PS I've given in already, and this afternoon I started an Inspector Wallender mystery (in English!)

enviado por rachbxl a las 12:37 pm (EST) del Aug 28, 2008

Hello again!

No, I had no idea Bowles was Jamaica-born; like you, I'd have said he was American. (Did he move to the US later or something, or are we just wrong to associate him with the US at all?)

Alas, my current pottering is of the non-gardening variety, due to lack of garden - we live in a flat in the centre of Brussels. However, we're in the process of buying a house out of town, one of the reasons being that I needed to have a garden again (I've made the most of my little terrace, but my green fingers are ready for a bigger challenge!) The other reason is that David needs more space for his diving equipment;) I'm so excited at the thought of being able to see green out of the window instead of buildings! It's probably just as well that we're moving when we are, with winter on the way - the house is going to need quite a lot of work on it over the next few months, so at least I won't have the distraction of the garden until next spring...

How about you - what have you been planting?

enviado por rachbxl a las 12:36 pm (EST) del Aug 28, 2008

Glad you had such a good holiday!

I really enjoyed my Polish course (no, really!). It lasted for 3 weeks, and after that my boyfriend and I spent a few days staying with some Polish friends at their beautiful house on a lake in the middle of the forest - one of the most relaxing places I know. I'm home again now, but on leave till Monday, so enjoying pottering around.

I see you're reading The Sheltering Sky; I'll be interested to hear what you think, as that's something I've been meaning to read for absolutely ages.

As for me, there hasn't been much reading going on recently, which is a very odd feeling! I forced myself only to read in Polish (very, very slow!) or about Poland (also very, very slow - I don't know why I always struggle with non-fiction) while I was there, and so far I haven't managed to finish anything. I'm stuck two-thirds of the way through a Polish YA novel that I'm really not enjoying - if it were in English I'd just give up, but it's been such an effort to get this far that I've dug my heels in and I'm determined to finish the thing! After that I hope to get back to something more like my usual reading habits...I can't wait.

Rachel

enviado por rachbxl a las 9:28 am (EST) del Aug 28, 2008

It is nice that you can come to a place like Librarything and be able to share your feelings about books. Non-readers just don't get it. It is even better that you can find friends on here from all over. I wish I had found this place a long time ago.

I will have to go and check out your library now, won't I?

Jacqueline B

enviado por callmejacx a las 11:54 am (EST) del Aug 27, 2008

Hi Akeela!

Yes, I definitely enjoyed being in Cambridge and Boston. The conference took up all but the last two days of the trip, but I had two full and two half days to explore the area. The weather was perfect, especially for mid-August, as well.

I actually haven't read "The English Patient" yet. Let me know how you like it. One of my colleagues lent it to me earlier this year (or was it "Anil's Ghost"?), but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I'd also like to read his latest novel, "Divisadero", as it is set in part in my favorite city, San Francisco.

I just ordered "Mosquito" from BookDepository.com, a UK bookseller I just learned about, which does not charge shipping and handling for UK books. It cost me nearly $40 US for S&H for the five books I recently ordered from Amazon UK!

I took Spanish for 4 years in high school, and for another year as an undergraduate student at Rutgers. However, my ability to speak Spanish comfortably has mainly come from using it on an everyday basis at work, and especially during my pediatrics residency, when we didn't have Spanish language translators, so anyone who spoke Spanish was the de facto Spanish translator! Many of the medical terms in English and Spanish are essentially identical, for example "infection" and "infeccion", "fever" and "fiebre", "intestine" and "intestino", etc. However, to be able to obtain a medical history or to communicate effectively with families, you really need to have some comfort level with the entire language, on at least a grade school level, which I am able to do. Many of the families are recent immigrants, legal or, in many cases, illegal, and have limited formal education. So, my Spanish is good enough to communicate with families, at a grade school level, but not good enough to be able to read novels or other works written in Spanish at a higher level, but I plan to improve my Spanish in the coming years.

