara Yansan has returned to the city. She wants to rescue teenaged Manela who is tormented by her rigorously Christian aunt Adalgisa who has cared for her since her parents died; she also wants to punish Adalgisa. Manela had previously accompanied her other aunt, Gildete, to a celebration, with dancing and music, and there she met Miro, a taxi driver, and fell in love with him (he had been in love with her for some time). Needless to say, Adalgisa disapproves of Miro, because he is poor, a taxi driver, and darker than they are (they sort of pass for white, although there are very few really white people in Bahia). She ultimately takes strong, even shocking, measures to "protect" Manela.

Mixed in with these two plots are many many other stories, including the trials of Adalgisa's marriage to a former soccer star, Danilo; the various levels of police, including the "secret" police and their connections to the CIA; a priest who has gotten into trouble for opposing the big landowners and supporting the poor farmers and his fascination with a particular woman; two married society ladies who cut a broad swath through a huge variety of men; the priest from the town that Saint Barbara Yansan came from and his flotilla; the various kinds of journalists; and a French TV channel that wants to film Bahian singers and a carnival.

The action of the novel takes place over the two days between the arrival, and disappearance, of Saint Barbara Yansan and the opening of the show in the museum, plus lots of flashbacks and back stories. It is impossible, for me, anyway, to give an idea of the convolutions of the plot, but I enjoyed most of them and think Amado must have had fun writing this book. I had fun reading it.

>135 rebeccanyc: Sounds like a blast!

>135 rebeccanyc: I agree with Florence, sounds fascinating and good fun.

Enjoyed catching up. And yet another reason to read Amado.

>136 FlorenceArt: >137 Oandthegang: >138 dchaikin: I love Amado, and I can't believe I didn't read him, even though I had some of his books on my TBR for 20 years or so, until the Reading Globally South American theme read a year or two ago. Since then, I've ordered all his books that have been translated into English, and I'm working my way through them. I've liked some books better than others, though, as is always the case.

Another author I've not come across. Is there one that would be a good starting place for a newbie?

>140 charl08: The first one I read was Showdown, which had been on my TBR for decades, and I loved it so much I wanted to read more Amado. But you can't beat Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands as a starting point.

80. Black Seconds by Karin Fossum



This is one of the darkest of the Fossums I have read, as it involves the disappearance and death of a girl who is anticipating her 10th birthday. The reader suspects several people almost immediately, but all is not as it appears. As always, Fossum is at her best at creating characters who seem real, including damaged people, and also a suspenseful mood. It was hard for me to put this book down, but it was ultimately very disturbing.

I don't mind dark, but avoid mysteries that involve children. The disturbing element remains with me for much too long. At least in this case the cover image or notes would be a warning. There are a few mystery writers that I will never forgive.

I can understand that, Vivienne.

Project TBR: Book #8 (on TBR since 8/15/12)

Flaw by Magdalena Tulli



Like all the works by Tulli I have read, this is a complex, allegorical, poetic, and somewhat metafictional novel. It start out with a tailor making costumes (and it will turn out that clothes really make the man in this tale) and a city square with streets that end a little beyond it. Tulli mentions the cost of manufacturing what seem to be props. Is this a movie set? Gradually, the reader gets to know the people who live and work in the square: a notary with a wife and two children, the maid who works for them, a policeman, a student, a waiter in a café, and more.

But then, something unsettling happens; it isn't clear what at first, but it later develops that some military man has seized power, not in the square but in the country it is a part of. Suddenly, refugees start arriving in the square, much to the discomfiture of the residents. The student, changing his costume by the addition of a sash, commands a squad of grammar school students. Then a group of air force officers mysteriously arrives, and await a helicopter that can fly them to where they are really supposed to be. (The helicopter, when it comes, is apparently made of cardboard.) Through a series of events, the air force general leaves his coat and hat behind; the waiter finds them and is transformed into a general who tries to enforce various nefarious orders.

But this is just the plot, such as it is. Tulli is playing with ideas, not just of clothes making the man, but also of what is a story. She mentions that this is a story frequently:

"And what about that other square, in a different story, of necessity vacated and closed down? And the suddenly interrupted strands of stories entwining it?" p. 62

"Now things must move faster, as the general too is in a hurry. Having already been derailed from its course, the story has entered a different track. The same one that every story ends up on unavoidably sooner or later, because it is the track of the world, always ready to give direction to whatever is moving without purpose or destination. In the quiet of early evening, the story is already heading straight towards violent and cruel events, as if there were no one to take care of it. If this story belongs to me, I am powerless to change its course or turn things back." p. 158

Tulli also uses phrases like "If I am the maid, i would ..." or "If I am the policeman, I would ..."

