Kerry's 2013 reading journal and an unexpected journey

Welcome to my new and shiny thread....and unexpectedly I'll be going on a journey in late January and will be visiting my daughter in London among other stops. Will post more in the New Year on that and what I'm reading.

Anyway looking forward to lots of good books and conversations around books.

I'm also in the 2013 category challenge group so already have planned that my first 2013 read will be Great House by Nicole Krauss.

Currently Reading:

January Challenges & Group Reads
Sharon Kay Penman - When Christ and His Saints Slept - GR
Nicole Krauss - Great House - Orange Jan & CAT
Neil Gaiman - Sandman re-reads Vols 1&2 - GR
Bruno Schulz - The Street of Crocodiles - Short story challenge & Reading Globally East European

My 2013 category challenge

1: Little Bookroom
2: Crossover
3: Reality Bites
4: Scifi and Fantasy
5: All things Celtic
6: Collector’s Corner
7: Down Under
8: Reading Globally
9: Israel & Diaspora
10: Literary & folktales
11: The Book Pile
12: Cult Writers
13: Dropbox

My current reading can be followed here:
My 12in12 thread is here
My 75 Books Challenge for 2012: avatiakh tackles Mt tbr in 2012 #5

Welcome back! Have a great year!

Hi Kerry! Don't forget our short story collection challenge. Ooo London visit too! Looking forward to hearing more about that.

Oh yes, thanks Richard, it will be Bruno Schulz's The Street of Crocodiles. I think Darryl is going to read it too.

That sounds provocative. Can't wait to hear more!

Kerry - I will again be amongst your devotees throughout 2013 as I trail in your reading wake.

Really looking forward to seeing what you read in 2013 Kerry. And the trip sounds great!

I got woefully behind on your 2012 thread, Kerry, so trying to make a fresh start here. :-)

Marking my space, Kerry; hoping to keep up better this year. Very interesting categories this year.

*waves*

I'll be here in 2013. Just so you know! :)

Hi Kerry I have you starred hopefully I will be able to keep up with the threads this year.

Hi there Kerry. Looking forward to keeping up with your reads and travels in 2013.

"London among other stops" sounds exciting!

Hi Kerry, you've got an adventurous year ahead!

Travels and excellent categories. I think I shall join you on your journey:)!

I went to London two years ago and loved it. Lots of great bookshops to visit!

Hi Kerry, just marking my little corner! Did I hear London? How long are you going to stay? Yes, and there are lots of great bookstores and not to forget all the charity shops for second hand books.

Hi Kerry, great to see you set up so early here. Ill be following your reviews and kids books as you go, you always have such a fun colourful thread to visit.
I hope your unexpected journey is wonderful- and contains many a book or two to remember it by :)

hmm, Street of Crocodiles -- saw that performed in London by Theatre de Complicite more than a decade ago. Interesting; challenging. Think I have a playscript/text somewhere.

I am sure we can help this lovely reader can't we ??

www.librarything.com/topic/146826

Hi Kerry! I look forward to keeping up with your reading this year! Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, Kerry, and many happy reads for 2013!

Hi Kerry a happy New Year to you and your family in 2013!

Hi everyone - so many great welcomes to the group. I'll be back to give individual comments, just struggling to finish a last book before the New Year as it's already 9am Monday here. I'm spending most of my time in the 2012 groups and the Readathon thread.

I am glad to see you back with us, Kerry! Safe travels in the New Year!

Happy New Year Kerry!

Stopping by to star your thread, Kerry. looking forward to following your 2013 reading. Happy New Year!

Well into 2013 over by yours Kerry. Hope it's going well and look forward to keeping up.

Hi Kerry! Happy New Year.

Happy New Year, Kerry!

And thanks for recommending the Stonemouth audio last year. I listened to it in December, and it was just wonderful - great narrator!

Happy New Year, Kerry!

Happy New Year Kerry. Looking forward to another year of great reading:)

Happy New Year Kerry!

Happy New Year, Kerry! Looking forward to following your reads this year. :)

Happy New Year, Kerry! I'm going to try to do a better job of keeping up with you this year.

Looking forward to following your reading in 2013 Kerry (and your travelling adventures).

Hi everyone, time for me to check in here properly. I've spent the first two days of 2013 not reading books, just trying to catch up on the thread mania on here. I've been listening to audiobooks, finished my first of the year and am well in to my second one, The spies of Warsaw.
I think after the marathon readathon for the end of the year I needed to have a break from reading.

Paul - thanks for checking in. I see you've already started up your second thread, chock full of lists and stats.

Cushla - hi and yes, looking forward to getting away from home for a while

Lisa - welcome, make yourself at home

Gail - hi, I'll have to make sure I find your thread, there are so many all of a sudden. Tried to keep my categories fairly open, we'll see how I go.

Madeline - waving back, I've visited your thread, not sure if I've posted yet.

Monica - I've starred so many threads, hoping to also keep up with you!

Caro - hi, can't wait to meet up with my daughter.

Genny - I lived in London a long long time ago, and always love visiting. A brief trip this time round.

Diana - Hi, yes I'm looking forward to a more adventurous year

Liz - yes, join me!

Tanglewood - Yes, London is a lot of fun and I love the bookshops. Looking forward to visiting a few I haven't been to yet.

Bianca - I'll be in London last week in February, it will still be cold. I'll be visiting a few bookshops for sure.

Megan - I've just requested some more picturebooks from the library, so many talented illustrators out there. My latest favourite is Virginia Wolf, based loosely on Virginia Woolf and her sister. Virginia wakes up in a wolfish mood! My unexpected journey can't come fast enough!

Suzanne - Hi. After a few pages of Street of Crocodiles I don't even want to contemplate a theatrical version!

Alex - hi. I think everyone you asked posted about the NZ book scene.

Kerri - hi, trying to catch up with everyone here.

Richard - hi, yes and many happy reads to you too!

Stasia - hi, all the best in your studies for this year.

Chell - hi, thanks

Lori - hi, must find your thread

Susan - hello, I must get back to your thread again.

Nathalie - so glad that you enjoyed Stonemouth. The narrator really made the deal for me too.

#34: Calm - Hi, thanks for visiting. I need to get over again to your new thread.

Rhian - good to see you here

Julia - hi, i'll have to go looking for your thread as well

Micky - hi, and your thread too.

Heather - hi. I have to find your new thread too.

I've been reading lots of new threads today but not posting on that many. I'll try to keep up with everything but planning for the trip and keeping the household going in my absence will be my main priority over the next couple of weeks.

Good morning Kerry (afternoon for you, if not evening!). When do you set off on your trip? - Oh, end of Feb I see above...

You probably won't have time to travel this far north, but if a visit to Northumberland is on the agenda, there's always plenty of room up here for visitors.

Here's one look at my highlights from last year's reading.

Best of 2012 by my category challenge:

1) Favourite Writers & Rereads
Stonemouth by Iain Banks
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
Enchanted Glass by Diana Wynne Jones

2) Israel & the Diaspora
Only Yesterday by S Y Agnon
A Woman in Jerusalem by A.B. Yehoshua
What we talk about when we talk about Anne Frank by Nathan Englander

3) Australia
Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey
A Man you can bank on by Derek Hansen
Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan

4) New Zealand
Death of a superhero by Anthony McCarten
In the absence of heroes by Anthony McCarten
The Bridge by Jane Higgins
The loblolly boy and the sorcerer by James Norcliffe

5) Fact not Fiction
Twelve minutes of love: a tango story by Kapka Kassabova
My family and other animals by Gerald Durrell
Life by Keith Richards

6) Short n' Sweet
This is how you lose her by Junot Diaz
Writing in the Dark: essays on literature and politics by David Grossman
First Love by Ivan Turgenev

7) Neverending stories
Pawn in Frankincense by Dorothy Dunnett
Standing in another man's grave by Ian Rankin
Absolution Gap & The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds

8) God is Back
God is Back: How the global revival of faith is changing the World by John Micklethwait & Adrian Wooldridge
My name was Judas by C.K. Stead

9) Big Boys
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (961pgs)
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (925 pgs)
Great North Road by Peter F. Hamilton (1087pgs)
Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson

10) The Crowded Nest
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
The City & the City by China Miéville
A tale of two cities by Charles Dickens
The Diddakoi by Rumer Godden

11) The Lists
Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz (Nobel Prize 1988)
How the soldier repairs the gramophone by Saša Stanišic (International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award Longlist, 2010)
This is shyness by Leanne Hall (Text Prize for YA & Children's writing, 2009)
Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner (Costa Book Awards shortlist, 2012)
Crusade in Jeans by Thea Beckman (Europese jeugdboekenprijs (historische roman, 1976)

12) Dropbox
The Concert Ticket by Olga Grushin (The Line in the US)
Notes from an exhibition by Patrick Gale
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Graphic novels
Nelson edited by Rob Davis
Aya by Marguerite Abouet
A Drifting Life by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
The sky over the Louvre by Yslaire

Picturebooks
I didn't list all the picturebooks in one place but some of the memorable ones -
Fearless in love by Colin Thompson
Poonam's Pets by Andrew Davies
Anna Hibiscus' song by Atinuke and Lauren Tobia
Life doesn't frighten Me by Maya Angelou
Oh no, George by Chris Haughton
Kiwi: the real story by Annemarie Florian (2012)
Sleep like a tiger by Mary Logue (2012)
This is not my hat by Jon Klassen (2012)
Virginia Wolf by Kyo Maclear (2012)

Photography
Jump Book by Philippe Halsman (1959)
Robert Capa: the definitive collection (2001)
Marti Friedlander

#41 - Hi Genny - I'd love to come up to Northumberland, but with only 5 days for London fairly sure there'll be no chance to venture further afield. We leave here in three weeks time, stopping in Shanghai for a couple of nights and then flying to Spain.

Proposed Read for January TIOLI -
there'll probably be a strong element of leaving it this month

1. Read a book with no duplicate letters in its title
Zhu Mao - Mark Sweet

Read a book by an author you hadn't heard of before you joined LibraryThing
The Emigrants - Vilhelm Moberg
*Great House - Nicole Krauss (shared read, I had heard of Krauss before LT)
*The street of crocodiles - Bruno Schulz

3. Read a book that was not published by one of the Big Six
The phoenix song (Victoria University Press) - John Sinclair

4. Read the debut work of an author born in January
*Strangers on a train - Patricia Highsmith

5. Read a work of genre fiction from outside Europe/North America
Kickback (Australia,crime) - Garry Disher

7. Read a book with a B somewhere in the title or author's name
Books, Baguettes & Bedbugs - Jeremy Mercer
Climbing the Mango Trees: A Memoir of a Childhood in India - Madhur Jaffrey
Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen - Alan Garner

8. Read a book that is part of a limited series, such as a trilogy
Old Filth - Jane Gardam (Old Filth proposed trilogy, #1)
*When Christ and His Saints Slept - Sharon Kay Penham - (Henry II / Eleanor of Aquitaine 1/4)

9. Read a book that has exactly 13 letters in the title
Stamboul Train - Graham Greene

16. Read a children/youth book written by a German speaking author
The Night of Wishes - Michael Ende
strike>
21: Read a book that you meant to read in 2012
Spies of Warsaw - Alan Furst

1) Stamboul Train by Grahame Greene (1932)
fiction / audiobook

TIOLI #9. Read a book that has exactly 13 letters in the title. This was a carry over from December and I listened to most of it on New Years Day while resting up after the readathon and no desire to pick up a book. This story was quite compelling and turned into a bit of a thriller towards the end. Set on the Orient Express the plot follows the fortunes and misfortunes of a variety of travellers as they interact with each other, events overtake them and still the train thunders across Europe towards the Orient. Another good installment from Greene.

Here's to a great new year full of wonderful reading.

>45 avatiakh:: I love Greene but have somehow missed this particular book. I'll add it to my Library List for my next visit.

You've inspired me to check out TIOLI later today or this evening.

Your proposed reads list for January reminds me that I really need to read some Patricia Highsmith this year. I can't fathom why I haven't managed to do so yet, as I'm pretty sure I will really like her work.

Gail - I love fitting my current reading into all the different TIOLI challenges and it's a good way to be social in the group. The shared reads are a bonus too.

I'm also a fan of Greene and since the beginning of last year have been meaning to read The Ministry of Fear and have read about four others instead! It's definitely getting read in the next couple of months.

Julia - I've read a few of the Ripley books and seen the movies and after I read her biography, Beautiful Shadow, a few years ago I started collecting copies of her other work then failed to read any of it. I've seen the Hitchcock movie of Strangers on a train but don't think I've ever read the book. I was finally motivated to pick this one off the shelf thanks to the TIOLI challenge.

Wow, you're already so organized!

Your upcoming trip sounds smashing!

Hi, Kerry. Like you, I've been cruising the threads. Got most everyone starred yesterday and today am posting in the threads in between taking down the tree and putting away Christmas. Looking forward to following you this year.

