<p>
</p>
<p>I don’t know about the angel, but Joe’s description of the image on the wall reminded me so much of the phoenix:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Per the legend, the phoenix is consumed in flames – only to rise again from the ashes. This seems like an apt image for the Coutts family’s destruction and recovery.</p>
<p>Mary -
</p>
<p>Very interesting. Loved the crane / turtle story.</p>
<p>**Ignatius **I’m checking through my notes I wrote while reading and can’t locate something related to your post.
Was Joe told by someone to consult his " doodem" ( animal spiritual guide) which was a bird as a way to deal with the ghost spirit? </p>
<p>^^^ I don’t think so. I remember some discussion of doodems but nothing directly related to Joe’s spirit sighting.</p>
<p>I think Mooshum told Joe to consult his doodem. I’ll go see what I can find.</p>
<p>
On page141 Joe is visiting with Mooshum. He says he needs to find out about the ghost and then he needed to find his luck. This is where Mooshum tells Joe the man he saw was a spirit, not a ghost. When Joe asks Mooshum to help him get his luck, Mooshum tells him to go get his doodem first. Mooshum says, “You just go straight to your doodem and watch. It will show you the luck, Joe.” </p>
<p>^^^ Good memory! Good find!</p>
<p>Thanks, Caraid! I looked at the passage you quoted, and noticed that Mooshum tells Joe to “find the ajijaak” (the crane) and Joe goes to the lake. He says, “All the herons and cranes and other shorebirds were my doodemag, my luck” (p. 142). It is there that he finds the doll with the money.</p>
<p>At the end, however, after he has killed Lark, Joe says:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Joe has changed, has moved from sharing his father’s doodem to finding one of his own.</p>
<p>Time to start thinking about our December selection, so feel free to bring on the suggestions!</p>
<p>My suggestion this time is a very recently published novel that I’m planning on reading. It is Nora Webster by Colm Tóibín, a wonderful Irish writer.</p>
<p><a href=“Novelist Colm Toibin portrays an Irish widow painfully coming to grips with change in 'Nora Webster' - cleveland.com”>Novelist Colm Toibin portrays an Irish widow painfully coming to grips with change in 'Nora Webster' - cleveland.com;
<p>^ This morning I read your post, put down the ipad, reached for the newspaper, and opened the Trib in random fashion to this page: <a href=“Review: 'Nora Webster' by Colm Tóibín”>Life & Style - Chicago Tribune. (The online date is September 26, but it appeared in print today.)</p>
<p>I thought that was such a coincidence, especially since I’d never heard of Colm Tóibín. Anyway, impressive review:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I stumbled on Tóibín’s Brooklyn in the library a few years ago and liked it so much that I went on a Tóibín kick and read The Master, Blackwater Lightship, and a number of his short stories.</p>
<p>Therefore, I had my eye out for Tóibín’s next book. When I saw the review of Nora Webster in the Oct 3 New York Times “Book Update,” I said, “Yay!”</p>
<p>Tóibín happens to be gay. I don’t know whether that has anything to do with his writing so well about women.</p>
<p>As usual the Nobel committee has picked someone whose books I haven’t read. *Missing Person * by Patrick Modiano. seems to be one of the few that’s been translated and available. There’s still the Sherlock Holmes double header.</p>
<p>The Washington Post review -<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/colm-toibins-nora-webster-a-masterful-portrait-of-a-grieving-woman-finding-herself/2014/10/07/524108f6-4b0a-11e4-b72e-d60a9229cc10_story.html”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/colm-toibins-nora-webster-a-masterful-portrait-of-a-grieving-woman-finding-herself/2014/10/07/524108f6-4b0a-11e4-b72e-d60a9229cc10_story.html</a></p>
<p>NJTheatermom, what is Toibin’s most renown work, and should we consider it ? </p>
<p>Sorry, no suggestions from me. Just finished Delicious- Ruth Reich’s new book- meh.
I have " Midwives" Chris Bohjalian’s novel next to me, suggested by one of my walking buddies, but am unfamiliar with him. </p>
<p>So I’m open to suggestions,
This summer I watched four ( or five) seasons of the BBC tv series " From Larkspur to Candleford" and read one of Flora Thompson’s novels, the inspiration for the series.
Definitely, not a book discussion possibility, but a great escape from depressing world news to a more 1880’s pastoral life. </p>
<p>(NJTheatermom- just received Love. Medicine from the library FYI )</p>
<p>I think we went to this site before for ideas: <a href=“Best Books of 2013 : NPR”>Best Books of 2013 : NPR;
<p>Books suggested last time around that didn’t make the final cut:</p>
<p>Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami</p>
<p>The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell</p>
<p>All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doer (Lipsha gave this one a strong recommendation at the end of the Lonesome Dove thread recently.)</p>
<p>The Book of Unknown Americans</p>
<p>The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle and The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz (duet) (Just re-mentioned by mathmom)</p>
<p>To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf</p>
<p>*I removed Mr. Mercedes. I read it and, while okay, it’s more of a read it yourself kind of book.</p>
<p>Nothing new to add.</p>
<p>Mary: I liked The Maid’s Version from the books on your link and I’d still like to read *The Good Lord Bird<a href=“National%20Book%20Award%20last%20year”>/i</a>. Ha - guess I had something to add after all, though both books have been mentioned before.</p>
<p>SouthJerseyChessMom, I read both Midwives and Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian. He is an excellent writer, and does not shy away from controversial and morally complex issues. I found Skeletons at the Feast a particularly brutal read (pulled no punches as regards the atrocities of war). I remember that Midwives generated some controversy due to the author’s (perceived) position on the subject of midwifery. </p>
<p>^ thanks for the warning, both sound depressing ;( </p>
<p>Ignaius’s- I remember Lipsha’s recommendation ,
So to keep things fair and balanced,Washington posts review of that one</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/all-the-light-we-cannot-see-by-anthony-doerr/2014/05/05/c2deec58-cf14-11e3-a6b1-45c4dffb85a6_story.html”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/all-the-light-we-cannot-see-by-anthony-doerr/2014/05/05/c2deec58-cf14-11e3-a6b1-45c4dffb85a6_story.html</a></p>
<p>I just finished The Bone Clocks. As Mary pointed out, we have read a David Mitchell book in this group already (Cloud Atlas), and also I’m not sure that The Bone Clocks would be a good book for discussion. I liked The Bone Clocks, but not as much as Cloud Atlas. Some of the sections of the book dragged a little, and some of the characters were either annoying or too shallowly portrayed. However, I thought the last section of the book was just superb…poignant and sensitively written, with a very satisfying conclusion. The whole book was worth reading just for that last section!</p>
<p>In addition, I took a closer look at Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami and now would <em>not</em> recommend it. I like Murakami and have read a bunch of books by him, but this most recent one seems too much like Norwegian Wood, my least favorite of his novels. The theme of suicide runs strongly through Norwegian Wood, and when I saw that on the very first page of Colorless Tsukuru the narrator starts talking about the subject of suicide, I thought, “No.”</p>
<p>SJCM, The Master might be the most renowned of Colm Tóibín’s works, but it is different from his other books that I’ve read. It’s an impressionistic imagining of the life of the author Henry James, and as such it is more difficult read. I had a bit of trouble getting through it.</p>