SandDune's 75 in 2013 Episode 5

Welcome to thread number 5. I thought I'd go a bit further back in time for my illustrator this month, so here is E.H. Shepherd, the illustrator of A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh books, and of The Wind in the Willows:

Here are Pooh, Piglet, Christopher Robin and Eeyore:



and Pooh stuck in Rabbit's rabbit hole (one of my favourite stories, that one:



And here is Mole and Ratty on the river from The Wind in the Willows:



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 Kingdom Kate Johnson ***1/2
40. Shards of Honor Lois McMaster Bujold ****
41. This Boy Alan Johnson ****
42. The Humans Matt Haig ***1/2
43. And When Did You Last See Your Father? Blake Morrison ****
44. Anne of Green Gables L.M.Montgomery ****
45. The Warden Anthony Trollope ****1/2
46. The Detour Gerbrand Bakker ***
47. Tolstoy and the Purple Chair Nina Sankovitch **1/2
48. Delphine Richard Sala ***
49. Where You Once Belonged Kent Haruf ****

Books Acquired in 2013:

Needs a little bit of work - the total has crept over 17 now!

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
18. Eleven Mark Watson (kindle)
19. Great Apes Will Self (kindle)
20. Measuring the World Daniel Kehlmann (kindle)
21. The Ninth Life Of Louis Drax Liz Jensen (kindle)
22. The Chrysalids John Wyndham (kindle) (R)
23. Magnificent Joe James Wheatley (kindle)
24. Shards of Honor Lois McMaster Bujold (kindle)
25. Ethel and Ernest Raymond Briggs(R)
26. When the Wind Blows Raymond Briggs (R)
27. John Burningham: Behind the Scenes John Burningham (R)
28. The Half-Made World Felix Gilman
29. Foreigner C.J. Cherryh (R)
30. The Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories Bruno Schultz
31. The Last Family in England Matt Haig (R)
32. Cwmardy - We Live Lewis Jones
33. Life after Life Kate Atkinson
34. Salvage the Bones Jesmyn Ward (R)
35. The Lost Dog Michelle de Kretser audio (R)
36. Pure Andrew Miller audio (R)
37. The Unknown Bridesmaid Margaret Forster audio (R)
38. The White Mountains John Christopher audio (R)
39. The City of Gold and Lead John Christopher audio (R)
40. The Pool of Fire John Christopher audio (R)
41. The Travels of Maudie Tipstaff Margaret Forster audio (R)
42. The Accidental Tourist Anne Tyler (R)
43. NW Zadie Smith
44. Angel Elizabeth Taylor (R)
45. Whispers under Ground Ben Aaronovitch

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 Dewit

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.

Bwhahahahaha. I posted first! Where's my cookie?

Morphy - I'm so sorry - I have run out of cookies! Which is a shame as I am just drinking a cup of coffee and a cookie would go down nicely! But congratulations on being first anyway.

Wonderful new thread, Rhian. Just love the illustrations at the top from Wind in the Willows. Priceless! I read it only once, in a children's literature course many, many years ago. The illustrations make me want to re-read : ).

Enjoyed the posts in your last thread about your Book Club's discussion of The Accidental Tourist.

Ratty was my first encounter with a truly cool dude. Gosh how I loved that book.

So did Mr. SandDune like the clothes washing in the shower too? I have a feeling my husband tried it when I was away one time...... although he is also of the school that thinks if you hang something up long enough it becomes clean again.....

Yay for Pooh and pals! Yay for Mole and Ratty!

Nice new thread, Rhian.

Your list of favorite books by year is awesome! For me it's nice to see The City and the City on there, as I liked it a lot, and it's a shame mainly sci-fi readers give it a try.

I am also an early bird Rhian. Just a reminder that I haven't got your address for your prize on my thread. Congrats on your latest.

#9 Hi Nancy - it was Winnie the Pooh rather than the Wind in the Willows characters that I really loved as a child, and when I read the stories to J when he was small I still found them extremely funny.

#10 Lucy I can't think of anyone less likely than Mr SandDune to try the washing clothes in the shower trick. He's actually very domesticated - when we first got together I remember having to persuade him that bath towels could actually be used more than once!

#11 Joe we were actually talking about The City and the City last night as one of the book club members was saying that her daughter's friend is being taught by China Mieville at college. I picked The City and the City for my RL book club choice a couple of years ago, and most of the other members were very dubious as they are not SF or Fantasy readers at all. But surprisingly it was unanimously liked, and several people last night were saying how they had recommended it to lots of people. To be honest, it's probably one of my favourite books of all time, not just that year.

#12 Hi Paul I will go and do that now.

>13 SandDune: That's encouraging to hear, Rhian. I hope word spreads. :-)

I adore your threadtoppers, Rhian! I think I'll give The Untied Kingdom a try when I want something light. Thanks for the review!

#15 Hi Dejah - The Untied Kingdom is probably more romance in an alternative reality setting, rather than something that focuses on the fantasy. And when I started reading it, I wasn't sure if it was for me. But once the story had got going I really enjoyed it.

I just got caught up on your old thread and now here you are with a brand-new one!

#17 Sorry Julia - I'll try not to do it again.

Oh that's very good, Rhian! It's great that he's come around to dogs.

What? No book for 1816?

;-)

Lovely new thread and I love the Pooh and Toad pictures, brings back many great memories.

I love the E.H. Shepherd illustrations! What a great opener for your thread, Ilana.

#19 Lucy I think his turnaround is a major achievement. It wasn't that he particularly disliked dogs, it was just that he didn't see the point of owning one. Whereas I am one of those people who is always trying to get more animals in the house. We'd compromised on a cat (and previously a tortoise) but with us both working, or Mr SandDune being the one at home a dog, just wasn't going to happen.

#20 Ellen looks like there's no 1816 at all! I've had a look and I've never even heard of any of the books published in 1816, let alone read any of them.

#21 Judy Winnie-the-Pooh was one of those books that J always turned to if he was ill and wanted a story. Paddington Bear was the other series that always seemed to do the trick and which both he (and I) loved.

#22 Hi Stasia -but I'm Rhian, not Ilana!

Phew - caught up! I'm a big fan of E.H Shepherd's illustrations too so I love your thread openers.

I stopped by to compliment you on the illustrations also. I've always loved the Pooh ones (Pooh stuck in Rabbit's hole is a favorite of mine, too!). I didn't realize he also did The Wind in the Willows, those are nice.

Love the illustrations, but sorry, I always preferred Ratty and Mole to Pooh and the crew.

I've never even heard of any of the books published in 1816, let alone read any of them

Tsk, tsk, tsk - this will never do!

Just yell if you'd like some help with that... :)

Hi Rhian, I love the illustrations too. And you've got my interest piqued for The City and the City which I've never considered reading before.

The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh was published in 1931 for your gap up there. (Also The Waves by Virginia Woolf, Brave New World by Huxley, and Mapp & Lucia by E.F. Benson).

Hello Rhian,
congrats to another beautiful thread. I very much enjoy your meme this year and obviously I am always very curious which artist you are going to pick as your next thread topper.
I also saw on your last thread that you have done some interesting reading.
I have seen Scalzi so many times mentioned now, that I nudged him up on my wishlist.

#25,26,27 Hi Heather, Laura, Roni The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh was the first book that I can actually remember owning. I think it can't have been as I had a reasonable number of books as a child and I'm sure my parents would have started me off on something simpler, but it's the one I remember.

#28 Liz the only writer I've heard of from the 1816 Wikipedia publication list is Sir Walter Scott, but the books aren't his better known ones. I could put a poem in ('Kubla Khan' by Coleridge), but that seems to be cheating. If you've got any suggestions for the earlier years let me know as I am struggling a bit before about 1840.

#29 Bonnie - do read The City and the City - it's a great book.

#30 Tui but if I put the complete tales in I'd have to take the separate volumes out! But I have read Brave New World so I will add that one - thanks.

#31 Bianca Mr SandDune is reading Redshirts as well now, and he seems to be enjoying it too - there's a lot of laughter coming from the sofa anyway.

Currently listening to This Boy: A Memoir of Childhood by Alan Johnson. I've got the only copy of this on LT (but it was only published yesterday) so the touchstones don't work. For non UK LTers Alan Johnson is a senior Labour politician, the Home Secretary in the last Labour government, and this memoir relates his childhood being brought up in the kind of deprivation that I didn't realise still existed in 1950's Britain. Political memoirs aren't my thing at all, but this had a great review in all last weeks papers, so I thought i'd try it. So far it's a fascinating book which deserves to be widely read for the social history aspect alone.

And also reading Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold, which is great fun so far.

I'm not familiar with Alan Johnson, but I adore Shards of Honor! Enjoy!

>32 SandDune:: aha. 1840: Before the Mast...the only one I could find.

Rhian, if you're serious about filling in the years up to 1840, I can certainly help you pick some books - although I can't guarantee you'll enjoy them. :)

In fact, there is a significant gap in the timeline of English literature between the teens and the thirties - between Austen and Scott, and Thackeray and Dickens, if you like. Plenty of novels were published during those years, but on the whole they haven't lasted. 1816 was a much better year for poetry than for novels, as you observe. People tend to cheat a bit by reading Austen's Emma for that year (the first edition is copyrighted 1816, though it was actually published in December 1815). Two of Walter Scott's three novels were highly praised at the time (Scott himself didn't care much for The Black Dwarf): The Antiquary is essentially a Scottish Gothic novel, while Old Mortality is an historical novel about the Coventers' uprising in late 17th century Scotland. Old Mortality is held in quite high regard by Scott's fans, although it hasn't maintained its general reputation, probably because of the lesser-known nature of its subject matter.

*sigh* Master Bujold another one on my toooooo long wishlist! Well, if you believe it or not until recently I thaught that Bujold is a "He", what she isn't. However, I just got myself a Barbara Hambly book The Ladies of Mandrigyn another one of those which has been popping up on various threads.
Good to know that Mr. Sanddune is enjoying the Scalzi as well *smile*.

#34 Dejah just finished Shards of Honor - I'll be getting the next one soon.

#35 Tui Before the Mast is going on the list.

#36 Hi Liz At the moment I'm probably going to focus on the later years, especially if the pre 1840 years are going to be a hard slog. But I have been meaning to read some more Walter Scott so I will add Old Mortality to the list of possibles. Actually, I think the subject matter sounds quite interesting - maybe that's just me being odd! Perhaps I should include poetry for the early years as well, as I do like the romantic poets. I do keep meaning to read Don Juan in full: I read the first canto a few years ago, and much to my surprise, absolutely loved it.

#37 Hi Bianca I knew Bujold was a 'she' as my mother had a friend called Lois, but for years I thought Robin Hobb was a 'he'.

40. Shards of Honor Lois McMaster Bujold ****
Challenge: The Thirteenth Tale (series)




This is the first book I've read by this author although I've seen her name around LT a lot recently, but this was great fun so I'll definitely be following it up with the next one in this series.

Captain Cordelia Naismith, from the peaceful world of Beta Colony, commands a scientific survey team on what is thought to be a previously unexplored planet. But when a sudden violent and unexpected encounter with a military party from the warlike planet of Barrayar leaves one of her party dead, and another seriously injured, Cordelia is left stranded on the planet while her outnumbered team make their escape. To make the situation worse, she is not alone: stranded alongside her is the Barrayaran commander, the notorious Captain Aral Vorkosigan, otherwise known as the Butcher of Komarr, notorious for ordering the ruling senate of Komarr murdered after they had surrendered following the Barrayaran invasion. But Vorkosigan has troubles of his own, abandoned after the mutiny of some of his own men in one of the violent power struggles that characterise Barrayaran society, he must get to the Barrayaran supply cache several hundred kilometres away to have any chance of survival and of reasserting his authority. As his prisoner, Cordelia has no choice but to accompany him, but as their journey continues and they both realise that they must cooperate to survive, she discovers that Vorkosigan is a much more complex character that his reputation would suggest.