Hi Kerry :) Happy New Year!
I'm looking forward to reading Strangers on a Train this month. I think I've seen a Castle episode recently which was based on the same idea.

Your TIOLI books look good. So is Strangers on a Train the one made into a Hitchcock movie? Stuck in Alps - weird lady whistling - etc?

Katie - I don't think so. I'm thinking a funfair? And possibly one of the main characters is a professional tennis player. It's been a while since I saw the film.

edit - sorry, yes it's a Hitchcock movie but not sure about the other bits you mention

Two of your reads last year in graphic novels, A Drifting Life and The Sky Over the Louvre look very interesting and are not ones I'd heard of. I'm also reading Stranger on a Train for a TIOLI challenge. I've seen the movie, so I'll be interested to see what Hitchock changed.

Kerry- I hope you had a nice New Year! And good luck this year with your reading! Remember, FF is coming up soon! I NEED to get to Ms. Highsmith this year. I have not read her. Incredible, I know.

Tangle - I read most of Tatsumi's work last year, he's probably the Japanese equivalent of Will Eisner. There is an animated film about him, I don't have access to it but it has been mentioned in the threads last year.
The sky over the Louvre is part of The Louvre Collection series of GNs, a project where different graphic novelists use the Louvre as a backdrop to their story. They were all interesting to read but this one has the most striking cover.

Strangers on a train has got quite a little shared read going on over on the TIOLI challenge!

Mark - I'm assuming that you mean Fantasy February! I'll have to dig out something to read, I'm sure I have 1 or 300 books to choose from. Highly recommend Ms Highsmith, I'm making her short stories one of my 'must-read' books for the year.

Ok, today's my birthday and I'll be spending it driving south to visit my mother. I didn't get to see her over Christmas/New Year so this is a newish tradition that we spend my birthday together and do lunch somewhere nice. No books for my birthday but money (a lot) has been well spent on upgrading my prescription glasses. I noticed a while ago that I was having increasing difficulty with small print.
Taking a bundle of old dressups for her to distribute among her great grandchildren as my lot have well and truly out grown them. Still sad as sorting through reminds me of all the great fun my kids had when they were really into that dramatic play period. Dana still likes dressing up as characters from games, though it doesn't involve capes or dinosaur tails, more boots and blue hair stuff.

Happy Birthday!!! I'm at the library right now, and you're making me think I should go by the GN section before I leave. & yes I know which one you mean - tennis player and merry-go-round.

Today is a birthday, I wonder for whom?
It must be for somebody right in this room.
So look all around you for somebody who
Is smiling and happy, my goodness, it's you!

Happy Birthday Kerry, from all of us to you,
Happy Birthday Kerry, from all of us to you.
We congratulate you, and hope all your sweet dreams come true,
Happy Birthday Kerry, have fun on this day :)

Hi Kerry, a very Happy Birthday indeed *smile*

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Kerry! Have a great day. And yes, FF is Fantasy February. It will be the place to be!

Happy birthday, Kerry! Hope it's ab fab!

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday, Kerry! I hope you're having a wonderful visit with your mom.

Happy happy day, Kerry! Hope you are having a brilliant birthday!

Happy Birthday, Kerry (though it will be over by the time you read this, I guess) - and have a good time with your Mum. I'm visiting my sister at present, a get-together which should have happened over New Year but got delayed a bit because I had flu. It's good to catch up with family, but it does mean I'm falling behind on the threads already!

Thanks everyone - birthday was a little more subdued than usual. We stayed in and had a sandwich for lunch. My mum is almost 85 and still very active but today neither of us felt like going out when her preferred cafe turned out to be closed for the holiday period.
I helped figure out problems with her new blu-ray dvd player - needs to be cracked to multizone so it will play some new dvds she bought. I found the details for a service agent and my brother will help her do the unplugging and taking in to get the fix. She's bought The Name of the Rose on dvd but it won't play as it's region blocked and she's really wanting her dose of Sean Connery! I tidied up her laptop as Babylon had installed itself as her homepage and default search engine. I showed her how to do Pinterest again, and we looked up a Beef Wellington recipe as when she had done it the search had said 'no results'. Then I showed her how to search for a clip on youtube - so we watched Gordon Ramsay make Beef Wellington look easy in 2.5 minutes.

We talked books and cats. I reminded her of the cats we had when I was little. My cat, Mittens, had about 5 kittens in her first litter, we kept two of them. When she had a second litter (birthed in my bed!) and the kittens were weaned and gone, the 2 older cattens came back and drank her milk - they were so big and it was quite hilarious seeing these two creatures drinking off their mother once again!

My brother is back from Port Hedland for a few weeks and he listens to audiobooks while he drives his road train out to the mines in northern West Australia. So we discussed Life by Keith Richards and he recommended the new Mick Jagger book as well as Pete Townsend's bio and a couple of others. My mother gave me Rod Stewart's new biography, mainly because she wanted to read it! She's the fan not so much me, but I'll read it. Anyway I left it for her to read first. I came home with more of her photo albums, I've promised to scan them all to digital over the year.

Coming back in the late afternoon I stopped at a berry farm and got a huge container of strawberries and one of blueberries, all freshly picked. Looking forward to dessert tonight.

And finished my audiobook while driving, The spies of Warsaw.

Belated Happy Birthday and Happy New Years, Kerry. Just starting my rounds as I try to catch up with everyone. I have dropped my star and look forward to to following your reading again this year.

Hi Judy - Thanks. It really is hard to stay caught up with everyone at present, I admire your stamina! Will have to return the visit.


2) The spies of Warsaw by Alan Furst (2008)
fiction / audiobook

Another audiobook! I am reading real books but have started several and doesn't look like I'll finish any for a few more days. Today's drive got me through the last big chunk of this audiobook. One that's been on my tbr pile for a long time and was a good 'read'. I really enjoyed the main character, Colonel Jean-Francois Mercier and am a little excited that the new tv series stars David Tennant in the part.
This is book #10 in Furst's Night Soldiers series but the first I've read. I'm not sure if they need to be read in order or not. I'll have to do some research.

Still deciding what to listen to next. I've downloaded quite a few audiobooks from the library yesterday.

Happy Belated Birthday ....... sometimes the subdued quality times ones are the best

Hi Kerry, your birthday sounded like a very busy day at your moms. Your mom is still so technical at 85 years? I am impressed.
If I am not mistaken you did read The Knife of Never Letting Go I am currently listening to the audiobook version. What did you think about the book?

I loved that book, not sure how it would work in audio as he's written it in a such a way - really short sentences that propel the action forward. Also the font size changes to show the 'noise' so is interesting to see visually.

My mum...technical?!? not really though she does skype and texts which is more than I do!
She's not at all great on plugging things in and working through instruction booklets whereas I like figuring things out. She loves her fashion too, wore stilettos into her 70s and impressed her granddaughters last week by wearing floral denims. I missed those fashion genes!

LOL - Your mom sounds great. Well, I can imagine that your daughters were impressed to see their grandmother in floral denims. My mom enjoys fashion also, but that gene seemed to have missed me as well *grin* This Christmas has proven it again. My mom and two of my sister bought me some clothes LOL, which showed me that they felt I am lacking again.

Actually, the audiobook is read pretty good. Especially, with the "noise" which is done brilliantly. Well, what sort of irritated me a bit was what you mentioned above this very short sentences. I am not very far in yet anyway. I just past the part where the girl leads Todd to the airship and shows him - presumably - her parents.

She was visiting my brother so it was my nieces, also fashionistas, that exclaimed. Every now and then my mum has given me money for my birthday and stipulated that I need to spend it on a dress. I remember as a child having a wonderful set of dressups as she had so many old ball dresses that I 'wore' around the farm!
My oldest brother has invited her to spend winter in Port Hedland with them so she'll miss worst of the cold weather. She's already worrying about leaving her cat. Winter in Port Hedland is hotter than our summer.

I might have to have a listen to the Ness then. I think you'll get used to the style, it carries right through the 3 books. The only one I've read recently that is similar is Moira Young's Blood Red Road, she does the same thing - uses short sentences to give that sense of action.
I read an interview where Ness said he was inspired by Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker and Peter Carey's The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith. I've read the Hoban and the other is on Mt Tbr still.

Haha, that sounds like it was fun. I used to do that when I was a child, but later on in life fashion wasn't that important to me anymore. I always just wear what I am comfy with, also I do love dresses.

Thanks for the tip Kerry. I think I will check Blood Red Road , Riddley Walker and The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith out to see if they appeal to me.

Wish you a great weekend!

A belated Happy Birthday, Kerry! I came through yesterday before you announced it. Sounds like you had a good one, all in all.

>69 avatiakh: I should probably track that one down as I want to watch the Tennant series and I always try to read things before I watch their adaptations. Glad to hear a decent review. :)

Mmmm... fresh picked berries!!!! It's the dead of winter here. Insanely jealous!

delurking with Furst-praise!

{relurk}

#70: Alex, thanks. Very happy to spend my birthday with family.

Hi Roni - thanks.

MickyFine - I won't get to see the tv series for a while, sometimes takes forever for these to make it to NZ. The other new one that I'm looking out for is the Inspector Javier Falcon series set in Seville. I've read the books and would love to see it on the screen.

Katie - they were good!

Richard - always happy when I get a delurker! I'll be looking for more Furst for sure.

>80 avatiakh: I'm not sure when I'll get it. It depends on if and when BBC Canada plays it. Otherwise I have to wait for it to show up on PBS out of the States.

A belated Happy Birthday from me, too, Kerry!

I also liked The Spies of Warsaw. I hadn't heard about David Tennant in the part in a new TV series, so that's something to look forward to. No Tardis involved, I suspect.

Belated Happy Birthday from me as well. I'm very impressed with your mother's technical abilities. My mother is 91 and gave up dealing with any new technology at least 20 years ago. She won't have a DVD player, never mind a laptop. And a mobile phone is completely out of question: my sister did buy her one for Christmas last year, but apart from when J attempted to show her how to use it it has never been out of its box!

I am also late with birthday greetings Kerry as keeping up is tough at the start of the year. Will combine with happy weekend messages and a quick thanks for our best of list which was very timulating and not healthy at all for my keeping my magpie tendencies under control.

Thanks for the all the birthday greetings.

Hi Joe - No, no tardis!

Rhian - my Mum does love keeping in touch with all of us and loves skyping to keep in touch with her grandchildren who are scattered around the world now. She's always been a movie buff and has a wonderful knowledge of all the old films and stars. She loves rewatching a lot of them and I usually order a bunch each year from amazon.uk for her to watch.
The laptop does not get much use apart from skype, solitaire and checking facebook to see if we've posted any photos.
The hardest thing I've ever come across was getting her a broadband connection with wireless modem - Telecom et al foiled my brothers, myself and my nephew. We just could not get her connected and as we didn't live in the house weren't able to do followup which always fell through. I know at one stage my brother put her on a satellite connection. It all seems to be sorted now though.

Paul - I might redo my best of list so it makes a little more sense. My discovery of the year would have to be Anthony McCarten. Loved his Death of a superhero and the sequel was good. DofS is an adult book that will also appeal to older teens. I have two more of his books to read, Brilliance and Spinners.


3) The Night of Wishes by Michael Ende (1998)
childrens / Germany

TIOLI Read a children's or YA book first published in German. Set on New Year's Eve, a young cat and an old raven have until midnight to foil the plot of a dastardly sorcerer and his witch aunt to make a Satanarchaeolidealcohellish Notion Potion that will send even more pollution, plague and pestilence onto the earth. This was highly enjoyable, a book for younger readers around 7-10. I was trying to finish it on New Years Eve but A tale of Two Cities took precedent.
Now I've read all three books in English that I have by Michael Ende, I'm fairly sure he wrote several more but they are either hard to source or not translated. The other two were Momo and The Neverending Story.

Hi Kerry, I am thrilled that you liked the book. I am listening to it a present with Alex. This is one of our faves by Michael Ende.

wish you a great weekend!

I loved near the end when they are making their rhymes and getting drunker and drunker with the potion. Hope your weekend is going well too.

I must get some sleep it's past midnight here.

>85 avatiakh: Gosh that potion name is a mouthful! Glad you liked it, Kerry. :)

Belated Happy Birthday, Kerry!

Very late with my birthday wishes for you Kerry. Sounds like you had a good and productive visit with your mom!

I've read The Never-Ending Story and Momo, but have never heard of this one! Onto the wishlist it goes.

85> Yes, the potion name is explained in the text, but it is a mouthful!

86> Hi Darryl

87> Hi Lori

88> Roni, It was fun. I think I got it through abebooks when I was determined to track down all his books in English. I visited a room in the International Youth Library in Munich where they have a Michael Ende Museum. It's all in German but I was lucky that the docent explained all the exhibits to me. I was quite taken with his childhood story but have still only read three of his books.

Hello Kerry....just a drive-by wave (nothing to add!)

*waves* at Prue!

Well I finally finished a print book! I think my problem is with Great House, it is a little underwhelming and I was making it my priority read but now I have it on a back burner my reading has stepped up a pace.


