HanGerg's 2014 thread: The year of arts, crafts and books!

Welcome one and all to my 2014 thread!
So, as promised back in 2013, here is a bit of my artwork. They are photos, of real life objects, a little digitally manipulated but not so much as to add/take away anything important. This one is of the underside of a boat. I call this style of image a "Photo Abstract".

Here's to a great 2014 of reading, chat and friendship, an ever growing TBR pile and the odd undodgeable book bullet!

Well, every year I say I want to try and get to the magical 75, and every year so far I've got nowhere close, but I really am going to give it a good go this year! Apart from that, I have no major reading goals. Most of my books are in storage at my uncle's house at the moment, as our flat in Manchester isn't big enough to accommodate more than a tiny fraction of our library, but I have plenty to keep me busy for the first few months, not counting the inevitable purchases that will come in, space or not, soon enough. Rather, my New Years reading resolutions are these:

1.Spend a bit more time on LT! I was a bit remiss in this way last year, so I'm planning to be around more this year.
2.Go join the library in Manchester. Not as simple as it sounds, as it keeps moving whilst the main library is under renovation. Still, that is really no excuse for a committed bibliophile that wants to keep readings lots, but not fill up her small flat in doing so!
3. Ok, one reading plan. I tend not to join in with group reads, as I'm not very good at reading to a schedule, but when Kriti said she was doing a Culture reading group, I couldn't resist, as the sadly recently departed Iain M. Banks is a favourite author of mine, and re-reading or reading books from his excellent Culture series seems like a good way to mark his passing. Do please come and join us:http://www.librarything.com/topic/162776
4. Otherwise it's business as usual; lots of SF, a fair smattering of Fantasy, some Contemporary Fiction, the odd Historical Mystery, a light sprinkling of Non-Fiction, and the odd LT recommended thing that's way out of my comfort zone!

Here are my favourite reads of last year:

The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern
Downbellow Station - C.J.Cherryh
We Need To Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver
Perdido Street Station - China Miéville
Earthsea Trilogy - Ursula Le Guin
The Arrival - Shaun Tan

Ok, here's where all the lovely books will go:

Books Read

January
1.The Invincible - Stanislaw Lem 4/5
2.A Time Of Gifts - Patrick Leigh Fermor 4/5
3.The City & The City - China Miéville 4/5
4.Life, the Universe and Everything - Douglas Adams 4.5/5 Re-read

February
5.Virginia Woolf - Hermione Lee 4.5/5

March
6. The Player Of Games - Iain M. Banks 4/5 Re-read
7.Union Street - Pat Barker 3.5/5
8.Roman Blood - Steven Saylor 3.5/5
9.Ready Player One - Ernest Cline 4.5/5
10.The Grand Sophy - Georgette Heyer 4.5/5
11.Alone In Berlin - Hans Fallada 4/5

April
12. Beyond the Blue Event Horizon - Frederik Pohl 3/5
13. Angelmaker - Nick Harkaway 3.5/5

May
14.Red Shirts - John Scalzi 3/5
15. The Voyage Out - Virginia Woolf 4/5
16. Chanur's Legacy - C.J.Cherryh 4.5/5

June
17.Kracken - China Miéville 4/5
18.Foreigner - C.J.Cherryh 4/5
19.Diary of a Provincial Lady - E.M.Delafield 2.5/5
20.Pies and Prejudice - Stuart Maconie 4/5

July
21.The Windup Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi 5/5
22.Anno Dracula The Bloody Red Baron - Kim Newman 3.5/5
23.Bring up the Bodies - Hilary Mantel 5/5

August
24.A Dance of Dragons: After the Feast - George R. R. Martin 4/5
25.Cousin Kate - Georgette Heyer 4/5
26.Neuromancer - William Gibson 3.5/5
27.Lord Emsworth Acts for the Best - P.G.Wodehouse 5/5
28.Echoes from the Dead - Johan Theorin 3/5

September
29.Hellburner - C.J.Cherryh 3.5/5
30.Saga Volume 1 Saga Volume 2 Saga Volume 3 - Brian K Vaughan 4.5/5
31.The Sea and Summer - George Turner 4/5
32.Notes From a Small Island - Bill Bryson 3.5/5 Re-read

October
33.Toxic Parents: Overcoming Their Hurtful Legacy and Reclaiming Your Life - Susan Forward 4/5
34.Death in the Stocks - Georgette Heyer 3.5/5
35.Dangerous Vision - Harlan Ellison 3/5
36.Close Company: Stories of Mothers and Daughters - Christine Park and Caroline Heaton 3.5/5
37.Spindle's End - Robin McKinley 3.5/5

November
38.Invader - C.J.Cherryh 4.5/5
39.The Martian - Andy Weir (Kindle Edition) 3.5/5
40.Between the Woods and the Water - Patrick Leigh Fermor 4.5/5

December
41.Inheritor - C.J.Cherryh 4/5
42.The Scar - China Miéville 3.5/5
43.In a Summer Season - Elizabeth Taylor 4.5/5
44.Precursor - C.J.Cherryh 4.5/5
45.Agent of Change - Sharon Lee 4/5
46.The Girl With All the Gifts - M.R.Carey 5/5

Books Bought

January
1.The Player Of Games - Iain M. Banks (Amazon booksellers) READ
2.Ready Player One - Ernest Cline (Amazon booksellers) READ
3.Pies and Prejudice - Stuart Maconie (Eccles Rotary Club Bookshop) READ
4.The Stone Diaries - Carol Shields (Eccles Rotary Club Bookshop)
5.The Optimist's Daughter - Eudora Welty (Eccles Rotary Club Bookshop)
6.The Grand Sophy - Georgette Heyer (The Works) READ
7.Bake: Beautiful baking recipes from around the World (The Works)
8.Decorating with Papercraft - Clare Youngs (The Works)

February
9.The Man Who Was Thursday - G.K.Chesterton (Bookwise, Nottingham)
10.Beyond the Blue Event Horizon - Frederik Pohl (Bookmooch) READ

March
11.Blue Remembered Earth - Alastair Reynolds (Poundland, Manchester)

April

12.Diary of a Provincial Lady - E.M.Delafield(Folio Society Edition) (Secondhand Bookshop, Malvern)READ
13. The Odyssey- Homer (Folio Society Edition) (Secondhand Bookshop, Malvern)
14. Henry Moore at the British Museum - Henry Moore (Secondhand Bookshop, Malvern)
15.The Warden - Anthony Trollope (Amnesty International Bookshop, Malvern)
16.Invitation to the Waltz - Rosamond Lehmann (Amnesty International Bookshop, Malvern)
17. Kitchen Secrets - Raymond Blanc (Amnesty International Bookshop, Malvern)

May
18.Chanur's Legacy - C.J.Cherryh (Oxfam, Chorlton) READ
19.Cousin Kate - Georgette Heyer (Oxfam, Chorlton) READ
20 Redshirts - John Scalzi (Oxfam, Chorlton) READ
21.The Art of Papercrafts - Cheryl Owen (Oxfam, Chorlton)
22.The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood (Bookmooch)

June
23.Foreigner - C.J.Cherryh (Oxfam, Liverpool) READ
24.The Windup Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi (Oxfam, Liverpool) READ

July
25.Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny (Bookmooch)
26.Roman Lives - Plutarch (Oxford University Press Bookshop, Oxford)
27.Selected Essays - Virginia Woolf (Oxford University Press Bookshop, Oxford)
28.Barchester Towers - Anthony Trollope (Oxford University Press Bookshop, Oxford)
29.Cornelia Parker - Iwona Blazwick (Blackwells, Oxford)
30.Ernst Haus - Intro by Virginia Chardin (Blackwells, Oxford)

August
31.Foamy Sky - Miklós Radnóti (Grimm Bookshop, Szeged)
32.Hellburner - C.J.Cherryh (Massolit Bookshop, Budapest)READ

September
33.Cyteen - C.J.Cherryh (Bookmooch)
34.Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro (Bookshelf in a pub, North Devon)
35.Death in the Stocks - Georgette Heyer (Bookshelf in a pub, North Devon) READ
36.The Crowded Street - Winifred Holtby (Gift from Gennyt)
37.My Brilliant Career - Miles Franklin (Gift from Gennyt)
38.The Weather in the Streets - Rosamond Lehmann (Oxfam Bookshop, Mosely, Birmingham)
39.The Franchise Affair - Josephine Tey (Oxfam Bookshop, Mosely, Birmingham)
40.The Unknown Ajax - Georgette Heyer (Oxfam Bookshop, Black Heath, Birmingham)
41.The Complete Shorter Fiction - Virginia Woolf (Oxfam Bookshop,Black Heath, Birmingham)
42.The Borrible Trilogy - Michael de Larrabeiti (Oxfam Bookshop, Black Heath, Birmingham)
43.Prodigal Summer - Barbara Kingsolver (Oxfam Bookshop, Black Heath, Birmingham)
44.A Concise History of Modern Painting - Herbert Read (Oxfam Bookshop, Black Heath, Birmingham)
45.The Eagle of the Ninth - Rosemary Sutcliff (Sue Ryder Charity Shop,Black Heath, Birmingham)
46.A Fraction of the Whole - Steve Toltz (Sue Ryder Charity Shop,Black Heath, Birmingham)
47.The Hell of it All - Charlie Brooker (Sue Ryder Charity Shop,Black Heath, Birmingham)
48.Spindle's End - Robin McKinley (Sue Ryder Charity Shop,Black Heath, Birmingham) READ

October
49.The Scar - China Miéville (Amazon) READ
50.Invader - C.J.Cherryh (Amazon booksellers) READ

November
51.Hiero's Journey - Sterling E. Lanier (Amazon booksellers)
52.Your Money Or Your Life:Time for Both - Martin Simon (Timebanking Conference)
53.The Martian - Andy Weir (Amazon - Kindle Edition) READ
54.The Girl With All the Gifts - M.R.Carey (Amazon - Kindle Edition) READ
55.Inheritor - C.J.Cherryh (Amazon booksellers) READ
56.Precursor - C.J.Cherryh (Amazon booksellers) READ
57.Art Theory: A Very Short Introduction - Cynthia Freeland (Amazon - Kindle Edition)

December
58.Agent of Change - Sharon Lee (Amazon - Kindle Edition) READ
59.We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves - Karen Joy Fowler (Amazon - Kindle Edition)
60.The Colour of Magic - Terry Pratchett (Amazon - Kindle Edition)

Found you Hannah

Hi Hannah!

Ooh, early visitors! How delightful! Welcome Rhian and Diana! Please accept a delicious Hungarian pastry for being the first!

Ooh, pastries! Can I butt in and have some too? (also, starred! hopefully, I too will be able to keep up better this year!)

oh my. food porn. sigh.

Welcome back! Nice looking snacks. What are they?

Welcome to you Kriti, Jean and Jim!
Of course, you may all have a pastry! They are called "Gerbaud", after the famous coffee shop in Budapest where they were first made. The layers are made of a mix of ground walnut and apricot jam, and I've been eating them pretty much non-stop this Christmas in Hungary!

Hannah, Hungarian keyboards and pastries......intriguing indeed. Any Tokaj to go with the parties and a nice plateful of goulasch too would be nice.

I have some close friends in the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra who originate from Hungary and they are a proud and rowdy bunch. You must be enjoying yourself.

Oh my goodness, I'm getting in line for some of that gorgeous gerbaud, please!

Hannah, I only found your 2013 thread at the end of the year, but I'm looking forward to following you right from the jump this year. Happy New Year!

Checking out your thread, Hannah, and leaving a star behind.

*plants a star on the floor*

*sits on a pillow and waits for books*

Wow, more lovely visitors! I do so love this time of year, with all the friendly faces, familiar and some new, popping in! Welcome Paul, Julia, Mamie and Faith! Great to have you along! You are all welcome to a slice of Gerbaud, and as Paul rightly points out, a glass of my very favourite wine, Tokaji, would go nicely with that, as we await the beginning of the New Year's Eve festivities.

Tokaji is a dessert wine made using the "noble rot", which is when a certain type of fungus gets on the grape and turns the grapes into, basically, raisins on the vine, making a wine with a very high sugar content. But in an amazing way, that just tastes like the very drink of the gods.
I raise a glass to all of my friends on LT and wish us all a VERY HAPPY (and book filled) NEW YEAR!!!

Hannah I would have suggested a drop of Palenka too but at 70 per cent proof that may make you hair curl a little too much. xx

I"m way ahead of you Paul!! It's one of my husband's favourite things; we bought a bottle of Quince and a bottle of Raspberry and Grape on the way through customs yesterday. I've just had a cheeky wee dram of the quince one as a little New Year warmer! I'm not sure when you last tried it, but Palinka production has really improved by miles and miles in the 15 years or so since I first tried it. It used to be cheap rocket fuel that farmers drank to get them going on winter mornings, and homemade, low quality Palinka was a feature of a lot of the student parties I used to attend in the early 2000s. These days though, many producers have gone really upmarket, and take a lot more care, triple distilling and making an incredibly smooth and fruity flavoured blend. I'm a big fan of this new incarnation of Palinka, much more so than the old one, which was responsible from some of the most truly terrible hangovers I've ever had!
This new status of Palinka is reflecting in the fact that there is now an annual festival for the stuff in the heart of the Buda Castle, which I could luckily attend this year. Here's a picture of me and the husband enjoying a spot of the smooth stuff:

Well, never mind books, this seems to be becoming the pastry and booze thread. I guess that is a fairly accurate reflection of my Christmas and New Year existence, but I must reassure everyone, there will be books soon too!

Now I am jealous, but not enough to prevent a wish for the most wonderful of new years for you and yours Hannah.

My friends used to have their own supply of "home made" palenka which could have raised a jumbo off a jungle airstrip.

Happy New Year, Hannah!

Hi Swynn! The same to you, my friend!

Ok, so as promised, finally a bit of book talk. I finished a book! Not because I'm a super speedy reader like some people here, but because I started it before new year and just finished it. (This always feels slightly like cheating. What do other people do, count it as a 2013 book or a 2014 one? The way I figure it, I FINISHED it in 2014, so that's where I count it.)


1.Stanislaw Lem - The Invincible 4/5
I've heard Lem's name mentioned reverently in SF circles before, but this is the first book of his I've read, picked up by chance in a second hand bookshop in Budapest because I'd run out of reading material. And I'm glad I did, because it was good! Written in the 60's, but it hasn't aged in any way other than superficially, so not much use made of computers and other technology we'd probably consider crucial for flying a massive spaceship these days, but still very fresh seeming and provocative ideas about man's desire to conquer the unknown and possess that which, perhaps, they should just leave well alone. The plot is a classic, and for me, pretty irresistible set-up. A ship flies through the darkness of space, the only noise the humming of the automatic systems, as the whole crew is in cold storage, until a distant star is sighted. Later, they land on a planet, in search of answers to the riddle of what happened to their sister ship after it lost contact with base shortly after landing a few years previously. The planet appears devoid of life, until a routine satellite search turns up pictures of what looks very much like a city… Like I said, classic stuff, but from this beginning springs a story that is rather more unusual and thought provoking than you might think. I'll keep my eye out for more of his work in future, as this is clearly the work of a clever and original writer.

Right, well I've been on a bit of a SF binge lately, so time perhaps for something more down to earth. I'm plodding my way though A Time of Gifts at the moment, not because it's not good, it's terrific, but the writer gives us such a wealth of detail and fantastic description that it's a book to savour rather than rush through. I want to start something else as well though.Something from my little "library" in my rather small flat, which is really just the tip of my TBR iceberg, but is all that space allows me to have close to hand. Hmm, let's go and have a little nose through….

I just read the Earthsea series this past year, too, and loved it (for the most part - that last book irritated me some).

>21 HanGerg:: I read Solaris a couple of years ago and liked it a lot, but haven't picked up any other Lem. The Invincible sounds like a good follow-up.

Hannah, I would absolutely count a book in the year that I finished it, not the year that I started it. That's what I've always done in the past. So congrats on finishing your first book of 2014!

My husband and I bought a bottle of Tokaji at an international food market in Gent, and drank it to celebrate Christmas. The woman who ran the booth didn't speak much English, so when we asked her what the difference was between the various bottles, she said, "Difference!" with a huge smile and much nodding. But we'd tasted a couple of different ones, so we were able to figure out some of the "difference!" on our own. ;)

Congrats on the first book of the year! I always figure that the same way I'm counting a book at the beginning of the year that was already in progress, at the end of the year I'll be cheated out of counting whatever I haven't quite managed to finish yet. So it evens out. :)

That is very interesting art work. I'm afraid my first thought was "who's this person posting pictures of rod-shaped bacterial stains?" - which is what it STILL looks like to me. But I find it quite fascinating that it's a picture of something else entirely, and that if you break anything down into component parts it can look like any number of things. Making the interpretation of the image very personal.

Very nice indeed. :)

Hey, pastries and booze are okay in my book. :)

1/26 My first thought was something broken down on a microscope slide. But, I love that kind of stuff, anyway. So I think it is beautiful. :)

Hope you still have a little of that booze remaining to keep you warm this weekend.

