Book Destinations

 Fun story about book towns around the world.

https://www.fodors.com/news/photos/the-best-destinations-for-book-lovers

Bookstores, Bookstores

Whenever we are traveling, I hunt out local independent bookstores.  That's probably why I have so many unread books on my bookshelves.  I usually try to find a book by a local author or one about the country/state I'm in.  
I'm including two links to stories about bookstores that I recently came across.  Perhaps when we meet for our virtual book club, we could all share a favorite bookstore name or experience.  And perhaps we should plan another future anniversary trip around bookstores!  There's one in Portugal I'd love to see!

 https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/06/travel/an-international-bookstore-guide.html

 https://www.afar.com/magazine/the-best-independent-bookstores-around-the-world?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=041320%20GovermentPackage&utm_term=Daily%20Wander%20%28Have%20opened%20newsletter%20before%29

Mary

 

James Daunt buys Barnes and Noble’s

Barnes and Noble's new boss is James Daunt, who rescued the UK's Waterstones

It will be interesting to see what happens!

https://boingboing.net/2019/08/09/a-chain-of-indies.html

Recommended Reading

What a great variety of books!  I know that I haven’t done them justice.  Most are books we purchased in London and read since we’ve been home.  All are recommended.

I will also put this list on our blog so you can refer to it when you’re looking for a good book.

We own most of these books, so if you’re interested in reading one, check with the reporter.

Patty, Mary Beth, Ginny, if you have something you want to add, let us know.

Jean 

9 Lessons in Brexit by Ivan Rogers (good analysis from an anti  Brexit journalist-sees warning signs ahead)

Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths (English archeologist mystery series)

Jane 

Empty Chairs by Anne Keller (Madison author recommended by Ginny.  Not widely available. Children from a North Carolina family face challenges of poverty as they search for future happiness)

Sara

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson (your grandmother’s chick lit) early Persephone  book

The Drifter by Nick Petrie (first of a series which takes place in Milwaukee)

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb (nonfiction therapist talks to a therapist)

Marge  

The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle  (early Sherlock Holmes)

The Bully Pulpit  by Doris Kearns Goodwin (Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and muckraking  journalism of the times)

Jackie

The Sack of Bath  by Adam Ferguson (non fiction Persephone Books; the destruction of Georgian architecture in Bath from early 1960s through early 1970s and what we can learn from it)

Margaret 

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson (connected stories about a young girl and her grandmother one summer on an island off of Finland)

Mary 

CelestialBodies by Jokha Alharthi (international Man Booker winner; sisters living in Oman and their lives as the country slowly changes)

The Shielding of Mrs Forbes by Alan Bennett (comedy about trying to protect a mother whose son might be gay.) 

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingste (mystery about children seized from their southern home and not returned)

Destinations for Bookworms

A fun article that could give us ideas for future book club travels.
 https://www.fodors.com/news/photos/11-travel-destinations-bookworms-need-to-go-to-before-they-die
Mary

Milwaukee on C-Span

This will include a segment airing on Book TV-today, Saturday!  It will also be available on the c-span website c-span.org/series/?citiesTour
https://www.jsonline.com/story/entertainment/television-radio/2019/05/16/c-span-dives-into-milwaukees-history-cultural-life-weekend/3686138002/

More award winners-Pulitzer’s announced this week

The Overstory

By Richard Powers

National Book Award winner Richard Powers’s twelfth novel is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of—and paean to—the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, The Overstory unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours—vast, slow, interconnected, 

resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.

And 

Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom

By David W. Blight

The definitive, dramatic biography of the most important African American of the nineteenth century: Frederick Douglass, the escaped slave who became the greatest orator of his day and one of the leading abolitionists and writers of the era.

As a young man Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) escaped from slavery in Baltimore, Maryland. He was fortunate to have been taught to read by his slave owner mistress, and he would go on to become one of the major literary figures of his time. He wrote three versions of his autobiography over the course of his lifetime and published his own newspaper. His very existence gave the lie to slave owners: with dignity and great intelligence he bore witness to the brutality of slavery.

Man Booker International

I didn't realize that there is a separate International Man Booker Prize.  First introduced in 2005, it is a complement to the Man Booker Prize.  The prestigious award is given annually to a single book in English translation.  The six books on this year's list are almost entirely by female authors and translators.  
Here's a link to the list:
https://bookmarks.reviews/shortlist-for-the-man-booker-international-prize-announced/
Mary

A trip to Chicago?

