CarlyM's 2011 List

Just starting my thread for 2011.

1. Under the Banner of Heaven
2. Trout Fishing in America
3. Agatha Raisin and the Curious Curate
4. Our Search for Happiness
5. Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House
6. Lives of the Muses
7. McCarthy's Bar
8. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
9. Fablehaven
10. The Grand Idea
11. A Morbid Taste for Bones
12. Is There No Place on Earth for Me?

13. Make No Law
14. Aunt Dimity and the Next of Kin
15. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
16. 25 Most Treasured Gospel Hymn Stories
17. Far Appalachia
18. Heat Wave
19. On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God
20. Crimes Against Logic
21. The Myth of You and Me
22. A Thread Across the Ocean
23. Neither Here Nor There
24. The Ladies of Grace Adieu

25. The Gutenberg Revolution
26. Where Wizards Stay Up Late
27. The Drunken Forest
28. Adventures on the High Teas
29. The Blush
30. Libraries in the Ancient World
31. The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday
32. Stitches
33. Toast
34. The Sirens Sang of Murder
35. The Crofter and the Laird
36. Italian Neighbors

37. Death at the Priory
38. The Good Nanny
39. The Mating Season
40. Berlin 1961
41. The Lost Art of Gratitude
42. Crete
43. Death of a Bore
44. A Cordiall Water
45. The Almanac of Fascinating Beginnings
46. Video Night in Kathmandu
47. Daughter of Time
48. Vikings!

49. The Doctors' Plague
50. Scribbling the Cat
51. The Anglo Files
52. The Mummy Congress
53. Foreign Affairs
54. The Elegance of the Hedgehog
55. The Civil War
56. Old Filth
57. A Fountain Filled with Blood
58. 44 Scotland Street
59. The Piano Shop on the Left Bank
60. Kiwis Might Fly

placeholder

placeholder

placeholder

placeholder

placeholder

Luckily holding space in one's thread isn't like people who lay jackets, coats, etc. on a whole row of seats! ;-) Looking forward to your reads this year, Carly.

Gotcha!

Glad to see you back with us again, Carly. Always good to have a fellow Texan in the group :)

Welcome back!

Hi, y'all! Thanks for stopping by!

Happy New Year! And here's hoping for a better year of football in 2011!
--BJ

Hi BJ! That's definitely my wish for 2011!

1. Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer. This is the story of Ron and Dan Lafferty, two members of the Fundamentalist LDS church who murdered their sister-in-law and baby niece, supposedly because God told them to. Except for a lot of skipping around between the main story and an explanation of Mormon history, the book is definitely well-written and interesting. But, I do think the author started out with a very anti-religious viewpoint, which I think that affected his telling of the story of the Lafferty brothers' horrible crime in some ways. Krakauer continues to treat their crime as having a basis in religion--which in a way it did--but that doesn't account for certain facts that he mentions that to me indicate that they were knowingly using religion as an excuse to do whatever they wanted, such as their drug use in the months before the crime; their convenient ability to have a revelation telling them to do exactly the things they wanted to do; and their reluctance to share their "removal" revelation with the other members of their circle, with whom they normally shared all revelations (a big indication that they knew the murder was wrong).

I'm not Mormon and know very little about that church, so I'm going to be reading a book about LDS beliefs, very kindly given to me by Nittnut, as a counterpoint to this book.

Great review. I like your points about using religion as an excuse. Humans are great at justification aren't we? I look forward to hearing what you think when you're finished with the "counterpoint".

#17: Happily, I can dodge that particular BB as I read the book several years ago. IMHO, it is not Krakauer's best.

I pretty much spent the weekend reading and buying books at Half-Price Books.

2. Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan. This is one weird book, but I really liked it in spite of the weirdness. Brautigan has a talent for metaphorical language.

3. Agatha Raisin and the Curious Curate by M.C. Beaton. Another Agatha Raisin mystery--nothing too exciting, but a fun, easy read.

4. Our Search for Happiness by M. Russell Ballard. This is a description of the beliefs of the Mormon church by one of its leaders. I found it particularly interesting after reading Under the Banner of Heaven but am generally glad to know more about their beliefs and how they are different from other Christians. The opening chapter to the book is a very nice essay about religious understanding and tolerance that I think could have been written by a leader of pretty much any religion. I didn't think Under the Banner of Heaven portrayed mainstream Mormons badly, but after reading this, I can see why they so dislike the association to the various FLDS groups--the FLDS beliefs and actions do not seem at all in line with the stated beliefs of the LDS church. Thanks again to Nittnut for sending this to me.

Krakauer's book was a great one I thought, but I didn't sense the same anti-religious tone. I felt like he fairly portrayed the brother's behavior as aberrant, no matter the religion. I did sense that he wasn't a big fan of the Fundamentalist LDS, but that's not a stretch for most. Nice that you read up on the religion to expand your thoughts on the book. I'm not Mormon but I've read quite a bit about the religion and I think that helped me with the Krakauer book.

You're welcome Carly - any time - and thanks for taking the time to read it. I am intrigued by your brief review of Trout Fishing in America. I'm going to see if my library has it. Lots of fishing in my life.

#21 I did sense that he wasn't a big fan of the Fundamentalist LDS, but that's not a stretch for most. LOL - so true.

Carly

I read Trout Fishing In America a few years ago. It was worth the read, but I didn't rate it highly.

#17 I just bought Under the Banner of Heaven and appreciate your review and others' comments. I'm looking forward to reading it.

#20 Half Price Books is my second home!

Thanks for all the comments!

#21: I thought the opening chapter set out his idea that all religious people are somewhat irrational and nuts and have given up on reasoning. While I agree that faith is not about scientific proof, I disagree with his premise that having religious beliefs is incompatible with reason and rationality. I thought that this starting point colored his reporting on the Lafferty brothers and, specifically, on how that example relates to religion generally. But I'm not sure how someone who is not religious would be able to approach the subject in a different way.

#22: Just FYI, in case you haven't looked at the book page for Trout Fishing in America, it's not exactly about fishing, although there is trout fishing in the book. I can't really explain what it is about, though!

#23: It is a strange book. I think I was in the right mood for it or something.

#24: I clicked on your profile and saw you're in Dallas--Dallas has the best Half Price! (Although I don't seem to have any trouble finding books at my local stores.)

Now if any of you ever have a chance to hear the musical group Trout Fishing in America gather your babies, your blankets, your mother-in-law and head out for an absolute fun evening (or afternoon) of music. Clicking on the Play Trout radio button will give you a sample of their sense of humor.

They do mainly the midwest, Texas and some in PA, VA, mid atlantic are. The are a FUN FUN FUNNNNNY group.

#26: I'll have to check them out!!

I've been busy reading and hadn't really looked back at my 2010 list, so here are my favorite fiction and non-fiction reads from last year:

Nonfiction:

Theodore Rex
84, Charing Cross Road
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader
Character Studies
A Moveable Feast
Lost on Planet China
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
The Unruly Queen
Going Solo

Fiction:

Anna Karenina
Cold Comfort Farm
Bonjour Tristesse
The Smithsonian Institution
South Riding
Captains Courageous
Hullaballoo in the Guava Orchard

And upcoming reads for this year:

Empire of the Sun
The Grand Idea
Is There No Place on Earth for Me?
The Lives of the Muses
The Good Mayor
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
The Myth of You and Me
Crimes Against Logic
McCarthy's Bar
A Thread Across the Ocean
The Gutenberg Revolution
Plunkitt of Tammany Hall
Encounters with the Archdruid

Plus assorted mind-candy reading, of course.

Wow. You could hit 150 this year if you keep going like this...

Ha ha, that's unlikely! A holiday weekend plus several short books is helping me get off to a good start. Roy has enjoyed my reading binge--he's been happily curling up in my lap while I read.

Great lists, past and future!

Thanks!!

5. Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House by M.C. Beaton. I've had enough Agatha Raisin for a while, although I think this is my favorite one yet. They're kind of like grown-up Nancy Drew novels, with lots of people getting locked in basements, etc.