Lem is a writer I haven't revisited since my youth - but it sounds as if it would be safe to do so! Great!

I don't know where I'd be without some hooch to keep me warm in the winter. .... !!!

Back to say I very much like your artwork up top!

Hi lovely visitors!
#22 Hi Amber! Yep, I adored Earthsea, but if the book you are referring to is the fourth, then I haven't read that one yet. I do think the first three work perfectly as a trilogy, so I shall always think of them thus, and when I get round to reading the fourth, I'll just think of it as an add on.

#23 Hi Swynn! I only really know about "Solaris" from the film versions (although I haven't seen either, I know the basic plot). Having read a Lem book makes me more keen to check it out though.

#24Hi Julia! Thank you! I no longer feel guilty!

#25 Hi Ursula, thanks for dropping by! I know a little about the different types of Tokaji, unusually for me, as I normally leave the wine geekery to my husband. The things that you will sometimes see on bottles are this: Puttonyos - the higher the Puttonyos number, the higher the proportion of grapes affected by the noble rot in the wine. (Higher numbers tend to be more expensive, but all tend to be delicious. One is the lowest and six is the highest) It's worth noting that Tokaji is actually just the name of the wine region, so Tokaji can also be dry white wine. If you want the delicious sweet stuff, you have to look out for the word Aszú.

#26 Hi Rachel! Thanks for stopping by. I see from your profile that you are a big SF fan, so I realise must stop by on your thread soon! I like your take on my picture. As you say, it can be whatever you want it to be. That's why I have a devil of a time trying to name them, I want to leave it as ambiguous as possible. It's always so nice when someone makes a comment that shows they "get" what I'm trying to do with my pictures, so thanks very much!

#27 Hi Tamara! It is very microscopic looking isn't it? But then others see a hill, or a series of islands. My images do often come out looking like landscapes or aerial shots, but maybe this is the only one that looks like bacteria! This probably the most popular of all the images I've shown to people so far, but it is also pretty unique. I'm not at all sure how that paint effect was created - if I knew, I'd try and replicate it!

#27 Hi Paul! Yes, we were fairly restrained on the night itself (must be getting old ; ) ) but we have a friend popping round for Sunday lunch soon, and I think an after lunch digestif might be in order…

#28 Hi Lucy! Lem is indeed a fairly "safe" bet, I would say. But I realised afterwards, that although I said it hadn't aged, he did make one unforgivable error - the entire crew are male! I guess I forgot that detail as it quickly becomes irrelevant in the story. But really, if you can't foresee that in the future a few lady scientists or robot programmers at the very least might be useful…. Another with some artwork love! Thank you all so much. I really never get tired of hearing it, as I am the insecure type when it comes to this thing that I am tentatively trying to make my main career!

Happy New Year, Hannah! Keep sharing the artwork, please. I've read several Lems, but it's been quite a while.

Hi Roni! Glad you have caught up with us here in 2014! I am planning to use my artwork as thread toppers, so that's a good incentive for me to make sure I make more than the one thread I made last year! So far we're off to a good start!

>30 HanGerg:: Yep, that's exactly how I feel about the Earthsea books: a lovely trilogy, with that other one tagged onto the end. Ha!

Thanks for the info! I didn't realize Tokaji was the region - I would have been very surprised by a dry white wine under that name! We were asking her about the Puttonyos number, and that's where we got the smiling "difference!" answer. We went with the 6. :)

As for being insecure about showing your art ... the only way to get over it is to keep showing it, honestly. It gets easier the more you do it.

Hi Ursula! Yes, I know you're right! Actually, having shown my work quite a lot last year, I'm less insecure about the work - people have really been incredibly kind, interested, supportive, insightful - list any positive adjective you can think of, I've had it from total strangers that have no need to say these nice things, so it's not the work itself that I keep questioning. It's the wiseness of the decision to make selling it my full time job, and in a city that I don't know very well, so I have zero contacts - sometimes that seems like a plain goofy thing to do. But, having said that, I'm off to a gallery today to discuss them showing my work there for the next few weeks, so slowly I'm making progress!

Hope things went well at the gallery, Hannah.

It went very well, thank-you! I've been "marketing" ie. blogging, Facebooking and news lettering about it all morning (and people tell me I should be on twitter too! It's a full time job, all this stuff!), so to save the recap, I'll just point folks in the direction of my latest blog post, if y'all don't mind?! http://everydayabstracts.blogspot.co.uk

Have a wonderful weekend, Hannah!

Hannah - Everyday Abstracts was fascinating - good luck with promoting art in Salford ~ bit like selling duffel-coats for use for jungle treking in Malaysia.

Have a lovely weekend. xx

#38 Thanks Diana! It was rather lovely; a walk in the South Pennies with friends, followed by an evening of home cooking, boards games and laughter with the same group - a lovely escape from big city life!
#39 Ha! I sometimes fear your analogy may be correct Paul, but I think Salford is slowly waking up to the arts, just as it is slowly being smartened up a bit these days. Overall though, I do think Manchester is quite the hive of creativity, you just have to spend some time unearthing it on occasion...

Right, my first exhibition in Manchester is hung, and awaiting its first visitors, who will be allowed through the door on Saturday! It's only modest little community art gallery, and I'm only one of three people exhibiting there, so don't go imagining anything grand or fancy, but I'm still quite proud of what I've managed to achieve, only a few months after moving to this city! Now we'll just have to see what the Mancunian public think!

In the meantime, I have finally finished my second book, which I've been reading on and off for the past few months.


2.A Time Of Gifts - Patrick Leigh Fermor 4/5
Well, this is in many ways a very magical book. It is the account of the author's journey, which began on a whim in 1933, when he was only 18. The challenge he set himself was to travel, largely on foot, "From the Hook of Holland to Constantinople". Actually, this book only covers the first part of the journey, but luckily I have the second waiting in the wings.
My brother passed this book onto me because one of the places he visits is my beloved Budapest, but at the end of this book he has only just crossed over into Hungary, after several detours to Prague and other places, so I will have to wait to get the authors descriptions of my old home town, which I'm sure will be as enthralling as his depictions of all of the other cities, towns and villages he has visited so far. What is so powerful, to the modern day reader, is that the Europe he is describing to us, was almost entirely eradicated just a few short years later. So, when he comes across villages where the buildings and the costume of the local people don't seem to have changed since medieval times, we with the benefit of hindsight can only ponder on what fate was shortly to befall them. Actually, the author himself reminisces in this vein a few times, as he didn't actually write the book until the mid-seventies, so at times you have the boyish enthusiasm of the author's younger self, at others, the voice of the middle aged man, sharing with us the fact that this town he had just passed through was bombed to bits a few years later, or remarking in an aside about how the jolly nice young Austrian he's just befriended would end up on the other side in the heavy fighting they were both involved in in Greece (unlike in a novel, neither has to fight the other, and both survive that event). He only does this a few times, but it leaves you wondering about the fate of all the fascinating characters and places he encounters. And they do sound fascinating, whether it be the modest inhabitants of the humblest little village to the noisy throng of a Viennese coffee shop, he captures them all brilliantly and incredibly evocatively. He also has the travel writer's happy knack of falling in with some incredible people, whether it be heavy drinking barge men who take him down the river, to glamorous girls that take him to a whirl of society parties, to doddery old Barons that let him have the run of their ancestral castle, he seems to get into all kinds of adventures with lots of charismatic people.
Despite claiming to not have been much of a student at school, the author seems to have an endless curiosity about the world, which he shares with the reader, so we are treated to long expositions on the history of the areas he's passing through, or long descriptions of architectural styles, or local poetry, language, customs and so on. Some of these insights can be fascinating - though most seem only partial, and leave you wanting to pull out an encyclopaedia (or internet equivalent) to get the full story. Others are a bit of a drag, and were the main reason I took so long to finish the book - it just made the text so DENSE in places. But, overall, a fascinating read. I'll dip into some lighter stuff, then head onwards with him for the next stage of his journey soon.

Congrats on the exhibition - and good luck!

Many thanks Amber! All I want to achieve out of it is to start getting my name known in the area, so as long as a fair few people come and see the exhibition, I'll be a happy bunny!

Best wishes for your exhibition, Hannah! I hope you get an overflow crowd.

Hey, lady, an exhibition is an exhibition! Congratulations! I hope it goes very, very well.

Thanks so much Julia and Roni! I'm not sure I've been called "lady" like that before, and I like it!I'm kind of imagining a tough New York policeman wagging his finger at me as he says it. : )

The first day when the public will be coming is Saturday. I haven't invited many friends, as it's in quite a hard to get to part of Manchester (Eccles if you're interested. Home of the famous Eccles cake), and most of our friends live more centrally, or outside of the city altogether, so I haven't tried to tempt them all out to the suburbs. So, it'll just be me and the locals, pretty much. Anyway, I'll post some pictures after Saturday so you can all see for yourselves how it looks!

I, too, was overwhelmed by aspects of the first Fermor book. In some ways it made me so sad, that I couldn't stand it. He intuited, I think, that he was walking through a world that would soon vanish. Not that all of it was so great, but what happened instead was so terrible.

Congrats on your exhibition!!!!

Congratulations on the exhibition, Hannah! If you take pictures, please post them!

I love The Time of Gifts - great review. I'm waiting for the last book in the trilogy to be out in paperback and then I think I'm reread the whole thing.

#47 Yes, I think you're right Lucy. What struck me so powerfully is how little some of the places he went to had changed in hundreds of years - and how many of them were about to be changed irrevocably. The bits when he's in Germany and chatting to people about this new regime in the country are also pretty chilling, although it's clear from his accounts that many average Germans at that time were very sceptical, but yet, above them all, there was that swastika flying…

#48 Thanks Kriti! Pictures are assured, don't worry!

#49 I only just found out that the third part was only recently published (well, that is to say, I didn't even know it existed until recently) As I say, my brother gave me the second book but didn't let me know that it was an incomplete account of his journey. I'm glad I found out now rather than at the end of part two! Hmm, shame my brother's birthday is in November, otherwise I could buy him the third part as a gift. Oh well, I guess there's no rule about not buying your brother a book for no good reason!

I finished the Fermor book at the end of last year with many of the same feelings that you expressed so nicely in your review.

Dense and worthy with sparkling sentences.

Have a lovely weekend.

So...how went, or didn't went, the exhibition? Pictures?

Ok! After a morning of doing battle with my Mac, to install my photography software for my new camera (my Mac, although lovely in many ways, does not have a CD drive. Don't ask me why. I was rather nonplussed when I first discovered this, and I'm getting less and less plussed about it as time goes on. Apple may be already in this perfect future where everything is stored on "clouds", but the rest of us still need to use CDs all the time! Ok, rant over) Anyway, long story short, here's a few pictures of the exhibition.
It was pretty busy on Saturday, mainly because one of the other exhibiting artists has rather a compelling story. He is unfortunately no longer with us, having died in 2000. He, it seems, had been a life long painter, but kept it quiet from pretty much everyone, so it was only after his death, and his wife's subsequently going into a nursing home, that his family found a hidden cache of his pictures. So, they arranged to show them at a local gallery, and invited down loads of family and friends for the opening day. So, they were the majority of the visitors, on Saturday. I sold 3 small prints to one lady, and a card to another, which I was pleased with. As I said before, I'm really only interested in a bit of exposure. Eccles isn't one of Manchester's more prosperous areas, so I take any sale as an extreme compliment! The exhibition will be up for another 3 weeks, so we'll see if I get anymore sales, but as I said, exposure is the thing. On that front, the gallery had done really well, and got a journalist from the local online news portal there, who interviewed me and took a few pictures of my work, so everything looks very promising!

Ok, so first we have the gallery as seen from outside:


Here's a shot of my little bit:


And here's the proud artist trying to strike a natural pose, whilst her husband yells at her "Look Relaxed!":

Looks marvelous, Hanna! And very nice on the resumé as well.

Hi Hannah! Happy 2014!

#1 So, as promised back in 2013, here is a bit of my artwork. They are photos, of real life objects, a little digitally manipulated but not so much as to add/take away anything important. This one is of the underside of a boat. I call this style of image a "Photo Abstract".

Wow! That image looks stunning!

#41 And congratulations on your first exhibition!

I've been hearing a lot about Patrick Leigh Fermor's books lately so may have to check A Time of Gifts out. The cover of that edition is gorgeous.

#53 Thanks for sharing the pictures of you and your exhibition :-) I'm intrigued by the picture that's immediately above your head in the final picture. Can't see what it is but I love the colours.

Found and starred you!! Congratulations on the exhibition!

That made me laugh, 'look relaxed' - you do look happy! As you should be!

Your first exhibition! It looks terrific and so do you. Not necessarily relaxed, but I am never relaxed when I have my picture taken, either! Well done to you!

Yay, pictures! Congrats again, Hannah!

Re: Macs, you can buy a USB CD drive! Apple's own "superdrive" (it plays DVDs and maybe blu-rays too) is $70 here.

Congratulations on the exhibition and the sales! How wonderfully affirming. I hope the rest of the exhibit time goes well. :)

Hey, thanks lovely ladies for all your kind words of support and praise : ) I do so love how we nurture each other on LT, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy!
#54 You're right Roni! Resumé building is (at least partly) what it's all about!

#55 Hi Heather! Good to see you back around these parts after your fabulous trip! You asking about that picture gives me the perfect excuse to post a larger copy of it, here you go:


Lots of people really like this one! It's actually of an ancient wooden window shutter I came across in the beautiful city of Kotor in Montenegro. I love all of history contained within those layers of paint, and that mysterious scratching!

#56 Hi Connie, welcome and thanks!

#57 Thanks Lucy! Yes, it's true, my husband's photographer manner isn't the best at putting subjects at ease! Good job he doesn't get that task very often!

#58 Hi Julia! Thank you! It isn't my very first exhibition ever, but my first in a "proper" art gallery as opposed to a cafe or similar, and my first in my new home city, so the feeling of achievement is pretty big!

#59 Hi Kriti! Yes, I suspected MAc sold such a gizmo, it's just, after paying a small fortune for the big Mac, I certainly didn't feel like going right back to the shop and forking out yet more money. I must admit I was kind of remiss, as I didn't check if it had a CD drive, I just assumed all home computers did! I'll probably end up buying one eventually, but until then I do this complicated dance with the husband's Mac laptop (that DOES have a CD drive), which can send me info from CDs via bluetooth. It's a pain, but it kind of works, after much cursing and numerous phone calls to my more computer savvy other half!

#60 Hi Faith! Yes, positive affirmation! That's a lovely thing. And I must say, since I've started meeting members of the public and showing them my work, they've been almost universally lovely, full of praise and clever insights. I really didn't expect that, I must admit, but it's been great!

Anyway, I also came here to post a book review:


3.The City & the City - China Miéville 4/5
Only my second CM book, and he is quickly establishing himself as one of my favourite authors. This is very different in tone and style from the other book I read, which was Perdido Street Station a wildly inventive fantasy in the style of….no-one I can think of. This book, although it has some strange fantasy elements, is much more conventional in style, being in many regards a noirish police procedural. This is probably why the friend I borrowed it from read it, as she had a shelf full of crime fiction. I didn't have time to ask her what she thought of the book, so goodness knows what she made of the more surreal and allegorical bits.
So, the story is one of a detective, who is investigating the case of a murdered young woman, dumped in a rough part of town. All the police's initial theories about how she ended up there prove to be false, as the case gradually gets more and more convoluted and complex, and possibly involving those well placed within city hall… Pretty classic crime set up, right? But here's where it gets stranger; the city our detective works in is just one of two cities that occupy the same physical and temporal space, but which are, in some never clearly defined way…split. And if you live in one city, it's considered very bad form to look at things in the other city, even though you can see them. So you have to "unsee" them, a process a bit like double think in 1984. If you fail to do this sufficiently zealously, or if you - heaven forbid! - interact bodily with something in the other city, you are Breach, which is both a verb and a noun, the noun part being something like the boogie man, which mysteriously turns up and makes sure you are never seen or heard from again. And of course, I think I'm not giving too much away to say that, it quickly becomes apparent that the girl was murdered in this other city…
This is a good fun crime caper with surreal flourishes, but it also has deeper underlying themes about how urban landscapes and societies work, and how people interact with their environment, whose relevance to modern life can perhaps be discerned by those news stories about how poor people in modern cities have become "invisible" to the privileged elite who do seem to literally live in another city entirely. Fun and thoughtful stuff.

And, just as we are coming to the end of Lucy's InReSoMo (do I need to explain?), I thought I would take a picture of myself doing just that, with a copy of this book, which also had the benefit of forcing me to figure out where the delayed shutter release button on my new camera is!

Love that photo in >61 HanGerg:! So many possibilities for what it is, and the intrigue isn't ruined even when you know. :)

Oh, congrats on the exhibit - and the sales! That's wonderful! And thanks so much for sharing the photos!

That is a great image in >61 HanGerg:, Hannah--and another great one of you reading!

Hannah is that a Lowry painting in the pictures up top above? Love your old window picture; I thought before reading your text that it looked like the skewered view from a window where the glass has been fractured so I was sort of on the right lines.