4) A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1962)
fiction / audiiobook

TIOLI challenge with a 'B'. I have a Cult fiction category this year, using books mentioned in The Rough Guide to Cult Fiction and Madeline (I think) recommended the audio versions of this one and for Trainspotting which I'm currently listening to as the dialects/slang really come to life with a good narrator. I really enjoyed this, though it starts with a really long introduction by the author about how the original US edition (and the film) missed the final chapter that was in the UK and international editions. It was the US publisher who decided to leave the final chapter out and at the time Burgess was keen for income and there were no other US publishers interested in the book as it is a controversial little thing. it's written in three parts each seven chapters long.
My son came in as I was listening to it near the end and listened as well for a while and we both had an overwhelming urge to watch the film which we did thanks to my London-based daughter leaving her Kubrick dvd collection behind. I've seen it before but not for years and I couldn't believe how much of the movie felt new to me, blame my failing memory perhaps.

I think this has stood the test of time and is well worth a read, definitely a listen.


5) Old Filth by Jane Gardam (2004)
fiction

TIOLI Limited series challenge. I've had this on my tbr pile for a while and seen everyone's rave reviews for it, but it was one of those I kept not picking up. I put it in my New Year pile, four books that I must read in January - Great House, The Street of Crocodiles and When Christ and his saints slept are the other three. In the end Great House ihas turned into a slog, the Penman & Schulz have been on hold till I finish a book.
Loved this style of storytelling with the story of Filth's childhood as a 'Raj orphan' slowly unfolding through the course of the book. Inspired in part by the childhood of Rudyard Kipling. Wonderful. The other Gardam I've read was Bilgewater which I rather liked. Next Gardam on my pile of books is A long way from Verona.

I'm thinking of joining the group read of Old Filth later this year--everyone has been giving it such good reviews!

My son has to read A Clockwork Orange next month for school. I hope it'll make any sense to him :)

Happy weekend, Kerry!

Adding The Night of Wishes to the BlackHole. Thanks for the recommendation, Kerry.

Glad to see you enjoyed Old Filth so much. It was one of my favorite reads from last year.

Kerry- Good to see you doing some fine reading/listening. Spies of Warsaw was my first Furst and I loved it. I have several other of his books in the stacks and plan on getting to a couple this year.
I'm a huge Kubrick fan and adored Clockwork and finally read the book in the late 80s. I think re-visiting it on audio, is a splendid idea.
There is a G.R. of Old Filth coming up soon, I might try to bookhorn it in.

Hi Kerry, glad to see that you enjoyed Clockwork. One of my oldtime faves, which is probably due for a re-read this year. Reading that you watched the movie, make me want to watch it again as well.

Wish you and your family a great weekend!

Hi Kerry - happy that you loved Old Filth too! I'm going to keep my eyes open for her other books in the library (and no doubt buy the 3rd in the Old Filth series as soon as it's out...not even pretending to have willpower this year!)

#95: Roni - I think you'll love Old Filth too.

#96: Hi Diana - how old is your son? I loved the audio of this but I think reading it would have been quite ok too.

#97: Hi Stasia - The night of wishes is a younger read but quite fun as the witch and sorcerer are so despicable.

#98: Hi Mark - I found two more of Furst's books on my tbr pile while sorting through the other day - Dark Star & The Polish Officer so i'll have to get them read too. I want to try Zoo Station first though so I can have two new series on the go.
I love looking out for interesting narration for my audio listens. Have just finished Trainspotting and last year listened to Stonemouth - both done with Scottish accents - both brilliant to listen too. Another favourite listen was the YA King Dork.

#99: Bianca, I really enjoyed the movie, it's quite theatrical and now that I've finished Trainspotting I'm really eager to watch that movie again.

#100: Hi Cushla - I'm trying to have willpower with my book purchasing though failing. I bought Marabou stork nightmares on trademe this morning, well Madeline made a strong case for me to read it!

I missed your birthday - a belated Happy Birthday from me! I'm also impressed with your Mum's technical abilities :-)

6) Great House by Nicole Krauss (2010)
fiction

I hadn't read anything by Krauss before but have been keen to read her work and chose it for my Orange January read. I'd love to say I loved the book but have to say that I admired her writing but wasn't swept up by either the plot or the characters. It's a series of short stories mostly linked through the characters having owned an old desk. The first part introduces the characters and the second part highlights the links between them. What I did admire was how thoroughly the book was seeped through with loss, melancholy and regret.


7) Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh (1993)
fiction / iPod audiobook

I've seen the movie a couple of times and will be watching it again as soon as I can find the dvd. I really loved this, the audio was a total treat. Full of foul language, drug addiction, death and decay, Welsh gives us a glimpse into the sorry lives of a bunch of Leith junkies. I'm interested in Skagboys which came out last year and follows the same characters in a prequel and Madeline has recommended Welsh's Marabou stork nightmares.

Other activities: Saw Les Miserables yesterday afternoon, wow, so much singing! I enjoyed it but there was a lot of singing.
I'm watching an older BBC production of A tale of two cities which seems to be keeping fairly true to the book.

Hi Heather, my Mum rang me today to say that the dvd player has been sorted and she's finally watched her dvds!

Hi Kerry, I lost track of you somehow! But have sought you out now, so all good.
Im glad you liked Old Filth too, it was told in a very interesting way I thought.

I wont see Les Mis, as I dont get musicals. In my experience people dont just break out in song during the course of their daily lives....it irks me ;)

Glad your mum can work the dvd, my mum still has her VCR un used attached to her TV system. It astounds me.

Hi, Kerry. Hope that this will be your best year ever, at the very least in reading.

I loved Old Filth, but the next one I read, The People on Privilege Hill was disappointing to me, and seemed weird. I'm looking forward to reading The Man in the Wooden Hat, which takes the O.F. story and tells it from the wife's point of view.

So, I'm imagining you're not an opera fan? Glad your mum's troubles with tech. got worked out.

>103 avatiakh: I read Trainspotting in undergrad in an English course focusing on representations of drug addiction in popular culture. It was interesting course but I don't think I'd ever revisit any of the books I read. And I have no urge to watch Trainspotting. There are still parts of the book where the images my imagination conjured were more than enough.

I read and enjoyed Crusoe's Daughter by Jane Gardam, so bought Old Filth and God on the Rocks. Haven't read them yet though.

*shiver* A Clockwork Orange was nightmare inducing for me. The rape scene was very disturbing. Don't think I'll be trying Trainspotting.

Hello Kerry - Great House is on my shelves of shame somewhere - won't be digging it oput in a hurry, I think. Happy listening!

Re The Spies of Warsaw, with the exception of a few books featuring a Parisian movie director turned soldier and accidental agent (I think Jean Casson by name, or summat like that), most of Furst's books can be read as standalones. His emphasis is on that 1930s noir period; I heard him talk at the NY Society Library maybe 10 years ago about this -- interesting. It took me a while to get into this particular title, too! In contrast, Mission to Paris and the one set in the Balkans, which are his two more recent ones, are very good as well. You might also want to take a look at Istanbul Passage. I find Joseph Kanon's staccato writing style VERY annoying, but the plot of this one was gripping.

Megan - Yet to find anyone who hasn't enjoyed Old Filth.
I read Les Mis a couple of years ago so was looking forward to seeing it condensed into a 3 hour story though the singing did get to me. I don't mind the occasional musical but prefer seeing it live.

Hi Gail - I'm hoping for a good year of reading too. I'm pleased to have gotten a few of my own books read so far this year. I have a copy of Privilege Hill but have taken note to perhaps read it after The Man in the Wooden Hat.

I enjoy a few operas, but not really my listening point of preference. The music in La Boheme is too good not to like and I've seen Carmen a couple of times.

Micky - I can imagine that a course like that would be disturbingly interesting. My daughter did her MA in Film Studies and her thesis on Tarantino so I watched a lot of the films that she studied over the 5 years and Trainspotting was probably one of them. I've got a Cult Writers category for 2013 so am exploring a range of books that normally I wouldn't tackle.

Lisa - I have God on the Rocks sitting on the tbr pile. I read Bilgewater and wanted to read more of her work. A Clockwork Orange and Trainspotting are definitely not for everyone.

Prue - so many people have enjoyed Great House, I really think if you are in the right mood then it will work. I've been fairly impatient with my reading lately so need a strong storyline to keep me happy.

Suzanne - Thanks for that info. I dived into the 'Spies' book as I'd had it for ages on my iPod and as it was a library audio I felt a bit guilty. I'd noticed that they looked to be fairly standalone, which works well for me.
And I've read The Good German so understand your comments on Mr Kanon. I'll look out for Istanbul Passage.

Tonight I haven't read much at all but did watch Trainspotting and finished the last 4 episodes of the BBC miniseries A tale of Two Cities which was fairly bland. I've been reading my way through Building Stories and while the idea of rummaging through a box and reading the various bits n' pieces in the order you like is appealing, the story so far is a quite boring and depressing chronicle of a young woman's life. I'll keep going but might begin to skim a little. The font is quite tiny on a lot of it and even with my new specs I'm straining to read at night time.
I'm also reading a few pages of When Christ and his saints slept but the pace is slow. My latest audiobook is Climbing the Mango Trees by Madhur Jaffrey.

#111 That's disappointing about Building Stories - that was one I was really looking forward to.

Hi, Kerry; dropping by to wish you an extremely belated happy New Year and Happy Birthday.

If you're going to London (I thought you said 'London' - didn't realise you meant 'world tour') you might want to pop in to Forbidden Planet for sci-fi and fantasy books (shh - don't tell anyone. It's my secret hideout).

Les Mis sounds interesting; I love the musical and the music, but unless I can find someone to go with and someone else to babysit the kids, I might have to miss that one.

>105 LovingLit: : You mean you don't break out into song spontaneously? How strange.

Seriously, though; I don't often sing out loud, being a bit of an introvert, but I always have a tune going in my head. (At the moment, it's Delta Goodrem's latest, and I'd like to change the record now, please. Nothing wrong with it; it's just one of those you can't stop hearing in your head.) My kids, do, too, and sometimes they do break out into song. In fact, at my eldest's 8th birthday party, there was a microphone lying around that was connected to the speakers, and they both had a go. My youngest (then about to turn 3) stood on stage and gave us a rendition of 'Daddy Cool'.

8) Building Stories by Chris Ware (2012)
graphic novel in a box

TIOLI challenge #20: Read a book by a new-to-you method. Open the box and there are around 14 different items to read - see picture below. On the bottom of the box there is a suggested reading order but I just dove in and read whatever caught my fancy and the story slowly began to emerge. We follow a young woman over the period of about 8 years from when she rents an apartment in an old Chicago home till she lives in the 'burbs with her husband and small daughter. She reflects over the path her life has taken, missed opportunities, old boyfriend and misunderstandings between people etc etc. Overall the story is a little bland, even depressing, but for a lot of people life meanders along similar paths. The old Chicago home is a central character in some of the pieces which lends a little scaffolding to build your own interpretations on. There was a couple of pieces about a bee that I just skimmed through.
It's a fun way to read a graphic novel, almost like being with the artist as he's putting his project together, though I'd rather have been reading something a little more adventurous to go along with the box idea. The artwork is good with solid colours though I had trouble with smaller fonts from time to time especially at night.

>114 avatiakh: I think the format carried me through it more then it did for you. Also, I was so grateful for the little slivers of light that shined through the deep depression of the main character's life :) On one of the threads (of course I can't find it now) someone said they considered this more art than book. Hope you enjoy your next one more!

I'll probably mull over Building Stories for a few days, there was a lot of content and I've done my comments pretty soon after finishing. I'm going for a reread of Preludes and Nocturnes next and hope also to read We3 which was mentioned by someone somewhere in the group.

My letter to the world and other poems by Emily Dickinson (2008)
poetry

This is a delightful slim edition of seven of Dickinson's most famous poems attractively illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault. I came across Arsenault's artwork at the end of last year in the picturebook Virginia Wolf by Kyo Maclear and wanted to explore more of her work. That book is based on real life sisters Virginia Woolf and Vanessa.
The illustrations here are quite dark and brooding, the poems will need a rereading as they struck me as a little gloomy and introspective. The book is part of a Visions in poetry series by Kids Can Press.


Spork by Kyo Maclear (2011)
picturebook
Not a spoon or a fork, when will little spork be picked out from the other cutlery? The illustrations by Arsenault are a little retro with interesting backgrounds. Hard to make cutlery star on page after page.


Mr Gauguin's Heart by Marie-Danielle Croteau (2007)
picturebook
This must be based on a true event in young Paul Gauguin's life. When his father dies suddenly during a voyage the family are taking from Denmark to Peru, Paul equates the setting sun with his father's heart, a glowing balloon with his father floating alongside. The power of Paul's imagination and later using art to express these ideas is encouraged by an elderly gentleman. Arsenault uses a slightly different style here and my favourite image is the one shown on the cover.


