What Are We Reading? 21 June 2021

[Hushpuppy]

MK wrote: "I'm going to blame this Google foray of mine on you. I have no idea if there is a connection."

Even without the help of google, @inter mentioned enough about her father on TLS to know that there is, indeed, a connection... In a sense, I love that inter rebelled (at what cost) against her upbringing (anti-Communist and Roman Catholic), and remained a staunched Socialist till the end.

[Hushpuppy]

Lljones wrote: "Library is to be reloaded this weekend. I suspect it's a matter of people discovering it for the first time, not carrying books with them. We're all very pleased with the success"

It is a great success. These pictures of an almost empty library were already from 3 days ago! Inter lives on+++

[Hushpuppy]

Anne wrote: "Hushpuppy wrote: "Look at what I've found online!"

I haven't been around for a while and have some catching up to do. This is exactly the sort of thing I never find on my own, so really appreciate..."

You're welcome MsC. (And the answer to the formatting question is: "with italics"!)

[AB76]

Hushpuppy wrote: "MK wrote: "I'm going to blame this Google foray of mine on you. I have no idea if there is a connection."

Even without the help of google, @inter mentioned enough about her father on TLS to know t..."

what origin is her surname? Swiss?

[Hushpuppy]

AB76 wrote: "what origin is her surname? Swiss?"

German. Inter explained here on TLS how her last name was a constant source of mispronunciation (a club I belong to, too!)...

[Lljones]

AB76 wrote: "what origin is her surname? Swiss?"

Family hails from German village Rasdorf. She pronounced it "BOO-dentz".

[Lljones]

Hushpuppy wrote: "Lljones wrote: "Library is to be reloaded this weekend. I suspect it's a matter of people discovering it for the first time, not carrying books with them. We're all very pleased with the success"

..."

We are pleased that the books in languages other than English have been picked up, including two in Polish!

[Hushpuppy]

Lljones wrote: "We are pleased that the books in translation have been picked up, including two in Polish!"

That's excellent!! I'm sure this makes the person who's helped organise this from London very happy.

[SydneyH]

Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor is a pleasant little book about elderly patrons living in a hotel, fully understanding that they may have to move into aged care if circumstances change. The novel also depicts a touching relationship between Mrs Palfrey and Ludo, a young man she meets by chance who she finds much more to her taste than her own grandson.
Now turning to Legends of the Fall by Jim Harrison.

[MK]

I've just put a hold on this one - Looks good to me.

Here's a blurb - The story begins in 1618, in the German duchy of Württemburg, where in the small town of Leonberg, Katharina Kepler is accused of being a witch. Katharina is an illiterate widow, known by her neighbors for her herbal remedies and the success of her children, including her eldest, Johannes, who is the Imperial Mathematician and renowned author of the laws of planetary motion. It's enough to make anyone jealous, and Katharina has done herself no favors by being out and about and in everyone's business. So when the deranged and insipid Ursula Reinbold (or as Katharina calls her, the Werewolf) accuses Katharina of offering her a bitter, witchy drink that has made her ill, Katharina is in trouble. But is she really a witch? (Note, gentlemen, that it says 'mother' and not mother-in-law, ok?)

[MK]

CCCubbon wrote: "Flea constipation

Little did I think that I would be reading about flea constipation when starting Alice Roberts book called Ancestors.

It is mentioned when discussing the way that archaeology a..."

Into online events? Ancestors!

https://royalsociety.org/science-even...

[Robert]

scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "The Feb issue of Past and Present had a very interesting essay on "civil" executions or "public death" in Tsarist Russia in the 1860s and 1870s."

That has some interest for me, as Dos..."

If I recall, a Russian "civil execution" gave the spouse the option to treat her husband as if he was actually dead. Which may be why Dostoevsky's prison memoir was called "Letters From the House of the Dead."

[Robert]

CCCubbon wrote: "Flea constipation

Little did I think that I would be reading about flea constipation when starting Alice Roberts book called Ancestors.

It is mentioned when discussing the way that archaeology a..."

