SusanJ's 75 Books Challenge - Thread 7

Hello, and welcome to my seventh thread for 2015.

I'm Susan, a Kiwi living in London for the past 20 years. During the working week I'm a lawyer so I love nerdy legal stuff, which crops up in more books than you might expect.

Over the past couple of years I've started to read mostly non-fiction, and this year my goal is 150 books, one-third fiction and two-thirds non-fiction.

And recently I've bought a Fitbit and turned into a stepper :-)













Top Fiction Reads of 2014

Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Watership Down by Richard Adams
The Tilted World by Tom Franklin

Top Non-Fiction Reads of 2014

Merchant Adventurers by James Evans
Deep Sea and Foreign Going by Rose George
Empire of Necessity by Greg Grandin
Cheek by Jowl by Emily Cockayne
In These Times by Jenny Uglow

July reads

115. Tales of the City
116. Bad Pharma
117. The Establishment: And How They Get Away With It
118. Outlaws of the Atlantic
119. Forgotten Fatherland
120. The Devil in the Marshalsea
121. I Take You
122. Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Underrated Organ
123. Crooked Heart
124. Concretopia
125. The English Spy
126. Trigger Warning: Is the Fear of Being Offensive Killing Free Speech?
127. The Quality of Silence
128. Temeraire
129. The Mistresses of Cliveden
130. More Tales of the City
131. War Crimes for the Home
132. The Little Girl Who Fought the Great Depression: Shirley Temple and 1930s America
133. Fire and Steam
134. Evelina

August reads

135. Dreamstreets
136. Wayfaring Stranger
137. Family and Kinship in East London
138. How to Clone a Mammoth
139. Station Eleven
140. The Great Explosion
141. The Vanished City: London's Lost Neighbourhoods
142. Homicide
143. The Raj at War
144. On Immunity: An Inoculation
145. Moral Tribes
146. The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens' London
147. The Dragonfly Diaries
148. The New East End: Race, Kinship and Conflict
149. Ghettoside
150. Summer Days
151. A Place Called Winter
152. Summer Nights
153. Land of Love and Drowning
154. Platform Souls

September reads

155. All Summer Long by Susan Mallery

Happy new thread!

>3 susanj67: I've had that conversation with myself!

Happy new thread, Susan!

Love, love, LOVE the graphic in >3 susanj67:!!!

Perfect graphic for a perfect new thread!

7 Already? Happy new thread. I have to wait for rebroadcast of that archaeology doc, as my over clever TV is insisting that I require an HD subscription to watch it on demand. Loving Their Finest Hour and a Half.

Happy new thread.
>:-)

>4 cbl_tn: Thanks Carrie! I have it often :-)

>5 Crazymamie: Thanks Mamie and welcome!

>6 katiekrug: Katie, I love those cards, which I only found due to you :-)

>7 lkernagh: Hi Lori!

>8 charl08: Charlotte, yes, I always start a new one at 200 posts. You might find the documentary on 4Seven - it seems to have endless repeats of things. I'm so glad you're enjoying Their Finest Hour and a Half!

>9 Helenliz: Hi Helen :-)



128. Temeraire by Naomi Novik

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: This is a series I've meant to read

Also known as His Majesty's Dragon, this is the first one in the series about a Naval captain, Willl Laurence, who finds himself the keeper of a newly-hatched dragon captured from a French ship, meaning that he has to give up the Navy and join the Air Corps instead. The story is set at the time of the Battle of Trafalgar, and it's certainly imaginative, but overall it just didn't grab me, and I won't be continuing with the series. A shame, as I do love a good series, and the library seems to have all the books in e format, which is even better. But never mind - there is plenty to be going on with :-) Yesterday I picked up More Tales of the City and War Crimes for the Home, and a book in the Chee/Leaphorn series for Roberta's group read thread.

Happy new thread, Susan. Yes, I have also had that conversation.

Hi Susan, and happy new thread to you!

Sorry that series didn't work out for you. Any others on the horizon?

>11 BLBera: Beth, it seems particularly bad at the weekend :-)

>12 AMQS: Hi Anne!

>13 charl08: Charlotte, I need to get back to Jack Reacher (no real hardship, particularly as I have a nice clean copy of the next one waiting at home).

I just walked down to the tiny library about 20 minutes away, which promised a copy of Family and Kinship in East London, but there was no sign of it in either the London section or the general non-fiction. Humph. There are supposed to be *two* copies at Chrisp Street, so I might try there tomorrow, or over the weekend. I'd talked myself out of getting it while reserves are still awaited, but then I remembered that from the end of next week I am on holiday till 13 August, and the Balcony Reading Bonanza will take place.

Anyway, I had to get something today, so I borrowed The Little Girl Who Fought the Great Depression: Shirley Temple and 1930s America. When I was a kid, we had some picture book/magazine things (heavy cardboard pages) about Shirley Temple and what she did during her day, and the clothes she wore etc, and they were written during the 30s. I loved them, although I had no idea who she was and I still don't think I've ever seen one of her films.

Just referring back to your last thread, message 119 and Bob Crow's house.

1. He presumably was allocated the house at a time when his finances were rather different from at what sadly turned out to be the end of his life - people don't get social housing on a high salary

2. Social housing - council and HA - isn't actually subsidised if the inhabitants continue to rent and don't claim Housing Benefit. This is a myth currently being pressed on us in the media from the government, it just isn't true. Social housing means that a private landlord isn't making a profit. Someone paying a full rent will be paying the costs of housing management, and other costs with many estates etc, as very little council housing had been built in the last 30 years, have probably already been recouped. Whereas some private landlords get massive subsidies in the form of Housing Benefit paying off the mortgage on the assets they will own outright. And if everyone as soon as they get any kind of reasonable job exercises their Right to Buy, they will get a massive subsidy in the form of Right to Buy discount, so if public money is being spent on new social housing that is sold off under RTB, that's a subsidy to the new owners. And a lot of former rtb properties end up being rented out in the private sector, maybe to people who have to claim Housing Benefit, even if they work full time for low pay, or if they are hard working carers for disabled children or other dependants, just for example. And that's subsidised, and the subsidy goes to owners not tenants. Just saying...

I have several of the other books you mention to read, as Kindle purchases, Netgalleys for review. Several of the Tales of the City books have recently been serialised on the radio and I must reread the first 3 or 4, then read the other 5 for the first time. I think I got to the 3rd or 4th book and then got sidetracked, but the radio has made me think, I missed that, don't remember that, etc

>15 elkiedee: Luci, as usual we will have to agree to disagree on the issue - I maintain that no-one has a moral right to social housing if they're earning a six-figure income, regardless of what they might have started out on. And if a social housing provider is renting out a house at a fraction of the rent of the privately-owned house next door, that is a subsidy for the tenant. The council etc has an asset that it is not getting the maximum return from, even if that's for very good reasons, which in the case of social housing, it is, at least if people in genuine need are given the houses.

I'm looking forward to More Tales of the City, although after I'd reserved it I found in downstairs in the book exchange, along with the third one, so at least I don't have to reserve that.

Social housing interesting one. I watched a doc about early council houses which talked about people being vetted for respectability. You couldn't have a council house if the committee thought you didn't deserve it! So most of the people in council homes were earning. I was amused by the tories claiming right to buy over housing association stock. Shall be interesting to see how that works.

I watched the doc Susan, as the device allowed me this time. Fascinating stuff, not least about the historical African community.

>17 charl08: Charlotte, I'm glad you got to see it. I love programmes like that. I remember reading years ago that developers hated archaeological finds because they had to confess and the build would be delayed, but that seems to have changed now, and I suppose with Crossrail there was so much to be found that they just had to embrace it. Also there's potentially an element of competition - "Oh, you found a plague pit? *We* found Romans" but it now seems to be accepted that the Museum of London will be called in to explore. I saw a hoarding around one site recently advertising the Walbrook Discovery Programme, which looks good: https://walbrookdiscovery.wordpress.com/ The site is a bit out of date but their Twitter feed has just alerted me to an excellent plague exhibition at the Guildhall library, which I will go to during my time off.

I've already borrowed my first library book of the day thanks to Anne's thread, and at lunchtime if it's not pouring I might go up to Chrisp Street for the family and kinship book. And maybe get the DLR back...

Old and new in England:

"Although the conflict of laws has been intensively studied by continental jurists since the 13th century, it is of comparatively recent origin in England."

Recent like post-war? No.

"...the subject first came into prominence in English courts towards the end of the 18th century."

Ah.

Temeraire was not a favorite of mine either, Susan. Apparently back in 2010 I thought it "just too silly'.

>20 Fourpawz2: Charlotte, I just wasn't grabbed by the characters, and the details of the battles were tedious too. Battles that actually happened with a fictitious character inserted are one thing (like the Sharpe stories) but made-up dragon battles were a bit too much. Never mind, that frees me up for another series! The Great Explosion has just come into the library for me, but I fear it's just too wet to get over there after work. It's solidly raining, and my step-count will not be impressive for today, as I'll have to get the tube, and go through the malls to get to it. And then run at the other end :-) I have enough to keep me going for the weekend, though (LOL at the thought of ever actually running out). I meant to say that I liked Case Histories too, but haven't got to the next ones. Or maybe I read the second one, but not the third.

>21 susanj67: - I think that I did not care for the squeezing of dragons into real history. I could probably have taken them in a whole Fantasy scenario (if it had been well-written), but trying to make them work with Napoleon was not pleasing to me. Much better to ditch the series now when there are so many other ones out there.

I don't have the second Jackson Brodie book, but I did pick up 3 and 4 at a couple of different locations when I ran across them. If I don't happen upon book number 2 by the end of the year I will likely cave and get it from the library.

Will be interested to see what you think of The Great Explosion. I do love a good disaster book. Can totally understand the reluctance to brave the rain. Especially when one has other books to fall back upon. A total book famine might make me go out, but otherwise - no.

>22 Fourpawz2: Charlotte, the rain got worse and worse yesterday so the library was definitely out. I already had a book with me from yesterday morning and I couldn't risk getting it wet. Now something else has shown up, so I'm counting what I have out to see if I have enough room on my card for both of them. Just :-)



129. Mistresses of Cliveden: Three Centuries of Scandal, Power and Intrigue in an English Stately Home by Natalie Livingstone

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: I saw it reviewed

Cliveden is possibly best-known today as the country house at which John Profumo, a government minister, met Christine Keeler in the 1960s, lied in the House of Commons about their subsequent affair and had to resign. There was more to it than that, including Russian spies, a society osteopath accused of living off immoral earnings and even a judicial inquiry, but the swimming pool at Cliveden was the place where it all started. The author looks at the history of the house, from the time that the Duke of Buckingham built it in the 1670s, and specifically at the women who were the mistresses of the house. It's very well done, and beautifully produced - a lovely book to hold and to look at, with colour pictures throughout, and not just in sets of plates in the middle.

Have you ever been, Susan? I have read a couple of reviews of this, and it has made me curious about the building (assuming it's even open to visitors?). I'd like to read more about some of the old houses around here. As Lancashire has such a strong Catholic history, there have been a fair few stand offs against government religion. Another thing to add to the 'find out more about' reading list!

Charlotte, I've never been, and it's now a hotel but the gardens are open, according to the National Trust website, and people can join a "short tour" of the inside of the house on Thursday or Sunday afternoons. The author casually mentioned that her husband had bought the house in 2012 and, according to the Daily Mail, there are apparently more renovations going on with a view to capturing the "Downton dollar" from US tourists: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2631293/Forget-Christine-Keeler-...

Oh re the author's relationship with the house. Although to quash my cynical side for a bit, I'm sure there are less labour-intensive ways of promoting your grand opening than writing a book.

Happy new thread, Susan!

Happy new thead Susan! have you seen the first seven Poldark novels are part of the daily deal on Amazon UK today? I had a vague memory that you were thinking of rereading the series.

Still not got a fitbit, but tracked my walk with the OS updated map app today: fun to see how fast I was going (and how much I slowed down towards the end). Thought I had done incredibly well on the mileage and then realised it was still counting as I sat on the train home!

>26 charl08: Charlotte, yes, I suppose so. But still, I think I'll get *my* reclusive billionaire husband to buy me a stately home because the writing does sound like a fun project :-)

>27 scaifea: Thanks Amber!

>28 souloftherose: Thanks Heather! Also for the Poldarks - but I spent yesterday resisting, and succeeded :-) I like your plan of only buying Kindle books that are going to be read soon, and I wouldn't have got to them soon.