Migrant by Maxine Trottier
picturebook

This uncovers the little known (by me anyway) story of the migrant families of Mennonites who moved to Mexico in the 1920s but kept their Canadian citizenship and return to Canada each year. The move to Mexico was to find religious freedom and withdraw from the modern life but as hardships plague them they return each year to Canada to work in the fields at harvest time. Through the eyes of a young migrant girl Anna, we see the plight of the migrant worker who has few rights. Arsenault's artwork is really interesting again for this book.

Loved seeing the review of Old Filth. It's on my shelves too. I loved Queen of Tambourine but the title and the cover of Old Filth just isn't terribly inviting. Sounds like I should read it eventually.

And after reading The Moon and Sixpence, I don't think I could read Mr Gaugin's Heart. It looks far too sweet for my image of the man. ;) But it does look like a good book. Perhaps if I could read it with an "insert other artist's name here" mentality.

#113: Hi Nina, thanks for the birthday & New year wishes. Going to the UK or Europe from this part of the globe is practically a world trip isn't it. Forbidden Planet has been duly noted - I will be in the market for some Dr Who stuff of some sort for my youngest two.

I hope you get to see Les Mis on a big screen - you'll have to do some planning. Love your story about your daughter! My son sings, he's had serious classical lessons and so we often hear renditions of all sorts of stuff coming from the depths of our house. Doesn't inspire the rest of us to sing though!

#118: Katie - by now you'll have heard of the group read of Old Filth being planned for April (??). I agree about the covers of her books, none of them are that appealing.

The prose of the Gauguin picturebook was fairly unspectacular but the story was true according to wikipedia. I'm also not much a fan of the painter. I did enjoy The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau so read that one instead!

>114 avatiakh: wow- I am so impressed with that book/box. It sounds like the perfect mixture of art and literature. I may just have to buy it. I am very taken with the idea of it.

Megan, It was quite intimidating to start with and box sat on the coffee table over the holiday period unopened, but yesterday I decided to get on with it - love those library due dates! I think it's currently unavailable but I'm sure more will get printed as it is topping a lot of 'best of' lists. I didn't spread it all out like in the photo, maybe I should have when I'd finished.

Kerry, we just got Spork out of Karori library (Teresa's pick) and both kids have really loved it. I liked the pictures but could happily have read something else after the first go, but I think it has a few more reads in it before it's due back!

Cushla - do look out for the Virginia Wolf, it's cute, starring a moody Virginia and a magical place called Bloomsbury. I wasn't that taken with Spork though can see the appeal for a child.

Hi Kerry, I see you also have got this intruiging box set of a graphic novel. So, the story itself isn't that brilliant but the set up is fascinating. I had put that on my wishlist, but I think I may just pass that one by.

I got Old Filth for my kindle now :) as everyone really seemed to enjoy the book.

We3 by Grant Morrison & Frank Quitley (2005)
graphic novel
This one pinged my heartstrings. Three family pets have been kidnapped and turned into weapon prototypes, fitted with a robotic armour and are able to communicate with a very small vocabulary. Their controller sets them free and they try to find home while being chased by a military force and a more vicious version of themselves, Weapon 4. Comes with violence and bloodshed. In three parts, each one starts with a hand drawn lost notice for one of pets.


edit: This is much darker than these images suggest

Aw, that sounds so said and the picture of that poor dog saying home. I do hope the GN has got a happy ending. Put it onto my wishlist and once I have it will read it with caution and a pack of tissues handy. :)

#124: Bianca - I was lucky that my library had it and I requested it before it started appearing on all the best of lists. The concept is great but I would have liked to read something more along the lines of The Sandman or Daytripper.

My daughter read We3 too and now she hates me cos she feels so sad! Sort of works out at the end but there are casualties.

Well, good to know about the casualties. So, I will prepare myself well, when reading the book.

Not that long anymore and you are off to London to visit your daughter. You must be so excited by now. :)

Yes, we are getting to that time - one week before lift off. Spending most of my time on tidying up around the home, getting the household organised to be without Mum for a few weeks. Our first flight is 11 hours to Shanghai, 2 nights break and then 12 hrs to Paris.

Wow, that sounds really great. So you have two days to have a look round in Shanghai as well. I wish you a great time and hope you will enjoy your travels, and of course, your time with your daughter in London. I also hope that we will see some nice photos from your travels. :)

I have two other titles in the Visions in poetry series by Kids Can Press: The Highwayman and Casey at the Bat. They are very well done, and I want to get their edition of The Raven.

My library has The Highwayman and The Raven from the KCP Poetry series. I love the look of The highwayman and will be getting both from the library to look at. I have the Charles Keeping illustrated version of the Noyes poem and that is really stunning, but this modernized version looks good too.

Lots of interesting reviews, Kerry. I second the recommendation of Istanbul Passage. I thought it was very well done, and gave my dad a copy.

I know Building Stories is in my future; he's such a remarkable graphic artist. I read We3 a ways back and agree it's a sad but good one.

Hi Joe, Loved how I fell in love with those poor mites in just a few pages. I'm going back to my comments to add that it's much darker than those images suggest.

You'll enjoy Building Stories and I'll have to look out for more of his work.

I'm not sure I could cope with We3 - it sounds like one of those things that would really get to me.

Building Stories looks fascinating; I'll be on the lookout for it.

Add me to the fans of Old Filth; I'm glad that you liked it as well.

Entrez: Signs of France by André Aciman & Steven Rothfeld (2001)
photography
I came across this cute little book when looking into books by André Aciman and the premise sounded wonderful, a book full of photographs of French signage and text by Aciman so I hunted down a copy for my shelves. It turned out to be a very slim volume with minimal text and a lot of the photos focus directly on style of lettering. Overall great to flick through, but my recommendation would be to seek out something else, perhaps Rachael Hale McKenna's The French Cat or Paris Changing: Revisiting Eugene Atget's Paris by Christopher Rauschenberg (recommended by petermc over in Club Reads with a link to this website - http://www.lensculture.com/rauschenberg.html).
Added to TIOLI challenge #22. Read a book mostly filled with pictures.

Kerry, I looked on BD for Building Stories, it was $56...so I put my name on the list at the library instead :)

Love the French photographs, looks beautiful.

It's too bad the 'Signs of France' book wasn't quite what you were expecting. But that one may be worth looking for at the library, anyway.

Megan - yes, pretty much out of my price range too. Gotta love our libraries.

#140: Hi Rosalita - yeah, it was such a slim little book. I'll have to look out for something by Taschen.


Howl: a graphic Novel by Allan Grinsburg & Erik Drooker
graphic novel
Added to TIOLI challenge #22. Read a book mostly filled with pictures. I had never heard of the classic beat poem Howl till I saw the wonderful film with James Franco acting as Ginsberg. It was a fantastic mix of poetry, animation, and Ginsberg's life around the time of writing the poem and the court case that ensued.
This graphic novel uses the illustrations by Drooker that the film's animation was based on, but I was disappointed as they looked more like stills from the computer animation and didn't always add much to enjoyment of the poem. I might be biased because I really liked the animation in the film. That said I liked the first few pages setting the mood for the book with the deep blues and especially liked the typewriter font.
The poem is great and I lapped up the opportunity to read it, though next time I'd go for a straightforward print out & maybe listen to a youtube clip of Ginsberg reading it.
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,
Angel-headed hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection
to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night

Look inside the graphic novel here: http://www.harpercollins.com/browseinside/index.aspx?isbn13=9780062015174

I mentioned on Richard's thread when he reviewed Howl, Kerry, that I actually got to hear Ginsberg read his poem in my university days, at an outdoor pavilion by a lake. One of my special memories!

Wonderful mix of reading here as always Kerry. Any reason why you stopped numering them after number 8?

Hi Roni - I saw you mention that and it would have been a highlight indeed. Such a powerful poem.

@psutto (Pete) over in the category challenge is listening to The Poets' Corner: The One-and-Only Poetry Book for the Whole Family which is edited by John Lithgow and I think the book comes with a cd or mp3 or something and includes performances of great poems by a variety of well known actors.

Paul - I only use the numbers when I read a book with a reasonable page count, though occasionally I'll number a shorter read and in theory all the unnumbered ones I've read up to that point are added to that. I just don't make that particularly clear. With junior novels I often make them an a, b, c of one number if I'm listing them at the same time.

I'm not reading anything too involved at present as my attention span is not cutting it lately. I have 5 days before leaving on my trip and so many things to organise that my mind can't settle to an actual novel. Graphic novels, short stories and a couple of travel memoirs are all I can do at present.

Currently listening to Madhur Jaffrey's Climbing the Mango Trees and it's bringing India of 50-70 years ago to life. She has so many food related memories and her middle or upper class upbringing in an extended conservative family is a contrast to the many novels that deal with the poverty and slums.

Reading The most beautiful walk in the world: a pedestrian in Paris by John Baxter but am getting quite bored by it. Keep waiting for it to really start, but am almost halfway through so that's possibly as good as it gets. Just not in the mood for his distracting style of writing where he keeps meandering around a point. I just want the point please.
Suzanne recommended The Flâneur: A Stroll through the Paradoxes of Paris and a little digging into the depths of my travel memoir shelf, I found that I'd picked up a $3 copy in the Borders closing down sale a couple of years ago. Will try this and ditch the Baxter for a few days.

Books I have purchased:
I wasn't going to buy any books this month, but sales have broken my resolve so over the past few days I've picked up:

The Age of Reason by Jean-Paul Sartre - Popular Penguin edition
All visitors ashore by CK Stead - Popular Penguin edition
Smith's Dream by CK Stead - Popular Penguin edition
Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger - Penguin classic
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott - small compact Collector's Library HB edition
The Best Exotic Marigold hotel (These Foolish Things) by Deborah Moggach - the film tie in edition but cheap
Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance by Irvine Welsh
In search of Schrödinger's cat : quantum physics and reality by John Gribbin
The Sopranos by Alan Warner - exuberantly recommended by Anders in the category challenge - used book
The Victorians by A.N Wilson - folio edition, used

Nice book haul!

...and it didn't stop there, Tina. I had to go out this afternoon and was parked by the Salvation Army Store so decided to pay it a quick visit and got a bundle of paperbacks for less than $1 each

Pouliuli by Albert Wendt - Samoan, Emeritus Professor at University of Auckland - last November he received New Zealand's highest literary award - 2012 Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement for Fiction
Once were warriors by Alan Duff - if Paul can then so can I!
The Painter by Libby Hathorn - YA about Van Gogh
Fields of Glory by Jean Rouard - Prix Goncourt (1990)
By a slow river by Philippe Claudel - so pleased to find this
Annelie in the depths of the night by Imme Dros - lovely b/w illustrations in this Dutch junior fiction
& a history bk The European Heritage by Lehmann

Even better!! Books..... Sigh :)

Well done, Kerry! From the books you chose I'm most interested in the Sartre and the Claudel, neither of which I've read, so I look forward to your comments about them.

Great hauls! I have the Rouard, picked up a cheap copy also several years ago but not yet read it.

Good luck with your last couple of days getting ready, and safe travelling if I don't get back to your thread before you depart.

Popping out of lurk mode to wish you Bon voyage. Love the books you find, as always. The kiddo and I will have fun checking some out.

Ok, annoyed with myself...after typing replies and a couple of reviews I lost the post due to own stupidity of x-ing the tab.

Darryl & Genny - I'm taking those books with me so will be reading them in the next couple of weeks or so.

Lisa - thanks. Just going through the annoying part of choosing what books to take with me. I'll have an iPad which I've loaded with a few e-books but I'll be sharing it, so need a good selection of dead-tree ones as well. I'm getting there...the selection has been evolving these past few days.

9) Preludes & NocturnesVol 1: The Sandman by Neil Gaiman (1991)
graphic novel

TIOLI challenge #22. Read a book mostly filled with pictures. This is a reread as part of my intention to read all 10 volumes this year. A couple of years ago I read the first four and lost momentum, this time I'm doing it as part of a year long group read in the category challenge, that has evolved into a Sandman Group (http://www.librarything.com/groups/sandman).
This first volume is divided into the 8 episodic instalments and the storyline follows the character Dream aka The Sandman who has been imprisoned by occultists for many decades. He is finally free but has lost his articles of power so must retrieve them. In the final episode we meet his sibling, Death.
My favourite stories are the horror inspired 24 hours and the more straight forward The sound of her wings.This series won't be to everyone's taste but it is inspired by mythology, superheroes, popular culture and a whole lot more. Several of the GRers are also reading The Sandman Companion and adding extra insights into the discussions. I won't be reading the next volume till April so haven't much to add as yet.

Also wishing you bon voyage! (I'm so envious!)

The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories by Tim Burton (199)
flash fiction

TIOLI challenge #7. Read a book with a B somewhere in the title or author's name. Quirky nonsense, a collection of short poems and short short prose accompanied by amusing illustrations. My daughter is a fan of Burton's films so I thought she might like this little collection and it was fun to read. My only complaint was that it was all over too soon....and after googling for images I think I want some of the 'action figures'.