The last patient I admitted to hospital from the ER last night was a sad case, but not directly for the child. She was a 6 yr old Latino girl with an asthma attack and pneumonia, who looked pretty good after receiving treatment, but wasn't well enough to go home from the emergency department. The sad part of the story is that her mother was murdered by her father this weekend, but neither she nor her 4 yr old brother have been told yet. She was pleasant and playful during my visit, but as I was leaving she asked me "Puedo salir orita?" ("Can I leave now?"). I told her (in Spanish) that she would have to stay for at least one night in the hospital. She started to cry, and wailed "Quiero ir a mi casa! Quiero mi mama!" ("I want to go home! I want my mommy!") Her aunt and uncle, who brought her to the hospital, and I were at the verge of tears at that point. Sigh...

enviado por kidzdoc a las 10:36 am (EST) del Aug 27, 2008

Glad my comment was helpful instead of just an annoyance. And, by the way, my library is most flattered to know you've visited occasionally. Cheers,d

enviado por dchaikin a las 9:08 pm (EST) del Aug 26, 2008

Hi Akeelah

Yes I do miss RSA although I immigrated 15 years ago now. I grew up in JHB but my mom was from East London and went to UCT.

enviado por keren7 a las 9:53 pm (EST) del Aug 21, 2008

Hi Akeela! I'm glad that you & your husband had a great time on your vacation, and that you returned safely. I'm currently in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to attend a pediatric emergency medicine conference (Sat-Wed), which just ended this morning. Cambridge is just across the Charles River from Boston, and is the home of Harvard U. and MIT. Both are great towns, very compact, and easy to get around by using the T, the subway system that serves both cities. I haven't had much time to do any sightseeing yet, but I won't be leaving for Atlanta until Saturday afternoon, so I'll have the better part of three days to look around. The weather here, as it was in Madison, Wisconsin last week, has been unusually cool and comfortable for mid-August, with high temps mainly in the mid 70s, which is perfect for me!

I did stop at the Harvard Book Store on Sunday, one of the most famous and respected independent bookstores in the US (which is not affiliated with Harvard, despite being right across the street from the campus), and bought several books, including the book I'm reading now, "Child 44" by Tom Rob Smith. I'm trying to read as many of the 13 books on the 2008 Booker Prize longlist as possible before the award is announced in October. So far I've read "Enchantress of Florence" (Salman Rushdie), "The Lost Dog" (Michelle de Kretser), "A Case of Exploding Mangoes" (Mohammed Hanif), "The White Tiger" (Aravind Adiga), and "Netherland" (Joseph O'Neill). I just came back from having lunch at a mall across the street from the hotel I'm staying at, and bought another Booker book, "A Fraction of the Whole" by Steve Toltz.

I haven't read much non-fiction over the past couple of weeks, but I am sporadically reading "The Uncertain Art: Thoughts on a Life in Medicine" by Sherwin Nuland, who is a surgeon at Yale School of Medicine, and is one of several prolific physician writers in this country. My favorite physician writer is a surgeon here in Boston, Atul Gawande, who has written two fantastic books, "Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science" and "Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance". I attended a lecture he gave at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco last year, and he is also a gifted speaker and a deeply humanistic, passionate man, which greatly appealed to me. He also writes regularly in The New Yorker and wrote a guest column earlier this year in the Op-Ed section of The New York Times. He is truly amazing!

I don't speak any French, although I am nearly fluent in conversational Spanish, which comes in handy in communicating with the sizable Latino population in metropolitan Atlanta, who primarily come from Central America (Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador in particular). I'm not yet good enough to read anything in Spanish, although there are several Latino authors who are amongst my favorites, particularly Jose Saramago, Mario Vargas Llosa, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Carlos Zafon, and Alvaro Mutis.

Let me know how you like "Nervous Conditions". Talk to you soon!

enviado por kidzdoc a las 1:23 pm (EST) del Aug 20, 2008

H Akeela,

I can *definitely* sympathize with your dilemma about which books to take on your vacation! I flew from Atlanta to Madison, Wisconsin yesterday to visit my best friends, and ended up bringing six books with me: "A Case of Exploding Mangoes" by Mohammed Hanif, "The Enchantress of Florence", "The Lost Dog" by Michelle de Kretser (all on the 2008 Booker Prize longlist), "In Search of London" by H.V. Morton, "When Doctors Become Patients" by Robert Klitzman, and "The Uncertain Art: Thoughts on a Life in Medicine" by Sherwin Nuland. After a week in Madison I will be in Boston for another 9 days, and I'm sure that I'll buy more books at the Harvard Book Store.

