SandDune's 75 in 2013 Episode 4

Welcome to thread number 4. Last few weeks have been more lighter reading after the Booker Prize shortlist in January and February, but I want to focus on something more substantial over the next few weeks. The featured illustrator for this thread is Shaun Tan, absolutely my favourite modern illustrator.

This one is from The Arrival, one of my five star reads from last year, strictly speaking not a 'read' as no words at all. In this picture the strange and surreal city illustrates the immigrant's experience:



Here is an enigmatic diver from the Tales from Outer Suburbia



and The Lost Thing, sitting in the background unnoticed by the parents:



Here are my favourite reads from 2013:

The Garden of Evening Mists Tan Twan Eng *****
Tooth and Claw Jo Walton *****
The Unknown Bridesmaid Margaret Forster *****
The Lighthouse Alison Moore ****1/2
Salvage the Bones Jesmyn Ward ****1/2
The Chrysalids John Wyndham ****1/2

and from 2012:

Northanger Abbey Jane Austen *****
Among Others Jo Walton *****
The Arrival Shaun Tan *****
The Tale of Peter Rabbit Beatrix Potter *****
The Uncommon Reader Alan Bennett *****
Railsea China Mieville *****
Stitches David Small *****
Nightingale Wood Stella Gibbons ****1/2
Rivers of London Ben Aaronovitch ****1/2
Tales from Outer Suburbia Shaun Tan ****1/2
Voices in the Park Anthony Browne ****1/2
Tom's Midnight Garden Philippa Pearce****1/2
Pollyanna Eleanor H. Porter ****1/2
The Sisters Brothers Patrick deWitt ****1/2

Books Read in 2013:

1. The Lighthouse Alison Moore ****1/2
2. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic Alison Bechdel ***1/2
3. Clueless Dogs Rhian Edwards ***
4. Swimming Home Deborah Levy ****
5. Narcopolis Jeet Thayil **
6. Harriet Elizabeth Jenkins ****
7. Dotter of her Father's Eyes Mary Talbot Bryan Talbot ***1/2
8. Perelandra C.S.Lewis **1/2
9. The Last Sunset Bob Atkinson ***
10. Bring up the Bodies Hilary Mantel ****
11. The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her Own Making Catherynne M. Valente ***1/2
12. Pure Andrew Miller***1/2
13. The Garden of Evening Mists *****
14. Umbrella Will Self ****
15. Sixpence House Paul Collins **1/2
16. Father Christmas Raymond Briggs ***1/2
17. Tooth and Claw Jo Walton *****
18. The Lost Dog Michelle de Kretser ***1/2
19. Ethel and Ernest Raymond Briggs ****
20. When the Wind Blows Raymond Briggs ***1/2
21. My Dog Tulip J. R. Ackerley ****
22. Dandelion Wine Ray Bradbury ***
23. The White Mountains John Christopher ***1/2
24. The City of Gold and Lead John Christopher ****
25. Moon over Soho Ben Aaronovitch ***1/2
26. The Pool of Fire John Christopher ***
27. The Unknown Bridesmaid Margaret Forster *****
28. Salvage the Bones Jesmyn Ward ****1/2
29. Angel Elizabeth Taylor ***
30. Black Swan Green David Mitchell ***1/2
31. The Chrysalids John Wyndham ****1/2
32. The Last Family in England Matt Haig ***1/2
33. Foreigner C.J. Cherryh ****
34. Blooming Books Nicolette Jones Raymond Briggs ***
35. The Travels of Maudie Tipstaff Margaret Forster ****
36. Ignorance Michele Roberts ***
37. Redshirts John Scalzi ****
38. The Accidental Tourist Anne Tyler ****
39. The Untied Kindom Kate Johnson ***1/2

Books Acquired in 2013:

1. Tintin and the Secret of Literature Tom McCarthy
2. Clueless Dogs Rhian Edwards (R)
3. Dotter of her Father's Eyes Mary M. Talbot (R)
4. Space Magic David D. Levine (ER)
5. Island of Wings Karin Altenberg
6. The Cat's Table Michael Ondaatje (gift)
7. Prophecy S.J. Parris (gift)
8. Quiet: the Power of Introverts in a World that can't Stop Talking Susan Cain
9. Fish Change Direction in Cold Weather Pierre Szalowski
10. The Sandman: The Doll's House Neil Gaiman
11. The Three Sisters May Sinclair
12. Losing Battles Eudora Welty
13. Women in the Wall Julia O'Faolain
14. Tooth and Claw Jo Walton (R)
15. The Prince Niccolo Machiavelli
16. Awakenings Oliver Sacks
17. The Light Between the Oceans M L Stedman

These are my categories for the 13 Category Challenge. All the category names are from books in my library or wishlist.

The Welsh Girl Peter Ho Davies
Fiction about Wales or by Welsh authors set in the twentieth or twenty-first century. No Celtic mythology or Arthurian fables or medieval history.

Astonishing Splashes of Colour Claire Morrell
Picturebooks and graphic novels. This one will include at least some of the Sandman novels by Neil Gaiman

My Dog Tulip J.R. Ackerley
All things dog related.

The Gardens of Kyoto Kate Walbert
Fiction by Japanese authors.

Love on the Dole Walter Greenwood
Working-class fiction.

The End of Your Life Book Club Will Schwalbe
RL book club choices.

Is There Anything You Want? Margaret Forster
Recommendations from LT and elsewhere.

Possession A.S.Byatt
Books that I've possessed for more than 6 months and that really need reading. Several Persephone books fall into this category.

Touching the Void Joe Simpson
Filling in the gaps on my reading by year list.

Hothouse Brian Aldiss
My Open University reading: nineteenth century novels at the start of the year and probably twentieth century writing at the end.

The Thirteenth Tale Diane Setterfield
Series that I'm currently working through.

Oranges are not the only fruit Jeanette Winterson
The (ex) Orange prize and Booker prize and any other prizes that sound interesting.

A Brief History of the Dead Kevin Brockmeier
Dystopian fiction and the end of the world

Favourite books by year -one of my 13 categories is to fill in some gaps:

1811 Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen
1812 The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm
1813 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
1814 Mansfield Park Jane Austen
1815 Emma Jane Austen
1817 Persuasion Jane Austen
1818 Frankenstein Mary Shelley
1819 Ivanhoe Sir Walter Scott
1820 none
1821 none
1822 none
1823 none
1824 none
1825 The Talisman Sir Walter Scott
1826 none
1827 The Betrothed Alessandro Manzoni
1828 none
1829 The Chouans Honore de Balzac
1830 none
1831 none
1832 The Lasy of Shalott Arthur Lord Tennyson
1833 none
1834 none
1835 none
1836 none
1837 Oliver Twist Charles Dickens
1838 none
1839 The Fall of the House of Usher Edger Allen Poe
1840 none
1841 The Old Curiosity Shop Charles Dickens
1842 none
1843 A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens
1844 none
1845 Modern Cooking for Private Families Eliza Acton
1846 Book of Nonsense Edward Lear
1847 Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte
1848 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Anne Bronte
1849 Shirley Charlotte Bronte
1850 David Copperfield Charles Dickens
1851 none
1852 none
1853 none
1854 Hard Times Charles Dickens
1855 North and South Elizabeth Gaskell
1856 Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert
1857 Tom Brown's Schooldays Thomas Hughes
1858 none
1859 Adam Bede George Eliot
1860 The Mill on the Floss George Eliot
1861 Great Expectations Charles Dickens
1862 Les Miserables Victor Hugo
1863 The Water Babies Charles Kingsley
1864 none
1865 Wives and Daughters Elizabeth Gaskell
1866 Felix Holt, the Radical George Eliot
1868 The Moonstone Wilkie Collins
1869 He Knew He was Right Anthony Trollope
1870 none
1871 Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There Lewis Carroll
1872 Erewhon Samuel Butler
1873 Around the World in Eighty Days Jules Verne
1874 Far from the Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy
1875 none
1876 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Mark Twain
1877 Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy
1878 The Return of the Native Thomas Hardy
1879 A Dolls House Henrik Ibsen
1880 Heidi Johanna Spyri
1881 none
1882 The Prince and the Pauper Mark Twain
1883 Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson
1884 The Complete Hans Christian Anderson Fairy Tales Hans Christian Anderson
1885 King Solomon's Mines Rider Haggard
1886 The Mayor of Casterbridge Thomas Hardy
1887 The Woodlanders Thomas Hardy
1888 Plain Tales from the Hills Rudyard Kipling
1889 Three Men in a Boat Jerome K. Jerome
1890 The Picture of Dorian Grey Oscar Wilde
1891 Tess of the D'Urbervilles Thomas Hardy
1892 Diary of a Nobody George Grossmith
1893 none
1894 none
1895 The Time Machine H.G. Wells
1896 none
1897 Dracula Bram Stoker
1898 The War of the Worlds H.G. Wells
1899 Some Experiences of an Irish R.M. E. Somerville M. Ross
1900 Lord Jim Joseph Conrad
1901 The Tale of Peter Rabbit Beatrix Potter
1902 Anna of the Five Towns Arnold Bennett
1903 The Call of the Wild Jack London
1904 The Tale of Benjamin Bunny Beatrix Potter
1905 Where Angels Fear to Tread E.M. Forster
1906 The Man of Property John Galsworthy
1907 The Tale of Tom Kitten Beatrix Potter
1908 A Room with a View E.M. Forster
1909 none
1910 Howard's End E.M. Forster
1911 The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett
1912 The Lost World Arthur Conan-Doyle
1913 Pollyanna Eleanor H. Porter
1914 none
1915 The Rainbow D.H. Lawrence
1916 Trifles Susan Glaspell
1917 Summer Edith Wharton
1918 none
1919 none
1920 In Chancery John Galsworthy
1921 The Black Moth Georgette Heyer
1922 The Enchanted April Elizabeth Von Arnim
1923 Riceyman Steps Arnold Bennett
1924 A Passage to India E.M. Forster
1925 The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
1926 Winnie-the-Pooh A.A. Milne
1927 The Midnight Folk John Masefield
1928 The House at Pooh Corner A.A. Milne
1929 Goodbye to All That Robert Graves
1930 Swallows and Amazons Arthur Ransome
1931 none
1932 Cold Comfort Farm Stella Gibbons
1933 Frost in May Antonia White
1934 Miss Buncle's Book D.E. Stevenson
1935 The Stars Look Down A.J. Cronin
1936 South Riding Winifred Holtby
1937 The Hobbit J.R.R. Tolkein
1938 Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day Winifred Watson
1939 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
1940 The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov
1941 Frenchman's Creek Daphne du Maurier
1942 The Screwtape Letters C.S. Lewis
1943 none
1944 The Wind on the Moon Eric Linklater
1945 Animal Farm George Orwell
1946 An Inspector Calls J.B. Priestley
1947 If This is a Man Primo Levi
1948 Cry, the Beloved Country Alan Paton
1949 1984 George Orwell
1950 The Grand Sophy Georgette Heyer
1951 The Day of the Triffids John Wyndham
1952 The Borrowers Mary Norton
1953 Childhood's End Arthur C Clarke
1954 The Fellowship of the Ring J.R.R. Tolkien
1955 The Magician's Nephew C.S. Lewis
1956 Harry the Dirty Dog
1957 The Leopard Giuseppe di Lampedusa
1958 A Bear called Paddington Michael Bond
1959 Tom's Midnight Garden Philippa Pearce
1959 Cider with Rosie Laurie Lee
1960 Our Ancestors Italo Calvino
1961 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Muriel Spark
1962 The Slave Isaac Bashevis Singer
1963 The Spy who Came in From the Cold John Le Carre
1964 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Roald Dahl
1965 Frederica Georgette Heyer
1966 The Witch's Daughter Nina Bawden
1967 One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez
1968 The Wizard of Earthsea Ursula K Le Guin
1969 The Left Hand of Darkness Ursula K Le Guin
1970 The Tombs of Atuan Ursula K Le Guin
1971 Dragonquest Anne McCaffrey
1972 Watership Down Richard Adams
1973 The Inverted World Christopher Priest
1974 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy John Le Carre
1975 The Periodic Table Primo Levi
1976 The Selfish Gene Richard Dawkins
1977 The Road to Lichfield Penelope Lively
1978 The Far Pavilions M.M. Kaye
1979 The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams
1980 Rites of Passage William Golding
1981 Goodnight Mr Tom Michelle Magorian
1982 On the Black Hill Bruce Chatwin
1983 Waterland Graham Swift
1984 Empire of the Sun J.G. Ballard
1985 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood
1986 The Stone Raft Jose Saramago
1987 Moon Tiger Penelope Lively
1988 A Time of Gifts Patrick Leigh Fermor
1989 The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro
1990 Possession A.S. Byatt
1991 The Kitchen God's Wife Amy Tan
1992 Pigs in Heaven Barbara Kingsolver
1993 A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth
1994 Feersum Endjin Iain M. Banks
1995 Behind the Scenes at the Museum Kate Atkinson
1996 Neverwhere Neil Gaiman
1997 The Subtle Knife Philip Pullman
1998 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets J.K. Rowling
1999 Girl with a Pearl Earring Tracey Chevalier
2000 The Amber Spyglass Philip pullman
2001 Atonement Ian McEwan
2002 The Crimson Petal and the White Michael Faber
2003 The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-time Mark Haddon
2004 Oryx and Crake Margaret Atwood
2005 A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian Marina Lewycka
2006 A Brief History of the Dead Kevin Brockmeier
2007 The Arrival Shaun Tan
2008 The Graveyard Book Neil Gaiman
2009 The City and the City China Mieville
2010 Room Emma Donaghue
2011 The Sisters Brothers Patrick Dewitt

Here is my star system

* I hated this book. Can’t understand why anyone would read it. No literary merit. I wouldn’t usually even start a one star book as it would be so obvious I wouldn’t like it.