So we take a flea with us, at the cost of possible infection by the plague.

[Robert]

AB76 wrote: "CRIME-MYSTERY NOVELS...discuss..

The balance of a crime or mystery novel is important but almost impossible to achieve in my thinking, once the mystery that intrigues you has been revealed, once t..."

Dorothy Sayers wrote that the mystery writer's ideal (but seldom earned) reader response is: "There it was! Under my nose all the time!"

[CCCubbon]

MK wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "Flea constipation

Little did I think that I would be reading about flea constipation when starting Alice Roberts book called Ancestors.

It is mentioned when discussing the way t..."

Thank you for telling me for I doubt that I would have found it and I would like to watch.
The prehistoric and early history is of particular interest, fitting in with studies in my environment - always want to know more about how people lived then.

[AB76]

Lljones wrote: "AB76 wrote: "what origin is her surname? Swiss?"

Family hails from German village Rasdorf. She pronounced it "BOO-dentz"."

thanks LL, interesting her family was catholic as Hesse is a mostly protestant region but my trusty german online census site tells me the sub-district Fulda was always about 75% Catholic

[AB76]

Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: "CRIME-MYSTERY NOVELS...discuss..

The balance of a crime or mystery novel is important but almost impossible to achieve in my thinking, once the mystery that intrigues you has been rev..."

i like that quote robert!

[AB76]

Last night i finished Ursula Le Guins 1976 SF novelThe Word for World is Forest" an intelligent, thought provoking read, invoking colonialism, climate change and the tensions of mutual misunderstanding of cultural norms

I am impressed by the way she matches Phillip K Dick for SF that reads well and covers serious topics without becoming too overloaded with totally new worlds. I'm not a SF fan really but always liked Phillip K Dick and have a read a lot about Le Guin

She admits in her intro, the original title for the novel was "The Little Green Men", her editor suggested the much better title eventually used

[Fuzzywuzz]

CCCubbon wrote: "Flea constipation

Little did I think that I would be reading about flea constipation when starting Alice Roberts book called Ancestors.

It is mentioned when discussing the way that archaeology a..."

I never would of thought the concept of flea constipation would entice me to go book shopping. There's a first time for everything!

[Fuzzywuzz]

Hushpuppy wrote: "Look at what I've found online!

Amazing, most of the books from @inter's little library are already gone... I hope people remember of placing some of their own in there when they get a chance, or ..."

That's great to see, but agree about people leaving books there in return. As an aside, I had a clear out of 'read' books that were in the 'donate' pile. They have sitting by the front door for months just waiting for a new home. I'm saddened that a lot of my local charity shops are no longer taking book donations - I had suspected as much because there are fewer books for sale.

[Fuzzywuzz]

giveusaclue wrote: "Back from holiday in the Forest of Dean. I have just finished reading


and here is my review:

I really enjoyed the first few books in the series, then felt t..."

Thanks for the review. I've added Damien Boyd as a crimewriter to check out. The Forest of Dean sounds like a lovely place to go for a holiday.

[AB76]

Fuzzywuzz wrote: "Hushpuppy wrote: "Look at what I've found online!

Amazing, most of the books from @inter's little library are already gone... I hope people remember of placing some of their own in there when they..."

thats a real shame, i guess charity bookstores are probably double stocked, waiting for the revival in shopping as lockdown slowly winds down

[Fuzzywuzz]

I'm reading The M Word: Everything You Need to Know About the Menopause. I think I'm heading that way - forewarned is forearmed!

[AB76]

In |From Germany to Germany: Diary 1990 the late great Gunter Grass observes the grey, decaying towns of Lusatia on his travels in the DDR ,specifically in Saxony

He ponders what modern Bautzen might look like in 25 years time and observes the Sorbian dolls and muses on the Sorbian minority in the area. (my baedeker of 1893 makes no reference to Sorbs in Bautzen, they were being Germanised at the time, the 1890 census has Sorbs as 32% of Bautzen district and 15% of Bautzen town)

I thought back to Klemperer in Leipzig and Dresden, 1945-48, as the DDR began its sad path to being a client state of Stalinism. Klemperer observes the damage to the towns and cities, 42 years later Grass notices that a lot of bomb damage in Dresden still hasnt been repaired.

