Hoping Rose checks in this morning. There are major wildfires up in her neck of the woods. We've got red flag warnings today down at my end of the state -- dry, windy conditions, but so far it is cool and calm. Californians joke that we get our share of autumn color here, too, the red and orange of the annual fires.

Didn't have much time over the week to sit and read a book or to listen to an audiobook. Nevertheless I did finish Blue at the Mizzen, the last complete entry in the Master and Commander series. It wasn't very good, sad to say. There were moments that made me smile, but he skimmed past the action and spent far, far too much time sharing the letters the doctor was writing to his new love interest. It is a nice ending to the series, though, with the Captain finally making admiral in the last paragraphs of the book. I won't read the next, unfinished book for now, but will enjoy rereading my favorites for years to come. I'm about 1/3 of the way through the Vampire's Violin. Not much happening except a vampire, who is a virtuoso violinist, biting his way through half of Europe in search of a rare violin. Not terribly spooky -- I'm saving spooky for Rebecca. I'm also about 50 pages into The Grand Hotel, and am enjoying it very much. I'd be finished with it except Real Life keeps getting in the way. Speaking of which, I should close this browser window and get back to my task du jour, editing my quilt guild's by-laws and standing rules in preparation for next week's board meeting. The fun just never stops around here!

I'm thinking you have. Jane and I once bonded over our mutual annoyance at said character. Do we dare tell you who it is?! The series is very good, and has been a favorite of mine, though as with most series, it is very uneven. That character, btw, is not in every book, or when in a book is not always part of the action. I felt with the most recent book that Elizabeth George had brought her series and characters back under control. I think another one is due out in January. I saw her at a book signing a few years back, and enjoyed hearing her talk about how she does her work, how she as an American, oh by the way, writes about English characters in an English institution. Does the series count as UK or American?! I really tried to like that first Ann Cleeland book, but felt something about that budding romantic relationship was a little icky.

Wow Kareni! I had now idea you had lived so many places. And now with your dd in Korea, your extended family is conquering yet another continent. All hail the global Kareni clan! When I was in college studying Chinese my Korean/American sister-in-law was studying German. No one ever asked her why she was studying German, but I was questioned all the time, perplexing the heck out of everyone to the point where a few asked if I was part Chinese! If you got a good look at this WASP face you'd laugh at the assumption. (This was just as China was opening to the West, and it wasn't the global superpower it is today. Nobody blinks an eye over studying Mandarin these days.) Meanwhile my sister-in-law more than once had a local Navajo strike up conversations with her, in Navajo. She'd apologize and explain she was of Korean ancestry. It's my turn to apologize if I offended by saying I don't understand picking a book for a challenge. I see challenges posted in other reading groups, it isn't exclusive to our group. They just don't motivate me at all, but your rave reviews often inspire me to try something new.

Oh, heavens no, I'm not affronted or offended. But do you see the distinction I'm trying to draw between reading around the world and reading works by American authors whose families are immigrants? The thing I simply cannot fathom is the reading of a book simply to check off a box in a challenge. Doesn't motivate me in the least, but I'm fascinated that so many of you are, and always love hearing about your books. ETA. I think you should choose whatever book you want for reading around the world. If it is a white American author writing about a foreign land, but it enlightened you, then it was a valuable book and it should count. If you want to challenge yourself to read authors who are from other cultures, whose works are in translation, then go for it. Not that you really want my opinion, but I think you need to decide for yourself the point of the challenge, and not depend on someone else's criteria.

Well....think about it some more. Would you ask the question of a white author, born in Western Europe but raised in the United States? "Is he a French or American author?" Based on my close friends and family, it gets wearisome, having an Asian name and Asian features, being constantly considered an outsider, and dealing with the constant comments -- "oh you speak English really well" and the "where are you from?" Hearing someone innocently ask if Kazuo Ishiguro is a Japanese or British writer is just another frustrating comment, another example of not belonging. Immigrant literature is its own genre, IMHO, and I've have seen it treated as such in colleges. Such literature usually deals with Issues of identity, of the conflict of western culture and family tradition, whereas literature by an author who lives in a particular country would be completely different. It is that experience -- of seeing another culture through the eyes of someone indigenous to it -- that is the point of reading around the world.

You've stuck your toe into a contentious topic which has been passionately discussed in Asian Studies literature courses since I was an undergrad and grad student back in the 80s. My Asian-American friends and family would be deeply affronted by such a question. Think about it. Is Amy Tan a Chinese writer? The Joy Luck Club has one of the most vivid descriptions of life in revolutionary China, but I wouldn't use it to check off the "China" box in a "Round the World" reading challenge. It would be a fascinating and enlightening project to do a cultural reading of the US, and read her books, and Viet Thanh Ngyuen's and others by immigrant, hyphenated American authors. But no, those books should NOT count in round the world reading. Kazuo Ishiguro, in spite of his name, is a British writer.