Great excerpts from the Burton book.

Isn't it difficult to choose books for a trip? You have to anticipate your moods and reading whims, including while trapped in a flying tin can and while very tired. You try and balance books about the places you are going with some distracting or comfort reading. Then there is the question of whether to bring books that you can leave once you've read them, versus ones you want to read but also want to keep. You know you'll acquire more on the trip, so there is the space and weight issues. Once you've solved all that, there is the question of how many to put in your carry on!

10) Climbing the Mango Trees: A Memoir of a Childhood in India by Madhur Jaffrey (2005)
memoir / iPod audiobook

TIOLI challenge #7. Read a book with a B somewhere in the title or author's name. I've wanted to read this since hearing Jaffrey talk a couple of years ago at our Readers and Writers festival. She is a very likeable personality and her stories were funny and interesting and sales of her cookbooks soared during her time in New Zealand.
This is a fairly straightforward telling of her childhood, but what an exotic one, and one steeped in beautifully described food memories. Jaffrey was born into a well to do Hindu family in New Delhi in the 1930s, so her story includes the partition and the loss of many of her family's Muslim friends and the loss of the Muslim culture in New Delhi and India in general.
I have a hard copy of the book bought long ago in a sale but downloaded the audio from my library and listened to that instead. I read in a review that the memoir contains several recipes in an appendix, I haven't checked this but also have a couple of her earlier cookbooks and will be looking through them for inspiration for dinner tonight.
http://www.madhur-jaffrey.com/

#156: Oh Lisa, you are so right. I wrote almost exactly those words earlier but then lost my post! I've got a few books on the go at present and am happy to take a couple of them but not the Bruno Schulz as I'll probably not want to discard it. I've got about 60 books sitting around my suitcase but will probably only take 20 and rely on the iPad for the rest of my reading. I've got a few for the Reading Globally theme, but I'm torn about discarding them and that is the rule, they have to be discarded! Anticipating my reading moods and making sure I'm covered for destination reading - it's a lot of fun and a headache! My son will be studying 'The World since 1900' and taking his textbook, so I'm trying to choose books that will coincide with his reading too. I have two long flights of 11-12 hours in the first few days and usually only sleep for a couple of hours at most, so will be packing 2 or 3 books for each flight and making sure the iPad is fully charged.

#154: Hi Roni - I'm excited, though tempered by lots of cleaning, laundry and housework,

You are quite disciplined with your "no coming home again" rule. I say that and then think, oh but I might want to reread this someday, and home it comes with a few scrapes and bruises. But then I have this thing about books. I just love having them around, like old friends that I can visit or just sit beside quietly without needing to even open the cover.

I'm looking forward to your comments on your visit to Paris. We are contemplating a trip to Paris, although my car just developed a leaky head gasket, so we may end up buying a car instead. I would love to hear where you are staying. I've been to Paris several times, but only as a student and the last time was 21 years ago, not with a family. I'll be looking for different things in accommodations now! Our flight is only 12 hours, but I'm dreading it. I can't imagine getting back on the plane after Singapore. Aiaiai.

#153 Interesting that your favourite story was 24 Hours. That was my least favourite - precisely because of the horror elements. I don't really do horror.

I remember watching Madhur Jaffrey cooking on tv at a time when Indian cuisine was really exotic. Must look out for that one.

Hahahha noticed that the Kiwis are fighting back and buying their own books too! I just finished the debut novel of Maurice Shadbolt and enjoyed it immensely. I bought it in a used book shop in Kaikoura.
Great book haul by the way.

Have a lovely weekend Kerry.

#160: Lisa, I just picked up Hemingway's A moveable feast and am really enjoying it. I thought I'd already read it but that was Down and Out in Paris and London by Orwell. It's a slim novella so if I take it with me, it will return home. I hope there's a simple solution for your car, though head gasket is not a fun thing.
I'm sure you'll be able to do better than student accommodation! We are staying a little out of central Paris this time in Vicennes. On our last trip we stayed in the Suite Novotel Paris Porte De Montreuil, quite an interesting location with a huge market twice a week right outside the hotel. We had our two youngest children with us and the room rates were reasonable compared to those right in the centre. My first trip I stayed in a camping ground somewhere in the suburbs. My favourite stay was in the Best Western Star Champs Elysees, we had all five of our children with us that time and our rooms were great, the staff helpful and the breakfasts were really good. It was 1997 and there were piles of flowers where Princess Diana's car had crashed.
I'm just hoping the weather won't be too wet and miserable as we will be there in mid-February.

Rhian - I fixed the html in my review, I also liked The Sound of her Wings. Yes, I like a little horror from time to time.

Paul - I don't think I've seen her cooking shows on tv. She has written some great cookbooks.

I saw your review for the Shadbolt and that you'd enjoyed it. I collected a few of his books late last year and hope to get at least one of them read this year. Yes, a 50c copy of Once were warriors can't be sneezed at, though it will be a brutal read. Alan Duff is well known here for starting the 'Books in Homes' charitable trust, which makes sure underprivileged children get a book each year to call their own.

Like the sound of that charity Kerry - it will be worth looking at.

Glad you liked the graphic Howl, Kerry. With you and RD and others liking it, I need to get to it. That's always been one of my favorite poems.

Good to see you enjoyed the first Sandman, too. What a series. I agree that reading The Sandman Companion helps with some of the allusions and references, among other things. Gaiman comments in it, too.

Great hauls! And you read some interesting books since I last visited your thread. As usual there's no way I'll get my hands on any of those graphic novels without ordering them from abroad, but you brought Trainspotting back to my attention. It has been on my shelf for a while now, it was a free giveaway book at my library. I'm still undecided though, I can't cope with drug abuse stories that well. But it's a 1,001...

Paul - I don't think Duff is that involved with it now as he's had money problems.

Joe - I'll probably read through the series before getting the Companion. The reviews getting posted now by LTers such as @-Eva- are very good. She's written two great reviews so far.

Nathalie - hi, I've been lurking over on your thread. I'd seen the movie of Trainspotting a few times so knew what I was getting into. As an audiobook it was a really good listen but yes, it's about drugs and life in the working class areas of Edinburgh.

I love your latest hauls Kerry! Nice buying.

And your Tim Burton one I recognise as I bought it for my film buff friend as a Christmas gift. He said he really liked it so that was good.

Looks like Alan Duff has bad a tough time since his book became such a great film, I feel a bit sorry for him.

Hi Megan - Tim Burton is an acquired taste I think. Not sure what happened to Duff, I remember in the news back then that he had to sell his beautiful home in the Hawkes Bay and ran away overseas.

I'm going to be in London towards the end of February and my daughter, who lives there, has already gotten tickets for two sessions at the Jewish Book Festival, only found out it was on yesterday when looking through Jewish London. A lot of the really good political and historical sessions were already sold out such as a session with Simon Sebag Montefiore. So we're going to hear Austin Ratner who wrote The Jump Artist, I read this last year and it should be an interesting talk. Also Naomi Alderman as I've read one of her books and have another on my tbr list, The Liars' Gospel.

Probably won't be around much from now on until I return in late March. I'm travelling with the iPad so I'll see where I can get free wifi and hopefully post a photo or two. Off now to cull the number of books in my suitcase as I can try e-reading.

Have a great time in London, Kerry! I look forward to hearing about your trip when you return.

Have fun! Look forward to hearing all about it, and the books you read sur ton voyage.

Bon voyage!

Sounds like it's really cold in London, though - wrap up!

Have a great trip Kerry!

Have an amazing time in London, Kerry!

London. *sigh* Maybe later this year for me. My mom is in a nursing home and one of my sisters lives in London. But we'll have to see--first, my son was married last July and now, my daughter is to be married in June. Definitely not traveling too much before the end of the year!

Hi--long time since I've dropped by, but last year was a series of great and unfortunate events that ended too fast (or too soon, depending on your perspective) for me to track my pals on LT. I did lurk somewhat, and I always, always, always find interesting reads on your thread.

Have a great trip and enjoy the new year.

I hope you have a lovely trip. As always, I find such interesting books on your thread. For now, I've added the Tim Burton book. I want to buy this as a present for my daughter who loves his movies.

Congratulations on a great book haul.

Oh my, love London. Have a great time, Kerry!

Nice book haul up there - safe travels ......

Bon voyage, Kerry! Safe traveling.

Hope you're enjoying your travels Kerry!

Hi Kerry, you havent left yet have you?
How fun going to London, and to have your daughter to show show you her haunts as well. I loved London, and want to visit there again one day.
Looking forward to hearing updates if you can spare the time and deal with the iPad!

Hi Kerry! I believe I'm caught up now.

It's good to hear that you enjoyed Trainspotting. I love the film, but my only other Irvine Welsh experience (The Acid House) was awful, so I've avoided the novel. I do own it though and may get to it some day.

Hello Kerry - my daughter is off to live in London in early April; hoping you are enjoying your trip as much as i hope she will!

Hi Kerry, I see you arent able to gt to the computer just yet!
I hope you are having a great time over there.
And buying some books !!!

Hope you are having an awesome time!

Thanks for the Rousseau book bullet. That one ought to be interesting.

Also glad to see your comments on We3. It's been pretty popular, but the cover makes it look like it might verge on precious. Sounds like it isn't precious at all though.

Hi everyone - can't respond individually at this stage as I'm still not comfortable typing long stretches on the iPad. Internet has been available in various places but the connection so weak that I've not done much more than read a few threads.
Currently in the middle of our stay in Paris and of course loving each day. Doing lots of walking, catching lots of buses and using the metro when necessary. deciding when, what and where to eat is lots of fun. Yaron has embraced the idea of trying everything and ditched his paleo diet for the time being. We are indulging in patisserie especially. He was brave enough to try frog legs the other day. we spent most of yesterday in Versailles and today we're off to Montparnsse and thr Rodin Museum.
I'd love to upload a photo or two but that will have to wait.
We had three wonderful weeks in Andalucia, visiting all the usual suspects such as Seville, Cadiz, Cordoba, Granada and Malaga. The weather was great for winter and touch wood we haven't had a rainy day yet.
I've been reading a few books, finished Jeremy Mercer's book about Shakespeare & Co this morning. will be taking another visit there today or tomorrow. So far only bought one book, Tales from the Alhambra when I was in Granada.

anyway must away as time is ticking and my time here is limited.

Hi Kerry, I am so pleased to hear that you enjoy your time soo much. However, I am impressed that you managed to fit in so many books whilst in Paris.

Wish you a great remaining time on your trip. Enjoy *big smile*

I didn't know that Washington Irvine had written about the Alhambra. I still have vivid memories of a visit to that fantastical place/palace on a family holiday over 30 years ago!

Glad to hear you are having a good time in Paris - enjoying the food as well as the culture, sounds great!

Sounds like you all are having a great time, Kerry!

I'm so glad the weather is cooperating. Have fun!

>187 avatiakh: great to hear from you! And great to hear you are having a fantastic time. Ill pass on the frogs legs, and take the art museums instead! looking forward to photos :)

Thanks, just arrived in London today. Already had a peek in the British Museum for an hour or so and Yaron is keen to go back for a more in depth look.
We managed to catch the opening day of a Chagall exhibition at the Musee de Luxembourg yesterday and a wonderful one on castles and abbies in the Concierge, 'Dream of Monuments'.

I bought a few books at Shakespeare and Co - A Jew must die, a novella that I read the same day
The Princesse de Cleves by Madame de Lafayette which was recommended by Diane Johnson, a writer who lives in Paris and I have just finished her book, Into a Paris QUarter.
The spider king's daughter by Chibundu Ohuzo - more of an impulse buy though I have wanted to read this one for a while.
Lovely to catch up with my daughter and her partner who live in a tiny apartment just across the road from the Tufnell Park tube station. actually the apartment is quite roomy for London standards and they are very comfortable here.

Excuse my typos, it's quite hard to be precise on this keyboard.

Genny - Washington Irving lived in the Alhambra for several months at the time. He wrote a couple of more general books on Spain I think.

Sounds like you are having a great time!

Great to hear from you, Kerry. Your trip is sounding wonderful.

Have had a lovely couple of days. Yesterday had brunch at Ottolinghi in Islington and then we spent a few hours at the Churchill War Rooms. dinner at Wahaca and went to see Cloud Atlas at the cinema. Today we visited the East End markets - a flower market, Spitslfields and Brick Lane. We then had the two Jewish Book Festival sessions, one with Naomi Alderman and the other with Austin Ratner. Both very enjoyable and stimulating.
I haven't done any reading these past few days, too busy talking and enjoying the company of my daughter, Yasmin and her partner.