[AB76]

Fuzzywuzz wrote: "I'm reading The M Word: Everything You Need to Know About the Menopause. I think I'm heading that way - forewarned is forearmed!"

important to see any studies or advice guides on this topic, it affects 50% of the population and men should be aware too, of the effect on their wives, mothers or sisters and how to be sympathetic and understanding

[SydneyH]

Machenbach wrote: "If men got them, we'd probably call it 'Beelzebub's Night Fever' or 'Flesh Melt Syndrome'."

"Dave Syndrome" (Black Books)

[Tam]

AB76 wrote: "Fuzzywuzz wrote: "I'm reading The M Word: Everything You Need to Know About the Menopause. I think I'm heading that way - forewarned is forearmed!"

important to see any studies or ..."

The menopause was a while back for me, but I read up about it, and found various sources that said that Japanese women tended to have very few menopause symptoms, possibly because of the high consumption of soya isoflavanoids, and maybe a fish diet improves things as well? So I changed my diet for a while.

I had very few symptoms compared to some friends, though I might have been one of the luckier ones anyway, with no change of diet! At least one friend was pretty much floored by her symptoms for a few years, and that led to depression, so well worth finding what works beforehand, if possible. It was a challenge trying to make tofu seem more interesting though!...

[Bill]

[AB76]

Machenbach wrote: "SydneyH wrote: "Machenbach wrote: "If men got them, we'd probably call it 'Beelzebub's Night Fever' or 'Flesh Melt Syndrome'."

"Dave Syndrome" (Black Books)"
Ha! One of my favourite programs. Has ..."

good to see you back Mach...its been a few months, though i gather you have been contributing to other sub forums on ersatz

[AB76]

Machenbach wrote: "Fuzzywuzz wrote: "I'm reading The M Word: Everything You Need to Know About the Menopause. I think I'm heading that way - forewarned is forearmed!"
My Mrs is going through perimenop..."

hahaha, us men would be howling night and day if we went through the menopause,it would be pitiful to behold(like man flu) some say that the male midlife crisis is the equivalent, my boss in the mid 2000s, hit 50 and suddenly got a tatttoo, purchased a harley and found himself a 19 yr old girlfriend

[AB76]

I think it was Andy who recommended The Cold Summer by Carofiglio. I have just started reading it has started well ,i dont know Bari that well.

Apart from reading some Camillieri, most of my Italian detective fiction has been Northern Italian(Lucarelli)

[MK]

AB76 wrote: "Lljones wrote: "AB76 wrote: "what origin is her surname? Swiss?"

Family hails from German village Rasdorf. She pronounced it "BOO-dentz"."

thanks LL, interesting her family was catholic as Hesse ..."
For me Fulda always has Gap appended to it. Memories of the Cold War and members of the Warsaw Pact picking the Gap as the easiest spot to invade. I think if you look at a pre-unification map, you will see it.

That time spent in the bowels of the Pentagon - need I say more?

[AB76]

MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Lljones wrote: "AB76 wrote: "what origin is her surname? Swiss?"

Family hails from German village Rasdorf. She pronounced it "BOO-dentz"."

thanks LL, interesting her family was catho..."

yes, i remember that from school in the 1980s!

[giveusaclue]

AB76 wrote: "hahaha, us men would be howling night and day if we went through the menopause,it would be pitiful to behold(like man flu) some say that the male midlife crisis is the equivalent, my boss in the mid 2000s, hit 50 and suddenly got a tatttoo, purchased a harley and found himself a 19 yr old girlfriend
"

Bet that ended well!

[giveusaclue]

AB76 wrote: "I think it was Andy who recommended The Cold Summer by Carofiglio. I have just started reading it has started well ,i dont know Bari that well.

Apart from reading some Camillieri, most of my Ital..."

You might want to try Michael Dibdin's Aurelia Zen series:

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/d/mi...

