SandDune in 2014: April thread

Welcome to my April thread. For those that don't know me from previous years, I'm SandDune (aka Rhian), a 53 year old Finance Manager working for a local charity. I live about thirty miles north of London in the UK with my husband of 25 years (aka Mr SandDune), our thirteen year son (aka J), our (almost) 2 year old sweet-tempered Staffordshire Bull Terrier Daisy, and 10 year old cat Sweep, who is not sweet-tempered at all as far as Daisy is concerned and whose life ambition is to drive Daisy out of the house. Mr SandDune is an Assistant Principal at the school that my son attends and so our lives tend to be rather dominated by school issues during term time. I'm half-way through an English Literature degree with the Open University and currently studying the Nineteenth Century Novel module.

My reading tends to be quite varied. Historically, I've read a lot of literary and classical fiction, but in recent years (thanks largely to LT but also my University course) I've been branching out and exploring science-fiction, fantasy, children's and YA fiction, and graphic novels. I read very little chick-lit, thrillers or detective fiction. I haven't read much non-fiction during the last couple of years but I hope to remedy that this year.

My selected painting for this month is:

'Sunflower and dog worship' 1937 Stanley Spencer (1891 - 1959)



I have no idea what is going on in this painting but it seems very cheerful!

Reading Plans for 2014:

This year I'm going to be a little more flexible in my reading plans. Last year I joined the 2013 category challenge but I didn't find that it really suited how I wanted to read, so in 2014 I'm just going to have some general overall goals:

- First World War Centenary. As it's the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War, I'm intending to read at least some fiction connected with this period.

- American Author Challenge 2014. I am very poorly read in some of these American greats from the 20th century and so a lot of these authors will be new to me.

- Vorkosigan Year Long Challenge. I read Shards of Honour in 2013 and I'm really looking forward to continuing this series.

- Open University reading. The Nineteenth Century Novel at the moment and then Twentieth Century Writing later in the year.

- RL book group. We read a book a month (mainly literary fiction), as well as the Booker prize short list every year.

In 2013 I read just over 100 books so this plan should leave me plenty of room for random picks and book bullets!

Books read in 2014:

1. The Faster I Walk, the Smaller I Am Kjersti A. Skomsvold ****
2. Barrayar Lois McMaster Bujold ****
3. Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore Robin Sloan ***1/2
4. Turned out Nice: How the British Isles will Change as the World Heats Up Marek Kohn **1/2
5. We Need New Names NoViolet Bulawayo ***1/2
6. The Encyclopedia of Early Earth Isabel Greenberg ***1/2
7. Longbourn Jo Baker ***1/2
8. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Sherman Alexie ****
9. Servants A Downstairs View of Twentieth-Century Britain Lucy Lethbridge ***1/2
10. Far From the Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy ****1/2
11. Germinal Emile Zola ***1/2
12. Death Comes to the Archbishop Willa Cather ***1/2
13. The Lowland Jhumpa Lahiri *****
14. The Testament of Mary Colm Toibin ****1/2
15. William:An Englishman Cicely Hamilton ****
16. Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert ****
17. Instructions for a Heatwave Maggie O'Farrell ***
18. Harvest Jim Crace ***
19. The Woman in White Wilkie Collins ****1/2
20. Tulip Fever Deborah Moggach ***1/2
21. The Wall Marlen Haushofer *****
22. The Road Cormac McCarthy ****1/2
23. The Portrait of a Lady Henry James ***
24. Farthing Jo Walton ***1/2
25. Excellent Women Barbara Pym ****
26. The Awakening Kate Chopin **1/2
27. Brazzaville Beach William Boyd ****
28. Giving up the Ghost Hilary Mantel ***1/2
29. The Undertaking Audrey Magee ****1/2
30. House-Bound Winifred Peck ***
31. The Rosie Project Graeme Simsion ***1/2
32. Shades of Grey Jasper Fforde ****
33. Jhereg Steven Brust ****1/2
34. Sargasso of Space Andre Norton ***
35. Eleanor and Park Rainbow Rowell ***1/2
36. Bluest Eye Toni Morrison ***

Books bought in 2014

1. Barrayar Lois McMaster Bujold
2. Longbourn Jo Baker (£7.99)
3. Servants A Downstairs View of Twentieth-Century Britain Lucy Lethbridge
4. The Last Runaway Tracy Chevalier (gift)
5. Flight Behaviour Barbara Kingsolver (gift)
6. William: An EnglishmanCicely Hamilton

And the prizes for 2013 are:

My five star reads:

Barchester Towers Anthony Trollope
The Garden of Evening Mists Tan Twan Eng
Tooth and Claw Jo Walton
The Unknown Bridesmaid Margaret Forster
The Lighthouse Alison Moore
The Ocean at the End of the Lane Neil Gaiman
Suite Francaise Irene Nemirovsky
Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad
Northanger Abbey Jane Austen
Salvage the Bones Jesmyn Ward

Least favourite reads:

Narcopolis Jeet Thayil
The Damned Busters Matthew Hughes
Perelandra C.S.Lewis

Favourite new series:

Mapp & Lucia E.F.Benson

Happy new thread Rhian, hope you and yours have a great weekend.

Congratulations on your latest thread Rhian. I hope my bunch will be making a trip to the UK in April for about ten days or so. Let's see if we have chance to get together. All the best this weekend to A & J too.

27. Brazzaville Beach William Boyd ****
I read this now because: it was the April choice for my RL book club

Hope Clearwater lives alone in a rundown beach house next to Brazzaville Beach, a nondescript beach in an unnamed African country where she makes a living by doing odd bits of translation work for a friend's company. But why is a previously career focused woman with a doctorate in science content to fritter her life away in a place like that? It is clear from the start that there has been some traumatic event in her past which is colouring her current life, and the remainder of the novel tells the two intertwined tales of what has brought Hope to that beach.

Hope is in Africa to carry out a research project at the world famous Grosso Arvore research station run by the equally famous Eugene Mallabar, the acknowledged world expert on chimpanzee behaviour. She has been employed to investigate the behaviour of a group of chimpanzees who have broken away from the main Grosso Arvore pack, but as she becomes more and more familiar with them she gradually becomes aware that the behaviour she is witnessing is not the peaceful view of chimpanzee society which is espoused by Mallabar and which forms the basis of his definitive and shortly to be published book on the subject. As Hope becomes more and more convinced of her own conclusions, it becomes obvious that Mallabar will not countenance challenge to his own views. And interspersed with this story, is the story of what took Hope to Africa in the first place: her ill-fated marriage with the brilliant mathematician John Clearwater, who becomes more and more mentally unstable as he attempts to recapture the brilliance of his earlier work.

I first read this over twenty years ago when it first came out and while I certainly enjoyed it this time as well, I was much less shocked by the behaviour of the chimpanzees than I had been for my first read. At the time when it was written they were still widely thought of as fruit-eating peaceable animals, but much has been discovered about the violence that is often inherent in chimpanzee societies since that time, and I found that the shock factor had gone out of the book for me. But it might be that that knowledge is less widely known than I has assumed, certainly most of the members of my RL book club found those elements of the books as shocking as I had done on first reading, and I suppose with a degree in Zoology and passion for watching wildlife programmes I'm probably better informed that most on that subject. But whether you think you are interested in chimpanzees or not this is a well-written book that is strongly recommended.

28. Giving up the Ghost Hilary Mantel ***1/2
I reas this now because: I'm feeling the need to read more non-fiction.

This short memoir by Hilary Mantel focuses on two main aspects of her life: her somewhat difficult childhood and her long periods of (misdiagnosed) ill-health. Of the two, it was the first that I found most interesting. Growing up as a young child in a Irish Catholic home in England she seems to have had a poor but loving early childhood, surrounded by parents, grandparents and aunts and uncles. But as she was about to start secondary school her life changed for ever: after a period of a somewhat curious ménage a trois, her mother left her father to live with another man, taking the young Hilary and her two brothers with her. Hilary never saw her father again. At this stage I desperately wanted to know more about the background of this separation, but as these recollections are very much told from the point of view of the child observing them those details are never forthcoming. And with a new and difficult step-father, and a place at a convent school while the child of a woman who had left her husband to live with another man, Hilary's teenage years become much more difficult.

What I found a more challenging part of the book was the story of Hilary Mantel's battle with ill-health, which left her infertile by her late twenties. While this is a horrendous story of misdiagnosis by doctor after doctor, I found that I got more and more frustrated with Hilary herself: I just couldn't understand why either she or her husband or parent didn't make more fuss, when it was clear that she wasn't getting the treatment she required. Why didn't you argue, I kept wanting to say to her. Why don't you insist on a second opinion? And it's clear that Hilary Mantel does not completely understand her attitude either:

'There are several possible explanations, on several levels. One is that, in the time and place where I grew up, expectations of health were low, especially for women. The proper attitude to doctors was humble gratitude; you cleaned the house before they arrived. The deeper explanation is that I always felt that I deserved very little, that I would probably not be happy in life, and that the safest thing was to lie down and die'

Overall, an interesting read, although the recollections are interspersed at times with a number of supernatural elements (the ghost of the title being a case in point) which rather left me cold. But recommended nonetheless.

Interesting about the Mantel memoir, Rhian. I think I will leave that one alone, and just revel in the mighty novelist she has become. (Thank goodness she did not "just lie down and die"!