>>32 carlym: - have you tried any of M.C. Beaton's work under her "other" name (I'm not sure which is her real name) - Marion Chesney? I found a copy of Snobbery with Violence (which I couldn't pass up simply because of the title) and realized after the fact that Marion Chesney was the same person as M.C. Beaton.

I never did the Hamish Macbeth titles, but I did a lot of the Agatha Raisins - and I agree, they become repetitive. Snobbery with Violence was the first in her Edwardian Murder Mystery series (LT shows 4 in the series). I would recommend it as a much deserved break.

Ah, you have McCarthy's Bar on the TBR list up there! That's one I've meant to read for a long time now but keep forgetting about.

#33: I haven't tried any of the Marion Chesney ones but have just started keeping an eye out for them. I read a Hamish Macbeth one late last year and liked it better than the Agatha Raisin series, and I've been looking for more of those. At some point last year I got several Agatha Raisin books, and I decided to go ahead and read them and then list them on Bookmooch to help clear off the shelves.

#34: Yep! It's been sitting on my shelf for a while, too. I'm trying to clear out some oldies.

#28: I look forward to your reviews of those, Carly! I think the only one I have read is The Thread Across the Ocean.

A long break between books for me--I've been busy house-hunting and not reading so much.

6. Lives of the Muses by Francine Prose. It's about 9 sets of modern artists and muses, beginning with Hester Thrale and Samuel Johnson and ending with Yoko Ono and John Lennon. Each relationship is different, but the common thread is that they are all dysfunctional. Many of them were romantic relationships in which one or both of the artist and muse were already married to someone else. Prose spends a lot of time trying to puzzle out whether Charles Dodgson was a pedophile and what exactly his relationship with Alice Liddell was about. The only slightly-normal relationship Prose examines is between Suzanne Farrell and George Balanchine. Although George wanted it to be sexual, Farrell refused; plus, they were, in a way, muses for each other but not competitors. I found all the stories to be tremendously interesting. Prose is a good writer, and she makes the relationships between the artists and muses come alive, despite the fact that they are so bizarre.

I'm reading McCarthy's Bar now.

Waving hello!

Good luck with the househunting!

Hi Jennifer and Stasia!

7. McCarthy's Bar by Pete McCarthy. I like travel books in general, and I liked this one even more than expected. I thought it might be gimmicky--the title refers to his travel rule that you have to go into a bar with your name--but the various McCarthy's bars play a small role in the book. He goes to Ireland with this vague idea that it's his true home, rather than England, because his family is Irish (his mother moved to England before he was born) and he has fond memories of childhood summers there. But the book is really just his account of his ramble around Ireland. He has a travel plan that he doesn't stick to at all, and he just goes to interesting-looking places. He frequently notes that, unlike the English, the Irish look for every opportunity to have a conversation, and they want to know all about you and what you're doing. This reminded me a lot of my Nana, whose family is (diluted) Irish; she always wants to know the full story on any person I mention, not because she's suspicious but just out of genuine interest and curiousity. Here is my favorite passage from the book:

"Luckily, I've trained myself over the years never to go anywhere without something to read, just in case someone turns up late, the meeting ends early, or I'm inadvertently imprisoned for thirty-five years and put into solitary confinement. I'm actually quite worried about those people you see on long train journeys with nothing to read, just staring blankly into the middle distance. What the hell is going on in their heads, then? Perhaps they've got excellent memories, and they're just remembering a particularly good book they once read, which saves them having to carry one round. Because there's a danger in carrying a book round: you might leave it somewhere before you've finished it. I once left my copy of Get Shorty in the back of a drunken farmer's jeep in Costa Rica when I was only two-thirds of the way through, and it completely ruined the trip. The rainforest is a much duller place without Elmore Leonard. And I've lost Angela's Ashes twice. Does that poor kid ever grow up? Do they persuade his dad to go into rehab?"

sounds great. adding it to the wishlist! thanks for the review

Love the quote. I added the book to my wishlist as well.
--BJ

I hope y'all enjoy it.

8. How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez. This is my book group's selection for this month, and I enjoyed it. It's about four sisters from the Dominican Republic who move to New York in the 1960s as young girls because the secret police are after their father for engaging in revolutionary activities. The story is told in segments from the different girls' perspectives, sort of like snapshots from their lives. The first part of the book is more about their adult lives and how they've turned out, and then it goes back to their childhood and move to New York. I found the last part a lot more interesting--seeing how their lives were different before and after the move, how living with the fear of the secret police affected them and their family, and their reactions to New York. Alvarez really conveys a sense of place and culture in the sections about the DR. I think the sections about the girls' adult lives are supposed to show how their unusual childhoods affected them, but I thought those sections were a little disconnected, and nothing in the book ties their adult stories together or provides any resolution at the end.

Try Geographies of Home a similar story in subject and beautifully written.

Dodged a book bullet on McCarthy's Bar! It's been on the TBR list for a few years now. Can't say I'll be looking for book #8 above, though!

McCarthy's Bar does sound intriguing.

#40: Adding that one to the BlackHole. Thanks for the recommendation, Carly.

#43: That one is already in the BlackHole, so I can dodge that particular BB.

>25 carlym:: Dallas has the best Half Price! Would you believe I have never been in a Half Price Books store...until New Year's Day when my DIL took me to the one in Plano. She had some books she wanted to trade and errands to run so I told her I'd wait for her books to be processed. I'm definitely going back. I got a new HC copy of At Swim, Two Boys for $1.00 on their clearance shelf!

>40 carlym:: The quote was great, especially the part about Angela's Ashes.

>43 carlym:: I read several books by Julia Alvarez years ago. The only one that really stuck with me is In the Time of Butterflies, another book about sisters, this one based on true events and set in the Dominican Republic.

I'm caught up with you now, Carly. I'll be checking back to see how you're coming with your list of intended reads. There are some interesting titles on it that are new to me.

Donna, if you're back in Dallas, try going to this one: 5803 E. Northwest Hwy.
Dallas, TX 75231. It's huge!! Much bigger than any of the Houston stores.

I'll have to look for In the Time of Butterflies and Geographies of Home.

My book group discussed why Alvarez told the story in How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents in out-of-order segments. Some people liked it, and some of us thought it was confusing and didn't add anything to the story. I don't get authors' fascination with this technique. We read The Time Traveler's Wife last year, and for that book, I get the point--it gives the reader the same mixed-up perspective the characters have. In most cases, though, I don't think it helps the narrative.

Anyway,

9. Fablehaven by Brandon Mull. This is a fun YA book about two kids who visit their grandparents only to find out that their grandparents are caretakers of Fablehaven, a preserve for mystical creatures. Of course there are bad as well as good creatures, and the bad ones stage a revolt. It's a fun, quick read, but all books in this category really suffer by comparison to Harry Potter.

Thanks for the address to the HPB. My favorite one is still in Austin, but I want to check that one out, too.
--BJ

I would not have thought that Dallas would have a better HPB than Austin--the one on Guadalupe is great--but it's just so much bigger, so they have so much more stuff. And it's still an interesting assortment.

10. The Grand Idea by Joel Achenbach. This is part Washington biography and part political history of the Potomac River. In between the Revolutionary War and his presidency, Washington came up with the idea that the Potomac River should be developed into the major artery to the western United States. He had made many trips into the backcountry along the river, and he thought it would be navigable with some minimal improvements. In many ways, he was wrong; the efforts to manipulate the river into something suitable for year-round navigation stalled and were eventually overtaken by the B&O Railroad. That's the central story of the book, but Achenbach fills it in with details about Washington's trips, his fascination with geography and improving the land, his period of friendship with Jefferson, and other stories about the young republic. At times the narrative is overblown, but on the whole it's an interesting look at post-war Washington.

#51: Adding The Grand Idea to the BlackHole. Thanks for the recommendation, Carly!

I hope you enjoy it!

11. A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters. I had thought this would be a mind-candy read and help me in my quest to clear off bookshelves a little by reading something I would then post on Bookmooch, but this was so much better and richer than expected. I love the Brother Cadfael character, and Peters really creates a realistic world full of interesting people and happenings.

The Grand Idea sounds really interesting. Adding it to the pile!