Weird that his last book was called End Games - I saw him on the tv promoting the book, happy and cheerful and apparently well, but a few days later he was dead!

A lot of ladies were devastated when the BBC didn't commission a second series. Rufus Sewell 😍

[MK]

AB76 wrote: "Fuzzywuzz wrote: "I'm reading The M Word: Everything You Need to Know About the Menopause. I think I'm heading that way - forewarned is forearmed!"

important to see any studies or ..."

For me it was certainly a trial until I found drugs. And I am still sore about that 'so flawed' study about Premarin which saved my sanity.

[MK]

MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Lljones wrote: "AB76 wrote: "what origin is her surname? Swiss?"

Family hails from German village Rasdorf. She pronounced it "BOO-dentz"."

thanks LL, interesting her family was catho..."

Googled Rasdorf and found this - https://www.pointalpha.com/

And then there's this - https://reformation500.csl.edu/bio/ph...

No wonder I had to go out and buy eye drops yesterday! Absolutely tooo much time in front of a screen.

[AB76]

giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "hahaha, us men would be howling night and day if we went through the menopause,it would be pitiful to behold(like man flu) some say that the male midlife crisis is the equivalent, my b..."

lol....about 3 mths....he started wearing vests to show off his guns(always on work drinks) and advising us younger men on how to attract women, it was farcical but to be fair to him, he had a thick skin and took the flak well

[AB76]

MK wrote: "MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Lljones wrote: "AB76 wrote: "what origin is her surname? Swiss?"

Family hails from German village Rasdorf. She pronounced it "BOO-dentz"."

thanks LL, interesting her famil..."

thanks MK, i love the complexities of religious boundaries in Germany and i found a few in France in last week

France has never had more than a small protestant minority since the 16thc but i knew it was a strong minorty in the South(Gard and Ardeche-Cevennes area). Crunching the 1872 religious census shows that Gard was 30% Protestant in 1872, higher than i imagined

I already knew that Alsace was about 25% Protestant(pre 1871) but was unaware that Mulhausen(30% Pro in 1872) is a Calvinist enclave in Lutheran Alsace and used to be part of the Swiss Federation

the biggest find was that the Montbeliard, in the Doubs region was a Lutheran enclave in France and was once part of the Duchy of Wurttemberg. In 1851 it was 66% Protestant.

In 1851, the largest Protestant minority towns wereStrasbourg(38%) and Nimes(Gard region) (28%)

The 1851,1861 and 1872 religious censusus were the last in France, finding these details was fascinating

[MK]

Before I quit here and get something done, I wanted to tantalize others with the weekly newsletter from Daunt Books. They pick five to review, and I usually find at least one to put on my never-ending TBR list. Today's winner for me was - .

[Andy]

Here's what I have been reading this week..

The President's Room by Ricardo Romero, translated by Charlotte Coombe.
This is a short (Argentinian) novel of small mysteries. Rather than a plot that unfurls, those mysteries are for the reader to figure out, as the world that the novel takes place in, is sparingly described.
In this unnamed town in an unnamed country, every house has a room set aside for the president, kept clean and filled with items he might find useful.
It is narrated by a boy, the middle of three brothers. His age, and where the novel takes place, are among the more straight-forward puzzles. There are clues. But more complex are such matters as what the country is recovering from, what has been going on in the boarded-up basements, and, of course, what's this business with the President and his rooms.
Don't expect answers. But it really does provoke discussion, as each reader will have their own thoughts as to what is going on.
Its a great example of the sort of thing Charco Press publish. It is wonderful they can bring this sort of book to English-speaking audiences.
As to my own idea of it, I think its a similar book to the Argentinian young adult book, Marcelo Figueras's Kamchatka, with the country's recent history at its heart, and the effect it had on the younger generation. This though definitely isn't a young adult book, but I wonder if at one time early in Romero's thinking, he considered it..

