SusanJ's 75 Books Challenge - Thread 2

Hello, and welcome to my second thread for 2013.




One of my successes in 2012 was reading more non-fiction, but it still only made up 20% of books read (probably more in terms of content, though, as a lot of the non-fiction books were real chunksters). In 2013 I would like to increase that percentage to a third, so I have added a couple of new tickers to keep track of fiction vs non-fiction. So far, after 23 books, I'm slightly ahead of target, so I'm pleased about that.

I am going to use this space to confess record my purchases for the year.

1. A Life of Contrasts by Diana Mosley - read
2. All He Ever Dreamed by Shannon Stacey - read
3. Sold to the Enemy by Sarah Morgan (yes, it's a romance - how did you guess?) - read
4. Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
5. The Last Mughal by William Dalrymple
6. To Dream of the Dead by Phil Rickman
7. Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton

23. The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: I heard about it on LT, of course :-)

I was vaguely aware that the cholera outbreak in London in 1854 was the point at which the link was made between cholera and contaminated water rather than bad air, or "miasma", but didn't really know much more than that.

This book explains how it happened, with the painstaking research of a local doctor and a clergyman who went door to door in the affected area, trying to work out why so many people of reasonable means had died when the more squalid parts of the district (including the workhouse) had almost no deaths. Today the answer seems obvious, but the book looks at why it wasn't immediately apparent back then, and how long-running prejudices about income and class had tended to explain illness as something that happened mostly to the poor because they were somehow inferior. Dr John Snow had to fight hard even to get his view heard, and when the link was finally accepted as a possibility it wasn't by the Board of Health, but by a local church committee.

The author looks at how Dr Snow's mapping techniques are still used in disease control (and for many other purposes) and also examines the future of big cities, where illness typically spreads more quickly because of the density of population but where the concentration of outbreaks can in themselves give valuable clues as to what is causing them.

Recommended for anyone with an interest in this area, or in the history of London.

The Ghost Map is one London book you didn't hit me with -- but only because it's already on my TBR list!

#4: It's a really good read, Carrie. And not that long. I was planning to read it today and tomorrow with a novel in between but I started the novel and it wasn't my thing, so I decided to just keep reading about cholera :-)

Happy new thread, Susan. That last book sounds so interesting - I don't know how you always do that! You read a book that I would never in a million years pick up for myself, and then you review it and make it sound so fascinating that I do not know how I can possibly NOT read it! Keep up the good work!

Thanks Mamie :-) It's such an interesting area to read about, and while we've made a lot of progress understanding germs, there is still a lot more to do, as the author points out. But he thinks that in not too many years we will have the upper hand over the bugs, and will be able to understand and treat diseases much more quickly. I've got a book about Yellow Fever reserved at the library which I hope won't take too long to come in.

Susan, I had 2 treatments and haven't had the problem since (this was 6 months or so ago). If the problem comes back I'll definitely go again. I was hoping to get help for knee pain (I'm a bundle of arthritis) but it didn't make any difference there. Therapist said they can help cartilage grow (and ease knee pain that way) but because I have zero cartilage there they can't help my knees :(

Susan I remember studying Dr. Snow in nursing school, but it was just a brief study in a nursing text. This sounds fabulous. I agree with Mamie about the absolute jewels you find that I myself would never pick up. Aren't we lucky we follow you!

Susan, I've got The Ghost Map waiting at the library for me to pick it up for the group read, so it's good to hear that it's a) good, and b) a quick read!

I read The Ghost Map a few years ago. In my day job life in academic research administration, I've worked with public health researchers, and I was fascinated to read about what amounts to the dawn of their field.

Hi Susan, just checking in to your new thread. The Ghost Map is being added to my wishlist as well, sounds very interesting.

#8: Reba, I hope it continues to work for you and you don't have to go back (or very often). My family has terrible arthritis (my brother had a hip resurfacing operation before he was 40, and my Dad has had three replacement knees and one hip) but I seem to have escaped so far, although that is what I originally thought was probably wrong with me.

#9: Thanks Roberta :-) Although I am not sciencey (to my regret), I like books like this one.

#10: Roni, I'm sure you'll like it!

#11: Susanna, it seems so simple now, doesn't it, with all the data that is so easily accessible, but it was a frighteningly short time ago that we seemed to know nothing at all. I was interested in the author's comment that genome research is going to speed up cures so much, because it is possible to work out exactly what you're dealing with and treat it appropriately. There have been a few news items here recently about the gene sequencing of cancer tumours so that doctors can know exactly what sort they are and pick the best drugs, rather than just treating every patient the same, because "cancer" is actually a number of different types of disease we just couldn't differentiate between before now.

#12: Hi Judy! Glad I could add a book to your wishlist after all the books I get from you!



24. The Eagle in the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff
25. The Silver Branch by Rosemary Sutcliff
26. The Lantern Bearers by Rosemary Sutcliff

Where I got them: Kindle
Why I read them: I'd read good things about the first book, which is a sort of children's classic here (well, too new to be a classic, perhaps, but well-known anyway) and then the other two were on special offer at some point

Looking at the cover choices for this trilogy, I'm fairly confident that I wouldn't have read these in the 70s, when I was the target age range. The original covers (and some later ones) mark them out as a very "Boys' Own" adventure series, and it is fair to say that females occur only incidentally, and are pretty drippy characters. As they were written in the 1950s, that's not so surprising, perhaps, but the author was a woman and I wonder why she didn't think that stronger female characters would work...

Anyway, I can see why these are (or were) so popular. Set at various points during the Roman occupation of Britain, they look at the lives of three young men from the same family, but several generations apart. In the first book, the hero sets off to recover the Eagle standard belonging to his father's legion, which vanished north of Hadrian's Wall. In the second, a young soldier and surgeon uncover a plot to overthrow their leader, and find themselves on the run from the baddies, while in the third the hero is a young Roman soldier who sees the end of the occupation, deserts the army and returns to his family in Britain, only to find himself caught up in yet more conflict.

I don't recall studying the Romans at school, although I think that children do (or did) in the UK, so these books would have been full of familiar place names and military terminology. I was glad of Google :-) It is easy to forget that the Romans were here for 400 years, and how much things must have changed over that time. These books, read together, make that point very clearly. And the third one, in particular, in which the characters expected to spend their whole lives fighting the Saxons, brings home the human cost of the fighting - having to live a whole life never knowing whether you will survive to the next day or whether raiders will appear and wipe you out. In the history books the time seems shrunk down, somehow, so you lose sight of the generations of uncertainty between the rule of leader x and the rule of leader y.

The books are beautifully written, and, although aimed at children, the language seems to be to more complex than a typical children's book today (not that I read many of them). I see they are marked as "Junior fiction" in my library's catalogue, rather than YA, so it's good if younger children ARE reading at this level.

Funny Roman story: One of the guys at work takes part in a reading programme with children at a local school. Most of their families speak no English, so they get extra help with their reading, including an hour every Friday spent reading out loud to volunteers. One day he went and his little boy had a book about the Romans, and they were discussing various Roman-related things while they read the book. John mentioned that the Romans had been in Britain a long, long time ago, and the little boy looked up at him and said "Were you here then?"

Oooh - off to download :)

Edited to note... I actually thought I'd check the library first - turns out they have book 1 and 3 but not two. And books 1 +3 are the nice sghiny new ones - who buys 1 + 3, nto two??? I will have words when I'm next in!

Checking in on the new thread, Susan ;)

#14: Bekka, that is exactly the sort of purchasing decision my library would make! Or they will have books 2 - 10 in a great big long series, but no book 1. Supremely pointless. I hope your back has improved since last week.

#15: Hi Stasia! I must visit you!

Thanks Susan - it's better, i.e I can now walk upright... but I could really do without any more pain :/ Ah well.

Ow, that sounds horrible. I suppose you have your own tried and trusted painkillers, but if you've never given Syndol a try I recommend them. They have a muscle relaxant in them, as well as codeine. Bliss :-) (Best not taken before any lectures or client meetings!).

I think I'm going to read The Once and Future King as my next Mount TBR read. I wonder if I can count the four books separately, though, or would that be cheating?

I'm going to do it so we'll be cheating together if it is ;)

Hmmm... might have to try some - maybe just for nights (most days have client calls at least). It is a lot better so I shouldn't whinge really! But Alex and Cass are at his parents in the UK for half term so I foresee more baby picking up than usual in the next week, and I am rather afraid of making it worse.

Susan, I read The Shield Ring a couple of years ago from the same series and really liked it. I've been meaning to read more books in the series but just haven't done it yet. Although The Shield Ring is the last book chronologically, it was the second book published in the series, and it has a strong female protagonist.

#19: Bekka, it's a deal. Four books each :-)

#20: Carrie, I had no idea there were more in the series! I thought it was a trilogy, and the omnibus edition just has the three I have read. I may have broken my strict rule about not reading things out of order!!

I suppose it's like the Chronicles of Narnia. Reading the books in publication order is a different experience than reading them in chronological order.

Stopping by to check out your new thread, Susan! The Ghost Map is one of the books already on my book list that I carry around with me so no book bullet but I did find your review reminded me why I have my eye out for a copy of that one.

I don't think The Shield Ring is part of a real series - someone may have marketed it like that. It was one of my favourites when I was little though - I had/have my mum's copy.

The Shield Ring may not be part of an official series, but it is definitely related to the Dolphin Ring cycle. The ring is mentioned in the book. It would be hard to convince me that she didn't intend for readers to see a connection between the books.

#22: Carrie, that was exactly my problem when I tried the Narnia books - which order?! But in the end I didn't read past the first one.

#23: Glad to help, Lori! There are no tractors in it, anyway :-)

#24: Luci, isn't it lovely to have old family copies of books? I had lots of Enid Blytons that used to belong to an aunt in perhaps the 1940s, and even in the 70s they looked old and special, and the illustrations matched the stories much better than the newer versions.

#25: Carrie, I see The Shield Ring is listed as one of eight in the series on LT (yikes! more books!). I liked the device of the ring/dolphin running through the three that I read. I had a quick look yesterday at the library to see if they had any more Rosemary Sutcliff novels, but they didn't. So I got out with no more books.

I'm currently about a third of the way through The Friday Gospels, which is a bit of a confusing read in that the characters are all utterly repellant individuals and yet I still want to know what happens next.

And a friend has suggested that we take the Coursera course on "The Fiction of Relationship" in June https://www.coursera.org/#course/relationship , which involves reading the following books:

Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prévost
Bartleby the Scrivener and Benito Cereno by Herman Melville
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony and The Country Doctor by Franz Kafka
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Light in August by William Faulkner
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee

Of those, I have only read Jane Eyre (which was OK) and Disgrace (which I hated). I'm all for expanding my horizons, but some of the texts look quite hard…If anyone has read any, I'd welcome thoughts on how long they might take (or any one might take) to read, so perhaps I can get a head start.

That looks like so much fun! Aside form the two you've read I've read The Metamorphosis - ok but odd! To the Lighthouse - which I hated, but then I loathe Woolf and Beloved which is in my top 20 fiction faves.

I read both To the Lighthouse and Beloved for Uni courses (and Jane Eyre) and all are great for discussion. I also read a Faulkner (The Sound and the Fury) for the same course as Beloved and I loved that too - keep meaning to read more of his)

Good luck with the Melville though :/ I'm taking a Melville break after being really disappointed by Moby Dick.

I also pretty much hated Disgrace. I liked The Metamorphosis, and it's short, of course. I recently read Ficciones and feel like I could have benefited a lot from having read it in a teaching environment - it's very dense and full of allusions. They're short stories, but they are best read with space to think between them.

I've got Woolf's To the Lighthouse on my list. Will be curious to know what you think. I've only read a couple of hers: Night and Day which I thoroughly enjoyed and Mrs Dalloway which I appreciated but did not enjoy as much.

My only contribution would be to agree that Beloved is a wonderful book. It's average in length but easy to read. Your class sounds great.

I read Manon Lescaut in high school in French. Other than it being an 18th c. text, I don't remember it as particularly challenging. Melville's shorter works are pretty readable and accessible as well, though I haven't read those two. I like Jane Eyre. I haven't read any Kafka. I read To the Lighthouse at university and thought it was okay, though it is not a straight-forward narrative piece. I've read one Faulkner and can't for the life of me remember which one, but I liked it. Haven't read the others, except for Beloved which is wonderful and very worthwhile.