So Tulli is playing with the idea of what makes a story while telling a tale that could, in magically condensed form, be a story that is repeated all too frequently, with particular resonance now, of military dictators, refugees, and cruelty directed at the perceived other.

I enjoyed Tulli's playfulness, as I have enjoyed it in the other books I have read by her, but this book didn't grab me as much as some of the others. I suspect it was my mood, rather than the book.

A very late addition to the Montalbano discussion (for some reason I seem to have missed it when reading before), I don't think the tv series adds much to the books. Apart from the scenery - and the fact that it introduced me to the books - I think I would have preferred not to have seen the series. I started reading the books only because the BBC was broadcasting the series in the slot which had previously had the Scandinavian crime series 'The Killing', and had become reserved for two hour instalments of various other continental crime series as well as the very excellent 'Borgen'. Montalbano didn't fit with previous occupants of the slot. I watched it because I found it so bizarre and I couldn't imagine what books would possibly inspire it. Was this meant to be a comedy? Why was the receptionist so useless, why did they put up with him, etc., etc. I did like looking at the scenery and musing on the decor of the police station. Reading the books from the beginning I discovered a lot which isn't explained in the programmes. There is a nice touch in one of the novels, I've forgotten which, when Montalbano's girlfriend wants him to take some time off with her and suggests that they go to a particular city. Montalbano says he can't go there because that's where they make the TV series about him and it would be confusing, though he adds that the actor doesn't even look like him.

I much preferred the Young Montalbano series to the tv series of him as an adult.

Was so pleased to have the new book, Blade of Light, though I realised as I was reading it that I have already seen the dramatization of it. Fortunately I can't remember how it ended, so the book is not ruined for me.

I agree about the opening credits, but am always intrigued by the poor film quality, which gives it the feeling of a very old tourist board production until the programme itself starts. Italian television production is so very different.

>146 Oandthegang: Thanks; that makes me feel better for not having access, except at a price, to the Montalbano tv series.

>146 Oandthegang: I'm enjoying the Young Montalbano series. I won't worry about the other one for the moment, although I think it's available on demand.
Italian television production is so very different. Italian television is very different. ;) The length of the episodes is weird enough to me - the ones for this show usually run about 2 hours and 10 or 15 minutes, although the last one I saw was only an hour and 40, and that sort of length is pretty common. Television start times are also flexible - one show I watch is slated to start at 6:50 but it often starts just before 6:40. Why even have tv listings?!

As for Catarella, having not read the books and only seen the first 5 episodes of Il Giovane Montalbano, I just assumed they put up with him because ... well, this is Italy. *shrug*

>148 ursula: Love the Italian scheduling!

If I remember rightly - and other Montalbano fans can correct me on this - Catarella got his job because he is someone's relation. Something which is great about the books which you as, presumably, an Italian speaker will understand from the tv series, is the use of language and the significance of variations in dialect and formal Italian. Confusion about appropriate language seems to be partly responsible for Catarella's bizarre announcements. (I love Montalbano's dream in which Catarella speaks in Latin.)

I have all the Montalbanos which have been translated into English, and had been considering ruthlessly culling them as I need more space, but your comments sent me looking for Catarella's first appearance and skimming was such pleasure that I've decided to keep them for rereading. Hurrah!

>148 ursula: p.s. Are you familiar with the Inspector De Luca series based on the Carlo Lucarelli novels?

I lost track of your thread somehow! Interesting reading, and Island of the Lost is definitely going on my to-read list.

>145 rebeccanyc: Intriguing review. I'd not come across this author at all. The comments about the stage set (and cardboard) I'm not sure if I'd find it frustrating or intriguing that the story was acknowledged as being a story, somehow false.

If you can remember, how did you come across the author the first time?

>148 ursula: >149 Oandthegang: Interesting discussion, and I love Catarella! The characters, along with the sense of place, really make the Montalbano series for me.

>151 mabith: I think you'll enjoy Island of the Lost, Meredith.

>152 charl08: I first came across Tulli because I used to have a subscription to Archipelago Books, and In Red came as part of my subscription. I loved it so much that, as I said in my review, I nearly missed my subway stop two days in a row. I think it is my favorite of hers, or maybe it was the joy of discovery.