A Crime in the Family: A World War II Secret Buried in Silence--and My Search for the Truth by Sacha Batthyany, translated by Anthea Bell.
Sacha Batthyany, is a journalist, born in Switzerland to Hungarian parents., and part of a once wealthy and powerful Hungarian family who lost everything in the Second World War, and in the Communist takeover just afterwards.
By chance, in 2007, the author discovered that his Aunt Margit was involved in a massacre of 180 Jews that took place while she was hosting a party one night towards the end of the war at the family castle. Amongst the guests were German aristocrats and SS officers, as well as local officials. This is the first he has heard of such an appalling event, naturally he must find out more, and so his journey begins, the result of which is this memoir.
It is as might be guessed, rarely an easy read, but is quite compelling as he unearths more about his family's past.

And, Thumbprint by Friedrich Glauser, translated by Mike Mitchell.
This is the first of Glauser's (five) Sargeant Studer novels set in rural Switzerland in the 1930s.
Its a tidy well-plotted tale of murder and conspiracy with perhaps predictable, but nonetheless enjoyable, misdirections.
A typical sort of crime novel maybe, but certainly not a typical sort of crime author, which is what attracted me to the book. He was a schizophrenic with a lifelong addiction to morphine and opiates who moved from reform school to prison, escaped and was recaptured, after which and during the 1920s and 30s he spent his writing years at detention centres and mental hospitals. In between times he was a waiter, coal miner, and even served for two years in the Foreign Legion in North Africa. He died of a stroke in 1938 at the age of 42, on the eve of his wedding day. He is an admired cult figure in Switzerland, and indeed Germany, where their most prestigious crime writing award is named after him.

[Andy]

No George, I don't think you missed much.
There's occasional humour. In effect its a book of short stories of varied quality. Not a patch on his earlier two translated books.

[AB76]

Andy wrote: "Here's what I have been reading this week..

The President's Room by Ricardo Romero, translated by Charlotte Coombe.
This ..."

great variety of books Andy, the one about the Rechnitz massacre has me googling now

[Fuzzywuzz]

Machenbach wrote: "Fuzzywuzz wrote: "I'm reading The M Word: Everything You Need to Know About the Menopause. I think I'm heading that way - forewarned is forearmed!"
My Mrs is going through perimenop..."

'Flesh Melt Syndrome' - I had a good chuckle at that!

[Fuzzywuzz]

Tam wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Fuzzywuzz wrote: "I'm reading The M Word: Everything You Need to Know About the Menopause. I think I'm heading that way - forewarned is forearmed!"

important to see an..."

Aye, there is a suggestion to eat more oily fish. My GP has advised a low fat diet as my cholesterol is (slightly) high. I'm vegetarian most of the time, so soya products are going to more on the menu.

[Fuzzywuzz]

Mr Fuzzywuzz has had his second Covid vaccine shot today. Whilst doing so two strange things happened - I bought two pairs of jeans that fit and the other was coming out of a bookshop empty handed.

Other books on the menu are Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel and I'm continuing on with The Poet by Michael Connelly.

[AB76]

Rebel Richmond by Stephen V Ash is a balanced study of a town under siege, the remarkable photos taken in spring 1865 mean that this medium size Virginian town is fixed in the mind far better than many others at of the same era accross the world

Basically, almost everything can go wrong is happening to the town, overcrowded, lacking in sanitation, food and resources, the authorities battle to try and keep things running. So far Ash concedes that in terms of feeding the populace,the authorities never failed, which is impressive.

He uses a mix of official accounts, newspaper cuttings and archived records to re-create four years where a provinical town became a national capital.

[[deleted user]]

“Germany, Memories of a Nation” - Neil MacGregor. Thank you to Oggie for this recommendation. Our library got it for me on loan and it looked so interesting I decided to buy my own copy, which I’m now poring over.

[SydneyH]

Machenbach wrote: "Has anyone been to the 'actual' bookshop Collinge & Clark?"

I wasn't aware that Black Books was filmed in an existing bookshop, though that makes sense. By the way, what did you make of Shirley Hazzard's stories?

[giveusaclue]

pops out😍 ⚽🥂 pops back in