Thus conclude my not very helpful comments :)

#27: Thanks Bekka. I don't think I've read any Woolf, but she does seem to polarise people :-) I did wonder about Melville, having never read Moby Dick because it seemed too hard.

#28: Ursula, yay, another Disgrace hater!! People rave about it and I Just Don't Get It.

#29: Nancy, I might have to read it now whether I do the course or not!

#30: Thanks Reba - I am still deciding whether to sign up as the library only has one copy of some of the books, which will be problematic if another cheapskate in London is planning to do it :-)

#31: Katie, those were helpful comments! One thing I am getting from all of you is that I should read Beloved ASAP, whether I do the course or not!

I am watching the news and the horsemeat-found-in-beef-products story is getting worse by the day. After initially blaming Romania, the Foods Standards Agency has now closed down two *British* abattoirs. As the queen of the ready-meal, my choices are rapidly diminishing, as it turns out there may be horse in lamb, pork in beef, pork in horse-masquerading-as-beef, and goodness knows what "chicken" really is. I may have to turn vegetarian.

Are fish and chips still safe? Because that is all I plan to eat when I am there next month!

Katie, yes, fish and chips are probably about the only thing that is safe! I'm not sure anything can pretend to be fish. So far some cheaper meat products have been tested (and the joke is that the real headline is "MEAT found in value burgers") but they are working their way up to the premium lines, and somehow I suspect that they will just be using better horses :-) There is even a rumour that donkey meat has got in there somewhere - ewwww. We don't have class actions over here or I'm sure someone would have started one by now. They keep saying it's a labelling issue and not a food safety issue but no-one believes them.

A labelling issue? Right. Great spin ...

I'm not sure how a labeling issue possibly explains that. "Oh, we keep forgetting that cows and horses aren't the same thing"?

Thought I'd stop by and say hi! The Ghost Map sounds fascinating! That's going on my wish list pronto! I've got Old Filth waiting for me on the shelf - I think that there is a planned group read of it this April, so I'll have to hold off til then! Great review!

Oh that horse meat difficulty in the UK - that must be a bit of a nightmare!

#35 + 36: Nancy and Ursula, the theory is that, as horse is farmed in other parts of Europe, and appears in supermarkets like any other sort of meat, it is as safe to eat as any other professionally farmed animal. We just don't *like* eating it here in the UK, but what the mislabelled packs contain is "safe" meat (of some sort).

But, realistically, if they are replacing beef with horse in order to save money, the horsemeat is unlikely to be the professionally farmed stuff, but some lower-class variant, full of goodness knows what drugs that should never make their way into the human food chain. No-one will admit that yet, which seems a bit short-sighted. All processed beef products have been ordered to be tested by Friday, at which point I might have to make muffins and ice-cream my permanent dinner :-).

#37: Hi Deborah! I'm sure you'll enjoy The Ghost Map. And the GR of Old Filth should be fun. I was over at your thread yesterday, reading the discussion about names, which was funny because I have the Susan/Sue thing (and I never answer to Sue). But a lot of people seem to pronounce my name "Suzanne", which is bewildering. I can understand people doing it if they don't speak English as a first language, but the number of native English speakers who also do it is surprising. The name has been around for 500 years, at least! Maybe it is just old-fashioned at the moment.

Edited to add a link to the excellent and topical Daily Telegraph cartoon for 13 February: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/matt/

Susan, I get it ... kind of. It just struck me as funny to call it a labeling issue. But still, it seems that "labeling" only applies if the package says "meat," instead of "beef."

Muffins and ice cream sounds like a good way to go!

#14 I take it all back - my lib did end up having all 3. Dor some reason no. 2 didn't show up (???) but it was on the shelf. Though unfortunately 1 + 3 are in the lovely new editions whereas no.2 seems to be stuck firmly in the early 80s! Still in ok nick, just a really dated cover - not surprised it hasn't been out in a while.

#39: Ursula, no-one seems to know what's going on at the moment, but apparently butchers are doing great business, because people can see what the meat is in the shop, and don't have to worry about what it might have been processed with. I'm put off eating any of it, to be honest.

#40: Yay for all three books, Bekka! It is so annoying to have one left out. Does number 2 still have a "boy" cover? I like the way the new covers are more gender-neutral.



27. Starcrossed (Awakening) by Josephine Angelini

Where I got it: Kindle
Why I read it: I read it now because of my ROOT challenge for 2013. I bought it originally because I saw good reviews of it somewhere, and it was on sale

Helen Hamilton is a teen living on Nantucket – too tall, freakishly strong, and still wondering why a guy who hassled her on the ferry seemed to disappear in a flash of blue light. She knows there's something different about her, but can't quite tell what. She would, however, like to know why there are three old ladies weeping and wailing in her peripheral vision and why, when she meets island newcomer Lucas Delos at school, she knows that she has to KILL HIM.

After a slow and fairly clunky start, this novel is a fun read, with many of the elements that made Twilight so popular, although Helen is a much more attractive character than the whiny Bella. And the Delos family aren't vampires. But who are they? And why has their evil cousin come to Nantucket to try and kill them? Saying anything more would be too spoilery, but I'm glad that I picked this up when it was on sale here a while ago. I read this as part of my 2013 ROOT challenge, but now I want books 2 and 3 in the trilogy. D'oh!

I read this as part of my 2013 ROOT challenge, but now I want books 2 and 3 in the trilogy. D'oh!

I hate it when that happens.... well, not really! ;-)

#42: Hi Lori! Yes, that happens far too often! I'll have to focus on single titles for my next ROOTS I think. I've started Nicola Barker's Small Holdings which I am not loving so far, but I'm not that far into it.

My broadband kept dropping out last night - soooo frustrating! I finally rang the broadband people this morning, which usually makes it behave, and sure enough as soon as they answered the phone it came on again and has stayed on so far. They did something to it anyway, which they said should make it more stable, but they always tell me to get rid of the extension cable and plug straight into the phone socket - problematic when the socket is right next to the front door in my tiny hall and there is no power point anywhere near it to plug the box in, or any room for the box. He also said I wasn't getting the top speed available, but internet pages load *instantly*, with no waiting whatsoever, and I can't imagine how it could possible get any faster than instant. I suppose he means that films etc would take longer to download, but as I never do that I don't mind. I just want the little globe working at all times. I know there was a time when we didn't have the internet, but I don't want to go back to it!

Back online at home, and so far so good...But I'll type fast!



28. The Friday Gospels by Jenn Ashworth

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: I liked the cover. Honestly. Isn't it pretty? :-)

This novel is a day in the life of a Mormon family in Chorley, in the north of England, who are waiting for middle son Gary to come back from his two-year mission work in Utah. Gary has been delayed by the ash cloud which closed UK airspace for a week in 2010 (I think) which has given the family days of worry in which all of their lives unravelled just a bit more. Each family member has three or four alternating chapters to tell their story, and the story is by turns weird, claustrophobic, creepy and a bit heartbreaking. Well-written, but I wouldn't say I *liked* it, exactly. However, I kept reading all the way to the end to see how it turned out, so it must have had something. There are only two other people with this book on LT and it is brand new, so I will be interested to see what other LT-ers think when it's published in other places.

Sorry to learn about your broadband troubles. I hope they have fixed it! I learned the hard way to type up reviews or long posts in word or notepad on my computer and then just cut and paste the finished text.... there is nothing more frustrating than spending time and effort on a great post only to have it disappear irretrievably into the ether before I manage to successful post it!

The Friday Gospels sounds unusual, but it doesn't really sound like my cup of tea. It will, however, be interesting to see any other reviews posted.

Hi Susan,
interesting review on Starcrossed that one has been recommended to me on amazon a couple of times, but I just passed it. I may will reconsider :)

Wish you a lovely weekend!

#45: Lori, yes, that is a good plan for lots of typing and I do it sometimes - maybe I should do it more often! It seems OK today but I am going to watch my Coursera lectures for the week next, while the going is good.

#46: Lori, "unusual" is about right - the writing is lovely, and there were aspects I liked, but overall the story was just too odd for me, I think. I don't do well with odd.

#47: Hi Bianca! It's definitely worth a look if you like YA novels. It's got a good premise and it's nicely done. I hope your weekend is lovely too. It is warming up a bit in London, so next time you are over it might be nearly spring!



29. Small Holdings by Nicola Barker

Where I got it: Kindle
Why I read it: This was one of the books I bought on sale a while ago. I read it now as part of my ROOT challenge

At least this is now off Mount TBR, although it could have stayed buried deep beneath it and I would probably have been better off. It's quite a while since I read such a lot of nonsense, and I resent the loss of the two hours I spent reading it. Fortunately it was short. I'd have given up otherwise, but I kept wondering whether maybe it would make some sense in the end, but no.

I'm not in the mood to read anything now, even the romance ebook which has become available from the library. And it's a bad day when I'm not in the mood to read a romance! The neighbours upstairs are having their crashiest, thumpiest day since they moved in nearly a year ago. They have never stopped crashing, thumping and banging about, usually in the middle of the night, but today I am sure someone is going to come through my ceiling at some point. I have no idea WHAT they are doing up there - it definitely needed renovating when they moved in, but they paid a million pounds for it, and you would think that popping in a new kitchen would be easy when you have that sort of cash, and not the sort of project you had to do yourself, weekend after weekend. They are making noise all over the place which makes me wonder whether they are ripping up the floors, but I suppose I will never know.

Hi Susan, I completely understand what you mean although it could have stayed buried deep beneath it and I would probably have been better off. Unfortunately, all of us run across one of those from time to time.

Good grief, your neighbours sound to be a test of patience, to say the very least. Argh! I also understand the unsettling feeling of being caught in a book funk, and not in the mood to read anything at the moment. It's most uncomfortable for we book-nuts. Your weekend can only get better! (I hope!)

Good luck with the neighbours - that sounds testing at best. I'm useless with that sort of thing - certain loud people at uni had me grinding my teeth and sloping off to the library at ridiculous times.

Ditto on the book funk - hope yours shifts soon.

#49: Nancy, I salvaged the afternoon by watching my Coursera lectures for the week and doing the quiz, so I am up to date with the course at least. They are STILL banging about upstairs, and it is now 8.15pm here. If I see them tomorrow they'll be getting a piece of my mind.

#50: Bekka, usually we let the other people in the building know if we're doing anything noisy and say how long it will last for, and that's fine as everyone needs to do work from time to time, but it's been going on for so long that I have no idea if or when it will ever stop. I miss the old neighbours - they were a retired couple and so lovely (and quiet, except in the school holidays when the grandsons stayed and I had run-run-run-THUMP on the ceiling, but it was just for the holidays, and eventually they grew up and apparently used to just sit morosely in front of the TV playing video games "and talking to strangers on their headphones" Mrs Upstairs once said, mystified). I met Mr Upstairs in the street one Saturday and he apologised that they had people coming over unexpectedly and he was going to have to vacuum. I must have looked clueless because he explained "I usually do all the housework during the week, so we don't disturb you on the weekends". They were the perfect neighbours and I was so lucky to have them for so long!

30. One Night With The Enemy by Abby Green

Where I got it: Library ebook
Why I read it: Abby Green is a favourite romance author

Set in the vineyard country of Argentina, this was a sweet read that ended happily :-) Unfortunately it doesn't seem to have been published in the US yet, or I would swap the cover for the US one.

I've enrolled for another Coursera course which looks interesting - The Ancient Greeks https://www.coursera.org/course/ancientgreeks It starts in a month, and the course page says that it requires 2-4 hours of work per week, but I think that must be after doing all the reading, because the reading for week 1 includes six books of The Iliad and and ten books of The Odyssey. Yikes! I am going to start early, because there are so many readings, but at least they are all available through the course website or on other free sites.

Congratulations on your new course. I've never been into Ancient Greeks or Romans but I admire you taking it on. Hope your neighbors got finished with whatever they were doing and left you with a little pece.

Reba, it's one of those topics I always felt I should know more about (or more accurately *something* about). I googled The Iliad yesterday and found a great website which explains what it's about and key points to remember for beginner readers, so after looking at that for a while I read book 1. Now I need a very large piece of paper so I can make a chart of who all the people are and how they fit together, but it's a start. I'm using an online translation recommended by the course professor but according to the library catalogue there is a hard copy at the branch across the road so I will try and get that later today.