*1/2 I didn’t like this book. I can see that it might appeal to some people but certainly didn’t appeal to me. Struggled to finish it.

** Passes the time if there's really nothing else to read - no more than that. Wouldn't read anything else by the author without good reason.

**1/2 Just about OK but wouldn’t read anything by the same author if I didn’t have to. Might be a decent book from a genre that I don't like or one where I can see it has literary merit but it really didn't work for me.

*** An reasonable read – although not something that set the world on fire. I'd try something else by the author although maybe not in a great rush to do so.

***1/2 A good solid read with decent writing and story. I'd be looking out for more books by the same author.

**** Book was very good – a well written book that I really enjoyed. I’d be looking out for more books by the author. Would warrant re-reading. Might well go out and buy something by the same author very soon.

****1/2 Book was excellent – an exceptionally well written book that I really enjoyed. One of my favourite books of the year. I’d want everybody I met to read this book. Would definitely want to re-read.

***** A wonderful book that speaks very personally to me. I’d tell everyone I met about this book. Would re-read again and again.

Hi Rhian - nice new thread. As usual, I love the illustrations at the top!

Lovely new thread, Rhian! I love that you are using book illustrations as your thread toppers this year - what a great idea! Our library down here has Tales from Outer Suburbia, and I remember your liking that one last year, so I am hoping to check it out this year.

Hi Rhian:)

Nice job of setting out your categories, rating system, etc. You are really getting that year by year favorite book list filled in.

I have to investigate Shaun Tan.

Hi Rhian - Beautiful illustrations at the top of your new thread.

Love the diver picture Rhian - hope your equipment will be a bit more modern this year! Congratulations on your latest thread.

Lovely new thread, Rhian! Love your illustrations.

Hi Rhian - love your choice of Shaun Tan.

Nice new thread, Rhian! I like your ratings scale. I find it helpful to see how other people rate books because it helps me clarify my own system.

27. The Unknown Bridesmaid Margaret Forster *****



This is a wonderful book: about families, mothers and daughters, secrets kept and secrets told and the unseen cruelties of children. The tone throughout captures perfectly the small resentments of family life that can fester untold for years, and the realities of less than perfect families.

Julia is a psychologist dealing with problem children: her clients are the bullies and the bullied, the runaways, the petty criminals and the violent. Successful in her career, she carries out her duties diligently, and is acknowledged by her colleagues to be very good at her job. But as Julia probes the motivations of client after client, frequently finding the problem to be with the parent rather than the child, it becomes obvious that she has issues from her own childhood that remain unaddressed. And the book follows Julia back to her childhood, to the pivotal year when at the age of eight she is a bridesmaid for her cousin Iris. Julia's mother, a widow with little money, is at first inclined to resent the request from the daughter of her only sister for Julia to be her bridesmaid: there is the expense of the dress and the shoes, and the cost of travel to her home town of Manchester for the wedding. And for Julia's mother, resentment is often the predominant feeling. But eventually allowed to take part, Julia is completely won over by her rarely seen blonde haired, blue-eyed cousin who has the ability to charm everyone, and who, as her mother says, is making a very good match, to a major in the army and the son of an MP at that. Julia's mother's view is that such good fortune cannot last, and so it proves, with Iris widowed within weeks of the wedding when her husband is killed by a sniper's bullet in Northern Ireland. But when a baby is born to Iris, Julia is completely unable to understand the attention it receives from her family, even from her normally unemotional and aloof mother, and resentment starts to develop...

This is a quiet book, full of small incidents: the drinking of tea takes the place of meaningful discussion. The major events are off stage and not talked about but exert their influence nonetheless. It is a wonderful depiction of people who believe that if something isn't talked about then perhaps it didn't really happen, and of the unreliability of memory.

The review which led me to this book felt that Margaret Forster was an unduly neglected writer, whose work would have found its way onto many more prize lists if her subject matter was different, and based on the quality of this book I have to say that I agree. But mothers and daughters, and women left resentful after unfulfilled lives, often seem to be regarded as less 'literary' than middle-aged male angst, although I have to say that personally I think the Booker short list would often be improved by a change of outlook. So, highly recommended.

Hi Rhian
Happy Thingaversary!
(hopefully it is still the 23rd there)

Of your two Booker nominated books tht I have read, we rated them the same! I loved The Garden of Evening Mists too, and also The Lighthouse. Wow, what a punch those two books packed. I love remembering how I felt when I was reading them.

That sounds like a good one, Rhian. I love finding out about books by authors I've never heard of.

I have a Margaret Forster on the shelves and may dust it off based on her bio that you reviewed so splendidly.

It is Sunday here already and there is a rumour of a birthday amongst the Dunes. Happy birthday Rhian.

Happy Birthday, Rhian!

Happy birthday, Rhian! And happy Thingaversary. I hope you get lots of great books in this perfect weather for reading them!

Happy birthday and Thingaversary! Excellent review of The Unknown Bridesmaid too. Your comments about Margaret Forster made me think of Elizabeth Taylor, another often overlooked female writer who wrote about 'women left resentful after unfulfilled lives' so I will look out for Forster's books. Is there one you would particularly recommend to start with?

Hi Rhian - Happy Birthday! (Is it really your birthday, or is Paul making things up? I can't find the evidence.)

#16 - Great review. I hadn't heard of her, but will now seek her out. Wonderful point about middle-aged male angst being considered "literary" and I might add universal, while the equivalent for women is not. Like you, I do love following the Booker prize, but your comment is certainly justified and something I've thought about for some time.

Great review of The Unknown Bridesmaid, Rhian. BTW, when was it written?

Happy Thingaversary! And Happy Birthday, too?!?

Happy Birthday, Rhian. Wonderful review of The Unknown Bridesmaid -- I will definitely check out Foster.

Happy Thingaversary! And if it's your birthday, I hope it's wonderful, foo!

Oooh, a birthday AND a Thinaversary, Rhian? I hope you have the most splendid of days!

#7,8,9,10,11 Hi Katie, Mamie, Calm, Lucy, Beth - thanks for stopping by the new thread.

#12,19 Paul I certainly hope the equipment will be more modern as well! Actually, I don't dive when I'm snorkelling - I more bob about on the surface. Thanks for the birthday wishes.

#13,14,15 Hi Roni, Kerry, Julia - I hope you're having a good weekend.

#19 Megan I'm definitely going to be on the look out for more books by Alison Moore and Tan Twan Eng. I loved both of those books.

#20,21 Thanks for the birthday wishes Katie, Susan

Hi Rhian, I have one Margaret Forster on my wishlist, Lady's Maid, but now I think I should be adding The Unknown Bridesmaid as well.

Happy Birthday and Happy TA, Rhian!!
I missed almost 2 full threads, and I'll have a look at the books you reviewed there during the next days. For now I'm just waving and wishing you also a great week!

Superb review of Bridesmaid, which I will have to read.

#22 Heather I wouldn't say that I'm an expert on Margaret Forster, but of her non-fiction I've really enjoyed Hidden Lives which deals with the lives of her grandmother, mother and herself, from the point of view of the different opportunities and difficulties faced in each generation. It was quite a while ago that I read it but I remember finding it very interesting. I think Lady's Maid and perhaps Have the Men had Enough are perhaps her best known books.

#23,24,25,26,27,31 Thanks for the birthday wishes Kerri, Darryl, Beth, Dejah, Julia, Nathalie.

It really is my birthday Kerri. I discovered last year that I share exactly the same birth date with Kidzdoc. You might like to look at Hidden Lives as it focuses on the lives of working class women in the first half of the twentieth century.

Darryl, The Unknown Bridesmaid was just published this year, but Margaret Forster herself is getting on a bit: she was born in 1938 according to Wikipedia, although her writing doesn't seem to have slowed down much. I've discovered that an advantage of being a member of Audible is that the books just cost one credit whether they're five days or five years old, so no waiting around for things to go into paperback.

#30,32 Judy, Lucy I'd strongly recommend The Unknown Bridesmaid. It's a while since I've read a book where I've found the characters so completely believable.

It's been a slightly odd birthday as most of it has been spent building our last bookcase. We've now got a solid looking bookcase minus its front panels and feet, and the feet are still a problem as we still can't see how to attach the feet to the supports. So another phone all to the bookcase company tomorrow, but we are making progress.

It's still ridiculously cold for the time of year: we took a break from bookcase building and went out for lunch with friends and there was snow everywhere.

It's cold here too. And snow everywhere. Happy Birthday!

Thanks Lucy! Apparently it was this cold in 1962, which I obviously can't remember! We have fairly minor amounts of snow compared with a lot of the country, as there has been major traffic disruption caused by drifting snow, and a lot of power lines are down.

Of course...how did I forget that we shared birthdays (and birth years, too?)?

Somehow building a bookcase on your birthday makes perfect sense for an LTer, Rhian. :-) Belated Happy Birthday!

I love Shaun Tan. The Arrival is a remarkable piece of work, and I like his others, too.

Hi Rhian, I've been reading online about your frigid temperatures, abundance of snow, and traffic disruptions. Wasn't aware of the power outages. What a storm!

New bookcases! Yay!

eta: thumb up for your wonderful review of The Unknown Bridesmaid. Love this line from your review: It is a wonderful depiction of people who believe that if something isn't talked about then perhaps it didn't really happen, and of the unreliability of memory.

Great review of The Unknown Bridesmaid!

New bookshelves = Happy Rhian! :)

I'm sorry I missed your birthday Rhian! I didn't know, and I was traveling yesterday. Better late than never!

#38 Yes 24 March 1961 - I am right Darryl?

#39 Joe after another hour spent on it this evening the bookcase is now finished apart from the plinth, which seems to be purely cosmetic and we will probably not put that on until the bookcase has been painted and put in its final position. I am pleased with the bookcase, but the instructions left a lot to be desired! Apparently, we needed to drill holes before screwing the feet into the supports, but nowhere did it say that: all the other screw fittings went straight in!

#40 Nancy we've missed the worst of the snow and have only got an inch or so, but it's bitterly cold for the time of year and has been for weeks. The week before last the snow was south of us, (our bookcases were snowed in at the factory for a couple of days), and the last few days the deep snow has been in the north and we've missed it again. I think a lot of power cables have come down with high winds combined with the snow and ice. I hope it warms up as we're away the week after next to Cornwall: last time we went away at Easter it was so warm that J was 'paddling' in the sea. At least he said he was 'paddling' but he seemed to get very wet!

#41 Tina I am very happy now that the bookcase is built! Neither of us like doing DIY and the bookcases have taken about three times as long as they should have done because of the poor quality of the instructions, so I'm so pleased to have seen the back of them.

#42 Hi Laura don't worry about being late!

HI Rhian, love your Shaun Tan thread toppers. Again, such beautiful picture art to start your thread.
I am sorry to hear, that you experienced so many problems in building your book case. However, I am looking forward to see a photo from your finally ready book case :)

#45 Bianca well I have developed some muscles if nothing else over the last week, as the big bookcase is very heavy!

Ah, very heavy. That means solid wood? One of my book cases which is 120 cm wide and 180 cm high weighs 130 kg *grin*. Well, they need to be sturdy to be able to cope with a high volume of heavy books, don't you agree?

It's actually MDF, but it seems very solid MDF. They are certainly more solid that our old IKEA ones.

Darryl & Rhian - separated at birth?! I didn't realize you were literally born on the same day. How cool!

>49 lauralkeet: that is cool!

Happy belated b'day Rhian. And I had a great thingamaversary did you? I bought my 4 books yesterday at very good second hand prices: Wolf Hall, Starbook, Anne of Green Gables (or one of those, anyway) and How to look at a Painting. I look forward to all of them!

Rhian, I was here, but didn't know what day it was. Happy Birthday and Thingaversary, and congratulations on finishing that dratted bookcase!

Hi Rhian, just catching up with your threads.

I have also been driven mad by the claims about the unemployed made by members of our current government. They tend to slightly precede further announcements about the new Universal Credit and other changes to the welfare benefit system - presumably with the intention to reduce any objections to the cuts made to vulnerable people, already living on the breadline.

I've also been a Margaret Forster fan for some years but have been a bit disappointed with some of her more recent ones so it's good to hear a positive report on her latest.

Happy belated birthday. I hope you had a lovely day.

Happy Belated birthday, Rhian!!

I love your review of The Unknown Bridesmaid (it's going on the wishlist) and I particularly like your comment that men's angst is often considered more literature-worthy than women's relationships and angst. Go figure.

>43 SandDune: Way to go on finishing the bookshelf unit, Rhian. I believe leaving things out is one of the ways instruction writers amuse themselves. Another is mixing up alphabet letters or numbers that identify parts. It's a lonely life with few diversions, apparently.

#49 Laura separated at birth - just the small matter of the Atlantic Ocean in the middle!

#50 Megan here are the books I've got for my thingaversary:

Cwmardy Lewis Jones
The Last Family in England Matt Haig
The Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories Bruno Schultz
Foreigner C.J. Cherryh
The Half-Made World Felix Gilman.