29. The Undertaking Audrey Magee ****1/2
I read this now because I liked the look of the review that I saw in the Guardian

This first novel by Audrey Magee has been longlisted for the Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction and I can see why. It's a well written book told from an unusual perspective. In 1941 Peter Faber, a German soldier on the Eastern Front, and Katharina Spinell, a typist in a Berlin bank, are married by proxy. They have never met, but getting married gives Peter his only chance of leave, and Katharina the security of a widow's pension if he dies, and the chance of escaping the stifling life that she lives with her parents, as well as as enabling them to do their part for the Fatherland by producing more children. But from an unpromising beginning, when a lice-ridden Peter arrives at the Spinell's door, the couple find a mutual attraction, and Katharina promises to wait for Peter's return.

And from then on the stories of Katharina and Peter diverge, as the one continues her life in Berlin while the other returns to the coming horror that is Stalingrad. Peter's contact with Katharina's father has left him more enthusiastic about the Nazi cause and he looks forward to the job that Mr Spinell's powerful friends have offered him after the war, but soon all his effort is focused on merely staying alive. Meanwhile Katharina's family are going up in the world, with a new apartment, new clothes, and when her son is born a first birthday cake from the Fuehrer's own baker. It's a wonderful portrait of a family who believe what they are told by their leaders and in their sense of entitlement, and are careful not to think too deeply about what is really happening until it is too late. Neither Katharina or Peter are innocent bystanders, both are implicated in some of the actions of the Nazi regime, but the novel manages to preserve their humanity nonetheless.

>9 SandDune:: it has been a while since I read this but I vaguely remember thinking that the one affected the other: the disruption of her childhood and all the subsequent mental distress of it having a profound affect on her ability to battle back against the very patriarchal medical system which would have her declared hysterical and mentally incompetent. It wasn't a particularly easy book to read, was it? I was glad I had read it but I simply didn't know how to assess it.

>11 SandDune: That one sounds absolutely fascinating, Rhian... I'm gong to keep my eyes open for it.

>9 SandDune: Oddly, I can completely understand Mantel's deeper explanation. Less the "safest thing" option, than the low expectations, or at least the sense of getting the message of "try not to be too much trouble to other people, please!" After years, that leaves a mark.

I'm going be reading the Boyd novel this month, too. It and An Ice-Cream War have been sitting on my TBR list for faaarrr too long.

Happy April thread, Rhian. I'm going to try and do a better job of staying up to date with this one!

I have a couple of William Boyd's novels as well as Mantel's Giving up the Ghost in my TBR pile.

>12 tiffin: the disruption of her childhood and all the subsequent mental distress of it having a profound affect on her ability to battle back against the very patriarchal medical system

I can see that logically, but emotionally I keep saying 'yes but why didn't you argue'. Hilary Mantel is only nine years older than me and younger than my sister, but based on her experiences I'd have put the age gap as much greater. Incidentally, both my sister and myself went to Sheffield University as well, although as both of us did sciences we never knew any law students so I can't say if her assessment of the law department was accurate.

>13 Chatterbox: That subliminal message of 'trying not to be too much trouble to other people' is something I didn't pick up on as a child, which is perhaps why I find it difficult to understand. Looking back on my childhood I can see why: I was the youngest child, born after an elder brother had died of leukaemia, and was certainly fussed over and cosseted more for that reason. And I was also the youngest grandchild (by a long way) of both sets of grandparents, as well as being a substitute grandchild for an aunt who adored children but had no grandchildren of her own. And I've certainly inherited a certain stroppiness from my father when it comes to dealing with officialdom. All of which left me with a definite sense that my views were important and needed to be taken into account!

I do need to read more William Boyd. We have virtually his entire back catalogue as he is one of Mr SandDune's favourite authors, but I've read very little.

Rhian, congrats on your new thread. I wish you

>6 calm: Hi Calm - hope you're having a great weekend.

>7 PaulCranswick: Paul, we are away for a week (down in South Wales) from this Monday but if you're around the London area from the 15th we are certainly around then.

>10 laytonwoman3rd: While I think the memoir does shine light on some of Hilary Mantel's books, I'm not sure it shines much light on her as a novelist, if that makes sense. It didn't deal with the question of why she writes at all, and the adult writing didn't seem to follow on from a teenage or childhood passion, at least not one that was mentioned.

>14 souloftherose: I really must read more William Boyd. I think part of the reason that I haven't is just sheer stubbornness, as Mr SandDune went through a phase of telling me to read his A Blue Afternoon almost every day!

>15 SandDune: Thanks Barbara. I hope you have a great weekend too.

>17 SandDune: Looks like I'll be in the UK from 15th to 24th. Will have some work to do but hopefully I can wend my way down to London at some stage.

Wow, a fresh, new thread and already lots of good reading going on here! Great reviews, Rhian!

I also wonder what country Mantel was in. Her wiki page says she was in Botswana and Saudi Arabia around that age. Makes me wonder how much of it was the country's culture. Does the book say what country she was in?

30. House-Bound Winifred Peck ***
I read this now because: it's one of the Persephone books that I bought on the Virago meet-up in London.

I realised when I'd finished this book that I'd bought it under a misapprehension. I was under the impression that it was by the author of Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day but I've realised that I had the wrong Winifred, that one was Winifred Watson. I'd forgotten that Winifred was such a common name of the time!

Rose Fairlaw is a middle-aged woman from a prosperous Edinburgh family who has lived her entire life with her house run by servants. But during the Second World War even those women who are still prepared to consider domestic service are wanted for war work. When the employment agency is not able to provide anyone to replace her last two servants, Rose takes the drastic (for a woman of her class) decision to do the housework herself. But Rose has a large and inconvenient house without modern conveniences and has no notion as to how to cook or clean or deal with the myriad tradesmen who come to the house.

So far then, it's a gentle domestic comedy. But Rose has deeper concerns as well, with the behaviour of her daughter Flora from her first marriage causing more and more concern, and with her step son Mickey and son Tom from her second marriage both in the armed forces. And it's with the character of Flora, who clearly has serious mental health issues, and the involvement of an American major who is a psychologist and who happens to have met Flora in the south of England, that I think the book falls down, and tries to deal with complex issues in too simplistic a way.

So a reasonable read, but not my favourite Persephone by a long way.

I did that with Margery Sharp and another Margery (?) one time. Can't remember the other Margery at the mo'.

>18 PaulCranswick: Paul we're certainly around for those dates, so maybe we'll be able to sort something out.

>19 scaifea: Thanks Amber.

>20 Morphidae: Morphy, the original diagnosis that led to her problems was in the UK. Apparently, she had severe endometriosis, but rather than it just causing pelvic pain, her endometrial cells migrated to other parts of her body and so also she had severe pain virtually everywhere else as well. It was diagnosed as a psychosomatic illness in her last year as a student, and was not treated correctly until her late twenties by which time she had to have a full hysterectomy.

Wow so much reading. Happy new thread!

Hi Rhian, thanks for your rec of The Undertaking. This one is apparently available in Canada effective May 2014; I've just put in a request for purchase to my library.

>22 tiffin: Margery Allingham perhaps, Tui?

Yes, Laura, thank you! Senior moment there.

>22 tiffin: >26 lauralkeet: Slightly off at a tangent I've just read that Margery (and Marjorie) are among the names that were most popular at the beginning of the twentieth century, but are now extinct in the UK with no new registrations at all. The others were: Fanny, Gertrude, Gladys, Muriel, Cecil, Rowland, Willie, Bertha and Blodwen.

>28 SandDune: now extinct in the UK really? probably the same here, but I have never given it much thought. My grandmother was a Margery, and I think it's a lovely name.

>24 BBGirl55: Hi Bryony, it's not really that I've done so much more reading lately, it's more that I've finally got around to doing the reviews!

>29 lauralkeet: My grandparents were Gwenllian, Arthur, Edith and Hector and you don't get many of those around now either!

Amelia (called Lillian) & William Henry (called Harry), and Isabella (called Bella) and Alexander (called Sandy). Not so many of those either, although Alexander staged a brief revival a few years ago.

>31 tiffin:Amelia (called Lillian) & William Henry (called Harry) ... not so many of those either

In the UK there seem to be an awful lot! Amelia and Harry topped the baby name charts in 2012 apparently:

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/aug/12/top-100-baby-names-2012-gir...

>29 lauralkeet: >30 SandDune: Grandparent names include Pauline and Herbert.

>31 tiffin: All of those are pretty popular among the playground set, at least in the US. And I can see Marjorie making a comeback here before it does in the UK, because the American pronunciation of "margarine" isn't so close!

My grandparents were Joan, Edgar, Irvin, and Eunice. I can imagine Joan making a comeback, and maybe Irvin. Edgar and Eunice not so much, though when I was pregnant with my daughter Annabel (who turns 10 today!) we used to claim that Edgar was high on our list for boys, since my husband and I are big baseball fans, and our favorite player was a certain Edgar Martinez. We wouldn't have gone through with it for a first name, but it would've worked for a middle.

(I never can resist a discussion of name trends.)

>30 SandDune: are those primarily Welsh names, Rhian?

>32 SandDune: I knew two children named Amelia (nicknamed Milllie) and Harry when we lived in the UK. Millie is about 20 now, and Harry maybe 16. Is Harry a more popular name now because of the prince?