Have a great time! I'd better end here, as I'm baby sitting my friends' 3 year old son, who is currently trying to zap me with a TV cable!

enviado por kidzdoc a las 5:09 pm (EST) del Aug 8, 2008

I almost wish I could get you to stop reading Heartbreak Tango and begin reading some of the better books first.

HT is very depressing, and experimental in a sort of pop culture way. Of course, it is very modern in that respect.

I think Love in a Time of Cholera or One Hundred years of solitude by Gabriel garcia Marquez are better books.

Also anything by Mario Vargas Llosa especially Julia and the Scriptwriter which is a light romance about him and his aunt.

Hopscotch by Julio cortazar is fun, and there is a film of it as of Puig's Kiss of the Spider Woman.

There are some young women novelists like Julia Alvarez and Sandra Cisneros that you might like.

My favorite latin American novel in Spanish is The Lost Steps by Alejo Carpentier. It is about a journey into the rain forest to find the sources of music among the primitive people, and the discovery there of a pure way of life in harmony with nature.

My favorite in Portugese is anything by Machado de Assis.

My memory of Heartbreak Tango is so old, I can't comment on it anymore, but I can quote Christopher Lehmann-Haupt's review in the NYT of 11/28/1973 where he says ....."so one reads Heartbreak Tango as more than a sentient recapitulation of growing old, disillusioned and reconciled. One can see it, too as a statement of how the culture exported by North America tyrannizes the emotional life of its less affluent neighbors to the south.... (Also, and this is my comment, the hero is a rotten guy and dies young of tb. Yuck).)

enviado por almigwin a las 2:34 pm (EST) del Aug 5, 2008

Thanks for adding me to your interesting libraries. I've just done the same with yours too. I've just checked out your 75 book challenge and we certainly seem to share similar thoughts about quite a few books.

enviado por silvercowrie a las 11:04 am (EST) del Aug 1, 2008

I saw your post on "Half of a Yellow Sun", what a great book! Cheers,d

enviado por dchaikin a las 9:12 am (EST) del Aug 1, 2008

Thanks for the message - only now I'm REALLY jealous - Mauritius...! I have a 3-week Polish language course to get through before I get any holiday! Actually I'm looking forward to it, but it doesn't really stand up next to Mauritius...Hope you have a fantastic time.

I'm very much enjoying my literary travels this year; like you, I was inspired by other LTers, and my "trip" has led me to some great discoveries, things I'd never have read otherwise - Nervous Conditions is a good example.

I read Alentejo Blue a couple of years ago. I don't remember much about it, actually; I don't think it was as good as Brick Lane, but I think it was another of those "gentle" reads (I'm using your term because it's a good way of putting it!)

Hope the next week goes quickly for you!

Rachel

enviado por rachbxl a las 12:20 pm (EST) del Jul 31, 2008

Hi Akeela,
What a great photo!
Just wanted to tell you that I just this minute finished Iris and Ruby - thanks for the recommendation. I'd been feeling a bit fed up because everyone is off on holiday already, whilst I'm stuck in Brussels for an extra week, and this book was just what I needed - pure escapism.
I've just been back over your 75 thread to check that it really was you that had recommended this; I'm going to have to go back now for another look, as you've been reading some great stuff - I'm off to borrow more ideas from you!

Rachel

enviado por rachbxl a las 4:02 am (EST) del Jul 31, 2008

Hi akeela,

Well, I probably won't rush out and read the Collins English Dictionary (LOL). (Although, according to amazon a new edition comes out Aug 4, 2008).

As for the rocks, well I wish I could just hop over to SA and join you guys go on some of those hikes. It looks like there is some amazing stuff to see. A quick Google search found this site on South African geology: http://www.environment.gov.za/Enviro-Inf... . Some of the oldest rocks in the world are within SA. According to one typo-filled website the Precambrian rocks in SA "are the oldest formation of rocks with a considerable size" - I'm not quite sure what that means, but it sounds pretty cool.