Excellent Thingaversary books, Rhian!

#51 Thanks for the birthday wishes Roni

#52 Dee it's nice to see you posting again. Yes, all the current decisions seem to being made on very doubtful sets of data, which half the time seem to be invented to support whatever the current theory of the week is!

#53 Ellen it does seem true though that a book dealing with a male midlife crisis can be an important literary happening, whereas a book dealing with a female mid-life crisis will often be considered light-weight.

#54 I made my feelings on the subject of the instructions very clear to them on Monday, and they were very apologetic. But it would have been so easy for them to have got them right.

>43 SandDune: 24 March 1961 it is, Rhian! Cait (Cait86) from Club Read also shares our birthday, although she's 25 years younger, as does Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who is still going strong at the age of 94.

Hi Rhian, my goodness, I have some catching up to do. Happy belated birthday, and Happy belated Thingaversary. At least I can be early with my Easter wishes. I hope you and your family have a very happy Easter.

28. Salvage the Bones Jesmyn Ward ****1/2



I was apprehensive about reading this book as I'd heard rumours about the dog-fighting, and thought that I might struggle with those scenes. But in the end, rather than being shocked by the dog-fighting, what I found truly shocking was the extreme poverty and lack of opportunity which was the lot of the poor black Batiste family who are at the centre of this novel.

Esch Batiste is fifteen years old and pregnant: she tries to keep her nausea and ever bursting bladder from her family. Her mother died during the birth of her younger brother Junior, leaving the family to the care of their alcoholic and neglectful father, and the care of Junior has fallen almost exclusively on the older children. The eldest brother Randall is desperate to get the basketball scholarship that will take him out of The Pit, the run-down and scrap covered piece of land where the Batiste family live. The second brother Skeetah lives only for his prized pit bull China, a beautiful white dog who has defeated all the local dogs in the fights run by the local boys. And in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina, as the father tries to prepare for the approaching storm, both Esch and Skeetah have their own battles. Skeetah that of trying to keep China's new puppies alive, when he can't afford the medication that they need, while Esch tries to get Manny, her baby's father, to notice her.

I found this book heart-breaking in many respects: these teenagers have been failed by so many people, even ultimately by their own mother, whose refusal to have medical assistance when giving birth to Junior in all likelihood led to her death. Day to day life is such a struggle with little money for food, and less for the hurricane supplies that they desperately need. I found that even Skeetah's fighting of his beloved China became almost understandable: her prowess in fighting provides him with the only thing in his life that he can be proud about.

Not knowing much about the American South outside the period of segregation and civil rights, one thing that surprised me on reading Salvage the Bones was what completely separate lives the Batistes led from their white neighbours. And the conditions in which they lived seemed not to belong to the twenty-first century, or even the late twentieth, but to an earlier period.

So a book that is highly recommended, and one which drew me in almost as if I were reading about real people.

Hi Rhian, a very belated Happy Birthday and congrats on your book haul :)

I hope you and your family are going to have a wonderful Easter weekend! :)

Wonderful review, Rhian!

Excellent review, you really captured the poverty struggle and its relationship to dog fighting.

#56 Dejah the haul was made even nicer built mainly being paid for by Amazon vouchers. And now I can buy more books with a clear conscience as I had book tokens as a birthday present from my office.

#58 Hi Darryl - sorry to see that you were so poorly on the big day!

#59,61 62 Judy, Bianca, Katie hope you all have a great Easter as well. J and Mr SandDune have the next two weeks off school so we're intending to finish putting the house back together this week and then the week after are going down to Cornwall. Just hoping that the weather improves!

Have a Happy Easter, Rhian.

#63 Laura I was really surprised how well I coped with the dog fighting scenes. As the owner of a dog whose breed was originally bred for fighting, a Staffordshire Bull terrier, the idea that she could be used for fighting completely horrifies me. And people still do have illegal dog fights with them, or with Staffies cross-bred with other breeds, and they're chosen by owners who want to look 'hard' because of their appearance. But naturally Staffies are dogs that love people and don't make brilliant guard dogs. The only danger that Daisy would pose to any burglar would be to lick them to death.

That's a lovely review, Rhian - if I didn't already have it on my WL, you would have gotten me. Wishing you a fabulous Easter weekend - and how wonderful that it is the start of two weeks off for J and Mr. SandDune. Enjoy!

>64 SandDune: Even better - free books! Happy Easter, Rhian.

#65 Hi Tad, Mamie, Dejah Happy Easter to you all as well - I haven't had a chance to visit everyone's thread with Easter wishes I'm afraid.

We went out to lunch today (sort of belated birthday lunch as I didn't get my meal out last week) and I meant to buy an Easter egg for Mr SandDune in town afterwards, only to discover that every supermarket, as well as Thorntons' chocolate shop, seemed to have sold out of Easter eggs. I couldn't believe it - everywhere seemed to be full of equally bemused last minute shoppers desperately in search of eggs and grabbing any other chocolate in sight as a substitute. Usually there are loads of eggs left over after Easter being sold at knock-down prices. One supermarket was busy filling the Easter egg section with barbecue items, as obviously now it's Easter people will start having barbecues. But it's trying to snow, for goodness sake, no one in their right minds is going to have a barbecue!

That's crazy about the Easter eggs, Rhian! I got snowed on a very little bit today - grrrr. But at least no-one was trying to sell me barbeque equipment :-) The "Summer sun" bit of Boots looked pretty empty, though.

And Happy Easter!

Great pix on your thread, Rhian! Happy Easter! The Unknown Bridesmaid is as yet not available in Canada, but I've definitely got Margaret Forster on my radar. Any other of her books stand out to you, Rhian? I've been looking on Amazon ca , and they do have books by Margaret Forster , just not the one that you recommended . Thumb for your review of Salvage the Bones - that sounds very interesting too! I've been having dental pain, which has kept off the threads -sorry about that.

I was reading the discussion on metric and Celsius on Julia's thread. In Canada, we changed from Imperial to Metric when I was about 11 or 12, so I know both fairly well. Every one here still measures in Imperial, but temps and other things are in Celcius. I must admit I think mainly in Imperial, but I do know both. Our gas is sold in Litres , and everything is labelled in metric.

I thought of you when I was reading the thread because here in Canada we changed our daylight savings time to be longer, but in the UK, you did not. So, my husband has been complaining to me after his work that he is late due to the difference in daylight savings time between Heathrow Airport and Vancouver Canada Airport. Mr Vancouverdeb works as an aircraft mechanic and meets the planes as they come in and checks them over. So anyway, he is assigned to the Heathrow flight each day and each day it is of course at least one hour late( shift in the time - and that keeps him late at work. Oh that ticked him off! :)

thumb to both of your reviews.

#70 Hi Susan thank goodness we got J's egg a few days ago that's all I can say. It was just really weird, I went to Waitrose, Sainsbury's, Thorntons and we met someone coming from Tesco's and not an egg to be had! The only thing I can account for it is that everyone had left their shipping late because of the awful weather!

#73 Hi Deborah your husband should be OK from tomorrow as our daylight saving starts tonight. I was really surprised when we were in Canada a few years ago to find how metric it was: I think we'd assumed that you used imperial measurements. I learnt the imperial measurements in primary school, but by secondary school we'd changed to metric and I don't think anyone more than a couple of years younger than me will ever have learnt imperial measurements at all, so considering I'm 52 it's a bit ridiculous than we haven't changed absolutely yet!

I wouldn't say that I'm an expert on Margaret Forster, but I have read some of her non-fiction. I really enjoyed Hidden Lives which was a history of her grandmother, mother and herself, and I think Lady's Maid and Have the Men Had Enough are supposed to be very good. I've got Is there anything you want on the TBR list, so I'm going to try that soon. Sorry to hear about the toothache, I always think that's one of the worst sort of pains you can get.

I love Forster's work. I've read all of those that you posted except Anything You Want. Thanks for reminding me about her, because there are others of hers that I want to read. I remember particularly enjoying Lady's Maid. Highly recommend her work.

Hi, Rhian. How fortunate you shopped for your eggs early! Have a great Easter.

Superb review of Salvage the Bones, Rhian.

Great review of Salvage the Bones. & thought you'd like this
The squirrels crashed an Easter Egg hunt in a local park near me.

Wonderful review of Salvage the Bones, Rhian.
Happy Easter from Kaua'i!!

We sniffed barby smoke as we were driving out to dinner last night. Well it was in the 40's, summer in Vermont, belike..... we were all having a laugh about it! But for the mo' our snow has melted and it is a bit warmer.... fingers crossed.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter and thanks for the Margaret Forster recommendations. I've added Hidden Lives to my wishlist.

Nice review of Salvage the Bones! That is one of my favorite books this year.

Hi Becky, Roni, Nancy, Katie, Ellen, Lucy, Heather, Rhonda Happy Easter everyone - it was actually sunny this morning so we went out to a country park near us - I think I saw more dogs than I have ever seen before in my life, as everyone is desperate for some fresh air. And loads of puppies - Daisy was in her element, but as disobedient as ever - we need to go back to dog training after Easter. But it didn't last: freezing again this afternoon.

Happy Easter, Rhian! Hope the weather improves soon. We've had the opposite over here - weeks and weeks of very little rain, and temperatures in the low 20s. Wellington's on drought watch with an outside watering ban and everyone wanting rain to come.

Loved your review of Salvage the Bones. I'll keep my eyes out for it in the library.

Halfway through Angel by Elizabeth Taylor. I've been meaning to get around to something by her for ages, but I can't say that Angel is really grabbing me. I just can't beloved in her as a character, somehow.

#82 Cushla I'm getting so fed up of the cold weather - apparently it's been the coldest Easter Day on record. And unless you look very closely the countryside still looks more like winter than spring, everything is so bare and brown.

Rhian, we are finally getting some halfway warm weather here — 50F/10C — but I am still in total sympathy with your late spring. Where the heck IS spring, anyway? Did someone fall asleep at the season-changing switch?

My experience of Taylor last year was that, like Iris Murdoch this year, she is a writer who grows on you cumulatively. It took more than one novel to get into her, at least it did for me.

#85 Julia - I think the warmest it has been is about 5C and it's consistently below freezing at night, which is very cold for the time of year. It still keeps trying to snow on and off as well!

#86 Lucy I have now finished Angel and can't honestly say that I particularly enjoyed it. Mr SandDune read it at the same time (it was a RL book club choice) and he wasn't keen either: in fact he didn't finish it. Out of all Elizabeth Taylor's books Angel was probably the one that appealed least, so I will try another one, but I'd heard so many good reports that's it a bit disappointing to find that I didn't enjoy it after all.

Summary of March reading:



Format:
Graphic Novels: 2
Audiobooks: 5
Kindle: 0
Paperbacks: 3
Hardbacks: 0

Authors:
Female: 2
Male: 8

British: 8
American: 2

Hi Rhian! Sorry I missed your birthday! Hope it was a good one!

Great reading in March! I keep putting off reading Dandelion Wine

>55 SandDune: Cwmardy by Lewis Jones looks fairly obscure, Ill have to look our for your review, and make sure you post it as yours will be the first.

Great Thinamagingama-versary present to yourself. Im starting to look forward to next years one already, the 5 books I am entitled to then will be just the thing for an autumn day, Im sure ;)

>60 SandDune: I am definitely going to have to track this book down, I am hearing goooood things about it. It looks gritty and just my thing. Great review too!

#89 Hi Chelle Dandelion Wine was a bit of a disappointment for me. I've decided that perhaps Ray Bradbury isn't quite my thing.

#90 Megan Cwmardy (and my other thingaversery books came today) and it looks a lot longer than I had anticipated! It is in print - in quite a new edition -so it can't be quite as obscure as some, but there certainly don't seem to be many copies on LT. I'll be taking them all on holiday next week so if it keeps raining there'll be something to do.

Just come home from my monthly real life book club which gave a fairly conclusive thumbs down to Elizabeth Taylor's Angel. It's been a while since we've read a book that has had such a consistent negative reaction, even the person who chose it wasn't keen. And looking at the reviews on LT and elsewhere a lot of people like it a lot, so people must be seeing things that we didn't somewhere along the line.

Hi Rhian, just stopping by to say hi! Great March Windup! My husband will be delighted to know that his Heathrow flights will be in one time. He was on desk duty this past 4 days, so he did not have to meet any planes.

I've yet to read my Elizabeth Taylor book, A View of the Harbour... one day! :)

Rhian, I read 'Angel' last year and found it difficult. There weren't really any characters to root for. I thought Taylor's writing was good but the characters and plot annoyed me. I'd still like to try another Taylor someday.

Angel May be my least favorite Taylor novel. I would not recommend it on its own merits, but really only for those who are already fans.

#93,94,95 Hi Deborah, Julia, Laura - it's a shame that it was Angel that was picked for the book club as it has managed to turn most of the members off Elizabeth Taylor for life! Most of the people there would certainly not try another Elizabeth Taylor book in a hurry.

I read Angel too, as I received it as part of my NYRB (New York Review Books) Book Club subscription last year. I didn't enjoy it either.

>96 SandDune:: that's a real shame!

You probably know that there was an E. Taylor Centenary read over on the virago thread last year - here is a link to the Angel discussion thread - Angel .

I've been thinking a lot lately, because of reading Murdoch, about authors whose body of work matters more than each individual book. I would put Taylor firmly in this group.