Like the photo of your reclining and trying to appear solidly intellectual. xx

#61 by @HanGerg> oh you do lovely work! wishing you great success with your photography!

Thanks for dropping by with all you kind compliments and good wishes, Ursula,Amber and Roni!

In answer to your question Paul, it's not a Lowry, it's the work of the guy whose family put on an exhibition for him after his death. Actually both of my fellow artists at the Eccles gallery cite Lowry as an influence - apparently my fellow exhibitor who is still alive - a lovely old fella called Syd who is now 90 and who I met this Saturday just gone at the gallery, once had a piece in a competition which was judged partly by Lowry and garnered some praise for him. Obviously he's an artist that casts a long shadow round these parts.
Syd is an example to us all, still going to life drawing classes and making pictures almost daily. I'm also well disposed towards him as he took the time to look at my work and offer me some praise. He wanted to buy a card off me but I was happy and proud to give it to him; perhaps wrongly I thought people of his age wouldn't be up for a bit of totally Abstract art like mine (actually, I should have learnt my lesson by now. Judging from the art markets I've attended so far I think I can identify my typical customer thus; female, past retirement age).

I am "trying" to appear intellectual indeed! Well, what I mean is, there is an element of artifice here, as I took the picture myself, so far from being relaxed and engrossed as I appear, seconds earlier I had pressed the button on the camera then hurriedly leapt into the pose you see!

Welcome Jean! Another Sci Fi fan I seem to have missed until now! And I see you are doing the Iain M. Banks challenge with us, so I shall hopefully interact with you there. Thank you very much for your kind words!

Oh, and one more thing...


4.Life, the Universe and Everything - Douglas Adams 4.5/5
Book three in my re-read of the best SF comedy series ever. (It's got to be, right? Are there any other contenders?). I'm sure I've read them all before, but I must admit this is the one that I had absolutely no recollection of, despite the vital role played by my favourite spectator sport, cricket. I will say no more for those that haven't read this yet, but suffice to say, Douglas has come up with an origin story for the Ashes (the stupidly small little urn contested by the greatest cricketing rivals; England and Australia), that tops the outlandishness of the real life story by a factor of 1 trillion. I really don't know what his non-cricket playing nation's readership make of this book, but for an aficionado like me, it's a hoot. He's even nailed the humorously understated style of our most beloved cricket commentators to a tee;
"Well, this is an interesting incident Brian. I don't think there have been any mysterious materialisations on the pitch since, oh since, well I don't think there have been any - have there? - that I recall".
Add in some sentient mattresses, the world's longest continuous party (now on its fourth generation) and the return of everyone's favourite creator of Nordic coastline, Slartinbartfast, and you have as silly a slice of SF as you could wish for.

I keep meaning to reread The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Books. They're so much fun.

I keep meaning to re-read them too! Fantastic books. Adams was a genius. A strange, disturbed, brilliant genius.

Hi Hannah! Just catching up on your thread- congrats on the art exhibit- I'll have to check out The City & The City, sounds interesting.

LOVE LOVE LOVE your photo of yourself on your sofa. Next year I think that will be a requirement !!!!! I kept meaning to have someone take a photo of me reclining, but never got it done.

No, there is no other comedic sf writer who comes close, maybe Pratchett here and there, but it's not the same. Doug Adams was a most joyful human being, no?

Agree with that Lucy. I'll have to get one of the girls to take my photo posing as a reader!

Hi everyone! I'm about, just have no new reads to report. I'm currently reading the Virginia Woolf biography by Hermione Lee, which is a marvellous, but all engrossing and longish read that I'm currently about half way through. I'm also a busy, busy bee with RL stuff, so only checking in every few days or so, but I'll try and not get too hopelessly behind on other's threads; apart from Paul's of course. There's really no avoiding getting miles behind on that one ; )

Hannah, I get miles behind on Paul's thread just by sleeping at night!

> 76: I have the same problem!

We ALL have that problem. Hope all is going well with you, Hannah.

Hi Julia, Connie and Roni! Yes, I'm fine thanks! Busy running around trying to get stuff done. I just read this in a guide to becoming an artist " you'll spend 70% of your time on marketing and admin and only about 30% doing the work" Yep, that's about been my experience so far - glad I've been doing it right, as I was getting really frustrated about how little actual art work I was doing. Seems it's inevitable though!

Incidentally, I saw an absolutely fascinating documentary on the BBC this week about our progress on a manned trip to Mars (I say our. It's mainly those folks at NASA doing the heavy lifting). Having read and been absolutely inspired by the Kim Stanley Robinson Mars trilogy in the last few years, I was really intrigued to know how far we are from actually making it happen. Turns out many of the problems he envisaged in the book are spot on, but there was also a lot he didn't factor in as well.

The main sticking points are these;
1. Radiation - this is a problem in Red Mars, but only the radiation from solar flares that can be blocked out. The boffin in charge of this problem at NASA is planning a sort of conceptual art style response, where people use things that are on the rocket already to block it out - like a weird suit padded with water and blocking windows with food containers. (although, am I the only one wondering whether it's then safe to eat that food?) Anyway, the real problem is radiation from solar rays, which the whole universe is awash with, and which we currently have no way of blocking. The NASA guys are quite vague about the solution to this one - maybe some people are genetically less likely to be affected by it - they're looking into it. This is clearly one of the big problems to be solved.

2. Fuel - especially for the return journey. In Red Mars of course, there is no return journey, they're there as colonists, and that seems to me the obvious solution in this instance. Say goodbye to earth forever and begin the next wave of human evolution; that OK with you astronauts?

3.Zero Gravity - all that time in zero G's means our astronauts will arrive with wasted muscles that will leave them weak as babes, which isn't good when you have to start fending for yourself on the extremely hostile surface of Mars as soon as you land. Exercise helps, as does taking a testosterone supplement, though having super hormonal men and suddenly hairy women locked together in a tiny rocket might not be ideal, which brings me to....

4.The horror - 1.5 years to get there, in a tiny rocket with the same few people for company, a very boring view and nowhere to step out for air if you should start to have a panic attack. "1.5 years to read all the books I want - Bliss!" I hear you cry. Which is why the personality profile of a Mars astronaut might have to be very different from all previous astronauts. But is this personality type one that can also remain psychologically strong for the entire journey, and do all the "boldly going..." stuff as well? And would you like to gamble on picking the right crew when there really is no chance to undo that mistake if they start freaking out half way there? Food for thought eh?

Well, there's lots of other problems - like landing, but they have a rocket scientist that looks like a Rockabilly Michael Madsen on that, so I'm not worried. Anyway, I include this quick rundown here for the 'Mericans as I think that sadly you can't watch BBC stuff over there, but if you are a Brit or have access to the BBC somehow I highly recommend it.

Thanks for the report on the BBC documentary, Hannah! Very interesting.

I am also a great lover of KSR's *Mars* books, so I'm fascinated by your report. Thank you, Hannah!
I am now also a great fan of your art. Post #55 is both gorgeous and intriguing!
And I love your pic on the SOFA with *C&C* - love, love, love Miéville!
So I came by to say that I'm envious that you have a copy of Intruder, but I'm not up to it yet. Do, please, don't read it first. The *Foreigner* series must be read in order because she reveals a new fact about some major character in almost every book that would completely spoil the earlier ones if you tried to go backwards. I confess that I didn't fall in love with the series until the third book, but the first two were obviously good enough to keep me reading. I just hope that I'm not spacing them out too far since I'm in only the third trilogy, and I do want to read them every one and then go back and reread them!

What a great synopsis of the BBC program, Mary Roach's book covered some of those issues: the radiation one and the muscle wasting and general nastiness of zero-g in particular. Really, no one can go anywhere until both of those problems are 'solved'. More space for people to live in also seems essential so everyone will get there alive.

The only thing I can think of that could work, will take a long time to do, and that is find a big asteroid or several and get one spinning that people can live in and then build something huge, maybe even out of another asteroid that you can be protected inside of......or something insane like that. And accept that it is going to take a long long time. Yeah yeah yeah I read too much SF and some that features giant turtle people who travel in big asteroids. BUT, RILLY, it's a good idea, isn't it?????

Actually, much as I adore SF I am not to sanguine about the real odds on space travel. I do think instant communication via quantum means is possible eventually, but slow as the receptors will have to be sent out and that takes forever below light speed.

Ok so now I'll be quiet and slink off.

A few years back, I worked on a project with the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, a NASA organization studying all the problems with human spaceflight. Specifically, neutron production in thick structures caused by cosmic rays that could cause cancer or genetic mutations in astronauts. It was really fun learning about all these problems and what's being done to address them. I'm gonna check to see if Netflix has the documentary.

#82> I'm another one fascinated by the Mars exploration idea, so my thanks too, Hannah, for summarizing it so well.

Lucy, the idea of converting asteroids into spaceships is how the explorers in Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow traveled — have you read that? If not, you should! It's a wonderful book.

Ooh, visitors, great! Sorry I'm so slow to react, I'm busy running hither and thither a lot these days. Today is some PAID work as a community artist! (although I'm doing a puppet workshop. Hardly my area of expertise, and something any kindergarten assistant worth their salt could rustle up just as well as me, but I need the money, so I'm not arguing!)
Right, some responses to all your kind words and searing insights:

#80 Hi Swynn! Thanks for dropping by. I aim to inform and entertain, dontcha' know!
#81. Hi Peggy! Thanks for all the picture love, and extra especial thanks for dropping in specially to warn me off starting half way through the Foreigner series. I've wish listed the first one and will get round to it...someday. I think Roni may be onto something with finishing the Alliance/Union series first, to avoid too many series at once syndrome (who am I kidding. It's already way too late for that, but still...)
#82 Hi Lucy! No need to slink off! Fascinating stuff about the asteroids! That still doesn't solve the radiation problem though, does it? I must confess, I didn't know too much about this type of radiation before; it does seem like a pretty major stumbling block. I guess we may well have to settle for instant communication - better than nothing, but rather a let down to a SF lover.
#83 Hi Jim! Fascinating! I'm going to post Sciency stuff here more often (I think you can tell the level of my expertise from this phrase, but still...) it brings up the most interesting conversations!
#84 Hi Julia! Thanks for the book recommendation. I will certainly check it out!

Right, time to get me to the puppet workshop!

#61 Hannah, I like the picture even more now that I've seen a close-up!

" It's actually of an ancient wooden window shutter I came across in the beautiful city of Kotor in Montenegro." That's fascinating. It has lovely colours to it. At first it put me in mind of some kind of sunset/sunrise showing behind the masts of old sailing ships.

#62 Oh, The City & the City - I have it, need to read it - story of my life! (Except for all the books I don't have but need to read!) Glad you enjoyed it and very stylish photo :-)

#79 Sounds like a fascinating programme Hannah - I'll have to track it down on iplayer. Have you read Mary Roach's Packing for Mars? It's not really about a Mars expedition but it's a very detailed and humourous look into the conditions astronauts have to live in when being astronauts. Not so much the science side of things but food, toilet issues, living space etc. Made me very glad that I didn't fulfill my childhood dream of becoming an astronaut - I don't think I would have coped well!

#85 Hooray for paid work! Good luck with the puppets...

Hi Heather!
So glad you like the picture, and I love your interpretation! : )

I haven't read that Mary Roach book, but I have it on my wish list, after Lucy's glowing review when she read it. I'll try and get hold of it one of these days!

I would have posted sooner, but I've been having technical problems with my phone, from which I wanted to post a picture of the puppets I made in preparation for the workshop (whenever I do craft activities with kids, I always have a run through first to see what the challenges are going to be. I learnt to do this from hard won experience after having a few things I thought would be easy go disastrously wrong!)

Anyway, I had great fun and got carried away and made three, getting more sophisticated with my techniques each time:



In a reading update, I've been reading the same book all month; Hermione Lee's excellent biography of VW. I made the decision to just read that and nothing else, otherwise I thought it could end up dragging on for months and not getting finished, which I really did NOT want to happen, but it has stalled my reading somewhat, and it hasn't been an easy read. I'm approaching the end now, with some trepidation, as we all know it doesn't end well, but Lee tackles that early on in the book, and is anxious to reclaim Woolf from those that would point to her life as some kind of tragedy, or the obvious end for a tortured artist. Actually, she suggests, we should view her as a heroine, that battled really debilitating depression and illness for most of her life, and managed to keep it at bay long enough to produce some truly incredible work. I like that, but can't help but shudder a little as the pages count down...

Ok, more thoughts on this and other fun things as and when! ; )

Ok, it's done. It was as hard as I expected, and I'm ready for something lighter now.



5. Virginia Woolf - Hermione Lee 4.5/5
Right from the outset Lee signals her intention to try and approach biography in a new way, in obvious response to the new forms of literary fiction Woolf strove for all her life. The first chapter is not the usual introduction of the life in question, but is instead a meditation on the nature of biography and whether it can ever hope to achieve what it loftily claims to do; to encapsulate a life and place it in a wider context. All this is done using Woolf's own attempts at autobiography, and biography of others, as well as her fiction, which Lee explains was often partially autobiographical, as it's subject matter. It's a dazzling and confident start, that shows you you are in intelligent and trustworthy hands with this most tricky of subjects.
A significant body of work already exists about Woolf, not least her own published diaries, but Lee has obviously done an awful lot of research for this book, and shows herself to be a calm and rational commentator on some of the more contentious aspects of her life. As I say above, I appreciate her subtle repositioning of her as heroine and mental illness survivor (for long stretches of time at least) rather than tragic victim, or tortured artist. She also goes a long way to dispel the view held by some, of Woolf as an upperclass snob with an interest only in the interior life of ladies such as herself. It does sometimes show her in a less than flattering light though - so we see she could be cold and unsympathetic, even to those that had suffered like her, like T.S.Eliot's wife, who ended up spending most of her life in an asylum, but whose presence in her house she couldn't stand. (Interestingly, Lee hints that this may well have also been Virginia's fate if her sister and then husband hadn't been such careful guardians of her.) There's a wealth of fascinating detail here, and I think she succeeds, as much as anyone could, in illuminating the passions and inspirations of a woman who did live most of her life inside her own mind, no mean feat. If you are a Woolf acolyte, as I am, this is really a must read.

Love the puppets!!

Jim - I'm just curious - can anything be done, or are there any promising ideas for shielding against this kind of radiation? (I'm asking here, because I'm guessing Hannah would be interested too!).

Re: radiation. Some yes, some no. For something like a trip to Mars, there are two sources of radiation - energetic protons and electrons produced by the Sun in bursts, and galactic cosmic rays that are really high energy protons and light ions that come from outside the solar system (maybe supernova explosions). The first can be shielded with reasonable amounts of material, and every space vehicle being planned has some provision for a "safe room" or "vault" for astronauts to go and wait out a solar event. Water is a really good material for this shielding and they'd need a bunch of it anyway, so engineers usually design the water storage system to do dual purpose.

Cosmic rays penetrate lots and lots of material, so really can't be shielded. Plus, they're energetic enough that when they pass through material, they make strip neutrons from the atoms in the material. So behind thick slabs of material, instead of one really high energy particle, you get a bunch of medium energy particles, which is worse. So there's a sweet spot of shielding, but not too much. And that's the research I was involved in - how do we know where that sweet spot is.

So astronauts will get some dose of radiation as they travel to other planets. The biologists and doctors worry about central nervous system damage as a result, and also increased risk of cancer later in life and genetic mutations in any subsequent children. Fortunately, there are some preventative treatments that have been developed that decrease these risks - drugs used for breast cancer, for instance. But no matter what, anybody traveling in space for longer times will be at higher risk for these things. This is one of the reasons we're still lagging in our plans to put people on Mars, or more long term on the Moon.

Wow, fascinating, thanks Jim. As I say, in the programme I saw, they were talking about the possibility that some people may be genetically predisposed to be less affected by it, but they didn't seem very certain about that.
Here on Earth we are shielded because of the magnetic field created around the Earth due to the iron core of the planet, so even if we land on other planets that don't have an iron core (or having just Googled it, a planet with a solid iron core that doesn't move, like Mars) humans would still be being bombarded by these rays all the time. I really didn't know anything about this radiation before watching this programme - now I do it seems like huge stumbling block to colonising other planets : (

Talking about Mars colonisation, I recently made a piece for an exhibition entitled "Speculative Futures". Of course, as a SF fan that was pretty irresistible to me, and I used this idea of colonising Mars as my starting point. Would we, I wondered, repeat the same mistakes we have been guilty of on Earth, if we got a shot at colonising another planet?

Here's the picture. All the photos I used to make it were actually taken within about a mile radius of my flat in central Manchester, so if it gives you a Mars feeling, I'm pleased!

>92 HanGerg: I don't think that many would have said "Manchester", if the question had been asked. Surreal photo Hannah.

Thanks Paul. It's actually a montage of lots of photos all blended together using the magic of Photoshop, hence the strangeness. I don't usually do these kind of montages, I normally use one unedited picture, but I'm pretty happy with the results of this experiment.

Haunting, Hannah.