Is A Morbid Taste for Bones a part of the Brother Cadfael mysteries made into PBS Mystery series?

Yep, it is part of that series of books. I have heard about but not seen any of the PBS episodes, so I'm not sure which ones were used for the show.

I have never read any of the books (gasp) but we watched the PBS series years ago and really enjoyed it.

>49 carlym:: Thanks, Carly. I've noted the address of the Half Price Books in Dallas. Thank goodness for my GPS. I hate the traffic there, but for books I'll gladly brave it. I plan to be down that way sometime in early spring.

I'm a fan of linear stories unless there's a good reason for something else. I think authors have so much competition that they feel they have to do something different to stand out from the pack. There are an awful lot of good books out there. I feel sorry for people that walk into a bookstore or library without a clue about what they want. We're so lucky to have all our gurus on LT to guide us. ;-)

I feel sorry for people that walk into a bookstore or library without a clue about what they want. We're so lucky to have all our gurus on LT to guide us. ;-)

Amen!

I like frame stories and other narrative devices, but sometimes the simpler the better. Garcia's book frankly sounds boring. Thanks for the headsup.

I've got a Brother Cadfael anthology--The Leper of Saint Giles, Monk's-hood, The Sanctuary Sparrow, One Corpse too Many. Do you want to borrow it?

Hi There

I'm compiling a list of birthdays of our group members. If you haven't done so already, would you mind stopping by this thread and posting yours.

Thanks.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/105833

#59: Hey! Are you freezing? It's way too cold here. I might want to borrow the anthology in a few months. I must stop the pre-move book acquisition. It's going to be bad enough already.

I don't know about you guys, but I'm freezing. -16 F right this minute in Denver.

It's actually beautiful, but windy here.

Just let me know when you want the Anthology.

It's in the 20s in Houston. Not cold compared to -16, but way too cold for my sub-tropical self. And we are likely to get snow/sleet tomorrow afternoon, which will make for a real mess.

I hope you get more snow and less sleet.
--BJ

It is snowing here and has been for a couple of hours now. Unfortunately, all the snow is doing is covering up the more dangerous ice underneath.

We just got ice. All trouble, no fun!

#67: Oo! Be careful out there!

Sorry that it is ice, not snow. My daughter called me yesterday and said that her afternoon classes were canceled. I guess they won't have class today, either.
--BJ

My office is closed, but I'll probably head out later--I don't have to get on the freeway, and it's supposed to be OK ny noon-ish. Pretty much the whole city is shut down.

How are you faring?

waving hello

Hi there! It's supposed to warm up in Houston today. There were lots of wrecks yesterday because of the ice, but we should be getting back to normal.

12. Is There No Place on Earth for Me? by Susan Sheehan. This is the fascinating and moving story of Sylvia Frumkin (not her real name), a young woman who is schizophrenic. Sheehan tells the whole story of her life but focuses on her post-teenage years, in which she was in and out of various psychiatric hospitals. Some of the story comes from records and interviews, but Sheehan also spent a year with Sylvia. The story is told in a bare, reportorial manner, with very little editorializing; Sheehan doesn't offer excuses for Sylvia or her family, nor does she comment directly on the mental health system and doctors who can't seem to get Sylvia's treatment right. That style makes the story very powerful: it's just the terrible facts about living life with schizophrenia. Sylvia only has short periods of quasi-normalcy. Most of the time she's in a psychotic episode and impossible to live with. She spends a lot of time in Creedmoor, the state hospital, where she is treated by well-meaning but overworked and somewhat incompetent doctors and therefore never gets better for any sustained length of time. It seems as though Sylvia knows that something is wrong with her, but she can't stop her slides back into psychosis, any more than someone could stop a heart attack. And while her family and doctors could have done a better job, at the same time, it's hard to imagine having to deal with her behavior. It's a sad situation, but Sheehan doesn't present it in a melodramatic, tear-jerking kind of way; it's just reality.

#73: That one looks interesting. Thanks for the recommendation, Carly!

I hope it does warm up for you today :)

I agree with Stasia: that one's going on the wishlist!

Hmmm. I'll keep am eye out for this one.

The book was written in the early 80s, and it was originally published as a series of articles in the New Yorker. The book contains a brief postscript from the author saying that, as a result of the articles, a prominent psychiatrist had agreed to treat Sylvia, and she was doing better. I was curious about what happened to her. I can't read the whole article on the New Yorker site, but it looks like her pattern of behavior unfortunately continued until her death at age 46 in 1994. http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1995/02/20/1995_02_20_200_TNY_CARDS_000369581

#77: I checked Wikipedia and found this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Frumkin. It looks like you are correct about her behavior continuing until her death, Carly, although the Wikipedia blurb does say that she did get more effective treatment after the publication of the book.

I don't normally post photos, but my cat cracked me up last night:

Very cute.

Were you reading in the bath? :)

Birdie likes to shred end papers. It's cute until I loan the book to someone and I have to explain why it looks like I've chewed on my book.

#79: Obviously, he (it is Roy, isn't it?) thought he needed to save your spot in the book for you, Carly!

#80: Well, I was reading in the bathroom, anyway. :) Only endpapers? Birdie is a funny cat.

#81: Yes, it is Roy. He likes to dive under newspapers, tissue paper, etc., and he tried to do that with the back cover of the book, but I don't think it ended up quite like he thought!

The book is Make No Law, which is about New York Times v. Sullivan. It's great. I'll probably finish it up tonight.

13. Make No Law: The Sullivan Case and the First Amendment by Anthony Lewis. This is a fantastic book centered on the case of New York Times v. Sullivan, the libel action brought by a Montgomery, Alabama police commissioner (Sullivan) against the New York Times for printing a paid advertisement that did not mention Sullivan by name or position but talked about police actions against African-Americans and civil rights activists. Sullivan claimed that the ad defamed him because several minor details were wrong and because he was the head of the police force and therefore people would associate him with the ad. Before this case, the Supreme Court had not used the First Amendment to protect anyone against libel actions, but this case involved speech about public officials and a central political topic of the time. Lewis traces the history of First Amendment case law, which is very interesting; many people thought that the law protected only what Britain protected, which is a much narrower freedom than what we have today. Then Lewis goes into detail about the Sullivan case, including explaining the development of the arguments by the Times legal team, headed by Herbert Wechsler, and then the development of the Court opinion by Justice Brennan. He is able to use Court records and Justice Brennan's papers to show how the Court's reasoning took shape, something I found fascinating. Finally, Lewis discusses the impact of the Sullivan decision: it was a remarkable opinion that broadened protections for free speech, but in some ways it also caused libel litigation to be more expensive because of the standard the Court set. The Court found that public figures could only succeed on libel claims if they showed that the publisher was "reckless" in publishing something false, so that meant plaintiffs needed discovery about what the publisher knew and thought. Lewis explains other views on how best to achieve the goal of protecting speech without causing this problem, but no solution is perfect. My only quibble with him is that he praises judges who dismiss meritless libel claims on summary judgment because he says that it's not too expensive for defendants if the cases are dismissed at that stage rather than going to trial. While I agree that meritless claims should be dismissed at summary judgment, getting a case to that stage is expensive. I think it's a very academic view to say that it's inexpensive litigation if dismissed before trial; in reality, all the discovery work happens before summary judgment, and that can be extremely expensive. But I don't know what the answer is; only the most obviously false cases can be dismissed before all the facts are known. Anyway, it's a great book on an important topic, and it gave me a lot to think about.

I'll have to pick up a copy of Make No Law.

What do you think of the differences between libel law in the UK and here? Do you like Brennan's reasoning (independent of Lewis' mistaken belief that the discovery stage isn't expensive too).

#83: As I have been reading on the Civil Rights movement the past couple of years, Carly, your recent read interests me. Thanks for the review!