Thanks for the review of Flaw. I've loved other books I've read by Tulli, but lost sight of her. Must get this one.

Catching up on two more excellent reviews and I enjoyed the discussion about my favourite T V show - Montalbano.

>149 Oandthegang: Catarella being someone's relative is essentially what I meant by "this is Italy." ;) Particularly in Sicily and Campania. In the university at Naples, there are whole departments dominated by one last name. I am becoming an Italian speaker, so I don't always understand everything, particularly as I don't understand any dialect. But I do know when I'm not understanding it because it's not Italian!

I'm not familiar with De Luca - just looked up the series and it's not available on demand on RAI, unfortunately.

>153 rebeccanyc: I'm enjoying how one can never rely on the initial announcement of a case or visitor if it comes from Catarella. I've also, several episodes in, learned to appreciate Mimì, after really disliking his entry into the show.

Thanks, Jane and Barry. Ursula, I'm glad you're another fan of Catarella.

82. The Amsterdam Cops by Janwillem van de Wetering



This is a collection of stories about the Amsterdam detectives, Grijpstra and de Gier, and I found the stories weaker than the novels, which I loved, especially the ones told by other characters. Those stories attempted to get inside the head of a murderer or other person and only peripherally involved the detectives and their circle of other cops, including the Commisaris who I love dearly. So a few good stories, a few not so good, and with that I come to the end of the van de Wetering tales. I am sorry that this is so.

ABANDONED

The Witches: Salem, 1692 by Stacy Schiff



I loved Schiff's Cleopatra when I read it a few years ago, so I snapped up her new book when it came out. Alas, it is a struggle for me to read it; over the past three weeks or so, I've only read about 100 pages. It isn't that it isn't interesting; it isn't that it's badly written -- I just can't bring myself to pick it up. Maybe it's my mood and maybe I'll develop a compelling desire to read it later, but for now I'm abandoning it.

Project TBR: Book #9 (on TBR since 4/7/14)

83. The Discovery of America by the Turks by Jorge Amado



As the 500th anniversary of Columbus's "discovery" of America approached, an Italian public relations firm commissioned Amado, along with a Spanish author (Fuentes) and a US author (Mailer), to write novellas related to the "discovery," but the plan fell apart. Nevertheless, Amado wrote this novella, and a delightful sex farce it is.

The "Turks" are not Turks, but a Lebanese and a Syrian coming to the Bahia region of Brazil in the early 19th century. They are traveling on passports from the Ottoman Empire; hence these Arabs are called Turks. Readers of Showdown will find a certain similarity between one of the characters in that novel, a similarity that Amado acknowledges in his preface. Basically, there is an Arab running a store in a town in the cacao region of Bahia, or rather his wife runs it. When she dies, everything goes downhill, with his daughters and sons-in-law running the store into the ground. But he has a eldest daughter, age 30, ugly and with a bad temperament. If he can find a responsible man who could run the store and who will marry that daughter, he will make him a partner. A store owner in a place in the countryside is a good prospect, but he dilly dallies, assessing how to make a go of it, store-wise and daughter-wise. In the meantime, a local waiter, who has also been approached with the prospect mulls it over too. There is much sexual innuendo -- and action -- in this novella, which I read in one sitting.

Sorry to hear that about The Witches! It's been on my list too. I'll still give it a go, but will lower my expectations.

>159 rebeccanyc: I came over here to see why you were abandoning The Witches. I just read a review of the book (not something I normally do, but the person we do our Italian language exchange with was using it as a reading and translation exercise) and I thought it might be interesting. I enjoyed Cleopatra: A Life a lot. If I do decide to read it, it'll be a while because I'm waiting for the audio book to arrive on the library site.

>161 mabith: >162 ursula: I think it's a good book, and I'm just not in the mood for it.

>159 rebeccanyc: I have Dona Flor and her two husbands waiting for me at the library. I must try and read faster!

>164 charl08: That was one of my favorites of Amado!

84. The Murder of Harriet Krohn by Karin Fossum



This was not one of my favorite Fossums for the simple reason that Inspector Sejer only appears at the very end, with none of the usual characters that accompany him (but with a new puppy). Instead, Fossum gets inside the head of an "accidental" killer, who killed in the course of a burglary undertaken to pay off his gambling debts and try to get back in the good graces of his 16-year-old daughter. Told from the perspective of the killer, this is a very claustrophobic book, because the inside of Charlo's head is not a good place to be. I will keep reading Fossum, but hope for more Sejer in the future.