Your work sounds so fascinating, Jim. As I sat and read some other stuff on line about cosmic radiation issues - I had a sort of vision of something like a big woolly sweater (not really a sweater) wicking the radiation away - The space between the garment and our bodies is 'heated', so dry on the inside, wet out, collecting in little drops because of the oils in the wool that then evaporate.

Ok, a few reviews that I've been putting off.



6.The Player Of Games - Iain M. Banks 4/5 Re-read
I re-read this along with a group of us that are delving into Banks' Culture series, after first reading it probably a decade ago. Then it was one of the first SF books I had read, and it hit me like a revelation, but having read slightly more in the genre in the intervening years, it's impact wasn't so great this time, so I have revised my initial rating down 0.5 stars. Having said that, this is still a good place to hop on board the Culture series (always only loosely connected by the universe of their setting anyway), spelling out as it does that society's main points of powerful sentient computer Minds creating a near utopia for all the organic inhabitants. But when you cease to have to struggle to survive, and an almost endless amount of things and experiences are available on tap, what tasks should you try to do to give your life meaning? And does life perhaps loose it savour slightly when everything comes so easily? This is the dilemma of our central character, Gurgeh; like many of Banks' characters, not the most likeable of fellows, but as one of the most prominent and skilled players of strategy games from amongst the billions in the Culture, a man uniquely placed to help the all-powerful Minds intercede in a newly discovered civilisation where an infinitely complex strategy game holds the key to their rather barbaric social order...
A well plotted, thought provoking narrative, that has perhaps lost a little of its sheen on re-reading, just because the ideas felt so utterly fresh and new first time around, but still a superior slice of cerebral space opera.



7. Union Street - Pat Barker 3.5/5
I read this very quickly, practically in one sitting, not so much because it was compelling, more because it was like the way you have to quickly remove a plaster to save yourself too much pain. These are a series of interlinked short stories about women, ranging in age from 12 to about 80, who all live on the titular street. The details are fairly sketchy, but from clues one can piece together that it is set in a poor area in an unnamed northern English city, in about, I would guess, the 1970's. All the stories are studies in misery, and the particular misery of the poverty stricken and the female; abusive husbands, dead end menial jobs both at home and at work, being unloved and neglected, and above all, how pregnancy and child rearing can lead to a lifetime of imprisonment; in dysfunctional relationships, in poverty, in poor health and more. Most men in the story are shown as feckless alcoholics, unable to show affection and prone only to bully and abuse the women, and other women are also more likely to be hostile and judgemental than any kind of ally. Every now and again a little sun peeks from behind the bank of clouds in the narrative; neighbours that help each other out, small kindnesses from strangers, the bond of love between child and parent, but largely these are stories of people trapped in harsh situations, made worse by the poor choices they make on the rare occasions they have the opportunity to lift themselves out of their miserable predicaments. The writing is strong, and good at getting right under the skin of the characters, but the view we see from behind their eyes is a pretty grim one. A tough read, which leaves me wanting to turn to something light hearted after as a bit of a palette cleanser, but I'm glad I read it nonetheless.

#95 Oh hi Lucy, sorry, only just saw your comment! I guess it refers to my picture? Thanks! "Haunting" feels like high praise indeed!

I just added more to my comment - I feel very tentative about it too! But really, it was a compelling vision, so I can't just let it go by. I love it that you care too about these matters. And thrilled we have Jim to keep us on the right path.

Also it should help with astronaut b.o. Just kidding! But seriously wool is a miracle fabric.

I read Union Street fairly recently, and I'm not sure I really enjoyed it while I was reading it, but I liked the way it all interlinked and when I finished I almost wanted to read it again to see how it did that.

Hi Hannah.

>87 HanGerg: "she suggests, we should view her as a heroine, that battled really debilitating depression and illness for most of her life, and managed to keep it at bay long enough to produce some truly incredible work" I am completely on board with that. I have Hermione Lee's biography of Willa Cather which I received as a Christmas present this year. Once I've read that it sounds like I should check out her bio of Virginia Woolf.

>92 HanGerg: & 93 Agree with Paul, great photo.

Thanks for dropping by, Lucy, Rhian and Heather!
I know exactly what you mean about Union Street Rhian. Ultimately, it feels like one of those books that you feel was intellectually quite rewarding, without really enjoying much at all. Ah well, books like that are good for you every once in a while, especially for me, who does so much reading of books that are pure pleasure!
I'd urge you to read the Woolf biography Heather. That wasn't a very good review of it I wrote above, as I was just so emotionally shattered when I wrote it. The book is also brilliant for the portrayal of the historical period. Woolf lived at a fascinating time where things changed so rapidly from the Victorian to the Modern era. The idea that Woolf grew up in a world where she and her sister didn't go to school whilst her two brothers did seems extraordinary. It's arguable that as they came from such an incredibly well connected background (taken to the park as a child by Henry James!), school might actually have been more of a hindrance to the development of their particular kinds of creative endeavour. Anyway, I rambling now, but I do really recommend it!

Ok, I've finished off a couple more books since my last visit:


8.Roman Blood - Steven Saylor 3.5/5
It's always hard to know what to give books like this. It's perfectly well written and enjoyable, but for me it's only a bit of light genre reading that doesn't really step beyond the limitations that implies, so for me 3.5 stars is about the max I can award it. I have read others in this series before but this is actually the first chronologically, not that you can really tell as the main character of Gordianus the Finder if only given the most cursory of introductions. However, he's basically the ancient Roman equivalent of a private dick, so really he needs no introductions. He goes around, hunting for clues and talking to witnesses, narrowly avoiding getting smacked about or worse by the baddy's henchmen, and he uncovers nasty secrets that some rather scary people would prefer were left buried. Classic stuff. I like these kinds of books for the wealth of historical detail they pack into this gentle mystery framework, and I didn't realise it before, but that is where Saylor's series really comes into its own. Every case that he has the fictional Gordianus investigate, was an actual case that was brought before a Roman court, and he has done meticulous research into them, down to the level of obtaining transcripts of speeches, and including lots of secondary characters who were real. This case is particularly satisfying, as the defender of the wrongly accused is actually a young and ambitious Cicero. The case itself is fairly simple once Gordianus is let loose on it, with only the smallest of twists, so it might be a little disappointing to mystery veterans, but the wealth of historical research makes up for it for me.


9.Ready Player One - Ernest Cline 4.5/5
Talking about books that are pure pleasure, I would put this in that category, I think. I certainly had a real blast reading it. On the dust jacket of my copy it's described as "Willy Wonka meets The Matrix", and I can't really top that as a 5 word description.
Our hero Wade is in reality a poor, overweight orphan with no friends. However, inside OASIS, the virtual reality simulator that pretty much everyone in the world of 2044 prefers to reality, now that Global Warming has taken it awful toll, and fossil fuels have been used up forcing everyone to cram in to the cities like sardines in a can, Wade is...well, still a bit of a loser at the beginning, but soon things start to get interesting for him, and everyone else. The multi-billionaire creator of OASIS has died, and pledged to give control of this reality, plus all the wealth generated by it, to the person that can complete a series of puzzles he has left inside the game. This guy, Halliday, grew up in the 1980's, and everyone who wants to stand a chance of completing his challenge had better become an expert in that decade's music, films, TV, and most of all, video games...
A really great premise, well delivered upon, even if it does sometimes slip into telling rather than showing us what is going on. Lots of people have mentioned how much they enjoyed or didn't the '80's references (I fared moderately well there - I got many of the movie references, and can at least remember playing similar video games to the ones described here, but many other references flew straight over my head.) However, for me, equally important is Cline's more up to date or even futuristic conception of what an all immersive alternate reality might be like. I found that rather thrilling, although at the same time wishing people would log out a bit more and try and save their seemingly doomed world, but maybe I'm just not geeky enough. For a first novel, I think this is pretty awesome, and I rather hope he might follow it up with a sequel, which after all, would be entirely consistent with much of his source material. Overall, a really, really fun, if slightly flawed book.

Hannah, I thought I had left a comment when I came through here over the weekend, but I can't find it so maybe I just lurked. I agree completely with you about Ready Player One--so much fun!

Are you completely settled into the apartment yet? Where did you end up putting your books? How is Manchester? Any art creations to share or opportunities?

Now I have Ready Player One around here somewhere..... but where?????

I have Ready Player One around here somewhere too... maybe our copies have run off together?!

Hi Roni! To answer your questions; Yes, I would say we're settled in now. We were only looking at living in this flat short term, and then maybe buying something, but our old house is only just now going to sell (what a nightmare selling a house is! I thought buying one was stressful enough, but this is a whole new ballgame!), and the husband is already half way through his Post-Doc, with little chance of a job at the end of it, so we'll probably just continue renting for now. I like our flat in pretty much all aspects except two. 1. It is kind of small (no where for books!) and 2. No room for guests, so if people come to visit us they have to make alternative accommodation arrangements. Apart from that, it's really the epitome of funky urban living! The books, alas, are being stored pretty much as I predicted - piled up on the floor, and only about 25% of our library travelled with us, the rest is still in my uncle's house in Devon. This does mean that I am getting very excited about the re-opening of the Manchester central library, which will be on March 22nd. I think that's where most of my new reading material will be coming from from then onwards!

Art wise, lots to report. I've been roped in to help with a huge Geocaching project one of the council's art officers is going to be doing with about a dozen local schools. This is very exciting as it will give me loads of experience of being a professional artist that works with school groups, which I am quickly figuring out is the way to make a career as an artist pay, and this one project will deliver a very nice little pay check. It's also going to take up loads of my time and energy over the summer, but it's such a good opportunity I really can't complain! In other news... I've found some really cheap studio space a 15 minute drive away, and with a new artist friend who is great, and full of good connections to arty opportunities. This will get me meeting other artists, get me out of the house (which I've been largely using as my workspace until now) and give me some much needed space to work in - a win all round! Also in the meantime, I've volunteered to help out at a really exciting festival and conference coming to Manchester in a few weeks. It's worked out perfectly - I get to help out on this really exciting interactive art project, and then I'm available to get free entry to the excellent line-up of speakers at the conference! It's called "Future Everything" and is a fascinating mix of futurists, tech geeks, artists, academics and general blue sky thinkers. Should be awesome! Here's a link: http://futureeverything.org. So, all in all, progress is being made!

Ha! Ha! Lucy and Faith! I just have a vision of two copies of Ready Player One hand in hand, running away together into the sunset! If you do manage to track down the two little renegades, the book is a great fun read!

Hi Hannah, just waving 'hi'.

This is great news! My spousal unit worked a lot in schools and also as 'artist-in-residence' at various nature preserves (which involved a big of teaching usually) and parks and so on. Anyway - it's time-consuming, but very rewarding. He loved doing it. Kids are so great about art. (He was doing a lot of 'environmental' 'site-specific' work then.)

>105 HanGerg: It really is great to see your professional life so vibrant at the moment, Hannah. The vey best with all that you are doing.

Have a wonderful weekend. xx

Wow, that's great news, Hannah! No wonder we haven't seen much of you around here lately.

Congrats on all the good news, Hannah! It all sounds very exciting!

Hi everyone! Sorry, been AWOL for a bit- lots of things seemed to have become pressingly urgent all at once, plus I ended up doing loads of volunteering at the festival mentioned above! I will try and get here properly in the next few days and respond fully to all your lovely messages, and who knows? even read a few threads, but I still have a mini mountain of stuff to do before then! Fun work though, so no need to feel sorry for me! ; )

Take your time, Hannah! RL is more important. We will be here!

Ok, I'm back! Thanks Connie, Lucy, Paul, Roni and Kriti (and Connie again!), for dropping in while I was off gallivanting about. Thanks for all the kind wishes for the professional progress - it's helpful beyond words to know there is this community of people wishing me well in my creative endeavours, so thanks everyone!
As usual, lots of news - the art volunteering and conference were great, and completely by chance I saw a talk by a lady who could be amazingly useful to our big Geocaching project, as she is a professional games designer. This meaning real life, interactive games that you play around cities, as well as simply software based games, as I had initially assumed. I'm in negotiations with her at the moment to see if we can get her on board. She's keen, but it may boil down to whether our budget can stretch to it.
In other news - did I mention that I sell my work online now? Well, I do! And I had my first online sale the other day. Would it be too shameless a plug to post a link? Well, I'm gonna...
https://www.artfinder.com/hannah-cawthorne
That is the site I had the sale on, but I also sell via another site - a different set of images, just because really, although this page needs a bit more content when I have a moment:
http://www.saatchiart.com/profiles
Ok, plug over.

In other news. I'm doing loads of painting at the moment! Having the studio space has really allowed me to get the old painterly juices flowing. Now, I always thought I was not much of a painter - I was always far better as a draughts person and latterly, photographer, but I'm having something of a painting renaissance these days, if I do say so m'self. It's all still only really in the early stages of development, but here are a few studies that might lead somewhere interesting...



That's probably all a bit visually overwhelming in one go like that, but basically I'm playing around with abstraction, and textures and composition and such like. The second from left one really surprised me - it's not a typical thing from me at all - it just kind of flowed out of me in a weird stream - one of those moments when you're in "the zone" and you loose all track of time. Anyway, I'm hoping to replicate that feeling and build on it - I think that could be a really interesting new direction for me.

Anyway, enough arty talk for one post. I kind of "owe" two book reviews, but I'm not in the mood right now. I haven't finished a book for a while as I'm kind of promiscuously hopping between lots of different books at the moment, so my finish rate is not very good. Oh! I should also post a review of the new Manchester library, which I visited on the day it re-opened! Short story - it's great! and I plan to spend a lot of time there. Longer explanation, plus pictures will come soon, but I think that's enough from me for now...

Oh, very nice! I particularly like the third set of images--the composition and the colors. Good for you, Hannah!!

Congrats on getting your paintings set up online! That's exciting! And your paintings are lovely - I'm particularly drawn to the one on the top right - beautiful!

I like that 2nd left the best. Do you think it is from reading sf?

Hannah you seem to be in a bit of a purple patch inspiration wise- way to go.

Promiscuous hopping is something I shouldn't be in agreement with, my good lady wife away on holiday and all, but I presently have five separate books on the go myself too.

Have a lovely Sunday.

Way to go, Hannah!

Hi everyone! Thanks for your kind and thoughtful responses to my work. I would indeed call it a purple patch, Paul! And yes Lucy, I do think good ol' SF may have an influence on me lately ; )
Right, I'm really far behind on everyone's threads, and on my own book reviews, but I'll gradually try and get round to everyone, even if it's only to say "Hi", in the next few days. As for me, I've been busy with community art projects lately, plus on holiday over the Easter break, first a couple of days away with the husband, something we haven't done for absolute ages, or at least that's how it feels, and then a lovely few days back down with the family and catching up with a few friends on the North Devon coast. Fun times! The next month or so will be Go!Go! Go!, but I'll try my best to be a better 75er in the lulls!

It's good, really, when RL is so full and fun! See you when things slow down.

Yeah, I'm being rubbish again. Life is just so full at the moment! Full of wonderful, arty adventures and excitement, but all the same, I miss LT. May looks crazily busy though, so it may be a case of "see you on the other side...!"

Miss you too, Hannah, but glad life is so full for you right now! Come visit when you can, and just enjoy!!

just visit while you can. A RL full of fun things is precious, so enjoy!

Glad to see that life is full Hannah. Hope you were able to catch a breath in order to enjoy your weekend.

>113 HanGerg: "I had my first online sale the other day" Woo hoo!

I really need to get hold of a copy of Ready Player One....

Hi Roni, Connie, Paul and Heather! Thanks for keeping my thread warm while I've been off galivanting. As predicted, May has been enormously busy, but not always for reasons that were expected. So the weekend away to play netball begat an extra few days recovery at my parents' house due to a badly sprained ankle. Quite a nice break in the middle of a hectic time actually.

And now, when I should have just returned from a wedding in Geneva, I find myself suddenly and unexpectedly in Budapest. The reason for my being here is not a happy one, but I don't think this is really the forum to dwell too long on life's harsher realities. Suffice to say, it's been a hard time for the husband's family, but they are pulling together and drawing strength from one another, and I do my best to help with cups of tea and hugs and suchlike.
Anyway, on to more pertinent topics: books! I'm so far behind on books reviews it's getting ridiculous, so here, in slightly abbreviated form perhaps, are the ones I owe:


10.The Grand Sophy - Georgette Heyer 4.5/5
My first Heyer, bought due to all the praise heaped on her here on LT, and it was everything people said it would be and more. An absolute delight. The character of Sophy was magnificient, and the way she took charge of the family and ran rings around those that would try and force her to behave conventionally was a joy to read. However, it loses half a star for a portrayal of a Jewish money lender that I, the wife of someone currently doing research into anti-semitic discourse in popular culture, cannot give a free pass. Also, there's a really odd note of patriarchy re-asserting itself over the wonderful Sophy right at the end that troubles me slightly. Apart from these two points it would have been a five.