#97,98,99 Darryl, Laura, Lucy I still haven't had time to compose my Angel review as I have been quite busy today. We met up with my sister and Mum (who is staying with my sister for a few days) for lunch, and then dropped in to inspect my new great niece Torie (Victoria) who is two weeks old. Had a lovely lunch, but true to form my Mum was not impressed with the menu and ended up having a double portion of a starter in place of a main course!

The main thrust of the the book group's dislike of Angel was that nobody felt sufficiently interested in the characters. Some (including me) felt that Angel's sudden explosion into literature just didn't seem believable, and most found the plot fairly predictable. We were all completely lost at the description of the book as humorous, as none of us found it humorous in the slightest, except on very rare occasions. And a couple commented that there seemed to be no sense of time passing: the 1940's seemed very like the 1900's.

Hi Rhian! Sorry to hear that Angel was disappointing. I loved A View of the Harbour and Angel was going to be the next Elizabeth Taylor that I read - the plot sort of appeals to me for some reason. As perhaps someone else pointed out, I've heard Angel is atypical of her work, so I hope you might try her again.

Have a lovely week!

29. Angel Elizabeth Taylor ***
Challenge: The End of your Life Book Club (RL book club choices)



Angel Deverell lives her life out of step with those around her. As the daughter of a widowed small shopkeeper who has scrimped and saved to send her to a small private school she has little in common with her classmates. Discovered telling 'lies' to some younger schoolmates about her mythical inheritance of Paradise House, which she has made up from her aunt's stories about the house where she works as a lady's maid, she refuses to return to the school and decides instead, with an extraordinary tenacity, to write a book. And write a book she does: a shocking (for the 1890's that is) tale of passion told in elaborate and flowery language which is destined to become a best seller, and which provides the money for Angel and her mother to escape the terraced streets of their home town to a house in the country with servants. But for Angel's mother it is more of a prison than an escape, forbidden by Angel from carrying out any tasks which the servants should do and finding her old friends resentful and quick to take offence she is isolated from the world that she has known all her life.

And book follows book, but although Angel becomes rich and successful she remains isolated and alone. Unable to empathise with others, and in reality caring for no one but herself Angel is a difficult character to like. People like to invite her to parties, but never ask her twice. And when her star starts to fade Angel finds it as impossible as ever to appreciate te reality of her situation.

So why did I not like this book more? Partly I think because Angel is an unpleasant character, and there was nothing in the book that hooked me in sufficiently to get over this dislike. Partly because the course of Angel's life seemed predictable. But mainly I think because I just didn't believe in the creation of Angel herself: it seems implausible that a fifteen year old girl who never reads, and who has never shown any previous interest in writing should write the sort of runaway best seller that Angel does, and especially when the author is someone like Angel, who seems completely oblivious to the feelings and motivations of other people. So a rather disappointing read for my first foray into Elizabeth Taylor.

Hmmm. I have Angel on my TBR shelf, along with a couple more by Elizabeth Taylor. I didn't realize this one was the least favorite of so many folks. Your review seems to capture the essence of this trouble. Perhaps I will start with one of her others.

Hi Rhian. Sorry to hear you and your book group didn't enjoy Angel more. As others have said it's fairly atypical of her novels and wouldn't be one I recommended as a starting point. I enjoyed it a lot when I read it although I can understand why people don't like - Angel herself is rather a grotesque character but I found it very funny and it's far from being my least favourite of Taylor's novels. I think when the Virago group read it we agreed that it was Taylor's response to popular authors like Marie Corelli when Taylor felt her own novels were overlooked. I guess it's a parody really.

I chose Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont for my own book group and it was a success so that might be one to try if you feel like giving ET another go.

>104 souloftherose:: oh I agree, I think if you look at Angel as a parody it makes more sense.

Catching up. LOVE the illustrations at the top. A belated happy birthday! How’s the bookcase stocking and organizing going? I went back to your previous thread to see what I’d missed... and saw nightmares. Oh my.

#103,104,105 Hi Ellen, Heather, Laura Unusually, I came away from my Book Group discussion feeling rather dissatisfied this month, as I didn't think we were really doing any more than scratching the surface with our discussions. From LT I know that many people have a high opinion of Elizabeth Taylor, and that even while Angel may not be characteristic of her work it still has overwhelmingly positive reviews, and so I'd hoped to try to understand what it was that people liked about the book, even though it didn't appeal hugely to me. But the general view of the meeting was that Elizabeth Taylor was a second-rate writer who doesn't warrant the revival she's currently getting. The idea of Angel being a parody makes sense to me, and I think I will definitely read more books by her to form a more balanced view.

#106 Katherine - the last bookcase is completed and painted and it only remains for Mr SandDune to get a friend to help him put it into position as it is very heavy. We are currently having a week away in Cornwall (arrived today) and so hopefully this will be done next weekend when we get back.

>106 qebo:: I think I will definitely read more books by her to form a more balanced view.
I'm glad to hear that. Now that I've read all of her novels (thanks to last year's centenary), I have really come to appreciate her talent. She was really in her prime in books written prior to Angel -- At Mrs Lippincote's and A View of the Harbour are especially good. But her penultimate book, Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, is very moving (and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize as well).

#108 LauraIf I'd have picked it would have been A View of the Harbour or Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont that we'd have read.

Have finished book number 30: Black Swan Green by David Mitchell - review to follow. I found it a little inconsistent: some parts seemed a perfect picture of a 13 year old growing up in rural Worcestershire in 1982, whereas other parts just didn't ring true at all.

Rhian - I hope we'll see some pictures of the new shelves. Have a nice vacation.

30. Black Swan Green David Mitchell ***1/2
Challenge: Possession (Books I've owned for more than six months)



Jason Taylor is just thirteen in the Worcestershire village of Black Swan Green, the back end of beyond where there aren't even any white swans, never mind black. And as a thirteen year old boy, nothing is more important to Jason that ensuring that his place in the pecking order of the local boys who attend his comprehensive school doesn't deteriorate from its already precarious position. As the son of 'townies', and well-off townies at that, his position is already vulnerable, and as he fails to control his stammer it becomes doubly so. And as Jason focuses on his own problems, he fails to notice that his parents' own marriage is going through struggles of its own.

Black Swan Green is the story of Jason's life through 1982 and into 1983, told in a series of episodes which at first can seen disjointed and unfinished, but which eventually build into a satisfying whole. Some of these episodes are particularly successful: the patriotic fervour in Britain during the Falklands war is captured wonderfully as Jason's initial excitement turns to a realisation of the realities of war when a popular local boy is killed on HMS Coventry. And the interactions of the boys as they try to find their feet in the more complicated world of a teenager are conveyed perfectly. Other episodes work less well, in particular those which seem rather less realist in nature. Jason's relationship with the eccentric Belgian Madame Crommelynk, who encourages him in his writing of poetry, does not ring true, neither does an episode where Jason finds himself locked into a mysterious house in the woods.

I found the evocation of the 1980's very convincing, although I'm not sure how much of this was due to a certain sense of nostalgia on my part to a time when, although I wasn't thirteen, I wasn't much older than a teenager. And the sense of place seems right too: my sister lived in that area for more than twenty years, and the depiction of villages where you were still considered an outsider even though you'd lived there for half a lifetime rang true.

In the end I've rated this as a 3 and a half star read, although it could easily have been a four star read if it had just been a little more consistent. Overall, a book which works well when it focuses on the realities of bring a thirteen year old boy growing up in the 1980's, but less well when less realistic elements intrude.

I enjoy reading your lists! Also, the challenge to read books you have possessed for a while, is intriguing. Each time I try this, I end up going to the library and reading library books.

Happy Day to you

31. The Chrysalids John Wyndham ****1/2
Challenge: A Brief History of the Dead (dystopian fiction and the end of the world)



Brian Aldiss is supposed to have coined the term cozy catastrophe to cover John Wyndham's books, but I've never been able to see anything cozy about The Chrysalids, which is my favourite of all Wyndham's books and one of my overall favourite reads from my teenage years. Set in a much warmer Labrador of the far future after a nuclear holocaust has engulfed the world, it depicts an agrarian society where mutations (clearly caused by the high radiation levels) are common. But having no understanding of radiation, and very little understanding of the civilisation that preceded them, people have interpreted its destruction as 'Tribulation' sent by God to punish an evil world. And the only way to prevent tribulation from revisiting them is to root out all mutations, whether human, animal or plant, which depart in any way from the norms laid down by their forefathers. No matter how human a mutant might look, no matter how small might be their departure from the norm, they are merely soulless copies sent by the devil to tempt humans away from the true path laid down for them by God.

Into this world comes David Strorm: seemingly born to a secure life as the only son of a prosperous farmer who owns the biggest farm in the district. But his father is also strict in his persecution of mutants, strict to the point of bigotry some would say, and as the young David realises that he is different from virtually all others around him, even though apparently physically normal, his life becomes a struggle to hide his true nature. And when his younger sister Petra is born, the struggle becomes nearly impossible.

This is a book which, although short, deals with a lot of underlying questions of what it means to be human. Without giving anything away, I can say that I've always found the ending thought-provoking and disturbing. And even though I've read this several times before I enjoyed it equally as much when re-reading it again. Highly recommended.

#110 Beth pictures should follow next week some time once we get home!

We are having a great time in Cornwall which is one of my favourite places for a week away. We spent all day on the beach today, despite it being about 10 degrees C colder than last time we were on the same beach at Easter three years ago. I have an infinite attraction to beaches whatever the weather, as does J, as long as it's the right sort of beach, and Cornwall's beaches are usually the right sort: sand, rocks, rock pools, streams make them just perfect. And I can watch the tide come in all day: it's about the most relaxing thing I know. Mr SandDune doesn't quite get it, but I was brought up by beaches and J has obviously inherited the attraction.

#112 Linda I'm usually quite bad at reading what's on my shelves but this year have got a lot of books that I really want to read.

>113 SandDune:: Hi Rhian. I read The Chrysalids about five years ago. I loved the first two-thirds and the end; the last third (except that ending) left me feeling Wyndham had copped out a little...settled for an adventure with little depth where the rest of the book was quite thoughtful. The ending, however, rescued things and I found it chilling.

Catching up Rhian! Hope you are doing well!

Your holiday in Cornwall sounds lovely! I enjoyed your thoughts on Black Swan Green as well. I read it ages ago and really liked it.

I have BSG on the groaning tbr shelves..... and I need need need to reread The Chrysalids.

#116 Tad I think I would agree with you on your analysis of The Chrysalids. For me it is the world building and the growing realisation that there is really nowhere that they can escape to, together with the realisation that they have to escape, that makes the novel. The adventure element is weaker.

#118 Laura considering what the weather has been like over the last couple of months, we have actually had better weather than I was expecting, although the temperatures are still well below average for the time of year. It has been wet today for the first time, so we have been to the Eden Project, which if you haven't heard of it is a collection of very large biomes in a reclaimed china clay pit, one of which houses the world's largest indoor rainforest and another which houses mediterranean flora. It's all very environmental and eco-friendly.

#119 Lucy I've been meaning to reread John Wyndham for a while. We thought it would be a good audiobook for us all to listen to on the way down to Cornwall, which is why I finally got around to this one

>120 SandDune:: I've been to the Eden Project, Rhian -- it's quite interesting. We were in Cornwall at the time of the Queen's Golden Jubilee, so I also remember watching the festivities (i.e.; Party at the Palace concert) on the television in our hotel room.

Sorry to hear that your first foray into Elizabeth Taylor works was a disappointing one, however at least you got to one! I've still got A View of the Harbour waiting for some fine day.. ;)

#122 Laura you must have gone to the Eden Project quite soon after it opened then - I imagine things have grown a bit since then. They've got an exhibition building now as well which has quite a lot on environmental issues. We've been several times as J really likes it and it's always a good choice on a rainy day. I wouldn't like to try it in the middle of summer though: given the size of the car park I imagine at times it gets packed!

#123 Deborah -with everyone's favourable comments I think I will try something else by Elizabeth Taylor quite soon, so I can come to a more measured opinion.

I have the morning to myself as Mr SandDune and J are cycling the length of the Camel Trail, an old disused railway line. It's 17 miles and that's rather beyond my range on a bike - I'm a very wobbly bike rider. Last time we were in this part of the world I managed 11 miles on the trail but that exhausted me! I will be meeting them in Padstow for lunch where we might try some fish and chips from the Rick Stein fish shop. We ate in his bistro last night which was delicious, although J was a little worried about portion sizes at first!

We didn't bring Daisy on this holiday: Mr SandDune was worried that she might reduce the range of activities which we were able to do. But this seems the most dog friendly part of the world. Even the bike hire shop was hiring out dog trailers so you could tow your dog along behind! And a lot of cafes and pubs seem happy with dogs. We will definitely bring her next time.

Sounds like you are having fun in Cornwall. I haven't been for years - apart from a day trip down to Penzance while on a conference in Exeter. I'd love to visit the Eden Project, as well as get back to some of those beaches (one of my earliest holiday memories is exploring Merlin's Cave on the beach near Tintagel). I'm sorry to hear poor Daisy has missed out this time - but glad to hear that you plan to take her next time. I was away last week staying in Alnwick, and it is all very dog-friendly round there too. I've never heard of dog trailers though - that could be something for me to explore as I don't own a car but have to use my car club car every time I need to take the dog anywhere. Mind you, I can't imagine my Ty staying still in a trailer - he hates travelling by car and would probably be very distressed in a trailer too!