Lovely new thread here, Rhian, although I am still not caught up on the last one! I love those illustrations up top - I have a soft spot for Pooh. One of my very favorites. And nice review of Shards of Honor! I just read that recently and quite liked it. I picked up the next in the series, but I have not gotten to it yet. Soon. Very soon.

Wishing for you a weekend full of fabulous!

Enjoyed your review of Shards of Honor, Rhian. You are a versatile reader! Science fiction is not something I've ventured into.

41. This Boy Alan Johnson ****
Challenge: Love on the Dole (working-class literature)



Alan Johnson is a British politician who held a number of senior posts in the last Labour government, culminating in the post of Home Secretary which is one of the key positions in the UK government. He's known for being one of the politicians in the Labour Party with a genuine working-class background, but this memoir reveals that not only did he have an underpriviledged childhood, it was one in which he suffered a level of deprivation that would have horrified most working-class people in the 1950's of his childhood, let alone now. I found it genuinely shocking that people were still living in the sort of conditions described in this book, which seem to belong to the worse period of the depression, rather than the more prosperous post-war period.

Born in 1950 the housing conditions in which the author spent his childhood were truly appalling. Never with any more than three rooms, his family lived in a succession of damp, crumbling and insect infested homes which in his younger childhood had no electricity or even gas. A bathroom was a luxury not even dreamed of and the outside toilet was shared with neigbbours: buckets of urine in the bedroom took the place of indoor facilities. There was never enough food, or fuel, and Alan and his sister Linda spent their childhood being constantly cold and hungry.

Alan Johnson's father was a sometime painter and decorator who worked only intermittently, and who spent most of what he did earn on drink and gambling. Despite having a heart condition following rheumatic fever as a child, his mother Lily worked constantly, and against medical advice, in a succession of cleaning jobs which damaged her health still further, requiring longer and longer spells in hospital to recover. The author tells a poignant story of a Christmas when, with his mother in hospital, they were abandoned by their father for several days. His ten year old sister attempted to cook the Christmas dinner, not realising that the plastic wrapping should be removed first. And when their father later abandoned the family completely their situation became more and more desperate.

This book is primarily a tribute to the author's mother, and to his older sister who fought tooth and nail to keep the family together after their mother's death. Despite Alan Johnson being only ten years older than me, this really does seem like a story of another age. Even my parents, brought up in a mining village in South Wales a generation earlier during the depression, didn't experience anything like this level of deprivation. This is not the usual political memoir, finishing as it does with the author's wedding at the age of eighteen, and I'd recommend it to anyone who has an interest in the social history of the twentieth century,

Nice review of This Boy. I've wishlisted it.

And I love the Winnie-the-Pooh pics--I have found memories of reading this to my daughter.

#40 Hi Mamie I hope you're having a great weekend too.

#41 Nancy I've been getting into sci-fi a lot more recently. If I look back at the books I loved as a child they were invariably the fantasy ones, and I continued to read sci-fi and fantasy in my late teens and early twenties. But then the sci-fi reading largely petered out, partly because I couldn't quite find the sort of sci-fi books I wanted to read. But my reading has widened a lot in the last couple of years, and now of course I am never at a loss for a new sci-fi book recommendation.

Interesting to read a review of This Boy - he was on the radio this week and though I'm not a great fan - he was one of the more right wing members of the Labour government - his memoir did sound interesting.

This Boy going on the hit list.

Sigh.

#43,46 Hi Rhonda, Ellen This Boy is definitely one of those memoirs that you can read without knowing a single thing about the author, and still get as much interest and enjoyment from it. Alan Johnson's later career isn't mentioned at all, and the only thing that my knowledge of it added was a sense of surprise that he has achieved as much as he has from such a very unpromising start. Whether or not it'll be available in the US is another matter, but it'd certainly be a worthwhile read for anyone interested in social history.

#45 Luci politics isn't mentioned in the book at all, so you shouldn't let yourself be put off if you don't agree with his politics. To be honest, I hadn't paid a huge amount of attention to him before (I tend to be interested in political issues rather than the politicians themselves), but that didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book. And it has certainly opened my eyes to the level of deprivation in the slum areas of London at the time. It had honestly never occurred to me that as late as the 1950's there would be homes in a major city without electricity, for instance.

Rhian, This Boy sounds excellent. There seem to be a lot of copies on order in London but none to borrow so I have wishlisted it for the time being.

Oh lordie, reading your review of Shards makes me want to run upstairs and grab it and start my Bujold adventure all over again. Once I had read one I had to read the whole ouevre, NO HOARDING, which is rare with me.

#48 Susan I think you would like This Boy a lot, as you do read a lot of social history type books, don't you? It is only just published, so hopefully your library will have some in soon.

#49 Lucy my finger's been hovering on the amazon 'buy now' button for the next book, but I haven't quite succumbed yet.

Hi Rhian, I just skimmed your review of Shards of Honor as I plan on reading it next month, but I noticed that you liked it. :)

If'n you all liked Shards of Honor, you are going to LOVE Barrayar! Resistance is futile...counterproductive, actually. ;-)

Hello Rhian! I fear so many book bullets from your thread. :)

This Boy sounds very interesting. I wish it were available here.

#51,52 Hi Judy, Roni Shards of Honor was great fun.

#53 Roberta This Boy has got quite a bit of publicity in the UK but probably a lot it has been due to its author. But you don't need to know anything at all about the author or British politics to appreciate it.

Hey Rhian! Happy new thread!

I love the Winnie the Pooh illustrations up top!

Hi Tina thanks for dropping by. I hope you're having better weather than we are - it is cold here at the moment. When I took Daisy for her walk after lunch it was so cold that I would have liked gloves.

I haven't done much reading over the last few days: the old family photos on LizzieD's thread inspired me to look at my own old family photos, which in turn inspired me to look at my family history stuff which I hadn't looked at for a while. And when I looked at that I discovered that most of the Welsh parish registers are now on line, which means that I can make further progress without having to visit the Powys Record Office, which I have been meaning (and failing) to visit for several years.

Nice review of Shards of Honor, Rhian. So glad you enjoyed it. Roni's right (as usual), you're going to love Barrayar.

Hi Joe thanks for dropping by.

I've had one of those days today when nothing goes right. Today for the first time I was responsible for opening up the office. So I went to unlock the door and it wouldn't open. Got someone from the next door office to try with my keys and still no luck. So had to sit on the stairs and wait for someone else with keys to come in, and and then her key wouldn't work either. Eventually after ten minutes struggling we got in but the lock was broken so I had to sort out a locksmith to fix it. And when I did get around to to doing some of my own work I discovered our accounts software had got corrupted and I had to spend the next two hours sorting that out. And then ended up having to repeat the work that my assistant had done yesterday, as it was lost in the corruption. Not the greatest day ever!

But I have been see doing some more of my family history. I discovered yesterday that my great-grandfather, who was a builder, was declared bankrupt with debts of £600 in 1897, which I had never known before.

Hi Rhian! It sounds like you're having a dreadful day indeed. Good thing it's Friday, I suppose.

#39 - Nice review! I'll be reading this too, thanks to helpful advice given by Roni and Joe.

#42 - This sounds like something for the wishlist. I may have already mentioned this earlier, but I think you might like A Ragged Schooling by Robert Roberts. It's a similar sort of working-class memoir, but it takes place in the Edwardian era. I remember liking it quite a bit.

#59 Hi Kerry I've read Roberts's The Classic Slum a few years ago: I hadn't realised that he'd written anything else

#60 - I didn't know about The Classic Slum. Do you recommend it?

Kerry it was quite a while ago that I read The Classic Slum so I don't remember the details, but I do remember that I found it very interesting.

Hi Rhian, what a day, groan! But what interesting family history you are discovering : ).

>58 SandDune:: well that was the day from hell wasn't it?! Hope your weekend is more enjoyable!

I hope your day is better today!

Hi Rhian - I am so far behind on your thread. I love the illustrations topping this new one.

#63 Hi Nancy, Laura, Morphy, Beth - it's a bit more relaxing today thank goodness. I forgot to mention that yesterday was the first day of my assistant's holiday (she's gone to New Zeland for the next month) and we were trying so hard to get everything up to date before she went.

I did have two minutes of sheer panic this morning though. I went to the Post Office to pick up some documents that my Mum had sent to me (relating to the sale of her house), and then went into a few other shops in town to pick up some bits and pieces. In the last shop I realised that I no longer had the bag with the documents. In the two minutes it took me to realise that I could only have left it in the book shop I realised that there was no way I could confess to my Mum that I had lost her documents. It wouldn't matter that there was nothing irreplaceable and that we get another copy of the documents from the solicitors: I knew I would forever be branded as an irresponsible and uncaring daughter! I even started thinking about whether I could claim to have been mugged or the car stolen! Luckily, when I got back to the bookshop there had found the bag and were looking for its owner so I could breathe again.

I've been busy playing with my new family tree software that I bought a couple of days ago. Family history is something I've always been interested in, even when I was a child, and I tend to have blitzes on it every year or so. It has been very useful that I was interested in it so young, as I got a lot of information from my grandparents and great aunts who all died a long time ago now. And luckily my family was one of those where people seemed to keep track of all their relatives to the nth degree.

So glad you were able to retrieve your documents. Hope that you have a pleasant and relaxing weekend!

Hi Rhian, I am also very happy for you that you were able to get your bag of documents back. Isn't it funny how no matter how grown-up we are, we can still be made to feel like that disobedient child we once were.

Nice review of This Boy, Rhian. I read an interesting review of it a few weeks ago in The Guardian, so I'll plan to buy it since you also enjoyed it.

#68,69 Roni, Judy, Mr SandDune's reaction was very similar to mine: 'for God's sake don't tell your mother' were his precise words I think.

Roni is right, resistance IS futile in the Bujold case.

Rhian you survived last Friday and found your mom's temporarily lost documents. Thank your lucky stars! I hope this week is shaping up nicely.

Rhian, don't you just hate when things like that happen? No, I wouldn't breathe a word to your mother!

I'm neglecting my own thread again!

#70 Darryl it was actually that review in the Guardian that inspired me to get the book. I noticed last weekend that it was number one in their online bookshop so a lot of other people must have had the same reaction.

#72 Luci I will be placing an order for Barrayar as soon as possible.

#73,74 Roberta, Tui it all worked out all right in the end. I've checked over the paperwork and she received it all back this morning in time for her meeting with the solicitors. It's so good that she is moving as her central heating system broke down last week and the British Gas engineer who came out confirmed that it couldn't be fixed. I'm not surprised to be honest, as it's a weird hot air system that was briefly popular in the 1970's and I don't think they've made any spare parts for it for about 25 years. It's amazing that it's lasted as long as it has. If she stayed in her current house she would have to have a complete new central heating system fitted before the winter, which would be hugely distruptive, not to mention expensive.

Well I have bought a new book, even if I haven't read any. The trip to the bookshop (where I lost the papers) was intended to buy Eldest and Brisingr for J who had just finished reading Eragon. He'd tried it a few years ago and hadn't got into it but seemed to really enjoy it this time round. And I did come out with Warm Bodies for me as well.