Thanks for the note.

Cheers,
d

enviado por dchaikin a las 9:21 am (EST) del Jul 29, 2008

I really have no idea how many books are actually in Book Lust I and II...some of the books mentioned in the intro are listed in the index while some aren't (still catching those mistakes). My guess-estimate would be 4,000 or so. I've read 171 so far. Slow going but definitely worth it!

enviado por SeriousGrace a las 2:24 pm (EST) del Jul 28, 2008

Hi Akeela,

Sorry to take so long to reply. It was a busy week at work, lots of SICK and complicated kids in the hospital.

The SF trip was excellent. It is my favorite US city, and I visit there 3-4 times per year. I went to a 3-day pediatric conference at Stanford U. (about 40 miles south of SF) along with a good friend from medical school, and we met another med school classmate and good friend for dinner that week. It was tough to come back to Atlanta, though. I took an overnight (Sat-Sun) flight last week, and it was about 20 degrees warmer (and very muggy) in ATL at 6 am Sunday than it was in SF at 10 pm on Saturday!

I'll be going back there for 2-1/2 weeks in late October to early November, to attend the San Francisco Jazz Festival.

I went to London for the first time last year, in late August to mid September. The city was a few degrees warmer than it normally is in SF, but definitely cooler than Atlanta. I'll probably go back there either later this year or early next year, depending on my work schedule.

I didn't do any significant reading during this past week, and I've been sporadically picking up "Enchantress", but I've been half-asleep when I have tried to read it. So, I think I'll put it aside until the middle of next week, when I'll be visiting my best friends in Madison, Wisconsin for a week. After that I'll be going to Cambridge, Massachusetts (just outside of Boston, where Harvard and MIT have their campuses) for another medical conference.

enviado por kidzdoc a las 9:42 am (EST) del Jul 27, 2008

Gorgeous pic! I can see why you liked mine... special places, right?

enviado por SeriousGrace a las 5:04 pm (EST) del Jul 25, 2008

Hi Akeela,

Nice picture!

I like your library. You have some very interesting books.

Isabel(JHB)

enviado por izzybee a las 4:44 am (EST) del Jul 19, 2008

Hi Akeela,

I wouldn't go so far to say that "sun" and "San Francisco" are mutually exclusive terms, but San Francisco is probably the last city in the US that I would suggest for someone to work on a summer tan! Mark Twain famously said that "you can never go without a coat in the summer in the city of San Francisco." That is his actual quote; the "famous "quote "the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco" was actually never said by him. The real quote is very accurate. The normal high temperature for SF (also known as "Fog City") in mid July is 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius), and during this time of year the fog frequently blankets the city, especially its famous hills, for all but a few hours in the middle of the day. It is also often windy in the morning, so you absolutely need a jacket, and often a sweater, if you plan to be outside here. As you travel inland from SF, the temperature increases dramatically, as the cool effect of the Pacific Ocean starts to be replaced by the heat of the desert. This morning I went across the SF Bay to Berkeley, the home of the main campus of the University of California, which also has numerous outstanding restaurants and several good bookstores, including Black Oak Books, the best used book store I've ever been to. I took a train that passed under the Bay, and in Berkeley (only about 5 miles from downtown SF) it was about 5-7 degrees warmer, but it felt warmer than that, as the sun was out. I doffed my jacket, but I had to put it back on again after I returned to SF a couple of hours later.

I usually visit SF at least once every summer, in part to get away from the heat of Atlanta (where the average temperature this time of year is in the high 80s to low 90s). It is an absolutely wonderful city to visit, and I usually come here 3-4 times per year.