#84: I agree with his reasoning that the First Amendment was meant to protect speech critical of the government, etc., and that "no law" includes libel laws or any other type of law that restricts that kind of speech, and that given the basis for the American Revolution it is a little odd to argue that the Founders only wanted the same protections that British citizens had. Then the question is whether "no law" really means "no law"--i.e., government officials can't bring libel claims even when people publish intentionally false statements about their public activities. Brennan says the First Amendment doesn't go that far, which makes sense from a practical perspective and is probably consistent with the views of a majority of Americans, but I think the reasoning on the standard is shakier. I don't think it's clear what the Framers thought of the exact parameters of the amendment (and I think intention of the Framers is a perfectly reasonable way to interpret the Constitution, especially if you view it as a social contract, since contracts are interpreted by reference to the parties' intentions all the time). I also don't know what a better and more logical standard would be--all the options seem to present problems.

As far as UK/US differences, I get the importance of our more expansive freedoms. They aren't without cost, but would Watergate have ever been uncovered if the Washington Post had the burden to prove that the articles it published were absolutely true or face jury verdicts that would have shut the paper down? Or any of the other government scandals since that time? We are entitled to know what our government is doing, and investigative journalism plays a huge part in that, even though journalists are sometimes wrong. And to put it in a way that might resonate more with you: with a Democratic administration, Fox News could be shut down under the pre-Sullivan standard (as could MSNBC during a Republican adminstration).

I hope y'all enjoy the book.

Great review. I will have to get a copy.

It's true that there is a cost to freedom, but I'd prefer to pay it than to be "safe" without it. The loss of freedom of speech would be too high a price to pay for never being offended.

Very nice review! Thumbs up from me!

I wishlisted the book, too. Hope things are getting warmer there.
--BJ

Thanks, BJ! It is definitely warming up this weekend.

And I agree, Jenn--totally worth the cost!

14. Aunt Dimity and the Next of Kin by Nancy Atherton. This is a sweet story--although part of a mystery series, it's not a murder mystery. The main character, Lori Shepherd, befriends a woman in the hospital who dies and leaves it to Lori to track down her brother. It's mind-candy, but a nice cozy read.

#89: I like the Aunt Dimity series. You are right, they are brain candy books, but they are enjoyable.

15. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. by G. Edward White. This is a short bio of Justice Holmes, meant for the general reader (the author, who was my torts professor, says readers who want a more in-depth treatment can check out his more scholarly, and longer, bio of Holmes). It's not the most favorable biography of Holmes in some ways; he comes across as a nice enough man in his personal interactions but also as a very self-centered, self-aggrandizing person who wanted to become a judge for the fame he thought it would bring, not because he wanted to serve the public. The book includes short chapters about some of Holmes's more famous series of opinions (Lochner dissent, free-speech cases), but it's an overview of his life, not a detailed analysis of his jurisprudence. I thought it was interesting that Holmes was a soldier in the Civil War who saw real action. He was wounded pretty seriously three times.

#91: I read Catherine Drinker Bowen's book on Holmes a couple of years ago, Yankee from Olympus. I would recommend it to you.

I have that one on the shelf already. I'm not ready to dive into another Holmes book quite yet, but it does sound interesting, and I'm glad to hear a positive recommendation from someone who has read it.

I have a disturbing interest in knowing what it made you think of the author. :)

Ha ha! I couldn't decide whether White liked Justice Holmes's attitude about becoming a judge or not, because he always seemed a little pompous himself and so maybe would have thought Holmes's reasons were perfectly normal or acceptable. But it is a well-written book.

16. 25 Most Treasured Gospel Hymn Stories by Kenneth Osbeck. I picked this up at the library book sale last year. It's a short book with about a one-page story about the origins of each of the 25 selected hymns, plus a copy of each hymn. I love hymns, and the book includes several of my favorites, so I enjoyed it, but I had also hoped the stories would be more in-depth. This book probably would not appeal to non-Protestants; if you don't know the hymns, it seems like it would be boring.

I really enjoy hymn stories. I've got several books of them in my collection.

96 (carlym): Can't say it's my sort of thing, but I think it's cool that (a) such books exist and (b) they find an appreciative audience.

Thanks for stopping by, thornton and qebo!

Qebo, I looked at your profile, and I'm reading something now that might be of more interest to you--Where Wizards Stay Up Late, about the origins of the internet.

#96: I have a similar book, Carly, not that exact one. I enjoy learning the stories behind hymns.

99: Huh, didn't know about this one, but you're right, it is my sort of thing and the reviews make it sound interesting.

17. Far Appalachia by Noah Adams. I bought this for my Nana at a library book sale last year, and she liked it and thought I should read it, too. It's about the New River in the southeastern U.S. Adams hikes, canoes, and rafts the majority of the river, and he intersperses his story of his trips with history and natural history about the river and the people who live in the area. It's an interesting book and a good companion read to The Grand Idea, which told the story of George Washington's many trips along the Potomac.

18. Heat Wave by Richard Castle. I've been watching the TV show off and on, and I thought it was hilarious that they came out with a book by the character on the show. The first few pages are genuinely terrible in a funny kind of way, but then the story picks up, and I have to say that I was drawn into the plot. It's not quality literature by any means, but it was entertaining nonetheless. And I love the details of the book publication that make it seem like Richard Castle is real: cover blurbs by James Patterson and others about Castle, and interview with the author, etc.

19. On the Bright Side, Now I'm the Girlfriend of a Sex God by Louise Rennison. More nonsense from teenage Georgia Nicholson. This was another book-sale buy last year. I'm not really looking to read the rest of the series, but they're fun from time to time.

#102: Far Appalachia sounds like one I would enjoy. I read Adams' Piano Lessons a few years back and liked it, so I will give another of his books a shot. Thanks for the recommendation, Carly!

20. Crimes Against Logic by Jamie Whyte. Ugh. I wanted to like this but totally hated it. Whyte seems like a pompous jerk--the person who always wants to argue (or, rather, tell you why he's right) about everything in every situation. He's so convinced of his own rightness that he doesn't see the flaws in his own arguments.

One, some of his arguments are just dumb. The first chapters of the book explain why statements like "everyone is entitled to their own opinion" aren't good arguments--well, duh. People don't say that when they have good reasons; it's just a way of saying that they're done with the argument, and polite people leave it alone (not Whyte).

Two, he argues from premises that his opponents probably wouldn't agree with. For example, he makes an argument that Christianity is illogical because the Trinity doesn't make sense. The problem is that he starts with the unspoken premise that God (or whatever supernatural being is at issue in any of his religious arguments) is just a big human somewhere else who operates under the same physical rules we do. I don't think that's something religious people agree with. Arguments come out differently when you start with different premises.

Three, he deliberately misinterprets others' statements. In a section about why the UK government's definition of "poverty" is bad, he quotes one person as saying, "It is a simple and reliable statistic, which has played a huge part in propelling poverty high up the political agenda." Whyte then explains why the "which" clause doesn't validate the definition. Fine, but the speaker wasn't saying that the effect of the statistic validated it; the speaker was just offering a piece of information about the statistic.

Four, he makes overgeneralizations, like his statement that people who have good reasons for their beliefs will not "attempt to stifle discussion with good manners. Those who take religion, politics, and sex seriously do not adhere to the general prohibition on discussing these topics, and they don't take offense when they are shown to be wrong." Mmm-hmm, I'm sure that's universally true, Jamie. No one who takes those things seriously has ever politely pretended to agree with you to get away from you. You just go on believing that.

Well.............guess I can save myself from putting that one on the list! I really like honest assessments of books that appear at first to be interesting. Sounds like he had an agenda, and wasn't able to handle a truly objective examination of facts.

I definitely thought he had an agenda. I've read several other books on related topics in recent months, and I would recommend pretty much all of them (A Rulebook for Arguments, How to Lie with Statistics, The Drunkard's Walk, and others), but not this one!

Check out Mary Roach's apartment! http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/mary-roachs-nest-the-curious-charm-of-a-write...

Blech. I will leave that one off the TBR pile. Thanks for vetting it for us.

Speaking as a religious person - I definitely use good manners to stifle discussions that will be detrimental to all involved. Discussing religion or politics is possible, but only if all parties are similarly interested in understanding the beliefs and thoughts of the others. If someone has an agenda (like proving someone else wrong) it almost never turns out well. I like how he doesn't seem to think that proving someone wrong about their belief system could be offensive in any way. Wow.