11.Alone in Berlin - Hans Fallada 4/5
A rather gruelling read; a book about life in WWII era Berlin, wirtten not long afterwards and loosely based on the true story of an everyday couple who were executed for leaving notes in building stairwells that criticised the Nazi regime. A great book about how that regime tainted everyone it touched, allowing the evil, corrupt and weak willed to prosper and good, virtuous and brave people to be destroyed. It's more subtle than that makes it sound, but looking back on it with the benefit of a little hindsight, it's perhaps more interesting for the historical detail than as a work of literature. Still, my feeling after reading it was four stars, so four it shall be.


12. Beyond the Blue Event Horizon - Frederik Pohl 3/5
Pohl's first book in this series Gateway, is one of those slow burn books that you just seem to keep thinking about long after you've read it, and actually seems to increase in stature in your mind. It also worked very well as a stand alone novel, so I was surprised when I first discovered he had gone on to write a whole "Heechee" series about what happens after the events of that book. This is the second in the series, and although it takes the orignal story in some interesting new directions, it ultimately doesn't really live up to the excellence of the concept of the first. Also, the pace of the storytelling is a little pedestrian. It leaves you with enough tantalising hints of how things may further unfold to keep me hooked into the series though.

Right, I'll publish these and then come back for more in a short while.

13. Angelmaker - Nick Harkaway 3.5/5
This appeared on my radar because it was nominated for some SF award, so when I saw it in the library I pounced on it. It was a pretty light and breezy read, full of improbable but fun stuff like mechanical bees, robot assassins and steam powered submarines and memorable characters such as the evil super genius bad guy, the criminal mastermind father figure, the feisty French lady super scientist, the two dangerously bland looking government agents, the scarily normal seeming serial killer, an army of crazy cultists... blah blah blah. You get the idea. It's like a tick list of things this kind of fantasy thriller novel wants to have, but somehow it just didn't all hang together in a way that was greater than the sum of its parts. It got a bit incoherent at times. Also, I really wasn't that interested in the daddy issues the main character was having regarding the aforementioned criminal mastermind. It drifts into that tiresome "lovable London geezer" style mythologising of criminality that I have no time for. On the other hand it did have an 80 year old female former superspy with a very grumpy blind pug for a pet as main protagonists so it wasn't all bad.


14.Redshirts - John Scalzi 3/5
Another book I'd heard a lot about on LT, and I can see why it's pretty irresistible to fans of Star Trek and other SF shows. It's an obvious parody of those kind of shows, and it does have its funny moments (I particularly like "the box", the stupidly simple and otherwise useless bit of equipment that suddenly becomes indispensable when a member of the crew has contracted a life threatening virus and they have to synthesize a cure - which it accomplishes with only minutes to spare, of course.) However, as a novel it doesn't quite hang together, especially towards the end where he just kind of tacks on a couple of extra chapters from other characters P.O.V for no particular reason that I can see beyond fleshing out the central story a little. Also, these kind of things are usually called "loving" parodies, and have a lot of affection for the source material, but here they talk so much about how nonsensical and cliched the actions they perform are, you start to wonder about that. It's a film not a book, but I think the wonderful Galaxy Quest covers exactly this territory but succeeds far batter in walking the fine line between parody and satisfying story.


15. The Voyage Out - Virginia Woolf 4/5
After reading her biography earlier this year I realised how few of Woolf's books I'd actually read, and resolved to try and read them all. (We'll see as this project developes just how many of the short stories and non-fiction writing this will include. For now let's just say the main novels). The library (ah, how I'm enjoying having a big, well stocked library on my doorstep once again!), has a lot of her work, so I thought I would take the opportunity to start at the beginning, with this, her first published novel. Already some of the key Woolfian traits are here; that ability to make the reader feel they are really inside the head of the characters and following their thoughts as they slide around on their non-linear and not always coherent paths. I love this about her writing, and could read loads of it, which is just as well as their isn't that much incident in this novel besides all this thinking. Also, having read the biography I have a new awareness of how she was striving to create a new kind of fiction that was about real people and their lives, and it comes more clearly into focus what all these pages of seemingly inconsequential dialogue are about.
On the other hand, she hasn't perhaps reached the peak of her powers yet, and there is the odd character roaming about and rather too explicitly stating her themes"Can people truly know one another, really?", "What is life all about?" etc. I'm not quoting directly, but you get the general idea. I really enjoyed it, and look forward to the next, but it wouldn't be everyone's cuppa.

Right, nearly up to date finally with reviews, and there is some demand for this central computer in the family space, so I shall now step aside. Back soon, I hope...

Sorry to hear about the family matters, Hannah. And I hope the sprained ankle is no longer bothering you.

Thanks Connie. The sprained ankle is slowly but surely getting better. To be honest, this is the first time I've had even a half serious injury playing netball - a sport I first played when I was about 7 years old, and have played for most of my life since, so really I've been very lucky until now!

I'm back in Manchester now, but by being away unexpectedly for so long, a bit of a work mountain has built up. Still, I will try and get here when I can!
I"ve seen a few people recently do little pictures of their current reads, which I think is a nice way to mention what you're currently up to, so here are mine:

I have a bunch of Pohl novels lurking on my tbr shelves...

It's amazing, isn't it, how Woolf writes. I feel the same way, could read on and on. And when you think that it's about 'nothing' - about thinking and just what it feels like to exist in a moment. What an achievement.

>130 sibylline: "what it feels like to exist in a moment". That's it exactly Lucy, well put! I just find it so satisfying - this elusive thing she is trying to portray, which is so slippery and hard to actually put into words.
I've probably mentioned several times that I did my undergraduate dissertation on Woolf and the stream of consciousness. I mention it a lot because it was kind of a formative experience for me, to immerse myself in these ideas. On the Modernism course where I first encountered Woolf, Proust also had a huge influence on me, with his ideas about memory - these two together - portraying human consciousness and memories, are things that have stayed with me ever since as IMPORTANT, but not in the sense that I've gone out and read all their books (The Proust project looms large for some future date....) but actually more in my art work. I think that's why I suddenly tuned in to abstract art at around about the same time (I studied both art and literature at uni) - somehow in my mind it got wrapped up with this idea of thoughts and feelings that occur before or go beyond written or spoken language, and therefore it follows cannot be portrayed figuratively... I've been chasing that idea ever since I think. And look where it's got me! : )

Also Pohl... yes, he is one of those author's that one seems to accrue. I have several others on the tbr pile somewhere. On the evidence of that last book he can be a bit up and down, but I read his obituary when he died recently and he seemed like a wonderful fella, so worth persevering with.

Back to post a link to that obituary; worth a perusal: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/sep/03/frederik-pohl

Hi, Hannah. Glad you are back home again, even if the To-Do list has amassed astounding proportions. Interesting thoughts on the genesis of your abstract art, too.

Three diverse and interesting books on the go at the moment, Hannah.

The book about Northern Britain for fairly obvious reasons especially intrigues. Keen to see what you make of it.

Have a lovely Sunday.

Pohl definitely was more than just an author in the SF world.

Hi again all. Well, I thought June would see an easing off of busyness from May, but if anything, it's been even worse! Thanks Roni and Paul for your visits while I've been absent. I've finished the book you speak of Paul, and will try and post up my review soon.

I just wanted to come here and share something great I've read recently. I've started the legendary Sci Fi anthology Dangerous Visions, which the hubby got me for my birthday a while back. I took my time getting to it because short story compilations aren't usually my thing, but it looks like this one is not to be missed. It was released in the late '60s and did seem to mark a bit of a sea change in the direction SF headed. The Editor, Harlan Ellison seemed to put a lot of emphasis on the writers bringing their most daring and original work to the table for the project - it seems he managed to get stuff into print that other editors wouldn't touch. Anyway, I'm digressing. The best thing I've read in it so far is the introduction, by Isaac Asimov, no less. He says something about SF that I think is just so spot on about what a misunderstood genre it is:
..."Science fiction was escape literature. We were escaping. We were turning from such practical problems as stickball and homework and fist fights in order to enter a never-never land of population explosions, rocket ships, lunar exploration, atomic bombs, radiation sickness and polluted atmosphere.
Wasn't that great? Isn't it delightful the way we young escapers received our just reward? All the great, mind-cracking, hopeless problems of today, we worried about twenty full years before anyone else did. How's that for escaping?"

Yeah! You tell 'em Isaac!

So, I mentioned elsewhere on the threads that I have been slowly working my way through Babylon 5 from the very beginning (which I missed first time round. I also missed the end, so no spoilers please!) Anyway, I've just got to Series 3, which is where things start seriously hotting up. So, I was watching an episode on the day I started reading Dangerous Visions, actually just after I'd read Harlan Ellison's rip roaring introduction and whose name should pop up in the B5 credits as a "Conceptual Consultant" but his! I thought this a fabulous coincidence until I realised it might have been there since series 1 but not previously meant a thing to me.
I'm actually really enjoying B5 (as we now call it in my house). Sure, the acting is a bit hammy at times, and the special effects were pretty laughable in the first couple of series - although they were probably groundbreaking at the time, and are improving with almost every episode. But, the plots can be subtle and sophisticated and deal with some weighty issues, and it's full of stuff that you don't expect in a SF show - example; one of the main female characters kind of lets slip in passing that she's a lesbian in series 3 - it's never really come up until then, and doesn't really have any impact on how we see her character one way or the other. Also, it's not one of those shows that drifts on and on - it was plotted out from the very beginning, so there is a great sense of gathering momentum which is proving pretty addictive. Right, back soon with some actual book reviews!

B5 is probably my favourite show. I wish more shows were as tightly plotted/idealistic/awesome.

#137 "B5 is probably my favourite show. I wish more shows were as tightly plotted/idealistic/awesome." Seconded!
Also, my husband pointed out the other day (and I'm kind of embarrassed he had to be the one to notice this) that the name of the shadowy Psyche-corps officer played by legendary Sf actor Walter Koenig (Chekov in Star Trek no less) is none other than Alfred Bester! Obviously a geeky fan reference designed for people just like me, but I didn't spot it!

You know - I haven't watched Babylon 5 - I think because in the way back I watched an early episode and thought, 'Nuh unh." Now I'm excited to think that there is an sf series I HAVEN'T WATCHED. I am so desperate for SOMETHING. I hate all the new sf shows, hate them. Wah. I want Star Trek basically. I loved the most recent one, Enterprise. It's time to get it going again, wayyyyy in the future.

Hi, Hannah! Wow, I can't think how long it's been since I've read Dangerous Visions--I still have my original SFBC edition up in the attic, but the only story I remember from it is Ellison's A Boy and his Dog--not bad for 40 years later, though. Loved the Asimov quote!

Hi Hannah. I dropped by to say that I've started reading A Madness of Angels by Kate Griffin which I remember you recommending and I'm really enjoying it.

As I stopped by I got hit by a BB for Dangerous Visions and you've reminded me that I really want to watch B5 one day. I saw the first couple of series when they first aired in the UK but didn't manage to keep up with it. I remember it seeming pretty revolutionary compared to something like Star Trek which was the only other sci-fi series I'd seen.

Hello lovely visitors! I will be back soon to respond with earth shaking wit and profundity to your contributions (well, maybe...) and post some reviews. But in the meantime, I just wanted to whizz through and deposit this little gem I just stumbled across. A list of David Bowies 75 Must-Read novels. There's some seriously intellectual stuff on there, and even a few things I have read. I'm really happy to see one of my personal favourites on there, Nights at the Circus. Anyway, enough of my yammering! Go check it out... http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/10/03/david-bowie-reading-list/

Interesting list - I've read exactly 25 of the 75...... that's about as good as my ratios with anyone here, with the exception of Peggy!

Hi everyone! Well, as usual it's been a busy time! But the geocaching project that's kind of eaten up all my time these last 6 weeks or so is drawing to a close, so hopefully I'll be around a lot more in the coming weeks. So, to respond to my kind visitors:

#139 Hi Lucy! I can really recommend Babylon 5, I'm totally hooked right now, early on in series 4. The early series are a bit more clunky, both special effects wise and otherwise, but it gets better and better the more you get to know the characters. I was never a big Star Trek fan, never really joined it at the right moment I think, and all the different incarnations confuse me. A SF fan friend and I were just sighing over Firefly the other day. Why did they cancel that after only one series? Why??

#140 Hi Roni! Yes, I remember you remarking when I got it about having read Dangerous Visions when it first came out. The stories I've read so far have been good, and true to the title, pretty disturbing. Actually, Harlan Elison has a story about Jack the Ripper travelling to the future, which is a minor plot line in B5, making me think that must be part of his influence as "conceptual consultant" on the show. I love it when you can pick out patterns in things like that, it feels so satisfying!

#141 Hi Lucy! Glad you are enjoying "A Madness..." It was the first of those kind of urban magic books set in London I read, and I liked it partly for novelty I guess. I have also read the second in the series but that is where I stalled; the second was a bit formulaic. However, the first has a really satisfying magic system which leads to some great set pieces (look out for the fight where all the graffiti comes to life!), and a truly spine chilling baddie so it's definitely a fun read.

#143. Hi Lucy again! A good ratio with Bowie! Wow, my admiration for you reaches new heights! Seriously though, I am impressed. There are lots of books on that list that sound fascinating, but my non-fiction reading just hasn't scaled the ambitious heights to attempt. Actually, I did get as far as wish listing one from that list, Beyond the Brillo Box: The Visual Arts in Post-Historical Perspective , as I did a portfolio surgery with a curator guy the other day, who told me I should read more art theory. When I asked what in particular, he rather unhelpfully said "All of it!". Hmm. Ok. Anyway, I really admire Bowie so if it's good enough for him, I'll give it a go!

Right, I really WILL come and write some reviews of what I've been reading soon, as I'm now seriously behind, and I read some great books. Actually, I was getting rather worried, as I'd read lots of good books I'd been giving solid 4 and 4.5 star ratings, but this year had been entirely lacking in 5's until just yesterday, when I finished reading The Windup Girl, a seriously good near future dystopia that I just devoured because it was so compelling. Ok, more on that soon! Oh, and also my trip to Oxford this weekend, which resulted in a small fortune being spent in the Oxford University Press bookshop (gotta be done, right?).

Right, let's see if I can clear some of this review backlog that has built up...



16.Chanur's Legacy - C.J.Cherryh 4.5/5

Wow, I'm just getting to love Cherryh so much! And I would never have found her except for library thing and specifically Roni and Lucy, so thank-you ladies! Each new book by her is a fresh delight. I'm kind of glad I waited a while after reading the last book in the Chanur series proper, as this is sort of a spin off, but a very satisfying one. Returning to that universe now, after a bit of a break, felt like visiting old friends you haven't seen for a while.
This was the book where I think I cracked what lies at the heart of Cherryh's appeal, at least to me. She is, at her core, a great anthropologist. She's good at inventing cultures where certain sets of rules apply and then spinning yarns around what happens when people from that culture end up in situations with people from another one that may have entirely different principles guiding their actions. The plot in this book is really secondary (and if I have a slight quibble, perhaps just a touch repetitive) to all the developments in characters and cultures we see unfolding before us, most notably in the continuing struggle for male hani to be accepted as being worth a place on a ship with their traditionally all female crew. And also, the hilarious goings on with the comically stuck up and protocol obsessed stsho, a species who can entirely shift identity when put under too much stress, but on whom the fate of Hilfy's fearless crew rest... Fun from start to finish!



17.Kracken - China Miéville 4/5

This was different again from his two previous books I've read - the first of which was a stunningly original and weird fantasy and the second was a kind of existential police procedural. This is a sort of urban magic book set in London, a sub-genre of which I've read more than a few variations recently, but this being Mieville, the writing is 10% better and the ideas 10% sharper and more original than you would find in any other books that might cover this territory. What we have here is a story of a mysterious someone or something trying to bring about the end of the world, and believers in all kinds of strange and mystical beings of various warring factions trying to either aid or hinder them. A solidly good, rather than outstanding effort, given what I know he is capable of.



18.Foreigner - C.J.Cherryh 4/5

More Cherryh, because I just can't get enough of her lately. This is a whole new series though, as I fortuitously stumbled across a copy of this, the first in the very long running series, in an Oxfam bookshop whilst on a day out in Liverpool. Hubby bought me a much later book in the series as a Christmas present, so I was eager to track this down, and it has potential to develop into something really interesting. This is different from all the other books of hers I've read so far, as it is planetary based, whereas in the Chanur series and the Alliance/Union books everything is space ship and station based, but away from her claustrophobia inducingly well realised space settings she is still very good at producing atmosphere from her backdrops, here largely in the form of a ancient castle by a beautiful lake, where our hero is in hiding for much of the story. The basic set-up is this - humans on a routine mining expedition fall through some mysterious worm hole in space and end up somewhere that is uncharted on any of their maps, and with no way home. Skip to a few generations later, and mankind has settled on a planet. The one problem being, they aren't the first sentient species there. Already there are the atevi, a race of 10 foot tall humanoids with ebony black skin and no concept of friendship, only loyalty. Due to inevitable misunderstandings (that two cultures clashing thing again), there is a war. Skip forward another few years (I guess, this being the first in a long running series, there's lots of backstory to cram in) and humans are banished to one island, where they are allowed to remain in return for sharing their currently superior technology. Only one human is allowed to live among the atevi and act as a go between - always a difficult balancing act, especially as now someone seems to be trying to assassinate him...
More vintage Cherryh, with subtle underlying themes of what constitutes progress, and what can be lost in trying to attain it, as well as the ever present interest in how individuals and whole groups succeed and fail in making themselves understood to each other.