There was no noise from the neighbours yesterday, thank goodness, as it went on until after 10pm on Saturday. I don't know where they think they're living...

Neighbours of ours had a party yesterday all day and late into the evening, including a bonfire in what seems like an alarmingly small space. Fortunately, they're out the back and nothing seems to disturb the boys once they go to sleep (only their bedroom, the bathroom and kitchen are out that way).

So, you are Susan and not Sue? I will try to remember that, but don't think it will take much effort on my part. I hope that you are out of your " book funk." I think we all have those from time to time. So sorry about your neighbours!

Catching up here, Susan. Sorry about your neighbors - how annoying! And I totally empathize with your internet woes - ours was up on Saturday, but it was taking forever to load each page. I finally just gave up on it. Hope yours is back on track now.

I'd love to know what website you're using for The Illiad.

Happy Monday to you - hope it's a good one!

#55: Luci, that does sound alarming about the bonfire! We are not yet into barbecue season, but that is about all the fire-based activity we see in my block.

#56: Deborah yes, I am Susan :-) My mother used to hate it when people abbreviated our names (my brother also has a commonly abbreviated name) and we are both known by the full versions. Oddly, though, she used to abbreviate my father's name. But then she hadn't picked that one out, I suppose. I didn't get to the book I really wanted to start on the weekend but I did do quite a bit of tidying up while I was waiting for the supermarket to open yesterday so at least the place looks quite zen :-)

#57: Mamie, the broadband seems OK again (touch wood). The site I found for The Iliad is this one: http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/netshots/homer.htm It seems to be a big site with lots of resources, but I have only looked at this little bit in any detail so far. I hope your Monday is good too!

Thanks so much for that, Susan! Glad that your broadband is working again (also touches wood).

Several books of both The Iliad and The Odyssey are impressive course readings! I hope you will enjoy and share with us here; I haven't read either since university and that was longer ago than I care to remember.

We live on the top floor which was a "must have" when we were looking because I worry about what they'll get up to up there. Now we just have to worry about the folks downstairs. When the grandkids visit it's hard because they live in a single-story house and tend to run from room to room without thinking about the fact that there are neighbors downstairs. At least they don't live with us :-)

#59: Mamie, I hope it's useful. I still have broadband! I don't use it much in the mornings but I do like to download The Times to my Kindle Fire.

#60: Nancy, yes - a bit daunting, but yesterday I borrowed the Penguin Classic edition of The Iliad from the library, and it has an excellent introductory section with lots of useful information, and the simple but brilliant device of writing the Trojan names in italics, the Gods in capitals and the pro-Trojan Gods in italic capitals - suddenly everything made a lot more sense! It doesn't carry over into the poem itself, but there are little boxes alongside the text saying what's happening so it is easy to follow. And every book has a synopsis at the beginning, so I can skim the story in between the books I have to read. I reread book 1 last night, and I've now read book 2 and book 6. It's a shame there is just one week on both works - I will have to look for a course that examines them in more detail.

#61: Reba, I'm sure your neighbours won't mind if it's just a visit :-) I am lucky that the building is purpose-built so we don't get the ordinary household noise that a lot of people in house conversions are plagued with. I have never heard anyone's TV or appliances - nothing like that at all. It's just the wrecking ball noises that make their way through. But it has been completely quiet since Saturday.

I read the first part of In The Garden of Beasts this morning, which I had intended to start on the weekend. It's going to be interesting seeing Hitler's Germany from a US point of view, as most of my reading so far has looked at the 30s and the build-up to war from the UK point of view.

That book on The Illiad sounds really helpful. I loved The Garden of the Beasts. I"m not sure I would call it "from the U.S. perspective" though because I don't think that family really had a clear picture of what U. S. sentiment (or the government) wanted. And re neighbor noise...Our building is purpose built too (although with wood frame construction instead of concrete for the residential parts) and we pretty much never hear our neighbors although some do complain of hearing footsteps from above. Our kind downstairs neighbors tell us the "almost never hear us" and I hope that's true and not just being polite.

#62 The italics, capitals, and bold letters are a brilliant device, Susan. I would also find such very helpful.

Hi Susan, I am curious how you will enjoy the coursera course. I have participated in one so far and thought it was very interesting. However, I also eyed with the Greek mythology class, but didn't think when looking at the reading material that there would be only such a small amount of hours required.
For the Science Fiction and Fantasy course they set 8-12 hours and there were many more required, also a lot of these books were re-reads for me.

#63: Reba, yes, I see what you mean about In The Garden of Beasts. I read some more last night and the main impression I have so far is how passive Dodd seemed to be in the face of what was going on, but then it's hard to know how much he knew apart from the incidents recounted in the book. It was particularly interesting when he was trying to decide whether to issue an advisory against US citizens travelling to Germany on the basis of a limited number of attacks, but what terrible attacks. I am not quite half-way through it.

#64: Nancy, it's like a soap opera, but with Gods :-)

#65: Bianca, I am doing "Introduction to Philosophy" at the moment, which is interesting but not quite what I thought it would be. I looked at the mythology one but it requires too many books that I can't get hold of, so I am doing "The Ancient Greeks", which has all the reading materials available on the website. They have lots of interesting courses available and I hope to do more.



31. Bright Young Things by Scarlett Thomas

Where I got it: Kindle sale
Why I read it: It's a ROOT challenge book, but I bought it originally because I've seen lots by this author at the library and in the shops, but never tried any

There is a foreword to this book dated 2012, in which the author explains that it was written in 1999 and seems to apologise for the fact that it's an early work when she really didn't know what she was doing. But I liked it a lot. It is set at the time it was written, so suffers from none of the misremembered history that I've seen in other books where people had email accounts before email, and travelled on the Eurostar from St Pancras at a time when it ran from Waterloo (OK, I'm super-picky...)

It's about six UK twenty-somethings who answer an ad for "Bright Young Things" and end up in a house on an island, with no idea where they got there or why. These days we've seen the set-up of strangers-in-a-house/island-together in various TV programmes, but this was written before Big Brother and similar shows. Over a couple of days they try and decide why they're there, how they will get away again and they talk generally about their lives. I'm a similar(ish) age to the author, and was living here in 1999 so all the cultural references made perfect sense to me. I wonder how well it would translate for people overseas, though, or much older or younger.

I definitely want to try some more by this author, and her later novels are the best-known ones, so maybe I'll look for one of those.

Hmmmm - sounds interesting! Will have to keep an eye open at the library...

I've heard good things about one of her books, The End of Mr Y but I haven't gotten around to reading anything by her yet. I will be adding Bright Young Things to the wishlist.

#67: Bekka, it is still just 20p for the Kindle :-)

#68: Judy, I think The End of Mr Y will be my next choice although I want to make a bit more progress with the Kindle TBR pile first. The ROOT challenge is going OK but I do keep reading things that make me want to read more things...

I'm nearly finished In The Garden of Beasts, which has been a faster read than I thought it would be, and makes me want to see if there is anything written about the British ambassador in Germany at that time, as it would be interesting to see what he was saying, and why such terrible things happened with no-one (important enough) speaking out. These days with Twitter and the internet we know about things much more quickly, but when the only conduit to the wider world was a limited number of people with possible conflicts of interest, and maybe the view that bad things were happening to other people and couldn't affect them or *their* people then it is understandable I suppose.

My hubs read Berlin Diaries by Marie Vassiltchikov right after he read The Garden of Beasts. It's a memoir of the same era, also in Berlin, by a Russian princess. I haven't read Berlin Diaries (although I have read, and enjoyed, The Garden of Beasts) but he recommends it for folks who are interested in that time period.

That seems to be the way of books, isn't it, one leading on towards another! Before you know if, our TBR shelves are overflowing. Of course, it's always nice to have plenty of choices. ;)

>71 DeltaQueen50: well said Judy! At least we don't have to explain our dilemma to anyone around these parts. :)

#70: Thanks Reba. I'll see if the library has a copy. There *is* a book by the British ambassador (edited diaries) but it is out of print now, it seems, and selling for £57 on amazon. I don't think the library will want to buy a copy of that one :-)

#71: Judy, choice is one thing I won't be short of for some time!

#72: Roberta, you are so right!

I have had a horrible headache for the last four days (so the steroid injections didn't work) so I haven't been commenting on threads but just reading them. I will have to rectify that. But I did manage to finish a couple of books in between feeling sorry for myself (although that does take up a LOT of time).



32. In The Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson

Where I got it: Library (brand new and clean!)
Why I read it: Katie mentioned it on her thread as a book club choice, and I impulse-borrowed it. On the shelf across the road AND brand new and clean? It was clearly a sign.

This is about the US ambassador to Germany from 1933 to 1937 (or maybe 1938) and his experience of the rise of Hitler. Fascinating to look back on now we know the whole story, I found it interesting how many excuses were made at the time for things that we now know were leading to so much worse (and were pretty bad in themselves). American politicians seemed primarily concerned that nothing was done to jeopardise the repayment of all the money that Germany owed the US, and the ambassador's warnings seemed to be written off as not that important, or not the main thing to be worried about. He was seen as an outsider to the diplomatic "club" but at least one other diplomat was sending similar warnings, similarly ignored.

I would be interested to know what the British ambassador was saying at the same time, so I will keep an eye out to see whether his diaries are reprinted, maybe for the next anniversary of the war. As I said in a post above, news today isn't filtered the same way, as "citizen journalists" can put out news reports in a variety of informal formats like Twitter and on blogs. But still it is interesting the number of things we continue to excuse on "cultural" grounds, or for fear of being seen as politically incorrect, when really it is just savagery pure and simple, and too many people are too scared to say anything even when the facts are out there.



33. Look At Me by Jennifer Egan

Where I got it: Kindle sale
Why I read it: I liked A Visit from the Good Squad which I read last year and it's from my ROOT challenge for the year

The UK amazon reviews for this one are, on the whole, terrible, but I liked it a lot. It was just chance that I read it so soon after Bright Young Things but the books were written at a similar time and have similar themes, and particularly that of identity in the digital world, when everyone is out there sharing everything online and on TV. There are a number of story strands, starting with Charlotte, a model who is badly injured in a car accident and has her face entirely rebuilt. But will she ever work again now that she looks so different? And how did the accident happen? The other characters all have a connection to Charlotte, even if they don't realise it, and the story moves between New York and a small town near Chicago. It is quite long, which seems to be one point of complaint from the amazon reviewers, and it has its weird aspects (which usually I don't like) but I did like this, and would recommend it for Goon Squad fans.

Nice review of In the Garden of Beasts. I really liked it when I read it two years ago, and your comments are so interesting because that is so similar to how I felt after reading it. And I would love to read what the British ambassador was writing and thinking at that time, so I will be watching to see if you come across it.

Sorry to hear that the steroid injections did not work for you, Susan. Sending good thoughts your way.

Phew - think I'm book bullet free on those two :) Which is a good thing becasue I've taken several hits on LT today!

Sorry about the headaches - lots of sympathy :/ Hopefully they'll find you somethign that helps soon.

#74: Hi Mamie! I'm still feeling pretty ropey, but no more headaches, so that's something.

#75: Bekka, I can guarantee there isn't a single pirate in either of them, if that changes your mind at all :-) Funnily enough, I started a romance on Monday to cheer myself up, and there *is* an unexpected former pirate in that.

I'm also reading We Are At War, which is the diaries of five people taken from the Mass Observation archive, and which is excellent. I picked up a similar book yesterday which came in on reserve, so that will be my next one. That leaves me with an empty reserve slot - excitement!! I was going to have March as a read my own tomes month, and no library books other than things already reserved, but I think I was kidding myself. Also it is still February!

February wrap-up:

Books read: 15 (OK)

Fiction: 11
Non-fiction: 4 (I need to increase the non-fiction a bit)

ROOT tomes: 7 (good).

Books acquired: 2 (excellent. I have read one of the books already)

Goals for February were:

Finish The Thirties: An Intimate History of Britain - FAILED. It's so big, and the print is so small...I find it really difficult to hold open with all my arm/neck problems. I wish I had the Kindle version. I managed a couple of chapters during February.