Just one? How about if I recommend 3 books about one particular place in time? If you'd like to learn about early modern China, a time when corrupt warlords reigned, traditions were crumbling and revolution brewing, then I have 3 really good recommendations for you, ranging from soap opera to totally depressing. I read all of these in college, one of which I read in the original Chinese -- something I couldn't do today! They have each stayed with me all these years, and I recommend them because I think they give context to any literature from modern China. For a soap opera, I recommend Family by Ba Jin. Don't be fooled by my soap opera description into thinking it is light and fluffy. It is about a family in the 19-teens and 20s, when children are picking up revolutionary ideas while the patriarch is wanting to maintain traditional Confucian order in his house. Hence the soap opera dynamics. For downright depressing, but truly excellent, try Rickshaw Boy: A Novel by Lao She. Think of Charles Dickens writing about 1920s Beijing, or as a goodreads reviewer suggests, Grapes of Wrath set in China. And finally, you should try some of the short stories by the great 20th century author, Lu Xun whose life and writing straddled traditional and modern China. "The True Story of Ah Q" and "Diary of a Madman" are his most famous. I suggest this Penguin collection, The Real Story of Ah Q and other Tales of China.

OMGs -- Colleen?!!! Good to "see" you! How are all those boys of yours? Hope you come back to talk books. I happen to have Rebecca in my audible library -- forgot about it when I posted last night, and definitely am planning to listen to it this month.

Oooohhh! That would be lovely!

In the midst of another book discussion with ds via FB messenger. :001_wub: He is technically at work at the moment, but is stuck in the office with little to do as it is testing week. Thought I'd catch up here between breaks in the conversation. He enjoyed the Historian, btw, though said parts of it dragged. Last week I read The Dead Will Tell, the 6th Kate Burkholder mystery set in Ohio Amish country. It was the perfect mystery escape, a good story, smart mystery and it moves the characters along. Am happy to see a few mystery recommendations here this week -- still have to go back and actually read the posts so far as I've only had time to skim til now. I'm about 2/3 through The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic. I'm enjoying it, but it could have used some editing to tighten up the story. It doesn't need 500 plus pages to tell the story. I haven't been inspired to finish my audio book, Blue at the Mizzen, the last of the Master and Commander series. It's ok, but not as engaging as the rest of the series. I'm sure I'll finish this week. I did finish Hidden Figures, which I enjoyed more than many of you. I think it is the rare book that is better after seeing the movie. I've got the Vampire's Violin on Kindle, but am not entirely sure what else to pick up next or download next from audible. There's enough to be done around here that I don't need a page turner to distract me!!

I think I just found my spooky read :nopity: :D

Dh & I still have a few episodes left to watch. I was pleased to see Tim O'Brien in an earlier episode and am glad to hear he will be back again. I've read some, but not all, of The Things They Carried. It was very affecting, so much so that it was hard to read more. We had to read David Halberstam's Ho, a biography of Ho Chi Minh, in my 10th grade history class. Saigon had fallen the year before, so it was still a raw topic, and in retrospect it was a daring book for a history teacher to assign. I've managed to keep a light counterpoint in my reading this week. So far I've read another Linda Castillo mystery set in Ohio Amish country, and am halfway through A Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic, a very smart and fun fantasy in a similar vein to Uprooted.

I didn't major in music, had left my violin in the back of the closet for almost 15 years after college, but here I am in my late 50s working as a free lance musician and teacher. It was something I started doing while still homeschooling, and the more I did the more jobs I'd get. I also am president of my local quilt guild, and between guild business and music obligations I am keeping very, very busy! I'm now having to say no to people just so I can enjoy life a little -- get some gardening done, read books and sew or knit, travel with dh.

Your words about finding hope came to mind as I read this article about a family who survived a true dystopian world in Mosul under ISIS. They had to make some excruciating choices about their book collection when Mosul fell, then survived 3 years without those books, the internet or music. Burn or Bury? The article reminds me of the legend of Fu Sheng, a Confucian scholar who hid copies of the Confucian Analects during the massive book burning and scholar killing campaign of Qin Shih Huang Di (the famous first emperor with the terra cotta army). Legend has it that with the help of his daughter and a Han scholar, those texts were recovered and translated, which is how we have them today. Here is a painting depicting a Han dynasty scholar transcribing the saved texts. Fu Sheng

Yes, I did consider the different nature of urban vs rural fires, but my closest experience is in my neighborhood where 300 houses burned to the ground -- stucco houses with tile roofs. Granted, we are surrounded by flora that is designed to extravagantly burn, but once the fire entered the residential neighborhood it jumped from house to house, sparing some but destroying others. Truly, with the smoke, the heat and the panic, it is not something that you casually walk around in. Considering the scale of that Moscow fire, I believe it would be closer to a fire storm.