My grandmother Margery's husband was Charles, who was the son of a Charles and begat 2 more Charleses (my dad and my brother). So that name is still out there. But my maternal grandparents were Carmel and Hawthorne ... I'm thinking those are now extinct. :)

Hi Rhian. Just dropping by briefly, to return your visit to my thread - though I've had to skip over a couple of yours. Interesting discussion on names; a subject that's always piqued my curiosity.

ETA - and then there was Marjorie from To the Manor Born

>33 qebo: Pauline sounds terribly young for grandparents - obviously I'm just showing my age!

>34 susanna.fraser: I don't think Irvin or Eunice were ever particularly popular in the UK although Joan certainly was.

>35 lauralkeet: Gwenllian is Welsh but not the others. I don't know about whether Harry has become more popular because of Prince Harry, but the name has knocked Jack off the top spot which has been the number one boy's name for years, and I can't think of any particular reason why that should have happened now.

Hi Rhian - taking note of The undertaking having just read Alone in Berlin. I loved An Ice-cream War but still haven't read more by Boyd though I now own a few as I pick them up in charity shops from time to time.

Names: My grandmother's middle name was Ruby and my nephew & wife chose Ruby for their daughter without knowing that. Needless to say my mother was delighted.

>32 SandDune:: well, I'll be! I would have thought they were too Edwardian/Victorian. We went with Welsh and Irish first names for the lads...nothing else went with Himself's very old Cornish last name.

Does anyone know a "Linda" who isn't at least 50 years old? There were five of us in my sixth grade class, and every one I've ever met has been approximately my age, or older. Amelia seems to be in fairly regular usage around here. I know of at least one pre-teen called Amelia.

Gwenllian is extremely pretty, I think, and should be more popular. I can understand that Fanny isn't top of the hit parade... although it's really a diminutive for Frances, too. Gertrude I've always considered an ugly name.

My grandparents were Minnie and James, and Lee and Helen. Aside from Minnie, still reasonably common, or at least, not unusual. They were born between 1900 and 1908.

My great-grandparents venture into slightly less common territory in a few cases: Amanda and Henry, James and Edith, Thomas and Julia, and Llewellyn and Ruby. Born roughly 1870-1880.

And since I can go back one more generation, why not?? This takes us into people born largely in the 1850s.

Chlorinda and Ira, Robert and Mary Jane, Joseph and Adelaide, Mary Jane and John, William and Mary, Kristian and (we think) Amalia (they were Norwegian), Benjamin and Mary, Thomas and Julia.

It's not until I get back to the 1700s that the really wacky names start showing up and it's hard to figure out gender sometimes! Is "Perseverance" a male or female name, for instance??

There are several Julia's in my family tree, and Amelia pops up often as a first or second name.

I knew a Gladys who was born in the UK in the early 20th century. She had a sister Gwen. Gladys was a war bride.

My grandparents were John, Margaret, Max, and Sarah, all but Margaret still fairly common. Step-grandfather was Clifford. I haven't met one of those in years, although I have a neighbor named Cliff.

Great-grandparents were Charles, Ida, Tom, Minnie, George, Bessie, John, and Lusettie. The men's names are still fairly common, but not the women's.

>40 laytonwoman3rd: Does anyone know a "Linda" who isn't at least 50 years old? I almost answered YES!! because I work with a Linda who is my age, forgetting for the moment that I passed that auspicious milestone two years ago. Drat.

>43 lauralkeet: - I do know a Linda, and I'm guessing that she's my age or younger, which means that she's still a little way off from her half-century. Mind you, she's Singaporean Chinese, which may or may not mean that 'Linda' is her given name.

(In my experience) Chinese have a double-barrel personal name (for instance Lee Kwan Yew), but they can also have a Western name, which they were either given at birth, so it's officially on their birth certificate, or they've picked it themselves. I know a 'Tiffany' who apparently used to be 'Stephanie'.

>40 laytonwoman3rd: Does anyone know a "Linda" who isn't at least 50 years old?

Yes, I can think of at least one person, a nurse who works at the same hospital I do. She's probably in her mid to late 30s. Oh...actually that's not quite right. She's from Malaysia or Thailand, I think, as her last name is Salysypaseuth, and after I checked Children's address book I found out that Linda isn't her true first name.

>43 lauralkeet: I passed that auspicious milestone two years ago.

I still find this hard to believe. You look 10 years younger than that, Laura.

>45 kidzdoc: You look 10 years younger than that, Laura.
Darryl, you're my new best friend!

>46 lauralkeet: Great! I have no doubt that I'll be back in the doghouse before long, though.

My secret dream is to open a baby naming consultancy. I love names and finding just the right combination and meaning. I tend to prefer more traditional names, as did my parents. I'm Catherine Margaret; my sister is Ann Lucille. Parents were Patricia and Christopher. Grandparents were Margaret (called Peg) and William and David and Mary Alice (called Allie). I'm ashamed to say I don't know what my great-grandparents names were....

Some of the names I've seen make me wonder why more parents aren't sued for abuse on those grounds alone!!

>48 katiekrug:, You could almost certainly find out your g-grandparents' names, if you were curious... They would have been born in the 1890s, and your grandparents' birth certificates might now be in the public domain, too. That will give you their names.

>49 Chatterbox: - And at least on my mother's side, I could just ask my aunt. I've never been big into family history or genealogy, I guess. All I know is on my father's side, we go way back to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and on my mother's side, we are Irish Famine refugees. And there's some German, Dutch, and Alsatian mixed in there somewhere. Typical American mutt, I am!

Hi Rhian,

I've fallen behind on your last few threads but it is nice to see what you are reading in April. Wonderful review of The Undertaking and I will definitely be looking for that one.

I'm enjoying the name discussion. My own grandparents were Margaret and Harry on one side, plus Helen and Harvey on the other. My daughter is named Helen, after her great-grandmother and a great-great aunt (sister of Harry). It seems like a stunning proportion of people my age have grandmothers named Helen.

>50 katiekrug: Heh, wonder if we are related from the Bay Colony days?? I sometimes find it amusing that I'm living 20/30 miles from where one group of my ancestors did back in the early/mid 1700s (Rehoboth/Attleboro). You should check out the surnames one day, and we can compare!

>51 AnneDC: - I love the name Helen and would name my daughter that in a second. I'm also a big fan of Louise and Louisa which I don't see much anymore at all.

>52 Chatterbox: - Oh, fun Suz! If I were speaking to anyone on my father's side, I would ask as someone did a lot of research and produced a self-published book about the family about 20? years ago... I should be more interested, as I like hearing family stories and I love history... Hmmm. I may try some amateur investigation...

>36 humouress: I definitely can't think of any Marjorie's that are younger than that one!

>38 avatiakh: An Ice-Cream war is one that I've definitely got on the radar. Ruby has been a popular name for the last few years, but apparently out of the top ten now.

>40 laytonwoman3rd: >43 lauralkeet: >44 humouress: >45 kidzdoc: We had loads of Linda as well! Certainly one of the most popular names when I was at school, also Catherine, and Siân (which I'll bet you didn't have).

Love all the name discussions. My family has two names (1 male and 1 female) that seen to be repeated through the generations - Charles and Elizabeth.

I am well above the age of 50, and while growing up often had as many as four Linda's in a classroom at a time, but my name Judy was also popular back then and I can remember one year having 3 in the class. Barbara was the other name that seemed to be around. I don't think any of these three names are popular today.

>39 tiffin: I was keen on Welsh names too, when we were looking at names for J. I liked Rhys, and particularly Morgan but they were both vetoed by Mr SandDune. If we'd had a girl she was going to be Bethan.

>40 laytonwoman3rd: Gwenllian was a really common name in Wales in the nineteenth century but it's not one that you hear at all now. Some really common names that were used again and again in my family were Jenkin and Elias on one side, and David on the other. Not so much use of family names for the women, they just seemed to pick a name that was popular.

My sis in law, who is in her late 40s, is a Lynda... And my mother, now in her late 70s, is Barbara, and says it was a very common name back then, as was Shirley (for very obvious reasons). My brother, had he been a girl, would have been Judy.

>54 SandDune: isn't Sian Welsh for Joan or Joanna?

Love the name discussion. I am Beth Louise and was always the only one in school. My sister Deb always had four Debs in her class. My daughter Vanessa was the only one, but she always wanted to be Jennifer or Jessica -- there were several in her class. It's funny how names gain in popularity.

I remember one semester I had four Ashleys and four Matthews in one class. It was nice -- I had a pretty fair chance of getting a name right if I used one of those.

Names are fun. There were no Lucy's (that's my real name) anywhere about when I was growing up, but I think it has become quite popular. Also, as I have mentioned elsewhere here, lots of people name cats and dogs Lucy now, which drives me bats!

I hated my name when I was a child and my parents got fed up and told me my real name was Hepzibah Electra Alumina (all real names in my father's family genealogy book) and that they were calling me Lucy while I was little because it was simpler. I've recounted that story here too, so I apologize if I'm being repetitive!

My mother was Emily, father Avery. Their parents Clement/Emily, Delano/Adeline. Never thought before about what a collection of names that generation had! Their parents Howard/Mary William/Emily Avery/Mary and..... golly can't remember the last two - although there's an Alfredric somewhere in that line and a Theodosia, but I think they are the previous generation.