Read the second Anthony Powell A Dance to the Music of Time book - FAILED. I just couldn't be bothered
.
Read at least five more TBRs - SUCCEEDED

Download no freebies unless they are totally awesome (which is unlikely) - SUCCEEDED! (Surprisingly. As there were no awesome ones, I downloaded none at all)

Goals for March are:

Five more chapters of The Thirties: An Intimate History of Britain
Read at least five more TBRs
Read only library books which come in on reserve during March, but no others, and reserve nothing new
Download no freebies unless they are totally awesome (again)

Fifteen books in February, Susan. How delightful! I haven't yet read fifteen books this year.

I should try that "reserve nothing new from the library" resolution. I *know* I don't have time to read them all, but then I'll hear an interesting nonfiction author interview on the radio or find out a favorite author has a new release, and within seconds I'm on the library website. Sometimes even on the library smartphone app while stopped at a sufficiently long traffic light...

Hi Susan, just dropping by. Sorry to hear that you haven't been well.

#78: Hi Nancy! Your books look like longer, thoughtful reads, which makes a difference to the numbers. You could always have a couple of afternoons of category romances to get the total up a bit :-)

#79: Susanna, so far so good, but it is only 2 March...I have a reserve ready to pick up on Monday and then the real test will start, when I have an empty reserve slot again. Plus of course I will have to go into the library. But I am just the same as you - when I'm on LT I have the library catalogue open in another tab, for ease of reserving and wishlisting things. And I do quite often reserve things from the Sunday papers. I have a couple of those at the moment which are too new even to have made it into the library system (but fortunately are in the catalogue).

#80: Hi Rhian - I must post on your thread. I've been reading about the Daisy/Ruby standoff, and it reminds me of a friend who had a cat and two dogs. The cat hated all dogs, but one of the dogs just wants to be friends with everyone in the world. The cat had the upstairs of the house, where the dogs were not allowed, but the friendly one tried a couple of times to sneak up there, only to find the cat at the top of the stairs, hissing at him. He couldn't get down again fast enough.



34. Embrace and Conquer by Jennifer Blake

Where I got it: Kindle box-set
Why I read it: It's part of my ROOT challenge, and now I have finished a whole box-set of three :-)

Once again LT doesn't have the fairly modest re-issued cover, so I've put in the original one. Set in New Orleans at the time the French King handed over the colony to his Spanish cousin (I had no idea that had happened, but how disconcerting it must have been for the French residents to wake up one morning and to have to be Spanish citizens), the heroine is a young French woman, while the hero is an Irish mercenary serving with the new Spanish Governor. It was a little bit...too old-skool for modern tastes, which romancelandia fans will understand, so I won't spell it out. But I have learned such a lot about the history of the area from these books. Prior to starting the series, all I really new about New Orleans was Hurricane Katrina, so I am interested to read about what happened when the city (and state) was being founded by the Europeans.



35. We Are At War by Simon Garfield

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: I must have seen a reference to it somewhere in another book about WWII

Subtitled "The Diaries of Five Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times", that's exactly what it is, and one of my best reads of the year so far. The book is extracts from five diaries kept by ordinary British citizens as part of the Mass Observation project (which apparently is still going, or at least was in 2006). They run from the day that war was declared on 3 September 1939 until the end of the following year, and there is an epilogue in which the author says what happened to the diarists, as far as he could find out from his researches. I do like these accounts of the war written at the time, before people knew what was going to happen, and this one is a really interesting account of what was concerning people at the time in the way of air raid precautions and rationing in particular.

I think my favourite diarist was a young woman from Glasgow who set about laying in extra stocks of tinned foods, batteries, torches and clothes before rationing was brought in (at which point hoarding became an offence), only to find that food wasn't rationed as quickly as had been anticipated, and the family was left with mounting stocks of tins which they had to start eating because they were running out of space for them. She frequently wrote about the people in her office, who were eccentrics in their own way, and her entries were the funniest. There was also a young paper salesman from the north, a woman from Surrey with three children, an evacuation officer from London who had to deal with children from shocking poverty being sent to the country and needing de-lousing and new clothes first, and a writer who lived in the country near London. There is another book along the same lines but after the war, so I am definitely going to look for that.

Hit again. Sigh. We Are At War is now on my overflowing wishlist.

#82: Carrie, yay! There is a huge amount of social history about WWII, and my library has a lot of it, so there always seems to be something new (or new to me).

WWII isn't a major interest of mine but somehow you make these books sound so interesting that I want to read them all. On to the wish list!

#84: Reba, it's become a lot more interesting to me over the last few years. I remember reading a lot of novels set during the war when I was a teen (they were the dystopian fiction of the day, I suppose) but not non-fiction.

In my post above, I wrote that I thought Mass Observation was still going, and I have just looked it up and discovered that indeed it is. Currently they are recruiting "observers" who are male, 16-44 and not from the South-East of England, so I fail on all counts there, but they are inviting the whole of the UK to be a Mass Observer for a day on 12 May 2013, so I thought I would post the link for any UK LTers who might be interested: http://www.massobs.org.uk/12may.html I'm so tempted to do this, but I would have to go out and do something and not just sit on the sofa like I do most weekends, or that would be a very short diary entry...

#81 Hi Susan. I read We are at War recently and loved it too. I think there's another two books: Private Battles about the second half of WWII and Our Hidden Lives about what life was like postwar. I've read the latter and it was also superb - I'm hoping to get to the other one soon.

#85 ETA - just seen your last post. That definitely sounds interesting. Thanks for the link!

Susan, I've been thinking that I should review your threads for twentieth century social history books. I've just read Ethel and Ernest, Raymond Briggs's memoir of his parents' life and one of the things that I found really interesting was the little details about the practicalities of their lives. We've got loads of history books (with Mr SandDune being a history teacher), but very few about people's day to day lives.

#86: Heather, thanks for the title of Private Battles - the author referred to a forthcoming book in We Are At War but of course it had no name :-)

#87: Rhian, I will look for Ethel and Ernest, as your review was really good. Social history is only something I've got into in the last few years, and I can pretty much date my interest to the OU Level 1 Humanities course that I did in 2007 (I think). There was a preliminary unit looking at WWI and the way it was written about and remembered, and it started from there. I read more about WWII now, I think, because there *is* more, but I find all sorts of things interesting now that I wouldn't have looked at years ago. Even though I didn't go on to that Arts degree with the OU, it certainly opened up my horizons, which was really what I wanted.



36. Wartime Women: A Mass-Observation Anthology edited by Dorothy Sheridan

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: I think this must have been another book referred to in Listening to Britain which I read recently. I reserved a few at the library and two came in within days of each other.

This is an anthology of women's writing about the war, taken from the Mass-Observation archive (I have restored its hyphen for this entry, although it doesn't have one now). It contains writing from more people than We Are At War, although I did like the sense of continuity of that book. This collection goes right through the war, and looks a little bit at the future.

One of the most interesting things about these contemporary writings is the issues that people wrote about which have somehow been finessed out of the official accounts of (a) the war and (b) history generally. I suppose at the time these comments would have been seen as spreading "alarm and despondency" (which was a criminal offence under emergency regulations) and so they seem to have disappeared as part of the narrative of the war, because of that official disapproval.

But people were moaning away about rationing, and having to take in evacuees, and whether they should kill themselves immediately Hitler invaded or wait to see what happened. Everyone seemed to grumble about the politicians, and about how the country was, even in wartime, run for the interests of the big industrialists (substitute "bankers" and you have every issue of The Guardian for the last five years) and how the ordinary person counted for nothing, and socialism was the only way forward. This is so far from the "official" version of the war that it's like they were writing about another country entirely. I wonder whether people reading about the early 2000s at the end of this century will find the same thing when they mine the Twitter archives and look at preserved blogs and other writings, or whether history will be written differently to start with, because public opinion can't be so easily erased now.

For my next Kindle bedtime read I've started The Last Chronicle of Barset after seeing the thread for the Group Read of Doctor Thorne. I read Doctor Thorne in 2011, I think, but I've had the sixth book in the series on my list for ages so it seemed like a good time to start it.

Enjoy The Last Chronicle of Barset, Susan. I adore Trollope. Am now into his Palliser novels, having finished the Barsetshire set.

Add me to the list of book casualties of your We are at War review, Susan! My local library doesn't have that one but they do have a different book by Simon Garfield that caught my eye: Our Hidden Lives. Have you heard of it? I am just wondering if both books are stand alone that can be read in any order.

I will be placing a hold for Our Hidden Lives, so my question is more out of curiosity than to act as a possible deterrent of reading books out of order.

Looks like you've had some awesome reads so far this year, Susan! I especially enjoy the romance reviews, although I think you like a little more old-skool than I do lol. When I was working my way through your threads yesterday, I picked up the first Chet and Bernie book, and loved it so much I've finished it already! Thanks so much for the recommendation.

#89: Nancy, I really am enjoying it. I'm about 20% of the way through it now, and love the continuing battle between the Proudies for control of the Bishop's Palace :-)

#90: Lori, Our Hidden Lives is the book about post-war Britain. One of the diarists is the same as in We Are At War but the others are different. Our Hidden Lives was published first.

#91: Hi Marcia! I'm thrilled to have started you on the Chet and Bernie books! I have the third one on its way to the library, so I'm hoping it arrives soon.

So far I'm sticking to my resolution not to reserve or borrow any more books, and it is 6 March already. That's longer than I thought I would last :-) I have one spare reserve slot at the moment, but I'm wishlisting things instead.

Funny story of the week: I went to the optician on Monday night, and after my consultation one of the sales assistants was talking me through the promotions they are running. She said "If you spend more than £150 you get a free pair from this collection here. They aren't very nice, though. I think we're trying to get rid of them."

It was nearly as good as the time an acquaintance tried on a pair of shoes at a well-known fashion chain. She told the assistant that she thought the size might be wrong, as they didn't seem to fit. The assistant said "Maybe, but our shoes are uncomfortable anyway."

On sorting out our history books I've realised that we have got Our Hidden Lives so I'll be looking at that one fairly shortly.

I love the honesty of those two clerks!! Hope their supervisors didn't hear them though.

#93: Rhian, I hope you enjoy it.

#94: Reba, I think they were safe, but honestly! No wonder retailing in the UK is in such a terrible state.

I just picked up my new pain medicine from the chemist downstairs. The rheumatologist told me that I might feel sick, and dizzy, but that I wouldn't feel tired (a side effect of the current drugs, although not the reason I'm changing). So I pulled the leaflet out of the box after paying my £144 for six weeks' worth (health insurance doesn't cover private prescriptions here), to see that a common side effect is...tiredness. And some people find themselves elated (unlikely to be me, I suspect, as I have never had a history of elation) but may have difficulty speaking. I have warned my office roomie so he knows what to tell the ambulance people :-) But I think, all things considered, I'll wait till the weekend to start them.

#95 Susan, you never know, side-effects work differently in different people - hopefully you'll be OK.

Here's hoping you don't have the common side effects but strike out on your own and feel nothing but just great!!

#95 Eeep! I hope that they help - for that price the last thing you want is to be to feel sick, dizzy and tired. Fingers crossed they work as well.

So many good books already! *waves*

Love the shopping anecdotes! Too funny! And like everyone else, I am hoping that the medicine does the trick without any of the adverse side effects. I was thinking that I would rather feel tired than sick and dizzy, but then you said that they could make you feel tired as well - so I am crossing my fingers that you will get none of the above. Just the pain relief.

Hi Susan, I hope the new medication works well for you, it's always such a balancing act when the meds get switched or changed in some way. Here's hoping you'll have no adverse side effects.

Ditto what everyone is saying above--hope the medication does what it's supposed to without doing anything it's not supposed to!

Stopping by the wish you a good weekend Susan. I hope you do not encounter any side effects from the medication.

Thanks ladies :-) So far so good, but I'm on a tiny dose twice a day which increases next week, and then again the week after and even then I'll only be on the minimum dose, so I'm hoping it will be OK. I did feel slightly odd this morning but I'm not sure I was odder than normal. I went to the supermarket and I'm all stocked up for the next couple of days, so I might just read, particularly as it is supposed to be freezing cold from tomorrow, maybe with snow (snow!!).

I'm making good progress with The Thirties: An Intimate History of Britain, having already finished the five chapters I wanted to read during March, and I haven't impulse-borrowed any library books. When I went to the library the other day to return something I typed a couple of books into the list on my BlackBerry, but left them on the shelf. So currently I just have one library book, which I plan to start tomorrow. I'm also enjoying The Last Chronicle of Barset. And I've found a new favourite TV programme - Big Rich Texas, which is even better than Real Housewives of Orange County. I mostly watch it for the huge and amazing houses, but the people are entertaining too, although slightly unbelievable.