>166 rebeccanyc: this is a Fossum that I haven't read. Not sure I will now.

>167 NanaCC: I'm so obsessed with reading series in orders that I bought this in hard cover! Apparently, it was only recently translated.

I was just eyeing The Witches the other day. Funny isn't it how much state of mind affects what you want to or even can read.

Bummer about The Witches. I'm still keeping it in mind. I was thinking to try it on audio.

>170 sibylline: >171 dchaikin: I think it was my mood with The Witches, not the book.

Project TBR: Book #10 (on TBR since 3/18/13)

85. The Girl with the Golden Eyes and Other Stories by Honoré de Balzac



In addition to "The Girl with the Golden Eyes," this book included "Sarrasine" and "The Unknown Masterpiece." I knew I had read "The Unknown Masterpiece" in another collection, but I had forgotten, until I was well into it, that I had read "Sarrasine" in still another collection. So "The Girl with the Golden Eyes" was the only completely new story for me. And a strange tale it is, and strangely told. Balzac starts out with pages and pages describing the various classes that make up Paris, and then gives the reader the history of Henri De Marsay. Henri spies the girl with the golden eyes in a park and determines to get to know her even though she is accompanied by a harsh duenna. It seems she is attracted to him too. Through a series of stratagems, he finds out her address and a means of getting in touch with her. What follows is strange and stranger and ultimately tragic.

I say this every time I read stories by Balzac, but I prefer his novels where he can give free rein to his imaginative and descriptive powers. You'd think I'd learn.

I say this every time I read stories by Balzac, but I prefer his novels where he can give free rein to his imaginative and descriptive powers. You'd think I'd learn.
Haha I say something like that just about any time I read short stories at all. :P

86. The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel



As with the Balzac stories I just read, I prefer Mantel's novels to her stories. But the stories collected here, written at various times over the past 20 years or so, are absorbing and largely disturbing. I think the standout story was the first one, "The School of English," which deals with class issues, focusing on a woman from an unnamed country working as housekeeper in the home of rich people and the issues she must deal with to keep her job. The most disturbing stories were "Winter Break," in which there is an unexpected and shocking discovery, and "The Heart Fails without Warning" about an anorexic girl and her sister. "How Shall I Know You?" and "Sorry to Disturb" are undoubtedly partly autobiographical, as the first features an author visiting an obscure book club and staying in a creepy hotel and the latter takes place in Saudi Arabia, where Mantel once lived (in fact, it was the setting for Eight Months on Ghazzah Street, one of the few Mantels I didn't like).

All of the stories in this collection are thought-provoking.

Nice review of The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, Rebecca. I bought a copy of it earlier this year, but I haven't read it yet.

Thanks, Darryl. Something somebody said makes me think that "The School of English" isn't in the hard cover edition; I snapped up the paperback when it came out.

That sounds right, Rebecca. I bought the UK paperback version of it during one of my visits to London this year, and the front cover has these words on it: "Including a new story THE SCHOOL OF ENGLISH".

>175 rebeccanyc: I have a lot of unread Mantels in my TBR pile, so I hadn't planned to buy this, but it does sound very good. I may have to give in.

>175 rebeccanyc: I read this from the library in hardcover when it first came out and as I was reading your review, "The School of English" didn't sound familiar, so now all is explained. Now I'll have to see if they have it in paperback as that title sounds like classic Mantel.

This is the list I posted on the Favorites of the Year thread. I'll post statistics later when I'm sure I won't be finishing any more books.

I might finish two more books before the end of the year, and one of them will be on my list of favorites. These are listed in reverse order of when I read them.

Reading this list, it sounds like I had a great reading year. But I don't feel that way, because it was a very stressful year, and I read a ton of mysteries, in fact 32.