I've been AWOL from your thread for a while and finally caught up. This Boy sounds like an interesting read and when you consider that a lot of the children from these 1950s dysfunctional families ended up being shipped out to Australia/Canada/NZ to even worse fates in children's homes and doing farmwork then he's lucky that his sister fought to keep their family together.
So pleased that you were able to retrieve your documents, I've done that a couple of times and been lucky to recall quickly enough to have it still sitting where I left it. Thanks for the info on the Welsh records being online, I'll have to delve into that as well.

Nice to have some family history gathered, I am lucky that on one side, my family history is already written! It is a wonderful resource.

The Case of the Mislaid Documents....sounds like Nancy Drew to me! I glad you were able to recover them so easily and that your Mom doesn't know!

It can be fun to return to family history research after a break. It's exciting when new resources become readily available, isn't it? I've been thinking about my own research for a while and am thinking it's time to get back to it. Are most of your known ancestors from the British Isles?

I'm so glad you're getting sucked into the Vorkosiganverse....the more the merrier!

Really enjoyed catching up Rhian.
Your review of This Boy was excellent and I will have to seek that one out. Like Luci he wasn't one of my favourites amongst Labour front bench team but, as you are finding out yourself and reminding me certainly, family history is fascinating.

#77 KerryI think This Boy was set a little bit after the forced migration period as the mother died in the early 1960's? Was it still going on then? The parish register information is on the findmypast website:

http://www.findmypast.co.uk/search/parish-records/

I don't know why they should have much more complete Welsh parish registers than anything else, but they seem to. Have you got Welsh ancestors?

#78 Megan it's the digging around bit that I enjoy - I wouldn't be so interested if someone else had done it first. And if they had I'd probably still want to check it all! I've come across several people with family trees on Ancestry who have gone completely wrong. One person I came into contact with was supposedly the great-grandson of my great aunt: the main thing that I had learnt about this great aunt from all my relatives was that she definitely had no children of her own, and so had informally adopted my aunt. Unfortunately for the other guy, there were two couples with exactly the same name who had married in the same year within a few miles of each other and he had jumped to conclusions about which one he was related to.

#79 Dejah Most of my ancesters come from South Wales, although on my maternal grandfather's side there are some English ones in Gloucestershire. I know of some that emigrated to Australia and there are rumours of some emigrating to the US, but in the main they are in South and Mid Wales. They're pretty much all stonemasons, carpenters, coal miners and farmers of very tiny farms. Most spoke Welsh going back a couple of generations, some wrote poetry and some found religion in a big way. My great-grandfather who I discovered had been made bankrupt was one of those: my father always used to say that his own father never touched a drop of alcohol in his life because ' he'd seen enough of it in his youth' - always said in ominous tones. I got the impression that my great-grandfather and his brothers didn't sober up for weeks at a time, after they'd finished a building job. But at some stage he saw the light: I wonder if it was before or after the bankruptcy?

#80 Hi Paul My Boy is well worth a read.

{message moved to the proper thread, on the right continent}

#81: Rhian - they sent children out to Australia up till 1967. Seems like most ended up doing forced labour and/or were abused.

#83 Tui wrong person, wrong continent! Definitely not Kiwi-land here. But hello anyway!

#84 Kerry I hadn't realised that it had gone on quite that late.

Ruby hasn't been well the last few days and I'm getting a little worried about her. She was vomiting on Tuesday evening and night and was off her food yesterday, so we took her to the vet's yesterday evening. The vet was hopeful it was just a stomach upset, but she's vomited again this evening and won't eat at all, so I think we'll have to take her back tomorrow.

And this evening I came downstairs from clearing up the mess upstairs to discover that Daisy had been occupying herself in chewing up one of J's felt-tip pens and had got blue ink all over the (new) carpet. I am SO glad we bought the stain proof carpet: after much dabbing at it with bits of cotton wool I think I have got the stain completely out. But not the best evening ever.

Rhian, what on earth happened there? I really thought I was at Megan's thread! Hi yourself, from the daftie.

Stopping by to say hi, Rhian. Interesting family history that you are looking at. Someone did a fair bit of research on the maternal side of my family, so I can trace back my Icelandic history quite far back, but my Scottish family history is much more common, as are the names, so much more difficult trying to trace that back. Every now and then I look a bit on Ancestry ca and I've found a few nuggets, but it's challenging and how much time can a person spend online? :)

>82 SandDune: It's always amazes when you learn little things about an ancestor how you can find connections to other small facts or family stories to build a better picture of their lives.

I'm sorry to hear the Ruby is feeling poorly. I hope today's vet visit will be a positive one.

#87 Hi Deborah, Welsh family history isn't the easiest for similar reasons. There is much less variety of surnames, and before the nineteenth century there was a patronymic system of surnames commonly in use. (What makes it really complicated is that you have no idea when your particular ancestor's family changed to fixed surnames, so someone around 1800 called Jenkin Thomas may be the son of someone whose first name was Thomas and whose surname was something completely different, or the son of someone whose surname was also Thomas if the family had adopted fixed surnames.) And then there's the language: my paternal grandparents spoke Welsh as a first language, as did my maternal grandmother's forebears a generation or so earlier.

#88 Dejah the trip to the vets with Ruby did not go brilliantly. They have kept her in overnight to put her on a drip and to do some tests. At the moment they seem to be regarding this as precautionary, but we will know more tomorrow morning. It is very unusual for Ruby to be poorly: I can't remember her having anything more than a minor stomach bug before.

Sorry your dog friend is feeling poorly. It's an awful feeling. You keep looking around for them and you can't explain to them why you aren't with them and why they feel awful. *hugs*

I'm sorry, too, to hear that Ruby is not well, Rhian. Wishing her the best, and keep us posted.

Fingers crossed for Ruby.

#90,91 Hi Morphy, Nancy thanks for the best wishes. Ruby is our cat though, not the dog, I didn't really make that clear.

Stopping by with the intentions of wishing you a happy weekend, Rhian, but I am now changing that to hoping your cat is feeling better soon and they are able to figure out what is wrong with her.

Sending good thoughts and well wishes to Ruby, Rhian. I hope she's back on her feet very soon!

(((((Ruby)))))

Whoops! Cat friend!

I have very bad news to report about Ruby. She took a sudden turn for the worse late this morning and died an hour or so later. It was completely unexpected: when the vet spoke to me this morning they thought she was responding well to the antibiotics and being fed a high nutrient paste and hoped that she would be able to come home tomorrow. But later on this morning apparently she started panting and was obviously in discomfort and when they x-rayed her they found that her stomach was very bloated, and before they could do anything to relieve it her heart had stopped. They managed to revive her, but she died shortly afterwards. It was such a shock, neither us or the vets were expecting anything like this. I'm not sure they really know exactly what happened. She was only nine, so not old at all for a cat.

Oh, Rhian, I am so sorry. Such things are always sad but combined with unexpected just makes it worse, I think.

Oh, Rhian, that is such sad news. I am stunned how quick she turned for the worst. R.I.P. sweet Ruby.

Rhian, I'm so sorry to hear that. What a shock for you all, particularly as she seemed to be getting better.

Oh Rhian, so sad to read this. Poor wee thing. And poor you.

So sorry to hear about Ruby but at least she is no longer suffering.

Rhian, so sorry for Ruby and for your family's loss.

Rhian, I'm so sorry to hear about Ruby. We lost a cat in a similar way (not very old, sudden illness) and it's heartbreaking. Sending you a big hug today.

#98 Rhian, so sorry to hear about Ruby. Sending hugs to you all.

Oh, what terrible news, Rhian. I'm so sorry for your loss. I hope you can take comfort in your happy memories of life with Ruby.

I am ever so sorry for your loss. The loss of Ruby is very sad. Pets give us such unconditional love and the relationship of trust is unlike that of a human relationship. it is complete in mutual adoration.

I send gentle hugs to you.

So sorry to hear about Ruby, Rhian. {{{Hugs}}} for you and yours.

I'm so sorry to hear about your cat friend. My heart goes out to you.

Let me add my sympathies.

I'm so sorry Rhian. That is awful. Hugs and take care.

Thanks for the good wishes everyone. It has been a big shock. It never occurred to me that she was that poorly: she wasn't eating and was lethargic, but she didn't show any signs of distress or discomfort even when being examined by the vet. And she was still going out and moving round between her favourite spots in the house, right up until Friday: really until Tuesday she seemed absolutely fine. The vets phoned back today and they're really not sure what the problem was without doing a post mortem.

J is pretty upset, as we had Ruby when he was four or five and I don't think he can really remember her not being around. He was always her favourite out of the three of us, and she was on his bed most nights before he went to sleep. Even when he was small and bouncy, she never seemed to be worried by anything that he did, whereas she always found Mr SandDune quite worrying if he made any sudden movements.

Hi Rhian - I'm so sorry to hear the news about Ruby.

Oh Rhian, I'm so very sorry about Ruby. I truly sympathize, and my heart goes out to you and J and MrSandDune.

Dearest Rhian.... I am so sorry to hear about Ruby. I'm sure things are very, very somber at the SandDune house today. :(

Pets are so very dear to many folks, but not everyone understands the grief that happens when they're gone. Especially with such a sudden and unexpected loss... I hope you, Mr. SandDune, and J can find some closure after the post mortem and comfort in your memories of Ruby.

Sending hugs and prayers your way!

Rhian, I am adding my hugs and prayers along with everyone else. A difficult time for all of you, and especially for J. Pets have a way of entering into that most private and inner section of our hearts and claim a pretty big piece of our love just by being the companions that are always there by our sides.

Here are some pictures of Ruby:

She's beautiful, Rhian. RIP, Ruby.

Oh, Rhian, I'm so terribly sorry to hear about Ruby! Those are beautiful photos.

Ruby was indeed a beautiful cat, inside and out!

Ruby's beautiful - thanks for sharing pictures of her, Rhian.

>113 SandDune: that is so sad for J- I used to adore my cat, and Im told that when I went off to university she used to search the house for me morosely.
Poor your and your family :(

She looks like she was a very sweet cat, and very at home on that couch!

How I love grey tabbies and she was so beautiful, Rhian.

We've had two gray tabbies and they are so pretty. Hugs to you, Rhian.

Thank you for sharing the lovely pictures of Ruby, Rhian. What a sweetie.

Rhian, I'm so sorry about your lovely Ruby. It is shocking that you lost her so quickly. I know she will be missed. Thank you for sharing the pictures.

Katie, Lori, Susan, Tui, Kerry, Nancy, Laura, Heather, Julia, Linda, Calm, Morphy, Lucy, Kerri, Beth, Dejah, Tina, Judy, Liz, Megan, Donna - all your kind thoughts have been very much appreciated. It's been a difficult few days.

Ruby was a very quiet and gentle cat, but somehow it's seemed very quiet without her since Saturday. She wasn't really quite as overweight as the first picture suggests (she was very fluffy underneath which made her look bigger than she was) but we did have a problem keeping her weight down to reasonable proportions, as she did have conserving energy down to a fine art!

Rhian, I'm so sorry to hear about Ruby. Our pet people are often so much a quiet part of our lives that it is amazing how great the sense of loss is. The pictures are great--she looks like a real sweetie in them. Hugs to you and J and Mr. Sanddune as well.

we did have a problem keeping her weight down to reasonable proportions, as she did have conserving energy down to a fine art!

Ha! - that sounds very much like my Kara. :)

#130 by @lyzard> Actually, that sounds very much like me!

I do understand that strange quietness in the house. Life forms, even little ones, give off their own energy and we interact with that, don't we.

I'm sorry to hear the sad news about Ruby, Rhian.

Thanks for dropping by Roni, Liz, Julia, Tui, Darryl. I have finally finished a book: The Humans by Matt Haig. Matt Haig is becoming one of my favourite authors when I feel like a fairly light read. I enjoyed this one - haven't had time to do a review yet though.