I'd like to drag the conversation back to War and Peace and talk about the burning of Moscow. Having Pierre wander around a burning city bothered me far more than Pierre wandering around the battlefield. It wouldn't be impossible, but it would have been far more physically difficult than what Tolstoy describes. So Cal gal that I am, I've experienced my fair share of large scale fires, and the burning of Moscow -- wandering around a city and watching buildings burning -- was annoyingly wrong. The W&P scene didn't capture at all the choking smoke, the ash falling like snow, the nuclear-winter quality of light where everything is a surreal color of orange and the world is almost unrecognizable. Think of an orange-tinged fog. It was as unbelievable as it would be to have Pierre wandering around in a hurricane and calmly observing a roof peel off a building, noting the palm branches whipping past him in the wind, all while wondering if he should rescue the kids in the house where the storm surge is rising. And while I understand that the burning of Moscow was quite different from the wind-whipped Santa Ana fires I know, I still think the scale -- the number of buildings going up in flames--would create the same amount smoke. It made me wonder if the battle scenes, which seemed viscerally believable to me, were equally far fetched. Thoughts?

It seems like I've been surrounded by war all week long. A good chunk of War and Turpentine, which I finished last night, is a detailed, first hand account of the experiences of a Flemish soldier in WWI. Beautifully written but, oh my, is it ever stark and grim and real. It sent me down a few rabbit trails on the internet as I filled in huge gaps in my knowledge of Belgian geography and history. And the book gave me a little historical perspective on the French exam Loesje's dd recently took, making me want to ask -- in tones of righteous indignation -- is there an equivalent Dutch exam for the Wallonians to take? But back to my week of war. Dh and I have been riveted by the Ken Burns Vietnam documentary on PBS. We've seen 4 episodes and have another 3 yet to go, I think. On top of it all, for the past 3 days we've been assaulted by all the loud sounds of the big annual air show at the nearby Marine base -- jets screaming overhead, things getting blown up in crowd pleasing demonstrations. And all the recent saber rattling by world leaders isn't exactly soothing to the soul. So I'm thinking this week's reading is going to be light and fluffy. Just bought a Kindle collection of PG Wodehouse because I want to read Love Among the Chickens, and I may search for some Flufferton, too.

In honor of the 80th anniversary of the publication of The Hobbit, There and Back Again from The Atlantic magazine.

Yep. There's your LA experience right there!! And Saturday traffic can be worse than rush hour. Isn't there a VA hospital in Long Beach? Still a bit of a drive from Tustin. For you Angelenos. Ds and I were driving past Hollywood on the 101 early one Saturday morning. A storm had passed through the night before, everything looked fresh and clean and there was zero traffic. I found myself thinking what a great place it would be to live -- for like 2 seconds -- and then common sense flooded back as I remembered what the typical 101 traffic is like. :laugh:

Some kind of local I am -- I had no idea there was a U2 concert in town! Are you here already? I'd say go to La Jolla -- have breakfast then walk along the cove and look for the sea lions and just enjoy the view. Brockton Villa in La Jolla is a favorite place for taking out of town guests. If you are in La Jolla, drive up to Mt. Soledad to get a great view of the city. Seaport Village is also a pleasant place to walk around and enjoy the waterfront. I love the beaches in Coronado -- you can do a big loop drive over the bridge, down the Strand to almost Mexico then come back up the freeway. Torrey PInes State beach has some nice hiking trails as does Mission Gorge. And yes, Balboa Park is a treasure with all the museums and the zoo and gardens. Cabrillo Monument at the tip of Point Loma is another beautiful spot. There is great tide pooling in the area and the lighthouse is nice to visit. You can stop by the funky beach community of Ocean Beach. It's air show weekend, so you may not want to head too far north (as in Safari Park) due to traffic.

I think Loesje and her dd need some tea, comfy chairs, books and cats. :grouphug: to you both.

You mean you don't closely read and memorize every post I write? :svengo: :laugh: There is indeed an epic opera based on War and Peace which has a very epic back story all its own. I posted about it last week, and will attempt to link to that specific post... Epic post about epic opera based on epic novel

That would be delightful! The Melodica Men have all sorts of fun covers of famous classical works, the videos of which are constantly shared by musician friends on FB. If you do get one for the boy, send him to their YouTube channel. Tell your Dd Maskerade is in my dusty TBR stack, and has been for quite a while. Guess I should finally read it, eh? And if your kids ever balk at your reading suggestions, just know my ds is following your lead and reading both Rise and Fall of DODO and The Historian.

We successfully lobbied for and got a logic stage and college board. Do we need to lobby for an "Empty Nesters Board" or "Retired Homeschoolers Board"? :lol: Both of mine are out of college yet I'm still here, occasionally poking my nose into threads about actual educational topics, but for the most part just on the Book a Week thread. This is a special place full of smart, interesting people. Why would we leave?