I still haven't started "Enchantress" yet. Today I've been reading "Hospital" by Julie Salamon, which is an in-depth look at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. The hospital is in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn, which as you probably know is part of New York City, close to where I grew up. Borough Park has probably the largest population of orthodox Jews of any neighborhood outside of Israel, but the surrounding area is composed of a tremendous variety of different cultures from all over the world, especially Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe. I work in a hospital, so it is an especially interesting read.

enviado por kidzdoc a las 7:04 pm (EST) del Jul 16, 2008

Hi Akeela,

The talk was fantastic! Mr Rushdie read two excerpts from the book, and took audience questions for a little over an hour afterward. Hearing him read from the book took me back to childhood, when "Story Time" was frequently magical. He was quite witty, without being overly sarcastic, and very funny.

I haven't started "The Enchantress of Florence" yet, as I wanted to finish "Death at Intervals" by Jose Saramago first. I'll finish the Saramago book later this afternoon, and start on Rushdie's book no later than tomorrow. I'm off from work this week, and in San Francisco to attend a medical conference and visit friends, so I should be able to finish it by the weekend. I'll let you know how much I like it; from the excerpts that Mr Rushdie read, I expect that I will relish it.

I would certainly describe "Midnight's Children" as "mesmerizing", certainly one of my top 10 or 20 all-time favorite books!

enviado por kidzdoc a las 7:00 pm (EST) del Jul 15, 2008

Hi Akeela,

I'm guessing that you read considerably more than your husband does, since it is "your" library. I've told a couple of bibliophilic friends that I will soon be opening an independent bookstore, since I seem to have many of the books that they are interested in.

I (re)gained my love of literature after I was finished with my medical studies, and it was nurtured by reading books from non-American authors that I had never heard of. "Blindness" by Jose Saramago, "A House for Mr Biswas" by V.S. Naipaul, "Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie, "If on a Winter's Night a Traveler" by Italo Calvino, and "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" and "Norwegian Wood" by Haruki Murakami got me started.

I did read "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, which I loved. I'll probably read "Purple Hibiscus" (a Booker Prize finalist) later this year. I've read the first two books of Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy, but I haven't read any books by the other authors that you mentioned.

My other favorite books by international writers (non-American and non-European) include "Wizard of the Crow" by Ngugi Wa'Thiong'o, "Gate of the Sun" by Elias Khoury, "The Woman in the Dunes" by Kobo Abe, "By the Sea" by Abdulrazak Gurnah, "The Shadow of the Wind" by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, "The Dew Breaker" and "Brother, I'm Dying" by Edwidge Danticat, "The Feast of the Goat" by Mario Vargas Llosa, "Animal's People" by Indra Sinha, and "The Gift of Rain" by Tan Twan Eng. I'm sure I'm leaving out some books, though.

One problem I have with buying so many good books is deciding which book to read next! I finished "Crossing the River" by Caryl Phillips yesterday (which was fantastic), and I can literally hear hundreds of tiny (and not so tiny) voices saying "pick me!".

I have posted to the Reading Globally and Best of British threads, and I frequently post to the What Are You Reading Now? thread. Sadly, the Medicine and the African-American Literature thread are essentially dormant.

enviado por kidzdoc a las 8:45 am (EST) del Jul 9, 2008

Hi Akeela,

It's nice to meet you; thanks for your compliment, as well.

I haven't read "The Inheritance of Loss" yet. I'll probably get to it later this year, as I want to read 1-2+ Booker novels (those that have won or been longlisted for the Booker Prize) every month.

The first book by Murakami I read was "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle", which completely captivated me. However, several of my friends read this book, and didn't enjoy it. I also loved "Norwegian Wood", which isn't as far out there as many of his other books are. I haven't read "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman" or "After the Dark" yet.

My TBR pile is now requesting its own place to live!

Who are your most favorite authors and books?

enviado por kidzdoc a las 8:47 am (EST) del Jul 8, 2008

Hi,

Your second comment made me laugh. I wouldn't change your stars, although if you ever do read a five star book though, let me know!

re the moutains: It's a beautiful picture. My geologist side is looking at the rocks and pondering the crossbedding.

re my comments: It's nice to know someone actually saw some of my comments! If you want to get a better feel, sort my library by "date read" and then go to my preferred view. That was part of my intention when I started posting the comments...although I doubt anyone besides me has ever looked at my library in that way.