I have been moving, which is really cutting into my reading and internet time! But I have finished two great books:

21. The Myth of You and Me by Leah Stewart. This is my book group's selection for this month. It's the story of two women who were best friends in high school/college and then "broke up." Then later one of them tries to get back in touch. It sounds sappy and chick-lit-ish, but it's not; it's a moving story of friendship and what it means to forgive. Highly recommended.

22. A Thread Across the Ocean by John Steele Gordon. This is a history of the first trans-Atlantic telegraph cable. It's really a fascinating story--the cable involved significant engineering advances, and the progress of the cable was affected by a variety of historical events. I had never really thought about what it took to accomplish this, and it is kind of amazing. I also had never thought about the current state of trans-ocean communications, but apparently we still rely very heavily on seafloor cables. Also highly recommended.

(edited to correct typo)

Book #22...you're right....I've never really thought about everything that must have been involved, or offered impediments to that achievement. I'm going to search that one out..it sounds really interesting.

Hi!

Both of those books look good. Adding them to the pile. :)

Hi there! Thanks for stopping by, and I hope y'all enjoy the books.

23. Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson. Bryson rambles around Europe retracing his first trip there when he was a young man. I like that he goes to some less-traveled places, like Sofia, and he has some pretty funny comments.

Hi and Happy Belated Birthday.

I was on vacation when your special day (April 1st) occurred.

I hope your day was a good one.

Happy belated birthday from me, too! Did you happen to see that the A&M women won the NCAA championship?
--BJ

I am way behind on threads, Carly, so I missed your birthday too. I hope you had a terrific day!

Thanks! BJ, I did see that. I actually went to the men's championship, which was really fun even though the game itself wasn't great.

I'll be back soon with new books--stuff has been really busy lately, and I have about 3 books going.

Ooops, missed your birthday. Hope it was a special day for you.

I see you are moving. That is one of life's big stressors, especially if you have lots of books to move. I'm glad you've been able to read as much as you have. Are you still in Texas?

Hi Donna! The move was crazy but luckily just about 10 minutes away from my previous place. The best part of the new place is that I have tons of built-in bookshelves, so no more piles on the floor!

24. The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke. I tried reading Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell last year and could not get into it--the extensive footnotes really annoyed me. But I loved this book of short stories. They are all a bit like fairy tales, including some retellings of fairy tales, and all very well done. They're mystical and dreamy but witty at the same time.

Oh do have fun with your built-in bookshelves...they are such fun to fill, and whenever anyone asks what you want for a gift, you can tell them bookends, and those wonderful little metal shelf thingies that label what's on the shelf so you can stay half-way organized.

Of course that only helps if you don't label every shelf TBR

Congrats on surviving the big move. Moving is always hard for book collectors -- boxes and boxes and more boxes of books to move! I bet you will have no trouble filling all your shelves in no time. :)
--BJ

Well, they're not totally filled yet, but I'm glad I have as many as I do!

25. The Gutenberg Revolution by John Man. This is, obviously, the story of Johann Gutenberg and how he developed the printing press. Man fills in gaps in Gutenberg's story--which are many--with historical context. There were times when these asides went on too long and took away from the flow of the narrative, but at the same time, they were helpful to understand why Gutenberg did what he did and when, and why it took him so long to make his invention financially successful.

Sounds like there's a better book about Gutenberg out there that's more pleasant to read.

OH, lots of book shelves...Heaven!

#122: Yeah, it wasn't bad, but it seems like there should be something a little better. I think a big problem is that Gutenberg's bio seems pretty sketchy--there just aren't a lot of facts.

#123: Exactly!

26. Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet by Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon. This book is mainly about the ARPA project that created the first real computer network, connecting computers across the U.S. using telephone lines. I didn't realize how long ago the basic technology of the internet had been invented--in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The ARPANET members regularly used email in the 1970s. The authors do a good job of walking the fine line between being too technical for lay readers (like me) and not explaining any of the technological advances. I liked reading about the people who worked on the project; they were generally pretty interesting.

27. The Drunken Forest by Gerald Durrell. Durrell wrote this book after a trip to South America in the late 1950s to collect animals for British zoos and to make movies of animals in their natural habitats. He travels in Argentina and Paraguay looking for unusual animals, and he finds all sorts of fascinating ones. He clearly loves the animals and is delighted at their appearance, habits, and noises--he describes them vividly and with affection.

I am way behind on threads again, Carly, so am playing catch up. Glad to hear that the move was a success and congrats on the new bookshelves!

#126: I loved Durrell's My Family and Other Animals a few years back, so I will have to give that one a try too. Thanks for the recommendation!

I'm glad you're back, Stasia!

I read the second one, Birds, Beasts, and Other Relatives, which I'm guessing is pretty similar to My Family and Other Animals. Birds, Beasts, and Other Relatives had a little more charm for me, maybe because Durrell was a kid in the book, but I think I will like all his books.

28. Adventures on the High Teas by Stuart Maconie. This is a book about "Middle England," both figuratively and literally. Maconie travels around Oxford, Bath, Slough, and other towns and villages that are considered to be typically Middle English, whether in a good or bad way. I'm definitely an Anglophile, but some of the references (especially the pop culture ones) went right over my head. He also doesn't have any particular goal or direction, so the book kind of jumps from place to place. Nonetheless, Maconie is a funny guy, and I enjoyed most of the book.

Hi, Carly,
Are you rooting for the Mavericks or OKC? I am rooting for the OKC Thunder because of Kevin Durant. I don't know if I can make it until football season or not. I hope it is better than last year.

I haven't read anything by either of the Durrells, but I have been wanting to read both of them. So I wishlisted your book. Sounds like a good one.

Hi BJ! Honestly, I haven't been following the NBA much. During this time of year, I mainly watch baseball (unfortunately the home team is pretty lousy!). I hope you enjoy one of the Durrell books.

29. The Blush by Elizabeth Taylor. This is a collection of short stories (and they're not by THAT Elizabeth Taylor). The stories each show an intensely emotional but relatively common and undramatic moment in a person's life: moments of jealousy, embarassment, loneliness, etc. That sounds depressing, but somehow it's not. Even though the characters were not necessarily in situations I had experienced, the particular emotion came through very clearly and was usually something I could relate to, so the stories gave me more of a feeling of human camaraderie than anything. Highly recommended.

I read one of Taylor's books earlier this year and liked it, so I will be on the lookout for The Blush. Thanks for the recommendation, Carly!

The Blush sounds like an unusual pick for you. Was it a club read? I'll have to pick it up.

It wasn't a book club pick. It's a Virago Modern Classic reprint, and I usually like those. I don't usually like sad books, but even though my description makes the stories sound sad, they didn't come across that way.

Of the 29 you've read so far this year, what are your top 2 picks? I appear to be in a reading slump. Sleep has proved to be more of a necessity than reading, which is new for me.

Hi Carly --

I just wanted to let you know that if you hadn't picked The Drunken Forest for a TIOLI Challenge, I probaly would never have read -- that would have been a real shame, because I loved it.

You've written some great reviews -- I'm going to have to give Make No Law a shot. It sounds excellent.

Thanks again, for pointing me to Durrell.

#134: I can imagine that sleep is pretty key about now. I think you would like Is There No Place on Earth for Me?, The Myth of You and Me, and The Ladies of Grace Adieu. The last one is a collection of short stories, which is nice when you don't have extended periods of time to read.

#135: Thanks for stopping by! I'm glad you liked the Durrell book. He is a funny guy. I hope you like Make No Law. I should find your thread--it looks like we both enjoy mysteries set in England.

30. Libraries in the Ancient World by Lionel Casson. This is a short book describing the development of libraries from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia up to the Middle Ages in Europe. Casson talks both about the physical plant of the libraries and their contents and uses. I enjoyed reading about the ancient kings/emperors/etc. who were real bibliophiles and also about the development of public libraries in the Greek and Roman empires.

31. The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday by Alexander McCall Smith. I really like the Isabel Dalhousie books. They're easy comfort reads but still well-written, and they have more depth than a lot of books in the cozy mystery genre.