Theodosia, Clement, Emily, Avery -- those are gorgeous names! I'd happily give a child any one of those.

And what a great trick to play on you, Hepzibah...

I'm 52 and here in Switzerland the names Barbara, Silvia and Thomas were very common. In my primary school years we were 5 Barbara and 4 Silvia.

Apologies in advance for short replies and taking some time to get back to people. We came down to South Wales yesterday and are currently staying in a caravan, so no wi-fi and only access to Internet is via phone.

>59 sibylline: Lucy is more popular in England than the US, methinks. For humans, not just pets. :)

When it came to our children, Kate is Kathryn after her grandmother, and Julia's name was inspired by Julia Flyte in Brideshead Revisited. We considered several English / Celtic names, but the closest we came to that was Kate's middle name, Fiona, which we have always loved. It's a good thing we didn't have a boy because the hubs was threatening names I found unacceptable, like Angus and Fergus.

ETA: don't mind us, Rhian, we're just hijacking your thread while you are technologically challenged in your caravan!

Let's see....

My brother and I are Sean and Lenora. His kids are Miles and Anya.

Our parents are John and Dale.

Grandparents Walter/Katherine and Gilbert/Jozie.

Great-grand parents are Walter/Martha & Norman/Ester and William/Nora & Jack/Eula.

Great-great-grand parents are (Martha) John/Mary Ann and (Eula) William/Mary.

I like the names of great-grandmother's siblings especially the sisters (they were known by bolded part):

Barbara Jean, John, Everett, Eula Irene, Ealine Pearl, Alice, Katherine, Lily May, William Arthur, Ruby

Also, William and Nora had some nice solid names for their kids:

Gilbert, Jerome, Vincent, Jack. Matthew, William, Nora

>63 lauralkeet:: Fergus was a great name for a standard poodle but we named him after an old farmer, Fergus Moher, who suited his name to a tee.

Great grandparents' names: very stodgy here. John and Sarah, Amelia and Henry, Daniel and Elizabeth (both a bit unusual for Scots), Robert and Mary.

Amelia's middle name was Susanna, which is why my birth certificate name is Susan. There were a minimum of five Susans in every class I was in from Kindergarten on. My Dad nicknamed me Tui just about the minute I was born, so it is my real name, as far as I'm concerned. Susan is my "in trouble" name, along with my two middle names, which my mother would use when she would brook no more from me.

I've given up on the idea of responding personally to all the name discussions! I can't think of anything very unusual going back to into the nineteenth century, but in my generation I had a first cousin called Eirwen and a second cousin called Eifion, which again aren't names that you come across much. And as I said there were lots of Siân's (Welsh for Jane) and a fair few Rhian's and Rhiannon's as well. J's best friend is a Ieuan, again not a name that you come across much outside Wales at all, and caused some of the other mothers great problems in spelling when he was in primary school.

>21 SandDune: I think I enjoyed House Bound slightly more than you did. Mainly I was struck by how much housework was considered necessary - I suppose having open fires in every room creates a lot of dust/ash from the fire but I certainly wouldn't consider it necessary to dust or sweep every room every day!

>28 SandDune: I like Gertrude but I'm thinking of it as a possibility for a future dog rather than a child. I think Gertie is sweet.

>54 SandDune: I definitely know a lot of Cathryn/Kathryn/Catherine/Katherines. At work we have to refer to them with an initial from their surname to avoid confusion (Cath K, Kath P, Kath R). We also have a Katie.

I really like the name but I don't think I'd choose it as a baby name because I'd be bound to offend one of the Katherines by spelling it wrong!

>66 SandDune: I didn't realise Sian was Welsh for Jane.

Hope you're enjoying your holiday in Wales.

Aha, Welsh for Jane and not Joan, as I had always thought! Clarification; lightbulb clicks ON!

So how do you pronounce Ieuan? Ee-o-wan?

I've never seen Ieuan, but Evan, Ewan, Owen, Ian, Ivan, and even Eowyn (which is female, of course) all seem to relate to it.

Oh I do like Eirwen and Eifion!

>67 souloftherose: Mainly I was struck by how much housework was considered necessary - it was incredible wasn't it. It reminded me that I read recently that labour saving devices were really late in getting a foothold in British homes because of the dependence on servants.

>68 Chatterbox: well that's what I've always believed.

>69 Morphidae: It's quite difficult to describe - sort of Yie-un. Two syllables rather than three and the first rhymes with lie.

>70 laytonwoman3rd: Of all of those choices Evan is my favourite. I always feel Ieuan was a brave choice for a boy growing up in South-East England where no one can either pronounce or spell it.

>71 tiffin: I think my cousin Eirwen had similar problems as from a teenager she grew up near London and absolutely no one could pronounce her name.

Rhys gets "rice" a lot. In combination with his last name, it's a massacre at times.

I have a nephew named Liam. My sister says that people pronounce it "Lame" all the time. Like at the doctor's office, for example. Cracks me up. Who gets that wrong? Haven't they ever seen a Liam Neeson film?

I am a Jennifer and can vouch for the popularity of that name for a certain age in the US. Is it Love Story we have to blame? I think there were 5 of us in my 3rd grade class. I think I've only met one other Jennifer since I moved, and she's a Jenny. How nice. lol

My daughter is Marguerite after both of my husband's grandmothers. My grandmothers were Rhea and Helen. Rhea was vetoed and Helen didn't really work with our last name... My boys are both Old Testament prophets, not on purpose, as such.

On a different cultural note namewise, I am teaching Sunday school to a group of 18-30 year old single adults at church, and most of them are Samoan, Tongan or Maori. The lingual gymnastics of producing the pronunciation of names like TeAomihia or Awhenata Ngawaierua or Fesootaigaoaiga. Phew!

>74 tiffin: I confess I would want to hear Rhys's last name properly pronounced before trying it myself. I'd be sure to put the accent on the wrong SyllABle!

>74 tiffin: Rhys gets "rice" a lot. OK, I'll fess up. I never thought it would be "rice," but how is it pronounced: riss? reese?

Well, you roll the R and then let the hys flow out after with an ees sound but a hard R with an ees after it is fine for Canada (and the US).

>78 tiffin: Thanks! Of course I'm only pronouncing it in my head but I think I've been doing it mostly the right way.

>74 tiffin:, >75 nittnut: I don't think I would ever have come up with Rice or Lame even if I hadn't known how to pronounce them first.

Rhian, I'm just rushing through the threads. I hope you have a god week so far. Waves.

I've always liked both Rhys and Evan as names... Solid Celtic alternatives to Anglo-Saxon dominance!

>75 nittnut: Kudos to you for even attempting those, and trying to reconcile them with the printed variants. I could try one or the other but both?? eeek...

My husband is named Dylan, and you'd be stunned how many people pronounce it DIE-lan, even now. Really? You'd think between Bob Dylan and Dylan Thomas everyone would know the correct pronunciation by now.

>83 susanna.fraser: No...I offer my MIL as evidence. She routinely mispronounces names, and other words, including some that she has NEVER SEEN IN PRINT...has only heard properly pronounced. I believe there must be a scientific name for this affliction.

>84 laytonwoman3rd:: EYEtalian, or HIEwayne (for Hawaiian). A lot of folks around here say BAYsil instead of BAHsil. My mil always said ore eh GAN o. When I told her it's oreREGano she said "it is not". *snort*

"Ore eh GAN o" is the pronunciation in many other parts of the world. It is here, though we say "BAHsil" too.

Ah, thanks Liz. I don't know if it's because we have a large Italian population in Ontario (esp. Toronto), but we say it in a kind of Anglicised Italian here, with the emphasis in the middle, although not with the throaty sound.

Rhian, any time you want your thread back, just shoo us all out!

I think BAYsil is an Amurcan thing. That's how I pronounced it until I learned the correct way :)

>87 tiffin: Rhian, any time you want your thread back, just shoo us all out! No, no you're fine. It's just a combination of only having the phone, and not a lot of time (we're out most days and then spending the evening with my mum) means it's difficult to reply to everyone.

British pronunciation is pretty much always BAH-sil and or-eg-AH-no (sorry Tui). I had a difficult time with those very pronunciations when we went on holiday to Virginia. We were in a tiny town and I'd popped in to a. Store to buy a sandwich and the woman asked me if I wanted BAY-sil and or-EG-ano . I completely failed to understand what I was being asked: the woman said it four or five times and I just didn't get it. Part of the problem was neither of them are common additions to British sandwiches so I wasn't expecting to be asked that. It was one of those really embarrassing moments where we might as well have been speaking different languages!

>89 SandDune: And on a more general note it's always Herb and Herbal here not Erb and Erbal. For some reason the US pronunciation of herb without the 'h' is something that us British tend to find very funny. (I'm sure that there are plenty of things the other way round as well). Is there any particular reason why the 'h' isn't pronounced?

>90 SandDune: For what it's worth, some of us find it funny that you pronounce the 'h' ! "Herb" is one of the few words we pronounce in the French fashion. :)

Herb/erb reminds me: do you say "aitch" or "haitch"?

My Owen/Evan story: Owen is a major family name chez nous, not surprisingly, as my mother's side was all Welsh Quakers. So when I got my last corgi the family who bred him had already named him Owain. My brother Owen was ..... Not Pleased. Luckily another brother had a brilliant idea, "Why not just shift it to Evan?' And so that is what we did.