Right, well that's some done at least. And now it is past my bedtime, so for now at least, jó éjszakát!

(Ok, so that was goodnight in Hungarian, in case anyone was wondering. Pronounced like so "yo ate-sa-kat!" I aim to inform! )

Right, onwards!



19.Diary of a Provincial Lady - E.M.Delafield 2.5/5
I'd heard good things about this, but it's ever-so-gentle humour and rather pedestrian diary style narrative just weren't my kind of thing. I found it a bit of a snooze fest, although some of the characterisations were nice. I found myself getting annoyed with her husband a lot, which probably I was supposed to. It was also pleasant that it was set near my old home town of Exeter so there was the odd thrill of recognition of places they went for day trips. I also had the benefit of reading a lovely folio society edition that I picked up second hand for a steal, which had some very charming illustrations in it, but I'm afraid even they couldn't save me from being a little bored.



20.Pies and Prejudice: In Search of the North - Stuart Maconie 4/5
I'm a big fan of Stuart Maconie in his day job as a radio DJ, as he makes up one half of my favourite duo of BBC 6 Music DJs, Radcliife and Maconie, or Rad/Mac for those that know them well. On that show he's frequently hilarious as well as a fountain of obscure music trivia. He's also very much a voice of the North, so I took it as a sign that I had truly arrived upon the Manchester scene when I saw him drinking on the next table at a trendy real ale pub we like to frequent. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm well disposed to the man before I even picked up this book. I also like his clever way with a title - he has a more autobiographical book called Cider with Roadies. And there's a chapter in this one called "Mills and Bhuna". One of the good things about this book is that his humour and intelligence do translate from radio waves to page well. He writes evocatively and sometimes movingly about the things that make the North of England special for him. And this is very much a personal journey, despite it's insistence on being a travel book. He is revisiting the land of his childhood and early adulthood, a journey of re-discovery after moving to London and becoming a cappuccino sipping Southern softie. He's very good at skewering a lot of these lazy stereotypes about Northerners and Southerners, having spent time on both sides of the divide. He writes well about the different tribes of the North, and where their grievances about the each other come from. This was very interesting for me as I would say the tribalism of Northerners is one of the chief differences I noticed since moving here. I just don't think Southerners are nearly as territorial about where they come from, and they certainly don't seem to be as many feuds between places just a few miles apart. So that was all very interesting.
There was also a lot of good tips for places to visit for me, as someone that doesn't know the region at all well. However, for someone more familiar with the area, like our Paul, it might not tell them anything they don't already know. It's also hard to escape at times, the feeling that he is simply enjoying using the publishers money to stay in lots of fancy hotels whilst he reconnects with his roots, but as I say, I like the fella, so you'll hear no word of complaint from a Southern softie like me!

Loved your last Chanur review.... felt much the same way about it. I'm hoarding the Foreigner series, slowly collecting the entirety.... but I think I'll dive into them this winter. Your review further tempts me!

Ditto what Lucy said. I have to get through Regenesis first, but then I have the first few of the Foreigner series on hand.

>142 HanGerg: Interesting list of which I have read very few (I didn't try to count them). Seeing lists like that always makes me wonder how the individual selected those particular books. I struggle enough naming my top 5 books of the last year, I can't imagine being able to come up with a must read list of any number....

>144 HanGerg: I did really enjoy A Madness of Angels - sad to hear you found the next in the series a bit formulaic. The library has them all I think so I will probably read the others but get them from the library rather than buying them.

>145 HanGerg: I've just started reading The Pride of Chanur and also rediscovered Mieville recently after a long gap so both of those are on the wishlist. I also have the first in the Foreigner series but am putting off starting such a long series.

>146 HanGerg: Sorry you didn't enjoy The Diary of a Provincial Lady. It's one of my favourites but it's one where the humour either works for you or it doesn't and I can imagine it being really boring if it doesn't.

Hi Lucy and Roni! C'mon, dive on in, the water's fine! : )

Hi Heather! Actually, because I'm the geeky sort that likes making lists, I had a go at doing my top 75 books. I'm actually finding it quite hard. I'll maybe post it here if I ever finish it. Then I'll want to do films, albums, artworks... it could become addictive!

Where did you track down the Foriegner series books I wonder? I have found the odd Cheeryh in charity shops, but overall she seems to be a hard author to get hold of here. I mainly get them secondhand via Amazon from sellers in America, which always take s a few weeks. Guess I might want to bulk order some in this series, as it does feel like it might be fairly addictive!

Yeah "D of a PL" just didn't float my boat I'm afraid. Actually, if we were ever to meet up on a LT meet up thingy I would happily give you my folio copy if you're interested?

Catching up Hannah. 13/75 is what I can muster in the Bowie list. Not bad given my more earth bound reading in comparison with him at least.

Have a splendid weekend. xx

>150 HanGerg: I found the first Foreigner book completely by chance in a local charity bookshop. My other Cherryh's have been purchased secondhand online and usually shipped from the US. I've just ordered the 4th and 5th books in the Chanur series as I'm probably going to read the 3rd book this month and want them to arrive soon after I finish it.

I certainly wouldn't say no to the Folio of D of a PL :-)

Hannah, I just finished A Madness of Angels, which you recommended some time ago, and really enjoyed it!

Hi Paul, Heather and Roni!! Thanks for keeping my thread warm. I've been neglecting it again, alas.

So, a bit of a RL update. I'm currently in Hungary until the near the end of the month, which means I've been re-united with my husband who has already been here a month due to aforementioned family turmoils. It's been a difficult time for his family, and as a result this is hardly the restful time away first envisioned when we booked to come here. However, we have just returned from the wedding of a close friend in the countryside that was the original reason to be here at this hideously hot time of year. That was great fun, and tomorrow we are treating ourselves to a few days in a lovely hotel by Lake Balaton, the "Hungarian Sea" as it's called round these parts. Our room has a balcony with a view of the lake, and there's a spa attached which I plan to make heavy use of. I can't wait! Here's the webpage for the hotel if you fancy a little snoop about: http://www.hotelzenit.hu
Just before I came here was a busy time finishing off the geocaching project that I have been helping run for the past few months. I think it's been pretty successful; as I understand it, it may get re-comissioned next year if the powers that be agree, so fingers crossed! My Autumn schedule is so far looking rather bereft of big projects like this, but it may give me more time to focus on my own art practise, and getting my work into more galleries, which I have decided is the way forward at this point. Also, I have become involved with a super cool and trendy local arts venue, that has it's own art academy that meet regularly for critiques of each others work, discussion groups, trips to exhibitions and artists' talks etc. It's a really great group. I did my first crit on my work last week, and it went really well! And best of all, the upshot of it all is, I think they are going to allow me to do a week long residency there sometime in the Autumn!! Very exciting!

Ok, so that's what's been going on with me. Since I arrived in Hungary I've also been doing a lot of reading, but the reviews will have to wait a bit. However, I do have one final, Muchos muchos exciting bit of news!! Genny and I have been talking for ages about organising an LT meet-up in her new hometown of Birmingham. So, we have finally managed to get around to agreeing on a date, which will be 20th (Sat) or 21st (Sun) of September. So, if you live anywhere nearby, or if you fancy a trip up to England's second city, which I have it on good authority, is just delightful at that time of year, then let me know! I am to be chief organiser, and Genny to be our premier member there, not least because that weekend falls very close to her birthday (not sure if I was meant to tell you that, but I have. Let's keep it between ourselves though, OK? ; ) ) So, who's keen?

The hotel looks lovely. Sorry to hear your break is in the midst of such tough times for your husband and his family though.

20th or 21st for a Birmingham meetup sounds great to me :-)

Yipee! I was counting on you Heather, and you didn't let me down! Great. That's three already then! And of course, as I mentioned before, I have just the thing for a bit of book swapping with you my dear! This will be my first ever LT meet-up, and I'm already childishly excited! : )

Well, Hannah, prompted by our discussions elsewhere I've finally got round to catching up on your thread - what a lot I've been missing about all your art projects and getting into galleries - the art academy sounds great, and I love your website and the chance to view more of your photos - and now you are getting back into painting too! I've been wondering how you were getting on, without doing the obvious thing and reading your thread to find out - I'm so glad I've finally made it here. As you know, I've been dabbling in a bit of art these past months too - not on a par with yours and certainly no aspirations to turn professional, but I have been enjoying that process of getting totally absorbed in a creation and losing myself in it. It's great that you are managing to find ways of taking that process and making a living out of it too!

I read the Maconie book a few years back - as another southerner living in the North (but unlike you I'd not even heard of Maconie so didn't approach it with the same expectations). I didn't enjoy it as much - I think the tribalism you mentioned was a problem for me, as there seemed to be a very strong bias to the North West and Manchester/Lancashire (which makes sense as that's where he is from) and very little about the North East (which as a former resident of Newcastle I now regard as the 'true North'!). I guess my reaction just proves the point you and he were making about the strong allegiances to different regions in the North.

And I agree that Cherryhs are hard to find over here - I've been keeping an eye out since I first read about her on Lucy's threads, but I've only managed to find one or two in second-hand shops and have bought one as an audiobook. Haven't started any of them yet.

As for meet-up - I'm so glad we've finally got the ball rolling thanks to your persistence! Hooray that Heather looks up for it too! I will go and post on my own thread about it.

I will keep your Cherryh issues in mind, all of you - so when I see them I will grab it them for you the way I do Viragos!

If I was living in The UK I would be there! Have a great time, ladies! And make pictures, please!!

Hi Genny! Yes, art is a great source of pleasure to many, I know. In my experience, the hardest part can be making time in your life to devote to these things. I really neglected my art for years because it just got crowded out by so much other stuff. I'm so enjoying the journey I'm on now when I'm allowing myself to play and create. Of course, there are new pressure as well that come with trying to do this professionally. I'm not really sure how best it will all balance out, but at least I'm having a go at finding out if it can work.

Hi Lucy! That such a kind offer! Unfortunately, I know from Bookmoochers sending me stuff from America, the cost of the postage can be prohibitively high! Often a lot more than what the book would cost to get secondhand from Amazon. So I think really, we English Cherryh lovers will just have to bite the bullet and bulk order lots in one go through those channels. Actually, I was in an English language bookstore in Budapest the other day, and I found a Cherryh! And not just any Cherryh either, but the very next one I need to read in the alliance/union series!! It's a second hand shop frequented by expats, and for some reason most of the books they have there are from American publishers rather than English, so it's really not that surprising, but the get the very next one in the series! That was pretty lucky!

Hi Connie! You would be most welcome, my dear! In fact, are you sure you don't want a holiday? ; ) Just in case you can't make it, I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures!

Right, back from Hungary now and raring to go with organising the LT meet-up in Birmingham. Does anyone know any LT members based in that area? And am I right in thinking there's a group wiki or something that may give me that info?

I'm way behind on reviews again, plus want to post some pics of my recent trips to Oxford and Hungary, so I shall scoot back here when I have some more time to hopefully address all these things, but in the meantime, start checking those train timetables and see if you can join us in Birmingham on September 20th!

Me being there is almost impossible! So I'm looking forward to the pictures!

Don't worry Connie! Wherever I go go, plenty of pictures always follow! : )

Ok, I owe lots of reviews, plus wanted to post some pictures of my recent wanderings, so here goes:



21. The Windup Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi 5/5
Hooray! Finally a 5 star read this year! A furiously compelling yarn about a post-oil, mid global warming flood world. The problems of this future are made much worse by lots of seemingly man-made viruses that affect crops and have caused global food production to fall into the hands of a few unscrupulous mega-corps, who are the only ones with the resources to stay one step ahead of the viruses and keep the world fed. The story is set in a future Thailand, where new foods are appearing in the marketplace which are virus free, but from an unknown source. The anti-hero main character is there as an undercover agent of the mega-corps to find out where the food is coming from. However, this is just the starting point of a densely packed story with a wide cast of characters, a complex multilayered narrative and far reaching implications for the future survival of the human race. Also some of the best future dystopia world building I've read for a long time. If you like SF in even a passing way, I highly recommend it. If you're a big SF fan, go reserve a copy from the library right now!



22.Anno Dracula The Bloody Red Baron - Kim Newman 3.5/5
Sequel to the original Anno Dracula book, which was bloody good fun, with its blending of famous real and fictional characters into a splendid new yarn. This is more of the same, but this time set at the time of WWI, and somehow not quite as satisfying. Rather far fetched and silly but without as much dazzling inventiveness as the first, but still full of some nice gothically creepy moments and dashing heroes and villains. Silly fun but nothing special.



23.Bring Up the Bodies - Hilary Mantel 5/5

I really enjoyed the first part, but this is the one where I got what all the fuss is about, and why they call her the greatest writer currently working and all that sort of thing. The sense of vivid reality she can infuse into these far distant times is simply breathtaking. Plotting wise, characterisation wise, quality of prose wise, this humble reader can really find no fault. It's pretty much perfect writing. The historian in me always wants to have a companion volume where I can find out how much of the world she shows us is empirical fact and how much is her creation, but actually, I think part of the theme of this book is that ultimate truths are unknowable because facts are often twisted to accommodate the wants of those who hold the reigns of power. "History is written by the winners" has hardly ever been so clearly demonstrated as here. I now can't wait for the next instalment.

Right, as usual after I have posted a few reviews, I get a bit anxious that it's all going to suddenly disappear in a puff of smoke, so I'll post these, then come back later and do some more.

>160 HanGerg: Hannah, the Library Thing Gatherings and Meetups group says it has a wiki but the link to the wiki on the group page doesn't work :-( Might be worth starting a thread though?

There are two Brum based LTers in the Virago group, @LyzzyBee and @Heaven-Ali, that Genny and I know. Do you want me to post something in the Virago group?

>162 HanGerg: Two five star reviews! I've read both so dodged the book bullets but I haven't read Anno Dracula and I am a big fan of the original Dracula by Bram Stoker so I probably should.

Hi Heather! Genny suggested the same two people so I contacted them on their pages. Feel free to mention it on the Virago group page as well though - I'm sure an invite from someone they know will be more effective than the ramblings of a random weirdo ; )

Anno Dracula is really great fun and I highly recommend it!

Right, I'm off again, lucky girl that I am. This time it's a bit of a round trip of the UK. First London to go see Kate Bush in concert with my oldest friend. We let my husband come as well ; ) Absolutely cannot WAIT!! We've been huge Bush fans for years, but this is her first concert series since 1979!! I deliberately haven't read any of the reviews going around, but it sounds like the great lady doesn't disappoint!
Then it's down to Dorset with said friend for a mutual friend's wedding. Then a quick stop off in Exeter to show our faces to a few old friends, then North Devon to check in with my family, then home, possibly via Bristol to see my brother and family, but maybe not as all this will keep us away for about a week as it is! I'll try to check in whilst I'm away, in case their are more developments on the meet-up front. Until then, happy reading, friends!

>164 HanGerg: Ok, I will mention in the Virago group.

Sounds like you are going to be busy!

>162 HanGerg: Yay for The Windup Girl! Except that it reminds me I need to read Pump Six.

Oh, I hadn't heard of Pump Six swynn, looks good! I'm currently readingThe Sea and Summer which is another spooky vision of what a post-oil, global warming hit world will be like. It's certainly stuff to get you thinking...

Ok, so we had our lovely LT meet-up! It was super fabulous fun, and thanks to Genny's meticulous organising, the whole thing went like a dream! Heather and then I arrived into New Street Train station shortly before 11. First stop, a very cool little coffee shop where we did an initial flurry of book swapping and had a good old chat. Here's a picture of Heather and Genny at said coffee shop.

After that we hopped on the bus and got off in Mosely to go to our first bookshop. Then it was back on the bus and off to Black Heath where we met Ali from the Virago group in a lovely cafe for lunch.

After lunch it was round the corner to meet-up with Liz from the Virago group as well, to go to bookshops two and three. All too soon it was time to head back to the city centre, so we waved goodbye to Ali and Liz and headed back to the train station for Heather to catch her train. There we grabbed a quick drink and a chance to measure up our respective book hauls. Due to kind donations from Genny and expert recommendations from Heather, I ended up with by far the biggest pile, but given that this was my first Lt meet-up I considered it my duty!


After we had waved Heather off, Genny took me to the Ikon galley, with a quick stop off at the new city library along the way. We weren't sure what to expect from the Ikon, but we actually had a treat in store in the shape of an exhibition by a really interesting South Korean artist called Lee Bul, who made fantastically elaborate architectural style pieces, including one like a crazy labyrinth which Genny and I spent a diverting few minutes getting utterly lost in.

Then it was time for a light dinner in the gallery cafe, and then all too soon back to the train station for my own journey home. It was really a great day out, and Genny was a brilliant tour guide!