An interesting article from USA Today.  I think the book club should plan a trip to Chicago.  In addition to the places in the article, we could visit the Chicago central library.
http://www.kittravels.com/graphics/clips/GO_CHICAGO.pdf
Mary

House of Broken Angels

Characters in House of Broken Angels arranged by part
https://www.bookcompanion.com/thoba_character_list2.html

Man Booker Prize

A nice article about the author and book that won the Man Booker Prize.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/29/books/anna-burns-interview-booker-prize-milkman-no-bones.html

Mary

Books from Ginny

Ginny sent me this last month 
“I just finished reading a book for my book group entitled “Empty Chairs.”  It’s written by a Madison author, Anne Davidson Keller.  I really liked it and I thought you might enjoy it too.  It takes place in 1944 and is about a family living on a farm in North Carolina.  It’s told from the perspective of the youngest boy - age 11-13.  It was easy to get into and I found it to be a fast read. “
I didn’t find this at the Milwaukee Library, but it is available from Amazon as a paperback or on Kindle.  Sounds good.

Another book Ginny mentioned that her group read is Tortilla Curtain by T C Boyle.  Her group liked it. I read it when it first come out.  Has anyone else read it?  I don’t think we’ve read any of his books in bookclub. 
This is what Wikipedia and the Chicago Tribune have to say about it.

The Tortilla Curtain is a novel by U.S. author T.C. Boyle about middle-class values, illegal immigration, xenophobia, poverty, and environmental destruction. In 1997 it was awarded the French Prix Médicis 
Étranger prize for best foreign novel. 


"A compelling story of myopic misunderstanding and mutual tragedy."
--Chicago Tribune
Jackie

The LIbrary Book

At book club I mentioned the The Library Book by Susan Orlean as recently published and getting great reviews.  There was another good review in the Sunday Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.  Here's a link:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2018/10/16/susan-orlean-library-book-1986-fire-los-angeles-central-library-book-review/1611675002/
And the listing on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/The-Library-Book/dp/B07DQT7Y4X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1540658332&sr=8-1&keywords=the+library+book+susan+orlean
Perhaps it's a book we should read in the future.  I've downloaded it in audible form, so I'll let you know my thoughts after I finish it. 
Mary

The Great American Read

Some of you may not be aware that the results of the Great American Read were announced on Tuesday, Oct 23rd.  Here's a link to the results.  
https://www.pbs.org/the-great-american-read/results/
I only voted for one book, and it was the winner!  No surprise that it was To Kill a Mockingbird--one of our favorites.  Jean will be happy to see that Pride and Prejudice was in the top five.
Mary

Destinations for Bookworm Globetrotters

Nice story from Fodor's travel.  Some interesting places to include on your travels.
https://www.fodors.com/news/photos/beyond-the-page-10-fascinating-literary-destinations-for-bookworm-globetrotters

Murder and Mayhem in Milwaukee

For you crime enthusiasts, Murder and Mayhem in Milwaukee is just a month away.
This year's daylong celebration of chilling crime and thrilling mystery takes place on Saturday, November 3, from 9 am - 5 pm, at the Irish Cultural and Heritage Center, just west of Marquette University.

Here's a link to their website with information on the authors who will be present.  As they say, the line-up is criminally good!  It also gives info on registration and location.

http://www.murdermayhemmilwaukee.com/

Golden Man Booker Prize

If you haven't seen it, The Booker Prize Foundation launched the Golden Man Booker Prize to mark its 50th anniversary. This special one-off award crowned the best work of fiction from the last five decades of the prize, as chosen by five judges and then voted for by the public.

Since it was first awarded in 1969, the Man Booker Prize has become the leading prize for quality fiction in English, with the winning books setting a benchmark against which other novels are judged. The Golden Man Booker put all 51 winners – which are all still in print – back under the spotlight, to discover which of them stood the test of time, remaining relevant to readers today.

The ‘Golden Five’, selected by the prize’s five judges to showcase the winning books from Man Booker history  were: In a Free State by V. S. Naipaul; Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively; The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje; Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel; and Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders.  One book was selected from each decade.

And the winner was The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje--one we have not read.  Should we?

House rentals

Jean checked out the rentals that Bette sent.  It looks like we’re going to have a tough time finding enough single beds in a house.  Not a surprise, I guess.  There are other rental services we can check. But we also need to start looking at hotels that can accommodate us.  Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks, Jean.

Thanks to Mary Beth for pointing us to this blog-A Lady in London-about the Chelsea Flower Show.  It will be going on while we’re in London next year.

We might want to start a possible things to do list.

You might want to check out other posts on this blog.

https://www.aladyinlondon.com/2010/05/lady-at-chelsea-flower-show.html

London

Either of those dates could work for me.  As for rental houses, we’ve rented houses in foreign countries with VRBO/HomeAway or AirBnB with excellent results.  I think we’d at least want to compare prices and availability.