>29 charl08: Charlotte, ha! That app sounds good, though (train mileage notwithstanding) - I'll have to see if it's available in the BlackBerry app store. Actually, what I'll really have to do is make my roomie look for it. She now does all my front-line tech support. It's true what they say about young people - they're definitely the answer to all our techie needs :-)

I went out for my steps yesterday and got rained on so much that I didn't even dare go into McD's on the way home for an iced mocha frappe (no, I'm not being paid to promote them - it just seems like that). My jeans were so wet that walking felt like resistance training. But my new raincoat kept the rest of me reasonably dry - I don't think it was intended for two hours of heavy rain, though. However, I did my steps, and then spent the rest of the day hunkered down with my library books.



130. More Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: It's the second in the series

This is another well-plotted instalment in the lives of the tenants at 28 Barbary Lane, and I'm going to get book 3 from the book exchange downstairs to read over my holiday.



131. War Crimes for the Home by Liz Jensen

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: I recently read My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time by this author

I liked this one even more. Gloria Winstanley is an old lady living in a care home, who may or may not have dementia, which means that she may or may not be able to remember what happened to her during the war. This becomes important to her family when a box of mementos shows up, raising questions about Gloria's life.



132. The Little Girl Who Fought the Great Depression: Shirley Temple and 1930s America by John Kasson

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: Random library book. New, clean, cute cover - what's not to like?

I thought I'd read the first couple of chapters of this last night, but ended up reading it all, finishing at about 10.30, and even recording the new Tommy and Tuppence series on BBC One so I could keep reading. Cultural historian John Kasson looks at the "Shirley Temple" effect on America at the time of the depression, and it's a fascinating read, taking in not just Shirley herself, but the change in presidents from Hoover to Roosevelt and a very different way of being president and engaging with the people, the role of movies at a time when people needed hope and good cheer, the race issue in casting, the growth of privacy rights as a reaction to infringements on the lives of stars in the public eye and so on. Very highly recommended, and especially to people who've seen some of the films.

This morning I picked up The Great Explosion and How to Clone a Mammoth from the library. I also found a copy of Family and Kinship in East London on Saturday at the main library (which I hate) and Station Eleven. That one was in a display called "Tower Hamlets turns 50!" Maybe it was someone's prediction for the future of the borough.

>30 susanj67: I'm impressed by your resistance! I admit I had to stretch my definition of 'soon' a little bit but I decided I was allowed to do that for a series I'm in the middle of...

Nothing much to add except YAY for Liz Jensen.

>31 souloftherose: Heather, I do remember reading the series straight through the first time, so I think you did the right thing :-)

>32 charl08: Charlotte, I loved it!



133. Fire and Steam by Christian Wolmar

Where I got it: Kindle cheapie
Why I read it: General history reading

This is a history of the railways in Britain, although it's light on all the technical details of engines (thank goodness!) and more about how they developed during the 1800s and the different views held on whether they were a good or bad thing. In fact, it finishes in 2007, but the bulk of the book is about the earlier days. And if you've ever wondered why you can get to Cambridge from Liverpool Street *or* King's Cross, or to Windsor from Paddington *or* Waterloo, then the answer is the total lack of any central planning of the railways by the Government of the time. Private enterprise was entirely responsible for constructing them, and every new railway needed an Act of Parliament. Additionally, it needed navvies, who were feared for their rowdiness and drinking. (One company would only hire men who agreed to take part of their wages in beer, which didn't help the situation).

I thought it was excellent, although I see some reviews say that it left things out, but the author states at the beginning that it's such a huge subject that he wasn't even going to attempt to write about every single thing relevant to the railways. Interestingly, he discusses what he describes as the disastrous privatisation of the railways in the 1990s, and what might be done to make things better. As the book was written in 2007, I'd be interested to know what he thinks of Jeremy Corbyn's plan to renationalise the railways. The library across the road has three more of his books, all brand new and lovely, so I might get one for my holiday.



134. Evelina by Frances Burney

Where I got it: Kindle freebie
Why I read it: For the Group Read

I think I need to read more about this book in order to have an opinion about it. I found it mostly quite hysterical (not in a funny way) but it was the first book of its kind, and I know that the author was reflecting (and sending up) various styles of the time, so it might have worked better had I known more about that. Plus Lord Orville comes across as a total control freak rather than the romantic hero that he is supposed to be. I did love Captain Mirvan though - in his rudeness to Madame Duval he comes across as a literary ancestor of Uncle Matthew in the Nancy Mitford books.

>30 susanj67: I saw your post last night, and caught Tommy & Tuppence on catch up. I will be looking ot for the rest, that was a bundle of fun. >:-)

I bought 133 for hubby when it came out, but I might just have to borrow it.

>34 Helenliz: Helen, good news that it's worth a look. I know it can't possibly be as good as the Francesca Annis/James Warwick version but I'll give it a go.

I just went to the tiny library which is 5000 steps away (round trip) to get The London Underground Serial Killer, which was reviewed in the papers yesterday and amazingly still on the shelf. And I saw David Simon's Homicide on the new books shelf, so I had to get that too. It's brand new! And quite a chunkster. That makes nine books on loan, with one to pick up from the branch nearest work and one more on the way. Hmmm. My self-control really has deserted me this week, although I only have a weak grip on it at the best of times.

If nine is a lack of self control, I have a Problem...

>36 charl08: Well, it's back to eight now. I started The London Underground Serial Killer last night and it's just padding - the actual serial killer part would have filled about five pages. The rest was suburbs of south-west London, parks of ditto, a potted history of the Underground, a diversion into the Stockwell shooting in 2007 (totally irrelevant to the serial killer theme) and also a great big table of Bad People Who Have Killed and whether they count as serial killers or not. (I was interested to learn that Fred West *doesn't count* because he killed himself before he was convicted, so only his wife does). Basically pointless. I can't believe it got so much press coverage earlier in the week.

So I was cross at wasting my time with it, and I started it after slogging through another chapter of Dreamscapes (about model villages - not the tiny sort), in which the interesting information is hidden under a thick layer of psychobabble, so altogether it was a frustrating evening. But Vanished City: London's Lost Neighbourhoods is available to pick up at lunchtime, and I'm looking forward to that.

Susan - Isn't it awful to invest time in a book that is pointless? There are so many good ones waiting. I have to be better at stopping when I realize it's not working. Unfortunately, I usually push myself to finish. And then I am cross at the time wasted...

>38 BLBera: Beth, it is very annoying! Fortunately I hadn't read much before I started skimming to see if it got more relevant, and then gave up. I did wonder if maybe I should read it so I could count it, but then I got a grip...

I'm still plodding through Dreamstreets, but last night I started How to Clone a Mammoth and that looks really good. Tonight, however, is good TV so it will be crossword time for me as I learn about Arctic convoys in WWII and then about Prince Philip and how his uncle plotted to marry him off to the Queen.

If anyone in the UK hasn't already seen the documentary about convoy PQ17, presented by Jeremy Clarkson, it's on the Yesterday channel at 9 and is one of the best documentaries I've ever seen. I think it was on BBC2 at the beginning of last year. At 8 there's a more general programme on the convoys which is the one I plan to watch.

Hi Susan, I am impressed by all your documentary watching. My last one was Beware of Ginger Davies, which was just amazing, funny and at the same time sad. I think if he was young now he'd have been diagnosed with something or other and put on loads of medication and never pick up a drumstick in his life. To his credit the director / interviewer never got a psych talking head on to diagnose someone they've never met (have I mentioned this is a pet peeve?)

I've just seen that Amazon have brought the three Top Gear guys back together for a Prime series. I may have to work out more tech with the overclever TV so that my dad can watch. It would be so much easier if all this tech came with an assistant...

Oh my - Vanished City: London's Lost Neighbourhoods sounds very interesting - if it lives up to its title. Am looking forward to what you have to say about it.
Such a shame the serial killer book and the Yallop book seem to have turned out to be such a waste! If only there was a way to get that time back.

>40 charl08: (English) Charlotte, I've always been a documentary fan, but I definitely seem to be watching them rather than dramas now, instead of in addition to. It's the same with the reading - although I've read a fair few novels this year, without LT recommendations I doubt I would have read half the number. I'm just drawn to NF at the moment. The friend who sent me the "dismal narcissim" article says it's age, and her parents are the same, even though they're a *generation older than I am*. Humph. I was reading the TV guide on the bus last night, and I wished I had a highlighter to go through all the good stuff on next week :-)

>41 Fourpawz2: (American) Charlotte, I hope it will be. It's a funny little book that I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't reserved it - I was hoping for something bigger and grander with lovely paper, but it's more like a travel guide size - quite small. I should finish the Yallop tonight, if I can make myself. It's a shame because it's *such* an interesting topic, and there is stuff of interest in it, but too much woo-woo. Deborah Cadbury's book about the Cadbury family looked at Bourneville, which this book doesn't cover, and it was much better done.

Hi Susan!

>18 susanj67: what did you get? Was it Wayfaring Stranger? We had our book club discussion of this one today. None of us (excepting the lady who proposed it for the book club) had even heard of the author, and all of us LOVED it and plan to read more by James Lee Burke:)

Have a great weekend!

Anne, yes, that was the one! I plan to start it this weekend as it sounds like the sort of book I'll have to read all at once.

I'm at Waterloo right now, waiting for a train to Hampton Court, from where I plan to walk back into London along the river. I doubt I'll get all the way, but I'm hoping for 20,000 steps or so at least. I have a healthy snack (fruit and nuts) but may top it up with some chocolate buttons.

Oh, I love Hampton Court! You know, I bet you could rack up a lot of steps by wandering around in the maze. ;) I hope you had a lovely day.

>45 cbl_tn: Carrie, I did have a lovely day. I didn't go into the palace itself, but the station is at a convenient point for the Thames Path, and I walked along the river all the way to Kew Bridge, which was about 12 miles. There are quicker routes between the two points, but without the lovely houses to gawp at :-) There are some stunning houses with gardens right down to the river, and private moorings, and boathouses - sigh. I'm no longer moving into a warehouse conversion when I win the lottery - I'm moving to Thames Ditton. I had lunch in Richmond and walked on to Kew, but that was far enough. I'm closing in on 30,000 steps for today. Now I have to go back to Kew and continue the walk at some point.



135. Dreamstreets by Jacqueline Yallop

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: It looked interesting

Finally I've finished this! It's really slowed me down this week. It should have been a great read about model villages built by philanthropic employers, but it was bogged down by too much mental wandering by the author. I'd love to read something on this topic without all that. (And, contrary to my statement above, Bourneville does get a tiny mention, but only a paragraph or two).

Have you thought about taking a boat trip one way to Kew? I've done that before. I love the view from the river on a nice day.

>47 cbl_tn: Carrie, I've never been upstream before - only down to Greenwich. But I just looked up the company who does them, and there's one at 10.30 tomorrow from Westminster. Even better, it only takes 55 minutes. Hmmm! If not tomorrow then I'll definitely keep it in mind, as it would be much more scenic than the District Line.

Hope you have a good day. Did you see any herons on your walk? There used to be be several who would move between the ponds at the archive and the river at Kew (or thereabouts).

>46 susanj67: Wow, that's some impressive walking!

>49 charl08: Charlotte, I think I did see one, although there were some birds that turned out to be statues (including one owl on a houseboat) so possibly not :-) There were lots of geese, though, including one sounding off at length from the middle of the river, and a lot of swans. It was so great to walk a route that I've never done before and see completely new things. I decided not to continue on Sunday as there was a cycling event that closed a lot of London and Surrey, including many of the bridges and it wasn't clear from the website whether that was just for drivers or also pedestrians, so I didn't want to risk getting caught up in it all. I walked closer to home instead.

>50 souloftherose: Heather, I'm on holiday now and it was part of my holiday mega-steps :-)

Despite the holiday, I've been sucked into Drama at the office, so today has involved a call and various emails, but I managed to go to a photography exhibition at the Museum of London in Docklands, and then to the library to pick up a book, and then right around the Isle of Dogs and home again, so that was also very steppy. I decided to try The Breakfast Club at Canary Wharf for lunch, as my office roomie raves about it, and it was possibly the worst meal I've had in London. Abysmal. I had the pulled pork sandwich, but it was just lumps of lukewarm unflavoured pork which isn't what I understand by the term (I may have been watching too much Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives). The coleslaw looked like it just couldn't be bothered, and the chips were oversalted. Plus, of course, this being London, it cost a fortune. How I wished I'd gone to Chai Ki next door (also raved about by the roomie) where I had a fabulous lunch a couple of weeks ago. Humph.