How funny, as I was reading post #96 Thought for the Day was on Radio 4 and the presenter (didn't catch who it was) was talking about a session he had done at the Jewish Book Festival with Naomi Alderman. Glad that you're having a great time in London.

hi Rhian, I'm having to balance what I'd love to do in London with what my son needs to see as he hasn't been here since he was 5 or 6. so far it's working, my daughter has taken a couple of days off work to come out with us these next two days. we are off to the Temple Church this morning and probably the Tower of London.
disappointed that the Imperial War Museum isn't open at present.

that presenter was Giles Fraser, he and Naomi got on really well together. A.D. Miller was the Chair for the Ratner talk and he was very intuitive. Ratner has interested me in reading Gustave Flaubert's letters.

Sounds like you're having a great time! It's nice to be able to spend it with family, too.

>187 avatiakh:, 189: We went to the Alhambra on a family holiday about 30 years ago, too (actually, we had an apartment near Marbella, so we probably visited it a couple of times); and we have a copy of Tales from the Alhambra which we bought there, too. I wonder if it's the same book?

I hope the rest of your time is just as wonderful.

last full day in London is now done, tomorrow back to Paris and then another flight.
We've had a really enjoyable stay managing to fit in a few touristy things alongside long chatty sit downs in cafes, bus rides and even managed to cook and stay in one night!
Today got off to a great start with brunch at NZ chef, Peter Gordon's Kopapa Restaurant in Monmouth Street. we both had his legendary Turkish eggs and they were divine.
next up was London Eye, then a walk along the Southbank. dropped in to Foyles Bookshop (nice and warm) and then off across the Milennium Bridge to Blackfriars Pub and a cider. Then after an extended bus ride Yaron went to the Museum and I visited a few bookshops around Bloomsbury. Dinner was in a local Pub here in Tufnell Park which is just north of Camden Town.
yes, I bought a few more books. Yesterday we managed a quick peek in Forbidden Planet and Daunt Books.

Managed to read 4 pages today

Well, then, stop wandering around foreign cities, and get back to what's important!

No, no ... ignore me. Make the most of your holiday. Sounds like you're having a wonderful time. Keep it up!

Managed to finish By a Slow River by Philippe Claudel on the train to Paris today. it was very good.
We arrived at 3.45pm and managed to check in to our hotel and then get the metro to the Jewish Art and History Museum within 45mins. So had an easy 90mins to take in The Mexican Suitcase exhibition that only opened yesterday. I noticed last week that the exhibition would be on and hoped that everything would go like clockwork so we could have enough time to view the photos.
after, we hit a couple of patisseries while on our way to a restaurant recommended by my daughter and her partner. They had stumbled on it on their last trip to Paris, the Polidor was featured in the Woody Allen movie, Midnight in Paris. It's quite homely with communal tables etc.
Now back in the room wondering how to make the luggage lighter without leaving anything behind.

We have some beautiful cakes and macarons to eat for an early breakfast - need to be at the airport early.

Just started to read Justine by Lawrence Durrell but will take a backup read with me on the flight.

I'm glad to hear you thought By a Slow River was very good. It's on my table to read sooner rather than later.

What a wonderful trip!

Sounds like you've been having a great trip Kerry! Hope you have safe travels on the way home.

Wow, Kerry it sounds like you had a fab time on your travels and it appears you have been to some really cool places during your stay in London. I hope your travel home will be relaxing and I am very much looking forward to your next reading adventures.

Hope you are recovering from your travels with a little downtime. After your flight, you'll need it! Half way through By a Slow River and loving it.

I'm in LA for a day before getting on the 13 hour flight home. Looking forward to being home. Monday we visited Hemingway's home in Key West and had fun spotting some of the many cats on the property. I bought my first book for the month - Ernest Hemingway On writing.

Lisa - glad to see you enjoying the Claudel.
I finally managed to read two of the heavier books that I've been carrying around - The Family Moskat which I loved and The Innocents by Francine Segal, her debut novel, I found a proof copy in an Oxfam shop in London, she based it on Wharton's novel, The Age of Innocence which I haven't read.

hi Heather - almost home, just the one flight now.

Hi Bianca - loved my time in London and could have done with a couple more days. Sounds like you are working very hard.

I just noticed that The Innocents is on the long list for The Women's Prize for Fiction.

Safe journey home, Kerry!

Did you like The Innocents Kerry? It's one of the Orange LL books which appealed to me.

Heather - I'm finally home, arrived this morning and so much to do here after 2 months absence!
I found The Innocents a fairly rewarding read though not outstanding. The North London Jewish setting is interesting but overall I'm not a particular fan of relationship focused books like this. Considering this is Segal's debut I think she'll be a writer to watch out for.
Now that I'm home I'll probably read The People of Forever are Not Afraid as I see that it also made the longlist and I got it through BD late last year.

Well, back to unpacking and dealing with mundane household chores. It's like I never left home already! I'll do an update an can finally add the photos that the iPad couldn't handle uploading.

I'll bet you are glad to be home, but it sounds like you had a wonderful time!

Welcome home, Kerry!

Welcome home, Kerry and a wonderful weekend to you and your family!

>202 avatiakh: Managed to finish By a Slow River by Philippe Claudel on the train to Paris today.
Oh how I love that sentence.

So you have been away for 2 months! It has seemed a long while since you have been active on the threads. We have missed you! Sounds like you had a great time, and even if your reading wasnt plentiful your itinerary was!

Well, small hiccup with uploading photos so that will be delayed. Apparently when there are too many photos on your SD card the camera conveniently goes into 'communication error' mode.

waves to Roni & Julia - yes, glad to be home.
Bianca - thanks for the weekend wishes. This morning I'm off early to the Otara Markets, it's a nearby farmers market of local produce with huge Polynesian flavour. It's good to be back!

Megan - I loved being able to write that! I really appreciated my time in Paris though it was a tad cold in the evenings especially.

Now to catch up on a few weeks worth of books, first up is the last three books from January.

11) Strangers on a train by Patricia Highsmith (1950)
fiction

I've read 4 of the Ripley novels and a biography of Highsmith and have kept meaning to read more of her work. This is her debut novel, one that Hitchcock made into a suspenseful movie with an amazing climax. The film differs considerably from the novel and so this probably influenced my reading of it. I kept waiting for certain scenes to happen and they never did. Read for TIOLI Jan & 13in13 challenge. Two strangers meet on a train trip and one suggests the idea of a perfect crime to the other.

12) When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Penman (1995)
historical fiction

This was a group read back in January and I managed to complete it for a Jan TIOLI challenge. Really enjoyed the historical detail and looking forward to the next book in the series. A chunkster that I'd put off reading for several years so really pleased to finally get it read.
About the 12th century fight over the English throne after the death of Henry I. His daughter Maude strives against her cousin, Stephen who crowns himself king. A bitter feud that lasts decades.

13) The Time of the Doves by Mercè Rodoreda (1960)
fiction, Catalan

Wikipedia: novel by exiled Catalan writer, Mercè Rodoreda...is regarded as one of the most important pieces of fiction in contemporary Catalan literature. It's also one of the staple readings in secondary school programs across Catalonia.

This is set in Barcelona around the period of the Spanish Civil War and follows the life of a naive Spanish girl who marries a crude ambitious youth. What sets it apart from similar novels is the stream of consciousness style which throws you directly into the grim almost bizarre life she is living. She is totally submissive and when her husband decides to breed doves and they begin to invade almost every corner of their home, she adapts to the situation. I found this novel rather remarkable, so glad that I picked it up from a $1 table in Tirau last year.

Welcome home. Kerry. What a wonderful trip you've had. You managed to circle the globe. I bet it's nice to be back home after such a long absence.

Welcome back, Kerry! Sounds like a wonderful trip.

Judy - yes, lovely to see husband and other children after such a long break, also the cats and dog. Just one of my sons travelled with me this time and it was quite different.

Joe - thanks for visiting my thread.

Finally getting the photos moved over to my portable hard drive, just had to insert the SD card directly to the laptop rather than working via the camera. I'll upload a few images once the copying has completed.

February reading:
The Dervish House by Ian McDonald - finished 06Feb
Mira's Diary: Lost in Paris by Marissa Moss - finished 10 Feb
A Quiet Flame (Bernard Gunther #5) by Philip Kerr - finished 10Feb
Pied Piper by Nevil Shute - finished 11Feb
The Ivy Chronicles by Karen Quinn - finished 11Feb
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway - finished 12Feb
The Ministry of Fear by Graham Greene finished 13Feb
The Stronghold by Mollie Hunter (1977) - finished 14Feb
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (Fairyland #1) by Catherynne M. Valente - finished 18Feb
The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman by Andrzej Szczypiorski - finished 18Feb
Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs: The Left Bank World of Shakespeare and Co by Jeremy Mercer - finished 19Feb
A Jew Must Die by Jacques Chessex - finished 22Feb
The Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories by Bruno Schulz - finished 22Feb
Into A Paris Quartier: Reine Margot's Chapel and Other Haunts of St.-Germain by Diane Johnson - finished 22Feb
By a Slow River by Philippe Claudel - finished 28Feb

March reading:
Embassytown by China Miéville - finished 07Mar
Justine by Lawrence Durrell - finished 12Mar
An Ice-cream War by William Boyd - finished 14Mar
Fields Of Glory by Jean Rouaud - finished 15Mar
The Family Moskat by Isaac Bashevis Singer - finished 15 Mar
The Innocents by Francine Segal - finished 18Mar
A Journey to the End of the Millennium by A. B. Yehoshua - finished 20Mar

I'll write brief comments about all these later this evening. First must go and prepare some dinner, we got a great haul of veges & herbs this morning at the market so I better get cooking.

welcome back - nice bunch of reads up there .......

Welcome back!

How did you have time for sight-seeing with all that reading?

14) The Dervish House by Ian McDonald (2010)
scifi
This was my first book by Ian McDonald and I enjoyed it immensely. Set in a near future Istanbul it focuses on nanotechnology, spiritualism and terroism in a great sophisticated plot that ties in various residents of an old wooden building known as the Dervish House. Just wonderful.
- finished 06Feb

15) Mira's Diary: Lost in Paris by Marissa Moss (2012)
YA
This was the first e-book I've read from my library and I'd come across it while looking for YA & children's books set in Paris. Mira finds out within a few hours of arriving in Paris that she has inherited a disposition for time travel from her mother who went missing several weeks earlier when in Paris. The story focuses on the Belle Epoque era and around the Dreyfus trial then ends quite abruptly. I didn't really enjoy it, I couldn't understand the specifics of the time travel and the mother's character was fairly bizarre. I felt the writing was too simplistic for the plot which dealt on serious topics of anti-semitism and the actions of Zola and Degas.
What was of far more value for me were the fairly extensive author notes about the Dreyfus Affair and I especially appreciated the timeline up to the present day about how France has dealt with it.
My son and I both became quite obsessed with seeing the Dreyfus statue which was commissioned in 1985 and ended up viewing the fullsized copy at the Jewish Heritage Museum which we visited for the Mexican Suitcase Exhibition. I also ended up buying a book about the Dreyfus Affair in London.

More about Dreyfus and the wandering statue here at Tablet Magazine

- finished 10 Feb

16) A Quiet Flame by Philip Kerr (2008)
(Bernard Gunther #5)
fiction
I plunged into #5 of this series as I was intrigued by the Argentinean setting for the novel. It is based around fairly remarkable true events about Nazi Swiss bank accounts, relocation of Nazi war criminals in Argentina, the Perons etc etc. The story seesaws between preWW2 Berlin and post WW2 Argentina following a possible serial killer. I'm not sure I'm a fan of Mr Gunther but I'll try book #1 at some stage. Easy reading that I picked up from our hotel's library in Spain.

- finished 10Feb

17) Pied Piper by Nevil Shute (1942)
fiction
I really enjoyed this story of an elderly English gentleman making his way across France after the Germans have invaded and gathering a collection of young child refugees as he goes.
- finished 11Feb

18) The Ivy Chronicles by Karen Quinn (2006)
fiction
Disengage your brain cells if proceeding to read this book. Unlikeable 'heroine' who goes from New York's swankiest circles directly to middleclass poverty. Ivy starts a consultancy business to help parents get their precious offspring into elite preschools. Nothing goes according to plan. Mildly amusing but I couldn't bear the main character who never seemed to learn from the lessons life was throwing at her. I generally enjoy the occasionally chick lit type read but this one didn't cut it.
- finished 11Feb

19) A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway (1964)
non fiction
My only complaint about reading this was that I had the original edition and will now have to read the restored and extended edition that came out in 2010. Anyway loved reading about life in Paris in the 1920s. Hemingway, his wife and baby had very little money to survive on and Hemingway describes the hardship and good times mixing with such an interesting backdrop of famous writers and artist of the period.
Will have to read The Paris Wife as well as more Hemingway. I read a few of his novels many years ago.

- finished 12Feb

Hi Kerry! It's great to see you back and that you had a fantastic time away. I recognised the courtyard of the Jewish heritge museum in Paris straight away - went there on one of my Paris trips while we were in Basel.

Hope you've had fun at the vege markets. I'm about to go down to our waterfront one now for a wander - STILL haven't been to the Otara ones, even though I was born there.