Susan, I live in Dallas and though I don't love it, I will say that show is not much of an accurate representation!

Katie, funnily enough I was thinking of you and Roberta as I watched the latest episode - somehow I think they pick extreme people but it's funny to see them all on their sofas bitching away to the camera and then pretending to like one another at their social events. Goodness knows what happens when the series airs and they all find out what the others have been saying about them. We're only on episode 2 here, and I was pretty surprised to see it's made by NBC.

Hi Susan, I am so far behind, but I wanted to pop in and wish you a happy (and pain-free) weekend!

I am intrigued by the first read posted on this thread -- The Ghost Map looks terrific! Did you read The Once and Future King? I LOVED that book.

#104 We are apparently on 'Red Alert' re snow as well - but it seems rather unlikely to me!

#107: Hi Anne! The Ghost Map was a really interesting read. I haven't read The Once and Future King yet, because the library books kept pouring in, but it is next!

#108: Bekka, they are saying tonight for London, so I may wake up to a snowy winter wonderland (which is OK, as I have the day off :-) ) but somehow I suspect not. It's supposed to be freezing cold, though - I am wearing all my Uniqlo heat-tech garments and crossing my fingers. I really did think that it had started to warm up.



37. Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: Because of the great review on Jennifer's thread (inge87)

I'm not a big fantasy reader, but I really enjoyed this story set in a world in which the humans have an uneasy 40-year truce with the dragons, but both sides mistrust the others, and dark forces are at work to go back to war. The heroine, Seraphina, a musician at the royal palace, has a terrible, dragon-related secret which she fears will lead to her ostracism, or worse, but which makes her important to both sides. The world-building was excellent, and it was a fast, entertaining read. Reading the author's blog, it seems there is a sequel in the works, but I'm not sure how many books are intended in the series (if it is to be a series). But I definitely want to see what happens next, and how the author handles a rather unusual twist at the end, which usually doesn't happen in romancey books.

I am now in the strange position of having no more library books (although the next Chet and Bernie mystery is waiting for me to pick up, probably on Tuesday if the snow doesn't come). I think I'll try and make some more progress with The Last Chronicle of Barset and see how far I get with that.

My daughter Birdy read that book and loved it, Susan. She has given it to me to read, and I am happy to see your favorable review of it. Guess I'll bump it up in the stacks!

I already have Seraphina on my wishlist at the library!

I laughed out loud when you thought of me during Big Rich Texas! I am so completely opposite of that. Thanks for the chuckle. :)

Hi Susan - don't know about you but our snow actually arrived! Madness. Icy rain over night and woke up to mad snow and gale force winds today. Icy slush everywhere at the moment but loads of trees down - hope it's more palatable on your side of the pond.

#110: Mamie, I hope you like it. You must get some great YA recommendations from your daughters.

#111: Roberta, I didn't mean that I thought you and Katie were like those ladies! I just meant that when I see Texas I think of you two. If Bonnie and Whitney turn out to be actresses I won't be surprised because they are like parodies of themselves. I think Pam is the only one with a proper Texan accent (?) and I was amazed in episode 3 to see Leslie producing a 20-year old son!

#112: Bekka, we are getting flurries blowing over us but not settling. There was a reference to the Channel Islands in one of the newspapers this morning - it sounded a bit alarming. I hope it doesn't last too long for you. Freezing here too.

Aha! After typing my last message on the Kindle, I thought I'd check whether it works on the BlackBerry as it stopped doing so a while ago, and it does. Yay! I am so used to BB typing that I struggle with the Kindle, although I have finally mastered predictive text.

I'm having a day at home to use up holiday, but, having read about the daylight saving change in Canada over the weekend on Lori's thread, started wondering whether it might apply to the whole of North America, and it does, so I could make my one work-related call to NY an hour earlier than I had planned. We don't change until the end of the month.

I'm watching Person of Interest and following the sentencing in a criminal case over here, and reading a bit of my book on the Thirties.

#114 following the sentencing in a criminal case over here I'm betting I wouldn't need many guesses to work out which one that is!

#115: Is there any other news today, apart from bacteria taking over the world? :-) Eight months each - outrageous. They should have got two years each, at least.

I may now get some housework done...

Hi Susan, I made it back home last night and just wanted to thank you for sharing all the helpful information you did! So thanks! I will hopefully make it to our London office more often and would love to meet up with you sometime.

Katie, I'm glad your trip was a success, even if it was just about the coldest few days of winter here! (still freezing today). It would be great to meet up, and I'm always happy to go book shopping!

#113 Ha! Susan I knew just what you meant. I was having a little fun. Sometimes I would like to be one of those wackadoodles for maybe half a day but it all seems like too much work. :)

Their lives do look quite exhausting, don't they? All the events at the country club, and all the bee-atching about one another, all with full hair and makeup. And most of them appear to have no visible means of support, or at least of supporting those lifestyles! I can't get over how enormous the houses are. I wonder whether they are all in massive debt, like most of the Orange County housewives turned out to be. There is another episode tonight, although I thought it was just Sundays. I might have to get up early tomorrow morning and watch it (it's on here after 11pm). The best line from last week's was when, after Tyler admitted to kissing Whitney, Kayla said she hoped that he hadn't caught skankitis, which made me laugh out loud.

It was finally warm enough to risk a walk to the further-away library, where I picked up To Fetch a Thief which had just come in on reserve. I love this series narrated by Chet the dog, who is not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

But I'm still in chunkster-land, with The Last Chronicle of Barset and The Thirties. I should finish Barset over the weekend, I think, but The Thirties is going to take a while longer. I've just read about the abdication of Edward VIII, and learned that he liked to do needlepoint and to knit, which is sweet :-) Wallis Simpson may have had all those jewels, but it seems she also had handknitted jumpers.

(Edited because it appears I can't spell the names of major historical figures)

Susan I couldn't agree more. What is worse is that a lot of Texas (I should also include all the Southern) ladies are not as extreme as the ladies on TV are but, close, oh so close with the hair, makeup, activities etc... It seems so exhausting to me. Once when we were going out to eat my dad's girlfriend asked me if I was going to wear makeup. I told her, "I"m kind of a hippie." She just looked horrified! LOL! I'm not really a hippie but sometimes I just don't care about such things. I really may get my stateship revoked. :D

Hi Susan

#122 Roberta I've made a mental note not to move to Texas as I virtually never wear make-up unless I am going out somewhere very dressy indeed!

#123 Rhian - Austin is okay for us rarely wear make up types. Too bad I live around Houston. :)

#122: Roberta, if everyone put their faces on like those ladies, GDP would fall because no-one would be doing anything productive (although cosmetic sales would rise, I suppose). I do always have my face on if I'm going out of the house, but not to their extent! It would take half the day. I have also learned "bless her heart", which I think I read about here on LT, but have now seen demonstrated. I'm tempted to start using it here as no-one would have any idea what I was talking about.

#123: Hi Rhian. You should definitely give Big Rich Texas a try (ITV2) as it is very funny.

#124: Roberta, is Dallas wetter than other parts of Texas? It seems very green in the programme, and not just the country club, but the shots up and down the streets, with all the trees and hedges. Maybe it is all a lot of hosing by gardeners.

Yesterday after I got back from the library I was looking at my library page (not to add reserves, of course, because that would be wrong) and saw that another book had come in. And I was just there! So I went back again today and picked it up. There were two ladies on the desk. One of them got up as I walked in, and by the time I was at the desk she had the book in her hand, ready to check out. "Now that's service!" said the other one. They are so nice at that branch, even if I did get blown around on the way there and back, and then rained on. I now have Peace Like a River, which Anne recommended, so I am looking forward to that. No new things until I've finished Barset though - that is my resolution for the weekend.

I'm glad you liked Seraphina, Susan! I've finished the second Chet and Bernie book, plan to get the third next time at the library.

#126: Marcia, I just started the third one this morning! Very funny, like the last two.



38. The Last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope

Where I got it: Kindle
Why I read it: I've read this series over the last few years, and this was the final book. I've been meaning to get to it for ages, but this year's ROOT challenge really focused my mind

I enjoyed all of this book, although it had a few twists and turns I wasn't expecting, and right up to the end there were interesting things happening. On the Dr Thorne thread someone described this one as darker than the others, and I would agree with that. I do wish I'd read it closer in time to The Small House at Allington, because it has many of the same characters and I was struggling at first to remember who everyone was, but that soon passed. It did make me want to reread the series, but I think I'll do the Pallisers first, and not until I've read The Way We Live Now, which is another chunkster on my list.

Today I had intended to read the new (to me) Chet and Bernie book but this is week 2 of my new medication and the dose doubled this morning and I feel like a zombie. I've watched hours of TV but not got much reading done at all, which is a shame. But at least I'm not at work, trying to concentrate there. This happened last week - Saturday and Sunday were a write-off but I was starting to feel better by Monday so I'm hoping that happens again. I have Monday booked as holiday anyway. After the beginning of last week I felt a lot better.

Susan and Rhian I posted a picture on my thread of me and one of my best friends in the late 80s! This was when it was entirely appropriate to have big hair and lots of makeup. Plus I had the energy for it back then. LOL!

http://www.librarything.com/topic/146759#3975769

#128: Roberta, I loved the picture :-) Such a great decade. There's an 80s station here that I listen to on my Kindle every night when I'm reading in bed, and sometimes I get a couple of extra chapters in because I just can't bear to turn the songs off :-)



39. To Fetch a Thief by Spencer Quinn

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: This is the third one in my favourite series, the Chet and Bernie mysteries which are narrated by Chet the dog

This was the perfect read for me this weekend, and Chet is still laugh-out-loud funny with his observations of the human world and its differences from his own, or "the nation within the nation", as Bernie describes it. This time the intrepid duo are hired to investigate the disappearance of a circus elephant and her trainer, which takes them down into Mexico and into all sorts of trouble. But, riding shotgun in the Porsche, singing along with Bernie to his favourite songs and looking forward to catching perps by the pant-leg, there isn't too much wrong with Chet's world, and I'm definitely looking forward to number 4 in the series.

I've also managed a couple of chapters of The Thirties, which makes ten chapters for the month so far, against a goal of five, and I've started Peace Like a River. But it's been a two-nap day, and I am so glad I waited until the weekend to start the new medication regime. I'm hoping to feel a bit more awake tomorrow.

I've got the first Chet and Bernie in amongst my TBR books, Susan. After reading so many good things about these books here, I must jump it ahead of the others that are in line ahead of it. All I have to do is figure out where it is...

I'm so happy you introduced me to the Chet and Bernie books, too, Susan! They are fabulous. I'm not a big Trollope fan myself, on the other hand lol. I hope you're feeling better soon! I know how tough medication adjustments can be, and I've had many unfortunate two-nap days myself. Hang in there!

#127 Hmmm - I keep thinking I need to read some Trollope (1,001!) but I'm not sure where to start - would you not recommend starting on this one?

I'm glad you enjoyed Seraphina. The sequel is well underway, so hopefully the wait won't be that great. How long the series will be is anyone's guess, but it's quite rare these days for young adult books to stand alone.

Also, as someone who grew up in and around Dallas and now lives about an hour south, I can safely say that none of the television shows supposedly about Dallas resemble actual life there in any way shape or form. Although my Dad's grandfather was named J.R.

#130: Charlotte, they're definitely great as a pick-me-up read. I hope you can find the first one!

#131: Thanks Marcia. I think I'll be OK in a day or two. I've got Chet #4 ready to reserve as soon as my month of not reserving anything ends. I have three free slots already and the temptation is nearly overwhelming :-)

#132: Bekka, there are two famous series - The Barsetshire Chronicles, which are mostly rural and "churchy" (as in there is a lot of church politics) and the Palliser Chronicles, which are mostly set in London and are "political". The Barsetshire series starts with The Warden (a short book, which some people find a bit of an odd start, but it sets up the characters for book 2). The Palliser series starts with Can You Forgive Her?. Although the books in each series are not strictly sequels, it does help to read them in order (or maybe that's just me :-) ) The Last Chronicle of Barset is book 6 in the Barsetshire series, so I wouldn't recommend it as a starting point. There are a number of stand-alone novels, of which the best-known is probably The Way We Live Now, which I haven't read yet (but the TV series was superb and I know I'm going to enjoy the story). I also loved He Knew He Was Right. You could try The Warden to see if you like the writing style, maybe, but they're all free to download so there is no downside to going for one of the longer ones :-)

#133: Jennifer, that's good news about the sequel! I'm sure Big Rich Texas is more entertainment than reality, even though it purports to be reality TV, but I am definitely hooked :-)

Darn - I think I'm going to have to do research and read more of them than I thought. The 1,001 ones seem to be mid series. Poop (or great if it turns out I love them!).