Best of the Best
Fiction
Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon (still reading) and Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands by Jorge Amado
The Earth by Emile Zola
The Wrong Side of Paris by Honore de Balzac
Pushkin Hills by Sergei Dovlatov
Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai
Russian Short Stories from Pushkin to Buida edited by Robert Chandler
The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope

Nonfiction
Island of the Lost bu Joan Druett
The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm
Between You and Me by Mary Norris

The Best of the Rest
The War of the Saints by Jorge Amado
He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Tollope
The Palliser Novels by Anthony Trollope
Lights of Pointe-Noire by Alain Mabanckou
The Harp and the Shadow by Alejo Carpentier
Tyrant Banderas by Ramon del Valle-Inclan
The Dead Mountaineer's Inn by Boris Strugatsky and Arkady Strugatsky
The Suitcase by Sergei Dovlatov
The Three Leaps of Wang Lun by Alfred Doblin
The Manuscript Found in Saragossa by Jan Potocki
Honeydew by Edith Pearlman

Fun, Fun, Fun
The Wiki Coffin series by Joan Druett
The Hit Man series by Lawrence Block
Game of Mirrors and A Beam of Light by Andrea Camilleri
The Amsterdam Detectives series by Janwillem van de Wetering

Disappointments and Duds
Shadows of Carcosa edited by D. Thin (disappointment)
Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo (disappointment)
Dark City Lights edited by Lawrence Block (disappointment)
Let Me Tell You: New Stories, Essays and Other Writings by Shirley Jackson (disappointment)
The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Alison Hoover Bartlett (dud)

Discoveries
Anthony Trollope
Sergei Dovlatov
Joan Druett
Karin Fossum

I did like The Suitcase !

I liked Pushkin Hills, which I read first, more.

I see Trollope made a lot of "best of" lists. It's time I got back to him.

87. The Liar's Wife: Four Novellas by Mary Gordon



I had never read any Mary Gordon until a friend gave me this collection of four novellas. I found that Gordon is a perceptive writer who explores interpersonal and moral issues in these stories.

In the title novella, "The Liar's Wife," an older married woman, well off, is surprised to receive a visit from her first husband, a musician, and his current lady friend, who is a singer; they were married briefly when she was in her 20s, and she fled from him, while living in Ireland, back to the US. She first looks down on them, because of their appearance and questionable lifestyle, but gradually comes to understand that they bring joy to people through their music.

In "Simone Weil in New York" (the first of two novellas featuring historic people), a former student of Weil's, who also has fled from France to New York, runs into her teacher on the street, and Weil subsequently insinuates herself into the student's life. The student is now married and has a child; her husband is a doctor who has joined the army. She also takes care of her brother, who has cerebral palsy and is a college teacher specializing in getting people with disabilities, both physical and emotional, to communicate. Through Weil's obsessions, the former student realizes that Weil isn't always right -- and in fact can be very wrong.

In "Thomas Mann in Gary, Indiana," and old man looks back on one of the highlights of his life, introducing Thomas Mann when he spoke at his high school. (Mann, when he came to the US, traveled around the country warning of the dangers of Nazism, although as Gordon notes in an afterword never in Gary.) Through teachers who also fled to the US, the high school student learns of the racism in his community. Of course, he also has typical teenager interests, including unrequited love for the smartest girl in his class; in the course of the story a tragedy occurs. Part of the interest in this novella derives from the old man referring to his children and grandchildren and his self-understanding.

In "Fine Arts," a graduate student finds herself in Lucca, Italy, studying for a month to find an art history thesis topic. She previously attended parochial school, where the nuns tried to rescue her from a stressful home life by pairing her with another girl who also has a trying home life (they remain friends for life), and an apparently Catholic college, but now is at Yale for graduate school, through a connection made by her college advisor. At Yale, she had an affair with her advisor, but regrets it on the way to Italy because she has come to see that he was a weak man. In Italy, she meets various people, realizes that she can get angry and take action, and ultimately receives a gift she could have no way of expecting.

I am not sure I will read any more Gordon, but I enjoyed all four of these novellas.

I've based these reading statistics on the books I've read this year, and the one I know I'll finish before December 31.

Total read: 88
Books by women: 26 Books by men: 62

Books by region/country.
Africa: 1 (Congo)
Asia: 2 (India)
Australia/New Zealand/Oceania: 6 (New Zealand)
Europe:
UK 12 (8 Trollopes), France 6, Germany 1, Italy 2, Poland 2, Netherlands 8 (all mysteries), Norway 7 (all mysteries), Russia 8, Spain 7
South and Central America:
Argentina 3, Brazil 4, Cuba 1, Peru 2
US: fiction 17 (7 mysteries), nonfiction 3

Books by Century (doesn't quite add up correctly probably because I didn't enter everything in the list)
21st century 24
20th century 40
19th century 20
16th century 1

Authors new to me: 17

LT recommendations 5
Read for theme reads: 12

What does this all add up to? I read a lot of mysteries (who accounted for a lot of the books by women) and read less demanding books on the whole because of a stressful year. I wasn't as global as I would have liked, but I guess when reading opportunistically I read what strikes my fancy at the time.