It must be that 'erbs were just such an 'enfant' affair! (that is our inhouse word for fancy french folderol and foolishnes). - Puritans prolly just had no use for sprinkling smelly green stuff on Good Plain Food. - Or maybe AT MOST a sprig of Parsley.

>89 SandDune: - I dont think I have ever been asked if I wanted basil or oregano on a sandwich, Rhian. I would have been a bit flummoxed, too! They aren't typical toppings in the States...

It's herbs with an h here too. If we say it with a French accent, it's ok to say l'herbe sans h but not to say urb in a very Anglo accent. And the good old OED says or-eg-AH no, so there you go!
ETA: I wonder how we in Ontario, founded by the English, Scottish, and Irish as we were, came to say o-REG-ano? We do have the largest concentration of Italian speaking people outside of italy...could that be it?

Fun! Fun!! Fun!!! Hereabouts, Baysil is the 'erb; Bahsil and Herb are the names....
My grandparents: William Austin and Margaret Downing; Henry Odel and Myrtle Mae. (gag) (Poor Grandmother) Great-grandmothers: Mary Frances and Martha - very safe.
I was astonished that "Ruby" has been floating around the top in England for the years covered on that chart. I never thought that it was pretty.
And I just have to repeat my comeback when rude people insisted on knowing why we had chosen not to have children: "We believe in using family names, and our firstborn son would have to have been Spurgeon Sturgeon.....We just couldn't risk it."
And I am VERY eager for The Undertaking to become cheaply available over here!

>93 katiekrug: At Subway, they always ask if you want basil or oregano...at least the one I frequent does. And I say BAsil (like Basil Fawlty), but always with raised eyebrows and fluttering lids, to indicate that I know that isn't the right way to pronounce it!

Does anyone remember the TV commercials (can't remember what they were for) featuring a woman telling her husband "They're ERBS, Herb!"

>96 laytonwoman3rd: - That's so interesting, Linda! I've never been asked that at Subway!

>97 katiekrug: Must be a regional thing. We have a great tradition of putting oil, vinegar and HERBS on hoagies around here.

After all the baby name talk I saw this article today:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26634477

>99 SandDune: Interesting! I believe there's a chapter on this topic in Freakonomics, too.

>95 LizzieD: Spurgeon Sturgeon! My seltzer/soda water/sparkling water just went all over the papers on my desk.... :-)

ETA:

>99 SandDune: What I think is important in all that is the discussion about "identifiable" names that enable people to nail down race, religion, etc. It doesn't surprise me in the least that US employers were found to be discriminating based on identical CVs and racially-linked names; the same pattern has been found repeatedly in France, with people with North African-sounding names being denied access to universities/graduate schools/jobs/apartments, etc. It's a great argument in favor of finding a way to make applications like this "blind".

>97 katiekrug:, >98 laytonwoman3rd: yes yes yes! Basil and oregano are used on sandwiches subs in the eastern US. Near Philadelphia they are mostly called subs but you hear hoagie once in a while. Subs/hoagies are on long rolls where sandwiches are on two slices of bread.

>98 laytonwoman3rd: and >102 lauralkeet: - I've had subs (occasionally also known as "grinders" in New England) with basil and oregano and/or other herbs, I've just never been asked about it on a made-to-order one. Though, honestly, when I lived on the East Coast (NY, MA and DC), I didn't go to those places much so maybe that's why it's odd to me.

Fun article about the different sandwich names: http://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/ingredients/article/the-origin-of-hoagies....

Dropping in late to the name game: by generation from most recent to least

Dorothy-Louis
George-Esther, George-Amy Amelia
Thomas-Ann, Friedrich-Marie, Louis-Mary, Joseph-Mary

>95 LizzieD:: Peggy, there are some who would do that, you know. My brother had a Donald Ducker in his class. I could never figure out how parents could do that to their child.

Really interesting articles!!!
Tui, my mother was vital statistics clerk for the county some years ago and rejoiced at Navy Blue and Ipana Emanuel.

Rhian, I wish you Happy Weekend full of reading.

Having a pleasant weekend away and exposing Daisy to several new experiences. She was very unsure about the herd of (rather skittish) bullocks coming down the road that we were walking along and made serious efforts to bolt, but the sheep in the fields are attracting a lot more interest unfortunately, and we're having to keep her on a tight lead there. She's also met a pig which she found worrying and a turkey which she showed much more inclination to chase. And she's showing a surprising liking for ruined medieval castles (lots of very new smells as far as I can tell). We've been round three of them over the week (Kidwelly, Weobley and Carreg Cennen) and she seems to find them immensely interesting, although she drew a line at exploring the (very dark) cave under Carreg Cennen this afternoon.

>108 SandDune:: how I would love to be exploring those ruins with you and Daisy, Rhian. I would find a pig worrying too: they're quite large.

You're prowling around all the castles connected with the Glyndwyr rebellion, Rhian! For some reason, I have it stuck in my brain that Kidwelly is the castle that features in the Ronald Welch novel The Gauntlet. So now I'm not going to be able to go to bed until I (a) locate the book and (b) find out whether that's accurate. Sigh.

>110 Chatterbox: You're prowling around all the castles connected with the Glyndwyr rebellion, Rhian!

No particular reason, just the ones that happen to be handy! And we all particularly like Carreg Cennen, which despite not being a huge castle, is perched 300ft up on top of a crag and so has one of the most dramatic locations of any castle I know. And it has a narrow and quite long cave underneath that can only be explored by torch light. Very clearly a dragon's lair according to the three year old boy who went down after us, although it would have to be a pretty small dragon as it's not very high! And perhaps that's what Daisy was worried about, as she definitely was not going to go down it!

Aha, I found the book and it turns out that BOTH Kidwelly and Carreg Cennen feature in The Gauntlet. So I've spent a chunk of time re-reading it today. You should definitely give it a shot! It involves time travel back to the Glyndwyr era, and there's a joust at Kidwelly, and... :-) A lot of scenes also are set at Valle Crucis. Given that you like Carreg Cennen, which is "home" to the main characters, I think you'd like the novel, which is somewhere between a children's and YA title.

>112 Chatterbox: I've not heard of The Gauntlet or Ronald Welch but I like a bit of time travelling so I'll have to give that a try.

Back at home now so wi-fi working once more. Apologies that I haven't got back to everyone individually - I'll try and do better this week. Finished two books The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion and Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde. Both reasonable but not breathtaking.

Late to the baby name conversation, but just had to add: my last name is distinctly Swedish. I was **this** close to being named Inga Regina. Happily, Mom was alone when they came around with the birth certificate. I like Marianne so much better. Plus, my monogram would have been IRS!

32. The Rosie Project Graeme Simsion ***1/2
I read this know because: I'd heard good things about it on the LT grapevine

Professor Don Tillman is a thirty-nine year old geneticist in an Australian University, who has his life planned out in minute detail, apart from his unfortunate inability to find a wife, or even a girlfriend. Setting about finding a wife in the same precise way that he tackles the rest of his life he embarks upon 'The Wife Project' a scientifically devised questionnaire designed to find his perfect partner, with questions ranging from their ability to do maths to their liking for kidneys. But unsurprisingly very few real life women fit his detailed requirements, and his search is seemingly doomed. Don's difficulty, of course, which is apparent to the reader and to the rest of the characters in the book, but crucially not to Don himself, is that he has Aspergers' Syndrome, and the level of organisation that he finds normal is alien to the rest of the world. Until that is, Rosie comes along: a seemingly completely unsuitable woman who most certainly does not meet Don's requirements ...

This was a decent enough book which has got some very positive reviews, but I have to say that it didn't really catch fire for me. I've come to the conclusion that my own brain doesn't allow me to appreciate this sort of 'feel-good' book, and certainly not one that's described as funny. So a reasonable holiday read but three and a half stars is probably being fairly generous.

Hi Rhian -- thanks for the review of The Rosie Project. I have picked that one up (and put down) several times trying to decide. Lots of other ones vying for attention, though!

32. Shades of Grey Jasper Fforde ****
I read this now because: I needed to find something to read on my kindle

Eddie Russett arrives in the remote town of East Carmine with his father, who is taking up a temporary position there. But there is something mysterious going on, and as Eddie negotiates his way into East Carmine society, which being on the Outer Fringes isn't quite as law-abiding as he is used to, he discovers that the society in which he lives isn't quite what it seems. And the whole world of Shades of Grey is very different as well: during the ambiguously named 'Something that Happened' humans lost their ability to see all the colours of the spectrum, and also their ability to see anything at all at night. Society is now arranged hierarchically, with the colours a person can see determining their place on the pecking order: those that can see purples are at the top while those seeing only shades of grey are very firmly ensconced at the bottom, with reds like Eddie not far above.

This is a fun read. It's been sitting on my kindle for ages without appealing, but once I got into it it was really enjoyable. Only problem is second book in the series doesn't seem to be out for ages.

>116 michigantrumpet: There's just a little bit too much sugar in The Rosie Project for my liking. Don't get me wrong though, it was an enjoyable read, it's just it's got lots of five star reviews and it was nowhere near that for me. Just a pleasant book that I'm not likely to reread and will have forgotten about in a year's time.