Edited to amend : Why oh why can I never type 'and'!

Which ones does the 1001 list recommend?

>>#132, 134, 135:

Excuse me (self-promoting as usual)! - There are a number of people working through the Barsetshire novels at the moment. The Warden and Barchester Towers were done as tutored reads because of their topical material dealing with church politics at the time, and Dr Thorne is currently ongoing as a group read. If you are going to wade into this area you may find the threads a useful resource. :)

#136 The following are on the 1,001;

He Knew He Was Right
Phineas Finn
The Last Chronicle of Barset
Castle Richmond

#137: I'm following the Doctor Thorne GR at the moment and the threads are very interesting.

#138: Bekka, I'd start with He Knew He Was Right. Phineas Finn is number 2 in the Pallisers, and is very long with lots of Victorian politicking in it. And The Last Chronicle of Barset is number 6 in the Barsetshire series and you really need to know who the people are. I haven't read Castle Richmond, but they made a TV series of He Knew He Was Right so it must be better-known :-) (But the book is far better)

I'm feeling tons better today after my zombified weekend. I walked to the supermarket (and back again), vacuumed with attachments, made muffins and did various other housework and I've just listened to the first week of lectures for the Coursera course on The Ancient Greeks. They were superb! The lecturer is excellent, and most of the slides are pictures of beautiful things, with a commentary on what they show and what they tell us about the period - so much more fun than boring old PowerPoint. I need to do the reading for next week now as it's pretty full-on in terms of things to read and listen to.

Thank you! I was kinda looking at them the other day and contemplating the 'Eenie -meanie-miney-mo' approach but looks like that would be a mistake ;) I will aim for He knew he was right at some point this year.

Glad things are looking up - sounds like a very productive day.

Bekka, I'm sure you'll enjoy it. There is a secondary thread of the story which involves a cantankerous old lady and, having recently read Trollope's mother's book about the US, I think I can see where his inspiration might have come from :-)

Goodness, I've just googled the BBC adaptation and it was 2004! Not so recent.

I have Castle Richmond on my longlist of things to get to, but I'm having a little break from the chunksters.

My day has been surprisingly productive. But then my main goal was just to stay awake, so I suppose anything more than that was a win :-)

Yay for the non zombie day!

I'm very surprised that The Way We Live Now isn't on that list.

#142: I managed another non-zombie day today although I had a vague moment at a client lunch when I was trying to pour myself a glass of water and no water went into my glass. But there was water in the bottle. I tilted it a bit more - still nothing in the glass. It took me longer than it should have to realise that the cap was still on the bottle. D'oh! Fortunately no-one else noticed or, if they did, they didn't point and laugh.

#143: Yes, I was surprised about that as well. I'm moving Castle Richmond up the list a bit!

I was all set to fall off the library book wagon today as there appeared to be a copy of Lloyd Shepherd's The English Monster on the shelf across the road. I read a review of the sequel over the weekend and this one turns out to be set right where I live. But there was no sign of it - not under Shepherd, not under Lloyd (anything is possible at my library), not in general, not in crime, not in the London section - humph.

Hi Susan, delighted you enjoyed The Last Chronicle of Barset. I do know what you mean about reading Trollope consecutively.

Hope your days continue to get better, and that you're 100% very soon!

Susan life is overwhelming the last week. I chucked all my current reading for Dog On It! A mystery featuring a dog as narrator is as feel good as it gets. Thanks for the recommendation!

#145: Hi Nancy! Yes, I did enjoy it, but there were quite a few surprises in it! When I reread the Pallisers I am going to do them without as many gaps between them. I'm feeling a lot better. I was describing my happy Monday to my office roomie, to whom I had read out some of the long list of alarming side effects when I picked up the pills, and he said "Well, you know, maybe it's the elation kicking in". LOL!

#146: Roberta, I know you'll love it! Chet's simple world view and his Bernie-centred universe are the perfect pick-me-up. I hope your Mum is continuing to progress and things get easier for you.

Here's to the non-zombie days! Hope you continue acclimating to the meds, Susan.

#148: Thanks Roni :-) The dose went up again this morning so I've felt quite tired and a bit light-headed again, but I think I should be fine by Monday. It didn't go up by as much as last week and hopefully this is the final increase. And we've had sleety snow all day and forecast for tomorrow, so really it's another perfect weekend to sit quietly! (I can't believe British Summer Time starts next weekend, when half the country is buried in snow)

I've alternated between books and TV and I have two finishes to add to my thread.



40. Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: Because Anne (AMQS) recommended it

Anne, thank you for the recommendation! I thought this was a beautiful story, and so well told. And I loved the character of the narrator's sister, Swede and her obsession with westerns and long narrative poems. My copy has a quote on it to the effect that it's hard to believe this is a first novel, and I agree with that. What a great find!



41. A Body in Berkeley Square by Ashley Gardner

Where I got it: Kindle
Why I read it: This is book 5 in the Captain Lacey Mysteries, set in Regency England.

These are quite short reads, but interesting for both the mysteries and the character development as the series progresses. Like most historical mysteries, they'd be solved these days with a quick DNA test, but Gabriel Lacey has to do some good old-fashioned detective work to save his old Colonel from the gallows when it seems that he has stabbed a young man to death at a party.

This afternoon I started and abandoned The Sword in the Stone and Matterhorn, so I'm not sure what's next for me, although I think it might be Phil Rickman's The Bones of Avalon, about John Dee.

I totally get what you are going through with the 'changing medication zombie' days. I have felt like this myself quite a bit over the last two weeks as I have dealt with the dreaded shingles.

I have never been to London but my son and I have recently started watching Sherlock which I think was originally produced by the BBC. I love the location shots of London....they seem so well done. We just love the show overall and Martin Freeman = yum!! LOL

You got me with a book bullet for the Chet and Bernie series too.

Hi Susan, I'm so glad you enjoyed Peace Like a River! I plan to reread it this year. I'm glad you're fairly recovered from your zombified weekend. How awful. Here's to good health and a clear head! Hope you are having a great weekend.

#150: Hello Heidi! You're going through far worse than I am. I am a bit zombificated (I'm sure that must be a word) when the dose changes (but only one short nap each day this weekend!) but at least they are working on the pain-prevention front, which is what I'm taking them for. No headaches! I feel so much better. I hope you continue to improve too. I've never seen Sherlock, but one of my friends is a massive fan, so I hear about it from time to time. It has been a huge hit for the BBC. Enjoy Chet and Bernie!

#151: Anne, I feel a bit better today and I think I'll be fine tomorrow if last week is anything to go by. Besides, there's nothing else to do on the weekends at the moment as it is still SNOWING so it is the perfect time to nap on the sofa :-)

Finally, finally, I have finished a book that I have been reading for weeks and weeks:



42. The Thirties: An Intimate History of Britain by Juliet Gardiner

Where I got it: Amazon
Why I read it: I read this author's book about WWII and thought it was excellent, so when this one came out I definitely wanted it

To start with, I have to emphasise that all my whining about this book has been about the physical difficulty in reading it. It's 850 pages, in a tight paperback binding, and very hard indeed on my arms/shoulders/neck, which is what I am trying to make better. So from time to time I set it aside because it just hurt too much. But content-wise it is faaaabulous, and a must-read for anyone interested in British social history.

The author looks at all sorts of topics, including unemployment and the marches to Parliament, the development of suburbia as public transport started to expand and the existing housing stock was just so poor that it simply couldn't cope (and many of the arguments about it are exactly the same as the arguments that are going on today), the belongings that went into a house, entertainments available to people, the state of matrimony, holidays for the masses, the abdication crisis, the growth of car ownership and the shocking road toll (including thousands of pedestrians, because motorists didn't need a licence to drive a car, and a powerful motoring lobby argued that they shouldn't, and the dead pedestrians were just collateral damage) and preparations for war.

Nearly every sentence seems to contain an interesting fact, and I had the library catalogue open on the Kindle as I read the paperback, so I could wishlist some of the books that were mentioned. The wackiest piece of trivia I learned concerned evacuation provisions for precious things. I knew that paintings from the National Gallery were sent to Wales, and government papers were sent to stately homes in areas thought to be safe from bombs, but I had never read about the plans made by London Zoo. These included killing all the snakes immediately, just in case, and boiling the poisonous spiders. They also included evacuating the elephants to Whipsnade Zoo, out of London. The babies were to be carried by lorry, but the adult elephants were going to walk, and a four-day route had been mapped out, including overnight stops at farms with barns large enough to fit an elephant. There's a novel in there, if it ever happened.

Highly recommended, but get it on Kindle.

Susan, excellent review of The Thirties. What an interesting and all-encompassing read. I know what you mean by 850 pp wrist-breakers. Aren't e-Reader grand!

#153: Nancy, yes, the Kindle is my friend :-) My current read is Bones of Avalon, which is a Kindle read and it is so much easier, even though it is still reasonably long.

It is still freezing here, but I am at home using up more holiday entitlement before the holiday year ends. I could get used to four-day weeks :-) I planned a morning of reading but the lectures for my Coursera course have gone up already so I am going to watch those first and get back to the Kindle later.

43. The Bones of Avalon by Phil Rickman

Where I got it: Kindle
Why I read it: I like this author's Merrily Watkins series, so when I saw this unrelated book at a bargain price, I bought it

This is the first in what I think is intended to be a crime/mystery series about Queen Elizabeth I's astrologer, John Dee. This is the second time Mr Dee has cropped up this year. He also made an appearance in Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (which I am sure is going to win the Title of the Year award, and it's only March). That author didn't think much of him. But Queen Elizabeth I did, at least at the time this story was set.

It involves Dee and Robert Dudley, the Queen's Master of the Horse, running around the West Country in search of the bones of King Arthur, which Good Queen Bess thought needed to be restored to her in order to stave off disaster. Exactly how much of that is true I have no idea, but it was an entertaining read, and I did like the character of Dudley, who found himself going incognito as a minor civil servant, with people daring to challenge him and his sword hand reaching for a sword that was no longer there. The second one in the series is now available, and is set at the time when Dudley's wife, Amy Robsart, mysteriously died, so I definitely want to read that one as I read a non-fiction book about it a couple of years ago and it was excellent. Overall I think I prefer the Merrily Watkins series, but I did like the setting and characterisation of this one.

My aunt read Dog On It yesterday. She has been staying over for two weeks to help out with my mom. Today I took her to the library to get book 2 and 3. Of course I get to read them next. ;)

I'm starting Liesl and Po per Katie's recommendation! Tomorrow I head back to work after a week and a half off. I want to stay home and read!

The Bones of Avalon looks good but my wish list's pants are almost split. LOL! Oh heck, what's another one. Books are like chocolate, I can't keep away.

I think I have to check out those Chet and Bernie books - I remember Carol saying what fun they were as well. And I love your review of The Thirties - that sounds so interesting. And Peace Like a River. Really, this thread is dangerous to me, Susan - keep up the good work! Hope all is well with you!

#156: Roberta, that is so funny about your aunt! I think once people meet Chet, they're hooked. I sent a copy to my Dad, who almost never reads books, and he read the whole thing and has passed it to my stepmother to read. After that I think it's going to two friends :-) Sorry your time off is ending - it is quite a shock to the system, isn't it?! I just had yesterday off but this morning on the way to work it felt like I'd been gone for ages.

I have a gun law question for you, having just finished the latest instalment of Big Rich Texas. Whitney bought a handgun, having been to the shooting range with Pam and Hannah, and deciding that she wanted to be a badass like Pam. She took it to the country club and Hannah freaked out and marched her out. But the man in the shop was showing her little guns which were presumably for handbags, so are there some places you can't take them? Maybe the country club rules said no guns, and that was the problem, but what would someone do if they were going to the country club (and didn't need/couldn't take their gun) and then to the bad side of town, where they might need it? Do people leave them in their cars? I was confused by the end of it, although fortunately Bonnie confiscated it before the episode ended, which I'm sure was a great relief to everyone watching.