Popping back to post a complete list of my book haul from the Birmingham trip.

The Crowded Street - Winifred Holtby (Gift from Gennyt)
My Brilliant Career - Miles Franklin (Gift from Gennyt)
The Weather in the Streets - Rosamond Lehmann (Oxfam Bookshop, Mosely, Birmingham)
The Franchise Affair - Josephine Tey (Oxfam Bookshop, Mosely, Birmingham)
The Unknown Ajax - Georgette Heyer (Oxfam Bookshop, Black Heath, Birmingham)
The Complete Shorter Fiction - Virginia Woolf (Oxfam Bookshop,Black Heath, Birmingham)
The Borrible Trilogy - Michael de Larrabeiti (Oxfam Bookshop, Black Heath, Birmingham)
Prodigal Summer - Barbara Kingsolver (Oxfam Bookshop, Black Heath, Birmingham)
A Concise History of Modern Painting - Herbert Read (Oxfam Bookshop, Black Heath, Birmingham)
The Eagle of the Ninth - Rosemary Sutcliff (Sue Ryder Charity Shop,Black Heath, Birmingham)
A Fraction of the Whole - Steve Toltz (Sue Ryder Charity Shop,Black Heath, Birmingham)
The Hell of it All - Charlie Brooker (Sue Ryder Charity Shop,Black Heath, Birmingham)
Spindle's End - Robin McKinley (Sue Ryder Charity Shop,Black Heath, Birmingham)

Oh! I love seeing photos of meet-ups! And wonderful list!

Thanks Lucy! My first Lt meet-up was a great success, and now I'm eager for more!

Talking of being eager, I have a rare urge to do some reviews, so here goes!



24.A Dance With Dragon: Part 2 After the Feast - George R.R.Martin 4/5
This seemingly never ending series meanders on, with all the usual pluses and minuses still in evidence. Cool characters, exciting action and intrigue, the odd curve ball you didn't see coming, dragons and scary frost zombies etc, but also a bewildering array of characters and story lines that it's hard to get straight in your head, especially if you're leaving big gaps between books like I am, plus a rather higher rape/torture/murder quotient than I'm usually comfortable with. Still, I'll keep reading to see where we end up, even if it does take several more years to get there...



25.Cousin Kate - Georgette Heyer 4/5
Not quite the delightful romp through the park that my first Heyer was, as this one features some rather nasty themes of madness and murder, but still a delightfully breezy and fun read compared to lots of the stuff I've been reading lately, so I enjoyed it. I have a feeling that once I've read a few more Heyer's I won't place this among the first rank, but for now she's still a new author to me and I'm really enjoying discovering her fictional universe.



26.Neuromancer - William Gibson 3.5/5
This is one of those books that's really of its time. When it was written in 1984 I'm sure it caused a huge sensation, as it's credited with being the first book to introduce the concept of a virtual reality, and I bet that aspect of it really blew people's minds. For me, that's all a bit old hat, and this isn't even the best virtual reality book I'ver read this year ( Ready Player One if you're interested). That may sound a bit harsh given how ground breaking it was, but I think the thing that stops books like this ageing badly is if the world they portray is fully realised and memorable, and for me this one just wasn't really. There's hardly any descriptive passages in the whole book, especially with regards to the virtual world that the main character spends a lot of time inhabiting. Maybe that's because the idea was so new and revolutionary the author just couldn't imagine what it would be like, but I'm inclined to put it down to lack of writerly skill. Having said that, the story is a pretty intriguing and fast paced one about an ex-hacker whizz kid who's asked by some shady people to do some very unsavoury things for a chance to get his old life back. Who lies behind the shady people and just what they are asking him to do is only gradually revealed in a quite satisfying way. There's the making of a really amazing story in here, with original ideas, some great locations and a good storyline, but for me the writing slightly let it down.



27.Lord Emsworth Acts for the Best - P.G.Wodehouse 5/5

A Hungarian friend lent me this when I read all the books I'd taken on holiday to Hungary (hey, I only had cabin luggage for a 3 week stay! Space was VERY limited! Also: this is the reason I'm thinking of getting a kindle) Anyway, it turned out to be just the thing. 9 short stories of the goings on at Blandings. Now, I like my PG-W just about any way I can get him, Jeeves and Wooster and Blandings most especially, but this book made me realise that perhaps short stories are actually the perfect medium to best display his particular brand of genius. His plots have always been flimsy bits of nonsense anyway, but there's just enough to sustain a short story and give you a satisfying pay-off at the end, leaving you free to marvel afresh on every page at the the quite astonishing way he wielded the English language and deployed it to create things of feather light comic beauty. Just lovely!



28.Echoes From the Dead - Johan Theorin 3/5
Another loaner from the Magyar friend, and not my usual cup of chai. The generic title gives a good indication of what lies ahead here - a pretty by-the-numbers Scandi crime thriller, but not a bad one. The main character is a grieving mother, struggling to come to terms with the disappearance of her son many years earlier. Her father persuades her to come back to the island of Oland where he lives in a retirement home, and where the disappearance took place. Someone has sent him a child's shoe in the post, and he has a few theories about who...
The setting of Oland is nicely realised and the main character of the mother is well drawn. Her father and a few of his cronies that crop up are more annoying and clearly there just to move the plot along and add some suspense by only revealing the info they have when the author thinks it's time, not when it would actually make sense to spill the beans; i.e. right at the beginning of day one. This is a pet peeve of mine about crime fiction. Why all the "oh, I couldn't possibly tell you now, let's meet in a scary secluded spot in the middle of the night so I can tell you/ get murdered." Sigh. Anyway, that aside, this was an OK story that managed to at least partially surprise me with its ending.

Ok, that's me caught up until the beginning of September. Time to go have a lie down and eat chocolate as a reward for all my exertions!

Sounds like a wonderful meet-up, Hannah!

Cousin Kate is Heyer's "Gothic" novel, not one of my favorites either, but a good incorporation of those elements.

Yes, Neuromancer has not aged well, but you are right, it really was something back when it was published.

Nice haul indeed Hannah and glad that the meet-up went off so splendidly. Next time I make it back home I'll try to organise a meet-up with all of you.

Interestingly my daughter loved Neuromancer - although I do think she read it as 'historical sf' --- sigh - I remember the furor about it. I read it when it came out and need to reread, I think. I was just bloviating on somebody's thread about 'original' sf idea vs. the tropes that get played and played - and Neuromancer certainly gets the First of its Kind prize.

Hi, Hannah! Lovely pictures! And very nice piles of books.

Hi everyone! Thanks Roni, Paul, Lucy and Connie for popping in while I've been away! I have been sadly neglecting LT of late, mainly just out of having a hectic lot of stuff going on in RL. I'm not sure that it's all amounted to a great deal, but I have been busy! That's the thing about this self-employed lark. I seem to spend a lot of time running around, but when I actually pause for breath, it's hard to give a very full account of what I've been up to; it all seems to pass in such a blur! Also, Manchester life in general seems a bit like that; there's always some event to go to; a band to see, a talk to go to, a new exhibition opening - I love it!! On the downside, it's sometimes hard to find an evening or weekend in your schedule when you can have some time just relaxing at home! So, hence not much LT, and not much reading either. But still, I want to check in and say "Hi!", and also maybe post some of my backlogged reviews.

Also, here's a quick update on the art career. I won a prize!! Yes indeed! Exciting times! On the urging of my friend and studio mate, who's a textile artist I entered the Warrington Contemporary Open, as she had entered before and got in, and thought it would be a good fit for my stuff. So I entered and long story short... I won runner-up prize in the Photography section! I hadn't been told in advance, but luckily I was at the opening event and prize giving, so I got to go up and shake hands and get my photo taken, very unexpectedly!
Here's the picture of me doing just that:


In other news, I'm about to start a week of running workshops alongside an exhibition at the Salford Museum. It was an open tender for artists to apply for to get the work, and I was really chuffed to hear I was selected over quite a few other applicants to deliver the workshops, which I also had to plan. The exhibition is about the history of a local blind charity, so my idea was to make "tactile art", pieces that have touch, sound and even smell as integral elements. That starts on Tuesday and I'm really excited to get cracking with it! The other exciting thing on the horizon is a residency at the local super cool and trendy arts venue that I have mentioned before. I'm doing a 7 days residency there in early January, followed hopefully by a few days for an exhibition. My plan is to try and have an exhibition/party and invite everyone I've met so far in Manchester! On top of that, I've had a few more sales from my online shop, and I've been busy doing lots of painting at my studio, which continues to amaze me by how well it's going seeing as in the past I was always a little uncomfortable as a painter.

Oh, and another art development, and one which I could do with some help with. I have applied to be a new artist that gets their work sold by a local company that goes to lots of markets with fine art prints, cards, wrapping paper etc. Anyway, seeing as the guy that runs it is a very canny operator, one of the deciding factors is how much "buzz" is generated around your entries on social media. So, if you would like to help me out, I would be forever in your debt if you could go to Facebook and "like" my designs. I'll post the links here. Also, if you REALLY like them, you can go to the website and actually buy a print! The work I decided to enter is actually some of my newest painting work, rather than my photographic stuff, which has taken a bit of a backseat of late.

Facebook pages. Entry one: https://www.facebook.com/Wraptious/photos/pcb.802856493110144/802856366443490/?t...

Entry 2: https://www.facebook.com/Wraptious/photos/pcb.802856493110144/802856329776827/?t...

Entry 3: https://www.facebook.com/Wraptious/photos/pcb.802856493110144/802856356443491/?t...

And the website: http://www.wraptious.com/collections/competition-page

Thank-you so much for your support! : )

No problem liking these! And congrats about yr. prize AND the teaching gig!

Congrats on the prize!

Oh, wow, how neat is all that!!

I liked the first and third paintings best. Clearly I'm more into cool colors. ;-)

Congratulations!

#177 Thanks Lucy!
#178 Thanks Jim! It was a delightful surprise and a good bit of positive feedback after a year of wondering if the art world would accept my work, so it was just the confidence boost I needed about now!
#179. Thanks Roni! I think I like the cooler coloured ones here. The red one is just a small details of a much larger painting, and I took a whole series of pictures of different bits of it that look great together, but somehow they lose out when placed next to the cooler ones. Actually, red is not a typical colour for me to work with, the cooler colour palette being one that I am drawn to much more often, but it was a request from a friend, so that's where the finished piece is headed.

...and here is the finished piece! It changed a lot over the course of it's creation, and if I'm honest, I maybe preferred it at about the half way stage, but by the time I realised that it had changed too much. Always a risk I guess, especially with this kind of very instinctive abstract painting. Still, it's all part of the learning process!

Right, I'm in danger of getting really behind on reviews again, so I'll try and get through a few.


29.Hellburner - C.J.Cherryh 3.5/5
This is effectively a sequel to Heavy Time as it returns to the same characters from that book, and fleshes out their relationships in interesting ways. The main plot involves a top secret military programme that may be being sabotaged, but no-one quite knows who by or why. I enjoyed it as I enjoy all Cherryh's work, for its minute, utterly believable observations of human behaviour, but the larger plot sped by without making a lot of sense - this is one of the very dense ones in terms of plotting that left me with my head spinning at times. Still, a valuable addition to this series of books, as it poses interesting questions about the "enemy" of these characters - the mysterious other side in the Alliance/Union conflict that we haven't seen yet, but are about to in Cyteen, which I have right here at the top of the TBR pile, and which I'm looking froward to greatly. Special mention must go to the American book moocher who sent it to me, at a cost of about $24. I'm off to Tenerife in December for 10 days so I'm planning to take it and savour every word!


30.Saga Volume 1 Saga Volume 2 Saga Volume 3 - Brian K Vaughan 4.5/5
I'm not sure what the graphic novel to book conversion rate is, but these are fairly slim volumes - I think 6 issues of a comic in each one, so 3 of those is just about equal to one book, by my reckoning. Anyway, they were lent to me by my friend who is my usual source of all things graphic novel related, and as usual he didn't let me down, these were fantastic. The plot involves a pair of Romeo and Juliet-esque star crossed lovers from opposite sides of an intergalactic war, who have just had a baby girl. The baby is our narrator, telling the story of the early years of her life in flashback. Of course, both sides hate the existence of this child, seeing her as a powerful symbol that could be used to end the war, and therefore their are all kinds of soldiers and bounty hunters on their tails. The whole thing is a delightful mix of fantasy and sci-fi, which is funny and entertaining and packs an emotional punch as well. The next instalment is out in December, and I think I'll be queuing up outside the comic shop!

>176 HanGerg: Wow - congratulations on the prize!

'my idea was to make "tactile art", pieces that have touch, sound and even smell as integral elements.' That sounds fascinating!

And the facebook pages are liked.

>182 HanGerg: Sounds like another Cherryh series to enjoy. I've been meaning to ask you (or Roni or Lucy) - what's the best reading order for Cherryh's Alliance/Union novels? There seem to be several different series on LT including these books and I am a little confused.

Hi Heather! Thanks for the congrats and the Facebook likes!

Regarding the Alliance/Union - I am also confused! I'm not sure it entirely matters, except in a few key cases - like Hellburner which I just read, which is a direct sequel to Heavy Time, so really have to be read in that order. Luckily, Roni helped me out and gave me an order, which is what I have been sticking to, and it's working out fine for me so far:

Downbelow Station
Merchanter's Luck
Heavy Time
Hellburner
Rimrunners
Cyteen (which might be three books in some cases, although I have managed to get hold of them as a single volume : )
Regenesis
Forty Thousand in Gehenna
Tripoint
Finity's End
Serpent's Reach

I have recently read Hellburner, and have Cyteen all ready to go, which means skipping over Rimrunners, but as I say, I don't think that's too much of a problem - in most cases the characters don't stay the same from book to book, just the general world building. Plus I'm just so eager to get to see these strange genetically modified humans, who have only been the shadowy "enemy" so far!

Regarding the tactile art, here's some pictures of the ones I made:


So, the first is a picture of the founder of the charity the exhibition is about, made super tactile by the addition of lots of differently textured surfaces. The second is a rainmaker - one of those semi-musical objects that produces a sound, AND has a texture AND a smell, as I added some pot pourri to the mix of stuff inside. The kids, predictably loved that, so not many made the pictures of the geezer, but much fun was had by all- me included!

Those objects are wonderful! And congrats (a bit late) on winning the price!

>184 HanGerg: Thanks for the list (and to Roni too) especially as I have the first book ready and waiting.

Cool tactile art. I can see why the rainmaker appealed to the kids.

Hi Connie! Thanks for your good wishes, as ever : )

Hi Heather! ooh Downbellow Station! I hope you love it as much as I did. I suffer from claustrophobia pretty badly, which is partly what made it so effective for me I think. The thought of a space station, where there's only limited air and no where to run to should things go wrong, dealing with all the tensions it does in that book... I really felt like I was there with them, living through all that stress and suspense. Plus terrific characters to root for at the heart of it all, and just the most lovely alien species... ah, what a book! It's making me want to re-read it, although I only read it last year!

Right, well the end of the year is creeping ever closer, and I'm getting behind on the reviews again, so time to get cracking on some now...



31. The Sea and Summer - George Turner 4/5

Global warming has been on my mind a lot lately; thinking how difficult it is to get people to change their behaviour and deprive themselves of things for this vague concept of future good; it's nearly impossible, I think. Especially in the developing world, who quite rightly feel we've had our turn and now they just want their chance to have the same lifestyle as us... Well, I think we're doomed, really, unless change is driven by policy makers and global business, which at the moment neither seem at all interested in doing. Anyway, enough ranting, the point is, every one of those policy makers should be forced to read this book, as it gives a pretty stark glimpse of what the world will be like in a future where climate change and the inevitable sea level rise that follows is a daily reality that effects everyone's life. Coupled to this Turner foresees a collapse in the global economy due to technology being able to do everyone's job better than humans (and I read about this very thing happening, with phone apps that will replace whole swathes of the service industry just a few clicks away from us right now and even more so in the future). If that makes the book sound depressing and didactic, it really isn't, as it sidesteps the problem neatly by framing the story in an even further distant future where everyone is doing pretty OK (although the implication is that global population has levelled off at levels far below what the planet supports currently). Also, he tells us a story with real human characters at its heart, and manages to end on a fairly positive note that suggests that the only way we will survive this coming catastrophe is by educating ourselves and becoming self sufficient from a system that doesn't always have the individual's best interests at heart, especially if that individual is from the poor, unwashed masses. But make no mistake, this isn't really a book about class ; people are very clearly divided between rich and poor and have vastly different quality of life, but as several characters say, any other way of dividing up the meagre resources would be equally unfair. The real problem is the sheer number of people in this future world, and that is the real danger that I think Turner is warning us of. A really thoughtful and interesting book. It touches upon a real wealth of issues that effect us all profoundly, some of which I haven't had the time to even mention here. Looking back with a few months distance from when I rated it, I'm tempted to move it up to a 4.5 or even a 5, so much has it been on my mind since. Highly recommended if you are interested in this kind of speculating about our future, and given that it's where we're all headed, you'd better be...