Hi Cushla - I feel that I squashed as much as I possibly could into my time away, it does depend on your travelling companion and this time I travelled with my son whose last trip to Europe was when he was 8 about 13 years ago. He's keen on history. We visited the Holocaust Museum in Paris and only managed the exhibition at the Jewish Museum on our last afternoon in Paris. Our Eurostar from London got in at 3.30pm, we checked into our nearby hotel asap and jumped on the metro and got to the exhibition 90 minutes before closing time. It had only opened the day before so couldn't have gone the week earlier that we spent in Paris. The Dreyfus statue was unexpectedly modern but we both liked it.

Love the fresh veges from the market, we live about 8km from Otara but it's a different world with all the Polynesian influence. I used to take the children quite often a few years back but got out of the habit of going and only started again last year. We got big bunches of coriander, flat parsley, mint and dill. My herb garden died while I was away so I'll have to start again. Got some interesting tomatoes, googled and they may be Paul Robeson variety, they are almost black-red. Can't wait to try them. Lots of spring onions, avocado, chillies, aubergine too. We ate so well and sampled a wide variety of cuisines while away, I'm keen to get back into the kitchen and make use of the inspiration.
Enjoy your morning at the market.

20) The Ministry of Fear by Graham Greene (1943)
fiction
A brilliantly paced psychological thriller set during London's Blitz. Menacing is the word, though it starts off innocently enough at a church fete with our hero winning a 'guess the weight of the cake' competition. The book languished on my tbr pile all last year while I made my way through other Greene novels, talk about saving the best for last. I can't wait to see the movie which was made in 1944 by Fritz Lang.
- finished 13Feb

21) The Stronghold by Mollie Hunter (1974)
children's historical fiction

This won the Carnegie Medal in 1974. In the notes Hunter explains that when she came across the brochs while on holiday in the Orkneys she felt compelled to write a book about how they came to be. I loved this story of a lame youth not only having to convince the clan's warriors to trial a new way of defending their people but also go up against the power of the Druids.
Excuse me while I cut & paste from two sources:
Carnegie website: This tale is set in the first century on the island of Orkney. It was a time when fanatical Druid priests held power over ordinary people and Roman slave-raiders were frequent visitors. The young people are led by Coll, a boy whose inventive mind has devised the first chain of strongholds. Will they defeat the raiders?

From wikipedia: A broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure of a type found only in Scotland. Brochs include some of the most sophisticated examples of drystone architecture ever created.
- finished 14Feb

22) The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente (2009)
(Fairyland #1)
children's fiction
I had tried to read this on numerous occasions and couldn't get into it, then would see other people's glowing reviews. So this time I took it on holiday with me and forced myself to not put it down till I'd read at least 50 pages. Needless to say I got into the story fairly quickly and greatly enjoyed this little fantasy. Stylistically it is a little different from other children's fantasies that I've read lately.

- finished 18Feb

I've not read any Graham Greene but that one certainly sounds worthy of the wishlist, Kerry.

#255 I remember reading quite a lot of Nevil Shute in my laste teens, early twenties: Pied Piper was certainly one, and A Town Like Alice and On the Beach. He's not a writer that you see often these days but surprising I came across a lot of his books a couple of days ago on Audible, where they seem to have a lot of his back catalogue.

#229: Julia - either that one or Brighton Rock would make a good intro to Greene. I also have a soft spot for Travels with my Aunt though it's been a long long while since I read it.

#230: Rhian - I also read a lot of Shute in my teens. My mother read his The Chequer Board a couple of years ago and prompted me to put some of his works back on my tbr pile. Tad recommended Pied Piper and it was excellent. My copy was from a Vintage (?) Classic series that I picked up in a book clearance store a while back. Does look like his work is getting a second airing of late.

I'm behind on most of the threads and will catch up eventually.

Thanks for the tip, Kerry. I'll look for one of those two at the library.

Lovely to see you back and buzzing Kerry and that my stats can more properly reflect your reading prowess!

I would be another to second your enthusiasm for Graham Greene have owned and read everything he published other than his rejected first novel which I cannot find.

Have an enjoyable remainder of your Sunday.

23) The Beautiful Mrs Seidenman by Andrzej Szczypiorski (1986)
fiction / Poland
Read for the Reading Globally East European theme read. A Holocaust novel set in Warsaw just before the Uprising. Blonde, blue-eyed and beautiful Mrs Seidenman is a Jewish widow but living under an assumed identity as the wife of an absent Polish officer. She is denounced in the street and arrested by the Gestapo. Thanks to the efforts of her admirers she is eventually set free. The book covers the events of these few days. Szczypiorski writes a fairly unpredictable and abrupt sort of tale. He introduces characters by first telling you their fate, so you know before meeting young Henryczek, an escapee from the Ghetto, that he is going to go back and perish in the Uprising in just a few days time.
I loved the writing - ''In this spot alone,'' he thinks, ''the wild, swarthy and cunning snout of Asia stared from time immemorial straight into the fat, arrogant and stupid mug of Europe; precisely here and nowhere else the pensive and sensitive eyes of Asia gazed into the rational eyes of Europe.'

- finished 18Feb

24) Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs: The Left Bank World of Shakespeare and Co by Jeremy Mercer (2005)
also known as Time Was Soft There: A Paris Sojourn at Shakespeare & Co
nonfiction / memoir
I visited Shakespeare & Co on my last visit to Paris and had always meant to read this memoir set in the store. Mercer writes of his experience of living in the bookstore during a few months stay in Paris. The focus is completely on this extraordinary bookshop and not on Paris at all. I appreciated his bringing the story of the late owner, George Whitman, to life.
We visited the bookshop twice on this trip and I managed to come away with three books only as well as a Shakespeare & Co calico bag. The range of books available in the shop is quite wonderful, affordable used books are scattered amongst the new stock making browsing well worthwhile. The current owner is Whitman's daughter, Sylvia Beach Whitman, and she has introduced more social events such as mini book festivals and visiting authors. Hopefully she has a tighter reign on the finances of the store as well.
My haul:
A Jew Must Die by Jacques Chessex - from the French writers section
The Spider King's Daughter by Chibundu Onuzo - wanting this one for a while, Dylan Thomas Prize Shortlist (2012)
The Princess of Cleves by Madame de la Fayette - mentioned a few times in a travel book I was reading

- finished 19Feb

25) A Jew Must Die by Jacques Chessex (2009)
novella / Switzerland
Picked this up in Shakespeare & Co and read same evening. Bought it because it was in the French author section, but discovered that it was actually by a Swiss writer. It's a fictionalised retelling of a true event and provides a glimpse into the local politics of rural Switzerland during the early years of WW2. It's 1942 in the village of Payenne and a group of Swiss Nazis wanting to show their support for Hitler's regime lure a Jewish cattle seller into a stables and bludgeon him to death. A despicable incident that Chessex manages to make palatable for the reader with his vivid prose. Chessex grew up in Payenne and went to school with the children of the men who feature in the novel.

- finished 22Feb

#222 - Hi Alex - good to see you visiting

#223 - Nina - I found time to read books because I wan't needing to keep up with all the LT threads! Seriously I didn't read as much as I thought I would, spent several days not reading at all.

#233 - Hi Paul - thanks for visiting. I'm hoping to keep my book count lower this year - both reading and purchasing need to slow down. Sunday is disappearing fast... I hope to finish my book update before the end of the weekend.

26) The Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories by Bruno Schulz (1934)
short stories / Poland

Read for the Reading Globally East European theme read. Took my time with this one as I started in early January.
Schulz has the most amazing imagination and while some of the stories weren't great for me, others were truly brilliant, wacky, surreal. I think my overall favourite is 'Cinnamon Shops' which describes a boy's night journey through his town.
I'd wanted to read Schulz's work since reading David Grossman's See Under: Love several years ago as Schulz appears as a character and that was a similarly difficult but rewarding read.

"The days hardened with cold and boredom like last year's loaves of bread. One began to cut them with blunt knives without appetite, with a lazy indifference."

"The moon was still high. The sky’s transformations—the metamorphoses of its multitudinous vaults in ever more masterfully described configurations—were unending. Like a silver astrolabe, the sky had opened up that night its bewitching internal mechanism, exhibiting in endless cycles the gilded mathematics of its cogs and wheels."

- finished 22Feb

27) Into A Paris Quartier: Reine Margot's Chapel and Other Haunts of St.-Germain by Diane Johnson (2005)
extended essay / travel
American writer, Johnson, focuses on the area of Paris that she lives in and speculates on previous residents from earlier centuries and draws attention to some overlooked historic buildings. I found it quite fascinating especially as we had just walked in the area a couple of days earlier. She inspired me to get The Princess of Cleves by Madame de la Fayette on my visit to Shakespeare & Co.
- finished 22Feb

28) By a Slow River by Philippe Claudel (2003)
fiction / France
I loved this sad story set during World War 1 in a small French town near the Front. It's about the deaths of three women and the investigation into one of the deaths by a policeman. Claudel plays with time so the reader is not sure of the order of events till nearer the end of the novel. Great writing and I'll be looking out for more of his work.
- finished 28Feb

I'm not doing justice to these books but please excuse me as it's been a few weeks since I finished them.

29) Embassytown by China Miéville (2011)
scifi
I found this an interesting rather than riveting read, possibly because I never got to grips with the main character. Still anything by Miéville is going to be a treat. Embassytown is a colony on a remote planet where there is sentient life though communication with the alien creatures is completely unique. The colony develops cloned Ambassadors, joint beings who speak together in one voice, who can communicate with the Host. Relations break down when the colonising power bring their own, new ambassador to speak with the Host.
Miéville plays with language and meaning in a way that I've never experienced before.

- finished 07Mar

30) Justine by Lawrence Durrell (1957)
fiction
I had an omnibus edition of The Alexandria Quartet and had the intention of reading all four books together but found the dryness of the first book put me off this idea almost immediately. This is set in Alexandria between the wars though for me the emphasis was more on the characters than the city itself.
I probably needed to read this at home instead of when I was on holiday and only able to spare a few minutes reading time every second day for it. I intend to tackle the other three books before the end of the year (I hope).

- finished 12Mar

31) An Ice-cream War by William Boyd (1982)
fiction
My first book by William Boyd and I expect there will be many more on the horizon. Loved this drawn out tale of East African tensions and skirmishes during World War 1. A touch of macabre humour helped too. This was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

- finished 14Mar

I think I read a recommendation to read Bruno Schultz by China Mieville and I'd meant to do so but of course hadn't got around to it. I've added The street of Crocodiles and Other Stories to my Wishlist.

What interesting books you read over the last weeks! And more importantly whan an amazing trip! Belated welcome back from me and a happy week (I guess I am too late already to wish a happy Sunday).

Forgot this Feb read, read it for the AlphaCat "B" challenge over in the category challenge group.
32) The Bottle Factory Outing by Beryl Bainbridge (1974)
fiction
Another first time author read and I'm hoping to read a few of Bainbridge's books this year, this made the Booker Prize shortlist way back then. I was quite entranced by this black comedy, the characters were wonderfully different and the plot was fairly tragic. Brenda and Freda share a dismal bedsit and also work together at an Italian-owned wine bottling factory, mainly staffed by a very closeknit group of rural Italians who have lived and worked together in London for many years. Freda organises a group outing so she can have a chance to get romantic with the son & heir, Vittorio, but the day turns out very differently to the one that had been planned.

Definitely moving on to more of her books, I have collected quite a few used copies from various sources these past couple of years.

Wow, what a great job of catching up all your reviews, Kerry!

>235 avatiakh:: I agree - staying off LT would certainly increase your available reading time substantially! And I see you seem to have matched the books you read to your travels. It must have really brought them to life.

BB: A Moveable Feast, and The Ministry of Fear.
Thanks- Ill take 'em both!

Well done on your travels and book reading, Kerry! Let's see...The Ministry of Fear sounds enticing, but I'll read the two books by Graham Greene I own but haven't read yet, namely The Comedians and The Heart of the Matter. I probably won't get to The Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories this month, but I'll try to read it later this year. By a Slow River sounds very interesting, so that goes onto the wish list, although I should read Brodeck's Report and The Investigation first.

I dropped by to see which DWJ you'd just read, but you haven't gotten there yet.

Hi Roni - I still have about 5 or so books to catch up on. It was The Game, which while being a fairly simple children's story based on Greek mythology had this wonderful creation, a mythosphere.