And I must get round to reading The Chrysalids - I've read Midwich Cuckoos and the Triffids but not that one...

32. The Last Family in England Matt Haig ***1/2
Challenge: My Dog Tulip (anything to do with dogs)



'Nobody knows exactly how the Springer Uprising started. Or how. There are different stories, but it happened too quickly for anybody to be sure. Within no time at all, Springer spaniels could be found in almost every part of the country, spreading the word.' 'Dogs for Dogs, not for Humans' and 'Pleasure before Duty' say the Springers and more and more dogs follow their lead.

But of course Labradors are everything Springer spaniels are not: dutiful; obedient; prepared to sacrifice everything for their masters. So Prince, a young black Labrador, is a fervent adherent to the Labrador Pact, a resistance movement which reveres the Family as the most beautiful aspect of human existence, and the proper environment for a dog to live. 'Duty over All' is the motto of the Pact and Prince tries to follow this creed as dogs all around him live for the moment. But his family is falling apart: suicide attempts, marriage, breakdown and teenage problems mean that Prince's attempts to protect his family become more and more desperate.

The Last Family in England is a black comedy which starts with Prince awaiting his final appointment with the vet, and tells the story of how his breaking of the Pact led him to that position. I didn't enjoy this one as much as The Radleys by the same author which I read last year, but still a decent book and a good holiday read. And as someone who used to own a Springer Spaniel, the idea that Springers are responsible for an uprising makes perfect sense!

#126 Genny we were at Tintagel looking round the castle on our first day: didn't get to Merlin's cave though as the tide was in and J had pretty much had his fill of caves on another beach in the morning. We did see a dog being put in a dog trailer and several of the bike hire places seemed to offer them, but I'm not sure a greyhound would fit. I don't think they would take anything much larger than Daisy who is only about knee height. Do read The Chrysalids - well worth it.

The Chrysalids was on the radio a few months ago on the Sunday afternoon drama repeated on Sunday mornings. I was quite impressed by it, and it made me want to reread. I read all John Wyndham's novels in my teens and for some reason decided not to keep them when I was meant to weed out my books, when my family home was rented out then sold some years ago. Fortunately Mike went through a John Wyndham spell a few years ago so we have the best ones again.

Grr, there is something wrong with this keyboard!

Same for me - Wyndham is one of the writers I read in my 'first wave' of sf reading in the late sixties and early 70's, and I've never reread a single thing.

Hi Rhian, what a great review on The Chrysalids one of my rereads last year. One of those books which I enjoyed very much!

I wish you and your family a great weekend!

#129 Hi Luci, I so wish I had some of my books from my childhood and teenage years, but they pretty much all got given to my sister's children, before I was really old enough to get nostalgic about them.

#130 Lucy I've got quite a good memory of what I read as a child but my teenage years are much more hazy. I remember I did read some sci-fi: John Wyndham, Andre Norton (a favourite) and some others (I can remember the yellow Gollancz covers but I can't remember what the books were). I used to reread such a lot: basically I read the books that were to hand and if I hadn't got an unread I started again on something I'd read already.

#131 Hi Bianca I hope you have a great weekend to. Tomorrow we are heading back home from Cornwall, but had a lovely day as we found what must be one of the most beautiful beaches: Bedruthan Steps. It would pretty much be a perfect beach if the currents didn't make it too dangerous to go in the water and there wasn't a steep climb down (and back up again of course). But exceptionally beautiful to look at and to walk along.

Finally caught up here Rhian. Too bad about your Elizabeth Taylor experience. I tried to follow the centenary last year but had trouble getting the books which my library didn't have. So I ended up only reading two: A View of the Harbor and A Wreath of Roses. I really liked them both. Since then I have been able to find a few more of her books including Angel, In a Summer Season, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont and Palladian so I know I will read more of her books at some point.

It sounds like you had a wonderful time on vacation:-)

Rhian, the Lost Gardens of Heligan was one of my most favourite places to visit. Did you go there? Your vacation sounds lovely.

#113 The Chrysalids sounds really good Rhian. I've only read The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham so far but I have The Midwich Cuckoos and Trouble with Lichen to read.

#125 "the bike hire shop was hiring out dog trailers so you could tow your dog along behind!" That sounds really cute for a smaller dog but I wouldn't have liked to try it with our great lump of a golden retriever....

And glad to hear you're having a lovely time in Cornwall.

Oooooooh you have been to the Bedruthan Steps. I have been there many years ago and I do agree with you that it is one of the most wonderful beaches. I remember that we got caught by the high tide and found it very difficult to get up again. Yeah, lovely memories that was such a wonderful holliday we had there :)

#134 BonnieI think A View of the Harbour and Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont are the ones that I like the look of most. She does seem to be going through bait of a renaissance in the UK at the moment: certainly my local bookshop has quite a few of her books.

#135Tui I've never been to the Lost Gardens of Heligan - not really sure why not - although we have done quite a few Cornish gardens over the years. This trip, apart from going to the Eden Project, we pretty much stayed on the North Coast and didn't travel too far.

#136 Heather I'm not sure that a Labrador would fit either! Maybe something up to about a springer spaniel size.

#139 Bianca Bedruthan steps came with more warnings than I've ever come across at a beach before, in my life. When we parked in the National Trust car park we were handed a complete leaflet of warnings in three different languages:

- don't fall off the cliffs
- don't sit under the cliffs in case they fall on you
- don't go in the sea
- don't get caught by the tide

I'm glad you managed to get back to the steps before the tide came in, as I imagine you'd have to spend a very worrying and uncomfortable few hours half way up a cliff if you didn't. I'm always fairly careful of getting cut off by the tide as in my home town there were places where you could get stuck, but not as easily as at Bedruthan.

Hi Rhian!

- don't fall off the cliffs
- don't sit under the cliffs in case they fall on you
- don't go in the sea
- don't get caught by the tide

I suppose we can file that under "Useless information"
I remember going to the Fremantle Jail a few times when I lived there, and there was a sign on the uneven rocky ground outside, saying "Caution: uneven ground". You had to walk ON said uneven ground to get close enough to SEE the sign. Sheesh. ;)

We didn't take many photos in Cornwall but here are a few of the Eden Project:







And here is Bedruthan Steps:

#141 Megan actually in this case I'm not sure some of the warnings were over the top, not the ones about being cut off by the tide and swimming in the sea anyway. You can only get off the beach at one point and because of the size and the layout of the beach it would be quite easy to get cut off from the steps. We were looking at where we would shelter if we got cut off and it would actually be quite difficult in places to get high enough to get above the water line. The Bristol Channel's got the second highest tidal range in the world - in my home town (on the other side of the channel) the maximum tidal range is just over 33 feet. I don't know exactly what it was in that part of Cornwall but it didn't look a lot less.

We are now back from Cornwall into the full swing of nothing in the papers or on the news but Margaret Thatcher and the cost of her funeral and whether there will be protests and should the BBC play 'Ding, Dong the Witch is Dead' on their chart show (apparently now number 5 in the singles chart). We were listening to 'Any Questions' on Radio 4 yesterday driving home from Cornwall and no panellist who said anything remotely in favour of the quasi-state funeral that Margaret Thatcher is getting got any applause at all - not even one clap from one person - whereas those who said it was a complete waste of taxpayers money and focused on her divisive legacy got massive applause. And I'm not sure that the audience for a Radio 4 current affairs programme is usually a hotbed of radicalism.

As you can see I'm not a Margaret Thatcher fan, but I do think David Cameron has really misjudged the mood of the country with all this Margaret Thatcher hagiography.

Finally some pictures of the new book cases:

This is the large one, we just need to put the plinth on. This has the hardback fiction and all other hardback non-fiction except history and outsize books:



This is the smaller shelving unit, which has outsize books, DVD's, some non-fiction paperbacks, graphic novels and my Virago's and Persephone books:



We do have some room for expansion at the moment, but I'm sure that won't last long.

They look fabulous! And so well-organized. Very nice.

The shelves are absolutely stunning Rhian! Wonderful. I wish my would look that neat, I have to get at least one new shelving unit to get rid of the double stacking in some of my shelves. However, that has to wait until the refurbishing of Alex room is finished as Alex is currently lodging with me.

In regards to Cornwall. We were extremely lucky that time, aside from getting very wet we all managed to get up there alright. Nevertheless, I am pretty sure that we didn't get a leaflet when we were there. The photos from the Eden project look lovely as well.

Thanks for sharing your pictures, Rhian -- of both Cornwall and your shelves. Both are great.

I agree, great photos both of Cornwall (loved that giant bee!) and your bookshelves--great work there. You are going to enjoy them so much.

Very nice pics of Cornwall and the new shelves. You are right though: one good Christmas will have those shelves nicely packed!

The Bedruthan Steps look cool!!!!!
And the new bookshelves. They look cool, too! (and so tidy)

#146,147,148,149,150,151 Hi Laura, Bianca, Beth, Roni, Tui, Ellen I'm sure the bookcases won't stay that tidy for too long, but as all my hardback books have been in piles in the conservatory since the end of January it was so nice to get them sorted out.

Bedruthan Steps was great, and we went to several other beaches which were nearly as dramatic (and where you could swim - not in April of course). I love the rockpool-y sort of beach - I grew up about 50yds away from one and I've never quite come to terms with living inland!

We had some good news over the weekend: my mother has had an offer on her house, which being as it has only been on the market for a week is very encouraging. It's below the asking price, but not ridiculously so, so we're considering whether to accept.

Granta's list of best Young British novelists was published today, with 11 out of the 20 being women:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/apr/15/granta-list-british-novelists

Catching up with you, Rhian. Your holiday in Cornwall sounded like great fun. Glad that Daisy will get to go next time. The pictures were fabulous.

And the new bookcases are awesome. Well done! It's good that there are some empty spots. You will have fun filling them for sure.

I recently read Ghana Must Go by Granta author Taiye Selasi. This was her first book, and I look forward to reading more by her.

Donna, Taiye Selasi was one of the ones that I'd not heard of at all. The others were Tahmina Anam, Steven Hall, Joanna Kavenna, Sunjeev Sahota, David Szalay and Evie Wyld.

33. Foreigner C.J. Cherryh ****
Challenge: The Thirteenth Tale (series)



Several hundred years ago the spaceship Phoenix had discovered itself hopelessly off course and completely lost. Generations later The descendants of its original passengers attempt the first colonisation of the planet of the Atevi, an alien species that are similar to humans in appearance but built on a much larger and more robust scale. While neither side are initially hostile it soon becomes apparent that Atevi and human brains work in subtly different ways, and misunderstandings ensue that lead to war, a war which despite their more advanced technology the humans are too small in number to win. So to obtain peace and the island of Mospheira on which to live, the humans agree to gradually hand over their superior technology.

Fast forward two hundred years in the future: humans remain isolated on the island of Mospheira while the Atevi civilisation has advanced to the brink of space travel. But only one human is allowed onto the continent controlled by the Atevi: the paidhi, who acts as the only contact between the two species. But after a status quo lasting generations, it seems that the equilibrium is breaking down as an unknown assassin tries to kill Bren Cameron, the current paidhi. While political assassinations are a way of life amongst the Atevi, for the paidhi to be attacked by an unknown assailant in the house of Tabini, one of the most powerful Atevi rulers, is virtually unheard of. And as Bren is spirited away to the fortress of Malguri under the control of Tabini's unpredictable and ambitious grandmother, his situation becomes more and more precarious.

In Foreigner Cherryh has created a very believable world which focuses on the differences between the humans and the Atevi. The growing confusion that Bren feels as he finds everything that he thought he knew about the Atevi being challenged is clear. A slow moving book at the start, with little apparently happening for the first third or so, as Cherryh concentrates on building the world of the Atevi, but the world that is created more than makes up for this.

What gorgeous photo's of Cornwall, Rhian! Really lovely! Ghana Must Go is on my mental wishlist.

Great review of Foreigner

>156 SandDune:: Rhian, I think you'll find that the Foreigner series, in general, is very much like that: quite a bit of world-building punctuated by periods of frenetic action. More than any other of her series or stand-alone books, she really concentrates on trying to immerse you in the atevi culture.

Some may find the books slow compared to, say, the Chanur books or the Alliance/Union books. Personally, I love it...but I'm a Cherryh addict, most especially for her skill at building alien races.

#157 Deborah Cornwall is a part of the world that I love. The coastal scenery is some of the most beautiful. Over recent years we've managed to visit on a fairly regular basis.

#158 Tad I do generally like books where the world building is stressed compared to the action. I felt the tension and confusion that Bren was feeling was built up very well and I didn't really feel the lack of much happening.

Nice review of Black Swan Green, Rhian. I've been meaning to read some of David Mitchell's earlier books, after my pleasant introduction to him in his latest(?) novel The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.

Quite a funny incident yesterday. I opened the back door for Daisy to go out in the garden and next door's cat was walking across our patio towards our back door. Daisy and the cat look at each over, the cat comes closer so Daisy goes out to investigate, looking quite apprehensive and wagging her tail a bit nervously. Cat puffs herself up, hisses slightly and when Daisy gets too close starts raising her paw. Daisy jumps back about 10 feet and won't go any closer. She has obviously learnt from Ruby to have a healthy respect for cat's claws. Cat looks totally unimpressed throughout!

Funny coincidence -- we had nearly the same experience between our cat Pumpkin and our dog Woody this morning! That raised paw can be quite threatening even to a big dog!