Tomorrow I think I'll head back out to Kew and continue the Thames Path walk and see how far I get. And revert to McD's for lunch, because it's always reliably delicious. And did I mention the iced mocha frappes? Hmmm, there's one in Putney, according to their website, so I have to get at least as far as Putney.



136. Wayfaring Stranger by James Lee Burke

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: I saw Anne's excellent review

This was indeed an excellent read, full of incident and very bad people, starting right at the beginning with Bonnie and Clyde, encountered by the protagonist when he was a teenager. I loved the sense of place, and I'll definitely look out for more by this author. This is a book I would never even have heard of without LT, so thanks Anne for a superb recommendation!

You should make your office roomie reimburse you the cost of the lunch!

ETA: Happy holidaying! Can't wait to see all the reading you do.....

>51 susanj67: I'm sorry about your unappealing lunch! It sounds like they don't know what they're doing with their pulled pork sandwich. You probably do know more about it than they do from DD&D. Pulled pork is often served plain here in the South, allowing you to add the barbecue sauce to your taste. The sauce may be in bottles on the table, or it may be on a condiment stand. Some barbecue places offer a range of sauces from sweet to spicy. Each region of the U.S. has its own sauce, and of course each region thinks its sauce is the best! (I prefer Carolina sauce with a mustard base instead of a tomato base, since I'm allergic to tomatoes.) Coleslaw served with pulled pork is often bland, possibly because a lot of people add it to the sandwich instead of eating it as a side.

Have you tried the ones in Borough Market? Mouth watering at the thought. (Now looking with regret at a baked potato and salad!)

>52 katiekrug: Katie, ha! I'd be too scared :-)

>53 cbl_tn: Carrie, there was no separate sauce, sadly. But that does sound like a good idea. Basically it looked like it had been pre-assembled and microwaved, hence the chunks of pork. They couldn't even be bothered pulling it! On DD&D ("with Guy Fee-airy", as the UK Food Network continuity announcers persist in saying it) they often have lovely rubs and roasting and it all looks amazing. Plus I have learned how to say "chipotle", which is not how I would have thought :-)

>54 charl08: Charlotte, no I haven't. Maybe I could check it out later in the week. Sorry about that baked potato!

I think I have Too Many Books. I'm reading How to Clone A Mammoth but I picked up The Raj at War today to add to the pile. I thought it would take ages to come in, but no. Still, Ghettoside, which has been on the list since February, is still no closer to being here.

My husband makes the best pulled pork. He smokes a pork butt (shoulder) himself in the back yard, which takes hours and hours and hours, and uses his own dry rub, and it's a bit spicy but not crazily so. The meat ends up so flavorful and not too dried out. I like to pile it on a regular hamburger roll and add a bit of sweet barbecue sauce. It's also good with raw onion on top, or a thin slice of monterey jack cheese. YUMMO!

ETA: When (ahem) you come to visit Roberta and me, we will get you some good barbecue...

Susan, I love the Memphis style dry rub for ribs. For pulled pork, I like a sauce that is not too sweet and not too thick. I hate mustard based barbecue sauces, but that is because I hate mustard. That is more of a South Carolina thing than North Carolina. North Carolina has a vinegar based sauced, and the further east you get the more vinegary it is. I also don't like the sauces that are really thick.

>57 thornton37814: The mustard-based BBQ sauce is typical in the tidewater area of North Carolina according to my friends from that area.

I'm sitting here drooling. But I do get to go to a food friend's for a happy hour after work, so there's that. There will be some good things there.

I loved Ghettoside; I'll be anxious to see what you think of it when you finally get your hands on it.

Thanks for reminding me about Ghettoside - there are two copies in Islington, one on the shelves, and one on order at my local Haringey branch. I should have an Islington space free by the end of the week so will place a reservation now.

No I won't, as a surprise reservation, A God in Ruins has suddenly come through! I was 4th in the queue and am still showing as #2, but more than one copy must have come through the system.

My North Carolina friend just called so I got the scoop on the barbecue sauce. The mustard sauce some of her friends make is a variation of the vinegar based sauce, and it seems to be different from the South Carolina mustard sauce. She says that where she's from they also use a different sauce for things like barbecued chicken instead of the sauce they use for pulled pork.

You really need to do a southern tour to sample the barbecue from different regions!

Hope the Raj at War is good. I thought it's probably a chunkster. Am I right?

>56 katiekrug: Katie, pork butt is *shoulder*? Huh. I thought it was just Guy being coarse :-) From what I see on TV, family recipes for the rubs and sauces and closely-guarded secrets. Your husband's method sounds delicious.

>57 thornton37814: Lori, I think I will have to try everything so I can make up my mind :-)

>58 cbl_tn: Carrie, I'm adding both the Carolinas...

>59 BLBera: Beth, I hope the happy hour was fun and foody :-)

>60 elkiedee:, >61 elkiedee: Luci, I wondered why it was taking so long, so I looked up my reservation and I see I've reserved the paperback and there are only three copies. But there are lots of copies of the hardback on the shelves everywhere. Usually the library just sends whatever version arrives first, but for some reason they haven't done that. I'll go and pick one up when I've finished a few things, and cancel the reservation. I hope A God In Ruins is good - that's on my "get it when I see it" list, which may be a while.

>62 cbl_tn: Carrie, I really do! The visa waiver scheme give me three months. I may need to get an actual visa for longer :-) I can imagine the interview - "I want to visit so I can eat barbecue. And grits. And visit a Piggly Wiggly. Who are those men and why do they have handcuffs?"

>63 charl08: Charlotte, it's 321pp so not too bad.

I'm making slow progress at the moment, partly because I'm walking a lot more (14,000 steps already today, although that will probably be all as it's steamy hot outside). I hope to finish at least one book this afternoon, though. This morning I took a couple of books back to the branch nearest me, and then walked up to the Guildhall Library which was advertising an exhibition about the plague of 1665. It was only about 20 exhibits, though, so quite disappointing in terms of scope. But they had one of the registers of parish deaths open, and I was interested to see that as well as plague, there were deaths from "Fright" and "Grief", and also "wormes" (eeeew!). Another cause of death was "suddenly". I'm assuming that means a heart attack or a stroke, and I suppose "fright" could also mean a heart attack. "Rising of the lights" stumped me, but the internet suggests that it meant croup. So it seems I did learn something after all. They had a volume of Samuel Pepys's diary open and it was a beautiful book - it must be lovely to read it in hard copy instead of freebies from the internet.

Another tube strike starts this evening, and lasts all of tomorrow, so my steps will be close to home.

137. Family and Kinship in East London by Michael Young

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: This book has been mentioned over and over in my social history reading, so I thought it was time to hunt down a copy and read it

In this classic sociology text, the authors look at family and kinship in Bethnal Green, east London, as part of an inquiry into post-war rehousing strategies. As I've seen in previous books, a lot of rehousing took place by moving families out to suburbs or New Towns, and the authors were interested to see whether this was the best solution, or whether it led to the fracturing of extended family relationships and a lack of support for the very young and the very old. The conclusions (basically yes it would, and should be rethought) are accepted today, but at the time must have seemed quite "anti" the prevailing wisdom that lovely new houses with inside plumbing and gardens would improve people's lives so much that nothing else mattered. They argue that the post-war concentration on the buildings themselves meant that other issues were overlooked. And, as tower blocks in particular are pulled down now, accepted to have been a failure in social housing, they've been proved right. (I think there has been more success with "normal" houses at ground level).

Recommended for anyone interested in social history, and LTers who like Call the Midwife may also enjoy this. Although the programme is set in Poplar and the book looks at Bethnal Green, the areas are pretty much next to one another, and a lot of the findings about people's behaviour will be recognisable from the TV series.

138. How to Clone a Mammoth: The Science of De-Extinction by Beth Shapiro

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: I saw it reviewed on Jennifer's thread

I *loved* this popular science book about whether, and how, it might be possible to bring back extinct species. Notwithstanding that there is work going on with various species, the author admits that it's "always the mammoth" that people focus on, and she sets out to answer some of the questions that she's been asked over the years about whether "de-extinction" is possible and whether or not it's a good idea. As she explains, there are a lot of issues to consider, and "should we?" is really just as important as "can we?" (particularly once we can, which we can't yet, but might be able to soon, sort of). Despite discoveries of frozen or mummified mammoths, it's not possible just to dig one up and clone it (contrary to what the media tends to make us think). There will never been an actual mammoth again, but there might be elephants with genes altered to express the essential qualities of a mammoth, meaning that they could repopulate Siberia and help to recreate the environment of the time when mammoths last lived. Someone's already created a Pleistocene Park in which they could live. It's a really good introduction to the topic, and although there are parts which are quite technical, she always brings it back to a generalist level. It's a book that I'd be interested to revisit in 30 years if I'm still around, and see how far the science has got by then. That's if I'm not in Siberia riding a mammoth, of course...

Wow, Susan I am in total admiration of how much walking you are getting done! You've got me in the mood to jump on the treadmill for awhile. You've also got me daydreaming of BBQ! I think I need a trip through the States to try all these different sauces out as well, my BBQ education is sadly lacking.

>65 susanj67: Sounds really good. This reminds me I have a vague idea to read the Booth's report which started so much reform at the beginning of the 20c.

>67 DeltaQueen50: Hi Judy! Holiday makes it a lot easier to get the steps in, so I'm making the most of it. Or at least I will be once a small shower passes over...The Food Network is introducing me to all sorts of US dishes that don't feature here. I'm currently watching someone making hush puppies, and frying catfish :-)

>68 charl08: Charlotte, it really was, and some of the old attitudes still continue among the old East End population. One of their findings was that Bethnal Greeners viewed "up West" with great suspicion, and seldom left the borough. When I worked in the City I used to get the bus up there with a cockney lady who'd lived in Wapping all her life (but she was only about my age, so not a real old-timer) and I mentioned once that I'd been somewhere which would have qualified as "up West" and she looked totally bemused, like I'd said "Mars", and said she'd never been there. That amazed me as it wasn't far at all, but I suppose it's a psychological barrier. As an outsider I just don't have the same ties to the locality, I suppose.

Today I really want to try and finish The Great Explosion, but it's another one of those books which is really All About The Author, and not really about the disaster in question. Annoying. I might start Homicide and The Raj at War later if I make decent progress. But here is some sun, so out I go, into tube strike London. I wonder if I'll see a fight in a bus queue. That could be exciting.

Happy New Thread, Susan. Just waving from Paris.

>69 susanj67: I find that London village thing bizarre. I lived in Walthamstow for a while, and volunteered across the border in Essex, and although it was only a few miles it amazed me how people would refer to places in the city as somewhere they went to decades ago - particularly striking to me as I had grown up without the benefit of the tube and integrated transport systems.

>70 Ameise1: Thanks Barbara! I hope Paris is fun.

>71 charl08: Charlotte, I agree. But apparently it's similar today with the immigrant community here - lots of Tower Hamlets kids have never left the borough, according to things I've read. And yet there's so much that's fun to do in London, and lots that's also free. Plus, kids under 11 travel free on buses, and free on other forms of transport with an adult who has a valid ticket. I couldn't imagine having to spend my whole life here and never leave (Tower Hamlets is in the top ten most miserable boroughs to live in Britain, according to a news story this morning). There's a follow-up book by one of the authors of Family and Kinship, which looks at more recent changes, so I want to get that one too.

Yesterday I had a bit of a booky pick and mix afternoon, and I've started everything now except Station Eleven, which I'll try this afternoon. The reading isn't going as speedily as I'd hoped, but the Lovatts Crossword competition entries are coming along well :-)

I'm about 100 pages into Station Eleven, which is really good, but I've also started Vanished City: London's Lost Neighbourhoods, which is already grossly gripping. The first chapter is about Clare Market (now Kingsway/Aldwych) and the author comments that:

"The fetid atmosphere is illustrated by the macabre story of Enon Chapel. In 1822 William Holmes built a dissenters' chapel a little north of today's St Clement's Passage, where he served as the minister. He extended his duties to include the illicit burial of the dead under the chapel floor. He sold the burial clothes from the corpses, having boiled them clean, and burned the wood from their coffins in his hearth, leaving the bodies rotting in a basement vault.

The chapel closed in 1835, but it was not until 1844 that excavations for a new sewer led to the bodies being discovered - 12,000 of them. Remarkably, nothing was done even then, and the building was used for a further three years - as a prize-fighting ring, a casino ring, a concert room and a penny theatre - all on top of a pile of rotting corpses. This was gleefully advertised as "Enon Chapel - Dancing on the Dead - Admission Threepence. No lady or gentleman admitted unless wearing shoes and stockings." It was only in 1848 that the bodies were disinterred and reburied at West Norwood Cemetery. This grim story gives a vivid sense of the general odour levels in the neighbourhood, which made it possible to ignore a vast pit of putrefying corpses for the better part of 25 years."