We're currently down with my mother for a long weekend to help her do some sorting out prior to her move. Had an eventful trip down, as after the journey of around 220 miles we had a puncture on the motorway about six miles from my Mum's house. It was at that point that Mr SandDune discovered that the new car does not have a spare wheel (apparently new cars don't have spare wheels anymore) so we had to wait for the recovery truck to come and rescue us, and then we had to get the RAC out again this morning to get the car to the nearest tyre shop. Daisy was most confused as first we made her sit in a crate in the car for hours (she isn't used to long car journeys) and then we plonked her crate in a bush at the edge of a very noisy motorway and refused point blank to let her out.

No spare? Yikes! This side of the pond we have these tiny spares usually located under the carpeting in the boot. They're good for driving a few miles, at medium speed -- enough to get back home or get to a repair shop.

Poor Daisy!

Rhian, my husband mentioned that more and more cars over here are no longer including spares, even the "doughnuts" that Laura describes. It's apparently part of the effort to improve gas mileage, as they are removing as much extra weight as they can get away with!

Oh dear - how miserable! I hope Daisy has forgiven you.

I have made a small start on The humans, just reading too many books at the same time to make much headway in anything.

I don't like the idea of driving a car with no spare tyre.

#135This side of the pond we have these tiny spares usually located under the carpeting in the boot. Laura - that's what we used to have in our old car, and that's what we assumed we had in this one, but no. The tow truck driver said that most new models of cars didn't even have any room to put a spare at all, or if there is room, it is usually sold as an optional extra.

#136 Hi Laura - yes that's what the tow truck driver said - it improves the mileage figures. And I suppose the likelihood of getting a flat tyre when driving is pretty low. The last time I can remember it happening is when I was sixteen and I was out for the day with my Dad. Same for Mr SandDune. And to be honest I have no idea how to change a wheel so would always call out the breakdown people anyway.

I'm glad you were close to your destination and that the fix-it people arrived quickly. Poor old Daisy though! (No spare? mumble...mumble...mumble)

#137, 140 Hi Dejah, Tui, the worst thing was that at first, because it's a new car, we couldn't remember if breakdown cover was included in the insurance (it was with our old car), and we weren't sure who to ring for assistance, but after twenty minutes we remembered that the car warranty included breakdown. And at first the help desk people said it might be a two to three hour wait for the truck, but a police car stopped after half an hour to check we were OK and said that they would chase up the truck if it was more than an hour, but then the truck arrived as they were leaving anyway. Apparently, the stretch of motorway where we stopped is a black spot for people being killed on the hard shoulder when broken down, so the police always stop to check that people have got out of their cars and are waiting somewhere safe.

Yikes! That sounds frightening. I'm glad you were all well and your car taken care of.

#142 Dejah I've realised what I've just written above might be misinterpreted: 'the stretch of motorway where we stopped is a black spot for people being killed on the hard shoulder when broken down' - I mean that people had been killed in accidents, not that there was some crazed axe murderer!

#138 Kerry I've enjoyed all of Matt Haig's books that I've read so far (and I think I first saw him recommended on your thread). He seems to be just the thing when I'm needing something fairly easy-going.

I've just finished And When Did You Last See Your Father by Blake Morrison. This is Mr SandDune's book club choice and it's a decent book, but he picked it because he really enjoyed the film of the same name, one which I enjoyed as well, and to be honest the book doesn't seem to say much more than the film did.

>143 SandDune: LOL! Actually my first thought was that you meant a serial killer had staked out that patch, but I ultimately came to the conclusion that you intended.

Rhian, I am so sorry about Ruby. I'm just now getting back here to see the bad news. She looks a bit like my beloved Edgar who I lost very suddenly two years ago. I know you miss her terribly.

Take good care.

Rhian, I'm ever so sorry that you are having a difficult week. Why do the planets align like this at times?

I hope you can rest the remaining part of the weekend.

I do know how sad the house is without a beloved pet. When my sheltie Simon died suddenly last year, one of the very hardest things to do was to come into the house and look for him, then to suddenly know he was not there.

I continue to think of you!

Poor Daisy and poor all of you. No spare. That seems, well..... unsafe even. I mean, it's making an assumption that help is always available within a reasonable distance. Or else you have to have a spare bouncing around in your car with you all the time. Gee whiz. I'm glad you are all ok.

#146,147,148 Hi Ellen, Linda, Lucy thanks for the good wishes. Surprisingly, Daisy seems to be missing Ruby as well, or at least she seems to keep looking for her. I say surprising as Ruby was usually trying to whack her with her paw if Daisy came anywhere near her, but I suppose she saw Ruby as part of her family, even if a slightly bad-tempered one as far as she was concerned. I don't know if all vets do this, but we had a hand written condolence card from the vets last week, which I thought was a nice touch. They sent one when Lulu was killed last year as well.

We had a better weekend after the unpromising start. The weather was fine and we managed to combine getting a lot of sorting out done at my mother's house, with some really nice walks. These are some of things that we managed to get rid of:

- my Dad's old wooden tennis racket (still in frame) - my Dad stopped playing tennis about 1964
- five or six bottles of sparkling wine circa 1998 which had completely lost all sparkle
- a leather bag that I'd had when I was about 12
- completed jigsaw that I'd had on my wall when I was a teenager
- numerous rusty tools in a revolting mouldy suitcase
- several plastic dolls of 1950's vintage (actually we didn't manage to get rid of these).
- pieces of wallpaper from room papered in the 1970's (in a previous house)

I don't accumulate stuff and clear things out fairly regularly, but once stuff gets into my Mum's house it tends to stay there whether she actually wants it or not. Funnily enough, the one thing I accumulate (books) is the one thing she doesn't. Although she reads she's quite happy to pass them on to the charity shop, but that doesn't seem to apply to anything else. My Dad was the manager of a holiday camp and always had promotional glasses being given to him by brewery reps. It had obviously never occurred to my Mum that just because they had been given them didn't mean they had to keep them! We could have started a small bar with the glassware that went to the charity shop in the end! There was some wobbling on getting rid of my Dad's old CD's but I managed to persuade her that if she hadn't played them since my Dad died in 2000 she was unlikely to start now!

In the end we took two full car loads to the tip, and another car load to the charity shop so I was fairly pleased with the weekend's work.

#148 Lucy I suppose in the UK, unless you are in northern Scotland, you actually aren't going to be that far from assistance. And probably the same goes for most of Western Europe as well. Mr SandDune's first thought was he was going to go out and buy a spare ASAP but he seems to be getting a bit more relaxed about it the more he thinks about it. Whether it's to do with less weight or not we're certainly getting more miles per gallon out of the new car than the old one: I'm getting about an extra 10mpg on my journey to work which should make a real difference to costs.

42. The Humans Matt Haig ***1/2



Matt Haig is becoming an author I like a lot when I feel like something easy-going. This is the third book of his that I've read in the last year or so and I've enjoyed all of them (The Radleys and The Last Family in England were the others).

Professor Andrew Martin, a 43 year old mathematician at Cambridge University has discovered the proof of the Riemann Hypothesis, which will unlock the key to the understanding of prime numbers. But his triumph is short lived, as he is abducted and then replaced by an alien intent of destroying all traces of his work, for if humans have the secret of prime numbers who knows what they will be capable of, and such knowledge in the hands of such a primitive species is surely dangerous. Unfortunately for the alien who has taken the form of Professor Martin, rather than finding himself in the professor's office, he find himself in the middle of the motorway leading into Cambridge. About to be hit by a car. And without any clothes. Luckily alien technology enables him to escape the car crash without a scratch, but it doesn't help him to evade the police as he continues to wander around Cambridge naked.

But what seems like a simple task at first - to destroy all evidence of the professor's work and to kill anyone who might be aware of it - becomes more complicated as the alien professor becomes more comfortable in human society. And especially as he seems to be making a rather more agreeable Professor Martin than the real professor himself.

I really enjoyed Matt Haig's turn of phrase in this book. The picture of the family dog is spot on: ' a category of hairy domestic deity otherwise known as a 'dog''. And this seems a very good description of magazines:

Magazines are very popular, despite no human having ever felt better for having read them. Indeed, their chief purpose is to generate a sense of inferiority in the reader that consequently leads to them needing to buy something, which they do, and then feel even worse, and so need to buy another magazine to see what they can buy next. It is an eternal and unhappy spiral that goes by the name of capitalism and it is really quite popular.

The Humans sounds rather oddly appealing -- I may actually give it a try.

Congratulations on the letting material things go effort - I realize they mostly weren't your things, but it can be a fraught process, even when you're helping someone else.

#152 Dejah I think the fact that it wasn't my childhood home helped. And most of the things that I'd be likely to get sentimental about had already gone: I'd have taken my childhood books like a shot but they all went to my sister's children thirty years ago. I suppose my Mum's always been good at passing things on to other family members, even if she won't get rid of things otherwise. So what tends to be left in the house are the things that no-one else in the family wants or the things she wants to keep herself. Quite a large proportion of the sorting out was of things that we couldn't imagine anyone else wanting at all: things that were broken or rusty or obsolete.

Behind with my reviews at the moment. A busy weekend, and now we're getting J sorted for his exchange trip to Germany (he goes Friday morning). And we have book club here this evening, so not much time for LT or reading.

Hi Rhian - Great description of your cleaning house. I try to do some of that every spring. I still have a lot of the kids' things in the house, which doesn't help, but I tend to put things away and not look at them again.

Rhian - Belatedly to your thread and sorry to see that the emotional stresses and strains of losing a pet has been visited upon you since I last visited. Taking our leave of loved ones is amongst the hardest of things we have to face in life and a cat, part of the family is felt not much the less. x

Beth is right in that your family clearing was recreated vividly. I don't throw things away quite so cheerfully and admire those that can take the view "let it go, it is not needed anymore".

Hi Rhian, I'm on board with Beth, that your description of cleaning house is wonderful! I have an aversion to "stuff" in my own house, and I know it is directly related to the amount that accumulated in my mother's home. When she died this winter, and we had to clean out her house, well ... enough said.

Enjoyed your review of The Humans. It's important to have an author I like a lot when I feel like something easy-going. I have several of them and wouldn't be without them!

We all liked The Radleys very much - so i think I will see what other Matt Haig novels. I can easily and cheaply procure or find!

Good work on the clearing out!!

And I've put The Humans on the wishlist--enticing review.

How exciting that J is on his way to Germany - how long will he be gone?

#156 I have an aversion to "stuff" in my own house, and I know it is directly related to the amount that accumulated in my mother's home - Nancy, that's very much how I feel. And I also have an aversion to keeping things for 'best' for the same reason. My Mum is happy to use things for everyday that are almost falling to pieces, as long as the best things are safely in a cupboard and can be pulled out occasionally for visitors.

#154,155,158 Hi Beth, Paul, Roni - to be honest the clearing out wasn't that difficult as most of the stuff that we were throwing out was either broken or obsolete. Or it was stuff that had been sitting at the back of a cupboard for the last forty years and never been used. I don't think we got to anything that had any real sentimental value.

#159 Dejah J is going to Munster for two weeks: he'll be living with his partner's host family and going to his school, and we'll have his partner here. The whole class goes so they've got quite a few trips planned. I think he's a little bit nervous but as it's a specialist language school foreign trips and exchanges are very much the norm: he'll need to do another two week's work experience in Germany in two years time.

#157 Lucy The Humans is a fun read. I'm looking out for Matt Haig's other books.

J's trip sounds exciting - I hope he has a wonderful time!