#157: Mamie, I'm sure you'll love Chet and Bernie, and Peace Like a River is a lovely read, much of it set in the North Dakota badlands. We are still freezing over here - hats, gloves, ridiculous.

This evening I ran (almost literally) down to the small library branch before it closed at 6. I had two reserves to pick up (Lakeshore Christmas and Careless Talk, and on the shelf I happened to see another one that I have reserved (The Falcons of Fire and Ice), which has been "in transit" since before Christmas, so I snaffled that one too. And then I fell off the "no new books" wagon by getting one more - The Uses of Literacy - not entirely an impulse borrow but it does break my March rules. Still, it's nearly April, and I have finished two giant chunksters this month and read five TBRs. I would have browsed more, but it was ten minutes till closing, and halfway through that time they turned the lights off. Well, down. So I couldn't go complete crazy in there.

In Texas you can get a license to carry a concealed weapon (handgun). You can take it in your car and to most public places. Exclusions are schools and hospitals and courthouse etc... You can also carry a handgun in your vehicle without a permit if you are traveling from one county to another. In other words, this part of the law is for traveling armed. This may have changed, but I'm not sure. Since the country club is private it may be a no gun allowed property. Most people that have a license for concealed weapons travel with them in their vehicle. This way you can leave them in the car but have them accessible. I hope this helps a little.

I am certainly no expert, but my uncle Tony teaches the classes for carrying a concealed weapon. Most of my Dad's family has handguns and rifles for hunting. My uncle Tony has some crazy semi automatic weapons that in my opinion should be banned for sale to private citizens. My Dad and his siblings grew up on a ranch and always (and still do) hunt for food. For this reason I think rifles and handguns are ok for use in that setting. I own a handgun my Dad gave me but I haven't gotten licensed for it yet. It is in my closet next to the Bible and my books by Thich Nhat Hanh and the Dali Lama. I honestly don't know if I could use a weapon to take a life. I shot a doe at age 15 with my uncle and brother. I'm still sick about it.

I went crazy at the library yesterday too! In addition to the Chet books and Liesl and Po I picked up Ashfall.

#159: Roberta, thanks for the explanation. I think the issue must have been with the club rules, because no-one suggested that Whitney was breaking the law. (I wish they had showed more of the classes, though, because it seemed like the FBI check was done in minutes and she was just sold a gun and allowed to take it away - worrying!). Handguns have been almost completely banned in the UK since 1997 after a school shooting (and even before that I don't think people could carry concealed weapons), so I had no idea what was going on.

I had a little outing to the library over the road at lunchtime, mostly to see if the weather had warmed up (no, is the answer to that question). I came back with The Song of Achilles and A Faithful Place. I still can't find the darned Lloyd Shepherd book, which is supposed to be on the shelf at BOTH branches, so I have reserved it. They'll think I'm crazy until they go and look for it themselves, and good luck with that. Last night I decided that I just couldn't waste the six reserve slots that came free during March, so I filled them all up. So "My Own Books March" was slightly derailed at the end of it, but I'm going to try it again in June and then September and see how that goes.

Oooh - Song of Achilles is rather good. Hope you enjoy!

Also hope it's not too cold - it's filthy over here at the mo (on the plus side I'm now off work till the 8th - that makes is wine-o'clock, no?).

#161: Thanks Bekka! I wouldn't have tackled The Song of Achilles had I not studied those bits of The Iliad for my course recently, but I am hoping that I will understand it.

It is giant-chocolate-buttons-o-clock over here - I have had to put them on the other side of the office. Fortunately my roomie is away :-) I hope it warms up a bit for you for Easter so that you can get out of the house and do things with the kids. What a lovely lot of time off you have!

MMmmm buttons....

Nope wine wins! And it will be nice to have time with Cass - but school hols def take big chunks out of my holidays.

Susan, Happy Belated Thingaversary to you. I see it was earlier this month. Still plenty of time to celebrate...and buy yourself some guilt-free books.

I really liked peace Like A River when I read it. Anne has given me lots,of excellent recommendations. I'm slowly but happily moving through the Trollope books. I'll start Dr. Thorne soon and will make good use of the group read thread.

Are you fully accustomed to your new medicine? I had the same experience with mine last fall. I still have dry mouth and the occasional dizzy spell, but the zombie-like feeling is gone. I would quit taking it, but it controls the chronic pain in my lower back, hip, and knee to the point where I can do most things want to. Good luck with your wonder drug!

Hi Susan, just stopping by to wish you a Happy Easter as I am heading out of town tomorrow and won't have much computer access for the next week or so. Have a lovely weekend and enjoy all those library books!

#158 - maybe you can tweak the falling-off-the-no-borrowing-books-in-March-wagon by not actually cracking that last book open until the weekend and then not finishing it until April. By the way, I must have missed it, but why, exactly are you somewhat banned from borrowing books in March? This is a self-imposed ban, right?

#163: Bekka, they tend to frown on wine in my office :-) In fact, if you read our drugs and alcohol policy, it says only prescription drugs, which actually excludes run-of-the-mill painkillers. Fortunately no-one has busted me yet!

#164: Thanks Donna! I suppose I do have time for my Thingaversay. And actually I have bought three Kindle Daily Deals recently.... I like Anne's recommendations too! The new medicine is going OK. It has been great with disappearing the pain, although a little bit of pain seems to have snuck back today, but not a headache. I probably just need some time away from my keyboard, and fortunately we have a four-day Easter holiday here, so I will get it. I might even go out tomorrow, as all the shops seem to be open. That seems strange to me, but then, as someone commented, shopping is the new religion here.

#165: Hi Judy! Happy Easter to you too. I am already enjoying the books, with one fiction and one non-fiction on the go. I was a little bit tempted to read the introduction to another one thing morning, but I'll never finish anything!

#166: Charlotte, I think I'm going to give up on the March project :-) It was indeed a self-imposed ban, to try and read more of what I already have. I am so easily distracted by the new and shiny that I tend to overlook what's on the Kindle in particular, and it's a little bit stressy when I think of all those unread things. So this year I'm trying really hard not to buy too much or to download random freebies, and to read the things I have. And I did finish two TBR chunksters in March, and some other things, so I'm pleased about that. I'll try it again in June.

I got an email from Coursera this morning, announcing 30 new courses starting in April, so I have signed up for "Logic" with Stanford University. There will be five weeks of overlap with the Ancient Greeks, but I think I can handle it. I might splurge on a new notebook :-)

#167 Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Doen't let them know ;)

Luckily I was finished by that point - we aren't allowed wine in our offices either. Grrrrrr...

Hi Susan -

This is my first visit to your thread and I can see I've missed quite a lot!

First, the books. I remember hearing about In the Garden of the Beasts last year - thanks for reminding me of it. I also want to give We Are At War a try - it sounds great. The Thirties: An Intimate History of Britain sounds excellent, but while I'm adding it to my 'Don't Forget' list, it may be a while just because it's such a chunkster. I think I'll take your advice and watch for it to become available on kindle in the U.S. I've got Seraphina on the shelf waiting to be read, so it was nice to see another positive review.

I hope your medication continues to prove a success - take care.

You should have been in my office last Friday when we had two kinds of sangria. Then there are May Day margaritas. And back when we were a lot busier there were Beer Fridays. All consumed at the end of the day, of course.

#168: Bekka, I thought you must be finished :-)

#169: Hi Dejah! Great to see you, and I'm glad you've found some suggestions for new books. I hope you enjoy Seraphina when you get to it.

#170: Charlotte, beer Fridays? LOL! That sounds like a friendly workplace. We have lots of chocolate and biscuits for birthdays and similar things but not so much with the alcohol :-)

Today I have been doing my bit to help the economy, by going shopping. It turns out that the summer clothes were all made on Planet Ugly, so I didn't get any of those, but I did get this cute bag, in an attempt to stop myself carrying lots of stuff around and hurting my neck. It's just 20 x 21 cm, so much smaller than I usually have. It's intended for weekends, so I am going to give it an outing either tomorrow or Monday.



Of course I got black because I always do, but Radley has a new spring collection out with lots of bright colours (a grass-green, duckling-yellow, a soft light tealy-blue, plus a bright orange which tempted me briefly, as I wear so much black that it would have contrasted nicely), and I commented to the shop assistant how good it was to see something different for spring, and she said "Mmmmm, they've been selling quite well, but I don't like the green. I wouldn't buy it." Triple-dip recession, anyone?

When I got home, I may have had a short nap, and then I finished the first of last week's library books.



44. Lakeshore Christmas by Susan Wiggs

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: I love this series set in a small town in upstate New York and this is book 6.

This features a hero who's had a walk-on part in previous books, and the town librarian, Maureen. Set around the preparations for the town Christmas pageant, and the threatened closure of the library, it was a fun read, and it also moved one of the other series storylines on quite a bit. There was even a little bit of Christmas magic in it, and a whole lot of cookies. The cookie-baking Christmas tradition is unknown here, but this book even came with recipes at the back!

That Susan Wiggs Christmas book looks good. I like the library angle. I'm going to add it to my list of TBR Christmas reads.

I love Radley bags! I have one. I keep hinting to Mr SandDune that this really isn't good enough!

#172: Lori, it will be a good Christmas read, and the characters are all likeable, except the ones who aren't supposed to be :-)

#173: Rhian, as it's just been your birthday, maybe Mr SandDune could be prevailed upon to add one from the spring collection?! I bought one of their work bags last year, to take to the US. It is a Jacquard fabric on the front and back, and leather at the sides, and big enough to take A4 papers and a laptop (actually plenty big enough for a small laptop). The fabric looks quite nondescript from a distance as the pattern is black on black but if you look really closely, you can see that it's the Scottie dogs :-) I love it, and would like more excuses to use it, but I don't leave the office much at the moment.

Today I took the new bag on an outing to the National Portrait Gallery to see the George Catlin exhibition of American Indian portraits, which was excellent. http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/george-catlin-american-indian-portraits/exhibition... The portraits were all brought over here by the artist in the 19th century for an exhibiton at the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, but then sold to a US buyer to defray debts, and the buyer's wife gave them to the Smithsonian when her husband died. And the Smithsonian have sent them back for this exhibition. Catlin also had one of the touring shows of American Indians, and I suppose he must be one of the people mentioned in Prairie Fever, which I read last year. His books sound good, so I will look for them on Project Gutenberg and try to get a version with the maps.

Then I went to the National Gallery where they have a room of American landscapes by Frederic Church http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/frederic-church, and that was interesting but not worth a special trip as there aren't that many paintings.

I'm about half way through Careless Talk and a quarter of the way through The Falcons of Fire and Ice, and last night for my Kindle read I started Diana Mosley's A Life of Contrasts. A recent Kindle Fire software upgrade seems to have added a fantastically annoying feature which I think comes from the Paperwhite - telling you how much longer the book/chapter is going to take you to read. I wondered whether it was just the Mosley book which said everything would take "2 mins", so I switched to a Marsha Canham romance (500+ pages) and it said that reading the entire book would take 1 hr 38 minutes. If only! I have now read 20% of the Mosley book, which took me an hour. The Kindle tells me that it will take me 3 hours 11 mins to finish it. I'm no maths genius, but basic maths suggests that it should be 4 hours. I prefer the Overdrive feature, which brings up a little box in the middle of the screen which tells you how far through the book you are, and how far through the chapter. That way, you can use your own judgement about how much longer it's going to take!

45. Careless Talk: The Hidden History of the Home Front 1939 - 1945 by Stuart Hylton

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: This is the last of a number of books referred to in something I read recently about WWII. I reserved about five of them.

On LT, this book has the title "Their Darkest Hour: The Hidden History of the Home Front 1939 - 1945", which I think is the US title (although the touchstone won't work now). I wonder whether that's because the "Careless Talk" reference means nothing to US readers, but it is part of the "Careless Talk Costs Lives" slogan publicised by the Ministry of Information during the war, and one of their most popular campaigns (As an aside, it's worth noting that "Keep Calm and Carry On", now so famous, was never actually rolled out to a mass audience).

Subtitled "The Hidden History of the Home Front", this book promises to "astonish, amuse and move anyone under 60" by going behind the traditional image of the UK during the war - "cheery Londoners singing along to Vera Lynn on the radio and making do and mending as bombs burst all around them". And it does, but it's a fairly quick read and the material has been covered in other books that I have read recently, and in more depth. I think I may be all warred-out for a while, and perhaps I have just read too many books too close together, but I didn't think this one really added anything.