>117 SandDune: My son-in-law gave me this Fforde to read shortly after it came out, and he's been waiting impatiently for the next one ever since. i thought it was pretty clever, but I don't think I'll read any more. I only read one of his Thursday Next series, and that was enough of that, too.

Rhian - I agree on The Rosie Project, it was pushed really hard here in NZ when it first came out. I enjoyed it a lot for what it was, probably more than you did. Simsion first wrote a screenplay and when that wasn't getting anywhere he turned it into a novel.

>119 laytonwoman3rd: Linda I knew it was probably going to be part of a series (as that's what he always writes) but I assumed it would be more self-contained rather than being so clearly leading into a sequel. I will definitely read the next one (assuming it comes out before I've forgotten what happens with this one). I've never read any of the Thursday Next ones although I've had the first one sitting on the TBR shelf for ever.

>120 avatiakh: I think it would work very well as a screenplay. Funnily enough, while this isn't completely my sort of thing in a book, if it was a film I'd probably love it: I'm a sucker for a good rom-com!

Horrible afternoon at work this afternoon. One of our units had been trying yesterday to order some items online but we'd had trouble with the login details for the account, so i'd said that our administrator would do it this morning. Come lunchtime, after an all morning meeting i realised that the administrator was off sick, so i said i'd do it. So after entering the (very long and complicated) order i was just about to pay for everything when the website decided it was too busy and couldn't deal with it. So for the next hour I tried again and again to get back to my order without any luck. So eventually as it really had to be ordered today I phoned up, gave the whole order over the phone only to have the credit card company decline the transaction. And the company couldn't keep the order opened while I sorted out what was the matter with the credit card. And then as soon as I put the phone down the credit card company phoned up to say it had declined the transaction as potentially fraudulent (if it was fraudulent i think i'd be buying something a bit more worthwhile than hula-hoops and paddling pools.) Or at least they had declined part of it, they kept insisting that some of it had been approved and some had been declined which seemed to make no sense as i was only placing one order. And they couldn't provide any further details. So I had to go back to the online company, check whether anything had gone through, place the whole order again.

And so then we could go home, so me and my colleague locked up the office switching the alarm on as we've done a hundred times before, and managed to set the alarm off in the process. And we thought we'd sorted it but when I got home had a phone call from my boss saying that she had had messages from the alarm company saying that the alarm was going off again. And as she had gone home sick with severe toothache earlier, she wasn't too happy either.

Oh, Rhian, what a rotten day! I've had those, and they just knock the stuffing out of you, don't they? I hope you're having a better evening.

>123 laytonwoman3rd: Had another text from my boss saying that our landlord turned out and there was a fault with the alarm apparently. So glad it wasn't something we did!

What a day, Rhian! It's days like that that make you want to walk out the door and just keep going. Such a tempting thought, that is.

>122 SandDune: Arrgghh! What an awful day! At least it's over, right?

BTW, what happened to the woman who caused so much grief at work?

Grr, what a day! Thank goodness you're home (again?).

I thought I'd share something my mother had come across while we were visiting last week: an autograph book belonging to my grandfather who served as a stoker on H.M.S. Tiger in WWI. It's full of little pictures and mottos from 1918: here are some of the best (the last one is in mirror writing, by the way):

>128 SandDune: What a lovely collection to have!

So sorry for your awful day. Only one more day until the weekend! Things have to be looking up, right? LOVE the WWI collection -- so lucky to have survived all these years and for you to be able to share it.

>125 rosalita: The alarm was just the final straw. I did think that if I had to do the order one more time I was just going to run away: it was about £800's worth of items which individually cost mainly between £5 and £10 and it just took ages each time.

>126 kidzdoc: Darryl I think there were words spoken last week while I was away! Anyway, I received a much more polite email from her this week, apologising for a delay in completing something and acknowledging that it was causing us problems, which was so different from the sort of thing that she was previously sending me that I had to read it twice!

>127 lit_chick: I didn't have to go in again luckily, as I live further from the office than pretty much everyone else.

>129 CDVicarage: I particularly like the cartoon figure.

>130 michigantrumpet: Actually, we have a holiday here today for Good Friday so it's the weekend already. And another one on Monday for Easter Monday so I'm not back at work until Tuesday.

Hooray for the holiday weekend! I've never in my life had a Good Friday or an Easter Monday. LOVE it!

Ugh what a horrible day! Glad you are now well into your much-deserved long weekend. Enjoy!

Oh Rhian, I am so sympathetic! Let us hope you have 'paid your dues' and will have a lovely peaceful weekend exploring castles and hunting dragons and whatnot!

And I am glad to read your comments about both the Fforde and the Simsion both of which are on my WL but maybe shouldn't be..... which is good because my WL needs constant pruning or it runs wild.

Happy Easter!

>128 SandDune: Fabulous images! Thanks for sharing them with us, and have a splendid weekend!

>132 nittnut: Here they are bank holidays, which means that banks, offices, any sort of educational establishment will be closed. When I was a child shops would be closed too, but now most will be open. Easter Sunday though, is one of the two days of the year when shops have to close (the other one being Christmas Day)

>133 lauralkeet: Today has been much nicer Laura. We've been for a lovely walk this afternoon in a bluebell wood. I'll post some pictures shortly.

>134 sibylline: No castles now Lucy, only bluebells, as we are back home and this is definitely not castle territory! I wouldn't want to put you off The Rosie Project - I think sometimes I am a little harsh on a much-hyped book if it doesn't live up to expectations. If I'd come across it unawares I'd probably be a lot more positive.

>135 wilkiec: Happy Easter to you too!

>136 kidzdoc: I hope you have a great weekend too Darryl!

What wonderful finds, Rhian! My great grandmother taught me how to do mirror writing. I haven't thought about it for years!

Oh, I'm sorry about your awful day! But what a wonderful little book - thanks for sharing the photos!

>138 lit_chick: >139 scaifea: One thing I noticed was what nice handwriting everyone had - and all in fountain pen of course.

>128 SandDune: - That's very cool, and it looks amazingly well-preserved. Also, this is the first time I've ever heard the term mirror writing. Interesting.

>115 SandDune: - I'm thinking I'd have a similar reaction to this, so I feel that my plan to avoid it has been validated somewhat.

>122 SandDune: AAAAGHH! (hop on over to the stabbity thread)

>128 SandDune: What a wonderful find. People don't tend to do things like that anymore - or was your grandfather an artist?

Over here in Singapore, we get Good Friday as a holiday, but not Easter Monday; each ethnic group / religion is allotted 2 holidays a year, so Christians have chosen Christmas Day & Good Friday.

>140 SandDune: Oddly enough, when we started using pens at school, we all used biro, but the secondary school I was enrolled in specified fountain pens, so my mum bought me one to start practicing with while I was still in primary school. But then my teacher started commenting on my reports that my writing had got messy after I switched, and somehow I always felt after that (even when I use biro) that my writing never went back to my original style. (I wonder what handwriting analysis would make of that?)

>135 wilkiec: What cute bunnies!

>137 SandDune: Have a wonderful, relaxing long, long weekend. Bluebells! How gorgeous - look forward to the photos.

I love, love, LOVE that autograph book, Rhian, and think you actually have a real treasure there. The Kelly artist was quite good. "Cause and Effect" is pretty impressive as well.

Oh those kinds of days at work. You remind me yet again why I feel so incredibly blessed to have reached retirement with most of my sanity still intact. Those days are the bane of the working stiff.

>141 DorsVenabili: it is in reasonable condition - with the addition of a few extra autographs provided by my mother and her sister when they were small children in the 1920s! I'm pretty sure it's called mirror writing - I've heard it in some book or other I expect - and you can read it if you hold it up to a mirror but it must be very tricky to do.

>142 humouress: or was your grandfather an artist?
No - none of the drawings are done by my grandfather - according to my mother they were done by friends of his on board HMS Tiger, and they're pretty much all dated 1918.

We were encouraged to use fountain pens in the last couple of years of primary school, but in secondary we switched over to biros pretty quickly. I haven't used a fountain pen for years now.

>143 tiffin: 'Cause and Effect' is definitely my favourite.

Rhian, I wish you and a long weekend full of reading.

Hi Rhian- Just passing through. I hope you have a lovely weekend and find some time for a book or two.

33. Jhereg Steven Brust ****1/2
I read this now because: I've been dipping into What Makes this Book so Great by Jo Walton and it's a series that she strongly recommends.

I wasn't sure about this one to start with - a book about a professional assassin sounded a little ... well ... violent for my tastes, but dipping into Jo Walton's review of Jhereg made me want to give it a go. And I am glad I did, because I enjoyed it a lot and will certainly want to read more in the series. For me, it struck pretty much exactly the right balance between explaining too much about the world up front and not explaining enough.

Vlad Taltos is the professional assassin in question: a rare human amongst the dominant dragaera amongst which he lives. Although human, Vlad is a member of the Jhereg, one of the noble Houses of the dragaera, with a title purchased by his father. More than anything the Jhereg operate as an organised crime organisation though, and it's when one of the leaders of this organisation comes to him with a piece of 'work' to dispose of another leader who has targeted the Jhereg funds, that Vlad's troubles begin. For the target has retreated to the one place where any assassination is seemingly impossible.