What am I missing? I can never find any mysteries in the Isabel Dalhousie books, and I get so frustrated at the long-windedness of all the characters. OTOH, I love the No. 1 Ladies Detective series which may not be everyone's cuppa tea. Go figure!

I know they're categorized as mysteries, but I agree that they're not really mysteries. They're just stories. I guess I just like the characters and the fact that nothing really bad happens in them (so they're good comfort reads), but that because Isabel is a philosopher, she brings up moral issues about everyday life, which gives me a little something to think about. Sometimes I like a mystery with a more involved plot and more tension, but sometimes I just want a nice happy novel. Unfortunately most happy novels are painfully cheesy, and that's not fun.

And I can't get into the No. 1 Ladies Detective series! I guess McCall has a little something for everyone.

32. Stitches: A Memoir by David Small. I got this ages ago from Indiespensable. It's only the second graphic novel I've read (Persepolis is the other), so I didn't quite know what to expect. Small's story is not particularly long or detailed, but the pictures make it far more powerful. I don't know that I'll ever become a regular reader of graphic novels, but in this case, I thought the pictures added something that could not have been conveyed by text alone, and I think it would be interesting if more adult authors included at least occasional illustrations.

#140: I have read that one already, so there is finally a BB on your thread that I can dodge!

33. Toast by Nigel Slater. This was OK but nothing special.

I just went to getlonghornsports.com and found out that Directv is not planning to offer the Longhorn Network. There is a place to request the channel be added at the website. Just fyi. You will probably get it in Texas.

That's too bad, BJ. I can't quite figure out if my Comcast package will include it or if I would have to upgrade. Have you been watching any college baseball? I saw a game at the Rice regional last weekend (Cal vs. Alcorn State--not exactly the most exciting game) and have been watching some of the Texas games on TV.

I am very excited about the upcoming CWS although surprised to see that Rice will not be there.

I have been watching UT play. They don't seem quite the same team, although last night's game ended nicely. I felt that a homerun would help, and it did. :) If they can get through one more game, they get to go to Omaha and see the new stadium.

My work schedule has finally returned to normal, and I have caught up on sleep, so I'm getting some reading done again!

34. The Sirens Sang of Murder by Sarah Caudwell. I like these Hilary Tamar mysteries. They're a little funny, and the writing is pretty good.

35. The Crofter and the Laird by John McPhee. In the mid-1960s, McPhee and his family went to live on Colonsay, one of the Hebrides, for a year because it's where McPhee's family came from. This isn't a Peter Mayle-style book, though--it's about the people and the land of Colonsay and not so much about McPhee's experience. Colonsay is (or at least was at that time) totally owned by a laird. The 150 or so people who live on the island have what is basically a feudal relationship with the laird. There are a number of crofters, people who are entitled to rent certain land from the laird (at a very low rate) for use in part-time farming. McPhee and his family rent a house from one of these crofters, Donald Gibbie. Gibbie farms but is also in charge of the pier and has other random jobs and sources of income. He and his family mostly live off the land, not only from their farm but also by gathering eggs from wild birds, gathering shellfish, etc., because the total income from Gibbie's farm and other jobs is minimal. The people on Colonsay really live like they are in a different time, but they all seem happy enough with it; many of them have no desire to leave Colonsay. McPhee does a good job of presenting the islanders in a way that is neither too anthropological nor too romantic.

Favorite childhood book?
The Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery

What are you reading right now?
Italian Neighbors by Tim Parks

Bad book habit?
Obsessive book-buying.

Do you have an e-reader?
Yes. Do I use it? Not really.

Do you prefer one book at a time or several at once?
I usually have a couple of books in progress.

Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog?
I don't have a blog.

Least favorite book you read this year?
Crimes Against Logic by Jamie Whyte.

Favorite book this year?
It's hard to pick one, but probably The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke.

How often do you read out of your comfort zone?
Fantasy books are out of my comfort zone, but I read them occasionally.

What is your reading comfort zone?
Travel, British fiction, history, cozy mysteries, miscellaneous non-fiction.

Can you read on the bus?
Yes. Reading on a bus is mandatory. It's my defense against conversation with crazy people.

Favorite place to read?
My sofa.

What is your policy on book lending?
I loan books to good friends and family, but I don't tend to offer my very favorite books.

Do you ever dogear pages in your books?
Yes, to mark my stopping place or to mark pages with good passages that I want to write down later.

Do you write notes in the margins of your books?
Rarely.

What is your favorite language to read in?
English. I can read in French, but it's a lot more work.

What makes you love a book?
Being drawn into whatever the world the author is creating or describing, whether real or fictional.

What will inspire you to recommend a book?
Liking it and knowing enough about the other person to think he or she will enjoy it.

Favorite genre?
Depends on my mood!

Favorite biography?
Madame de Pompadour by Nancy Mitford comes to mind. Also The Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser.

Have you ever read a self-help book?
Yes.

Most inspirational book you've read this year?
I guess this is kind of sad, but I haven't read anything this year that I would classify as inspirational.

Favorite reading snack?
Nothing in particular. I don't generally snack while reading.

How often do you agree with critics about a book?
It depends on the critic, but I don't read a lot of professional book reviews, so I don't have a good sense of this.

How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews?
I don't feel bad. Writers are adults who are making a living selling books. Bad reviews are part of the deal, just like pro athletes getting criticized by commentators. I don't see a reason to be intentionally mean, but I don't think there is anything wrong with stating the truth about a book.

If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you choose?
I wish I read more fluently in French.

Most intimidating book you've ever read?
Hmmm. That's a hard one. Maybe The English Constitution by Walter Bagehot? I thought it might be really dense, but it turned out to be really good and written in a surprisingly modern style.

Most initimidating book you're too nervous to begin?
In Search of Lost Time by Proust. It just seems so long.

Favorite poet?
Shakespeare and Auden.

Favorite fictional character?
Elizabeth Bennet.

Favorite fictional villain?
I'll have to come back to this one.

Books I'm most likely to bring on vacation?
Travel books.

The longest I've gone without reading?
Hard to say. Even if I only read a few pages a day, I usually have a book in progress.

Name a book that could not/would not finish?
Most recently, Pies and Prejudice.

What distracts you easily when you're reading?
Cats.

Favorite film adaptation of a novel?
A Room with a View.

Most disappointing film adaptation of a novel?
Gone with the Wind comes to mind.

The most money you've ever spent on books?
Maybe $100 in any one purchase, but that was probably at 1/2 Price Books, where I would have gotten a ton of books for that much.

How often do you skim a book before reading?
Sometimes I skim through before buying a book.

Do you like to keep your books organized?
Yes. Mine are sorted by genre, and my fiction books are sorted by publisher.

Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you've read them?
I keep my favorites and give the others away to friends or through Bookmooch.

A book that made you angry?
See above--Crimes Against Logic by Jamie Whyte. It was terrible!

A book you didn't expect to like but did?
To Kill a Mockingbird. My mom really wanted me to read this when I was a kid, and I refused until I had to read it for class in high school. Then I loved it!

A book you expected to like but didn't?
Picture This by Joseph Heller. I liked Catch-22, but Picture This did not seem to have been written by the same guy.

Favorite guilt-free, pleasure reading?
Alexander McCall Smith's Isabel Dalhousie series.

I enjoyed seeing your answers to the quiz. I have been to a couple of HPB in Houston. I seek them out in every town I visit.

BJ, I like that each HPB has its own flavor, so that different ones have different mixes of books. In many ways it's so much more fun than a regular bookstore (and not just because it's cheaper!).

36. Italian Neighbors by Tim Parks. This is another book by a Brit who moved to another country, but unlike John McPhee, Parks and his wife relocated permanently, rather than just for a year. They moved to Montecchio, a town near Verona, and rented a modern flat in a condominium building with three other flats. As you can probably guess from the title, the book is mainly about the people they come to know and how they become accepted into the community. They make friends with their difficult elderly neighbor, Lucilla, who thinks that she should have inherited the flat the Parkses rent after the owner died, and with another neighbor by agreeing to cooperate on some homemade prosecco. Parks combines his slice-of-life stories with some light social commentary, particularly about Italian government and the Italians' attitude toward government and law. Books by Brits and Americans about moving abroad are a dime a dozen (and I tend to read them whether they're good or not), but this one is particularly good. Parks is honest about life in Montecchio but not unkind, and he is quietly witty. Altogether an enjoyable read.