You are dangerous in a library, girl! No wonder they turn the lights out on you. I've got four books waiting for me to pick up right now, so I'm not that far behind you.

Hi Susan! I finally got caught up here! I've been behind on threads for most of this year :(
You've been doing some great reading this year. 45 books down already!
Hope your medication works out for you and doesn't make you too tired!

#176: Roni, I think they saw me coming :-) They'd also turned off the self-issuing machine, but they issued my books at the desk, fortunately! I'm a bid sad to report that my Easter reading is "meh" so far - which is a disappointment. I was so looking forward to the Karen Maitland book and it's just not grabbing me.

#177: Hi Chelle! I've been lurking on your thread and I must post. It's great news that you can keep Tempe!

I've just watched this week's Coursera lectures for The Ancient Greeks, which is a superb course that I am really enjoying. The lecturer is very organised in the way he presents things, and it is just so interesting. I know nothing about the Ancient Greeks (well, I do know things now) so it's like a whole new world. I've just signed up for Social Epidemiology, which starts some time in May. The Greeks will be finished by then, and I'll be nearly finished with the Logic course, which starts tomorrow.

British Summer Time started overnight, and it was pretty sunny to start with, but it has clouded over now. One of the papers reported yesterday that this cold snap is the start of a 200-year ice age, which, strangely, none of the forecasters has mentioned so far :-)

Was it by any chance the Mail? ;)

In fact it was the Express. Maybe they've finally run out of Diana stories. I saw it on the newspaper roundup on TV and they were going to have someone to explain (debunk) it, but I missed him.

I've started The Song of Achilles, which is much better than my other library reading so far this weekend.

>176 ronincats:, The title difference is probably down to the fact that the famous American slogan is "Loose Lips Sink Ships". I'd never heard the "Careless Talk" slogan before.



I can understand being topic-ed out and have definitely been there before. Hopefully you'll like The Song of Achilles, I read it last year and found it a very interesting read.

#152 Excellent review of the Juliet Gardiner book Susan. I've added that and her wartime book go my wishlist.

#180 Hope you enjoy The Song of Achilles - it was one of my favourite reads last year.

And happy Easter!

Hi Susan, happy Easter! I'm so glad you're enjoying The Song of Achilles. I loved your description of the outing you and your new bag took -- how wonderful! It helps me imagine that I could be in London.

Of course I got black because I always do LOL, so do I! My girls are always trying to get me to wake up my wardrobe a bit, but I love black, and it is definitely my habit. Plus, I have to wear a lot of black for Chorale (concert black, we call it), so the black is very useful, if boring:)

I hope your Easter (if you celebrate) was wonderful!

Susan I hope your Easter was wonderful.

#181: Jennifer, that would seem to be the reason! I'd heard "Loose lips sink ships" but didn't realise it was the American slogan.

#182: Heather, I'm glad you enjoyed the review. It's such a huge book that it's hard to know where to start. The wartime one is similarly huge, but there is one on the London Blitz which is thinner. I haven't read that one yet. The Song of Achilles is going well.

#183: Thanks Anne! I don't know why I gravitate to black - I used to wear more colour but since I came to the UK it has mostly been black. And of course my mother always used to say, of more unusual clothes, "You'll get known in it", which continues to echo down the decades :-) Funnily enough, after I'd had a little craving for colour, I opened up the Saturday Times to find an article by their fashion writer, who always favours black, navy or tan for bags, saying that she had a hankering for a coloured bag and couldn't understand why.

#184: Thanks Dejah! I had my usual quiet weekend, but it was good to be inside in the warm.

#185: Thanks Roberta! It is a public holiday here today as well, so it has been a lovely four-day weekend. Also, I was able to catch up on last night's episode of Big Rich Texas this morning, in which Pam pretty well accused Lesley of being a grifter, so I can't wait to see what happens there :-)

March wrap-up:

Books read: 12 (OK)

Fiction: 8
Non-fiction: 4

ROOT tomes: 5 (OK).

Books acquired: 3 (not bad)

Goals for March were:

Five more chapters of The Thirties: An Intimate History of Britain - YES! In fact, I finished it

Read at least five more TBRs - YES!

Read only library books which come in on reserve during March, but no others, and reserve nothing new - ALMOST! I lasted until nearly the end of the month and then I borrowed something off the shelf, and filled up my reserve list again. Ah well.

Download no freebies unless they are totally awesome (again) - YES! By this I mean that I downloaded no freebies at all.

I finished my first book for April this morning:



46. A Life of Contrasts by Diana Mosley

Where I got it: Kindle Daily Deal or sale
Why I read it: I'm fascinated by the story of the Mitford sisters and this was one of the books that I hadn't read, for some reason

This was a great read, in terms of what it covered and the extraordinary times that Diana Mosley lived through. Some reviewers have criticised her writing style as not being particularly polished, but I could overlook that because it was just so interesting. Starting with her childhood in a variety of houses depending on the family's finances (they were property rich, but cash-poor (for their class), and there is a lovely sentence in which she says that she considered herself merely the tenant of her clothes as they made their way from an older sister to a younger one via her), it continues on to her first marriage, and then to her second, great, love, Sir Oswald Mosley, and their marriage in 1936, and then what happened during the war when they were both interned under Regulation 18B, which allowed for the internment of people suspected of being Nazi sympathisers.

During this period, habeas corpus was suspended, which is not something I knew before, so they really had no way out, other than the Advisory Committee which considered various cases. And in the end, they were in prison for four years, at first separately but then allowed to live together in a section of Holloway Prison in north London, which is a women’s prison. Their infant children (the youngest just 11 weeks old when Diana was arrested) were sent to live with family. The prison section of the book is the most gripping, as she compares her life in prison against what the papers were printing about her luxurious conditions and how dangerous the pair were when they had been charged with nothing at all, and never were. On their release they were under house arrest and had to live at an approved location, which was once again a sister’s house.

I think I recall, from reading Letters Between Six Sisters, that at the time this book was originally written in the early 1970s, Diana did not know that one of the reasons she had spent so long in prison was because Nancy had written to the powers-that-be saying that she should not be allowed out. I don’t think the other sisters told Diana about this until after Nancy’s death but she doesn’t mention it in the updated chapters at the end of the book either.

Sir Oswald Mosley was a controversial figure, and his wife was his staunch supporter who was similarly criticised for the views that the British Union of Fascists held. But the book is very interesting in its comparison of what was actually going on against what was reported to be going on (violence at meetings, for example, and their meetings with Hitler and others in the German government) and it is a reminder of just how the media can skew things for their own ends, something which is just as relevant today in some of the stories making the headlines.

Originally published in 1972, the book was updated in 2000 with further reflections on her life, and to fill in some of the gaps in what had happened since its original publication. Diana Mosley died in 2003.

I wouldn't recommend this book as a starting point for anyone interested in the family, as there are fuller narratives to be found in other books, and probably Mary S Lovell's The Mitford Girls would be a better choice, but it is always good to hear the authentic voices of people that others write about.

Interesting point about possible media distortion, though I wouldn't want to guess where Diana Mitford and some of our newspapers disagree who was actually telling the truth....

#188: There is one interesting example about a story in a newspaper alleging that "at a time when the entire population was cheerfully putting up with wartime austerity, we were living in idle luxury. {Mosley} in Brixton 'called for alternate bottles of red and white wine' while the Holloway prison dustbins were choked with empty champagne bottles after our orgies." But in fact, Diana (as a remand prisoner, entitled to order alcohol if she paid for it) had ordered some half-bottles of port, which were doled out one at a time (no "orgies"), and Mosley had had no wine or beer at Brixton at all, so they sued for libel and won.

Similarly, when they were finally allowed to live together at Holloway, in a horrible run-down freezing cold building in the grounds, the papers described it as a "suite" and her mother, on the way to visit her at the prison, was on a bus when the conductor called out "Holloway gaol! Lady Mosley's suite!" (Shades there of the recent Huhne/Pryce controversy about the open prisons).

Susan while you were watching Big Rich Texas I was watching Call the Midwife. Season 2 premiered last night on PBS. ;)

12 (OK) - seriously! In the last few years that's been my total for the year to date! Go you on your crazy annual total :)

#190: Roberta, I hope it lived up to expectations! The second series finished here a few weeks ago so we're waiting for the next one. I'm not sure how far away it is.

#191: But you have to remember I have nothing else to do! Since I've been invalided out of needlework, it is just reading or TV, and I find it very hard to watch TV without doing something else at the same time, so I mostly just read. But the lectures finally went live for my new Coursera course (Introduction to Logic) and that looks good.



47. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: Mostly because of the great review on Anne's thread, but I've seen other people reviewing and like it too (Hi Bekka!)

I'm glad I'd read something about The Iliad before I started this, or all the characters might have proved too confusing. But, because I knew what the story was leading up to, it worked.

One of the reviews on LT refers to it as having similarities to Twilight, because of the "outsider who finds true love with a cool person" theme, but that is hardly uncommon in fiction (or maybe I mean romance :-) ) Another queries how it could ever have won the Orange prize because the sentences are very short and the vocab isn't that challenging. But I thought the very spare writing helped to give a sense of place - the heat, the sea and particularly the isolation at the beginning of the book somehow seemed more real than perhaps they would have with more "lush" descriptions.

I enjoyed it, and was surprised at how fast I read it. It really was a page-turner, even though the end of the main plot line is well-known and could never change.

Yay - glad you liked! It is definitely a surprising page turner - I didn't expect that either.

I had put it in the "too hard" basket as it was (1) a prize winner (I steer well clear of those as they are usually far too clever for me), and (2) about Ancient Greece, which just shouts "hard!" but thanks to my Ancient Greeks course, it wasn't quite so hard :-)

I have a stack of books to take back today, including The Falcons of Fire and Ice which I just couldn't be bothered with after about 140 pages, and The Uses of Literacy, which annoyed me even in the Introduction (which was by someone else entirely). I did try a bit of the book but that one is also going back too, plus some I did actually finish. That leaves me just one library book!

I have heard so many good things about The Song of Achilles, but I'm afraid it is permanently in the "too hard" basket for me. I don't know much about Ancient Greece, so it would probably be confusing to me. Although at least I wouldn't already know how it ends!

Carol, it is just as well we don't all read the same things, or we'd quickly run out of books. {Pauses to consider how terrible that would be...} I've seen some great things on your thread recently, and my list is growing.

I have finally got hold of The English Monster which the library catalogue assured me was freely available at both my branches...except it wasn't. But I went in to return my Easter books on Tuesday and there it was on the trolley right next to the self-service station, just returned! Except along came a library assistant and picked it up...I watched as he walked around aimlessly, peeling the "New Book" sticker off the front of it, and wondering whether he had some plan for it, but no, he came back, picked up some more books to put on top of it and wandered off again. So I had to follow him. I felt like Sydney Bristow just a little bit. Eventually, he put them all down again on the trolley next to the other self-service station, so I was able to snap it up. I hope I like it now. But currently I'm reading Tana French's Faithful Place and I've just started Fever Season, about the Yellow Fever epidemic in Memphis in 1878. Apparently we will all die from bird flu in much the same way, so that's a cheerful thought.

#196 Just made me snarf out loud. Very odd images of you detective style stalking library assistants!

I hate it when the catalogue assures you books that you really want are in and yet they are nowhere in sight. It's a room 101-able sin.

That is a really great story! Thanks for sharing.

I've started a new Coursera course this week, too: Science and Technology and China. It's out of Hong Kong University. How fun!

ETA: I meant to ask if you've read Spillover. If not, put it high on your list since you enjoy epidemiology.

#197: Bekka, it's the expression "On the shelf" that's the problem. It should say "On *a* shelf". Because I'm sure that's true. It's just finding the shelf...

#198: Hi Janet! I'm doing The Ancient Greeks, which is superb, and I'm signed up for an epidemiology course in May. I quietly dropped Introduction to Logic after realising I probably needed a PhD in algebra to understand it. And alas, I don't have one :-) I haven't read Spillover, but I just looked it up and it's available for loan in my library system (which covers multiple boroughs) so I will add it to my wishlist for when a reserve slot comes free.

I just can't help myself posting message 200 so I can start a new thread - so here goes...