43. And When Did You Last See Your Father? Blake Morrison ****
Challenge: The End of Your Life Book Club (RL book club)



This is a thoughtful and perceptive reflection on the life, and particularly on the death, of the author's father. But unlike many books of this type, this isn't a picture of a dysfunctional family or unhappy childhood: the relationship between Morrison and his father was ultimately a loving one, although one fraught with frustrations.

Blake Morrison was born around 1950 into a prosperous family: both his parents were doctors in partnership in general practice in a small town in Yorkshire. His father was a larger than life character, perhaps not quite the respectable character that his position might suggest:

This is the way it was with my father. Minor duplicities. Little fiddles. Money-saving, privilege-attaining fragments of opportunism. The queue-jump, the backhander, the deal under the table. Parking where you shouldn't, drinking after hours, accepting the poached pheasant and the hoods off the back of a lorry.

What Morrison captures wonderfully is the rivalry, whether physical or otherwise, between father and son, as the one ages and the other grows. And there are some truly funny moments as the son attempts to deal with some of the excesses of his father's behaviour. But what makes the book stand out are Morrison's reflections on his father's death from inoperable cancer at the age of 75. Morrison depicts each stage in the decline in his father's physical condition with unusual clarity, but rather than being unnecessarily graphic , this is done in a very tender and moving way.

We discussed this book at my RL book club last night (Mr SandDune's choice) and all but one really enjoyed it. Several people found the description of the realities of death, and of the family's reaction to death, incredibly moving.

#163 Dejah I've been rushing around the last two days making sure that he's got everything he needs but I think he's all sorted now. They're meeting at 5.30am at the airport which will not be nice, but at least it's not very far from where we live. I bought J Divergent today to take with him, read the first chapter and now want to read the rest. Immediately. But of course I'll have to wait two weeks until it comes back from Germany.

5:30am? Sheesh. Maybe J needs his own ereader....

>139 SandDune: I got my first ever flat tyre only at the end of last year. It was the most exciting day in Wilburs life, I think. lol

>164 SandDune: so the End of your Life Book Club challenge is in regards to the book? Are you tasked with reading one of the books mentioned in that book? I like that idea.
I love noting which books are mentioned in other books, I know Valerie /Jolerie used to note them down on her reviews too.

44. Anne of Green Gables L.M.Montgomery ****
Challenge: Possession (books on my bookshelf for more than six months)

The story of the red-haired and freckled orphan Anne adopted by an elderly brother and sister on Prince Edward Island is such a familiar book that I won't write a proper review, but just put down a few thoughts. I have been meaning to read this book for some time, since the summer of 2008 to be precise when we spent a week on Prince Edward Island: our accommodation was half a mile at most from the Green Gables House, we had free tickets, and we never went. I've been feeling guilty about that ever since: I know at least two people whose visits to Canada were mainly organised around them satisfying an Anne of Green Gables fixation on P.E.I.. Still ever if we didn't visit the actual house we did see many others like it, and fell in love with P.E.I. and I've been meaning to read it ever since.

This type of girls' story wasn't my favourite type of book when I was a child, I'm not sure I ever managed to finish Little Women, although I did like Pollyanna. It's probably telling that Anne of Green Gables is of a similar date, so the more overt moralising of earlier dated books is replaced by a focus on the inherent goodness of the main child character, who has much to teach the adults around her. And Anne is a very appealing main character, always aiming to be good while constantly getting into scrapes. So I enjoyed this book a lot: it's full of very quiet pleasures and it brings back all the delights of the P.E.I. countryside.

45. The Warden Anthony Trollope ****1/2
Challenge: The Thirteenth Tale (series that I'm reading or want to start)



The first of Anthony Trollope's Barchester Chronicles, The Warden is a short but beautifully formed book. The story of Mr Septimus Harding, the precentor of Barchester Cathedral, and the warden of Hiram's Hospital, an almshouse in the cathedral city of Barchester. The twelve old men housed by the hospital receive an income of one shilling and four pence per day, whereas the increase in the value of the property in the centuries since the charity was founded leaves the warden with a substantial income of eight hundred pounds a year and the use of a handsome house. But as voices begin to be raised questioning whether this division of funds is in line with the original wishes of John Hiram, the very private Mr Harding must face the public scrutiny of his affairs. And to complicate matters the chief instigator of the enquiries is the man with whom Mr Harding's daughter Eleanor is in love.

For me the strength of this book is in the memorable characters that Trollope creates: the honest and generous Mr Harding battling with his own concience; the gentle but ineffectual Bishop; and blowing through the book like a whirlwind there is the wonderful archdeacon Dr Grantley, who alternately organises and terrorises all around him.

Trollope's language at times is just perfect. On discovering that Mr Harding's daughter is likely to become engaged to the chief reformer, John Bold:

'The bishop did not whistle; we believe that they lose the power of doing so on being consecrated; and that in these days one might as easily meet a corrupt judge as a whistling bishop; but he looked as if he would have done so, but for his apron.'

I'll definitely going on to read the rest of the Barchester Chronicles.

#166 Hi Dejah well we were up at 4:40am, J was delivered at 5.30am and we were back home for 6.00am. We've had a phone call this evening so everything seems OK although he sounded tired. He does have a kindle, but much prefers real books so that's what he's taken to Germany. I've told him that he has to use the kindle when we go to Malaysia as we're not carting dozens of books about!

#167 Megan all my challenge titles are book titles designed to suggest the sort of books for that category, so End of Your Life Book Club is just for my RL book club choices. To be honest it's not the best title but it was the last one I thought of and I was running out of inspiration. I have got that book on the shelf to read though ...

>>#169

Glad to have you on the Trollope-train, Rhian! :)

It's good to hear that you got J off safely.

I have to ask - are you a fan of Possession?

Oh, Rhian, wonderful review of both Anne of Green Gables and The Warden. Loved them both! Worthy, favourite classics that they are : ).

#171 Hi Liza - I've read Trollope before and pretty much always enjoyed him but I'd never got around to the Barchester chronicles.

#172 Dejah I read Possession a long time ago and I liked it a lot, although I've never got on with A.S. Byatt's other work. I tend to find her books a little bit too concerned with demonstrating her own cleverness, and I do wonder if I would think the same thing about Possession if I read it again.

#173 Nancy One of the things that I found interesting about Anne of Green Gables was that it agreed very nicely with the points I made on my final assessment for my Children's Literature course last year. The topic was the changing relationship in between children and adults over the hundred and fifty years of literature that we were looking at, and there is a real cultural shift between the time that Little Women was written (when children and young women needed to be guided along the right path by their parents and husbands, and disobedience is a moral failure) and the time when Anne of Green Gables was written, (when children can be inherently good and can offer moral lessons to the adults around them). I illustrated this with Pollyanna, but I could have used Anne of Green Gables equally well, as Anne's indomitable character works its magic on those around her.

Here are some pictures from last weekend.

Kitesurfers on the sea:



and the next beach along completely deserted:



J and Mr SandDune on the dunes (with Daisy snuffling in the background):



Wild irises:



I have no idea what these are called but there are lots of them on the dunes and they are very pretty:

Hooray, another Barchester fan! I'm so glad you enjoyed The Warden. I'm reading Framley Parsonage now (part of a group read). We had "tutored reads" for the first two books which were enormously helpful to understand the language and the "church stuff."

Lovely photos too!

Hi Laura I'm definitely going to be reading the next installments.

Wow, loved the windsurfers. Never seen something like that.

I've just had to rescue Daisy from next door's cat who had her penned into a narrow area leading to our garden gate. The cat wasn't actually doing anything it was just sitting there, but Daisy looked very intimidated: head down, not making eye contact. Of course as soon as the back door was opened Daisy felt she had reinforcements and the cat dashed off with Daisy in pursuit into the bushes. From which they reappeared thirty seconds later, the cat in pursuit this time, aiming a very determined claw at Daisy's head which seemed to settle the matter. Cat 1: Daisy 0.

Despite not being very big next door's cat is quite feisty. It used to beat Ruby up regularly.

#178 Hi Morphy. I've never seen so many before, but I have watched them close up and they are amazingly acrobatic. I've heard that it's a sport that is becoming more and more popular. We couldn't go near this time as that part of the beach doesn't allow dogs in the summer, but they did look pretty with all the different colour kites. That beach is a mile or so from my Mum's house, so we go there quite regularly and there are usually lots of surfers when the tide is coming in, but the tide was going out when I took the photo (so no big waves for ordinary surfing) and the kite surfers had taken over.

Hi Rhian - beautiful pictures. The last one got me Googling and I think it might be Kidney Vetch



Picture taken from this link which has more details about the plant
http://www.first-nature.com/flowers/anthyllis_vulneraria.php

Are those stones hard to walk on? Both of your menfolk seemed to be looking down, carefully picking their way. The ocean is beautiful there...loved seeing the dunes and wild irises too.

We have a newish kitten next door who is proving fearless, as well as being a fierce huntress. I rescued a swallowtail butterfly from her clutches yesterday and she regularly takes voles, chipmunks and mice in for our neighbours. Not the least bit afraid of my dog but my old moggy, Holly, has put the run on her a couple of times. Impertinent little interloper!

ETA: I think I agree with you about A.S. Byatt. Although I enjoyed Possession a lot and one other (can't remember which), I find her novels too *constructed*. I get the sense that this is a person with all her clothes organised by a colour-coded system.

Oh, Rhian, what wonderful photos. Gorgeous sea and dunes!

#181 Hi Calm - kidney vetch - I looked at some more pictures and that looks exactly it. It grows in the right sorts of places as well. Thanks!

#182 Tui what you can't really see in the picture is that the stones form quite a steep slope, so you do have to watch your feet. I was having a sit down at the top as they were just going to have a race down to the sea before we had to get back for lunch.

The cat next-door finds Daisy deeply unimpressive. It's noticeable that if they're in the garden on their own it's always the cat who has the upper hand. But if one of us goes out then the cat runs - we've always shooed her away because she used to bully Ruby so much.

#183 Nancy - there are some really lovely parts around my old hometown, and Mr SandDune really likes it too despite the fact that he's from a different part of the country. It's a great place to go with Daisy, as there are so many areas where she can just run free. Although some beaches don't allow dogs in the summer, she's allowed on enough for it not to be a problem.

Love the story of your neighbor cat!

I'm stopping by to say you are very much on my mind and I hope your grief has abated. Losing a pet is never easy.

Congratulations on reading so many books. I've added The Radleys to my list. I read the reviews and it seems like something I would like. I've never heard of this author before.

All the best.

#185 Hi Laura - staffies are generally thought to be a tough sort of dog - I suppose nobody's told Daisy.

#186 Thanks for popping by Linda. Some of the reading over the last couple of weeks has definitely been comfort reading (especially Anne of Green Gables and The Humans). Luckily we've been so busy that we haven't had time to dwell. J has said that he would like another cat, so we may get a rescue cat when we come back from holiday. If we could get a cat that was used to dogs I think Daisy would get on with it quite well, she always seemed to quite want to make friends with Ruby.

Hello Rhian! I am so very behind on the threads.

I am so very sorry to hear about Ruby.

Yikes on the flat tire and no spare! I'm glad you all are safe and sound. I hope Daisy has recovered from the shock.

I love your photos.

On to the wish list The Humans will go.

Take care!

Lovely photos of the beach and windsurfers - what a lot of them! We have a few on the right days in Wellfleet on the bay side, but I've never seen so many.

#188 Roberta - don't worry about being behind. I've been so far behind myself recently.