33) Fields Of Glory by Jean Rouaud (1990)
fiction / France

This debut novel shot Rouard into the limelight when it won the Rrix Goncourt in 1990. It's about the effect that WW1 had on one French family. One to admire for the writing style and the slowly evolving sense of the horror of war for those left behind.
- finished 15Mar


34) The Family Moskat by Isaac Bashevis Singer (1950)
fiction / Poland
A richly rewarding and epic story of a large and disparate Jewish family residing in Warsaw. The story leads up to the eve of the Nazis entering Warsaw. I dived in and hardly raised my head before finishing. Fits the Reading Globally East European theme reads. I have a couple of Singer's collected story collections and the novella Yentl to read as well.
- finished 15 Mar


35) The Innocents by Francine Segal (2012)
fiction
When in London I just had to find a spare minute to browse in an Oxfam shop after hearing so often of everyone else's great finds, and so I found this ARC copy of Segal's book. Her name jumped out at me as she was one of the guest speakers at the Jewish Book Week I had attended a few days earlier.
This debut novel was inspired by Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence which I haven't read, but it always interests me when a book is influenced or whatever by another. This updated version of Wharton's book is set in North London's Jewish community and revolves around a young couple's relationship as they announce their engagement after several years romance. They are comfortable with each other rather than having a passionate relationship, and their marriage is an 'expected outcome' for the community. The relationship is put at risk when Adam begins to question his compliance with what is expected of him against the probable passion of a relationship with Rachel's turbulent cousin who has just arrived back on the scene.
I enjoyed this but found the intense focus on relationship a little too much for what I normally read.
- finished 18Mar


36) A Journey to the End of the Millennium by A. B. Yehoshua
fiction / Israel

Yehoshua was a guest at the Jewish Book Week, though again I wasn't able to attend his session.
A really engrossing read and one of my newly favourite authors after reading this and A Woman in Jerusalem last year.
This was set in the year 999 AD and is about a North African Jewish merchant's marriages to two women. His nephew and trading partner who lives in Paris has married a Jewish widow who hails from a Germanic Jewish community. She tries to break the partnership between uncle and nephew by repudiating the right of the uncle to have two wives. The uncle travels with his wives and a learned Andalusian rabbi to Paris and then on to Worms in an attempt to bring justice to his case. Very interesting look at the clash of cultures within a religion and also Christian superstition as the millenium draws near.
Can't believe it gets such indifferent reviews here on LT.
- finished 20Mar


37) The Game by Diana Wynne Jones (2007)
children's fiction

One of the simpler DWJ stories though full of her great creative ideas, this one introduces the concept of a mythosphere, where all the strands of myths weave in and out of each other. Hayley has been brought up by her forbidding grandmother and more lenient grandfather. Not much is said about her parents' fate but her Uncle Jocelyn seems to have an undue influence over the entire family. When Hayley is packed off to her aunts in Ireland, her cousins introduce her to a game that is played in the mythosphere. Highly enjoyable but over too quickly.

I already listed the books I got in Paris, only two of those made it home as I left A Jew must die at the hotel I was staying at.

London bookshops:
Waterstones Piccadilly - this is quite a huge shop and what we liked about the fiction section were the various tables displaying books by decades. So if the 1930s were your thing away you go.
I ended up with 3 books:
The Reinvention of Love by Helen Humphries - I had looked for this in Shakespeare & Co as after visiting Victor Hugo's House I was rather keen to read this. I'm about 30pgs in and haven't been too impressed so far. It's about an affair between Hugo's wife and his friend.
The Dreyfus Affair by Piers Paul Reid
Jules et Jim by Henri-Pierre Roche

I didn't get to the main Daunt Books in Marylebone High Street but their Hampstead branch was a pretty interesting place. The books are arranged by location with the travel guides on the top shelf, followed by travel writing and the lower shelves are for fiction set in that location. Great way to browse, though I seemed to still have France on my mind as I got:
Travels in the South of France by Stendhal
Memoirs of Montparnasse by John Glassco

I also didn't get to the main branch of Foyles either though I've been before. Instead we popped in to their Southbank location, mainly to warm up as it was distinctly chilly out and about. I browsed the children's & YA sections and found two titles set in Spain:
Bartolome: the infanta's pet by Rachel Van Kooij - translated from German by Siobhan Parkinson
A world between us by Lydia Syson - Spanish Civil War

We also spent ages in Forbidden Planet though looking at Dr Who memorabilia mainly. I got my son a t-shirt of the second Dr which looks fairly nifty on.


and I managed to find an autographed copy of Alice in Sunderland by Bryan Talbot that I just couldn't not have though it was incredibly heavy to lug around for the rest of our trip.

Final afternoon was spent in Bloomsbury and I had been intending to visit the Charles Dickens Museum while my son was at the British Museum, but though it closed at 5.30pm it had a much earlier last entry time so all I could do was browse bookshops!

I had a look in Bookmarks which specialises in socialist books and then crossed the road to Oxfam and got The Innocents which I ditched after reading as it was quite a heavy paperback.
Knowing that I already was at the limits of weight allowance baggage-wise did not deter me from visiting Persephone Books and picking up three books.
Dimanche and other stories by Irene Nemirovsky
Cheerful weather for the wedding by Julia Strachey
Reuben Sachs by Amy Levy

then on to London Review Bookshop where I was entranced by the beautiful hardback editions by small press publishers and ended up getting:
Behind the Lines by Jaroslav Hašek (Karolinum Press) - illustrated beautifully
The invader wore slippers: European essays by Hubert Butler (Notting Hill Editions)
and while waiting for my son to turn up and browsing a bit more as their cafe was full, I couldn't resist one last book -
Sketches of Spain by Federico Garcia Lorca (Serif)

so that was London, and I only picked up one more book in Florida, when visiting Hemingway's House in Key West I couldn't resist getting Hemingway on Writing.

edit: listing one more that I found in my suitcase, can't remember where I got this YA book but it has a bargain sticker on it: Bar Balto by Faïza Guène. I really liked her debut Just like tomorrow.

I also bought Orwell's Down and out in Paris and London which I gave along with A Moveable Feast to my daughter and her partner as part of a gift Yaron and I put together for them which included some cash, theatre vouchers and a Kopapa Restaurant voucher.
We also visited the Globe Theatre shop, I've already been to a performance there and we have both done a theatre tour but the gift shop has interesting Shakespearean themed t-shirts etc.

Yaron chose this MacBeth t-shirt and I got this Romeo & Juliet mug

I've added The Beautiful Mrs Seidenman by Andrzej Szczypiorski to the tbr list.

Your review is wonderful!

Thanks Linda, I'm sure you'll like it.

#242: Nina - I also matched my book buying to my travels!

#243: Megan - great to see book bullets taking you down here. Anything by Greene is worth reading.

#244: Darryl - I'm definitely reading more Claudel. And again have you to thank for my enjoyable half hour or so spent at the London Review Bookshop.

There was a 'BooksforFree' shop around the corner from my daughter's flat in Tufnell Park though I never got to see inside it during business hours as we were so busy for those few days in London.

Kerry, I love the details of your book-buying travels. It looks like you got some very good finds.

Wow, sounds like a great trip! & it gives me an idea for a new TV show - Book Buying with Kerry.

Enjoying your travel/reading adventures. . .

I see that Virago have published a new translation of In the time of doves under the title In Diamond Square. I read an old paperback copy back in January and highly recommend it.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez has called In Diamond Square ‘the most beautiful novel published in Spain since the Civil War’ and this translation from Catalan by Peter Bush deftly captures the rich intricacy of Rodoreda’s lingering prose, the mix of want and sadness, and the tenacity of the human spirit.
http://bookoxygen.com/?p=3913

(Yay for Forbidden Planet - I see you made it there, in amongst the absolute welter of other bookshops)

Lots of good reading! The Dervish House is one I've had on my wishlist for a long time after a lot of good reviews from various people in the group and I've also added The Ministry of Fear, The Stronghold and In Diamond Square as yours is the second recommendation for that novel.

Lovely summary of your London ventures, Kerry! I'm glad that you enjoyed the London Review Bookshop; it's a shame that the Cake Shop is so small and almost always crowded. I've dined there twice with Rachael, who works nearby and goes there frequently, so I'll have to ask her when are the best times to get a table there. I still haven't gone to Waterstones Piccadilly or Daunt Books, which I will do on my next trip to London.

The Dervish House has also been on my wishlist for ages, Kerry. ARe you enjoying settling back in at home, or a bit restless after all your activity?

#252: Julia - I did really well in not buying books till my couple of days in London. Several are editions to treasure though so I'm not sorry.

#253: Katie - maybe we could make it a series on a variety of LT members book buying expeditions!

#254: Brenda - I'll have more on my trip when I start my next thread, I've finally got my photos uploaded

#256: Nina - We loved Forbidden Planet and I love having a signed copy of Alice in Sunderland now that it's home.

#257: Hi Heather - The Dervish House was a richly rewarding read. I'm very impressed with Mr McDonald and would be reading more of him right now except that I still have other new writers to try like Nick Harkaway. Sigh, every great book read and off Mt tbr also adds the rest of that writer's canon to Mt tbr.

#258: Hi Darryl - I loved my few days in London . I also went to some great food places which I'll mention in my next thread that I hope to have up in a day or so. Just letting the rest of March tick over.

#259: Roni - yes, do get to The Dervish House, it sat on my Mt tbr for a couple of years.
I'm settling back in, you know that feeling that comes a day or so after you get home that you've never been away. I have lots of stuff to do at home, both in the house and out in the garden. I also have to get back to the gym. My gym was involved in a nasty franchise dispute while I was away and the newer owners who I really liked have been booted out and the franchisor has retaken ownership. I'm not so in love with this development.

Just a quick fly-by-Hi here Kerry. Wanted to see what you have been reading and say Hello. Hope all is well with you and yours.
hugs,
belva

Last of my March reading, I've hardly read anything since I've been back though the number of library books I've already collected is quite scary.

Two graphic novels:

Sumo by Thien Pham (2012)
graphic novel
I wasn't captivated by this one though the artwork was interesting. Pham did the artwork in Gene Luen Yang's Level Up and this is his first solo outing. An American College football player travels to Japan to reinvent himself as a sumo wrestler after a break up with his girlfriend. A very quick read.


An enchantment by Christian Durieux (2013)
graphic novel / Louvre Collection #6
"a graphic poem"
This is the 6th GN to come out in the fabulous Louvre Collection and especially good to come to it so soon after visiting the Louvre myself. So it was fun to see paintings and statues in the book that only recently I'd been looking at myself such as The Coronation of Napoleon by Jaques-Louis David or The Winged Victory which stands at the top of a flight of stairs. Belgian Duriex covers the more recent postwar development of the Louvre.
A former museum director's retirement party is being held at the Louvre, he goes AWOL and meets a mysterious woman/muse in one of the galleries.




38) The Dragon & other stories by Yevgeny Zamyatin
short stories / Russia
Most of these were written around 1915-1924 and this edition includes a letter written by Zamyatin to Stalin requesting permission to go into temporary exile as his work (stories and plays) is continually banned (unfairly) from publication or production. What was ironic about his work being banned is that a lot of it had been written prior to the events that critics were banning it for.
I loved all these stories with one exception, ''A story about the most important thing" was a scifi/fantasy style one that I couldn't get my head around while reading. Most stories were realistic and set in small villages around the time of war. I loved the last story, 'The Lion', only a few pages but so sweet. Others that I enjoyed were 'Comrade Churygin has the floor' set at the start of the Revolution, and 'The Flood' about a childless couple. The longer, novella-length "A Provincial Tale" was also good and followed the rise of an uncouth youth from the lowest level of society into a powerful official position over his fellow townfolk.
I'm interested to try his scifi book We at some point in the future.

Hi Belva - I've started a few books such as The People of Forever are not afraid but haven't been finding much spare time for reading.

From the library:
I've picked up a few books that I've been looking forward to for a while -

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer - #2 in the Lunar Chronicles
Capital Punishment by Robert Wilson - a new book/series finally
The Rope Trick by Lloyd Alexander
Fair Game: the steps of Odessa by James Watson
The Cloud Hunters by Alex Shearer

I read We & had not sought out his other books by sounds its worth the look ....... thanks

HI Kerry, soo much great reading whilst you were away.
Embassytown by Mieville was one of my fave reads last year and I was absolutely fascinated by the way he used "language" as the main protagonist of the story.

I wish you and your family a wonderful Easter Weekend!

#264 : Alex - I'm happy to send you my copy of this book, I picked it up on trademe in a mixed lot of older Russian lit paperbacks.

#265: Bianca - yes, Embassytown was interesting from the language aspect, though not my favourite Mieville. Looking forward to reading more of his work, I've read four so far.

Drat, I'm so far behind on the threads. Work is incredibly busy and I'm simply having a difficult time juggling reading, work, family and time to do what I would like to do.

Doctor appointments are also consuming my time.

I'm stopping by to wish you a Happy Easter. It is always fun to stop here and see your latest reads.

Hi Linda - Happy Easter

I have another book to add to my London list - When they come for us, we'll be gone: the epic struggle to save Soviet Jewry by Gal Beckerman from The Book Warehouse in Bloomsbury at a price I couldn't resist.
And another bookshop that I visited - Waterstones in Gower St which has lots of upstairs/downstairs nooks and crannies and lots of marked down books.

Ah, the love of book shops! I'm going to look for When they come for us, we'll be gone.

I hope your day was a good one!