Hi Susan - I'm using Station Eleven for a class this semester, and have started a reread. It's even better than I remembered. Vanished City: London's Lost Neighborhoods sounds fascinating, too.

>74 BLBera: Beth, it will make a great book for discussion!



139. Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: LT buzz

Ooh, this was terrific! It's not a book I would have picked up if I hadn't seen it here, but I was intrigued by the rave reviews. I read the whole book this afternoon, which I think was just as well as the timeline was quite intricate and really required concentration. But also I had to know what happened next. I must look out for this author's other books now.

Oh my word! I want Vanished City more than ever now. And I had to, had to, had to add Station Eleven to the ol' wishlist, That's the 27th book recommended by you on my various lists - more than any other LTr, I believe. You've most likely recommended a lot more, but I've only allowed myself 27 - so far.

If I go blind, you are going to owe me a dog....

Wow, you read Station Eleven in one afternoon! I can recommend her other books - I really enjoyed both Last Night in Montreal and The Singer's Gun - but they have a slightly different tone/feel to them in that they aren't post-apocalyptic.

I just read Station Eleven last month, and also really enjoyed it. Didn't quite do it in one sitting, but did manage it in two. I haven't read any of her other books either.

I am just amazed at your step totals, Susan. I feel totally wimpish.

> 75 So glad you enjoyed this, I was also desperate to find out more about what happened to the characters.

>77 lkernagh: I didn't know shed written other books, will keep my eyes out for those (maybe after I've made progress on the current pile!).

>76 Fourpawz2: Charlotte, 27? Gosh :-) I hope you like them when you get to them!

>77 lkernagh: Thanks Lori - I'll keep an eye out at the library.

>78 ronincats: Roni, it's all down to my holiday :-) I did have a bit of a rest day yesterday but got back to it this morning, and Fitbit sent me my "Hot Air Balloon" badge for 2,000 flights of stairs climbed, which is totally wrong but encouraging anyway!

>79 charl08: Charlotte, her first one is in the Kindle Monthly Deals for this month although reviews seem mixed.

I now have four books left in the pile, which I'm planning to read for an hour at a time and see how I get on. That's my goal for this afternoon, as well as finishing an envelope of competition entries :-)

I've read The Lola Quartet, which is very different from Station Eleven, and I liked it very much. But it's not in the category of Station Eleven.

>81 BLBera: Thanks Beth :-)



140. The Great Explosion by Brian Dillon

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: I saw it in one of the Guardian book sections on Charlotte's thread

Ostensibly the story of an explosion at a munitions works in Kent in 1916, this is mostly a ramble around the author's head, which makes it a very annoying read. It took more than a hundred pages to get to the actual explosion, and he misses no opportunity to off on a tangent and talk about something else instead of *getting on with the story*. Disappointing.

>82 susanj67: Hopefully your next read will be better.

>82 susanj67: Boo! What's the next book?

>83 thornton37814: Lori, the next ones are definitely more promising!

>84 charl08: Charlotte, I've got Vanished City, Homicide and The Raj at War going in rotation. So far so good! And Moral Tribes on the Kindle, but that's going fairly slowly.

141. The Vanished City: London's Lost Neighbourhoods by Tom Bolton

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: I saw it mentioned somewhere

This is a great little book about ten of London's lost neighbourhoods - places that have been pulled down (or in the case of Cripplegate, burned down) and which have turned into something else as they've been rebuilt. Who can now remember Cripplegate (Barbican), Ratcliff (Shadwell/Wapping) or the original Chinatown, in Limehouse? There's lots of history in this, and much amusing trivia. The House of Lords, for example, used to have a Committee on Spiritual Destitution. I don't think that one's still around. I was also amused by this advice for 18th century travellers contemplating a journey from Streatham into London:

"In the latter days of the last century, the journey from Streatham to London, through the country, was far too dangerous to be attempted by night, unless with a strong escort, and even in the daytime the adventurous traveller had need to be fully armed."

Still good advice today, according to one of my friends who lives down that way ;-)

This might be best appreciated by people who know London fairly well, and can picture what now stands where these old neighbourhoods used to be, but it's interesting anyway in terms of how cities change over time.

>86 susanj67: I might actually find that one interesting even though I'm one of those "armchair travelers" to the city.

>86 susanj67: - ..and now it's officially on the ol' wishlist.

>86 susanj67: I spent a couple of months in Streatham years ago and I would agree with your friend.

>87 thornton37814: Lori, it's not a very long read, so it wouldn't be a huge time commitment if you wanted to try it.

>88 Fourpawz2: Charlotte, does that make 28? (I'm nervous now)

>89 cbl_tn: Carrie, LOL! Yes, some things never change.

I'm getting on well with Homicide but it's a real chunkster, so it's going to take a while longer. Tomorrow I'm vaguely planning to walk from North Greenwich to the Thames Barrier and then back into Greenwich proper, but I'll see what the weather's like first, as after the baking heat of the last week they're now saying rain. Only three more days of holiday left :-(

>82 susanj67: When done well, books like The Great Explosion can be really good to me, but it takes a very good author to do it. Sorry this one didn't work out!

Hope you had a good walk. I have a book related injury, so no walking for me!

>91 drneutron: Jim, I've read some great disaster stuff, but this just didn't hit the mark. Frankly I think it needed a lot more editing, but maybe this "All About Me" type of NF is the new thing. I'll stick to older things if that's the case!

>92 charl08: Charlotte, oh no! Did you drop a dictionary on your foot? Put your back out with the haul from Edinburgh? I hope you recover soon, and it doesn't stop you reading as well as walking.

I went up into the city this morning instead of going to Greenwich, and as I walked through the marina I saw the usual gin palaces and houseboats, and then this, sitting quietly among them:



It's the Queen's rowing barge Gloriana, probably most famous from the Diamond jubilee celebrations. And no-one was looking at it! So on the way back I took this picture. I suppose the original version was the superyacht of its day :-)

>93 susanj67: - That looks like my rowing barge! What a small world...

>93 susanj67: It had been suggested that I could have bought less (fewer?) books and avoid the back issues. Heresy, I say!

A bit shocked by the barge in plain sight. It didn't have a for sale sign, did it?

>94 katiekrug: Katie, it *is* a small world!

>95 charl08: Charlotte, I think the way to look at it is that your back will be better in a few days (but ouch in the meantime) but you'd be kicking yourself if you'd left all those books behind :-) The barge is down here after an event last weekend, according to its Facebook page. I just couldn't believe it wasn't swamped by tourists taking pictures. I felt I should make up for that.

I've made some more progress with The Raj at War this evening, and it's really good. It does, however, refer to lots of events about which I know nothing (the 1943 famine in Bengal, the retreat of Indians from Burma after the Japanese invaded) and which I now want to read more about. Dang.

>90 susanj67: The only U.S. library showing holdings for it on Worldcat is University of Michigan. I suspect I won't get to it anytime soon.

Last Night in Montreal is a Kindle offer just now for £1.19

Bit surprised if Tower Hamlets kids have never been out of borough at all. Not even school trips. My kids have been to central London museums and Clacton (of all places) with school, though they get about a bit with us as well.

Dropping in to wave and hi! Finally back to LT. Sort of anyway!

#93 What a nice surprise to stumble upon!

>98 elkiedee: Bit surprised if Tower Hamlets kids have never been out of borough at all They might have been on school trips, but they may not have been at other times. When I was working in the City the company I worked for did a mentoring scheme for poorer kids from Tower Hamlets, and a lot of them just hadn't been elsewhere at all.

I think the schools struggle with the compulsory contribution clause don't they? I remember a friend saying years ago that legally they have to tell parents it's not compulsory you pay for the trip - but that the school have to cover costs for the trip to go ahead. So a lot if things just didn't run that you would expect in a more affluent neighbourhood.

>97 thornton37814: Lori, never mind. I'm sure you won't run out of other things :-)

>98 elkiedee: Luci, I saw that but it seemed to have mixed reviews, so I am holding off for the time being.

>99 BekkaJo: Hi Bekka! Welcome back :-)

>100 SandDune: Rhian, it's sad, isn't it? It seems to be a poverty of expectation as well as money, really. There is apparently a big psychological barrier with Canary Wharf too, which stops local kids thinking of it as a place that they could work. My firm does community outreach which get kids onto the estate and into the building so they can get used to that environment and not see it as somewhere they could never go. The primary school kids are the funniest, particularly on Christmas lunch day, which involves a concert (by them) and then lunch with party hats and Santa. Their reading and maths mentors (who visit the school every week) have to go too, and smile through the screaming :-)

>101 charl08: Charlotte, I'm sure that's right. There are some good school trip-y places in the borough, including the Tower of London, the Museum of Childhood, the Docklands Museum and a couple of city farms, but I doubt there's a lot of cash to go much further afield, or at least to do it often.

This is the last day of my holiday, and I haven't done as much reading as I planned to, but today I took some books back to the library and got the second one in the Family and Kinship series. I was going to wait until tomorrow but they're forecasting a month of rain in the next two days, and I can't take library books out in the wet. I came home and walked to the supermarket near me to finish my steps, and tried and failed to buy a rotisserie chicken. The four staff chatting to one another on the bakery counter told me I would have to wait until the deli assistant had finished the complicated order she was doing for someone else before I could get my chicken. Presumably they intended to stand and watch me. So no chicken for me (I just wouldn't give them the satisfaction). I've emailed the store to suggest that perhaps they could explain to their staff the connection between customers buying stuff and wages being paid, because none of them seems to have the first clue. So dinner is a M&S salad and garlic bread. I'm sort of looking forward to getting back to the office tomorrow for the canteen. I've actually had to start cooking, if frittatas and Boston beans count (the latter with the help of a sauce from M&S).

I always enjoy your snarky comments about unhelpful shop assistants!

>103 katiekrug: Katie, I had a corker last week too (except it was funny). I went to a big supermarket which has a cafe, and as I'd walked for ages to get there, I decided to have something to eat and a nice cold bottle of water. There was a girl ahead of me in the queue, trying to get a lasagne and chips, and an old-time East Ender and his wife behind me, who wanted two cakes and coffee. He sent his wife to get a table and sit down, while he waited with the cakes, so there were three of us standing there while the staff faffed around endlessly, carefully not looking at any of us, like they could pretend we weren't there. "They're just chatting," I commented to the man, who'd asked me if I too was trying to get hot food. "That's all they ever do 'ere," he said darkly. The faffing continued. No progress was made in the direction of service. Then an employee from another part of the shop came over and started looking at the lasagne, and commented that she might just pay for her lunch now. She moved towards the till. "If no-one minds," she said. "No, you carry on," said the man, "we've got all day." But the sarcasm was lost on her, and the others continued pretty much *literally* running round in circles. He and I were laughing at each other by this point, and even the teenager in front of me turned round and started to smile at us. *Eventually* we got served, but I'm not sure what finally alerted them to the presence of paying customers.

I find that kind of thing so incredibly annoying! It wouldn't occur to me not to do *my* job, and I'm not even in a customer service position. That is their raison d'etre! If it makes you feel any better, it's not a problem limited to London :(

I had exactly the same thing last weekend. I went into a shop which is well-known for the staff standing around and chatting. And sure enough, when I went in there was one person on the till, who was actually helping customers make a decision about what to buy so wasn't ringing up any sales. The four other salespeople were standing in a little huddle leaning on the displays having a loud conversation about whose boyfriend said what to who. I actually did complain - said I didn't mind waiting if they were busy but I certainly did mind waiting just so the staff could finish their personal chats!

Happy Back-at-Work Day, Susan!

>105 katiekrug: Katie, it does make me feel a bit better :-) I *am* in a customer service role, as a person with clients, and, while I'm paid more than a supermarket assistant, it would just never occur to me to be so fantastically unhelpful to someone wanting to pay for my product (or, in my case, service). It's drummed into us over and over. Sheesh. Sometimes I wonder whether my words go through some sort of weird sound warp, so that I *say* e.g. "Please could I have a chicken?" and they *hear* "I need you to donate a kidney."

>106 SandDune:, Rhian, I feel your annoyance! There's a department store chain in NZ where my father insists that the staff are trained to run into the back room whenever they see a customer :-) Another bugbear is when they do finally grudgingly allow you to pay them money, but then carry on a conversation with the person at the next register (or just leaning around) the whole time, so you may as well be invisible.