#189 Lucy - these ones are kitesurfers rather than windsurfers (I don't know if the terminology is the same in the States). They have more of a kite / parachute sort of thing rather than a traditional sail attached to the board, and because of that they can jump really high in the air. I don't remember seeing them before the last few years but now every beach we go on seems to have them if the wind is blowing.

#191 Well J has reported back from Germany and seems to have settled in well. His host family lives in the countryside outside Muenster so he has a bike ride to the bus stop and then a 40 minute bus ride to school. As school starts 7.45am that means he has to get up a lot earlier than he is used to, and I think he's struggling with that, but otherwise he is coping well. We have had his exchange partner here since Sunday: his English is much better than I expected so no problems about not speaking German.

Oh I was so behind on your thread Rhian. I am so sorry about the loss of your Ruby. Our pets are such an integral part of our families that it's just unbearable to lose one, especially unexpectedly.

I am glad you enjoyed The Warden. Discovering Trollope has been the highlight of my reading life for the past year. I just finished Framley Parsonage and am ready to move on to The Small House at Allington. He is absolutely delightful.

Love the pictures of the dunes. Lovely.

Yes, yes, after I wrote that, I thought, oops wrong word. I do mean that kind though with the kites.

I think it is so cool that you have an exchange student and your son is over in Germany. If we had kids, I think we would have encouraged something like that.

#192 Thanks for the kind thoughts Bonnie. Pets certainly do ingrain themselves in our hearts. I am now on to Barchester Towers and I am loving that even more than The Warden. Mrs Proudie's evening entertainment is priceless! I have read several Trollope's before, but for some reason I've read his rather more obscure works rather that the better known ones.

#193 Lucy I have to confess that I had to look up what it was called. My first thought was parascending bt that didn't sound right.

#194 Hi Morphy because it is a language college it's expected that the students will go on these trips and very few don't go. I think they must get a much better understanding of life in the country than if they just go on a group trip, and they do have much more opportunities to practice their languages.

Just got home. The good news is the cheque from the pet insurance company has arrived to cover the cost of Ruby's treatment. The bad news is that Daisy has eaten it!

>196 SandDune: What mixed emotions in that post! I don't know whether to laugh or commiserate.

Daisy 'ate' the cheque?!?!?! Never saw that coming!

46. The Detour Gerbrand Bakker ***
Challenge: The Welsh Girl (Welsh fiction)

An initially unnamed Dutch woman leaves her husband and her country, and finds herself in an isolated cottage in North Wales. There are hints of an affair with a student at the University in which she taught, and where she was completing her thesis on Emily Dickinson. Unfamiliar with country living she gradually comes to terms with her surroundings, and with the needs of the ten geese which she has acquired with the rental of the house and which are disappearing one by one. Into this solitary existence comes Rhys Jones, a neighbouring farmer, who Emilie (or is it Agnes) finds repulsive, and Bradwen, a young student who stays in the cottage after a chance encounter. Back in the Netherlands the abandoned husband discovers that her affair was not the only secret his wife was keeping, and resolves to follow her.

So far so good but I also found many things to irritate me about this book, starting with this sentence: 'Rhys Jones looked like a caricature of a Welshman: a broad face, thick greasy hair, watery eyes, unshaven'. And having got me indignant on behalf of my fellow countrymen, the book proceeded to annoy me in a number of other ways. A sense of place is something that's very important to me, but it's something I didn't get from The Detour. I mean it's November ... in Snowdonia ... and yet the weather seems to be warm enough to encourage the main character to strip off and lie naked in the sun, or bathe in newly discovered pools. Where are the howling gales, and the mist, and the rain that goes on for day after day?

And then there are the factual errors about life in Britain that jarred, and further detracted from my enjoyment of the book: a doctor chain smoking in his surgery while seeing patients is one of these (it's been illegal to smoke in any workplace or enclosed public place for some years now, and for years before that it would have been unthinkable to smoke in that particular environment.)And this comment about a ferry from the Netherlands to Hull left me wondering whether the author had ever been on a ferry in his life: 'This boat wasn't set up for meals: it left at 9pm and docked at nine the next morning. The husband and policeman couldn't find any breakfast.' Really? On a twelve hour ferry journey? In my (fairly extensive) experience of ferries the main aim of ferry operators is to get the travellers to spend as much money on food and drink as is humanly possible. You can always get breakfast. And dinner. And lunch. And snacks in between.

But above all my main problem with the book is that none of the character's actions make the slightest sense to me. I'm quite happy with a certain amount of ambiguity, but there wasn't a single character whose motivations I felt I could even begin to guess at. So by the end of the book I had very little idea of what the point of it all had been.

Overall, then, a disappointment, which was a shame as I'd had this one of my wish list for a while and had expected to like it. But no more than adequate for me I'm afraid.

#197, 198 Hi Morphy, Lori maybe saying she 'ate' the cheque is a slight exaggeration. She hasn't eaten all of it - there are bits left. But the bits she has eaten were fairly crucial and it certainly wouldn't be accepted by my bank anymore. But I've phoned the insurance company and they've agreed to stop that cheque and send out a new one. It would be so much easier if they'd just do a bank transfer!

Having finished The Warden I am now listening to Barchester Towers on audio, and am absolutely loving it!

Whoo! Go, Rhian!

Rhian, excellent, comprehensive review of The Detour. I quite enjoyed it, so it's definitely one we differ on. I also read and loved Bakker's The Twin; actually, I think The Twin was the better of the two.

Woot! Delighted you are enjoying listening to Trollope so much! On that we absolutely, wholeheartedly agree : ).

#202,203 Hi Liz, Nancy I've read a certain amount of Trollope's stand-alone books before, but never the series. I find I'm really looking forward to my commute to work so I can get back to the book!

#203 I know that I'm being a bit pedantic in some of my objections to The Detour and I know I wouldn't pick up in these things if it was set in an area that I wasn't familiar with, but I can't help it. I start to lose faith in the book as a whole and it needs to be really strong otherwise to get me back on side.

I agree with your review of The Detour wholeheartedly Rhian. Quite irritating summed it up. It was indeed a major disappointment after the extremely good The Twin. Very good review.

Great review of The Detour, Rhian. I'll keep your comments in mind when I read it later this year.

Oh I had The Detour on my radar - sounds like I would find it disappointing though. Well that is one less book that I need to read.

Gosh - Daisy is eating the post. Hope that when the replacement cheque arrives she doesn't get her teeth into it, maybe one of those cages that fit over the letter box is necessary.

Cripes, there are even meals served between Mull and Oban, a hop, skip, and a jump apart really. I agree, Rhian, details like that which are just plain wrong will wreck a book for me. And I still haven't read The Twin even though it has been sitting here for several years.

Hi Rhian! Dropping in to catch up and send virtual hugs!!

Your Ruby looked so much like my Sophie! :'(

#205 Paul if The twin is much better perhaps I will give Bakker another go - I had put him down as a writer who was not for me.

#206 Darryl I'll be interesting to see what you think of it. I liked his style of writing, and if there'd been any clue as to motivations I would have liked the book a lot more, regardless of my annoyance at the factual inaccuracies.

#208 Tui I've done a lot of ferries in my time (North Sea routes to Scandanavia and the Netherlands, virtually all the cross Channel routes to France, across the Irish Sea, and Plymouth to Santander in Spain) and they are all obsessed with getting the passengers to spend as much money as possible. No breakfast just sounded so wrong: even if they've got to wake people up at 5.30 to eat it, there will be the opportunity of breakfast.

#209 Hi Tina Ruby was a pretty and gentle cat. We all miss her.

Here's an odd thing, recently we acquired a tall bottle of that excellent Oban scotch, then it was just mentioned in an article I'm reading that includes a Scotsman from that area, and now you mention it! This is a place, say, a month ago or so, of which I had never heard! Probably I HAD but it was the scotch that made it stick!

Oh my goodness, just catching up with Daisy's antics. I'm glad you're able to get a replacement cheque!

#211 Lucy it's funny when that happened. Oban used to be Mr SandDune's favourite whisky at one time I think, and then it got supplanted by Highland Park from Orkney.

#207 Calm you should know better than anyone that the weather in Wales is not often conducive to stripping off in the summer, let alone in November! I looked into getting one of those cages but we have a uPvC front door and I'm not sure how well that would take screws (neither of us are good at DIY). I might look into getting a mail box that can be attached to the outside wall. She doesn't usually chew the mail but I think she's been a bit bored with me working every day at the moment and J in Germany.

#212 Laura luckily there wasn't a problem getting the cheque reissued at all. I suppose these things must happen from time to time.

Hi Rhian,
Just catching up after a long absence. Book bullets aplenty, so thank-you for that. Glad to hear you are another Bujold convert - Lucy and Roni conducted me into the club last year : )
On a sadder note, I add my belated condolences for Ruby, she looks like a lovely cat.

#Glad I can be of service Hannah in providing the book bullets. I've been reading a lot more sci-fi and fantasy lately. I always liked sci-fi in principle but I found I just wasn't coming across the right books for me - not a problem any more as so many good recommendations here.

>174 SandDune: although I've never got on with A.S. Byatt's other work. I tend to find her books a little bit too concerned with demonstrating her own cleverness
Interesting- I thought AS Byatt was male for a start, and I really want to read Possession too (it being a Booker winner and all). I hadnt heard of the writing being showy- its a pet hate of mine, I prefe subtle intelligence to showy smarty pants intelligence :)

And only 3 stars for the Detour? Hm again.....Another I want to read, and shall one day. Most people have loved it from memory. I certainly liked the covers of it that I saw :)

#168 "our accommodation was half a mile at most from the Green Gables House, we had free tickets, and we never went." Oh horror! I always felt a particular affinity for Anne having red hair. I have never dyed mine green though.

#169 Hooray! Another Trollope fan :-)

#175 Lovely photos!

#179 Your story of Daisy and the cat really did make me laugh out loud so I will allow myself to post a 'LOL' on the internet. :-)

Edited to correct a real spelling blooper

#216 Do read Possession Megan - I did enjoy that one and I think that one is a less showy than some of her others. I did feel a bit guilty giving The Detour three stars as in many respects it's a well written book, but I came away from it feeling very unsatisfied, so I really don't think I can give it more. You're right in that most people have enjoyed it, (but see Paul in #205 above) and there is one other three star review on the book's page. I agree with you about the cover though: I have the one with the geese I like a lot.

Edited to add: Megan - A.S.Byatt is definitely female and is the sister of Margaret Drabble, although (apparently because of a dispute over the description of a family tea set in one of Margaret Drabble's early books), they have barely been on speaking terms for years.

#217 Heather - I had the excuse that I had my husband and (then) eight year old son in tow who showed absolutely no interest in anything relating to Anne of Green Gables at all. Left to myself I would probably have gone - I seem to remember suggesting it as an option a couple of times (but without much energy, I have to admit) but was voted down.

Beautiful pictures, Rhian.
You know, I think it took Abby almost two years to get used to being an "OC" (Only Cat) after Edgar died. They do get attached to one another.

47. Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading Nina SankovItch **1/2

Following the death of her elder sister Anne-Marie from cancer at the age of forty-six, Nina Sankovitch found comfort by reading a book a day for a year. That much I knew before I started to read, and I was expecting a book predominantly focused on the books read and the reading experience, with an element of family memoir included. Instead, what I got was exactly the reverse, a family memoir interspersed with brief discursions into books. And a family memoir particularly focused on the sister and Nina's relationship with her. And therein lies the problem for me: Nina Sankovitch clearly adored her sister but she presents her as such an unremitting paragon of virtue that it is difficult to see her as a real person. Paragraphs such as this convey the feel:

'But Anne-Marie became my gold standard of achievement, the one whose approval I sought even more than my parents'. Up she went on a pedestal, and for me, she never really came down again.