37. Death at the Priory: Love, Sex, and Murder in Victorian England by James Ruddick. This book is about the murder of Charles Bravo, the second abusive husband of one Florence Ricardo, nee Campbell. Florence was born into a wealthy, high-class family in Scotland in the mid-1800s. She first married Alexander Ricardo, a dashing military officer from another society family, but he turned out to be an abusive alcoholic. Her life took a couple of other interesting and tragic turns, and she winds up in London as a single woman with a dubious reputation. She met Charles Bravo, a wealthy and outwardly-respectable man, and he proposed. They married, but he, too, quickly turned out to be extremely controlling and both physically and emotionally abusive. About 5 months after their marriage, Charles is poisoned by antimony and dies. Because of Florence's past reputation, the case was sensational and highly-publicized. It was investigated by the Metropolitan Police and an inquest was held, but the jury found that no one could be accused of the crime. It is a fascinating story, and the first half of the book, in which Ruddick tells the tale, is great.

The second half of the book, though, is more about Ruddick's ego than the crime. He promises at the beginning of the book that he has new evidence, uncovered through careful research across the globe, that will finally establish who killed Charles Bravo. It does appear that he did extensive research, but he turned up very little new information of any significance to the crime itself. He learned more about the people involved, and he uses that information to retroactively pscyho-analyze the suspects and speculate about whether they could or could not have killed Bravo based on his assessment of their character and motivations. His ultimate conclusion about Bravo's death is logical, but he didn't need to do any more research to reach that conclusion; it is based largely on testimony from the inquest. Ruddick would have done better to fill out the original story with the additional background from his research and then present his theory as simply that--a logical theory proposed by someone who had studied the case--rather than presenting it as a conclusion based on new evidence.

I really enjoyed Death at the Priory, primarily for its exhibition of crime in a completely different time. Very interesting from a cultural perspective.

#151: I may give that one a try some time to see if I like it. I am not rushing out and buying it though. Hopefully my local library will get it one of these days.

#152: Yes, I enjoyed the parts about the actual investigation at the time and would be interested to read more about that. You might like a book I read last year, Fingerprints by Colin Beavan, that talks about how fingerprinting came to be an accepted crime investigation technique.

#153: Stasia, I had already given it away on Bookmooch or I would have sent it to you! Given the size of your Black Hole, you probably have better books to read, anyway.

38. The Good Nanny by Benjamin Cheever. This was a disappointment. It is supposed to be a dark comedy/satire about this rich New York family that moves to the suburbs to escape crime, etc., but the humor doesn't really hit the mark. It's not absurd enough to seem satirical, but the characters are too flat to be realistic.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'm always interested in true crime and crime reference type books. This year's Halloween Reading LIst has a true crime title, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

I should read that one. I think my mom has it, and I could borrow it from her. Do you like mainly historical true crime or books about more recent crimes? I think the historical ones are interesting, but reading about more recent crimes gives me the creeps (except for white-collar crime, I guess).

I like them all.....it's a combination of professional and personal interest.

#155: Giving that one a pass!

>156 blackdogbooks: I really enjoyed Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil when I read it. I think I got the order wrong. I had not heard of the book when I visited Savannah. The trolley drivers kept pointing out things from the book. When I got home, the first thing on my list was to get a copy of the book and read it. I've been back to Savannah since then, and I recognized many of the places and had the point of reference of the book in my repertoire as well.

I have Midnight if you want to borrow it. It's been on my to-be-read list for quite a while.

Wow, it's been a long time . . .

39. The Mating Season by P.G. Wodehouse

40. Berlin 1961 by Frederick Kempe. I found this book to be an engaging and highly-readable account of a very tense time. The author seems to have done extremely thorough research, which certainly made me trust his account. He even occasionally puts in amusing details, like the fact that the head of the Stasi, Erich Mielke, had "a passion for Prussian hunting music . . . and the success of the security forces' soccer team . . . which would regularly win championships with the help of his manipulation of matches and players." Details like that add color and depth to his portrayal of the East Germans generally and of specific individuals. As a historical account, I highly recommend this book.

My only problem with the book is its insufficiently-explained criticism of Kennedy's handling of the situation. I think Kennedy is an overrated president, so I don't disagree with the author's general point, but he fails to explain what Kennedy should have done--he just says Kennedy was weak and inexperienced. However, the facts he sets out are that Kennedy decided it wasn't worth going to war over East Berlin, Kennedy let Khruschev know his position, and Khurschev stuck pretty faithfully to the bounds Kennedy set rather than pursuing more extensive action. Also, given the author's description of East German politics and Khruschev's own domestic troubles, it seems unlikely that the East Germans and Soviets were going to let the refugee flow from East Berlin continue indefinitely--something was going to happen, and the question is whether it was worth risking nuclear war to allow that refugee flow to continue. To convince me of his position, the author needed to present a viable alternative to Kennedy's actions. (Also, the Germans, both East and West, really came off as whiners in this account. They were upset that the U.S. did not prevent the Wall, but they didn't take action themselves, and the East Germans just built the Wall as directed rather than attempting any resistance: they wanted the U.S. to risk the lives of U.S. soldiers and potentially millions of people in nuclear war but were unwilling to take any risks of their own.)

#163: Nice review, Carly. I already have that one in the BlackHole. I just hope my local library gets a copy some day.

Thanks. I think your local library should recruit you as a book-buyer-advisor!

#165: I wish they would. Unfortunately, I would probably bankrupt the place :)

Carly....thanks for such an insightful review. I have a copy of this sitting on my shelf, but just haven't gotten around to it. You have inspired me to bump it up the queue.

I think your assessment of the Kennedy-Khurschev situation is spot on.

I hope you enjoy it, Tutu. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts.

41. The Lost Art of Gratitude by Alexander McCall Smith

I agree that your review of Berlin 1961 was terrific. I added it to my wishlist.

Still no Longhorn Network for me, and I am getting quite anxious over it. This weekend is the Rice game. Sounds like my daughter is planning to make the trip. How can we have so many sports channels and not have a place for the one I most want to see?

No Longhorn Network for me, either, BJ--they don't have a deal with Comcast yet. Given that most of Houston has Comcast, I'm not sure how it will work for sports bars, either. My friends and I are going to try to find someplace to watch it.

If you find a place to watch it, let me know. Of course living in Oklahoma makes it much harder! I guess ESPN is not that good at negotiating to leave this many disappointed fans.

I have been watching early rounds of tennis. I hear that Roddick is playing tomorrow. I hope he wins.

42. Crete by Barry Unsworth. This is a sort of wandering travelogue/history of the author's tour of Crete with his wife. He certainly made Crete sound like an interesting place--full of caves, ruins, important archeological sites and discoveries, and a mixture of cultures.

43. Death of a Bore by M.C. Beaton. Not much to say about this one.

44. A Cordiall Water by MFK Fisher. This is kind of a funny book. Fisher muses about various folk remedies, some that sound useful (and that remain in use today) and some that sound truly horrible and disgusting. It's not a scientific study, but just the author's collection of anecdotes and thoughts about the remedies.

45. The Almanac of Fascinating Beginnings by Norman King. King summarizes the history of various inventions and practices--everything from the atom bomb to crackerjacks to shopping malls--in this short book. This could have been really boring because it's not a cohesive narrative but just short entries arranged in alphabetical order. King, though, does a good job of making each entry interesting and injecting humor into the stories.

You are reading some interesting books!

We ended up driving down to see the game. Since our daughter was playing in the band and our other daughter lives in Austin, it just seemed like the thing to do. It was fun, and the best play was by the Freshmen, I thought.

I wound up not getting to see it--my friends and I were going to try to see it at a bar that is supposed to be where the Texas Exes gather, but we couldn't get a hold of them to see if they were actually showing the game, with the weird network situation. I am relieved we won! How does your daughter like playing in the MOB?