Cheers,
d

enviado por dchaikin a las 11:10 am (EST) del Jul 1, 2008

i haven't read it yet, but plan on doing so soon. i am reading 'the thirteenth tale' right now and have a stack of books that i am dying to read! so many books, so little time. :)

enviado por amanaceerdh a las 9:54 am (EST) del Jul 1, 2008

Hi Akeela, After reading some your talk posts I was curious to see what other books you've read. The first thing I noticed, after that really cool picture, was that you no five star books. You're a tough critic ;). Anyway, I enjoyed looking at your library. Cheers,d

enviado por dchaikin a las 9:33 am (EST) del Jul 1, 2008

Hi
Thanks for your reply to my inquiry regarding After You'd Gone. I did like this book very much. I read it in two days. Yes, it did move me to tears. Maggie O'Farrell really is a good writer. I'm going to check Amazon to see if she wrote any other books.

enviado por Whisper1 a las 10:27 am (EST) del May 28, 2008

Hi
I checked your library and note that you read After you are Gone by Maggie O'Farrell. I haven't read this as yet, but I am currently reading her book [The Vanishing Act of Esme Lenno] and I'm finding it very good.

Did you like After you are Gone? If so, I'll try to get this from my local library.

enviado por Whisper1 a las 1:02 pm (EST) del May 21, 2008

Hey! Just in case you're interested, we're having a BookCrossing meeting at the Coffee Bean on Saturday at 3pm. The Coffee Bean will apparently be closing down soon, so this will probably be our last meeting there. Please come along if you're not doing anything else, you don't have to bring any books this time round, but if you want to that'll be cool.

enviado por miss_tibbles a las 3:49 pm (EST) del Apr 24, 2008

Hi Akeela!

Yes, Bookcrossing works very well for me. Partly because there are a number of other active Bookcrossers here in Cape Town, so a lot of the time I just end up swapping books with them. Wild releases don't work too well, maybe because a lot of people here don't have free internet access, but I do still do some wild releases at times. And I've discovered that sending a small paperback overseas only costs R26 airmail, so sometimes I send books to other Bookcrossers who have those books on their wishlists. It does get very expensive for larger books though, so I tend to only send lighter books and only every now and then.

We'll probably be having another meetup soon if you'd like to come along. In the meantime you can check our community: http://community.livejournal.com/bookcro...
It's not very active but it'll get you an idea of what we're up to :)

enviado por miss_tibbles a las 3:49 pm (EST) del Apr 14, 2008

Hi Akeela -- yes I met Elizabeth Berg at the Printer's Row Book Fair in Chicago in June 2006. I live in NYC and it was worth the trip just to talk to her!! She is every bit as wonderful as you'd imagine she would be... she was gracious and warm to every single person who waited on line to meet her, and during her reading/discussion, she was so "real" -- funny, intelligent -- someone you'd love to have dinner with. (None of this surprises you, I'm sure!)

I don't know if you are a fan of Augusten Burroughs or not, but at one of his booksignings someone asked him who some of his favorite authors were, and immediately he said he loved Elizabeth Berg, and was first in line to buy every one of her books when they came out! That made me love him even more...

Thanks for your suggestion, too... I'm going to look that one up!

enviado por tls1215 a las 9:24 pm (EST) del Jan 28, 2008

Thank you Akeela. I have about 3,000 books in my collection, but haven't got round to cataloguing them as yet. I am just about to open an account with LibraryThing so that I can add the rest when I have time.

I assume you are South African as you have some SA'n books including at least one in Afrikaans. I reside in Johannesburg. I do have Muhammad Asad's masterpiece *The Road to Mecca*. Amongst your collection are some of my favourites: *The Name of the Rose*, *The Reader* and Martin Lings' *Muhammad*.

enviado por aasomers a las 5:04 am (EST) del Oct 19, 2007

I agree...I liked the book much better. Mitch's other books are good but Tuesdays is still my favorite.

enviado por SeriousGrace a las 5:33 pm (EST) del Oct 16, 2007

Thanks for the compliment. I see that we share Tuesdays with Morrie . I loved that book. Did you ever see the movie?

Have a nice day!

enviado por SeriousGrace a las 2:40 pm (EST) del Oct 15, 2007