How I love your new book cases! And, my family hails from Cornwall. Thanks for your photos.

#160 Darryl I've got quite a few David Mitchell books sitting on the TBR pile waiting for me to get around to them. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is near the top of the pile.

#162 Laura Daisy gets the raised paw treatment from our own cat pretty much every morning so she has learnt that she needs to stay out of reach of the paw, especially if it comes with hissing noises attached. I've said this before on one of my threads, but when Daisy was a puppy she was so used to the cat raising her paw at her whenever they met that she assumed it was a general greeting, and on her first couple of walks outside she raised her own paw to any dogs she met. It was very cute but it only lasted a few days until she realised that dogs didn't do that!

#163 Linda I really have to remind myself to take photos, although I am better now that I have a smartphone as at least I don't have to remember to take the camera.

Love the photos, Rhian. Nice review of Foreigner. I'm still trying to figure out my entry book for Cherryh.

I liked De Zoet but not quite as much as Cloud Atlas - it certainly brought a time and place to life.

Hi Rhian! I'm back and up to date at last! I also have The Thousand Autumns... currently atop the TBR pile - my friend lent it to me and I don't want to keep her waiting to get it back for ages so I'll probably make a start on it soonish. In other news... great photos of Cornwall. I do really like Cornwall, but I guess living in the neighbouring county makes it a less obvious holiday destination, so I haven't actually spent that much time there.
Great reviews as ever - The Unknown Bridesmaid is on the wish list, and good review of The Chrysalids, a book I really enjoyed last year, although I agree it was at it's weakest when it took the main characters out of that stiflingly oppressive community where they first grow up and into a more conventional "fleeing for their lives" type narrative, although I agree the ending is pretty haunting and thought provoking. I guess the "cozy" in Aldiss' description comes from that sense of community - from what I know of his other stories, they are often pretty small scale and set in small rural communities aren't they? I guess that makes him unusual amongst SF writers, who are normally in cities, or dealing with the fate of whole new worlds. This is part of his appeal, I think.

Oh, and back to say - love the Shaun TAn pictures. You reminded me that I want to treat myself to a copy of The Arrival one of these days - it really is the most beautifully illustrated book I've come across in quite some time. I must hunt down a copy of Tales from Outer Suburbia too.

#167 Hannah I found quite an interesting article on the cosy catastrophe by Jo Walton, another of my favourite writers:

'In the classic cosy catastrophe, the catastrophe doesn’t take long and isn’t lingered over, the people who survive are always middle class, and have rarely lost anyone significant to them. The working classes are wiped out in a way that removes guilt. The survivors wander around an empty city, usually London, regretting the lost world of restaurants and symphony orchestras. There’s an elegaic tone, so much that was so good has passed away. Nobody ever regrets football matches or carnivals. Then they begin to rebuild civilization along better, more scientific lines'.

I'm not sure under that The Chrysalids would qualify for the cosy catastrophe label under this definition, although others of John Wyndham's certainly would ( The Day of the Triffids and The Kraken Wakes spring to mind.

The full article is here:
http://www.tor.com/blogs/2009/10/who-read-cosy-catastrophes

I keep meaning to get my own copy of The Arrival as well, as I'd got a library copy when I read it. It really is a beautiful book.

Such a frustrating day today. We have been having problems with our email accounts for the last two weeks. We are with Sky and two and a half weeks ago they did a major switchover to using yahoo mail, which has caused major problems. After some teething problems I managed to get the email working on my iPhone and iPad working pretty quickly and they've been working for the last two weeks, but accessing emails on the PC via Windows LiveMail was a different story. Mine was working when we got back from holiday although it had downloaded every single email I had ever had (including all the junk that hasn't even appeared on my computer before) but Mr SandDune's wasn't working at all, and then two days later mine stopped working as well, and all the thousands of emails that it had downloaded disappeared. I woke up this morning to discover that as well as not being able to access my emails via Windows LiveMail, the iPhone and iPad had stopped working and I couldn't even access them via the Sky website as my account seemed to have disappeared. After two and a half hours on the phone Mr SandDune can access his emails via the PC but I can now access them via the Sky website, which is driving me around the bend. Apparently there are 10,000 out of 4 million customers who are still experiencing major problems and we are one of the 10,000!

#165 Hi Joe -there are certainly a lot of Cherryh books to choose from. I'll certainly be carrying on with thenForeigner series.

#166 Lucy I started Cloud Atlas quite a while ago but for some reason didn't finish it. Not sure why as I was enjoying it - I think RL intervened and it just wasn't the right book at that time.

34. Blooming Books Raymond Briggs ***
Challenge: Astonishing Splashes of Colour (picture books and graphic novels)



An survey of Raymond Brigg's entire career, excluding his last book The Puddleman, which was published the year after Blooming Books. Quite a comprehensive account including his lesser known early work, with quite a few extended excerpts from his books as well as (I think) the full text of The Snowman, The Bear, Father Christmas, The Elephant and the Bad Baby, and The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman. The Bear in particular looks a lovely book which I wish I'd come across when my son was very small, and I can certainly see why The Tin-Pot General and the Old Iron Woman was controversial when it was published.

The books provides some interesting insights into Briggs's work, which seems to have been particularly influenced by his childhood experiences: scenes from his childhood home appear in many of his books and there is a frequently recurring theme of how divisions between parents and children being caused by education. It also provides an insight into the restraining influence of his long-standing editor Julia MacRae, one of whose notes to him read 'Please Raymond, no full-frontal nudity for Father Christmas'.

While I enjoyed the book it seemed to fall slightly between being an anthology of Briggs's work and a commentary on it. Most people who picked it up would already be familiar with many of Briggs's books, so the large excerpts included might already be familiar to them. But to work well as a commentary I felt it needed more background on the context to the books, and above all what made the pictures work as pictures, something that I'm particularly interested in.

So overall, a book that I'm glad I read but one which could have been done better.

{{{{{Rhian}}}}} regarding the email account fiasco--so frustrating!!

#172 Hi Roni it's driving me round the bend! No matter how many times I retype my password and reset it, both my iPad and iPhone insist my password is incorrect. But the most irritating thing is that is inconsistent. They're worked today for several hours at a strech and then decided that my password is wrong. And my PC was working properly for about 2 days last weekend until it decided to stop working again. And each time that it decides to start working again it tries to download 20,000 + emails including all the junk ones. I used to get virtually no true junk mail - no I seem to be bombarded with it.

We have now been escalated to the Tier 3 specialist team to resolve, so hopefully we will see some improvement soon.

Rhian, I can really relate to your tech problems. I installed a new wireless router a few weeks ago and have experienced a number of difficulties with my work laptop and, I just discovered today, with my Kindle. I cannot get it to connect at all. I took it to a Starbucks today in order to download a book I bought yesterday. So annoying! I am not looking forward to calling tech support at all.

Laura today I have given up and created a new (non-Sky) email address, and am in the process of updating all my contacts. At the moment Sky seems to have absolutely no idea what the problem is, or when it might be fixed. I've always been quite happy with Sky before this, their support people have always seemed helpful and managed to get things working but this is just ridiculous.

>175 SandDune:: sounds like a good plan, Rhian. But what a hassle! On my end I had a surprisingly productive call with Linksys tech support and appear to have resolved my wireless issues. Whew!

Oh! Hope you go back to Cloud Atlas. It's worth it, and it's pyramid shaped. Got to get to the other side of the pyramid. ;)

The Eden photos are great! Who wouldn't love a gigantic bumble bee.

Hi Rhian, love your new bookcases! They're lovely. Had to chuckle: We do have some room for expansion at the moment, but I'm sure that won't last long. Of course not!

#176 Laura I'm glad you've got your Wi-Fi issues sorted out. I find that there is very little as irritating as computer issues and as I am the acknowledged computer expert in this household it's always me that has to deal with them. (To be honest I haven't really got much competition in Mr SandDune when it comes to expert status!). My iPhone emails came on for about ten minutes this morning and I thought that maybe the problem was fixed - but then they all stopped again. It's probably a good idea for us to change our emails anyway: I've been thinking of changing broadband provider to improve the speed we get, but I've always been put off by the knowledge that I'd have to change my email address if I moved away from Sky.

#177 Katie I'm sure I will get around to Cloud Atlas at some stage - it does sound like my sort of book.

#178 Nancy I'm trying to reduce the number of books that come in the house just a little bit so that we can keep some space for a little bit. I've been experimenting with my library's ebooks over the weekend -it's a useless catalogue but I have found quite a few books on it that I would like to read after some persistent searching. And any books that are part of a long series I buy as kindle books.

Sorry to hear that English libraries aren't doing any better than US ones with the cataloging of E books.

#180 Hi Lucy - we can't even borrow kindle books in the UK, although they do do a format that I can read on the iPad. Problem is there's always serious competition to get at the iPad. And the cataloging is really bad: they use incredibly broad based categories, and it seems to have been done by someone who knows nothing whatever about books. And there's no way of excluding children's books, so especially the fantasy section is interspersed with books aimed at 7 year olds.

Rhian, is your library using the Overdrive system? I have found their cataloguing a bit odd, particularly some of the novels that show up in the non-fiction section, but now I tend to browse by "newest" (which works if you've already been through all the books!). How many does yours have?

Hi Rhian! Love the pictures & I'm trying not to be too jealous over your awesome bookshelves!

Sorry about your computer woes... :(

Ahh, new book cases - and discovering old books in the process I guess. They look very nice. Hope they will be able to fix your computer problems. Hate it, hate it when it happens.

#182 Susan it does use Overdrive. I wonder if the cataloging is done by each library or whether it's built into the system? There seem to be about 2500 ebooks altogether, and I have managed to find a reasonable number to put on the wishlist, although it's quite a fiddly task. I think I will do as you say and keep an eye on new purchases.

#183, 184 Hi Tina, Carsten progress has been made on the email front as I can now receive and send them on my (new, as of yesterday) phone after Sky found a new fix, but still no joy on getting them via Windows Live mail. We are now on Day Four of the seven day wait for the Tier Three support people! I am still changing over to my new email address but I do need to have access to the old ones for a while. It is great to be able to see all our books. On the old bookcases quite a few books were hidden away behind the TV so were difficult to get at, whereas now everything is accessible.

Enjoyed your review of The Chrysalids, Rhian. It's one I have to reread, too. Sounds like you read it in school, or at least when you were that age. It's still one of the novels on our curriculum -- grade 10 English, I think.

Great review of The Chrysalids, Rhian - I discovered Wyndham two years ago when I read Day of the Triffids and just loved, loved, loved it. But I was disappointed reading Midwich Cuckoos - it didn't work for me - now I want to try him again, reading The Chrysalids - I like that he always has reflections on humanity and what it means to be human as you say in your review.

Oh yes, a joy to be able to have easy access to your books again.

Nancy I didn't read The Chrysalids in school, although I did read it when I was at school, probably about the same age (is Grade 10 age 15 or 16?). Our English teacher was a traditionalist and we'd never had done anything so likely to appeal to teenagers. I remember doing The Old Curiosity Shop, Great Expectations, Julius Caesar, The Devil's Disciple (George Bernard Shaw), A Man For all Seasons (Robert Bolt), and a collection of ballads. Looking back on her choices now I can't think what she was thinking of!

Carsten I've never read The Midwich Cuckoos although I have read and enjoyed most of his other work, but somehow that one didn't particularly appeal. Apart from The Chrysalids most of the books are set quite firmly in the fifties and sixties when they were written, but personally that doesn't bother me and I like the sense of it being a different time.

Am currently reading Ignorance by Michele Roberts, my first ebook loan from the library, and listening to The Travels of Maudie Tipstaff by Margaret Forster, and enjoying both.

J came downstairs yesterday with the horrifying news (to him anyway) that Daisy had eaten a large spider. Personally, as someone who is fairly phobic about spiders, I think that if she wants to eat large spiders that is something to be encouraged! Ruby has always failed miserably in catching even a small spider. Our last cat, Edward, wouldn't rest until any spider or other creepy-crawly that dared to come into the house had been dispatched, but Ruby just looks puzzled.

Well done, Daisy. Make me chuckle : ). Yes, grade 10 is 15-16 years old, Rhian. We also do a Shakespearean play in each year of secondary English, but the novels we hope will appeal to students. Grade 12 novel selection (students choose one): Maus, Coventry, and All Quiet on the Western Front.

35. The Travels of Maudie Tipstaff Margaret Forster ****



Margaret Forster has the ability to create intensely believable and well-rounded characters, or perhaps I should say intensely believable and well-rounded female character: her men are perhaps a little bit more shadowy. But then it's women and their family relationships who are the main focus of Margaret Forster's writing. And in this book she has managed to create a title character who is bigoted, irritable, hugely overbearing and convinced that she is right about everything, who I know I would find intensely irritating after only five minutes if I ever met her in real life, and yet who genuinely engages the reader's interest and sympathy.