This is a world of magic, with sorcerers and wizards both plying their own (different) forms of magic. Assassination is not always final, as most corpses can be revivified within a couple of days of death, unless the assassin is particularly determined. Wizards such as Vlad have familiars, and Vlad's is the jhereg Loiosh, one of the intelligent flying reptiles from which the house took its name.

So a fun read this one: highly recommended.

Edited to add: when I went to post my review I noticed that there'd been a group read last year which had completely passed me by, although I had wish listed the book so I must have read someone's review.

>145 Ameise1:, >146 msf59: Barbara, Mark hope you're both having a good weekend as well (with lots of chocolate).

Wishing you a very safe and

So glad you enjoyed Jhereg, Rhian. Yendi would be the next one to read, then.

>128 SandDune: What an amazing thing to have. Great pictures!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, Rhian!

Now I am even more tempted by Jhereg!!!

The images from the autograph book are fascinating. What a wonderful treasure for your family!

Rhian, so sorry to hear about your horrible day at work. I hope returning to work today wasn't too traumatic!

>128 SandDune: Wow! What a souvenir to have.

>147 SandDune: I read and enjoyed the first three books in the Jhereg series last year but have only just got round to getting the next couple of books (next up for me is Taltos). They're quite hard to find in the UK so I've been ordering them online whenever a UK seller happens to have a copy secondhand.

I've rather been absent from my own thread this week, mainly because I've started doing my final assessment for my OU course which is due in the beginning of May. It's 4000 words rather than the usual 2000, and I needed to get my head around how I was going to approach it, which took a little time. It's due on the 8th May, but I'm hoping to get it finished by the end of next week so that I can focus on exam preparation (for the exam at the beginning of June.)

>149 TinaV95:, >150 ronincats:, >151 nittnut:, Thanks for the Easter wishes Tina, Roni, Jenn We had quite a quiet Easter, as we'd been away the week before, and spent some time gardening. Our garden has rather got out of hand over the last few years but we had some work done to cut back the bigger shrubs over the winter and are getting on with some replanting of the older plants that need replacing, and digging over some of the borders completely.

>153 sibylline:, >155 souloftherose: I listened to Jhereg on Audible as they seemed to have just produced the whole series (or at least quite a logic them) and as you say Heather they are not the easiest thing to get hold of in the UK. The narration was pretty good, although I would have liked to flip back to clarify a couple of points at times. I'd like to go straight onto the second book, but I am now listening to Middlemarch for the second time (apparently there is always a question on either that or Dombey and Son in the exam.

>154 cbl_tn: It's a great thing to have isn't it Carrie?

Rhian, I wish you Happy Weekend!

Tired, tired, tired this evening! Had a six and a half mile sponsored walk with Daisy this morning, then finishing off a bit of gardening that we were doing yesterday, then more essay writing (up to 2750 words now) and then cooking. And now I am not moving!

>158 SandDune: whew! Exhausted just reading about it! Now for some well deserved rest!

>158 SandDune: Don't blame you :0)

Rhian, hope your essay is going well. I do remember those days of being a mom, having a full-time job, and working at essays, so I understand why you aren't visiting here as much but I look forward to your fun and informative posts when you have the time again.

Walking through bluebell woods again yesterday made me remember that I hadn't posted these pictures from last week:

Rhian, those photos are gorgeous.

>159 michigantrumpet: >160 humouress: I'm so glad I didn't do the eleven mile option! I walked the six miles with one other person from work and we started at about 9.05am and finished at 11.40am. The two other groups from my office started at the same time as us, did 11 miles and finished at 12 noon and 12.15 respectively! It would have killed me walking around at that pace!

>161 tiffin: Tui we just seem to be really busy recently, and the essay isn't helping. I'm having a break today but hope to get another couple of hundred words done tomorrow. The normal essays are 2000 words and if I don't do anything else I can generally write around 1000 words a day, so I can usually polish one off in a weekend if I concentrate. 3500-4000 words is another matter though.

>163 Ameise1: Barbara, I don't know whether the bluebells are particularly good this year or whether we've just been in the right place at the right time, but I don't remember seeing such a density of bluebells for years.

Oh, my, those are GORGEOUS photos, Rhian! What a beautiful walk.

>162 SandDune: I want a bluebell wood. Lovely to look at and charming to say.

So do I, Marianne! What a colour!

Just catching up here, Rhian. Those bluebells are beautiful, what a pretty spot to go for a walk!

Those bluebells are indeed drop-dead gorgeous, Rhian. Thanks for sharing them with us.

Hi Rhian - I am trying to catch up on your thread!! Lovely blue bell photos and the autograph book is really special. I hope the essay topic's interesting... it'll need to be for 4000 words.

Gorgeous bluebells!

Our last vicarage was a huge victorian one with several acres of grounds to go with it, which included a bluebell wood. I miss the grounds much more than I miss the lack of heating, the acres of carpets that needed hoovering and surfaces that needed dusting (because of the dust created by the wood fires - I'm not that fussy about dust!), especially at this time of year.

>173 CDVicarage: As much as I appreciate a beautiful bluebell wood, not sure that would compensate for the other inconveniences there!

Good luck with your essay and exam prep, Rhian.

>162 SandDune: Those bluebell woods are gorgeous! I need to do some exploring of the local area this summer to find good places to walk.

>162 SandDune: Ohhh .... gorgeous!

>166 lit_chick: >167 michigantrumpet: >168 tiffin: >169 DeltaQueen50: >170 ronincats: >171 cushlareads: >172 nittnut: >175 souloftherose: >176 humouress:
Glad everyone likes the bluebells! They don't last for very long but they are lovely while they last.

>173 CDVicarage: It would have to be very special grounds indeed to compensate for the lack of heating! I was brought up in a house without central heating and I wouldn't want to go back to that at all.

>171 cushlareads: For the essay we need to take two or three of our listed books and demonstrate to what extent they bear out the stereotypical views that people might have of family life in the nineteenth century.

>162 SandDune: - I love that forest floor covering of bluebells!.... and kudos on your 6 mile walk!

Hi Rhian - Lovely photo of the bluebells. It snowed here yesterday -- no flowers yet. I'm jealous.

>178 lkernagh: Lori, walking is one of the few forms of exercise that I actually enjoy, as long as it doesn't involve climbing up any mountains! I wish we had time to do more of it to be honest.

>179 BLBera: We didn't have a single snowflake all winter, which to be honest isn't that unusual as we never really have more than two or three snowfalls in total! I can't imagine still having snow in May!

I was not happy at all with Mr SandDune yesterday. We have a fortnightly collection of compostable matter (in our brown bin) and recycling, and a fortnightly collection of rubbish. This Tuesday was the day for the brown bin and recycling collection, but what I didn't know was that Mr SandDune had put lots of lumps of clay in the bin from our gardening last week, which meant the bin was too heavy and so it wasn't collected. Which meant that we had to take everything out if the bin - of course the clay was at the bottom - to take out the offending items. If it had just been garden waste it would have been OK but all the kitchen scraps go in there as well. I said I'd help, but after coming across two week old bread full of maggots I decided that it was Mr SandDune's fault, he'd put the stuff in there and he could take it out. Not nice. I'd managed to persuade the council to come back and collect it today as they hadn't labelled it properly as to why they hadn't collected it, so hopefully everything will go today.

>181 SandDune: Rhian, I would be not happy at all too. Cool that you have compostable matter collection though - we do our own compost (and worm farm) but there isn't a council collection.

The essay sounds interesting, if the books on the course list were good ones!

>181 SandDune: Oh Rhian, what a mess! When I think at our bin it would give me some nightmare to remove the compostable matter from it.

Naughty Mr SandDune. I don't blame you for making him deal with it.

Yesterday it rained the entire day, sometimes quite heavily (in all we had nearly 5"). Mr lauralkeet sent me a message late in the day informing me he had completed a very disgusting chore that was long overdue and oh by the way could I stop at the supermarket on my way home and pick up items required for dinner? The last thing I wanted was to be out in that rain but how could I refuse? The games we play with our spouses ...

Rhian, the bluebell pictures are just beautiful and a much-needed shot of color around here, which has been gray and gloomy and drizzly and chilly for days now.

We have our own compost and put everything compostable into it. It gives me lovely rich soil to add to my garden. I'd hate to have to wade through a bin full of the scraps I put in ours.

>182 cushlareads: >183 Ameise1: >184 lauralkeet: >186 tiffin:

Well the contents of the brown bin (minus soil) were collected by the council today so that was a result! We have our own compost bin but we only use that for uncooked fruit and vegetable scraps, as well as smaller garden trimmings and small bits of cardboard. The council collection will take virtually anything that's compostable, including cooked food, meat and fish scraps and perennial weeds: it's composted in bulk at a much higher temperature so it deals with those things much better. And then the recycling bins take glass, tins, aerosol cans, tetrapaks, cardboard, paper, plastic, foil and pretty much anything else that can be recycled so we don't generally have too much to put in the rubbish. Some people object to only having the rubbish collected every two weeks but it doesn't worry me - I'm quite conscientious at recycling so on the odd occasion when we forgot to put the bin out we've managed for four weeks without too much difficulty.

>185 rosalita: gray and gloomy and drizzly
That's what it's like here now - but it's forecast to be dry over the weekend. And it's another long weekend this weekend as we have a bank holiday on Monday.

