Yankee in London

My wife and I have been living in London, England, for two years. We arrived with only two suitcases each, but we have acquired lots of books (which we need for our work) while here.

What is the cheapest way to get several cartons of books --- our only household effects other than clothes --- back to the U.S.?

I have corresponded with a person in Japan named Sugimoto Saki. I assume that Sugimoto is the family name and Saki is the "first" name or given name.

Unclear to me is whether the given name is unambiguously male or female. I know I could just ask, but now I would feel a little dense. However, if "Saki" could be for either sex, then I will just have to ask him/her. :-)

The Chicago Board of Trade now combines open outcry in the pits with a tandem electronic system of trading. How in the world does this work? Why would large traders prefer routing their trades through the pits given the efficiencies and speed of electronic markets? And does this mean that open outcry will soon disappear?

I'm writing a novel in which one character is a full-time futures trader, trading her own speculative account from her home after having traded professionally for a specialty mutual fund.

When I first started researching this book years ago, I visited some serious at-home traders who watched the markets at home with a satellite feed and called their orders in to a broker who then executed them at the CBOT...or whatever exchange.

Now the CBOT combines open outcry with a tandem electronic system. So would my trader still phone a broker to execute orders? Or would it be more efficient for her to execute those orders through her computer?

I have a small business that receives payments by check of the equivalent of about $10 USD, with the payments made in Canadian dollars, Euros, and pounds sterling. Right now, I maintain bank accounts in Canada and Britain so that I can deposit these checks without expensively paying to convert each one into USD.

Are there any U.S. banks that will allow me to have accounts in all four currencies? Banks in the rest of the world are very good about accounts in multiple currencies, but I've never found a U.S. bank that allows deposits in anything but dollars.

Jasmina Dervisevic-Cesic has been called the Bosnian Anne Frank, and some teachers are using her memoir of the Bosnian war instead of Anne Frank's diary. Do you think that The River Runs Salt, Runs Sweet is really the better book of the two? Or are teachers using it just because kids can relate better to something that happened more recently?

My friends and I recently visited the rose garden at Hampton Court Palace in England. Many, but not all, of the rose variety names began with "AUS." I think this must be an abbreviation, and I'm guessing that it stands for a society that registers names for plants...but I am just guessing. Can anyone please tell me more about "AUS"?

People keep saying that Potter fans will branch out into other kinds of fantasy reading. Are any of you reading, say, the books that won the World Fantasy Awards last year? Like the short stories in The Keyhole Opera by Bruce Holland Rogers? Or do you read Harry Potter and only Harry Potter?

I'm asking for concrete answers, rather than seat-of-the-pants speculation: Do you see evidence for or against a significant correction in recent data or trends? I know that no one can predict the market, but we've been in such a long period of sustained growth and climbing prices that many active traders have not seen a strong contraction, and my experience tells me that when the market corrects under those circumstances, there is less patient money around.

I am meeting two friends at Heathrow. They are going to be arriving in Terminal 2. What would be a good place for me to suggest as a rendezvous point so I can help them with their luggage? We will be taking the Underground from the airport.

I helped Jasmina Cesic, "the Bosnian Ann Frank," to writer her memoir of teen-aged suffering and survival. Her story is also a refugee story --- she lives now in Boston. Teachers who have discovered the book have used it in classrooms with students from age 13 through college with great results, but the book is out from a small press, available mostly from Amazon, and thus not likely to be seen by most teachers. How can I spread the word to teachers who might want to introduce this inspiring true story to their students? (I don't have a lot of money to work with.)

The Courage to Write by Ralph Keyes. Writing From the Inside Out by Dennis Palumbo. Word Work by Bruce Holland Rogers.

All three of these books are said to be very helpful with writers block and other issues related to getting the writing done. But which of the three is the best?

I can't believe I'm asking a Harry Potter question! But I am inspired to ask this by another question about then the seventh book will be on sale in the United Arab Emirates: The Harry Potter books, because they used magic, are considered to be satanic by some Christians. Islam, like Christianity, is a religion in which believers see themselves on the side of God and against the side of Satan. So are there many Muslims who see the Harry Potter books as Satanic? Or un-Islamic?

Any readers here of his most recent collection, The Keyhole Opera? Or his earlier books? Or even the stories online at www.shortshortshort.com? Would he be better known if he wrote novels?

I don't suppose anybody here has read The Keyhole Opera by Bruce Holland Rogers. It's a collection of stories that won the last World Fantasy Award, but it has just one two-star review on Amazon, and I have never seen it in a bookstore. Any opinions about why a book that gets a major award is, like, unknown?