32. Notes From a Small Island - Bill Bryson (re-read) 3.5/5

I picked this book off the family bookshelves whilst on a trip back to the parental home, and in the mood for something light and entertaining. I first read it years ago, after being recommended it knowing nothing of the author, and then I chortled with delight at how perfectly Bryson had captured the absurdities of the British character. and generally enjoyed it a great deal . However in the intervening years I have read a lot of Bryson's other travel books, and although I wouldn't say that familiarity breeds contempt, I have started to see a certain similarity in a lot of his work that now slightly dulls the appeal of this book on re-reading. In fact, what I mainly see are the flaws. So, on this reading I was rather annoyed by what short shrift he gives my native county of Devon. He comes down to Exeter, stays there for one night and pronounces it rather boring (no argument with that, the high street is a bit of a dead zone at night,if you don't know where to search out the interesting bits). Then he goes up to Barnstaple, hates that, and because he can't find anywhere else in Devon he fancies going from there conveniently, he just goes back to Exeter and then buggers off up country entirely!! Almost unanimously British people pronounce Devon one of the loveliest counties, but he doesn't give it more than about 36 hours. And poor Cornwall doesn't even get that!
I think the failings of this journey are twofold - firstly, he talks best and most interestingly when describing places he has been before, as this is where the real wealth of detail of local history and characters comes out, when he is on familiar turf. This suggest a lack of research or interest in new places - a bit of a fault in a travel writer. Also, he doesn't seem to have some travel writer's happy knack of meeting interesting people by chance - there are very few good natured interactions here with people he doesn't already know, and in an unfamiliar town he mainly seems to keep to himself. Secondly, his method of travelling only by public transport does somewhat limit him when it comes to some of the more rural parts of the country, especially as he hasn't really planned a route or done any research ahead of time, which I'm sure was his way of being very spontaneous and going where the mood took him, but in the case of his ill fated trip to Barnstaple, wasn't the most efficient way to get to some of the more inaccessible places. That said, it's still an interesting look at SOME bits of the British Isles, from the perspective of an outsider who nevertheless knows it well, and clearly has a great affection for it. Also, this book was pretty much a contemporary account when I first read it, and so it's fascinating to see all the things that have changed in the intervening years. Fun, but not as fun as I remember.



33.Toxic Parents; Overcoming Their Hurtful Legacy and Reclaiming Your Life - Susan Forward 4/5

So... the first thing to say is, don't read too much into the fact that I read this! It was thrust into my hand my a friend who was having a really hard time with her mother in the lead up to her wedding, and we'd been letting off steam with a bit of a mutual moan . (It's been my recent experience that this is a common theme for a moan for us people in our thirties, long after you'd think parental issues would be such a concern. Honestly, we sound like a bunch of sulky teenagers sometimes! But I digress). This wasn't really the book for my friend (although, FYI, she said she found it helpful) and it certainly isn't the book to deal with any perceived problem in my parental relationships, as this book is about really serious disfunction within family relationships; in families where there has been sexual, physical or emotional abuse, or neglect through drink or drug use, most especially. I kept going with the book because this is an issue that I have some interest in, as a few years ago I worked with young people who had been removed from their families for just these sorts of reasons . And, not to mention, as with every person who works with young people, I work alongside people who are experiencing these issues all the time, whether I am aware of it or not. From that perspective I thought this book gave great insights into the dynamic that exists in these kind of family environments, and I rather wish I'd read it before I'd worked with the looked after children, as it explains one of the things that baffled me when I first worked with them - how they continued to identify very strongly with their abusers, and to not necessarily feel that what happened to them was wrong. The book explains how even high functioning adults may continue to think like that for many years until they confronted the damage that was done to them in those kind of toxic environments. The book does then look at the steps a person who is ready to tackle that difficult job can take. I'm not really qualified to say whether it would be a helpful book for such a person (the author strongly believes in confronting the parents with your charges against them, which I guess wouldn't be everybody's way of doing things), but to me what she said seemed very convincing. She is a therapist of many years, and used case study examples of all the issues she was talking about, making it overall much better than the kind of quick fix self-help book the cover makes it look like. I would say recommended, but if this is a book you need in your life, then you have my deepest sympathy. (If you are reading it for the same reasons as me, there are other, more scholarly works on the same subject, but this might be a good starting point.)

Just popping in to say HI!!!!

Hi Connie! And Hi everyone else. I've been totally neglecting LT again. I've been on holiday for ten days, and tomorrow, due to the weird way we've scheduled things for the festive period, I'm off again, to Hungary for Christmas with the in-laws. Hopefully I might get time there to catch up with my reviews before the end of the year, and turn over a new leaf next year and be a more involved member of this group I do so love. Sigh.

Anyway, I wanted to pop in because something awesome just happened! One bit of news I haven't shared yet is that I now have a Kindle, which I'm loving. I was just browsing my wishlist with thoughts of loading up a few more books before my trip, and I got the idea to start on the Liaden Universe that Lucy loves so much, with Agent of Change. Well blow me down, but I went over to Amazon and I got it for free! I have no idea how or why, but when the book's page comes up, it says £0.00! It appears to be the whole book, and there doesn't seem to be a catch...yet! Maybe they're thinking that giving you the first part of an addictive series for free will get you hooked and you'll have to come back for more! Anyway, maybe worth checking out...

Happy Christmas everyone, if I don't manage to get back here before then (but I should...) As always, I've enjoyed immensely all the conversation, encouragement and inspiration that I find on LT - surely one of the nicest online communities anywhere. Lifestyle change has led me to maybe spend less free time on here than I used to, but I think it's not an irreversible change, so hopefully I'll be around more next year. Until then, eat drink and be merry, my friends!

No, not a mistake, as the US Kindle has had the first one for free for some time now! It's a great one to start with, and I guarantee you will fall in love with Edger and the other turtles!!

Merry Christmas, Hannah, safe travels, and a great time in Hungary!

Ooh, free books! I'm loving my Kindle more and more.

Thanks for the good wishes Roni. The very best of Christmas cheer to you and yours as well!

A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, Hannah! And lots of fun in Hungary. See you next year.

Hannah, it's Chrismas Eve's eve, and so I am starting the rounds of wishing my 75er friends the merriest of Christmases or whatever the solstice celebration of their choice is.

Happy Christmas, Hannah!

Happy Christmas Hannah!

On another day I might have lots to say about the toxic parent book - it is a ticklish area, to be sure.

Meanwhile:
Merry Christmas!
On the eve: Do I smell turkey?
During: Worn out:

Thanks so much for the Christmas visits Amber, Rhian and Lucy. And those adorable pets of yours Lucy! Wow - They must help make Christmas a real delight!

So, I'm just in time to give everyone a late Christmas present, I think!
BBC Radio 4 are currently running a dramatised version of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's Good Omens. I've listened to the first episode so far, and it's shaping up to be a treat! I know there are lots of Pratchett and Gaiman fans in our ranks, so I thought I'd share it. I think I'm right in saying that BBC radio programs can be listened to from everywhere - fingers crossed. Anyway, I shall provide the link to the show's homepage, where there's lots of tasty titbits as well as the show itself. Merry Christmas, Ho! Ho! Ho!
First, here's some of the cool, specially comissioned artwork, showing the two actors playing Crowley and Aziraphale.


And now the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04knt4h

Enjoy, friends!

Right, I find myself at a bit of a post Christmas loose end, so let's see if I can catch up on reviews a little bit:



34. Death in the Stocks Georgette Heyer 3.5/5

I have enjoyed the Heyer's I've read this year, so when I saw this on sale in a pub (this seems to be becoming a thing in England, and jolly good it is too!) I pounced on it, even though it is from her detective series rather than her regency romances, which is what I have read so far. It's moderately fun, and the characters are well drawn, but quite annoying in their insistence to be left in peace to live their bohemian yet priviledged existance despite the fact that there is someone in the family bumping off all claimants to the will of the orginal murder victim. Well written but ultimately a bit too lacking in substance.



35. Dangerous Visions - Harlan Elison 3/5
This was a real disappointment. It's a complilation of short stories by some of Sci-Fi's heavy hitters, published in 1967, that was apparently a real game changer in the direction SF was headed, and threw off some of the old outdated notions of the SF precursors and dared to think differently. Trouble is, from my perspective, many of the notions here are equally outdated for our times. I guess it's harsh to judge writers from almost 50 years ago by today's standards - after all, I was moaning just a bit earlier about how a book written in the 80's hasn't aged well, but I think the really quality SF writing of any era still stands the test of time. An example in this book is the Phillip K. Dick story, which still has the power the shock and unsettle all these years later. A few others also retain that power, but most fall far short. And the problem is, there's such a self-congratulatory air to the whole enterprise, in the form of Ellison's intro and then his forword before each story, that you can't help but be annoyed by it.
The writers were, according to Ellison, really encouraged to tear up the rulebook and give us something shocking, so it's kind of disappointing how pedestrian many of them are. I know, unfair perhaps, all these years hence. But the thing I noticed the most was that old bug bear of us feminist SF fans - the gender relations. Could you writers in those days, asked to look into the future, really not foresee a world in which this was a little different? There are quite a few stories that reference the idea of "free love" type arrangements, where both sexes are free to have sex with whomever they like, whenever they like, but I think I have gained an important understanding about that concept in general, which is that it comes very much out of the male perspective, of having women sexually available to them on tap, and really doesn't stop to look very long at how this societal change would effect women. So this was a slight disappointment, but overall the lack of quality of the stories is the main problem. Also, having an introduction to ever single story from Ellison, who is a jokey, blokey presence, wore a bit thin after a while.
Well, I was only going to try and do short reviews, but clearly that really got my goat. I'll publish the review on the book's page as it seems to encapsulate my feelings pretty succinctly.



36. Close Company: Stories of Mothers and Daughters - Christine Park and Caroline Heaton 3.5/5
Weirdly, I, who never normally read short story compilations, finished off two in October. And I guess they both confirmed the fact that I don'y particularly care for them, although I am getting better at dipping in and out of the stories, which was always my problem in the past. My beef with both of these collections is the variable quality, I guess. There are some really strong stories in this one, (I can't remember which particular authors, but there's one about a piano teacher and her young student that's quietly emotionally devasting, an almost unbearable one about a young girl's footbinding and one about an extremely put upon wife that left me fuming for days at her fictional husband) but there are equally some very slight and forgettable ones. Alo maybe it was just my unfair expectation, but where was the ANGST!? Mother daugther relationships are often fraught with tension, but that was largely absent from this collection. It is a Virago, so maybe there's a slight agenda here, because the theme of the relationships does seem to be about overcoming hardships imposed by the outside world. Like I said, maybe it was just my expectation, but still, a collection of stories with more of the rivalrous/jealous/possesive/disfunctional in them would have floated my boat more.

Ok, let's post these before the internet eats them!

Hannah, have a wonderful festive season.

Thanks a lot Paul. The very same to you, good sir!

Right, the completist in me is determined to get these 2014 reviews finished before the end of the year, so being all packed and having a few hours to kill before heading for the airport, I'll try and squeeze a few more in here...



37.Spindle's End - Robin McKinley 3.5/5
This was a smart and well realised re-working of the sleeping beauty myth for a modern YA audience. I enjoyed it a lot, but I thought the ending didn't really draw everything to quite the conclusion that I was hankering for, and seemed a little drawn out too, so ultimately left me a little unsatified. Just my taste though, this is clearly a good book and it's intended audience may well love it.



38.Invader - C.J.Cherryh 4.5/5
Part two of her Foreigner series, which is just as good as the first, and maybe even ups the pace in terms of suspense and tension. Bren, the only human in an alien court, is back in the heart of the action after the events of book one. There's still lots of people trying to kill him, and he has a aquired a new human enemy in the form of a rival who represents human interests that have a far more cynical and sinister view of their alien hosts than the interests Bren represents. The Atevi culture really gets fleshed out a lot in this story, and the series is shaping up really nicely to have many fascinating facets and potential to go off in all sorts of interesting directions. I'm officially hooked.



39.The Martian - Andy Weir 3.5/5

This seems to be getting almost unanimous love here on LT, and it's not hard to see why. The story is incredibly compelling, and the plot is one of those brilliant, one line ideas that everbody can grasp - "Man gets left behind on Mars and has to try to survive until he can get rescued" - who could fail to be hooked by a premise like that? And it's very well realised, and you do have to marvel at the sheer inventiveness of all the solutions to the constant life threatening problems our hero faces,but.... was I the only one that found the writing clunky and overly simplistic at times? The plot a bit repetitive in a problem/solution/new problem kind of way. And the main character, although vivid, funny and great company, also seemed a bit too much like a bit of a goofy average Joe, when in fact he was clearly an elite scientist, so somehow these two elements never quite gelled? Also, call me an old cynic, but would the world have really united together and spent millions, nay billions of pounds to get one man home? When there are babies dying all over the world every day for lack of basic facilities. Yeah, I'm a grump, I know, but there ya go...


40.Between the Woods and the Water - Leigh Patrick Fermour 4.5/5

The second part of this excellent trilogy of books detailing the author's journey across Europe on foot (although he goes on horseback for part of the way here) in 1933. This book I enjoyed even more than the first, as it took me over the familiar territory of Hungary, and then onwards into the even more magical sounding Romania of old. Of course, this is a world that doesn't exist anymore - most of the places he stays are the residencies of members of the aristocracy, which although obviously faded from their heights of luxury and glamour, still afford his hosts time to do eccentric things like become experts in bugs that get sent to them in the post from all over the world, or rope our young narrator into back lawn games of polo the moment he arrives at a new destination. Interspersed with all this high society hobb nobbing, there are also some stunning scenes set in Romanian forests where he tracks eagles and sleeps in humble shepard's sheds. Honestly, it just sounds like the most increbile journey, and just makes you long for a time machine, or at least a rucksack and a sturdy pair of walking boots and no commitments for the next 6 months.... heady stuff indeed.

Belated Christmas wishes and Happy New Year, Hannah!

>187 HanGerg: The Sea and Summer sounds good and has gone on the wishlist.

>189 HanGerg: 'Maybe they're thinking that giving you the first part of an addictive series for free will get you hooked and you'll have to come back for more!' Yes, I think that's a strategy Baen, the published, use. Check out baenebooks.com where I think you can find several first books in series for free from their Free Library.

>198 HanGerg: Sorry to hear Dangerous Visions was such a disappointment - that was one that sounded interesting when you posted about it earlier in the year.

Hi Heather! Yes, The Sea and Summer comes recommended - a very thoughtful and unusual slice of future dystopian goodness.I think you'll enjoy it.

Ok, nearly there with the reviews! I'll determined to get them all done so I can start 2015 with a clean slate!



41.Inheritor - C.J.Cherryh 4/5

Book three in the Foreigner series, which is perhaps a slight falling off from the plotting and scheming of the second, but still a excellent slice of character driven SF. Human diplomat in the Atevi court, Bren Cameron, is struggling to work with the second human appointee who has come down from space. He is the representative of the human spaceship which had suddenly re-appeared above the planet shared by humans and Atevi, after disappearing 200 years earlier. No-one had expected it to return, and its presence has caused many within both human and Atevi circles to re-think their priorities. There's the usual misunderstandings of cultures that may appear more straightforward than they really are, as Bren begins to realise that although his new companion is human, spending your whole life aboard a spaceship gives you a very different perspective than a planet dweller. Meanwhile, tricky manoeuvring by the planet based humans leads Bren to think he may actually want the Atevi to come out ahead of either group of humans in the power struggle that is developing around him...



42.The Scar - China Mieville 3.5/5
After the mind blowing awesomeness of Perdido Street Station, this second book set in the marvellously strange universe of New Crobuzon was something of a disappointment. True, Mieville expands and enriches his fabulous fictional world by the additional of the amazing floating pirate city that is the main setting of this book, which is a wonderful creation. But then he shows it to us through the eyes of a character that is taken there against her will, hates it and always wants to leave, so its magic is slightly dulled. Also, the plot was very intriguing and all the characters memorable, but by the end I felt they hadn't really taken us anywhere much more than round in circles. However, still definitely worth a read, for the brilliant-idea-a-page force of the author's imagination, and I am certainly in no way put off from seeking out the third book in the series.



43.In a Summer Season - Elizabeth Taylor 4.5/5
The first of a whole pile of VMC's that I thought it was about time I tried to tackle, after spending the last couple of years quietly amassing them without actually reading any. And I enjoyed it a good deal. It is a very "female" story I suppose, in the way that perhaps Virago's try to highlight - the plots are slight and deal with the domestic and everyday, but there is a whole boiling ocean of thought and feeling beneath the surface of these commonplace events. This book is about the relationship between a middle aged widow and her younger second husband, and the emotional ripple effects that has on everyone in their household and social circle. I enjoyed it a lot and it underlined the fact that I have to try and make more time for these VMCs next year.

>202 HanGerg: So glad you loved the Elizabeth Taylor. Was that one of the ones Genny and I pushed on to you in our Birmingham meetup? I'm also guilty of acquiring VMCs much faster than I read them - something to work on next year.