>107 katiekrug: Thanks Katie! It was Chinese day in the canteen, which included egg fried rice, kung pao chicken, beef with oyster sauce and so on. Yum! Funnily enough, I was just thinking about you as I was delving into the *boxes* of stuff donated to the book exchange while I was away. I found three Christopher Buckley novels! Also Kate Fox's Watching the English, and a book by Iain Sinclair. Yay! And when I read Wayfaring Stranger a couple of weeks ago, which involved Bonnie and Clyde at the beginning of the book, I thought I'd really like to read more about them. The library had nothing, but one of the boxes today had Go Down Together: The True Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde. What are the odds?!! So I got rid of a lot of loose change in the donation box for all of those.

>108 susanj67: love the book exchange account - any news on the new offices' provision?

>108 susanj67: - Which Buckley books were they? I hope Florence of Arabia was one, as that is my very favorite...

>109 charl08: Charlotte, not yet, but the hairdressers aren't moving till the end of the year so we must have the space until then. There was some other great stuff there today (Guns, Germs and Steel and We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families) but I'd read both of those, sadly. As there is no additional space I started weeding out NF books that *I* don't like, so moronic-celebrity bios went, and various other stuff, and it's looking much better.

>110 katiekrug: Katie, The White House Mess, Wet Work and No Way to Treat a First Lady. So no Florence, but who knows what tomorrow might bring?!

Oh. My. STARS! The most amazing thing has happened. I just went back down to the book exchange to pick up another couple of things (self-control - still missing, so now I have The Ascent of Money and Boomerang) and my favourite hairdresser, who looks after things for me when I'm away by emptying the returns box and stashing the books somewhere safe, was reading I Am Malala. This is the same young woman to whom I once tried to peddle various novels, only to get the response "I don't read books". And now she's reading one! From the book exchange! Further, she said it was really good. Yay!

Wow. That's lovely.

>112 susanj67: - Fantastic! Look at you, Susan, spreading book love all over :)

>113 charl08: - The White House Mess is pretty good, but maybe a little dated by now. I am not familiar with Wet Work - will have to look for that one. No Way to Treat a First Lady is pretty amusing. On my next trip to London, I am bringing you Florence...

>112 susanj67: That's excellent. No such thing as a non-reader, they're just a potential reader who hasn't found the right book yet.

>113 charl08: Charlotte, I was so thrilled! I walked home and I was smiling all the way. I think it's the first time I've ever made a difference to someone's life.

>114 katiekrug: Katie, and there is so much love to spread! I think Wet Work is a crime novel - a quote on the back describes it as "one of the funniest thrillers for years - a cross between Raymond Chandler and Catch 22." But I just saw "Buckley" and grabbed it :-)

>115 Helenliz: Helen, I agree! I'm now wondering what else she might like. Maybe she's a non-fiction reader rather than a fiction person.

>116 susanj67: I'm sure that's not true! I wonder if she's seen any of the TED talks, maybe that would be a way to get her interested in other writers / activists too? I love that it was the Malala book. So many great ideas about literacy, tolerance and feminism encapsulated in her story.

ETA: Not true that this is the first person, not that reading won't change her life...

>117 charl08: Charlotte, that's a great idea :-) I've found a TED talk by her father about how he brought her up, so next week I'll ask if she'd like me to send her a link to it. There are links to lots of other talks about women's education at the bottom of the page.

I went to the little library at Cubitt Town at lunchtime (for the steps, obviously) and got A Brief History of Seven Killings, which they had in paperback but it's still quite a chunkster, and also Ghettoside. Well, it was *right there*. Actually it wasn't to start with - the 364s were empty, but then I discovered the "True Crime" section a short distance away. And it was in there, with Jack the Ripper. The Canary Wharf branch has a whole section on Jack the Ripper, with its own shelf marker and everything. Yesterday a Jack the Ripper book turned up in the book exchange, so now we have a Jack the Ripper section too :-) (But no marker. Yet). "One book?" said one of my pals up here. "It's called a baby step," I explained.

Now I have so many books I don't know what to do with myself. The weekend plan is:

Finish Homicide, which is excellent (but long, with small print)
Finish The Raj at War
Finish On Immunity: An Inoculation which I just had a tiny peek at when I downloaded it yesterday, because it would have been silly not to, and inevitably I kept reading
Start the new Family and Kinship book
Start Ghettoside
Start A Brief History of Seven Killings

Hmmmm. That could be overly optimistic. Tomorrow I'm planning a trip to Niketown at Oxford Circus (thereby raising the average customer age by about 20 years) in search of a pair of sneakers that I saw in the Guardian.



Look how cute! I love the soft colours and the knit fabric. But I can't find this colour on their website, so I wonder if I'm looking in the right place. I'd like them to wear when I meet my visitors to London next weekend.

Nice looking sneakers, Susan! And they look as if they might be comfortable, too. Good luck tracking them down.

The sneakers look beautiful. I hope they are comfy, too.

>119 Fourpawz2: Thanks Charlotte! I've found them already, thanks to the query form on the Nike website (answered in minutes! Very impressive) but they look different on the Nike website, which is what confused me. They're these ones:



Quite a difference in colour (at least on my monitor). But I'll try them and see. "I like that colour much better!" said my roomie, which was not entirely the right answer, but she can wear bolder colours than I can. The pastels suit my vampiric colouring better. I rang Niketown and they have eight pairs of my size in stock. This is all suspiciously efficient, I must say :-)

>120 Ameise1: Thanks Barbara :-) I'm hoping for comfort as next weekend's meet-up is going to involve some steps :-) And then a bookshop.

>121 susanj67: Good luck with the shopping (and have fun at the meetup).

>118 susanj67: and >121 susanj67: - On my laptop at home this morning, the Nikes in 118 looked more grey. On my laptop here at the office, 118 and 121 look exactly the same - kind of green, grey and mauve. I like them!

>122 charl08: Thanks Charlotte. With eight pairs in stock I'm hoping they'll be able to find some!

>123 katiekrug: Katie, I wonder now whether my monitor is playing tricks on me! 118 looks very muted to me, and 121 quite bright. Maybe they're somewhere in between. They have various other colours in the same style, but my roomie has nixed all of those :-( Honestly, it's just like having a daughter...

Well, sadly the shoes were not like either picture - their main colour was a bright yellow, which doesn't come across at all from the pictures. So that was a cheap day out :-) But I picked up the latest issue of Lovatt's Puzzle Collection, and saw a couple of tops at John Lewis which I'll order online and pick up near work. And I've done my steps :-)



142. Homicide by David Simon

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: Someone at work recommended this to me ages ago, and it's written by the guy who wrote The Wire (which is based on his second book) and I loved The Wire.

This is a great read. It follows the work of a group of detectives in Baltimore in the early 1990s and it's long, but it's beautifully written. Highly recommended. I think it's best read in quite big chunks as there are a lot of people in it and events to keep track of. I finished the last couple of hundred pages last night in three hours of non-stop reading. Why do I always get more done when I'm *not* on holiday, I wonder?

I believe that book was the basis for the TV show of the same name which was very good. Now I want to look for it on Netflix or Amazon...

>126 katiekrug: Katie, yes, there was a note about that at the end. That's not a series I remember hearing about, so I wonder whether it made it to the UK, or whether it was perhaps on a channel I don't have.



143. The Raj at War by Yasmin Khan

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: I saw it mentioned in Charlotte's roundup of Guardian reviews a little while ago

Wow, this is a fascinating read, all about WWII from the point of view of the people of India - those who fought for the British and those who were left to live through it as best they could. I knew virtually nothing about India's involvement, other than that Indian soldiers had fought, but I had no idea that India itself was in danger (or thought to be in danger) of invasion by the Japanese, and that there were blackout requirements and air raids in places like Calcutta, with lots of people also moving away from other coastal towns and into the interior. I'd also assumed that the soldiers signed up willingly, as it wasn't really India's fight, but the author describes the huge pressure put on recruiting officers and large landowners/employers to encourage people to fight and to get as many to enlist as possible. This is one of those books that makes me realise how little I really know. I've read a lot about WWII but, as the author says, "In Britain, post-war reconstruction and regeneration quietly erased the Indian contribution which was at odds with the story of plucky small-island British heroism and outdated in the heady days of post-war British modernism and architectural innovation." And, after reading this book, I definitely agree with her.

Is that "Homicide: Life on the Street" set in Baltimore? I LOVED that series. Great acting. I haven't seen it anywhere streaming...:(

Both the Simon and Khan books sound great.

David Simon also cowrote The Corner, a book and then a TV documentary series.

I loved the TV series Homicide too! It was a great show. Did Law & Order: SVU make its way across the Atlantic? Detective Munch is a carry-over from Homicide. After Homicide ended, they had the character move to NY and take a job with the SVU. It worked because they were on the same network, and there had already been a couple of crossover episodes with the casts of Homicide and Law & Order.

>128 BLBera: Beth, yes, that's the one. I have a copy that no-one else on LT has, according to the book page, so I think it's a brand new UK edition.

>129 elkiedee: Luci, yes, The Corner is the basis for The Wire, apparently to the annoyance of the detectives in the first book, because they didn't like the sympathy for the "baddies" (I paraphrase).

>130 cbl_tn: Carrie, I'm sure we have that Law and Order series over here as we seem to have most of them! I lost track long ago, and my "order-ism" means that I can't just watch random episodes :-)



144. On Immunity: An Inoculation by Eula Biss

Where I got it: Library ebook
Why I read it: I saw it in Charlotte's Guardian roundup (hmmm, there seems to be a pattern developing here...)

This is excellent. Prompted to investigate the pros and cons of immunisation while pregnant with her first child, the author looks at why vaccination is viewed so suspiciously by a lot of people today, and concludes that it's partly because of our seeing ourselves as an island, and (particularly babies) as something "natural" or "pure" which will be contaminated by "bad" chemicals. Never mind that a baby's gut is seething with bacteria even at birth, or that breastmilk put on retail sale would breach the FDA guidelines for levels of certain "nasties". She looks at how and when we started to see ourselves in such an individual way, instead of as beings that are part of, and dependent on, the community, and that includes a community of viruses and bacteria.

One of the criticisms made of people who are against vaccination today is that they've never seen people die of diseases like typhus, diphtheria and smallpox, so they don't realise how serious these diseases are. But it turns out that there's *always* been an anti-vaccination movement, right from the first days of compulsory vaccines in the UK, in the 1850s. I had no idea that was the case, imagining that people would have been queuing up for vaccines, but apparently people were suspicious of the motives of the authorities in making them available (and compulsory), and the term "conscientious objector" originally referred to people who refused compulsory vaccination, before it got its more common meaning of someone objecting to going to fight in a war.

Back then, vaccination was seen as something that the poor should undergo in order to protect the rich, but the author makes an interesting point that nowadays almost the reverse is true - it's the well-off whose vaccinations protect the poorer members of the community through herd immunity - people who might not have the stable home life that allows them to schedule all the necessary appointments, or the access to quality medical care (in some countries, anyway. In the UK cost isn't an issue for the standard childhood vaccinations as they are free at the point of delivery). She also touched briefly on the "vaccines are a tool of the West to oppress us" argument made by countries in which polio is still endemic, and looks at the rise in polio rates after campaigns were stopped due to attacks on the vaccinators. There's an amusing quote from a man in Nigeria who says he can't understand why the white man would go to all that trouble when he could just poison the Coca Cola.

It made me google around to see what kids are immunised against these days, and what I was immunised against when I was a child. I remember my brother getting measles when he was little, and I wondered why I hadn't also got it. We were both immunised against everything that it was possible to immunise against, so why had he got it when I didn't? My mother mentioned at one point that he'd had the vaccine too early. But I never thought to ask why I wouldn't have had it at the same age. I was quite astonished to read that there *was* no measles vaccine when I was born at the end of 1967. It only became available at some point in 1969. Knowing my mother, I would have had it on the first day it was available (probably first in the queue at the doctors) but by then I would have been at least 12 months old, and up to 24 months depending when it came out. By the time my brother was born at the end of 1970 it was available to all children, but, crucially, given at ten months old, which turned out to be too early for it to take properly, and hence a measles outbreak. The "History of Immunisation in New Zealand" that I found online noted that the age was increased to 12-15 months in 1974, which is when they must have realised what was happening. And MMR is now given at that age too. So, ironically, being born a year before the vaccine was available may actually have been what protected me. But there was no mumps vaccine when I was a child, and I also remember my brother getting that (poor boy). I think I had it too, and I know I had chicken pox.