After nearly fifty years of marriage, the Glaswegian Maudie Tipstaff is coming to terms with the absence of her husband, Joseph. But absence is the operative word, as rather than being dead as the reader initially supposes, it soon becomes apparent that he has left her. The violent and hard-drinking Joseph has always been a great disappointment to the intensely respectable and hard-working Maudie, and his departure means that she can now spend some time in visiting her grown-up children. But rather than finding comfort in her children's presence she finds each of them in their own way as frustrating as the missing Joseph. Jean has inherited her mother housewifely skills, and at first glance is the most similar to her mother, but is the daughter who dreads her mother's visit the most, as her constant disapproval casts a gloomy pall over her comfortable house. 'Dear God!' rings out Maudie's cry time and again, as she picks fault with the small details of Jean's life, while refusing to talk about the emotional problems that Jean longs to discuss. But if Jean is a disappointment to her mother, Sally causes her embarassment and misery as she discovers that her daughter is the talk of the her village, with her slovenly and sluttish ways. Maudie expects all to be resolved with her visit to her son Robert, in Malta, but it is on this visit that she suffers the greatest disillusionment of all.

The Travels of Maudie Tipstaff is one of Margaret Forster's earlier novels (it was published in 1967) and Maudie is a product of her age. But taking that into account she seems utterly believable,as do her daughters. It is only the son Robert, who doesn't quite seem to work as a rounded character. But overall, a great read.

36. Ignorance Michelle Roberts ***
Challenge: Oranges are not the Only Fruit (Orange and Booker and other prizes)



This book reminds me very much of the only other book by Michele Roberts that I have read: Daughters of the House. Both are set in a small French town and are presented from the point of view of two different women looking back on their shared experiences as children. Both look at the French experience in the Second World War in general and the treatment of Jews in particular. In both the memories of the individual and the collective memory of the community are seen to be flawed. But whereas Daughters of the House was a carefully constructed book with a satisfying conclusion, this book, although beautifully written, seemed to drift in its second half and in the end was slightly unsatisfactory.

Ignorance tells the story of Jeanne, the daughter of a widowed charwoman and Marie-Angele, the daughter of more prosperous shopkeepers for who Jeanne's mother works. Thrown together by the illnesses of both their mothers which causes them to become temporary boarders at the convent school which they attend (Marie-Angele paying, Jeanne a charity case and not allowed to forget it) they become almost friends. And although their subsequent lives follow very different paths, they continue to be intertwined. And through their lives we see the day to day reality of the German occupation of the two small towns of Ste-Madeleine and Ste-Marie-du-Ciel: the compromises and adjustments and betrayals which the townspeople make to survive.

Ignorance is the key theme of the book: ignorance of infidelity, of a mother's love and above all the collective ignorance of the population at large who prefer to close their eyes rather than see what is going on around them. But the characters felt a little stereotyped and one dimensional and so overall Ignorance didn't quite seem to live up to the promise of its ambitions.

Superb review of Ignorance, Rhian. Went to thumb-up, but you haven't posted to the main book page. Will you do so?

Maudie sounds like a familiar type, indeed. I was just musing yesterday on the fierce love some mothers have for their children that ends up being such a trial to them and even sort of tragic. My mil was like that and I was driving by a place we went with her on a visit once - that we'd stage-managed to 'protect' my husband and she knew it and was behaving admirably but was so hurt and puzzled. She never did get how impossibly critical she was! And I was thinking that they must be so mystified by those moms that have good relationships with their grown children. It made my mil frantic how close I (and my husband) were to my mother (who could be annoying, but was utterly loveable).

Rhian, glad you posted your review. Duly thumbed : ).

Enjoyed your two reviews, Rhian.

Ahh poor annoying Maudie. I know that character - I've travelled with persons like that. Nothing ever satisfy them. The dinner is too cold, the room too hot, the air is just, well too much of it or something - everything is just not ok. When do they ever learn to just accept things and get along? I hope Maudie does change through her encounters...

Ignorance - just read Nancy's review so nice to compare - one of the Orange ones that I was considering.

#193 Thanks Nancy - I think I would have liked Ignorance much better if I hadn't read her earlier book Daughters of the House but I just found it very similar. It was like the author was using the same checklist for the two books:

- small French town
- two female narrators looking back on their childhoods
- Second World War (esp. persecution of Jews)
- collective amnesia about events of Second World War
- Catholic priests (and church as a whole) shown in very poor light
- convents
- secrets and betrayal

I should say that I really, really liked her earlier book Daughters if the House to the extent that I chose it for my RL book club selection. So I might have felt the same about this one if I hadn't read that first.

#194, 195 Hi Lucy, Carsten - I've never met anyone quite like Maudie but I certainly have met women who aren't that different. There are certainly traits that I can recognise in my own mother who is completely impossible to please when taking out for a meal (to the extent that Mr SandDune refused to eat out with her ever again after one particularly bad experience, although he did relent later) and with her extreme reluctance to talk about anything emotional. However, most of the time she's more easy going, thank goodness. I think the strength of this book was despite Maudie's very real and very irritating faults, she very much engaged the reader's compassion.

>191 SandDune:: I've added the Forster to the Wish List. Maudie sounds rather like someone I know (whose visits everyone, without exception, in the family dreads).

Hi Rhian - I hope your technical difficulties are resolved. Computers! Loved your reviews of both the Forster and Ignorance, which I am reading now. So far I like it a lot, but I haven't read other books by Roberts. I know what you mean; some authors write the same book over and over.

Interesting review of Ignorance Rhian which I must confess myself to be hitherto ignorant of!
It is good to be slowly getting back into the swing of things after the better part of the month without my pals.
Have a lovely weekend.

#199 Tad Margaret Forster is fast becoming a favourite writer.

#200 Beth now that I can access emails again on my phone and I've made the decision to change email addresses I've stopped stressing about it. We still can't get at our emails the way we want to, and I've still got about 20,000 emails in my inbox, but we can get at them and I'm gradually updating all my contacts and login details for my new email. I've only read the two books by Michele Roberts so I don't know if all her books deal with the same issues, but I'm sure that I would have liked Ignorance a lot better if it had been the first one I'd read.

#201 Hi Paul great to see you back! Ignorance was long listed for this year's Orange prize but didn't make the short list.

Hi Rhian, I hope you are having a lovely weekend. I haven't read any Margaret Forster yet, but have Lady's Maid on my library list. The Travels of Maudie Tipstaff is being added to that list.

#203 Hi Judy - do try Margaret Forster - she's one of these underrated writers I think, who are actually very good.

Went to watch J's first cricket match of the season today, and it was actually warm enough to be quite comfortable sitting outside (well for the first hour anyway). I much prefer watching his cricket matches to watching football. They provide benches to sit on for a start, and there's a proper cricket pavilion where you can get drinks and snacks, and best of all they don't do it in the rain!

181> Love the story of Daisy and the cat, Rhian! Daisy is clearly a very smart pup to know about cat's claws.

I'm intrigued by your comments about Daughters of the House. Don't you love it when someone's review of a book entices you to read a different book altogether?! :-D

Congrats on getting a reasonable offer on your mom's house. I know we were discouraged when a realtor looked at our place last spring and told us at what she would list it. Sigh. Yes, I know we purchased in 2007 but sheesh. In any case, the market does seem to be heating up around here and while I don't want that evil bubble to recur, I wouldn't mind it if our house's value inched up just a wee bit.

37. Redshirts John Scalzi ****
Challenge: Is There Anything You Want? (Recommendations from LT and elsewhere)

'You know, in the original Star Trek, they always had Kirk and Bones and Spock and then some poor dude in a red shirt who got vaporised before the first commercial. The moral if the story was not to wear a red shirt. Or go on away missions when you're the only one whose name isn't on the opening credits.'

Of course in the original Star Trek the redshirts never seemed to notice that their chances of surviving a visit to even the most innocuous and harmless looking planet were probably less than 50%, but start to think about what would happen if they did, and you pretty much have the plot of Redshirts by John Scalzi. On the Universal Union flagship Intrepid any away mission containing Captain Abernathy, Science Officer Q'eeng, Chief Engineer West, Medical Chief Hartnell or Lieutenant Kerensky is virtually guaranteed to have fatalities among the less important crew members, but beyond a few bruises the senior officers are never hurt. Apart from Kerensky that is, who in the past three years has survived three shootings, four deadly diseases, being crushed by a rock pile, a shuttle crash, an explosion, atmospheric decompression, induced mental instability, bites from two venomous animals, and the take over of his body by an alien parasite. But is that normal? Shouldn't he at least have post-traumatic stress disorder?

Such is the (justified) paranoia of the established crew about being sent on away missions they have devised numerous strategies to make sure they stay on the ship. But when Ensign Dahl, and four other new recruits are posted to the Intrepid, and discover how low their chances of survival really are, they decide to try to do something about the situation. Even if that means believing Jenkins, who has secreted himself in the cargo tunnels of the ship after his wife died on an away mission, and has come up with the most unbelievable theory of all...

I have to say that I'm probably quite susceptible to this book. The original Star Trek was about my favourite programme as a kid, and I love Galaxy Quest. So I thought it was great fun, and will be looking out for some more by this author. But if Star Trek was never your thing, then probably this isn't for you.

#205 Hi Ellen - unfortunately the offer on my mother's house has been withdrawn. I don't know how it works in the US but in the UK an offer can be withdrawn at any stage until contracts have been exchanged, and no money changes hands until then. She seems to have had a fair bit of interest though, and has had several more viewings so hopefully we'll get another offer soon. I find it really difficult to judge the value of a house where my Mum lives, as it' so much cheaper than where we live. You wouldn't even be able to buy a one bedroomed apartment here for the price of my Mum's house.

Ah the vagaries of real estate...... good luck with it.

Redshirts looks like a lot of fun! My whole fam. is Trek-o-philiac, so it might be a household winner.

#208 Lucy we once had a time when we were trying to sell two houses at the same time: our own flat and my father-in-law's house. That was not a fun time!

I'm finally caught up with you Rhian! Well, ok, I have to admit I skimmed a little. Let's see if I can remember all the things I wanted to comment on....

Thumbs up from me for your review of Ignorance. I'm so sorry about your email troubles, but it sounds as though you've got things worked out, thank goodness. A much better offer will come through on your Mother's house - I'm sure of it! And finally, I adored Redshirts - I'm glad to hear you liked it, too!

Summary of April reading:



Format:
Graphic Novels: 1
Audiobooks: 3
Kindle: 1
Paperbacks: 4
Hardbacks: 0

Authors:
Female: 5
Male: 5

British: 8
American: 2

Hi Rhain,
Great bookshelves you have up there....and the tide range in Cornwall sounds huge! We have problems here every summer with people getting swept off coastal rocks while fishing. People just dont realise the danger I guess. Im not a fan of warning signs over everything though, so I think common sense could probably go further.

I spent some lovely weeks in Cornwall when I was a singe traveller....ah the memories....I walked the coastal path, camped at Perrnaporth..hitch-hiked around (which I would never do again- not that I had a bad experience, just my own common sense kicking in!). I was also there for the solar eclipse- it was wonderful.

I hope your email issues are sorted, being cut off is frustrating!

Fun review of Redshirts, Rhian. I'm a fan of both Star Trek and Galaxy Quest, so I've added it to my wishlist.

#210 Hi Dejah - there's nothing wrong with skimming. I do it all the time!

#212 I'm not a fan of warning signs either Megan but I have to admit that in this case they were probably justified. Because of the size of the beach, and its layout and the fact that you really could only get off it at one point, it actually was quite dangerous for people who didn't realise how much the tide was going to come in.

We went to the Bay of Fundy in Canada a few years ago, which does have the highest tidal range in the world, and I was intrigued by all the notices which said you could 'walk on the ocean floor': I imagined some sort of diving equipment or something! Then after two days I realised that it meant you could walk on the beach when the tide went out and felt really stupid. But to me the tide going out a long way is pretty normal - what I found odd there was when it came in again it seemed to do it without any waves at all, almost like someone filling a bath up.

We'd probably have gone to see the eclipse that year in Cornwall as well but it was the summer I was pregnant with J and was having pretty bad morning sickness so didn't want to deal with the crowds. I remember sitting in the back garden and watching the partial eclipse though.

#213 Joe if you like Galaxy Quest you will almost certainly like Redshirts.

Currently reading The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler: a reread this one as it's the next book for my RL book club. I enjoyed it first time around but I'm not sure I'd be rereading it without the impetus of the book club. And i'm listening to Bastard Out of Carolina which I'm not sure about at the moment, to be honest. I'm finding the narration of the child abuse quite difficult. Nearly gave up with it today but decided to keep going.

Rhian, you great a great April! I'm familiar with The Accidental Tourist by title but haven't read. Hope you enjoy your reread.

Rhian, the Bay of Fundy tide is also very fast. If the tide is coming in, you skedaddle!

*waving* at Rhian

I read Bastard Out of Carolina years ago at the behest of my then boyfriend's mother, a woman I liked very much. I never, never would have finished it if she hadn't wanted someone with whom to talk about it. I can't imagine being able to stomach the audio.

Oof, Bastard Out of Carolina is rough. I can't imagine listening to someone read it out loud...

No I couldn't have listened to it.

#219, 220, 221 Hi Dejah, Katie, Lucy - well I gave Bastard out of Carolina another ten minutes of listening time and then decided I really can't cope with it. I don't think it's the fact that it's an audiobook that is the problem, it's the subject matter. I suppose if it was a printed book I could skim, but the difficult bits are really the whole point of the book so there doesn't seem a lot of point. I don't like not finishing books, unless I think they're no good, and I don't think this one is no good, it's just way outside my comfort zone. If it was a non-fiction book (or even a fiction book) about an equally troubling aspect of society today that I thought I ought to know about, then I might have forced myself to finish it, but as it is set in the 1950's then I really don't see that I need to.