Not many American authored books on your list. I've had Mary Gordon's The Shadow Man on my shelf awhile based on an NPR blurb. It's nonfiction, about her father.

The four Novella's by Mary Gordon all have interesting situations.

Thanks for stopping by, Dan and Bas.

>181 rebeccanyc: Sorry you had a stressful year that impacted your reading, but isn't it wonderful to have mystery novels to help us through such times?

>190 laytonwoman3rd: Yes, Linda, it's great to have mysteries to read when stressed. And speaking of mysteries, I've almost finished the Fossum Inspector Sejer series, so I need recommendations for another series . . . I like mysteries that are more character-driven than plot-driven, and that have a good sense of place, preferably not the US.

Have you read Fred Vargas?

No, but she sounds intriguing. I just ordered the first in the series to see if I like it.

Have you read Colin Cotterill's Dr Siri Paiboun series? It starts with The Coroner's Lunch. I know that a few people here enjoy that one. It takes place in 1970's Laos. I think you would be able to tell with the first book whether you would like the series.

Have you read Tana French (Ireland), or Margaret Maron (North Carolina)?

>193 rebeccanyc: I hope you enjoy it. I liked the first books I read best, especially the ones with the "three evangelists" which I didn't really forgive her for abandoning. Adamsberg is cool too though.

>194 NanaCC: >195 laytonwoman3rd: Thanks for the recommendations, Colleen and Linda. I did read one book by Tana French and didn't much like it, but I don't remember which. I'll look into the others.

88. Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado



Gabriela is a force of nature. Originally from the backlands of Brazil, she treks barefoot with a group of people to the port town of Ilheus to seek work. She is hired by Nacib Saad, whose parents were Syrian immigrants, to cook first for him (to test her out) and then for his bar, because his previous cook has just left on the eve of a major dinner he is holding to celebrate the creation of a bus line between Ilheus and other places. When she cleans herself up, she is stunningly beautiful, and Nacib soon finds her way into her bed. She turns out to be not only a star at cooking but also a star in the bedroom.

But this is not just a book about Gabriela; it is first and foremost a book about the town of Ilheus: its cacao colonels and their wives and mistresses and children, its politics, its economy, its classes, its romances and trysts, and its reformers. Much of the plot revolves around a go-getter named Mundinho, who has come from Rio after a tragic romance, and challenges the reigning colonel by first getting someone in Rio to agree to send an engineer to evaluate removing the sandbar in the port that interferes with big ships entering it (the colonel had previously failed at this task) and later challenging him politically.

The cast is large and extends beyond Mundinho, the colonel, Nacib, and Gabriela, although Gabriela wafts through the novel and the town like a breath of fresh air. The reader gets a vivid picture of life in the town of Ilheus in the mid-1920s when change -- economic, technological, and political -- was coming. Of course, since this is Amado, there is a lot of interest in sexual and romantic interludes. In fact, the novel opens with a colonel who kills his wife and her lover when he surprises them together, an action which is widely approved of, and this hangs over the novel until its end when a surprise occurs. The romance of Nacib and Gabriela is not uneventful, but unlike some Amado novels, this has a happy ending, and not just in the romance department.

I am an Amado fan, and this is one of my favorite novels of his.

Nice review of Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon, Rebecca!

>198 rebeccanyc: That sounds good

Thanks, Darryl and Bas.

Excellent review of Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon.

>198 rebeccanyc:. Great review. My wishlist is doomed every time I come to visit.

>198 rebeccanyc: I'm wishlisting this!

Nice review. I read Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon years ago and really enjoyed it.

Well, I've got my first Amado out from the library, and it's proving fun to read alongside The Diary of Helena Morley. Thanks for the recommendation. I'll see if Gabriela is available here too.

>198 rebeccanyc: Definitely putting this on my list. What are your other favorites by Amado?

Thanks, all!

>206 charl08: What Amado did you take out?

>206 charl08: In addition to Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon, I also really enjoyed Showdown (the book that got me started on Amado), Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, The War of the Saints, and The Double Death of Quincas Water-Bray.

My 2016 thread is here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/209584