There is still no chicken pox vaccine available there (or here) as part of the public health vaccine schedule, although I know there is in the US, and the author referred to her discussions with her son's pediatrician about that one, given that everyone used to get it and we all survived. I didn't realise that vaccination means you can't get shingles later on, so it sounds like quite a useful one. I remember having the rubella one when I was 12 (ah, the days of single vaccines - the gift that kept on giving), and then BCG in my first year at High School, much to everyone's terror, not at the vaccine but at the rumour that older kids came round and punched you on the arm afterwards and it really hurt) but after 13 I've had none apart from tetanus once after a bad fall. Now there are meningitis vaccines for students going to college, and the controversial HPV one, which I don't think I'd sign a daughter up for, what with HPV being entirely preventable *meaningful look at imaginary daughter*. But I think I'll have the new shingles vaccine once I'm the right age for it. That sounds like a really nasty disease to have.

I learned tons from this book, which is written in a very easy style, with only a tiny bit of woo-woo, and now I want to find out just what they were trying to vaccinate people for in the 1850s. Recommended.

>131 susanj67: I'm currently reading The Pox and the Covenant. It's about Boston's 1721 smallpox epidemic and Rev. Cotton Mather's campaign to convince the city's doctors to inoculate those who weren't already immune. Africans and Asians had a method of inoculation that had been written about in a scientific journal. It's been a tough sell so far.

I read a couple of days ago that there have been no new cases of polio in Africa for over a year. That seems to have been an important milestone for public health officials.

>132 cbl_tn: Carrie, that one looks good! Somehow a copy just fell into my Amazon basket and checked itself out. I don't know how these things happen...

That *is* good news about polio! It's so nearly gone, but just hanging on in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan.

>133 susanj67: It's one of those books where the idea is better than the execution. It helps to think of it as for a YA audience. The end notes and bibliography list mostly secondary sources. It's adequate for my purposes, and it's short.

>134 cbl_tn: Carrie, that's OK. It's not costing much, and it sounds like there will be some good recommendations in the bibliography notes!

I've read the first couple of chapters of A Brief History of Seven Killings this evening and it's certainly different. I think I'm a bit "read out" for the weekend, though, so I'll stop where I am on the new stuff tonight and pick up Moral Tribes again, as I want to get that finished soon.

>125 susanj67: Sorry to hear that the sneekers were the wrong colour.

Great review. Our library has a copy but with close to 900pp I'll take it once during holidays.

Hi Susan - Wonderful comments on the vaccine book. It sounds fascinating. I feel fairly strongly about vaccines, but it would be interesting to know more about the history.

>136 Ameise1: Barbara, yes, I think Homicide is probably a good holiday read, rather than something to read in little bits :-)

>137 BLBera: Thanks Beth. It really was a thought-provoking book, and particularly about the way we look at risk. Why do we fear sharks so much when mosquitoes are the deadliest creatures on the planet? (possibly because the people worrying about sharks don't have to worry about mosquitoes, I would say, but I see her point). And why do we obsess about e.g. formaldehyde in vaccines when it's also in paper towels, but we don't care about that? It's the thought of all that bad stuff injected into a Brand New(ish) Baby that freaks us out. I remember being very glad that I didn't have to make the MMR decision at the time when the MMR/autism scare was at its worst in the late 90s/early 2000s. A friend had a baby in 2000, and decided on single jabs when it was time, but you have to pay for those privately here unless there is some medical reason why the baby can't have the triple jab (but actually I see that the single mumps and rubella vaccines are not available any more, so I don't know what they do now). She made the same decision with her next baby, born in 2003, although that may have been partly because she wanted to give both children the same thing. She was more upset about the letter she got when the first one was a month old, inviting her to come to the doctor's surgery for the baby's BCG vaccination (given to all babies in parts of inner London where TB rates are high). When you have your baby in the fanciest private maternity hospital in London, you really don't expect that :-)

145. Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason and the Gap Between Us and Them by Joshua Greene

Where I got it: Kindle cheapie
Why I read it: This was either recommended in one of the ethics/morality/philosophy courses that I did on Coursera or edX, or I saw it just after I'd done a course and thought it would be interesting

And it *was* interesting. But long. (Not helped by distractions from library books). And, if you're likely to want to read the footnotes, get this in hard copy. There were no hyperlinked footnotes, just asterisks indicating the presence of additional material at the end. One asterisk for a line or two of material, two for a paragraph, and three for more. But there's no way of easily getting to that material and then back to the text on a Kindle. So it's a Kindle fail, but there was plenty for me in the main text and I didn't mind too much that I couldn't immediately get to the additional material. It's a huge file, with some 10,000 locations, but only 54% of it is actually the text and the rest is end notes and related material. Overall I thought it was very good, though, and I'd recommend it to people who like this sort of subject.

Have meant to read the Baltimore books for a while. Also meant to watch The Wire, but have yet to do either. Reading Love Nina at the moment. Some great comments about 80s London. It's making me laugh out loud and subject people to readings.

>140 charl08: Charlotte, I bought Love Nina for my sister-in-law for her birthday last year, but I haven't managed to get around to borrowing it from the library for myself.

Today H is for Hawk arrived at the book exchange. I put it with the animal books, wondering whether it really belonged there, being a memoir, but I see the library has it at 598.944, so I guessed right!

146. The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens' London by Judith Flanders

Where I got it: Kindle deal at some point
Why I read it: It's London history, one of my favourite things :-)

I loved this book, which looks at London during the time that Charles Dickens was writing. So it's not the whole time of Victorian London but there are occasional forays into what happened later, and also some references to Anthony Trollope's books. Not knowing a lot about Dickens' work won't spoil your enjoyment of this book. Mostly there are just references to characters seeing/doing/living like the things that the author is talking about. Actually it's made me want to read some more Dickens, knowing some of the things to look out for. Very highly recommended for anyone interested in the history of London. Once again it's a large Kindle file but only 60% is the main text of the book, with the rest being footnotes (hyperlinked) and the index.

Thought I recognized the name: she did the excellent Circle of Sisters, which I would recommend.

>143 charl08: Thanks Charlotte :-) There's one at Whitechapel, so I'll keep it in mind.

Well. The weather forecast for Saturday and the meet-up with Reba and Mr Reba is now for 29C and...tornadoes. That's right. American weather right here in London when we have a walk planned (triple Fitbit points as we're walking together - we're pretty sure it works like that, anyway). Humph. I really hope they change the forecast tomorrow. There were no tornadoes forecast yesterday, so that could happen.

I don't think it was a tornado, but I certainly got soaked on the way to and from work today. Hope your wet weather gear is more effective than mine...

Do I blame you or Katie for the link to the Blue Heron series, btw? Lovely distraction reading.

>145 charl08: - you can blame Susan, Charlotte, as she was the one who brought it to my attention, so she is, obviously, the root of all evil ;-)

Glad you find them a good distraction!

>145 charl08: Charlotte, if I were you I'd definitely blame K- >146 katiekrug: Oh, wait. Yes, I did find the first one. But Katie reminded me that all the others had been published and then I had to buy them.

>146 katiekrug: Hi Katie! I'm concentrating on older stuff on my Kindle, but those covers tempt me every day :-)

I'm meeting Reba and Mr Reba soon, for breakfast. "You're picking them up at WHAT time?" said my office roomie, aghast, when I outlined the morning. "It's breakfast," I said, but it's fair to say that she is not a morning person. Anyway, when I pick them up, at the very reasonable hour of 9am, we are going to breakfast at St Katharine's marina, which is a short walk away. It's not like we're heading straight out to climb a mountain. There's no sign of tornadoes so far - in fact it's a beautiful, still, hot morning. But it's going to be super-hot later, by which I mean 30C. The weather map on the news has temperatures in yellow, but the bottom of the 30C icon turns orange :-)

Hope you had a nice breakfast. I have been confounded by people suggesting 'breakfast' meetings at 10 and then wondering why I don't eat much (because by then it's breakfast 2, and I'm feeling quite full, and surely everyone else on a normal day has been up for hours? But obvs not.).

I wondered if you are going to read Georgian Menagerie. I really like the sound of it!

(On balance, and after much deliberation (!) I think you and Katie are mutually responsible for the Blue Heron shaped area on my kindle).

>148 charl08: Charlotte, yes we did! Reba and Mr Reba are lovely, lovely people and I had an awesome time. I'm so glad that I was able to meet them :-) We had breakfast and then went for a walk around the marina and over Tower Bridge and along Bankside and back over the Millennium Bridge, and then popped into Daunt Books, like all meet-ups should :-) The Gloriana is still at the marina, now with an information board in front of it and lo! People taking pictures :-)

I definitely want to read Georgian Menagerie - I saw it on your thread and meant to comment.

Happy Weekend, Susan.

Daunt Books! Love.

Jealous that you got to meet Reba... I'd be jealous that she got to meet you, but been there, done that ;-) The Wayne and I were talking about visiting London and commenting on the various people we would like to meet up with when we do, and of course, you were on my list!

Ok, The Victorian City was already on the ol' wishlist (found it on Heather's thread), but now it's got a recommended by you tag on it, too. And now Circle of Sisters is on the list (thanks, Charlotte!) and I want Georgian Menagerie, too. Going to have to rob a bank, I think.

86 Degrees! It's 86 degrees there? When Siri told me what 30C was, I truly gasped in horror. Why, it's hotter where you are than here and I know that is so wrong.

Glad you had a nice breakfast meet-up and that it did not include any tornados. That idea was horrifying, to me. Of all the various weather systems, that is the one that scares the pants off of me.

>150 Ameise1: Thanks Barbara :-)

>151 katiekrug: Katie, we went to the Cheapside branch, which has been there for a few years now. And it *is* lovely. Also, air-conditioning. You and Wayne must come to London for my new City and Bankside tour, which takes in all the new tall buildings (from the south side of the river, where they're easier to see) plus various other landmarks :-) And the Millennium Bridge, even though sadly it doesn't wobble any more.

>152 Fourpawz2: Charlotte, I remember Heather reading it too. I'm not sure whether I got my copy before or after that, but her review definitely moved it up my list. Yes, 86F! Actually I'm surprised the news people haven't switched to that, as it sounds even hotter. But maybe not quite as humid as it has been, and still no tornadoes. We are all still here and not in Kansas.



147. The Dragonfly Diaries by Ruary Mackenzie Dodds

Where I got it: Kindle cheapie
Why I read it: I was intrigued by the idea of a dragonfly sanctuary

As the subtitle says, this is the unlikely story of Europe's first dragonfly sanctuary, set up by the author in the 1990s. It was a charming read, not least because a lot of the preparation took place in the 80s, which, although it really wasn't that long ago, seems like another time now before the internet and the easy availability of information on just about everything. Also, it was a time when Holland Park was a place that normal people could actually live in. Old-time London! Enchanted by a dragonfly landing on his jumper in 1985, the author set about finding out more about them, and eventually creating an environment in the country in which a number of species flourished. True, it helps to have a girlfriend who's a Rothschild, with an eccentric aunt with a country pile giving plenty of room in the grounds, but most of the work was the author's own, and it was an interesting look into just what goes into setting up such a venture (and eventually becoming a charity).

>153 susanj67: - Hmmm. I wonder how they get the dragonflies to cooperate and stay put in their sanctuary. Are dragonflies really in need of a sanctuary? I wouldn't say they were as common as say ants are here, but their numbers don't seem to have gone down any from when I was a child. Saw a huge one just the other week at the barn organizing. When I was a kid we pretended to be terrified by them and would run around like crazy things, screaming as though our lives were in mortal danger. I think it was really just an excuse for us to run around in the hot sun. I think we did not have proper sense some of the time. You couldn't pay me to do that now. Well, maybe if it was a lot of money - say $100 for three minutes of running in the hot sun. And I'd need a big glass of excellent, real lemonade.

Glad to hear about the lack of tornados. And I agree about the switch to Fahrenheit. 86 sounds a lot more impressive. I imagine 86C would mean that people would pretty much boil to death inside their people-skins.

>154 Fourpawz2: Charlotte, I did wonder whether they needed a sanctuary, which was one of the things that attracted me to the book (maybe there was some near-extinction event that I'd missed hearing about) but I think it was more just creating an environment where many different types could gather - a sort of biodiversity thing, at a time when that really wasn't as fashionable as it is today (or maybe there wasn't the sense of urgency that there is today). Interestingly, the grandfather of the author's girlfriend was Charles Rothschild, who is now recognised as an early conservationist in this country, and who bought land with a view to the preservation of wildlife habitats, so in a way the sanctuary was carrying on that work I suppose. I also liked the parts about how they found volunteers to help, and how all sorts of people popped up offering to assist with the restoration of parts of the property, finding just the right piece of old machinery or other necessary widget, and all at minimal cost. It was a very collaborative effort that I suppose you see when people are all very keen on something, and everyone knows someone with a brother-in-law who might have just the thing...