I'm getting behind with all my reviews at the moment. I've read the following books that I haven't reviewed:

Sargasso of Space Andre Norton
Eleanor and Park Rainbow Rowell
The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison

and I'm still listening to Middlemarch which is taking quite some time!

>182 cushlareads: The books that I'm using for my essay are Dombey and Son and The Awakening, which to be honest are probably the two books that I've enjoyed least on the course. But they are the ones that fit in best to my chosen essay title, and apparently Dombey and Son is a likely bet to come up in the exam so it will be useful to revise it by using it for this essay. I really wanted to choose Heart of Darkness but I couldn't exactly make it fit with my chosen essay title!

Eta 3113 words written - getting there.

Oh dear! It has taken years for me to get the spousal unit to get that filling up big trash bags as full as they can possibly be just doesn't work at all..... here we take our own rubbish to the 'transfer station' (the latest euphemism) and for some reason I am the one who does it - he loads the car and I take the stuff. (I run around more, basically)..... they don't mind at all if they can see a bag is not full and that you have, say, a bunch of kitty litter on the side to throw in after. (they charge for each bag, but they also know me). He would pack the bags so full I could not carry them from the car to the place where you throw it in..... plus the danger of breaking.

All to say, I am sympathetic!

On the literary front: I think listening to Middlemarch would be wonderful.

3309 words.

I tried to do a reread of Middlemarch a year ago and it just became a bit of a slog. I think an audio version would be a good solution, especially in the car.

Interesting to read about the brown bins. Wish we did that here. I have Dombey and Son kicking around the house somewhere. Probably will never get to it (unless you start raving about it!).

34. Sargasso of Space Andre Norton ***
I read this now because: I've been meaning to reread some Andre Norton for ages

Andre Norton was one of my favourite writers as a young teenager. I won't say I read all that many of her books because I didn't - I tended to read whatever books came my way rather than being particularly proactive, and I don't think they had that many of them in the local library - but I did enjoy those that I did come across. Sargasso of Space was certainly one of those books - for some reason I remember the beginning quite clearly although I remember nothing else - but I don't think it was my favourite by her. I'd remembered them as YA, but compared to the YA that's written today it reads rather more as an older children's book.

It's a fairly straightforward sci-fi adventure story, with the newly qualified Dale Thorson newly assigned to a Free Trade ship rather than a ship belonging to one of the big corporations that he had set his heart upon. But his new ship bids for the trading rights for a newly discovered planet and that's when things start to go wrong. Rereading it as an adult it seemed a predictable storyline with everything being resolved fairly easily, and certainly a lot darker than most YA stuff today.

35. Eleanor and Park Rainbow Rowell ***1/2
I read this now because I've seems some good things about this on LT.

The story of the abused and neglected Eleanor who finds escape from her difficult home life and the bullies at school, through her blossoming friendship with Park. Despite being something of an outsider himself, as the child of a Korean mother and American father Park has the stable home life and loving parents that Eleanor does not, and despite unpromising beginning love grows between the two.

This is a great book about teenage love, although it didn't touch me in the way that it has some other readers.

36. The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison ***
I read this now because Toni Morrison is the April author for the American author challenge.

OK I have officially decided that I do not 'get' Toni Morrison. This is the third book of hers that I have read (the other two were Beloved and Paradise but both along time ago) and I wouldn't have picked up another one if it wasn't for the American Author challenge. I can see that the writing is very poetic but for a lot of time I really can't understand what she is getting at. And rather than empathising with the characters I end up being somewhat mystified. I'm not writing a proper review as I've had too much writing to do over the last week or so, but just a few thoughts.

3950 words and pretty much finished!

>196 SandDune:: You have no idea how relieved I am to read this, Rhian. People have raved about Toni Morrison's books so much but, like you, I have read three of her stories and they just don't resonate with me for some reason. I was starting to think that it was just me! It might be a huge cultural gap?

And good work on the paper.

>190 sibylline: Oh I'm so glad we don't have to take our rubbish anywhere! All we have to do is to roll the bins down to the end of the drive (which is not very far at all). In practice, I suppose, if we are doing some major garden pruning we do have to take the resulting garden waste to the recycling centre, as it creates much more waste at one time than the brown bin can deal with.

>192 tiffin: I don't love Middlemarch as much as I love some of her other work like The Mill on the Floss , but I can recognise it as a great novel. I think the way to cope with it is to give up any idea of actually finishing it and just let it flow over you.

>193 michigantrumpet: No I'm not going to start raving about Dombey and Son , and it is very, very long! But although I didn't enjoy it as a read particularly, it is quite rewarding to write about. There's a lot of comment on social issues that is a dream to utilise for an essay question like the one I've been doing.

>198 tiffin: I'm glad it's not just me as well! I can't remember what it was about the other two books that I didn't like, but I remember I read the second one in 1998, and haven't been tempted to pick up another since. The first book hadn't made a good impression on me and I only bought the second as I was really struggling for books to read. (I was working in Bermuda for four months at the time and the only books available were on a few shelves in a small department store. There was a reasonable library, but it closed for major refurbishment a couple of weeks after I got there!)

What I felt with this one was that it didn't draw me in to the lives of its protagonists. It flitted from one person to another, but at no point did I feel that I understood the lives depicted or could empathise with them. The only other book that I've read recently which was set in a poor black community in the US (Salvage the Bones) drew me in completely, so I felt I had a real feel for the lives depicted to the extent that I started to understand why the dog fighting (a practice that I find really a horrendous) was so important to some of the characters.

But it may be cultural. When I was doing the work for my essay I noticed that there was a real difference between my interpretation of the main character in The Awakening and that of the academics (all American I think) whose papers we looked at for this book. I'd interpreted her as a spoilt rich woman and they'd interpreted her as a spoilt white woman. I'd looked at it from a class based perspective (maybe that's a British thing) and missed out on some of the racial overtones completely, probably because I wasn't familiar with the society being depicted.

Well Rhian I didn't get chance to organise a single meet-up whilst I was in the UK. Drat.
Next time I make it back to blighty it will be without work commitments intruding I hope.

Have a great weekend and give my very best wishes to Mr. SandDune and J.

Rhian, I wish you Happy Weekend full of reading.

Very productive day today. Trip to Cambridge resulted in two new pairs of shoes and three new books from Heffers, followed by lunch in Strada. Then managed to get my essay submitted, and finished off by getting another border in the front garden dug over for replanting (actually Mr SandDune did the digging and I did the bagging up of waste).

Here are the books:

Her Brilliant Career Rachel Cooke
Wild Strawberries Angela Thirkell
The Girl who Saved the King of Sweden Jonas Jonasson

Hi Rhian, how is Mr SandDune feeling? ;0)

Yay! on the essay.

On bins and recycling, from the 1st of June, we've been assigned to a different collection company which will collect our recycling twice a week instead of once. I've tried to be conscientious about recycling, but my husband tends to put whatever into whichever bin is nearest.

My dad is the worst, though. No matter how many times he's been here, he always puts his fruit scraps into the big recycling bin in the kitchen, instead of into my specially-designed chute into the outside bin.

(sorry - my youngest is crawling all over me & demanding I put his programmes on on TV for him. I'm a bit distracted)

Congrats on finishing your essay, Rhian! Sounds like you're having a great weekend overall.

>203 SandDune: Sounds a lovely day, Rhian. I've read and enjoyed the first two of those books and would like to try the third.

>201 PaulCranswick: Paul sounded like your time in the UK was fairly rushed. Hope to see you next time!

>202 Ameise1: Barbara, we've been having a great weekend. I hope you've been doing the same.

>204 humouress: I suppose in a hot country it needs to be collected more frequently - once every two weeks is getting to be the norm here! And you do need to put your recyclables in the right bin otherwise you run the risk of them refusing to take the lot!

Mr SandDune is coping with the digging OK (it wasn't a huge area). We have been to the nursery to get our new plants this morning and planted them this afternoon, with an interlude to go and watch J play football in the middle. So that corner of the garden is looking quite nice, and overall it is beginning to show some definite improvement. We did a lot of gardening in the five years that we lived in this house before J was born but we just didn't keep on top of it when he was a toddler, and let a lot of the shrubs get out of control and they've never really got back in control since. So a lot has to be dug up completely and replanted but we are definitely making progress.

>205 rosalita: It was a relief to get that part of the course finished. And I know I've passed the continuous assessment element because of the marks I've got already. So just the exam to go!

>206 CDVicarage: I've had my eye on Her Brilliant Career since it was first published but I've been waiting for it to come out in paperback. And I very much enjoyed Jonas Jonasson's other book The hundred-year-old Man who climbed out the window and Disappeared - one of the few books that I've read that actually mad me laugh out loud. Not something that happens very often.

Another nice day today. A long walk around Hatfield forest this morning, which is a 'forest' in the traditional sense of the word with the wooded areas interspersed with more open meadows and rides. Daisy had to stay on the lead for most of it after a previous experience there when she went charging off after some deer and only reappeared about an hour later! Luckily my suggestion that we let her off to play, when we met some friends who have a Newfoundland, was ignored, as a couple of minutes later a herd of deer appeared about a hundred yards away and she'd have been off like a shot if she'd have been able. And then spent an hour or so this afternoon clearing up the paved areas around where we planted yesterday, so it now looks very nice.