'I was reminded of Anne-Marie in the characters I was meeting in all of my books. She was the kind of heroine authors like to put in their books, with her quiet strength and resilience, her utter lack of petty or trivial concerns, and the superlative combination of her beauty and her intelligence.'

Clearly, to lose a sister or any close relative or friend at the age of forty-six is very sad, but Sankovitch comes over as so self-indulgent in her grief that she completely lost my sympathy. I know this sounds cruel and heartless, but after fifty pages I just wanted to tell her to stop thinking about herself all the time and pull herself together. But her focus on the dead Anne-Marie even three years after her death is so complete that there seems to be very little thought left for anyone else: either for her husband whose own sister had died in the same year, or for her four children.

So not a good read for me, and particularly so coming so soon after reading And When Did You Last See Your Father, which, by giving a portrait of the dying man as a real human being with all his faults and foibles, succeeded in portraying a much more moving and rawer account of death and grief.

Rhian, your comments on Tolstoy and the Purple Chair remind me of my own reaction to The End of Your Life Book Club. Sorry it wasn't better...

#219 Hi Ellen I think Daisy is feeling unsettled as first we lost Ruby, then J went to Germany and as far as Daisy knows has been replaced permanently by another boy, and on Tuesday Mr SandDune went to Belgium for the day (left at 4.30am and got back at midnight) so she probably thinks that we are dropping like flies.

Talking about cats there was a really interesting program this week on the BBC looking at a cat's eye view of the world. Fifty cats in a village in the South of England had been fitted with tracking devices to plot their movements over a period of a week and then a sample also fitted with minature cameras to look at what they were actually doing. It was interesting to see how the cats were working out their territories in an area when the cats lived quite close together, and also how many perfectly well-fed cats were raiding their neighbours food on a regular basis in the middle of the night.

#221 Katie oh that's a shame as I have The End of your Life Book Club on the shelf waiting to be read. Maybe I need to avoid books about books and death!

>222 SandDune:: Rhian, the hubs and I saw that cat programme! It was absolutely fascinating. We've found a website where we can get Gardeners World, which is now a regular ritual in our house. I have no idea how this person does it, but he also posts other British TV shows we can't get over here. Secret Life of Cats was our Friday night entertainment (sad, I know ... )

Here it is, in two 30-minute parts:
Secret Life of Cats Part 1
Secret Life of Cats Part 2

Rhian, you've never read Cotillion!?!?! Oh, have you got a treat in store! Do it soon.

Hi Rhian - Lovely pictures. Sorry The Detour and Tolstory and the Purple Chair didn't work for you. I liked The End of Your Life Book Club more than Katie did. It wasn't maudlin and was more a celebration of his mother's life, I thought.

After The Detour and Tolstoy and the Purple Chair, you are due for a five* read, Rhian! Perhaps the Georgette Heyer you haven't read? : )

Tolstoy and the Purple Chair did not work well for me either, Rhian. I join Nancy in wishing you a 5-star read in the near future!

What a lot of posts overnight!

#223 Laura they also had a follow-up program Little Cat Diaries which focused on what some specific cats were doing which was fascinating as well.

#224 Roni I will leave Cotillion until I have need of a comfort read, as that's when I always read Georgette Heyer. She's just perfect if you're a bit down.

#225 Hi Beth, Nancy, Stasia - a celebration of life rather than a fixation on death in Tolstoy and the Purple Chair would have worked much better for me. One of the problems I found with the book was that the author was continually saying how wonderful her sister was, but very little evidence was put forward to back this up. I was left feeling that in practice I might have found the sister a little annoying. Whereas her mother sounded an interesting character and I would have liked to know more about her.

I think I will have a five star read very shortly. Currently more than halfway through listening to Barchester Towers and loving it!

>218 SandDune: (apparently because of a dispute over the description of a family tea set in one of Margaret Drabble's early books), they have barely been on speaking terms for years.
LOL
It can take not much to disrupt a family these days! I presume there were deeper issues there.

I was left feeling that in practice I might have found the sister a little annoying.

Funny how things collide in the mind---that comment plus the discussion of Georgette Heyer put me instantly in mind of a passage of Heyer's A Civil Contract, in which the hero's young sister remarks of their late sibling, who died very young, that:

"From everything Mama says, Maria was the most odious child."
"Lydia, Mama cannot have said that!"
"No, she said she was too good to live."

Hi Rhian, I have finished The Accidental Tourist so lets talk Muriel: what did your RL book group have to say? Scathing were they?
*****SPOILERS AHEAD*****
I wasn't sold on her initially, but grew to like her character after I saw Macon changing while with her. I could see Macon settling into her life and liking the hub-bub and busyness of a full household, I could see him releasing his tensions and relaxing into a household where he knew he couldn't organise into systems so didn't even try. I liked that relaxed new him. And I loved that he decided ultimately to make his mind up and go with her! What a courageous act for little old Macon. What a clever book! I gave it 4.5 stars
*****END SPOILERS*****

#229 I presume there were deeper issues there. - sounds like there was a difficult mother and three highly achieving daughters (two novelists and one art historian), as well as a brother who is a QC. So probably an extreme case of sibling rivalry!

#231 ****SPOILERS**** for Accidental Tourist

'Gold-digging floozy' was the term used by one book club member to the approval of at least half the group. I'd always seen Muriel as being really good for Macon at that stage in his life. As you say, what he needed was the hurly-burly of family life, and Muriel's household provided that and really helped him to get his life back on an even keel. Muriel definitely has her faults, but at the end of the day she's a hard-working woman who's doing the best she can for her son, without having had a great start in life. But a good half of my book club were so disappointed that Macon didn't get back with his wife, whereas to my mind (and Mr SandDune's) it seemed obvious that for Macon to move on as a person at all that would have been the worst thing that he could have done.

If this were a British book, then it might have been more openly stated that the main thing that's wrong with Muriel is that she belongs to the wrong class for Macon. As it's a U.S. book it doesn't come right out and say that but that's what it means (to me anyway).. And I think that's why I was so shocked that most of my book club threw their lot in with the nice middle class wife, and were so anti-Muriel.

#230 Liz I remember that too! I'm sure Anne-Marie might well have been a lovely woman, but there's nothing like someone telling you over and over again how perfect someone is to set you against them!

We're celebrating tonight as it our 25th Wedding Anniversary. Not a major celebration as J is still in Germany and we still have the exchange student but we're going out to dinner. Funny, when we got married we were intending to start a family in a couple of years time. I might have had a twenty-three year old now instead of a thirteen year old if that had gone to plan!

Happy Anniversary, Rhian!

I know what you mean about saving Heyers, but take it from me, the rereads are really just as good. I've had all the romances read for over 30 years now, but have revisited them many times. In fact, as a result of our discussion here, I read the first half of Cotillion last night!

#222 I haven't watched the cat programme yet (Horizon?) but we have it starred on iPlayer.

#228 I think I will have a five star read very shortly. Currently more than halfway through listening to Barchester Towers and loving it! Woo hoo!

#234 Congratulations! Hope you and Mr Sand dune enjoy your meal :-)

#235 take it from me, the rereads are really just as good - Roni I think I've reread all the Heyer's in my possession, with the exception of The Spanish Bride, the only one I've ever read which I didn't enjoy much.

#236 Hi Heather the cat program is well worth a watch. At the moment I'm really wondering why it took me so long to get around to the Barchester books.

Hm very interesting re: Muriel. She was very keen on bagging herself a divorcee....but as she stated, she could always support herself and always had.

I am laughing right out loud at the fact that Ruby ate the check from the pet insurance company.

Hopefully, this will not cause her to become ill, thus needing more treatment...another check to be eaten.

#238Megan, Macon was certainly a good catch for Muriel: he had a decent house and a decent job and he was good with her son. But although materially everything seemed to be in Macon's favour, Muriel provided Macon with a place where he could really live his life, rather than just exist. Most of the people in my book group only seemed to see the former.

#239 Linda I just hope that Daisy doesn't eat the next one. I don't want to have to phone up twice! Daisy's insurance is actually with a different company, who send their money by bank transfer - much more sensible.

#236 The mention of the cat programme gave me the push I needed to catch up on iPlayer and I really enjoyed both the first program and the follow-up which focused in more detail on some of the cats. I still can't believe that one of the cats managed to kill a rabbit though! It looked almost as big as the cat.

#241 I still can't believe that one of the cats managed to kill a rabbit though! - and I don't think it was just the one rabbit either. I seem to remember that they said that that particular cat had killed three rabbits in one night!

49. Where You Once Belonged Kent Haruf ****

I've seen quite a lot about Kent Haruf on LT over the last few months, especially Plainsong. But I tried this one as it was the only book by the author in my local library system (I don't think he's particularly well known in the UK). And I found this a powerful and haunting read, with beautiful sparse language, so I will definitely be going on to source some of his other books.

Jack Burdette has returned to his home town of Holt, Colorado after an absence of eight years. But this is no happy homecoming, as he left with over $150,000 belonging to the local farmers' cooperative of which he was the manager, and in which many local people owned shares. The sense of shock with which this hits the local community when this is discovered causes them to hit out at the only person remaining in town who they can associate with the crime: Burdette's wife.

The small town world of Holt is beautifully realised. A world where everyone knows everyone else and where people who do not fit in are ostracised. A world where Jack Burdette is able to rise to the position of manager despite having failed at both school and college, because of the fading glamour that clings to him as a school football star. And the sense of betrayal that the town feels is heightened by that very familiarity with the criminal. Told by Jack's onetime friend Pat Arbuckle, it's a book that builds to a shocking and unexpected conclusion.

>242 SandDune:: that lady was a little too proud of her cat's rabbit hunting, imo! It was interesting to me that in the longer documentary they had a short segment debunking cats as evil predators (a decidedly unscientific segment, actually), but the short film gave the completely opposite impression.

Predators, possibly; evil predators is unjust anthropomorphism.

(Though personally I speak as the owner of a cat who is terrified of everything and regularly attacked by birds.)

I have also been drawn in by all the mention of the Haruf books here on LT. I bought both Plainsong and Eventide because of the positive LT traffic. Now I see your review for Where You Once Belonged and have made a note of that you describe it as a powerful and haunting read, with beautiful sparse language and I know i have made the right choose with my yet to be read purchases and have now added this one to the bookstore list.

Hi Rhian,

Thank you for visiting my thread! I have been in and out all day, but I left my computer open, and when I could, I spent the day exploring your threads. Between the children's book illustrations, your love of Wales, and your thoughtful reviews, I didn't have to read too far to understand that you are a kindred spirit:) Love your photos -- Brugges is one of my favorite places, and Cornwall is beautiful -- also love your new-ish bookshelves, and the photos you posted of dear Ruby.

Hope you're having a great week!

#244 that lady was a little too proud of her cat's rabbit hunting Laura yes I think I agree with you there - but at least rabbits aren't an endangered species! I found it interesting that there was such variety in the hunting activities of the cats, despite them all being well fed and living in the same sort of area.

#245 Liz I've never owned a cat who was much of a hunter. Ruby was definitely not: hunting would have required her to exert herself far too much. I tried to interest her in catching spiders around the house (I have a very irrational fear of spiders) but she showed no interest at all, although she did once manage to squash one once. (Daisy is a much better pupil when it comes to spiders, and is proving very useful when the official spider catcher (AKA Mr SandDune) is out.) Our previous cat, Edward, was much more active and did occasionally catch something if it came his way, but I don't think he went much out of his way to look for things. But I do have a friend whose cat regularly deposits dead squirrels in her kitchen! Lovely!