I have my fingers crossed for no tornadoes tomorrow, but the news has dropped the weather now and is all about a terrible accident at an air show today, which killed seven people on a motorway as a plane crashed doing a loop-the-loop. Awful, awful story. Those poor people.

Oh my word! That's why I hate those air shows. Everybody on the ground is just such a target - and in this case the victims weren't even at the show. That is horrible. So sorry to hear about it.

So hot today wasn't it? I took Daisy out for a walk at 9.30 am and it was boiling by then. The plane crash was terrible wasn't it. I've never been keen on air shows myself, for the same reason as Fourpawz2.

>156 Fourpawz2: Charlotte, yes, I don't like them either, but they are very popular here. A couple of weeks ago a pilot died in one up North, but this time apparently the pilot was pulled from the wreckage and is still alive. That, I think, would be very hard to live with.

>157 SandDune: Rhian, hotter than the Seychelles and Barcelona, apparently! There's finally a bit of a breeze off the river, but I think tonight will just be a sheet, with the duvet folded well back out of the way!



148. The New East End: Race, Kinship and Conflict by Geoff Dench and others

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: It's a follow-up book to Family and Kinship in East London which I read recently

This is an excellent second book, based on research done in the 1990s into the "new" East End, but not published until some time after 2005, as it mentions 7/7 and the challenges of extremism. I can only wonder what the authors would think of how much worse that particular issue has become in the last ten years. It's definitely worth a look for people who live in the area, or people who read the first one and want to see how things have changed.

I think I'm going to give up on A Brief History of Seven Killings which just isn't maintaining my interest. And I still have a lot more of it to go. But that means I can start Ghettoside tomorrow.

Hope Ghettoside is more successful Susan. I guess Seven Killings won't be getting your vote for the Booker!

Just awful about the airshow. Poor families.

>159 charl08: Charlotte, I've got the press conference on Sky at the moment and they're saying that they're still looking for bodies, and will be tomorrow too. Terrible.

I wonder whether I'm giving up too early on Seven Killings but I'd like at least to start Ghettoside and see how quickly it's going to read. I'm feeling slightly pressured in terms of due dates, although I see that in fact those two aren't due back until 4 September and there's the Bank Holiday next weekend. But I also have the Patrick Gale, and Land of Love and Drowning is ready to pick up on Monday.

Susan - You have some great reading in store. I found Ghettoside to be a quick, fascinating read. And Land of Love and Drowning is one of my favorites so far this year.

>153 susanj67: - Visiting London came up in the context of my husband randomly remarking that he really wanted to visit Malta (which has been on my list for ages), and then I found a fantastic looking itinerary for a train and ferry trip from London all the way to Valletta, involving the train ferry (!) across the Strait of Messina. So now that's a vacation on the list, so maybe in a year or two....

ETA: And I would love your tour because I don't know that area at all. And isn't Cheapside where Lizzie Bennett's aunt and uncle Gardiner lived in P&P? I seem to remember Caroline Bingley sneering at it, but maybe that was just in the BBC production....

Ooh Land of Love and Drowning. Hope you have fun with that.

>161 BLBera: Beth, I reserved Land of Love and Drowning after you reviewed it, or at least as soon as it became available to reserve. It's taken a while to arrive!

>162 katiekrug: Katie, I've booked y'all in for the tour :-) I googled the Gardiners and yes, they lived near Cheapside, in Gracechurch Street which runs off it. Cheapside was one of the main shopping streets in the City of London, and Wood Street, Bread Street, Milk Street and Poultry are still to be found nearby. "The Netherfield ladies would have had difficulty in believing that a man who lived by trade, and within view of his own warehouses, could have been so well bred and agreeable."

>163 charl08: Charlotte, I picked it up this morning, in the pouring rain (wrapping it carefully in a plastic bag and then going through the shopping malls to the office). I took Seven Killings back, so now I've just got two library books and I resisted about five other things I saw today. Must. Read. The TBR Pile.



149. Ghettoside by Jill Leovy

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: LT buzz

This is an excellent look at the murder rate for black men in parts of Los Angeles, and why it is so high compared to other groups in the community. As with David Simon's Homicide, which I read recently, the author followed a particular set of police officers. I found the descriptions of LAPD politicking quite tedious, but the rest of it was very good indeed.

There was quite a pile of donations to the book exchange today, including another DVD! We now have a DVD section, but, of the three in it, two are the same film (Cold Mountain). Ah well. We also had a board games section, but the wipe-clean Sudoku seems to have disappeared and that was really the whole section. But there is a fair bit more crime - I'm wondering whether Matthew Reilly might be worth trying. We have the first two in his Shane Schofield series, I think.

Hope you've not been blown away Susan - it's mental over here!

>166 BekkaJo: Bekka, it's mostly just been heavy rain over here, with a bit of a gap in the middle of the day. But at least the tube strikes have been called off for tomorrow.

Two romances have shown up as ebooks from the library. I'd sort of forgotten the first one but I have no excuse for reserving the sequel.

Sorry to hear about the end of the games section (or should that be pleased?). I lost the password to my ebook library access and so far haven't missed it. Although this may have something to do with too many reservations...

I am seriously behind here. Vanished City sounds interesting. Love the 'discovery' of the Queen's rowing barge and YAY for converting a confessed non-reader into a reader! Sales staff that forget the basics of customer service drive me crazy. Thankfully there are the cashiers that are unable to count back change and the grocery store clerks that seem unable to properly pack groceries so the fragile items don't get broken/bruised. ;-)

>118 susanj67: - Those are really cute shoes! I know, athletic shoes aren't supposed to be cute, they are supposed to be functional but, hey, I like them a lot more than the blinding day-glow shoes I have seen.

>144 susanj67: - That one totally goes on the future reading list. The whole idea that people can arbitrarily decide to forgo immunization and place the herd immunity at risk "just because" really irk me. I remember reading about how the church actually played a part in our historical past convincing communities to not get immunized. Now, I am going to sound a bit hypocritical in that I do not get the annual flu vaccine. I will at some point but, when I am older, but right now I am part of the 'can have' not 'should have' population in that I don't directly interact with the public in my work duties, I don't have any kids to bring home 'infections' from classmates and I do not have a compromised immune system. Like I said, I will probably start getting the annual flu vaccine in the coming years, even though it can be a bit of a crap-shoot whether or not they predict the strains that will be prevalent for a given year. The completely missed the mark this season. ;-)

>144 susanj67: - Tornadoes in London... the weather has been very strange this summer. I am hoping for a return to normalcy at some point.

Hi Susan. The Raj at War and On Immunity have both hit my library list.

>142 susanj67: Glad yuo enjoyed The Victorian City - I find Judith Flander's books very entertaining. The Victorian House is also very good. I will have to check out Circle of Sisters.

>168 charl08: Charlotte, I was neutral on the games and DVDs. Whatever gets people browsing! Fortunately my ordinary and ebook library passwords are the same, or no doubt I would also have lost one or the other. But on the Kindle Fire, the Overdrive app remembers my login details so I don't have to bother. So easy to borrow stuff! That may be the problem...

>169 lkernagh: Hi Lori :-) Vanished City was a great read, and the other day I was somewhere that featured in the book, and found myself looking around for remnants of the old area. The shoes didn't work out in the end (they were too bright in person, on "in shoe" as it were) so I bought some Skechers. They do have neon-pink laces, which I'm thinking of swapping for the navy blue ones in the box, but my office roomie says I mustn't and I'm too scared. However, she is on holiday for a fortnight from Friday, so I might experiment :-) I've never had a flu jab either (or the flu, for that matter). They frequently seem to run short of it here, and I'd feel guilty that vulnerable people might miss out if I used up a dose. Like you, I don't have close contact with "super-spreader" kids, or older people, who are at more risk from it, so I'll continue to take my chances for the time being.

>170 souloftherose: Heather, I'm glad I scored two BBs there :-) I remembered your review of The Victorian City, which is either why I bought the book or why I was keen to read it. I also have The Victorian House :-)



150. (Yay!) Summer Days by Susan Mallery

Where I got it: Library ebook
Why I read it: I had to pause this series once I'd read all the books the library had, but they've just added heaps more overall, including the rest of the series, so I've picked it up again

This is the seventh book in the romance series set in the small town of Fool's Gold in California. The main couple was cute, but I almost liked the secondary story more. Still, a good instalment, and I've already started the next one :-) And borrowed the one after that. And reserved book 10. Ahem.

Very restrained there... (!)

>173 susanj67: Charlotte, I do my best :-) I just got an email saying book 10 was available, but book 11 only seems to be available as part of a four-book collection which is a pre-order reserve, or whatever they're called. And yet book 12 is on there as a single title. At least that will slow me down, what with having to read everything in order or the world will end. (Although, having checked the release date, it's 29 August, so it might not slow me down that much :-) ) I meant to say that I've nearly finished A Place Called Winter and I love it. For some reason I've never read Patrick Gale - I think I may have been confusing him with Alan Hollinghurst, whose Line of Beauty I just couldn't get on with. There must be two book titles that are similar, somewhere.

Finally access to WiFi and a charged iPad at the same time so I finally caught up with your thread. We loved our day with you and the wonderfully planned walking tour. Thank you so much again! Even the weather was fine...not TOO hot and no tornados AND no buckets of rain like Monday morning.

I really like the sneakers you were trying to get from Nike but have to say the ones you were wearing when we saw you were really cute ( as was your butterfly top).

I have a meet-up photo but don't know how to post it from my iPad. I'll do it when I reunite with my laptop in mid-September. Stay tuned :)

Yay for 150 books!

>174 RebaRelishesReading: Hi Reba! I had a great time and I hope you come back one day. I will research another part of London :-) Those Skechers were my favourite ones. I try not to wear them too often because I'll be sad when they wear out :-)

>175 katiekrug: Thanks Katie! I suppose I can just watch TV for the rest of the year now, but very sadly the Food Network has taken Rehab Addict and Fixer-Upper out of the schedule, saying it was just a summer trial (and it was a bit odd to have them on that channel), which leaves a hole in my evening viewing. And Fixer-Upper is in Texas!



151. A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: Because Charlotte asked us to, so obediently I went and borrowed it :-)

I loved this. It's a great story, beautifully written, and mostly set in a time and place (Canada, in the early 1900s) that I knew nothing about. I can only echo Charlotte's request that everybody read it!

Yay. Glad you enjoyed it. I thought it was fascinating reading.

>176 susanj67: - That's recommendation #30 credited to you, Susan. It's not available at my library yet, but it's on the list.

>177 charl08: Charlotte, it really was!

>178 Fourpawz2: Charlotte, I hope you like the 30 books...:-)

The Letters of Noel Coward showed up at the book exchange today. It's a gorgeous brand new hardback, and even though I'm not interested in Noel Coward particularly, I feel I should borrow it because it's so lovely. Other donations were The God Delusion, Everyone Loves You When You're Dead and This is How You Lose Her by the author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, who turns out to be a chap, not a lady. I thought Junot and Juno were just different spellings of the same name, and not different genders. There is still no word on whether it will survive the reshuffle, but I have my fingers crossed because we've got some really good things.

I think I've seen Fixer-Upper. That couple is based near Waco (also known as Wacko)...

I have A Place Called Winter on my Amazon pre-release WL. It doesn't come out here until next March, if I remember correctly.

>180 katiekrug: Katie, yes it's in Waco (although they did one episode in West Texas, which turned out to be an actual town, not just the western part of the state). I'm amazed by how much square footage you can get for your money in Waco. I love anything with huge American houses in it :-) There was one episode (it might have been Rehab Addict, in fact) where the host lady commented on the tiny "apartment" fridge in someone's kitchen, which was a full-sized, tall fridge-freezer that any normal house here would have. We do have American-style fridges here now, but most houses would only have room for a 60cm-wide fridge if they had built-in cabinets. That's a small fridge in the US, it seems :-)

You'll love A Place Called Winter, but just in case you don't, it was all Charlotte's idea. I may spend most of the weekend reading romance. And it's a long weekend!

Yep, West, Texas is on the interstate between Dallas and Austin, north of Waco, and everyone stops at the Czech Stop for kolaches (buttery pastry wrapped around a sausage). They had a terrible disaster there a year or so ago when a fertilizer plant exploded. It leveled practically half the town and killed 15 people. Very sad.