46. Video Night in Kathmandu by Pico Iyer. Iyer traveled all over Asia over a number of years and published this book in 1988. Each chapter considers one country. After a while, though, they all ran together, because the picture he paints is almost unrelentingly depressing--in country after country, the people are poor, oppressed, and often forced to turn to prostitution or begging, even though they remain cheerful and optimistic. The chapters on India and Japan are exceptions. The chapter on India focuses on Bollywood and is not really a travelogue. The chapter on Japan is mainly about baseball, and although it, in a way, also presents a very depressing picture (of a lack of genuineness and an over-emphasis on conformity), poverty and prostitution are not part of the scene. Iyer's overall theme is the interaction between East and West, but what is most striking is the desparate poverty. Because the book was written in 1988, it would be interesting to read his more recent impressions of these countries. In some, like Burma, I don't think the situation has changed much.

A Cordiall Water looks like a book I would enjoy. Thanks for the recommendation, Carly!

#174> She does like playing in the MOB. She only gets to play for a few games because she has long studio hours. This game was early in the semester, plus she grew up watching Longhorn games (not sure what happened there). So she wanted to travel for this one. Ordinarily she does not travel to away games.

I am frustrated with the lack of access to The Longhorn Network and all the discussion of the Big 12 collapsing. I don't like change and did not want the old SWC to end. Playing in the ACC seems like a long way away to travel.

One of the best things was Gilbert not throwing interceptions. But he threw practically to the ground to avoid them. Jackson Shipley and Malcolm (I can't remember his last name -- the RB) were standout players. And Rice fought hard but got tired by the end of the game.

BJ, it will be interesting to see what happens with the conferences. There are so many ideas and rumors floating around out there right now.

47. Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey. This is kind of a mystery novel--a Scotland Yard detective is laid up in the hospital, and a friend of his gets him started trying to figure out whether Richard III really killed the two princes in the Tower. He works with a young friend who is a researcher at the British Museum, and together they conclude that the princes survived Richard III. I'm not sure whether the history is at all accurate, but this was a very fun read. I liked the whole concept, and even though the characters basically just discuss what they've read in books, somehow it is really interesting. I will definitely look for more of Tey's books.

48. Vikings! by Magnus Magnusson. I picked this up for the Dewey Decimal Challenge. It looks a bit like a coffee-table book, so I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but the exclamation point in the title is justified. Magnusson is enthusiastic about his subject, but also scholarly. He covers the whole Viking Age in Northern Europe, outlining both the history and the archeological basis for that history. I liked that he explained some of the controversies among historians and archaeologists about what different artifacts mean and where they fit into the picture. The book includes quite a few pictures of sites and artifacts. I do wish Magnusson had included a timeline; he organized the book primarily by area (Norway, Denmark, Iceland, etc.), and it would have been nice to have a reference for how events lined up across Europe. I love the Viking names: King Eyrstein Fart, Harald Fine-Hair, Ragnar Hairy-Breeks--how awesome are those? Vikings! indeed.

I loved The Daughter of Time! Brat Farrar is also a good read by her. Someone here on LT recommended it to me (but I can't recall who anymore), and I really enjoyed it.

49. The Doctors' Plague by Sherwin Nuland. This book is about Ignac Semmelweis who, in the mid-1800s, discovered that women in lying-in hospitals were dying from "puerperal fever" because of contamination by doctors and nurses who had touched patients with other infections or cadavers and then examined the pregnant women without washing their hands (and also via unwashed bed linens and instruments). Where he was able to implement sanitary procedures in maternity wards, the mortality rate dropped dramatically. Unfortunately, a combination of circumstances and his own increasingly abrasive personality prevented widespread acceptance of his findings. Nuland does a great job of setting the scene of the medical community in Hungary and Austria at the time and explaining the personalities behind the scientific story.

BJ, thanks for the suggestion. Since it seems that her books are all so different, I wasn't sure where to go next. I'll look for Brat Farrar.

50. Scribbling the Cat: Travels with an African Soldier by Alexandra Fuller. Fuller grew up in Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Zambia, and this book tells the story of a couple of return trips she made from the U.S. to Zambia to see her parents. On the first trip she meets K, a white veteran of the Rhodesian war of independence and related fighting in Mozambique. K begins to tell her about what happened in the war, and on her second trip, she and K take a road trip back to the area of Mozambique where much of the fighting occurred. In many ways the book isn't about Africa specifically but about the horrors of war no matter where it occurs. Although K was on what we would consider the wrong side of the fighting, he is nonetheless tremendously scarred by the war, having been called up when he was really still a kid (nineteen or so) and taught to be a killer. The stories he and a few of his veteran friends tell are horrific, and each of them has been completely ruined by their experience. This is not an easy book to read, but I think it is important: it shows that whether you're right or wrong about your reasons for fighting a war, it has real and terrible consequences for the people actually fighting.

51. The Anglo Files: A Field Guide to the British by Sarah Lyall. My mom lent me this book ages ago, and I finally got around to it. It's light and funny, so it was a good book to follow Scribbling the Cat. Lyall is an American who lives in the UK with her British husband, and the book consists of essays about various British traits she has noticed, like extreme modesty about their accomplishments. Highly recommended for Anglophiles!

52. The Mummy Congress by Heather Pringle. The "Mummy Congress" is an annual gathering in Arica, Chile of people who study mummies, and it is the jumping-off point for this book. After attending the meeting, Pringle seeks out some of the mummy-studiers to find out more about their specialities. She delves into the debate about whether to dissect mummies, what mummies can tell us about when European and Chinese people first met, the haunting and unusual Chinchorro mummies, and even the Russian Mausoleumists responsible for preserving Lenin and other Communist leaders. The book is very interesting and well-written.

You always find such unusual books!

They often turn out to be interesting!

53. Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie. So many novels have some kind of novelty approach: jumping around in time, not really having a plot, telling a story through a character's mail, etc. Foreign Affairs does have two narrators, but it is a good old straightforward novel. Two Americans, academics from the same Northeastern college who have only a passing acquaintance, are both in London for research. They both undergo unexpected and life-changing experiences, some good and some bad. Lurie's characters have real depth, and despite having some serious psychological problems, seem like people you might actually know, not just crazy characters that only appear in novels.

#187 I like Lurie's books, have read several including Foreign Affairs. Nobody seems to talk about her books much in this group though - is she 'out of fashion', I wonder - perhaps its the lack of a novelty approach as you mention.

54. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbary. I think I was 2/3 of the way through this book before it showed any signs of having a plot, but despite that, I really enjoyed it. One thing I particularly liked is that the author answered one of my biggest questions about the main character at the end, so I wasn't left wondering about her motivations.

55. The Civil War by Bruce Catton. Even in a high-level overview of the many battles and troop movements of the Civil War, it's impossible to escape the horrible destruction and utter awfulness of it. In Catton's retelling, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that, had Robert E. Lee (and maybe Stonewall Jackson) remained loyal to the Union, the war would have been over almost immediately. On one hand, a quick end seems preferable--all those lives saved and bitter divisions avoided. But on the other hand, a quick, decisive victory by the Union army in the first battles might not have led to emancipation and the civil rights amendments to the Constitution. Then again, maybe that would have been possible anyway, without the backlash caused by Reconstruction. But all those young men who died such gruesome deaths . . . it's something pretty much impossible to comprehend, and that both sides kept at it for so long.

56. Old Filth by Jane Gardam. Another good but slightly depressing novel. The only thing I didn't like was an unnecessary twist at the end--I think the author was trying to wrap up a loose end that wasn't very loose.

57. A Fountain Filled with Blood by Julia Spencer-Fleming.

Well, I'm not going to make 75 this year! I don't know what's happened, but I haven't been reading much in the last several months.

I have slowed way down, too. You have had a great reading year, I think.

Thanks, BJ, and Merry Christmas!

At least I am finishing up a few in-progress books during the holidays:

58. 44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith

59. The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thad Carhart.

60. Kiwis Might Fly by Polly Evans

So was your final count for 2011 sixty books?

Have you started a new 2012 list? If so, what's the link?

Yep, 60 for 2011. A little off my 2010 total :)

Here is my new list: http://www.librarything.com/topic/129255