Interesting short article from Malorie Blackman, the new children's laureate in the UK, about sex in YA books:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/10128510/Honest-sex-scenes-in-...

>>#248

When she was much younger, my cat occasionally caught things but rather than kill them she would bring them into the house and let them go, which was a habit with certain problems attached, as you might imagine - particularly when she started catching juvenile snakes...

I also found a frog in my show one morning. :)

Rhian, wonderful review of Where You Once Belonged. Sounds like one I would really enjoy. Have added this one and Plainsong to the WL. Not previously familiar with Ken Haruf, so thanks for that : ). And I'm delighted you broke your meh-spell.

#245 I laughed out loud! (Though personally I speak as the owner of a cat who is terrified of everything and regularly attacked by birds.)

We've had 6 cats over our married life, and only two showed any hunting ability whatsoever. The best hunter is Midnight, who is the daughter of a barn cat and while she came to us as a kitten I wonder if hunting ability is inherited. The other cats are all coddled house cats. None of them even go outside (that's very common this side of the pond, but I have the impression in other parts of the world it's unusual to keep them exclusively indoors).

#246 Lori I'd not come across Kent Haruf before seeing him recommended on LT, but I've seen so many recommendations recently that I thought I'd give him a try.

#247 Welcome Anne glad you've enjoyed my thread. I'm not sure how I missed yours for so long.

#250 particularly when she started catching juvenile snakes Liz, I can see that would be a little problem!

#251 Nancy I will be getting around to Plainsong fairly soon I think - it is available on kindle here even though it's not available at the library.

#252 Laura the question of indoor or outdoor cats is one on which there seems to be very different opinions on different ideas of the Atlantic. It is very unusual here to come across a cat which is not allowed to go outside. There must be some as when I googled it I found an estimate of around 10% of cats being indoor cats in the UK, but I can honestly say that I have never come across one. Most cats here have free access to the outside via a catflap. And there are different opinions among the rescue organisations of the two countries as well. Certainly the big rescue societies such as the RSPCA or the Cats Protection League seem to consider that having access to the outside world is the norm for cats: they will consider rehoming to an indoor only environment but only if certain conditions are met. The RSPCA, for instance, won't rehome cats that are accustomed to being allowed outside, to an indoor only environment.

I think you'll like Kent Haruf, Rhian. Beautiful writing, and he's adept at bringing you into his characters' lives in Holt, Colorado.

>255 SandDune:: that's interesting, Rhian. When we lived in the UK we allowed our kitties to go outside, mostly due to "peer pressure" from neighbors -- meaning, we observed the norm and suddenly felt like the odd ones out. We had a walled garden so they pretty much stayed close to home and came in at night. On return to the US one cat continued to go outdoors, the others were happy staying in and attempts to make them indoor/outdoor cats were not successful! They will go out when the weather is very nice, but they usually just stay on the porch.

#255 Laura I do find the difference in attitudes between the US and the UK on this quite interesting, especially as the animal charities in both countries have come to such different conclusions. One thing I've noticed is quite strange: all the arguments I've seen for keeping cats in (from the U.S. sites) quote outdoor cats living only an average of 3-5 years with indoor ones living much longer. Whereas most of the cats I've known have lived much longer than that - I would have guessed that maybe twelve to fourteen years might be reasonable? I wonder if the research was perhaps done on feral cats rather than ones with owners? Or maybe it's just a safer environment for cats here?

Is an "outdoor cat" a cat that just goes outside, though, or one that lives outside?

Here I would say that many people think it's wrong to keep a cat at all if it can't spend some time outside. People who live in apartments often don't have cats for that very reason. The usual thing is for cat owners to have a yard, and for the cat to make its own mind up about in or out during the day (often leading to incredibly protracted bouts of in-out-in-out-in-out-in-out), and then to be kept in at night. No-one has suggested any consequent effect on longevity - but perhaps that's a climate thing? Anyway, on this regime my current cat is nearly 11, and my previous cat lived to 18.

>258 SandDune:-259: 3-5 years for an outdoor cat? That's ridiculous. Or do you mean 3-5 years less than an indoor cat? I guess the latter could be possible if the cat is in an area with a lot of automobile traffic. But you know, people can find statistics to support any argument! I don't have strong feelings about it myself, I think it depends on your living situation and the cat's personality.

It's funny though that here, cats are considered ideal for apartment dwellers precisely because they can stay indoors whereas dogs need to be walked and, obviously, do not use a litter box.

First before I get on the cat discussion, I was fascinated that your book group thought Macon should get back with his wife! I have to admit it never once occurred to me that there was any possibility of it! And Muriel's values put her on a par with Macon socially, as far as I was concerned too; she was different, yes, but the core was solid. Really most interesting.

When we were living in the city I've been reprimanded by a city vet for letting our cats out, but never by the country vets who assume that they do go out - but we never let kittens out (for about a year) and we supervise outings for a period after that and train them, basically to come when they are called (yummy treats) and then our cats are strictly 9-5 outside (well, 8 in the summer....). All of ours have, so far, knock on wood, either died of old old old age or of 'the emperor of all maladies' of which who knows the where and why, certainly keeping them in or out makes no difference with that. I realize there are folks who live in impossible places who must keep their cats in, of course.

3-5 years sounds like unfed feral cat to me. Plenty of folks around have barn cats and they usually make it to ten-twelve if they are fed and wormed yearly.

What a wonderful review of Where You Once Belonged. The book is now on my tbr pile.

Interesting cat discussion. All of our cats were indoor cats with unrestricted access to the outdoors. Our vets never raised this as a cause for concern but the cats were fully vaccinated and we also never de-clawed our cats.... any cat that is allowed outdoors should have claws to protect themselves so instead they were trained to not claw the furniture. They climbed trees and would disappear for long stretches of time but they probably don't count as 'outdoor cats'. I would be curious to learn what defines an outdoor cat for the arguments that outdoor cats live shorter life spans than indoor cats. I can see where feral or outdoor only (i.e., farm cats) may have shorter life spans, but that is an assumption on my part and environmental factors would then come into play, removing the true clinical study aspect of the research... too many variables at play to make a proper statistical outcome analysis.

...how many perfectly well-fed cats were raiding their neighbours food on a regular basis in the middle of the night
That sounds about right and I am going to see if we can get The Secret Lives of Cats on DVD. It sounds interesting and delightful!

Where You Once Belonged looks interesting, Rhian.

What a lot of posts again. It might take me a while to get back to everyone as I'm at work early this morning and then I'm going straight to pick up J from the airport. But here goes:

#259 Is an "outdoor cat" a cat that just goes outside, though, or one that lives outside? I've seen the figure quoted to back up arguments as to why cats shouldn't go out at all, so I suppose they are taking them to apply to cats that just go outside.

People who live in apartments often don't have cats for that very reason - when we had our first cat I had to go through that very conversation with Mr SandDune. He wouldn't have agreed to have a cat if we hadn't agreed that it could go outside, and to be honest i wouldn't have had one either. It had never occurred to either of us that cats could stay indoors. And although we were on the third floor that worked quite well. We put the cat outside in the morning unless the weather was bad and let him back in in the evening (and of course he had a litter tray inside). If the weather changed we would usually come home to find someone else had let him back inside to our stairs and would find him sitting on our doormat.

Really interesting discussion about cats. Our cat is very much an outside cat when she can be (in nice weather in the summer she'll stay outside 24-7 just coming in for the occasional meal) but she was a rescue cat who was found as a stray. She had clearly been domesticated but was very, very wary of humans so I've always assumed something bad happened with her first owner and since then she's felt outside is the safest place to be. She was an inside-only cat for the first six months after we had her (apart from jumping out of our first floor windows twice (second floor windows if you're American)) but I think that was more to do with being too scared to go to the front door when a scary human was holding it open (as we don't have a cat flap) than anything else.

#263 I think the question of de-clawing is another issue where there's a big difference of opinion between the US and UK. In the UK it's just not done at all, it was made illegal several years ago but it was very uncommon before that and I think the subject would provoke very strong reactions from most people.

What an interesting cat discussion / debate. I didn't know there was such a difference in opinion based on where you live. I've got indoor only cats & have kept all my cats as only indoors since I've been on my own. Lost too many to outside forces (car, unknown, etc.) as I was growing up.

I've marked the cat program message as a fav so I can find it later with Lisa.

#260 Laura - the 3-5 year figure (age at death) seems to come from the US. The average lifespan that seems to be quoted by the animal charities here is about 14 years for a normal UK cat (i.e one that goes outside). I wonder if the research was carried out in a particularly busy inner-city area or an area where there were a lot of unvaccinated cats? Certainly about 14 years would be what I would guess at for pet cats in this country, and I know several people who have cats in their late teens who go out every day.

#261 Lucy it had never occurred to me that Macon would get back with his wife either! I was very surprised when people mentioned it. I think 3-5years sounds like an unfed feral cat to me as well.

#262 Hi Linda glad to be providing the book bullets.

#263 Hi Lori - reiterating what Heather said declawing is illegal in the UK (since 2006 I think) but even before that it was a virtually unknown practice. I only came across it for the first time when I was working in Bermuda and friendly with someone from Canada who had brought her cat over. I suppose some cats will adjust well to indoor life: Ruby would probably have been OK as she rarely when outside our (fairly small) garden, but I don't think our previous cat Edward, who was much more adventurous, would have liked it.

#264 Ellen after seeing that film I'm beginning to wonder if the occasional 2am disturbances of yowling that we used to get between Ruby and the cat next door were actually taking place in our kitchen, rather than outside as I'd always assumed.

>270 SandDune:: ha!

I absolutely love Kent Haruf, Rhian, though I have fallen a bit behind on his books. I think you will love Plainsong and Eventide. I know I did!

#266 'apart from jumping out of our first floor windows twice' Heather Ruby once fell out of our first floor windows, but knowing her I feel quite sure it was an accident not deliberate. I happened to be looking out of our front window and heard scrabbling noises above and then saw a brown thing plummeting down. When I looked out of the window I realised that the brown thing was Ruby, looking a little startled but otherwise unhurt.

#267 Tina I do find these differences of opinion between countries very interesting - not just different ways of doing things but those areas where you have real differences of opinion on what the 'right' way of doing something should be. It's quite difficult to think outside of your own culture for these issues - certainly I find it so! I'd always want an outdoor cat but I can appreciate that a lot of cat lovers elsewhere think very differently. Do watch the cat program if you have access to it.

#272 Anne I'm really looking forward to reading some more Haruf. And there's something about small American towns in these sorts of novels that seems to work very well.

Well I managed to reply to everyone helped by a half an hour wait at the airport as J's plane was slightly delayed. He seems to have had a very good time. We have been eating the chocolates he brought back as a present - unfortunately bought on a day when it was 35 degrees C .

Good and interesting review of The Detour - one of my favorite reads last year - all the things you mention didn't even cross my mind - although I can understand why you were tilted off track by the faults in the details....but I thought more of the symbols and metaphors used throughout - and I liked the writing a lot. Maybe The Twin will get you hooked on Bakker - at least he's on his home turf in Holland in that one.

Great pictures of the dunes :)

#276 I thought more of the symbols and metaphors used throughout - Carsten I think one of the problems for me was I didn't really pick up on the metaphors and symbols, so I came away not really understanding it.

I know this is an old thread and I plan to catch up on your next, but if you liked Anne of Green Gables the rest of the Anne books are worth reading too, especially the next 2, as she grows up and goes to college, the last Anne books are perhaps for more committed fans. I also recommend Emily of New Moon and the other two books in the Emily trilogy.

I definitely will be reading some more of the Anne of Green Gables books - keeping them for when I need some comfort reading.