We will have to get kolaches on your Great Texas Vacation, when it happens....

>175 katiekrug: Rehab Addict is most often set in Minnesota. I have met the host as I am pretty involved in historic preservation in Minnesota. She is a bit flighty frankly. I suppose that is what helps to make good tv.

>182 katiekrug: Katie, the lady they helped in that episode had lost her house in the explosion. What a terrible thing.

>183 Oberon: Erik, I love the shots of Minneapolis that they have in between the scenes in the houses. What a pretty city! Although it does seem like every second episode it's feet deep in snow :-) I think we had the first two series - up to the end of the house on Minnehaha Parkway and then a couple of commissions that she did. The Food Network was trialling it over the summer, but I don't know whether that means it will come back, or maybe they're gauging interest for a home channel with US programming. I really enjoyed seeing what the older houses originally looked like.

I bought some wireless headphones for the TV today. I can't keep ignoring the fact that I just can't hear. Yesterday there was an embarrassing incident in the office when my roomie and I were sitting in total silence (I thought) at our desks, and she said "Is that music you?" "What music?" I asked. I had headphones plugged into my computer and they were sitting on the desk beside me. I couldn't hear anything. Then I picked them up and as I had them nearly *on*, I could hear music blasting out. Which my roomie could hear over the other side of the room. Sigh. A video had started up on a webpage, and I must have turned off the mute button to watch a work-related cat video at some point. Darn. So the new purchase is charging, although so far all I get is static when I have a sneaky listen. I wonder whether I'm doing it right or whether I should just wait longer. Maybe I'll try them on something else.

ETA: Hmmm, they work perfectly with the laptop - gorgeous sound and really comfortable. So that's good. Now I just have to work out what I'm doing wrong with the TV.

ETA: And the stereo! Who knew I had so many gadgets to plug headphones into? Oooh, David Bowie :-)

ETA: OK! Here's a tip for anyone trying headphones with their TV. Go into the menu on the TV screen, and check the "headphone" sound level. Mine was set very low, so I increased it. And voila! (a) sound and (b) *perfect* sound. I can increase the volume up and down on the headphones themselves, but it seems that the TV sound menu has to be set at a reasonable level for headphones before you can hear anything at all. At least if you're as deaf as I am. Now the TV is on mute but I have all the sound I need. And so clear! I can hear everything. Sort of like new ears :-)

Happy Sunday, Susan.

My computer is mad. It's always double posting with one click. arrrrgh

>185 Ameise1:, >186 Ameise1: Thanks Barbara!



152. Summer Nights by Susan Mallery

Where I got it: Library ebook
Why I read it: It's book 8 in the Fool's Gold series

This is another fun instalment, which I liked more than book 7, as that one centred around an implausible legal problem (and, as a legal nerd, that sort of thing annoys me). And the secondary story, which involves a menagerie of retired animals living on the ranch, continues to develop and amuse. There's also a lovely horse in this one :-)

I've started book 9, but I'm also reading Land of Love and Drowning and Platform Souls, which is an entertaining memoir about the author's youth as a trainspotter. I'm also watching a fair amount of TV with the new headphones. The sound is superb, although at one point I thought someone was knocking on the kitchen balcony door behind me, which would have been slightly alarming as I live high up. But it turned out to be in the programme. Truly, surround sound!

Glad to hear the headphones have proved to be a good purchase. I have spent the week with someone who refuses to acknowledge that it would be helpful to wear a hearing aid, despite only getting by with lip reading. I am swearing to myself that when my time comes I am going to get some!

>188 charl08: Charlotte, I can't get over how much sound there is in a TV soundtrack - all sorts of sounds that I never usually hear. I've been relying on subtitles for a while, but they don't work that well on recorded programmes, I find, and I have to be looking at the TV all the time. Now I can turn my back on it, or even go into another room, and still hear everything. I have to face the hearing aid issue - I am forever asking people to repeat things at work and I know how maddening it is because I spent my childhood repeating things for various hard of hearing relatives. Dad held out against hearing aids for a long time but now has state of the art new ones and they really are amazing. Certainly a far cry from the clunky old one my grandma had, with the cord going down into her bodice, and the strange whistling sound when she was delving around trying to turn it up or down. But still, that lady in the TV ad for them looks a lot older than me...

153. Land of Love and Drowning by Tiphanie Yanique

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: Good reviews from Beth and Charlotte (hi ladies!)

This is the first book I've read that's set in St Thomas, in the US Virgin Islands. It starts at the time of transfer of the islands to the US, which was something I didn't even realise had actually happened, and it's the story of a family and the changes in their lives over the decades. There was too much "magical realism" in it (if that's the right description) for me to love it, but there was a lot I liked about it, including references to current and historical events which make me want to read more about the area. And I loved the chapters written in the local dialect.



154. Platform Souls: The Trainspotter as 20th Century Hero by Nicholas Whittaker

Where I got it: Amazon marketplace
Why I read it: It was referred to in something I read about trains, which might have been Andrew Martin's Belles and Whistles (but might not)

As the author says, trainspotting is pretty much a British hobby, and not something that's big overseas. I've always wondered what exactly it is, and now I know. The trainspotters with their notebooks and cameras are trying to see every engine of a particular class, which can involve travelling around the country to "collect" the full set, as many are based in specific areas and don't go out of them. This is a charming memoir of the author's life as a trainspotter, starting as a teen in the early 1960s, at the time that the British railways were switching from steam to diesel. This meant something of a rush to spot all the steam locomotives before they were taken out of service, and a distinct sniffiness on the part of steam-lovers who had to switch to spotting diesel trains instead. There's also quite a bit about "bunking" railway yards - i.e. breaking in to see the rolling stock up close. Even the author marvels at how much he and his friends got away with back then. The book continues through the 70s and 80s, but was published in 1995, just at the time that British Rail was being broken up and the railways privatised again. It would be interesting to read his thoughts on what's happened in the last 20 years, and the cover above is a 2015 reprint, which suggests that there might be some new material. My edition is an older one, but was still a really good read.

I love that title of the train spotters book. Talk about tongue firmly in cheek! A friend of mine was a plane spotter, a group that seems to get into all sorts of trouble in states that are not terribly keen on people finding out what tech they hold. All not my bag (not least because every train spotter I've ever seen looked really cold. I could understand it if it was popular somewhere with a nice climate!)

>190 susanj67: I remember seeing Land of Love and Drowning and wondering whether or not I would like it. I can't remember if it is on my TBR list or not, but I won't add it or take it away at the moment. Sounds interesting, but I still have reservations.

>191 charl08: Charlotte, the pun in the title had completely passed me by! Even when I read your post I didn't get it, and then I said it out loud. Ha! Looking at the 2015 reissue on Amazon, it has a foreword by Andrew Martin, so I must have read about it in his book. It's interesting that it's been republished after all this time.

>192 thornton37814: Lori, knowing from your thread what you like and dislike, I would say this isn't one for you. Some of the LT reviews go into more detail than I did.

I have no hard copy library books, a situation so rare that last night I didn't know which TBR to pick and ended up doing the ironing. Srsly! I must do better tonight. But it seems that there's something about due dates that is very motivating.

155. All Summer Long by Susan Mallery

Where I got it: Library ebook
Why I read it: It's book 9 in the Fool's Gold series

This is the final book in this trilogy-within-a-series, and features firefighter Charlie (whose real name turns out to be Chantal, a secret she's kept well-hidden from friends) and former underwear model Clay Stryker, brother of the heroes of the two preceding books. This trilogy has been a fun read, and I've particularly liked the story of life at the ranch which bubbles under the three romances. Clay's mother's menagerie of animals is a great touch, and "killer"-stallion-turned-sweetheart Khatar makes an appearance in this book too. I have book 10 ready to go.

I ran out of ironing, so I bravely picked three books and started them last night (half an hour each). Now I've got Further Tales of the City, Boomerang and the Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde in a rotation, and I might add another one tonight. It won't be one of the book exchange books that were in a pile on my office bookshelf, though, because those have disappeared into crates for the move this weekend, along with stuff I actually *need* during the next two days, like my Civil Procedure Rules volumes (and also my tea collection). Humph! I retrieved the Civil Procedure Rules, but I think it's machine tea for me until Monday. I'd better pack the rest of my stuff post haste, or Strange Men will be doing it for me.

Not the tea! Ouch.

Hope the move goes OK. Reading about Bonnie and Clyde sounds good. I need to get back to the Spanish civil war. I'm trying again with Umberto Eco. I was tempted into trying again as The Prague Cemetary has such a lovely cover, but...

Machine tea... shudder!

>196 charl08: Charlotte, rumour spread that the crates were actually being taken upstairs today, instead of over the weekend, so I went up and mine were there. Yay! I have retrieved the tea, and one crate had just the book exchange books in it, which was a bit embarrassing but we were told they were packing tomorrow evening, and I intended to take stuff up myself before then and do my own crates anyway. I've been taking bits and pieces when I go up to the library, which moved a fortnight ago, including pictures with glass in them and the Christmas tree etc, so I suppose at least they didn't have to pack that and the decorations. But a lot of people were planning a good clear-out before the move, and now the junk has moved up before they could get to it. Bonnie and Clyde is promising so far, a couple of chapters in.

>197 BekkaJo: Hi Bekka! The machine tea is PG Tips, so it's OK. Upstairs, though, there is one of those fancy hot water taps, and Twinings tea bags in a variety of flavours. Everyone is Very Excited. Also a super-amazing coffee machine, chosen after testing and a firm vote. The first floor to get them complained about all the people sneaking up for free coffees and stealing the mugs, but I think things have calmed down now, particularly after they put a coffee machine in the canteen as another alternative.

Gotta love a good coffee war :)

>195 susanj67: A shame to need the civ pro books. I try to lose my set unless I am in trial. Besides, half the judges seem to consider them advisory anyway . . .

>199 BekkaJo: Bekka, I've had a couple of lattes from the canteen one, but I'm not a massive coffee fan so their mugs are safe from me!

>200 Oberon: Erik, I can't get through the day without my White Book (rules + commentary written by the judges and High Court masters). A lot of my job involves advising other lawyers in the group, so I use it all the time. I even write in it, and cut and paste rule amendments into it. I think of it more like a textbook than an actual book in which I would never do that...

Susan - So not a fan of magical realism? Good to know. It sounds like you did like some things about Land of Love and Drowning though. I did like the historical aspect of the novel -- but I also like magical realism.:)

>202 BLBera: Beth, it seems I'm not! I didn't even know it had a name. I liked a lot of things about the book, though, and I'd be interested to read her next one.

I'm on my way to a guided walk on "The Industrial History of Dagenham Dock", which is just 19 minutes on the train from Fenchurch Street. I'm just waiting for the train to leave. It's raining already, but at least I get to wear the raincoat I bought earlier in the year, so yay for that. Ah, it seems the train also stops at Limehouse, which would have been even closer to me. Durr.

Everything is packed now at the office, and the movers were starting to take the computers out when I left the last night. I'd hate to be in charge of the logistics of something like that - it's like one of those school maths problems. "A farmer must move nine floors of staff using only a rowboat and a chicken..."

Oh, I'm jealous of your guided walk. Sounds really interesting. I must sign up for another one of the ones of Liverpool. I did a tour linked to writers in Liverpool City centre and it was fab so well designed and full of details about authors that it made me want to go and read more (always seems like a good sign for me, not surprising here I know).

When I was looking at the newspaper reviews, an ad kept popping up for the Kew book festival, which I've not heard of before. Have you come across it?

>204 charl08: Charlotte, it was excellent. I've never made it that far east on my own, and I was quite glad of that today as it was definitely a place better seen with a group. It's an industrial area so there were lots of trucks and vans with cabs full of men who looked like they wanted to shout something obscene or throw stuff out of the window, but didn't quite dare in front of a group. There was a lot more to the walk than that, though, fortunately, and when we got to Barking Riverside, which is the big new development out that way, we had the whole area to ourselves and fantastic views of the river. There was even a lighthouse!



That's on the other side of the river, at Cross Ness, a place I now have a hankering to visit. The guide is doing a Maritime Blackwall walk at the end of October, which I'm going to get a ticket for, but there is a really good programme of walks on their website for anyone in London who fancies something a bit different to the usual London walks: www.footprintsoflondon.com

ETA: I haven't heard of the Kew festival, but it is over the other side of town, so that might be why. We don't have cultural stuff like that in the Hamlets :-)