The reason I chose the book was that I'm not getting along well with my 'Working-Class Fiction' category, one of the reasons being that I can't find many of the books I want to read on audio (or at the library for that matter). But they did have this one, so I thought I'd give it a go. But it didn't work for me.

#216 Hi Nancy I find I'm remembering The Accidental Tourist quite well, although it's a very long time since I read it first, probably because I've seen the film more recently.

#217 Tui - yes we watched the tide come in - and it was fast. That holiday was one of our best ever: we had three weeks touring Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island when J was eight. It just seemed to work really well for all of us, and we fell in love with the region.

#218 Hi Stasia - waving back!

It suddenly occurred to me this morning that we will need vaccinations for Malaysia, so called into the travel clinic to find out. But apparently you need an appointment to even discuss what vaccinations you need, but they gave me some general info: seems like we definitely need tetanus, typhoid, and hepatitis A boosters. The first time I had a typhoid vaccine I felt dreadful, but I think I was OK the last time I had it done so hopefully it will be OK this time.

Off car shopping now - have been putting this off for ages but it's got to be done!

I hate vaccinations...I hate shots! I felt really awful the one and only time I had the typhoid vaccination, so it's good to hear it's not so bad the second time around.

#225 Dejah I'm OK with needles usually and so is J, but Mr SandDune has a bit of a problem with them! I'm going to check with my doctor on Tuesday, but if we need boosters for Tetanus I would have thought we could get that under the NHS, but the typhoid and hepatitis ones we'll have to pay for. Although on second thoughts I think they give the hepatitis one to children now, so maybe J has had that already. The first time I had the typhoid jab I remember going home from work about 3pm as I felt so dreadful (I'd had it at lunchtime), and just about making it home.

Well, the car shopping was successful, as we came home having bought a car. We haven't actually got it yet, but should have in a maximum of 2 weeks. Not a terribly exciting choice to be honest, as we have bought a Skoda Octavia which is what the last two cars have been. This one is an estate version, which I was initially dubious about being able to park, but Mr SandDune persuaded me by pointing out that it wasn't actually any longer than the current car and it does have parking sensors which the current car doesn't. Our test drive came to a rather sudden end when Mr SandDune forgot that the demo car was an automatic and accidentally slammed the brakes on very hard, but luckily there were no cars immediately behind so no harm done.

Hi Rhian - Glad your car shopping went smoothly -- overall. I enjoyed The Accidental Tourist, but it has been years. I loved Bastard Out of Carolina, too, but it isn't an easy book to read -- and I can't imagine listening to it.

Good luck with your vaccines. When is the trip? It must be coming up soon.

38.The Accidental Tourist Anne Tyler ****
Challenge: The End of Your Life Book Club (RL book club reads)



This was the first Anne Tyler that I read, years and years ago, probably not that long after it was published in the 1980's: I enjoyed it then and I enjoyed it again now.

Macon Leary is a conservative and pedantic man, who despite having a dislike of travel himself is the author of a series of successful travel books, the 'Accidental Tourist' series. But rather than waxing lyrical about the delights of the country being visited, the whole purpose of the 'Accidental Tourist' is that they enable the American businessman to spend his time abroad cocooned from the very country he is visiting. No local delicacies are mentioned in Macon's guidebooks, no interesting sights, his readers just want everything to be as familiar as possible and that's exactly what he gives them.

Driving back in the rain from an unsuccessful trip to the beach, Macon's wife announces that she wants a divorce: a surprise to Macon despite the strain put on the marriage by the death of their 13 year old son Ethan in a random shooting the year before. But the stress of coping with his marriage break-down, as well as his continuing grief for his son, threatens to overwhelm Macon, and the routines and fondness for method which had always characterised his life seem to be descending into mania:

Well, you have to carry on. You have to carry on. He decided to switch his shower from morning to night. That showed adaptability, he felt- some freshness of spirit. While he showered he let the water collect in the tub, and he stalked around in noisy circles, sloshing the day's dirty clothes underfoot. Later he wrung out the clothes and hung them on hangers to dry. Then he dressed in tomorrow's underwear so he didn't have to launder any pyjamas. ...he had developed a system that enabled him to sleep in clean sheets every night without the trouble of bed changing. ... What he did was strip the mattress of all linens, replacing them with a giant sort of envelope made from one of the seven sheets he had folded and stiched together ...'

But when an accident forces Macon into the home of his three equally conservative siblings, the agressive behaviour of his dog Edward (clearly suffering from some of the stresses that are affecting Macon) becomes unacceptable. And so into his life comes the dog trainer Muriel, and Muriel, a single mother in her twenties, is everything that the middle-aged Macon is not: lively, impulsive, messy, noisy, living a hand to mouth existence with any number of low paid jobs. It is clear that Macon's friends and relations consider her a completely unsuitable match for him, but Macon himself is more unsure ...

#228 Beth - I probably got about a third of the way through Bastard out of Carolina but it was just the way that Bone was completely failed by everyone in her family and community that I found so depressing.

We're going to Malaysia the second week in July, but J's got two weeks in Germany before that and we've got his exchange so it seems quite a long time yet.

Rhian - I had forgotten all about vaccinations. Actually the place is pretty clean and the water apparently much safer than back home but then again I am pretty much use to it.
Have a lovely Sunday.

Rhian, you make me want to read The Accidental Tourist again! I read it back in the 80s, and remember it fondly, but would love to revisit it.

I love your bookshelf photos and wish I could say that my own shelves have room for expansion.

Rhian, wonderful review of The Accidental Tourist. You've got me! Our health system is the same regarding vaccines: government health will cover Tetanus, but the Hep A/B was my expense.

#231 Hi Paul I got the impression that Malaysia is pretty safe healthwise from our guidebook, but I tend to be err on the safe side when it come to vaccinations and things.

#232 Anne I think The Accidental Tourist has aged pretty well. I find Macon's attitude to travel pretty incomprehensible - I don't think I have ever come across anyone as worried about things being 'foreign' - but I had the same reaction first time round. And it was a very heart warming book - which was what I needed after A Bastard out of Carolina.

#233 Nancy I've just checked on the NHS website and looks like we can have typhoid and Hep A first injection as well. I know that I had typhoid privately last time but maybe they've changed the rules.

Lovely afternoon today - weather is finally acting like spring is supposed to and has warmed up a bit. We had a walk along the river, which is one of my favourite walks in all seasons, and it's noticeable now that Daisy is finally calming down a bit when she is out. She's able to pass other walkers and joggers without getting so very excited, and we can even get her away from other dogs (most of the time, anyway). But she did go in some rather weedy pools next to the river so needed a bath when she got home. Not fun! Both me and J got quite wet! She does not like baths at all, but usually keeps fairly clean and doesn't need too many,

The Accidental Tourist is one of my favorites, not the least because Edward is a CORGI. I also love it when Macon washes his clothes by stomping on them while showering. That was such a pure guy thing to do. When Mr. Sib read it he wanted to try it.

I read Bastard Out of Carolina so long ago I can't really remember anything specific but I know I liked it, a lot, which sounds a bit callous but you know what I mean Rhian. I can't do audio so can't comment on that aspect of it.

I wont read your review of the Accidental Tourist, as I want to read it soon, and hate to spoil it :)

Id like to see ht Bay of Fundy....home of LTs Chelle... one day. It sounds amazing. And to see the tide come in like you describe it, I can barely imagine! There is some pretty cool stuff in this world.

I also read Bastard out of Carolina many years ago. I don't remember details, but do recall it being very difficult subject matter & that I had mixed feelings. May need a re-read??

#236 Lucy reading it again after such a long time brought out different aspects of the book. I appreciated Macon's attachment to Edward as a reminder of his dead son much more on this reading. The first time around I focused much more on the relationship between Macon and Muriel.

#237,239 Bonnie, Tina To be honest, I would actually rather I'd never started Bastard out of Carolina. I do have a very low tolerance to violence, whether reading or on TV. I'm one of those people who find it difficult to get an image out of my head once it is in there, so I find it best not to let them get in there in the first place.

#238 Megan the Bay of Fundy was great, especially the Hopewell Rocks. I'll see if I have some pictures.

I'm exactly the same, Rhian, which is why I just don't go to *those* movies or read those books. They stay with me for days, to the point of tromping through my dreams.

Of course, I was totally focussed on Edward!

#227 by @SandDune> Rhian, I sympathize with Mr SandDune, as I did that "unexpected hard braking" thing a time or two after I traded my manual transmission car for an automatic. I guess I was just used to having to jam that clutch to the floor! :-)

Wrote a response to people yesterday but it disappeared and I didn't have time to repost as we were going out. It's so irritating when that happens.

We were going to our RL book club for The Accidental Tourist discussion, which surprisingly turned out to be very good. I say surprisingly as I was a little doubtful that there would be an awful lot to discuss, as while I enjoyed the book, it seemed reasonable straightforward to me. But in the end the group split fairly evenly into two opposing sides in their view of the plot.

SPOILER ALERT

Group one (in which were me and Mr Sandune) thought that it was clear that Macon was much better off with Muriel than with his wife, and while they were very different sort of people, they were both good for each other at that time in their life. For Macon to have returned to his wife would have been a very backward step.

Group two seemed to see Muriel as a gold-digging floozy who was just out for what she could get, and were hugely disappointed when he didn't get back with his wife. This group saw Macon's attraction to Muriel for anything more than a casual relationship as slightly unbelievable. This was a point of view that hadn't occurred to me at all, but I have to say I wasn't convinced.

Both groups enjoyed the book, so it was great that we got a good discussion going. Usually if everyone likes the book the discussion is a bit bland.

END OF SPOILERS

Have just finished The Untied Kingdom by Kate Johnson, which I enjoyed quite a lot. A romance set in an alternative much-poorer version of the UK where histroy has turned out differently. I don't read much romance in general so I'm always pleasantly surprised when I enjoy one. Discovered that Kate Johnson is a local author, and the book was launched in my local Waterstones.

Oh my word, could my LT romance conversion plot finally be working?!!

Good to hear you enjoyed it, Rhian!

#241 Tui I find my reaction to violence or unpleasant situations quite difficult to predict. In the main I try to avoid things with particularly violent scenes on both page and screen: I even struggle with Game of Thrones which Mr SandDune is watching at the moment, and I couldn't cope with The Walking Dead at all, I actually had to leave the room at some points. But on the other hand I managed all five series of The Wire without any difficulty so it's not like I csn't cope with anything gritty. But sometimes reading something like Bastard out of Carolina I just get scenes that go round and round in my head that I really wish weren't there, so it seems best to stop reading. The same thing happened when I read The Road, I couldn't get certain scenes out of my head for quite some time.

#242 Lucy from our book club discussion last night it emerged that Mr SandDune really liked Edward's character as well! From someone who didn't want a dog for all his adult life (and his childhood too come to think of it) he is developing into quite a dog lover. Now that Daisy has grown out of her puppyhood (I don't think Mr SandDune really sees the point of puppies - too much mess and hard work) he is actually getting really fond of her.

#243 Julia I actually refused to drive the automatic car as my experiences of driving an automatic have not been happy! In the UK the majority of cars are manual, and you have to learn to drive on a manual car as otherwise your licence is restricted, so the only time I've ever driven an automatic has been on holiday in the USA and Canada. And I suppose it should be easier in principle but if you've always had to change gear when slowing down it becomes so automatic (excuse the pun) that it's so difficult to remember not to do it. So I was constantly worried about accidentally slamming the brakes on at inappropriate moments!

#245 Susan I don't think I'll ever read as much romance as you do, but I've got no objection to one now and again!

39. The Untied Kingdom Kate Johnson ***1/2
Challenge: Is There Anything you Want (recommendations on LT and elsewhere).



This one was recommended by Susanj67 last year and I saw it was available in my Library's ebook section so decided to give it a go. A mixture of fantasy (alternative history type) and romance, with the romance elements probably being more successful. But good fun, as long as you don't think about certain things too closely.

Eve Carpenter is a C list celebrity whose life is going nowhere since the break-up of her band GrrlPower. With her money siphoned off by her mother and accountant, and the taxman pursuing her for unpaid income tax, it seems that things can't get much worse. But reduced to taking part in a third rate reality TV programme she finds that they can: a hang-gliding stunt above the River Thames in London goes wrong and Eve finds herself falling into the Thames. Rescued from drowning by Major William Harker, Eve finds herself in a London hospital room, but in a London very different from any she has ever known. In this new world, the UK is a third world country fighting (and losing) a desperate war with the major world power, France. Actually there isn't even a United Kingdom, as Scotland and Wales have long ago split away from England. And having had no industrial revolution and been on the (losing) fringes of most of European history England is a place where the people are hungry, only the rich have electricity and computers are unknown.

So when the coalitionist allies of the French are rumoured to have more than one computer in Leeds which they are using to mastermind their attacks against the government troops, Major Harker is sent with some hand picked troops to try to capture one, but as none of them have even seen a computer Eve is reluctantly co-opted onto the expedition. And this is where the romance comes in, with Eve and Major Harker's feeling for each other becoming more and more complicated.

As I said this is probably a book you don't want to think too much about from the fantasy side. While I thought the depiction of third world Britain worked well, once you started to think about how it might have got like that there were a lot of things in this version of history that didn't make too much sense. But it was a really fun read; Major Harker made a very good romantic hero, and Eve a very feisty and capable heroine (even if she did seem to have an unusually good knowledge of computers for someone whose main talent was singing).